Let’s go back to your childhood….

Altogether now....."WHEEEEEEE!!!!!!"

The children’s play area across the road from us offers a rich tapestry of life. I posted a while ago an article about an old Chinese guy, sat on a rocking horse, contemplating life. The other day, this snapshot presented itself, and it brought to mind a quote on The Pomegranate Blog, where it was postulated that:

“The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, the second half by our children.”

It’s a quote from a 19th century lawyer, Clarence Darrow, and it has some basis in truth. but looking at these two on the swings yesterday, I think it’s fair to say that, with one’s own children, it might just be possible to relive your childhood on your own terms.

Kev Moore

Fingers Crossed!

Fingers Crossed for Shelley!

Well everyone, today is Shelley’s BIG DAY! No, she’s not getting married again – it’s her Art exhibiton!

So I’m sure you’ll join Miki and I in wishing her Good Luck and Bon Chance!

GO GIRL!

Kev Moore

Darkness falls

Darkness Falls

The lighted lamp of day retreats alone

Oe’r rocky crags and winding paths

To ply its trade in foreign lands for but a day

Leaving with a promise to return, and night,

This purple cloak a shroud to conceal all

That brightly burned scant hours since,

Lingers, briefly, one last glimpse of greens and reds,

Before the day is put to bed.

Long shadows, feline, graceful, crawl

While all around us,

Darkness falls.

Copyright Kev Moore, November 2008

The Wall

I am making progress in getting ready for my first art show. All of my prints are framed now:

Now I am going to see how many new pieces I can do in time for the show. My old stuff already looks boring to me. But I guess it will be new to most everyone else.

Back to my sketchbook now…

~Shelley

P.S. I can’t wait to show my coffee buddies here my new coffee cup art!

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Miki

Try Dr. Oz’s Quick Personality Test!

Dr. Oz (Oprah’s friend)

Dr. Oz, famous for appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show as a regular guest, has come up with a very short, yet very accurate personality quiz!

I came out as an “Explorer,” which I do think is accurate for myself (introvert, stable, open).

Try it, and have some fun!

Madame Monet

Reminiscence

Chinese Daydream

As I stood at the kitchen sink the other day ( I know, I know) I happened to glance out of the window at the children’s play area across the street. it was deserted, save for a solitary figure, gently rocking on one of the children’s apparatus.

Upon closer inspection, I discovered it was an old Chinese man, the elder of the family that runs the nearby restaurant. I have seen him occasionally, padding up and down the streets. He always seems to look a little lost, an air of melancholy hanging over him like a cloud.

My first thought when I saw him marooned in this playground was one of unbearable sadness. But I’ve tried to revisit it, and look on the scene more optimistically. Perhaps the simple explanation is that he was quietly re-living a youth long past, reinvigorating a memory that had become lost in time. In any case, when I look once more at this picture, I prefer not to  conjure the word “loss”.

I prefer “Serenity”.

Kev Moore

Message from the Country

High on a hill there's a lonely goatherd....

Sometimes I forget that I used to live in a built-up suburb in a dreary northern English town. So much so, that I take for granted where we live, and the wide open spaces just beyond our doors.

But, every now and again, an alarm bell rings in the shape of the little tinkly ones around the necks of the goats that come grazing across the river bed. One look out of the window, and I realise just how lucky we are to live in such a wonderful place.

How the goats don’t tumble into the arroyo is something I still don’t understand. Have they got Velcro hooves?

‘Ere Eric, watch your step, you’ll end up as Paté….

Kev Moore

Coffee Culture in the UK

The legendary 2is Coffee Bar in London

A three- year study by Glagow University has found that “the young and old, homeless and upper-class, taste conscious and tasteless have all taken coffee shops to their hearts and created a new kind of socialising.”

Quite why it took a bunch of thumb-twiddling academics north of the border three years to arrive at this conclusion is beyond me. And in fact, whilst it is true that the high street cafe it is currently where a vast amount of socialising takes place, ever since the Friends culture hit our screens in the 90’s , it is by no means a new phenomenon. Perhaps these academics forgot to major in history. back in the 1960’s , coffee bars were an incredible magnet for young people, and the melting pot for a burgeoning music scene.

The Kardomah Coffee House chain was particularly popular from the 50’s onwards, a place for young couples to meet, sometimes making a single cup of coffee last an entire evening! -But its cultural influence can be traced back even further – in the 1930’s, Dylan Thomas, Welsh and metropolitan poet, and fellow artists frequented the Kardomah Coffee house in Cardiff, where it was described as an “avantgardist outpost.”

And who can imagine now, an actress of the standing of Gina Lollobrigida, opening a new coffee bar, as she did in London in 1953?

But the coffee bar that arguably had the most impact on culture was the 2 i’s. It is widely regarded as the birthplace of British rock’n'roll. In the late 1950’s Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard performed there regularly and became overnight stars after being discovered there.  As a result new musical talent began beating a path to its doors. And speaking of doors, for a time, the doorman at the 2 i’s was none other than Peter Grant, legendary manger of the even more legendary Led Zeppelin. the list goes on. The Who auditioned for producer Shel Talmy in the basement, Ginger Baker, later of Cream, was a regular there. Richie Blackmore from Deep Purple and legendary producer Mickie Most all put in appearances. All this history finally achieved official recognition when in 2006, a heritage plaque was put up on the site, officially proclaiming it the “birthplace of British rock’n'roll and the pop music industry.”

If anything, the “new wave” of coffee culture, chiefly exemplified by the Starbucks chain – puts the emphasis on the staggering variety of blends and types of coffee available, albeit for equally staggering prices – but the corporate quality of the outlets lend a generic, anodyne aspect to the experience, there is no room for individuality in Starbucks world. So I say to those academics -A new kind of socialising?  maybe, but it ain’t rock’n’ roll!

Kev Moore

Official recognition in 2006

My Daughter’s Clothes Caught on Fire in the Kitchen

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The sweatshirt that caught on fire

Friday morning we had a terrible accident in our home, although fortunately all ended well.  Each morning my daughter (age 15) and I prepare our breakfast and lunch before heading off to school.  As usual my daughter had put on a pan of boiling water to use in filling our thermoses and (we hoped) for making some spaghetti to take to school.

In Morocco, we have no central heating, and now the winter cold has arrived.  My daugher was standing at the stove (alone in the kitchen) WARMING HER HANDS OVER THE BOILING WATER.  We have only gas stoves with open flames here.  I told her MANY times not to do this, as well as telling her many times NEVER TO WEAR LONG, LOOSE SLEEVES the the kitchen or OTHER LOOSE CLOTHING such as bulky jackets.  The safety reasons have been explained to her many times. Yet, she still disobeys me!

She told me that while her hands were warming over the steam from the boiling water, her eyes started to hurt (but she didn’t recognize it was from the burning sweatshirt).  So she put the lid on the pan, but still the smell and burning eyes continued for a moment before she realized she was on fire.  She lay down on the floor (tile), but the fire did not go out (she’s very skinny, but I now also think the material on the sweatshirt didn’t go out easily, more on this in a minute).  So she stood back up and ran to the next room, screaming.  I yelled at her to sotp running that I was coming.  I got there about five or six seconds later, to find her whole stomach area on fire with flames coming out a good two inches.  I told her to lie down again.  it STILL did not go out (I didn’t realize until she told me later that she had already tried that.)

There were no buttons on the front of the shirts, so at that point all I could do was to try to rip it off over her head.  I got it off and dropped it onto the tile floor.  I found her third shirt had not been burned (because it’s cold we have to wear three or four layers in Morocco in winter).  She told me her skin hurt (probably from the heat), but it was not red or blistered.  Luckily, her hair did not catch on fire (it’s below shoulder length).

My daughter told me later that she first thought of putting salt on it, but she didn’t know right away where the salt was (we had talked in the past about putting salt on electrical fires or grease fires).  It didn’t occur to her to go to the sink (right next to her) and turn on the water to splash all over the fire (my husband asked why she hadn’t done this).  She also said that she’d seen a lot of movies where when they put water on the fire, it explodes and spreads around quickly (oddly, my third-graders, age 8, mentioned the same thing to me later at school).

Burned turtleneck, which was underneath the sweatshirt

Five minutes later, I returned to the clothes which we’d dropped onto a tile floor, and they were STILL smoking heavily!  I brought them back to the kitchen and put water on them.  Then I decided instead of throwing them away immediately, I would take them to school and show the various elementary classes for a quick reminder about fire safety.

When I visited the classes, I asked how many other kids were warming their hands over the fire.  The majority of kids raised their hands (especially age 9 and up).  I asked how many kids had been asked by their parents NOT to do that, and about the same number raised their hands again.  Then I held up my daughter’s clothes, and showed them, “This is why.”  I find most kids don’t listen to their parents as well as they should (because they get warnings from their own parents all the time, and discount the warnings); yet they are often willing to listen better to another adult, even if that adult tells them the same things as their parents do.

My daughter was most upset about this being her new sweatshirt, just purchased the day before.  She had planned to wear it to school that day.  i told her maybe we can go back to the store and see if there are any more.  I told her not to worry about  the shirt, and that she should be really glad she didn’t end up in the hospital!

The burned clothes

We managed to keep calm, but later in the day I found myself feeling quite upset, I think it was a delayed reaction.  My daughter seemed to deal amazingly well with the rest of her day.  I asked her if she told her friends.  She told her best friend, but her best friend obviously did not recognize the seriousness of what happened because her friend was just upset that my daughter forgot to bring her three DVD’s she wanted to borrow from us to watch!

I am just so thankful that my daughter came thorugh this without getting hurt.

Madame Monet