Different!

Family: So much changed, exceedingly much I should say, since I last used this Family-entry (June 2008). Nina failed school and was sent off. Danyal had also not done well, they blamed it on him being extremely inpractical, and was doubling his class plus being demoted. This was the final push to make us cross the sea and search residence in England, hoping Nina and Danyal would get a better chance in the UK. And so it happened, though it is very sad that we had to leave Zara behind, as she was starting her study at University college Utrecht.
Now, one-and-a-half year later, we have moved to our second home in London, Chichi is living with papa and mama, Nina is on her second school here and finally doing great. With the prospect of being able to join any university in the Summer of 2011, only one year later than she could have, if she had done VWO in Holland (while, had we stayed on in Holland, if she ever wanted to reach university level, it would not have been before 2013 or 2014). Similar situation with Danyal: he is doing well here, in his own age-group and with all chances to reach university without having lost even one year. Compared to Holland, where university seemed out of his reach or with a loss of three full years only, plus being looked upon as being a handicapped child, while in England school thinks he is perfectly normal and having a great attitude, next to being gifted.
We could never have expected so much improvement in their school-careers.
But of course there is also a price to pay: financially we are still doing very bad and Zara, papa and mama and dado and dada are quite disturbed by our absence. Plus to move twice is very tiring and life in general becomes a bit unsettled, next to exciting, I must add, in a new country.


Ahmadiyya: Two great UK-Jalsa's, two Ramadans and four Eids have past since my last entry. Prosecution of Ahmadi's in Pakistan has intensified and Kasmiri Parliament (Pakistani side of Kashmir) passed a law in which it becomes legal to murder Ahmadi's...

House: House? Our house now is a fourth-flour maisonette-flat, with great views on large parts of London. It's a nice building, lovely neighbours, clean and green, but with lots of traffic. Thanks to double-glazing it doesn't bother much though and is actually rather nice to look upon. In the meantime we lived 11 months in a terraced house in Roehampton, also a nice place, but sadly financially that was no longer possible. Was our view in Roehampton limited to twenty meters direct in front and behind the house, but with our own gardens, here in Southfields we can see many, many square miles of London, yet with only a small balcony (filled with the cage of Minka and Luigi, so not even a chair we can put on it). In Roehampton we had a furnitured house, so when we came to Southfields we had to fill this empty house (only the floors and walls plus kitchen were done) and had to keep it cheap and simple at Ikea and Argos (beds, tables, chairs, cupboards, sofa). It's nice to have our own stuff again, though the sofa's in Roehampton were much better: six seats, leather and comfy. Now we only have a two-seater Klippan, not very comfy, and a nice chair, which is not suitable for elder or very heavy people.
In Roehampton, Sobia and Maria lived with us for about six months. It was nice, but ended in a sort of drama, which can't be mentioned here, in order to protect Sobia's privacy.

Computer: Computer? I'm using Ubuntu Karmic Koala, back with Gnome desktop. Danyal has a dual-boot Vista/Ubuntu and Jameel/Nina's PC is out of order as Nina switched off power while Win XP was updating. It doesn't want to start, it will be quite some effort to repair it, without letting the old files (Jameels and Nina's poems!!!) get lost. How stupid we were to not have any backups!
Internet we get through Sky broadband, which is nice with hardly any hickups, but the speed varies a lot and wireless upstairs is very limited. I'm not much on WDC nowadays, don't write much at all. Am mainly reading on Bokt and "Pien en Kobus" and Nu.nl plus Linux sites and a lot of zapping. It remains time-consuming, but not very productive. Am still in contact with Sarah through gmail and occasionally with Shish. Sadly with Nusrat contacts are disturbed, though I still hope to make it work again.

Outside: Outside it is Autumn now, or rather nearly Winter. It's getting cold, but most days are very light and bright here in London, exchanged with days of heavy downpour.

Foxes, squirrels and the same green parakeets which were also flying in Amstelveen are part of wild-life here. Opposite our house, just a few meters from our windows, lives a beautiful couple of squirrels. On the other side of the house are many more, but not so close. I'm starting to uncover the squirrels routine and trying to recognize them.

Foxes were very prominent in Roehampton, destroying our garbage bags and daily patrolling our garden. We had to protect Minka and Luigi with a lot of extra fences.

Sport: Holland, England qualified for WK 2010 in South Africa. Olympic games of Beijing are past, with Usuain Bolt becoming the undeniable champion of the games, pulverising the world records on sprint. Holland did well as usual, gold for dressage team and Anky with Salinero.
London is preparing for the games of 2012, and as we live only a few miles from Wimbledon tenniscourts and can see Wembley Stadium from our bedroom, we can see the progress and feel the excitement slowly growing :-). Winter Olympics are nar, sadly Marianne Timmer recently broke her heel-bones, so her participation is in doubt. Dutch Lady skating is dramatically bad this year, apart from Timmer. Not much medal hope there, but who knows. Our main hope seems to be Sven Kramer and a team-medal. We'll see though.
Ajax saw Marco van Basten resign as trainer after only one not very succesful season. Now Jol is trainer and they are doing just fine so far (second in competition, but not very convincing and still playing in UEFA cup).
What else? Kimi out of F1 for 21010 season, he didn't get a seat of his choice as his financial demands were too high. He is going for rallying instead, with Citroen Junior team. Massa had a near fatal accident, when a spring of a preceding car torpeded his helmet. He will be back in 2010. Ferrari bought off Kimi's contract and hired Alonso, to satisfy their Spanish sponsor, Santander. Button became the driver champion for the Brawn team (which is the successor of Honda) and Brawn also won the constructor-title. Vettel was second, before "old man" Barrichello, who was also driving for Brawn. Brawn next season will be Brawn-Mercedes. Both Button and Barrichello have a new team for 2010. (McLaren and Williams). McLaren/Lewis and ferrari/Kimi had poor cars last season, so they ended up only fith and six with the teams being third and fourth. 2009 was the last season for BMW and Toyota, though Sauber has managed to find a buyer, so he will continue. 2010 will see three new teams in F1 and 26 cars in all. There is a rumour that Schumacher will return with Brawn-Mercedes, but nothing is sure. Renault has still not decided about the future of their F1 team, so they might be out as well, following this years scandal about Piquet Jr, instigated by team-boss Briatore, deliberately heavily crashing in Singapore 2008, handing a win to team-mate Alonso by doing so.

World: Same crap as always. But a bit less stressy to have Obama instead of Bush as head of US. Living in London and not a regular with any serious newspaper or news show yet (oh shame!!!) the world is a bit forlorn on me at the moment. But do I miss it much?

It's hard to become involved with English matters and leave Dutch behind. I'm still more aware of that what happens in Holland than in UK.

Balkenende and Blair missed out on becoming EU president, instead a capable but obscure Belgian is now wearing Europes crown.

I'm still as leftist as I always was, coupled with "conservative" views on family and morals. Yep.

Magnolia

Magnolia's coloured my life for many years.

I noted them for the first time, when I had to ride my bike Summer and Winter on my daily travels to my horse. It was 1984.

Her stable was on a farm, 5 miles from my home. In the Winter it was not always easy, also because the time that I was busy with my mare was as cold or wet as the cycle-trip. The way back home, half-frozen or drenched in rain, could feel endless.

February often used to be the coldest month of the year and the cycling was a bit of a challenge. But on my way to the stable, I would pass several Magnolia's, trees and shrubs, decorating front-gardens. In February the flower buds of the Magnolia become prominently visible, fore-telling Spring with clear signs.

The Magnolia's were the highlights of my trips, promising that soon the cold and dark days would be over.  

And then one day, my horse had since long died and I was a mom of three children by now, we found a new and nice house in the Magnolialaan...the Magnolia Avenue. Not only did I love the name of the street, but the whole street had been decorated with numerous Magnolia's by the local council. Pink flowered shrubs and trees with an abundance of smaller white flowers.

Three of these trees stood only a few meters away from our windows. In Spring our daughters bedroom on the first floor was floating amidst a sea of divine white flowers. And the wonderful fresh and sweet Magnolia fragrance would perfume our house and street. 

Living in that street in Spring was an enchanting privilege, for a few weeks it was the most beautiful street of the world. And during ten years we could be part of it. Last Autumn we moved. From Holland to England.

We live in a green part of London, most houses have a garden. Here too I have seen Magnolia's, but only a few. It feels like the Magnolia is no longer part of my life.

Where twenty-five years ago Magnolia announced Spring, there now its absence signifies the closure of a period: the youth of my children.

It makes me happy to live in London, where we made a new start. If I miss my eldest daughter, my parents and other family-members and friends, yet I don't miss my old house and city. But the disappearing of the Magnolia's is something I still can't comprehend. They were part of me and my whole being.

Perhaps I should plant a small Magnolia in our garden. And know when it will soon be Spring.