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

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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.