#179 - Merwoman of Singapore

Mermaid drawing I did seven years ago

Yesterday's Nice Thing: College meeting in Nendrum and seeing Anthony in the evening at the Dirty Duck

Well, what a day it was yesterday. First the meeting with College at Nendrum. We talked and chatted and shared - and then ended up deciding on things we would do. It was a really beautiful day - the sun was just shy of being behind in the clouds and the waters were coming in. The barley was turning golden. Birds were gathering in family groups, teaching their babies to fly. Swallows sat on wires and the bumblebees buzzed around us. Nendrum is an amazing place. Just filled with a silent witnessing. You sense so deeply how others are still there. I think I may ask for my ashes to be scattered on Nendrum as well as Kinnegoe Bay and the Cliffs of Achill. I suppose SOME ashes have to be in Singapore... where in Singapore though? Must think about this.

Anyhow, then after that I watched Stranger Things, and after that, I headed out to the Dirty Duck to see Anthony - our annual meeting at the Duck. Every year we head out and catch up on everything. He is such a great storyteller and we get on really well. Speaking to people who are interested in the world is so wonderful and of course I get to do that every day. So we exchange stories since the last time we met - though truth be told that we see each other more often. I call down at his and catch up, usually just after the holidays begin - so I see him and Mairead usually around four or five times a year and we have become really good friends.

So he told me all about his tours and the people on it, the birds they saw, the yoga, health problems and injuries and I told him about school, the new business and exchanged news about others I had kept in touch with. He talked about friends found and lost. Remembered and hoped for reconnections. I loved it. On the issue of injuries, I said to him, I reckon that you need to exercise regularly from your late to early twenties. To be honest, around 15 is the right age. And then if you keep on exercising simply, daily, regularly, you will maintain a basic level of fitness. I am almost certain that if I hadn't been as active as I used to be, still am, some injuries which I had would definitely have been worse and stuck with me. Like that stupid kneecap injury. Like that snapped calf muscle. And doing everything, everything is still available to me as I near 50. I still run, cycle and swim - and I feel great.

I just need to discipline myself with the flexibility and that's what I will do in Singapore.

Wow looks like rain.

But the other thing talking to Anthony is that we no longer talk about the RSPB. We don't. It has only taken us seven years. We only talk about the people we know there and there are very few whom we have kept in touch with. There is Kevin and then for me Janet and hopefully Karen Shiels. I said to him, they did you a favour in a way though - if you had never left you'd never have written these books... and then he said, Mairead told me that it was simply just a matter of time, and I replied, I agree. It was simply a matter of time. It was the same for me too I guess. I just didn't fit in,

Anyhow, the stories from being a bird group leader are the best. This is because the punters are just so interesting. Birdwatchers - or birders, as they prefer to be called - are an odd bunch. I mean they are, there is no escaping it. I accidentally became a birdwatcher and I would still consider myself pretty much useless - like Anthony was telling me he was looking for this petral what was more like a shearwater in Madeira, and I said, a bonxie, and he said, for the first time, in a totally disparaging voice, that is a skua Stephanie, you are really losing it... which is great cos that means he expects a bit more from me, although I don't know why.

Then I headed back around 10.30 when he caught the last train to Bangor. I love the end of the school holidays in the summer cos I get to meet all my friends again. Without doubt this has been the best meet up post term time for ages. Let me see... I have walked the Harbour TWICE, I have run everyday since Monday, I have had the best convo for ages with the best people, and I have cleaned the house and done all the laundry. When I look back on this year too, I have been to Achill Island, the Mournes a few times, really settled myself into the North Down and Ards Peninsula and I completed the journey with my class. And I have done this with the support and love with so many people around me - I am eternally grateful to the universe for supporting me all the time, and all the way. OK, it is time for a run. Today I will chance going up Stormont's Hill since it is already 8.30. Then I'll come home and finish off the rest of the laundry and that will be me done with washing, and after that it will only be folding.

Then I am off to school to do the big clear up, and then I'll organise the meeting this evening. I am also returning to my creative brief of drawing and playing the piano. Then... yep, these holidays are going to be just awesome, I know it. Cos they already are.