Ridiculously over-dramatic

I’ve just about got over my disappointment, just about come to terms with the fact that I’ve got to wait another however long before I have the opportunity again, and try to suppress the  despondency that I anticipate will be the outcome.

What am I being so ridiculously over-dramatic about? The fact that so many people across the country – and across the county saw the Dancing Ladies, the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights on Friday night and Saturday night, even quiz friends who I accidentally met in a drapery shop, and I didn’t. Yesterday and today, the TV news and social media has been full of peoples’s pictures of the wondrous, breathtaking display – which I didn’t see,I was all geared up for it, I was out in the garden staring with hope in my heart, bobbing out again to gaze at the sky, and again – stepping on a passing slug with my bare feet… I went to bed and read for a while then back downstairs in the dark, outside, and still nothing – not the slightest glim of a glimmer.

Several years ago I went to Iceland with my Irish group – the reason was to connect with the shared history of Iceland and  Ireland but also to see the Aurora. We went at a time of year where they were due, we were taken out in a coach into the dark countryside, but no luck, A couple of us went for a midnight walk along Reykjavik seafront, past the Sun Voyager, trying to kid ourselves we could see something – but it was probably the Reyka vodka!! A couple of years later I returned with my husband, and again there was the evening trip into the dark, but no Aurora.

I guess one of the reasons I want to see it is that my dad, who was a great story-teller would recount to me and my sister about seeing the Northern Lights as a child in Cambridge. This would have been in the 1920’s or 30’s but I can’t find a record of exactly when it was. Dad had been entranced, astounded and moved by the multi-coloured  curtains hanging in the sky above him. His story made a huge impression on  – he had carried me out wrapped in a blanket to see Sputnik 1 pass over, and nights when the Milky Way was particularly spectacular, so I was ever hopeful of seeing the Aurora.

Maybe they will return to England again, or maybe I will coincidentally be in a place where they are one day. I am hopeful!