excerpt from / start of

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1979’s holidays

 

Quick introduction to the holiday makers: just your ordinairy set of human beings.
Him: finishing yet another year of teaching and examining secondary level students
Her: doing final rehearsals for the yearly musical with her 30+ primary level pupils
Both of them -meanwhile and constantly- thinking of the upcoming holidays.

 

Somewhere in March the plans were made, somewhere in May the holidays were booked.
In general holiday bookings were done by third parties, with travel agencies  providing travellers-to-be with piles of fat brochures full of blue skies, exotic beaches, pretty parasols and  luring sunshine.
Him&her had no need for browsing brochures. No need at all.
Their destination was chosen ages ago: Ireland.
“Irish Continental Line” was the best way to get there, so they had only required a leaflet with sailing times. “World Wide Reis- en passagebureau” had confirmed the booking.
All that was furthermore needed was a car that would bring them all the way and a tent that hopefully would keep out the expected rain.

 

Warnings and advice came from tourist boards,  departments and wellwishers
˚ Precautions against Rabies
˚ Petrol Vouchers for sufficient fuel to tour the island in six weeks
˚ Driving on the right side of the road, which is left side

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 9th 1979, 40 years to the day

stolen dreams

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Someone took lines of Yeats’ poems too literally and stole that ‘human child’ from the spot where it was sitting, wishing for the cloths of heaven.

                  

 

“….Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand…”

or

“….I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

 

 

no roadmapping……

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Roadmapping…..
In all probability most of you know of (or are even hit over the head with) roadmapping.
If that’s not the case, there are lots of explanations online. Of course ‘wikipedia’ is a good source and the following interpretation can be found on ‘productplan’ : Roadmapping is the strategic process of determining the actions, steps and resources needed to take an initiative from vision to reality.                                            

Now that’s some useful info, isn’t it. Simple and clear, a process of steps to be taken. Yet -as far as i understand-  there is no connection with any (un)paved roads nor with any paper maps.
Roadmapping technically won’t help you one bit when you’re “on the road again” , when you walk “the streets of london”, when you get your kicks on “route 66” or when “penny lane”  is in your ears and in your eyes

To find your way in the real world there are different ways of road-mapping.  For most paved roads you may need to turn on your sat nav or gps, for most unpaved roads you need ordnance survey or an oldschool compass.  With any of these close at hand, you will find your way around roads, motorways, routes, streets and boreens.

Having all navigation options close at hand, does not mean that people actually make use of them when needed. Not using a proper road-map can sidetrack you and -talking about the process of steps to be taken- put you on the wrong foot. Seriously, i know what i’m talking about. With the tip of my finger i can operate the very advanced touch screen navigation system in my car and there’s a pile of the most recent ordnance survey maps in a bag behind the passenger seat, yet i managed to get lost.
When i stranded it was too late to keep an appointment to do some photostuff with some lovely people in some lovely gardens.
Feic you, memory lane……….., you huge unmapped cul-de-sac.