Deviating just a little bit every day

Review: Amanda Palmer, There Will Be No Intermission, Cambridge Corn Exchange, 20th November 2019

2019-10-24T18:36:00.000+01:00

From the raw energy, that hits you like a hurricane, as Amanda beats out her emotion at the piano to the angelic, overwhelmingly powerful voice, that lifts the whole auditorium to the gods, this performance was exhilarating.

I laughed, cried, sang, and sat in silent admiration and compassion for Amanda's sharing of the visceral and essential parts of her life that have formed her into who she is today. There was a point where I felt unutterably sad but she lifted me again and set me free. Amanda held us every moment of the journey and then allowed herself to be held, by strangers, balanced on the railings of a balcony over the foyer, as she serenaded us with one final song. Music from The Dresden Dolls through to tracks from her current album and even Disney's Let it go (!) formed a sung accompaniment to the spoken themes of abortion, miscarriage, radical compassion, love, death, life...

I was held and transported by the energy, love, emotion and radical compassion of this most inspiring of artists. Tickets still available for some shows.

https://nointermission.amandapalmer.net/

https://www.patreon.com/amandapalmer/posts

https://twitter.com/amandapalmer

@amandapalmer

Stephen Hawking (8 January 1942 - 14 March 2018) - one of the greatest scientific minds of all time.

2018-03-14T12:15:00.000+00:00

However, this post is not about his scientific research and discourse but about whom such a person chose to be as a citizen. Here is the description of his politics from Wikipedia; this information if fairly thoroughly referenced on the Wikipedia entry so I have not duplicated those references here.

The Politics of Stephen Hawking

In March 1968, Hawking marched alongside Tariq Ali and Vanessa Redgrave to protest against the Vietnam War. He was a longstanding Labour Party supporter. He recorded a tribute for the 2000 Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, called the 2003 invasion of Iraq a "war crime", supported the academic boycott of Israel, campaigned for nuclear disarmament, and has supported stem cell research, universal health care, and action to prevent climate change. In August 2014, Hawking was one of 200 signatories to a letter opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue. Hawking believed a United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit) would damage the UK's contribution to science as modern research needs international collaboration, and that free movement of people in Europe encourages the spread of ideas.

Hawking was greatly concerned over healthcare and maintained that without the UK National Health Service he would not have survived. Hawking stated:

"I havereceived excellent medical attention in Britain, and I felt it wasimportant to set the record straight. I believe in universal health care. And Iam not afraid to say so."

Hawking feared that privatisation and use of agencies cause profit to be extracted from the Health Service. Hawking stated, "The more profit is extracted from the system, the more private monopolies grow and the more expensive health care becomes. The NHS must be preserved from commercial interests and protected from those who want to privatise it." Stephen Hawking alleged ministers damage the NHS, he blamed the Conservatives for cutting funding, weakening the NHS by privatisation, lowering staff morale through holding payback and reducing social care. Hawking accused Jeremy Hunt of cherry-picking evidence which Hawking maintains debases science. Hawking also stated:

"There isoverwhelming evidence that NHS funding and the numbers of doctors and nursesare inadequate, and it is getting worse."

In June 2017, Hawking endorsed Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017

general election, citing the Conservatives' proposed cuts to the NHS.

Hawking feared Donald Trump's policies on global warming could endanger the planet and make global warming irreversible. Hawking said, "Climate change is one of the great dangers we face, and it's one we can prevent if we act now. By denying the evidence for climate change, and pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement, Donald Trump will cause avoidable environmental damage to our beautiful planet, endangering the natural world, for us and our children." Hawking further stated that this could lead Earth,

"to become like Venus,with a temperature of two hundred and fifty degrees, and raining sulphuricacid".

Who am I to argue with such a great brain?

Stephen Hawking's death at 76 is sad but we should also celebrate what he achieved as a scientist and as a human being. That such a man should hold true to the philosophy and political ideals espoused by the above political detail, makes me sadder at his passing but also gives me hope.

NASA tweet 14/03/2018:

Remembering Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist and ambassador of science. His theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we & the world are exploring. May you keep flying like superman in microgravity, as you said to astronauts on @Space_Station in 2014 pic.twitter.com/FeR4fd2zZ5
— NASA (@NASA) March 14, 2018

BBC Radio 4: Four Thought. Katz Kiely - 'Change for the Better'

2016-11-17T21:21:00.000+00:00

BBC Radio 4: Four Thought

On Wednesday evening, purely by chance, I caught Radio 4s Four Thought programme. The talk by Katz Kiely, entitled Change for the Better' was excellent and thought provoking and I would like to share some of it here, in highly paraphrased form.

To hear the talk in full use the following link:

Radio 4: Four Thought. Katz Kiely 'Change for the Better'

Kiely got 'bitten' by the spirit of volunteer-ism when she fell ill at Burning Man festival and was treated by volunteer medical staff in the festival hospital. Following this, she volunteered in a coffee bar at the festival. She was inspired by the incredibly positive team-work, even when doing mundane work, if people are given autonomy and allowed to make work fun. The difference it makes when you are rewarded and appreciated and when you care about the community you are working within and for.

Since then Kiely has advised governments, companies and international bodies on managing change. She says she is always surprised by how many organisations still adopt a top-down model of managing change, and she makes the case for a radically different way of doing so. (BBC Radio 4 brief biography)

Most people experience change by it being 'done to them', they have no choice in it and it comes from nowhere. This is the worst way possible of introducing change. From a neurological point of view we treat change as a threat and when threatened we are stressed, distracted, anxious, angry and so at our least collaborative and poor at social bonding. Our memory and performance are affected and we will not make good decisions. Such stress is contagious and it quickly spreads across organisations and communities. The only people who manage to stay engaged through this process are the initial decision makers themselves.

Kiely went on to say:

“Imagine an organisation where every individual is encouraged to be the best they can be. Companies that have empathy and transparency and respect and autonomy and fairness and connectedness at the core of their very structure and their brand.”

She sees some of the big tech companies as achieving this now (e.g. 3M, Google, Facebook.) They are proving that putting people at the centre of organisations works.

So much of what Kiely talked of I believe we are striving to achieve at JRF/JRHT and this was partly what made it so good to listen to but it also made me think. I believe that this sort of organisation is only possible if we are all on board with the idea and if we all actively engage with the process.

Kiely concluded with:

“We need to find ways of using technology that is driving change to strengthen communities rather than weaken them. To allow people to be the best they can be. Let's figure out ways of unleashing human potential.”

Yes let's!

(In this attempt to share the talk with you I do not do it justice, so do listen to Katz Kiely's talk in full if you have time.)

Social media and words out of context

2016-05-27T11:40:00.000+01:00

Continually, when using social media, I see short sentences from well known figures and corporations used in emotive ways that are then re-tweeted, liked, re-posted etc. I often do this too but I also like to think I am discerning, that I do stop to think and find out more before I re-post.

Here is one emotive example:

While I have no love of Nestle I do have a love of truth and that this guy's words are continually posted out of context rather narks me. He was actually talking about how water needs conserving for essential human use - for life. The paragraphs from which one sentence was taken out of context are below. He did not actually say the specific sentence that is shown in quotes above, he does in fact say "I am the first one to say water is a human right." what he is arguing is that we do not as humans have a right to exploit water in an irresponsible manner.

[...]

"The fact is they [activists] are talking first of all only about the smallest part of the water usage," he says. "I am the first one to say water is a human right. This human right is the five litres of water we need for our daily hydration and the 25 litres we need for minimum hygiene.

"This amount of water is the primary responsibility of every government to make available to every citizen of this world, but this amount of water accounts for 1.5% of the total water which is for all human usage.

"Where I have an issue is that the 98.5% of the water we are using, which is for everything else, is not a human right and because we treat it as one, we are using it in an irresponsible manner, although it is the most precious resource we have. Why? Because we don't want to give any value to this water. And we know very well that if something doesn't have a value, it's human behaviour that we use it in an irresponsible manner.

[...]

Full article is here

York Festival of Ideas

2016-05-12T00:02:00.001+01:00

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The Joseph Rowntree Foundation are again partnering with the University of York to bring a day of talks with the focus of Equality: The Economy's Holy Grail?

"...a stimulating day of talks exploring the interface between political and economic decision-making and its impact on social mobility and financial security for all. Speakers include Guardiancolumnist Owen Jones, leading economist John Kay, Sir Julian Legrand of the London School of Economics, and Lynsey Hanley, author of Respectable."

Panel discussions, debates, and exhibitions - Friday 17th June from 10am:

The Politics of Hope
"Time Makes Ancient Good Uncouth" (Joseph Rowntree)
The Future of Banking
From Cradle to Graduation: Children and Economic Inclusion
How to Thrive in the Next Economy: Designing Tomorrow’s World Today
Britain and Class: ‘We’re All in it Together’

The set of talks in 2015 was fascinating, bringing together renowned people from fields such as journalism, research, economics and business to discuss The Future of Democracy and Economic Growth.

Highlights for me last year were:

The panel discussion on The Future of Cities chaired by Julia Unwin (Chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation) that included Benita Matofska talking about sharing communities.
Polly Toynbee and David Walker discussing "How the Tories took Britain to the brink"
The panel discussion on Growth, Innovation and Inequality with John Kay, economist and author of "Other People's Money" as keynote speaker and including Kate Pickett, Professor of Epidemiology and co-author of The Spirit Level.

The Divide Documentary

2016-05-07T12:58:00.001+01:00

I am really looking forwrd to seeing this film at the end of May:

http://thedividedocumentary.com/

The Divide

From City Screen, York website:

Director: Katharine Round. UK 2015.

Inspired by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s bestselling book The Spirit Level, Katharine Round’s incisive documentary offers a more personal account of how inequality shapes our societies. It aims to unravel the mystery of why, despite increasing material wealth, social divisions and personal anxiety are increasing. The film weaves together thought-provoking, poignant stories of seven people that illustrate how economic shifts impact individuals’ lived experience and psychology. The narrative links people from around the world, including a busy Wall Street psychologist whose clients are battling breakdowns, a stressed fast-food worker struggling to survive, and a low-income carer who feels looked down upon. Through the juxtaposition of real lives with archive footage and news reports, a fascinating picture emerges of the ways that economies profoundly influence our beliefs, self-image and actions. This absorbing film reveals a refreshing, close-up perspective on the human story behind economic inequality.

The City Screen showing on May 31st is followed by a Q&A session with Richard Wilkinson co-author of The Spirit Level. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_Level:_Why_More_Equal_Societies_Almost_Always_Do_Better

Junior doctors begin fourth strike in contract dispute

2016-04-06T20:25:00.001+01:00

The junior doctors and the rest of the NHS need our support. I posted on FB yesterday about a trainee midwife who had worked two 12hr shifts on consecutive days without time for food or rest breaks, many of her course have already dropped out due to the stress they experience and see around them that will only get worse once they qualify.

Who do YOU want to be treated by, who do you want your partner, baby, child, parent to be treated by?
I want well trained, alert, inspired, caring staff - they can't be that without proper rest, support, sensible working hours and OUR support!!

We can still have the best health service in the world, it does take money but WE are ALL worth it!!

Article in The Guardian
Junior doctors begin fourth strike in contract dispute

Make Life Worth Living Exhibition, Nick Hedges - Edinburgh 2015

2015-10-24T14:59:00.001+01:00

http://www.shelterscotland.org/lifeworthliving
This exhibition is a set of photographs of tenement life in Glasgow between 1969 and 1972, taken by Nick Hedges for Shelter. I would love to see the whole exhibition, as, from looking at the selection on Shelter's website it is an incredible body of work.

Mother living with her children in an overcrowded single end tenement flat Glasgow 1971

Mother takes her baby inside her condemned tenement block Gorbals 1970

Looking at them made me reflect, both on my own childhood and on current issues:

The children in these pictures are of my generation but what a different start in life to mine, how much harder to realise potential, to achieve health, education, even a secure roof over ones head.

This lead me to think of what the current government is doing, what divisions it is encouraging, nay even enforcing on society today - is this stratified society what we want to exist as the norm?

We need to WAKE UP and act, we need to STOP a generation of children being consinged to the scrap heap of life.

Each and every life in this country has value, has EQUAL value, with every other life. That is why I believe a taxation system in both it's giving and taking should be helping those that have less, those that are struggling, those that have ill health - to promote, increase and maintain the equality that we all have a right to. Equality of health, education, opportunity, safety and self determination. The basic Human Rights.

A different set of photographs from the same collection, when the collection visited Bradford a year ago:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/11128331/Make-Life-Worth-Living-Nick-Hedges-photographs-for-Shelter.html

Give refugees a home

2015-09-06T09:29:00.001+01:00

http://www.citizensuk.org/help_find_homes_for_syrian_refugees

George Orwell from Politics and the English Language

2015-06-24T09:54:00.001+01:00

"If you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy. You cannot speak any of the necessary dialects, and when you make a stupid remark its stupidity will be obvious, even to yourself. Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one's own habits, and from time to time one can even, if one jeers loudly enough, send some worn-out and useless phrase — some jackboot, Achilles’ heel, hotbed, melting pot, acid test, veritable inferno, or other lump of verbal refuse — into the dustbin where it belongs."

Must read article by Lucy Mangan in The Guardian (24/01/2015)

2015-01-25T11:13:00.000+00:00

If you don’t understand how people fall into poverty, you’re probably a sociopath

Why don’t abused women just leave their partners? Why don’t poor people just spend less? Why do people in positions of power ask so many stupid questions?

- Lucy Mangan
- The Guardian, Saturday 24 January 2015

Excellent article not least due to the line from comedian Bridget Christie, who

"...finished her act with a plea for all laydeez to stop waxing, spraying, deodorising, strimming and surgically trimming their – well, let’s call it “that part of ourselves historically judged to be the seat of all our femininity and womanly powers” – and instead celebrate our individuality by thinking of those parts as “unique, special – like snowflakes. Made of gammon”"

I was listening to Bridget Christie delivering this line on Radio 4 whilst driving - R4 should issue warnings to drivers before broadcasting such knicker wetting humour!

Drugs in prisons...

2015-01-17T09:58:00.001+00:00

Surely an increase in drugs seizures in prisons is due to more drugs getting in and not better security! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30859350

Government spin in operation here!

A huge increase in drugs found does not equal better searching/security, there could be a link but it's unlikely and who would actually think that it was a direct link when the biggest increase is in private prisons. Private prisons do not have a good track record! The more obvious conclusion to draw would be that there has been a major increase in drugs smuggled into prisons - now this might just go alongside an increase in security but the uderlying factor is likely to be an increase in drugs.

The government is desparately trying to prove privatisation works before the general election. Well on recent evidence it doesn't:

Hinchingbrooke Hospital inadequate - Privately run by Circle
HMP Northumberland: Prison 'stand-off' comes to an end - Privately run by Sodexo
Oakwood Prison: 'Near riot' claim as inmates damage cells - Privately run by G4S

What price privatisation of our NHS?

2015-01-13T15:10:00.000+00:00

Hinchingbrooke Hospital - Inadequate

To me this doesn't just say NHS 'privatisation doesn't work', it also says something very fundamental about our NHS. If our NHS is failing it is because it is UNDERFUNDED. If a private company, that chose to bid to run Hinchinbrook, can't pull it off it means we are not putting enough INTO our healthcare system. What do we have, if we don't have health?

Furthermore, do you, YES YOU, think that someone should be making a profit out of health care? Making a profit out of our taxes? Should my or your ill health line even more private companies pockets? Isn't it enough that our health is held ransom by 'Big Pharma'?

Read Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Pharma

To finish with a little food for thought...

If we all become healthier what future do the private healthcare companies have then? Ok, I know this is the silly extreme but think about it! There is no profit in private healthcare companies reducing our need/dependency on them whether it be reduction in a need for their drugs, their hospitals, their care homes or their anything else!

The Health Promotion Blog: Ebola and the Global response

2014-10-29T19:19:00.001+00:00

The Health Promotion Blog: Ebola and the Global response: Our hearts go out to our students, colleagues and everyone else in those countries affected by Ebola. There’s very little...

by Rachael Dixey
Professor of Health Promotion at Leeds Beckett University, with interests in health inequalities, health justice, teaching and research.

Welfare Conditionality?

2014-09-09T21:44:00.001+01:00

Heard of it? If you haven't then you need to and you need to understand it. If your life ever takes a turn for the worse - the really bad and you have to depend on our famous welfare system then this is how it is now run: welfare conditionality. Now I'm not actually saying it is wrong OR right but just saying...

Conditions? Whose conditions? For what reason? And can a one size fit all approach work even if you have the right conditions for the right reasons?

This really interests me at the start of my Public Health Masters, to me, this is what its all about - how we make people live. MAKE because it is only those in need that cease to have control, those that need help, the vulnerable, the disenfranchised, the lonely, those who are already hurting, they have to obey the rules that are set...

OK, but who makes the rules? Are they the right rules? Does it matter? How can we make them the 'right' rules? Do we have a right to set such rules? When life is all hunky-dory, then we are in control. When life is shit then societal structures end up in control because they hold the purse strings and make the rules. And can those of us who don't need help ever understand without 'walking a mile in someone elses shoes'.

I don't think I'll ever know the answers but I hope to be part of a way forward, possibly a solution, but at the minimum to help...

Watch this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03xlch7/panorama-hungry-britain
(Edit: that maybe sounded a bit bossy, but actually you really do HAVE to watch; it yes YOU, it is essential to your humanity.)

If you want to know more about Welfare Conditionality you could start reading here:
http://www.welfareconditionality.ac.uk/about-our-research/what-is-welfare-conditionality/

I'll write more, no promises when though as I'm crap at this blogging regularly business!

Why I Think This World Should End by Prince Ea

2014-09-09T10:47:00.000+01:00

This is fantastic!

Post by Prince Ea.

Blogging...

2014-09-08T14:33:00.000+01:00

So it seems I just get worse at this blogging business. In some ways this is just a mirror of life atm - oh yeah that sounds all 'poor me' and bloody pathetic (or maybe not but the thought behind it was!) but things are a little bit wrong, well, stalled I suppose and have been for too long. I'd like to move on now please...

And as I'm no good at airing my downs in public I'm actually only managing to say "life is a bit shit" just before the up begins... It's an up that I know is coming, as I start my Masters in two weeks, that will be a focus, a feeling of doing something that has meaning. So I'm really looking forward to that but am really pissed off with not finding a job that feels right (also rather a 'poor me' statement - who has the job they actually want?) I know I am highly employable, I am a jack-of-all trades that tends to become the master of things pretty fast (apart from the master of finding a job.)

I have been surprised by how much when some bits of life become stalled it actually seems to grind you to a total halt, I though it was just me being an utter slob but having chatted a bit to people (in a very non-emotional, I'm not letting you know life is feeling really shit sort of way) that it does seem to be 'a thing'. I could have achieved so much over the last two years, round the house, round my brain (reading, writing all that self-enhancement stuff) but what do I have to show for it? ...chaos, boxes still unpacked, a lack of any direction, tiredness, lots of weeds in the garden and my pet fibroid.

(But at least I'm a level 8 in Ingress (don't ask!))

Hmm, that's it for now, please do return, as normal service (whatever that is) may be resumed at some point...

(oh and P.S. for those who haven't noticed I have a little addiction to ellipses. This, I feel, is better than my previous addiction to exclamation marks which I mostly recovered from not that long ago. Does this change in itself say something about my life right now...)

Prayer Before Birth - Louis Macneice

2014-05-29T00:39:00.002+01:00

A poem that has stayed with me for over 30 years. I first heard this being recited by an older girl, Joy, shortly after I went away to boarding school. I can still hear her speaking these words as I read it, thank you Joy.

Prayer Before Birth
I am not yet born; O hear me.
Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the
club-footed ghoul come near me.

I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,
on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.

I am not yet born; provide me
With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
in the back of my mind to guide me.

I am not yet born; forgive me
For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words
when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,
my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,
my life when they murder by means of my
hands, my death when they live me.

I am not yet born; rehearse me
In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when
old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains
frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white
waves call me to folly and the desert calls
me to doom and the beggar refuses
my gift and my children curse me.

I am not yet born; O hear me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
come near me.

I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
one face, a thing, and against all those
who would dissipate my entirety, would
blow me like thistledown hither and
thither or hither and thither
like water held in the
hands would spill me.

Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me.

by Louis Macneice

Life drawing and animation come together beautifully, all by Robyn.

2014-05-10T18:01:00.003+01:00

I love these short animations that Robyn has produced as part of her A Level Art, they are simply wonderful. All posted on Robyn's YouTube channel.
(Proud Mum!)

A wonderful lunch at The Belsfield Hotel, Bowness-on-Windermere

2014-05-05T21:04:00.002+01:00

Having wandered around Bowness-on-Windermere for a while enjoying being tourists but not finding anywhere we were inspired to eat we found ourselves back at the boat pier where we had arrived on the steamer 'Tern' in the morning; overlooking the pier is the The Belsfield Hotel. We crossed the road and found the brasserie menu displayed by the gate and it sounded very interesting, so a short walk up through the gardens and we found our way in through the terrace doors. Very quiet, empty in fact, and I was afraid that they were not serving food, but the moment we spoke to staff we were looked after attentively and yet utterly unobtrusively. The service really was second to none and the food was delicious. The hotel itself is out of our price range, to stay at, but for a lunch overlooking the lake from a fantastic vantage point I think The Belsfield is impossible to beat. They are in the process of major renovation to move from a 3* to a 4* rating but this was in no way detrimental to the service or the food.

I don't sit taking photographs of my food so you will just have to make do with a picture of Lake Windermere from the terrace of The Belsfield Hotel.

"You can't stop the signal Mal"

2014-04-18T12:44:00.001+01:00

It is not so far in the past that I was given odd looks (ok I still get them but not for this reason) due to my usage of the internet. For the last 25 years the internet and for the last 22 the world wide web has been a major part of my life. Yes, the web has been around for that long and in saying 22 years rather than 24 I feel that I'm a bit of a late adopter ;)

Enabled by the internet I have made friends, travelled to different countries, cried, laughed with joy, shared my deepest secrets (ok they were never very deep and they're definitely not secrets any longer!), found pleasure, sadness, learnt, lost, won, bought and sold, made so many friends (yes I know I've said that) but that is it really friends, community, people - its bloody wonderful!

People said "how can you spend that long online?", "how can you trust anyone you meet online?", "they could be anyone", "isn't it all a bit sad?" (cheers for that one btw), ...

My mind just returned to such memories which are only from about a decade ago, those things were probably said by people who now have Facebook accounts, know exactly what CandyCrush and Farmville are and have people in their friends lists they have never met. Something I thought very early on in my relationship with the internet has stayed with me...

The internet and it's most prolific child, the world wide web, have given a voice to millions. At one time I'd have particularly spoken of those who are shy, ill, lonely, disabled, single parents, people whom for whatever reason have some limits placed on their social interactions but now I should add to that list whole countries, those who are discriminated against, victims, politics, religions, education, opinions of ever sort, inventors, artists, charities, the list really is endless. How did the world function without it!?

The internet ignores borders (in most cases) and even when borders are placed upon it such as in the case of Turkey recently (BBC report) people find their way around them and the uproar such attempts at control create just go to further the wish and belief in our right to unrestricted access to information and communication. We live in a much more open world today, how much more open it might become due to people and organisations such as Edward Snowden and wikileaks will depend on how much we believe openness and transparency are more important than privacy and secrecy.

"You can't stop the signal Mal"

Holidays!

2014-04-17T16:30:00.000+01:00

Wow! I've done it! I've actually booked a holiday, two in fact. This is rather amazing, we flew to Australia with all the kids 6 years ago, to get married, and while I have visited family I have not been away for more than 3 nights or out of the country since then... oh wait I did visit Tim at uni in Wales for 3 days with Rob and Oli.

In fact Alastair and I never actually went on a honeymoon and any travelling we manage tends not to be together!

So what have I booked? Well 6 nights in Germany with Rob and Oli, this is still visiting family as we are going to Freiburg im Breisgau and will be meeting up with Tim and Anneken who are living about 15km south of the city. Flights and apartment all sorted :) But again this is without Alastair...

... and so Alastair and I are going away for a weekend (gotta start somewhere) to Newby Bridge in the Lake District.

So a May weekend in the Lakes and a June week in Germany, there is also a family booking for the Lake District for next year. So it looks like I'll have to stop saying that the only holiday I have is 3 days pulling pints in a field at Galtres Festival :)

A little boring catch-up... (a post that should have been posted but was sat there as a draft - so rather out of synch as this is really from October 2013!)

2014-03-29T19:38:00.001+00:00

So I have officially left the nursing course - this was hard to do but I'd known for months that this really wasn't going to be happening. I was/am happy with this, I don't look backwards that much (or at least I don't believe regrets are much use in life), it's not that I am wonderfully forward looking, endlessly planning my direction or anything I just prefer to move on but it was still hard... Why? I think that while I don't need a strong direction I'm very aware that I am squatting in the middle of a crossroads at the moment and that rather than moving on, choosing a path to follow, I am, for a while, just camped out here. This is what feels strange, to leave the old behind but not actually move on to the new.

Current things that are keeping me at a crossroads:

We are half-way (ish) through buying a house, exchange of contracts should have taken place every day for the past two weeks
I have a place on a Masters in Public Health course that I can't take up due to the ridiculous way they set the fees: £4,500 for full time, £9,000 for part time. So that is deferred for at least a year whilst they come to their senses or I win the lottery!
I've been looking for part-time (very part-time) jobs, but ones where I feel I am using my brain and are on a new path (see I just hate following old paths).
Oli is still suffering with his CFS, but at least we have had no big set-backs since the weather became cooler (the hot summer was hell for him).

New paths or at least ones I am peering down to see if I like the view:

Oli has now started attending The Stables Project part-time and this is going well. After his first full teaching day he came home nearly bouncing. Mainly excited about the Gold Arts Award and how it was "just brilliant" for him.
I start a (very) part-time job on Friday; pharmacy trainee - a slightly random direction but that's nothing new for me! Just Friday afternoons and some Saturday mornings to begin with, in Knaresborough.

All change at the next stop...

2014-03-29T19:15:00.000+00:00

Well in my last post I promised it wouldn't be a two month wait and it was not, it has been six months! Six months of bits and pieces of change. Chronologically:

The sad loss of Angela Michel, co-author and co-walker with Nick Warlow of Freedom to Rome: A Long Walk, at the end of November seemed to come so soon after hearing she had cancer. A truly beautiful spirit with the ability to create whole choirs of angels through her wonderful gifts of singing and teaching.

A new job since early October, pharmacy dispensing, just one afternoon per week in Knaresborough. I'm enjoying the learning and the doing aspects, the people are great but my mind is not inspired enough to feel this as part of my being. So learning, doing but not being... hmm I need something more...

My father turned 80 on 20th December 2013 and we managed to get the whole family together for a celebration! This was something of a feat as we have not all been together for quite some years. The logistics of coordinating travel and group hospitality from France, Germany, Essex, Oxfordshire and Yorkshire, plus life changing events such as moving home/country, babies, studying, graduating have prevented a family gathering happening. We rented a fantastic converted barn in Ludlow, little more than a stones throw from my parents new house, and enjoyed a convivial family meal for 17 which included new members as well as old.

We had our last Christmas at Fox on the Roof Cottage and a wonderfully family filled time it was, Shelly and Dean, and Tim and Anneken were able to come directly to York from Ludlow and stay with us through Christmas. It was a good way to end our tenure of the lovely, tatty cottage that has been our home for over 5 years. I expected to miss it but actually don't; proof, I hope, that our new house is already becoming the home we were looking for :)

As we were busy with our move my step-son, Rab, took the huge leap of moving cities for the first time, I hope he takes Jamies Italian in Edinburgh by a storm! It is sad for Alastair to see his son move away but Edinburgh is not 'that' far. My step-daughter, Chloe, is back in Bosnia Herzegovina, and this is truly a world away. She is so bravely facing life and learning to be her own person whilst also learning to accept help and support from those around her in a way that belies her years. It is so hard these days for our children to find their path as they grow towards and through early adulthood; there are no certainties out there for them. While we adults might feel that the rug has been pulled from under us because the certainties in jobs, housing and financial security we were promised are proving to be somewhat elusive, at least we had the solid, stability of belief in those things to carry us through our formative years. Now our children are growing-up to meet a world that doesn't promise them anything.

So the something more...

Well this week I accepted my place on the Masters in Public Health course at Leeds Metropolitan University (about to rename itself Leeds Beckett University). I think it is this change that has encouraged me to write again, which is rather a positive sign. I'm tempted to say "Watch this space!" but hey my track-record of keeping this blog up-to-date aint very good so far...

Freedom to Rome

2013-09-30T13:19:00.000+01:00

I am enjoying Freedom to Rome by Nick Warlow and Angela Michel so much :)

From the publishers website: "This book charts the route taken by a couple of non-hikers who decided to walk from York to Rome in 2012 with a pair of artificial hips."

It seemed particularly fitting to start reading it yesterday sat in the sun on the new steps up to York Minster (the Minster Piazza), under the silent gaze of Constantine the Great who was declared Roman Emperor whilst in York in 306AD.

A little more about the journey and the wonderful Angela and Nick can be read on their blog:
nickwarlowangelamichel.blogspot.co.uk/

You can also get free courier delivery if you live in York - ours was delivered to the door on Saturday by Nick himself just before I headed to City Screen to see Lois get her head shaved for Kyra... more on this in the next post (and no it won't be a 2 month wait!)

I will write more when I have finished the book but, for now, all I can say is order one now!!