Two children, two kittens and three ducks

Two children, two kittens and three ducks - these are my dependents; solely my dependents at the moment as my husband has been working abroad for two weeks. I can feel very sorry for myself; in all this foul weather I've been on my own with two hyperactive boys, wind and rain lashing incessantly against the windows, flood waters rising on the lane outside. And I'm six months pregnant. But I feel proud - I'm surviving. I've just about kept it together with the children and I've not even cried yet.

I've been more worried about the animals. Symptomatic of my obsessive traits when things get out of control, I found myself cleaning the duck house out during the storm last Friday. Their house had flooded and I was worried about them spending the night on wet, freezing hay. So I put on my wellies, hat and coat, shovelled the muck out and put clean bedding in, drenched myself by torrential rain so that I had to strip to my underwear when I got in.

Thank God for CBeebies; my children were safe and content in front of the fire. So I turned my obsessive concern to the kittens, fussing around their house to make sure it was a dry haven in which they could spent the night. A very sensible and supportive friend of mine suggested that of all my dependents, the ducks were probably best able to survive the weather alone. But my father taught me to always care for the animals first and I knew I'd not sleep that night unless I was sure they were all safe from the raging elements.


We've been to Sunday School this morning and it reminded me how important it is to get out and mix with other families. At 7.05am I felt tired to the core, despondent, tearful and was contemplating driving off and leaving my children who were spitting cereal at each other across the table. Arriving at Sunday School I realised that other families have just the same amount of problems and inconveniences, and felt ashamed for my self-pity. This morning Sunday School and my wonderful supportive friends there, restored my sense of perspective so that I am now able to face another wet, windy day as a single mother with renewed vigor.

Telegraph.co.uk

Great excitement - I am published in The Telegraph. An article which I have written about the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan has been published in The Weekly Telegraph and is on-line at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/01/15/kyrgyzstan.xml&page=1

Zagazoo by Quentin Blake

For those of you with young children who enjoy reading stories with an adult undercurrent, I recommend Zagazoo by Quentin Blake. A couple receive a baby in the post and are enjoying its fun until it turns into a squawking vulture. It becomes a rampaging elephant, filthy warthog and angry dragon until it turns into a large, hairy monster which keeps growing. The parents are exhausted and despairing, their hair starts going grey. Then the monster becomes a polite young man...

Reading it tonight it struck me what a perceptive parallel of child rearing it was, although one which was difficult to explain to my inquisitive four year old who wanted to know why the baby kept changing into animals!

Father Christmas Moving to Kyrgyzstan

I am delighted to read that Father Christmas has been told to relocate to Kyrgyzstan.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=DZ35HFBALUSONQFIQMGCFFWAVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2007/12/23/nxmas223.xml

A remote spot in this little known country has been declared the "geographical centre of the world's spread of children" by a team of Swedish scientists who have advised that if Santa started his journey in Kyrgyzstan he would achieve the most efficient round the world trip.

However, I am concerned for all the children who take to addressing letters to Father Christmas in Kyrgyzstan. When I lived there, post took about three months to arrive from England and was dumped unceremoniously in the stairwell of our block. If the Kyrgyz authorities are keen to promote their country as FC's new home, I think that before they start renaming peaks and organising annual games for Santas to test their chimney climbing and sledge racing skills, they need to improve the postal system to cope with the millions of letters which will now be coming their way.

To find out what Father Christmas can expect when he moves to Kyrgyzstan, read Revolution Baby: Motherhood and Anarchy in Kyrgyzstan by Saffia Farr. Signed copies are available to buy on http://www.saffiafarr.com/

Radio Star - again!

I'm sorry, I've not written for ages. My only excuse is that I've been busy: busy marketing Revolution Baby and busy preparing for Christmas with my two children, but I'll tell you about that another time.

I was on the radio again yesterday - is this becoming tedious? This time I was on GWR Bristol, on Stuart Elmore's show. Stuart has a feature called 4Play when listeners choose four tunes under four categories and give reasons why they've selected them.

I had fun doing it. For the 'song which gives me goosebumps' I chose 'If You're not the One' by Daniel Beddingfield because this song was being played everywhere when I was getting married so it reminds me of that wonderfully romantic time - the lyrics are so appropriate. For the 'song I mess up my speakers to' I chose 'Saltwater' by Chicane, a great dance song in memory of the carefree days when I used to go clubbing.

It was very exciting to drive Tom and Ben home from nursery listening to songs I'd chosen, and Tom was excited to hear me talking through the radio, although that is a difficult concept for him to grasp. I'm hoping to have a "listen again" facility through my website. My technical advisor (husband) is currently exploring using You Tube as a medium for this - it's slightly worrying that I could soon be sharing a site with wierdos, desperate celebrities and attention seeking murderers.

I've also been on Thornbury FM. This is a community radio, broadcast from a portacabin with boarded up windows, hidden at the back of a carpark on the outskirts of Thornbury. It's not salubrious but I enjoyed the experience; worryingly I'm starting to like the sound of my own voice on radio. I suspect this interview had about three listeners - my mum, the DJ's mum and a frustrated person on Thornbury High Street looking for Radio Bristol.

However, the owner of Thornbury Bookshop told me that a customer had mentioned hearing me on the radio, and as he was ordering more books at the time, this gives me hope that all my marketing efforts are having tiny ripples of effect.

If you'd like to listen to me on Thornbury FM, talking about myself - again - go to the podcast page of http://www.thornburyfm.org/, I'm there under Wed 28 Nov.

Help! I fancy Sportacus!

Something worrying is happening - I'm getting a strange crush on Sportacus. For those of you who don't have young children or an addiction to CBeebies, Sportacus is the lead in an obnoxious programme called Lazy Town. I used to hate this programme and try to avoid my children watching it but I've relented because despite nauseating characters the subliminal message works: my four-year-old does star jumps and push ups and asks for a banana and an apple so that he will grow up strong like Sportacus.

So I looked closer and this muscled Icelandic guy in blue lycra is quite sexy. I'm not sure if it's the Nordic accent or just because he's the old-fashioned hero who would pick you up in his arms to rescue you from stepping in a puddle, but I now smile when I hear the theme tune and even sing along.

I feel ashamed to admit this crush - when a friend mentioned this summer that she actually tuned in to watch him, and she doesn't even have children, I was horrified. My only explanation of the problem is that my husband is away this week and I've had seven days of wild boys and no adult conversation. It's probably fortunate that Matthew is home tomorrow.

Radio Star Reaction

I just listened to myself on the radio - and was pleasantly surprised! I was expecting to cringe but instead felt proud that I actually sounded as eloquent and authoritative as other radio guests. If you are now intrigued you can go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/bristol/content/articles/2007/11/23/revolutionbaby_feature.shtml to listen again, read a feature article and look at some photos. I'll be on again tomorrow night and all this week on Drive, Radio Bristol, just after 6pm.