Socs | But I Smile Anyway...

#SoCS May 27/17 – Smell

27 May 2017 29 Comments

by Ritu in Socs, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Linda G Hill, Manure, School, Smell, Socs, Stink, Stream Of Consciousness Saturday

Linda’s #SoCS prompt this week.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “smell.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

The moment I read the prompt, I knew exactly what I was to write about today!

Smell!

Oh man, what a smell!

This week we have been blessed with beautiful weather, finally!

It has been a pleasure to get the children from my class out into the playground, and not having to battle through getting the correct coats on, woolly hats set on heads, gloves on (Yes, seriously it’s been pretty cold here recently!).

Instead of layers, we have to remember their sun-hats and make sure the correct sunglasses are perched upon the correct noses. (Yes, every three and four-year-olds are fashion conscious that they need their sunnies!)

However… (you must have known there would be a ‘however’!) … some kind neighbour of the school has obviously thought to make the most of the glorious days, to do some gardening, in particular, spreading some kind of manure… proper cow poo styleeee… around their flower beds.

It wouldn’t be so bad, but for the last three days, every once in a while we get a whiff of being down at the farm! And today was even worse as though we had a beautiful breeze blowing, making the heat manageable, it also brought with it waves of dung odour!

Great!

And even better than that, yesterday we were having our class Teddy Bears Picnic! (x 2 as I have a morning class and an afternoon class!) Somehow the kids were oblivious, munching away on their food, but as we served them, the urge to heave was so strong, because of the smell of manure!

Seriously! What were they thinking?!

It stinks! And I can’t see it getting better with this heat! Thank goodness we are on our half term holidays now for a week!!!!!

#SoCS May 20/17 – All Or Nothing

20 May 2017 42 Comments

by Ritu in Socs, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: All or Nothing, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Linda G Hill, Socs, Stream Of Consciousness Saturday

Linda’s #SoCS prompt this week:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “all or nothing.” Use one, use both, use them any way you’d like. Bonus points if you start and end your post with one (or each) of them. Enjoy!

All I am asking for is one full night’s sleep, one day with nothing major planned. A day and night where I can think of me…

But alas, tonight that sleep probably won’t come, or if it does, it’ll be drug-induced. I came home from school with a sore throat brewing. No fun! It hurts!

And tomorrow, well, that day to myself won’t happen. I need to go shopping, no proper food in the house! Then we need to pop to the local shopping mall, where my beloved Surface was given in for repair… They messed it up! But on the plus side, I shall be coming home with a shiny new one, and possibly an updated model too! Following that we are meant to be going to a function at the temple… then on to my in-laws for dinner.

When really, I need to sleep, and stay at home… Maybe Saturday will be my night of sleep, and Sunday will be my day of nothing!

#SoCS May 13/17 – Language

13 May 2017 22 Comments

by Ritu in Socs, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Posts, Blogger, Blogging, English, Language, Languages, Linda G Hill, Mother Tongue, Punjabi, Socs, Swahili

Lind’s prompt for #SoCS this week…

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “language.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

So here we have a poem I penned, which was inspired by a post a wrote a while back. It’s linked to the last word of the poem, if you wish to click through and read!

My mother tongue
is Punjabi
Mixed with accents
of Swahili
But what I speak
the most at home
At work, at school
and on the phone
Is English because
that’s where I was born
To choose a first language
I am always torn
My ‘mother tongue’
or my ‘step mum’ one?
To accept one,
the other to shun?
Or to celebrate
the presence of all three
And to call it
Pun-gli-hili?

#SoCS May 6/17 – ‘Inter-‘

06 May 2017 58 Comments

by Ritu in Socs, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Inter, Linda G Hill, Socs, Stream Of Consciousness Saturday

Linda’s #SoCS prompt this week…

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “inter-” Use the prefix “inter-” any way you’d like. Enjoy!

Inter-national.

That’s where I’m gonna go with this Stream of Consciousness post.

Here I sit, in lil old England born and bred, yet I’m not English.

British, I call myself, or a British Asian. Some say British – born.

Yet my background has a little more colour than your average Brit.

Yes, I was born here, but to Sikh parents.

Who moved here from Kenya.

Who were born in Kenya.

Who’s forefathers came over from the Punjab in India to help build the railways in Africa.

So there is a huge Kenyan influence on my upbringing, and life. I spent many summers there growing up, so I was able to cultivate relationships with all the family we had out there.

But I’m also Indian.

That’s a part of me I can’t hide. My skin tells that story. And whatever anyone else thinks, that is a part of my heritage I am proud of too. From the clothes we wear, to the music we listen to, the food we eat, to the way we practice our religion, it is all part of me.

So… Am I a British person, a British Asian, a British Kenyan, a British Kenyan Asian…?

And while we’re on the subject of international family, my brother lives in Finland, married to a Finnish girl, with a beautiful Finnjabi/Finndian son! Another dimension to add to our family!

On top of that, my extended family have managed to spread far and wide… From India, they dispersed to Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Then there came the UK, Canada, the USA and Australia. Obviously we invaded Finland, but there was already a branch of my family in Norway and Sweden! Dubai is another place!

(Oh and I didn’t mention that my ancestors from my Pops side many generations previously, were apparently Muslim, so there is probably a Pakistan link there too! Sikhism is a relatively new religion and most families were either Muslim or Hindu before they converted to this new religion, so it really annoys me when there are Sikhs clashing with Muslims… unless you have researched it, you don’t know if your own roots were in Islam!)

Inter-national connections, that’s what I have!

#SoCS Apr. 29/17 – Yard

29 Apr 2017 19 Comments

by Ritu in Socs, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Linda G Hill, Socs, Stream Of Consciousness Saturday, Yard

Linda’s #SoCS prompt this week.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “yard.” Use it any way you’d like. You can even add letters to it to make a whole new word! Have fun!

Yard – like my back yard? Well, I’ve never referred to it as a yard, I find that quite Americanised! It has always been my back garden

A yard, in my eyes is a place with no grass or flowers, an area with a dirt ground, almost a dumping ground!

Then I think of knackers yard – The place in a slaughterhouse where carcasses unfit for human consumption go to be disposed of. Sometimes we say “Oh so and so is only fit for the knackers yard” meaning he is not fit for purpose any more. (Bit extreme, I know, but it’s true!

Yards – the measurements still used when we go to buy fabric for Indian suits (unless there are a few modernised folk who talk about metres!) – and also the measurements for the markers to say how far the next junction is on the motor way.. you know, 300 yards… 200 yards… 100 yards.. – it was at the 100 yard sign that my accident happened too!

Yardies – defined as Black, Jamaican (Kingston) born gangstas found in rough parts of London. Associated with BMW’s, gold jewellery, and automatic guns. Responsible for a lot of murders and other crimes (mostly drug related) in the Urban Dictionary.

And finally Yardley, or South Yardley. Where I spent the lion’s share of my formative years, growing up, my home town, within Birmingham!

What a mish mash of a Stream of Consciousness post. But that was definitely my stream of thought as I wrote this!

Have a great Saturday Peeps!