Sylvia's Journal

Reinout landed on both feet yesterday, and so did his son Steven who followed him out of the plane over Texel. They both thought it was an awesome experience, worth repeating. Reinout’s partner Joke, and me, were glad it was over. I caught them on the phone over dinner last night. They were celebrating his courage, stupidity or good luck; or maybe all of it combined.

We also hope Sita landed on her feet in Sharm el Sheik. She is joined by Bush, Musharraf and other heads of state. We are not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing for her. We are dying to hear from her but she must be busy or not allowed to communicate with ordinary mortals.

DJ, Tessa’s Rockport employer and one of my staunchest blog readers had to do without an entry this morning because I was busy sorting out how to fly to Wiscasset (Maine) and back via Auburn/Lewiston to Beverly again. My flying buddy Bill thinks I do way too many calculations, but that is the way I was taught and I am still not entirely comfortable relying on the Garmin GPS that was installed a great cost in the plane. Bill is an engineer and does calculations in his head without any effort. I have to learn stuff by heart because I can’t always figure out how to get to the answer. I think I am finally getting the hang of when to start descending, the formula includes factors such as number of feet descent per minute, speed and RPM. For a thousand feet down I require 4 miles at 2050 RPM. Bill is teaching me things that make my descent more orderly and controlled, a good thing.

When I woke up this morning I did not think we were going to fly. It rained and the clouds hung low. A call with the flight briefer, a service from the US government, was hopeful. We simply left a bit later than planned after the low pressure front moved away from us; as predicted by the weather man, the rain stopped and the clouds lifted.

We flew along the coast north at an altitude of about 3500 feet. The views are great from up there. After Portland we flew over the islands that stick out into the ocean, with even more glorious views all around. These are the kinds of trips I would like to take Axel on but neither one of us is quite ready for that yet.

After dropping me off at the flight center this morning, Axel had gone to the Annual American Institute of Architecture convention in Boston to learn more about the art of building ‘green’ and to enjoy anything that has to do with great design. He picked me up at the Flight Center after Bill and I touched down safely, back from Lewiston.

When I arrived home Larissa was waiting for us with a pot of tea, so very Dutch and so very at home in our house. Larissa is the daughter of dear friends who live in the Eastern part of Holland, who I seldom see. Larissa, on the other hand, is a frequent visitor to our house. She studies English in Boston, even though she no longer needs to. Her English is fluent. She drops by every few months, showing classmates the most beautiful place in the world. This time she showed up with two other Dutch students, Merel from Zeist and Martine form Den Haag. After tea they drove to Rockport to see Tessa at work in the leather shop. Since I needed a new pair of Dansko clogs I came along. I had myself served, expertly, by saleslady Tessa and returned with a new pair of just the kind of shoes I like.

It is a beautiful spring evening, just the right kind of temperature and lighting for a birthday party at the St. Johns. We are celebrating Katie Blair’s birthday a few days ahead of time.