Day 137 Week 19

So, someone used stolen ID from UK residents to produce bogus passports to kill a Hammas commander in Dubai. Argentina is making louder rumblings about the Falklands in the light of problems on their domestic front and the likelihood of vast wealth under the sea. And the Talliban are using women and children as human shields placing them on top of buildings which they occupy.

The world seems to be careering towards self destruction, or was it always like this and we just didn't know so much.

Had an absolutely fabulous day. A dear friend drove us up to my home village in Nottinghamshire, couldn't decide whether to go today or Friday, but weather outlook slightly grim towards the weekend so we trundled up the M1 catching up on all the gossip. Then we had lunch in the ancient pub which was once run by my great-uncle. He came to it as recompense for saving the life of the local squire during the Boer War by crawling out into no-man's land and returning to camp with the wounded officer. Lauded a hero by the local newspaper, the village band turned out to greet him upon his return, and my grandfather who was a young boy at the time was heartily sickened by it all. Interesting to see the old photographs and strange to think how often my predecessors had toasted each other in the very room where we had lunch. After that we visited the rain strewn hillside which is where my parents and grand parents are buried, wind and sleet lashing our faces before we set off back down an obedient motorway and now am ready for a lovely hot bath, pyjamas and bed.

We discussed the yearning that draws an adult back to haunts of childhood and decided it's based on a premise of perceived safety and the attraction of a simpler life. Was it really safer then, or have the rosy tinted glasses of memory tainted the truth. Life in my home village could be quite challenging and compared with the leafy gentility of where I live now, things were hard. There was a lot of poverty and opportunities were desperately limited. A trip to London
was the height of exotica and word soon swept around if someone actually went abroad on holiday. Wonder what people do for work now that the main employers of mining, milling or the brewery have gone, there doesn't seem to be much new industry to replace the old giants. Found I was looking at the pinched faces of strangers and trying to identify them in case they were somehow connected to my past. Definitely nostalgic yearning.

Heard from H and he wants me to do some business transactions for him. Heard from R and she may, with God on our side, be collecting C from Brize Norton next Tuesday morning.

Just want them home please Lord.

Speak soon. A soldier's Mum x