Wednesday 29 June 2016

Monday 27 June 2016

Look back in wonder

Okay so here's the deal. I travelled a lot when I was younger. I use the word 'travelled' loosely, as it was more like bumming around at the time. The more I saw and experienced, the more my senses were alerted to new cultures and countries, and the more I fell in love with writing about my time away from home detailing the where, what, why, when, who?! I wrote journals and letters mainly, but also sent emails when I could find the Internet. Ha! Seems nuts now, but back in the 90's, the net had not quite reached all four corners of the globe - and trotting around it meant you arrived in cities excited for the consequent Post Restante, where you'd pick up and pour over yearned for news. Five years later, I was back in the UK, working as the professional nanny I had trained to be. It was hard to settle though and I ended up doing a degree instead. Media Writing at Southampton. My thesis was based on a travel writer; Lindsay Hawdon and her hugely successful weekly column in the Telegraph, entitled 'An Englishwoman Abroad'. Her use of the first person narrative was fresh and exciting, but also successful because it meant everyone could travel with her, transported to each new destination, and from their armchairs. I liked her style and using the journals I kept and the letters I sent, I found my own descriptive narrative - and the inspiration for my dissertation. I put this particular piece into a travel writing comp which closes at 11pm tonight if you're interested in that sort of thing - a comp allowing travel writers the freedom to write as they please, rather than have to conform to the often oppressive structure of a magazine. (Really I'll use any excuse to get back to Oz). Anyway, please share if you like what you read... Thank you.

http://scholarships.travel/writing16/tanami-desert-western-australia-june-1999




Tuesday 21 June 2016

HYSTERECTOMY - 10 Reasons for and 10 reasons against

10 NOT SO GREAT reasons to have a Total Abdominal Hysterectomy


1) Major operation comes with all sorts of risks.
2) Meds to help can equal nasty side effects.
3) One being you can't shit for days - bring forth laxatives, stool softeners and suppositories and hope...
4) Trapped wind brought on by laxatives, stool softeners and suppositories can end up causing more grief on its mission to break free than the actual surgery - have you ever felt wind in your shoulder of all places?
5) Having to eat all manner of food stuffs to get the digestive system working again such as prunes and papaya causing yet more wind in a freakishly continually evolving catch 22 scenario.
6) Being observed for blood pressure, temperature and oxygen levels around the clock, which although a necessity is of course a tad annoying on the sleep front.
7) A bloody great scar.
8) Post operative blurred vision (this might have been down to the epidural rather than the anaesthetic, either way, it's getting better a bit too slowly for my liking).
9) Bed rest boredom. Although to be honest, I am toying with the idea that this is actually not a valid NOT SO GREAT reason at all, for I'm enjoying the rest immensely and am yet to be bored. (I know you're hearing me mothers of small children).
10) Watching the dust gather due to being unable to vacuum for weeks on end (actually, what am I thinking, this surely needs to go on the list of GREAT REASONS)?

10 GREAT reasons to have a Total Abdominal Hysterectomy

Sunday 19 June 2016

25/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

Okay, so this week I came out of hospital and Esme Grace (my brave 7YO) presented me with a card. It now sits with a whole host of unexpected wonderful well wishes, except this one, instead of saying Get Well Soon, speaks the mind of a 7yo daughter who has lost her Mummy to bed rest...





Sunday 12 June 2016

24/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...



Underneath this beautiful flower, the nursery teacher wrote down Fia's thoughts:
"I hope you are better.
Soon we will come and collect you.
We miss you so much.
We love you so much.
Love Fia. xxxx"