Friday/Rāmere
We caught up with Bridget, Kevin and Caitlin at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
I sat next to Caitlin and realising all these adults might be a bit daunting, I asked what was the favourite part of her holiday? Caitlin is 9 and she replied "The water park". I remembered reading an article once where families had taken children to exotic places and were interviewed afterwards about their favourite, and the most exciting place they visited. And their replies were often . . . "the swimming pool".
I had just read an article about a manta ray I thought she might be interested in. It was in The Times (Bill probably finds other articles interesting to read there.) This was my favourite and I cried at the end of it. Anyway here is a summary of the article.
It was about a manta ray and and and one of the guides in this picture called Jake.
Freckles the manta ray encountered many visitors at the Ningaloo reef stretch of the Indian Ocean off Australia, known for its richness in marine life. She was a regular visitor. Jake, one of the snorkelers, saw one day that the way she was being was not regular. Freckles rolled on to her back and Jake saw Freckles was asking for help. Then he saw 3 fish hooks in the ray's eye. Jake went about removing them with pliers, and each time Freckles came back to make it easier for him to do. This was with a snorkel and goggles, and he had to go down and up a few times. It was clear Freckles knew what Jake was doing. (A little bit about manta rays - they are peaceful cousins of the shark and are listed as vulnerable. They are not armed with a spike. They are highly intelligent, and can grow to 7 metres across.) When Jake finally managed to remove the hooks, he went down again to say goodbye. (This is the part I cried.) "She (Freckles) just waited there", Jake said. " For the wildlife to completely embrace you that's very special. I balled my eyes out afterwards - that says it all."
I said to Caitlin "What if you wrote a blog?" I am not sure whether she was excited by this or not. But I would love to read a blog from Caitlin's view.
We enjoyed hearing about Bridget and Kevin's travels in Spain and Italy. They went on a boat out from Amalfi coast, and it sounded like that might have been the second favourite thing of the trip for Caitlin.
Then it was a lovely long lunch with the Prices and Kumlebens (Lachie included) at the Kumleben's new apartment at Onslow Gardens. Paul Kumleben, Simon and Fiona Price were at Oxford at the same time as Bill.
Sue and Paul have been particularly generous with the Kermodes over the years. Christmas Day in Capetown, always having us to stay or for lunch and dinner, Lachie looking after their apartment for a few weeks in London, and lots of other generous acts. Their children are two boys and a girl like us, and the uncanny thing is each was born only a few hours, days or months apart. Lachie took a picture of us all.
Fiona had a story to tell about their local village tennis champs (she was in the final of the club champs the next day). Simon always is quick to quip about anything. Sue is making the difference with families in the UK. Paul told a new story about missing the epic Borg / McEnroe final in 1980. His Oxford roommate asked him to join him in the scoring (in those days it was all done by hand like at the Masters golf, and the roommate was captain of the Oxford Uni Tennis Club which did the scoring!) Paul said no thanks as he had a cricket game to play. As he said that was a big mistake. It was a fantastic five setter, with Borg winning 8/6 in the fifth set. Paul could have seen the match for free, and told a different story!
It is a very social day today. Next it was off to meet Chiara's parents, Manuela and Pierre-Paul. We met at Soho in a pub called 68 and Boston. They were over from their home in Reggio Emelia in Italy to see Chiara and her brother, Mattia. It was really interesting learning about the new project they have taken on to provide better services for Phillipino immigrants. (They had been living in the Phillipines for the previous three years.) Chiara too is this wonderful human, interested in bettering life for Eritrean refugees, by providing information about what is happening to these people.
Then below is Chiara modelling jeans I got from Clare. Thank you Clare. Clare was asking whether I knew of anyone to give the clothes to? I thought Chiara might fit into these, as proudly I stand taller than Chiara and didn't think I would! The other clothes in the bag went to Chiara's Mum Manuela. I think Italians are as good as Kiwis at liking re-gifting. I like also how I colour coordinated with the flowers.
After that drink Lachie had organised a show for us. Lachie bikes all over London. He had biked from Peckham (45 minutes) to meet us. So we walked from the pub to the theatre and grabbed some sushi on the way as the show was nearly 3 hours. I am a bit tired by this time.
The show was called The Lehman Trilogy. There were just three guys in the show and they play at least 10 different parts each - they were unbelievably good actors.
Part of the Guardian review of the show: "Michael Billington says what an astonishing evening! Spanning 150 years and running three and a half hours, Stefano Massini’s play traces the trajectory of western capitalism by following the fortunes of a single family. But where previous European stagings have deployed a vast cast, Sam Mendes’s production of Ben Power’s adaptation uses just three actors: Simon Russell Beale, Ben Miles and Adam Godley. The result is an intimate epic that becomes a masterly study of acting as well as of the intricacies of high finance. For most of us, the name Lehman Brothers stirs memories of the financial crash of 2008, when this Wall Street institution filed for bankruptcy: an event with global consequences. But Massini’s play traces the family’s progress from the arrival of three brothers from Bavaria in the America of the 1840s. Starting modestly with the opening of a general store in Montgomery, Alabama, they move into buying and reselling raw cotton and expand into banking, coffee and the burgeoning railway business. Power passes from one generation to the next, but there is a decisive shift in the late 1960s with the creation of a trading division run by non-family members. Eventually it leads to the firm’s demise with the collapse of the mortgage bond market."
I had not done enough prep to super enjoy. The other three did enjoy it, a lot. I found the seats very uncomfortable. I loved being with the family and I also managed to doze off for a good part of it. I was awake for the photos and ice cream at half time.
