Apologia

 

This something as a time placing apologia. The last few weeks have been hectic with three separate trips to India, Newport and Singapore. The notion of a relaxed  Summer to get on top of things hasn’t happened yet but now will, since I have no foreign commitments until October. And as I will show later there is a lot to catch up with. I am also stymied by the fact that, whatever I try I just cannot get either of my phones to send on the photos I took – they stay resolutely in the queued box. As a result I will not be able to conceal the fact that this transmission is as dull as ditchwater by some nice illustrations ! On top of that the prize exhibit,  a caricature of me drawn by one of my Indian students, has gone missing

So here we go, with apologies. The first trip was a last (?) venture to Newport. Much less arduous and good fun. My hotel overlooked the sea. It was an opportunity to see old friends and familiar places again. It was very nice to meet up with former colleagues but a bit sad to hear the news about how badly they have been affected by the various “reforms” being introduced by the terrible Pete Hegseth. The current President of the Naval War College, is energetic, committed and able – but black so he’s being retired. Surprise, surprise. It’s all so stupid, as the College is an enormous source of ‘soft power’ for American interests and disembowelling it like it is totally counter-productive. I doubt the programme I’m associated with will survive.

But one bonus of the Newport trip was that it also allowed me to tie off – at long last -  the task of recovering the contents of a closed HSBC bank account which got transferred to the State of Rhode Island’s ‘Unclaimed Property Division.’ Registering a claim to get it back and finally achieving this took nearly a year and a half ! It made a big difference when I was finally able to establish a personal relationship with one of their people, but their procedures were glacial. So many precautions against fraud and money-laundering and a banking system that still prefers cheques over electronic transfer, and even that is done by wire not SWIFT. Oh, and we never send cheques abroad ! Still it’s done now and safely tucked up in my US bank. I also spend a couple of hours there inside the naval base transferring the equivalent by wire to the UK with a very helpful young lady and a very large desk-top. Complicated stuff.

A few days later there was India, another in a flurry of surprise invitations. It’s as though the word has got around that I am down-sizing and people conclude I am bowing out and want a swan song. This is kind-of half true. So I don’t mind being seen this way if they do !

           One unexpected 'freebie' from it - and there were lots of them, all good to decorate the garage with - was that caricature of me drawn by a student, I mentioned earlier. The directing staff thought it so unfair they debated getting rid of it ! An uncanny resemblance to Yoda, but with bigger ears. Despite that the whole trip went off very well and I was thoroughly looked after throughout. The only issue was the overnight flights out and back with brief stopovers in Qatar - a war zone, though once there you would never think it.

Also the weather wasn’t what I expected. Grey skies, heavy rain and strong Monsoon winds, blowing the sea white and madly tossing the palms around. It was very humid too. It was a very posh hotel full of locals taking advantage of the off-season rates and watching the waves crashing against the defended dockside jetty of the old Portuguese fort. I was the only non Indian there. This should have been the view from my balcony. Although I had a large sheltered protected balcony, it was only equipped with two recliners which were the most fiendishly uncomfortable I have ever come across with all the bends in quite the wrong places, so I couldn’t spend much time there.

I was royally entertained and taken for a trip to another fort nearby and several churches. Sadly two were closed and the third jam-packed for the funeral of someone who was obviously very popular. Just a quick peak inside, full of bells and smells, a large traditional choir – all very Portuguese, of course.

Finally Singapore, helping run a course on Maritime Security for getting on for 150 naval/coastguard officers mainly from Southeast Asia but other parts of the world as well. Totally painless with eating out, a nice hotel and a very enjoyable couple of days in the Singapore National Archive reading up on the 1930s. Fascinating stuff. Most of the week was at the naval base, but I also had a few days at the RSIS for meetings and giving a staff presentation.

So, naturally tired, what did I come home to ?

A lot of domestic business, getting the house insured . and its ancient electrics tested, the car serviced, doctor’s appointments sorted – no easy task these days, etc etc,  all behind schedule and in part a justification for cutting down. Worst of all the view of the garden from all my windows. The combination of weeks without rain, my absence and a totally invisible gardener who doesn’t do phone calls or emails has reduced it to the worst it’s ever been, with dead and dying things wherever one looks. These two dystopian pictures of our once elegant gravel garden and breakfast patio gives you some indication of the focus of my attention over the next couple of months – I hope.