Posts Tagged ‘travel’
Signs of spring are beginning to arrive here in southern Ontario. Among them, of course, is a great pile of exams for me to grade. But when all of that work is done, I’ll be speaking at three upcoming events.
Two I’ve already mentioned:
- the Beltaine Fair at Melange Magique, Montreal, Quebec, April 25th & 26th
- “Civilisation and the Goddess” presented by Argiope – Donne nel Sacro, May 9th, Milan, Italy.
Here’s a new one to announce:
- Spirit of the West Druid Gathering, Pigeon Lake, near Edmonton Alberta, 13th to 14th June. On Friday 12th June, I will also sign books in the Chapters store in the West Edmonton Mall, the largest shopping mall in the entire world (well, until they build a bigger one in Dubai).
And in other news: I will soon start contributing a regular column to PanGaia Magazine
If your organisation or group might be interested in having me visit and do a presentation or two, feel free to email me and enquire.
And now back to marking exams for me. And brewing tea. I think I consume at least one pot of Earl Grey per dozen exams…
Argiope – Donne nel Sacro presents
An Afternoon with Brendan Myers: Civilization and the Goddess
9th May 2009, in Milan, Italy.
In the first two weeks of May of this year, I will be visiting Switzerland and Italy! I got my flight details just yesterday.
On the weekend of 8th/9th May, I will be doing a presentation and workshop in Milan, for Argiope – Donna nel Sacro, which is an “Italian, pagan-affiliated, but non-denominational, organization devoted to helping women explore the feminine divine within themselves and the world.”. More details about this event will follow in the next week or two.
Upon return from the trip East, I will promptly go West: some time in June I will be attending an event in Lincoln, Nebraska. This will be my first “appearance” in the USA. Again, more details to follow.
More “locally” (in a manner of speaking), on the weekend of 25th/26th April, I will be attending Beltaine Fair at Le Melange Magique, in Montreal Quebec. This looks like it will be a fun event! Other speakers include a few well known and well respected people who are also personal friends of mine, including author Arin Murphy-Hiscock, storyteller J.D. Hobbes, blacksmith Helmut, and author Meredith Macdonald. The Fair starts at 10am and runs to 6pm on both days.
At one time I was planning to pass through England on the way to Italy and Switzerland, but it seems I haven’t the money. And, once I return to Canada from this latest planned trip to Europe, I will probably be almost entirely out of money. Still, I need to do as much travel like this in order to promote my books (note shameless plug there) — but more to the point, I just don’t want the “current economic climate” to get in the way of living a good life.
I hope to see everyone some time this year!
A few days ago a friend of mine observed that the reason my summer book tour brought me across Canada and the UK, but not America, is because American pagan groups never invite guest speakers who are not American. “They only talk to their own; they’re really an insular kind of people”, my friend said. I noted that the Farrars (both Brits) regularly visit Conneticuit and Florida, where they have people in their down-line. Also, I understand that Philip Carr-Gomm (another Brit) visited Washington state for Samhain a few years back, and that Kerr Cuchullain (a Canuck like me) regularly visits a few American events. But otherwise, I thought the observation quite true.
Therefore, I was enormously surprised when yesterday afternoon I received an invitation to speak at a bookshop in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Really, I didn’t expect this at all. My books are well respected by most readers, but I’m still a drop in a bucket compared to Starhawk, Buckland, Bonewits, NightMare, and the like. Scott Cunningham is still one of the most popular pagan writers ever — even though he is dead! I’d like to accept this offer, although it will depend on a few things that I can’t really predict right now, such as whether or not I’ll be gainfully employed come January. After all, I’m still not in a position to make my living entirely from book royalties and speaking fees. If a visit to America conflicts with a day job I may have at that time, I’ll probably have to stick to the day job.
Question: Dear (American) readers of this blog: is it truly the case that American pagan groups prefer their own people rather than foreigners? If so, why is that?
And, if I did visit America, would I have to put up with that ridiculous “Blame Canada” song?
What an astonishing landscape is Alberta! I’m amazed at har far in the distance it is possible to see. Calgary is in the foothills of the Rockies so it’s not all prarie-flat: there are ridges and valleys and things, but it still seemed to me as if the entire landscape is a giant grassy field, and the city merely a campsite. All the houses and roads and things look as if they could be rolled up again and taken off to the next campsite. Mind you, it looked a little weird to see so few trees on the landscape. In fact the land looked as if it was “naked” to me. But still, there was something wonderful about the huge-ness of it, and especially in the ability to see all the way to the mountains, more than an hour’s drive away.
The weekend consisted of two lectures, sponsored by Covenant of the Goddess – Church of Alberta. The first was based on the material in A Pagan Testament (to be published in November). This felt to me like one of the highlights of the weekend: it was the first time I presented this particular talk to a public group, and it went over very well. I was absolutely delighted. And of course there was good craic in the pub afterwards. 
By the way, I also had an opening act: a pair of local musicians, Shane McRae and Dawn Von Arim (a.k.a. Spirit Quest) performed for an hour before my talk began. Now that was a first!
The other lecture was a reprise of “How Beautiful Are They” – the lecture I presented at Mount Haemus day in Salisbury, England, last month. I’m afraid that presentation was rather academic, and went over a few people’s heads, and I’m sorry for it. I’ll remember to do that one differently in the future. Also, I had a throat infection the whole time, so I couldn’t speak properly. And on the Saturday I had a headache caused by a pulled muscle in my neck. So I feel as if the good people of Calgary didn’t get top-quality Brendan this past weekend. I suppose I’ll just have to arrange another tour!
On the Sunday morning I attended a brunch organised by Awen Grove, a local Druid group. This was one of the bigger highlights of the weekend for me: I could speak casually and more directly with people, and talk of Druidic things as well as things of people’s lives. And I met a few lovely new friends that day, which I’m most glad of.
And again, my thanks to sexycanadiangrl and the COG-COA team which made the visit possible, and enjoyable.
By Tuesday my throat felt recovered. Helmut and I mopped the floors in the house. Clearing up all that dust from the renovations was a big help to my health. Then I talked up a 3-hour lecture last night at the U of G which left me hoarse again: evidence that I had not, in fact, recovered. Today it’s feeling better. But I’m drinking lots of lemon and ginger tea, just to be sure. And I have 85 papers to grade, so I had better get back at them!
Well, at one time I had every good intention of writing a long LJ post about my trip to England. But now that I’m home, all that I have to say is that I’m really tired and exhausted. It took around 30 hours to get home – I had to arrange alternate transport due to the demise of Zoom Airlines. The cheapest available ticket, surprisingly, was with Air Canada. But because of scarce seat availability, I had to transfer through an airport in France. Although I’ve been back home now for about two days, I still don’t feel up to writing huge long blog posts.
Here are a few highlights though:
- Visiting Staunton moor, in the Peak district, and visiting the Nine Ladies stone circle.
- Visiting Sherwood Forest.
- Long and heartfelt conversations with several friends who are important to me, who I don’t talk to nearly enough.
- Playing guitar and singing with friends.
- Hearing Liath Hollins perform her famous Faerie Song.
- Visiting Redditch and Barnt Green, and presenting a lecture for the Druid Network there.
- A bus I was to take to Chesterfield vanishing – no one knew where it was, or why it was late!
- Attending the launch of Philip Carr-Gomm’s most recent book, Sacred Places.
- Meeting a new friend at the restaurant after Philip’s book launch: the first openly Wiccan person elected Mayor of a town!
- Also, at the same place, discussing various philosophical questions with Philip’s father.
- Visiting the Long Man of Wilmington.
- Mount Haemus day, in Salisbury.
- Meeting Emma Restall Orr, and Prof. Roland Rotherham, at the Mount Haemus day,
- Meeting Damh the Bard and recording a future episode of the OBOD Podcast.
- Visiting Spielplatz, one of two naturist centres frequented by a few founders of the movement, including Gerald Gardner and Ross Nichols.
I’m sorry for all the name-dropping. I don’t like to do it, since it always makes me feel as if I’m fishing for undeserved attention. But I must give my most sincere thanks to Philip Carr-Gomm and his family for their outstanding generosity and hospitality to me, in the very best of the Celtic tradition.
Now I’m back at home – with all the dust and mud and dirt from the renovations work in the basement, and the workers coming through all day, and the noise, and the musty smell, and the mess, and the absence of running hot water, and the occasional interruptions to electricity. Well, it will all be over soon enough. Today I helped Helmut lay the frame on the ground, into which will be poured the concrete floor of the back shed that we will build. I’m looking forward to seeing the house finished, for many reasons, not the least of which is that I will be able to look on the finished house and know that I helped finish it.
I don’t know when my next visit to Europe will be. The teaching contract I’m in right now will be finished around mid December. I don’t know if I will have another contract after that. Such is the life of a sessional lecturer. If I am offered a teaching contract for the winter semester of 2009, then I think it likely that I’ll be able to raise the money for a visit around May. Some time in the middle of May, the cost of flights doubles, for the holiday season. I’d like to get in just before that happens; but as with so many things, we’ll see what happens when the time comes.
And now I think I’m going to go to bed early. Good night!
Hi everyone,
Yes, I am one of the 60,000 people stranded somewhere by the collapse of Zoom Airlines.
No, I don’t want you to worry. I am not sleeping in the airport. Right now I’m in the town of Lewes, in East Sussex, and there’s nothing to worry about. I found out about the airline’s demise after arriving in Lewes, and my flight was not originally scheduled until 2nd September anyway – three days from now.
I thank everyone who offered to put me in touch with people who could put me up for a short while. I have now made some arrangements. And I’m practicing my backstroke – for the swim back to Canada.
I will likely be able to get a refund for the return trip, since I bough the ticket online with a credit card, although it appears that I won’t be able to arrange that until after I get back home. Still, with the cost of buying a new flight, and with the cost of a few other transport mess-ups I’ve had to deal with here in England (including buses going missing, airplanes landing three hours late, etc etc) this trip has suddenly become enormously expensive. The exchange rate with the Canadian dollar also makes it expensive too: it takes CDN$2 to buy GBP£1.
Incidently, this is the third time that a transport mishap like this has compelled me to stay in England a little longer than originally planned. I wonder if old Albion is trying to keep me here.
Anyway – never mind all that. Tomorrow is the Mount Haemus lecture day – and I think it will be a big event for me. I’m off now to find another way home on the 2nd or some time during that week, so I can be back in Canada soon enough to start teaching at U of G again.
Just think – what would life be like without a little bit of adventure once in a while?