Author: R J Adams

I swear O’Hare Airport, Chicago is the true physical reincarnation of Hell on earth. Why it was designed with vast cathedral ceilings is quite beyond me. I sit here by the security checkpoints waiting hopefully for the queue to subside before presenting myself for the next indignity to be heaped on my person by over-officious petty officialdom. Having been “hand-patted” all over once, prior to my flight into Chicago, I feel fairly secure in the knowledge this time will be worse.

The racket in Terminal 5 is cacophonous. One expects a fairly substantial background hum with so many people milling about, but it is the fraught shrieks and screams of officialdom that overlay the more polite conversing of the multitude.

In their infinite wisdom, Homeland Security has, it was announced, raised the scare level to “Orange”. Of course, they referred to it by a more official phrase than “scare level”, but it meant the same thing.

Taking full advantage of the opportunity to be even bossier than usual, an overly-large black, unformed lady vigorously thrusts unsuspecting passengers through the barriers while shrieking to the world, at the full decibel level of her cavernous lungs:

“Make sure yer go’ yer passperts and burdin’ pesses in yer hands, now!”

Finally, I negotiate security and make the relative peace and quiet of the boarding gate. I am due to board for the long haul across the Atlantic, in just a few minutes.

Hopefully, I will arrive safely in Manchester, England, while America sleeps. It will be 8.30 am England, but only 2.30am in the US.

Sleep well, America.

Filed under: Joy of travel

While preparing for a long day’s travel this morning, I was heartened by a report on the BBC World News at 5.00am. It showed George W Bush enjoying a drink last night with other delegates at the G8 summit – a drink with a very generous head of froth. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I know of no non-alcoholic beverage that holds a head of froth after the glass is half consumed. For a man reputed to be teetotal, it was a strange sight to behold.

It was not this that heartened me, however, but the news that when other delegates assembled this morning, George Bush was nowhere to be seen. Eventually, it was reported he was confined to his room with a “stomach upset”.

Apparently, his god was not amused by George’s night-time boozing.

Filed under: What a shame

On Friday, June 8th I set off on a long haul flight across the Atlantic to my home country. It’s a brief sojourn of only ten days, during which I will visit my elderly parents, my daughter and my grandson. The rest of the time I will occupy walking the Welsh hills and mountains, breathing the sweetly invigorating, fresh sea air, and rejuvenating my body and soul after a long sojourn in the stifling, fetid, and polluted atmosphere that is central Illinois.

Here, is where I will be spending most of my time – around the sensationally beautiful estuary of the River Mawddach in the county of Gwynedd, North Wales :

“When from our better selves we have too long
Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop,
Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired,
How gracious, how benign, is Solitude;
How potent a mere image of her sway;”
~ William Wordsworth.

My laptop is traveling with me, but internet access is sparse so bulletins will be infrequent. However, I will do my best to keep you informed of progress, maybe even post a few photos should the opportunity arise.

Thursday is for packing and preparing, leaving little time to pause and chat, so let me leave you, for now, with this thought:

Every year the Very Rev[olting] Pat Robertson dons his black gown, mortar board hat and dangly gold medallion, at Regent University, to exhort his graduating Christian students to “go forth and change the world.”

Bob Kerrey, President of New York’s “The New School”, says the university “……prepare[s] and inspire[s] its 9,300 undergraduate and graduate students to bring actual, positive change to the world……..”

America’s President George W Bush has been hellbent on changing the world for the last five years, convinced it’s his divine purpose.

Meanwhile, Paris Hilton sits in her lonely prison cell and says she is “working out ways to change the world.”

How much better the world would be if only they’d focus all that energy on changing themselves, and leave the rest of the world to do the same.

Au revoir.

Filed under: Summer hols