girlpower

i watched a couple of documentaries about Margaret Thatcher this week, as an elder stateswoman i understand this kind of thing is par for the course... and as a woman i feel i ought to support a woman doing so well in politics which is so dominated by stupid white men... and yet she took away my school milk! literally! haha it's hard to like a lady who could do that... but these documentaries reckoned it wasn't her fault that particular blight on British kids, she was however responsible the current housing price crisis, selling off council homes and forbidding the cash to be spent on more social housing resulting in a massive lack of property and literally putting people on the streets... she also said 'there's no such thing as society' and unfortunately it became a self-fulfilling prophesy... thanks Mags! i did feel sorry for her watching when she was teary-eyed being booted from No.10, but she'd been a bit out of touch for a while to say the least and it only confirms my belief that no-one who deserves power desires it...

currently we're watching the tide turning to the right again in this country when the leader of the Tory party is no more than a spin king who used to be the party's PR boy! when will ordinary folk let alone women get an opportunity to run the world? Maggie was quoted in vintage Beeb footage back when it was 12 women in a 600 member house of parliament, perhaps it was because the men were already in charge and not keen for women to get involved, which leads to me to my next point...

I'm reading Germaine Greer's 70s classic The Female Eunuch from which i've already gleaned that child rearing is a male conspiracy to keep women at home and marriage something no right minded woman would enter into! She says women should shun what is expected of them by our patriarchal societies, and that this would mean no marriage, no weakness, no moral code! blimey! but i do wonder about the battle of the sexes... what a great thing it would be to pop your head round the door of a parallel universe where women ruled the world... would there still be war and suffering? certainly when Queen Elizabeth I ruled Britannia wars still raged, but perhaps this was the world she merely inherited from the Kings before her... if there's one thing i've learned is that you can be a mean person man or woman, as well you can be a kind one. I'm glad of the one i chose to try and be regardless of all those around me who only look out for number one. they'll get theirs in the end.

you reap what you sow baby!

now, to bra burning*... hehe

*she never said this btw, this would be another form of repression apparently - hey i'm only on chapter 2!

the commercial break

a strange thing has happened to my TV viewing habit...

since we got this digital recorder thingymaboby i don't see many TV adverts...

what's the problem? well i didn't have any problem with it until i accidentally caught an ad break watching TV in real time recently and watched an ad that made me laugh and i had a moment of nostalgic regret! haha

i really really REALLY loved ads when i was a teenager - the funny ones i mean - and while they are few and far between, i feel kinda sad at missing them!

WHICH IS RIDICULOUS! haha

never thought i'd see the day i missed the 30 second spot! i hate being forced to watch an over-long ad break with rubbish ads that have a higher volume than the TV programmes themselves so they irritate further - sorry - stand out! Oh and no, they're not supposed to do that but they do anyway...

but you can't help but enjoy an ad like this can you?


maybe i'll have to just ffwd thru the rubbish ones from now on!

cyber shopping

no wonky wheeled trolley... no screaming toddlers with exasperated mums... no long line at the checkout and no impulse purchases! oh me oh my i just discovered online grocery shopping!

it seems i have come full circle with the supermarket...

when you're a child you tire of them easily and fall out with the person who won't let you have sweets helpfully placed by the checkouts.... then as a young adult you get to go by yourself filling your trolley with beer and pizza which is very satisying... then shopping becomes a chore again so you top up at the local spa instead of facing the 42 isles supermarkets have become - they're so exhausting!

then you discover online groceries delivered to the door - but aha! you may think - what about the costs of delivery?! well not enough for me to divide it by petrol consumption and time usage and decide £5 ain't so bad! haha

and not only did the young man who delivered my groceries come to my building - he came up in the lift and carried my order into the kitchen! fan-bloody-tastic! i'm never going shopping again! haha, all i need to do now is convince my man we can afford a laundry service too and the good times are truly here! hehe

birthday cupcakes

can anything beat cupcakes by post?! yes. and i'll tell you what... surprise cupcakes by post! haha

my friend kc has seriously upped the stakes in giftage this year by sending me a polka dot tin of sugary goodness for my birthday this weekend! what a legend!

i'm very excited because tomorrow i'm going for Birthday* Cocktails. i have a new frock, new shoes, and by about 2.30 this afternoon i'll have shiny new hair too! yey! i know how to do birthdays, as celebrant or guest of, i get suitably excited every time, and i really don't understand people who don't 'do' birthdays! can you really just not be into getting lovely friends and family together for drinkies?!

ofcourse the party zit is in full effect... pah!

*This weekend anything that i enjoy will be officially part of my birthday celebrations, you don't turn 33 everyday! haha

men on the moon

i recently watched a documentary about the men who've been to the moon, interviews and original news footage all stapled together... and it was really inspiring!

not that i have any wish to boldly go* myself, but the very fact that we live in a time that we have the technology to send people into such an inhospitable domain and come back to tell the tale... the now elderly astronauts talked about looking out the window of the rocket and seeing our planet just hanging in midair, the earth rise, a random but beautiful collection of gas and matter creating life as we know it!

it really makes you think about the world from a different perspective... and after last week's political botherings it was a refreshing one! it's such a shame that we spend so much energy on this planet making a mess and depriving the many to benefit the few... such a shame that people get so bogged down in the problems in life rather than celebrate all the good that is around them - like my friend Tony says, what's wrong with life is always available, focus on the good stuff and you'll realise your life is blessed... family, friends and loved ones, opportunities and the freedom** that we have in this life make it too precious to waste!

*once a James T Kirk fan, always a fan (but what does the T stand for?!)

**i only wish that everyone had the freedom we enjoy this side of the world... but that's another blog!

politico

I don't do politics generally. It seems to me that the old adage that 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' has been nothing but proved over and over again by today's and yesterday's self-serving politicians. Sadly, those who seek power rarely deserve it.

But today i must make an exception...

Here in Blighty yesterday a vote was held in the House of Parliament to give the police the right to hold a person without charge for 42 days (an increase from the current 28 days itself an recent increase from 14 days) to protect us all from terrorism. Even tho a select committee asked to investigate whether 42 days would help the police said that 'No, on reflection, it wouldn't actually help...' So this law has been agreed despite half of all people held for 28 days proving innocent and the majority of guilty suspects being charged within 2 weeks.

The Magna Carta (1215), included 'Habeus Corpus' to protect ordinary people from unlawful imprisonment. This Act of Parliament is morally wrong and while I welcome the Government trying to protect us from crimes against society - there has been no decent evidence to prove that this terrible crime against civil liberties will help one jot! What it is, is ego. A PM who doesn't want to lose face. Next thing you know he'll be telling us God told him to do it (seems a favourite with politicians recently that one) It's almost like good old Gordon has a secret desire to leave his job but wants to be pushed rather than jump!

Imagine that? 42 days... 6 weeks... 1000 hours! Being picked up by PC Plod for looking at him funny, nay not wearing the right clothes and not knowing what was going to become of you for 6 weeks?! That sort of thing only happens in 'uncivilised' countries right?!

Call it what you will but these times make me uncomfortable. Our grandparents didn't go to war to have a dictatorship impressed upon their descendants. The Magna Carta did not just happen. It took hundreds of years of the ordinary man to snatch a decent standard of living from those in positions of power. Hence we are now 'ruled by consent' by Queen Liz and her people's choice PM.

I've been reading a pretty interesting book this last few weeks called The Progressive Patriot by Billy Bragg. It explains the history of England that I hadn't really thought about before. The fact that the power was not easily given up by Kings and Queens of time gone by. That if it wasn't for some peeved Baron's being deprived of land and money willy nilly by ruling monarchy and literally forcing them to agree it was unlawful and unfair they'd still be treating us all like peasants. We only got the right to healthcare and an education after WWII. That's only 63 years ago! 63! Madness.

I think I'm going to start my own Pink Party. My manifesto would involve Peace Love and Understanding. I'll be assassinated no doubt by all the politicos whose business is war poverty and misery but at least I'd have tried to save this Great nation of ours...

I need a cup of tea...

Deal or No Deal Baby!

Oh my! Sometimes i forget how excitable i can become... But on Friday I could hardly contain myself with the prospect of going to see Deal Or No Deal being filmed! haha

Thing is, i know it's just a TV show and i know the waiting around can be a bit boring, but you know what so can loads of things in life and it's all about your attitude! as far as i was concerned this was going to be best Friday afternoon ever and nothing would convince me otherwise!

It's due to this unblinking excitment of the day ahead that i was really stressed about being late, about getting lost in Bristol's new one-way system despite (or in thanks to) Sat Nav, and whether being late would ruin our front row chances! haha my boyf got in the neck about taking too much time at the motorway services and he dutifully put his foot down - nothing stands between me and Noel! haha

When we got there we met our friends in other vehicles (an impressive party of 8 no less) and we lined up with me easily being the most excited person in the entire queue! Why these other people had bothered to come if they weren't excited i don't know... When we got to the front of the queue turns out the guy i booked out tickets with on the telephone was ticking off names, so obviously i hugged him! haha you can't take me anywhere!

In the waiting room there was a silly cut out of Noel and the Banker so you could pop your head thru to be the Banker's face, i stuck my head thru to everyone's bemusement but the picture looked really disproportionate so i look like i have a shrunken head! haha, there was also a DOND video game that i went on - and again - was really exicted about it all! What i couldn't work out was why everyone else in the holding room was so low energy... i guess this is why when i asked for a Noel autograph they got it for me! And they put me on the front row! woo! just yards from the mighty Noel and all the action!

I definitely recommend it - in fact i'd like to go again if it wasn't so far away... Was a bit disappointed not to get a mug but you can't have it all i suppose... i wonder if i should audition to be a contestant - would my boss give me the time off?! haha, you have to live with the other contestants for weeks in a hotel in Bristol! Madness!

Life Is A Cabaret Old Chum

OMG! I'm going to see Liza freakn Minelli tonight! That's Liza with a Z baby!

I shall be frocked and cocktailed up and hopefully there'll be amusing anecdotes a-plenty!

I will report back...