This weekend

I saw

This was taken at Leyla's Turkish school Summer Festival. They are very big on folk dancing, what is particularly lovely is it's not just girls who love dancing, the boys do too. Leyla goes to Turkish school every Saturday morning, it is a real struggle for her as the rest of her class speak Turkish as their first language. Between the school and the constant stream of Au pairs, she has become quite fluent. Needless to say E has always spoken to her in English. which has not helped.
It is said that since 1973 more Turkish Cypriots live in London than Cyprus. These schools are everywhere and keep the culture alive. Sadly many of the first generation to come over want to return but are unable to because health care is so basic in Northern Cyprus and so they get to spend a cold old age here instead, but a medicated one one!

I read

I read this book last week. Chevalier tends to write to a formula mixing history with the narrative/view point of a child. Its like going to see a Ben Nicholson exhibition. No surprises but enjoyable nevertheless

This book however was full of surprises. I love books set in London and this group of short stories was brilliant, many of them were quite unsettling. Many of the authors are new, some well known. The stories are also rich in cultural diversity and I found it difficult to put down.

I tried a wardrobe remix
I have few spaces to store clothes. The first is the small sliver of space left by E in my wardrobe upstairs. Because obviously his clothes are far more important, (being a collection of rags most people would barely see fit to clean a car with) The second place is a small wardrobe in Leyla's bedroom. I have tried to seasonally rotate but eventually more ends upstairs than should and the clothes end up squashed, not hung and in need of a good iron, and since I do not iron...So I went for a cull this weekend and did a random move around, based on a cursory look at the weather forecast. The colours of what remained looked similar to something most people dunk in their tea. I had no idea I had so much taupe. I am like a walking Ben Nicholson painting. I decided to try and recycle some older clothes and mix with the new, but NOT a good idea. tiered skirts and tops sprinkled with sequins have got to go. It is sad really because in many other ways the clothes are great, They still fit they are cut well, but they are just the wrong style. So next weekend many items will have to go and I will have to start again. But isn't that half the fun?