We're a long way from home, welcome to the pleasure dome (Frankie Goes To Hollywood)

Wie geht's?

Another trip down the nostalgia path for this post, and a visit to one of my happy places: The Dubai Mall.

Much of life for Jacky and me in the Middle East, and many of our ex-pat friends, revolved around trips to malls. 

While living in Al Ain, we often travelled the hour and a bit north to Dubai to either the BurJuman Centre, the Mall Of the Emirates, or best of all - The Dubai Mall.

It's an amazing place: air conditioned comfort from the heat; a huge variety of eateries and cafes; great shopping - Virgin Megastore and Book World By Kinokuniya; art installations like the water feature above; the huge shark tank; easy parking (once you navigated the roads and knew where to turn off it was a breeze - up until that time it was divorce time for many couples); hundreds of fashion and shoe shops for Jacky; and more. Yes, much more!

I could seriously live in the Dubai Mall: foodmarket on the bottom floor; music; books; bedding departments; rest rooms. What else do you need?

Love and peace - Wozza

Salaam alaikum (peace be upon you)

Wie geht's?

Various things like lockdowns, working from home, and increased family contact with zooms, have given me time to reflect on elements of the past.

That explains why the kids pictures and the caricatures my former students have drawn, have appeared of late.

I sense this theme is going to continue for some time this year as the Covid-19 battle rages on offshore. Nostalgia plays its part to relieve stress.

For the next few posts I thought I'd concentrate on a batch of photos and memories from my picture archive.

At random, today's post is concentrating on...a folder with some snaps from my time as Lead Advisor at Ali bin Ali Taleb School in Al Foah (Al Ain, UAE). 

We're talking 2012.

These were taken at a taboor (an assembly that took place around 7ish each day - before the day's heat got really cracking; for that reason school finished at 1pm each day).

We are caught frozen in time, giving out some maths certificates. I know this because Jan Thomas was the maths advisor at that time, and the guys joining me and Principal Mohammed were the maths teachers.

These were great caring people - the relationships between the boys and the teachers were a great example to us, and our friendships remain - thanks to facebook.

I hope everyone is well back in Al Ain.

Love and peace - Abu Keegan (a.k.a. Mr Warren)

Yes, I'm a child of the universe (Barclay James Harvest)

 

Wie geht's?

The industrial revolution has a lot to answer for - assembly lines and rough working conditions, child labour and so on. But without it, and the labour unions, and Henry Ford who cunningly, in the early 1900s, decided it give workers two days off so they could enjoy his cars and therefore buy more of them, I wouldn't have had two days to relax after a hectic week.

Boy, did I need a reset. Much obliged Henry.

My recent Facebook profiles have included art from my former students, who loved to draw/ caricature their teachers.

Uncanny how they captured me at various stages of my life. 

The mullet ones are clearly from the eighties, the bum bag one is from the late nineties.

They often gave them to me, either on cards or scraps of paper. I, of course, never throw anything like this away. I can't.

So much time, energy, thought and care went into all of those letters and cards and drawings that it would feel like a betrayal to throw them away.

So they are in storage and move with me from place to place.

Speaking of throwing away - I couldn't continue with Daniel Defoe's story of Robinson Crusoe. 

Three reasons: as I was plowing through the opening sections, I realised that I'd read it before (all of those detailed descriptions of retrieving material from the shipwreck did it); the aforementioned slavery material (see last post); and third - there are no chapters. It's just one long laborious text!

Can't be doing with all that.

So I've transfered my attention to Boy Swallows Universe (again thanks to Julie for lending a copy). It's definitely a stark contrast to all my recent reading matter.

It's a scarey (fictional) picture of some Brisbane seedy underworld figures of the mid eighties -  seen through the eyes of Eli - the preteen protagonist.

Good though - great writing (his first book!). I whizzed through 100 pages very quickly for me (would have been 20 if I was prolonging the agony with R. Crusoe).

Love and peace - Wozza

Here I go out to sea again, the sunshine fills my hair and dreams hang in the air. Gulls in the sky and in my blue eye - you know it feels unfair. There's magic everywhere. Look at me standing here on my own again (Black)

Wie geht's?

Struggling with D. Defoe at present.

The problem with Robinson Crusoe is quickly established in Daniel Defoe's book and it makes for uncomfortable reading in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter protests.

In a word: slavery. 

While the storyline doesn't explicitly revolve around slavery, the institution of slavery serves as a basis for much of the action of the novel. He himself becomes a slave by the Moors and when he heads to Africa, it is to purchase slaves. 

What to make of the almost casual references to slavery in the book then? 

Putting it into context: the book was first published in 1719 (it's often cited as the first English novel), and slavery had existed for a long time (between 1500 and 1900 at it's peak).

In 2020, in the midst of Black Lives Matter protests and the reviews of famous statues and place names from our colonial past, it made me feel decidedly icky.

I am persevering with Robinson (whaia kia maia - pursue it until it is conquered) because there will be a payoff, a redemption  coming. I can feel it.

In the meantime I'll swallow hard.

Or maybe I won't. This Guardian article makes a powerful point!

Love and peace - WNP

Look at me, can't you see, all I really want to be, is free from a world, that hurts me (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

Wie geht's?

It's been a cruel couple of weeks, what with the murder of George Floyd and the anger that engendered. My escape (dealing with a 24/7 world that has Trump as a 'leader' is tough, so I need to escape from time to time) is via books, of course.

Books read:

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
The Blue Door - André Brink

A Gentleman In Moscow - Amor Towles

Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe

Mojo May 2020

Shindig! Issue 101

Most recently I finished A Gentleman in Moscow. A copy came to me via my colleague Julie at school, which was very generous of her - thanks Julie! 

It's just a great book - well written, with characters that are endearing, and there are plot twists that you never quite see coming. 

The return from lockdown has meant my music magazines have finally returned to stores. Shindig! had a cover story on 1970s' Beach Boys' albums (nothing new but I love reading about them) so that hooked me and of course, Mojo has been a fixture in my weekly reading for many years. Great to have them back.

Now I'm reading Robinson Crusoe. That story and Towles' book are perfect post lockdown come downs (Towles' lead character is sentenced to permanent house arrest in a Moscow hotel in 1922; Crusoe is in another enforced lockdown that we can all relate to much more intimately now).

Defoe's style is tough - back to real Dickens-esque concentration on sentences that last paragraphs. Once I get into the groove it's very rewarding though. Really!

Love and peace - Woz

Someday, everything is gonna sound like a rhapsody, when I paint my masterpiece (Bob Dylan)

Jade sees herself as a pirate!

Wie geht's?

Here we go, the second portrait edition!

As previously stated - I could fill a post with Jade's portraits alone, so let's start with them before Samantha, Adam, and Keegan chime in:

Love and peace - Papa (according to Asher)

Portraits hung in empty halls, frameless heads on nameless walls with eyes that watch the world and can't forget (Don McLean)

Adam Lennon Purdy by Adam

Wie geht's?

Welcome to the portrait edition: Part 1 (Jade has enough of these to fill a post all on her lonesome).

Yes, here is our family as painted and drawn by the family. Clearly teachers love setting self-portraits as art projects!

Thank goodness they do, too, as, without them, the blogosphere would have been deprived of these beauties.

Jade Purdy by Jade

Jacky Purdy by Samantha

Keegan Purdy by Keegan

Samantha Purdy by Samantha

And me, by Keegan

Love and peace - Wozza