Have been in NO since last Saturday. Have an assignment for some client headshots in the city and came a couple of days early to see and experience Mardi Gras. V who is with me and who will be assisting me and acting as makeup person on the shoot has never been to NO before but I have visited on a number of work-related occasions in the past, the last time about 6 years ago, shortly before my retirement.

I remember NO from my various visits going back to the early '80s, as living up to its reputation as a pretty wild place, a port city with all that implies, bars and clubs that never closed....

We arrived in Tobago a couple of days ago, Dec 29, after a few days in Port of Spain. We have spent lots of time and trips in Barbados over the years, as this is where my mother’s family live and where I grew up and went to school, boarding at Lodge School until we left for Canada. However I was born in Trinidad, the home of my father’s family, but left at a very early age when my parents, following the war (WW II), moved to Barbados my mother’s birthplace from Trinidad, my father’s birthplace.

While I always hear the siren call of Barbados, I felt that we were long overdue to rebuild the connections to my Trinidad family...

Have begun the process of planning a trip to Namibia and beyond next September/October. Very early to start I know but want to fly on points and Aeroplan Business Class points bookings, even this far in advance, are scarce and require convoluted itineraries.

I have a ton of points that I want to burn and then will never bother with Aeroplan again. Reasons why to follow in another post when I'm feeling appropriately cranky.

Last night I was idly reading a NY Times Sunday magazine, one of a stack that had piled up when we were in France, and came across the following article by Helen Macdonald. I'm quoting it in its entirety as I was strongly caught by its message and I really wanted to share it.....

Dinner party was a great success. Food was very good, and as the cook I am allowed to say that, the wines were excellent and the guests were charming and witty, in English and in French. As the evening advanced and the level in the wine bottles lowered, we were given some hilarious lessons in idiomatic French, many of which cannot be used in polite company. Birthday cake was excellent and we sang Happy Birthday in both official languages. Party ended late in the evening ....

Weather has finally broken. Distinctly chillier, wind picking up and skies overcast for the first time since we arrived. Rain forecast for tomorrow but we have had a very good run so can't complain about our change of fortune.

Yesterday we were up early for a run out to Clingancourt, the very large Paris flea market in the northern suburbs. Since we had a dinner party planned for the evening and needed to get back in time to shop, prepare the apt for guests and organize the meal, we decided to arrive at the market an hour later than the official opening time of 8 am. Jane, V and I took the subway out and arrived shortly after 9 to find that most of the vendors did not feel the same urgency....

Overnight and this morning the ship sailed further down the east coast of Greenland and entered Scoresby Sund, the largest fjord system in the world covering about 38,000 sq kilometers and whose arms at times extend about 350 kilometres inland from the coast.

We will be visiting the Innuit village of Ittoqqortoormitt a hunting community perched at the edge of the fjord and numbering about 450 people. They town's dock is not large enough to accommodate our ship so we will have a wet landing on zodiacs to the shoreline in front of the town....

Arrived this morning in Kejser Franz-Josepph Fjord, East Greenland  and we have sailed from 80 degrees North at the top of Spitsbergen to 73 degrees North at our present location. Because we are 7 degrees farther south we are once again seeing sunsets at about 11:30 pm and sunrise at about 3:30 am.

The intercom went off at about 6:30 this morning, a call from the captain to tell us that a school of humpback whales were swimming and feeding around the ship and so we tumbled into our clothes and up to the 6'th level deck where there is an Observation lounge area surrounded on three sides by floor to ceiling windows and access to the open deck. Wind was chill and the temperature about 3 or 4C, frigid. Whales would spout and rise to the surface, breathe and sink back into the water, 1 or 2 at a time and about 200 or 300 metres off the side of the ship....