It's all part of what made Hailsham so special," she said once. "The way we were encouraged to value each other's work." "True," I said. "But sometimes, cheap michael kors when I think about the Exchanges now, a lot of it seems a bit odd. The poetry, for instance. I remember we were allowed to hand in poems, instead of michael kors handbags a drawing or a painting. And the strange thing was, we all thought that was fine, we thought that made sense." "Why shouldn't it? Poetry's important." "But we're talking about nine-year-old stuff, michael kors handbags funny little lines, all misspelt, in exercise books. We'd spend our precious tokens on an exercise book full of that stuff rather than on something really nice for around our michael kors outlet beds. If we were so keen on a person's poetry, why didn't we just borrow it and copy it down ourselves any old afternoon? But you remember how it was. michael kors handbags An Exchange would come along and we'd be standing there torn between Susie K.'s poems and those giraffes Jackie used to make." "Jackie's giraffes," Ruth said with a laugh. "They were michael kors bags so beautiful. I used to have one." We were having this conversation on a fine summer evening, sitting out on the little balcony of her recovery room. It was a few cheap michael kors months after her first donation, and now she was over the worst of it, I'd always time my evening visits so that we'd be able to spend a half hour michael kors handbags or so out there, watching the sun go down over the rooftops. You could see lots of aerials and satellite dishes, and sometimes, right over in the distance, a glistening michael kors handbags line that was the sea. I'd bring mineral water and biscuits, and we'd sit there talking about anything that came into our heads. The centre Ruth was in that time, michael kors shoes it's one of my favourites, and I wouldn't mind at all if that's where I ended up. The recovery rooms are small, but they're well-designed and comfortable. Everything--the walls, the michael kors outlet floor--has been done in gleaming white tiles, which the centre keeps so clean when you first go in it's almost like entering a hall of mirrors. Of course, you don't michael kors handbags exactly see yourself reflected back loads of times, but you almost think you do. When you lift an arm, or when someone sits up in bed, you can feel this cheap michael kors pale, shadowy movement all around you in the tiles. Anyway, Ruth's room at that centre, it also had these big glass sliding panels, so she could easily see the outside michael kors handbags from her bed. Even with her head on the pillow she'd see a big lot of sky, and if it was warm enough, she could get all the fresh air michael kors outlet she wanted by stepping out onto the balcony. I loved visiting her there, loved those meandering talks we had, through the summer to the early autumn, sitting on that balcony michael kors shoes together, talking about Hailsham, the Cottages, whatever else drifted into our thoughts. "What I'm saying," I went on, "is that when we were that age, when we were eleven, say, we cheap michael kors really weren't interested in each other's poems at all. But remember, someone like Christy? Christy had this great reputation for poetry, and we all looked up to her for it. michael kors handbags Even you, Ruth, you didn't dare boss Christy around. All because we thought she was great at poetry. But we didn't know a thing about poetry. We didn't care about cheap michael kors it.