Day 2. Walk with me.

Miros de fan, eu si George ne afundam picioarele in el si exact asta imi aminteste de tata si copilaria la Gavane. Veri cu pielea arsa si jucat pititea prin poduri, gradini, grajduri si pomi.  Sa te pierzi pana te gaseste altcineva. Joaca, ludic. Culmea e ca am venit sa hranim magarusii de multe ori si niciodata nu am vazut fan. Tot aici ma intalnesc intamplator cu o fosta colega de la Goldsmiths pe care nu am vazut-o de 3 ani. Schimbam cateva replici, lumea e totusi mica pana si aici, intr-o metropola. George rupe flori galbene si ni le da pe rand. Mai ca orice, ei au un nume diplomat si frumos chiar si pentru cele mai urate flori. Nu basina porcului, ci dandelions. Spre orizont apare Canary Wharf si hotaram aici, acum, ca venim sa facem picnic data viitoare. In drum spre casa invat despre tipurile de gris de la Andra si incerc sa-mi ghicesc viitorul in niste desene cu creta pe asfalt. Nu vad niciun sotron, dar incep sa-l conturez in mintea mea oricum, asa ca sar ca idioata. Cand incetam sa ne mai jucam si de ce? George si James se invart pana cedeaza gravitatea, apoi se ridica si o iau de la capat. Imi amintesc cand ma tragea tata de maini in sus si cat de mare mi se parea totul in jur. Ma scutura apoi de picioare cu capul in jos pentru ca era convins ca asta o sa ma ajute sa am gatul lung. Nu incercati asta acasa totusi. Sunt prezenta in feluri in care nu eram pana acum si recunoscatoare pentru tot. 

Everything is completely fine

As long as I don’t 

Tell you my favourite song 

My saddest story

As long as I’m not better than you

Braver than you

As long as I don’t speak up for myself 

Or for my body

As long as I don’t show you my scars

Or burry you under my doormat 

Like the spider that dared to just crawl on my leg

Cause then you would get to know me 

The real me 

& it bleeds 

& bruises 

A pen friend project for your local care home

We’re amidst Coronavirus and bound to stay at home to help slow down the spread of the virus. Besides our yoga, books that we read and films that we watch, we could help other people by getting our children to become pen friends for a local care home. It doesn’t cost anything, doesn’t take up a lot of time, it’s personal and it will make a difference. Not everyone has someone to check up on them and as they stopped visits in care homes they feel even lonelier.  
If you want your children to write to a care home in Chislehurst, please get in touch with me so I can send out the names of the individuals and the address. I would add that a little drawing always brightens up everyone’s mood, so encourage your children to draw something positive in the letter, maybe next to some of their favourite things. 
Below you will find writing prompts and a few drawing ideas.  If you live in a different country/city and would like to do a similar project, you could get started by asking your friends or neighbours if they know of any care homes nearby, if not then you can go onto google and simply search for “care homes around me” or the equivalent of this in your language. Contact them via phone or email, explain who you are and what you would like to do for them and ask if they would be interested in receiving more from other people, in which case you can go ahead and post on local facebook groups.
 Try to take out individual names if they are happy to give them to you. Please be mindful that they might be extremely busy at the moment,so they might not answer their phone or email straight away. 
Lastly, when posting the letter, make sure that you are not touching the letterbox without gloves and take all the safety measures yourself as an adult. Well done for wanting to be part of this lovely initiative! 

Please do not send handwritten letters, if you or any person in your household has displayed symptoms of being unwell in any way in the last 14 days.

THE VIRAL LETTER PROJECT

On the 19 th of March, a care home operator in Haverhill Suffolk UK, took the very difficult decision to suspend visitors to their home's effect immediately in order to protect the health and safety of their residents.

They vowed to do everything in their power to keep people in touch with their loved ones, using every means available - telephone, video calls, emails, traditional letters and cards, but this still wasn’t going to be an easy task.

So they made one very special public request.

They proposed a special letter-writing project –  A pen friend project.

Asking local children if they would like to write handwritten letters to residents in an effort to lift their spirits and bring an extra smile to their faces while they couldn’t see their families and couldn’t go outside.

A small act of kindness that would cost almost nothing but a little time.

An act of kindness that could make all the difference to someone feeling isolated and alone.

Particularly those confused at the sudden disappearance of family, or those without any family, who had come to rely on their walks out and about for their daily dose of human contact.

Not everyone has someone to check in on them, grab something nice from the shops for them or drop off homemade cakes to them. 

LETTER WRITING PROMPTS

HOW TO START YOUR LETTER

Unless your care home gives you the name of a person, or a list of people who are particularly in need of an extra lift (there will be people like this – you could always ask), it’s best to keep opening lines general. 

That way one letter can be shown to a number of different people.

A simple “Hello” is fine, or if you prefer, “To whoever reads this message”. 

WHAT TO WRITE NEXT – 20 LETTER WRITING PROMPTS FOR CHILDREN

The best letters are friendly, interested and conversational, so you could include any of the prompts below.  Your letter doesn’t have be pages long.

1. My name is …………………….. and I am also in isolation at the moment. I’m really looking forward to writing to you.
2. How are you doing at the moment? or  I hope you are well.
3. My favourite things.
4. My favourite foods & things I like to cook.
5. My talents and thing’s I’m really good at.
6. Thing’s I like to collect.
7. Three things I’ve been doing since isolation started – Schoolwork, board games, painting rainbows, other activities.
8. The best and worst parts of my week.
9. My favourite school subjects.
10. Books I’m reading.
11. Thing’s I’m watching on tv or listening to.
12. How we’re exercising.
13. Three things I’ve seen – Out of the window, in my garden, while on my walk.
14. People I’ve spoken to and things they’ve said (On the phone, neighbours over the garden fence, yelling across the road).
15. The weather! – Always an easy one.
16. A little story from my life: I remember when ………………..
17. Questions, questions, questions (well……. 2 or 3 questions anyway. Don’t go over the top).
18. If I had 3 wishes……….
19. I have sent you a picture that I have drawn, a short story or poem that I’ve written, a flower that I’ve pressed.
20. Thank you for writing back to me   or Thank you for sharing your story with me (this only works if the letters are being sent both ways). 

HOW TO WRAP IT UP

1. If you would like to write to me, I have enclosed my address.

You can say “I’ll look forward to hearing from you”, but only if you know they’re going to be able to write back.  No pressure.

2. I like writing letters to you. It’s fine if you can’t write back. 

Initial idea posted by https://sophia-alexander.com/blogs/notes-to-my-children/covid19-kindness-penpal-letter-prompts

What do you want from this life?

 

A few years ago I couldn’t find a job that ticked all my boxes, so I took up an office role. 6 months of working in a corporate environment was a revelation for me, my Dalai Lama. I tried to be all the things I disliked in order to find out who I really am. Mornings smell like new cotton suits and broken dreams. Every day I just become a little bit less of myself. My colleagues are the type of people I would usually avoid. I just have to camouflage my existence through boring conversations about food, children, our bosses’ shiny latexy red shoes. In time I get to understand that this is who I am without my gifts, my photography, my writing. 

I am a boring human being who drags all her 206 bones to a job she hates, but that looks good on paper. I get paid to say things I don’t believe in and I try to get fat because everyone in the office tells me that I’m way too thin. So I eat a lot of fatty food because all I want to do is integrate. I want to be one of them. I have to forget all about creativity and just live a normal life, pay my bills and know what to say when the “food” topic comes back again. I eat, I sleep and I go to work. Nothing more, nothing less.  My clothes get more black and my lines, well rehearsed, win undeclared Oscars. My conversations on things I don’t give a shit about have improved. The only time when I am being myself is when I’m dreaming. Slowly and gradually I fall into depression. My dad stares at me and says he never saw me so sad. He gives me 100 pounds to cheer me up. It works. My lie works for a while.Nothing else works.  One day I get a wake up call that awakens all my senses. I decide to pay my client’s product from my own money. I am breaking the rules, I’m a punk in pointy shoes and cheap eyeliner. She’s old, doesn’t have any money left from her pension and just wants to talk to her only relative. I’m trying to be good and say my lines, but the procedure is so complicated that I might as well add “and at the end you blow down your top and you make the sign of the cross three times and also cut your hair on a full moon”. Forget about the system, forget about their rules. The only truth now is that this 80 year old woman is struggling to afford food, let alone a conversation with her only living relative.

 The procedure is not inclusive, doesn’t think or care of all its clients. THIS is not genuine and I will not be part of it. My clothes are getting itchy now and I’m just creating a situation where they have to fire me, but I resign first anyway. What a relief. On a positive note,I learned how to make myself understood amongst people I disliked and most importantly, that I needed a job where my gifts, the only things that set me apart from other people are put to great use on a daily basis. To me, this was the case of photography and writing, but it can be anything from cleaning to a PHD. Don’t hide your magic, show it off. Choose you! If you feel trapped in a place that you don’t belong to and need someone to talk to, please reach out! I am now doing a job that I LOVE and would not trade for anything in the world, but it took years of honesty, compromises and commitment. Lead your way x 

east west

sun rises in the east

and sets in the west

i should have known 

a new way

 to cry in public

if you re sad

smile more often

people will be sad back

breathe in breathe out

i should have known

there are no shortcuts

or hidden tracks

we end up 

in the same place

waves are washing away

the remains of us

An ode/odd to home

Without my consent changes happened
First the blazers.
Then a party upstairs that I don't want to join
Each friday
Some broken glass on the hallway
Reminds me that some things will break if they're bent
Without my consent changes happened
May is sending missiles to Iraq
And my grey tights have a run
A little girl tries to see herself
In the cracked mirror
No one can save the Arctic

i ll be

in between moments
waiting
for another dream
where everything feels the same
stories
that smell like toothpaste
bring me back
seconds
the only space we have
is this wall
that i hit
and pillows get wet

I'm only being myself when I'm dreaming

there is a dream
that we cannot choose
the 10 seconds after
the darkness
suddenly
i can feel the weight of my hand
clinging into this world

Zeit

Your hands need to learn
Maps of loneliness
A curve in the bed sheet
With no flesh on
You could be any noise
Coming from the kitchen
Trapped in a parallel universe
You're trying to warn
Or say goodbye
To it all

Cornwall break

On the way to Paddington station we encounter a woman carrying a huge religious icon and a man wearing a ladies' hat. It all seems like a casual saturday, but today was more than that. It was the 1st of April. We even got a joke from the GWR's conductor: "your compartment doesn't exist". And it didn't.

If you know me, then it's no secret that I love trains. I would live on a train, work on a train, spend all my holidays travelling by train. I even tried to have my 27th birthday party on a train, but James convinced me to reduce the 24th hour travel to 5 hours only and go to Edinburgh. 

The journey from London to Camborne takes 5 hours and a half, which leaves you enough time to write a story, watch two vintage films, get drunk at the restaurant or re evaluate your life. Or glue your wedding photos in an album for your grandparents and all sort of things you should have done by now. 

We went through Bath Spa, Bristol and Plymouth on our way to Camborne, which reminded us that the only reason why we didn't revisit or visit some of them was because we're terribly poor, so poor that we didn't even "visit" any shop in six months ( THAT'S 180 DAYS, BEAT THAT) . You all know what I mean by "visiting" a shop, don't pretend you're a snob and if you are, stop reading this article and stop being my friend. 

*visiting shops= So you're just going there to see what's new with no real intention to buy anything or even touch the exponents, pretend all clothes have a transparent glass in front of them as you do in every decent museum. The only accepted activity is that of sneaking a picture of the item and deleting it in a week after realizing you don't have enough memory on your phone.   

Day 1- Camborne

Our first trip was to Camborne where we stayed and visited a lovely garden, then headed to Godrevy, which inspired Virginia Woolf to write the Lighthouse. I just think I should start writing another novel and turn it into a trend or literary movement on novels inspired by that specific lighthouse from Godrevy. 

My teeth look a bit yellow in the picture below, but it's just the filter. 

Yes, James, we all got it. You enjoy being 15 now.

Literally all my photos from Cornwall are in this jacket from The North Face. Not because I'm terribly poor, but because the entire trip was cold and windy. You need to check the weather forecast before leaving London.

Can I just add how scared I still am of the British tide? I just fear the moon will get upset one day on humanity and generate massive waves and I'll be caught on the beach trying to take stupid selfies so I generally try not to spend too much time on beaches that I couldn't possibly abandon in 5 seconds. 

Day 2 - Porthleven

First of all, if you go to Cornwall and want to see things you need a car. Secondly, Porthleven is the most southerly port on the island of Great Britain. The panoramic views on Google look more spectacular than mine, so give it a go.

  Interesting facts: the cafes and restaurants serve fresh fish from the most impressive harbour in Cornwall, which was built with the aid of French prisoners of war since Napoleonic times. If you're an experienced surfer, this could be paradise. If you're not, they still have great tea, seafood and old historical buildings dating 200 years ago.

White cat, make a wish or take it home!

I love the houses' names(Anchor Cottage, Song of the Sea Seacrest etc) , I assume they all belong to fishermen or rich investors who barely spend their holidays here. #givemeyourhouse

Spotted: an artist's garden. HOW MUCH IS THE MERMAID?

Interesting rooftop, just in case the waves would come to that point. Noah, is that you? 

  The Lizard and Kynance Cove Beach

This is the first place I visited while being in Cornwall. It's my favourite one as well and the most south-westerly point in Britain, listed within Cornwall's area of outstanding natural beauty.  In pubs by the shore people are singing Cornish traditional songs and folk music and I'm sure they're great as I never heard them. Artists are gathering to paint the cliffs, surfers do their tricks, photographers plan their best shots, families get lovely memories for life, writers give birth to memorable characters and couples fall in love with each other even more. 

I could see me and James coming here with our children and I could see my dad experiencing this beauty, which just happened because his grandparents are absolutely outstanding human beings, my favourite ones. But I will write more about them in a different post.  

My head is your shoulder.

Can I, please, live in that house there where they serve tea and ice cream? One thing I love about Britain is its ability to preserve beauty by holding on to rules. One rule is that you're not allowed to build on this land. 

Not the serpentine you know

There's a 10 minute walk down to the cove and I recommend doing it at low tide, so you can explore the caves above the beach. Kynance Cove belongs to the National Trust who is preserving areas like this in the UK with the help of its members. Tempted to get a membership next year along with a Tate one. 

As James put it: "When the guy running around with no shoes on (in the first week of April) asks you to take a photo of his family standing on a big rock you oblige."

Not too sure why this, the second venue in the whole area is closed, but we came up with a lot of ideas on how it could be developed the entire way back home. 

The Lizard Lighthouse 

Oldie but goldie for 260 years, guiding ships home and now becoming an interactive learning centre due to the National Lottery. Send your lover a message in Morse code and learn how to spell your name using Semaphore flags.

Lifeboat station- closed since 1961

Day 3 - Saint Ives

Saint Ives starts with a lovely walk where you can see the city from above. It also starts with cream tea at Porthminster Cafe. My first one this year, a true delish. 

Saint Ives is one of the ten best European beach destinations recommended by TripAdvisor and has been a muse for artists for decades starting with Henry Moore, Turner and continuing with Barbara Hepworth whose museum we visited later on the evening. 

What you can do here: Take a boat to watch the seals sunbathe or cloudbathe at the Sea Island, visit the Tate, Barbara Hepworth's studio, take surf lessons, get lost through the cobbled streets and fishermen's cottages and try to resist their souvenirs.

Enjoy the wild air.

Cream tea with scones at Porthminster Cafe

This is the point where fishermen would notify others of the location of fish in the sea on the day and signal it to help the finding.

Were they waiting for the bus or just for a photographer to surprise this scene?

Barbara Hepworth museum

Wild seals and good woman wanted to cook, clean and sew. Saint Ives, I thought you're open minded.

Outstanding vegetarian salad at Porthgwidden Beach Cafe with a sea view on our way to the Island.

Heading to the Island

A group of students sketching the epic landscape

Tate Saint Ives-quite conceptual and focused on sculptures. They had good wine though.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Day 4 - Minack Theatre and Porthcurno Beach

An outstanding open air theater built 80 years ago not by the greeks, but by Rowena Cade into the granite cliff. This is a perfect example of how to take your garden to the next level. 

The summer theatre runs from may to september and has amazing views and sub-tropical gardens. 

Make your way from the Minack Theatre to Porthcurno beach  by walking the steep coastal path down the side of the cliff and enjoy the soft sand and the turquoise water. Remember you're not in Greece though and don't get too excited, you might not be able to get into the water, it's the Atlantic Ocean, remember? However, you can try wearing a wetsuit and spot dolphins. 

In the 19th century the Telegraph Museum ( which is 5 minutes away from this beach ) was connected to the rest of the world by submarine cables. Today you can experience two secret world war tunnels and enjoy the interactive activities organised by the museum. 

Cape Cornwall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Can you spot Charles de Gaulle? 

Cape Cornwall Mine was  a tin mine (really?) which was closed in 1883, but the chimney near the peak of the cape was kept as an aid to navigation. Mind the wind and paint the waves if you can.

Ceramics workshop with artist Margaret Kumsang 

As I will be teaching my pupils ceramics at my new job, in july, I thought it would be a good idea to learn it from a true artist in an epic setting. 

Last day- Cream tea, scones and seals in Godrevy from the van

My ideal family day, picking up wild flowers for Margaret and spotting seals on an isolated bay.  We ran on the shores of the Atlantic once again, skimming stones and making plans for the future. 

The journey back

It's always hard to leave Cornwall and its magic behind, but we've got two special people and this place to look forward to seeing again next time we visit. On the way back  a french family with 2 children was sitting next to us and they were all wearing matching sweaters. I know you see this in schools as a sign of equality, but today it was a message of love and unity.