Update On My Life

Some of you realize that I have had weeks where I missed posting an entry. There were days when I was so busy with other things that I would forget to post. And then there were other days when the energy had just disappeared.

This week was a little bit different. It goes without being said that having a long weekend can sometimes throw your daily schedule off for part of the following week. Well, that happened to me this week. I have not been sleeping well lately, but I am hoping that over the next week or two, it will be rectified.

Yesterday, I had an appointment at the Orofacial Clinic in St John’s. I had been to my dentist in early July as I was having some pain in my gum and it was also swollen. After an x-ray and some poking around, I was informed that it looked like one of my teeth had a fractured root. I was going to be sent to a specialist in St John’s who deals with root canals. It was going to be a six- to eight-month wait to get in to see him.

About a week or two later, I noticed something strange. After the antibiotics were completed, the swelling was gone but there seemed to be a white line in my gum. I didn’t do anything about it then, but within a week, it was starting to break through the gum. I did a quick visit to the dentist and, it turned out that the fractured root had decided that it didn’t want to stay in place and wanted to see the world. It had actually cut through the gum. The visit to the previous specialist was no longer the option. Instead, I was sent to the Orofacial Clinic to have the tooth and root fragments extracted.

This visit happened on Thursday of this week. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday getting ready to go and still forgot to take some of the paperwork with me. My husband had to go with me as I was in no condition to be doing any driving on Thursday. We left to arrive in St John’s early enough to go see the Star Trek movie that is currently playing at the show. Then we checked into the Comfort Inn on Airport Drive. I chose this one because it is very close to the clinic. Unfortunately, I did not set my alarm properly and woke up about twenty minutes late. We still made it in time and we got lost along the way.

I was put right under because I made sure that I didn’t get enough sleep so that I would have no problem going to sleep. Apparently, the procedure only took about ten minutes. I was woken up about 9:16. My appointment started at 8:00 am after I filled out the prerequisite paperwork. We were sent on our way by 10 am.

I had a couple of places that I wanted to go to since we were in St John’s. One of them was the Maritime History Archives at Memorial University. I had sent them a list of ships’ records that I wanted to get a copy of. This was our first stop. We had the work done by 11:45. From there, we went to the library of the Newfoundland Family History Society. I asked some pertinent questions regarding cemeteries and found that my best option would be to join the society and I would be able to do what I needed to do to start that particular research at home in comfort.

From there, I had wanted to make a stop at the Family History Library and the St John’s Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to see what records they have and a quick trip to Avalon Mall to get the hand soap that I like. I decided that I had done enough and needed to start for home instead. I still hadn’t had anything to eat or drink since the night before and the freezing was coming out and the pain was starting.

We decided to see about filling the prescription for the pain killer and the mouth rinse that were prescribed. We went into a branch of the pharmacy that I deal with in Gander, but I would have had to fill out the paperwork again and didn’t have the insurance information with me, so I decided that I could wait until we got back to Gander.

We tried a restaurant in Paradise but they didn’t have anything that I could eat. We then tried a pub about five minutes away, but they didn’t serve any food. So we drove down the highway about an hour, when I told Gordon that I needed a stop. Within five minutes we came across a gas station with a restaurant called Monty’s Restaurant. They were quite happy to give me what I wanted. I needed soft food and asked for scrambled eggs, with soft toast, and a bowl of seafood chowder. The chowder was fantastic.

I slept most of the way home, but the road is under construction right now and my sleep was not very good. I honestly thought that I didn’t sleep very much, that it was more of a doze. When I went to bed last night, I had trouble going to sleep. The first stop that we did when we reached Gander was to fill my prescriptions, of which I took the first dosage of painkiller when we arrived at home.

Today, I was able to function more normally, and did some of the things that I needed to accomplish today. I am at a point that I think that I will be getting a better night’s sleep tonight.

In a sense, I am happy that I have been able to complete the entries for the trip to Ireland, but now I am betwixt and between what I want to write about now. I will find something soon as soon as my head clears a bit more. I know. I want to rant about having to fill out more forms for the chain of stores where I already frequent one. More of this next time.

Have a good weekend.

The Albert Memorial Clock

In 1865, there was a competition that took place. It was not an athletic competition, but a design competition.

In mid December 1861, there was a death in England. Someone who had great influence with Queen Victoria and the government that was developed over time. This person was the Prince Consort, Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria.

Prince Albert was born on the 26^th of August 1819, in Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. His family had connections to many of the European royal families. He was the second son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. He and his older brother were well educated.

Albert’s uncle, Leopold, King of the Belgians, began to think about a marriage match with Victoria about 1836. Victoria was the heir presumptive for the British throne as her father had died when she was a baby and her uncle had no children. Her uncle, King William IV had no legitimate children. When the possible marriage was introduced to the king, he did not approve of it. He was more interested in the Prince of Orange. Victoria was aware of all the possible marriage matches that were floating around.

On the 20^th of Jun 1837, Victoria became the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. She showed interest in Albert’s education but did not allow anyone to push her into a marriage before she was ready to be married or a marriage that she did not want. When Victoria was ready, she proposed marriage to Albert, notified the government, and they were married on the 10^th of February 1840.

Albert was not well received as the Queen’s choice by either the people or the government. His allowance was £20,000 less than what was normally allocated. Albert did not have any authority with the government and had to develop his own niche in Victoria’s world. Albert chose to promote education, the abolishment of slavery, and economic reform. Albert also became Victoria’s secretary and sat in on meetings with representatives from the government, even filling in for Victoria when she was not available. Albert reorganized Victoria’s household, replacing servants that needed to be let go and bringing the household accounts into more accountability. Because of his training in finance, Albert was able to make real estate purchases and do major renovations for the family.

Albert and Victoria had nine children. Their education was supervised by Albert and they loved their father and knew that he loved them and needed them.

Albert developed an illness with his digestive system about two years before he died. Because medicine was not as advanced as what it is now, he was diagnosed with typhoid shortly before he died. Authoritative members of the medical field now believe that he may have had Crohn’s disease, renal failure, or abdominal cancer as the cause of death (according to Wikipedia). There are other articles available on the internet that also agree that Albert quite likely did not die from typhoid, and one article says that some modern medical authorities discount cancer.

Now, back to the memorial for Albert. In 1861, there was a competition held for a design for a memorial for Albert. This memorial would be located in Belfast. In 1862, the competition was won by W.J. Barre, an Irish architect who won the competition for Ulster Hall in 1861. Even though he won the competition, Barre was not awarded the contract but instead it was secretly awarded to Lanyon, Lynn, and Lanyon. When it became known that this had happened, the public were very upset and let it be known. Eventually, it was awarded to Barre.

It took four years, from 1865 to 1869, for the clock tower to be built. Because of the location for the memorial was land that was marshy and reclaimed from the River Farset, the memorial was built on wooden piles. The tower was made from sandstone and the ground was unable to support it properly. The tower developed a lean of about four feet off the perpendicular at the top.

In 1924, some ornamental work and a canopy had to be removed. In 1992, the clock was damaged in a bomb explosion. The area became a haven for prostitutes and their customers, primarily visiting sailors.

In 2002, a restoration project was completed. The area also had undergone a revitalization with modern public spaces sporting trees, fountains, and sculptures.

This memorial is quite impressive to see. It dominates the immediate area without taking away from it. It is surrounding by modern buildings and helps to bring remembrance of the past.

The Maritime History Archives

One day in early December, I started poking around the internet to see what was available in the way of family history here. There are 2 Family History Centers but they are 3-1/2 to 4-1/2 hours away from Gander. I started poking around the online holdings for Memorial University and found that they may be holding more that I may be interested in than I originally thought. I managed to find the page that the ships’ logs and crew lists information is on. Unfortunately, they are not digitized. They are also not in the same location as some of the other maritime records. Memorial University has more than 1 archive for storing these records.

Upon finding the page that I need and realizing that if I was to study these records, I would have to go to St John’s and visit the archives. I found the contact information and saw that they were not open on weekends, but have excellent hours the rest of the week excluding holidays. I then called the archive and talked with one of the archivists. We had a delightful chat and I found that I would be able to use my camera to photograph the records that I am interested. At that point, I still thought that it would be spring before I would be going.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we decided to drive to St John’s, spend the night, and drive back the next day. This meant that I could visit the archives as well as doing a couple of other things. I emailed the list of ships that I knew that my great-grandfather, Richard Fielder, had sailed in. I have other ancestors to get information for as well but I thought that I would start with him. They found almost all of the crews lists the next day. They explained that the ship’s logs are normally stored with the crews lists, but all of the ones that I wanted were not there. I just hoped that I would be able to find the information that I was looking for.

We were a little late in starting out. Consequently, we did not arrive at the archives until about 1:30 pm.

When we were arrived, we were treated very well. We were shown to a table where the crews lists were waiting for me. I set up my equipment and started photographing the records. Because of being late, I decided to photograph first and examine them later. I did take a quick look at a couple and found that my great-grandmother’s brother, John Armstrong Peterson, was on a couple of these ships. I also found that the information that I was looking for would be on these records as they also include any discipline that was administered.

My husband was a great help for me. He looked after the records as I completed each set so that I could concentrate on photographing. We managed to complete the “project within a project” before they closed and actually left with time to spare.

I am looking forward to my next trip to the Maritime History Archive. I don’t anticipate this until spring because I have a couple of other trips planned.