happy memories
to be sitting in the rain
making sand castles
Some of the special British details she describes I recognize – afternoon tea, double-decker buses, and so on. Others are more confusing to a colonial. One of the “special British moments” Eggs [Victoria Eggs, a London-based designer] tries to capture is a childhood memory of sitting on the beach in the rain. “We would go on holidays to the seaside, and it would be raining but that didn’t stop us building sand castles and sitting having ice-creams and fish and chips,” she tells me. She remembers “being wrapped in a towel which, if you were in another country, you’d be lying on. We had it wrapped around us in the drizzling rain, eating fish and chips”.
In all honesty, I don’t know what she’s talking about. But it also does sound like the most British thing I ever heard in my life: happy to be sitting in the rain making sand castles. Not only happy. This is one of her happiest memories. Nostalgia compensates for the discomfort, I guess.
From the article, God save us all: Britain is about to get the king it deserves, subtitled, Viewed from Canada, the coronation is especially absurd – and the contradictions of Charles III perfectly suit the moment, by Stephen Marche in The Guardian.
Notice the lower case k in king.
That is all you need to know what this article is about if you don’t want to take the time to read it.
King … with the lower case k.
That and these other sentences.
… it also does sound like the most British thing I ever heard in my life: happy to be sitting in the rain making sand castles.
Not only happy.
This is one of her happiest memories.
Nostalgia compensates for the discomfort, I guess.
I live in a resort town and when I can, I go for a walk on the beach of Atlantic Ocean on my lunch break.
In the early months of the year, even in South Carolina, the beach is the NOT the best place to be even though a bad hour on the beach beats most places.
Still, no matter the weather, the wind, the temperature of the ocean water, there those vacationers are.
They are there.
They are on vacation.
They have paid a lot of money for this.
And they are going to enjoy it, no matter what anyone else says.
As the Activities Director at my Resort once told me, “They are freezing to death, but they will never admit it.”
So there are the Brits.
Stuck with Brexit and no one understands it.
And stuck with Charles.
But, doggone it, they paid for it.
They are going to enjoy it somehow.
I have to love
Just right!
But there was a sadder note in the article when Mr. Marche quoted Jonathan Coe.
For Coe, the lack of enthusiasm for Charles has an obvious source. There is “no enthusiasm for anything”, he says, “The nation is demoralized.”
Boy do I hear that.
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
There is “no enthusiasm for anything.
This nation is demoralized.
I guess I’ll watch the coronation.
No Haiku For You 