Delays

Sunday meant travelling again, and another flight. The thing is, although I enjoy flying, I really am not a good traveller. I normally want to be at the airport hours before I need to be. However, for once I was running late. I got a text from a colleague telling me there were massive queues. Not what I wanted to hear. So I got to Luton Airport, got to arrivals and, sure enough, massive queues at check in. But I was so late that they had opened a desk for late check in for my flight. Short queue, excellent. As I was checking in my colleague walked past, he had been in the long queue all the time and had only just checked in himself. The mad thing about that is that it almost encourages you to arrive late. I made it to the airport an hour or so after he had and our check in was within minutes of each other. Crazy.

Tribulations

As pointed out by 1iz, Paris Hilton isn't having a great time. But it has got worse, as she has been sent back to prison. Having a nervous breakdown was not enough to keep her out. It is tempting to feel sorry for her. Well, not really. But initially you think of her having to rub shoulders with the commoners. You can understand how the shock would have unhinged her. Experiencing a world she didn't know existed, must have been unsettling.

But, and what a big but (please refrain from all innuendos at this point), then you have to realise where she was sent. She was at the Century Regional Detention Centre. The CRDC is no ordinary prison. Oh no. It has a special unit for celebrities, public officials, police officers and other high-profile inmates. Basically these are the people she speds her time with when she is out of prison anyway. I suspect she would have found some friends in there. It must be the height of fame to have a prison built for you. Somehow doubt there is a prison for plumbers, one for accountants (too may to fit in one place anyway), one for middle managers. Maybe instead of sewing mail bags they have to sew ball gowns. Instead of walking around the compound they go around in a golf buggy.

Don't Let The Bed Bugs Bite

I have spent the day building a bed. Well, it feels like I have spent a month doing it. Great idea to have a bunk bed! Overuse of an allan key has left me with a very sore thumb. And I have sworn I will now only buy furniture from Ikea. This wasn't from them and I deeply regret it. Ignoring holes that don't line up etc, I almost cried when I opened another box to find different instructions showing some fairly major parts in different places than the first set of instructions I had been following for the previous 4 hours. And before anyone says, yes we only ahve the one child but the bottom of the bed is a desk and a sitting area.

Thankfully not quite as complicated as this one.

Fade

Losing
Gradually
Slowly
Losing

Unable to prevent
The aching dissolve
Failing to hold
The stones together

My fingers no longer
Tracing
My lips no longer
Feeling
The scent, the sound
Forgotten

Brrr

Is it just me? Or does anyone else think we are entering another cold war? Obviously Russia is not happy. But can they be blamed? For the last 5-10 years they have seen the west flexing its muscles. Over oil, over land, over democracy. But ultimately repeatedly flexing muscles. And trying to dominate the world. Russia woould have reason to be afraid, to be worried. And the problem is when you make a nation like Russia feel afraid then they are simply going to retaliate. No wonder Blair got a cold reception. There is only one person that Putin would be less likely to talk to, and that is Blairs owner.

Tag, You're It

This is an interesting piece of legislation. It starts off fine, fathers who haven't paid maintenance can be named and shamed. No problem with that. Then they can be blacklisted for credit. Bit more dubious, that blacklist already contains a number of mistakes which make peoples lives a misery. But then you read further and learn that people could be tagged or curfewed. This starts to get really challenging. It is starting to feel wrong. I am stuggling to say why, after all they are technically breaking the law and therefore criminals, but it seems draconian in the least. Yes, they should be held responsible but a working and decent legal system has to be based on a measured response to the problem.

Let's ignore the fact that the tagging system itself has failed to work. That there isn't the manpower to run it properly as it is. Even ignoring that, is this an appropriate response? The child support agency isn't exactly perfect. It seems quite possible that people will be wrongly tagged. That maybe they are trying to appeal but the choice is taken out of their hands. Tagging has a role, but it has to be for reintroducing people into society, people for whom setting curfew has a sense, a reason, or those whose actions mean they need to be monitored. Setting a curfew on someone who has not paid for their child is not setting a punishment to fit the crime. It can almost be seen as churlish. A case of sulking and being heavy handed because someone isn't playing ball nicely. It almost strikes me that a previous failure to be successful in dealing with this problem has lead to a response of throwing heavier weights at it rather than addressing the issue itself.

Where does it stop, tagging for speeding tickets or parking fines? Curfew for dropping a chewing gum wrapper in the street?

Greeting

I was only away for one night. Arrived back this evening, parked in the drive, got out and walked around to the boot, only to be hit in the solar plexus by a blue whirlwind. Which may not sound very good. But when I explain that the blue whirlwind was my daughter, rushing out to me because she was so pleased to see me (blue because she was still in school uniform), then you will understand how that just made my day. It's nice to be welcomed home.

Practice Makes Perfect

Last night was the final rehearsal before the initiation ceremony next week. Well, the final rehearsal for me, the others have one on Monday. In fact it was only my second rehearsal. Living so far from Cardiff really makes this difficult. It never ceases to amaze me that I can be word perfect in the car but then I start to stumble when other people are there. It is because of the extra bits, adding the actions on to the words, when to stand, when to knock, when to step down to the candidate. Learning a play without ever going on the stage. Not ideal. I am really looking forward to my first ceremony "in the chair" but it is nerve wracking as well. I haven't read a book for ages, just concentrating on my lines. I am promising myself a book immediately afterwards.

Watching You

Is it right that Emily Parr should have been kicked out of the Big Brother house? Most seem to think so. I am not so sure. Right from the outset I want to be clear I am not defending her words. I agree they are racist and I do not believe that they should be used.

But Big Brother is a "reality" show. And, if there is one thing it should be able to do it is to challenge us and the way people act together. By kicking her out we are simply trying to brush what we find offensive under the carpet. It isn't tackling the issue, it isn't admiting that racism is a way of life for a lot of people. And it isn't being honest about the society we live in.

They could have done so much more. They could have made this into a debate as a task for the contestants. They could have made them think about what lay behind the words. They couldhave brought an important topic into the forefront of peoples minds. Instead it is hidden away, a skeleton in the closet not to be opened.

Silence In Court

I might be cheating slightly by categorising this as "news" because I can't relate it to a particular story, but I think it relevant to the topic.

It seems that adverts for "ambulance chasers" are on the increase. You know what I mean, the "if you think you might have a claim then come to us because it won't cost you anything". yet another great export from America. These really annoy me. They annoy me because they encourage people to take a punt on whether or not they might be able (note I say "able" not "entitled") to get some money off someone else.

People don't want to accept responsibility for their own actions these days. People want there to be someone to blame. By taking away consequences we make it easier for people to blame someone else, and not to think about their own involvement. We are becoming more and more a litigation culture. If something happens that we don't like then there must be someone we can sue. If we hurt ourselves then there must be someone we can serve a court order on.

No. Stop and think. If you tripped on a kerbstone maybe you should have been watching where you were going. If you burnt your mouth on a cup of coffee maybe it was your fault for not waiting for it to cool down.

We need to have a due legal system which means that people can claim and set the wheels in motion when they are entitled. But the way things are going people don't have to worry about any repercussions for themselves. And this is wrong. It might not cost them anything but the same cannot be said for the person, or company, getting sued or the tax payers.

This is not right. It isn't healthy for society. If clever lawyers are given more opportunities to twist gestures of goodwill into admissions of liability then more companies will stop helping their customers when things go wrong. More and more the line will be drawn that once it has left the door then it is the purchasers problem. One clever individual may get a nice payout by pushing a court action but society as a whole will be worse off.

No Lumberjack

What Monty Python Character are you?

Well, u-- um, can we come up and have a look?
Take this quiz!

2+2=4

After work I went to the school maths evening. The idea was for parents to learn about how their children are being taught maths (you could tell the american parent, he called it "math"). It was open for the whole school so, even allowing for the fact this is a small village school, I was disappointed to see less than 20 parents bothered to turn up.

Then, as the teachers began to explain, I realised that we had all made the same mistake. We had all sent the person from the household that could do maths. So there was loads of muttering about the new methods, a lot of "what was wrong with the way we did it, it worked for us". No remembering of how some kids struggled, how some couldn't get the numbers to work together. And so we were entirely the wrong group of people to be judging the school systems.

Now, I have to admit I found it hard to understand how some of the techniques actually help because some of them do seem long winded, but I also recognise that a lot of people eminently more qualified than me have looked into this. And I thought it was good to see the different ways that "A" might learn to approach maths. I felt it would help me help her.

As it went on I got more and more irritated by the sceptics. We wasted time with them not being open minded. One father who thought his child should instantly know 7x8 was 56 (this was the same father who complained that his child was only being taught half her times tables, half as in up to 5 times not 10 times, hands up those of you who think his child was having him on in order not to do some maths "oo daddy they haven't told us 7x8 yet", I am sorry but he gets the gullible of the year award).

At the end I couldn't help myself (and suspect some parents now don't like me) as I thanked the teachers and then pointed out to the parents that we were all the ones who understood maths and weren't trying to think of those who struggled with it. I said that if someone was showing me that they had found a way to make languages more simple I would be thanking them and biting their hand off to get at it. That we had to put ourselves in the position of something we struggled with, not something we found obvious. Basically I accused them of being narrow minded and not being able to cope with change.

I am incredibly grateful to the school for giving us the insight. I hope they don't get put off by the nay-sayers.

When, What?

Someone needs to talk to the Olympic committee. I don't think that they have quite grasped the concept of "brand". A brand needs to be something that people can relate to. The logo needs to be instantly recognisable and inspiring. The olympic brand is anything but. The logo is able to come in different colours and doesn't look like anything more than a shattered mirror. At a push, and once it has been pointed out, you can see that the shapes are supposed to be the numbers 2012, although I am yet to work out what the central square is (trafalgar maybe). It cost £400, 000. Part of me thinks that is a ridiculous amount of money for a jagged sketch. Another part thinks no wonder it isn't better, £400k on something that should be so iconic is actually very cheap.

Looks like we don't even get a gold medal for our brand.

Yippee

Pity me. Today is "A"s 5th birthday. Woken up early by one excited girl. Later we have the party with 33 other children. A disco party! It is going to be a long day.

Roller

Side by side
Hands gripping
Bound down
Speed up
Unfocussed

Thrill making
Thrill taking
Nauseating
Never stopping
Scream

Screaming
Smiling
Crying
Signals
Blurred

Night

In this bar
I haven't moved
Only raised a drink
To my lips,
Two hours
The barman
Knows me more
Than anyone.
I watched you
Enter, laughing
Friends surround,
Centre of their attention
And mine.
Wanting to speak
Too shy,
Too quiet,
Too....
Only watching.

I'll Take A Vowel Carol

Spelling Bee. Oh dear. And where do you come from Bob?

Smash and Grab

3M are very confident in their security glass.

Ooo Yes (Or No)

Well, I am disappointed in Apple. Someone, somewhere is a bit more of a prude than I would have expected for an innovative and modern company. Ann Summers have come up with a new use for the iPod, the iGasm. Basically it does what it says on the tin! Turn up the volume to turn up the good vibrations (and it doesn't come with Beach Boys included). Now I like my music, I get pleasure from my music, but sure not like this.

Follow the link above for an interesting advert, from the people who brought you the rabbit and the cone (I still haven't got over the cone ad, grandmothers, powercuts, all too much to think about). Anyway it would appear that Apple are getting hot under the collar when they could be getting hot elsewhere.

Today...

seems to have consisted of work, dinner and decorating. And nothing to say. Not often that happens. Make the most of it.