I started writing the obligatory postcards, as one did before the days of texts/instagram/facebook etc, during my first visit to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in April 2012. It wasn’t until my third visit in late December 2013 that I started sending electronically what I might have written on a postcard, abbreviated to PC.
Along came my lovely techie son-in-law Sam. He set up my page on WordPress, www.postcardscribbles.co.uk. ……..
….. and also found a post office franking for Brighton & Hove dated May 1940.
During the Covid pandemic the frequency increased from two a month to one a week and here I am, in August 2024, posting my four hundredth 1000-word PC. Regular readers often ask where my ideas come from; they tell me that the variety of topics I cover makes them look forward to Friday’s post, so that’s good huh! I think a comment from one of our fellow passengers on MS Roko, who had read my three PCs about our Croatia/Montenegro experience (Nos 390, 391 & 393), was interesting:
“Were we on the same boat, did we go on the same tours, did we have meals together? All I do on holiday is relax and enjoy the sun. You seem to do that and observe life going on around you, listen to life going on around you, enough to write three fascinating ‘Tales of Croatia’.” Look up, not down huh?
In September 2023 I summarised the content of the fifty postcards numbered 301 to 350. In this second 50, to make up another 100, medical issues seem to have been a focus these last few months. First we had PC 366 ‘Medical Decluttering’; followed by PC 373 ‘Anally Focused’ (‘An excellent read; who else could write about the anus with such aplomb’); PC 376 ‘That’s the MOT Complete’; PC 379 ‘Cataracts’ and the last, and somewhat unexpected, PC 387 ‘A&E!’ Compiling this list I wonder whether ‘Loo Gymnastics’ (PC 357) would qualify to be included in this group?
PC 384 ‘The Man in the Window’ from April was prompted by the man who sits at his desk across Albany Villas from our apartment in Amber House. Subsequently I saw him walking up our street towards me; I had to introduce myself! Simon works as a Civil Servant in some Government Estate department, so is a classic example of WFH and an occasional visit to the office. Now when we leave home at 0915 for the bus and hot yoga, we acknowledge each other!
I played around in my head how to write something interesting about the cow that supposedly jumped over the moon. It’s one of those nursery rhymes that you learn as a child and remains with you the rest of your life, much like some Christmas carol or particular hymn. It’s the source of the English expression ‘over the moon’, meaning delighted, thrilled, extremely happy – and we all need to feel that sometimes. PC 383 was entitled ‘The Cow and The Moon’:
“Brilliant! Where do you get your ideas from?
“Er! Between my ears …. Or somewhere else!”
“Obviously your grey matter, but I’m impressed by how you piece together such a narrative. A most enjoyable read.”
I have written a number of PCs about Portugal, the country where my Brazilian brother-in-law Carlos and family settled in 2016 and where my mother-in-law and her partner live when not in Rio de Janeiro. In this section, in PC 353 ‘ …. of Cabbages & Kings’ (September 2023) I wrote about Portugal and its history, finishing with the last king. The title came from Lewis Carroll’s poem ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’. Our last visit was summarised in PC 395 ‘Portuguese Notes’ which attracted this comment: ‘As usual an interesting and engaging read … you always pull in the reader with ease.’
PC 367 ‘Shells of the Camino’ was written because Armando Colucci, a yoga buddy originally from Naples, brought me back a shell from his walk along the final part of the pilgrim way, in reverse, from Finisterre to Santiago de Compostella. I learned a lot researching the story, so ‘thanks’ Armi.
One of the joys of eating at a table is having a conversation with those who’ve joined you. PC 360 ‘Kaftan, Mimi & Toutou’ was the result of one such occasion, which covered, inter alia, Demis Roussos and a Boys’ Own story of daring do from World War One! Mimi commented: “Very interesting! No idea the war was fought on Lake Tanganyika.”
I have been enjoying the coffee and the company of the regulars in The Hope Café since the autumn of 2021 and in the last year have posted some 15 PCs about my lovely conversations and the coffee in the café here in Hove. In the last year Susie has returned from her late Gap Year and is now enjoying her course. Josh unexpectedly travelled out to Israel following the Hamas attacks of October, joined the IDF and was wounded up on their border with Lebanon.
In addition to publishing my postcards on WordPress, I usually upload them to LinkedIn and Facebook. Facebook’s AI decided that PCs 397, 398 and 399 breached their rules and wouldn’t publish them. “It looks like you tried to get likes (etc) in a misleading way.” If you read them, go figure!
Last week’s PC 399 was entitled ‘Why Can’t I just Be Me?’. Sandie commented: “Most people don’t know even who they truly are; it’s hidden under layers of societal conditioning and generational traumas. School systems strip children of the very essence that makes them unique. It’s a big complex subject. Love that you’ve written about it.” And Meryl: “This PC has a Buddhist emphasis …. from creativity involving complete focus, to happily bumbling along without the need to fulfil one’s potential!”
I hope that the next fifty will give as much pleasure to you as they will to me.
Richard 16th August 2024
Gatwick Airport
PS Off to Estoril again so this posted in Gatwick Airport
PPS PC 400a contains the titles of my postcards
postcards 