new thoughts, new work

oh dear, don't you just hate the way technology keeps ahead and crushes any illusions you may have that you are not REALLY an antiquated old fossil?...... Just as, with much assistance from my ether buddies, i have sort-of mastered the simplest blog tasks, (although i must admit, despite very clear and explicit instructions, i am still totally unable to customise the sidebar) we now have bigger, better, brighter beta, and i now have to figure out all the subtle nuances of whatever new features are lurking behind this deceptivly similar dashboard page! Maybe now i'll be able to get my photos to go where they should, but don't hold your breath!

New Thoughts:

Earlier today, I started to discuss a fascinating, if horrifying new book I am reading, called "we need to speak about Kevin". It deals with the parents of a child who committed mass murder at school, grappling to come to terms with how their son turned out. But my thoughts got too morbid for a Monday morning, so i deleted it! The previous book i have just finished was no less chilling in content, yet strangely uplifting at the same time. It is the true and recent story of a girl from Sudan, who was captured, sold into slavery at about 11 or 12 years old, sent to work first in Khartoum and the London (YES, SLAVERY GOES ON IN THE "ENLIGHTENED" WEST TOO!!!) and finally escaped and wrote a book while battling to get political asylum in Britain. Her amazing spirit throughout it all was so inspiring that, while feeling outrage at the perpetrators (who are fully supported in their raids on the black villages by the Sudan government) it didn't become heavy or depressing to read. Those of us who live in the comfort zone of a democratic government can become very compacent about what is going on around us. On the other hand, another book I read recently deals with those who feel they have to do something. It is called "Emergency sex and other desperate measures, and deals with three aid workers who move from one war zone to the next, and end up with the UN, but it traces their attitudes from glowing idealism, to growing cynicism (wish this new beta blogger had spell check!!) as they see how things happen behind the scenes. You would think that with all this stirring literature I would pack my bags and rush off to the next available warzone to help, but I must admit that the comfort zone still tugs very hard, and anyway, someone has to stay home and worry about the other family members out there in darkest nasty places, and prepare yummy sustaining roasts for them when they return!

And new works:

(the bottom photo is our back patio, after its latest facelift)