travel

The Charging Bull in the Financial District

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Here’s something to think about. I popped to New York (husband on a work trip) and while there I went to see the sculpture of a charging bull in the Financial District. It’s big, raging, and impressive. It has also caused some controversy.

Apparently, bulls have long been associated with the stock market. A rising trend in the markets is known as “a bull market” and a falling trend is known as a “bear market”. Which is why you tend to have The Bull and Bear pubs situated near old markets in the City of London. The Charging Bull, however, was meant to signify something else. Charging Bull was sculpted by Anturo Di Modica in 1989. It was after the stock market crash of 1987, and he wanted to create a symbol of the “strength and power of American people”. The bull is twisting and turning, full of unpredictable energy and strength. I like it.

Now, Di Modica wasn’t commissioned to make the bull, nor was he paid for it. He had the rather clever idea of making five bulls, and placing one in New York (for free) and hoping to sell the other four. As a self-published author, I can relate to his feelings – you just want people to notice and appreciate your talents, then you hope the sales will follow. (Not sure a book placed in a park would work as well though.) Initially, NYPD impounded the bull, but so many people liked it, they were compelled to return it to the street. There are now bulls in Shanghai and Amsterdam (which I assume were paid for). So Di Modica’s gamble paid off. Sort of.

The problem arose later this year, when State Street Global Advisors had a clever marketing strategy of their own (possibly inspired by the success of the Charging Bull). They commissioned Kristen Visbal to make a sculpture of the Fearless Girl, and they placed it in front of the bull. Now, the unleashed power and strength of the bull appear aggressive. The placing of the girl has completely changed the image of the bull. Di Modica is rather annoyed by this, and I guess as he owns the bull, he might come and collect it one day. Alternatively, I think he should make another sculpture – of a calling mother shouting towards the girl. Then instead of being a brave, ‘fearless girl’ she would look like a defiant, stupid child. But then that could go on forever, and probably Wall Street doesn’t want hundreds of sculptures, each one changing the image of the other. (Would make for a good exhibition though, someone should do it.)

Now, what I want you to think about, is this. One thing can very much change in the light of something else. I remember, not so long ago, when the news reports were full of fleeing Syrian refugees, and most people felt very sorry for them. People made big statements about the world needing to help, that our country should allow them in, famous people even announced that they would be willing to house a few families in their mansions. Which were all good, well motivated, human responses.

However, today my local authority is discussing plans to build lots of new houses. No one wants them. No one is discussing who will live in them (and probably it won’t be Syrian refugees, but it will, I assume, be people who do need houses) but no one wants them. Not in our fields, not where we walk our dog, not within sight of our house. You see, the view of meeting the housing needs of others changes. As perhaps, do people’s views about everything. Whenever we make a statement, we need to be aware that unless we see the whole story, our views are likely to change. The strength and power of the American people can look like an aggressive charge against a defenceless girl. And a brave girl can look like a naughty child being stupid. It depends what else is in the picture.

 

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Thank you for reading.
You can sign up to follow my blog at anneethompson.com.

 

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Christmas is coming, and books make great gifts. So much nicer than yet another scarf for Aunty Joan… So, why not buy one of my books?

  

 

xxx

Last Days in Croatia, and into Venice

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We decided to hire a boat and sail around the little islands we can see from the coast and swim in places that aren’t full of other tourists. Family remembered our holiday in Malta, where they composed a song entitled “A Speedboat Driven by an Accountant”, so Husband decided to hire a boat with a skipper.

Had a brilliant day. The skipper (I never asked his name – isn’t that terrible) was a sports teacher during term time, and he kindly took us on a little tour. He told us that his grandfather has lived in the same small village his whole life, and has lived in six different countries : Austro-Hungary, Italy, Germany (under occupation), AngloAmerican, Yugoslavia and now Croatia. That is weird.

We stopped to swim a couple of times. All the water seems to be full of the ‘walnut sea jelly’ – a clear non-stinging jellyfish, but you get used to them after a while. The water is beautifully clear, and fish flash away as you swim. People who can dive (not me) dived from the side of the boat, and the skipper drove with enough speed for Husband’s hat to fly off (which was very funny. I never liked that hat.)

I felt inspired to write a short story when we got back (though not sure if this counts as ‘work’ – which I always give Husband a hard time about when we’re on holiday.)

 We spent the afternoon lazing around, then walked into Rovinj for espressos and ice creams. We looked around the market, and I saw lots of wonderful things to buy that I would never be able to transport home. I bought some lavender cushions – one for me, one for Mum. Not actually sure how I’ll transport them either, as my case was full to bursting on the way here.

Dinner at Tipico, Old Town again.

Last Day

The last day of a holiday is always a bit sad. Family hired kayaks.

Ate dinner at Tutto Bene (ViaE de Amicis 16). They don’t have vegetarian options on the menu, but will cook them if you ask. Lovely table outside, friendly waiter, nice food. Though I was too warm to properly enjoy it (I think my seat was next to the kitchen window.)

We packed. Early start tomorrow to try and avoid delays at the border.

Drive to Venice

We left Lone Hotel at 5am. The night manager looked nothing like Tom Hiddleston (shame) but he did give us all a packed lunch, as we would be missing breakfast. Isn’t that nice? I’ve never been offered that before when we’ve had to check-out early. It has been a really good hotel, with lots going on and good facilities.

The border crossing was fine, no queues at all (unlike the 4 hour ones we saw later in the day when arriving.)

We drove to Italy and stopped at a service station. Not a good experience. We arrived the same time as several coaches, so the lines were horrendous.

Arrived at The Marriot Hotel, Venice about 9:30 am. The hotel is fairly near the airport (you could walk there if you don’t mind the heat) and there’s a bus into the city – €3 return ticket.

Venice is beautiful, you have to visit. So much to see and photograph. It was also horribly crowded. We stayed here about 10 years ago, and I don’t remember it being crowded at all (except for St Mark’s Square, which is always busy.) Not sure if we were just unlucky, or if the number of tourists has become a problem. It was possible to find alleyways that were less busy, but they were a long way from the main attractions. I will leave you with some photos – all you need to do in Venice is take photos and find a pretty cafe for lunch. Oh, and buy a mask of course…..

Thank you for reading. It has been a fabulous holiday, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about it. Always a shame to go back to real life, especially as the family all go back to their own homes and jobs.

Take care,
Love, Anne x

I normally write a post every Monday – why not sign up to follow my blog?
anneethompson.com

You can read the story I wrote after the boat trip here:
https://anneethompson.com/short-stories/other-stories/rainbows-in-the-spray-a-story-written-in-croatia/

Croatian Holiday Diary Continued…

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Family holiday in Lone Hotel, Rovinj, continues at a relaxed pace. Each morning Husband greets the girl at the desk with a new phrase he has learnt in Croatian. She has real fear in her eyes when she sees us approach, but he feels he is making progress and learning the local language – despite no one understanding him. Ever. The best word to learn is thank you – which sounds like “Farla”. Today the girl at the desk replied, and said something which sounds like “Ooga dan dan” We think it means: “Have a nice day.” Husband plans to practise on various shop assistants.

 Last few nights we have eaten at Tipico Old Town, a cosy restaurant with an open kitchen, so we can watch them cook while we eat. They offer a couple of vegetarian options (and I recommend the stuffed courgettes!)

 

 

 

 

We hired bikes and cycled along the coast. There’s a gravel path, so it was hard going in places, but the views are fabulous. Lots of coves with local people swimming, and the cliff tops are a huge park, with trees and paths. There are climbers on the cliffs, boats on the sea, tiny islands, sunshine, pine trees…..lovely.

Drove to Restaurant Maslima for lunch. Sat under olive trees. Lots of mosquitoes in Croatia, so bring repellent. The pizzas were huge – I had a ‘mini’ one, which was normal sized, the others had ‘normal’ ones which were very large, and J chose a ‘jumbo’ one, which was the size of a table.

Menu also offered some nice looking drinks. Some were lavender flavoured – there are lots of lavender products here.  I chose a lemon and ginger one.

The picture in the menu looked lovely, and it was described as being Dalmatian lemon juice with fresh ginger……

 

What actually arrived was a glass of tap water and a sachet of flavoured syrup. Disappointing…

Decided to walk to a bay to swim. We walked a long way (all the bays were quite crowded). Found a nice empty spot and settled onto the rocks, then noticed the sea was FULL of jellyfish. Tiny transparent globs of jelly. Didn’t swim, went back to hotel pool.

I later learned these jellyfish are also called “walnut sea jellies”. They are native to America, and often transported via ship ballast. They reproduce rapidly, and cause huge problems to ecosystems as they eat plankton, which upsets the food chain for bigger fish. Big problem for fishing based industries. However, they do not sting, so later we swam quite happily in water infested with them. It’s a little odd swimming with jelly, but not harmful.

Had a day in Pula. Huge Roman amphitheatre, which is very hot in the midday sun (just thought I’d mention that). There are some interesting chambers underground, where you can imagine the prisoners and animals being kept. There were also lots of pots. Not sure why lots of pots are interesting, but they seem to be a feature of Roman monuments.

Husband wears a hat we are all very rude about. Pula had a whole family, all dressed the same, all wearing same hats. Perhaps they get lost a lot and it makes it easy to identify them. We sent husband over to join them.

Pula also has Hercules Arch, which I was keen to see. Family led me to a variety of arches. The one I think actually IS Hercules Arch appears to be incorporated into a modern apartment complex.


Tried to have coffee and cocktails in a pretty square. Managed to have beers and nasty wine in a mosquito infested alley. Husband wished them “Ooga dan dan,” when we left. They looked confused.

Ate in Sareni Papar restaurant. This was great, if slow. Lovely stuffed peppers, served straight from the oven in a boiling hot baking dish. (Stuffed veg are, apparently, a feature of Croatian food.) Husband said “Ooga dan dan” to friendly waitress. She looked worried. Blokes drank 1L glasses of beer, sang all the way home (surprisingly tuneful) and then happily walked to the wrong hotel. A nice day.

Thanks for reading.
Take care,
Love, Anne x

PS. We later learned ‘Ooga dan dan’ does NOT mean ‘have a nice day’, it means something like ‘on, and on, every day.’ Explains why no one understood Husband, though I guess he gets credit for trying.

If you want to read the next instalment from my holiday diary, why not sign up to follow my blog?
anneethompson.com

xxx

 

The Drive to Croatia – Family Holiday Diary

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Checked out of hotel in Ljubljana and drove south.

Stopped at Predjama Castle in Slovenia – a fortress built into a rock. Parking was an adventure (car parks in Slovenia rather more casual than in Austria). We paid (I chose to not look at price because Husband had decided we were going in anyway – due to the whole male/castle/compulsory visit gene, which females don’t inherit.)

However, having moaned about the castle in Ljubljana, I have to admit, this one was really interesting. They gave us portable recorded guides, which were brilliant as you could skip ahead to the bits that were interesting (like the torture chamber, and the secret tunnels through the rocks which meant that when the castle was under siege, they could sneak out to top up their food). All the boring bits could be skipped. The castle was not a happy place, but they have turned it into an interesting museum, with several rooms furnished, and it is well worth visiting. If you happen to be in Slovenia.

We didn’t buy sandwiches at the castle (a mistake) and decided to stop for food during the journey. Big row (which only families can have) about whether to go to a MacDonald’s in Croatia, or stop for food sooner. Nearly stopped at a supermarket, but this was strongly vetoed by J who objected to eating food bought from a shop with broken windows. I just love my family sometimes. We ate at a McDonalds in Croatia.

The border crossing had queues, but we were waved through with our EU passports (not sure what will happen when Brexit has happened). As we drove away, we saw miles and miles of stationary cars waiting to cross the border OUT of Croatia. Decided we would leave very early next week.

Croatia reminds me of Turkey. Lots of dusty agriculture.

We’re staying at Lone Hotel in Rovinj. It’s a contemporary hotel, with lots of art that I don’t quite understand. Family seem happy, though somewhat perturbed by glass wall in bathrooms. Husband, who knew about these in advance, had brought rolls of brown paper and Blutac (we have a mix of family and friends in various rooms). Family strangely unimpressed by his forward planning (especially J, who had been persuaded to carry it through three countries).

   

Dinner was in hotel restaurant. Very trendy, and very lacking in actual food. My “steamed tuna and avocado” was seared (raw) tuna with shavings of avocado. Tasty lemon and ginger sauce, but not exactly filling. Boys have offered to find future eating places for rest of holiday.

Family went to explore hotel’s night club (am sure they were pleased Husband decided to go with them). I went to bed. There’s a thunder storm, so watched lightning across the sea for a while. Tomorrow we’ll explore Rovinj.

Thanks for reading.
Take care,
Love, Anne x

If you want to read further instalments from my holiday diary, why not sign up to follow my blog?
anneethompson.com

xxx

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Family Holiday Diary

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I didn’t go to the gym today. Breakfast was in a huge room – busy, but a good selection of food. It was very different to the Austrian buffet (for example, there they had slices of melon and a fruit salad; Slovenia offered whole peaches and apricots and plums, which you peeled and cut yourself.) Coffee was rough. The whole hotel has a different feel. It has a sort of faded prettiness, but it somehow feels less ‘classy’ less ‘safe’, than Austria. I like it, but feel more cautious.

Family made a plan for the morning. We wanted to see the Dragon Bridge, the Cobblers Bridge, a church, and a market. So Husband decided we would go to the castle. (Not complaining, just saying….) Actually, to be fair, the walk to the castle did include all the other stuff. The Dragon Bridge is from the legend of Jason and the Argonauts. The market doesn’t sell cushion covers, but has the biggest tomatoes ever. It also has a ghost, which only very good people can see, who watches over the market square.

   

The way up to the castle was by funicular. You can either queue for 15 minutes to buy the tickets, and then queue again for a further twenty minutes for the next funicular to arrive, OR one person can queue for tickets while everyone else queues for the next car. Hence avoiding time standing in hot sun. But stroppy Slovenian women who didn’t think of doing that hiss at you.

The castle is boring. Most castles are boring (but males have a strange need to visit them, in the same way as they HAVE to climb towers.) This particular castle was also very full of tourists. (It was probably nicer under communist rule – if somewhat less friendly.) The castle used to be a prison. Some cells had a window, and the best views of the city. Other cells did not. I don’t think I would’ve survived 10 years in a stuffy stone box. If you do visit, then the water costs less in the gift shop than from the ice cream lady in the courtyard. The walk down from the castle is along a slippery gravel path. It has good views, but you can’t look at them or you’ll trip over a root and plummet to your death. Probably.

 

We ate lunch in a BackWerk, which is a sort of ethnic Costa where you make your own coffee from a machine (but it has nice sandwiches). It’s too hot for food really.

We walked to Tivoli Park via a couple of churches and an ice cream cafe. The churches had a lot of gilt, the ice creams were nice. Saw the Parliament building, which is a boring square building, but has interesting sculpted figures around the door. They represent the Socialist ideal, of everyone striving together.

The park, when we had slogged there through the afternoon heat, was not worth visiting, I thought. But perhaps I was just too hot.

Ljubljana is pretty, it reminds me of Bruges. It is nice to visit for a day, but it felt weirdly insubstantial. If you took away the cafes and chocolate shops, I’m not sure what would be left. I never managed to see the ‘real’ part of Slovenia.

Dinner was at Julija (Stari trg 9). Jovial waiter and nice food, followed by blackberry liquor shots.

Tomorrow we drive further south, and to Croatia.

Thanks for reading.

Take care,
Love, Anne x

Why not follow my blog? anneethompson.com

xxx

Fuschlsee, near Salzburg – Family Holiday Diary

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Day Three – Fuschlsee near Salzburg

Breakfast 9 am. Managed to sit inside today. Sheraton provides a good selection for breakfast – and S selects most of it. Today he poured chocolate powder over his eggs by mistake (same wrapper as mustard). We, of course, never mentioned it again, because we’re a tactful, understanding, family. R had a boiled egg, which wasn’t. J spent 3 hours cooking a waffle (had to restrain Husband so he didn’t go to “help” him.) But we didn’t break the coffee machine today.

Choices for activities today were: walking, rowing, golf, cycling, swimming. We, of course, had a voting system (20 votes per person) and made an Excel spreadsheet. Sometimes I wonder how I came to be part of this family. Anyway, rowing won.

Hired two boats (€10 per hour) and set off across Fuschl Lake. Made it to a jetty with a fish restaurant and had drinks. Had to walk across a scary floating jetty and down a plank of wood. I don’t generally do well with activities that involve balance. Used washroom – all public conveniences in Austria seem to cost 50 cents. Rowed back. It is harder than you might think to row in a straight line.

Family played golf (not me). Then we met for hideously expensive drinks in pretty hotel bar.

Had trouble booking anywhere for dinner, as it’s Assumption Day and everywhere is closed (would’ve been nice if hotel had warned us). Ate in The Grill at hotel. Nice food, very friendly waiter.

Day Four

Nice breakfast again. M and H swam before breakfast. ( M has clearly been abducted by aliens who are now impersonating him, but I rather like having a son who gets up before midday, so I don’t mind.) Drove to St Wolfgang and caught tourist train up mountain. Tickets so expensive Husband wouldn’t tell me the price.

Mountain very cold at the top. R wearing summer dress and sandals – interesting decision. We covered her in Husband’s hideous cagoule. Brilliant views, though one side was covered by cloud. The peak looked like a film set for a Nazi film, with a wooden house with flags for secret planning meetings.

 

Drove to Bad Ischl to a coffee house recommended by Trip Advisor. (When in Austria, you HAVE to visit a beer garden, a coffee house, and run across an Alpine meadow singing words from The Sound of Music. It’s the law.) Really nice coffee, really grumpy waiter. We wanted lunch, and when we asked if the menu had any vegetarian options, he told us to go to the cafe up the road! Used the washroom, which had a strangely placed mirror – I could not see any purpose for it, do people check their make-up while sitting on the loo? Very nice coffee though….

 

Saw some red phone boxes. One was filled with bookshelves, and was a ‘book-swap’ place. Nice idea.

It’s our last day in Austria, so I bought a cushion cover for my collection. Tomorrow we drive to Slovenia. Now, I just need to find a meadow to run across……

Thank you for reading.
Take care,
Love, Anne x

Why not sign up to follow my blog? anneethompson.com

Salzburg

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Family Diary Continued

Day Three: Salzburg

Only table big enough for seven of us was outside, which was good due to sunshine, and bad due to wasps. It’s a good breakfast, with lots of choice (and S chooses nearly everything. This is good, because Austria is not great for vegetarians, and even menus marked as ‘vegetarian’ sometimes contain fish.)

Drove to Salzburg and parked in a car park dug into the rock. Car parks here are well signed, with each one telling you exactly how many spaces are left.

Walked around historical part of Salzburg. Saw where Mozart was born (building now a Spar supermarket, which seems wrong). All the shops sold lots of Mozart souvenirs. Especially small round chocolates. Did Mozart eat small round chocolates? J assured me this was not covered by music A level (which seems a shame).

Saw a lot of traditional Austrian dress – the boob enhancing white blouse under pinafore dress for women, and lederhosen for men. I understand why people in tourist shops/restaurants would wear this, but not really why so many other people do. Especially lederhosen. These are leather shorts, and I’m guessing there’s not much ‘give’ in them – I saw a lot of men attempting to walk without moving their legs, they had a sort of shuffle. Not a good look. Also not sure if you can wash them…

 

Went to Residenzplatz -saw horses and fountain and cathedral. All very pretty, though the cathedral feels more like an art gallery than a church – was interesting and grand, but did not inspire me to prayer. It also had some very spooky cherub faces in the ceiling.

 

Saw a bridge and steps that I recognised from The Sound of Music. Suggested family could reenact some of the scenes, but they were unkeen. Went to Mirabell Garden (“Do! Doe, a deer..”) and saw some excellent gnomes. I think they represent the children of the owner – I might copy this idea.

 

Walked across a bridge covered in padlocks put there by people in love. Sweet idea, but what happens if you fall out of love? Do you sneak back with a metal cutter and remove your padlock?

R and S went off to buy trainers. We received lots of texts from R saying she was hot/thirsty/tired/dying, so we knew she was okay (silence would’ve been a worry). We walked to a viewpoint near castle, and the convent Maria Von Trapp left. The chapel was open, so I went inside. That church DID feel like it had been prayed in, I preferred it to the cathedral.

Walked back past the cathedral. Saw a sculpture outside, which was an empty person ( I later learned it was a copy of The Cloak of Conscience by Anna Chromy and is called Pietà, or Coat of Peace). Next to it was a begger – another unseen person, which felt significant given her position – an invisible person next to a sculpture of an invisible person. Perhaps that’s why she chose that spot to sit in. I gave her some money, which I don’t usually do, and held her hand – I wanted her to know she was ‘seen’. We all need someone to see us.

Followed J a long way – a very long way in hot sun – to Lindhofstraße 7, to a beer garden the boys had discovered last summer when inter railing. It was brilliant. There were shelves of pottery beer tankards, which you could dip into a dodgy looking fountain, to increase the head on the beer. You paid a man, took your ticket and tankard to a man with a barrel, and he filled it with beer. You then sat in the garden, under the trees, next to the brewery. You could also buy olives, pretzels, sausages, but most people were just drinking. Great fun.

   

Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this, you will love my new book:

2cdba13e-f433-49fd-9f1e-95b3ee7f87d8

A laugh-out-loud book about travelling the world with a family. Taken from diaries written at the time, this book has been described as “The Durrells meet Bill Bryson”!

Available from Amazon (you can get a copy free if you have a Kindle!)

Why not sign up to follow my blog – then you won’t miss the next instalment of our holiday blog.

anneethompson.com

Take care,

Anne

xxx

Austria – Family Holiday Diary

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Day One : Munich to Austria

Car arrived 5am. Everyone ready -unexpected -maybe some of them didn’t sleep. Flew Heathrow to Munich, all went smoothly, and everyone managed the automatic barriers. Eventually.

Collected minivan, and drove Munich to Salzburg. J made redundant from map reading due to rather efficient satnav.

Arrived at Sheraton at Fuschlsee, a lake near Salzburg. Staff at reception predominantly female, wearing national dress, which does make them very buxom. Impossible to avoid mainly noticing bosoms. H told M not to wear his glasses while we’re here.

Dinner in expensive hotel restaurant. Lots of antlers on walls, candles, flowers. Nice meal, but tired (me, not meal.)

  Everywhere here is SO pretty.

Day Two : Hallstatt

Nice breakfast, though I had problems with coffee machine and covered surrounding area with milky froth -rescued by very nice waiter who collected me a mug of coffee.

Drove to Hallstatt. Traffic terrible and nowhere to park, so we abandoned Husband and car, and walked into town. It was full of Chinese people, really full. Coach loads of them. All the signs were written in German and Mandarin, so clearly a regular occurrence. Also full of extremely expensive souvenir shops. Followed signs with a skull on them up a mountain (J in flip-flops, but still faster than people in hiking gear). Signs took us to a cemetery.

Found Husband and ate lovely homemade pizza for lunch. Read guidebook to try and find out significance of skulls and cemetery. Read that apparently, cemetery is very small – due to being half way up a mountain, so when it was full, someone had the good idea that they could dig up the old corpses and replace them with the new ones. Honestly, this was the solution they decided on! Did anyone object? Was there a committee involved? Anyway, this is what they did. While the bodies were waiting to be buried, they decomposed, and the bones were bleached by the sun. The skulls were separated from the other bones, and they are displayed in a side chapel. We HAD to go back and look. There they were, bones stacked neatly, skulls decorated with the name and patterns. Brilliant!

The rest of Hallstatt is also interesting. Lots of cute cottages clinging to the mountainside. Too many tourists and over-priced shops, but well worth a visit.

 

Walked around a mountain lake, Vorderer-Gosausee. So beautiful. Lake, trees, glacier, mountains.

Dinner in Fuschl. Parked in large town car park, returned after dark, and didn’t know how to pay. Husband set off in the dark to investigate, we sat in car, then decided to send S (largest male) to protect him. S detoured via barrier and tried to lift it manually. Worried he might break it, Husband would return with paid ticket but we’d still be trapped due to broken barriers. R worried there might be zombies (so glad she’s 25 and works in a bank – easy to forget that sometimes). D returned, barrier worked, all good.

Arrived safely back at hotel, despite best efforts of suicidal deer on dark road. Nice day. Tomorrow we plan to visit Salzburg (which is very exciting, as it’s where they filmed The Sound of Music – because it’s where the real family actually lived.)

Thank you for reading.

Why not sign up to follow my blog? Tomorrow I’ll tell you what we saw in Salzburg.

anneethompson.com

xxx

If you like to laugh, why not read Invisible Jane by Anne E Thompson?
A love story with funny bits!

Available from an Amazon near you…..

Packing

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  Today will be stressful – packing for the family holiday. If you’re a mother, you will know what I mean. If you’re male (not being sexist or anything), read on…

There is oceans of washing to do. It seems a bad idea to leave dirty clothes to fester in the laundry basket, plus there is all the bedding. I don’t like the idea of returning after two weeks away to sheets that have been slept/sweated/dribbled in for a week and then locked into a room to ferment. Obviously I cannot wash it all the day we leave, but it feels better if it’s washed the day before – so just one night of body fluids sweated into them.

Then there is the animal stuff. Dog and grumpy-cat taken to kennels, their bedding and towels left here. I can leave them – and be welcomed home by the thick odour a la dog, or I can wash them before I go. Thank goodness for washing machines and please can mine not break today. Of course, not everyone has this problem. I have known people (not female) who quite cheerfully shove dirty clothes into a bag before a holiday; and then return with the same bag of dirty clothes at the end. I am not entirely sure if they were worn, or washed, in between, because I didn’t like to ask.

If you enjoyed this, you will love my new book: The Sarcastic Mother’s Holiday Diary.
I have always written a diary on holiday, so last Christmas, I decided to find all my old diaries and blogs, and make a book for my children. However, several other people also asked for a copy, so I have written a public version – it’s available on Amazon and has been described as “The Durrells meet Bill Bryson”!

Why not buy a copy today? I think it will make you laugh.

The US link is here:

https://www.amazon.com/Sarcastic-Mothers-Holiday-Diary-ebook/dp/B07N95281F/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549015525&sr=8-1&keywords=the+sarcastic+mothers+holiday+diary

The India link is here:

https://www.amazon.in/Sarcastic-Mothers-Holiday-Diary-ebook/dp/B07N95281F/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549015429&sr=8-1&keywords=the+sarcastic+mothers+holiday+diary

The UK link is here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sarcastic-Mothers-Holiday-Diary-ebook/dp/B07N95281F/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1549014970&sr=8-2&keywords=the+sarcastic+mothers+holiday+diary

 

 

The Red Light District of Mumbai

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So, deciding to be brave, I went to the red-light district of a Mumbai slum. Husband was working, so I contacted Tearfund, and they arranged for me to visit one of their projects. Beforehand, I was very nervous about going on my own, but I am so glad I did it.

I was met by Max, who is the director of Sahaara. We’ve never met, so it was a little like a spy story -“I will be under the arch with a pink carnation in my buttonhole” (Well, actually, he just told reception who he was and we met in the hotel lobby, but you get the idea.) We then got a taxi to Turbhe, the area of the slum he works in. We chatted in the car, and I could check on a few things I’ve included in my latest novel (which is set partly in the slums of Delhi).

As we walked through the slums, it was all very similar to places I saw in Delhi: homes made from scavenged materials, uneven walls, unglazed windows, corrugated iron roofs. The hard mud paths were litter strewn – in a couple of weeks they’ll be quagmires of wet mud.

 

 

Roads were pot holed, narrow, stalls and heaps of rubbish making obstacles for vehicles to inch around. At one point the road was blocked as a lorry driver was asleep, curled up over the steering wheel, oblivious to the honking from other drivers who were unable to pass.

 

 

We first went to a building (actually, it was really just a narrow room) which is a feeding centre/education room. In May, everything closes (due to the heat) but they were still providing a mid-day meal. They had two gas burners, one with a pressure cooker of dhal, one with a vat of rice.

 

 

 

 

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There was a bowl of hard boiled eggs, which they must’ve cooked earlier. No work-surface (no idea how they chop vegetables – they must do it in their hand, on a plate balanced somewhere). No sink, no running water. There were cupboards, some of them very high. At one point a woman climbed, a foot on a shelf, other foot on the top of a cupboard door, to reach plates from a top cupboard. Metal plates were stacked on a drainer.

 

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They were washed in a bucket on the floor, the water carried in from an outside water butt.
Water is piped into the slum once in the morning, once in the evening, and people fill containers to use throughout the day.

The children arrived. Black-eyed, smiling, interested to see a big white woman sitting in their room (I feel huge in India. Everyone is smaller than me. Husband is a giant here.) I took lots of photos, but I’m uncomfortable about publishing them here, as most of the children had mothers who were sex workers. I will include fuzzy ones of backs, but not include faces, and hope that preserves their anonymity (we were on the edge of the red light district, I could photograph houses on the left, not on the right.)

These children were growing up in an environment where prostitution is the norm. Sahaara is educating them, so they don’t follow their mothers into the same profession, so they will have choices in life.
Previously, they found that some children arrived only for the food. Sahaara therefore made a rule: if the kids don’t attend lessons, they can’t eat. People complained, but now they all come to lessons. Seems a wise decision to me – if we just feed the poor, they will always be poor. (This is why I like Tearfund/Sahaara – they sometimes make unpopular decisions if it is for a greater good.)

IMG_2095They showed me the toilet – a room with a drain, a bucket, and a ladle. Absolutely no idea how it should be used (thankfully, was just a morning visit, I didn’t need to use a loo). Max told me that families are more likely to have a mobile phone than a toilet. There was also a fridge (not in the toilet, just in the room).

While we were there, the power went out. This happens every Friday. There isn’t enough electricity, so different areas of the slums have no power for certain times during the week. They never know how long the power-cut will last, sometimes a few hours, but when I was there it came back on after about 30 minutes. The fridge whirred back into life and the ceiling fan stirred the warm air. It would make the fridge pretty useless for anything other than drinks though.

We walked through the red light district. The houses here were slightly better, I guess it pays well. Each little house had 3 or 4 women outside, just sitting on chairs or on the floor. I thought they were sitting in the shade, chatting to each other. (Later, realised they were soliciting customers – am a bit naive about such things). Sahaara has a second centre in the heart of the red light district.

Here, they chat to the women, teach them skills like sewing, hairdressing, making things from junk – enabling them to have life choices if they want to choose a different career.
Max said it’s about caring for the women, showing them that God loves them, that they have worth, that they matter. Sahaara has a 9 point plan, starting with recognising the women, then greeting them, then befriending them, then inviting them to the centre, then the women coming on their own…. until, hopefully, they will decide they want to leave. If they do, then there are safe houses they can go to, to adjust to life outside the red light district, somewhere they can start to rebuild their lives.

Usually the centre is shut during May, but they opened it to show me inside. When they saw it was open, a couple of women came in, to see what was happening.

Back at the other centre, about 35 children sat on the floor. One child said grace (I think it was in English, which seems bizarre, as they all spoke Hindi. But I was tired, brain was fuzzy by then, so maybe was imagining it).
They ate from the tin plates, no cutlery, scooping the food with their right hands. The women were busy, one dishing up the food on plates, the others taking it round to the kids. I nearly offered to help, but then I realised, it was like Lunch Club at home. Everyone had a role and knew what they were doing, the last thing they wanted was some big foreign woman getting in the way!

We got a taxi back to the hotel, and Max delivered me safely to the lobby. I was so glad I had been, met the women, seen the children. It makes it easier to support the work and talk about it to others. Everyone has a different story. Some of the women would have been trafficked as children, some had gone into prostitution by choice, because their options were very limited. Max said they work with everyone, the prostitutes, their children, the pimps. They all need to be cared for.

It would be easy to judge, but their lives are tougher than ours, we are not so very different inside. If Sally finds she cannot make enough money from rent, she may well decide to go back to her village, to buy a young girl, to act as her pimp, so she can feed her own child. Not because she is more wicked than you or me, but because she has grown up in a harsher place, where survival means hard choices.

Sahaara is trying to show that God loves them, wants a better life for them and their children, and is teaching them the skills so they can make that choice. But the decision has to be theirs. All Sahaara can do is give them the choice. All we can do is help to provide the resources, and pray.

Thank you for reading. If you would like to help support Sahaara or learn more about their work, go to tearfund.org for more details.

anneethompson.com

 

I have included some of the women’s stories in my latest novel:
CLARA – A Good Psychopath?
Available from bookshops and Amazon, as both a paperback and Kindle book.
Why not buy a copy today?
UK link below