Family

I have often commented on the importance of family in this African Blog. Although I missed everyone while I was away visiting Ghana, it was amazing to note how fast our Grandson had grown in such a short time. Last Thursday evening I saw him eat for the first time, as up and until then he had only been fed milk. His physical growth is matched by his development and coordination. He has now found his hands, and wants to explore everything that is within his reach. This is coupled with a healthy and determined fascination with his own hands, which he holds together and in sight. yes family are important, but maybe, just maybe we only realise just how important they are, as and when our grandchildren start to arrive. The sense of family togetherness appeared to be stronger in Ghana. Close links are maintained including generations living together. This may be as much about economics as social values. When compared to average earnings, property prices are high. Poverty is widespread and the gap between the have and the have nots appears to be growing. Maybe under these circumstances social integration is borne out of necessity. Even if this is the case; the strong family bonds are self evident. It is not just about economics and social circumstance, it is also about family and core values. The same can be said about the close social bonds between widespread friendship networks. Although this latter point may have a lot to do with the inherent friendliness of the Ghanaian people.

Sunny Aberystwyth

The warm weather continues in Wales!

I managed to wash my car, clean the alloy wheels, apply alloy wheel protector, back to black to the tyres, hoover it out and polish inside prior to turning my attention to the dreaded DIY. As I suspected, the tiles were loose when I raked out the damaged grout. This was a setback, but fortunately it didn't spoil the day as I managed to get out and about to buy new tile adhesive and meet my friend Adam. This was a particularly enjoyable treat as Adam bought the coffee. Mind you at one point I thought that he was going to walk out of my favourite haunt and amble down to Costa Coffee as the service was pretty poor where we were. Fortunately, when he got up and headed for the door, he was actually heading towards the bar to place our order. Still, never mind, at least it gave us something else to chat about. A nice chat; a bit of reminiscing about Ghana and then a walk along the sunny seafront. At which point we put the World to right. The weather is lovely for the 21st September, but as Adan pointed out "It doesn't make up for the poor August". Yes, he is right, but all in all, another good day. In fact it was a pretty good weekend. I spent time with one of the family on Saturday and time with a friend on Sunday. Plus of course time with my grandson, chatting at length with my Bro on more than one occasion, and bumping into the odd acquaintance while I was out and about on both days.