Wednesday Oct 4th
At last! A cool fresh Autumn morning, and the pleasure of pulling on my guernsey - untouched since early May - and cycling off to the Internet Cafe (Library closed in this Borough on Wednesdays....) to collect emails and work on my blog.

I can't - I really CAN'T ! - reply to all the kind people who are sending in comments, especially those from America who all sound so nice and have good memories of England from time spent working or holidaying here.....oh, dear, it sems awfully rude but I do hope you all understand.....just try to imagine me here in a busy cafe, with exactly 59 minutes in which to write all sorts of things, including features for the Catholic press, administrative messages about the Festival of Catholic Culture on Sat Nov 4th at Westminster Cathedral Hall, and about tomorow's Catholic Women of the Year Luncheon, and more....

Next week I start a new series of talks in schools with the Tamezin magazine team. This magazine for tenage girls was launched as an alternative to the pornographic/gross/vulgar/semi-literature rubish that is on offer from the main promoters of teenage sub-culture today. It's taken off, and is thriving. SEND FOR A COPY NOW. Send £5 and ask for a couple of back isues: they're all a good read: Tamezin magazine, 1 Chelsea Embankment, London SW3. We have a team that goes into schools, where I do a talk/workshop on journalism, and the girls have a chance to try out their interviewing skills, learn a bit of shorthand, attend a mock press conference, and work in writing headlines....then we offer ideas for features that we need for Tamezin, explaining that we are looking out for bright writing talent....we get some good features sent in, and some girls also come to London to take part in art-and-design workshops, learn how to do page layouts, etc. Schools are enthusiastic, and we are getting a great many requests to bring the team in: I hugely enjoy being in the classroom and engaging with pupils and it sems to bring a fresh stimulus to my own writing and journalism too.....next week I'm off to Manchester and Macclesfield, and we also have some return visits to a number of schols in and around London.....

On Monday I spoke to a friendly local branch of the Mothers' Union, the Anglican women's organisation founded in the first years of the 20th century: a pleasant and welcoming mood as I spoke about "Celebrating Traditional Feasts and Seasons" but a slightly sad feeling of nostalgia and 'things-aren't-what-they-used-to-be.' As always when talking to older ladies - many grandmothers, retired teachers, women who have travelled and lived in interesting places, women with good stories to tell and lots to share - I picked up many useful snippets of information and enriched my store of knowledge on ways of celebrating the great round of the seasons that mark the Christian year. The sad thing is that there is also much wisdom on things like family discipline, coping with toddler (and teenage!) tantrums, passing on traditions - but it's not easy to find ways of communicating this to the next generation of young parents.....