 A year ago, almost to the day, my science fiction novella Across Spacetime was launched. To celebrate this, I’ve interviewed Samir Bond, who, with Beatrice Blanche, is a main character in my book.
A: Hello Samir, how are you? S: Hi Angela, I’m having a great time in London, away from Antarctica. Too cold for me down there. I can’t say that England is a warm place, but is still much better! People to see, places to visit… That’s my idea of paradise. A: I see. I thought you enjoyed it very much on Mars as well, maybe even more than in London. S: Yes, I did, still too cold though. It was an interesting phase of my life. For the first time I was off Earth without my family, doing something that was cutting-edge: making history or reliving history, to be precise. I felt special. When you live in an era in which almost everything has being discovered or invented, it’s very difficult to stand out in a big way. A: Would you do it again? S: Yes, I would. I met extraordinary people during the Spacetime Programme, from all over the solar system. How ironic that I had to travel back in time to meet Beatrice in London! A: Yes, life is unpredictable. In the interview she gave me, Beatrice told me that she had a hard time in the past Earth because she had to remove all her implants, but once the withdrawal syndrome was over, she felt fine and didn’t need them anymore, not even when she went back to the future. So I was wondering, what was life in the past Earth for you? S: Exciting and challenging. Another chance to show myself what I’m made of. Having to rely on my wits and not technology to solve my problems, that was exhilarating. Since I’ve come back from the past, I have reduced my dependence on it. Maybe that’s why I enjoy cooking so much, apart from starring in Across Spacetime of course. A: You’ve helped me a lot when I was writing Across Spacetime. Is there something that you’d like me to have written differently? S: Well, yes, actually. You made me say that I missed smart cities. And that was true. However, I’ve realised, too late, that you and your readers would have misunderstood what I meant. So thank you for the chance to put it right now. What I meant is that I missed the smart cities of my century, not the ones connected to a “smart” network, like the 5G one that governments around the world want to deploy in your point of the spacetime continuum. No, we refused to use them. Our ancestors decided against that technology because it was too risky for human and animal health. And also because it was the basis for implementing the so-called Internet of Things, that would have introduced an unprecedented level of surveillance on citizens without any legal reason for it and without full disclosure of the extent and scope of the surveillance. A true Orwellian society. I’m grateful that our ancestors stopped it before it was too late. I hope you’ll be able to do the same. A: Thank you for this, Samir. Only recently, I’ve realised how dangerous the 5G network is. You're right, its introduction has nothing to do with increasing the speed and quality of our communications. I hope we’ll be able to stop it in this universe too. Can you tell me what is smart about your cities then? S: Yes of course. In our cities, there is no pollution because we have free, clean energy, and no Homeless because everybody has a comfortable, nice place to call home. We care for one another; no one is left behind or excluded from our society. Everybody is given equal chances, but that doesn’t mean that we are equal. Meritocracy is essential in a just and happy society. I wish I could show you… Maybe in another book? A: That’d be great! I have loads of other questions I would love to ask you, however I know that you must meet up with Beatrice shortly, so I won’t keep you any longer. I look forward to interviewing you again soon. And please give my regards to Beatrice. S: Will do. Thanks for having me. It’s been a great pleasure Angela. Till next time!
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After publishing the blog post Stuck or Still a months ago, I went through weeks of emotional roller coaster in which my mind could rationalise what was happening and my heart couldn’t accept it. I needed somebody’s help but I was hurting too much to reach out. In addition, my mobile phone had died on me (the last thing to break down after many others in my home in the past month), making it difficult to keep in touch with most of my closest friends as they live abroad. I knew that some kind of energy healing would help me but was too down to apply to myself the Theta Healing and Spiritual Healing techniques in which I’m proficient. A few weeks later, the Universe answered my prayer for comfort through two Twitter acquaintances. One offered me time and attention and our friendship is blossoming. The other one, Terri, a Reiki Master, sent me a link to a YouTube channel, RestRelaxationReiki. As a level 1 Reiki practitioner who didn’t get the chance to carry on the training nor do self-Reiki in a long time, I was eager to find out whether I could feel the energy sent to me through these videos and if it’d be beneficial to me. I played lots of them for many days, often back to back, and the more I played them the better I felt. However, there were still many questions I couldn’t find an answer to and couldn’t ignore them. Like why whenever I sought divine guidance to know whether to carry on that relationship or not, the reply was always yes, despite the incredible difficulties to continue it. And why, after yet another setback, I would receive the message that it was a blessing in disguise and I’d understand it in the end. Well, the end had come and I still had no clues as to the meaning of it all. To be honest, I felt like Life had cheated me. I had done everything I could possibly have done to make that relationship work and when I thought we were out of the woods my dreams were crushed, burned to ashes. Like when I finally moved to Folkestone with my daughter from Italy to live with my now ex-husband and realised that, although there was no more physical distance between us, the emotional one was abyssal. How could I trust my inner/divine guidance again? How could I manifest a wonderful new relationship if I didn’t know what I had done wrong? One of the videos I had played was Reiki to Remove The Obstacles Keeping You From Goals. What often happens with energy healing is that it changes the recipient’s vibrations so he or she attracts the answers he or she is looking for on the physical world. In my case, the answers have come to me this week, during a massage session with Ben Barnett from Holistic Therapies (read my blog post New Year’s Solutions to know more). I wanted his help in another area of my life but ended up talking about my breakup. What has emerged is that I’ve been constantly attracting relationships whose main feature is distance, either cultural or physical. Fair enough, that was a childhood dream of mine, to get to know in depth other cultures and places; and it had come true, like I explain in the About page of this website. It had been exciting and eye opening but also tough in many ways and I didn’t want to go through that again. I wished to experience an intimate relationship with somebody who lived close to my place and from a culture more similar to mine. However, my new love lived in another continent! At first, it seemed he would relocate to live with me but that possibility vanished for good a month ago. During the session with Ben I was stunned to learn that, regardless working on myself for over 3 decades to establish healthy boundaries, reach a balance in giving and receiving, and release all that I didn’t need for my spiritual growth and wellbeing, I was still disrespecting myself by accepting other people’s priorities before my own; and that it stemmed from unresolved childhood issues. If I want a new lover with whom to enjoy a nurturing, close and lasting relationship, I have to work on these issues first. I’m sure that If I had given up on my last relationship sooner, I wouldn’t have suffered so much to feel the need to find out what this experience was teaching me. As always, Life has given me what I need and not what I want. Now I’m truly free to move forward with my life. And you, dear Seeker, do you know what’s holding you back from achieving your goals?  Two Sundays ago I went to the allotment (see my blog post Folkestone Cantiaci Volunteers) with the volunteers from the Folkestone Cantiaci group for the first time in two months. I wrongly assumed that wintertime there was nothing to do there. I mean, weeds don’t grow so there’s no need to pull them out. And there’s nothing to be sown before spring comes. However, since December my friends have been shaping up the new area by organising the place to accommodate things kindly donated by people in our community: containers to collect the raining water, others for the compost, a new metal table (so we can have our tea when we take a break), and have assembled the frame of the greenhouse. As two Sundays ago we had washed and dried all the glass panes of the greenhouse, last Sunday we mounted them in the frame. Unfortunately, some had been broken during the transport to the allotment and couldn’t be used. We’ll have to replace them with plastic ones and we’re looking into how to do it in cost-effective way.  As the pond has collected lots of water, a small area had to be dug to allow the water to overflow without flooding the nearby patches. Last Sunday we had the material needed to stabilise its bottom but the water of the pond was frozen for about 2 cm on the surface so that’s something for next Sunday. Lastly, we planted two fruit trees, one apple and one plum. Yummy!  |
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