See the Book Club Pages for a review of the latest choice for the Chamonix Book Club – ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue.
Room – by Emma Donaghue
Author: sharonwraywriting
Friday thought #9 Are we obsessed with mobile phones and the internet?
I know this is going to sound dreadfully old lady-like and I imagine that I am very much in the minority on this one, but at what point did the world become obsessed beyond recognition with the Internet and mobile phones? The rise of technology is without doubt enormously impressive and those of yesteryear would simply stare open-mouthed at what we are able to do today with regards to communication, but what really bothers me is that mobile phones are no longer just a convenient gadget, they have become a status symbol and an genuine obsession. People simply cannot live without their phones. Look around you on any train, bus, in any waiting room, or simply walking along the street, and all you see is people on their phones. It makes me genuinely wonder what people did with their hands and their brains before phones, as any spare moment seems to be spent checking for texts, checking emails, or simply scrolling through photos. Did people used to just put their hands in their pockets and look at their surroundings? Maybe do some sudoku puzzles, read a newspaper, or even a book?? Hard to imagine now.
I will hold my hands up and happily admit that I love the internet and I love my computer. I think emails are a wonderful way of contacting people and have certainly made the World a much more accessible place. But what I thoroughly enjoy is coming home in the evening and checking my emails, like excitedly waiting for the postman in days gone by. I really don’t see the need for everyone to be reachable via the internet 24 hours a day. I feel lucky to come from a generation who grew up with no internet and no phones and who have now witnessed the phenomenal technological changes of the last 20 years. However I feel genuinely saddened that we are most certainly the last ones. Children nowadays will never know a world where you can’t just google something on a car journey, or check your Facebook messages during Geography lessons.
Most people today could not possibly imagine life without their phone, it is within easy reach at any point of the day; either in their pocket, in their bag or on the table in front of them, just in case that all important text or email comes through. Would it be the end of the world if you didn’t see that message for another 2 hours? Before the Millennium there was no mobile access to the Internet, yet somehow everyone still seemed to manage. Now people can’t even sit through dinner without their phone taking pride of place at the table, obnoxiously beeping every few minutes and with their owner rudely and unsociably interrupting the conversation to check messages and update everyone on the latest Facebook post. Social etiquette has taken on a whole new set of rules, many of which horrify me yet which seem to have been totally accepted by everyone else. Since when is it ok to take your phone out and flick through emails and messages whilst someone is talking to you? Not so long ago it wasn’t acceptable to put your elbows on the table during dinner…
I really do think that it is ruining the way people interact with the World around them, and I worry for future generations who are headed for a life where their main social activities revolve around a smartphone and where having 500+ ‘friends’ is both normal and accepted. Maybe I’m too desperately clinging to the past and need to simply suck it up, buy myself a smartphone and roll with the times, but I can’t see it. I’ll always prefer to talk to someone in person rather than on the phone and will continue to look forward to checking my messages upon returning home. New gadgets are fine, and I’m all for moving forward with technology, but I worry that we are moving so quickly that we are losing sight of what’s important and necessary and forgetting that life before this obsession to be in constant contact wasn’t so bad after all, and in my opinion much calmer, less frantic and a lot less stressful…
Friday thought #8 Authors and stories that stand the test of time
Whether you are an avid or a reluctant reader, everyone has a favourite author and a favourite book, whether it be a childhood memory or a novel read as an adult. Asking to choose your favourite book of all time is a dreadfully difficult question, and one which I feel I may do a blog post on in the not too distant future…! But I certainly have my favourites, and a precious few hold that special place on the bookshelf and have been returned to more than once! I have spent a lot of time recently reading and researching different books and something that has really struck a chord in me is the books and authors which stand the test of time. Being a primary teacher I feel I am fairly up-to-date with the books children choose and the authors they come back to time and time again and I am endlessly fascinated by what is popular and in fashion. Of course there are many many new, modern authors that are becoming hugely popular with children of all ages, but I can’t help but notice that the Enid Blytons and Roald Dahls of the World will never fade. Children and adults worldwide are still enraptured by the Twits, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG, not to mention the Famous Five and Malory Towers. In fact in just a mere few months I am taking my class to see a stage production of George’s Marvellous Medicine! Some of these stories were written for children over 60 years ago (Enid Blyton was born in 1897!) yet are still as popular today as ever, so what is it that makes an author or a story last for decades, despite the revolutionary changes the World has seen in the interim?
The reason I’m writing this is because of a particular favourite author of mine, and it’s not even fictional writing! The man in question is James Herriott, he of the All Creatures Great and Small fame, Yorkshire’s most famous veterinary surgeon. These books, charting the trials and tribulations of a vet in rural Yorkshire in the 1930s, were dramatised on the BBC during my childhood in the 1990s and have stayed with me ever since. They were the reason I wanted to be a vet (as I’m sure most children did at some point in their lives!) and the subject matter of many a wonderful family holiday in the Yorkshire Dales. I have recently re-read a lot of his books as well as listening to them on audiobook, and they have lost absolutely none of their sparkle. In fact I would even go so far as to say that I now love them even more than I did as a child. Their pure simplicity and wonderful, idyllic description of life as a country vet just makes me wish that life was still like that. I think that Yorkshire in the 30s is how life should be and I want to thank James Herriot for keeping my feet on the ground by reminding me of a simpler time, one that continues to make me smile. I will forever have my copies of ‘It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet’ and ‘Vets might Fly’, along with my all time favourite childhood book, ‘James Herriot’s dog stories’, and I will most certainly be passing them along to my children.
Long live the authors who manage to stand the test of time.
Friday thought #7 What do you miss from ‘home’
No matter how many years you spend living abroad, whether it’s simply just over the border or a 24 hour plane ride away, we all miss certain things about the place where we grew up, aside from the obvious family and friends. Of course you get used to where you live, the ways of life, the local customs and foods, and learn to really enjoy things you had perhaps never experienced before.
Spending so many years in France, some of these things for me have been delicious tartiflette, an abundance of local mountain cheeses, fresh baguettes, wonderful bakeries and a rare rump steak to name but a few! Before coming to France I’m not sure I’d ever eaten a steak before, and the thought of eating meat that looked a little pink would have horrified me, but now I’ll literally close my eyes to savour every bite of that bloody steak that’s almost still mooing!
You would think after spending your entire twenties away from the country you grew up in, you would just become accustomed to what’s available where you live and slowly forget what you used to do. But for me this has never been the case. Maybe it’s a British thing, but despite actively choosing not to live there, we Brits seem to cling on to all things British with a fierce patriotism, excitedly cramming suitcases and cars full of things we can ‘only buy over there’!
I don’t think it’s a case of the UK having ‘better stuff’ than France, I think it is simply that you never lose your roots. I know the high street shops of Britain like the back of my hand, whatever I need I know where to go to get it. It’s simply easier to wait until you next visit England to buy yourself some new jeans or a pair of winter boots, because rather than spending hours trawling a bunch of shops you’re not familiar with, you could have what you want in 10 minutes from your local childhood high street because you grew up with it and you know it.
I have the wonderful luxury of living somewhere I love, yet being only a short plane ride away from where I grew up so in just a few hours I can be across 2 borders and safely landed in the UK. I frequently take advantage of this wonderfully convenient service and I spent last weekend catching up with some fabulous university friends. Now during a fleeting visit across the water it would be frankly wasteful to not cram a few British treats in to my hand luggage whilst there, which I duly did, and which got me thinking about the strange things I miss from my homeland.
This time the lucky items that made it back were: crumpets, Dairy Milk caramel, Double Decker chocolate bars, multipacks of fudge bars, a block of cheddar cheese and the Saturday Times newspaper. On a journey which allows for more luggage space the following items will also regularly be found: Marmite, British bacon, digestive biscuits and the essential jars of peanut butter.
Ever since childhood I’ve always been a huge fan of peanut butter (something which the french sadly just don’t seem interested in…) Why I miss the other random assortment is anyone’s guess, although the fact that you simply can’t buy most of these things over here surely must play a part…! As they say, absence does make the heart grow fonder! One thing’s for sure, if I ever move further away I’m going to have to send a mighty big container on ahead of me, and it’ll be filled with peanut butter!
Friday Thought #6 Winter’s coming…!
It’s a sentence most people dread. September in England signalled the end of summer and back to school which inevitably brought with it short, dark days characterised by cold and rain. September meant Winter was coming which generally led to negative grumbling and griping about the weather and how hard done by everyone was! Winter and positivity were two words not often associated with each other! I think it’s safe to say that England doesn’t really get much of a seasonal weather pattern, it can get slightly warmer in the summer and marginally colder in the winter, but in general the weather pretty much stays the same, so although I was aware of ‘seasons’, I’d never really experienced them.
You grow up dreading winter and desperately waiting for summer, so how I ended up living in a mighty cold ski resort and itching for winter is anybody’s guess! Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the summer, especially in the Alps. It’s by far the most convenient season and I am genuinely sad that it’s pretty much over for this year, but the wonderful thing about living in the mountains is that you get four distinct seasons and you know exactly when it changes. This year the summer here has been pretty dismal, as I believe it has been across most of Europe, but almost as a special treat to make up for it, September has been absolutely glorious. Up until last week the sun has been shining and it has been genuinely warm; shorts and flip-flops weather still. We’ve been climbing, hiking, running and even swimming in the lakes, not what you’d expect from an often ‘dreary’ month. But this week we have clearly felt it ‘turn’. It has suddenly gotten very cold in the mornings and evenings, the trees are all turning fiery red and golden and the darkness is rolling in earlier and earlier. It’s such a snap change, Summer becomes Autumn almost overnight, not Winter, Autumn.
This is why I love it here so much. Everyone enjoys the summer but as soon as it cools down and the trees start to change, the thoughts inevitably turn to winter and the chat turns to skis, lift passes and winter plans. But before all that excitement begins we get a grace period where we get to ease out of summer mode, eek out the sunshine as much as possible, but gradually start to get our warm clothes down from the loft and think about when the snow will come.
In the vein of enjoying every last drop of that sunshine, last week I went for a wonderful long run along the Chamonix valley, starting and finishing at 2 different points which resulted in a reasonably long wait for a bus at the other end. Again sitting and waiting for a bus is a prospect that conjures up images of miserable commuters huddled under a rainy bus stop. It’s a strange place to count your blessings, but I couldn’t help but smile as I sat on a bench in the sunshine facing a spectacular mountain range bisected by a stunning glacier, and to top it off, the trees in the foreground were at that perfect autumnal point where they can’t quite decide whether they want to be red or green.
It’s the little things that make the difference… I love autumn!
Friday Thought #5 The importance of stopping to appreciate your surroundings
My journey to and from work, as I’m sure is the case for many people, is long and feels tiring, especially when both there and back are in the dark. Sure my commute is for the most part along a motorway surrounded by spectacular mountain scenery, but it’s difficult to enjoy even the most stunning snowy peak in the pitch black of winter mornings and evenings…! It’s totally my choice to live as far away as I do from my place of work so I am in no position to grumble, however, endless hours spent in a car, especially when you get closer to the international borders and cities, can really start to grate on you. The sheer volume of traffic, the angry and intolerant (and incompetent?!) drivers, and the traffic lights, oh the incessant traffic lights!
This tedium day in day out can really get to you, something which so many people can relate to, almost to the point where you feel like you are on auto-pilot, mindlessly covering the kilometres in order to get to where you need to be, and therefore ignoring everything around you.
En route home tonight, adding to the endless stream of Friday night traffic, I took a moment to stop and realise that I don’t always need to be in a hurry. The sunset was beautiful, the mountains were literally glowing, and so I pulled over and just sat, watching the beautiful scenery in front of me. It sounds like a cliché but I’d be interested to know how many people ever stop their daily routine to simply look at the world around them and reflect on how spectacular it is without even trying. We’re all busy people and have a million and one things to do every day, but it’s amazing how peaceful it is to stop every once in a while, pull over and forget that traffic. The World is a beautiful place…
Friday Thought #4 The simple joy created by a pet waiting for you at home
I didn’t grow up with a cat or a dog, therefore I never really had strong feelings either for or against the household pets as a child. We had the standard hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs etc, but occasionally poking at a small creature in a cage isn’t quite the same as taking your dog for a walk. Having no personal experience of these pets, my only opinions were formed through limited time spent with friends’ pets. I grew up with the belief that dogs were big, goofy, friendly creatures who were ‘man’s best friend’ and always keen for a walk. Cats on the other hand were generally considered to be reasonably unfriendly creatures who either slept all day or stalked around, aloof and uninterested. I always liked the idea of having a dog but assumed taking care of them would be too much work, and was never really interested in having a cat as I didn’t really see the point. So overall, as a family we weren’t really pet people.
So a few years ago when my boyfriend suggested we get a cat, I wasn’t massively enthused. I didn’t see the benefit of a hoity toity creature stalking around, ignoring us completely and coming and going when it pleased. But it didn’t offend me too much either and as he was desperately keen, I obliged. And then Lilou arrived, possibly the most un-cat-like cat that’s ever lived. She was desperate for constant attention, loved a belly rub and was only happy whilst sitting on your knee. I had no idea how much I was going to love having a cat as a pet until Lilou came along. However Lilou was a rescue cat and quite elderly. We only had her for a year and a half before she died, but had to remind ourselves that her last 18 months of life with us had to beat being in a cage.
But I had the bug, coming home to a now empty house was unbearable. Sure it’s ‘only a cat’, but the joy created from a creature waiting for you as soon as you walk through the door is something that you just don’t appreciate until it’s not there anymore. After a month of being ‘cat-less’ we decided it was time to get a new one. Not a replacement for Lilou, but a new pet for us. So along came Gozo. It was difficult to imagine a cat more affectionate and more un-cat-like than the last one, but we’ve managed to hit the jackpot once again and have adopted one of the cutest creatures on earth!
I can safely say that I am now a ‘cat person’, not suggesting that means I’m not a ‘dog person’ as I’m fairly sure you can be a fan of both, but I can no longer imagine a house without a cuddly creature wandering around and despite the fact that Gozo might be around for the next 15 years or more, I already feel nervous for when he’s not!
New for the book club – Room by Emma Donoghue
The latest choice for the Chamonix Book Club is a book I hadn’t come across before. Recommended by one of our members, the entire blurb reads as such:
Jack is five.
He lives in a single, locked room with his Ma.
This is all we know about Room, watch this space to find out what we think!
Friday Thought #3 Seeing the same view from a new perspective
Anyone across Europe would be hard pushed to disagree that this has been one of the worst summers in living memory, weather-wise. Despite an early heat surge in late May/early June, lulling us all in to a false sense of security, July was abysmal and August not much better, well certainly throughout Western Europe anyway. In the final weeks of August here in the Alps we were experiencing midday highs of lower than 20C, and an afternoon thunderstorm that you could almost set your watch to; hardly what you’d expect from summer in France. However, it’s not all doom and gloom, there have been some lovely sunny days and if you are feeling enterprising you can always make the most whatever the weather, even if that means charging uphill in the rain for several hours simply to get some exercise!
I will generally spend a large part of my summer holidays rock climbing and mountaineering, but with rain forecast almost every day it was difficult to ever get a firm plan in place and in the high mountains, heavy rain means snow; not ideal for climbing on rocks. The last few weeks have seen the return to work and to more of a routine, and of course coinciding perfectly with this, the sun has come out and stayed out for the past week or so! Despite having a wonderfully extended summer holiday, I often find that once I return to work I end up doing more, as time seems more precious when you have less of it. When you have every day free it’s not so pressing to get out and make the most of every minute! So I have thoroughly enjoyed this unexpected week of warm weather and have used it to explore the hidden corners of this valley, places that are sitting literally on my doorstep, but which I have never set foot in.
I have lived here for almost 8 years now and feel like by now I should have seen every view. Of course no-one even in a whole lifetime will walk every trail or slide across every skiable patch of snow, but despite having spent so much time in these mountains, I am constantly amazed at how much there is still to discover. A simple run up in to the mountains behind my house last week revealed a completely new area I didn’t even know existed; full of charming chalets and beautiful meadows, and a day hike suggested by a friend took us across an area I had never considered walking to before. We were absolutely astonished that the view across the valley to Mont Blanc that we had looked at so many hundreds of times before could look so different and unveil smaller peaks and features that you simply can’t see from anywhere else. Looking down from a small peak to discover a series of hidden mountain lakes that can only be found by your own exertions is a wonderful feeling, especially when you are the only people there!
This is why I love the mountains so much. You can look at the same view day in day out and it will never be the same, and if you take the time to step out of your door on a sunny day and explore these wonderful places, you are guaranteed to see something that will take your breath away, and you might even discover something completely new!
The Casual Vacancy – by JK Rowling
See the Book Club Pages for a review of the latest choice of the Chamonix Book Club – ‘The Casual Vacancy’ by JK Rowling.
Sharon Wray Writing 