مرحبا العالم

That is "Hallo world" in Arabic. I haven't the foggiest how to learn the language, so I'm sticking with google translate for now. I have listened to it, transcribed it in our Roman alphabet characters on paper, enlarged the Arabic and had a go at copying it down, right to left of course. It is annoying being such a beginner. I don't even know where to start a letter or how to do the little vertical bits, as I go along or added afterwards.

I really want to be able to read Twitter. At the moment the only words I can spot instantly are Allah Akbar, which is a good place to start, and Libya.

The next obvious place to go is YouTube for some video of people writing slowly!

Reinterpreting the crib

We have a stable with animals in it, plus an angel and our box of matches on the exterior stairs. The Holy family is outdoors to one side and the 3 kings are on their way to the other side. One king is permanently travelling on one knee. Christmas cards are all around them, including one with camels with tasselled hangings and another with symetrical, seen at dusk against a dark purple sky, palm trees.

To translate this into something T can accept I explained that it could be seen as a homage to the domesticated animals, newborns and travellers of that era and all eras: breathing, coughing, sneezing, chatting, yawning, exactly as we do now and exactly as they would have been doing then. All of them are divine, all special, all individual, all a little bit difficult to live with at times...

Maybe the ritual celebration of the birth of a child was merged with midwinter because both are stressful, yet also times out of time. Everything has to stop, we have to stay in one place and deal with each new thing which happens. When it snows here everything stops dead, we are freed from normal duties and new ones take over. We all chat to each other as we walk carefully in front of our houses and create little snowmen. Oooh, I so want it to snow!

I really want it to snow, yet am very grateful that it hasn't.