Happy New Year

 If you are reading this you have survived the celebrations of seeing the New Year in. So probably like me you are feeling over-fed, over-indulged and incredibly lazy. This brings me to considering making changes to how I live in 2024. My big resolution is to get moving again - and not to open the fridge door quite so often.

The time between Christmas and New Year is a killer. The fridge just keeps on giving. It is has been overflowing with all those left overs and bits that we buy because it is Christmas. Luckily for me, Sammi has been with me. So to keep his reputation of being the Human Hoover, he has been helping to reduce the stock of food. 

He has earned his keep by pollarding the tree in my garden. We even managed to do it when it wasn't raining or blowing a gale. My neighbours commented on the health and safety aspects of him standing on a wall wielding a chainsaw. It remains for me to get rid of the kindling and logs that are now covering my courtyard. Even more than that great job of hacking the tree, he has been showing off his handyman skills around my house. I now have two monkey knots securing my ladder - clever boy!

The family on the canal 

A really big downside of the time between Christmas and New Year is that the days seamlessly drift. I wake up each morning and I really have to remember whether it is a Monday or a Sunday or whatever. I really have had no idea what day, what time of day or even what I should be doing over the festive season. The nice thing is that Sammi is around all the time. He has been writing an essay so he is more switched on than I am. Ashamed of this thought as I am, I am looking forward to order in my life. Regular swims, tennis and a bit of a routine.

So looking forward to a more ordered life, there are lots of things that are positive about the New Year. The days will be getting longer. It is a time of new starts. Maybe we will even have world peace in the New Year.... who knows?

The Wrong Lights

 Everyone knows that Wallace had the wrong trousers. This Christmas I got the wrong lights. My neighbours always tastefully decorate the outside of their houses with lights so I thought it would be churlish not to join in. I even got a half-price, bargain 9-metre string of lights for my balcony. 

So far so good! I plugged them in to test them and I was impressed with the quality. It was only then that I questioned my choice of outside lights that are red. Nasser didn't see a problem. I did. It was also too wet at the time to go climbing the outside of my house on a ladder to string them up. The more I thought about it, the more I laughed at the "bargain" lights which are now elegantly settled in a large glass bowl. This is a Christmas decoration I hadn't really planned on! I told my story to one of my neighbours at church. He said I might have livened up the village somewhat... or something similar.

Well, that is history now. I had shingles for Christmas. I spent four days lying on my sofa feeling pretty sorry for myself and really willing myself to be able to cook the turkey for a big lunch. Thank you NHS - you made this happen. On Friday, I had pins sticking in my back and I knew that I needed more than a paper cow. I checked on the internet. I phoned 111. They told me to phone my doctor to tell them they were getting an urgent referral for me. 

The surgery asked me for a picture of my spots. Now, this is where things got tricky. My most itchy area was around my kidneys. To help you understand how difficult this was I have a challenge for you. Try taking a focused selfie of your lower back. Now imagine how much harder it would be when you feel shitty. (picture not provided!)

To be honest, the doctor was very sympthetic and said I need medication ASAP. I phoned Danielle and she said she could get it after she had fed Ezra-Mae. Not a problem, except it was already coming up to 5pm and the pharmacy was closing at 5:30. I called Nasser who was out at a party. I didn't want him to miss his social gathering so I whatsapped him that Danielle would get it. I phoned Boots and asked them to prepare my prescription and that it would be really close to 5:30 when it was to be collected. 

Danielle went to the wrong chemist, Nasser did leave his party and got to Boots minutes before Danielle. Whoops. I felt terrible. I had disprupted both Danielle and Nasser's plans. After a couple of doses of anti-viral medication I was almost normal once more. The NHS went above and beyond. Their response was supportive, timely and effective at a time when I am sure they were overwhelmed pre-Christmas. 

Just a couple of small addendum - The person on 111 asked me if I could do my normal daily tasks and was I more incoherent or confused than usual. I told her I felt far too weak to swim even 1km. She said, "Can you make a cup of tea?" Well yes, of course I could but she did ask about my normal daily tasks - silly me! As for being more incoherent... etc... I think I am perfectly lucid all the time... silly question!

So feeling much, much better, I got the bird stuffed, the table layed and the house surface-tidy.  I sang loudly while I was working and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I feel I have accomplished so much in such a short time yet when I checked my watch, I realised how long it had taken.... So all that is left for me to do is to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and may the New Year bring you all that you wish for.

The mundane

This goes down as a very low key week. While everyone else is gearing up for Christmas, I have been feeling increasingly sorry for myself. I have been hit by the common cold. Over the week it has come and gone and then returned. It has travelled from my nose to my chest and then back again. Wherever I have been, I have kept my disctance.

While this has been happening to poor little me, I haven't been able to finish my swim challenge. This goes down as a big failure this year. The challenge was for nearly 8000 lengths and I was less than 200 short. In a normal week I could do 400 lengths easily - errr.

I have also looked out at my garden with the intention of doing a tidy up. The weather has been much milder and there have been decent lulls in the rain. All I did for most of the week was look out of my window and mutter to myself. Finally on Friday I got out there and now all that remains to be done is the tree. It needs pollarding. Sammi did this two years ago now and with the rains this year, it grew back bigger than before. I am hoping Sammi will attack the tree once more. This will be his Christmas present to me!

A while ago I bought a bird bath and mini solar fountain for the robin that visits me in my garden. Either the sun hasn't shone powerfully enough to get more than a faint pulse out of the fountain or the solar battery isn't big enough - however you look at it - the dribbling fountain action is pretty pathetic. In the New Year I will get a bigger and better fountain along with more solar lights. New Year's resolution.... turn my garden into an outdoor room! I am hoping for an urban jungle effect.

The one thing I don't want for the new year is to find wildlife inside my home as I did on Saturday morning. On the stairs leading to the downstairs was a large, shiny, leaf-like thing - a slug!! I hate slugs. I know I can outpace them but they give me the heebie jeebies. I swept it up in the dustpan and accidentally flicked it on my right hand- YUK. I threw the pan and then started sweeping it up again once my heart had slowed. Then I noticed a trail around my hallway and into my boot. I bravely put my hand in. No more slugs. YAY. There was a silvery trail into and out of my bedroom too. I think it came in on the bottom of my shoes I was wearing to do the gardening. Neurosis has set in. It could have got into bed with me. I stripped my bed just in case!

Of the few social things that happened to me over the week, Nataliia's baby shower stands out. It was a small do. Her friends all came round to my place and we chatted for a couple of hours. Ezra-Mae was my little helper for the morning and did me proud with her table manners. On the flip side, she found some tablets in my bedroom, just as everyone was leaving, and put one in her mouth. Out of sheer panic, I turned her upside down, clenched her between my thighs and slapped her hard between the shoulder blades - normal, loving behaviour from Nana! Luckily, it was just the one tablet she put in her mouth.

Nataliia's baby shower

The bump

I also took Ezra-Mae to see Aunty Paula in Aylesbury. She obviously was too young to remember her last visit but she was so excited she talked about the visit all the way there. Apart from stealing an extra slice of cake, she was really well behaved. Aunty Paula gave her a very pretty Petter Rabbit purse which she instantly fell in love with. She held it tight as I strapped her into the car. 

Very soon though, after we set off she started crying and garbling on. I didn't know what was wrong and I couldn't stop in rush hour traffic so for 40 minutes she screamed while I drove home. I said things like, "Not long now", "Mummy will be so pleased to see you very soon", "Oh look at the sky - it looks full of it!" you know the stuff.. I think I even did a bit of cow spotting.... "look over there!".... 

Once home, I unstrapped her and found out what had been the problem. She had dropped her Petter Rabbit purse on the floor of the car. Mummy wasn't the issue. It was a missing plastic purse that had upset her for a full forty minuntes. Top marks for persistence, Ezra-Mae!

So with one week to go, Christmas awaits!!!

It's official

What happened this week wasn't just big, it was life changing and it is with the express approval of Nasser that I will tell his story and how much an impact this seemingly small happening has made to him. I  first met Nasser in Syria in 2009 while working there. I always travelled with my tennis rackets in those days in the hope that someone would have a hit with me. In Syria it was Nasser and his friends who made me very welcome. It was good tennis too.

Fast forward from 2009 to this week, 7th December, 2023: over this time our lives accidentally became entwined. Because Nasser stood for his moral values and refused to support the Syrian regime in its civil war that started in the Arab Spring on March 15th, 2011 opposing the people of Syria, this decision cost him dear. This choice almost cost him his life. It cost him his properties and his luxury lifestyle. It caused his extended family to suffer. It turned his life upside down. He still harbours guilt at how many lives he has dragged into this.

He avoided getting involved in the conflict and kept his thoughts private but this didn't save him.  On August 22nd 2012, he was threatened with a gun at his head and thrown into a hole in the ground. He was labelled a traitor of the regime. For the next 181 days his companions - lice and other nasties shared his underground cell. He lived with the uncertaintity of whether he would survive this prison ordeal. I cannot imagine being trapped like that for a few hours, leave alone that long. It drove him crazy. 

He was imprisoned for over six months in all and came through the ordeal. He and his extended family fled Syria for Turkey on his release. As the regime would pick up anyone who was linked to Nasser, no one in his family could safely stay in the country. That meant all his brothers needed to leave too. 

Nasser left his family in Turkey and went on to Sweden where he believed he would find safety and sanctuary. He didn't. He was considered a dangerous man so Sweden wouldn't grant him residency. They gave his brothers residency so they got on with their lives in a new land. Nasser couldn't even leave the country to help get his wife, Amira and his three children to join him. They came over the Mediterranean in an old, rickety boat.

Amira set off from Egypt for Italy with smugglers. You hear of so many of these boats sinking. Their journey wasn't without incident. They nearly lost Kenan, who was two at the time, overboard. They got to Sweden and settled but Nasser could not work. He was an illegal immigrant. In 2019 the authorities said he was to be deported back to Syria where ne knew he would face certain death. 

With limited options, he planned to come to the UK on a false passport. On January 20th 2020, he arrived, delcared himself an asylum seeker and was immediately jailed. The UN convention states you should not lock up victims of torture. Good old Britain! This is where I come in. I arrived home on February 1st, 2020 and very soon received an email from Nasser. He wanted advice. I told him, I'd get him out of jail but first I had to prove I was a trustworthy, upright citizen (don't laugh). Fortunately, I knew someone who knew our local MP so that was a good shortcut. 

Nasser's deportation to Sweden was stopped and I picked him up from Morton Hall on March 9th, 2020. He was a wreck. From then on, our lives were thrown together and we spent all of lockdown in each other's company. Neither of us had ever been with one other person for so long before. It could have gone tits up. 

We are still friends! The Home Office have been abominable but after nearly 4 years they have come good and stamped the document giving Nasser his first secure place since being thrown in prison on November 28th. 

At this point, I must praise the good work of Duncan Lewis - the law firm who deal with such cases. The amount of trauma they must see everyday must affect the lawyers who fight for the rights of victims of torture and persecution. Darren, from Duncan Lewis, needed to give Nasser lots of reassurance that sending his BRP off to the Home Office didn't mean he was going to be thrown out of the country. To think, I have been saving up for a trip to Rwanda to visit Nasser if he ended up there. Now I need new holiday plans!

So the Home Office have given Nasser the best Christmas present ever. He can hold his head high knowing that people believe him to be a good man. He has sanctuary for the first time since 22nd August, 2012. I live in hope that so many other people who are in this position can be given shelter. I always think: there but for the grace of God, go I. A UK passport is a passport of value! 

I wrote a chapter for a book - The Lockdown Diaries - my chapter tells the story of my lockdown with Nasser. Click on the link Lockdown

Launching

 

Just when Christmas is around the corner and there is so much to do and so many ways to celebrate, We have finally got the website for our business ready. This is probably not the final cut but it is the start of the new stage of my new career. So I am busy, busy, busy...

So welcome "www.boldfaceediting.co.uk" to the big, wide world. Please check it out and give me your feedback. Sammi has worked tirelessly on this and I am proud of him for his vision and his sense of purpose in getting it together. For my part, I have been the chief nag. I have come to realise I am quite good at this role. 

Facebook blocked my last post. How dare they? I am not particularly political and I am sure I am not divisive. Of my bad traits, the very worst is shouting at the radio. Since October 7th, I have done this more and more. I wonder why? As light relief, I have been laughing loudly at the COVID enquiry though. At the time, they played fast and loose losing too many lives. Who would have thought that Big Bad Boris made a balls up of the UK's COVID policy? At the time, a pub in Liverpool aptly renamed itself. Nuff said. 

One of the things that I have become a little obsessed with is completing my second lap of the Thames. This will mean, if I finish it,  I will have swam 116 miles this year at least. I have spent 10 weeks travelling during the challenge so that has given me less time to complete it. Now with the deadline extended for another two weeks it will be easy for me to do the remaining 400 plus lengths.

The temperature is -3c today. I swept up the last leaf fall from my tree this morning. The leaves were crunchy. The new bird bath was also frozen solid so my idea of making my garden homely for my almost pet robin is not going to plan. I just hope that this year I don't lose as many plants as I did last year. Later, I am off to play tennis outside it will help me empathise with the garden wildlife if nothing else.