Category: FUTURES

A Suspended Christmas

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a suspended christmas

featuring SELFISH MOTHER and Save the Children

If you do not live in the United Kingdom, then grab a seat! This post requires an explanation.

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.

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The coat

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featuring WRAP UP LONDON

I arrived in Britain in the summer, fifteen years ago.

I had with me one photo album, one diary, pens, a couple of books, a Walkman (do you remember those?), my university diploma and a very small wardrobe of mainly tops and bottoms. The only pair of shoes I had thought of taking was on me and it lasted a whole year. I still retain wonderful memories – my best ever shoes!

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Leftover Lunch

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dandelion

‘Maybe you should just leave it for a few more days, and it would exit the lunchbox on its own. Imagine, the lunchbox monster escapes and you would have so much less washing up to do.’

‘It’ is the leftover lunch that is awaiting, unopened, on the school rack. It was abandoned since Friday, so it had a whole weekend to work its way into life.

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On how I met my husband

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featuring #IAMWHOLE

As a teenager, I was a recluse. I read – a lot, played Atari on my brand new home computer (do you remember those two-dimensional computer games that would take an hour to load up, once a cassette would be inserted into the separate player?).

I enjoyed music. I methodically listened to my dad’s entire record collection and later on played some of those pieces (badly) on our upright piano.

I also loved to walk and talk.

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On clouds … and how to keep warm in winter

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If someone asked you how many types of clouds there were, what would your answer be?

My uncle, forever the erudite, would list clouds in their Latin names: cirrostratus, altostratus, stratocumulus; he might say something about the troposphere. My youngest daughter would ignore the question altogether and would quiz me on the lack of planes and helicopters in the sky.

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On that birth story I never wrote down

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I have kept a journal ever since I learnt how to write. I wrote a PhD, I write a weekly blog.

I have hand written letters to my best friend ever since I could remember.

I wrote my first daughter‘s birth story minute by minute, stage by stage.

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My wedding, part III, or How I cannot read the future, even when it’s laid right in front of me

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I grew up in a house full of books.

Books in the mahogany bookcase, books in the vitrines, in place of figurines, knick-knacks and glassware. Books instead of side tables. Books supporting dressers and cabinets, books in wall crevices. Books in the wardrobe. Books in corridors, books behind doors, books on the kitchen table, books in beds, books on the upright piano, books on windowsills. Books at the entrance, books in the balcony.

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Our wedding – PART II, or how to piece one memory from different sources

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The story of our wedding, part I, can be found here.

It is the same day, 11am.

Let us piece the rest of the day, from various sources:

My feelings: of embarrassment, or rather pure terror. In my usual life, I smile and laugh a lot, especially in inappropriate moments. I was somehow convinced I was going to burst out with laughter, so pinching myself I sat, in a fixed uncomfortable position, throughout the ceremony. I remember nothing else.

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On football and the only World Cup game I have watched this year

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‘I often lay awake at night and look back at my life in wonder.

I am married, I have a family and I have changed jobs 5 times, because I wanted to. I feel like I have only moved up.

If my mother had lived to know this, she would find herself in disbelief, but proud. Continue reading “On football and the only World Cup game I have watched this year” →