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Miranda

My old school friend, Miranda, is coming over to visit on Saturday.  I just dropped her an email to say sorry for not speaking to you for nearly a year and she told me the good news.

How rubbish am I at keeping in touch and how jammy for timing it just right?

Miranda is the same age as me, divorced, widowed, engaged and now pregnant.  She is the mother of one Ruby Roo who, at nearly four, talks funny because she's an American.  Miranda moved to Orlando, Florida 16 years ago and married the first boy who kissed her.  For a few months at least.  Her second husband proved no more reliable and went and walked under a car while she was divorcing him.  He did one thing right though and fathered the very cute Ruby, who my kids adore.

At school Miranda was a very independent sort of gal who wrote angst poetry, wore black clothes and had very elaborate make up.  I might have some pictures somewhere that I can use to embarrase her.  Now she is still a very independent sort of woman who owns and runs her own business and does her own DIY...frankly a lot better than I do but I'm not telling her that.  She has also cut down on the make up.

As she's only got 15 weeks to go before she has her new baby (shiny and fresh from it's wrapper) she's cutting it a bit fine on the flying thing.  We're planning on taking the kids for a wander to Langstone Harbour...well a waddle in her case and playing in the mud.  Playing in the mud is what kids do best.

So, I'm all excited about seeeing my old school friend.  What have your current emotions like?

Current mood: Tired


Just testing

Wired

pumped-up(a): tense with excitement and enthusiasm as from a rush of adrenaline; "we were really pumped up for the race"; "he was so pumped he couldn't sleep"

Bipolar: An analog semiconductor process technology characterized by fast switching speeds at the expense of high power consumption. Bipolar transistors can also function as fast speed digital circuits.

I'm a little wired today.  I have this project you see.  Sometimes I get like this where everything just falls together and I work like a demon.  No food, no drink, no sleep.  Just work till I drop.  I like to think I'm at my most creative when I do this but I probably make more mistakes per 1000 lines of coding than I would otherwise.

I'm also at my most obnoxious when I'm like this.  Some of you may have noticed the build up in the last week or so.  Sorry about that.

Anyway to focus my creative energies where I'm getting paid to focus them I'll be taking a brief break from blogging.  I expect a week will be sufficient.  Wish me luck with the demon!

Current mood: Wired.


Rushed

I'm desperately working on a project that I'm pretty sure will be late.  I have two weeks to go.  Nothing works.

My usual laid back self is ready to kill anyone who isn't doing what they are supposed to do and that seems to be just about everyone.

I'm going to take 10 minutes over lunch to walk off into the woods and shout as loud as I can.  I'm hoping that it will release some of this frustration that I'm feeling.

Bloody Red Nose Day is just making things worse.  I actually said "If anyone comes near me with a charity bucket I'll shove it up their arse!" And I meant it. 

I'm not normally this grumpy.

My friend

Spare a thought for Chloe and her brother Jake today please.

She's going through a lot of stress at the moment and need support.  Former 20Sixers may well remember her as Ska Girl or the Slytherin Head Girl before they buggered up their platform. She is also a regular at London Loves and several blinks in the south.

Go on, give her a hug.

Current mood: A bit worried


Love and Marriage

I have certain issues with religion as some of you may well be aware.

One of my issues is to do with marriage.  It is quite possible that my views may be tainted slightly by the extremely messy divorce that my parents went through when I was a teenager and by the relatively successful unmarried relationship I have with the stunningly gorgeous and ever so energetic Hildy.  I also tend to read a great deal and am particularly enamoured with literature of the 18th and 19th centuries.  These may seem unrelated but they really aren't.

Prior to the 18th century women were seen as little more than property and men could attract a handsome dowry to go with their new wife.  Families were literally paying to get rid of women.  Why was this the case?  I strongly suspect that it all comes down to women not being seen as equal to men.  Organised religion has seen to it that women were "put in their place" and centuries of this doctrine has successfully reinforced the stereotype of the helpless woman who needs a man to look after her.  The 18th to the 20th centuries saw a lessening of these traditions with the various successes of the suffrage movements particularly women's suffrage early in the last century.  Yet, even today, a woman cannot command an equal place in society as a man.  I'm saying this not to be sexist but as a supportable fact because women earn considerably less on average than men.  There is no good reason for this and yet it continues.

Until very recently marriage was still seen as the best way to secure a future if you were a woman.  Divorce was prohibitively expensive until late in the last century so marriage really was a lifelong commitment.  However the institution of marriage left many groups of people excluded until very recently. I'm talking about gay and lesbians who, in the main, just want to be treated like the rest of the country.  In addition marriage tends to tie groups of similar people together whether they be white middle class Christians, black working class Muslims.  Social cohesion also leads to exclusion of individuals who do not conform to the expected norms in the group.  A black muslim living in middle Christian England will experience a sense of seperation as an outsider.  True integration comes when social groups are loosely structured and not tightly bound by a single theme like religion.

To me marriage is a religious ceremony whose contract is enforced in law.  Think about that for a second.  How strange is it that a  religious ceremony should be legally enforceable?  If you were baptised and decided to change religion would you expect the police to knock on your door or for your church to take you to court and demand compensation?  A couple who wish to announce to their community that they want to stay together and make a commitment to each other not to take other lovers and to generally treat each other well should not be tied to this if their circumstances or opinions alter at a later date.  Forcing a couple to remain together if they aren't happy should not be the place of the law and the courts.

Children (as they are prone to do) complicate this issue greatly.  I think that a child is happier and better equipped to cope with the trials and tribulations of society if they are raised by two parents and an extended family who offers a support network.  There are many people, mainly women, who do an excellent job of raising children alone but my opinion is that the best environment is one with two parents.  Note that this has nothing to do with marriage and that people can make a commitment to bring children up together without the religious ceremony that is expected.

I'm not really sure what prompted this particular rant but I hope you enjoyed it and will comment.  This is mainly because I crave the attention but also because I want to know what your opinion is.

Would you eat here?

http://www.cockpub.co.uk/

I've been told that the food is very good.

Next time I'm in East Sussex I may just try The Cock.  Although I'll probably chicken out at the last minute.

t'Internet

Yay!  I have access to t'Internet.  Don't know who's but someone has left an unsecured WiFi connection lying about in the middle of nowhere so I'm taking advantage of it.

The course is sort of interesting but desperately needs some worked examples as nothing seems to make sense yet.  I'm hoping that this is temporary and it'll all fall in place tomorrow.

So, what's going on in blogland?  I mean, it's been all day.

Shall I tell you what we got up to yesterday on The Hildy's birthday?  No, I shan't.  It'd make you blush.

Current mood: Knackered

Right then. I'm off!

Away on a course for the next three days.  It's very likely that I won't have access to t'Internet.

*shudder*

I certainly won't have access to The Hildy.  And they'll be no lovely and adorable children to huggle me either.

I shall have to use my telephone a lot.  I wonder if I can remember how it works.

Current mood: Tired


*Yawn*

During this weekend I have mostly been running around buying pressies for the most energentic Hildy's birthday today.  Gothic style mirror, iPod nano (black), celtic style candlesticks and a wooden snail form part of her pressies.  I also heard the funniest thing from the shop assistant when I was buying the iPod.  She called it an nana, as in banana, which brought about strange thoughts in my head as to where and how she got this wrong.  It's obvious why no one has corrected her.  It's just too funny.  Well, I thought it was. 

Suit yourself.

I also spend a goodly portion of the weekend putting new sticky floor tiles down in my kitchen.  While it now looks super smashing it is no more even that when we began.  Tsk, whoever did it before us really bodged it up.  It's only fair that we repeat their efforts but with more style.

I'm very tired today due to late night things that a woman who is now 40 years old really should know better than to try. *blushes*

If you want to know what I'm up to today then you should read me over on my wordpress blog because double posting is just wrong.

Currently playing: Avril Lavigne - Let go

Singing

For some reason I keep singing today. I blame my good mood on the most gorgeous and glamourous Chloe who met me in the Bright Town yestereve for a drink or several. Of course she was very beautiful with her two tone hair and I was unable to restrain the urge to hug her in the middle of the Grand Central when she arrived. We had a long and rambling conversation over a few bottles of wine that included (but was not limited to) the following topics:

• Death
• Scars
• Tattoos
• The Mutiny on the Bounty
• Christianity
• An affair that never happened
• The effects of bullying
• Kylie's pants
• Funerals
• Crying
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Blinks
• Counselling
• Work
• Private Detectives
• Bernard
• Suicide Girls
• Girl Guide Badges
• Fire
• Roll ups
• Distractions
• Getting beaten up
• London Loves

I'm not going into details because it was a private conversation and you should have come along if you wanted to join in. So there! Only two things marred an otherwise perfect evening between friends:

1. Mr "I'm going to go outside every five minutes to make a phone call and leave the door open so Chloe gets chilly" who kept leaving the door open. I mean, just because it's a public place it doesn't mean that we don't rule.
2. The last train from the Bright Town to my home was at 9:40pm which was unnaturally early for ending a night out.
3. Chloe admitted to not reading my blog. Clearly this is a great sin but I can now talk about her to my heart's content safe in the knowledge that she won't know what I've said about her. *tee hee*

I know, that's three things but one of them doesn't count. So that was my evening. It was more fun that yours so again with the "So there"

I leave you now with this Buffy quote:

"You know, people underestimate the value of a good ramble."

Currently playing: Songs in my head