Category Archives: Postcards 2023

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The cold was knuckle-biting in London today

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The cold today felt intense. It was underfoot. It was in the wind between buildings. It found its way down through collars, and into gloveless, aching hands doomed to hold packages that kept them from finding the shelter of pockets.

Perhaps by Canadian standards it was not that cold, but it still felt bitter to those of us used to the milder damp that fogs in over much of southern England at this time of year.

What did this cold look like? It looked like the hunched shoulders of the skinny young workman out for his lunchbreak without his jacket. It looked like the tight wrapped, long coat of the high-heeled office worker hurrying towards warmth. It looked like the one-armed, self-hugs of the smokers tucked into the corners of grey buildings. It looked like the taut, cold profiles of those pedalling through the freezing air on their delivery bikes.

What did it sound like? It sounded like the laughter and shouts of children running in the playgrounds, running to burn off the cold. It sounded like the seagulls calling and circling in the wind high above the buildings. It sounded like the empty spaces outside the bars, normally crowded with drinkers. It sounded like the gush of a door as people pushed through into the warmth beyond.

It is so fortunate to be able to head indoors, out of the cold wind. I hope that any on the streets tonight will be able to find some shelter and warmth.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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The things you can learn with a little book-talk

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If I had to name one character who could imagine their way to anywhere, it would be Calvin from the Calvin and Hobbes books by Bill Watterson. This boy and his patient tiger survive all kinds of torments, from boredom to homework to bedtime, by imagining worlds only they can see,where all logic is theirs. The pair of them have made me laugh so much.

What’s the magic? For me it’s the way they explore anything from whatever angle. It looks so easy and obvious when they do it.

Today a group of us older readers tried to dig into the thick web of possibilities that lead in and out of every book. Our brains were sluggish and adult, but we did find a way through to somewhere new by doing a couple of quizzes, each triggered by an incident in a children’s book.

The final quiz was on poisonous creatures. We listed a few, rattling off snakes, spiders, frogs, and fish, but we had no idea about the creature placed right at the top of the list of answers – the male duck-billed platypus. It turns out that this innocent, furry swimmer, with rounded beak and webbed feet, has spurs just above the heels of his back legs with enough poison in them to kill a small animal.

Who knew? We didn’t. Perhaps Calvin and Hobbes would have.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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The meaning of travel and adventure

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“She travelled on the edge of the edge itself.” Ethel Crowley about Dervla Murphy

Today I heard a mountaineer and expedition leader being asked if travel and adventure were still possible. He replied that they were, and the interviewer then went into detail about the adventurer’s various trips. I was impressed, but not in the way I am when I read of Dervla Murphy’s exploits.

Ethel Crowley is the editor of the recently published book Life at Full Tilt – The Selected Writings of Dervla Murphy. I have almost finished the book and my mind is out on stalks. How did Dervla Murphy survive her travels?

This is not to say that travel has to involve terrifying ascents, or being mugged by children in Albania, but it does seem to be part of what extreme travellers do, and Dervla Murphy was one of those. Truly extraordinary resilience, as well as such good ‘being there in the moment’ and ‘looking at others’ skills. She did the extraoardinary and the ordinary, from Bradford to faraway Siberia, and met the locals wherever she could, showing us herself and others, so we could think about ourselves.

That to me is real travel. It doesn’t have to be Everest. All you have to do is step outside your front door and start really looking. Life is the big adventure.

(The photograph above is of part of the press release that Eland Publishing sent me with the copy of Life at Full Tilt.)

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023