MANNERS AND OTHER MATTERS

King Kamahemeha Day Parade , Hawaii 2008  (photo the author) It’s a new year.  And when I was preparing for friends to visit today I listened to   IZ Somewhere over the Rainbow  He was inspirational…and has now sadly passed.  I hope, as you enjoy the first day of 2012 you also enjoy this inspirational clip. I have spent many months of my last few years with my companion traveling around remote islands while he researched them for his books.  To be able to live with and enjoy and learn from the people of these islands  has been an unexpected gift for me. These buses were everywhere...feeding the  participants in the Pipeline Competition  While the remote islands of Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island, Yap, Palau, Norfolk Island and more have intrigued me, when I  went back, through IZ's music, to the time when I was travelling with my companion in Hawaii in 2008 I found my memories just there.   And here I share...

 The sky over the South Pacific 2010  I have been sympathising lately with an acquaintance who is suffering a profound sense of grief.  I actually met her at the funeral for her cousin the day after I returned from my recent trip to France.  http://mannersandothermatters.blogspot.com/2011/08/vale-paul-lockyer.html She had also buried her eldest daughter 6 weeks earlier, a young woman who had not yet reached 30 years of age. I had been in Europe when her daughter died and I had not heard the news until my return.  What to do?  Her friends advised that she was coping as best she could; that she wasn’t receiving visitors but that mail was being collected from her mailbox. Her Facebook page was filled with condolences.  But for me, the loss of a daughter required a personal, handwritten message of sympathy and support.  Old fashioned perhaps, but still that personal touch seemed to resonate even with the younger friends, who surprisin...

Greetings from Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia in the North Western Pacific.  I am travelling for a few weeks to the islands of Yap, Palau and Guam and soaking in the wonderful, laid back culture of remote island people....their kindness, gentle manners and welcoming smiles.  It is enlightening to be away from the hustle and bustle of "civilisation", and to meet a civilisation which is more ancient than mine in Australia.  I will share my insights on my return....if I return!