Remember the flags being unrolled from the flyovers?

And the YouTube videos of the flag being sewn, the anthem being played from inside shopping bags and the statement being read out in a side street at 90 mph by people bundled up in sunglasses and scarves?

Here is an article about one of the people who did these actions. Guess what, he is from Wales!

Update, 31st August, there is a video too.

Oh My God!

I just heard that expression, with an American accent, from something T is watching on his laptop on the other side of the kitchen table. I instantly thought of that YouTube video of the man with Gaddafi's hat. Am I the only one with this reaction?

Here is the genius-like music video. And here is the wonderful original, watch it to the end.

Shouting at children

In all the coverage of Tripoli I haven't seen a single instance of a parent shouting at their child. What does that say about our culture of violence, stress and disconnection here in the UK?

T and H have fled the room

They have finally had enough of the coverage. I am glued and explain that it is so important to watch. While I try to listen to the words they chat loudly about armalite and are looking at airsoft sites. I say, but this is the real thing, this is why people actually fight, see how they react and what they say. See their faces, read the joy and relief. Imagine if we'd been under occupation for 42 years and had only just been freed.

Just waiting for the car horns

It looks like this is it for Tripoli, gun shots, shouts, car horns....twitter going mad.

More shouting, I wish the interview on Skynews would stop so I can hear properly.

Yes, it is clear now.

Pink, black and green

I'm wearing pink (red), black and green as a gesture of support for the events in Libya. Feeling tired after being up on Twitter til 2am. I really didn't feel comfortable seeing the journalist reporting from the Rixos, knowing that any moment things could get very nasty for them. Then I didn't feel comfortable about just going to sleep, but decided it was a good thing to do, even though it is like switching off a problem, too easy and wrong.

The smile on the face of the Libyan ambassador just now speaking in London outside the embassy. It's lovely to see emotion showing through on the face of a person in a role like that.

Antidote

I took up the offer of being prayed for in the street in Wallingford today. It took me a little while to work out that I had a problem I could offer. Then I beetled through the rain to see if the people had closed for the day. Not quite... It was good to stand there in a little circle and share my issue, then be prayed for. I had a big smile on my face.

1 Min - Special

This is just the right topic for today. I have just been on facebook and found a link to a retreat organised specially for war photographers. Why is it that we need beauty and order even in our photos of war? Is it that the photographer's eye finds some visual meaning and balance in a situation we would be scared by? It is a vocation to be a witness to whatever happens next.

1 Min - Priorities

This makes me think of Come Dine With Me, some people plan an entertainment or game as a focus for the evening and some people are concerned with the details on the table and their make up.

Can you tell one of our priorities is watching this wonderful programme from the beginning each time, so as not to miss a word?

This is wierd

I was having a browse around the web reading up about Ramadan, finding out that no drinking was part of it too, wondering at the Arctic Circle issues, looking at the photos from round the world including the man sitting on a pavement in new Delhi under his umbrella, reading carefully.

And it hit me, dawned on me if you like, what a good feeling it is to know that so many others are having a special time and are sharing it on Twitter so I can see and be glad too. It's a bit like smiling at someone with a new baby, I'm glad for them, but am aware that it is their turn for special time, not mine. The happiness spreads all round though.

Wise passiveness

Here is a link to some quotations from Charlotte Mason's books. Take what you need from it, obviously. I'm taking the phrase "wise passiveness" because that is what I find works for our house at the moment.

Shivering

I've just realised what it is about this book I am finishing: it is written from the grandchild's viewpoint, or great niece's. That is what resonates for me.

Maybe this book will open a dialogue which is more open, less intense, less personal, less impossible than the conversation between me as a 21 year old and my great aunt of 70 or so. Asking 'What was it like?', and there being no possible answer beyond a mention of being made to queue naked, making friends for life and the message of her still being alive being passed to her parents by, I believe, a young man who used to work for the father.

I think I have been reading horror stories all my life in preparation for learning more: Solzhenitsyn, Vietnam.

I used to think that the military history section in WH Smiths was deeply odd! Now I think that books establishing the facts again and again is a basis for other types of reflection. It is a speaking of the truth, a refusal to be silenced, a part of our freedom here in the UK.

It is called The Invisible Bridge, written by Julie Orringer.

Giving up swearing

I have been shamed into giving up swearing by the high standard of English on the twitter streams I follow. Disclaimer, I can't read the Arabic, so I'm only assuming that it's clean too... If people in such circumstances can keep it clean, then maybe it's time for me to do some moral housekeeping.

When I have let out the odd swear word since giving it up it feels odd and unusually violent and pointless. Generally I say, hmm, I have given up swearing, so I need a moment to put this differently. I can see it coming and try to find a better way.

It certainly doesn't mean that I have a new blind love for deceit, lying and other things which used to rile me to bad language. I'm just being a bit more Norwegian or Twitter-ish about my dislike, disapproval and protest.

Oh where did my trust go?

I'm having my own moment of consumer madness, I looked up 'riots' on Twitter and found so many links to blog posts. They are all so interesting and different. It really is like being in a free sweet shop!

This one has some great toes, look and see, plus a reference to a lack of trust in the authorities. I love his last paragraph on what to do now.

I hope the trust issue will be picked up on by more people. A culture of deceit is no good for any of us.

Even now I find it hard to be truthful with myself on what needs doing at home and how long it will take. It is so basic, but I'm still at the beginning of knowing how to deal with things in a realistic way. I default to smiling and saying everything is fine.

In reality we have ivy growing up our walls, a eucalyptus tree has died and one of our wooden garden chairs collapsed last week of old age, nearly hurting someone badly. All these things need to be acknowledged and put in a provisional action plan with a budget. By me, not some mythical house fairy.

Remember the policeman using his shield as a sledge in the snow?

Well, they are multi-functional: a tea tray and great tool for raising morale!

Keep Calm and Get Your Broom

I love the footage of everyone out clearing up the streets and shops.

The website coordinating cleanups is beautifully designed too! Apparently somewhere passengers were shaking the hands of nearby police as they went into a tube station.

#OperationCupOfTea on Twitter is a good antidote to all the drama, it reminds me of the Libyan Freedom tea YouTube clips earlier in the year.

My parents and brother live in London so I hope it all calms down physically, though shooting a man after following the taxi he was in sounds like an odd way of keeping the peace. That and kettling are unpopular tactics any day.

There is so much to take in and so many comments to read. A lot of English (not UK) life seems to be revealed through this, the good and the bad. It's like a snapshot of how things are plus the innards of our system laid bare, for example the detail that pretty much all of the indie music stocks went up in flames, and the sight of the old man beside the burnt out building of his company with his son standing right there.

My last random thought is that the guidance at the end of this blog post might help things.

What's new? Oh, it's us....

I looked on the news channel, expecting to see shootings in Syria, instead I saw filming from a helicopter not that far from where we used to live in Hackney, East London.

It's a bit of a shock to be centre stage on Al Jazeera!

When T came into the kitchen my advice was that if he were ever caught up in looting, for goodness sake do all he can to prevent people from starting fires. Looting is ethically bad, but fires are so very dangerous, just don't.

I have just been on Twitter and see that we are the light entertainment via the hashtag 'londonBHstyle'. To the West down the M4 I have Ian Henderson's estate and to the East I have London. I hope the harvest and the sheep round here don't attract attention.

Living in a vicarage

The odd thing about this old vicarage is that there is no obvious chapel or holy corner. I would have thought that an oratory was about the only obvious room to have in such a house. It doesn't feel any different from our other houses either, none of which has had a prayer place.

Only 2 of my 7 educational institutions had a chapel, The Cavendish School and Trevelyan College, Durham. I think it is a special and wonderful thing to have a quiet, dedicated space for this.

One household I visited had an oratory with an exercise bike in it. I didn't go in or even put my head around the door. I wish I had now.

We have a falling down old stable in the back garden. It is a great place to sit and experience feelings with just the bird song and insects for company. It is dusty, cold, uncomfortable and wild. It is my favourite place in this household.

Google English

I have been using Google Translate to have a go at understanding text in Arabic. I have to say that only the poetically inclined can get through the garble of English that comes out after the translation process. It is infinitely better than nothing, since I can only read French and German, and just 2 words of Arabic. I am grateful, but I'm just saying how very far away it is from accurate, clear, simple, direct translation.

This is the story I read today for example. It is hard to read on all levels, but it is important to try.

2064 and 2065

It feels like leaving Earth's orbit, yesterday's numbers for my 1000 Gifts book were the years when I and then my younger brother will or would be 100 years old. I am now into uncharted territory.

Sandstone

I have just found out that sandstone is made from the desert sand formed on the first landmass as it moved up from where the South Atlantic is now, past where South Africa is now, to the Equator. Sand = sandstone. Simple really, but all my life I had no idea about this!

Learn Nothing Day

Every year the 24th July is Learn Nothing Day, which is impossible by the way!

So, what happened on that day for us? I found out that those red and green berries which grow on a thick stalk are thriving at this time of year; T found out about Khan Academy via a TED talk; H found out how melatonin helps with his sleep cycle; and I found out what the King and Queen of Norway look like and how beautiful the singing is in their Cathedral.