I'm having one of those Brian Keenan moments

Do you remember when he was freed from being held a hostage and he declaimed to the world how he wanted to see every country, eat every food, make love to every woman....?

I am feeling like that about poetry. I want to put up shelves in this house which I can order and fill without any interference. I want 2 cosy chairs in there. I want a book group which meets there.

I want to install a small shelf of poetry in the village church so people can go in and sit and listen to other people's 'comfortable words'.

I want to read and learn more and more of Shakespeare, maybe even dip my toe into the Bible. I want to do something which builds on my tiny collection of 4 typed out very short poems, by others, which I gave to my grandparents. I don't know what they made of it. I was in my mid-20's.

Well, I couldn't find a clip of that famous speech, but instead found this:  Brian Keenan reading out loud.

What day is it?

H asked me this today. We often get confused in this house. Any change to routine means the flow of days of the week is disturbed. Sometimes we are convinced it is Sunday evening when we still have another day of the weekend to enjoy. The Olympics did this to us too.

So tomorrow is a weekday, then we get another weekend in effect, 25th and 26th. Then 2 more weekdays, followed by another weekend, 29th, 30th. Then the same again for the week of New Year...   So 5 weekends in 2 weeks, wow!

London has a beach

I have just found out about the new beach in London. I grew up there, but that doesn't seem to help with keeping up to date with what is going on!

Photo of the beach complete with sunshine and a sand sofa

Make do and create

iPad Stand

T needed an iPad stand, so I suggested cutting out parts of a cardboard box used for transporting wine bottles. He has made a beautiful and effective stand. The second one was better than the first.

Because the screen is held about an inch above the table level there is space for a cable to be plugged in. He used some cross-bracing too. Cardboard is very light and has some give to it too.

Chocolate Advent Calendar

A few days ago T said he really wanted a chocolate advent calendar. For years I have been the puritan, just getting ones with openable pictures, no chocolate involved and only religious scenes. It was pretty much ignored last year, even by me, so I didn't get one this year.

So now I have done a 180 degree turn. I took the keys off the rack of key hooks in our kitchen. Then I knitted one little white and red Father Christmas stocking to hang up. I found 2 little foil wrapped chocolates to hide in there. One for T and one for H, both exactly the same.

Now I am knitting one sock a day to add to the calendar/rack and I have added the dates remaining until the 25th. Every night after the house is still I hang up the next stocking and fill it for the morning!

I thought potholes only happened after snow and ice

We seem to be getting new ones as quickly as the old ones get filled up. It's only raining around here, we haven't had any real winter weather yet. I take between 3 and 5 thuds before I remember where each one is. Perhaps a broken wheel would improve my memory.

People get het up about pranging their tyres elsewhere too: in Saudi Arabia and London.

The Pothole Gardener has a full glorious blog.

Why write for Iran, Iraq and Bahrain?

Back in the summer I went on my first demonstration. I met many people as we demonstrated and marched from the Bahraini to the Saudi embassies via Hyde Park Corner. We asked each other the usual questions like: Is this your first demonstration? One lady told me she had been on loads both in Iran and now in the UK. None of the people I spoke to said they were Bahraini. I recognised the gory photo on the banners from Twitter and stood so I couldn't see them all over again and again.

I also went to a poetry reading at the Pimlico offices of the Refugee Centre. There I chatted to a man who had come from Iraq. He told me that what had happened in Serbia/Yugoslavia wasn't my fault, which I appreciated hearing. I explained to him how years ago I saw a Bosnian woman sitting on the pavement with a cardboard placard begging in London and felt afraid of what I assumed would be her hatred if she knew I had Serbian family.

Because of these two encounters I decided to write Amnesty letters for Iran and Iraq in addition to Bahrain.

New ways of book buying

I'm surprised at myself, I now buy directly from publishers in a way I would never have imagined. I thought I would have a written think about the different ways I get to buy books:

1. I go to a local bookshop with a person in mind I want to buy a birthday present for. This is great as I stay focussed and just browse until I see something which appeals and is not something I had planned for.

In fact I do not plan what I will get as a present anyway. So I am the ideal bookshop browser, walking in and saying 'Enchant me, attract my eye with a great cover, appeal to me because I want to choose something right now!' Mainly I buy children's books from age 0 to age 7.

2. I used to go to a local bookshop with my son T at the beginning of each holiday or half term. He was at a stage of hoovering up books, so we'd come out with a stack.

Now he buys in Reading after school, so I am not involved, nor is the local bookshop, but life is like that. He chooses 20th century classics, so often he will show us what he has found and we will say, 'Oh, but we have that somewhere already!'

3. Our local W H Smiths is good for GCSE and AS level books I want to have around for home ed purposes.

There are no prices on the books!! I can't believe some of the prices, but cough up because it is for Home Education and I can't tell what will be most helpful. I also get the odd history book there for my own interest. I found a wonderful road map of the USA there too!

4. Oxfam branches have great book sections, Wallingford and Didcot. I don't go in unless I am willing to get something, but can't have anything in mind as the range is unpredictable.

Once there was the famous Whole Earth Catalogue. It is a marvellous book, I had no idea the 60's and 70's really were like that. I have a long term plan to volunteer there if I get the chance.

5. I go onto Amazon with a specific purpose. This evening it was Arabic Board Books, then morphed into Arabic Readers for Beginners. I found various things and added them to my wish list.

One evening when I am feeling generous and agree to buy a book or dvd for T or H I will add a couple of my wish list items to the basket. There is quite a delay between putting something in the wish list and buying it, but it is right there for that 'willing to buy' moment. Looking at my wish list shows what topics I was interested in over the past year. I enjoy browsing what other people have searched for. The suggestions broaden my knowledge too.

6. I read the poetry and other literary blogs on my side bar and click through to the publishers of books I am immediately attracted to. Either I buy the book online straight away or I forget about it.

I need a wish list which holds all these direct from the publisher books. One thing I could do to help myself would be to write a draft blog post with links to each of these publishers. Then I could just update the baskets each time. This is still not nearly as good as a single ongoing Amazon wish list.

7. I read the Waterstone's blog and access the basket there.

8.  Jessica Kingsley Publishers send me a printed catalogue every few months, so I buy from that if there is something I feel I would really benefit from, or borrow from the library or buy 2nd hand from Amazon.

9. I enjoy the Financial Times weekend book reviews, I cut my favourites out and stick them into my scrap book.

Coming up to my birthday or Christmas I look through and decide what to ask for.

10. I nearly forgot about the best source of all: the bibliography at the back of books I read. I photocopy them if I have to, or just mark them with buy, library, 2nd hand or have!

11. The list of other works by an author, split into Fiction and Non-fiction, at the front of each book. I am drawn to autobiographical works, so that helps me find them.

12. The village fete book tent in East Hagbourne and the half yearly book sale at North Moreton. How could I forget these?

Sorry for the long post, this is more for me than for any readers.

I heard the word 'haqiba' today - حَقيبة - it means 'bag'

It was during the first part of a talk by Hassan Blasim, the writer of 'The Iraqi Christ', at the Mosaic Rooms. They record talks and put them online right here.

I don't quite see why 'bag' would fit into the sentence I heard, but so what? I'm on a mission to hear the words I already know, even though they are few amidst the many I don't know. My little treasures!

I have also discovered how to type online, via this Arabic Keyboard.

The Artist's Way - Copying Gauguin

3 of us did The Artist's Way course together in the spring of this year.

Then we decided to continue weekly without the book, simply asking each other the questions at the end of each chapter. Using a timer as in co-counselling helps to make sure we each have the same amount of time to speak. It turned into a lunch time event.

Now we have evolved into an art class. We started with a still life. The sun doesn't stay still though, the shadows kept on moving around! 2 of us are now working on a copy of a beautiful Gauguin painting. The other person paints her own work. We still bring and share lunch and use the timer to answer the questions.

It is such a good thing to be able to meet up as an ongoing group. We have some rituals which we stick to but we keep on trying out variations too according to our varying moods.

Really good tips for speaking to someone with bad hearing

...like me:

Good tips and reminders of things most of us do know at some level.

Charlotte Mason - Debussy - 3 Nocturnes

Part1/3 The Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sergiu Celibidache on YouTube, filmed in 1981.

Part 2/3 Ditto

Part 3/3 Ditto

This is another of the pieces for this term.

Cheating at Cards

We play a lot of games here at home. Due to our different personalities I have become less rule bound. I can deal with creative interpretations of the rules without ending the game immediately. I even suggest fun or convenient changes to help a game along when it has got bogged down.

This free and easy attitude is not helpful in my Arabic classes. I am embarrassed with myself that I so easily suggest cheating to my team when we get to the end of a vocab game. The class is not my kitchen, and I am not playing with my dear relatives. So I have got to learn something really important: fit in with everyone else, play the game by the rules and LEARN MY VOCAB.

Christmas and Kangaroos

I have found a series of comments on the topic of celebrating Christmas. It has 5 pages so far and is full of the most wonderful variety of experiences and preferences. The starting point is some Quaker ways of regarding Christmas Day, but includes so many reflections on how people, households and wider families and communities handle the whole thing.

I love the comment about the kangeroos. You will have to search for yourself to find it!

I like it because my mother A's father was from Australia. There were 2 toy koala bears in my grandmother's flat, not teddy bears, called Bingy and Twinkle (very important to note their names) and we heard the Yellow Dog Dingo story from the Just So Stories, so that proves it!

I read 2 words of a comment below a blog!!!!

They were 'beautiful' and 'brother', 'jamila' and 'akhi', as in: مدونة جميلة أتمنى لك التوفيق أخي which comes out in Google Translate as: Nice blog I wish you luck brother. So I did read them properly :) The 2nd and last words by the way, reading from the right hand side.

This is such an incentive to enjoy my lessons and the time I spend so very slowly writing out short sentences like: Mohammed's key is new and black. It is light and undamaged.

Keeping Advent 2012

The Royal Institution advent calendar is based on the elements.

Our Advent and post Christmas group started today. We light a candle and set up the crib at the table. Then we take turns answering these 2 questions in ways we wish to. When during the past week have I felt further from God? When during the week have I felt closest to God? We close that part of the session with the Grace. Then we share hot tea, make toast and chat.

My personalised advent calendar is up on the wall with the 3 outlines of a crown, bell and a star. I am to colour each one in once I have done the relevant bit of self care for each day (shower, finances and flossing teeth). There is a second sheet which takes me to the end of January 2013. I hope this will keep me steady and calm through midwinter.

We were chatting about decorations and my mother in law laughed and said I could win the wreath on the door race this year. I used to get paranoid that she was deliberately putting up her decorations really promptly to show me up as being less efficient. This shows the depth of stupid daughter in law/mother in law rivalry!! It's really nice to be able to chuckle about this now. I try to explain how silly adults can be to my sons. I have no end of examples.

My response to the the Wales Consultation on Home Education

I am copying it below. The wording of each question has been omitted, but can be inferred from the answers. The last question, Q8, simply asks for any further comments, which I offer.

---

Registering and monitoring home-based education --- Wales 2012 consultation

I am a Home-Educating parent. I live in England.

Q1. Disagree, because I do not think a register should be kept, nor do I think that it should be a requirement for local authorities to register a parent who elects to home educate one or more of their children.

Q2. Disagree, because I do not think that parents should be required to register prior to or during home-educating one or more of their children.

Q3. Disagree, because I do not think the local authority should be required to be assessing the parents' suitability to home-educate one or more of their children.

Q4. Disagree, because I do not think a local authority should be required to undertake a face to face meeting with a parent who is home-educating one or more of their children.

Q5. Disagree, because I do not think a local authority should be required to hold meetings with a parent who is home-educating one or more of their children.

Q6. Disagree, because I do not think a local authority should be required to keep such a register of parents who are home educating one or more of their children. 

Q7. Disagree, because I do not think a local authority should be required to give or withhold permission to a parent to home-educate one or more of their children.

Q8.

This consultation appears to be written from the perspective of adults who have no direct experience of home-educating one or more of their children.

The consultation shows no evidence of any prior study of the experience of national and local authorities in other countries around the world. 

The consultation does not show evidence of care taken to work out the costings for these proposals.

The consultation does not ask for the views of home-educated children or schooled children.

The consultation ignores the parent's responsibility in law to ensure that the education and care of their children is suitable. It is not the local authority's responsibility. See ... [I missed it out, but then added a chunk of the relevant Act in a follow up email, though I'm sure they know it by heart now!]

The consultation assumes that the creation of a register, the withholding or allowing of permission to home educate, the face to face meetings and the annual monitoring meetings will achieve ends which are not clearly set out. 

The costs, in all senses, to achieve such a registering process have not been clearly set out.

There is no reading list showing evidence of a thoughtful, intelligent and compassionate approach to this matter. 

I suggest that all involved in this consultation read more widely, reflect on the circumstances which might cause them as individuals to choose home education for one or more of their children and take more account of the many dedicated adults who have given many years of their time to home-educating one or more of their children.

Good luck with all the reading!

[My full name]

22/11/2012

---

I hope my suggestions at Q8 are helpful to the officials charged with reading and analysing the replies, and act as a spur to some thoughtful reflections.

I can't say that I have yet had any new thoughts about home education as a result of this consultation process. Let's try:

I was surprised at how quickly I was able to write replies. Last time I did a similar reply it took me a lot more typing and retyping.

I was a bit annoyed with myself for leaving it until the last minute, perhaps this was because there was no replies counter showing the running total of replies sent in. This might have encouraged me to get involved earlier on.

I felt gratitude to the efforts of everyone who wrote and acted at the time of the Badman Review. I was aware that this was my turn to help out with a different geographical area.

I am aware that I think a future labour government in Westminster is likely and so further attempts to introduce licensing and monitoring are also likely. Being part of a 'counting of heads' at this point is a reminder to me of the process of coming together which is needed each time a suggestion is made which many people wish to challenge. I saw that Twitter is more of a force than during Badman. Otherwise, yahoo groups and blogs are effective communication networks just as at that time. I didn't use facebook much this time, but others may have.

Wales Consultation on Home Education

You know what to do: read the document, find a way which suits you to write the replies, then email the response back to WELLBEINGshare@wales.gsi.gov.uk before the consultation ends tomorrow, Friday 23rd November. I don't know whether the capitals matter in that unusual email address.

Good luck with putting together some pithy and easy to understand replies.

Dr Ali Al-Ekri's story - parts 3 and 4

The Bahrain Mirror is in Arabic, but translates pretty clearly into English.

Part 3  The 17th February 2011

and

Part 4 The 18th and 19th February 2011

Since the first 2 posts I wrote are not showing up automatically via 'link within' below this post, here they are:

Part 1 Biography and 14th February 2011

and

Part 2 15th to 17th February 2011

Dizzy day

This must have been a side effect of the cold which is going around. It is odd to walk so slowly, not twisting my head, not lifting it up either. I move like a robot, my feet doing the turning.

It is such a pleasure to feel better enough to be able to take the empty milk bottle outside and empty the compost bin. Once I am up I am ok, but moving from sitting to vertical is not so good.

Good old daytime tv, it is soothing when all I can do is rest and listen to the voices. Nothing like channel hopping with my eyes shut! How did people manage in the old days with no remote?

This reminds me of when I had SPD and had to think instead of acting. I couldn't waste any footsteps across the kitchen or sitting room. It really was a sitting room! I had to spend most of my time there and was so attentive and kind to T, who was just 2 1/2.

Now it is time to go and rest again with several carefully picked tasks to do while I am there.

Sunday afternoon ramble

I started with the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Blog.

Moved on to The Writers' Studio of New York. What an amazing reading list! Can you imagine how much reading there is to get through each and every week? How can anyone afford to buy so many books? Would they be in the library? Or even all on Kindle?

Back to the poet Ingrid De Kok. This poem (The archbishop chairs the first session) is one of a set of 10 concerning the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's work in South Africa. They are all in her collection called Terrestial Things.

Then I stopped a while at poet Ko Un. I am struck by the concept of writing one poem for each person he has met in his life.

Homework, my head hurts, tired

I have to get this vocab into my poor head. It is now or never. In one ear, out the other.

I have stapled together some tiny books. In the first one I have drawn some little people with speech bubbles. Under each scenario I have quite a few lines so I can copy the speech bubbles again and again.

One is 'ana wa abi wa binti' = me and my father and my daughter, not that I have one in real life, but I do in my studies! Once we get on to numbers I may have 7 or 27!

Another plan is to do some matching slips of paper, with different coloured pens to help me. For each word there will be 3 slips: the Arabic, the transliteration and the English. I will mix them all up on the table and pair/trio them together again. Where are my coloured pens??

My other homework has been to look closely at Twitter photos and slowly, oh so slowly, sound out a few words. I am sure I spotted 'Tehran'.

How does T cope with so much new information all day long?

Our firework night

Every year we do fireworks in the back garden. Every year it doesn't go to plan. The slight chaos is the main point of it. My mother in law's brown bin makes a great table for all the bits and pieces, so that is our base.

We gasped at the very small fireworks, which we'd been expecting to go whoosh up to the clouds.

Then we squealed at the actual rockets which did go very high. We play a game of stand very still and listen to where the debris lands. That bit is unpredictable. They are very small bits and tend to land in the leaves still on the trees. The others have good hearing so get the most out of this ritual.

Each time a firework was lit we moved back a bit instinctively. My mother in law was watching from her window, but then came out to join us, all bundled up to stay warm.

We finally managed to light the sparklers, messing around with many matches took far longer than the sparkler waving itself. It was fun! We made different patterns in the air, I drew the arabic 'b' and the 'y' complete with dots.

Since the grass was damp I suggested we throw our finished sparklers as far as possible, our olympic javelin event. The grass was our bucket of water. It is ok, there was plenty of space.

Starting to see Arabic everywhere, even when I am looking at a perfectly common English word!

I had to laugh at myself when I read a blog post with the title 'Mohammed Bin Naif Named Saudi Interior Minister' and momentarily assumed that the 'Named' was another part of his name, ie Nameed or similar. I could even make a go of writing that with the correct linked letters.

Half term is over and my next class is tomorrow afternoon. I need lots of practice at hearing the difference between the 2 'h' sounds we have been introduced to. I hope to get there with plenty of time to browse through Blackwell's and find a dictionary.

Even more helpful than a dictionary would be very simple children's books like the Bif and Chip ones, with short sentences and lots of detailed pictures to enjoy. I could read them out to the cat.

A Dream Book

I hadn't heard of this type of Dream Book before. I love the idea of thinking up so many different ones and giving each one some space.

End times

That's a melodramatic title!

With perhaps just one year to go before T might leave home, waiting at home for the phone call to ask me to come down to the station is a good way to spend my late afternoon. It is very odd to be on a countdown. I don't know whether it will be to October 2013, so 11 months away, or to June 2013, just 8 months away.

This will be the last guaranteed homey Christmas.

So I am enjoying the unsolvable stupid rows, the criticisms about the food, the sudden new expenses, because they are really a brain fight, a changed attitude towards ready made food and planning for needs without me being involved right from the start.

A reminder of the new baby times - Esther Morgan

I found a piece on how it is for one mother as she goes through the first months of her daughter's life. It is on the Magma poetry site, but is written in poetic prose.

Poetry in Practice: a poetry of connection rather than escape

-----

That link above is now broken. I have done a bit of a search and have found some new links to Esther Morgan and her work:

Bloodaxe Books

Esther Morgan Poetry

Queen of Sleep blog

30/12/2012

My one handed day

I bashed a finger on my left hand today, so all my plans have been shelved.

I have recovered enough to knit without using my sore finger and am typing pretty nimbly too.

From the resting, watching TV and eating crisps for distraction stage, I am now at the surfing stage.

Someone I know, Sam Settle, is doing a yoga-thon in aid of the Prison Phoenix Trust, so look at that. I am sure I saw a photo of a guard and an inmate doing a pose together, but I have clicked on every page 3 times it feels like and I can't find it again. How annoying, I wanted that page to be the one I linked to.

From there I looked through the list of people their twitter account follows and found this great stitching-in-prison-organisation: Fine Cell Work I love the design of the name heading.

Throb, throb goes my finger...

Previous churches I have been part of, post has turned into a trip down memory lane, long

The Oratory in Knightsbridge, London, when I was small, around 1969-71. Apparently my mother was christened there, but I could never quite believe this.

Holy Trinity Brompton, Knightsbridge, London, same, plus I got married there, 1988, they had great Sunday breakfasts when I was about 6, we could play behind the curtains on their stage.

Holy Apostles Church, Pimlico, 1970's I remember a molar of mine being loose during one service...and I asked my mother about Joseph's virginity in another....

Cavendish School, Camden, London, 1970's, no photo of the chapel upstairs, maybe it has changed. There were 2 nuns there in my time, the Head and another one. I did my First Confession there in a lacy dress. Odd really when I think about it. I remember challenging an important concept there, probably virgin birth/conception, or rather just saying that it wasn't true to a child next to me.

I loved washing out the art brushes and trays. The top class teacher was wonderful and kind. I hope she is still alive and thriving somewhere. She sat on the bench at playtime and we all sat and stood around her.

Westminster Cathedral, Victoria, London We used to have McDonalds after the Sat pm service, then my mother would sing in the street as we walked home. It was only half decorated, just dark Byzantine brick arches and high curved roofs.

St Paul's Girls' School, Hammersmith, London 1970's No chapel, but an amazing organ and main hall. The chaplain, Adam Ford, told us about his daughter 'I'm free' and about the stars in the wider universe at assemblies. Just facts. I hope he is happy somewhere too. So I used to tell T about the stars, planets and space at bedtimes, partly because of him and partly because T likes this topic.

Seeing the 2 videos is weird, it all seems so busy, teachers talking and talking while the people are trying to think and write, I always hated that. All those people squashed into the 6th form common room, I avoided that like the plague too. The video wisely misses out lunches and those locker rooms. I loved the main library though, blessed peace and quiet.

Trevelyan College, Durham 1980's Right at the end of the video there is a glimpse of the series of huge oil paintings in the dining room. I could have eaten them, the sun shone on them and they glowed in the huge modern space.

There was a little chapel, but it was cold and seemed unused, with a great big tree next to it. I could have lived in there happily, but it wasn't an option.


Durham Cathedral A big part of being at Durham, I never paid to visit because I lived there!

St Michael's, Embassy Church, Paris, so welcoming back in 1985, Sunday lunches every week.


St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow, what a wonderful choir, all those mags and nuncs, around 1987.

St John of Jerusalem in Hackney, London around 1993, when the Bishopsgate Bombing happened.

All Souls, Langham Place, London, 1994 I didn't go there but my fellowship group was part of it.

St Laurence Church, Warborough, 1995 I remember a little icy hand round my waist as I sat there breatfeeding during the winter, the books don't mention these details.

St Birinus Church, Dorchester, 1995 Well, I tried to take a small baby to church, that didn't really work, but a dad grabbed me to come and meet his wife who also had a new baby back at home. We knew each other for some years and she inspired me to breastfeed more openly/lushly/fully.

Friends' Meeting House, Wallingford 1994 onwards This is my current true home, silence then lots of talk and a library and shared lunches.

St Andrew's, East Hagbourne, 1998 onwards This is my local, I sit there and enjoy the hymns, disagree with the words, but love being there and enjoy the Friday Prayer Meetings and many events in the year. I have a key to the church, so it is effectively my private chapel, how privileged is that? There is a blog too which I contribute to sometimes.

St Mary's Bourne Street, London 2000's We used to go along to help my Grandfather walk there, stand up and sit down. Their ex-vicar and his wife were one of the first home educating families I got to know in real life. I needed that. Hi Lil!!

Westminster Quaker Meeting, St Martin's Lane, London, 2010 onwards This is my home from home in London.

Go to the Gallery link on each of these to get a full picture!!

Leighton Park Radio Station

It came on air at the start of this week and has several sessions a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 4.30 - 6.30pm, I think. Probably off air over half-term.

T and friends are presenting and doing the tech behind the scenes.

Give it a go.

I need a new pen

Have you ever tried to write arabic with a biro? It's a pain because biros don't do dots well, just dashes. So I need a special inky pen which does exactly what I want it to.

My next need is for a brain which retains info. I have learnt and relearnt 5 things several times already this evening: damma, shadda, fatha, kasra and skun. My little pieces of paper with the squiggles in the back and the words on the front are going up to bed with me. I *will* learn this.

I also have my 11 letters on more slips of paper, plus with the different squiggles. I *will* be able to read each one and instantly add the correct vowel to it.

As a treat I plan to pick several out at random and write them out as if they were a real word. A CVC exercise. Some letters link to the next one and some stand alone, but not too far from the next bit otherwise they would look like another word!

I also have to learn the vocab we already have but don't actually remember yet.

The 2nd part of Dr Ali Al-Ekri's story

The 2nd part of Dr Ali Al-Ekri's story has just been published by the Bahrain Mirror, there is more to follow in due course. This portion covers his first couple of days at the Pearl Roundabout, in the centre of Manama, in February 2011. They set up a medical tent and experience a sense of freedom. Then the tear gas and shooting starts in the middle of the night.

My Letters: b, n, t, th and y

I now know 5 letters of the Arabic alphabet! Every so often I think about them and visualise each one.

The newspaper and the Economist were good hunting grounds for letters. I cut out the logos for various banks and airlines carefully including the Roman lettered version of the name. I love finding 'b' and 'n' etc. Didn't they do that on Sesame Street?

I even bored/scared T very slightly by drawing the backwards Ls plus dots for each one in the air while driving along in the car.

For Christmas I'd love a special keyboard to type with. T says it is possible to plug in a second keyboard while keeping the main one in action.

Bin was our first actual word and bint was the second. I have to think very hard and do each bit in my mind for these, I can't bring each word to mind as a whole, even less with the dash for the 'i'....early days.

Yarn Bombing and Yarn Graffiti

I was looking up something on YouTube and these caught my eye:

Hackney

and

Houston

Written portrait of Dr Ali Al-Ekri of Bahrain

The Bahrain Mirror online newspaper has published a biography of Dr Al-Ekri, following a number of 3 hour discussion sessions. There would have been more, but he was arrested this Tuesday, the 2nd October. I hope there will be more sessions of telling his story once he is free again.

Please check 'Amnesty Bahrain' every so often to see if there is a letter action you could take in order to support the activism and peaceful protest of Dr Al-Ekri and so many others.

Some months ago I sent him a tweet to say that I had written on his and the other health professionals behalf and would continue to do so. He tweeted me back to say it was an honour. I felt so small beside such bravery.

My first Arabic class

I am so proud of myself for getting onto the Beginners Arabic class. We squeezed into a classroom which would have been fine for the 6 the teacher was expecting, but very cosy for the 16 who piled in yesterday evening.

Our homework is to buy our text book and listen to Al Jazeera Arabic and BBC Arabic. I hope we continue as bright eyed and keen as last night. I shall try to arrive early enough to chat with the others before the next class.

I ordered my book online and nearly got myself a book of grammar and handwriting too. They are in my wish list now!

Be warned, I hope to do some blog posts in Arabic. 

Doing 5 things at once, this is a record!

I am listening to one full piece of music, eating soup, checking my blog roll, doing rows of knitting, warming my feet in a deep bowl of hot water and a 6th, writing this post.

There is a 7th...keeping an eye on my phone in case T texts from his trip North today.

I think there is a point where multi-tasking becomes being in a muddle!

Interestingly, I know I won't rush off and do something else because all 4 limbs are occupied and both my ears are clamped with the headphones. It is a mini mother holiday.

Poetry in Macedonian - Obsessed with Pipework

I have had an amazing experience. I read a collection of poetry. The English version was on the right, so I read that carefully, as you do. The original version in Macedonian was on the left. I have the weirdest sensation each time I look at the pages of text. The combination of blocky, part upper case and part lower case letters stumps me in some profound way. My grandmother was Serbian, and spoke Serbo Croat. Her language is now called Serbian, but as far as I can tell it is still the same language and is written in something very similar to the Macedonian script of my new poetry book.

It is so familiar, yet I can't read a single word. The type takes me back to her drawing room with these hardback books on the side table. She never enthused about anything Serbian to me. She never showed me a picture from any of these books, I don't think they had any, they looked very dull. Thinking about her now, they might have been biographies because I heard that this is what she liked to read, but I always assumed that meant in English.

There is something frozen about it, dead and cut off. I asked her once to teach me, but she said not to bother, to concentrate on French. In the photo at the top of my blog the space on the globe for Serbia is blocked by the support. How odd and significant.

I'm still not explaining myself. This could be my madeleine moment. It is reminding me of something very real in my past, which I had never re-encountered until now.

Obsessed with Pipework is a stapled pamphlet which comes out 4 times a year. I have treated myself to a subscription because the back issue I looked through was so suitable to my poetry tastebuds!

Troy Davis: Don't Give Up The Fight

Jen Marlow has made a short video to celebrate the progress made towards abolition of the Death Penalty. It is called 'Troy Davis: Don't Give Up The Fight'.

There is a clip of Troy Davis speaking words of encouragement.

There are photos by Scott Langley.

So keep on keeping on!!

Weird Feeling Tonight

I can't believe it has been a year now of tweeting #TroyDavis or #RIPTroyDavis alongside others who did this too.

When I went to sleep a year ago I knew there was a stay of execution and I assumed that this was permanent.  I assumed that Obama's post of President was worthy of being appealed to by signing petitions. I had no idea of the intransigence and stubborn nature of the system.

It was a school day the next day so I needed to sleep and then get up early to get my son off to school.

I can't remember finding out the news. It would have been online. I can remember the feeling that I had been slapped right in the face, personally. I also knew that many, many people had been violently ignored too.

After a while the phrase 'stiff-necked' came to me, it is from the Bible somewhere. All these old words and phrases have a meaning which only reveals itself when the circumstances fit exactly what it means. So the phrase comes alive and carries a whole situation in one little package.

I don't look forward to reading what other thoughts people have on this. I will read a lot anyway, but it is hard reading, even when there is good news about repealing the death penalty. It seems to go so slowly, State by State.

If you go back to Sept 2011 on this blog there are several posts to read.

Debussy - La Mer - more Ambleside Online/Charlotte Mason

Movement 1 - conducted by Valery Gergiev

Movement 2 - conducted by Milan Horvat

Movement 3 - conducted by Claudio Abbado

All movements - conducted by Riccardo Muti

Enjoy! I am sitting with my headphones on doing sewing or knitting in front of my laptop. I won't be laughing when I get backache, but for now it is great.

The Arab Revolutions - Day of Discussion Online

The South Bank Centre in London is hosting a day of voices from witnesses and movers and shakers in the revolutions. Livestreaming!!

#ARD12 is the hashtag on Twitter for the event.

Hilary Davan Wetton

This blog post has a link to a short bit of chat by Hilary Davan Wetton, a blast from the past, as he was Director of Music at St Paul's Girls' School and let me into the Senior Choir. He was a wonderful choir master and I have met quite a few, all wonderful in their different ways. I have been very, very lucky in my choirs.

So if you live in London, try to blag your way into whichever choir he is with now.

Joy - My time line book has been useful - Mouse engineering

I have been adding notes to my Charlotte Mason inspired timeline book for 3 years or so. It goes from the Big Bang to the present day, but the far and distant times are the most interesting.

Today H asked me something about why cats don't stand up on 2 legs. I have seen our visiting cat d just  this in order to get a better view of another cat which was prowling around. That chat led on to me showing him my timeline, I was able to point to the moment when early chimpanzees and early humans diverged.

Luckily I had put a star beside the time when Fire was first used, and the start of the use of Spears, then the practice of Burial and Jewellery. So I said, look at those things too!!

After that, H brought me his mouse with all its replaceable parts, so we fiddled with this and I showed off my cave woman skills of finding out how to do the replacing. I also showed off my high tech woman skills by explaining that the dusty item was the bit which had most recently been in use. That was fun. We have a large piece of black fleece as our table cloth in the kitchen at the moment. It is a wonderful surface to use for this sort of taking apart work. Nothing rolls away and everything is visible. Neither of us could work out where the little weights were meant to go. We didn't care enough to google it.

Charlotte Mason - Ambleside Online - Debussy

I have printed off the list of pieces for this term. The first is below:

L'apres-midi d'un faun

Draft legislation on Reform of provision for children and young people with special needs

Tomorrow I will look carefully at the draft legislation issued today by Sarah Teather.

It is looking to be a busy autumn:

There is a Select Committee event tomorrow on Home Education and Special Needs; there are the Wales Proposals, and this draft legislation.

Assange - did the US spokesperson let something slip?

A section from the US State Department daily press briefing question and answer session back on 17/8/2012:

"QUESTION: All right. And then just back to the Assange thing, the reason that the Ecuadorians gave – have given him asylum is because they say that they agree with his claim that he would be – could face persecution, government persecution, if for any reason he was to come to the United States under whatever circumstances. Do you find that that’s a credible argument? Does anyone face unwarranted or illegal government persecution in the United States?

MS. NULAND: No.

QUESTION: No?

MS. NULAND: No.

QUESTION: And so you think that the grounds that – in this specific case, the grounds for him receiving asylum from any country or any country granting asylum to anyone on that basis that if they happen to show up in the United States they might be subject to government persecution, you don’t --

MS. NULAND: I’m not going to comment on the Ecuadorian thought process here. If you’re asking me whether there was any intention to persecute rather than prosecute, the answer is no. Okay?

QUESTION: Okay. Well, wait. Well, hold on a second. So you’re saying that he would face prosecution?

MS. NULAND: Again, I’m not – we were in a situation where he was not headed to the United States; he was headed elsewhere.

QUESTION: Right.

MS. NULAND: So I’m not going to get into all of the legal ins and outs about what may or may not have been in his future before he chose to take refuge in the Ecuadorian mission. But with regard to the charge that the U.S. was intent on persecuting him, I reject that completely.

QUESTION: Okay. Fair enough. But, I mean, unfortunately this is – this case does rest entirely on legal niceties. Pretty much all of it is on legal niceties, maybe not entirely. So are you – when you said that the intention was to prosecute, not persecute, are you saying that he does face prosecution in the United States?

MS. NULAND: Again, I don’t – that was not the course of action that we were all on, but let me get back to you on – there was – I don’t think that when he decided to take refuge that was where he was headed, right?

QUESTION: No. He was headed to Sweden.

MS. NULAND: Obviously we have – right. Right. But obviously we have our own legal case. I’m going to send you to Justice on what the exact status of that was. Okay?

QUESTION: Okay. There is – so you’re saying that there is a legal case against him?

MS. NULAND: I’m saying that the Justice Department was very much involved with broken U.S. law, et cetera, but I don’t have any specifics here on what their intention would have been vis-a-vis him. So I’m not going to wade into it any deeper than I already have, which was too far. All right?

QUESTION: Okay. Well, wait, wait. I just have one more. It doesn’t involve the – it involves the whole inviolability of embassies and that kind of thing.

MS. NULAND: Right.

QUESTION: You said that at the beginning that you have not involved yourselves at all, but surely if there was – if you were aware that a country was going to raid or enter a diplomatic compound of any country, of any other country, you would find that to be unacceptable, correct? I mean, if the Chinese had gone in after – into the Embassy in Beijing to pull out the – your – the blind lawyer, you would have objected to that, correct?

MS. NULAND: As I said at the beginning, our British allies have cited British law with regard to the statements they have made about potential future action. I’m not in a position here to evaluate British law, international – as compared to international law. So I can’t – if you’re asking me to wade into the question of whether they have the right to do what they’re proposing to do or may do under British law, I’m going to send you to them.

QUESTION: Right. But there’s – but it goes beyond British law. I mean, there is international law here, too. And presumably the United States would oppose or would condemn or at least express concerns about any government entering or violating the sovereignty of a diplomatic compound anywhere in the world, right?

MS. NULAND: Again, I can’t speak to what it is that they are standing on vis-a-vis Vienna Convention or anything else. I also can’t speak to what the status of the particular building that he happens to be in at the moment is. So I’m going to send you to the Brits on all of that. You know where we are on the Vienna Convention in general, and that is unchanged.

QUESTION: Okay.

MS. NULAND: Okay?

QUESTION: Well, when the Iranians stormed the Embassy in Tehran back in 1979, presumably you thought that was a bad thing, right?

MS. NULAND: That was a Vienna Convention covered facility and a Vienna Convention covered moment. I cannot speak to any of the rest of this on British soil. I’m going to send you to Brits. Okay?

QUESTION: Very quick follow-up. You said there is a case against him by the Justice Department. Does that include --

MS. NULAND: I did not say that. I said that the Justice Department is working on the entire WikiLeaks issue, so I can’t speak to what Justice may or may not have. I’m going to send you to Justice.

QUESTION: Is there a U.S. case against him?

MS. NULAND: I’m going to send you to Justice, because I really don’t have the details. Okay? Thanks, guys.

(The briefing was concluded at 1:19 p.m.)

DPB #146"

And here is an hour long interview released today. It is between Julian Assange and Jorge Gestoso of Uruguay held at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

5th Sept 9.30am Select Committee Witness Session on Home Education

That's it really, put it in your diary, though I don't know about there being any live streaming or immediate written text. I am getting used to expecting a livestream for everything, like the UN UPR events! Or rather 2 different ones, Bambuser and Ustream, like the ones used for Bahrain or Julian Assange demonstrations.

I assume the oral and written evidence will be published in due course, as I see links to evidence from previous events lower down on the page I have linked to.

See the great list of witnesses due to speak.

It was hailing at lunchtime, it must be summer

It is raining in stereo here now. The kitchen has 2 windows. It is lashing down to my left and to my right. Neither sets of gutters can cope with the rush of rain, so it pours over the edge and down the side of the house.

The front of the house is in the same condition, but I can't actually hear the downpour which crashes on our  front door step.

I have arranged for a full house survey with a 10 year plan for essential renovations and repairs. It should help us decide what to do in what order. It will also be a wake up call as to the full extent of the duties of a house owner. Facing the costs will be a shock too. I tend to downplay the costs of things in the forlorn belief that delaying buying things will mean that I won't be the archetypal wife who just spends and spends.

It is time to face the facts that it rains in the summer and houses need upkeep!

Disclaimer

I have been adding new blogs a lot recently, but then I often find the blogger writes or does something so contrary to my views that I remove them again. Do I need to be less fussy? Do I have to disinfect everything which appears on my side bar? Does it matter that views I am alarmed by float past on my own blog?

This falls into my category of good problems to have.

....

Re-reading this is uncomfortable, but rather than delete this post, I think it is important for me to recognise that other people write and discuss all sorts of issues. Chewing them over in real time, in text, with others is what the internet is all about. This difficult process is the basis for understanding of oneself and of others. Understanding does not mean agreeing, why should it? I disagree profoundly with myself and really don't like actions I have taken in the past. I'm not all that thrilled with how I am living my life right now either.

At Quaker discussions views or comments are put forward in turn without the expectation of a direct response. That allows each listener to listen without feeling that their silence means agreement as such. I think I shall try to read with a similar attitude of mind.

So I shall add blogs to my side bar more freely and live and let live a little more. I feel better now.

The Bahrain Book Group

I find that I am in a book group some readers will recognise. You have a current interest, but take time off to read other random books. Instead of broadening my mind, all I find in these books are examples of what I am taking my mind away from. Teargas, arrests at midnight, beatings...maybe I shouldn't have chosen a book about Romania.

It is 'The Last Hundred Days' by Patrick McGuiness, 2011, Seren Books.

Pride Marches banned for 100 years - can this be true?

Something has been put in the water! I can't believe the events of recent days.

The BBC is reporting the 100 year ban on Pride marches in Moscow.

A petition is up, please sign on behalf of those who are not able to sign for whatever reason.

William Hague's blunder - an ex-diplomat comments

William Hague overstepped the mark so much that Brian Barder points out: 'Even communist Hungary in cold war days resisted the temptation to violate the immunity of the American embassy in Budapest by forcibly entering it to arrest the Cardinal..' (A reference to the Cardinal Mindszenty who stayed for 15 years in that embassy.)

I wish I knew what the name is for this week in August when everything goes wrong? Pussy Riot, Nabeel Rajab, Ecuador's embassy, what next?

Do you recognise this tone and attitude?

I found this section of today's Guardian blog covering the Assange and Ecuador story (sorry for the odd formatting):

3h 59m ago

A full, translated version of the document presented to Ecuador by British diplomats in Quito has been released. Remember, this is the letter which Quito says represents a clear threat, and which London insists is a mere reminder of the law. Judge for yourself...

We are aware, and surprised by media reports in the last 24 hours, that Ecuador is about to take a decision and proposes to grant asylum to Mr. Assange. The reports quote official sources. We note that the (Ecuadorean) President (Rafael Correa) has stated that no decision has yet been made.

We are concerned, if true, that this might undermine our efforts to agree a joint text setting out the positions of both countries, allowing Mr. Assange to leave the Embassy.

As we have previously set out, we must meet our legal obligations under the European Arrest Warrant Framework Decision and the Extradition Act 2003, to arrest Mr. Assange and extradite him to Sweden. We remain committed to working with you amicably to resolve this matter. But we must be absolutely clear this means that should we receive a request for safe passage for Mr. Assange, after granting asylum, this would be refused, in line with our legal obligations.

In that light, and given the statements of the last 24 hours, we hope that you are prepared to continue to engage with the ongoing diplomatic discussions. We continue to believe that a solution is possible on the basis of a jointly agreed text, which would accompany Mr. Assange exiting the Embassy, and leading to his extradition.

We have a further meeting scheduled for Thursday 16th August. Given the statements made in Quito overnight, about an imminent decision, should we take it this meeting will be the final one to agree a joint text?

We have to reiterate that we consider continued use of diplomatic premises in this way, to be incompatible with the VCDR (Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations) and not sustainable, and that we have already made clear to you the serious implications for our diplomatic relations.

You should be aware that there is a legal basis in the U.K. the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act which would allow us to take action to arrest Mr. Assange in the current premises of the Embassy.

We very much hope not to get this point, but if you cannot resolve the issue of Mr. Assange's presence on your premises, this route is open to us.

We understand the importance to you of the issues raised by Mr. Assange, and the strong public pressure in country. But we still have to resolve the situation on the ground, here in the U.K., in line with our legal obligations. We have endeavored to develop a joint text, which helps both meet your concerns, and presentational needs.

We believe a joint text and a voluntary surrender by Mr. Assange is the best way forward.

Wales Home Education Proposals

I am using this post as a base page for myself. I will add relevant links as I find them.

Legislative programme 2012/2013 added 8/8/12 (unread)

Serious Case Review added 8/8/12 (read quickly)

Welsh Assembly Government Memorandum added 9/8/2012 (read but still feel confused) (Not clear when this was written, post Badman report, but how much later? No mention of the wash up.)

Bridgend Home Education Conference added 12/8/12 (read) (Good to see that Jessica Kingsley Publishers want to attend the event.)

Ed Yourself - Wales / includes info on timing of the bill and how a new law is made in Wales added 26/8/12 (unread)

The 5 Outcomes - Every Child Matters added 28/8/12 (read) (An useful set of concepts which we used when dealing with the Badman report and subsequent proposals in 2009)

Rhuah_y_Ddraig  added 7/9/2012 (joined and read) The name of a Welsh Home Education Yahoo Group which is working on responses to the proposals.

E-Petition added 7/9/2012 (signed) By the way you can't sign it twice, so if you are not sure whether you have signed it or not and don't want to look down the entire list of signatories, just try to sign again. I have just found this out!!

Remember the locks being broken in the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli?

James Foley interviewed Matthew Van Dyke about that day

The clips of the locks being broken open - thank you YouTube

Jaafar Alhasabi - Photographers' Gallery

I listened to the Bahraini entry in the Photographers' Gallery exhibition. The subject is Jaafar Alhasabi and the photographer is Mitra Tabrizian. Where ever I go on the internet I come back to issues I care about. Small world and all that! So I did a google search and found some other info.

Photo and interview

Redress, a charity which acts to prevent torture and help those who have suffered this, has this piece of evidence from him. I have given money to this charity already. My world gets even smaller...

Unity blog with info about him.

FreeJaafar blog.

Pussy Riot - Closing Statement

There are so many references to writers and thinkers, Christian references and and even a quote from Medvedev himself, 'Freedom rather than non-freedom'.

Closing statement from Nadezhda Tolokonnikovat

Closing Statement from Yekaterina Samutsevich 

Sign the change.org petition

Listen to the voices :)

I have found an exhibition to celebrate the Olympics. It is put on by the Photographers' Gallery, one of my growing up haunts. It is of 204 photos, one for each of the competing countries. I like this sort of orderly, planned approach!

Et Voila! (French for "Hey, here it is!" but with panache).

Each photo can be clicked on to enlarge. To the right there is a sound clip. It is part of an interview with each subject. I have only listened to Oman so far, so maybe I am wrong there.

This builds on my interest at hearing the voices of the poets who came to London for the Poetry Parnassus. Some read their work and happened to be filmed at the same time. Some of these recordings made it onto YouTube where I found them and drank them in.

Total Silence

I love that complete silence just before the gun as the big races start in the Olympic Stadium.

Image of Petr Pavlensky's shut mouth

To support Pussy Riot the artist Petr Pavlensky sewed his mouth shut. The photo is solemn and uncompromising. He did this on Monday.

I think this image will become an icon.

There is a whole interview with him along with the photo, though it does not answer my question of whether he has undone the sewing. I guess he has.

Blogging Ramadan in the USA

I have found a blogger who is fasting for the first time for the whole of Ramadan. He is not Muslim, yet!, but is throwing himself into this experience.

The New Metho Festo is the full name of the blog.

Following the Games

I have just found a lovely live link to Games coverage, with glimpses of athletes and communities from around the world.

Feeling Happy

Last week I was in London for the weekend. My brother and I spent some hours together near St Martin's Lane. We visited 7 places at least!

While we were chatting in a dark middle eastern themed restaurant in Neal's Yard I said that I was feeling happy at the moment. It seemed so strange to say that given the turmoil in the world and my current interests in political topics.

We mused that London amplifies one's mood, so when feeling down London can send you further down, but being on an up there is a great thing.

Earlier he had answered a salesman's question of 'How are you today?' with 'Terrible!!' with a big smile. We were in a shirt shop. That broke the ice, so while he chose some shirts we all discussed our favourite writers, children, life in general.

All in all the 48 hours I spent in London were a wonderful holiday. I haven't yet touched on going on the demonstration as there is so much to reflect on I may never get round to writing a blog post. That demo was the push for me to go in the first place.

Durham University

I wonder why I didn't even go once to the Quaker Meeting House in Durham or find out about the local Amnesty group while I was an undergraduate there in the 80's. Now those would be on top of my list! How people change.

I have just added a new blog to my sidebar, marcowenjones, who happens to be studying in Durham and is active on Twitter and in other ways on behalf of the reform process in Bahrain.

Reading out loud to children

I would like to do a survey on here in the comments boxes. The question is:

What book(s) are each of your children asking you (not anyone else) to read to them right now, this week? Answers listed by child's age only, no names. Exclude any externally imposed or chosen books, just spontaneous "I really want this one!!" requests.

1. Age 16 - no requests for reading out loud any more.

2. Age 14 - Casino Royale by Ian Fleming, no others.

Over to you....

New blogs

I love wandering around online, then finding blogs to add here.

saltpublishing

blackwiththeblues

I like hearing people's voices in their written and spoken words and I am dipping my toe in the water with poetry. I also like rawness and honesty.

On first looking into Google

I sometimes discuss the world pre-Google with my sons. I can't imagine going back there myself and I lived most of my life without that access to information. I don't want them to know what it is like to be unable to access information and for everyone else to be in this permanent predicament too.

I remember when I started using Google for the first time, around the year 2000. I sat there with the search box and tried all sorts of different words and phrases. They had all been in my head before, but then for the first time I typed them out and pressed enter to see what result would come up.

Each night after the children were asleep I would type in different things into the search bar. I did this for about 3 months, exploring the world, seeing how many things could be named and learning how to search using key words instead of the library classifications. There was no longer the barrier of having to know what higher heading to use.

It is almost impossible for me to think that there was no Twitter, Mumsnet, YouTube or even blogging!

Looking back now, it was a revelation to have such a responsive connection with a world of people beyond personal contacts or family members. There was no emotional pressure involved in the response, no threat, no expectation whatsoever, no need to smile or laugh or be touched or be in a place for a certain length of time or to travel in someone's else's car or eat what they chose.

Poetry and traumatic times

After that amazing question was asked and answered, 'What do you do with your rage?', I realized I could write poetry to process mine too. This was during the question and answer session after the poetry reading at the Migrants' Resource Centre in London last week.

I won't only be looking back at rage, but at many traumatic moments in the run up to and after starting home educating.  Gradually the many situations I have experienced or witnessed are coming back to my mind. I am letting myself just say one word to myself, like gravel or door, as a reminder of each incident. These memories are purely visual or emotional.

Often when I wrote my diary at that time I found I could not list the events in order, I would write something like, I'm not sure when this bit happened (during the evening). So even the sequence of events was shocked out of my mind.

Other events would succeed each other, but I would not know how one section joined to the next because a linking bit of time would not be in my memory, it would have been blanked out, even though it was only a few hours earlier. I knew it was missing because the memories would move from one location in the house to another with nothing covering how we got there. I didn't know how much time was missing.

They were like snapshots actually, like the time I was in a car crash and all I could remember were a sequence of separate moments, as if I had opened my eyes several times to see different instants, but had my eyes shut in between each one.

I had thought I would need to find another counsellor, but now I sense that I could work by myself on this.

I think it would be best to create some sort of ritual to surround the calling to mind and choosing of words for this remembering. I would like to know that I won't ask myself to think about these things out of the blue so a lead up walk to a special place might help me keep this all sectioned off safely. I wonder where I might like to try this out.

I have a chair my grandfather used and there are various places in the garden. The village has benches going right out into the countryside. There are cafes in Didcot. There is a whole stone church in my street to which I have a key.

Since thinking about this idea I have left it alone. Doing a post here is quite enough for now.

Open Gardens

I visited several open gardens in my village this afternoon.

One gentleman told me how he likes to mow around the long grass with a bare torso, to feel the soft fronds on his skin.

I told him that he looks after his garden and his garden looks after him.

It was one of those windy, but hot and sunny days.

MP George Galloway speaking out about Ian Henderson in 1997

On Twitter I have just spotted a link to this piece of Hansard from 1997. Read it and see how many similar situations have been reported just in the past few months.

Systems like a written record of speeches in Parliament over many years and online search allow this access to past words. Words are so powerful both in the present and for the future. Many people work to create these systems and maintain them with a sort of faith in their importance.

I love George Galloway's turn of phrase and manner of speaking. He can survive anything, even the cat episode on Big Brother, (my hint to my son H to explain who he is). H got it immediately! Another note for my home ed log.

Poetry Parnassus

Since getting back from London on Wednesday evening I have been spreading the good news in my village and nearby town.

Everyone I meet gets an intro to this fabulous and inspiring event which is still underway.

Actually I started my mission after a night of too much reading and too little sleep after the Migrant Resource Centre event to launch the book of poems from the 204 poets from around the world. The book was on the table as my mother had her weekly cafe meet up. One of her friends read out Jo Shapcott's poem, then Seamus Heaney's. We agreed that we didn't really get it, but that wasn't the point.

I opened the book to the Soloman Islands poem on 'Praying Parents' for my mother's other friend who I thought might be more attune to this one. She read that one. I was glad to have been able to flip through to it, knowing it was there.

Then I thought I saw one of the poets from the night before, Nikola Madzirov, walk right past our table, but was too slow/shy to shout out 'Hallo' to him.

Later I went into the Northern Line Train tent on the South Bank and enthused before sitting down to write my first poem for a while. It has been an extremely difficult week, family-wise, so this was the only medicine suitable.

I ran into an old aquaintance in Sainsbury's and told her I wished I could transplant her to London for all this, she would sprout leaves. I explained how this was all happening right here, right now and was within reach, even walkable (in theory).

My sons know all about it, my cleaning lady, my friend I do the Artist's Way with and her lodger. I told her partner about it too while he was digging the front garden!!

What I love the most is watching and hearing the YouTube clips from the events. Then I look up each poet's name and country in the book and they come to life. There is a set of 3 interviews about it, including the other poet I heard in person, Shailja Patel.

A man I sat next to at the book's launch on Tuesday wondered if anyone would read the poems. I suggested that the collection was not just for us now, but for people in 200 or 300 years' time. We were both flipping through to find particular countries which were most important for us, Iraq, France, Serbia, Bahrain.

I was unable to find the UK or England and felt sad that being the host country meant we were not important. Eventually I found Great Britain by chance and felt better, though I wondered what had become of Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.

Video of the Rain of Poetry and photos of the EnglishPEN event. A 2nd Rain of Poetry video.

Curiously on the Casagrande website there is a video of a man talking about the bombing of London during the war. This was exactly one of the topics I mentioned to the man I sat with at the Poetry event, how the new buildings in the middle of streets in Pimlico mark the spots where there used to be bombsites. I explained, waving with my arms, how the brick walls on each side of a bomb site used to be supported with these huge wooden struts and how there used be to hoardings all along by the pavement with the deep hole hidden behind it.

Nigel Rodley and the BICI report

An interview with Sir Nigel Rodley has just been published on the Bahrain Justice and Development website. He was one of the 5 commissioners of the BICI report, published in November 2011. I do not know who conducted the interview.

First part.

Second part.

Third part.

Interestingly Nigel Rodley used to be a UN Special Rapporteur on Torture from the 1990's until 2001, but was not able to visit Bahrain in that capacity during that time.

A YouTube clip of just one minute covers one exchange on the prospect of future prosecution of those responsible for extrajudicial killings/homicides.

His words are carefully chosen, partly very open, but also deliberately silent. He seems to be taking care to stick to his remit precisely. I guess this is in order to enable, or rather not hinder, future developments in Bahrain in a direction I would imagine he would prefer over a time scale the participants can handle independently and safely.

I recognise the hands off and separate view point of a person working to change things over many years, the slow pace of institutional and cultural change. It is in direct contrast to the present suffering of each individual person involved.

When I was involved in breastfeeding support and promotion I saw this for the first time. So many mothers being let down during the slow years needed to train people and change attitudes.  I could not take the psychological distance needed to continue with this. The home education debate is taking decades, so too the autism one. I can't even think for too long about the denigration of women, it has gone backwards in my recent life time.

I have been to London, now I am full of data

I had an important email on Sunday night, hardly slept, received the news of the all clear, drove to London on Monday afternoon, stayed with my mother, switched off her light after she'd fallen asleep, went head first into the Poetry Parnassus, wrote my own poem and feel as if I have been away for a month.

My head is spinning.

Richard O'Dwyer - Time to sign

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia (I first typed Wikileaks!), has written in support of the non-extradition of Richard O'Dwyer.

This piece includes a link to a petition for Richard. Sometimes people use just their first name and a generalised place name like Scotland if they do not like putting their full name out across the internet. That is ok. Don't let shyness or whatever stop you from signing something.

I love playing at being a book shop owner

Our village fete was this afternoon. I helped on the bookstall. My patch was the hardback fiction and the dvds and videos.

We organised it all in alphabetical order and laid out interesting books so the fronts showed. I also stood some books vertically to catch people's eyes. After a bit I saw that my judgement about which books might appeal bore no resemblance to what was picked out and bought. From then on I rotated the highlighted books randomly. This took all the decision making out of it.

Billy Connolly didn't get picked up once! Oscar Wilde had to wait til the end, but then was found by someone who had him on her Amazon Wish List. Hammond went while Clarkson was left on the shelf/wooden bench... Handling the books so often to rotate and keep them tidy meant we knew our remaining stock amazingly well.

I bumped into an acquaintance and recognised all the books she had bought!

The best bit was seeing the little children sitting down on the grass at the back of the tent looking at books they really liked. If I am involved next year I might suggest a bigger floor space dedicated to children to relax and read in.