Snort of Derision

I found myself making a snort of derision. It surprised me, not usually my style, but perhaps when you get to my age that's all that you have left. A young man panicking on the train, not sure whether his חבר was on the same two carriages as he. He'd answered his mobile and on being questioned as to his location he had replied. "Somewhere in Wales, we're coming in to מכינלת" That's not how he pronounced it and that's why I snorted. It reminded me of the time a friend got off the train at Leipzig leaving me with all his camping equipment. We were doing an Inter-rail two years after the Berlin Wall came down. He didn't make it back in time before the whistle went leaving me to traipse round Berlin facing Alsation dogs with muzzles on and German Police who didn't speak English. How dare they? The young man told the unknown voice at the other end that there would be a 45 minute Bus ride from Aberystwyth and then they would walk from the bottom of the lane. My friend in 1991 made it to his friend in Spandau Barracks on a later train. He was a soldier in the British Army from Dolgellau, another tricky place to pronounce if you are not from there. I had to make do with a bunk in a mission on the side of the Berlin Hauptbanhof where it was black bread and coffee in the morning. Why was I so ungrateful? Rudolf Hess was still in residence as I walked past the prison making my way to find my friend who had lost me. I had been warned that the IRA were still active and that I was a target because I looked like a squaddie. The train pulled into the station and young man's friend rushed from the Pwllheli and Harlech carriages to the Borth and Bow Street ones. He was more relieved to see his friend than I was to see mine. You can tell I feel aggrieved 30 years later. Holidays in Wales. Holidays in Europe. There will be no holidays for the Palestinians on the Gaza Strip this year. I look at the enormous new Lidl taking shape as we come into Aber. They invaded Iceland to get it. I snort in derision again and the moral of this tale is that we should lose more friends along our journey's way.

חבר : Friend

מכינלת : Machynlleth