I loved this sentiment that Trevor Noah claims his brother made at around age 10 ... out of the mouths of babes! Such wisdom:
I recently read a very interesting article about American-born and -raised Evan Edinger's eye-opening realizations after living abroad, so thought I'd share the piece here (Evan Edinger's Realizations).
I can definitely relate to many of the beliefs that he has also identified in the U.S. as accepted, unquestioned reality. He claims, "the more I began to notice all of the assumptions that I'd grown up believing in America, the things I was brought up to believe were undeniably true and just the way the world worked—it turns out they weren't true at all." I've précised his ideas here, but he gives a LOT more detail.
First on his list, and on mine, is the lack of ubiquitous access to guns in other countries, followed closely by the observation that "most [government] systems in Western Europe are far more effective than what I grew up believing was the 'best in the world.'"
Food quality is next on my list - the food supply in the U.S. is polluted with unnecessary additives, while Europe has very "different regulations regarding food quality, leading to a lot less additives and chemicals" in products. This might make them more expensive, but quality takes precedence.
America is lacking in universal healthcare (which means we don't have that incredibly "freeing social safety net" at our disposal), and a public transport network, nor does it provide access to places on foot (what Edinger calls walkability).
The other observations he makes are that consumer protections in Europe give "more rights to the everyday person over giant corporations, and to shared benefit over private"; that individual worker rights are prioritized "over than those with money or power" (28 days minimum paid holiday, one year paid maternity leave, two weeks paid paternity leave, sick leave, even the right against unlawful termination); and that money is not the sole metric of success since "the culture in Europe is work to live and not live to work."
We've managed to secure a charming house in Wales that is just right for us - it's called Isfryn (pronounced IZ-frin), and means 'below the hill'.
At the top of the hill is St Myllin's Well, a sacred site where a 6th-7th century priest is said to have baptized people by total immersion and became "known as 'Sant Mewn Llyn' or the 'Saint in the Lake' because of his being constantly in the water" Wikipedia. Our house is on the Wikipedia page for the well, just 'below the hill.'
We'd had this house on our favorites/watch list, and then got notification of it being reduced by £35K. The owner was being foreclosed upon and needed to sell by Nov 7. Our agent cleared his calendar for Nov 6, and drove 4 hours each way to view it and take photos for us in real-time, so we could ask questions immediately. This was the last viewing, as the next day was the deadline for bids, so it had to be a rush decision or we'd lose it. Phew! It's scary buying a house from afar without having visited it under a tight deadline, but there's a first time for everything, right? If you don't take risks, you won't get anywhere.
“You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you. If you don’t have that kind of feeling for what it is you are doing, you’ll stop at the first giant hurdle.”- George LucasI'll be going from managing a 1,000 acre lake to looking after a little garden pond, and Dale will be getting a double garage instead of an open carport, and together we'll appreciate the fantastic sunroom and kitchen. No stairs, no basement. We hope to install solar panels, a heat pump and EV charger at some point, and I will HAVE to start removing wallpaper - I've never liked it, and it's my least favorite thing about this house. It can wait though, and it will take time. We have 3 bedrooms, so can have guests ...
We will be 1 hour 20 minutes from my youngest brother, 1 hour 40 to Birmingham airport, and 26 minutes to a hospital. We can walk to a pub 3 minutes away that serves Guinness on tap or to a local SPAR grocery store! There are castles, steam railways, bridges, aqueducts, wells, museums and of course, hikes of note to explore from here. Let the adventures begin ... I'm SO excited 😁
"Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth."
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949
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| Image from istockphoto |
It's amazing what one can learn from reading books! Memoirs and fiction contain information that is true, but is merely communicated contextually and in passing, not primarily, as in non-fiction. Whilst reading "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" (Alexandra Fuller - and may I plug what a GREAT book this is), a memoir about growing up in Zimbabwe, reference was made to a breakfast staple having soy in it, to which I found out many years later, I'm allergic. I had eaten that cereal most days as a child.
Back then, growing up in South Africa in the 60's and 70's, no thought was given to reading labels and ingredients, and having an allergy was for wimps! But it was our basic and everyday breakfast growing up - a bowl of ProNutro cereal, promoted as a high protein breakfast, containing corn, soy, sugar and other minerals.
Until now, I'd thought my allergy was something I'd developed later in life, from moving to a continent where soy is a staple in everything, and to which I was unaccustomed, or that pregnancies had upset my immune system. I had no idea that I'd been exposed to soy in South Africa. It was not a food or ingredient we ever deliberately added or served in a dish. I do know that I grew up with a lot of digestive discomfort, which I thought was normal, and how intestines and bowels worked. I had been hospitalized for observation, and tested (barium enema anyone? So, so awful ... ) and prodded for all sorts of diseases, but not an allergy, in my late twenties, to no avail. I had tried avoiding gluten for years, and then went lactose free, with no significant improvement. A specialist in Maine finally recommended allergy testing at fifty-something years old, which has made my life so much more comfortable. Having got used to the work-arounds, I actually like making my own food and avoiding production-line, processed food.
It's interesting to me how knowledge and information is disseminated and imbibed, and how slow realizations can be.
Dallas helped me feel better after my fall - so sweet.
In the background behind preparing our family home for sale, we have found and started negotiating on another house in Wales - we have our hearts in our mouths, and find ourselves scatter-brained and struggling to stay on the same page and conversation as each other as we await news. Our agent visited the property and is confident our offer will be accepted. Fingers crossed.
This is what it looks like when someone is trying to save themselves from falling off a rickety step ladder onto a basement floor, during a paint job, without spilling the paint can:
We had arrived in Chelmsford for the handover of keys from our tenants, expecting it to be a one night stayover to tidy up a little - can you spell naive???
Instead, we spent 4 days painting and cleaning, having arrived without anticipating we'd need to do this, as the tenants had had the house painted about 2 years ago. As typical South Africans, we decided to just make do ("boer maak 'n plan") with whatever we could find in the garage - I'm not sure this stepladder was ever intended as anything other than a prop or décor, but I decided I'd only use it for the highest parts that the stepstool was too low for. The steps were narrow, and swiveled when I ascended, and the whole structure wobbled and swayed about as I carefully climbed. I should have known better ...
The floor I landed on was hard concrete, but I appear to have escaped major injury. I was pretty shaken and confused for a while afterwards, thinking I'd cracked either my hip or my elbow, but nothing's broken or unable to function, and the next day I was back at it!
This is part of the finished job - this once brown, drab wood paneling has been transformed, and the room looks so much brighter, ready for the world to see.
I found this beautifully outlined beech leaf on my lawn in the sun, but none of the others had a white edge like this. It's definitely not frost or rime,
I'm reading a fascinating book about working at Facebook, written by a former employee and director of public policy. The book was released in 2025 despite the company's objections.
Wow, their focus on growth at all and any cost is frightening. The author uses the term 'lethal carelessness' to describe the lack of awareness and inadequacy of ethics or principles guiding such a huge global venture.
It's riveting stuff : Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams
We lost out on our bid for Avalon, the 'restorative place,' we desired buying in Wales. It's been a blow, but we're probably better off for not taking on more restorative WORK to get the house to a 'restorative place' when it's meant to be restorative in and of itself! So many property listings in Wales hint at the raininess with photos of shiny, wet patios and misty clouds over the trees - perhaps Avalon the cottage would have been too "misty," since Avalon supposedly exists "in the mists between this world and the next"!
