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Would you like some cake?

Oct 29th, 2012 Leave a comment

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The search for a great place to have tea and cake is something of a quest with myself and my friends.  Somewhere wonderful where we can meet up, share a cuppa (we’re almost all tea drinkers rather than coffee), perhaps have a little something to eat, and with the potential for cake.  It’s also about a lovely atmosphere and comfortable chairs.  Somewhere we want to go and enjoy being.  So when a new ‘patisserie’, also selling tea and food, opened up in Ipswich we had to check it out.  The cakes looked wonderful (if expensive) in the window and we were practically salivating when we went in.

And then it all started to go wrong.  The tables were crowded in so we felt like sardines and I was closer to the people on the table next to us than my friend.  The food wasn’t that great and the tea came on it’s own little trays that took up the entire table leaving no room for anything else (including our food).  Then after our food, we wanted cake.  It took me a whole five minutes to catch the eye of a waitress who mumbled that she would be back in a minute and wandered off.  So, feeling slightly claustrophobic, we waited while happily debating which cake to have for our much looked forward to deserts.  What did we get?  Well, when the waitress finally showed up again she plopped down the bill and walked swiftly off.  We gave up and made to leave.  At this point my friend, still craving cake, decided to order from the take out section.  This led to a conversation with the manager about why we were ordering our cake to leave instead of eating in.  Upon telling her she asked if being handed our bill had encouraged us to leave before we had planned.  That, my friends, was the moment I decided our quest must continue as you simply can’t help that level of stupid…

 

I’m back – well sort of……

Oct 24th, 2011 4 Comments

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My life has been hectic the last couple of months, complicated further by my mobile phone being unreliable.  Two years ago I transferred to Vodaphone only to discover that the reception where I live was abysmal (and thats my polite description).  Unfortunately Vodaphone didn’t care, apparently their maps said I was covered so it was obviously my problem not theirs, the result was two years with awful reception.  To my relief my contract is up and I’m now moved over onto a provider with decent signal. Phew!

So anyway, I’ve picked a phone that I hope will make staying on top of things much easier including blogging.  It’s not always been easy to find time to sit down at the computer and write posts recently.

This time I’ve also put much more emphasis on the camera aspect of my phone choice.  I don’t want to carry my big camera round, but often feel the snaps off my ipod or Blackberry aren’t good enough to post without apologising for their quality.

Anyway, here is a snap I took of Fire the cat on the windowsill this morning on my sparkly new Samsung Galaxy S 2.  I’m looking forward to seeing how this post, written on my phone, pans out when I hit the upload button…. :-)

Just to let you know…..

Oct 22nd, 2011 Leave a comment

Hi all….

This is just a quickie to say I’ve not forgotten about you all or my blog. I just have some stuff I need to deal with over the weekend and the start of next week.

I’ll be posting again next week and I’ve got loads of stuff to show and share….

Hope you’ll all forgive the lack of posts recently, sometimes non-cyber life just has to take over for a bit.

A bit of a rant……

Jun 15th, 2011 Leave a comment

Well I’m afraid this post is going to be a bit of a rant. So what has got my blood pressure up this time? The proposed industrial strike action.

My union has called for a strike on the 30th and I’ve decided I’m going to answer the call. Why? What has galvanised me into action? The attitudes of government ministers that’s what.

Basically they want me to work longer, pay over £100 a month more into my pension and at the end they’ll give me less. Now we all get that the country has financial problems – but are the big wigs in the city facing such cuts? Err no…. What about MP’s with their expense accounts? Oooo surprise surprise they’re not loosing out either.

Then the cherry on the cake is the thinly veiled accusations and threats being made against us if we decide to strike. We’re threatening the education of the countries youth if we do apparently. You know I don’t remember agreeing to giving up my rights when I decided to go into a profession where I work to help others. I’m still a human being.

Don’t even get me started on the way its all being reported. So for the first time in my life I’m going to strike. If I don’t, I feel that it will be seen as passively accepting what is being put forward. I don’t accept it and so I will stand up and be counted….

It’s a small world

Mar 27th, 2011 Leave a comment

As I type I’m watching the Horizon Special on the earthquake in Japan.  It’s easy to concentrate on the statistics and talk of tectonic plates in an attempt to dehumanise the events.  Sort of concentrate on the science as a way of avoiding some of the human truths.

Sci-Museum-115 

We all live on a planet which forms a single system.  We can do amazing things as a species, more than any other which has evolved on this blue green orb which speeds it’s way through the heavens.

Sci-Museum-102

Yet the simply truth is that mother nature can kick our butt with frightening ease.

(photos taken at the Science Museum in London)

Assumption is the mother of all…..

Mar 5th, 2011 1 Comment

(I’ll warn you now this is a serious rant on my part)

Recently I saw a documentary on Caster Semenya, the South African runner who was subjected to a media storm in 2009 over her ‘gender’ and suspended from competing.  I sat in amazement, staring at the screen while expert after expert babbled on and on about how there is no scientific test for gender!  It seemed fairly obvious to me, if she was born with girlie bits and no boy bits, she’s a girl.  At no point was it ever suggested that she had knowingly tried to deceive.  The authorities kept going on about hormone levels and medical disorders potentially giving her an unfair advantage.  ‘Unfair genetic advantage’ was a term used a lot.  I found it interesting that all these ‘authorities’ were men.  Has anyone suggested that some of the really tall basket ball players shouldn’t be allowed to play because they have a genetic advantage (being tall), or Michael Phelps the swimmer should be disqualified for having large feet?  Yup, got it in one….  no-one is suggesting that at all.

Caster Semenya (photo taken from the Guardian Website – hope they don’t mind)

So what exactly was the problem?  Well as far as I could tell, some people consider her a little butch in appearance.  Now I’m sorry if I’m up on my soap box about this, but that really gets my goat.  Who is to say what a woman should look like? 

The media? They’d have us all skinny with boob implants.  Take a look at how women are represented on the tv or in magazines.  If you’re attractive, you’re thin in their world.  I work with teenagers and I know how many of the girls suffer from incredibly low self esteem simply because they don’t look like Kiera Knightley.

Hmmm so what about the Sports organisations?  Well Caster Semenya was 18 at the time and I remember all to well how I felt at that age.  Constantly worried about my appearance and desperately trying to conform to the ideals of how I was supposed to look.  The slightest comment could knock my confidence out the street, round the corner and then propelled it far out to sea where it was set adrift on a small rickety raft and left to die.

Thing is throughout the documentary I just kept wondering how those officials would feel if someone questioned their gender.  We all know how sensitive your average man is about his manliness.  In her mind this young woman is female,  she’s always been a female, and yet here were a bunch of people saying she wasn’t because she could run fast and didn’t look like their idea of a girl.  I just saw a teenager in a pink girlie top.

Anyway I shall stop ranting now and if you’re still reading I’ll just say thanks for letting me get that off my chest (a chest I might add that has not been and never will be surgically enhanced).