A theme that always strikes me in one of my favourite books, “The Lord of the Rings” is the sense of the passing of time. The ages of Middle Earth come and go; different people play their part and then move on leaving the future to others. It’s accompanied by a sense of wistfulness, even melancholy, which is most poignant when Frodo says farewell to Sam Gamgee, Pippin and Merry before sailing into the west with Gandalf and other companions from his adventures.
Before Tolkien, Shakespeare had used the same theme in As You Like It, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.”
More cynically and tragically in Macbeth he wrote: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.”
In part at least, this melancholy reflects something of the way I feel as we work through the selling of possessions and letting go of all that we’ve been involved in.
This week:
It is all very surreal.
Whether we’ve strutted and fretted our hour upon the stage, or merely had our entrance and are now approaching our exit, others can judge. But a fact is that after we’ve gone, within five years or less, it is unlikely that any more than a handful of international staff will remember us, though the national staff and other local friends will.
Such is life, our entrances and exits: We come, we stay, we hand over to others, then we go.
One of our GA8s had the unenviable effect of closing Goroka airport for about 3½ hours on Friday. For no obvious reason a main landing gear tyre deflated on landing, leaving the aircraft stuck on the runway. It was moved off to the side, but only into the grass and still inside the cone markers, so the runway remained closed. Fortunately, Goroka has a second, smaller, parallel runway that light aircraft can use.
The only quick way to get an engineer and a replacement wheel there was for me to fly the Cessna 172 down. It didn’t take too long to get everything organised, and rather than flying myself, it provided an opportunity for a young PNGian pilot, Ricky Poki, who works in the Flight Ops Office, to get a bit of free flying experience. Whenever the C172 has a trip that he can do with an experienced pilot, we like to give him the chance, if only to see the big smile it puts on his face.
Once the engineer, the hydraulic jack and the replacement wheel were in Goroka it only took about 30 minutes to have the aircraft moving again and the runway reopened. Air Niugini had had to wait in Port Moresby until notice that the runway was clear had been given.
The first reasonable sized batch of Christmas cards arrived this week. A lot of Christmas greetings and annual newsletters arrive by email these days. In fact, Nicki saw some statistics yesterday of how the billions of letters that used to be delivered annually has dropped to less than half of what it was.
Most of these cards had a postmark from early December, so we wondered where they were delayed. With the decrease in volume, certainly in PNG we’ve seen an increase in transit time. 7-10 days used to be the norm, so it was possible to have a return letter within 3 weeks. No longer!
Although we appreciate electronic communication, and make a lot of use of it ourselves (this letter is evidence!), the occasional hard copy to peruse with a cup of tea or coffee is still nice.
I don’t think there’s any more news this week. Seven weeks today, and at this time of the afternoon (14:10) we should just about be in Port Moresby (ETA 14:15). That is always assuming that another operator hasn’t had a flat tyre on landing …
Wishing you a happy, non-melancholic week.
Before Tolkien, Shakespeare had used the same theme in As You Like It, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.”
More cynically and tragically in Macbeth he wrote: “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.”
In part at least, this melancholy reflects something of the way I feel as we work through the selling of possessions and letting go of all that we’ve been involved in.
This week:
- The car is sold, though we will have use of it until the beginning of February.
- Our lovely PNG hardwood bookshelves/lounge unit is sold.
- So is the office unit Nicki used in the dining room.
- Our chairs, most of the tools I’m not bringing home, and just about all our kitchen equipment has either gone, or is earmarked for somebody when we no longer have need of it. Similarly the TV.
- The rocking chair, piano and exercise bike are really the only remaining large items left to go. All this while I still haven’t circulated the for sale list widely
- Another crate is also packed and locked. That makes two completed.
- I’ve flown my last flight in P2-MFT, probably my favourite of the Twin Otters. It was a load of building supplies for the school in Kol, a community only about 50km east of Hagen, but located in a small valley to which the road is frequently impassable. On return the aircraft had to go in for a major C-check which will last between 4 and 6 weeks, by which time I will have flown my last flight.
It is all very surreal.
Whether we’ve strutted and fretted our hour upon the stage, or merely had our entrance and are now approaching our exit, others can judge. But a fact is that after we’ve gone, within five years or less, it is unlikely that any more than a handful of international staff will remember us, though the national staff and other local friends will.
Such is life, our entrances and exits: We come, we stay, we hand over to others, then we go.
*************
One of our GA8s had the unenviable effect of closing Goroka airport for about 3½ hours on Friday. For no obvious reason a main landing gear tyre deflated on landing, leaving the aircraft stuck on the runway. It was moved off to the side, but only into the grass and still inside the cone markers, so the runway remained closed. Fortunately, Goroka has a second, smaller, parallel runway that light aircraft can use.
The only quick way to get an engineer and a replacement wheel there was for me to fly the Cessna 172 down. It didn’t take too long to get everything organised, and rather than flying myself, it provided an opportunity for a young PNGian pilot, Ricky Poki, who works in the Flight Ops Office, to get a bit of free flying experience. Whenever the C172 has a trip that he can do with an experienced pilot, we like to give him the chance, if only to see the big smile it puts on his face.
Once the engineer, the hydraulic jack and the replacement wheel were in Goroka it only took about 30 minutes to have the aircraft moving again and the runway reopened. Air Niugini had had to wait in Port Moresby until notice that the runway was clear had been given.
*************
The first reasonable sized batch of Christmas cards arrived this week. A lot of Christmas greetings and annual newsletters arrive by email these days. In fact, Nicki saw some statistics yesterday of how the billions of letters that used to be delivered annually has dropped to less than half of what it was.
Most of these cards had a postmark from early December, so we wondered where they were delayed. With the decrease in volume, certainly in PNG we’ve seen an increase in transit time. 7-10 days used to be the norm, so it was possible to have a return letter within 3 weeks. No longer!
Although we appreciate electronic communication, and make a lot of use of it ourselves (this letter is evidence!), the occasional hard copy to peruse with a cup of tea or coffee is still nice.
*************
I don’t think there’s any more news this week. Seven weeks today, and at this time of the afternoon (14:10) we should just about be in Port Moresby (ETA 14:15). That is always assuming that another operator hasn’t had a flat tyre on landing …
Wishing you a happy, non-melancholic week.
