Hail and Farewell

 

So here I go again, off back to the US for what will probably be my last longish stay until the end of June. I have actually started this in the departure lounge at Heathrow, making the most of my BA Gold Card. It seemed very strange at first after a gap now getting on for two years  but already seems to be slipping back into the old and familiar ways.

It's been a tumultuous few weeks marked by both great news - the arrival of Elowen - and the unexpectedly sudden loss of Shelagh and what may be thought of as the Austin- Bristol connection. We shall all miss her. In both cases the great bulk of the resultant heavy lifting is being done by the next generation rather than by me, but it still has consequences. I think overall that I have been quite well organised over this time but all the same closing down the house for 4 months and organising a transfer back to the US has been a challenge, especially in this age of Covid. I shall be glad of the rest when I eventually get there !

And that's what I am hoping that it will be to a greater extent this time than before, since the great project of the latest and last sole-authored book is in the final stages. Not without its tribulations though. I had a bit if a fight to get this design for the paperback cover as it needs to be paid for but it's so exactly on the theme of the book that I just had to have it. It reads 'Struggle Hard to Build a Mighty Navy'

My first air trip for over 18 month did indeed prove quite an adventure, but a pleasant enough one for all that. I surprised myself by managing the secure closing down of the house and packing up for a 4 month stint in wintry New England in relatively good time. So there was no panicked last-minute packing, just minor details like palming surplus cucumber,  lettuce and celery off  onto a compliant Nathan who turned up at just at the right moment and shoving into the freezer other things that might just survive the time way. The taxi turned up on time (always a major relief) and we had a fast run to Heathrow T5 as there wasn’t much traffic and there were no climate protestors sticking themselves to the road. I was looked after  very well in the lounge taking full advantage of my gold card and all the points that I had devoted to a trip to Hawaii in 2019 that got cancelled because of the Covid outbreak. The flight in a Dreamliner was fine, though I do think them a bit cramped compared to some of the bigger ones.  It wasn’t a full flight and I was well looked after and had a pleasant and constructive time, especially after the first G&T.....with beef and yorkshire pud to follow

Arriving at Boston was more of a challenge, as in comparison with most other big international airports it’s not that well set up. The absence of free luggage carts and no easily accessible WiFi made for problems in communication and in  struggling through the snow and slush to the limo car park, but I managed it and Joe my driver was there waiting for me for a fast unimpeded run to Newport. My host was back from his Newport Reading Room dinner and I was rapidly settled in to his quaint, rambling 1860s house, full as you might expect of books, prints, pictures and antiques. I felt very much at home. A reasonable night then coddled eggs, bacon and coffee in a mug from the Royal Naval College Greenwich, so what could be better ?

I woke up early of course, this being the view out of my bedroom window of the wintry scene outside. My host has converted his garage into a stand alone luxury study/library in  the centre of the picture. The next picture shows the front of the house, later in the morning. More later, on my own newly rented house and car.  

So far I have been admirably looked after. But arguably not as well as Vivi my host's Cairn terrier. The poor thing is quite old at 11 and has developed a twisted oesophagus which means she can only eat soft things and only when sitting  on her owner's lap being fed with a silver spoon. It's quite a sight. In all, other respects Vivi is a perfectly normal dog, much interested in sniffing for things under the snow. 

Tomorrow an Australian colleague arrives and the serious work of academic production and the dreaded business of serious administrative on-boarding will begin, so this period of departures as well as arrivals  has been something of a lull in, rather than before, the storm. And of course with what's going on in the Ukraine at the moment, urgent commitments and requests are starting to come in  

  

Onboarding

 

The most important event for a long time as far as I am concerned has been  the arrival of a third grand-daughter as yet unnamed, but already a star of the What's app screen. Her parents are now engaged in the process of 'onboarding' her as the US Navy would have it. That is,  including her in the ship's company.  This is a process that should not take longer than a couple of decades I would think. One picture of her vociferously protesting about wearing a hat that doesn't quite match the babygrow speaks volume about strength of character etc etc, which I suspect could be an issue !

 

I know all about the on-boarding process because I am yet again going through it myself with a view to rejoining my colleagues in Newport at the end of this month, Covid permitting. This has been made possible by the final appearance over the Festive season of my new work visa, which in turn made possible the delivery of a new contract for me. The last one expired after a long pause caused by the Covid epidemic. One of the reasons why I have gone for  a round 2, (which wasn't the original intention)  is that my rapid departure from Newport at the end of June 2020 meant I left a mountain of stuff behind, on the assumption that I would be back in a month or two. It includes a lot of books, boxes of documents, personal possessions like clothes, even a stock of food which probably went off a long time ago. It's all piled up in college waiting for me to go through it. I tell myself that it will be like a giant Christmas  exercise in present-unwrapping !  I really can't remember what it includes - and doesn't. It'll be interesting to find out.

So the decision to go back, even temporarily, will involve much hassle. I'm well on finding myself somewhere tolerable to live, even if not on the grand scale of the Carriage House of one of the Bellevue Avenue mansions, though oddly the likely next one is also part of a carriage house too, though not n the grand Bellevue Avenue.  Rental prices have gone up fantastically apparently because of New Yorkers moving out because of the epidemic. Anyhow document signing, checks and the like have been criss-crossing the Atlantic over the past two weeks or so. A flight has been arranged (so I really, really don't want to risk getting the bug in the next three weeks !) . Next week I need to sign on and think about how to replace the car, which one of my long-suffering students kindly took back to the dealer's for me.  It all takes time, and all longer than I was anticipating. And then there;s the question of closing down the house here for the next few months (although I anticipate being back for short periods before the end of June, which when most of my absence will complete.

The big task now awaiting is the actual on-boarding process for the College. I am now rediscovering the delights of wrestling with what must surely be one of the inefficient and overly bureaucratised countries in the world I should think. Whatever happened to the land of the free I ask myself ? It strikes me that its a land run by lawyers for lawyers, so everything has to be defensible to the last degree, for a law suite hovers around every corner. Worse still absolutely everything is on-line and the assumptions are always that you are an American citizen, even when it knows you are not.

To illustrate, one of the questions asks for the credit score for the PhD I got from Kings in 1976. Putting in non-applicable gets returned as a wrong answer. So does leaving it blank. But I remembered that someone at the college last time - a civil servant - said just put something in and that will keep the system happy. So when offered a choice between  and 9999  put in 1 and the Quarter in the next box having no idea what it meant. And that was just fine !  But I suppose it renders me liable to prosecution for false information ! And so it goes on. Unfortunately they have changed the system since last time so I can't simply access what I said then and copy-and-paste it. Such a waste of time. It produces the same kind of reaction in me as her hat does Grandaughter 3 

Especially as there is so much to do over the next couple of weeks. I am trying to get back to the pre-Christmas routine with a morning walk round the estate to check up on what's happening and to remind myself what I need to do before I leave. Everyday something crops up. this morning for example I noticed that one of the ivy covered old sloe trees by the road had fallen over and pushed over the fence, so this afternoon I needed to deal with that. It's a big new job I wasn't expecting but at least it yielded a lot of old wood that just needs to dry off  bit by the wood-burner, which is some consolation. I've managed to do  a couple of short walks when the sun appeared, affording a few nice shots of the downs but not as many as I should. 

 

No more wild encounters.  Unfortunately I forgot to do the RSPB bird count last weekend once again, which is a shame as I could have counted a buzzard resting on one of the paddock trees and perhaps 500 starlings chittering away on the big ash trees next door and by the stables. The big black flies have nearly all gone or been disposed of I'm happy to say, but who knows what will turn up tomorrow ?