A Brief Observation

I think that my cognitive abilities are improving.  Thank heavens!  Though I don't suppose I should celebrate too soon.  Instead, I find I am being overcome by a sort of lethargy.  I can sit for long periods of time, thinking of nothing in particular, doing nothing in particular.   Either that or I sit and play solitaire on my I-pad for hours on end.  I've had to ration the card playing but I find myself still reaching for my tablet with the intention of playing again!  If Naomi, my daughter wasn't here to tell me to do certain things, I wouldn't do anything.

Once More unto the Breach, Dear Friends

How many times have I said that I am going to start writing in this blog again and how many times have I failed to do so?  Don't answer that question, I certainly have no intention of doing so! However, I do intend to start writing here again.  I have come to the conclusion that I wrote here in the past because I had a need to do so and stopped because I didn't.  My husband of 37 years died 10 days ago and I have rediscovered the need to write again!  If what I have gone through so far is anything to go by, I have a lot to explore, examine and puzzle about, and as I have discovered in the past, writing helps me do that.

I suppose I will have to make some changes on this blog first.  It is no longer about surviving cancer, though here's hoping I have.  I think the focus will have to be on surviving the mourning process and whatever may happen to me next.  And even in that last sentence, there is a kernel of what I don't want.  I don't want things to happen to me.  I want to make sure that the next stage of my life is a series of events orchestrated by me, not by others and not by circumstance alone.

Slavery Conditions in the Paphos Detention Centre

I did promise to start writing regularly but it just hasn't happened yet!   However in trying to work out how to disseminate the following document from a friend in Cyprus.  Here it is below:

Slavery conditions in the Paphos detention centre
By Marios Demetriou, Simerini, 14 April 2014

The non-governmental organizations, Cyprus Stop Trafficking and Future World Center, have filed another complaint regarding squalid conditions of detention of aliens for the purpose of deportation. It involves a 17-year old Somali, Abdi Rasak Ome Mohamed, who has been held for almost 5 months at the Paphos police station, almost in complete isolation, wearing the same clothes he was arrested in last December, with insufficient twice-daily food provisions.

Arrest at the Paphos airport

The President of Cyprus Stop Trafficking, Androulla Christofides Henriques, informed SigmaLive that representatives of the organization, accompanied by a Cypriot lawyer and a Somali translator, visited the Somali minor last Friday, 11.04.2014. Ms. Christofides told us that until last Friday, he had not been allowed to contact a lawyer or any member of his family.

The youngster, who is not 18 yet (born on 02/11/1996), came to Cyprus in October 2013 and was arrested in December 2013 at the Paphos airport when he attempted to travel to Norway using a fake passport. He also carried his birth certificate confirming his age, taken from him by the police. He was arrested and incarcerated at the detention center, after being accused of possessing false documents; on January 14, 2014 a detention order and deportation were issued.

He had been beaten by El Shabab

The young Somali says that the reason he left Somalia was because he had refused to enlist himself in the outlawed Islamist terrorist organization El Shabab (which forcibly recruits teen Somalis, mainly from rural areas of the country). A member of the organisation threatened to kill him, he was severely beaten and lost 70% of his hearing.

Ms. Christofides told us that although he asked to see a doctor, he had not yet been transferred to the hospital for the necessary tests. He was refused even painkillers! The youngster complained that an officer of the Social Welfare visited him twice, the first week of his detention and three weeks ago, without the presence of a translator, and ignored his request to seek political asylum.

Living in an impoverishment situation

The 17 year old Somali told his visitors that he was allowed to go out in the courtyard of the detention center for 20 minutes every 3-4 days and he was always accompanied by a police officer. The rest of the time he is locked in his cell, alone. His clothes and his personal belongings were seized on the day of his arrest at the airport and have not been returned to him. He wears the same clothes for almost 5 months now (!), has not been provided with the basic toiletries such as toothpaste and shampoo (they were given to him by his visitors last Friday). There is a toilet in his cell and he is allowed to clean it with water only 3-4 days. Because of the stench, he is unable to sleep. He is given food twice a day, once in the morning and at noon, but not in the evening. As a result, he lost a lot of weight and his clothes do not fit him any more. He ties his clothes on his body with a plastic ribbon as he has no other clothes to wear... He also complained that officers in the detention center often force him to clean the cells of other detainees.

Request to Mr. Hasikos to free him

Ms. Androulla Christofides Henriques, president of the organization Cyprus Stop Trafficking wrote “Am Epos am Ergon “- “dictum factum”, in a note to the Interior Minister Socrates Hasikos.”Dear Minister, you suggested that we should work together and I accepted that with enthusiasm! As part of this cooperation, I am sure that you will solve the problem of the young Somali boy who is being held at detention center in Paphos soon, (Easter is coming and it's a shame to make him stay in). In the context of our cooperation, our organization can take care of him and deal with the problem of his hearing."

Back again!

So much for saying that I was going to start writing here again.  I have continued to write but not in this blog, obviously!  Where you may ask...or not!  Well, I have done some travel writing when Cliff and I have been on trips.  I have also been working on a cooking memoir and will spend more time on that when my half term holiday comes up in October.

I want to start writing regularly again and the only time I ever wrote regularly was when I was writing this blog.  I would like to try to write every day for an hour to start with and then see if by getting back into the habit of writing, I can move on to something other than this blog.  I want to finish the cooking memoir and also try my hand at fiction again.  I had considered revisiting Evie MacIntyre and the murder mystery I was writing and I may still do that.

One of the things I really like about writing in a blog is that I can spend a certain amount of time each day with myself, to explore things of interest.  I don't get a lot of time on my own these days! I am looking forward to this.  Please let me be disciplined enough to do it!

It's been a long time!

It has been a long time since I last wrote.  I hadn't planning on writing here again but recently I turned this blog into a book and then I started to read it.  I found myself wondering why I had stopped.  Yes, the blog was started to keep people up to date with my recovery process after my hysterectomy and cancer treatment but quickly it went beyond that.  Several times, I talked about stopping and then just seemed to continue on.  I started two other blogs, one on cooking in times of financial difficulty, and the other on library matters.  Perhaps by writing these other blogs I have become distracted.  Whatever the reason for stopping, I am firmly resolved to start up again!

More Bookmarks

There are those bookmarks, which you have no memory of making and are a bit of a puzzle.  A hotel in Rome is one of them.  I haven't been to Rome lately, nor have I contemplated it.  Naomi, my daughter did go a few years ago and perhaps this is her bookmark:

The Beehive

I must admit that I like the look and feel of this hotel and having looked at the site I have been wondering if I could manage a trip to Rome in the near future.  Perhaps during my October holiday next year.  The last time I was there was in the early spring of 1990.  My goodness, that was 21 years ago!  Cliff, Naomi, Emma and I were on our trip through Europe to Cyprus before going back to Canada and moving to British Columbia!  We never did move to BC.  Cyprus and the Middle East were too alluring!  We spent 8 years in the region and then moved to the UK.

I loved Rome.  We found a wonderful bed and breakfast off the Spanish Steps and stayed for nearly a week.  The B & B was run by two sisters who had lived in Manchester at some point in their lives and spoke English with a strong Mancurian accent.

Emma became fascinated with men in uniforms on this trip, especially sailors.  She was 6!  They wore lovely white, crisp uniforms.  I think that and their hats may have been what attracted her.

Yes, I have decided!  I will go to Rome in October!

Suki Teapot

Two years ago this March, Emma and I went on a librarian's course in Oxford and stayed two nights in one of the colleges.  I hadn't been there since the 1960s and it was such a surprise.  I had forgotten what a wonderful city Oxford is.  That same year, we went back just to wander around.  I rediscovered Blackwells bookstore and came across a wonderful teashop on the high street.  I don't remember the name but I did fall in love with their teapots and took their name:  Suki.  The one shown in the link is ceramic with a built in infuser.  However, it only holds enough for one person.  Look at the price!  £22.42.  Ah well, I can dream!  And is the tea really that much better? (Oh dear, I just went back to look at the teapots and discovered that the one I originally saw was not the one in the link above.  I think that the only difference is the colour.)

I have made 3 or 4 trips back to Oxford, usually on book buying trips for my library.  In fact, I will be going again in two weeks time to buy non-fiction.

Melanie Frobisher

Each year there is a village fête in Englefield Green.  A few years ago, I met Melanie Frobisher, a photographer with a difference.  She takes photographs and does something with them so that they look like watercolour paintings.  I bought two, one for my friend Asa who was leaving Egham for China.  It was a wonderful scene of Windsor Great Park, where Asa had lived for 4 years.  The second was a scene of beach huts, which gives you a nostalgic feeling for summers of your youth.  I loved them both.  Since then, I have bought 3 more on behalf of the school for teachers who were retiring. 

(More next time!)

Bookmarks

I don't often use the Bookmark tool on my browser anymore since I've started using Diigo.  However, tonight I wanted to mark something that I didn't need to keep track of for long and so bookmarked it.  That's when I thought that perhaps I should look at some of my long forgotten bookmarks.  It turned out to be more interesting than I supposed it would.  I discovered a world of Internet use, which hinted at all sorts of interests, some forgotten and some still lingering on in one way or another.  This blog entry is a record of those sites I visited in the past and what they may mean or have meant to me.

Smith and Gore

We had a number of friends who lived in houses owned by the Crown Estates.  They had very expensive accommodation, some of it in the Windsor Great Park; and accommodation at reasonable rents in less luxurious surroundings, for key workers in the community.  I used to visit the site on a regular basis, hoping that we might find such a dwelling, especially in the park.  It never did happen.
These days all the property on the Crown Estates seems to be expensive.

A 1000 days at sea:
 One night quite late, I seem to remember, I somehow came across the website of a man who was trying to sail for a 1000 days without coming ashore.  During this time, he met his future wife and they had a baby.  It was fascinating following the voyage.  I had forgotten about them until tonight.

Bread Matters

I bought a bread book during the Christmas holidays.  It's wonderful and has revolutionized my baking.  Apparently at some point in the past, I came across the website of the book's author.  I think that I was looking for bread making lessons.

Democracy and Proper Drains

From “In Westminster Abbey” by John Betjeman

Think of what our Nation stands for/

Books from Boots' and country lanes/

Free speech, free passes, class distinction/

Democracy and proper drains. 

I met a lady at Othona.  She's a librarian and lives in Dudley.  I remember her talking about drain covers, which were manufactured in Dudley and sent out all over the world.  She started a photo blog with pictures of all the Dudley drain covers she encountered in her travels.  I look out for them whenever I see a drain cover of interest. I see that she hasn't added any in 2 years.  What a shame!

Merrick Pedigree

Two years ago, I suddenly became interested in my family's connection with the Betjemans (see poem above).  I found this site and then started corresponding with the author.  

Betjeman and Barton

As part of my research, I discovered a tea company owned the a branch of the Betjemans.  From what I remember a Merrick married into this branch of the family.  Some day when I go to Paris, I shall visit the shop.  If you look at the site you will see that today the business is run by a remarkable group of women.

Marshalls

I must have been looking for plum trees!

Muji Online

The Guardian runs an article every Christmas on interesting presents.  That is where I found this website and from what I remember I bought a lot from them that year.  New York in a bag, a garden tool of some sort, skittles, and more.  I've just had a look at the wooden toys.  They still have New York in a box but I think my favorite is A Railway Station in a Box.

More another day!