Fireworks!

Tonight we went to the fireworks.  They were splendid, but what struck me was how British we all were, standing in an orderly fashion behind lengths of orange tape in front of the display. OK, so it was only 6pm, and not really the time for being drunk and disorderly, but I didn't spot a single errant child (not that I was expecting them to be drunk and disorderly...)  Perhaps we're all just too well behaved up north.

Sadly the picture isn't mine, but is an image of how really splendid this tradition of ours is. Walking home in the drizzly rain I could hear fireworks going off all over the city, I could smell the gunpowder on the air.  It was a far cry from a balmy evening lying on the grass at Baobab School, Lusaka, watching a display fire way up into the sky and feeling the glittery explosion was about to land on top of you.  

I always wondered what sort of ex-pats decided to bring this tradition to deepest, darkest Africa. No less splendid display there - merely warmer and drier.

Contesting the election

There is much to say about half-term.  We travelled lots - day trips to Peterborough and Middlesborough (not your standard tourist destinations, I have to admit) and a weekend at my Dad's (complicated by him not being there - such is life!)

I shall write more about these trips another day, but for now I will draw your attention back to Zambia, who has just elected its fourth president: Rupiah Banda.  He was VP to Mwanawasa and won by a staggering 2%.  Unsurprisingly Michael Sata, the main opposition leader, is contesting the outcome.  Where would decent African politics be without the loser claiming irregularities and vote-rigging and resorting to the law-courts to resolve it?

It could be the USA 2000 election...

Book update

Aargh!  Half term is upon me, and I have to hold my hands up and say I have not completed my book.  It was my first deadline - failed but, if I'm honest, I always rather suspected I would.

So I must mark my achievements.  Thousands of words - over fifty thousand to be precise.  Lots of beautiful memories.  And, to exonerate myself a little, I have spent the last three weeks editing rubbish bits rather than writing new bits.  So ultimately the book is better for it - God willing!  

In fact, the only truly new bit of writing to do is the final chapter, which is lurking around in my mind, pulling strings together, wrapping up the present and finally gifting the completed book.  

So now there is a Christmas deadline looming instead.  Perhaps by then there'll be a more positive outcome for the hours hunched in front of the computer - or maybe I'll copy-and-paste this entry...

STOP PRESS! CREDIT CRUNCH HITS!

The Credit Crunch has hit Jesmond.

Two shops in Acorn Road have closed in the past four months or so.

One was a student property letting office.  Their business has been relocated to their head office in the city centre.

Within days it was transformed into Daniel's: a high fashion shoe shop.

Almost opposite it was a corner store: newsagent and general sales.  It has been closed for some while, but at the beginning of October it was finally refurbished and opened as ... LeBeado: a shop that sells beads.  Yes, beads.  For necklaces and the like.

It is good to know that, in the midst of banking turmoil and stock market crisis, Jesmond is capable of being at one with the people of great britain...

Books, blogging and the internet

Having read Hadriana's excellent summary of the workshop at the Edinburgh International Book Festival entitled Books, blogging and the internet I'm not sure I'm qualified to write anything.  Except that I was there and last-minute-stand-in-Vanessa did an excellent job of guiding this blogger with L-plates into the wonderful world of internetworking.  Sorry it has taken me so long to get my thoughts in some sort of coherent order!

I'd spent all week trying hard to learn how to write (just do it!), publish (rejection is nothing personal) and still maintain some degree of self-confidence (you do still have value, honest).  It appears that the road to riches is a long one: lots of potholes, several false summits and unlikely to be paved with gold - ever.

Yet my week of workshops has encouraged - perhaps even forced - me to persist with my writing, to set aside time every day to write something, even if it is a load of waffle.  Hopefully most of that gets edited out of the blog and the book but every time I edit or re-read there is something else that gets a line straight through.  There are supposed deadlines that I plan to meet (although I refuse to make them public, as I am sure I'll fail them all, then feel really small and useless).  Still, two weeks in to my new routine and the book has progressed another 12,000 words and some of them are excellent.

I found this cartoon and I think it sums up very well what I learnt about blogging, or indeed publishing in general.  Tickled me, anyway!

Domestic bliss

Frightening moment this afternoon.

2.4 children playing at friends or in the back street behind our house.

Husband asleep since working nights.

Me, stood at stove, flouring and frying meat for a stew for the family dinner, dressed with apron and Weekend Women's hour on in the background.

What picture of 1950's perfect domesticity is that?

The end of an era

I read with interest the state funeral of the President of Zambia, Levy Mwanawasa.  I picture the events - the cortege, the copper coffin, the streets lined with people.  I imagine the disruption as schools close, roads are cut off and employees abscond for the day.  I pray for peace as this little part of the world is forced into unexpected change and development.