Where we are right now...

... my face about to break from smiling. Cornwall is amazing. Twenty years I've been dreaming of visiting this county and, incredibly, not a smidge of disappointment to be found anywhere 😃 #porthcurno #minacktheatre #cornwall #teenagemeisdying #adultmeisprettygonetoo #😄😄

Porthcurno Beach - among my first glimpses of Cornwall cliffs

The indomitable Rowena Cade

What an incredible structure. What visionary sees a cliff and sees something like this in its future, then hauls sand up cliffs to make it? Rowena, that's who. What a woman.

Walking the cliff down towards the beach from the theatre. My joints copped a lot of climbing this trip and I still feel it all now, but it was all worth it.

Well done to the whole cast! Excellent production. Meanwhile, right after the show as people were beginning to make there way back up towards the exit, we suddenly heard someone say, 'There they are!' Ma and I turned around to find dolphins jumping in and out of the ocean. We took some very hopeless video, but what a cap on an already amazing day in Porthcurno.

Tripping over the North York Moors and up to the lovely seaside town of Whitby

Indeed, the Queen did enjoy this brief sojourn into her new seaside resort town, and the route through the North York Moors was most impressive. Much obliged to the Sun for continuing to shine despite all warnings it would most likely be in hiding as we made our way through. My friend, if you are feeling more bashful as we head further north, we won't complain - you've been kind enough. Say hello where you can.

I cannot recommend seeing the Moors enough, if ever you have the fortune. I really, really can't. I've never seen anything like it anywhere before and my photos are meagre means of conveying how beautiful they are. I'm aware my gush meter has pretty much exploded at this point but it is what it is. My guess is my brain is just going to straight up short circuit as we get further afield to the Lake District (where we head tomorrow), the Scottish Highlands, the Ring of Kerry and Cornwall. Watch this space, it might be entertaining.

#helmsley #northyorkmoors #whitby #yorkshire #uk2018

Our brief, but pretty, stop at the town of Helmsley. Here's an oddity - years ago when I was charged with quickly testing a Word document, I decided to very quickly write something titled 'Helmsley House'. I never dreamed a place called Helmsley actually existed.

This photo so, so inadequately conveys the beauty behind me. Those ankles, though.

Driving into the seaside town of Whitby.

Whitby Abbey

A beautiful May day out in Chatsworth Estate

The Queen's new summer home, perhaps?

I have to say, Chatsworth Estate is breathtaking. Though I'm not usually one you'd associate with flowers and sunshine, mortal enemies that they usually are, I was reluctant to leave. We've been ridiculously lucky with the weather in the UK thus far and that made it just that much easier to appreciate the grounds, the many, many gardens and the streams that seem to come babbling out of nowhere. Absolutely worth a full day of wandering and wondering.

#oldladiesonhols #chatsworth #baslow #derbyshiredales #peakdistrict #uk2018

I now have a favourite trout stream in the world and this is it. I would never have imagined.

Spending May in the good ol' UK

LONDON-PARIS-BASLOW/PEAK DISTRICT-YORK-KESWICK/LAKE DISTRICT-EDINBURGH-DUBLIN-BELFAST-PENZANCE-BATH-BOURTON ON THE WATER/COTSWOLDS

I can't even begin. So many dreams, so many, are being realised via this trip with Ma and again, I never expected it. The countryside obsessed teenager/literary geek/history lover/Anglophile in me is beyond excited and, ok, here's the thing. You'd think after a few trips, I would find the opportunities to go overseas less surprising each time. The words 'one day, I'll visit ___ ' have even become a part of my everyday vernacular because having thus far travelled where I have, the options definitely feel more real and less like those cloudy castles in the distance.

However, as the years go on, last year in particular, enough continues to happen that only diminishes my ability to assume things. Life happens, health happens... simply put, I will never take for granted that these trips get to be a part of my life and when the chances arise, I will never cease to feel like the luckiest kid on the planet, particularly if we're talking about getting to finally see places I've dreamed of since I was a teenager; or that I've fallen in love with thanks to my many British literary heroes; or that I've pored over in history books and documentaries in order to have some glimpse or idea of what life was like in times past, ancient or modern.

I absolutely cannot wait.

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My recent submission to the Expert Panel on Religious Freedom C/O Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

ETA Monday, April 2: So I've come across two things that address the issue of Religious Liberty from some different sides, not necessarily straight up anti or pro, and I think they're definitely worth sharing.

I subscribe to Counter Arguments and I do encourage people to check it out. The arguments are clear and fairly comprehensive and provide great great ground for further discussions. In this video, he tackles the subject od religious freedom, specifically addressing the Kim Davis case and the arguments around civil disobedience. I think it does a great job of breaking the situation down, particularly helping to distinguish the roles of the different branches of US Government in legalising Gay Marriage and the implications for law enforcement.

An area of difficulty I found was in the idea that those advocating for religious liberty are in any way looking for a free for all pass on any behaviours claiming roots in religious belief and that is very well addressed in this article:

#KimDavis, Slippery Slopes and Religious Freedom

I think what this article does is outline the ability to have a balance that allows all cases and rights be properly examined and then dealt with accordingly which, as per my submission below, is something I strongly agree with.

**************************

Further information regarding the current review is available here:
https://www.pmc.gov.au/domestic-policy/religious-freedom-review

The right to freedom of religion and belief is as fundamental as the right to dissent or criticise any form of belief. Both should be equally and adamantly protected. 

For the state to create an overriding general mandate on morality despite the complexity of core beliefs and the right to express those beliefs ultimately stifles the opportunity for genuine and open discussion which is essential to furthering human understanding in a pluralistic world. One doesn't wipe out discrimination by forcing people to act in genuine conflict with their conscience and the only real way you can distinguish between the two is through honest conversation which also must involve honest listening. 

If a case comes forward and is placed under scrutiny, then the merits of each side's arguments can actually be judged. Once the ability to even argue a side, whichever side it is, is taken away by being made contrary to law, the opportunity to judge actions based on genuine reason and merit disappears. In a democracy, such a thing would be unspeakably wrong. 

We must fight discrimination tooth and nail, but in trying to stamp out real discrimination, lumping those who intend to spread real hatred and unjustly discriminate with those who have genuine reason for their beliefs and whose beliefs have no root in hatred, does the population real injustice. In a democracy, we cannot abide by simply gagging a portion of the population. 

Our only chance is to protect the freedom of all sides to peacefully and respectfully live and express their beliefs and therefore allow genuine discussion and further encourage real understanding between all.

No one's story deserves to be diminished, whoever they are, wherever they come from, whatever they've been through, however they look and whatever they believe.

Please.

Listen.

Revisiting: A Stroll through Washington DC

Korean War Veterans Memorial, Washington DC, taken October 2010

Those stony eyes just stare back at you, never flinching much like the rest of the soldier, hunching mid-trudge. The memorial does its job. It reminds you of things you’ve never seen. Of pain you’ll never experience. Those eyes made of stone simply a cold shell shaped by a sculptor’s hand that will somehow, with no words, no sound, destroy at least a little bit of that innocence which you have the privilege to own. 

Telepathy has been and always will be real. Via such memorials as these, men and women I’ve never met have spoken to me and told me countless stories about the world and about history. They have been able to do so despite barriers of time and place and with nothing more than strokes of pens and brushes, shaping of metal, and light captured by the mechanical eye of a camera. 

In this way, walking through DC and stumbling upon memorials I hadn’t realised were around the corner or at the end of the path, I was able to absorb pieces of history, just some of the pieces of the very story of humanity. I saw, if only for a few moments, the men in the jungles, among the trees, the fears in their eyes. I felt the rapid beats of their hearts and the tremors in their limbs as they continued their way towards an uncertain destiny. 

I then had the liberty of feeling that shot to the heart, that ache that is born when you realise just how many people have sacrificed and have been sacrificed for the very world in which I have the privilege to live; those who have literally lain down and become the pavestones of the paths and roads which brought us here. 

On their backs, exists my life, lest we forget. Lest we ever forget the debt we owe. Lest we ever forget the need to bring true legacy forward.  

This is the world. In one is all. 

I remember being struck by how little I had really pondered this particular war. Men died as they always do when mankind decides to decimate one another for whatever reasons, whatever gains. Yet historically tucked (conveniently or inconveniently) between WWII and the Vietnam War, a mind so happily untouched by such large scale conflict as mine was able to simply forget. As far as I know, I lost no one in this war. But many did and many will never forget. They have no luxury like mine. 

I have learned a great deal every time I’ve had the fortune and opportunity to travel. Largely, what I’ve learned is that my life is one of great comfort and privilege. 

And, on my life, I wonder if I will ever be able to truly conjure a means by which to express gratitude or appreciation. 

☮