Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

Star suncatchers... Children wait in the woods for St Nicholas. Here he is! Receiving gifts from the classes of pictures and decorations. They bring him inot the warmth to sit down and... Look St Nicholas i can do patacake! ...they sing to him...in German!!! I should be doing the accounts, cleaning the study and taking a nap. Instead i'm faffing about on the computer. Sometimes i think, i wonder if i can find the meaning of life on google. If i typed in 'meaning of life' and hit the i'm feeling lucky button, will it appear. Will it then being to make sense? Will i feel free then? A bit lighter? A bit more relieved? It ain't happening though is it? It just ain't. I look at the study and despair. Did i not clean this place up a month ago? I did. I have proof of it. I took a photograph and put it on the blog. Why won't it stay tidy? Books, papers, more papers and more books all placed higgledy-piggledy all over the place. It makes me want to start a bonfire, ne...

Peter called yesterday evening, finally getting through for the first time. When i was in Indonesia more than twenty years ago, the phone lines were highly erratic, unpredictable and unreliable. Something which i have no trouble with now. But then i really thought it was very extremely backward. It looks like things haven't changed much anyways...here are Oisin and Ghin taking turns to speak to him. Hi Dad! We made toads in the hole yesterday for dinner. It was very scrummy and Ghin also had mini toads. They are very easy to make and quite dramatic looking when they come out of the over, all Yorkshire puddling like and extremely cute. In addition to the toads, we also made our own spelt bread and if that isn't enough i also made sugarded almonds. Hands up the number of people who think i'm transmorgrifying into Martha Stewat? Ghin indulging in some toad in the hole... Hmmm...yesterday, while waiting for the bread to rise, i said to Oisin, let's write some cards to priso...

They are supposed to serve the best cinnamon scones in the UK here...but i think i'd prefer the fruit compote and mereingue. Excuse me, can someone take our order, please... Anyone...anyone... She certainly made short work of that scone anyway - and i didn't get my fruit compote either.... It's time to leave now. Can someone help me out of this....anyone...anyone...? Can you call my agent and tell him to start charging my mother for these photo sessions...? Also this harness is filthy. You'd think that the place that serves the best cinnamon scones in the UK could afford some clean harnesses. I did some Christmas shopping today at a local antique book dealer. Tip to Jacq: Please buy your books on eBay. It seem to be cheaper there. It seems some of our old Ladybird books are now worth £30 each. It's mental, of course. However on eBay they go for £1.50. I don't understand the discrepancy, never having bought anything on eBay myself. I suppose you bid for it and th...

The weekend past was Aurelia's birthday. Jacq chiaed the whole family and she made her own cake. I was kinda teary when i saw the photos of Pa and Ma and Aurelia. She's so grown up and they all looked so happy. Pa and Aurelia - proud grandaddy...which reminds me of a story. We were making falaffels a couple of days ago and the instructions were to make the falaffels into the size of golf balls. Roll them into the size of golf balls Oisins...he looked very contemplative and after a few seconds said to me...hmmmm Kong Kong's balls - what were they like? What did you say? i inquired as calmly as possible...his golf balls Mummy, i'm trying to remember what they looked like. Proud Mama... Jacq's strawberry cheesecake decorated to look like some sort of...red faced snowman, i think...or monkey with measles...ooooh what a bitch!!! The holy family, very seasonal... I can't believe Aurelia is a year old!!! It sort of makes it real doesn't it, the blowing of the candl...

It was Oscar's birthday party today and rather than stress myself out trapising round looking for some cheap plastic tat to buy, i thought that we'd bake some cookies. This solved the problem of what to do for the morning after we put Ghin to bed as well as the present. It was also free as we had all the ingredients with us. It turned out quite well and for the wrapping we recycled kite paper, some tissue paper and used some wool which i had got last year for making the flower children - what a disaster that was!!! Oisin then wrote Oscar's birthday card and it was the first time he wrote a whole card out on his own - with me prompting him for spelling of course. Bearing in mind that since my pathetic attempt to teach him how to write in Singapore we had NOT done any writing work at home, this was pretty incredible. It is proof that the Steiner system works... Finally, we cleaned up - and Oisin licked all the icing sugar off the table. What can you do? I wasn't about to ...

Ghin imitates a baby osprey at the Advent wreath making in the Christian community of Holywood. Oisin's class on Friday... The nature table... First day of Peter not being here and it was really hectic - because we had it hectic i guess. St George's in the morning, Lucy's in the afternoon and making advent wreaths in the late afternoon followed by making falaffels for dinner. I got Aurelia her brithday present and am really pleased with it! It's a teething necklace made of amber. I have never heard of this before, but one day while waiting for Oisin to come out i saw a classmate of his with an amber chain. That's very pretty, i said to her. It's for my teeth she said. Oh, that's a good idea, Judith replied. What's that about? i asked. Oh, when you teeth, the amber is supposed to soothe the process. Rory had one when he was a baby. It never occurred to me that you could use it second time round. I can imagine Oisin's face when i ask him to wear an amb...

Now let's see here...oh i see it's a volcanically active zone....hmmm... ...and Kuta Beach may possibly be avoided with all those Mat Sallehs there as well.... Ah ha Johnny Depp, let me see what's behind your eye... I see there be bounty... ...in the form of chocolate... Peter left for the UNFCCC - the climate change negotiations. Ten years ago when you told people about it they looked at you as if you wee Chicken Little. Who's chicken now eh? Anyhow, last night after he took Oisin to Portglenone to see Santa - an experience which i am told has to be experienced to be appreciated - he packed, with assistance from Ghin who woke up, as if to have some time of his own with daddy as well. After perusing the guide the climcate change village in Bali, he attacked the somewhat unlikely Pirates of the Carribean advent calendar which he now know has chocolates in it. You'd think that at the very least they'd try and make the chocolate piratically themed if it is going to...