Five Years Today

This Guardian Article talks about how we marched against Iraq five years ago today and as this Guardian Comment says ' We didn't stop that war, but may have stopped the next.

Saturday March 15th we are marching again...I'll be the one with the rainbow peace flag. The demo will assemble for a rally in Trafalgar Square, march down Whitehall, cross the river and return for final speeches in Parliament Square.

"I really hope that on 15 March people will join the demonstration in Trafalgar Square at 12. To march against the war and march against the continued occupation which has come from this war. It had a rotten basis and nothing good will come of it." Nick Broomfield, Documentary film maker

Photos from protests from 2003-2008 here

Donde esta el Cacto?

I'm paying my mother a surprise visit this half term...so have been learning Spanish.

¿Dónde está el cacto?
Where is the cactus?

El cacto está aqui!
The cactus is here!

PS. Don't tell my mum or it will ruin the surprise!

We got a Christmas Cactus donated to club this Christmas past and its only now that it has flowered...don't know if it was late or was rescued by us or what...all I know is that things that would normally die in a normal house (like ours - we have only managed to raise a child - pets and plants are beyond us) seem to survive in club.

The cactus reminds me of my mother - not cos she is prickly but cos she used to keep a lot of cacti (which is why she may be surprised to find a cactus on her coffin rather than flowers in the future...btw she is not dead, in case I give that impression as I probably would not be visiting her if she was). And this cactus reminds me particularly of her because she is like it ...needing heat in winter to survive & bloom...so she finds the sunnier climes of Southern Spain her home for the winter months...and if it wasn't for that I wouldn't be heading out there for a few days or learning how to converse in Spanish on such important issues as cacti.

If u want to learn Spanish or lots of other languages Michael Thomas is the man for u. In his CD or MP3 He doesn't make u repeat like a parrot or have expectations of you as a learner. He is responsible for teaching you and does so by introducing firstly all the words that are the same in both languages and then simply introduces new words (with little tricks like mnemonics) and builds sentences logically to the point where you find you know a hell of a lot of the language without even trying- Did u know it was found in a study that the New York Times only uses600 different words...not a lot to learn to read a newspaper in a language!

The Wind

Brick Lane Market Graffiti

Deptford Graffiti

Some graffiti me & Craig spotted on Deptford Highstreet

Cormac Mc Carthy

Over Christmas I read The Road by Cormac Mc Carthy and this week went to see No Country for Old Men.

The Road is one of those post-apocalyptic books completely unlike any other story of that kind I have read. It looks at a relationship and how at the end of the day (or the world) thats all it comes down to - how it affects the relationships you have. The story is about a father-son relationship who are as McCarthy puts it, "each the other's world entire." Though there seems to be no reason to go on amongst the destruction of human spirit they have faith that there are other "good guys" who are "carrying the fire" like them.

This is a note I wrote after reading it: 'It gave me nightmares...a) because I desperately wanted to keep reading to the end despite having a sleep deficit and b) because it should. Its a warning but also a prayer...the hope that is implicit in any tale of the end of the world...the hope that we won't cause it and if we do the hope that we can deal with it with love'.

No Country for Old Men, a Coen Brother film based on the book of the same name, casted Tommy Lee Jones perfectly in the role of Ed Tom Bell, a sheriff following up a case and unfolding the world again in terms of relationships and in particular that of his one with his father. Some great 'sit up and think' moments like when Ed says of his dead father:

"I’m older now’n he ever was by twenty years. So in a sense he’s the younger man."

Never thought of passing my parents out in age. Reminds me of two ages I remember my mum being: 27 and 38. When I turned 40 it made little impact on me compared to when I turned 27. 27 was the first age I remember my mum being and when I got as old as my mum I reckoned that was really old so nothing phased me after that. When I turned 38 I put myself in my mums shoes again but this time at the age I made her a grandmother and realised how odd it would feel to be a grandmother at 38 when there's still so much mothering and growing up to do.

Whatever the next milestone, as Mc Carthy reminds us, its all a journey, which you can measure in terms of distance and numbers or in terms of the experience and relationships you have with the people you share the journey with.