Fitna is an Islamic term that I think roughly translates into trial, but it’s more like a test of faith, I think. Don’t quote me on it though. I’m no Islamic scholar. I’ve just heard the term bandied about all my life and figure that’s what it means. These last few weeks have been a […]

On Wednesday, I had the most difficult presentation situation I’ve ever encountered, and it was at a school I thought would be easy. Yes, it was an inner city school, but I’ve done loads of inner city schools before! I’ve even presented to downright scary kids, kids that had made other presenters cry. The fact that […]

I know it’s not spelled ‘immigrunt’ but today I felt like a real ‘immigrunt’, not an immigrant. I just had one of those days when everything stupid you could possibly do, gets done. It started with Friday, when I went to a school to drop off eleven books some kids had bought. The librarian had […]

I started some of my Eid shopping early. Went to one of those big warehouses that have discount toys and books. The toys don’t interest me much, but the books… I picked up a classic Pride & Prejudice for that niece of mine who was struggling through Wuthering Heights. And I picked up some books […]

All this broohaha over the ‘draw Muhammad (peace be upon him) day’, where people are rioting in Pakistan and all that kind of stuff, just makes me so sad. Yes the cartoons are hurtful.  Yes, the very thought of them shocks me to my core. That’s exactly what they’re trying to do. There’s no doubt that […]

Oh today was a rare day! A day with no school visits, no writing deadlines and no obligations! I got to potter! Even though I could have slept in, for the sake of tomorrow’s early start, I got up by 9 am. But it still felt leisurely! I took care of loads of housework: laundry, […]

I was at a family function and a bright and bubbly sixteen year old, whom I used to babysit when she was just a wee bairn, came up to me and asked me how I was doing. It surprised me that she sought me out, and even after she’d asked me the usual questions, she […]

I feel like a bit of a fraud when it comes to taking credit for Big Red Lollipop. I was just reviewed by Betsy Bird, one of the top bloggers in the blogosphere and she said such lovely things about Big Red Lollipop, and yet it’s left me squirming. For the longest while I used […]

There are a lot of Chinese malls around here, and my daughters, who all wear niqab, have often gone into them to go shopping. Surprisingly they said that the feeling they get walking around in Chinese malls is nothing like what they get in ordinary shopping centres. The Chinese people completely, hmm, I don’t know […]

This is going to be a very disjointed post! I know I should focus entirely on the AFCC that was such an INCREDIBLE experience, but I feel I must get something else that happened out of the way. I returned to Canada (suffering through all fifteen plus hours of the Hong Kong to Toronto flight) […]