Been and Gone
on Lynn Sellwood (The Gambia), 25/Sep/2011 10:48, 34 days ago
So, my first experience of burglary was a not so pleasant event in the UK. I lost my precious computer (which wasn’t backed up....nuff said), money, etc. Andrew lost a watch, jewellery, money and a computer. His immediate reaction was to go scouring the streets looking for a guy carrying a bag with SWAG written on it. Mine was to sit and apportion blame for the event...why didn’t I hide the computer when Iwent out that morning? How stupid was I to leave my Gambian purse with money, ID, sim cards and my return ticket in my bedside drawer? Why hadn’t Andrew renewed the insurance the week before? In the event both reactions were unhelpful and what we were left with was a sense of being violated and feeling unsafe. Had someone been watching the house? Or, were we random victims of opportunistic thieves? Either way it made us feel very miserable. The Police came...and went, forensics came .......and went. A Victim Support letter was sent but no sign of our stuff.This came after the riots which also made me feel uncomfortable. The discussion in most of the newspapers was trite and the reactions and need for punitive sentences felt very strange. I think the first round of appeals started this week. In many ways the incident has "been and gone" in the hope that memories are short and we don't present a poor picture to the world. The Olympics is a very important showcase for UK plc. Andrew and Jack at cricket "tea" The cricket season has similarly been and gone. I enjoyed the England performance and went to watch Andrew playing a couple of times; at least this aspect of English culture is alive and well.Typical Saturday!I had already booked to visit Barbados. I had been thinking of selling the house so it seemed a good idea to go and check. What a silly idea! So that plan has been and gone. After swimming at Port St Charles every morning; eating in nice restaurants every night, including the newCin Cin,The Fish Pot,SitarandMangoes by the seaas well as finding a new daytime bar to hang out at the beach calledRamshackle, it seemed like I was trying too hard to get a fresh start to life and the familiar was very welcome. The house is renting very well and is being well looked after by Karen via her company,Paradise Rentals. I had some great conversations with friends, especially about my experience of The Gambia. As Bajans, some were interested in their African roots but others were happy to live the life they have got rather than wish the past (meaning the Atlantic Slave Trade) had never happened; been and gone..... An interesting perspective, that’s for sure.Me and Martyn, preparing for our morning swim Then a few days later I was off to east Devon with my parents for a short holiday based in Seaton. We had booked a hotel calledThe Marinerswhich had sea views and was absolutely spotless as well as serving an award winning breakfast. I had to spend one night at a B&B calledBeach Belleswhich was so nice that I promised the landlady that I would put in her link. It is a great spot for walkers but other local towns are more interesting. We visited Beer, Lyme Regis, Sidmouth, Branscombe, Charmouth and West Bay over three days and we managed to ride on the old trams in Seaton up through the countryside. This brought back memories for both my parents of trams in their youth which has sadly been and gone. The modern trams in Croydon don’t seem to be as evocative somehow.Beach at BeerMy MumMum and dad in the tramThe tram!That holiday had no sooner come and gone than we were off to the Bluebell Railway for my mum’s 80th birthday lunch in a Pullman car. Steam travel is very evocative with its familiar train noises. I can actually remember as a little girl being on a station when a steam train came in and being very frightened of the size, noise and smell of the engine.Big steam engine The lovely rickety rack of the carriage while eating roast beef has much to commend it. It is amazing that so many people all over the country are committed to keeping these lines and trains going for our enjoyment.80th Birthday Lunch partyI had a strange night in London, meeting ex-volunteers from The Gambia. We all enjoyed catching up but all agreed that people are not really interested in the detail of the Gambian experience. They are happy that we have enjoyed it and now we are back then the present is more important than our past.Marcus, Dinesh and me! I think I have to remember that this experience is more important to me and maybe my blog isn’t quite as fascinating to others as it is to me. The blog is for me to evidence the experience and all too soon it will have been and gone too!Finally, I went to the theatre twice and sawA Woman killed with Kindnesson a sunny day on the South Bank and also went to see Arnold Wesker’s,The Kitchenwhich I had read during the early 70’s but had never seen. Brilliant, both of them. The Dukan diet works but I am going to struggle with it here in The Gambia. So the next six months will see me sustained by the box set of Gray’s Anatomy, the OU course in Creative Writing and lots of interesting work. But, I have to remember, before long, I will have been and gone.......