Isle and Empires, Stephan Roman

I've been reading a book about the Romanovs and their visit to the Isle of Wight in the early 1900s. It was recommended to me by the owner of the house where we were staying and then, when in Cowes, I enquired about it (not remembering the title nor the author) in a friendly bookshop. 

True serendipity when the bookshop owner knew the book and mentioned that he had published it. Sadly it was out of print. 

Then the magic words... "I think I may have a copy around the back, let me have a look." 

Minutes later he returned saying he'd found the very last copy. A signed copy no less and Stephan Roman is related to the Romanovs. He's updated the book to include reflections upon Putin and Ukraine in a 2022 preface. 

 It's a fascinating read too, though not for the faint-hearted because it deals with the period leading to the Russian revolution when Bolsheviks gained control and the ex-Tsar was moved to the Russian town of Ekaterinburg. 

 The prisoners were the Imperial family: the former Tsar Nicholas, his wife Alexandra and their children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia and Alexey. Thirteen days later, at Commandant Yakov Yurovsky’s command, and on direct orders from Moscow, the family was gunned down in a blaze of bullets in a basement room.

In the main setting for the book, centred around the Isle of Wight we see the imperial yacht Standart escorted by Russian cruisers and destroyers, bringing Tsar Nicholas, the Tsarina Alexandra and their children to the island and a spectacular welcome by King Edward VII with a review of the Royal Navy in its then awe-inspiring might. 

 While cannon thundered, bands played and seamen cheered, the British royal yacht Victoria and Albert steamed slowly between the lines of warships. 

The two monarchs (remarkably similar in appearance) stood on the yacht’s deck saluting in response, with Nicholas in the uniform of a British admiral. 

 It was the week of the Cowes Regatta, the climax of British smart society’s summer season, and Spithead was crowded with launches and pleasure steamers full of spectators. In the evening, King Edward entertained the Russian party to dinner on the Victoria and Albert and there was presently a dinner party on the spacious Standart. 

Tsar Nicholas had meetings with Prime Minister Asquith and Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey. The visit lasted only until August 6th. The two royal families were closely related and on friendly terms. 

Nicholas was a nephew of King Edward’s consort, Queen Alexandra, and the tsarina was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. King Edward had been one of her godfathers and treated her very affectionately and she had fond memories of England. 

The king’s grandsons, David and Bertie, the future Edward VIII and George VI, were cadets at the naval college at Osborne, but Bertie developed whooping cough and was not allowed near his Russian relatives for fear of infecting the tsar’s haemophiliac son Alexei. 

David showed his ‘Uncle Nicky’ round the college, astonished at the elaborate police precautions that surrounded his every move. No one could foresee the dark days ahead, when George V refused to allow Tsar Nicholas and his family to escape to England from the Bolshevik Revolution such that the last Romanovs were brutally murdered in Ekaterinburg in 1918.

Mer means Meh.

I've driven about 25,000 miles in my electric car now. It charges swiftly and has lost 1% of its original capacity in around 2 years. 

That's from 336 to 328 miles for a full charge. I cannot say enough about how good the Superchargers are, compared with many of the other offerings. Fast, simple, reliable, hassle-free.

Last week I was in Ventnor, and tried the central car park EV chargers. The first two were out of order (Mer). The next two said they worked but would not accept credit cards. 

I tried the Mer App instead; it didn't work about half a dozen times (Definition of insanity springs to mind). I went to another street recharger (also Mer). Guess what ? it was a different style of unit but also didn't work. I note that these have all been installed with Isle of Wight funding, so there a reasonable follow-up for someone. 

 Meh. 

 I did finally recharge in a friendly hotel, enough for my 130 mile homeward journey, part of the way by ship.

Sublime - Will Young

Like we had a concert in our lounge. 

Will Young and Christian on keys plays and Will sings many tracks perfectly as acoustic renditions from both Will's back catalogue and newest album. Sublime. Get tickets and go.

Henged

Seeing as I was right by Stonehenge a few days ago, I thought I'd pay it another visit. I'd been staying in the nearby hotel which I also used as a car booster charge.

My recollection was of a long walk from the visitor centre to the actual stones. I wasn't disappointed and the route was across some fields with n'er a sighting of the stones until very close. I guess it was about 2 miles. 

You can just make out the stones in the middle of this picture, some distance away.

As always, there was a large group of people walking around the monoliths, but I was surprised to see that the photo guides to the stones have been modernised and offer suggestions about the best selfies and quirky pictures to take. I found this slightly disappointing, considering we were marvelling at 4,000 years of history. 

I also felt that I was kept further back from the stones now. I seem to remember almost being able to drift through them, but I suppose it's my unreliable memory playing tricks. This time I was a long way from the stones, aided by my iPhone's zoom lens.

The most uncomfortable part of the experience was the lengthy delay to buy a ticket and get into the visitor centre. It took ages; maybe it is done to manage the flow of people to the monuments? Once past the queue, I was able to find the museum and walk through it to get some sense of the history of all the henges.

Then the walk to the actual stones. There's a full account of them here: http://www.stonesofstonehenge.org.uk/search/label/Slaughter%20Stone

and it includes putting the record straight on a few, such as the 'Slaughter Stone'.

And here's a look back after the experience. Quite a line of people. Soon they will all be in the rather packed gifte shoppe.

And maybe,  back in the day, there were even more people attending the special ceremonies at Stonehenge? Was it for funerals? Spiritual matters? astronomical observance, or perhaps to recreate stories from the past, handed down as word of mouth and as re-enactments.

 

Creation Lake - before*

{Rachel Kuschner on a Ford Galaxy}

Some may recollect I started a journey around the UK in April, visiting friends before heading for the island of Rhodes and then catching an ocean-going liner to New York.

At the start I was recommended a bookshop in Frome, where I was unsuccessful in obtaining Slouching Towards Bethlehem, although I did get to hear the story of Joan Didion's smokin' banana yellow Corvette.

{Joan Didion smoking on her yellow Corvette Stingray}

The Frome evidence is all here, right back from that original post. A more recent signifier is the life passage of the Atlantic Ocean passing by every day. A voyage of clarity as well as a new supply of Jelly Beans of Thought.

And now it's September and I think I should declare at least a Waypoint in my trip. My white car has been depranged too, but I won't be sitting on Alice's bonnet.

I'm waiting to read Creation Lake, by Rachel Kuschner, who first ensnared me with The Flamethrowers, many years ago. All motorbikes and urgent Italian rebels.

Her Hard Crowd car pose is no accident- a full hat tip to Joan Didion. My experience of Kushner’s writing is fluidity and clarity, possessing a rhythm as determined as any ocean. There's vibrancy, strangeness, parallels, poise and wariness. She writes like she has reached the next level, or two, probably at 140 mph.

She is a champion of other, often parallel realities. I'm anticipating Creation Lake to promise similar intrigues.

Espionage, seduction, and the allure of the past as a ruthless American female agent for hire is sent to the French countryside to mix things up with French environmentalists. Blend in some humour, sparkle and philosophy and what's not to like?*

*I'm guessing at the moment but have high hopes. It's out next week.

A Chorus Line

 

We decided to see A Chorus Line once more. It's a simple premise as the potential cast for a chorus line are assembled and divulge their back-stories, hopes and aspirations. 

No need to worry about attendance. This is still a hot ticket!

And I still remember all of the lyrics for most of the tunes. Disorienting to see it in London  because it is set in New York a few days after we returned from Broadway.

One Singular Sensation.

Points, prizes, and elephants

 I used to base myself around Times Square when in New York. 

Then I branched out to a few other venues.  The Waldorf Astoria, when I still had points make prizes, and I could get invited out of the checkin line to the special checkin with champagne service. Sadly the Waldorf looks like a building site at present - undergoing renovations, which include reducing the number of rooms. Sounds expensive.

Then there's the Pierre, up by Central Park. Another old-school ritzy type of venue, where I was fortunate enough to be placed in the spacious Presidential Suite - with its own manned elevator. I was fronting a group of high rollers on that occasion, but came out as the top banana. I still remember hiring a ballroom and the $38,000 bill (not just for me, I hasten to add). I asked for the bill to be printed and received about a foot of fan-folded paper (which had certain blackmail potential).

Subsequent visits have been more modest but I was still able to stay at (for example) The Soho Grand, which is like an all-night party.

And this time still spiffy on the 10th floor in Chelsea.

So back to Times Square. I've stayed at The Sheraton, The Marquis and the W, from each of which one can tip out onto the bustle of -er- tourists in Manhattan. My stay at any of them would be courtesy of cashing in  loyalty points. 

The thing about Times Square is its busy-ness. Nightime cab tail lights aglow and everyone walking in the road. 

We decided to see a show on Broadway and the criteria was a musical not already in London. 

We picked Water for Elephants. which was playing along the busy part adjacent to Broadway, yet is reminiscent of a building site. London's West End is certainly tidier. 

Oculus

 

Different visits to New York have seen the area around the World Trade Center redevelop. Now it incorporates the transport hub known as The Oculus. 

It's a structure that shouts 'photograph me!' and its size is enormous. My picture shows One World Trade Center in the background and the mega-structure of the Oculus in the foreground. 

Peek inside and it's a transport hub underground, with a massive Westfield shopping mall at a convenient shopping level, complete with all the usual suspects. 

Between the shopping Mall and the new World Trade Centre are the two ominous black squares and the monument where the original twin towers stood. 

High Line ramble

 

The High Line is quite an attraction, leading along the old train tracks from Chelsea Village up into midtown. 

At various places the original tracks are still visible, where freight trains used to chug along the edge of the Hudson River, until the the line was closed and then saved from piecemeal redevelopment. 

Instead it became a linear park dotted with cafes and stalls. It turns inland to midtown behind the Hudson Yards where Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) trains are stored to support 200,000 daily passengers. 

The midtown end settles close to W 34th Street, which flourishes Penn Street Station, Madison Gardens, Macy's and the Empire State Building. Decidedly walkable with the wild flowers contriving to make it seem not a lot slower than a taxi.

Industrial heritage becomes mindful.

The view from the 67th floor.

One of the well known views in New York on my iPhone. From the Rockefeller Center facing towards the Hudson and with the Statue of Liberty in the distance. Oh yes, and One World Trade Center in the distance and the Empire State Building prominent in the foreground. 

Skew

Oh yes, there were red baseball caps on sale on street corners. 

The TV channels were mostly polarised. Fox vs MSNBC. Choose your rhetoric. 

Curiously it was similar with the Olympics coverage. The US channels seemed to only feature America, except when Frenchman Leon Marchand won the swimming - but even then they found the story that he had been trained in the USA. 

Lunchtime Paris 2024 cafe society at the Rockefeller Centre

Constitutional

The very first time I ever visited New York, on a stopover from Charlotte, NC back to the UK, we had about 10 hours in the city. We took the Staten Island Ferry (25cents) to pass the statue of Liberty, We travelled up to the top of The World Trade Centre, and also to the top of Empire State. We grabbed a fast lunch in Times Square and took some time around Wall Street and then Greenwich Village and South Sea Port. I guess taxis must have been involved, and I even brought back a New York Snowman - melted of course.

I can't really believe we did it all in a single day, but somehow, we did. 

Nowadays we'd do some of those sights in depth and take a whole day, like on this trip we did my first ever trip to the Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island.  I've flown around them in a helicopter previously. Both are interesting, although they don't really tell you about the very long queues to get the ferries. And we were queueing in a New York heat wave. 

I've hidden the 4th July proclamation being held up in Liberty's other arm. I'm  not sure how well it is stacks up at present. 

As PJ Harvey's soundtrack says:

"Can you hear them 

 The helicopters 

 I'm in New York 

 No need for words now"