Leaving to care for dad

I have bad news this week. I’ve got a phone call from my mum the day before yesterday while at work. It took a few minutes to understand through her tears what she was saying. It took a few more minutes for what she was saying to actually sink in. My father has had a stroke and he’s been taken to a hospital. He’s unconscious and his condition is critical.

I’m writing these words from a public access Internet terminal at Luton airport. I admit that my main reason is to take my mind off the delayed flight and I apologise for using you as a shoulder to cry on. Those of you who followed my blog from the beginning know that my family is far away. Leaving and working thousands of miles away from them always made their wellbeing a concern. I sometimes wondered what I would do if... How would I cope? Well, there was no question this time. Not a single doubt. I’m going to be with my dad for as long as it takes. I’m going to be there and I know deep in my heart that it will make a difference.

I will not be writing for a while, but I will get back in touch when everything’s okay. Thank you for being there for me.

9/11

Today is September 12th – my mother’s birthday – the day I loved from early childhood. I always remember making her presents myself, with my own hands. I’m sure they were never as amazing as I thought they were, but my mum’s face, her big bright smile, always convinced me otherwise. In 2001 I came to Britain. It was the first time I would miss her birthday. A month before the date, I’ve decided to create a website for her. A website full of best recipes out there, focusing heavily on deserts, which I knew my mum would particularly appreciate. I spent my lunch breaks in the library, using student internet access to get the recipes for the site. I was determined: we’d spend the day apart, but we would never forget it. What I never forgot was September 11th.

Gardener, Chapter 1

Heavy envelopes with sample chapters from both Snowflake and Gardener left my local post office an eternity ago... well more like a week ago. Now all I can do is wait. While I wait, though, you don’t have to. I’ve uploaded the first chapter of the Gardener and I hope you enjoy reading it.

While writing this first chapter, I got to know Professor Tony Walker as a brilliant scientist who is misunderstood by the majority of his colleagues. He is not unique and his struggle is not unusual. History gives us plenty examples of gifted talented people who were never understood by their friends, colleagues, by the society they served. It seems that genius of a person is rarely acknowledged by his/her contemporaries; that job is left for descendants, for next generations. Why is that?