All regular readers of this blog will know that Sheila, Jae and Oscar are going on a big journey. They will be travelling well over four thousand miles and climbing 5,895 metres. However, they are not the only ones taking a journey. Thanks to Sheila’s efforts, I know that many of the regular readers are taking their own personal journeys stimulated by Sheila’s posts. At least one – Megan (who blogged about the butterfly effect) – was so inspired that she has booked a Kili climb for her honeymoon; that is enthusiasm! Others have been inspired to get fit and I believe that more than a few have risen to the challenge of volunteering. The work that Sheila is doing with Catching Lives is truly inspiring.
I too have taken several journeys with Sheila, many years ago and over the last few months. Some of you may have read an early guest post I wrote about how Sheila and I ended up sharing a bed-sit and then a flat while at University. With hindsight, I realise that this was a major journey for both of us, our first, sometimes faltering steps, to independence and adulthood. Belatedly I must give Sheila my grateful thanks for being there – she was much more practical and resourceful than I, the best possible companion when times were tough. And these times were tough. Like Leslie and Sheila I had very unhappy times in my teens (the death of my mother and the rapid introduction of a stepmother). These bad memories (and some that followed) had crowded out my memories of earlier times. Now, after reading Sheila’s entertaining blogs, especially about ‘the olden days’, my own memories have surfaced. My childhood was not all bad; I feel as if I have regained my childhood. So I have another reason to be grateful to Sheila.
As a lighthearted example, I have been a bit of a foodie since as far back as I can remember, always keen to taste new food and collecting recipes from all round the world. My mother was a dreadful cook – even allowing for the post WW2 period and on-going rationing. Everything she produced was brown, beige or grey. As far as I can make out no one else in my family has any interest in food apart from listening for the ‘ping’ of the microwave. So where did I get this obsession with food?
Sheila’s recent post that mentioned the food department of Lewis’s (a large department store in Glasgow in our childhood) took me right back to there. The mystery was solved. My dad was the Foodie – possibly one of the original. From when I was about three or four until I was seven or eight, we made a weekly pilgrimage to Lewis’s. Dad wasn’t particularly well off at that time and yet he was determined to learn about the delicacies he read of in books. I remember him smooth-talking the young ladies to let us try a tiny taste of this and that. We both agreed that we really liked smoked salmon but it was far too expensive. Instead he bought a large tube of “Primula” processed cheese with smoked salmon. And then he bough a jar of pimento stuffed olives. Such luxury. We went home as excited as two children and immediately piped the salmon flavoured cheese (there was a built in star nozzle) on to little biscuits and placed an olive on top. Mum and Dad were expecting some friends that evening and my mother was planning her standby of cocktail sausages on sticks – keeping up the brown theme. She was displeased. I thought the biscuits – and my dad – wonderful.
So I have had my ‘journeys’ with Sheila. I do hope that the 3G journey will be as happy and rewarding. We all can see that it will be physically testing. Altitude sickness is pretty grim, as I and other guest posters have attested, as can be physical tiredness, insomnia and cold. However, they will also be on an emotional journey. How will Sheila, Jae and Oscar feel about each other at the end of their trial? Sheila’s family always seem close knit and devoted to each other. Very often, strong friendship is based on respect for the ‘space’ of the others and having a sixth sense of when to back off. It doesn’t sound as if there will be the luxury of physical or metaphorical space in this trip without the option to go for a walk, take the dog out, or even delve into cyber space. But from what we have read in Sheila’s blog posts, I think if any family can do it, it will be Sheila, Jae and Oscar.