Desert Island crisps

A day spent with local Kosovars exploring what we mean by the word empowerment. Particularly relevant for them (and a long way removed from the cynical connotations around that word in industrialized economies) as they seek to wrestle control of their new found political and economic institutions from a reluctantly grip-loosening international community. Showed them a great film ‘The Green Movie’ (not about the environment). I have of course done the thing that international workers are always told not to do in their temporary homes and gone ‘native’. But in my view justifiably so.

Gripe of the day is a simple one. Everyone is Pristina burns a wood fire. I can hardly breathe in the acrid air. Who said London air is polluted? At least it doesn’t have a ‘flavour’.

But happy things happened today – if impure thoughts count as happy things then many were they. But I liked being invited to share coffee with Kosovar locals (breaking down the international/national barrier) and so many of them shaking my hand at the end of my seminar and thanking me (I think) sincerely. I started to re-read Hemmingway’s ‘Death in the Afternoon’ – the first time I have read this since I was about sixteen. Perhaps the red-bloodedness of the bullfight and the thought of the sun inspired aforementioned mental impurities? I thought a lot about my young daughters too. I will see them in ten days for the first time for 2 months. Lily, my six-going on-sixteen year old has drawn me a picture of us at the beach in Agde, Southern France, last summer. 40 degrees and Isabelle, my naughty youngest kicking sand all over my food! Things that make us angry at the time never seem so bad in hindsight. Even better to laugh at them.

Song of the day: Strange Things Happen Every Day - Olu Dara.

‘Mental play’ thoughts:

Desert Island Crisps – 8 varieties

1. Square
2. Root Vegetable
3. Square Root Vegetable?
4. Cabernet Sauvignon
5. Children’s Toothpaste
6. Donald Rumsfeld (a use for him now he has ‘retired’)
7. Old school classroom
8. Miles Davis trumpet-shaped.