The weather since I arrived hasn't been as cold as I had expected. Although there are still piles of dirty slush around the place, I seem to have seen more sun over the past couple of weeks than back in the UK for some considerable time. Not that I've had much time for lazing around enjoying it, as I have had to hit the ground running with all the distractions of a truly cumbersome and byzantine 'on-boarding' process, plus having to follow the dreadful unfolding of events in the Ukraine etc.
Since
there was a gap in my contract because of my Covid-enforced absence, I am
having to go through the on-boarding
process a second time which is tedious, but at least I understand a lot more
what is happening now than I did. It still takes time though. Even with the
help of the IT techies, for example, it took the better part of two hours to
get my two desktops connected to the nearest printer, for reasons beyond my
understanding. There's a long way to go yet, both at work and domestically.
It
was fun unpacking and sorting out all my stuff. Curiously I thought, none of
the food I had stuffed away into the Jeep when I scuttled out of Newport back
in June 2020 seems to have suffered at
all. Suits and shirts required a bit of remedial work with the iron after
having been squashed up into suitcases for over 18 months, not surprisingly,
but that was about all. I enjoyed sorting out the chaotic
jumble of boxes my helpers back then had piled into one of my two (temporary) offices
in the College. It was like a gigantic Christmas since I had almost completely
forgotten what I had left behind in that breathless departure. I was glad to
find that my two lovely ladies - the bodhisattvas Guanyin- had survived intact and are now ornamenting the table by my
reading chair, on either side of my CD player which has Puccini belting out
while I still can.(See later)
One
unlooked for and quite unexpected issue domestically, though, is ants. After hopping in and out of Singapore
for the past decade or so, I thought I was fairly inured to the presence of
noisome insects ( unwisely killing a cockroach on my office desk at the RSIS with
truly disgusting consequences remains as one of my most vivid memories) but I
really hadn't expected to be plagued by ants in the depths of a New England
winter. But here they are, tiny little indestructible things currently running
over my desk in the house, even my laptop,
and sometimes me. I've had the pest control man in already once. He squirted
stuff everywhere, told me a lot about them (some of which -like the probably existence
of several nests below the house each one with half a million inhabitants- I
would rather not have known). He counselled patience, but it's wearing a bit
thin.
That's one reason why I look back on my previous Carriage House on Bellevue with some nostalgia. Another is the fact that this carriage house is divided into two and there will be someone else living right next door. The problem is that there are painters in at the moment and I can hear everything they say because the house is wooden, with thin plasterboard walls. Being used to the silence of Wansdyke, this fills me with some foreboding about the future. A third issue, is that this place is a lot more expensive than the last one. It's apparently a consequence of Covid. Local rents have shot up because so many people from out-of-state and New York in particular have moved out, at least some of the time.
In other respects, of course. The house is fine. It's certainly very pretty both inside and out and surrounded with pine trees and one massive European beech of some sort. It's set back from the road, so there's no traffic noise and it's very conveniently located for the college (getting to work in ten minutes has a lot of attractions) and ideally placed for a walk up and down Easton's beach or along the Cliff Walk to the 42 steps (actually 48 - I counted).
It also has one of the most comfortable beds I have ever graced -once I have scaled it. It's a modern four poster and takes a bit effort to get up onto. Falling out of it could do one serious injury. Swings and roundabouts I suppose ! But overall it reinforces how lucky I was last time, even given my battles with the squirrels.
I've found time for a few other outings too. I went with John H to a special Evensong at the really lovely Holy Trinity Church (not sitting in George Washington's box pew of course), had lunch in the historic Reading Room (no women members allowed - how on earth do they get away with that in the US ?!) and re-acquainted myself with the equally delightful Redwood Library (founded 1747) where, just for curiosity, I attended a talk by the new (Democrat) Governor of Rhode Island which was fairly inconsequential.
As a bonus at the Redwood, there was an exhibition of 'Sailor's Valentines' made up by a local artist in the old style, with hundreds of shells collected from local beaches. They were pretty stunning, and must have involved pains-taking work of many, many hours. But I have to say that I've never seen shells like that on the local beaches. Perhaps I didn't look hard enough, and/or spent too little time there. I'm sure there's a moral to that ! Take it all steadily - don't try and do everything all at once - things like that. Easily said of course.....
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