Travel broadens the waistline

…Plus: Three new courses, to complete our autumn programme

‘To travel hopefully’, we’re told, ‘is a better thing than to arrive’.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s frequently misquoted and often misattributed* aphorism, from his musings on humankind’s quest for hope and happiness (‘El Dorado’, 1878), was my mantra this time last week [at point of typing].

*[…misattributed to Buddha, no less! Do please consider joining us for our upcoming adventures in the spread of Buddhist art and culture if you’d like to increase your chances of avoiding similar misattributions.]

Because I was one of the hundreds of thousands of souls scuppered by last week’s air traffic control outage and its aftermath, as I sought to have a quick 36 hours in Malaga with my mother.

Gertrude Bell beside her aeroplane, before 1927

Illustration from Gertrude Bell, The Letters of Gertrude Bell (Volume 2) (1927)

Image here via Wikimedia Commons at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gertrude_Bell,_Engelse_(Britse)_archeologe,_bereisde_grote_delen_van_de_Arabische_wereld,_SFA001013539.jpg

Those of you who were following events will have seen genuinely sad stories as well as the “Oh no… Poor me. Look at this free glass of champagne [LOL]” ones.

Alas I can no longer fly with the kind of airline that offers the latter, and my “we’re sorry we’re keeping you in a pressurised tin can for 8 hours” compensation was but a small plastic cup of tepid water, ca 4 hours after boarding. But to be honest, whilst I certainly wouldn’t have eschewed the glasses of chilled Louis Roederer with which others were being plied, I actually had a lovely adventure.

Yes, I ended up spending as much time in ankle-puffing, recycled-air as I would have had I been making a short transatlantic flight, but my seatmates were very lovely. We got chatting having discovered several timely coincidences, which helped the time far pass more pleasantly than it might otherwise have done, and we all ended up where we had wanted to, and (just about) on the date we’d planned, so we fared a lot better than many. The poor staff (who were having to deal not only with a plane full of anxious punters but also with having to put in a full shift once airborne and, either another stint thereafter or overnighting in the wrong country) were, without exception, fabulous and kept us all as informed as possible.

Lady Hester Stanhope, 1845

Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope, as related by herself in conversations with her physician comprising her opinions and anecdotes of some of the most remarkable persons of her time (London, Henry Colburn, 1845)

Image here via the Wellcome Collection’s online digitization at https://wellcomecollection.org/works/bvw2ysy3

I’m happy to say that mi madre and I still managed to enjoy our brief adventure, with a few tapas and glasses of something chilled along the way, but in retrospect I wonder whether champagne might have been forthcoming during the grounded delay had I dressed more formally for my adventure - perhaps a fur coat, accessorized by a pith-helmet-wearing gentleman, à la‍ Gertrude Bell (supra). Or even, possibly, had I emulated Lady Hester Stanhope (left) and travelled on a jet black horse rather than Jet2.

Err… OK. It’s a fair cop… That is me pushing the anecdote into shoehorn territory. And I’m very nearly almost sorry… But there is method in my shamelessness, for ladies on adventures are coming your way, courtesy of the first of three new courses which are now available for your autumnal entertainment.

Because yes - our autumn programme is now complete, with the following new Short & Sweet options…

Adventuress! Early women explorers

Rubens and van Dyck

Athens and Sparta

So there we have it - that makes one full programme of courses, hopefully for your delight and delectation. Term starts next week, so there’s still time to book. We look forward to seeing you soon!

To see all of our upcoming courses in calendar order, click here.

PS During my homebound journey, I had (to paraphrase Mr Stevenson’s exposition on the human condition) stowed two portions of victuals into my bag, in the form of some duty-free brandy and a not-quite-finished airside bocadillo.

I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions as to which Denizen of Wrightington Towers was most eager to find which victual, but I can confirm that two specific human and canine conditions were rendered happy by my having both travelled and arrived home.

PPS Those of you who have enjoyed my occasional notes on AI may be amused to see the result of my attempt to find the news articles I remember seeing last week on those stranded passengers lucky enough to be plied with champagne to ease their discomfort. I didn’t find any of the articles to link, alas, but you may enjoy our future overlords’ response to my attempt to google. And yes, I know. Ooh how we’ll all laugh at the memory of sniggering/tutting/rolling our eyes as the algorithms briefly gave us nonsensical non sequiturs during their alarmingly speedy learning curve, as we hurtle towards an armegeddon of our own making…