Month: April 2020
week 4 diary > we got flour!!!
We got our second Easter this last Sunday. The orthodox one. And we got strong flour. A lot of it, 16 kg. Found it on eBay. It came from Germany. So much baking… is it therapeutic? It must have similar effects to crafting.
I wrote another story (5 in total now during lockdown) and am looking forward to discussing a specific creative writing project this Friday with colleagues and students. I can’t hide my excitement!!!
Also, over the weekend I made further progress with my storydress, my final assignment for the MA in creative writing. The Contrado site has been really useful as I have no idea how I would have done it otherwise in these challenging times. I guess, I would have come up with another idea in the end. Just hope they will remain open until I am ready.
It is almost done now but I will be writing the story up as a longer piece too and create an audio recording to accompany the final submission. I have struggled to start writing the story in a format that reveals further details. Maybe this is why I turned my original notes into a laconic almost story. A story that doesn’t reveal much. A story that says more by what it doesn’t say. They say silence speaks louder than words. Sometimes. Maybe I was avoiding writing the story or the stories I should say, as they have been so painful? Maybe. I have made a start now and will continue until it is finished. Over the next days and weeks. I have plenty of time until September and am happy with what I have achieved so far.
Going to the supermarket has become an expedition. I will always remember this. Also our cooking sessions with Nassi. We have tried all kinds of new recipes together. Not sure what will happen in September. Will he be able to go to university? As in “going” physically? So many questions… Will he be safe? And Ody and his new school? What will our new normal be when this is all over? Will it be all over? A friend told me some upsetting news recently. I can’t stop thinking of her. I wish she was living nearby.
I like to be in the garden and observing the plants growing. The rocket we planted with Ody is now out but no sign yet of the spinach. I love April and May when our garden fills with forget-me-nots.
Don’t know what else happened this week. I keep busy at work. Thinking about the now and the future. What I can shape. We didn’t go anywhere beyond the garden and my little Wunderkammer that has now also become my office. It is my little escape room too.
No haircut this week. I am still recovering from my operation but am much better. Almost 60 days now after I went to hospital. Trying to watch the news less but it is hard to escape them. Feeling sadness about all the people who are ill and loosing their lives. I wish there was a cure… I wish there was a vaccine…
week 3 diary > Escaping through food?
and the World Health Organization.


Ody’s cup… he doesn’t like honey but loved the tea I made him… that had honey in it…


inspired by Marieanne Cavaciuti www.damsontreepottery.co.uk
Not much else to write. Thinking about the next excursion to the supermarket and how to clean the stuff Adam will bring back.This is occupying my mind.
No new story this week but some encouraging news about one I wrote already. More regarding this soon. Below some gems I found about our current situation that link to my picture book love. Hopefully, we will be able to contribute also.
From my window, an R/GA story, access here
Coronavirus a book for children by Elizabeth Jenner, Kate Wilson and Nia Roberts illustrated by Axel Scheffler and published by nosy crow, access here
The book of hopes access here
Stay safe!

Inspired by Hazel Terry at hazelterry.com and her fun craft activities
Week 2 Have I been home forever?
Usually we are away around Easter. Not this year…

made more angels as we all need at least one, stay safe!!!
The house is getting cleaner by the day despite the fact that all four of us are here all the time. Outside work, I have been crafting, (re-)potting, wrote one more picture book story (we are now at number 4) and spending some time with the boys mainly preparing meals and eating together. Ody changed his whole room just yesterday, moved all the furniture around and created a new space for himself. I made some face masks. We all have one now. Made out of layers of fabric, some from off cuts from our Fashion Institute. The one shown here is for my dear colleague and friend Haleh.
With Nassi, we made Jamie’s cauliflower and cheese pizza without following the recipe too closely. It worked. Didn’t look as good as our normal colourful pizza but we ate it with an appetite and it was something different. We had to use 50-50 strong and normal flour. We have now officially ran out of strong flour. We got some yeast.
Rhubarb flat cake was also something we tried for the first time this week. We made it twice. I used my basic non-recipe for flat cake and we added the rhubarb at the top. It did sink into the mixture. We sprinkled sugar and cinnamon over the cake and put it in the oven. It was yummy as it quickly disappeared.
Rhubarb will be the one fruit we will have for the whole year and don’t need to go out and buy. Later, much later we will hopefully have some apples and pears. The strawberry plants don’t look that good this year. Oh, yes, Adam’s tomato plants will go in the greenhouse when it gets a bit warmer and brighter. The little plans are doing really well so far.
Being resourceful is key and positivity is equally important in these difficult times. I found the related webinar this past week with our guests Gerasimos and Haleh insightful and the experiences they shared will help others move forward in their practice and be there for their students in a meaningful way. The importance of the emotional presence and community definitely came out of our conversations.

This week, I found the open course Let’s break the chain Covid-19 infection developed by MBRU including Prof. Nabil Zari whom I met in Thessaloniki at a conference some years ago. I found the course very informative and clear but still have some questions around mask wearing. Is it suggested for the general population not to wear the surgical masks because there are not enough? And if this is the case, what about DIY face masks, which I have started making following some online instructions I found? After completing this informative course, I have become an #MBRUCommunityImmunity Ambassador. I am responsible to protect myself and my community from #COVID-19. I challenged 5 friends to take the course. https://learn.mbru.ac.ae/courses/covid19 > Please do the course and share it further.
I remembered the time I was a translator and the joy I got translating a book by a living author, despite the struggles to do the translation itself. The experience was always so much richer and the struggles more bearable. The final output was also better when I could make that personal connection between author and translator, to establish that bridge. I reached out to connect to better understand their work and share my joy and care for their work with them. For me it was important for them to know that. Often I asked questions, things I wasn’t sure about, things I wanted to understand better to do their work justice but also to celebrate. Peter Härtling (just saw that he died a few years ago, so sad that he is no longer with us) was the author I did this on multiple occasions, as I translated a number of his books, and then we even met one year at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Are such exchanges valuable in other situations too? I have also found this approach really useful in the context of scholarly activities around learning and teaching and see this as a form of collegiality and peer review that connects people and ideas. I have seen that other people do this too, as I am sometimes contacted by people who are using my work. It makes me smile and is lovely to hear that it is useful for others, furthers their thinking and takes my work into new directions. I also continue learning through this process and the discoveries others make. The discoveries we make. That is what it is all about.
My wellbeing, I feel has been boosted by staying in touch with dear friends and family. Care and compassion at the heart, being there for each other in any way we can. Aristotle said that humans are social animals. He was right, we feed from healthy relationships, grow, and are happy in our selves, for others and with others. The noise is disappearing. I can feel it. We also hear the difference in our streets. I hear the little birds singing again. Maybe they were there before and I just notice them now more? A dear friend recently said, we now spent more time talking to each other than before. This desire to connect helps us both. I feel lucky to have met some special people and they are part of my life, to share, celebrate, cry and pick each other up again. Thank you.

Seeking hope and peace at the bottom of the garden
Stay safe and speak again next week
Lock down weekly diary > Week 1



Angels to protect us all