Showing posts with label my brother. Show all posts
Showing posts with label my brother. Show all posts

Tuesday, 6 October 2015

17. ٢٠٠٩ - ٢٠١٤ - الماضي - المستقبل

الماضي







المستقبل 

لا اعرف.

اريد ان اتكلم مع اخي غدا.


Wednesday, 6 August 2014

What do you love?

I asked someone this question about 10 years ago. I knew immediately this was the one unanswerable question that was needed at that point when I saw the reaction. I got a different unanswerable question in return later and could only shake my head, no verbal reply or explanation possible.

Recently after a funeral I had a long chat, all afternoon actually, with my brother and someone I have known since about 1998. My question to her was: Do you love? Are you loved? Then I tried to take some lovely photos of her and made a hash of it! We talked in a cafe, in the street, in another cafe, more street...

Burial "Raver" Strange, but I like it.

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Post from my undealt-with-draft-file series. There are 87 drafts, so this series may last me until the internet changes its spots.

Thursday, 1 May 2014

London - People - Places - Decision

So much:

Friday: Tate Britain, including the Blake room, hundreds of Turners, cardboard and wood in the massive halls, other great things I just love walking around. The Letitia Dean film made at Kodak, just my thing.

My cousins in North London, expecting a first baby and loving their garden.

Saturday: The British Museum, plus many streets I walked along, convinced I knew where it was, I didn't! Mesopotamia, Ancient Arabia, Islamic section, why is it in the basement?? Met a fellow student of Arabic, she is exactly at the same stage as me, but without a class or teacher to continue with. We had a guided tour together. I decided to buy the Arabic guide to the museum, it is surprisingly suited to my level of reading. No translations, just pictures.

My cousins in West London, the flat is full of pictures and feels like being at home. At one point my cousin was on skype with a relative I like in Belgrade. I shall have to learn how to skype before T goes to university.

Sunday: Tate Modern, lots of short films, I leaned against a wall and it fell open, it was a very tall internal door. Space, vast unmitigated space.

Easter Lunch with my brother plus friends of my parents. We even had a chocolate course, my parents like their food, but this is off the scale! It wasn't meant that way, but there were so many tidbits to go with coffee that it deserves a name. My brother had made some chocolate with ginger in it. That went fast.

Before lunch I tried the closest church to us, St Saviour's St George's Square. Their bells used to keep me and my friends company as we talked into the night on my parents' roof garden way back in time. It was so friendly, I had arrived in the middle of the sermon, that I rushed back home to encourage my mother to give it a go. She was game and we made it for the second half. It's a good alternative if going to their favourite isn't possible, St Mary's Bourne Street.

Monday: The Photographers' Gallery, an old haunt from my late teens, only it has moved to another building. This was my first visit there. Many different styles of work, revealing the concerns of the photographers. Syria was represented, huge square photos of squares where executions used to take place at dawn.

My cousin who was the body double for Sophia Loren in a film made in Spain. We talked family stuff for ages and have finally met properly after all these years of being in the same family. It is good to be able to tell her how things really are. We really enjoyed the restaurant her son had recommended.

Decision

Next time I shall just go to new places, but will continue to see family as much as possible.

Monday, 10 March 2014

Doing the same things - 3 line paragraphs

There is a reason for doing the same things. It is because it is slightly different each time. Just walking up and down stairs, opening and shutting the doors into different rooms is about doing it while I can. Every door makes a different sound. Some things only have a meaning later.

Walking around my parents' house waiting for my father to be ready to go somewhere. Really this meant looking at the tiles on the roof garden, thinking how my brother and I used to play there in the hot summers. We'd use the water hose and flood it! We let the pet rat explore there too.

Let's do a series of 3 line paragraphs:

My mother ran out of energy before lunch on Saturday, so we made the trip up the stairs to their bedroom. I had the privilege of taking off her surgical sandal and of putting the fleece blanket right over her. I pulled it up to her chin and wrapped it around her feet as she asked. Sweet moments.

My father is suffering with a horrible cough. He also flaked out in bed instead of having lunch. Even though they have such fancy food normally, they were grateful for half a banana each, bread and home made jam, plus tea. I hope they liked the spinach and garlic soup I made later.

My brother and I had such a laugh. I asked him for advice and told him more than I should have done. No more the wise older sister! We found a tapas bar and shared sardines and wine. The more we get to know each other the more there is to know.

I finally fall asleep properly after dawn. When my mother knocked on the door and tried to wake me up it was like all those times she'd tried to wake me when I was 19 or so. I was so asleep, but could hear her and felt vaguely guilty for not moving. She said later she'd just been able to see my hair!

Even though I have children and have adored the hopeless task of trying to wake them, I can't quite imagine that my mother also feels this. Yet why else would she, who can barely walk up the stairs, go right to the top of the house to find me, just to see my head while I am semi-conscious and motionless?

I tried making a cheese thing out of yoghurt overnight. They were game to try this and scoffed the lot for breakfast, asking me exactly how I'd made it. We tried to make up a name to give it. We put lots of pepper and pink Himalayan salt on it. I wasn't expecting them to be so enthusiastic.

After I said my goodbyes on the doorstep my mother started to go to the cafe across the road, so I wound up walking her over the road. Then I sat at a table in the sun to reserve it for her. Then when she asked, I gave her a big smile, 'Yes, of course I'd like a cappucino with you!!!' So much for leaving.

We have a new family phrase: 'We have got to get there before the Gloria.' My father said this as they finally climbed into the car to go to church. I like being able to reach around and pull the seat belt out for my mother. She slots it in herself, but at least I have helped a bit.

Friday, 24 January 2014

Fixing, controlling, being generally annoying

My brother and I were discussing our current lives. We wound up looking at times when we have let things happen. Chaos caused by others can simply carry on being in chaos. As he said, look after your own chaos, don't get involved in fixing other people's!

I let a lot happen this weekend. For example when the big family lunch took place, the order in which the steaks were cooked, who served up the ice cream, what walk we went on, who came to sit at the table, where everyone sat and plenty more I didn't even notice.

Get Up Stand Up - Bob Marley
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