Letter to Students 17 March 2009

Dear Reader

I am sitting in my office, writing late in the afternoon with the sun shining brightly. I have so much to tell you, but I will leave school soon to have dinner.

What did you do last weekend?  On Sunday, we celebrated the 58^th birthday of my husband, Han. It was a night filled with laughter, and I loved it. I love taking photos of the family when they come together, but the battery was flat so I couldn’t take any photos which was a pity. Do you like taking photographs? I have loved taking photos since I was in Egypt in 1980 when I bought a very expensive camera which I loved.  I was devastated when all my photos of Egypt, Europe, Africa and India were stolen. I travelled a lot when I was in my twenties.  Where have you travelled? My first partner, Dave, and I travelled on a crowded train in India, and some men stole my bag with my photos and diaries.  I still feel upset when I think of that day.  Do you write a diary every day?

I left India and went to Japan, and no one stole anything from me when I lived in Japan.

Last month, we bought the cottage next door to our house, and today, we sat on the steps of our cottage with our Dutch friend and talked about the old house.  The house has a kitchen which was added to the old house thirty years ago, and it has a different feeling to the one hundred year old house.  Do you believe that houses have spirits, their own feeling? Do you believe in ghosts?  When I lived in Japan, I shared a big old house which was at the end of a gravel lane. It was a two storied house and had a little tea house behind it.  One day, one of my flatmates, a nurse, said she saw a shadow passing across the living room wall each afternoon.  She said she wasn’t afraid, but she found it strange that the female shape didn’t have any feet.  I knew that Japanese people believe that Japanese ghosts don’t have feet!  Every night, we turned out all the lights, and in the morning, the lights were be on in the tea house.  Scary!

I hope you have a good sleep every night, and only good spirits come to you!  Please write back to me, and keep practising your English!

Love

Sharron