The last two weeks have been lovely, just been relaxing and catching up a bit, had very little work so its been amazing :) I cant even think of what I've been up to really. Hedley agreed to be my co- supervisor and signed my form... breaking the news to Peter tomorrow hmmm. Hopefully he will be ok with it, I didnt really have a choice! I have come up with a research topic:

I want to write about a girl who loses her grandmother, and so decides to go back to Zimbabwe to revisit her grandparent’s farm, although this has been taken over by war veterans. In my story there will be flashbacks to an earlier time, when the farm was being created by the girl’s grandparents: how they acquired the land from the African chief who ruled over it, how they set about cultivating it, and building upon it- making each brick themselves on the farm, their experience with the local community etc. The girl, Leah, will arrive in Zimbabwe totally unsure of what she will experience there. On reaching the farm, in the company of her uncle, she will meet the people who ‘stole’ the farm- Mugabe’s war veterans. Initially she is bitter and angry, and terrified of the men now living on the farm. However, as she spends more time there, although some of the men are quite aggressive towards her, she befriends some of the women and children, and one of the younger men, Simon, who feels trapped by his ancestry and heritage, in a situation he despises. Through them, she will be able to find forgiveness, and also the closure and peace she is looking for. They will recover for her some of the relics of her childhood from her grandparent’s house, and she will realise that these objects, although meaningful, don’t have the value she thought she would find in them, it was the love and peace her family experienced at the farm that gave her such joy. In the time she spends there, she falls in love with the young war veteran, Simon, which makes her uncle extremely angry. To cut it short, ultimately she ends up leaving the farm with Simon, and they go to another part of Zimbabwe and buy new land, and they start again, just like her grandparents did, building something out of nothing.

Um this is just a rough idea, it may and most probably will change. I started writing it today and spent the morning crying- so think it might just be too personal. Well we'll see.

I feel happy this morning, looking out my window I can see pink butterfly kisses swaying in the breeze, and my monster (ruffi) chasing the ducks... better go rescue them :P