nuit blanche, almost / pretty much / as near as makes no difference

Nuit blanche

Going onto Twitter gave me some photos I had never wanted to see. 5 year old children in clear water, over smooth looking sand, a foot deep.

This morning I sat with an acquaintance and we said 'Palmyra' to each other.

Things aren't all bad - I introduced my younger son to his little cousin in Oxford today. She had made ice cream mice for us. The little ears were pine nuts and the beady eyes were chopped up bits of raisin.

She read out the first page and a half of The Railway Children to us. She has the advantage of speaking English fluently. Some wonderful guesses at pronunciation. I hope I can make someone giggle with my Arabic one day.

We compared the sizes of our feet after I said hallo to her with my left one while she was lurking behind her mother :) It's so, so lovely to be able to relax totally with my beautiful family.

Friday was a wonderful day too, T and I spent hours talking in and around the small room he has and the furniture in it. Eventually he had a brain wave while we walked to get food and we had further strokes of luck in a furniture shop and in a mini industrial estate when I needed a delivery driver.

To top it off we made an unplanned family visit and were welcomed so warmly, taking a photo to celebrate. So that was my Friday Evening for this week :)

Reading out loud - Curses and Blessings - Sewing - Just reading Arabic

Reading out loud in Arabic

So much for reading out loud to my son H. He said I sounded like a little child counting to 10. Starting out strongly for 1, 2, 3 but then trailing off and getting uncertain. Thanks a bunch! True though it is.

Curses and blessings

A thread on the Hall Forum has shifted to thinking and writing about the archaeologist murdered in Palmyra less than a week ago.

Sewing

I feel so much more myself when I have a needle and wool in my hands. I am at the sewing together stage of a huge project. Making a wintry coloured door hanging for some future home. To keep out the -12c temperatures at night.

Just reading Arabic

I have finally given up reading both English poetry and prose. So now I am left with just Arabic prose. Simplified and with the translation on the facing page. Sometimes I read several words before I look to check the translation. That's a wonderful feeling.

Why do words which normally end in ية end in يا instead in my book? This is a new quirk.

قبل اسبوعين حضرت محاضرة

Article from Al Monitor com on the destruction and illegal trade of artefacts in the Middle East. The RCSS held a meeting in Yemen, UNESCO released a report and another meeting was held in Paris by the Experts Meeting on the Safeguarding of Yemen's Cultural Heritage.

3 lectures in a row on this topic at the Ashmolean Museum on Saturday 25th July.

قبل اسبوعين حضرت  محاضرة عن الدمار على مدينتان الموصل والنمرود, في المتحف اشموليان في اكسفورد

Vocab:

حضرت - I attended

محاضرة - a lecture

الدمار - the destruction