The appeal of music at Christmas is sous entendu in my opinion. Music is but another manifestation of the instinctive response which overcomes Nature upon its descent into darkness and famine thus marked by brilliance and feast. To preserve it from becoming entirely tarsome or Bing Croby-ish (apparently he wasn’t very nice to his children), I search the Apple Music library (yet another of their award winning services) for something more in line with my interests or at least less saccharin or repetitive. I sustain this seasonal application until December 24th and no further.  By that time I have indulged myself to the point of gluttony upon everything available whether in the drawing room or my car.

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We discipline our lives by the time on the clock. Our working lives and wages are determined by it, and often our “free time” is rigidly managed by it too. Broadly speaking, even our bodily functions are regulated by the clock: We usually eat our meals at appropriate clock times as opposed to whenever we are hungry, go to sleep at appropriate clock times as opposed to whenever we are tired and attribute more significance to the arresting tones of a clock alarm than the apparent rising of the sun at the center of our solar system. The fact that there is a strange shame in eating lunch before noon is a testament to the ways in which we have internalized the logic of the clock. We are “time binding” animals, as the American economist and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin put it in his 1987 book, “Time Wars.” “All of our perceptions of self and world are mediated by the way we imagine, explain, use and implement time.”

By Joe Zadeh
Published by The Berggruen Institute

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We left 1000 Islands, Canada on November 30th last.  Today – December 15th – marks completion of our first two full weeks on this exquisite barrier island, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina beside the roaring North Atlantic Ocean. Already we’ve had so many escapades – trifling though they are – about which to delight. Perhaps the zeal is nothing more than a change of venue, something new to do and see, but whatever it is, I am dead chuffed! Every day we have bicycled (for me between 15 – 20 Kms) and I have reinvigorated my daily car wash cycle as well (a convention I excuse as an imperative to control the dripping sap from the towering sea pines). With the indisputable convenience of Apple Music I subsequently relax with baroque classical Christmas music and the likes of Tony Bennett for the more popular American songbook such as “White Christmas“. It is as usual impossible to escape the fervour of Christmas and its holiday spirit. Red wreaths and ribbons abound! For the moment I do however feel reluctant to proclaim the natural seaside beauty here when wistfully recalling the traditional Christmas themes of snowy lanes, fireplaces and the like.

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Still lost.
This is Mike’s ring, lost somewhere in Almonte, probably Nov 25 or 26. We searched all the places he was, before the snow. It is a unique ring, designed by me and made for him. It is very precious to us, and has special significance. He is devastated to have lost it. If you see anyone with this ring, please contact us or report it to the police. We are offering a very good reward for its return. Thank you so much for any help and please share.

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SMS Viribus Unitis  was an Austro-Hungarian dreadnought battleship, the first of the Tegetthoff class. “Viribus Unitis”, meaning “With United Forces”, was the personal motto of Emperor Franz Joseph I.

Viribus Unitis was ordered by the Austro-Hungarian Navy in 1908 and was laid down in Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste on 24 July 1910. Viribus Unitis was launched from the shipyard on 24 June 1911 and was formally commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 5 December 1912. She spent her early career performing training missions and making trips to foreign ports. In June 1914, she carried Archduke Franz Ferdinand on a trip to Bosnia with his wife Sophie. During his visit to Sarajevo, he was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip in the event that caused the beginning of World War I.

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Although we don’t fuss about one another’s birthday, we’re having a celebratory lunch at Sea Shack today.  As the name suggests it is a decidedly casual restaurant but the homemade food is in our opinion flavourful – things like seafood chowder, gumbo soup, conch fritters, blackened grouper and Key Lime pie. We will bicycle there, not far from the top end of Sea Pines (while we’re presently located at the bottom end). It will likely be no more than a 30-minute cycle through the towering sea pines and palmetto ferns from here to there.  We intend to visit another location nearby to get future directions settled.

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Someone (who unfavourably in my opinion assumed we were on a first name basis) from the hair stylist’s office  telephoned early this afternoon to enquire whether I would shift my 3:30 pm appointment for today to 5:15 pm instead.  I told her it is was not convenient. When she backtracked and reiterated that I could preserve the initial time instead I had already perceived her lack of integrity. I summarily canceled the appointment; and, added, “Some other time…” which to my thinking is going to be never.

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Having nothing to do for the rest of my life is not what I consider a fault or failing. I’ve never been one to sanction shiftlessness. The current feature is not a lack of ambition. Quite the opposite in fact.  After a lifetime spent addressing imperatives and needs and obligations of one sort or another – often resulting in late nights at my desk or very early mornings at another or weekends devoted to this and that – I now unexpectedly have the undisputed privilege of doing whatever I want. There are many people who are in the same enviable condition. But frankly I am uncertain how receptive some of them are to the affliction. There are those who require a project, a goal; or perhaps they account their own personal ambitions inadequate. Further it is conceivable that some people are simply unhappy. If one is overcome by depression I suspect it is irrelevant what if anything there is to do.

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Singleton Beach at the eastern end of Singleton Beach Road off William Hilton Parkway is located towards the heal of Hilton Head Island at its northerly end. The beach – in addition to being on the same road as the popular Chaplin Community Park – is adjacent what are in an uncommonly modest exhibition called vacation homes many of which if not all are equipped with swimming pools, elevators and significantly proximate views of the Atlantic Ocean from the second or third floors. Clearly the vicarious influence is a strong point of travel on Hilton Head Island.

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The Island – which for me is the Sea Pines gated community at the southern toe of the Island  – was mute today.  The weather was cloudy and cool. The frequency of pedestrians (normally dedicated walkers and runners with the associated gear) and cyclists was noticeably diminished. When I walked by my car in the parking lot en route to the bicycle rack, I yearned to drive again.  But driving on the Island is a derivative not of hankering but of desideratum. The motor vehicle passion is however a deprivation I willingly bear when vacationing here because I am intent upon bicycling as much as possible not just enough to merit the fulfillment of a stated distance. The performance is more than strictly athletic. I find that no matter how regularly I visit any one or more chosen spots they always appear different. The mutability of life by the sea is the canon rather than the outlier.

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