Friday 20 May 2011

Two Lives

In Scotland. 

As a general rule my New Zealand life and my Scottish life manage to separate themselves in my brain emotionally.  I am frequently asked (usually in the UK) where I would wish to settle if I had to make a choice.  That's a question I always avoid answering.  

After The News this evening I happened to notice that The Phantom of The Opera was on the box and decided to put it on whilst I was finishing organising the Study (which I've been doing all afternoon) and writing my Thankful Thursday post.  Wow.  I hadn't allowed for what happened after I'd been listening (and partly watching) it for a short while.

I occasionally have the DVD on in the evening when I'm alone in The Cottage - my New Zealand home. My brain has obviously indellibly associated it with my New Zealand life.  Suddenly I was an alien in my own land.  I looked out over a familiar and loved land and seascape and experienced another life: a life from which I am, at this moment, detached.  It's an experience I will never be able to explain adequately but it is undoubtedly one of the most emotionally harrowing experiences I've had.

I suppose it's not one helped by the fact that the music and words of the work are also so emotionally charged.

Phew.


6 comments:

  1. I wonder if my cousin experiences anything like that when she goes off to her island of choice. hmm...

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  2. having a foot in two worlds must be hard... both countries inevitably do some things better than the other.

    I hope you can follow summer for many years to come and enjoy it all....

    I also know a few people who do their six months here - and inevitably it is because they are not allowed to be permanent NZ residents!
    :)

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  3. We have seen the stage version of Phantom 3 times. We also have a CD of it that we listen to frequently. I just never get tired of it! It connects to my soul somehow. Andrew Lloyd Webber; a genious, for sure!
    Is this your first "cross-over"?

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  4. Yes, Fi, and it get harder with each year as friendships consolidate and new friendships start.

    Lisa: I've been "crossing over" to New Zealand for the 6 months since 2005 but this is the first time I can recall such an emotional moment. Perhaps it was The Phantom Phactor.

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  5. Maybe it is time to make a decision on where you would like to settle? Either that or its time to stop watching the Phatom on your own!!!

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  6. Mark: Unfortunately, or possibly fortunately, it's not a decision that is open to me: my health record alone would disbar me from living permanently in New Zealand. Were it not for that I would have a very difficult decision to make at some time soon.

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