Play on, Nicola!

A friend of mine is treasurer of a small local choir which has just lost 1,000 pounds a year in funding. The loss of that sum forces the organisation to choose whether to support its established adult group or its developing kids' choir. It's a sure thing that many other local music organisations face the same problem. Like all arts groups these days. There's little money to be had from local authorities or from charities and less and less support from Creative Scotland. And if you don't get kids into the arts at an early age, you're finished. And we know the will to learn music is there among young people: just look at the success of the Raploch's Big Noise, where young Scots musicians played concerts this summer alongside their Venezuelan mentors and could be off to Venezuela next year to take part in more concerts.

Speaking of the will: I'm sure I'm not the only person who's totally impressed by Nicola Benedetti.

Like everyone else, I've been watching her career develop since she was 15. I've heard her play live. I've seen her on TV and in newspapers. She is instantly recognisable for her skill, her ready smile - and her absolute focus on what she's doing. She's a wonderful musician who is also an advocate for the educational benefits of classical music to young people and is staunchly loyal to Scotland.

We're good in Scotland at exporting our best people. It would be great if we could find a national role for Nicola, possibly in expanding the Big Noise to other areas of the country.

Given the way music education is being hit by cuts, we need all the help we can get - and the appointment of Nicola Benedetti as a national ambassador for music in Scotland would be a good place to start.

Is this a tin I see before me?

Scalded myself 3 times today opening various packets of food out of the microwave, despite observing the prescribed 2 minutes waiting time at each go.

A lot of modern packaging seems to be inherently unsafe.
Ring pull cans that trap your finger.
Plastic bags that refuse to be opened so you have to attack them with scissors - I'm a lefty - not good with scissors.
Detergent bottles that can only be opened by someone with a PhD in engineering.
And then there's my special pet hate: the greetings cards so securely wrapped in sellophane the only way to get to them is to cut them open with scissors, slicing off a wee bit of the card as you go.

Is it beyond the ability of scientists/engineers to design food packaging with a zip??? Even if it does cost - what? - a fraction of a penny more, it might save my blood supply in the long run.

This is a migraine...

A lot of people have migraine and the 'headaches' are different from one person to the next. I can only describe what my migraines are like.

They come in 3 stages:

1 It's the end of a journey or a normal working week that I've enjoyed or a stressful time or even a holiday I haven't really enjoyed. I'm about to sit down and relax, when I  realise out of the corner of my eye I can see something. Out to my right, there's a wavy line. It's silver and it stands out because I can see the rest of my mental picture just as usual but with this wavy line across it. I shake my head or put my hand up to a spot in the middle of my forehead between my eyebrows and press hard, but it doesn't matter. I'm having a migraine. As usual, I'm surprised, like this was something new, although it has happened regularly for 40 years now. There's no avoiding it. I have medication. The best for me is Migraleve: a pink tablet at the onset and a yellow tablet or two every 3 hours. If you speak to me now, the chances I won't answer you. Either I won't understand you or my speech has failed and I can't answer. This lasts about 20 minutes.

2 I'm into stage two of the migraine now. What I most want is silence, the dark and a painkiller: just let me take a couple of yellow Migraleve, close the bedroom curtains and lie on my bed. And no noise - please. A ringing phone or doorbell will make me moan in pain. But the migraine hasn't finished with me. I can't speak at all now. I may not even understand when people talk to me. Worst of all, I may try to talk but what comes out is rubbish. I feel numb on the right hand side - hand, face, shoulder. The numbness moves across my body to the middle and then the left hand side. Then it goes away and I start to feel cold and shivery. This lasts a couple of hours.

3  I need about 6 or 7 hours of dark and silence at this stage. It may be sleep but it's so deep I think of it as unconsciousness. If there was a fire now, I'm not sure I would wake up. When I do eventually come to, I'm knackered. I haven't eaten for 24 hours now and still can't eat without throwing up, but I'm rational and I remind myself to drink water - maybe 2 litres - 8 glasses of the stuff in a short time. I've probably lost about 36 hours out of my life by now and I'm pretty depressed by that thought but I'll sleep now for probably another 14 hours. Then I'll get up and carry on till the next time.

Do I worry about how unpredictable migraine is? Or how casually other people treat it? What would be the point? Keep calm and carry on.....

Windae licker??

It seems this expression upset people today when it was used as a term of contempt by George Galloway in a Twitter post. If it does refer to a disabled person (why?), it just confirms what some of us have known for a while: Galloway is an embarrassment and the use of the word 'gorgeous' at the front of his name is a long way in the past. He now puts me in mind of the old Glasgow saying: He's lovely till he opens his mooth.

I'm really pleased that I don't know the expression 'window licker'. It amazes me that words referring to people's physical and learning disabilities could be considered an insult. I know some Americans think it's ok to term people 'retard' and that is truly revolting, but 'mong' and 'spaz' are no better. There are surely enough problems in life without people like George Galloway, Ricky Gervais and Frankie Boyle deciding disabled people are a suitable target for insult.

Is this a guy thing? Or pure ignorance in the Glasgow sense (where being rude can lead to you being told you ur pure ignorant so ye ur) or is it - as I suspect - picking victims for your comments who are the least likely to be able to answer back. So, a cowardly thing then. And finally, old-fashioned: the world has moved on - time George Galloway did too.

Modell or muddle?

Abby, who is modelling pinafore dresses in today's Herald magazine is a pretty and pretty young woman. Since pinafore dresses were traditionally worn by wee lassies at primary school back in the 60s and 70s, I'm guessing somebody hired Abby first because she looks like a 10 year old and secondly because she looks faintly like one of the icons of that time, Audrey Hepburn.

I say 'faintly' because, whereas Abby in her photo is straight-faced, flat-chested and utterly devoid of any kind of sparkle, Audrey was the one many of us wee girls admired because she was a woman, with a woman's shape, a ravishing smile and a personality that just leapt out of her photos.

See? Sad, isn't it? Of course, the saddest thing is not that models have been reduced to sad-faced wee stick figures but that you couldn't put Audrey into Abby's clothes. Her shape would ruin the line of the clothes, which were I suspect designed by guys who wouldn't know a real woman if she leapt up and slapped them.....I'd really like to see that acturally - fashion might get a change of aesthetic then. I haven't forgotten the Italian designer who said he didn't design clothes for fat women and by fat he meant any woman over size 10 - with breasts.

 

Not another word about the man.....

No, not another reference to Prince Harry's dangly bits about which, btw, I'm sick of hearing.

I mean Anders Breivik.

There, I've typed the name but I would really like this to be the last time ever this man is named by anyone. An over-privileged middle-class young man living in a wealthy, peaceful, liberal community, he managed to grow up with no feeling for other people. Watching him on TV, it's clear he most craves publicity. He's his own greatest fan. I'm glad of that because he'll get to enjoy his own company from now till the end of his life. He'll never get out of prison and he'll never be able to infect other people with his hate.

The judge did an excellent job of keeping the courtroom under control. The court officers were magnificent in their refusal to react to his posturing and smirking. The Norwegian media showed great restraint in their reporting and filming. The families were amazingly dignified.

Now that he's out of the way, out of sight and, I hope, soon out of mind, maybe the families - in fact, the people of Norway - can start to think of the future. As in any bereavement, the loss will never get better, just less awful as time goes on. Good luck to them all.

Can we can the sirens, please?

For some reason, in the past year or two my wee bit of East Ren has turned into emergency central.

For example, this week from Sunday lunchtime until Wednesday at midnight I counted 17 emergency vehicles on our fairly quiet road with full mee-maws going. Seventeen - and I've been out part of that time.  We have a police station 200m away and the Victoria about 4km from here. Don't know where the nearest fire station is. Don't know where the mee-maws come from.

I'm very aware of noise and light pollution: at one time, I lived in a schoolhouse on Islay in the middle of nowhere and that spoiled me. I don't sleep well and admit I'm sensitive to noise. One of the reasons I moved to this wee complex (I'm not allowed to call it a scheme) is the quiet and the absence of street lights in our wee bit.

Overall, this has to be one of the quietest areas of Central Scotland, so why the over-use of sirens? How many roads do you need to clear in East Ren at midnight on a Wednesday? - or 5am on a Sunday? - yes, I've heard them at both times!

Could it depend on something as simple as who is on duty in the ambulance/fire/police crews? Is it an over-reaction - I mean, panic? Boy-o-boy, I hope not. Or is it just a case of 'we're emergency services - it's what we do!'?

Whatever it is, can we can it, please?

Daddy, I've fallen for a monster.....

I keep on hearing it on the radio and it's creeping me out. My unease with this song came to a head when I read Joe's Best Music in the World blog - have a look - it's a good read!

Joe writes: Loving bad men has been the theme of some of the biggest and best songs of recent times including Stooshe's current UK hit Black Heart with its wonderful lyric "Daddy I've fallen for a monster".  The singer goes on to describe the guy thus: "He's big and he's bad"..."the best I've ever had."

See, I've known too many women who've fallen for a monster and it's not so wonderful. They stay loyal to the monster, despite being beaten, raped, subjected to mental torture - and despite being left to fend for themselves (and their kids) while the monster is in the jail. They age fast, these women. Fear does that to a person.

I'm thinking of my great-nieces (aged 3 and 4) when I say we're sending out the wrong message to girls when songs glorify this kind of man. I want us to bring up generations of women who can rely on themselves, are resilient in the face of life's dramas - big and little, They need to be pumped up on self-respect, not dependent on some bad man. For her own sake, I hope the lassie in the song has a daddy with a pump-action shotgun. He doesn't need to use it but it might frighten the monster away!

This is a tough one...

I got a post on Facebook from a friend tonight, asking me to 'like traditional marriage'. You may guess 'traditional' means man/woman. I really respect this friend and, although I have no religious beliefs myself, I admire her faith and her loyalty to her church. But I'm shocked that such a view would be aired on FB, alarmed that so many people support her view and finally horrified that I'm expected to go along with it.

I was a very intolerant young woman. I grew up with a set of 'rules' passed on to me by Victorian and Edwardian grandparents and teachers - very influential in those days - and it has taken me decades to work out my own way of living. I reject religion since most religions seem to be about controlling people's behaviour and I reckon grown-ups can do that for themselves. I refuse to hate anyone or any group - what a waste of energy. I try to avoid knee-jerk prejudices: we can at least take the time to think about what people say. And if we have to do politics - and I think we do if we want to live in a functioning democracy - we can at least make it fair and above all KIND politics.

A quick head-count of my gay friends adds up to maybe a dozen. I'm not sure because I don't actually categorise people that way. (By the way, a non-FB friend told me recently that he didn't know anyone who is gay. B*ll*cks, said I, You just don't know them that well.) Do I want to give up my gay friends because they are gay? Don't think so. Nor do I want to deny them their wish to have a marriage ceremony, assuming they want one.

What I want is for us all to accept the quality of equality and stop putting people like me in a position where it seems we have to choose.....

Who can you trust?

Anyone else disillusioned with Julian Assange?

First he refuses to go to Sweden to face, not arrest but questioning over a rape charge. The argument is, this wouldn't be rape in another jurisdiction. Not much of an argument in my opinion: even if we don't like other people's laws, we still have to obey them - or face extradition if we don't.

Then he takes refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy. This is run by a government that is not exactly a beacon of human rights. By going there two months ago, he has jumped bail, thus letting the supporters who put up his bail money lose their cash.

He claims he's gone to the Ecuadorian embassy because he believes the Swedish legal authorities will hand him over to the USA and he will face charges there leading to the death penalty. This despite repeated assurances from the Swedish and EU authorities that they do not hand people over to any jurisdiction that has the death penalty.

Meanwhile, what's happened to Wikileaks? This is - or was - a really important website which posted information that governments didn't want us to see on a whole range of issues and in a whole raft of countries. I would even say that Wikileaks has led indirectly to the revelations of phone-hacking by UK newspapers of recent months, not to mention the renewed focus on parliamentary allowances and the behaviour of rogue bankers. But now Wikileaks has become the Julian Assange show, it has quite simply stopped doing its job. When was the last time Wikileaks - as opposed to Assange - was reported in national or international media?

By taking the action I've described above, has Assange not allowed the governments that wanted to silence Wikileaks to win?

If there's a valid defence out there for Assange's actions, I want to hear them.

A word a day

Just learned a new word, after encountering it 4 times in one day in a book and a magazine:

solipsism

   /ˈsɒlɪpˌsɪzəm/ Show Spelled[sol-ip-siz-uhm] 

noun

1. Philosophy: the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.

2. Extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.

 

Okay, now everyone can tell me they already knew this word - indeed have always known it and constantly pepper their conversation with it.

 

I can see a use for the first definition but somehow I can't hear myself throwing out the adjective in an insult: "Why, you solipsistic sod, you!"

 

It comes to us, of course, from the USA. I'm going to file it along with another new American word I learned last week: ouster.

Not just any crap website.....

Who exactly are M&S aiming their clothes at on their website?

Young women don't shop at M&S because the clothes are for old people. My sister buys very little in M&S but on a walk round she'll say pointedly: "Aye, your granny would love that!" I take the view that our granny had better taste.

I've certainly got better taste than to buy most of the tat in the women's section of the website.

For example, nightwear to M&S means baggy stripy stuff or baggy floral stuff, although you can get a very nice cashmere dressing gown for 199 quid - as if! The height of style to M&S appears to be the satin nightshirt. They must think it's stylish - they've been selling it for years, along with the floral-print, capped-sleeve knee-length cotton nightie with the dinky wee satin bow at the yoke. I suspect M&S bought a job lot of a million of these in the 30s and won't renew the design till they've sold every last one.

In the Classic clothes collection, there quite a few perennials that have been around for years. Whether the fashion in the real world is for long or short skirts, the clothes in this collection hang at knee length. The skirts are often pleated. The trousers are often tartan. The blouses look as if they were lifted straight out of the pages of a Littlewoods catalogue circa 1957.

Go to the Per Una collection and you'll find nice clothes. But do you really want to spend 40 quid on an M&S cardigan that you'll feel obliged to keep rather than 12 quid on an Asda one you can junk when it goes out of fashion and/or the sleeves stretch down to your knees?

And don't kid yourself you're paying for quality at M&S. There are almost as many complaints of poor quality as there are of high prices.

M&S gave up making clothes in larger sizes about 5 years ago. Their petite range is gradually disappearing too. Maybe they should just chuck clothes altogether and become a bog standard supermarket, specialising in high end quality grub. But wait - I think Waitrose and Whole Foods have overtaken them there, and Tesco and Sainsbury's are catching up fast.....

The C word

Some days it doesn't pay to open a paper.....In today's Herald (page 9, left hand side) there is an article presenting the research results of a Yale prof on mice delivered by C section. The prof suggests that babies born by this method may show poorer memory development than those born by natural childbirth because the production of a particular brain protein is reduced.

UK scientists have poured scorn on the findings: it's not clear if the findings from C sections on mice transfer to humans - and not clear whether the reduction in brain proteins is made up later in life.

But isn't the subject interesting? More and more women are opting for C sections for 'convenience' according to the prof. This is otherwise referred to scathingly as the 'too posh to push' option. And not just in the spoilt richer countries.  This is a patient-led drive for pain-free childbirth.

C sections are pricy: you have to have an anaesthetist there as well as an obstetrician. If you live in the UK, you won't have to pay up front but if you're in the USA your insurance has an interest in keeping costs down. So what better way to stop women having C sections than by scaring them!?

Cracking.....

It's taken 11 days of exposure to the Olympics but finally I have cracked. Listening to a 10 minute interview with who knows which retired athlete about Usain Bolt, I found myself shouting at the computer:

IS THERE NO OTHER COUNTRY COMPETING IN THESE GAMES?

The BBC are the main broadcasters of the games and the source of all the material that appears on other stations. They set the tone.

What if you're one of the many French or Spanish or Canadian or Indian or Polish or Aussie people living in the UK? Which BBC channel can you go to to see how your team is going? None that I can find.

I can't believe the BBC producers were sent into these games with instructions to be totally biased. This is after all an organisation which for generaitons has prided itself on its impartiality. The ultimate defenders of what the French call 'le fair play.' But biased they are - giving partisan, lazy commentaries on just the few competitors wearing the GB badge.

Does the UK audience know any more about any of the Olympic sports around the world? Not unless it's covered in a Union Flag!

Testing, testing...

Who do you feel more sorry for, the kids or the teachers? as the exam results come out and the media complain - a summer ritual, as reliable as rain - about exams being too easy.
The kids? You spend your school life being taught and tested: up to 5 levels of tests in just 7 years of primary school, followed by more testing in S1 and S2, then S4, S5 and S6. And till you get to Higher stage, you're juggling a ridiculous number of subjects, some of which you don't like and will never look at again in later life. You're constantly under pressure to pass assessments: extra homework, extra classes at lunchtime, after school and in the holidays. And you know you have to do well in fourth year or you can kiss goodbye to the Higher courses you want. And doing well in Highers will decide whether you get into the college or university course you want. Even though these days it doesn't look like there will be a job at the end of it....

The teachers? Prepare your lessons and teach them and then test what the kids have learned, all the stricken time. The kids complain about anything extra you do to try to interest them: 'Is this gonny be in the test?' Your head of department will be breathing down your neck all year, making sure your kids' marks are the same as everybody else's. And the heidie will be breathing down the head of department's neck if your results slip.  And all the while, you know that Her Majesty's Inspectors will continue to tell you your teaching isn't rigorous enough, you're not stretching the kids, it's all about teaching 'smarter' not teaching more - blah, blah. And you just know other departments in the school are inflating marks like crazy to keep kids doing their subjects and keep their results up.

We have in Scotland the most over-assessed schools possibly in the world. We keep on reforming what we do in schools (in the 35 years I worked in education we had 5 major re-designs of the curriculum) and still we continue to slip down the international league tables. In other words, the tests don't work.

There is one sane voice in the middle of all this: Brian Boyd, ex secondary heidie, ex-member of the education directorate at Strathclyde Region, ex-professor of education at Strathclyde University. Brian is looking for teachers and students to be creative, to work together, to enjoy learning. He's got some great notions here:
http://www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/resourcesandcpd/biographies/biogbrianboyd.asp
I wonder if his ideas will catch on.

Overheard at the doctor's...

Two ladies meet - combined ages about 200.

- Haven't seen you for ages!
- No, we were on a cruise.
- How was it?
- Terrible.
- Oh? Why's that?
- We went to the Azores. From Southampton. It's in the middle of the Atlantic, you know, the Azores. Five days we were on that boat. And there was nothing to see when we got there.
- Were there no activities on the boat?
- Aye, it was fine if you like swimming or sunbathing.
- No shows?
- They were terrible too.
- Nice restaurants? Good food?
- Too fancy.
- Did you just call in at the Azores?
- We went to Madeira. That was terrible as well.
- Doesn't sound as if cruising is the thing for you.
- We're going another cruise next year. To the Caribbean. We're hoping there'll be a bit more to see.....

Money's wasted on people like this.

Boris - really??

Okay, who wants Boris Johnston as the new Tory Prime Minister?
If ever I could be pushed into voting for independence for Scotland, it would be by the prospect of Boris Johnston in 10 Downing Street. Not because he's a clown, which he only pretends he is, but because he's Eton-educated, a millionaire, an ego-maniac and he thinks he's entitled to be there. In other words, he's dangerous.

Why would I object to anyone being privately-educated and rich? You don't choose your education - your parents do - and how you make your money is your business. But have a look at the graph showing that 87% of the current Cabinet are millionaires. What hope do we have of any of them defending the poor, unemployed, disabled and elderly? Not much. Is 'Welfare' safe? (Here I have to ask where this word came from. It makes social security sound like a hand-out, whereas we all know that those people who need help from 'Welfare' at some stage have mostly paid into the social security system all the time they were working.) Is the NHS safe? Ask anybody in England about the postcode health lottery. How about English education? One of the reasons I'm grateful for devolution is that Scottish health services and education are beyond the reach of loonies like Andrew Lansley - and Michael Gove with his 'free' schools and academies. Unqualified teachers? Watch out for unqualified doctors and nurses coming your way soon.

I want people in power who will narrow the gap between those who are ridiculously rich and the rest of us - or at the very least are aware that such a gap exists.

I also want to be protected from politicians with an ego like Boris's. I used to work for someone with a massive ego to whom nothing mattered except his personal fame and power. Maybe in Boris's case he also cares about a few highly dubious pals like Rupert Murdoch - whom incidentally he invited to the Olympics. And let's not forget, Boris is the media's bitch: one-time columnist in such and such a paper, one-time star presenter on Have I Got News For You, rent-a-quote for every occasion. You want zip-gliding? Watch this!

Why does Boris want to be Prime Minister? What does he have to offer? What is his agenda? Is he a 'reforming' Tory or does his attraction to the far right lie in the fact that he will do anything - ANYTHING -  to get his feet under the desk at number 10?

Landslip Closes the Rest And Be Thankful

I've said for a long time that Argyll is the forgotten region of Scotland.

A friend of mine took Canadian visitors to Inveraray on a day out from Glasgow. One of the visitors, seeing the signpost on the Loch Lomond Road reading Inveraray 60m, said enthusiastically: 'Hey, that's not far! It's beautiful here. You could live here and commute to Glasgow!' Then he saw the roads.

It's a good thing really that most of the world doesn't know about Argyll: if Argyll got discovered, the infrastructure would never be able to handle the increased population. The cost of the extra roads, housing, bridges, sewage works, schools, buses/trains/planes/boats would be prohibitive.

As it is, Argyll & Bute Council can't even keep the A83 - the main road that links the Central Belt to many Argyll communities, including some of the islands, and ends in Campbeltown - open on a daily basis. How many times in recent years has the Rest been shut by landslips, adding 50 miles to any journey beyond Arrochar? Pushing the prices of goods being delivered overland - like just about all the food and drink in the shops in both mainland Argyll and islands like Islay, Gigha and Jura - higher and higher. Deterring tourism, the lifeblood of many an Argyll community, at every turn. And still, it's not fixed.

And let's not even mention the fiasco of the Dunoon ferries, the Oban trains where not getting a seat is normal or the villages where having a primary school is now a luxury. How to kill a region in a few easy steps. Congrats to Argyll & Bute Council for starting the process!