York, among other things

I’ve been in York for the last few days, visiting my daughter at university. We decided to get the train up rather than driving this time, which has made the whole experience easier (I started writing this post on the train heading back down).

We decided to do some of the “tourist trail” while up there, so went to the York Castle Museum yesterday and the Minster today. Both of these were well worth a visit, and we had a very pleasant time wandering around and soaking up the experience.

York itself is also lovely to walk around, with some very good cafes and coffee shops to enjoy. I particularly liked Spring Espresso. Since we were staying in a hotel we have also eaten out a great deal more than normal!

In the Minster I was again confronted by my nagging concerns around Empire and history. I walked past memorials in memory of officers from the 84th Regiment who “fell in the service of their country during the mutiny and rebellion in India, in the years 1857 .. 58 .. 59”. That particular event was mainly an example of a group of people revolting against the rule of the British East India Company, ie not being happy with political and economic control from the British Empire.

These events are complicated, of course, and of course followed the thoughts and beliefs prevailing at the time. The soldiers were just doing their duty and would probably have been executed by their own side if they had been disobedient in any event. Still … uncomfortable.

On a totally different subject, while we were away I was discussing the things I’m trying to do achieve at the moment. Ellie pointed out that there are only so many hours in a day, and sometimes something has to give. With my flute performance coming up next month, and the struggle to get some flute practice in every day, a daily blog post isn’t really realistic! So for the the time being I’m going to scale back my writing ambitions as the concert presses ever closer.

So I’ll still be writing, but it will probably be more like weekly than daily. But hey - let’s see how it goes!

Photo by Luke Porter on Unsplash