Its nearly 1am, the laundry baskets are empty, the cases are ( almost all) packed, my dining table is loaded with "last minute, afterthought" items, and I thought I'd take a moment or two for my sorely neglected blog.
We're off for a weeks camping in Suffolk with our church, then we come home, turn the laundry around and nip off to lovely Wales for a week in a proper house with beds and electricity and all mod cons.
Much as I love the city, it will be wonderful to be on the coast. The weather is oppressively hot, even at night, and us Celtic types don't bloom in the heat, we wilt.
I do hope the tomatoes will cope on their own.
A period of enforced computer celibacy will be no bad thing for me either. I am a terrible newshound, and find myself grimly gripped by the terrible events unfolding in the Mid East. I am so enormously frustrated and disappointed by Britains lazy, ignorant and predjudiced "intelligentsia". Again and again, the narrative is that of Palestinian victimisation and Israeli oppression. British public opinion has hugely bought into this , and considers itself humane and sophisticated for having done so. Don't misunderstand me. I feel enormous sadness and despair for the position of the Palestinians and of course the Lebanese, whose country is being used as a battleground. But yet again, the voices raised in protest are almost entirely not against the genocidal warmongers of Syria and Iran, but against their primary victim, Israel.
My parents broadly disagree with me, but I blame them for stimulating an interest in such things in the first place. When I was 7 or 8, my mother took me to hear Harold Wilson speak at Acton Town Hall.I had no idea what he was blethering on about, but no doubt that's when the rot set in.
Changing the subject ( onto less controversial matters) Gabriel, The Bubba and I were walking past Gabriels old school a couple of days ago. His classmates were playing basketball in the playground. One of them spotted Gabriel and came over to the railings, he was glowing like a Belisha beacon in the midday heat and he said " Hey, gabriel! We're having so much fun playing basketball, you should be here and you'd be having fun too" I didn't hear Gabriels response, but as we walked on I asked him who the boy was. He said, blithely, " Oh, that's Connor, he was just trying to make me feel jealous. The thing is Connor thinks that the play ground is all fun and the classroom is all boring" Then he added " I used to think like that, but I don't anymore". We walked on with a spring in our step and I reflected that, in a nutshell, that is precisely what homeschooling is all about. Real learning truly is about the best fun you can have. And the lure of half an hours sweaty basketball in the burning sun really is no compensation for that.
Comments
Jul. 22, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by ihopeyoudance
Howdy! It's 11:30 pm here and I just read your post and wanted to wish you happy vacation!!! Sounds like wonderful fun. My heart was really touched by that incident at the playground with your son... isn't it wonderful when you know that your child really "gets" that learning is really, deeply fun??!!!
Jul. 22, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Debismumto4
Hi Clare
Hope you have a great holiday. It sure will be cooler on the coast.
Our room therometer said 26.5 degrees c at 7am today. How depressing is that!!!!!
Have a Fab Time
Love Deb
Jul. 22, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Debismumto4
Hi it's me again
you can tell it's early after a night of hardly any sleep.
Therometer roughly translate as thermometer but I actually meant Thermostat. Oh well!!!!!!
Deb
Jul. 22, 2006 - hi
Posted by sianne(edmummy)
Hope you don't mind me stopping by, found you from Deb.
I totally agree with what you said about Israel. It truly amazes me how we britts seem to believe all our often biased britt media tells us. We need to look at all the factual history about Israel.
Happy hols to you, hope you visit my blog sometime.
Jul. 24, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by jayfromcleveland
Claire, I always chuckle at the expression "holiday" used for time off since the root word is "holy day," and from what I gather, there's not much "holy" about a UK holiday! I kinda like our Yank "vacation" since the root is "vacate" and that's what we try to do, both mentally and with respect to our place of residence. But whether or not you vacate, I sure hope you enjoy your time off!
I'd be very interested to hear the UK spin re Israel and the Palestinians. Here in the US, though the media is very liberal on most issues, many of the powerful people in the media are Jewish, and there is a moderate pro-Israel slant to the news.
I've only seen a bit of actual British news, like the time I stumbled onto a session of Parliament. It was quite entertaining -- very informal and jocular compared to our stuffed shirts in Congress with all their "distingushed colleague" banter. Seems that Tony Blair and his mates were only lacking cigars and glasses of port! Funny thing, I'd've expected the Brits to stand longer on decorum than the Yanks, e.g. a room full of stodgy codgers in robes and powdered wigs blathering on about some such.
Aug. 4, 2006 - Untitled Comment
Posted by HeartnSoul
Hope you have a very nice time!
blessings
Denise T