{"id":450,"date":"2012-08-22T21:53:40","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T04:53:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/?p=450"},"modified":"2012-11-28T16:00:22","modified_gmt":"2012-11-29T00:00:22","slug":"serendipity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sermonsinstones.blaseckie.ca\/?p=450","title":{"rendered":"Serendipity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I learned that, for something underground, the London subway, aka the tube, is no cooler than topside on summer days. I also learned a hotel\u2019s idea of a 5 minute walk and mine are at substantial variance. Even when we weren\u2019t hauling our luggage uphill through the streets and with no idea of where the hell we were going, it was substantially more than 5 minutes.\u00a0<\/span> In the very uncharacteristic 34 degree heat of that first day it took an eternity to find the place.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once in the room I stripped out of my salted travel wear and spent a few minutes digging through my suitcase in search of comfy, exploring-the-big-city gear. When I came back out of the bathroom a minute later I went back to the suitcase to find socks when I looked up to at a man on \"\"<\/a>a ladder cleaning the windows.\u00a0<\/span> I assured myself he must have just started. I mean surely I\u2019d have noticed if there was a man staring in the windows while I was airing out the girls…Then it started: the ukelele stylings of George Formby\u2019s \u201cWhen I\u2019m Cleaning Windows\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

Through 3 wonderful nights of London West End musicals I could not get that one song unstuck from my head. Not Sweeney Todd or even Wicked\u2019s Defying Gravity held more than a few minutes ground against George Formby\u2019s syncopated plinking.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>I managed to dislodge the happy tune somewhere around the middle of the English Channel.\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the Elvis Costello concert in Paris, the band went offstage and Elvis pulled out a ukelele. He didn\u2019t launch into the George Formby song but plink-a-plinked a few other sprightly music hall style numbers.\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0<\/span>It took another day of humming the Hockey Night In Canada song, Oh Canada and the William Tell Overture to drive George out of my head. Getting heat stroke part-way through probably helped.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

As we drove out to Sagres and the end of the world, our happy party went to check out a restaurant on a secluded beach. That\u2019s all there was at the end of this dirt road. Beach, sand, rock and this wee hut. And a dozen ex-pat Brits who held a monthly jam session here. \u00a0<\/span> In the course of our conversation the subject of Elvis Costello came up, prompted, no doubt, by the Elvis Costello shirt I was wearing. I mentioned the ukelele set and made an offhand comment about George Formby. One of them reacted like I had called God by His first name. In a good way.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We were on our way to the Prince Henry\u2019s Fort but promised to stop on our way back.<\/span> By the end of lunch everyone in the group had the Cleaning Windows ear worm. <\/span><\/p>\n

Every trip is full of these recurring encounters with the Princes of Serendip<\/span><\/a><\/span>. If you are very very lucky, you will recognize them in time to enjoy the show.<\/span> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n