Hi and a very belated happy season’s greetings to you all – and a wonderful new year to all of us.

I intended to post before Christmas, but the upshot of the surgery was that it was a much bigger deal than I had realised (though it went fairly well) and I’ve been coping with the effects ever since. Seem to have hit a turning point now, so fingers crossed I’ll be fit for chemo next week and two more lots after that. Then we can get on with other things.

When my lovely grandson (Francesco, 3) was about two years old, and he couldn’t quite do something himself (so needed help from an adult), once that thing was achieved, he’d declare loudly “I did it!” I keep thinking the same thing about the surgery, which of course I didn’t do – but it weirdly feels like something I helped to achieve, if only by wishing it to be over and done with. Those surgeons – they are like gods aren’t they? And in my case they were all Greek, so you can imagine Greek gods… And the support and nursing staff (who without exception in my experience during my hospital stay were immigrants from other lands) are the most amazing human beings for whom nothing is too much trouble. Thank you to all of them from the bottom of my heart.

I continue to be enchanted, entertained and amused by the challenges you set yourselves and it’s not too late if you want to join in. Recently, I have had a friend trying to notch up 50 Munros (look it up – Scottish mountains) in his 50th year and another working hard on her watercolour painting, as well as doing magic painting (water only needed!) with her learning disabled sister. Lovely people, these are the things that matter – do more of them! I’ve also been moved and comforted by all the communication with people I haven’t had time to be in touch with so much in recent years – let’s keep talking.

As for my challenges, they’ve had a bit of a downturn in the last couple of weeks, but I’ll be getting back to them now I’m on the mend. My six (so far) poems by heart have been invaluable during the moments when I was unable to move in bed or read – I can run them fast (like music) or slow (to savour the writing) and it helps me to either drop off to sleep or get off the merry-go-round of negative thoughts. I only missed two days of Duolingo (Italian) during the recent procedures, so that flipping owl can do one – I think that’s pretty good on the whole. My (half-Italian) granddaughter thought it was very funny that I can say ‘My American neighbour is nice and my son is tall’ – classic language learning nonsense, but I guess it’s a start.

Well, that’s enough news for now – I’ll try to post more regularly and get back to some linguistics too before long!

Lesleyx

Hi everyone

In a week I will be going through some surgery, followed by recovery (I hope!) and more chemo. It’s all looking fairly good on the getting rid of cancer front and I’m hoping to hear that most of it has gone after the surgery. I’ll keep you posted on that!

Meantime, I’ve got 6 poems memorised to keep my mind from spiralling while I can’t do much else, and I’ll try to get another one under my belt before then. I’ll also try to keep the old Duolingo (Italian) going for the duration, though I guess there might be at least one day when I’m too out of it on morphine to engage with that annoying little owl! I have also added a new challenge to my list, which is to get back to doing the occasional park run once I am fully recovered from the treatment. I’ve managed to start running again in the last ten days and it feels great! Not very far and certainly not fast, but moving is definitely better than sitting around all the time.

Thanks again to all of you who are letting me know what your challenges are – I really enjoy making you do stuff that you’ve been too busy/lazy to do before;) There’s ever more music, poetry, languages, exercise being done and I feel proud of those achievements by proxy. Keep it up!

I managed to knock up a sheep costume for my granddaughter’s nativity this week and did some work on the allotment as well as playing a bit of trumpet (for this afternoon’s band practice). It’s been great feeling so normal after months of symptoms and limbo. Normal life – it’s such a joy!

More soon

Lesleyx

Hi everyone

More news on treatment and challenges soon, but meantime I wanted to draw your attention to the important date this Wednesday (26th November) when it will be National Linguistics Day. This celebration of everything to do with human communication is the brainchild of Rebecca Mitchell and it is growing every year. If you are a linguist, please get on board and use this day (it’s always the same date) to promote your work to the broader community. Here’s a link to the website:

https://www.linguisticshq.co.uk/national-linguistics-day

This day is getting bigger every year and with luck it might become World Linguistics Day in due course, so watch this space!

More soon – big meeting tomorrow about my treatment, so I’ll know more then. Meantime, I’m halfway through learning poem number 6 and having started running again (slowly but it felt great!)…

Lesleyx

Just as I thought I was bossing the chemo and knew what to expect, two things happened this week! First, it became clear that I am facing surgery, which up to now I’d been imagining might not happen (though it had been mentioned as a possibility). They even have a date pencilled in, so that really brought it home. However, the good news is that surgery is likely to lead to a better outcome, so we’ll hold onto that! Then, yesterday I went for the third round of chemo thinking I’d be half way through by now only to find that the reaction I had to the drugs last time was more severe this time and they had to abandon it! So, I’m anticipating a pain-free weekend after all, but disappointed not to have progressed. I’m in limbo now waiting for news of new treatment plans and appointment schedules and so everything is on hold. On the up side, I do now have a wig that is a pretty good match for my hair. Don’t need it yet, but it’s there if I do.

I think I might start really planning out that cosy crime novel I’ve been thinking about in the meantime. And I’ve made a good start on Christmas shopping (online!) with all the sitting around I’ve had to do.

More soon

Lesleyx

Hi everyone

I’m just gearing up for chemo round three, so I thought I’d update this blog before I go underground for a few days! I’m delighted to say that you continue to impress me with your challenges – including, recently, someone who made it up Helvellyn in the Lake District and someone who is returning to studying Lithuanian after a break (and well might he do so as it’s the language of his wife!). There’s also my lovely friend Kate who is planning to learn to crotchet. My challenges are progressing slowly – I am starting to learn my sixth poem now and the other five sustain me almost every night at some point when I’m wakeful. I’m playing the piano fairly frequently and I’m on a long Duolingo streak as well as reading some short stories in Italian!

But what I wanted to say today was something about linguistics, which is one of the loves of my life. I happened to see a post by Michael Rosen the other day on FB which enraged me, so I thought I’d share a few thoughts about this with you. I know Rosen is beloved by many in the UK and beyond, for good reason – he has written many lovely children’s books (although I knew the bear hunt story about 60 years ago as a girl guide, so it’s never been clear to me why he gets the credit for that!) and I often agree with his social and political observations too, which he shares liberally on social media. However, his stance on learning about language (i.e. linguistics) in primary schools is, in my view, simplistic, mistaken and very damaging to the field that I and many others have dedicated their lives to. Here’s the post that I’m referring to (from November 5th):

Someone (Alison Wrench) asked me on an earlier post about how come primary schools had to do the grammar test and the grammar curriculum in England. This is my answer: ‘It came from a report (Bew Report 2011) on account of interference and diktat from Michael Gove. Tame linguists were hired, including Richard Hudson and Bas Aarts. An exam was devised which then forced on Year 6 pupils a ‘grammar’ curriculum, a lot of which is out of date and irrelevant. This is then used to define ‘good writing’ in terms of ‘expected levels’ and so you got a situation in which a false tail was wagging a huge dog: children’s writing, distorting it as it wagged it!’

This post was commented on by many followers of Rosen, most of whom were horrified that young children should have to learn about something called a ‘fronted adverbial’. No one seems to have any other targets in mind (e.g. learning what a noun or a verb might be), just the fronted adverbial. Here are the reasons I think Rosen is making a point in a, frankly, populist manner, about something that should be much more nuanced and considered:

1. We teach – and expect primary age pupils to understand – many complex concepts in maths, science and other subjects. They are at an age to cope with learning new ideas, so this is a perfect time to teach them some ideas about how humans communicate too, including some grammar (why not?), if not the fronted adverbial. There is no reason to link this to the question of writing, good or otherwise, or reading. Whilst knowledge about language might feed into pupils’ writing or reading in different ways, it is worth teaching for its own sake. To that extent, I agree that some of the way it has been employed in schools is harmful, but…
2. …the political/ideological impetus for the aspects of this curriculum that Rosen dislikes came from a government wedded to old-fashioned ideas of education, often drawn from their own Eton-type experience, or aspirations to such. It doesn’t come from linguists. Of that I am absolutely sure. It is particularly invidious to pick out and name two highly respected linguists whose work was used in ways that they may not have anticipated when asked to provide some help to a government apparently valuing the work they do and the field they work in. To call them ‘tame’ is unworthy of sensible calm debate about what is best for pupils to study.
3. There is, of course, a question to be asked about whether grammar is the only – or most important – aspect of language knowledge to teach at this age, or whether, perhaps, some other aspects of language knowledge (phonetics – how we speak; sociolinguistics – how we judge people by their accents; pragmatics – how we mean things without exactly saying them; discourse – how we put together our arguments into coherent or persuasive texts) might be introduced early in their education. A case in point – I have just edited this list into three parts as that is an ideal way to list things when you want to appear to have covered every aspect of the subject under consideration!

So, I understand that the curriculum as set was probably not aimed at the right target. In other words, it was used rather mechanically to ‘improve’ reading and writing instead of being used to discuss human communication more generally. There are three (yes, another three-part list, indicating completeness) points to make about what should/could happen instead of a divisive attack on linguistics as though it, rather than narrowly ideological government policy, were the problem:

1. Teachers need a much better understanding of/background in linguistics in order to teach knowledge about language effectively. There is a large cohort of linguistics/languages academics waiting to be asked to help and they are not ‘tame’ but truly engaged.
2. The national curriculum should include content about human communication as a vital part of children’s learning in its own right. Whilst new developments in citizenship, financial understanding etc. are maybe fine as additions to the curriculum, if we want pupils to really understand the modern world we live in, then communication through language is a massive part of what is going on (see Artificial Intelligence, internet content and influence – it’s mostly language-based, even where it’s also visual). Its importance is such that I’d argue that knowledge about communication should be on a par with core subjects like maths and science and should not just be a sub-part of something called ‘English’. Indeed, it would also be better to learn about language not just through English, but through all the languages pupils speak at home or might learn in due course to make them citizens of the world. I’d not be afraid to call it what it is – Linguistics. This won’t frighten the kids even if it frightens you!
3. Finally, I would ask that we consider the importance of linguistics in learning to read, in learning to write and most importantly for learning to appreciate literary and other verbal arts. I am not alone in thinking that despite the failures of the curriculum that Rosen so despises, this is not a reason to ignore the fact that, like learning to play an instrument, real appreciation of literature can be enhanced not just by the experience of reading it, important though that is, but also by learning to understand how it works in a more conscious way. This doesn’t have to be boring and it can start gently at the younger ages, but it would involve (yes!) a bit of basic grammar and I can’t see a problem with that.

That’s it – I just needed to get that off my chest! We who care about – and understand – how language works need to work together to keep this vital area of study alive at all levels, from primary to university. I was once on Michael Rosen’s radio programme with my co-editor, Dan McIntyre, to talk about our magazine, Babel (https://babelzine.co.uk/) and we’re passionate to spread the word about how important linguistics is in all areas of life. We’re also both researchers who work on literary language as well as other types of text. Our field is called ‘Stylistics’ and we see it as central to linguistics and very helpful in literary studies too. I don’t really think Rosen is as down on linguists as he comes over in the FB post I quoted above – I know he often talks to them on his show. I await my next invitation with great pleasure!

What’s really interesting (strange choice of word?) about the experiences I’m going through is what it does to your perceptions of the world. As my hair thins (not losing it completely so far), I feel a strong connection with the trees as their leaves turn gold and fall to the ground in what has so far been a really lovely autumn in the UK. In the spring I will welcome back my thick hair, and it will probably differ a little from before, just like the trees’ leaves (though I’m not expecting it to grow back green!).

I’m currently in the good phase of round two – ten more days of feeling relatively well and enjoying our granddaughter’s 6th birthday and relishing ordinary things like gardening and baking. I’ve completed a 25 day streak on Duolingo Italian now, but it really is slow going, so I’m also starting to read some short stories that I was given by my son’s lovely partner, Cristiana, a while ago. Turns out my passive knowledge is pretty good – it’s just actually speaking that’s hard! My grandson doesn’t like me trying out my few words so I get shut down pretty sharpish if I try.

People are still contacting me about challenges – including the ones that are not going so well. That’s great – at least you tried so no need to think about those ones any more;) I’m about to start learning poem number six. This has been the most helpful of the challenges so far as I use the poems every night at some point to make my brain go into calm mode and often back to sleep. I was talking to a friend about meditation the other day – I guess this is my form of that mechanism for stopping thought processes that are unhelpful.

So – I’ll be busy and happy for a week or so and then start gearing up for round three. It’ll be great to get to the halfway mark in mid-November and we have a little trip to East Yorkshire planned just after that. More news soon – keep up the good work on the challenges – or give them up and find other ones, I don’t mind!

Lesleyx

Although I might be trying to avoid over used metaphors for cancer I could not resist this one! The second round of chemo was a marathon rather than a boxing match as I had a bad reaction to the meds and they had to spread them out over six hours rather than three so the whole day was twelve hours at the hospital in the end But oh boy the staff are amazing and some of them were there as long as me! Let us cherish our NHS. Today is hyped-up-on-steroids day so I’m a bit manic. I made a nut roast first thing, then went to the shops, then had second breakfast, followed by a sit down, lunch, a walk to the park and back (via the cafe) and now I’m on the computer as you see! It’ll all come crashing down tomorrow, but it’s a nice buffer between the treatment and the hard bit. I’m well armed with painkillers and hot water bottles etc now so maybe it’ll be easier this time.

So, to the challenges. More of you are learning things by heart, thanks! There’s Shakespeare sonnets and speeches, other people learning poems they half know, like me – and my partner Dave is learning the lyrics to Tom Lehrer’s song, The Elements, which is probably the hardest thing to commit to memory as all the chemical elements are so similar! Many of you are learning new or old instruments and/ or new skills – I’m dead impressed. Keep them coming.

I’ve now got five poems completely – and this is the latest, which I already nearly new, so it didn’t take long. I think it’s a lovely description of what I think of as ‘secular prayer’ but you can apply it to any kind of prayer too I guess and I am most grateful to those of you who are supporting me with any kind of prayer – secular or otherwise. I even had a lovely sprig of heather in a card the other day… all the vibes are good! Here’s Carol Ann Duffy’s poem then:

Prayer
Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.

Pray for us now. Grade I piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child’s name as though they named their loss.

Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer—
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

I like the ending – that lovely mantra of the shipping forecast which probably only those who live in the UK and are of a certain (Radio 4 listening) age will respond to.

Meanwhile, the good news is that the two or so weeks when I am feeling fine between treatments are turning out to be pretty ok. We even made it to London for a couple of shows last week and it was really good to get out of the house and see some joyful nonsense! We saw The Producers – fantastic production – and The Importance of Being Earnest with Stephen Fry as Lady Bracknell. Great performance from him of course and from Olly Alexander as Algernon and Hugh Dennis as the vicar. See either of these if you can – they’re so uplifting!

I’ll be along with other updates soon. Meanwhile I have some non-serious telly watching to do.

Lesley

It’s funny how your world contracts when you’re going through something like this. It’s only a few months since I was jumping off boats to swim with turtles in the Galapagos (already feeling there was something amiss) and now I’m incredibly excited to be getting on a train to London to see a couple of shows (The Producers and Importance of Being Earnest with Stephen Fry as Lady Bracknell, since you ask). It will be good to get out of the house and I’ll take a few days off the challenges, though I have nailed Edward Thomas at last, so I can move on to something less gloomy when I get back!

Yesterday, we drove into the Yorkshire Dales, walked by the River Wharfe and had a leisurely lunch in Burnsall. The weather was sparkling and as usual it made me wonder why I don’t take that short journey from home in Leeds more often. The views across the fells and the dry stone walls have something magical about them and I feel privileged to live so near.

If each round of chemo goes in the same way, I now have a sense of when I can do pleasurable things like these – and when I need to have days watching Downton Abbey under the duvet. I look forward to the good days and am planning life’s little pleasures to fit the timetable of treatment.

More soon – I am very grateful for all the good wishes, prayers and offers of walks/coffees etc. It really helps!

Hi everyone. So, I won’t be adding to this in the first few days after each treatment, because I now know what my reactions to the drugs are like and it’s been a bit tough. But a week on, I can function again so I’ll try to tell you how the challenges are going.

The poems are coming on – I am struggling to retain some lines from Edward Thomas’s ‘The Glory’ because he has a whole list of questions and I get them muddled up! But I’m nearly there. I’m also considering revising my aim to write sonnets and thinking of writing at least one villanelle (look it up!) first. The form lends itself to the repetitive nature of what I’m going through – there are six stanzas (= six treatments!) and there are repeated, or almost repeated, lines which I think lend themselves to the experience. If you want to read a great villanelle, Dylan Thomas’s ‘Do Not Go Gentle into that Goodnight’ is a brilliant example.

I’m getting back to playing the trumpet a bit and find that the major blues scales I’ve been practising in my head are almost there under my fingers (6 out of 12 so far), which is pleasing. I’ve yet to find the piano music I want to play, but it’s on the list. I’m also on a 7 day streak of Italian on Duolingo, so I really do know how to ask for a coffee, with or without milk, now! Bring on some heavy grammar – I need a fix.

For those most excited by the murder mystery, I have to confess that my research so far has been limited to re-reading Richard Osman’s books and trying to figure out why they work! The stylistics of his writing is definitely a thing (present tense, free in/direct discourse in different characters’ voices and the occasional first person diary chapter from Joyce!). I have already read some really bad examples by other writers (no names!) so I know where to pitch my efforts.

Meantime, keep those challenges coming (lesjef56@gmail.com). Lots of language-learning, art classes, sewing and craft challenges as well as more musical challenges (the harp, for goodness sake, that’s ambitious!)… Keep it going, it makes me feel happy.

More soon – time to cook my own dinner for the first time in a few days (thanks to my son and mother who have been keeping us fed through the tough days)

Lesley

Well the first day of chemo yesterday was long but relatively bearable, even with the cool cap that might just save some of my hair!

I am so happy that so many of you have told me of your challenges – there are a lot of languages being learned (Russian, German, Armenian, Spanish for starters) – and I forgot to add Italian to my list. I’m trying Duolingo to start with, but I know that my linguistics background will have me reaching for a grammar book pretty soon!

Other challenges include musical ones: people learning new instruments, a bassist learning treble clef (so sweet!) and a friend learning some songs to bring out at family occasions after a glass or two😉 There are also people doing physical challenges, including my lovely niece who is going through radiotherapy at the moment but determined to fit in some running. Inspiring stuff! People are joining me in my challenges (particularly the poetry-learning one) and doing things like learning to make clothes. All of them seem to be in the same spirit as mine – things you’ve been meaning to do.

If you haven’t yet joined me – there’s still time. Let me know (lesjef56@gmail.com) what you’re planning and if it’s something you’re already doing, that’s fine. There’s nothing better than a list where the first two items are already complete – it gives you the feeling of progress that you need to get onto the next one. This pseudo-psychological advice makes me think I’ve missed my vocation – perhaps I’ll be a life-coach in my next phase?! Or I could write a best-selling self-help book? But I have enough on at the moment…

And just so you know, I’ve learnt 3.8 poems (there’s a few lines left to go on one of them) and they keep me company particularly at night if I’m struggling with sleep. On the whole I don’t (struggle) but last night I could have done without a food delivery driver ringing the doorbell at 2.30 am! He had our address, so it was probably some of the new students around here who didn’t know where they lived yet. Hope they got their food.

Well, that’s all now folks – I need to have a rest and watch some telly for a bit.

And just a reminder, though there really is no pressure at all to contribute… if you want to, please donate to Maggie’s at St James’s hospital (Maggie’s) and/or  HEART (HEART) both of which are going to be sanctuaries for me in the weeks to come. Or just give something to a charity you support already. The challenges are the main thing!

Lots of love

Lesley