Showing posts with label Jersey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jersey. Show all posts

Thursday

Jersey - A to Z of Places I have Visited


I am writing about some places I have visited in alphabetical order.

Still wondering what I will do for the more unusual letters like Q and X etc. but maybe I will have a brilliant idea later.





In 1995 we returned to Northern Ireland from our 3 years of living in the US.

Shortly after this my father died leaving mum on her own.  She had always liked to travel so the following year my sister and I and our families and mum decided to go on holiday together.
It was decided that we would go to Jersey in the Channel Islands because mum and dad had gone there several years before and had really enjoyed it.





I was very happy to go there as we had never been to any of the Channel Islands previously and we had always heard that the weather was better there than in the UK.


One of the things I remember the most about that trip was going to the Jersey Pearl.  A place to learn all about how pearls form and about the grading of the quality of pearls.  It was very interesting for all 3 generations of our family.  Then Fred bought me a heart necklace with a little pearl set in it; a little pearl that I had chosen myself.  I still have that necklace today.






The Jersey Pearl has been open for over 30 years now and is evidently still one of the biggest attractions on the island.

It is at St. Ouen which is on the North West of the island.






The island of Jersey is not very large and we could comfortably drive the whole way round it in one day stopping off to see some sights.

Some of the coastal regions were similar to the rocky parts of the Northern Ireland coastline and we all enjoy the rocks.





The beaches were nice and with having 6 kids in our group (my sister and brother-in-law have 3 and we have three) we spent several hours on the beach. If you have read the CALPE post in this series you will have read more about my sister and brother-in-law there and my brother-in-law inspired one of my NEED HELP? blogposts.





Some of us are very fond of swimming in the sea and the temperature of the water was somewhat higher than we are used to in Northern Ireland thankfully.



The capital of the Island is St. Helier which is in the south of the island





and has a lovely harbour & marina.





Another thing some of our family are very fond of are castles.  Mostly we see a lot of ruins of castles but here on Jersey there was a very impressive medieval castle which is over 800 years old.





It is called Mont Orgueil Castle and overlooks the beautiful fishing village of Gorey on the east of the island.




We spent a lot of time one day looking round the castle





and the sea front is also nice to walk along.





 There is another Castle called Elizabeth Castle which can also be visited on a rocky islet in St. Aubin's Bay near St. Helier on the South of the Island but this one is only 300 years old.


There are also several sculptures on the island but they may be more recent than our visit so long ago and I do not remember them.  Which is a pity because if you have read the post in this series about ENNIS or an earlier post about TERVUREN in Belgium or one about FOUNTAINS you will know that I like unusual fountains, roundabouts and sculptures.

I have heard of the Jersey toad being a unique species of toad and there being a sculpture that and I believe there is  one to do with liberation and a kind of tree shaped one but maybe I just need to go to Jersey again to discover them all.


Where do we find pearls, toads and castles?

Another thing I remember about Jersey was all of the family enjoying ice cream together most days but then we would enjoy ice cream anywhere and always will at any chance we get.


We have not had the opportunity to visit the Islands of Sark and Guernsey which along with Jersey make up the Channel Islands but I believe Sark is smaller, very beautiful and known for it's wildlife whereas Guernsey is predominantly a fishing island.







Photo Credit:  Pixabay  &  Wikipedia  as my few pictures of so long ago were not able to be used in this post.


If you missed any of the previous places in this series just click on the Titles below:

A for Alicante
B for Bratislava
C for Calpe
D for Durbuy
E for Ennis
F for Florida
G for Gran Canaria
H for Hong Kong
I is for Islandmagee




Wednesday

The Seagull in Jersey - A Dose of Encouragement


While Fred has been travelling a lot these months
I had pulled out my box set of Bergerac Dvds which I had never found time to watch and settled in most evenings to watch an episode or two from this old Detective Series from the 1980s before going to bed.





First thing I had noticed was how much the young John Nettles who played the character Bergerac (he also played Chief Inspector Barnaby in Midsomer Murders in more recent years) looked like my middle son. So I had some fun teasing Daniel about that.


Then I got to thinking about the Island of Jersey where the series had been set (and filmed) realizing that even though we had once had a holiday there I didn't remember any of the sites of the island.  Of course that holiday was a long long time ago, maybe around 20 years ago.

There is one thing about that holiday that none of us will ever forget.


It has nothing to do with the sights of Jersey.

It has nothing to do with any activities that we had great fun in doing on Jersey.


My only real memory of Jersey was 

the 
Seagull.


Photo credit - Pixabay


This is how I picture that seagull to always be.


I never think of it as one of those almost comical trotting birds you see as they hobble along over the sand or rocks.

I will not even imagine it in a group of seagulls like we often see hovering down ready to catch a fish in the sea.



Photo credit - Pixabay



Yes I always remember it to be


an angry bird,

who saw something,

wanted it

and 

took it!


We were each enjoying a large ice-cream 
when this seagull swooped down out of no-where 
and stole my brother-in-law's ice-cream from his hand.



It was so sudden, so quick, it was almost unbelieveable except that we had seen it with our own eyes.

It must have been such a startling, frightening surprise for Victor as he was holding the ice-cream close to his face when it happened.


Now I can hardly see a seagull without thinking of that event.

I always view seagulls as untrustworthy, callous creatures because of that single event.

Will my impression of them ever change?

Not very likely.


Does my impression of the people I meet ever change?
Does that bad impression stay with me forever?

or

Does another person's impressions of me ever change?
Does that bad impression stay with them forever?


I hope not.


Sometimes it may be difficult to shrug off those impressions because of further meetings or time spent with a person if there is more evidence of their behaviour being similar to the first time.

Sometimes it may be easy to change our minds and see someone in a better light because of getting to know them better and seeing different facets of their behaviour.

But for most of us most of the time those bad impressions are hard to forget.


So do I want to be remembered like






Do I want to be seen as the one who saw something, wanted it, and stole it away?


Did I steal someone's ice-cream?


Do I want to be seen as the one who had to be better than others?


Do I want to be seen as the one who knew more than others?


Do I want to be seen as the one who is more important than others?


Do I want to be seen as the one who stole the attention from others?





Do I want to be seen as the one who was jealous of others?


Because that's what it may boil down to - us simply being jealous.

So we feel the need
  • to say something to show we know more than others
  • to do something that makes us appear better than others
  • to do something to draw the attention away from others
  • to speak of someone to make them appear less worthy than us 

We need to steal away, from them, the favour we want for ourselves.


Do we want all the favour for ourselves?


Truthfully, within us, we can all be jealous of others 
but if we recognise this human failing in ourselves
and then determinedly step away from it 
and do not act on it in any way; 
we can defeat that jealousy, 
conquer that jealousy 
and 
be more like the person God has created us to be.