I could have gone with Green Day, Wake Me Up When September Ends, but thought it too down. There’s also Kurt Weil’s September Song that goes through to December, but as there aren’t any specific lyrics for each month that’s not much help.
The September I’m remembering is 2019. If you can’t remember what was happening so long ago, please revert to my Post 41a of 1st September 2019 (and onwards). It feels like a different life.
We began this September with a trip almost down memory lane, waving off the new Clipper Race from Portsmouth on Sunday 3rd. Let’s hope this one is uneventful and finishes on time! We met up with a few of JD’s crewmates. I had assumed that the enthusiastic drinking was only because they had been at sea for a few weeks and were celebrating being on dry land. I guess they could have been celebrating on dry land even if they didn’t go to sea first.
As I mentioned a few Posts ago, we’re not sure who (if anyone) to cheer on this year. Unicef or Qingdao? CV 30 or CV 31? A few crew from ‘our’ race are taking part again: Paul Siddle has moved (defected?) from Qingdao to Unicef. Seb has moved from Unicef to Punta (now called Yacht Club Punta del Este as they are celebrating 100 years of the Yacht Club). Sue Woodcock from Unicef to Washington DC. Joe Govier from Unicef to PSP Logistics (with Mike Miller, the original Unicef AQP). Chris Andrew from Unicef to Bekezela Community Foundation. One other name we recognise, Timothy Morgan, can’t remember his previous boat but he’s now on Perseverance.
Hang on a minute, you say, we don’t recognise half those names. She’s lost it, you’re saying. No, new sponsors have come on board (haha) and old ones left. We have lost Korea, GoToBermuda, Seattle, WTC Logistics and Sanya but gained Our Isles and Oceans, Bekezela Community Foundation, Perseverance, PSP Worldwide Logistics and Washington DC. I might give you more details about them in future, if I have nothing better to do. In addition, every CV number has a new name. To summarise:
CV20 was Imagine Your Korea, is now Dare to Lead. CV21 was GoToBermuda, is now Our Isles and Oceans. CV22 was Seattle, is now Bekezela Community Foundation. CV23 was WTC Logistics, is now Perseverance. CV25 was Punta del Este, is now Zhuhai. CV26 was Ha Long Bay Vietnam, is now Yacht Club Punta del Este. CV27 was Dare to Lead, is now Qingdao. CV28 was Zhuhai, is now Unicef. CV29 was Sanya, is now PSP Logistics. CV30 was Qingdao, is now Washington DC. Finally, CV31 was Unicef and is now Ha Long Bay. (Remember, CV24 doesn’t exist, it went aground in the 2017/18 race).
Having given it long and careful thought, we have most connection with Unicef, as JD sailed with Dan Bodey (first as a fellow circumnavigator then as Skipper). Hence we are cheering on CV28 Unicef. I’ll not give you a blow-by-blow account of this Race, mainly as we’re not flying out to any ports. A brief summary of each race will suffice, especially as Race 1 has already happened and Unicef are on the podium! You can see all the planned ports in the header today.
Race 1: from Southsea Castle to Puerto Sherry, Cadiz, Spain. Started Sunday 3rd September, ended 9th September (early due to lack of decent winds in the right direction). The Ocean Sprint was cancelled for that reason. The Scoring Gate was in the Bay of Biscay and due to the adverse wind conditions, only Punta tackled it and thus gained three points. The race was won by Perseverance with Punta second and Unicef third. Qingdao were second into the port but came sixth due to an infringement of race rules when they sailed too close to Alderney (although you’ll be glad to hear, not dangerously so). Should have had George and Yangtze on board. I think I’ll give you total points at the end of each leg. If you need to know more you can go onto the Clipper website. I’m not even reading the Skipper or Crew Diaries on a regular basis.
In Posts 85 of March 2020 and 97 of June 2020 I touched on Cabin Pressure with no explanation. This was a (in my mind) brilliant Radio 4 comedy series from 2008 that involved a small airline (one plane, an airdot?) written by John Finnemore and starring him, Benedict Cumberbatch, Roger Allam and Stephanie Cole. They fly to a different airport each week, from A (Abu Dhabi) to Z (Zurich). Much more fun that reading Skipper and Crew Diaries to me. Here’s a couple of links, the first a very brief synopsis and the second more details of the series and actors involved. I’m trying to find them online to listen to but some episodes seem to be missing. It’s no longer available on the BBC website and there’s no point me buying CDs, Cassettes, LPs, Eight-track thingys or suchlike as I no longer have anything to play them on. Sob.
https://www.comedy.co.uk/radio/cabin_pressure/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44565410
Yet more learning from my reading of cosy mysteries. These, by Angela M Sanders, are set in Portland (Oregon) and involve lots of designer clothes, as the protagonist has a vintage clothes shop. The first is called The Lanvin Murder, just to give you an idea. In it I came across jojos, seemingly an everyday eating item in Portland. I’ll have to go there and try them.
A book I found when I was tidying up, published in 2002 and possibly lurking on our shelves since then (yes, I have way too many books) is ‘The Superior Person’s Book of Words’ by Peter Bowler. I shall try to slip one in every post from now to see how superior I feel. Not very, to be honest. The first word is abecedarian, which I shall not be using (arranged in alphabetical order), although of course I realise my cocktail ingredients meet this definition. Rats, I could have snuck that in without you noticing. The last word is ‘zzxjoanw’, a Māori drum. No plans to go to New Zealand so I don’t think I’ll be using that either. The author recommends you save all your high scoring letters in Scrabble then use this word. Hmm.
Back in the real world, the end of July and beginning of August was quite eventful for us. We attended a Prom at the Royal Albert Hall on 31st July, having a light meal in the Kensington Gardens Bar deep in the bowels of the RAH. One we didn’t go to but caught on the radio then on the TV involved the impressive Felix Klieser. He is a German French-horn player who has no arms. He has to be my new hero. Watch videos of him in the first link here.
https://felixklieser.de/en/bio-en
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/felix-klieser-french-horn-left-foot/
Another impressive Proms performance came from Alim Beisembayev, a pianist in his 20’s who was asked to replace an ill performer at two days’ notice, then was told it was going to be televised. What confidence he showed. If you can watch it, here’s the link.
https://www.alimbeisembayev.co.uk/biography
Our wedding anniversary was (as usual) at the beginning of August, just after we attended the Prom. I thought JD had gone from one part of the spectrum to another when he told me where we were going. When I looked it up, it appeared that we were going to a Duran Duran (tribute?) concert at the NOW Building, Centre Point.
https://thespaces.com/now-building-tin-pan-alley-london/
Luckily we weren’t but instead to a very stylish Chinese restaurant called Tattu. Cocktails that make me think I should give up. This is called Celestial Dragon and made with gin, almond, hojicha tea and citrus. With a bit of smoke. JD ordered what he thought was one dragon for two people but he’d actually ordered two dragons. I can’t remember if we had wine as well, not sure how I forgot!
https://tattu.co.uk/locations/tattu-london/
As you know, I am attempting to run down my bottles of cocktail ingredients. However, I’ve found out from the Diffords website that ‘Discussions abound about whether a shortage of Chartreuse liqueur is due to the Carthusian monks that oversee its production refusing to sacrifice more prayer time to keep up with increased demand, or if it’s simply due to a move in production facilities’. Mine is running a bit low, should I stock up just in case?
(If you were wondering whether I did go the Race start, here I am, with Kirsty, another Unicef crew mate).
George and John's boating trip no longer 