Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Tuesday Poem- Endeavouring

Nine years ago (can it really be that long?) in search of adventure, we packed up the house, the kids and the cat and went off to the U.K to live and work. We are all holders of British passports because it runs in the family- the majority of which are still in Britain having ventured very little further than Majorca on a summer holiday. I wrote this for my Next magazine column when trying to make travel plans to go and visit the family..

Endeavouring

I have a Cornish aunty
And she’s the perfect parody,
Of the cautious British traveller
On the road from A to B.

If you mention for a minute,
That you thought you’d go to Wales,
She’ll recount outrageous instances
Of nightmare traffic tales.

“You shouldn’t go on Friday,
Unless it’s before seven;
The M5 will be hideous
With half term down in Devon.

There’s road works in Old Sodbury,
It’ll set you back a day,
So you’d best go via Chippenham
If you want to get away.

And Monday is bank holiday
I hope you didn’t plan
On finding bed and breakfast there;
You should have booked last Jan”

Now, if in 1768
My aunt was Captain Cook,
New Zealand would now be pom free, ‘cos
She’d have never gone to look!

For more Tuesday poems visit the Tuesday Poem Blog

4 comments:

maggie@at-the-bay.com said...

Love it, Fifi - and the picture of Mr Cook too - oh, the Tuesday poem is a roaring success.

Mary McCallum said...

Marvellous Fi. Makes you wonder what rogue gene it was the pushed your family offshore to come to the ends of the earth ... and that pushed you to go back again on your UK adventure.

Tim Jones said...

That is so reminiscent of my English relatives in Grimsby! Going to Skegness was a very big adventure for them - the family member who sometimes travelled to Norway for business was regarded (appropriately enough) as almost Viking in his derring-do.

That said, in this era of ash clouds and dwindling oil supplies, perhaps the stay-at-home Brits know a thing or two.

Kay Cooke said...

A fun poem, knitted together beautifully. Did you all enjoy your trip and were you glad to get back? And are you going back again sometime? I bet there are a lot more poems about this whole subject; be good to read them.