‘I won’t ski if the conditions are bad,’ I promise my well-meaning friends who, anxious about my continuing whiplash, are disapproving of my Easter holiday plans. This is easy in the first three days as the mist clings to the valley and the rain seems never-ending. The boys (husband, son and friend) are all gung-ho and of course sally forth daily, although a lot of time is spent in mountain restaurants. Continue reading
Tiger tracking and leopard spotting in Satpura, India
Tiger by Cindy
A few days ago I outstared a tiger and gazed into the blue eyes of a leopard. For the past seven years my friend Cindy and I have been trying to find the mythical blue-eyed leopard of Mana Pools, Zimbabwe, only to find he has moved to India. Seriously, the blue-eyed leopard is extremely rare and seems to be found only in India, which is where we came across Nilu (blue in Hindu) and his yellow-eyed twin, Pilu. Continue reading
New challenges: giving something back
So here we are, four years on, and I need a new challenge.
Writing the book about my mother and her war (Love and War in the WRNS, to be published in June) – one of the best periods of her life of which she was justly extremely proud – provided solace and therapy after all the bereavements and stress we have suffered over the past few years: the deaths of my mother, father and Louise, plus both Ross and I being diagnosed with cancer. Continue reading
Remembering Louise four years on & around the world
Preparing for hula-hooping at Lovebox, summer 2010
This is now the fourth time that we have had to experience the worst day of our lives: the day that Louise, our beloved daughter, died.
Ski Japan: pros and cons
It’s just a perfect day…Mt Yotei in the background
‘It’s the worst season for 12 years: no decent powder since December.’ Not what European snow refugees want to hear of Niseko, Japan, the powder Mecca of the world!
Cupping – no pain, no gain!
It’s Chinese New Year next week – these jolly mandarins are everywhere; a taxi driver gave me the big one!
Have spent the past few days making the long-awaited photo book for Louise. I felt compelled after reading my friend Sarah Helm’s harrowing account of the Ravensbrück women’s death camp, If This Is a Woman. It’s one of the real horror stories of the Second World War and was buried behind the Iron Curtain, with the Communists only commemorating their own, and not the thousands – maybe as many as 60,000 (not only Jews, but French, Czechs, Germans -asocials – Poles, English and American SOE agents) – who were murdered there. There was a strong link between the two camps to Auschwitz where all my Czech family, apart from my father, his mother, two uncles and two cousins (who were kindertransport) perished. I will never buy a Siemens product again. You’ll have to read the book to find out why. Continue reading
#Bereavement and the suppression of #immunity
I thought this post from my healthylivingwithcancer.co site should reach a wider audience….
I was visiting a dear friend who has just been diagnosed with leukaemia and was chatting to him about why some people get cancer and some don’t. I expounded my theory that I am convinced that both Ross and I both became ill after the great grief we experienced when we lost our darling Louise. My friend was also trying to make sense of his illness, coming hot on the heels of his wife’s breast cancer (as couples we are members of our special cancer couples club, but we won’t invite you to join it, it’s terribly exclusive) and was able to contextualise their respective illnesses within a bereavement framework. It was he who pointed me in the direction of Prof Janet Lord’s research on how age alters our immune response to bereavement.
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#Bereavement and the suppression of #immunity
Settling in to Singapore again
Ju Ming sculpture in the Botanic garden
The change of pace has been noticeable. Whisked away from London in some style on BA ( a windfall trip first class), I find Singapore surprisingly cool and pleasant. There’s a stiff breeze on our 11th floor balcony, and my plants are swishing and swooshing while the sunbirds chirp a merry greeting several times a day. The orchids have sprouted great long flower stems and I can admire them as I sit on my chaise longue, reading my friend Sarah Helm’s harrowing story of Ravensbruck death camp, If This Is A Woman. At times I weep from the gratuitous cruelty of this untold story. Continue reading
Some fresh mountain air in Switzerland
Snow-covered trees in the village
After my accidents over the Christmas period which resulted in me getting whiplash and damage to the sacro-iliac area of the back, I was looking forward to a long weekend with Ross’s Queens boys (as in old college mates, for the avoidance of doubt) in our chalet in Champery. Continue reading
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