Bucket List

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Well! Since we arrived in Spain over 6 weeks ago, this is the first afternoon of solid cloud we have seen, and very windy with it. So instead of being lazy and concentrating on doing nothing in the sun, an opportunity to start a blog post.

I loved the film “The Bucket List” with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, 

and fully get the idea of listing things and challenges to do, or to see or to experience, and then ticking them off the list, bluntly before you “Kick the Bucket”! 

Don’t worry – I will be around for a while yet! 

Personally, and in my opinion, setting goals in life and career can only bring frustration and disappointment when not achieved or only partly achieved. And unfortunately with the good things come the bad things – some unexpected, but many inevitable in the course of life.

But at the same time I am very lucky that life has resulted in me being able to say that! 

If I now write a retrospective list of things that I have done, or seen or experienced, since just the start of the 21^st Century, in my personal world and sometimes as a result of my job, often shared with Gail, Kate and Paul, and family and friends, my so-called “Bucket List” is actually quite long, and having ticked them off very satisfying. Things that money can’t buy such as seeing our daughter, Kate, graduating from University and then successfully developing a successful career; meeting and then marrying a good man in Paul, and together making a happy home together into which our granddaughter Amelia arrived in 2012, is a series of "items" which would have to be at the top of the list. 

I would also have to follow with a list of people who I met through work, many of whom became good friends, and provided a long string of happy and memorable events, including weddings, births, christenings etc.

Then we have had great holidays - in USA (including Hawaii), Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Ireland, Barbados, France, Italy, Spain, not forgetting many good breaks in the UK; work trips - many more than once, to South Korea, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Sweden, Slovenia, Finland, Norway, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria. From such holidays and visits, highlights of these could be additions to the Bucket List – seeing the Barrier Reef, flying over a volcano in Hawaii, looking towards North Korea over the border, visiting the Grand Canyon, seeing the Northern Lights . . .

And what about. . .? That’s the point of this post. I think if I had written a Bucket List, many of the above and many other things would not have been there. And then just last week we experienced another unexpected event here in Spain, to add to the retrospective Bucket List. 

But that’s another blog post to come – “Fallas 2014”.

A Post At Last!

Apologies to Rich, and anyone else who may have been looking for updates to this blog! We really did expect to have more time on our hands. It can only really be good that the first two months of retirement have kept us so occupied.

Can't believe we have just one more full day in Vietnam, and apart from 4 flights and a few days stopover in Dubai, the Asia holiday is almost over. We will soon be back to reality and wondering where we put those warm clothes.

It has been a great holiday. Not a lot of relaxation although having said that I am onto my 4th book... (Reading not writing.)
It is the start of the rainy season in South East Asia, and we arrived just after some really wet weather with severe flooding. But the last week has seen some showers and sunshine. Sunday has seen blue skies all day and we took the opportunity to have a day on the beach. It was a beach bordered with Palm trees, and soft golden sand. We found somewhere quiet to have lunch beside the beach. It was perfect.

Although the sea was very rough, and strong rip currents, I had a quick jump around in the surf. A bit like I remember as a teenager at Gwithian beach but with palm trees and warm water.

More to come - that's a promise.

The Mekong River With Mike and Gail Brown

Wednesday November 13, 2013
It's over a year since we were in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Saigon) but a few things have prompted me to write a blog post about a specific part of that memorable holiday last year. When travelling, we are able to get some UK TV when we have a good WiFi connection, and we managed to watch the series "The Mekong River With Sue Perkins". It's a massive river even just the bit flowing through Vietnam. Sue Perkins had a much, much bigger journey than we could ever hope to experience, with her trip ending in China! Our own experience was a day trip to a small island within the Mekong Delta. I suppose it was advertised in our hotel as a "typical" day tour – early start; several hours in a bus; see a traditional village; typical Vietnamese lunch; river market; etc. etc.! And it was an excellent day – after a bad start.

I said a few things prompted me to write this, and not just a baking competition presenter.

I consider most of our immediate family to have been fortunate in not experiencing the real horror of war, certainly as civilians on the potential receiving end of enemy bombs, although mum lived in Dundee as a girl, which was a target as an industrial city and port. Dad as a boy lived in Kent and dogfights and German bombers and rockets flying over the county were never associated with danger and death, but as something to look at as a youngster. But the direct effects of war did impact the family with one of mum's brothers never recovering from shell shock. Gail's dad was directly involved as a young man being with the RAF in Northern Italy at the end of the Second World War. That was the only time he travelled out of the UK.

But being grateful for no first hand experience of war, doesn't stop me from being reminded of the effects of war on places we have travelled through in France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Croatia, Bosnia. . . As one example, when we visited Dubrovnik, it was to be reminded that the city was under siege – not that long ago - with buildings bombarded by land, sea and air. It was one thing to see photographs of a beautiful city with buildings on fire, including the Hilton hotel just outside the old city walls, which has been restored to look similar to those dark times; but the photos and names of hundreds of people who died during that period was a bit of a shock.

But back to Vietnam. As I wrote earlier it was an excellent day – after a bad start. We were on the bus at 8 and at the next hotel stop, no sooner had the bus started off when this guy turned round to us and starting chatting. Very quickly in the conversation we found out he was in his 70's and well travelled, and had lived in the Midlands, before returning to his "home" country on the request of his wife.
He asked if we had visited the War Museum. Before I could tell him I had, but Gail hadn't, and it was probably as well because it was very depressing with horrific images – it was over 3 floors and I had enough after floor 2. Not only for the depressing images, but the strong anti-American propaganda messages. Anyway the guy in the seat in front had decided he was going to let us know that he not only agreed with the museum's messages, but also let us know generally what he thought of Bush, Cameron, Imperialist aggression and on and on and on. No idea what Bush and Cameron had to do with Vietnam. I really couldn't believe what I was hearing, but with a nudge in the ribs from Gail who could clearly sense I was about to snap, I decided to look out of the window . . .

It doesn't matter whether I agreed with the guy or not, we were on holiday and not looking for in depth debate or argument. Nor were we ignoring that there had been a terrible war in Vietnam. I was never that sure what the war was about, but it was a lot more than American aggression, as I have read up since. Without detailing the entire Wikipedia article, it's really quite a complicated series of historical events, with France losing control of their colony to the German allies during the Second World War. At the end of the war, the French and also the British had enough to do rebuilding their own countries, to be involved with Vietnam, and it was agreed by the Allies that China would control Vietnam as part of Indo-China. This was before the Chinese revolution resulting in a Communist regime which threatened the entire Asian sub-continent. And less than a decade after the Second World War the Allies get involved in the Korean War. The threat of communism overrunning Asia sparked the involvement of the Americans in Vietnam.

And the young guide on our Mekong delta tour did not choose to ignore the Vietnam War, pointing out that the Viet Cong had used the Mekong Delta to hide in, with the Americans struggling to search them out. He also kindly pointed out that another tour took you to the tunnels where the Vietcong also hid out under the noses of the Americans. In reply to a question to someone on the bus, he said that young Vietnamese are looking to rebuild a strong Vietnam, looking to the future rather than the past.

It was a great and interesting day trip, but with a real taste of the poor river way of life. We actually sat with the "Anti-Imperialism" guy at lunch, who turned out to be good company in chatting about everyday things. The three of us were the oldest on the trip, so it eventually turned out well to have someone older to speak to. We had a reasonable set lunch of typical Vietnamese food, but the guy on his own also ordered a whole fish which he kindly shared with the 5 of us on the table. Looking at the menu I spotted that squirrel was on the menu. Everyone thought that couldn't be right and I was making fun of the Vietnamese food – but nothing was lost in translation as the eating place had kindly put a photo next to the description . . .

All part of the experience!