… Nanowrimo! Hurray! Can’t wait! Very excited! Anxious too. Brain in overdrive with all sorts of ideas, wondering which one is good, what to include, where’s the plot going, who’s who etc…
If you don’t know what i’m talking about, then you need to check it out; it is National Novel Writing Month, aka Nanowrimo! It happens every November, when the weather is all grey and rainy (which i dislike). One attempts to write 50,000 words in 30 days! Is it a challenge? Yes! Is it impossible? No! i have met the target twice so if i can do it, anyone can.
Here’s some professional writers giving some advice about Nanowrimo:
i’m still in two minds about which story i wanna write this year. i could start a whole new story. Or i could do a re-write of one of my old stories. Still not sure…. ahhhhh…. and there’s only a week left!
If you have never tried something like this and are finding your fingers itching, the gears in your brain turning, then why not have a go at it? There is nothing to lose and you may yet find a great writer within yourself. Here’s a trip down memory lane: My First Nano Write-In…
To those of you who are joining me on this wild adventure, Inner Editor locked up? Plot and Characters lined up? Pen and paper at the ready? Or maybe it’s Fingers and Keyboard for you?
That’s the title of the blog post i read a couple of months ago and was very touched by it.
In my eyes, before i read that article, even since i was a little girl, orphans have always had a special place in my heart. i had wanted to do something for them since the day i was kept from visiting an orphanage for a school outing. My mother didn’t want me to go. Not because she didn’t want me to help the orphans or learn about them but because she knew me so well and knew that i was be so teary upon seeing them that i would not be of much help. So this desire to help orphans found a very tiny outlet; i gave whenever i could to charities that did help them.
God has led me full circle and now i advocate for special needs orphans who live in countries where resources may not allow them proper care. Even if they had proper care, it is not the same as having a family to call your own; to belong to a group of people who love you regardless of your disabilities.
But this article has turned it around and looked at what a child with special needs could bring to the life of a family.
2. Flexibility – I never thought I would allow my children to watch Barney while eating dinner, but Adeline does. She eats and is not aware of what she is putting in her mouth, it works.
3. Patience
4. The value of uniqueness – My children have learned that we all have areas that are weak and strong, and it is O.K.
November is little Evelyn’s birthday – won’t it be a great gift to have a family step forward and claim her for their own?
i look at little Evelyn and just know that she has so much to give to a family who would love her just as she is. She is unique; she has weakness such as a short attention span and is limited in her speech. She has FAS (Fatal Alcohol Syndrome). It will require patience to teach her to follow instructions and to help her understand being calm. But with flexibility and a bit of creativity, it can be done.
She will blossom if someone would just take the time and effort to show her how. And i know she can and will be a blessing to the forever family who brings her home. i see in her the capacity to love unconditionally and to be a blessing to the people around her.
But her situation right now doesn’t permit her the opportunity to even think of others. She is an orphan, living with dozens of other kids and given very limited attention or encouragement. She, a 7-year old little girl, needs to look out for herself for now, until someone steps up to look out for her.
Are you that someone? Are you her family? Maybe you would like to find out about that possibility. Please contact Reece’s Rainbow for more information.
Maybe you are not in a position to consider adoption. But you can still help; you can share her story so her forever family can be found. You can donate to her adoption grant so that a lack of funds does not become a reason for her not having a family. Please click on her name or picture to donate.
Last but most definitely not least, you can pray for her; pray for her daily needs and that she would soon have a family to call her own.
So what did we do to occupy our time during the second week of the three-week Autumn hols? It was all about transport!
We had planned to go to a pumpkin maze but the weather didn’t hold out… so we went to the Swiss Transport Museum, known as the Verkehrshaus in German.
We have not been there for quite a long while and met our good friends there for an afternoon of travelling through the various forms of transport. LOVED IT! We had only a few hours there but it was great. We did not manage to cover the whole museum but what we did manage to see was fantastic.
Left: Huge Pinball Machine, Right: 3D train display
There was a huge pin-ball machine on the 2nd level of the first hall – it required 10 people to play in order to get the balls up to the top end of the board. There were also a few other interesting informative and interactive displays about trains and train lines. But the one which capture the attention of all the children, big and small alike, was the big 3D display of the trains going through the Gotthard Tunnel! (By the way, you can see the huge drill bit they used to dig the tunnel out by the front of the museum building.)
Top: the Wall of Cars, Bottom: One of the first automobiles
We saw more trains and tried to wait our turn to get on a train-driving simulation but there were just too many waiting. So we went on to the hall with all the cars! This was amazing. There was a whole wall of cars to look at. People sat around voting buttons to vote for which car they want brought down from the wall. There was a whole lot of banging noise at each voting session. After which a special car lift brought down the chosen car. We saw a F1 race car and then what i considered to be a more interesting choice was picked; one of the first automobiles from Mercedes!
Time ran away from us and after a drink break with the kids, we had only a little time left so we went to see the airplanes! i loved the interactive display where you could feel like a paraglider, flying over different parts of Switzerland. We saw a whole lot of planes. There was also an actual model of a Swissair plane which you could visit.
Left: Ceiling of Planes, Right: Swissair Plane
There are a few other halls which are very interesting but we had to give those a miss this time; the boats, space travel and communications bits would have to be covered at another visit. The kids loved it and the adults can learn a lot. This is one museum which is always worth coming back to. That’s why our friends who live nearer to it have a year-long pass for the family! i recommend reserving a whole day for this museum if you are planning seeing everything.
Our next travel adventure came in the form of a Falconry in Locarno; the Italian part of Switzerland! The travel bit was getting there. It took us more than 4 hours, almost 5 hours of travelling on train and bus to get there but it was good. We like riding the trains here and the scenery was amazing. We had books, games (both non-digital and digital) and food to keep us entertained as well.
Wonderful Views from the train
The Falconry isn’t very big. It has about 10 or so cages with about 15 varieties of birds and about 25 or so birds. It is a lovely little place, right in the middle of a residential area, which greatly surprised me. But once inside the park, you don’t notice the buildings around very much. We were early for the show so we walked around the park. It didn’t take very long but it was a nice walk and we saw all the birds in their cages.
Lovely Snowy Owls and the short walk around the park…
i really liked the stage area; it is open and very well-kept. It gave me a very peaceful feeling, sitting there waiting for the show to start.
The Stage…
The show opened with a little introduction about how animals have helped man to hunt. The whole show is done in both Italian and German. They showed off falcons, eagles, vultures and owls! The show was fantastic, well-organised and it kept the audience on the edge of their seats. The birds’ natural talents was so well highlighted.
You always had to be on the lookout for where the next bird was going to fly in from. And the birds flew so close, the tip of one of their wings brushed across my face and you could feel the downdraft from them zooming by.
Top Left: The Opening, Right: Barn Owl flying at us, Bottom Left: a funny little bird which looked like a cross between a flamingo and a falcon to me… it was a clever little thing…American Bald Eagle in flight – amazing!
There was a lot of demonstrations of how fast the falcons can fly and their hunting skills and great eyesight. The show was 45 mins but it didn’t feel all that long. You could tell that people who have been happy to sit there for longer.
Top: a Vulture swooping in near us, Bottom: See the blur on the bush next to the man, that’s the falcon chasing his prey which the man swings around.
Oh, i have to tell you; near the end of the show, they got a bird called the Karkar (i think) to stand on people’s head and my head got picked! But i don’t have a picture cos there was a bird on my head (mind you, he was a heavy bird). You will just have to take my word for it that it happened to me. i do have a picture of the bird on someone else’s head though.
Top: The Karkar on a man’s head, Bottom: The Closing
So was it worth the 9 hours roundtrip? No, not for just 2 hours of entertainment. But i had a holiday train pass and special discounted entry so it was ok. And besides, we liked the journey there.
This little guy kept screeching… the lady said he was talking…
However, if you are planning to be in the Italian part of Switzerland, a stop at the Falconry should be on your list. A fair number of people do come for the shows (our show saw about 200 people) so do go early to get a good seat. There is a small snack bar and souvenir shop. We bought a couple of cute owl keychains 🙂
Well, that’s it for now. i leave you with a cute Snowy Owl, less than a year-old and hatched at the Falconry earlier this year.
… Nanowrimo! Hurray! Can’t wait! Very excited! Anxious too. Brain in overdrive with all sorts of ideas, wondering which one is good, what to include, where’s the plot going, who’s who etc…
trippingdifferently 