Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Competing Contrasts:Little and Large

Ys_soccer_field_layout_medium
Diagram from the NY Yankees
Last week I wrote about our idyllic days at the beach- just Jonny and I in a large beautiful house, with room enough for 3 families. This week we are in Manhattan, reunited with 2 of our sons, squished into one hotel room on the Upper West Side.
Jonny and I  might feel a little crowded out. But Jacob having been in a camp bunk with 11 other boys for 4 weeks  and Aron having come off a shift at the fire station straight to New York, where he catnapped  in a room with 15 other first responders, think they are in the lap of luxury. They are thrilled to have "real " beds and we are thinking we need a second bathroom!  (Ok, I am-well I'm pretty outnumbered and there is the small detail of the toilet seat).


We are combining work and play. Jonny is working and the boys and I are trawling Manhattan. So far we have traced our roots through an English soccer game at Yankee Stadium. We still can't believe there are so many Chelsea supporters in New York! The stadium was filled with over 38,000 soccer fans mostly in Chelsea blue as apposed to Paris St Gemain red.. Despite all that support, the final score was1-1. Probably better for European relations in the long run, but not for my ardent Chelsea supporter spouse.Yesterday we  visited  an exhibition of some of The Terracotta Warriors from China (We lived in Hong Kong for 5 years)  on exhibition in Time Square at The Discovery Center and the super sized Toys R Us.


The soccer pitch looked as though it had been foreshortened on the diamond baseball field and the Chinese Warriors were larger than life both in stature and magnificence. As for Toys R Us -  Thankfully it made us all nauseous from the size and noise and we NEVER need to go back there.  The four of us have certainly  experienced 48 hours of contrasts.


On the subject of contrasts; five months ago I started a little blog to reflect, once a week on Jonny's on going recovery and events in my family's life. I thought it would be a small project and now it has taken on a larger than life of its own. You may even be the 10,000th person to be reading it. The Facial Pain Association re-posted  a link to one of my posts (Pondering On The Porch) onto its own Facebook page and an expat website InterNations stumbled across my blog and invited me to be featured on their site. So thank you readers old and new, from Canada to Australia, Hong Kong to Israel and USA to the UK and many countries in between. The driving force for continuing to write has been the hope that the posts will strike a chord and help others to feel less alone in their every day struggles and successes. Because of your encouragement, support, feedback, reposting  and comments, Brainstorm is growing from a small idea into a bigger reality.


Thank you, thank you.


Have a wonderful week.


Gilly










Many thanks to you all for your support of  Brainstorm. If  you found Competing Contrasts interesting, please help spread the blog readership by sharing this post or others to your face book page. It's very simple to do.  Click on the F icon at the very bottom of this post, write a comment if you like and post the link. 

Thank you! 


* Please email me at gilly@bringingbooksofcomfort.org or leave a comment on this post below. I'd love to have your feedback. 

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6 comments:

  1. The little blog that could? Congratulations on growing your blog. It has now taken on a life of it's own and you are it's slave. Mwah hahaha! Serioulsy though - well done, I'm hooked.

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    1. No kidding about being a slave to it! A willing one nonetheless.Thanks for all your support Rachel and for commenting! always appreciated.
      Gillyxx

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  2. 10,000 hits! Wow! No surprise for me given how beautifully you write and the well deserved positive feedback that you have received from so many people.

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    1. Jonny-Thank you to my most loyal fan.Sorry you had to be so unwell for Brainstorm to.come into being.
      A silver lining in the clouds perhaps? GIllyxx

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