Playing and talking

Eben and Luca stayed overnight with us on Sat night: the first time that Luca has stayed over without his parents. Josh and Ruth went to a gig - a rare outing for them - and were able to have an equally rare lie-in at home on Sunday morning.
We were all up at 5.15 a.m. on Sunday... with two very cheery boys, ready for breakfast and action. I managed to capture a few shots of Richard playing Monopoly with Eben, later in the morning,  while Luca had a quiet cuddle on his knee.
Ruth and Josh picked them up about 11, and I went back to bed for a couple of hours :-)

Later, I popped over to see Jack, Marianna and Frieda; it was Jack's birthday yesterday, and we had post-birthday tea and cake together.

And later still, Richard and I had two friends over for a meal: Samina and her daughter Mariyah, who were my neighbours in a previous house. Mariyah is in her final A Level year, working hard for the grades she'll need for university. We had a cheery time, not having caught up together properly in the whole Covid period.  It wasn't all cheery though. Near the end of the evening, I was picking up the threads of a conversation with Samina about haircuts and hair colouring (as you do...)  Samina has always been a committed Muslim, and has always found her own pathway in terms of being  a completely open-minded and progressive one. These days she wears a full head scarf, no hair visible (which she has not always done; her choices have varied, at different points in her life). Anyway, the point I want to record, from this conversation, is her matter-of-fact account of how much more overt racism she has experienced in the last few years, compared to earlier times. She puts it down both to the post-Brexit atmosphere, and to the reactions that some people have to her headscarf. She's been insulted, spat on, threatened... She's very stoical, she deals with it; and of course, she shouldn't have to.  "Of course I'll be keeping the headscarf on now!" she said, smiling; "I'm not having that!"