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.
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I wonder if my cousin experiences anything like that when she goes off to her island of choice. hmm...
ReplyDeletehaving a foot in two worlds must be hard... both countries inevitably do some things better than the other.
ReplyDeleteI 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!
:)
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!
ReplyDeleteIs this your first "cross-over"?
Yes, Fi, and it get harder with each year as friendships consolidate and new friendships start.
ReplyDeleteLisa: 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.
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!!!
ReplyDeleteMark: 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.
ReplyDelete