Traveling Fool

  It has been an interesting month and a half for my concert attendance. October was supposed to be filled with Genesis music: two Genesis concerts in the UK and then Steve Hackett in Newcastle, followed by Genesis in Chicago and The Musical Box in St. Charles, Illinois. Whew. Except it didn't happen like that. The two UK Genesis concerts were cancelled/postponed due to COVID in the band. Sadly, it's not possible for me to just pop over in March for the re-scheduled show, however, all was not lost in my unending quest for Genesis music. O2 City Hall, Newcastle, before Big Head sat in front of me I did get to the Hackett show, featuring the entirety of the Seconds Out  live album, in Newcastle, England. He and the band put on an amazing show, and even though my view was blocked by someone's very large head (hence, no photos), I still had a great time. If you're a Genesis fan and you haven't seen Steve Hackett, I totally recommend catching one of the shows he is doing...

                         As I was researching mainland Orkney, I started wondering about the other islands, how could I get to them, how many could I cover in my all too brief time, what would I do when I got there, etc. I learned about Papa Westray, or Papay (population less than 100), and the existence of some more Neolithic buildings and the wildlife, and, what really geeked me out was the possibility to take the world's shortest scheduled flight at under two minutes (see above video). I was hoping to be able to get a tour of the island and the wildlife, maybe cruise around the island a little, but sadly my October visit was after the local ranger stopped giving tours. I was on my own, which as we know, can lead to all sorts of trouble, like, well, wait and see. I knew the plane was going to be small, but I didn't have any idea that it would be so small that my backpack (maybe a little bigger than some) had to...