J has been teasing me that I'm in war time mode. Such is the strategic fridge and cupboard emptying and careful partial refilling until we leave, exactly 2 weeks tomorrow. Living here in a country where there's no recycling, J and I fear and loathe, even more, the idea of waste. We were explaining the concept of landfill to the Lozenge one morning who looked suitably horrified, and suggested we should just keep all our rubbish instead.
Having predicted a tense few weeks, I've been pleasantly surprised. There have been many calm moments between the Lozenge's equally strategic packing moments, where I get to watch the dwarves sitting happily at the kitchen table stamping shapes out of playdoh, chatting and singing to themselves. This morning there was a particularly spectacular duet - with Rashimi on a monotone twinkle twinkle little star, and the Lozenge accompanying with a shrill old Macdonald.
I had an Arabic class with my wonderful tutor. He's about 25, and is one of those people with the gift for teaching. He doesn't say a word to me in English for the whole class, and after he's repeated a sentence I don't understand a few times in a different way, he somehow always manages to make me understand. He arrives at 5.30pm and I'm exhausted. He leaves at 7pm and I'm full of beans. I'm sad to be losing him. Rashimi still speaks quite a few Arabic words in his daily negotiations, such as: 'Ana! Ana! Ana! do it.' (I, I, I do it), or Saha! when someone sneezes. We miss the Glammy's continuous Arabic chat, as well as so many other things.
They have both slept until 8am most mornings this week, allowing J and I to relive our pre-dwarf mornings and spend an hour with each other at the same kitchen table before it gets covered in porridge and jam.
In between times, I've been editing away in my little den - marvelling at the latest editing software, but trying to make myself slow down and take regular breaks so I do it all properly. It's strangely compulsive. Occasionally the situation is taken out of my hands, such as 2 afternoons ago when there was an abrupt power cut and both my hard drives and computer went blink, blink, capOW! (And this is even before the dwarves come bounding in making everything do the same on a normal afternoon). But it gave me 2 hours to go off and make a bit of a dent in the freezer stash by making bolognese sauce for the dwarves' tea, which they almost ate in candle light before everything pinged back on again. I raced to my computer to see how much material I'd lost. Miraculously, nothing.
I've been out and about filming and interviewing for 3 days this week too. I had spotted that Wednesday was going to be a good'n and I was not wrong. The cool blue sky reached the length and breadth of Amman. I started my day at the Citadel getting some general shots of the city, and spent the rest of the day at the gallery filming from 11am until 7pm. Everything seemed to be shining, and happy to be out - from the January oranges and lemons to the little clumps of narcissi, only about 4 months ahead of the ones in Scotland. I finished the day on a roof opposite the gallery, overlooking the East of the city in the darkness, with a full moon above my head.
Having predicted a tense few weeks, I've been pleasantly surprised. There have been many calm moments between the Lozenge's equally strategic packing moments, where I get to watch the dwarves sitting happily at the kitchen table stamping shapes out of playdoh, chatting and singing to themselves. This morning there was a particularly spectacular duet - with Rashimi on a monotone twinkle twinkle little star, and the Lozenge accompanying with a shrill old Macdonald.
I had an Arabic class with my wonderful tutor. He's about 25, and is one of those people with the gift for teaching. He doesn't say a word to me in English for the whole class, and after he's repeated a sentence I don't understand a few times in a different way, he somehow always manages to make me understand. He arrives at 5.30pm and I'm exhausted. He leaves at 7pm and I'm full of beans. I'm sad to be losing him. Rashimi still speaks quite a few Arabic words in his daily negotiations, such as: 'Ana! Ana! Ana! do it.' (I, I, I do it), or Saha! when someone sneezes. We miss the Glammy's continuous Arabic chat, as well as so many other things.
They have both slept until 8am most mornings this week, allowing J and I to relive our pre-dwarf mornings and spend an hour with each other at the same kitchen table before it gets covered in porridge and jam.
In between times, I've been editing away in my little den - marvelling at the latest editing software, but trying to make myself slow down and take regular breaks so I do it all properly. It's strangely compulsive. Occasionally the situation is taken out of my hands, such as 2 afternoons ago when there was an abrupt power cut and both my hard drives and computer went blink, blink, capOW! (And this is even before the dwarves come bounding in making everything do the same on a normal afternoon). But it gave me 2 hours to go off and make a bit of a dent in the freezer stash by making bolognese sauce for the dwarves' tea, which they almost ate in candle light before everything pinged back on again. I raced to my computer to see how much material I'd lost. Miraculously, nothing.
I've been out and about filming and interviewing for 3 days this week too. I had spotted that Wednesday was going to be a good'n and I was not wrong. The cool blue sky reached the length and breadth of Amman. I started my day at the Citadel getting some general shots of the city, and spent the rest of the day at the gallery filming from 11am until 7pm. Everything seemed to be shining, and happy to be out - from the January oranges and lemons to the little clumps of narcissi, only about 4 months ahead of the ones in Scotland. I finished the day on a roof opposite the gallery, overlooking the East of the city in the darkness, with a full moon above my head.
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