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[Le Blog Personnel de Professeur Aronnax] New Year's Day 1868

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:59:33 -0800 (PST)
To: jvf~at~gilead.org.il

First of all before I get too carried away, Happy New Year!

When I was studying natural history as a fresh faced student in Paris
I, like many students, stayed in shared accommodation and it is
impossible to choose who your partner is. I got lumbered with a
cosmologist which was only on some occasions (for instance when in 1847
he told me about an annular eclipse of the sun and guided me through
it's stages) but on other occasions he was a right pain. The time he
was the worst pain of all was New Year's Eve 1849 (in our last year in
university) when he burst into my room at eleven o'clock and
shouted "Happy New Year!". I was in the middle of revising for an exam
and I was not best pleased and told him (in no uncertain terms) that
New Year was still thirteen hours away. "Oh, no it isn't!" he said and
explained that based on his studies he reckoned that for every fifteen
degrees of longitude you travelled either side of the Paris meridian,
the sun either rose or set an hour's difference compared with Paris and
that based on this estimation, 1850 had arrived in the South Pacific. I
thanked him for the information (which I thought personally useless)
and carried on with my work. Unfortunately, it carried on all day! At
two o'clock he startled me whilst I was trying to have my lunch
(informing me that the English penal colony in Sydney had now entered
1850), at four o'clock whilst I was doing a crossword he informed me
that Japan was now in 1850 and by seven o'clock when he informed me
that Siberia was now in 1850. I had had enough and grabbed his blower
and tore it apart. I explained that although I considered him a great
friend, all these constant updates on the progress of 1850 were
extremely tiring. He looked rather upset at that piece of news, so I
decided to give him a little leeway and agreed that he could inform me
of three more arrivals of 1850. The arrival of 1850 in Paris, London
and New York, He agreed and that night as we watched over Paris
listening to the bells ring in 1850 he wished me a Happy New Year for
Paris and I wished him the same. No sooner had I got into a nice warm
bed than he tooted at me again (to wish me a Happy New Year in London)
and then after what seems to short a sleep he tooted in my ear again
and stated that New York had now seen the arrival of 1850.

Which makes me wonder what he would make of me now, standing on board a
submerisble machine just off the coast of Papua watching the sun rise
on New Year's Day 1868 (apart from the fact that it was probably just
gone nine o'clock in the evening in Paris), but what a view it is. Oh,
bonjour Conseil, what are you doing here? And a Happy New Year to you
as well, my boy! Although do you mean will 1868 be the end of our
imprisonment for want of a better word or will we be still on board
this machine on New Year's Day 1869?

Really, I do not know how to answer, master. We are sure to see curious
things, and for the last two months we have not had time for dullness.
The last marvel is always the most astonishing; and, if we continue
this progression, I do not know how it will end. It is my opinion that
we shall never again see the like. I think then, with no offence to
master, that a happy year would be one in which we could see everything.

Of course, Conseil. You know, he may be only my manservant, but there
are times I consider him almost like a brother. Well, do excuse me, I'd
better get on and try and figure out where we are heading to next, but
I will tell you this. He may be a Captain, but I don't think that's the
only miltary position Nemo holds.

--
Posted By Harry Hayfield to Le Blog Personnel de Professeur Aronnax on
1/31/2010 02:59:00 PM

Received on Sun 31 Jan 2010 - 16:59:43 IST

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