seeing the humanity and joy in our everyday
The same people every week. The blonde woman supporting herself on the raised stone wall. The smartly dressed man by the bench, phone light flickering on his face. Another woman greeting a neighbour. Continue reading “Community, Wonder”
I remember the first time I tried icing on a cake. I was 24 years old and had recently started working at the YMCA.
Continue reading “Iced Christmas Cake”
A Christmas jumper is ‘a top pulled over the head to cover the torso, themed with a Christmas or winter-style design.’ Save the Children UK encourage people to wear a Christmas jumper on a specific day in December (it’s the 14th this year) and raise money for the charity. Most people wear Christmas jumpers outside of that one day, during Advent and Christmas.
We decorate the tree close to Christmas. It is hard work to resist the temptation to buy a Christmas tree and dress it in late November, together with everybody else, but we generally (though reluctantly) manage it. Continue reading “Our Christmas tradition”
And did you also know that you can still see the living proof of the seas on the London Green Belt? I did not. Continue reading “Round ocean pebbles”
I had just started year 3 in school. This in Romania was almost halfway through primary school. I felt very grown up. I was proud to be a big girl, who read big books. But secretly, my most loved pastime remained playing house with my dolls, my best friend and my little sister. Continue reading “On Communism”
I remember the reception room, flooded with light. Light reflecting on the bookcase vitrines, light dancing on the crystal glassware on the table.
Pawel’s mobile rang and for some reason he didn’t take the call in the main room. He went upstairs. I remember thinking he was gone for ages and that it was peculiar that he had left the room. Premonition? He came down eventually and he was changed. A few months later, a common friend told me she couldn’t recognise Pawel – that he had gotten old all of a sudden. Continue reading “The End”