Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

It’s not going well today, the writing. It feels dead and dull. Very tedious. It was too much caffeine at first and then too little – as in after effects of caffeine. And i'm trying to get a new template going and it's not working either. Arrgh!!

Living in the truth

I attended Lisa's graduation on Saturday evening. It was an unexpected delight. Held in Conway Mill, clearly the Pilot's Row of West Belfast, it had a chilled out, easy going feel about it, which belied its history. Some of which was literal, as seen in the Irish Republican Army Museum which it also housed. There were numerous newspaper articles about the cat, Saoirse, who regularly upstaged Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams, and there were even photos of the cat in front of some Ardeis, licking it's white fluffy paws nonchalantly, as McGuinness rained fire and brimstone from the podium. Anyway, the cat was dead. After a long and happy life at Conway Mill. Lisa is now a fully qualified homeopath, and i am so pleased. She has just stuck with it for three years, three long years. She looked lovely in her cheongsam and the food was kinda a surprise. Rendang. Proper rendang too. The feel of West Belfast is very informal and here love, whataboutcha love? It's more laid back ...

I am truly blessed with the best friends. How lucky, how wealthy, how incredible. Yesterday Linda and Kevin came round for dinner. Linda picked Oisin up from school and Kevin fixed the sliding door. We had curry and share a bottle of wine as the summer evening happened to us. It was tremendous. Laughter and tears and conversation and being with good good people. All of us supporting each other in thousands of ways which are invisible and indivisible. I said to Linda, i could so see myself at the age of 55, climbing trees, jumping into rubber dingys and stopping whaling fleets. I'd be the old woman, the mad activist grandmother. My children will hide their faces in public embarrassment but secret pride. It will be fantastic. Linda said, yep, i'm up for that too! When we've done our mothering, we'll start doing other stuff. It will be wonderful. The way i see it, i have about 15 years to be with the boys, because they will grow up quick and i want to say that i was there ...

Yep, today is what it is. Life will now never be a same again. Today, something took place, and it was clear that what i had to do needed to be done. It was going to be difficult and tough and painful, but at the end, someone must decide. And i do not know if it will be right, but this is not right either. So, today, we move... forever.

I've taken a photo of breakfast because this is the bread i baked. I baked it yesterday and it is perfect. After all these years i now bake the perfect bread. Why did i not do this earlier? Because i stupidly thought that when you knead bread the dough is not to stick to your hands. Fact is that dough must be sticky, otherwise the bread will be keras bedegal. It also took 45 mins to bake through completely. Wetter dough takes longer time. The result? Perfect, soft and at the same time delicious bread. The difference between commercial loaf and a home baked loaf - a proper one - is the difference between sugar and a sugar substitute. Yesterday there was a Team Day at work. I told people it was a Field Trip because it was easier. Today there's a field trip. We are going to learn about wildflower meadows. I'm going because it is good for me to learn more about the business end of the work i do. I had already missed out on a mothing weekend, so to be able to go for this today w...

BEFORE we went to Oisin's party, we went to this World War II exhibition. It was pretty cool. I didn't get many photos because the boys were running all over the place. But i asked all the questions i needed to ask about artillery and then some. Like did you know that rifles are called rifles because the bullet and the barrel is rifled? This gives the bullet stability when it is fired as it spins and has it's own centering mechanism, enabling the bullet to be more accurate. Isn't that interesting? So here we are at pizza Express. DO NOT go here for a child's party. The staff are not equipped to deal with it. The idea and the venue were lovely, but the staff were the most stand offish, disinterested and bored people. Except for the nice waiter, everyone else had the longest faces when the kids were being kids. I admit, it's not exactly a sit down meal, but you'll see from these photos that they were fine. They were noisy and rowdy, but they kept seated AND th...