At last we are in a civilized country. We arrived in Munich from Bled after a 9-hour train trip and both Robert and I are exhausted. We both had showers and I washed our clothes. The water was black. The train had started in Athens. No food and the toilets were sickening. Our friend took us on a tour of the Olympic grounds. We then went to the famous beer garden where Hitler started his speeches. The band was fun but I came home with a big headache. I awoke at 5 with a horrible cold and sore throat and had breakfast with eggs the first time in two months. Robert went out for breakfast. We are going to a hunting lodge in the Black Forest. The scenery in Austria on our way here was spectacular but I would not like to live there. I can imagine how solitary it must be in the winter. We saw so many Austrians in Tyrolian clothes.
Reflections of Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog: The Benefits of Coffee
“Many people do not feel that they can get through the day, or even the morning, without a cup of coffee (or two or three). Having a cup of coffee becomes a way of taking care of yourself, a way of stopping, a way of connecting with others or with yourself. It has its own beauty, its own inner logic, its own culture, and in moderation it can be very effective at helping you pace yourself as you face the demands of the day. Such daily rituals can deepen a sense of pausing to take in the moment. “
John Kabat-Zin “Full Catastrophe Living” Bantam Books
Hello there. I am Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog and you can read about my exploits in this blog. I like this quote but it discriminates against tea drinkers like myself. I eat my morning kibble but Master Bob always gives me and my best friend Dillie the Westie a bit of organic jasmine tea and a bit of toast or bagel. My day does require this ritual. Without it I feel something is lacking!
Dylan’s Quote of the Day: Busyness as Self Destructive
“Filling up your time with busyness is another self-destructive avoidance behavior. Instead of facing up to your problems, you can run around like crazy doing good things until your life is overflowing with commitments and obligations and you can’t possibly make time for yourself. Despite all the running around, you may not really know what you are doing. This kind of hyperactivity sometimes functions as an attempt to hold on to a feeling of control or deeper meaning in your life when it seems to be slipping away. But it just may do the opposite by obliterating our opportunities for rest and reflection, for non-doing.”
John Kabat-Zin “Full Catastrophe Living” Bantam Books
Dylan the Dog has been featured in Robert K. Stephen’s “Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog” which has been serialized in this blog. He is a wise and seasoned dog and an inspiration for Reggie. You can read about him further in “Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog”.
“Travels to a Different Time” : August 9, 1971: Finally in Munich: Hello Fritz: Drinking Beer and Eating Sausages in the Shadow of Hitler: Hunting Wild Pigs in the Moonlight: 230 Kilometres an Hour in an Alfa Romeo Spider on the Autobahn
Bedraggled we got off the train in Munich at 2:30 in the afternoon. We made it to the Excelsior Hotel in Munich. In comparison to the barren accommodations of Yugoslavia this hotel was LUXURY but at $29 a night we could spend that on rooms in Yugoslavia for two weeks. We both had our first bath in close to two months. It certainly revived us. After my bath feeling like a million dollars I went out to buy some grapes and some pastry and when I returned ran into Fritz in the lobby of the hotel. I took him up to our room. It was difficult to get the conversation going but it got better as time passed. Fritz took us to the Olympic grounds and we went up to the top of the tower and what a spectacular view. After that it was to a restaurant for a snack and then back to the hotel for a rest. We both felt like we had jet lag as we had been up since 4:30 in the morning. Fritz picked us up for dinner and we went to the beer hall where Hitler had made many speeches. We had big plates of sausage and sauerkraut with an enormous mug of beer of which all of us could drink only half of it. I was happy to be back in the room where I read a newspaper while Mom and Fritz went downstairs to the lobby bar.
August 10, 1971: Mom woke up feeling very sick but went down to have breakfast with Fritz at 7:30. We were off to Fritz’s cabin in the Back Forest zipping along at 230 kilometres an hour in his red Alfa Romeo Spider. Things move up real quickly and Fritz said when there is an accident on the Autobahn it is usually very bad. However the roads are engineered for high speeds and Germans are good drivers. They must be as how can they pass a car going 230 kilometres an hour! Fritz had a meeting in Stuttgart so Mom and I spent an hour and a half wandering around a department store. We arrived around 7 p.m. at Fritz’s cabin and Fritz and I went to Albert the famer nearby for bread, eggs and ham along with fresh pressed apple cider and some beer. After dinner a couple of Fritz’s friends came and took me hunting but no luck. We returned to the cabin and we waited for the moonlight to come out so we could hunt wild pigs Again no luck.
Passage of the Day: “Workaholism”
“If you feel stressed and dissatisfied by family life, for instance, then work can be used as a wonderful excuse for never being home. If your work gives you pleasure and you get positive feedback from colleagues, if you feel in control when you are there, if you have power and status and feel productive and creative, it is easy to immerse yourself in work. In can be intoxicating and addicting, just like alcohol. And it provides a socially acceptable alibi for not being available for the family since there is always more work than you can possibly get done. Some people drown themselves in their job. Most do it unconsciously, with all the best intentions in the world, because deep down they are reluctant to face other aspects of their lives and the need to strike a healthy balance.”
Jon Kabat-Zin “Full Catastrophe Living” Bantam Books
“Travels to a Different Time” : August 3, 1971: Bled, Yugoslavia: Letter from Margaret Mary Stephen to Daughter Barbara and Son Andrew: Woman Obsessed with Upcoming Trip to Munich
Time is getting closer for our German trip. We go by train on August 9th and it is an 8-hour trip. We leave at 5:30 a.m. and I can’t imagine what shape we will be in when we arrive. Fritz has made reservations for us at a hotel in Munich. I guess I am nuts to go off with him as I only have known him for three days. He will probably rape and murder me and kidnap Robert. The way I feel about him it might be a good way to go. The trip to Munich ought to be something. I will take a loaf of bread, cheese and fruit. Fritz will get an awful shock when he sees me. I will tell him I am his cousin Gertrude from the back 40. After 8 hours on a train I’ll look like one. Bled is picture book town with a castle up in the hills with an island in the middle of the lake. Every night there is a concert. The setting for it is fantastic! I have an incredible tan. Unlike Greece I am not fat. I think I am the only hippie mother in Europe. We ride the local buses, ships and trains with them and they cut bread on their knees. I must be NUTS! We have a room in an Alpine style house. There is only hot water for the taps in the bathroom sink. Years ago there lived a doctor here who was a health nut who built a small trail around the mountain that is supposed to take 15 minutes to walk. Robert has done it a few times in 10 minutes. The food here in Slovenia is just as awful as in the rest of Yugoslavia. I would love a simple hamburger and oh to have some roast beef and a glass of milk! My last birthday here was awful. The motto is NEVER TRAVEL ON YOUR BIRHDAY!
“Travels To A Different Time” : Letter From Margaret Mary Stephen to Her Mother on August 3, 1971, Bled, Yugoslavia
It is August 3rd and we are in Bled in the Julian Alps. We arrived yesterday. We will stay here until August 9th and then travel to Munich by train. We will meet our friend Fritz there and he has a car. We may stay in Munich for a week and take a cruise on the Rhine and after that to Berlin then back to Frankfurt and then home. Bled is a fairy-tale land with Alpine architecture. The swimming is excellent in a lake as opposed to the ocean. Tonight there is a concert in the park by the lake and we will go to it. I hope it is not an opera like last night as that was just too much for Robert. It really doesn’t seem like our trip of swimming and sun is about to end. Germany is not the place for that and I understand that and am looking forward to it. I do not want to return to Yugoslavia. I am too used to comfort. My birthday started out at 4:30 in the morning and we arrived in Bled at 4 p.m. OH boy what a crazy trip and my back started bothering me. Yugoslavia is too damp for my back. Greece was a drier heat and was good for my back. The beds here are as hard as boards and that is good for my back. I am looking forward to Germany especially the Black Forest where we will be sleeping for two nights. Germany is having a heat wave now and it is 94 degrees in Frankfurt. Robert just went on a mountain trail hike.
Yugoslavia is a beautiful country but the people are cold and rude. In our last island of Krk we met an army nurse Sonja who is 35 years old and has car. She is charming and beautiful. She has a car and took us to two homes. Summer homes lovely outside but very poor inside. One owner is a doctor and the other a nurse. Robert is back from his mountain trek and is steaming hot.
RKS Wine: The Okanagan’s Mayhem 2020 Riesling and My Treatment for Riesling Hesitation Syndrome
I am very discerning about Ontario Rieslings and I don’t want to stir things up about why. I have much better luck with British Columbia Rieslings.
Trust Mayhem to cause a bit of mayhem with its Riesling as not only was it aged in stainless steel but neutral French oak. EEKS! Oak and Riesling! Does it work?
It has a light gold colour. As for aromas right off the bat I would say it is more akin to a German Riesling than an Ontario one. Inviting aromas of peach, apricot, tangerine, tahini, almond paste and sweet white grapefruit. On the palate I take away the EEK and say the oak has not caused any damage to the wine! It is dry but far from the grapefruitish sourness one sees from vineyards and winemakers east of Beautiful British Columbia. It is spicey and a bit peppery for that initial instant but that fades quickly. There is noticeable acidity but thank goodness it is not overpowering. There is some lemon and lime with a little hint of ginger on the after palate. It has good traction on the finish. I find it a bit dry and I say it is not a great sipping wine but rather designed for food. The winery suggests bacon, grilled cheese with ham or any kind of pork. Were they reading my mind on that? I would add mac and cheese to that list provided you forgo the ketchup on it. I love ketchup on my homemade mac n cheese made with Balderson’s two-year-old cheddar. What a plebe I am with ketchup! As a side story I learnt to love ketchup as a 9-year-old in Vancouver eating at White Spot! Memories…….
2020 in the Okanagan might not have been a banner year for red wines but its coolish influence let the fruit retain its acidity without the sugar getting too far ahead. The handpicked Riesling grapes were from the Garagan Vineyard in Naramata and Capagnero Vineyard in Summerland.
If you think I suffer from Riesling Hesitation Syndrome (RHS) you guessed right. It keeps slapping me around this RHS but I have been checked into the Riesling Rehabilitation Institute in Kelowna and they are doing their best to help me. This Mayhem Riesling is a component of my daily regimen. My doctor, Doctor Vitis Vinifera is hopeful I will have a complete recovery. Unlike Nancy Regan I can’t say “Just Say No” to Riesling! Lead me to recovery Mayhem! Oh Dr. Vinifera says my superlative experiences with Mayhem wines is because I have Salmon Arm blood in my veins because that is where my father was born. British Columbia lives matter (BCLM).
(Mayhem 2020 Riesling, BC VQA, Mayhem Wines, Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, $20.87, 750 mL, 12.7%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 89/100).
RKS Film: PBS Documentary “American Reckoning” Unpleasant but Necessary Viewing
“American Reckoning” is a mostly uncomfortable documentary about the emergence of the 1960’s Civil Rights movement of the “negro” in the United Sates of the 1960’s as fleshed out through the 1967 murder of NAACP activist Wharlest Jackson Sr. killed by a car bomb in his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi.
Wharlest Sr. was in some respects a marked man as he was friends with NAACP activist George Metcalfe injured in a car bombing in Natchez in 1964. He also took a job in a local tire manufacturing factory that ordinarily would have been filled by a white. He was murdered on his first day on the job. Wharlest was a decorated Korean War soldier.
Wharlest’s story is recounted through archival footage of the situation in Natchez and through various interviews with his family, former Natchez politicians, a daughter of a Klan member that beat his children for talking with blacks and journalists. And it is a nasty story of discrimination, hatred, segregation and murderous violence. But it is also an inspiring story of courage and determination of the black population of Natchez to be recognized as human beings as opposed to being demeaned by whites as Jungle Bunnies, savages and cannibals.
As the NAACP gained in strength and spearheaded a boycott of white owned stores the white city council finally caved to the 12 demands the local black population had presented which resulted in those stores hiring blacks, the police force hiring 6 black police officers and some desegregation. It also was a crippling blow to the local Klan chapter.
You may be surprised to learn that there was an armed group of blacks called The Deacons for Defence and Justice which was formed for the purpose of self defence. And that more murderous elements of the Klan thinking men in sheets and cross burning was banal was formed and called The Silver Dollar Club. It would appear there was circumstantial evidence but no hard evidence pointing a finger to a Silver Dollar Club member as the murderer.
Wharlest’s murder was never solved despite the passage by the United Sates Congress of the Till Act in 2007 that provided for the funding of reopening cold cases of Civil Right’s violence. Of the 150 cases pursued all but 25 were closed and that included the Wharlest murder.
Having lived through these Civil Rights times and the violence and murder in its wake I almost didn’t have the heart to watch this sad story but I am glad that I did. I also realize that there may be younger viewers who may have limited knowledge that the Civil Rights movement in the United States existed and the blood it was covered in.
The world broadcast premiere is on February 15, 2022 which can be seen at FRONTLINE/PBS and streamed at pbs.org/frontline.
It was directed and produced by Brad Lichtenstein and Yoruba Richen.
You can watch the trailer here https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/american-reckoning/
“Travels to a Different Time” :August 4, 1971; Bled, Yugoslavia: Greasy Eats and Food Flies in Anger!
Out for dinner of greasy stuffed green peppers. Mom lit up a cancer stick so I didn’t talk to her for awhile and she took a tantrum and said, “All right Robert if you continue to be such a child I will leave you the money and go home.” Who is the child here? Then she slapped my hand because I had too much food on my fork and food went flying all over my shirt and pants. She then added that if I was really that hungry I’d soak up the grease with our bread. She left half her meal on the plate and stormed off. Fritz pressure?
August 8,1971: Bled, Yugoslavia: Getting Sick and Tired of the Sun
We are getting to the point we are sick and tired of roasting in the sun. We also are tiring of greasy food in Yugoslavia. More greasy goulash for dinner. We had spent the day reading and playing some mini-golf.
August 9, 1971; Bled, Yugoslavia and Munich, Germany: A Turd on the Toilet Seat and Stinky Girls From New York
We said our goodbyes to Yugoslavia as we boarded the train for Munich. We were in a cabin with two filthy and stinky girls from New York. The toilets on the train were disgusting. I saw a turd sitting on the toilet seat. What a pig!
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