a current blog and a listy....

its weird being on blogspot, it doesn't really have a community feel about it, i feel as if i am blogging in isolation, not that it matters particularly, but i do like reading other blogs and a bit of interaction. we went to church in our old home town tonight, menekse and i, the boys are away, i have quite a bit of updating to do but don't really want to do that until i have finished moving all my posts across, we also have a new camera and i would like to get that working so that i can put some photos up, a blog without photos leans towards boring, imho.

anyway, had a bit of a lightbulb moment in brid tonight, we popped into tescos, i have issues with big crowded places and so tesco in hull is a bit of a struggle, as we wandered round the one in brid, which is like a corner shop and where i know where everything is - even at christmas when they move it all again, well, i realised that i miss 'my' tesco more than i miss the house or even more than the town - not more than the beach though. how mad is that? maybe tesco have brainwashed me.

1. What I was doing 10 years ago:

well, i was 37, the kids were still in school, so, walking the dog, housework, helping out at school and nursery, church stuff, helping my mum probably, i lead a very mundane life, its great!!

2. What 5 things are on on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

a) take dd's bike to the repair shop - there is something going on with her tyres.

b). finish cleaning the living room and moving a bit of furniture around

c). sort out ds's bedroom a bit, so we can build his new wardrobe before he gets back from turkiye

d) visit my friend who lives very closeby and whom i haven't seen since we moved here!

e). spend as much time as i can reading my bible - had an excellent sermon tonight on that very subject.

3. Snacks I enjoy:
toast, peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwich, banana, walkers cheese and onion crips, any chocolate - more or less.

4. What would you do if you had alot of money?

pay everyones mortgage and buy them a car; put money away for the kids so they can be mortgage free; buy us a house here and in turkiye; pay the church building loan and mortgage off and get the improvements done; invest a bit for our pension; give some to TBS towards getting bible translated into turkish; send the rest to sri lanka to a church i know which is looking after kids orphaned in the tsunami;

5. Places I have lived:
Leeds; Primrose Valley; Sudbury; Scarborough; York; Bridlington; Hull.

sick bay 20.10.06

so our daughter is quite poorly, and has been for a couple of weeks, actually, if i am going to be picky, she has been unwell for a couple of months. she gets tonsilitis on a regular basis, really regular, so far since august this is her third 'episode' as the doc puts it. so far this time, in the last two weeks, we have been to the doc 3 times and are on the third lot of antibiotics, her throat is a mess, and finally we have a reason for a camera phone - taking photos of ones tonsils is a great game to play apparently . anyway, the doc has finally agreed to her going to see the ENT dude since this continuous sickness is playing havoc with her education, at present they are wondering whether it is actually glandular fever although the test was negative. rejoice with me dear reader because menekse managed to have a blood test without hitting anyone and without running out of the room - my hand is in plaster and i have several broken ribs though just kidding.

what else is new with us? not alot. my mum is home from her travels, she flew in from ecuador a couple of weeks ago, spent a week with us as my sisters were both away and is now esconced with my middle sister near York getting to know Lovely Niece, sounds like they are having a great time too, i rang yesterday and they were painting. it was mums birthday while she was with us so we went to this really nice fish restaurant, its fairly new, i have been watching it develop over the winter from a derelict building into quite a fancy place, i am hoping to go with erdinc some time soon, he is going to start closing on monday nights now that winter is here, not until after half term mind you which means we won't be able to go to our family for bayram (aka eid if you are not turkish), which is a pity, i always enjoy going to leicester, just relaxing and chilling out is excellent imho and its one of the few places i really don't have anything to do. actually my sisters in York is the same, when i go there i can just chill and relax, play with Lovely Niece and if i am babysitting i get to watch paramount - which is the only reason to have a tv imho.

i am digressing. quelle surprise.

we collected my mum from manchester, but she had come from ecuador via several airports including madrid to heathrow to manchester. security elsewhere on the planet bears no resemblance to that in uk aiports apparently and heathrow was, evidently, a nightmare; mum and her friends had to get rid of a whole load of stuff from hand luggage they had carried from south america, how mad is that? anyway, when mum walked through the doors at manchester she burst into tears, by the time she had finished telling us about the nightmare that was heathrow i had determined NEVER TO TRAVEL BY PLANE AGAIN, finally a reason to stay at home for the rest of my lifeD

last saturday we had a party for Lovely Nieces second birthday, we went to a stately home and had a picnic in the garden, it was really nice. the weather stayed dry too. i was, as usual, on teenage duty as we had The Army Lad with us, he is at home now with his family, probably just as well since menekse is not her usual sunny self, quite the opposite in fact. poor kid, i wish i could do something for her, she doesn't even want any of the ben and jerrys i bought yesterday, which means she must be poorly. anyway, i am off to make her a drink and get a cover, at least i am getting quite a bit of knitting done, i am about to have a change and do some cross-stitch, we are going to christmas stitches at the NEC next month before a couple of days in wales so i am looking forward to that for some inspiration.

might be back later, my trouble is i spend alot of time reading other peoples blogs and never get round to writing my own which probably isn't that clever.

a waste of a day 21.10.06

well, not that wasted, but not that constructive either. menekse is still ill. i woke her at 8 a.m. to take her antibiotic, she is now asleep on the sofa snuggled up under a pink dalmatian quilt, we have however managed to do some reading and meric is doing some school work as we speak which is surely a miracle of some magnitude. i am supposed to be washing my hair and going to tesco - which i don't like to do on saturdays on account of the amount of people in there, and last week i got caught up with a bus load of drunk women giving the security guy a bad time, it wasn't pretty. so, instead of doing what i should be doing i am sat here wasting time reading blogs and generally messing around. some blogs just irritate me, the ones which are just post after post of cut and paste, i find them a real turn off. does that make me a party-pooper? i like to read people original thoughts and feelings - about their own every day lives or the stuff going on around us, if i want actual news or something i can go and look on the web myself - we are all connected after all otherwise we wouldn't be here, i mean the odd cut and paste is ok, we all do that, but not post after post after post, thats just boring. sorry to sound harsh. perhaps its because posts about daily lives etc are the ones that are boring, lol, that sounds more like it, i know i am one of the worlds most boring people, perhaps my theory confirms it.

its a really nice day here, after much muttering on the weather forecast about rain it hasn't appeared. not that i shall be making the most of it or anything, its half term, so i shall be staying in for most of it. meric got up this morning early and went running which is a little bit odd if you ask me. he is anxious to get back to full fitness before the two big galas he has in november, he had an enforced abscence from training due to chicken pox - which is not pretty in a 14 year old boy i can promise you.

we were meant to be going away to friends this weekend, i had the whole thing planned. they are moving their horses into a field near the house which needs fenceing, so the kids were going to help with that, i was going to sit in the hot tub and read, sadly menekse is too poorly to go so we have re-scheduled for the beginning of december. this means i have to get something ready for sunday school tomorrow and for the childrens meeting on monday. the childrens meeting is going ok, we have had some new kids join, the sad thing is how little they know about the Lord Jesus Christ, seems like there really is a generation growing up who knows not the Lord, what will be the outcome? will we end up like israel in the old testament, every man doing that which is right in his own eyes, seems to me we are already like that now. but where is the bottom line and who draws it i wonder?

well, the call of tesco is irristible, i must go, menekse is at least vertical, not alot more can be said about that though.

we had a bit of a do for her 16th birthday a couple of weeks ago, it was nice, not many of us, mainly our family which was nice. all of leicester came which i am pleased about, we are due to go there in the next week or so for bayram/eid

anyway, must go before i start repeating myself, i wonder how many times i have done that in the life of this blog?

an emergency...17.10.06

an emergency....

dear reader, i am in need of some help. i have an emergency.

the visitors of last weekend don't know my rules. SOMEBODY, (i blame a child and furthermore i have the fingerprints to prove it , SOMEBODY wrote in the dust, and worst still i can now see said dust without my glasses - all because SOMEBODY put their fingers in it obviously i will now have to clean. i am trying to work myself up to it slowly, in the interests of not overdoing it i am going to lay down and think about it for a while.

also, while i am here, menekse is currently enduring her third dose of tonsilitis in 2 months, she is sleeping as we speak, she is finally being referred to an ENT dude, our gp made a great point of the fact that she is now legally an adult in the eyes of the NHS and the decision is hers, an adult my eye, she will still want me to hold her hand while she had the injections. so, looks like a night or two in the hospital is on the horizon.

i am off, i shouldn't even be here.

plans, plans and more plans 9.8.06

so, its been a few days since my last blog. don't know why, we just seem to have been very busy, i am busy not actually, but just thought i would jot a few jottings.

we haven't been doing any school work, as such, plenty of life work - cleaning, organising, helping my husband, but not actual book work, we have also been ebaying, last night i almost bought two 8-man tents thankfully i was outbid on both of them.

our son and i have a new plan, not another one i hear you cry, well, if you don't know me you won't know that we regularly have new plans. anyway, this one is more of a challenge.
on my home-ed list we are currently debating tv/computers, there has been alot said about the destructive and addictive nature of both these things plus the dangers of gaming. my regular reader of my other blog will know my feelings about gaming. anyway, i have told our son that i am never having another games console in the house, he said he understands and doesn't want an x-box 360 as he realises he does have a problem. finally.

so, our plan is, we return from high-leigh (our annual christian conference) in two weeks we are going to have no computers, games or tv until christmas. we will watch the two or three programmes that we actually watch on tv, but there will be no staring at the screen for hours on end, which is what our son is capable of doing. it seems he is begining to realise what a phenomenal waste of time electronic stuff is. we will use the computer for educational stuff, under my supervision, the british museum site for example is excellent, we can do a virtual tour and plan our next trip there. i have bought his some of the books from the oxford university reading list for under-graduates, so i am hoping (actually) that we might almost be at the turning point.

my husband continues to be angry and bitter at everything and everyone, he is especially hard on our son, doesn't really understand him, i keep praying for godly christian men to come along side of my husband and be a witness to him, he needs the Lord Jesus so badly, i know the Lord will provide in His timing, but really, its hard to be patient sometimes.

we are all very excited about high-leigh this year, i am praying for a titus 2 young woman for our daughter, she needs a friend who will encourage and exhort her in her faith - generally this is the role our daughter fills for others. we are all in need of some good fellowship and some 'mary' time as opposed to 'martha'. things aren't that easy at church, its small and full of old weird people, which is hard on the kids, but its where the Lord has placed us for now. i just wish the other people in the fellowship were a bit more supportive and understanding of how hard it is to be a christian teenager these days. still mustn't complain.

well, i must go, i am actually supposed to be working, and our son has his friend over, we went to see the film 'cars' today, it was excellent, i highly recommend it. we have alot of visitors this weekend, plus dd has a friend for the whole week next week, so i am planning to do some low-key stuff with ds for that time, just to keep things ticking over, then when we get back from high-leigh we will be straight into full time school with our noses to the grind-stone.

leaking roofs - the saga continues 22.9.06

so, our roof at home is leaking into menekse's bedroom, her bed is wet and she is the wall in the top room is damp but thankfully the bed is not wet since someone is due to sleep in there tomorrow night. (as a side note our friends swimming twins will not be staying which is, i confess, something of a relief).

sometime ago erdinc arrived home in a very soggy state, wet to the skin. he had a quick bath and something to eat and a cup of tea. at which point the phone rang. it was menekse from the shop to let us know that rain was pouring through the shop ceiling. in the middle. the shop is on the ground floor of a 5 storey building which has been left to go to rack and ruin by our landlord. he has the builind on the market for around 200k, actually it was 250k to start with, and they had a buyer, but he dropped out because he couldn't raise the money due to the appallling state of the building a new buyer has been found, but we now have dirty water pouring through our ceiling and into the shop, all over the microwave to be exact. erdinc has called the landlord who said he will 'get somebody'

two things, its pouring with rain and its dark. what can 'somebody' do i wonder? watch this space. it might be that the ceiling will fall in and we will have to close, my husband will then probably go home as our takings will be covered by insurance, but what about the birthday party we have planned for october 8th? watch this space dear reader.

and i thought i was the most boring person in the world

must go, menekse wants to check how many minutes she has left this month, for the first time she is on a contract for her phone, with dire threats ringing in her ears as to what will happen if she goes over her limits, her new month started yesterday. late last night she was on the phone to armylad and fell asleep. as did he. four and a half hours later his phone finally cut her off. how will she get through the month with no talk time? i can't imagine.

**about buying cigarettes 22.9.06

if you read my previous post you may have noticed that our daughter has been buying cigarettes since she was about 4 years old. i neglected to explain - in spite of putting ** there as a reminder.

when our children were younger we spent long summers in turkiye at their granmas house. one of the things they could do there was play out and go to the corner shop on errands, one of the first things menekse learnt to do was go and buy 'two very beautiful breads' (or, in turkish, ikitani cok guzel ekmek).

alot of the buildings are multi-storey flat/apartment with no lifts, so the ladies let down a basket with money in and send the kids in the street on errands for them - or buy stuff from the back of lorries (literally, veg etc especially).

one day she had been some time at the shop and i was looking for her out of the window. i saw her come strolling down the street with not a care in the world. i called out to her 'where have you been? you've been a long time'

'oh' says menekse, in a very careless manner 'i've been buying cigarettes for that lady up there' (pointing to the top floor opposite).

enough said. thankfully our children were never sent to buy whisky at such a tender age.

more about the week 22.9.06

so, it's been a busy and a speedy week. where does the time go? when i was a kid it seemed to be an age between birthdays and christmasses, now it hardly seems any time at all.

after my victory in the living room we had a busy night on deliveries. i also managed to lose menekse and armylad for a while you will be glad to know i found them again but not until after i had had a panic attack. they were coming home from london on the bus, and didn't respond to my texts or phone calls. eventually as i was walking round tesco wondering whether to call the police menekse phoned me and said they were in the middle of a journey from hell. the bus was late setting off. the drive to leeds from victoria took over 6 hours, the bus driver stopped twice at services to get himself a coffee and LOCKED ALL THE PASSENGERS IN THE BUS, so everyone was getting dehydrated, menekse was distressed because there were quite a few elderly people and children on board. my two then missed their connection from leeds - which menekse was booked on!! and were told 'get the train not our problem' so, it cost them more money, armylad paid actually, and alot longer to get home, they eventually arrived at our house about 8.30 p.m. which is really not acceptable. i rang national express to complain and they are looking into it.

menekse then complained about a sore throat. she does get tonsilitis on a regular basis. then, if you can believe this, i had a bad night with her she was up with pain and a tempreture. so i had to get her into the docs on tuesday afternoon. consequently menekse has spent most of the week laid like a dying duck on the settee dozing and watching friends videos (our activity of choice when sick). she has antibiotics but i have to make sure she is taking them properly, as she is sixteen this is still part of my job, apparently.

16. that happened on wednesday. my baby was 16. man, it makes me feel old and it makes me wonder even more at where the time goes. it only seems like last week they were wheeling me from theatre and instructing my husband 'bring the baby mr xxxx' - i had a section under g/a and he was like the cheshire cat from alice in wonderland - having ordered a blue eyed girl lol.

anyway, she was 16 on wednesday, so i got her to fill the car up with petrol!!!!!! the one rite of passage she WILL be taking part in (the others being - buying lottery tickets - no, buying cigs - been doing that since she was about 4** and having sex - no). we all went over to my sisters for a bbq - we cooked outside and ate inside, armylad came with us obviously and also erdinc which was great. we had a really nice day, punctuated by Lovely Niece walking around saying 'meh-itch?' every time our son disapeared, she idolises him, and he of course practically ignores her, is there no justice?

mainly i am very relieved that i will no longer have to do petrol, if i play my cards right, next year she will start learning to drive and that will be a great help, i can hardly wait, and probably won't have to wait that long. lol.

i, of course, was on deliveries again on wednesday night, but we closed early as erdinc was tired, the kids had got a dvd out and i left them all being chaperoned by him and got an early night, only to be told that he went out and left them at 1.30 a.m. :-(" class="middle" border="0"> not impressed. everything was ok. but menekse was still not well. her and armylad took the dog out for a week and just 'happened' to call into swimming club - it was training. this is where we met armylad and his family. i am ashamed to say that these two christian teenagers deliberately went into training to cause gossip " class="middle" border="0"> even though armylad ostensibly went to catch up with a few people. anyway, it worked, at training last night someone asked me if it was young love and said she could hear wedding bells, apparently it is obvious by looking at them. not to me it isn't. but if asked they both say 'i am single but not available'

i have to go to training tonight as there is, yet again, trouble at swimming, so great is the trouble is that i have been asked to go back on the committee watch this space.

we took armylad home to his parents yesterday afternoon, so far so good, they are all out for the day today and he is coming back to ours tomorrow so that he can do church on sunday. then its back to his camp to wait for the medics to decide what they are going to do with his knee. actually, unsurprisingly, i have a hectic weekend. the visiting minister is staying with us, he arrives saturday afternoon sometime. i have the second day of my swimming referees course in nottingham so will be leaving home at 7 a.m. there is an important gala which i have to stop at to collect meric and a couple of friends who are staying over with us saturday night and i have invited someone else to lunch on sunday too. the swimming friends will be leaving at around 8.15 a.m. to get to mass on time, armylad is no trouble and always helps when he is here anyway, but i am slightly concerned about the food thing. as a matter of fact i am, as we speak, meant to be browning off the meat for sundays goulash, and writing a letter of complaint to swimming club and national express. but we all know the power of the blog " class="middle" border="0">

but, since it is now gone 5 p.m. and i have to sort out the swimmer's towels i had better go. talk to you later.

then it was friday.......and conmen 22.9.06

can't believe where this week has gone as if by magic it's friday and the weekend again. obviously its pouring down with rain. i am sitting here at the computer wondering if the roof is leaking, i suppose i should really go and have a look, but if i do and it is what am i going to do? we recently, 8.8.06 to be exact, paid 300 gbp (can't find the pound sign on this lap top, any ideas?), well, we paid 300 gbp to have the roof repaired, it had taken us weeks to find someone to actually come and look at the roof and give us a quote, he said it would be a good days work, possibly longer. we waited until we had got the money together and then booked him to do the work. it took 2 hours, seriously, but we still had to pay the 300 gbp. then, a couple of weeks ago the rain was still coming in, this time down the wall and into dd's bedroom on the floor below obviously my husband, bless his cotton socks, said 'what did you expect, he was a con artist, just like all english people, doesn't want to work, wants money for nothing' so, i rang the bloke, being a naive kind of person i suppose i expected him to come round asap and sort it out - we have a guarantee after all. his mobile is disconnected and his wife just keeps saying 'i'll pass the message on' - with no result for me. i have rung several times to no avail. so what to do? get someone else to sort it out? which will, inevitably, cost us more money which we don't have, ignore it? that's not viable is it when rain is coming in. i feel so frustrated and uselss. why do people have to do that kind of thing? am i naive for trusting and believing the guy in the first place? what i think i am going to do is inform the local paper as that's where is saw the advert.

it leaves such a nasty taste and also the worst thing is i have no defence when my husband makes remarks about english workmen, in this case he was right. i suppose part of the problem is the job HE does - working late nights with drunk people is probably not that great.

well, dear reader, in the interests of optimism i just called the roof guy again. his landline. got his wife. she made all the right noises, let's see what happens, she promised to 'get it sorted'

we shall see. i actually didn't intend to rant about cowboy workmen, but since i could probably write for ages i am going to do another entry about my other stuff.

it's all done 18.9.06

well, that's the lounge 'bottomed' as they say in yorkshire for a couple of months at least. congratulate me dear reader, i moved EVERYTHING, i dusted and wiped EVERYTHING, i hoovered and mopped EVERYWHERE and i re-located some stuff but not everything - so hopefully no-one will be confused and accidentally sit on the bird cage my cd player is more accesible - not for music obviously, my regular reader will know that i don't do music, but i have some sermon cds i would like to listen to. the only fly in the ointment is that the china cabinet i am 'looking after' for my mum is 'on the huh' - that is to say it now goes across a corner rather than straight in an alcove, i don't like crooked stuff, i like things to be straight, i know it's weird, but hey, i am weird.

so, i feel pretty smug and pleased with myself, the large teenagers are somewhere in yorkshire on a bus and the smaller teenager is at the shop with his dad before going training, so i have had a shower and am about to go and buy some food at tesco's. then i might come back and do a bit of blog-surfing, would that be blurfing?

the minister in charge of our church came as well, poor guy, drove over 200 miles to check on everything and everyone and gets all my burdens in his lap,D i guess it's a pretty thankless task being a minister, he was very gracious though and prayed with me and for me before he went. sadly i miss the bible study/prayer meeting on mondays because, of course, i have to drive 'team pizza'. c'est la vie.

phew!! 18.9.06

my reader will be glad to know that i have, thankfully, been outbid on one of the 8-man tents!!!!!!! what a relief!! i really must keep away from ebay, it's too stressful worrying about what to do if i win the item.

still not cleaning " class="middle" border="0">

cleaning or procrastination 18.9.06

so, i am full of good intentions this morning. as mentioned in a previous post for some reason which i can't explain i forgot to buy the necessary stuff for sunday dinner on saturday, well, actually i didn't do tescos at all which for me is nothing short of incredible. i don't like to shop on the Lords Day, so we made do with beans on toast or egg sandwiches, which was fine. and actually it worked out really well because it meant i was able to sit on the settee and read my book, a very exciting autobiography of John G Paton Missionary to the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), it is really unputdownable, if that's a word.

anyway, also while i was sat on the settee i planned today, our living room needs a good clean, its a large room, about 26' feet long, the front half acts as the living room area, the back half is really dead space, our dining table is in our equally large kitchen, so we have the piano at the back of the lounge and also our son's warhammer gear. anyway, i got to thinking it's been a long time since i moved any of the furniture, so i think i am going to have a bit of a shift around, not much, because of the position of the tv aerial and the fire there isn't that much choice, but i can move a bit and give it a good clean too. then the phone rang and i have been chatting to my friend from northern ireland, so while i was talking to her i thought i would check my email and see if i have been outbid on either of the TWO eight-man tents i bid on last night dear reader, please keep your fingers crossed that i do get out-bid, i am not 100% sure i want one 8-man tent, but i am positive i don't want TWO, aaaagggghhhhhh.

my reader might also be interested in the current state of play in our home regarding gaming and electronic screens of all kinds. our son is an addict. having realised this has made it much easier for me to deal with. some time ago i cut the plug off the tv in the spare room, its my mums tv and its the room she will be using when she comes home next month but i am sure she will understand. i have now removed and/or hidden all gaming equipment and i have put a password on this computer so meric can only get supervised access to his bebo account. dear reader this may seem harsh, but it has had a wondrous effect, our son is joining in conversations, he is reading again, its nothing short of miraculous, and i will not allow any gaming machines in the house ever again. the tv is still something of an issue and so i am thinking of putting a lock on the living room door, just for when i am not in, again this may seem like an extreme measure, but the boy is an addict.

anyway, i must get on, i can't sit here procrastinating all day, the older teenagers will be back later and plus i am having a visit from the minister who is overseeing our church in the absence of a minister of our own. another incentive to clean, as if i needed one

up late and being nosy......17.9.06

so, we had some visitors tonight, people we know from swimming, the mum is on her own having divorced her alcoholic, abusive husband some years ago, the kids are twins - a boy and a girl, although they don't homeschool they are like homeschoolers, quaint, the kids talk in a very articulate manner and look adults in the eye at the same time (check it out with teenagers you know, very unusual), E and i get on very well, she is a devout roman catholic and i, well, i am not. but we get on very well. we caught up on all the news from the summer holidays whilst the kids played risk and watched a video.

then meric and i watched another video and went to bed, except i made the fatal mistake of coming in here to shut the laptop down properly. over an hour later and i am still here. poking about catching up with what people have been doing in my absence.

i also had a text from menekse, apparently its all a drama where she is, armylad is feeling bad about imposing on people, the people are, apparently, a bit weird and dd doesn't feel that comfortable, well, its a hard life and a learning curve, they enjoyed their conference today and i am sure it will all be fine - how weird am i at first meeting? can't imagine, answers on a postcard please. the daughter of the family is lovely and so i am sure that things will be fine. i do miss menekse when she is not here though, so i will be glad when monday evening comes around and we are all back where we should be. apparently they have bought booksD which i am very excited about.

next saturday should be fun. the visiting minister is staying with us, he will arrive mid-afternoon most likely, meric has a gala in the next town, i arranged a lift with E, she is away for the weekend so the twins are staying with us, armylad will most likely be here ready for church, and oh, did i mention i am doing a referees course? no? well, i am and the second day of the course is..........next saturday!!! so i have a whole week to feel anxious about how i am going to manage that lot. deep joy.

the following weekend the celebrations start for our daughters 16th and then on the 4th of october my mum is coming home for a couple of months. its all going on in this part of the world.

well, its almost 3 a.m. and i have to get up for church, to be fair i didn't get up until gone noon today due to a very long busy day yesterday, but i don't like to feel tired on a sunday and stupidly i didn't do tescos today so now i don't know what we will have for lunch, there appears to be only ice cream in the freezer. and beans in the cupboard. watch this space.

goodnight.

my graduating sister 16.9.06

as my reader will know i have two little sisters, one of whom is married and also mother to Lovely Niece, she has a BSc and an MSc, my little sister has recently graduated with something in psychiatric nursing, i am very very proud of her, especially since i remember her being born (i also remember the absolute awe and wonder of Two-Degrees-Sister because the new baby had two hands!!). anyway, menekse babysat while we went to the graduation ceremony, this is a photo of my two sisters on the day.....

the ceremony was pretty good, greg dyke is the chancellor at york uni so that was interesting, afterwards we went out for lunch to a very nice cafe-bar type place, a good time was had by all i think, my sisters boyfriend came too.

oooh, i have to go, my long expected visitors have just arrived, i might be back later.

arrest of homeschooling mum.......16.9.06

i am not in the habit of cutting and pasting news items, it's a very lazy way of blogging imho, whats the point? and some blogs seem to be just full of news items either cut and paste or links which we can all find anywhere on the net, doesn't show much imagination or effort if you ask me, but each to their own, however, i am now going to go and do that exact thing, this item came through on my home-ed list today....

Germany Imprisons Mum. Dad and Kids Flee to Austria
From the desk of Alexandra Colen on Tue, 2006-09-12 21:11

Last Thursday the German police arrested Katharina Plett, a homeschooling mother of twelve. Yesterday her husband fled to Austria with the children. Homeschooling is illegal in Germany since Hitler banned it in 1938. The Plett family belongs to a homeschooling group of seven Baptist families in Paderborn. We wrote about their case last year.

Stefan Sedlaczek of the Catholic website kreuz.net heard about her arrest on Saturday. He reports today that a female plain-clothes police officer rang at Katharina Plett’s house on Thursday around 11:00 am. When she opened the door other police officers, who had hidden themselves, forced their way in. Mrs Plett was allowed to change, but a police officer followed her into her bedroom in case “she would arm herself and shoot us all.” The woman was able to inform her husband by mobile phone before the police brought her to Bielefeld.

The authorities later informed her husband that she has been imprisoned in Gelsenkirchen. Apparently she has been given a ten day prison sentence. When Sedlaczek rang the Gelsenkirchen prison authorities to get confirmation of Katharina Plett’s whereabouts, he was told that no information would be given. A written request for information has so far not been answered either. Unless we are mistaken, the German mainstream media have not written anything about this case yet.

Yesterday, Katharina’s husband fled with their children to a Christian family center in Wolfgangsee in Austria. A homeschooling couple from Hamburg has also fled to Wolfgangsee. Their case was covered in the media. In Austria parents are entitled to homeschool during a one year trial period, after which the authorities decide whether the parents are allowed to continue homeschooling or not.

the link is here http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1330

interestingly, just as hitler outlawed home-ed, it was the wonderful winston churchill who had our right to home-ed enshrined in the 1944 education act as he had such an awful time at school and didn't want to inflict that on anyone else, well, thats as i understand it anyway. (the act says it is the parents responsibility to educate their children according to age, aptitude and ability either at school OR OTHERWISE)

my american friend visits.......16.9.06

my regular reader will know that i am married to a muslim, for a long time i have been involved on an email list for christian women married to or involved with muslim men, when i first joined i met this lovely lady from the US, we really hit it off, actually it was her who encouraged me to think about homeschooling. anyway, we have now been friends for about 10 years we think. for various reasons which i won't bore you with she had occasion to travel to englandD it was very exciting. although i was very very nervous. i find meeting new people very stressful and as my reader will know i don't do stress. anyway, eventually it was decided that she would travel up from london to york by train and we would spend the day in york together. we went for lunch straight away, in a little tea room i know, our daughter came and my sister and Lovely Niece also met us. it was really nice.

after lunch the others left us and cheryl and i wandered round york for a bit, we also 'did' the minster, which is compulsory really for americans visiting york, but dear me, how bad things have become in our established church - i won't say more here as it probably needs another post, but, suffice to say i wasn't at all tempted back into the mainstream by this visit - quite the opposite in fact. anyway, we had a walk round the minster and then went to bettys for afternoon tea, which was fantastic, we really enjoyed it, well, we sat talking for about 3 hours which was the best part. we sat there virtually until it was time for cheryl to get the train back to london. it was really lovley, not at all strained, just like meeting an old friend, i can't wait until the next time!!!! i felt quite sad when she got on the train, and because i have been ill and so busy i haven't even emailed her properly since she went home. shame on me

so, i recommend the afternoon tea in bettys but not the minster, especially as its so expensive, if you do go don't expect any spiritual benefit, just enjoy the architecture. i have several posts in my head but think it better to write several instead of just one huge one. so off i go.

things about me you may not know 16.9.06

and may not want to know.........lol

things you may have never known about me

1. Initials:
JMI

2. Name someone with the same birthday as you:
kylie minogue

3. Favorite fruit?
raspberries

4. For or against same sex marriage?
against

5. Are you allergic to anything?
cats

6. Are you bisexual?
no

7. Have you ever slept in someone else's clothes?
my husbands

8. How many U.S. states have you been to?
two

9. How many of the U.S. states/UK Counties have you lived in?
none/two

10. Have you ever lived outside the U.S.?
obviously, perhaps we should change this to the UK and its counties - and no i have never lived outside the UK

11. Name something physical you like about yourself.
hmm, probably my hair

12. Something non-physical you like about yourself?
i think i am kind, i am also pretty hospitable

13. Do you have any pets?
a dog, a bird and a hamster, plus two teenagers

14. What is your dream car?
i like audis, they are lovely to drive, but currently i have my eye on a volkswagen people carrier up the road, its a 9-seater and would suit me down to the ground, sadly it is owned by someone else!!

15. If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go?
hmm, not sure, i would like to take the kids to florida, i would like to take my husband on a proper holiday, but i don't have a burning desire to go anywhere in particular.

16. are you bi-polar
not when i last checked lol

17. What dream car do you want your husband/wife to drive?
he likes porsches

18. Where would you want to go on a first date?
as i have been married for 20 years just out for dinner on our own would be nice.

19. Would you date the person who posted this before you?
no

20. Has anyone ever sang or performed for you personally?
our daughter!!

21. Ever been kissed under fireworks?
nope

22. Do you like president Bush?
no

23.Have you ever bungee jumped?
obviously not. i did do a parachute jump once though when at uni.

24. Have you ever white water rafted?
no

25. Has anyone 5 years older than you ever hit on you?
yes.

26. Are you racist?
no - obviously again i guess

27. What song are you listening to right now?
none

28. What's your favorite song at the moment?
a hymn - i can not tell why He whom angels worshipped, it goes to the tune of the londonderry air aka danny boy

29. what was the last movie you watched?
the sentinel - it was ok, a bit like 24 though

30. Where was the last place you went besides your workplace or house?
out for lunch today with our son

31. Have you ever seriously vandalized someone else's property?
no, seriously, perhaps i am the worlds most boring person

32. Have you ever hit someone of the opposite sex?
yes

33. What's the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
nothing really, their handshake maybe?

35. What do you usually order from Starbucks
regular latte

36. Say something totally random about yourself?
i don't like mushrooms

37. Do you have an iPod?
no

38. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity?
no

39. Do you have freckles?
yes

41. Do you love someone right now?
yes my husband

42. How tall are you?
5' 6.5"

43. Do you speak any other language other than English?
turkish

44. Have you ever ridden in a limo?
no

45. Has anyone you were really close to passed away?
yes, quite a few people including my dad when i was 9 and my step-father 17 years ago. also my fil and quite a few close aunts and uncles

46. Do you watch tv?
not really

48. What's something that really annoys you?
loud music everywhere

49. What are some things you really like?
peace, quiet, good conversation, good food, being with family

50 Do you like Micheal Jackson?
no

51. Have you ever surfed?
no

52. Do you know how to pump gas?
yes

53. What do you drive?
a toyota corolla

54. What's the latest you have ever stayed out?
all night

55. Have you ever thought that you were honestly going to die?
yes, almost 15 years ago i had a huge abscess in my uterus, impacted into my bowel, it was pretty hairy there for a while

56. Were you ever rushed by an ambulance into the emergency room?
not me, but i have gone in an ambulance on a blue light with both our kids - which is probably worse than going oneself.

57. Have you ever been dared to do something you didn't want to do?
probably but it can't have been that scary as i can't remember

59. What color is your hair?
brown

60. What color are your eyes?
blue

61. Do you have any special talents?
no, not really.

62. Favorite non-alcoholic drink?
real lemonade

63. Favorite city?
istanbul

64. Have you ever ridden a mechanical bull?
no

65. If you were working on a pirate ship, what would you most likely be?
the cook

66. Who do you work with?
our kids and my husband

67. Last thing you watched on tv?
grumpy old women

68. Do you wear glasses or contacts?
glasses

69. Have you ever taken a roadtrip?
yes, several, with my mum, the longest being from the uk to istanbul, awesome.

more photos!! 13.9.06

so, i managed it, so here are some more, if you wave the cursor over the photo the title comes up, ain't technology grand!!!!!!!

about photos 13.9.06

so, for the third time this afternoon i am going to try and post some photos, my reader will know that i have a new phone, it takes photos too, and after several months i have worked out how to get photos from my phone to the laptop, now i am hoping i have got them from the laptop into my blog, we shall see.

i miss blogging, its quite cathartic, i want to try and get back to being a regular blogger, our lovely daughter is going away this weekend, i have quite a few things i need to catch up with email etc, so hopefully blogging will be one of them.