Available Light

At the end of every year I attend the St. Hilda's prizegiving service and the leavers' service and see a string of young women cross the stage. All of them are big fishes in this particular small pond of the school where they have spent the last five or seven years of their lives. They are making the journey we must all repeat a hundred times, that of becoming a small fish in the next pond, whatever it may be. And at every service the school hymn is sung: Blest Are The Pure In Heart . Whoever, back in the day, chose that hymn to be the one that defines the school and its relationship to the almighty had a particular idea of the what a girls' school should aspire to be, and what a girl should aspire to be. I'm guessing, of course, but I think that vision would have to do with all the characteristics we attribute to the heart: feelings, loyalty, relationship, emotion. With that vision in mind, the aspiration is one of pure and chaste behaviour springing from undefil...

When we were in Spain we heard a group called Ain Karem . They are popular in Spain but little known outside of the Iberian Peninsula. The group is named for the village where, according to tradition, The Virgin Mary conversed with her cousin Elizabeth while both women were pregnant. The group contains a priest, but is otherwise a womens' group, originating in the Carmelite order but now containing lay women as well as nuns. Their music is usually about issues of justice and the above clip is an example. What I really like is the juxtaposition of the cheerful 60's folksy Singing Nun ambience of the music and the radical, revolutionary lyrics. Sort of a 21st Century Spanish incarnation of the Magnificat We have a CD of theirs playing as Advent draws to a close. If you're looking for "the real meaning of Christmas", here it is. The women and the children do not count, Those who wander on the margins do not count, The poor and the sick do not count, Nor do ...

Last night Bridget, Clemency and I walked through the old, strangely leafy, bustling, wonderful Ashrafiyeh district to a restaurant recommended to Bridget by a Lebanese friend. We found Abdal Wahab after a 15 minute walk and once the staff got their head around the idea that we didn't want to eat meat (You are vegetarian? Try this one it only has lamb....) were served what was, up to this point, the most delicious vegetarian meal of my life, no doubt about it, by a country mile. Just before 7 Bridget's phone rang. It was Scott from Doha airport. There had been a mix up in his bookings for the flight he had to board NOW and he desperately needed some information or he would be walking from Doha. The info was a mile away, and it was panic time. The waiters asked what was wrong, and in seconds, without question, gave us username and password to the restaurant's in house network so Bridget could access the net on her phone and get the info to Scott. Now think about this for a m...