Cheré voyageuse

1 Travelling, international settlements, the Napoleonic wars and Jane Austen: let's see how I get on. Yes, of course you should read the book before you travelled. Of course? Well, maybe. Having travelled, you were better able to understand the book. Had you read the book, you would have been better prepared for travel. On balance though I take the view that one should read the introduction to the novel, read the novel, and then re-read the introduction, concluding with a re-reading of (at least) particular parts of the novel. There is too much going on (in the novel, on the journey), too much for a mind which does not possess the frameworks by which we can comprehend what we experience.

2 I wonder what sense those who live in the international settlements make of the surrounding life. The settlements, like the Hilton hotel in Addis Adaba, appeal precisely because they are apart. They replicate our day-to-day living in our own country. Nightingale Close, West Hill, the gated settlement at Felbridge - they all signal the separation between the income classes. We seek out our own kind. Our expectation is that those who live in Nightingale Close will be closer to us than those who live in The Close. In previous time, the Chinese government was forced to grant extra-territorial rights to the international settlements; nowadays, the settlements, in the day-to-day experience of those who live in them, enjoy the right to live with their own kind. In Cyprus, by the way, the sovereign base areas are extra-territorial.

2.1 And it is the servants who speak the local language, the language of servants. In Fathers and Sons some well-to-do people are being rowed on a lake, in moonlight. The rowers sing haunting songs in Russian, a foreign language.

3 And those Napoleonic wars and Miss Austen's accounts of life in rural England. Ah, we say, there is scarcely a mention of the wars in her accounts. Well, I have had Miss Austen in mind as the winds have battered the erstwhile strong financial organisations. There was no talk of these winds on Thursday night in the church hall. Instead, the talk was of bridge and the other matters which are the usual topics. There was no talk, so far as I could gather, in the church hall this morning. Things seemed to be going on much as they have been for the past weeks. I wondered if the conversation in the coffee houses in 1776 was about the American colonies. It probably was. I also recall the national response to the relief of Mafeking.



4 Evenley? I wonder how you are influencing matters from a distance. Sam's proposals? Send me a digest interwoven with your own responses. A preparation for your contribution to the next meeting.

5 Ashley remains in good shape. He continues to work for his employer in Haywards Heath. He continues to think about the previous employer in Brighton. He has also been in conversation with a one-time colleague in Brighton who, having lost his job there, is now running his own procurement business. The colleague expects increased business from people in faraway countries (such as Mauretania); if the expected increase is realised, then he will be unable to handle it on his own. Perhaps Ashley would like to join?

5.1 There was another e-bluey to Giles yesterday evening. Still no news from the man himself.

6 And it's another sunny day. The collection having been accomplished, it is time for a bowl of soup, yet more tea, a scone, a change of clothes and some work in the garden.

Stayathome