http://www.helenbrain.co.za/ Helen Brain : writer . speaker . storyteller. This is my blog. en-gb http://www.helenbrain.co.za/pics/helen.jpg http://www.helenbrain.co.za/ http://www.helenbrain.co.za/details.php?id= http://www.helenbrain.co.za/blog_view.php?id=623 It's been almost four years since Luke got sick, and four years that my writing schedule went right off track. But at last it's back. I'm writing my thousand words a day, and trying to stop whinging about how hard it is. I'm also planning a grand sale to... http://www.helenbrain.co.za/details.php?id= http://www.helenbrain.co.za/blog_view.php?id=622 I've been looking at photos of Luke stored on my computer. There are some of him lying in bed asleep, looking peaceful. It's two and a half years since he died. We've moved on, my grief is almost gone, particularly in every day life, I've established a new routine and... http://www.helenbrain.co.za/details.php?id= http://www.helenbrain.co.za/blog_view.php?id=621 I had to write a story for a schools anthology, and I was inspired by watching Celebrity Apprentice. It's a bit mad, but it makes me laugh. "Once upon a time there lived a king with two beautiful daughters. When the eldest, Princess Ninja-Rose reached the age... http://www.helenbrain.co.za/details.php?id= http://www.helenbrain.co.za/blog_view.php?id=620 I found this poem in my cupboard today. I wrote it years ago, when I was teaching at St George's Grammar, and one of my jobs was to write a play for St George's Day. This poem was recited by the Grade 5 class, and we did a shadow puppet... http://www.helenbrain.co.za/details.php?id= http://www.helenbrain.co.za/blog_view.php?id=618 Last week I bribed some teenagers and paid a tiler to mosaic my stoep wall. I'd been working on the bench for a while, and it was much more painstaking work as it was made with individual tesserae, which have to be placed one by one. I started it... http://www.helenbrain.co.za/details.php?id= http://www.helenbrain.co.za/blog_view.php?id=617 A jolly happy Christmas to you dear blog readers. I'm sure you're all sitting in front of your screens, turkeys unstuffed, pies unminced, waiting for my latest epistle. This Christmas is a lot happier than last, I must say. But as I contemplate throwing myself headfirst down the volcano... http://www.helenbrain.co.za/details.php?id= http://www.helenbrain.co.za/blog_view.php?id=616 Oh the complaints I've had about my tardiness at writing my blog. I've been very busy organising my love life, which has suddenly come roaring round the corner like a drag racing Ferrari, or perhaps more like a Ford Escort. It's very disconcerting to have a boyfriend after a... http://www.helenbrain.co.za/details.php?id= http://www.helenbrain.co.za/blog_view.php?id=615 Horrific story in the newspaper today. A 28 year old pregnant woman had no food, no money, so she set off to walk 15km to the nearby farm where a relation lived to borrow something to eat. She asked a relative to watch over her four children, aged 8... http://www.helenbrain.co.za/details.php?id= http://www.helenbrain.co.za/blog_view.php?id=613 My mother sent me a box of books from my childhood, and I had no idea what to expect when I went to pick it up at the post office today. Inside I found a treasure - a 1958 anthology of short stories and poems published by Oxford University Press,... http://www.helenbrain.co.za/details.php?id= http://www.helenbrain.co.za/blog_view.php?id=612 Yesterday I went to the charity shop at the nearby mental hospital. I go often, and usually its pretty empty. But yesterday there was a woman and her grandchildren. The children were preschoolers, and were sitting reading picture books on the floor. A tall, dishevelled man was walking slowly...