"Will you still need me, will you still feed me" - travelling news weeks 19-21

It’s three weeks since my last blog, astute readers may notice. Did you miss me?  I’m still out here travelling but as I said in the last blog, winding down a little and beginning to think about returning to ‘reality’ at home.

I’m writing this from my friend Ed’s goat farm at Cape Clear Island again. 

I’ll be here for two weeks till it’s time to go back to London for a family occasion and then to Lancashire for my mum’s 92nd (!) birthday.

Cape Clear

I came here nearly at the beginning of my ‘travelling adventure’ and enjoyed it so much that while I was here I said I’d come back when I was next going to be free, ie now (after the sailing and the klezmer dancing).  Then, after I’d  booked the ferry tickets to come here and made all the arrangements - including booking to attend the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) services at the Liberal Synagogue in Dublin*, and booking an expensive Airbnb round the corner from the synagogue (seeing as it was my birthday that day) - I was invited to go sailing in Vigo this month. That would have meant meeting up with the boat I’d had to let sail away without me in June when I was spending time with my sister and nieces to support them through the death of my brother in law.  I spent ages trying to work out if I could do both, but eventually reluctantly had to say goodbye to sailing this time.  And was a bit sad ... until I arrived back on Cape Clear Island, went out to help with the goat milking on the first morning, walked back to the farm after cleaning up the milking parlour, and had one of those ecstatic moments I’ve been having so much on this trip - where I feel like I’m in exactly the right place at the right time, it’s beautiful, and I am aware of feeling totally happy!  

My mum feels like this all the time : she loves living by the sea in St Annes watching the last of the setting sun out of her window each day and being in a close Jewish community where everyone looks out for each other. Until I came travelling I have been spending too much time indoors and not enough time in nature to experience these feelings. So this is something I *have* to change when I get home.

oooOOOooo

I’ve been asked - thanks Ralph - what I’ve learned while I’ve been away. That’s one of the things - be outside as much as possible, it makes me alive and happy!  Another thing I’ve learned is that the less I plan in advance, the emptier my days are when I wake up, the better they go and the more I enjoy them.  So some of the best moments have been when I’ve had nothing planned and have been able to take up the ‘thing in the moment’. 

For example my friend Alison and I were sitting in a park in Prague and got to talking with a young blind German guy, Tobias. We talked for ages - he has had sight problems for years but only recently gone more or less completely blind. He’s a yoga teacher based near Bielefeld. Since his condition deteriorated he has been developing a new practice called ‘blind yoga’, where his clients wear blindfolds - and the general feeling is that it’s very liberating when people aren’t looking at how well you are “performing” - it becomes all about your own experience and not how others see you.  He was very pleased to be put in contact with Ed, the goat farmer, who has been blind since he was three years old and has lots to tell him about leading a full life as a blind person . Tobias is about to go off for a nine month training course on living as a blind person and is working now on linking young blind people around Germany through new technology . It was a fascinating meeting that wouldn’t have happened if we’d had lots of tours and activities booked in.

In Prague we also came across a film set - I was so happy to find that there’s a film being made of one of my favourite sets of memoirs - When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. We chatted to one of the extras who said that Prague was standing in for Paris on this occasion (it does that a lot, also standing in for Vienna and many other places!).

a six strand Challah for shabbat, Weimar

In Germany I was sitting one day doing podcast editing at the Other Music Academy house, the lovely venue where the Yiddish Summer Weimar had taken place. There was nothing particular going on... and a woman came in and said she was going to be running a yoga class upstairs. So I asked if I could join in - and quickly went to change and join them. She ran the whole thing in English just for me and everyone else said they were happy to adapt!  That’s the sort of thing that sounds quite normal I suppose, but in my ‘previous life’ I don’t think I ever had time for spontaneous changes of direction, even for an hour-long yoga class!  (The yoga teacher also turned out to be really interested in sound recording; she told me about an amazing mobile app called 'Radio Aporee Miniatures for Mobile' where you can walk round certain places and hear site specific recordings through your headphones - or record your own site specific sound installation. She ended up coming to my Shabbat meal that Friday, along with two other people who were hanging around after the Yiddish Summer Weimar festival, which was lovely. )  

I’ve always had big heavy ‘to do’ lists with short deadlines, and full heavy appointment diaries, with no space for flexibility which means I didn't have many new conversations with new people....   Well - all that is going to change !

While I’ve been away I’m very happy to note that  one of my two (part time) jobs has been restructured, they’re planning to take on someone to do a big part of it, and reducing the number of people I have to manage ... so my hours and duties are greatly reduced.   Which suits me absolutely fine. I was fully consulted and don’t feel at all ‘bounced’ in this.  Before I came away a lot of my life consisted of doing work emails morning noon and night ... i thought I was being efficient, but really I was just losing my ‘self’ behind my work.  And for years, as well as my job or, more recently, jobs, I’ve either had ‘my PhD’ or ‘some conference paper’ or ‘some journal article’ or ‘some book chapter’ or ‘the book of the PhD’ hanging over me. Well, all being well, the last episode in that saga is over, and the book will be launched next year, in February , on the last weekend of the Hannah Frank Art Exhibition at Glasgow University Chapel! I’ve been working with the designer a bit while I’ve been away and corresponding with various people about what will happen in the launch. Watch this space! 

our student volunteers Sylvie,
Lilith, Lisa, Gean and Jess
working on their marketing ideas
  in the Glasgow Uni chaplaincy office

I’ve also been making arrangements for the Hannah Frank art exhibition itself which runs from 19 Nov to 6 Feb.   I have met with my five fabulous Hannah Frank Art student volunteers who are all raring to go and have loads of ideas about how to make the exhibition go with a swing and work for everyone not just the usual art goers.  We have the launch of the exhibition planned for 7 p.m. on Sunday 18 November, with speaker Alice Strang, Senior Curator, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Two, a showing of the film "Hannah Frank, The Spark Divine" made for her 100th birthday in 2008 by Sarah Thomas, and a kosher buffet sponsored by SCoJeC, the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities. See you there?  

some of our volunteers skyping with Ed in Ireland,
 to find out more about how
blind people might be able to access art

While I was in the UK I was able to spend time with my mum (who’s going to be 92 next month!) and with my sister and nieces. I did two things with my sister that I would never normally have touched in a million years – going to the local Women’s Institute meeting, and going to a Young At Heart exercise morning at the gym.  And I was gobsmacked to find that they were both BRILLIANT events. The WI was a fascinating talk on St Kilda by a local guy who had visited the island many times and told a heartbreaking story much of which I wasn’t aware of.  And the “Young At Heart” morning was VERY challenging circuit training.  Many of the women older than me were picking up heavier weights and outperforming me.  I will never sneer at those activities ever again!  Many apologies to the WI and anyone organising over 50s exercise classes, for my previous prejudices.

I also helped out at a fantastic event at Halton Mill next door to Lancaster Cohousing where I will be moving back to in November. The event was the 70th anniversary of the founding of Luneside Engineering - in the building which is now Halton Mill, a coworking and event space that I helped to set up and helped to run till I set off on my travels. The two guests of honour were Eva Hermecinski, daughter of the founder of the engineering company - and Rajah the Elephant, one of the mechanical elephants made by the company in the 1950s for the U.K. seaside market! 

Eva (right) and her sister Halina Kent
on Rajah the elephant outside Halton Mill

And I was able to spend a day at the fascinating LondonPodcast Festival the next day. 

You may have noticed that the podcasting has gone very quiet. I haven’t stopped thinking about recordings - I’ve been learning a new editing system (I’ve graduated to Reaper instead of Audacity) and have been spending a lot of time researching how to bravely make the leap from having the podcast on the Hannah Frank website for a few friends, and putting it ‘out there in podcastland’ for everyone! I’ve actually commissioned a logo, joined some podcast producer Facebook groups, I attended some advice sessions at the London Podcast Festival, and most of the time I walk round with my head in a dream thinking about making podcasts about whatever I’m hearing.

So I now have a tape recorder full of traditional music and fascinating conversations that need to be edited, cut and polished. It’s literally full. I sent it along without me to record a press conference on Saturday - but unfortunately I’d recently put quite a lot of recordings back onto it so I could listen to them on the ferry to Dublin, and had forgotten, so when Vanessa pressed ‘record’ the machine told her it was full 😞.

Why a press conference?

I seem to have walked into a maelstrom here in Ireland! Last Tuesday Ed had a call from the Irish Guide Dog association to say they were coming to see him the following Monday (ie yesterday) to retire Izzy the guide dog. 

He said ‘no, we arranged that we’d DISCUSS it in September... does this mean you’ve got me another guide dog?’  They said ‘no, there’s no dog ready for you - but we’re going to come and take Izzy’s harness so you can’t work her any more’.

On my way down to Cape Clear I met another blind man with a dog, at Cork bus station. I was talking to him about Ed’s guidedog story and it turned out he had the same story - the Irish Guide Dog Association had told him on a Friday that they were going to retire his dog  on the Monday, about six months months earlier - and there wasn’t a new dog in the offing for him either. He got a few months’ reprieve but when I met him he had had the harness taken away so he could only use the dog on a lead - which isn’t the same as having a working guide dog. So he wasn’t independent, and had to have a friend with him to get him on the bus. 

Ed and Vanessa (who is Ed’s companion/carer/fellow goatherd/fellow political activist) had already put out a press release and arranged a press conference in Cork for the following Saturday (ie the other day).  The story had aired on Cork Radio, which had challenged Irish Guide Dogs to respond – a challenge met by silence.  The man I met at Cork bus station wasn’t the only one - once Ed went public, he started hearing from other guide dog users, and trainers and volunteers from the Irish Guide Dogs Association, who were getting increasingly concerned about the organisation.  

After four days of very bad press for the Irish Guide Dogs Assoc, Ed got a call from their newly appointed acting manager, who talked to him about Izzy’s health, arranged for their vet to speak to Ed’s vet, and postponed the ‘forced retirement’ so it no longer went ahead this week.  The press conference still happened however on Saturday because Ed and Vanessa were increasingly concerned about the other stories they were hearing. It’s a two part story - the story about Ed, whose dog really needs to retire soon, but there’s no new dog ready for him to ensure his independence and mobility, despite the fact that the Irish Guide Dog Assoc, a very well-resourced organisation with thousands of fundraisers all over the country, has known for years when Izzy should be retiring ....  and the one about the organisation itself and all the other people who are now, or will be soon, waiting for much needed guide dogs. 

So watch this space, too. Interestingly the guide dog user I met in Cork didn’t want to ‘go public’ because he didn’t want to upset anyone and wanted to make sure he stayed on the list for the next dog. Ed, an inveterate political campaigner (who by the way has helped out the Irish Guide Dogs Association with fundraising for many years, and is featured all over their website with his various guide dogs) has no such reticence.

And yes I could very well become an investigative journalist by mistake!   Look out for the next episode in this saga.

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After Cape Clear I’ll be in Dublin, London, Lancashire and Scotland and then I have time for one more trip before the end of my six months.  I am testing myself by not booking accommodation or travel yet but keeping it all flexible and open till nearer the time (that’s been quite a challenge to my organizy-self but getting easier by the day. It's paid off in that i've just been invited to a Klezmer concert in Paris which may well fit in to the trip very nicely).  I am currently looking at spending a week in Arles and going off on an e-bike to see flamingos and white horses in the Camargue while I’m there.  The receptionist at my sister’s gym used to live in France and showed me pictures of it that looked amazing.   I hope to have a quiet time for that last week, to reflect on my six months and embed my new way of living before I move home. 

For those of you who don’t know, I live in a very special place: an ecological cohousing project outside Lancaster in north west UK.  When I dropped in there the other week, I ended up sharing a meal with ten neighbours, playing an impromptu game of Scrabble with three of them, meeting our very newest arrival, three month old Poppy; and sharing memories of Roger – our lovely friend and neighbour, and the first of our number to die since we moved in. He got loads of support from the community while he went through his last months, with four of my neighbours acting as a special support team for him.  Another neighbour organised for everyone in the community and some of Roger's friends to share in the process of  painting his coffin – to his specification. He had a woodland burial, and had left money for everyone to get together for an Indian meal after the burial.   I was so impressed by the way that my neighbours supported Roger at this time and was very sorry not to be there - but I was able to facetime-in to the dinner for a few minutes (taking a break from Klezmer dancing in Germany!) so was able to be part of it to some extent. 

My tenants have bought a house five doors down from me, so they won’t be leaving when I get home, which is lovely news.

And one of my neighbours has just set up a weekly “walking club” which I’ll join… despite the weather!

So I am kind of looking forward to getting home, despite the fact that I could see myself travelling like this for at least another six months before running out of energy and focus. Ah well. 

Thanks for reading this far and coming with me over the last nearly five months. 

Till the next time.  But it's also lovely reading your responses. Email me at fionaistravelling "at" gmail dot com....  And you can read this and previous blogs on fionaistravelling.blogspot.com .  And see my podcasts so far, still on www.hannahfrank.org.uk/podcast-page   - by the next time I may well have the ones i've already done, and a couple more at least, OUT THERE. 

All the best for now

Fiona in Ireland

**I hadn’t been to a Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) service in the Liberal tradition before.  I have to say that I REALLY ENJOYED IT which I didn’t think you could say about an all-day Jewish service.  There was a women’s choir singing absolutely beautiful arrangements.  The rabbi, Charles Middleburgh, had literally ‘written the book’  and during the breaks was able to tell us about editorial choices that had been made.  Jewish readers will know about ‘Jewish Geography’: not only did the person (man!*) sitting next to me know my dad’s cousins who also live in Dublin (and who I’ve arranged to meet up with on my way home) but also, in the seat behind me was Natalie Wynne, who’s done a PhD on Jews and Ireland (mirroring mine on Jews in Scotland) and recognised me from a British Assoc of Jewish Studies conference of several years ago.  I felt immediately at home the minute I walked in, and hopefully will keep some connection with the community somehow.

* sorry about the footnote having its own footnote.  But I’m not used to sitting next to men in religious services.  Orthodox Judaism, where I grew up, doesn’t do radical feminist things like have men and women sitting together.