Tuesday 24 January 2017

So much to do but...

Is it too late to wish people a happy New Year? I guess it’s never too late to wish happiness upon others. I have tried very hard to keep focussed on my University writing this last month. You may have noticed that I’ve kept away from here. I’ve only popped onto Twitter and Facebook briefly to say ‘hi’...
BUT 
There has been one major distraction and I can’t seem to cure myself of the addiction. Scrabble…online Scrabble, or Words With Friends to be absolutely precise. I keep having to have a quick look to see if I can place that elusive seven-letter word or an exhilarating ZA with the Z on a triple letter going two ways. You’re probably thinking that I need to get a life but that’s the problem. I have one, a very busy one, and so my addiction will have to be ‘managed’.


As for my ‘very busy life’, here is a taster:

I completed my first assignment for the MA in Creative Writing two weeks ago. I loved every minute of it…even the hours spent from 3.30 am the day before the submission deadline. I discovered an artist who has depicted his early life in a Polish shtetl through the medium of a series of paintings. I have written a collection of poems around his work, linking it to my Grandma’s early years.

I entertained the entire family over the Christmas period and cooked myself almost to a standstill. It was lovely to see them all, to have them all under one roof. It rarely happens, but I have had to accept that I’m getting old. I needed some serious rest and recuperation after the last of my family departed.

I’m in the middle of gathering and writing up research for a book charting the formation of the Progressive Jewish Community in Leicester. It’s a fascinating story including the long-term loan of a Czech Torah scroll that was confiscated by the Nazis when they rounded up the Jews in Czechoslovakia. I will tell more of that story here soon, but for now I have deadlines and so I must get on.

Oh yes, and a happy 2017 to everyone. The sun is shining as I type this. Maybe Spring will soon be here.