Books, Author
Note: this blog post was started a couple of weeks ago, when RFK and vaccines were the “health” news of the day–before Tylenol and autism. It’s hard to keep up, among other hardships wrought by this crowd.
Eli and I recently visited the Renwick Gallery, a small gem that is part of the Smithsonian Institution and located across the street from the White House.
It’s been almost a year since my last blog post. If this sounds like the movie version of someone entering the confession booth in church, I mean no disrespect to those who know and practice the real thing.
Last year’s plethora of posts celebrated our post-pandemic return to China and other travel on “their” (our kids’) side of the International Dateline. Posts were packed full of adventure, revisited and first-time destinations, newfound relatives, and family history resources.
Before World War I my relative Ayjzik Igra started an umbrella factory called Elegant in Sosnowiec, Poland. Sosnowiec is northwest of Krakow, which, in turn, is west and slightly north of Lviv, now in Ukraine, the area where my grandfather, Henry Grossman, was born as Heinrich Igra. They were cousins.
There was a time when umbrellas were valued not just for protecting delicate complexions from sunlight and fine clothes from drenching rain–but as fashion items, especially for women, as much as were hats and gloves. Hand-made umbrellas such as Elegant’s were prized, and vintage versions can still be found online (see below). Apparently, the business was prized enough for a Nazi officer to take over the factory after the Germans invaded Poland in 1939. Ayjzik and his wife died in a concentration camp. Most of their children survived, and three sons who had learned the trade from their father went into the umbrella business in Canada, Sweden, and Australia, respectively. Ultimately, the brothers in Montreal and Stockholm moved to Florida and prospered in real estate.
We loved everywhere we went in Australia. The people are remarkable: polite, gracious, willing to help, cheerful. Even the TSA-equivalent personnel said, “Good morning, welcome to Sydney Airport,” as we moved toward the security check.
Sydney, the largest and probably most well-known of Australia’s cities, is also the capital of the state of New South Wales. Like the rest of the places we visited, we loved it! Stunning–from the iconic Harbour and Opera House to Bondi and other beaches. The CBD, in addition to skyscrapers, has a number of well-done conversions of old buildings into elegant and functional spaces. And the shopping…we tried to save that for Sydney as our last stop for packing and schlepping reasons. And, yes, we bought stuffed kangaroos for Mirah and Rivah.
Mirah and Rivah wanted us to bring back live kangaroos from Australia. We all knew that wasn’t really going to happen–and they admitted beforehand any gifted kangaroos would be stuffed–but the conversation was a lot of fun.
First, we discussed how we’d bring them back on the airplane. Mirah had an answer for that: “Just put dresses on them, so they will look like real people.” The girls had names: Mirah’s would be Jesse Bailey, and Rivah’s, Rainbow Lola. So, while in Australia we told them we were interviewing kangaroos to see if any wanted to come and live with Mirah and Rivah.
After flying from Bangkok to Melbourne, we enmeshed ourselves in a new place! Virgin territory, as Eli says, for us as travelers, and our sixth continent. Our first scheduled trip to Australia, four years ago, was abruptly cancelled when Eli got sick in Beijing hours before we were to fly to Sydney. He admitted, as we were leaving Thailand, that he was superstitious about another plan to come here. So far, so good.
We were home in Milwaukee for Rosh Hashanah, we were in Beijing for the New Year of 2023, and we spent the Lunar New Year (of the Rabbit) in Bangkok.
This was my fourth or fifth time in Thailand’s vast capital city, and let’s just say neither the traffic nor the official air quality has improved. However, perhaps because of the time of the year, most of our time in Thailand was less humid than previous visits in fall months and late February. Temperatures were mostly in the high 80s during the day, there was often a breeze, and being outside wasn’t nearly as oppressive as in the past. And, in truth, at least Eli and I actively tried not to run around constantly. We’d seen the major sites, we’ve bought all the Thai (or any Asian) stuff we ever wanted, I didn’t have business meetings as during my trips in the 1990s–it was vacation.
Well, COVID cut into our winter break fun and usefulness, as we were out for the count much of the first week. But we managed to catch up a little between Christmas and the secular, calendar New Year. Rivah started back to preschool a couple of days before Mirah’s break was over. So, we had time for another sleepover, some shopping, and cookie baking.
We wish our family and friends a happy, healthy, productive, peaceful, and safe 2023! This secular one is our second New Year of three–after Rosh Hashanah–with Chinese New Year, known in China as Spring Festival, coming up January 22.
