Any time now I expect to be cut off from home internet service while Telecomms does its laborious adjustments from one provider to another. I won’t be able to upload photos from the internet cafe so here are two views: the first from the main bedroom window of my new (old) house and the second from the back bedroom. To the right of the mosque is the Oakridge Baptist Church.
a wayfarer’s notes 
Sorry to hear you'll be disconnected for a while.
It's wonderful that mosques and churches can coexist in such close proximity to one another. I can't think of a place here in the states where it's like that. Or maybe I just don't get around enough.
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Well, touch wood I am not disconnected yet, and maybe it won't happen.
The mosque is about ten times more busy than the church at present but I think it's because it's Ramadan, a time where their religious observance seems to reach a peak, perhaps for a whole month.
What's nice is that it's a concentration of energy. There is the religious energy of very devout and sincere Muslims for whom this is their focal point. (They came in the Fifties from Pakistan, then newly formed from the partition of India in 1947 after the withdrawal of the British. At that time this town was full of smallish furniture factories which welcomed manual labourers. There are many from that first generation, venerable now, clinging to their ancestral ways, more traditional than Pakistan itself today. They are in a time-warp. It is the same with Jamaicans. K's mother came over to England in 1960 from a Jamaica which exists no longer. K herself has been here only 2 years, having missed all the racism encountered in the Seventies by those immigrants.
Another part of the energy is generated by the Government which is keen to prevent the breeding of home-grown terrorism, especially as it seems that some mosques have been radicalized. I talked to a community policeman yesterday who said he was giving a talk in the mosque later. And today a policewoman was knocking at the door of the mosque – but nobody was there at that time. They are very friendly police, at one and the same time supporting those who want law and order (the elderly Muslims are Conservative politically) and sending a warning signal to any young hotheads who are longing for a bit of action, rebelling against their parents. Indeed as I type this, I see a couple of police patrolling the street back of our house, ready to chat to any passers-by. British police have always been unarmed, though times have become more violent. Some have been trained in weapons and these are issued only for particular operations, though they are routinely employed at airports or to guard politicians and Royalty.
So here we are in the eye of the world's storm, blessed with peace.
I've written elsewhere in this blog about the combing inch-by-inch of King's Wood, a woodland area at the edge of town where they were looking for terrorist weapons.
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It's so great to see genuine integration, where people from different backgrounds really get along. It was a priviledge working in Arlington, VA, just outside DC, my last position.
I think a place like that is so cosmopolitan that if you were bigoted you'd just have to leave! You couldn't enter a store or round a corner without finding people who might be from anywhere.
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Reading Paul's comment, I must say that a great many USA Americans have no desire for an international society or culture, being lazy mentally, narrow minded, racist, zenophobic and down right hard-ass-hearted. I know this from many years of personal confrontation. Right now in this town I am in, they are rounding up by profiling all hispanic, jailing them on any small oddity, then having immigration question them, the local police working for the feds, meanwhile real crime is rampant and is mostly caused and committed by christian-raised whites.
Pardon me for that outcry, you know me, lol.
I love your views out these windows, I hope Peace rules the days and nights there as everywhere. I enjoy hearing from you Vincent, I hope you don't have a spell of disconnection, stay in touch.
Because of my Hebrew, I know most meanings of Farsi as spoken by Pakistanim, I have some close acquaintances direct from Pakistan, we have language discussions and political ones as well, I enjoy this greatly, wish I had more time with them.
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nice looking views. If you get disconnected i hope its not for long…i enjoy reading your views and the beautiful pictures you post!
Have a great day 🙂
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Talking of views: My present lair in SF is one of the best occupational views I have ever had in my life.
On the left is the SF financial center and to the right is the bay.
Its a view which gives you the flavour of San Francisco – a city which looks so different in different pockets. Its like a person having multiple layers of personality.
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kaushik, I lived and worked in SF for many years, I suspect that you have been able to enjoy (and in some cases be startled by) the blue angels flying overhead that last day or 2.
It is indeed a wonderful and diverse city. I live in Marin now, but visit the city often.
I am going to North Beach this evening to a beautiful club called Bimbo's to see a old fashioned Burlesque show with some friends.
That club probably hosted a few burlesque shows when it was located on Market St. beginning back in 1931. Rita Hayworth was a chorus girl there. Gin was served in coffee cups during prohibition.
It moved to it's current location on Columbus twenty years later (1951).
It is known for an optical illusion provided by Dolfina, The Girl in the Fishbowl: She appeared to swim nude in the fish tank behind the bar… you can still find her there today.
The burlesque show is actually a sidebar to a Burlesque convention that is to be held there this weekend.
Only in San Francisco.
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lovely shapes and colors to look out on…
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For some reason the images aren't loading for me this morning, but I too offer my wish that you have your Internet troubles sorted out soon. You are missed.
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Hi all and thanks for comments. I'm in internet cafe this morning but I don't know if I will have time / inspiration to post anything.
I can't seem to write without your input, dear friends.
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