This week is the school holiday week but GG barely had time to breathe. She was practically in school almost every day and got so tired that she says she wants a holiday before school starts tomorrow.
BB on the other hand, surprisingly didn’t have school at all. I was actually surprised by this given that they are the pure science class but I guess his teachers do enough of extra lessons during term time that they probably felt it was unnecessary during the holidays.
School starts tomorrow and with that term 2 where the pace will be intensified to rush to finish the curriculum before June so that students have ample time to revise for their O levels.
The Signe family is blessed with two daughters. Consuelo, the elder, is thought of as pensive and book-loving, the serious child-la niña seria-while Mili, her younger sister, is seen as vivacious, a ray of tropical sunshine.
Two daughters: one dark, one light; one to offer comfort and consolation, the other to charm and delight. But, for all the joy both girls should bring, something is not right in this Puerto Rican family; a tragedia is developing, like a tumour, at its core.
Eddie Trusted, an English school teacher in Colombo, wants to spend his life with Menaka Rupasinghe, a vibrant Sri Lankan beauty, but as with all matters of the heart, there’s an obstacle. If Eddie wants to wed Menaka, it is Thilak Rupasinghe, her orthodox terror of a father, whom he must woo and whose farts he must kiss –
Thilak wants his daughter to marry someone of the same race, religion and caste, and if possible from the same locality.
In a desperate bid to make his dream a reality, Eddie tries to connect with Thilak in other ways – eating curries that make him bleed spice and breathe fire, driving drunk through red lights, threatening co-workers with violence, and sleeping with snakes. But will Eddie ever be good enough for a man who hates the colour of his skin?
The other day, I was texting with one of my aunts and she told me that my maternal grandmother who lives with her and another aunt alternately, has been having issues which come with old age.
My grandmother is almost 90 and one of my fears is that she will pass away before I get a chance to meet her one last time. She already has had a heart scare earlier in the year and as my only surviving grandparent, I am scared to lose her.
Another person I am worried about is my dad who turned 75 earlier in the year. He also has some medical issues which we thankfully spotted on time and has been in treatment for the past few years. But to see the once strong man slowly being reduced to being dependent on others, is fairly scary.
This poem is a reflection of my thoughts.
The Fear
I know that when a person gets old The fear of death starts to take hold I wonder when the ball will fall When someone you love will stop and stall
I fear the time when you can’t hear their voice You can’t see them, smell them, and know that you don’t have a choice This fear is all encompassing, it takes over your entire being But this dear also makes you stop living, start crying
That’s the wrong approach to take, life is meant to be lived, not to be in pain Because death is inevitable, birth and death are two sides of the same coin Live your life as best as you can, learn to embrace your loved ones Meet them, speak to them live with them without any fictions
Then when it is time, let them go on their terms Don’t hold them back, revel in their lives This is harder than it looks, I know But learn to go with the flow, to take that blow
For our lives will go on, irrespective of what happens That’s the circle of life, with birth comes death
In the summer of 1140, Oliver Pascal returns home from a long pilgrimage to discover England ravaged by civil war and his family lands forfeit to the conflict between Henry I’s daughter Mathilda, and her cousin Stephen of Blois, who has seized the crown at her expense. Riding to the Earl of Gloucester’s keep at Bristol, Oliver stumbles upon the aftermath of a mercenary attack on an isolated village. Among the survivors are Richard, an illegitimate royal son and half-brother to the Earl himself, and the boy’s young nurse Catrin. Widowed, stubborn and proud, she has much in common with Oliver, a man still grieving for a wife lost in childbirth.
At Bristol, Catrin meets Ethel, a wise woman and midwife, who begins to train her in the healing arts and is instrumental in bringing Oliver and Catrin together as lovers. But the endurance of that love is threatened by the perils of injury in battle, the danger of childbirth, the upheaval of continuing civil war, and the risk of loving in exchange for nothing but heartbreak. In the end, Catrin must decide where her true loyalties lie.
