Hot!!

I went back to work yesterday, it was hot, tiring climbing all those stairs, but fun to be back with the people I care about and who care about me. I have to admit my enthusiasm waned a little by about 2.30pm and I just did basic sorting and filing tasks.
It is great to have book discussions again with Stephanie and to be involved in the life of a school.


I have started reading this on my VRS. Several people have expressed surprise that I have never read it before but was not much of a novel reader until recently. As I keep going to sleep listening to the dulcet tones of the narrator I may need to buy for my kindle to get the whole story. It seems to be an expose of life in the US, small town, ordinary people, yet I understand there is drama to come. 

I am unsure why I have always read non-fiction. Perhaps I was just following my mother who liked to read this genre, or perhaps because I personally like to read books I can gain something from. I am finding some of the more modern novels full of plot, drama, written in a way that makes one unwilling to put the book down. 

Reading is a great pleasure in this awful heat. If there is nothing else to do picking up a kindle book abates the heat and transports one to a different environs. 

As it is the weekend again Amazon will have some more specials. Trawling their website offers great pleasure along with planning my own book and doing my art. I need to see the heat as a friend who allows me to be myself.  

Murder

The story of Scott Guy is riveting. I am too hot and tired to stay awake and listen to it for long periods of time but I feel as though Jo Guy and I are walking a similar path. Her words echo my own in so many ways, almost to the point that I suspect that in whatever way we lose a child our thoughts and feelings are very similar. As we all admired the many appearances and decency of Brian Guy I can now see him as a farmer with many things to deal with, often putting his farm ahead of people as so many farmers do. 

   
Yesterday I began reading this book of reconciliation and a life spent trying to bring understanding between the Israelis and Palestinians. Izzeldin is an internationally trained doctor living in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip who spent much of his time working in an Israeli hospital. This cover photo shows his three eldest daughters who were killed by an Israeli missile less than a month after it was taken. Written around a truth that fills the lives of every person living in Gaza, the author has an understanding of the anger lived by radicals and how the ordinary person wishes to live peacefully side by side. This book was recommended to me by Robbie Francis who has lived, studied and worked in Israel when she studied peace resolution. I look forward to continuing to read this book as an example of how we can all live in peace whatever our beliefs and background.

   

 

Wealthy Dentists

I broke a filling and cracked a tooth this week. I have now been to the dentist twice, today it was free as his work on Wednesday did not last. I am never quite sure why dentistry is so expensive, seems rather greedy to me.

 
I am two thirds of the way through this book on my kindle and am thoroughly enjoying it. many of us take time out to reflect on our lives, something which is intrinsically important yet often an unrecognised need. Joan was lucky in that her husband kept her during her year of thinking and she was able to live without fear of going cold or hungry. Many of us do our thinking as a daily part of our normal lives and have to be content with snatches of contemplation.

I have been reading some back copies of New Zealand magazines such as North and South on my VRS. last night I began reading a new book;

This story of one of New Zealand's supposedly unsolved murders, the Guy family has opened up in a way and to a depth often not seen in this country. Although his brother in law was tried and found not guilty of the murder there seems to be few other clues as to who may have committed this crime. I am listening with interest to see if any clues can be proposed as to who killed Scott Guy.

I am about to start a huge literature review, although I have been told not to make it too long I am sure that a detailed in-depth review is required. I will see how I get on with it and hopefully this will lead to further work. It is great to have some academic work again.

I keep trawling the Amazon.com website for new books I might enjoy, it is a bit like having the library at home and being able to see all the new books on the shelf at once.



Both these books appealed to me as I have been re-walking my adoption journey over the last 6 or 7 months. I also downloaded Prague Winter about 2 years ago for my VRS but could not stand the artificial voice it was being read in. It is a holiday weekend here, lots of reading to do. Now for some photos I found while looking for Madeleine Albright's book.
 

Cooking

Not the sort of cooking done in the oven or on the stovetop, the weather is turning us all into shrivelled images of our former self. Most of us are feeling burnt around the edges, too well done and wishing that someone would turn the stove down. Our winter lasted too long and spring never arrived but now we have the type of summer which the Waikato used to experience 50 or 60 years ago. Grateful that heat means no sore joints, we could have that advantage without the overwhelming humidity. 

I have been reading voraciously, mostly in an attempt to catch up on months of not being able to read due to ongoing migraines. I had felt that The Illegal Gardener   might be another of those boring memoirs but it is turning out to be very interesting. We seldom have illegal emigres here due to the island nature of our country and distance from anywhere. I had never realised there were whole communities of people living silently in countries in Europe trying to make enough money to send back to their poverty stricken relatives at home. We are very lucky here in New Zealand in so many ways that I cringe when I hear them talking of poverty here.

I have been watching the Amazon.com website most days in case books I want to buy are available either free or on special. Many years ago I purchased a book online as a result of a promise by the publishers they would send me an e-copy. All this happened, but the print in the book was tiny and the e-copy did not work on my talking book machine. I have checked Amazon several times over the ensuing years but the book was never available for kindle. A couple of days ago I discovered, while searching for some other books about World War 2, that the book I so want to read was finally available.


The history of a secret archive dedicated to documenting life in Warsaw under Nazi occupation, this collection remained hidden until one of the few survivors of the group returned to the hiding place and this huge archival collection was documented for the world.

Life is beginning to seem normal now, I am doing those things I love and truly enjoy; writing, journaling, art journaling, reading, listening to beautiful music and spending time with friends and enjoying good food. I have slowed down enough to find their is enjoyment in the small moments, pleasure in watching time pass, listening to the silence.