
  Our Friend Charles Hodson moved to Somerset, where he and his wife Heike have been doing a massive conversion on a farmhouse.
"Good to hear the Stoke N Meeting is in good shape. It is one of the
things
I do miss now that we are out in Somerset. I am of course fond of my
people
at Taunton PM but it is actually quite a strain to get to Meeting; an
extra
26-mile round trip always seems too much effort when one spends so much
time
travelling. I must admit I do go to the steeple-house in Stogumber
from
time to time on the basis that one really ought to form a faith
community
with one's neighbours and not always be too precious about one's
sectarian
predilections. I do try to go to Westminster Meeting's lunchtime
sessions
on a Tuesday if I can (rarely ... grrr) and get my hit of silent
worship
that way.
Did you catch any of the "Humphrys in Search of God" series on Radio 4?
Well worth having a look at the BBC website if you didn't. I was
struck by
the Quakerish ideas that the Archbish of Canterbury came up with.
As to the house, it is now more or less finished (to the extent that it
ever
will be), rather more so than the garden which seems to inch forward
rather
slowly. We are wondering how to find the last £20k needed to put a
roof on
the barn we rebuilt,
but the big headline was an award from the
Somerset
Buildings Preservation Trust for being one of the best conservation
projects. Heike must take all the credit; she has now started working
for a
local architect for one day a week, and is also doing a postgrad course
on
architectural conservation at the Univ of Plymouth one day a week.
I'll
tell you in more detail in my dreaded end-of-year letter.
I am bumbling along at work, though am under a slight cloud for speaking
truth to power once or twice too often. Power doesn't always like it
when
you do that, but that's Quakerism for you.
My sons are moving ahead at varying rates and degrees of
success/satisfaction. I share a flat in Bloomsbury with Will so I see
him
often, while Thom should finally be graduating next year, in sha'
Allah.
Getting to the pictures is a bit of a problem because of always working
weekends, though our flat is very near the Renoir so I'm aware of the
film
you mention and thought it looked worth seeing. Heike and I sometimes
go to
a town called Wellington where there's a fine old Art Deco cinema which
mainly shows slightly offbeat stuff while occasionally cashing in by
showing
things like the new Bond flick. Add in a halfway decent curry
beforehand
and you've got an evening of pleasures so simple you don't have to
'fess up
to your oversight group afterwards.
I had a squizz at the website and it does look impressive. It's good
that
people stay in touch, even if they have decamped to Western Australia.
I spend a lot of time trying to work out how I can spend more time in
Somerset and less in London. I think I'd rather miss not going to the
Smoke
occasionally, but I so enjoy my time at home that it is tempting to
give up
quite a bit in order to have that bit of extra lifestyle.
The main event at Preston this year was 8 Labrador PUPPIES. Utterly
gorgeous, but very hard work and tragic to see them all go, even to
good
homes. We kept one yellow gal, though, now a bouncing 5-month-old, so
life
in Somerset is one long Bitches' Ball as she and Dotty careen around
the
kitchen pretending to kill each other.
Nov. 2006
  Oliver Robertson worshipped with us before he went to University in Glasgow. He is currently at the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO). He is also our Friend Ruth Robertson's son.
"It is now two months since I arrived in Geneva to work as a programme assistant on the human rights and refugees desk at the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), and nearly three since I left Glasgow to do so. My role, while slightly different from the one-year peaceworker jobs run by Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW), was advertised in the same place and my training took place with those peaceworkers going to Britain, Serbia and South Africa. Altogether ten one-year workers met during the two-week preparation period QPSW organised at Friends House in London and Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham, which introduced us to the work done by Quakers in Britain and abroad and helped us to prepare mentally and spiritually for our placements.
QUNO operates out of a house in the north of Geneva, a short bus ride from the UN and other international institutions. It very much has the feel of a house rather than an office: my desk is in the conservatory, next door is the dining room which we use when having diplomats round to dinner, beyond that are the wooden stairs which creak mightily whenever anyone walks on them and out back is a garden with apple and peach trees and a swing.
This doesn’t stop you having to work, however, and a lot of the work I have done so far has involved going to meetings and getting a feel for who does what where and when. I have also been doing lots of reading, mugging up on the issues that QUNO is concerned about at present (these include the situation of women in prison and the children of imprisoned mothers, rights of conscientious objectors and problems faced specifically by refugee women and girls). Like all work it has boring and interesting moments, but the wealth of people with real expertise who want to tell you about these important issues (be it in word or in print) mean the latter definitely outweigh the former.
Nov. 2006.
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