We Need to Talk About Gaza

November 29, 2012 By in Activism Tags: , , , , , , , 59 Comments

I lost my temper on Twitter the other week.

It had been a long day on a delayed train. I was sat in a hotel room while DorkySon slept and DorkyDad was out at work, and I was whiling away the time online. On one tab, I had the Guardian live feed of events in Gaza, and on another tab I had Twitter, where it seemed like half the people I follow were getting all excited about I’m A Celebrity, and the other half were taking part in a sponsored discussion about Christmas presents.

What I should probably have done is turned the iPad off and gone to sleep, but I couldn’t. The rage had arrived.

‘Why are you all ignoring this?’ I tweeted.

‘Why is no-one talking about Gaza? What has to happen before we start paying attention to this? How many children have to be killed before we’re outraged?’

I ranted on for a while, before finally giving up and turning the lights out. Perhaps luckily, I then spent ten days offline while we were on holiday.

But the questions have been rumbling around in my mind ever since and I’ve been trying to find a way to write about them in more detail. It is hard. I have started this post several times and deleted it because what I’ve written doesn’t seem adequate. I have a deeply emotional response to the situation without having the extensive background knowledge to make every argument in as perfect and coherent a way as I would like.

Continue reading →

Much to be thankful for

November 28, 2012 By in Family, Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 25 Comments

Fripp Island beach

We always say that DorkySon seems to grow up more in the space of a week-long holiday than he does in the other 51 weeks of the year, and our recent break turned out to be no exception.

It was truly one adventure after another, with something new and exciting for him to enjoy every day. We don’t own a car, so even a short taxi ride is something of a novelty – when our holiday began with an hour-long car journey down the motorway, he thought that was the best possible start. We were headed into London for a night in a hotel there. DorkySon had sausage and mash, and then jelly and ice cream for dinner, while looking wide-eyed out the window at the buses and taxis rushing by. The next day we had a long train journey to Edinburgh, then two nights in a hotel and a full day with DorkyGranny.

All that before our holiday had even started for real! Continue reading →

Project 52: Weeks 44-47

November 27, 2012 By in Photography, Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 11 Comments

Hello hello! We’re back from our holidays.

Thank you so much to all the brilliant guest posters who kept the blog looking busy while I was away stuffing myself with Thanksgiving turkey, and thanks also to everyone who kept visiting, commenting and sharing the posts. I really appreciate it.

I’ll make time to do a proper post about our time away later in the week, but for starters I thought I’d catch up on my Project 52 and share a few photos. At some point in the year I think I missed a week or two by accident, so I’ll take this opportunity to get back on the right schedule.

Week 44 – This wasn’t a bad start to a little boy’s holiday!

Harry Potter Kings Cross Platform 9 and 3/4

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Books and s*@t

November 26, 2012 By in Guest Posts Tags: , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

I’m very excited to have a guest post from a blogger who I know to be just as much of a love in real life as she is onscreen. It’s Caroline – formerly Scribbling Mum – now Letters from Your Mum, writing about her vair vair exciting new adventure. 

Scribbling Mum bookshop

*clears throat*

‘Books! Books! Get your luverly children’s books here. Two for a tenner £11.98’

I’ve finally done it. What started as a chat with my best friend’s husband 18 months ago is now an actual thing, an actual brand, and an actual online children’s bookshop. It’s open. It’s real. We have bookmarks and everything.

Back then our working name was ‘Books and shit’ but I decided that might not work for everyone so – after many lists, polls and opinion surveys – The Green Door Bookshop was born. Please, no Shakin’ Stevens jokes. Continue reading →

Running Away from Lions

November 25, 2012 By in Guest Posts Tags: , , 12 Comments

Today’s post is by a friend and former colleague Julia Harrison. Julia isn’t a blogger, but was kind enough to respond positively when I put a call out for guest posts. I think this is a brilliant piece, which must have taken a good bit of courage to write, and I feel honoured to have it on my blog.

motion

I’m very happy to be doing a guest blog for Ruth, while she’s away. I really enjoy her blog, so I’ve given this my best shot, ‘cos I know how high the bar is for what she writes. I want to talk about something in my own experience which I’d like people to know more about. My brain is very good at telling me to run away from lions. Continue reading →