Freedom. Families. Food. And swords.

Well, according to news reports Nazanin Zaghari -Ratcliffe is on her way back to the UK

“Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe handed over to British team at Tehran airport and leaving Iran today, Iranian state media reports

This is from Reuters.

British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has been handed over to a British team at Tehran’s International Imam Khomeini airport and she is leaving Iran on Wednesday, Iranian state media reported.”

Fingers crossed that reporting it does not put a hex on it. Her family probably won’t believe it until she is back on UK soil and they can hold her in their arms. Then they can start to remake their life together. 

Families are important!

According to Facebook’s memory, four years ago I was with both my sisters in the south of Spain. My younger sister’s husband had recently died and nobody had been able to get there in time for the funeral. So my elder sister and I had flown out later to spend some time with her. Not the best circumstances for a family reunion but important nonetheless. Thank heavens there was no pandemic at that point. Thank heavens that we could afford to make the journey. I was about to say “without complications” but, looking back, I remember our plane was unable to land at Gibraltar as scheduled but had to be diverted to Malaga, adding at least a couple of hours to our total journey time. 

It’s Wednesday again so I have been to the market this morning as usual. As I scuttled around Uppermill  filling my panniers with non-essentials such as olives and sun-dried tomatoes, I felt a twinge of guilt as I thought of those who can barely afford the essentials. Here’s something from an article by Jack Monroe:

“In a modern-day twist on the age-old riddle: which came first?

The cold, damp housing  forced on people with the lowest incomes across the private rental sector or the upswing in respiratory illnesses ?

The lack of funds for a nourishing and balanced diet, or malnutrition and the return of a of Victorian-era illnesses such as rickets? 

The deliberate policies of penury and deprivation over the last 12 years of Conservative-led rule, or the emaciated bodies of those left to rot by the ideologues of unnecessary austerity?

Numbers are cold, stark and loveless things; it’s easy for those in the halls of power to disassociate from a statistic and forget that each and every one of those numbers represents a hungry, traumatised, exhausted human being.”

Here’s a link to the whole article. 

She’s come quite a long way has Jack Monroe since she first began blogging about making ends meet as best she could as a single mother, sharing recipes which could be cooked with few and cheap ingredients. And now she’s internationally acclaimed and a spokesperson for the poor and underprivileged. Long may she continue to remind politicians of what they need to do! 

At the other end of the scale we have Her Majesty, who is in the news this time for refusing to send her collection of Russian swords on loan to an exhibition about duelling which was planned for Moscow. This was reported in today’s Guardian but in fact she withdrew her permission before any fighting began, back when Russian troops were gathering at the border. Clearly it suits someone’s purposes to make it look as thoughts just happened. But there it is: no old swords for Russia!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!