The World Cup

 I am enjoying the World Cup very much. I am watching as many matches as possible but as I work full time, I usually watch only the evening one during the week. Italy is not in as it did not qualify, which was really disappointing. However, the tournament is exciting all the same. Football is my favourite sport. I used to watch it with my father when I was younger and have kept the passion for its unpredictable surprising turns. I follow every minute of the game commenting with my husband. He was disappointed too when Italy did not qualify and decided to boycott the World Cup at first, as he prefers to watch basketball and volleyball, but eventually he gave up and joined me on the sofa in front of the TV screen. 

After watching a few matches, I decided to support Portugal because of the fabulous Cristiano Ronaldo and the impeccable style of the whole team. They look so fit and professional and the colours of their football kit are so vibrant and perfectly shaped on their well-built bodies. Ronaldo is a big star and his attitude is sometimes controversial. Portugal has never won the World Cup though appeared in the finals of past tournaments. It would be a fantastic achievement for Ronaldo to win the World Cup considering that it is probably his last chance to compete in it. 

I was also impressed by the political implications involved in this event. It was disappointing that the rainbow armband supporting LGBTQ+ community was discouraged by the FIFA. It would have been a strong message against homophobia and discrimination. I expected that at least a few players would defy the sanctions and wear it. The kneeling down in support of Black Lives Matter was allowed though, the German team covered their mouths during the team photo in FIFA protest and the Iranian players did not sing the national anthem in the first match protesting against their government’s recent acts of violence against women who do not wear the hijab properly. Mingling sport, entertainment and politics was unexpected and never happened before in the football in such an extensive and influential way. This means that global problems are coming to the fore, reaching a wider audience and suggesting a re-thinking of what is going on in the world. Furthermore, the alcohol ban highlighted the cultural differences and the appalling conditions of the workforce, who are immigrants from India, Nepal and Bangladesh, was a scandal; they worked for long shifts in the heat and with little water to build the World Cup constructions. I watch daily the ‘Circolo dei Mondiali’ on RAI 1 with Alessandra De Stefano, Yuri Chechi and Sara Simeoni. They summarise the whole football day and are so entertaining, give professional comments but are also funny. It is a tournament full of surprises such as the elimination of Germany, Uruguay and Denmark and the incredible performance of Japan and Cameroon. It keeps you on your toes.

Besides the World Cup, I was very busy with my writing, crochet and artwork in November. The Christmas Fair at The Lightbox in Woking went well. I sold books, paintings, scarves, cards and crochet things. I made clothes for dolls too and my drawings were very much appreciated. I noticed that people were cautious about spending compared to last year. They spent less and looked for bargains. Some stalls with jewellery that used to sell well, especially near to Christmas, this time barely sold anything. I am lucky that I have different products with a wide range of prices, from £ 1 to £ 200, but most of my things have low prices and some of them like a poem and a picture and bookmarks are free.

I also completed a new crochet post box installation for Christmas; it is a comet with an embroidered inscription: Reach for the Star. It is at Chobham near Tesco, as usual. I enjoyed doing it, it stirred my creativity and I hope I will have the time to carry on with this project in the future. It is pretty to see and I like the idea that it is exposed to any weather and every passer-by can see it. 

One of my academic articles, ‘An Intertextual reading of the politics of storytelling in The Edible Woman, Surfacing, The Handmaid's Tale and Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood’ has just been published by Global Journal of Human-Social Science. Here are the links:

https://socialscienceresearch.org/index.php/GJHSS/article/view/103481/35777?fbclid=IwAR2cUUf06RA4l4j9BY_5ztROEnWJAA0kQ8Tq551ZZn4cmzzgQ_ylYSJQmdY

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34257/GJHSSAVOL22IS10PG1

It is an article I wrote for a conference paper in 2020 about artistic and political implications In Margaret Atwood’s work. My article on The Testaments is on its final stage and will be published by Margaret Atwood Studies Journal soon. I am also writing a review of Margaret Atwood’s latest collection of essays, Burning Questions. It is a challenging book that faces global issues, such as immigration, environmental concerns, discrimination, exponential demographic growth and the pandemic. It is a story of sorts of the last twenty years told in reviews, speeches and essays. For Atwood, storytelling and the power of words are important as ever and she suggests possible solutions that are however speculations as she remarks that there are a number of possible futures, it depends on our choices. My article on Margaret Atwood’s latest poetry has been accepted by the British Journal of Canadian Studies some time ago and will be out in Spring 2023, hopefully. The problem is that I am struggling with copyright permissions for the quotations from Atwood’s poems that I have included in my article. I have been working on this issue for the past eight months and I still need the permission for the quotes from The Door in the USA. Different companies hold the copyright and I had to contact all of them. Most of the time they do not reply to emails for weeks and you need to push and, if possible, phone them. I filled innumerable online forms and spent a massive amount of time chasing them.

My other problem is my pension scheme. I am trying to transfer some of my pension funds from a private company, Nowpension, to Surrey Pension Fund, which is the pension scheme I am working for at the moment. Before summer I started filling forms for both schemes, sending emails, and phoning them every week but I still have no results. The Surrey Pension Scheme needs an evaluation of my funds and Nowpension says that they are doing it but every time I contact them and check nothing has happened. There’s no way I can force them except by phoning them again and again. I feel cheated and powerless. Nowpension has also the right to take £ 1.75 from my funds every month until I leave them, that is, they have been taking my money since September 2019 when I started working with their pension scheme and will carry on until I leave them, though I stopped working for them in March 2020. Unbelievable!

I am very proud of my new collection Workwear and have received good feedback. I distributed a good number of copies to friends and family and sold it at fairs and poetry readings. The book is available here:

http://www.carlascaranod.co.uk/?Publications

https://thehighwindowpress.com/the-high-window-press/#Workwear

An article on my writings and artwork has been published here: 😊

https://wokingwriters.blogspot.com/2022/11/introducing-carla-scarano-dantonio.html

At the Park School I am having a good time though the job is demanding. I have recently asked to work four days a week instead of five with Friday off so I can have more rest and more time for my creative work. For the next school year, I will probably ask to work three days a week only as for me it is too tiring and stressful to work full time.

I have already booked for my yoga retreat on the Isle of Wight for next September which is one of the treats I am looking forward to. I will also visit my granddaughter Violetta just after her birthday, which is on the 8^th of December. I prepared a lot of presents toys, clothes and books for her. I can spend only one day with her but I will treasure it.

My health is alright on the whole. My diabetes levels are lower, my blood pressure is a bit too high sometimes, but it is controlled by tablets. Apparently, my cholesterol levels have increased but I will try to get it under control with a diet as I did successfully with diabetes. According to a consultant who works at St Peter’s hospital and who contacted me during the summer, I should remove one of my adrenaline glands and then take steroids for the rest of my life. Maybe he is right but when I asked for the written results of the 24 hours urine test I did last September and the blood tests I did in October he said he would send them soon but then he didn’t. We had a five-minute phone call three weeks ago when he told me his final verdict, that is, removing the gland. We are in contact with WhatsApp but I gave him my email address and home address too. I have no written diagnosis, or anything written from him and my GP hasn’t received anything either. I find this situation very strange because in Italy patients always receive written results after tests within a few days and you can see a doctor in person very easily. Here in the UK, it takes months to have the results and seeing a doctor is almost impossible. Even booking a phone call is difficult. I feel neglected and undermined; so I decided to repeat all the tests in Italy at Christmas and I have already booked an appointment with a doctor who is specialised in adrenaline glands.

We had a wonderful time at my house just last week with our friends Huan and James and their daughter Amelia who came to visit us together with some lovely neighbours, Chan and Gary, with their two little boys. The children played together, had great fun exploring and experimenting with toys I left around and everything interesting they could find, especially shells and stones in jars, my daughter’s piano, beads, crochet hooks and wool. They barely touched the gorgeous food we adults indulged in, such as my lasagna and caponata, Huan’s super dumplings and Chan’s delicious curry. We ended with panettone and pandoro soaked in vanilla ice cream and accompanied with prosecco. 

Here is my recipe of caponata:

You need: 5-6 fresh tomatoes or passata, one pepper, one potato, one peeled aubergine, raisins, pine nuts, a stalk of celery and half an onion finely cut, some vinegar and olive oil, salt and pepper. 

You can start by frying the finely cut celery and onion in olive oil and then add the chopped tomatoes peeled and seeded. To peel them easily keep them in hot water for 15 minutes. Add the potato peeled and chopped in cubes and finally the pepper and aubergine cut in pieces and then the rest of the ingredients. Add water if necessary. Simmer for half an hour or until ready.

Enjoy! 👌😋