Return of the Pot-pourris

Valentine’s Day. At San Angel, Mexico city. 21st century.

Scotty is back from his fishing expedition in 16th century Scotland. At long last. He was  mistaken for a papist and a wizard, a follower of Mary Stuart. He owes his life to hiding away in a barrel of kippers until we could beam him up. (Note to maintenance: the engine room does smell a tad of fish, please clean it up) “Ready to jump Scotty?”.

“Aye Sirr.” (His Scottish accent has gotten a wee bit thicker too). “Sending coorrdinates.”

Soissons, East of Frankreich, c.481AD. Clovis, a Frank chief, is the founder of France, at first a “Germanic” state built on the ruins of the Roman Empire. Jump!

Jabali (boar) craft beer. Mexico, early 21st century.

Spock and Uhura are back too, from their “date” in Bételgeuse or Aldebaran. Something must have gone amiss. They are not addressing each other. Jump!

Lev Davidovitch Bronstein, aka Trotsky, at his last residence cum museum in Mexico city.

Trotsky’s office, as it has remained since his assassination in 1940. Almost 80 years ago. The house has been transformed and maintained as a museum by his descendants, his grandson, and great-granddaughters. The house is a strange and interesting place, full of history. (More to come)

Young girl with a hat. By Rodin at the Rodin museum, Paris. This is possibly one of my favourite Rodin sculpture. The late 19th century hat, the freshness of the young girl, long gone now.

Under subtle questioning, “How did your date with Uhura go?”, Spock only muttered “Earthling”. English is mostly genderless, but he put a Vulcan tonic accent on the last syllable: Earth-LING. Which could allude to one of the three possible Vulcan genders… Jump!

South Africa. c. 1967. never been there (yet), this note was brought back by my father from a trip. I don’t think a Rand buys you much these days. (I did some editing of the banknote, just in case) This is for Dina at Perdebytje, a fantastic blog on South Africa and wildlife:

https://perdebytjie.wordpress.com/2019/04/08/as-jy-jou-stert-wil-wip/

“How much for the helmet?”

“We’re selling the shirts, Sir.”

Has it ever happened to you that the decor is so much more interesting than the wares on display? “Jump, Scotty!”

Mexico, 1997. Hibiscus flowers by my mother Renée. Just had them framed. Will pick it up on Saturday and hang it. Somewhere. Push a painting or two. Thinking of adopting the Italian style, cover every inch of wall with paintings.

Uhura, when approached with another, subtler, angle: “How was Aldébaran? Or was it Bételgeuse?”, mumbled something like “mzungu” or its plural “wazungu”. In Oulde Swahili, plural is placed at the beginning of the word not at the end. ‘m’ is singular, ‘wa’ or ‘ba’ is plural. Research on that word refers to “wanderer” or “someone who roams around”. Apparently the word is shared with Kinyarwanda and a few bantu languages. Why would Uhura use that word? To refer to Spock? Mysteries of the Earth-LING gender? Further research leads to the word kizunguzungu, dizziness. Dizziness? Uhura? She is tough as nails. Jump, Scotty, jump!

1926. Mexico. “The girls on the hill”. By Ernesto “the monkey” Cabral. Isn’t it fascinating that those “girls” could have been sitting on a dune at Deauville, or Martha’s Vineyard? Cabral was a great Mexican illustrator of the first half of the 20th century. (See below).

At le Timbre-Poste, Paris, early 21st century. Continuation of the “Loos of the world series”. “Scotty? Ready to warp?”

Tchad, West Africa, c. 2010. At a vaccination campaign by Médecins sans Frontières, where Daughter #1 worked for a coupla missions. The women and mothers had put their best clothes and jewels for the occasion. Wonder why Africans queue for vaccination while Europeans and Westerners are shunning vaccines? 😦 Photo (c) Heurtebise.

This house nearby is protected by both the Virgin Mary and Saint Karl Marx. Beware. (I liked the previous colour – blue – better)

Linus playing for Garfield’s ghost. Metro line #6, Paris, near Metro Nationale and Butte-aux-cailles. “Warp, Scotty. Before World War II, please.”

Neville Chamberlain, 1939, by Ernesto Cabral (Yes, the same illustrator of the Girls on the hill) for the Excelsior, a leading newspaper in Mexico. Chamberlain, along with Daladier, respective English and French Premiers had signed with Hitler and Mussolini the “deal that would end all wars”, in Munich, in 1938. We all know what happened next. Last I heard Theresa May(be) is asking for yet another delay for Brexit? Don’t people ever learn?

c. 1967. Paula was one of the stars of Daktari, the TV series. We’d watch it in our house in Nairobi, then go for a safari somewhere. I’d graduated from living inside the book to living inside the TV. Of course, there also was Star Trek. 🙂 B&W. Not sure who the illustrator is, George S. Elrick? There is an air of Liechtenstein, though.

Should I now make a witty transition? Or let the reader decide?

Thank you for flying Equinoxio’s Time-Space shuttle. A few pressing affairs have kept the Captain from posting lately. Hopefully it should be only a brief lull. Take care.