I thought I’d update the journal seeing as I am home, sick and bored. I’ve been off work for days now with a bad head cold – Simon’s man flu seems to have affected me more:( and am going stir crazy.
Topics of interest lately have been: Slavery, as it is the 200 year anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the UK, but slavery still exists in the form of domestic labourers being bought and sold as well as sex trafficking in theUK, let alone what happens worldwide. I did a bit of reading on the activists in the US as I know very little about American history, and know know something of Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas and Ulysses Grant (not an activist but someone who certainly had the power to make a difference). Sojourner Truth especially had a strong impact on me as a black woman who had been through such turmoil; her ‘Ain’t I a woman?’ speech still resonates.
I also learned a bit more about marriage, the Baha’i faith, the mythical land of Punt which may be the land of my heritage, Eritrea, what else? Also, I learned a little bit about Aiken Drum the Scottish tale, and Solomon the wise of biblical times as well as Suleiman the Magnificent or Law Maker, who ruled the Ottoman Empire. Wikipedia is great for browsing but I’m inclined to further any studies with real books, or at least learned texts. Some of the submissions on it were misspelled and I swear at one point someone wrote ‘awesome’.
So, snobs are us. I just got a parcel from Amazon so I must now spend the next week trying not to start any of the books I’ve bought. It will be particularly difficult with Guy Gavriel Kay’s Ysabel, which I know will be great and is his first book in ages. I didn’t realise the dearth of his books til recently. Good writers should learn to type really, really, extra specially fast. The other two books I may start nowish, I have Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley (which kind of looks a bit traditional) and a book of short stories with an offering from Sharon Shinn whose latest series I really enjoyed….But I must resist as my to read pile is so enormous, I shouldn’t have bought the books in the first place.
What else? I’m looking forward to going to Oxford for a few days, our first proper holiday together (gulp!). I should imagine that navigating, not getting lost, driving, and all things associated will be a nightmare. I hate that we are so conventional in our disagreements. Woman: Bad Navigator. Man: Bad instruction taker. It is so predictable. Still, it’ll be worth it I’m sure. Blenheim Palace looks so good. I’m fairly certain that as I am looking forward to it in particular, the day will be too cold, raining or something which will dampen our enthusiasm. Fingers crossed it won’t.
Next time: Hypnotherapy and what it means to me.
Posted not by Nadia and Simon, but by Nadia all on her own and who is an independent being. As Dave once said, there are at times too many ands and not enough commas.
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