Posts from — July 2006

Monday 31 July, 2006 ‘O ye beloved of the Lord! Commit not that which defileth the limpid stream of love or destroyeth the sweet fragrance of friendship. By the righteousness of the Lord! Ye were created to show love one to another and not perversity and rancour. Take pride not in love for yourselves but in love for your fellow-creatures. Glory not in love for your country, but in love for all mankind. Let your eye be chaste, your hand faithful, your tongue truthful and your heart enlightened. Abase not the station of the learned in Baha and belittle not the rank of such rulers as administer justice amidst you. Set your reliance on the army of justice, put on the armour of wisdom, let your adorning be forgiveness and mercy and that which cheereth the hearts of the well-favoured of God.’(Bah?’u'll?h)

Renewing a long-standing friendship is a wonderful, almost a miraculous experience. I’ve known Peter (leaning against the tree in the photo) since October 1965. He was at the first Baha’i meeting I ever attended, like me an enquirer. We became Bah?’?s around the same time, although Pete is no longer a Baha’i. Pete married May Faizi in 1968, I married Erica in 1970. Pete and May went to Cyprus, were caught up in the Turkish invasion and had to leave their home in Famagusta very quickly. Technically they are still refugees!

We hadn’t seen each other for years - Erica hadn’t seen May and Pete since our wedding in 1970, and I hadn’t seen them since around 1988.

So we had a lot of catching up to do when we went to stay with Pete and May at their home - a delightful cottage not too far from Ipswich.

We talked endlessly - about our lives since we’d seen each other, about what each of us is doing now, about our children (all grown up) and grandchildren (P & M don’t have grandchildren yet), Peter’s pottery (wonderful - he was kind enough to give us two raku fired pots to take home), his work at Suffolk College, and his life as an artist…

Pete and May drove us around to see Hadleigh, Kersey, Aldeburgh.

We paddled at Aldeburgh, we ate pizza, we drove on to Snape, and we talked and talked. So much to say.

And I’ve now run out of steam - time for bed - more tomorrow (perhaps).

Technorati Tags: friendship, Baha’i, Cyprus, Hadleigh, Aldeburgh, Snape

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Thanks to Vahid for reminding me about Archive, a Mac only search program for the Baha’i Writings. I used to use Archive until going over to OS X, and had forgotten that it existed.

It doesn’t cover the range of non-Baha’i materials covered by Baha’i Research, but it looks from the screenshots on the Schoolmarm Wood website to have a nice layout and will be a useful complement to Baha’i Research.

I’ve been having problems with my left ear for a while - a noticeable tinnitus, hearing loss, and sometimes my ear feels like it’s filled with cotton wool. That’s how it was yesterday. So I phoned our local surgery to make an appointment, only to be told that appointments are very scarce and I’d do better to attend the casual surgery (where one can turn up without an appointment between 8 and 9 a.m.)

I have only been to this surgery twice before, once to register and once to have the practice’s compulsory pre-acceptance health check, so I thought I’d give it a go. It’s summer, I thought, there won’t be many people there at 8 o’clock in the morning; I’ll get through in ten minutes and go home for breakfast. How wrong can you be? I should have realised that the cars jockeying for position in the car park across the road were full of people desperate to see a doctor.

I got to surgery just before 8 a.m. and already the waiting room was fairly full. People chatted and read magazines. From time to time the public address system emitted a barely comprehensible summons to Mr nnnnCracklennn to go to room nnnggg. The waiting patients looked at each other with raised eyebrows and a wild surmise. Was that my name? Which room was that?

I was summoned to room 1 after about half an hour. The doctor was clearly in “get them in, give them two minutes and get them out again” mode. I don’t blame him, he had an overflowing waiting room, but I found myself under pressure to explain myself in short order.

The doctor stuck his auroscope in my ear, declared the ear clear of wax deposits, suggested I should buy decongestants from the chemists, and bade me goodbye. Two minutes. Next patient? Mrs nnnnCracklennn to room nnnggg please.

I’m not convinced about the decongestants. I shall give them a go and see what happens. But I may be back. Next time I shall make an appointment, no matter how long I have to wait. The condition’s not urgent, but I would like a little more of the doctor’s time.

In the meantime, does anyone have experience of this kind of intermittent and partial hearing loss? Any safe remedies?

Technorati Tags: tinnitus, hearing loss

Thursday 27 July, 2006This post in This Ongoing War, an insightful blog written by an Israeli, shows the impact of war on soldiers and ordinary people alike.

Erica and I ate our meal this evening at the kitchen table with the large french doors that give onto the garden flung wide. From time to time lightning jagged through the dark clouds over Harmergreen Wood on the ridge that lies between Robbery Bottom and Digswell. Thunder rumbled above and around, no great cracks and claps, but a general background grumbling.

Thunder reminds me of childhood fears during nighttime storms, when I would run through the darkened house to my mother’s bed, hoping, hoping that I would reach my safe haven before the next flash of lightning, the next rumble of thunder.

One night - I must have been 5 or 6 years old - I dreamed I was at the circus. The spotlights flashed and the drums rolled. They rolled so loudly that I woke up - to a thunderstorm. I scrambled for safety.

One hot summer day in 1960, when I was 12, I was playing with friends outside in the grounds of Nevill Holt, my prep school (for those not familiar with the peculiarities of British education, a prep school is a school for children aged 7 or 8 to 13, with prepares them to go to “public” school - that is to say, a private school for 13 to 18 year olds). Nevill Holt, a mediaeval manor house, was located on top of a hill and looked the valley of the River Welland towards Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire. As we played that sultry afternoon, a strange murk slowly filled the valley below. We looked up from our games - tag, flying gliders, Jokari, French cricket - our attention drawn by crumping noises emanating from the sinister cloud. Thunder was coming, that was clear.

But the storm did not break until after lights out and we were in bed. I remember seeing luridly coloured clouds flying past, framed in the dorm’s large window. And then what a storm! Lightning entered an open window in the school’s swimming pool in what had been the stable block and lifted the tiles in the pool. It was a while before we could have our swimming sessions again.

Technorati Tags: lightning, Thunder, storms, Nevill Holt

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Baha’is are forbidden to confess their sins to any other human being. We can bring ourselves to account each day only with God. Nevertheless, I am going to confess to be a Mac user. In fact, I’ve been a Mac user since November (you see, I can even remember the month) 1987, when I bought a Mac II.

In days gone by (and not so long gone by), this confession would have caused PC users to go puce in the face and hoot with derision at such a stupid heretic. How could I not see that Windows (I suppose I should put ? or ? here) would dominate the world? Well, my friends, despite the derision I have remained faithful to the only true platform; I rejoiced at the advent of OS X - indeed I was an early adopter; I rejoiced at the change from Motorola to Intel (more ? and ?) chips - and have a MacBook Pro, which I love!

And now the smirk is on the other side of the face. iPod is cool (yes, I have an iPod), Mac is cool, and PC users are changing to the only true platform.

Here’s some good stuff about switching. Go on, have a look. You won’t turn into a sandal-wearing, bearded person (that’s me, by the way) just by thinking about switching.

But regrettably we Mac users still cannot use the essential Baha’i research tool, Ocean. That’s for PC users only.

But here’s something we can all use. Thanks to Ian Vink, Baha’i Research is a web-based application that allows anyone, whether they use a PC or a Mac, to search Baha’i and other sacred texts (and other writings).

How’s that for non-discrimination? Mind you, Mac users have to use Firefox. Luckily I like Firefox. Safari, the Mac browser, which I also like, won’t handle Baha’i Research for some unfathomable reason.

And there we are, back to the Ocean (unfathomable, geddit? Oh, perlease!).

Technorati Tags: Baha’is, Mac, Windows, OS X, MacBook Pro, iPod, Ocean

Thursday 27 July, 2006 London was unbelievably hot yesterday, over 30C and very humid. I used the Central, Piccadilly and Victoria lines; all of them were hot, but the Piccadilly Line at around 5 p.m. was almost unbearable.

Chris Lay, a wonderful photographer, has put some evocative images of China, where he and Savvy, his wife, currently live, on his website. Do have a look at these beautiful pictures.

I met Chris and Savvy some years ago. They’re good friends with my son and daughter-in-law, Alex and Charlie, and they are truly delightful people, funny and warm-hearted.

Technorati Tags: China

Saturday 22 July, 2006 It’s well worth reading this blog by an Israeli family whose daughter was murdered at the age of 15 in a restaurant massacre. They are dedicated to giving a factual and truthful understanding of what is going on in Israel and the region.

Technorati Tags: Israel, Jews, Judaism, Middle East