Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Did gardening yesterday - i took a half day and didn't need to get Oisin. So i got stuff from Alan and a good film and did that - and then got Ghin and we did gardening. Ghin is of an age now where he still doesn't understand that you cannot step on seedlings. You also cannot haul them up by their leaves and you need to stay on the paths. I myself have just understood this. So it was a little longer and more laboured than it would usually have been with Ghin helping. He also hacked away at a few foxgloves - which he mistook for weeding and felt a the 'hot' plant - the nettle. It was a controlled experiment to show him that he could not willy nilly put his hands on any plant and expect it to come right. Gardening is like blogging. One has to do it everyday to get the full benefit of it. Not several hours a day - just a bit everyday. About half an hour a day if the garden is up to scratch. A bit longer if it isn't. I have neglected the garden very badly over the last ...

Peter was supposed to wake up for zen today. I'm dead fed up with my ankle. I was supposed to be fit by this time this year. Instead i have a swollen foot and some jubblying that's taking place a - just spoke to Jacq there... she looks really well and happy, which is more than anyone can want. Yesterday i was listening to the whole thing with Question Time and Brown is going to lose things big style if he doesn't grab the situation with both hands and do something. I wonder what it would be like sometimes in Singapore if we had a free press. I won't say we need a free press now. Because i think that Singapore has evolved in the way it has and it's like a really rare species. Change the equation and it will just wilt. Tis has been... I'm going to do some gardening tonight. After we have dinner. I wonder what's for dinner? Dinner...something simple probably. I'll dig the cupboards and see what i find. Oisin is with Jacob in Ballywalter. I'll be going t...

Woken up late today but still want to blog. Sorry no photos. The camera isn't feeling very well. I'm trying to see if i can do a work round with its wonky lens. i'm really tired still but last night, after i allowed myself to read something which was entirely unrelated to my working/mothering/dutiful wife life, i felt much better. It was the Ramayana - for children - a longer, less illustrated version. And it made me feel homesick. My mother only had to say 'sabar menanti' last night and i felt a pang of sorriness not going to Singapore this year. Sabar menanti means wait for a bit - or be patient and wait in Malay. It's the name of a restaurant near the Sultan Mosque which sell lovely Malay food. Rendang, opor ayam, ketupat, sotong in its own ink, sambal kangkong. The things that really link people to the culture - the people to their life. Sometimes i feel so sorry for people here who have so little. No collective food culture, as it were. Apart from Irish ste...

I am feeling unusually tired. I think i might go to the doctors. I went to bed at 9 pm and didn't wake up till 6. And that was me prising myself out of bed. It feels shite because one month ago waking in the middle of the night meant me catching up with housework and stuff. Now i don't get up and housework is starting to snowball again after the weekend of cleaning. And so today's blog will be short so that i can wash the pile of dishes. Ghin was so funny yesterday. He snacked for dinner. Chicken, yoghurts, bacon and soup and then asked for egg. No egg i had to tell him - he had two for breakfast. Then in bed we went through what he had for dinner and when i came to the end of the list, he went "No egg". How could i not laugh. No egg. Oisin and Peter went to Derry yesterday. I could had done gardening i suppose. Some gardening. No - i need to get my life back in order again. There's no point whinging away. I feel so stupid whinging. BBC is doing a poetry seaso...

And so life goes on, eh? At this stage i am convinced that i can't be bothered to change anything in my life, and then something comes along and wham! i'm all fight. Like yesterday Lisa was talking to me about Gyros. Gyros WAS this place in Belfast which the activist community went to . It closed down in a meltdown about seven years ago. People who remember it still talk about it fondly and last week we heard that people wanted to open it again. We were chatting and i realised that my priorities were not other people in a disassociated way, but those that i immediately knew. The kids, the family, the friends - my workplace and the people i worked with. Thankfully all this allows me to be quite political, but we agreed, if we took care of the world, or tried to pretend to ourselves that we were doing this, then who would take care of our family? The most important thing for us was to look after what we had to the best of our ability. All that saving the world stuff - that can wa...

Ghin got his face painted for the first time yesterday. Guess what he was...a pirate!!! I can't believe how still he sat...like he was born to be painted. Considering what a fuss pot he is it was incredible. Maybe he'd been watching me all these months putting on make up...he does have a fascination with my make up bag. Just before we leave for the market yesterday...some photos, just to capture the moment...the ordinary, simple moments... Oisin and his fantastic creation... Oisin took this...i so seldom look good in photos so i thought, what the heck... Ghin has now developed a love of all things pink and he seems obsessed with this bit of Cinderella's dress which he stole from Dervla. I do not know what to make of this. On the one hand i an completely relaxed with this. On the other... We spent yesterday cleaning the house. The both of us. I have been so tired now over the last few days. Few weeks really. Since before i left for Rome. I will never EVER work the way i work...

Here are Oisin and Ghin at the Black Market. It was part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival - the big spring festival in Belfast. Music, marquees and sunshine...what more could you want? This is the back of Piazza Venezia. As i walked up from Theatro de Marcello, the sound of music and laughter came from these windows. What's really nice about Rome is that they've managed to successfully marry commerce, architecture, cultural heritage and real living spaces. Because of this the place is alive. I didn't see any dead spaces or ghettos...i think these may exist further outside town, but certainly in the city centre, in old Rome, there was no abandoned buildings, no matter how dilapidated it seemed to get. A view of the temple of Venus, i think, from the Colosseum. I went to the Colosseum because Oisin wanted me to. I got a whole load of gladiator stuff. It brought home to me how barbaric the Romans were. They ruled by the sword and got their kicks from the high which that...