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December 28, 2005
Always something there to remind me
I swear my family are in allegiance with Virginia Woolf and the BBC (or should that be the other way around?). First thing this morning I turned on the news and they were featuring a noise machine which is supposed to disperse groups of young people by omitting a high pitched sound that can usually only be heard by those under thirty. Laying aside the dodgy morality in the use of the device, I thought that if I could hear it then all would be Okay, I may have been born thirty years ago today but at least I could say I had the hearing of a 29 year old.
Nope I couldn’t hear it. I wonder if that would have been the case yesterday.
So then I turned to Virginia Woolf for comfort, how pleasurable to be blessed with the opportunity to be rereading one of one’s favourite books on one’s birthday, for surely the Woolf would not let me down.
A couple of pages later I read the following;
‘Orlando was a man till the age of thirty;* when he became a woman and has remained so ever since.’
Naturally what with it being 28th December 2005, I had to follow that star and find the corresponding note at the back of the book. It appears that according to Freud my development of a female identity should come about only as a sequel to my first identity which, yes you’ve guessed it, was masculine. And when should this change of identity take place? Round about my thirtieth birthday.
So there you have it, my hearing may be deteriorating but at least I can now call myself a woman.
Time to get out of these pyjamas and go find myself a skirt methinks.
Posted by purple elephant at 09:06 AM |
December 27, 2005
Fridge Magnet Philosophy.
I really need to get out more. Much to the dismay of my family, I spent the afternoon cracking the National Literacy Strategy, Reception 45 words code, with only a little cheating. Yep that’s right I have composed a work of art using all the words only once. It is probably about child abuse or something and is so literary it needs footnotes. Do you want to read it? Go on I know you do really. It goes something like this;
*clears throat*
It was the day she went to play
at The Donkey Sanctuary.*
‘Come on! Get up! Away we go!’
Mum said
Yes they are all going in a big cat
for my dad is no dog.
He can look at me you see
and I am of this masterpiece.**
*OK so at this point I drew on the reserves of a Donkey Sanctuary fridge magnet.
** No my daughter doesn’t have to learn to read the word ‘Masterpiece’ by the summer it was taken from a Felix Cat food magnet. For your information Felix is treading dirty footprints everywhere and the word ‘masterpiece’ is written across the bottom.
Ok so when you have stopped laughing at me I challenge you to do better.
Posted by purple elephant at 06:49 PM |
Mmmmm Snow!
Just went over to the shop and the snow was still crisp and powdery under my feet and we came home with snowflakes in our hair. Pity it didn't come a couple of days earlier and then we could have had a white Christmas.
Posted by purple elephant at 10:20 AM |
December 26, 2005
Happy Boxing Day!
I hope you all had a satisfying Christmas.
A reasonably quiet (but sleepy) one for us, as Madam has us up and out of bed at 6am, most impressed that Santa had left her a teddy bear and had gobbled up all the biscuits she made especially for him. I think her favourite present by far was the Sylvanian Families canal boat, closely followed by the magnetic words set (the non gendered version) which I hogged all morning because I was convinced that I could write a complete story using each of the 45 words only once. I’ll get back to you on that one.
Mr PE cooked a perfect lunch with more food than you could fit on one plate and yes 4 hours later we have barely put a dent on the mountains of pies, nut roasts, stuffing etc.
Oh and I can’t wait to find some nice jagged walks so that I can put my brand new hiking pole to good use but for today I’m going to sit around and catch up with some reading because Ha! My next course gives me an excuse to read Orlando again.
Posted by purple elephant at 02:50 PM |
December 23, 2005
The Christmas Spirit
I still seem to have a hundred and one things to do in time for Christmas, so I give you my past couple of days in list form.
Things that have helped my Christmas Spirit
1) A winter warming bottle of Glenmorangie I received for a Solstice present.
2) A heart warming package from the Open University containing next years course materials (mmm the smell of new books) which was presented to me by the same man who delivers my OU package every year. I have long decided that he is probably the nicest man in the whole world. The added bonus was that someone had scrawled ‘Happy Xmas!’ on the front of my box, whether it was he or someone at the warehouse, I shall never know.
3) The Rainbow Café’s Christmas Menu, particularly the vegan mandarin ‘cheese’ cake with chocolate shavings on top. *Drool* How much do I want that recipe.
4) The fact that I got an overall 2:1 for this year BUT a First (just) for my coursework. YES my exam mark dragged it down BUT guess what? Next year’s course has NO EXAM! In theory Purple Elephant never has to sit an exam ever again! Whoah!
5) Colin Firth in The Importance of Being Earnest on BBC2 at 8pm on Christmas day. Need I say more?
6) Cinnamon scented candles
7) Is it obvious that I am dragging this section out so that I don’t sound like a miserable old scrouge?
Things that haven’t helped my Christmas Spirit.
1) People in Oxfam Books today who queued in the wrong direction.
2) Someone who almost trampled my daughter and then had the audacity to tut as if it was Littleone’s fault that she had left everything to the last minute and was beginning to panic.
3) The fact that I still have to do a supermarket shop in the morning.
4) As I’m writing this I’ve just realised that this is my last OU course and I shall never see above nice man again.
5) A daughter who is obviously putting on some sort of growth spurt because since she has broken up from school she has muttered nothing but ‘I’m hungry!’
6) The constant reminder from various family and friends that I have less than a week left of being in my twenties. My mother takes the biscuit here for telling someone that her eldest is ‘nearly 30.’ I’ll have you know Dear Mother that I still have a whole five days left. Oh how I wiped that smug smile from her face the other day, when I reminded her that making me sound older shall do her no favours for she will always remain a whole 25 years older than me. Yes mother how does it feel to be nearly 60? Mwwwaaaahhahahahahahah!
7) The fact that according to Tesco Magazine, I should be spending my Christmas preparing my ‘batons’ of carrots into little bundles and tying them together with a sprig of lemongrass. I don’t know about you but my life is most certainly too short.
Posted by purple elephant at 09:05 PM |
December 21, 2005
Gonna get myself connected
Well we have managed to acquire an ancient laptop with quite possibly the slowest internet connection in the world. It is all rather tedious so nothing for us but the bare internet basics for the time being, will try to update as much as possible and will get round to catching up with my blogroll but comments from me may be a little sparse for a while.
Anyway just a quick update to say happy winter solstice to you all, we are off for a meal with some friends tonight to celebrate and thank God the days are actually going to get longer from now on.
Oh yes Summer is a coming.
Posted by purple elephant at 12:51 PM |
December 17, 2005
Honey I killed the computer...
Yep guys, the only place my PC is heading this Christmas is the place for irritatingly useless computers in the sky. Actually take that back it's going to hell.
Things are up in the air as to when we will be online again, it could be as much as a month or it could be a couple of days but I will try to keep you up to date as and when I can borrow internet time from other people.
I'm at my mum's for the weekend though so shall try and post tomorrow.
Posted by purple elephant at 04:38 PM |
December 13, 2005
The Alternative Advent Calendar ; Days 12 &13
Big is better
It is estimated that we will use an extra 750 million bottles and glass containers, and 500 million drinks cans in the UK over Christmas. Make sure you recycle yours, and buy drinks in large containers, rather than in a lot of small ones. One large bottle results in less waste than a lot of small cans and is more economical. Alternatively, buy drinks in concentrate form to dilute.
Go local
Avoid the crazy crush of the high street and buy your gifts from local designers and craft centres.
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Posted by purple elephant at 05:27 PM |
December 12, 2005
Bah Humbug! Part ... well I’m losing count already.
What do you think is my least favourite thing about Christmas? The needlessly crowded shopping centres? An over excited kid bouncing off the walls long after I’ve passed out from exhaustion? or perhaps mothers in the school playground bragging about how much they have spent on their kids this year? Although I do have to admit this is mighty annoying because I’ve yet to hear an adult that looks fondly back to her childhood and says, ‘The Christmas of 1985 was particularly warm, cosy and magical, as my mum spent 600 quid on me that year.’
Nope, what beats all three hands down is those nasty little specs of coloured foil, yes you’ve guessed it, this year I’m fighting a losing battle against GLITTER.
I worked really hard Friday evening and Saturday morning getting this place looking nice before we put up the decorations but I made one crucial mistake, I didn’t put the pots of glitter away. About 5.6 seconds after I hoovered Mr PE walked in through the door and said,
‘What’s all that crap on the floor?’ and I replied
‘I know it’s called carpet, cool isn’t it!’
But there to my horror of horrors in the middle of the floor, was my daughter’s entry for the Turner Prize, a sculpture of Ben Nevis in glitter.
Has anyone here ever tried removing glitter? I got out the dustpan and brush but all that seemed to do was to wedge little glittery fragments between the bristles ready and waiting for next time I sweep, when they will dislodge back over my floor again. It also seemed to send the fragments flying in the air like a puff of smoke, ready to land in places I’d forgotten existed.
So I got the hoover out again and stood mindlessly pushing backwards and forwards over the spot until each fragment was ground permanently into the pile of my carpet.
After that I gave up and decided to pretend that the bright, tacky and shiny carpet is all part of the Christmas decor. The problem is that now the glitter has attached itself to the bottom of our feet, and now it has spread all over the house like a bad disease, which meant that I put our socks in the washing machine and hey bingo, a whole load of sparkly glittery laundry.
In addition I had to stop Mr PE on his way to the pub quiz last night because he had a glittery cheek.
I even found glitter in my dinner.
All that glitters is most certainly NOT gold, if it was then I’d be beating JK Rowling in the Britain’s Richest Woman lists.
Posted by purple elephant at 09:57 AM |
December 11, 2005
The Alternative Advent Calendar ; Day 11
Thinking about buying a christmas tree but concerned about its environmental impact? Here's some options to consider. Can you decorate a large houseplant instead? If you do buy a real one - and 6 million of us do - get one with roots that can be planted outside or kept in a pot for next year. Otherwise, check with your local council that they will recycle it afterwards. To make sure it's UK grown, buy from a retailer registered with the British Tree Growers Association. If you want a tree that is certified organic or sustainably grown, visit the Soil Association. Finally, artificial trees - if you already have one, get the most out of it, but it's best to avoid buying a new one. Their production is resource and energy intensive, and they're difficult to recycle afterwards.
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Posted by purple elephant at 07:48 PM |
Times are a changing...
One year my mum fell in love with a dinner service from M&S, so she asked for all the separate pieces from various relatives for Christmas; the plates from my dad, the gravy boat from a great aunt, that sort of thing.
I remember being quite disgruntled by the whole situation, asking for a dinner service for Christmas, how utterly dull and boring to ask for something from which the whole family would benefit. Shouldn’t I be asking for one large plate, one side plate etc, after all I was going to eat from them. But of course I wanted the latest Wham! album too much to even consider suggesting that this should be the case. I did however vow from that day on that when I was grown up my Christmas list was going to consist of nice things, if my family wanted to eat from pretty plates then they could ask for them themselves.
The thing is I’ve wanted a food processor for years. It would be quite handy for making nice smooth soups and for blending the hummous so I don’t have to stand there for hours bending a fork, if it also had a juicer bit then, you never know my family might eat more fruit and thus extend our life expectancy, or something. Each Christmas however I remember my vow and demand lots of books instead and then come January start dreaming about how much easier (and longer) life would be if I had a food processor.
Now I bring you forward and transcribe a conversation between my husband and myself last night,
MR. PE; ‘Have you got my Christmas present yet?’
ME; ‘Come on, what do you take me for? It’s only December 10th.’
MR. PE; ‘Have you decided what you are going to get me?’
ME; ‘Like I said, it’s only December 10th.’
MR PE; ‘I quite fancy one of those food processors, you know, so we can make smooth soups and hummous and stuff.’
BINGO! Now where did I put the Argos catalogue?!
Posted by purple elephant at 09:34 AM |
December 10, 2005
The Alternative Advent Calendar ; Days 9 & 10
300 million batteries go to landfill each year in the UK - and only 4 per cent are recycled. Where possible, avoid buying goods or gifts that require batteries - if you do, buy rechargeables. To recycle regular batteries, contact your local authority to find out if they are included in your kerbside collection. Some large retailers - including Dixons, PC World, Ikea and Currys - offer in-store recycling facilities.
Make your own scourers with nylon mesh bags (the kind that oranges etc come in) stuffed inside each other and tied up. This idea was submitted in the Friends of the Earth Forum - for more bright ideas, or to contribute your own pay them a visit.
Don't forget, you too can sign up for a daily green living tip here.
Posted by purple elephant at 09:16 PM |
December 09, 2005
Security?
We’ve always joked that this area is so rough that even the Tesco’s Express on the corner needs a doorman and not just at night either. The guy that works there has taken a shine to Littleone and calls her Princess or the like as we walk though the door. I’ve head him brag about some dodgy politics from time to time but I’ve let it pass because I’ve always thought that if Littleone or myself ever got into trouble out there then he’d be down on the assailant like a tonne of bricks.
Oh poor sheltered me.
Yesterday on the way home from school drop off I thought I needed a loaf of bread but I ducked my head in the door to the shop, took one look at the queue and decided that the need wasn’t quite so desperate as I had originally thought, so I decided to wait outside for a friend of mine who had already been lost in swirl of the crowd inside the shop.
So then it kicks off outside. Two mothers from the school and a couple of blokes shouting at each other at the top of their voices but I can’t make head nor tail of what they are fighting about. A leisurely crowd begins to gather, old, young and the security geezer are all folding their arms treating us all to a running commentary lest we can’t see.
‘Oooh she’s giving as good as she gets.’
‘Look now, he’s pulled a knife.’
‘What?’ I think, ‘Holy shit! Someone call the police!’
But still the audience stays put, not one of them so much as bothers to change their gawping expression, nope not even Mr Security geezer himself
‘Perhaps,’ he announces leisurely ‘If it was a group of blokes I would have got involved by now but when it’s women, I don’t know where to touch them. I might accidentally touch them you know where and then I’d get done for sexual harassment.’
The elderly woman standing next to him giggles like a school child.
Meanwhile the mother who has a knife pointing in her chest is mouthing off something about him putting his pathetic excuse for a knife back in his pocket before she turns round and rams it up his fucking arse.
The audience thinks this is the funniest thing they‘ve seen all day.
‘But it’s a knife’ I think ‘and it’s only a thrust away from her vital organs..’
Maybe it is the fear of having something cold and sharp pierced through the seat of his trousers but eventually the knife does go back in its hiding place and the whole kafuffle dispersed.
When my friend who has been living in this area all her life, reappears from the shop I tell her about the incident and that that someone pulled a knife on Whatshername’s mum.
‘I know who you mean.’ She laughs, ‘He’s always waving that fucking thing about but that’s not a knife, this was a knife.’*
And she lifts up her jumper to reveal stab wound, albeit a small stab wound but a stab wound all the same and she chuckles, ‘thought he was well ‘ard that one.’
And all the time I’m trying so desperately to see the funny side myself. Still she continues,
‘That was nothing. I saw someone do a Chelsea Smile once and I threw up right then and there on the spot.’
The cool rational side of my brain thinks, ‘It’s OK I don’t need to know what a Chelsea Smile is, something tells me it’s got nothing to do with a Chelsea Tractor. It’s enough for me to know that the sight of it turned the stomach of someone who laughs at the stab wound in her own chest.’
But the expression on my face must say something completely different because she tells me anyway and I know instantly that life was better before I knew what a Chelsea Smile was.
And so now I’m thinking of that little girl I just dropped off at school, those innocent blue eyes and those cheeky blonde pigtails and I know that she shares a classroom with the kids of the mothers who were threatened with a knife at ten past nine on a Thursday morning and her best friend's Mum shows off her battle wounds like some sort of trophy. I wonder how long it will be before my four year old learns that a knife isn’t just for spreading jam on her sandwiches. How long before that terrible day when she comes out of school and I look into those eyes realising that I’m not the only one who knows what a Chelsea Smile is? Then I’ll know that it will be just a matter of time before she treats sickening violence like it’s some great big joke. I just pray to God I can get her out of here before all this happens.
At least I can hope. We have both less than a year left on our degrees and Mr PE has been offered a place on an MA. I know that none of this is a guarantee that either of us will ever make enough money to move out of here but even if it doesn‘t work out, at least we were given the chance, which is a hell of a lot more than half those people congregated out there on Tesco’s forecourt were ever given.
What will happen when (not if) we live in our nice comfortable house in a nice comfortable area and my kid goes to a nice comfortable school and we share the school run with nice comfortable neighbours, (who might even own a Chelsea Tractor) whose only fear is that they might get a call from Social Services because they once used the word ‘Bugger’ in front of the kids?
Will I lounge smugly on my Habitat sofa just content that we got the hell out of here? Or will a sense of guilt occasionally pass over me as I think of those in Littleone’s class who will never be given the chance? Those who will end up left behind in this area, caught in this cycle of bunking school, wielding knives and amusing themselves with fights outside the shop, until they too have kids and start the whole process all over again.
Nope still not funny.
*I at least know enough to be able to say that that was a Crocodile Dundee reference.
Posted by purple elephant at 09:27 AM |
December 08, 2005
The Alternative Advent Calendar ; Day 8
Try your hand at making christmas decorations this year - it's a good way to keep kids occupied too! Paper chains are very easy and make a nice substitute for tinsel. Instead of baubles for decoration, wrap match boxes up like tiny presents, and hang with ribbon or a thread. You can hang dried pine cones or seed heads from the garden in the same way - stick a bit of glitter on them to jazz them up. If you have a local source of holly or ivy, use some sprigs to decorate your home - around picture frames or mirrors, as a centre piece for the table etc. Just use your imagination, and you'll find you can make decorations out of all sorts of materials you already have at home!
Posted by purple elephant at 04:19 PM |
December 07, 2005
7 Things....
I've been tagged by Kate.
Seven things to do before I die
1) Have something published, something? Anything?
2) See my daughter safely to adulthood and hopefully beyond.
3) Go on a real, proper safari and see real, proper elephants in their real proper habitat.
4) Walk the entire coastal path of Britain, not necessarily all in one go.
5) Live somewhere in the middle of nowhere and be as self sufficient as possible.
6) Read all the books on my bookshelves.
7) I’ve always fancied exploring the northernmost parts of Norway and Sweden, all those remote fjords.
Seven things I cannot do
1) Hear someone mention ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here’ or any nasty reality show without entering into a long tirade about our skewed sense of what is important.
2) I’ve always said that if I was on a plane that was going down, I’d probably rather stay put than jump out in a parachute. I’m hoping that I will change my mind if I’m ever in that situation.
3) Eat anything from a packet that has been opened upside down (crisps, chocolate etc)
4) Sleep naked, even when it is really hot. In fact I can’t do anything naked except maybe take a bath.
5) When I’m at a pedestrian crossing I can’t stop myself pressing the button several times even though I know it wont make the green man appear any faster.
6) Touch people. No really. I feel really bad about this but I can’t stand being hugged by someone I hardly know, even if I like the person immensely. There are only a very few people in this world whom I feel comfortable touching.
7) Sport of any kind except maybe swimming but I don’t like swimming pools either so that kind of buggers that one up too.
Seven things that attract me to my spouse/partner
1) He has dark floppy hair, need I say more?
2) He has grisly facial hair, ditto...
3) He has dark piercing eyes (Do we detect a theme here?)
4) Now we have the important bits out the way, lets move onto the superficial stuff. He has a general and wide reaching intelligence that far surpasses anyone else I’ve ever known.
5) His politics are sound too.
6) He cooks the best pizza in the world ever from scratch AND he cooks Christmas dinner.
7) His favourite TV programme is Newsnight and when he thinks I’m not listening he sings along to the theme tune. I think that’s quite cute and it beats Match of the Day anytime.
I can't believe I just wrote that, nor will he.
Seven things I say most often
1) ‘Bollocks.’ I love the way this word rolls off the tongue. I love it so much that I wish it meant something else, so that I could use it in every sentence.
2) ‘For Fuck’s Sake.’ A phrase of which I’m not particularly proud but it slips out all the time.
3) ‘Get a move on. We’re running late.’ I said this a grand total of seven times on the way to school this morning. Yes I counted.
4) ‘Alas.’ Utterly pretentious but I can’t help it.
5) ‘Knob’ and not in the instrument for opening doors sense of the word either.
6) I tend to use the word ‘Pants’ whenever I’m in my daughter’s company and I feel the desire to use any of the unpleasant words above.
7) And I wonder why my answer to 1:1 has not happened yet.
Seven books (or series) I love
1) The Testaments of Youth, Friendship and Experience. Vera Brittain
2) Mrs Dalloway. Virginia Woolf
3) Stand We at Last. Zoe Fairbairns
4) Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte because I’m a sucker for dark brooding landscapes.
5) The Complete Poems, Emily Dickinson.
6) Frankenstein Mary Shelley.
7) Anything by Joolz Denby. If Dickens was writing today he’d sound like Joolz.
8) I wish I had just made myself sound more cool and experimental in my reading but you did ask for my favourites.
Seven movies I watch over and over again (or would watch over and over if I had the time)
I’m not a film buff at all so please don’t laugh
1) The Wicker Man
2) Don’t Look Now
3) Time Bandits
4) Labyrinth. Yes I know I did hear your cheekbones crunch together with cringing but I once had a semi feminist take on this film prepared in my head, I wish I could remember but I think it had something to do with Jennifer Connely refusing David Bowie’s snake.
5) Any of the Monty Pythons.
6) Brief Encounter.
7) ET.
Seven people I want to join in, too But only if they want to.
1) Anji
2) Michelle
3) Scone
4) Cathy
5) Suzanne
6) Lori
7) Harmonia
Posted by purple elephant at 05:13 PM |
The Alternative Advent Calendar ; Day 7
Clean naturally and on the cheap
Cut the cost of cleaning. Add these to your shopping basket: lemon juice (59p for 250 ml), soda crystals (51p a kilo) and bicarbonate of soda (44p for 200 g). Between them, you will be able to: get your taps sparkling; dissolve grease; shift stains on your work surfaces; and spin out use of your washing detergent. All for £1.54. Compare that with the cost of just one item: kitchen all-purpose spray cleaner at £3.68 for 500 ml.
Posted by purple elephant at 10:32 AM |
December 06, 2005
Mary Barbour
As I mentioned before I have been religiously following Ian Hislop’s programme, Not Forgotten (Channel 4, Sundays 8pm) where he spends his time scanning war memorials and piecing together the stories of some of the forgotten soldiers of WW1. So as you can imagine I was filled with glee when this week he dealt with the women.
I’m usually the first to complain about female heroines becoming shoved into obscurity but one thing that this programme has highlighted so far is that in the case of the First World War, despite all our smug poppy wearing and parading about on Remembrance Sunday, many of the individual stories of the men have been buried too. In the first of the series it was gutting to see them trying to piece together the names from a memorial that had been discovered trashed in a skip and another that had been obscured by graffiti. So I guess on Sunday’s episode I wasn’t at all surprised when they couldn’t find one Glaswegian (of any generation) who had heard of Mary Barbour, although I couldn’t help feeling immensely peeved. So I thought that I’d spend the next couple of weeks showcasing some of the women featured and finding some humble space for them here at Purple Elephant‘s Corner. Feel free to jump in if you have any helpful links or books where we can find out more about these women.
First up Mary Barbour who was born on 22nd. of February 1875 in Kilbarchan, Scotland. In 1887 her parents took Mary and her six siblings to live in Elderslie where she worked as a thread twister and a carpet printer. She married a shipyard engineer in 1896 and eventually settled in the Govan district of Glasgow where her political activism was born as a member of the Kinning Park Co-operative Guild and the Independent Labour Party.
Many landlords took advantage of the war to put into action steep rent increases that were near on impossible to pay by the mainly working class housewives. Consequently in 1915 following the lead of ILP councillor Andrew McBride and Women's Labour League president Mary Laird who had already formed the Glasgow Women's Housing Association, Mary Barbour set in motion the South Govan Women's Housing Association, arranging tenant committees and encouraging the housewives to resist evictions and drive out the sheriff's officers.
The rent strike gained momentum and on 17 November 1915 on the sheriff's courts in the centre of Glasgow, culminated in one of the largest demonstrations witnessed by the city. Thousands of rent striking housewives nicknamed ‘Mary Barbour’s Army’ and the Glasgow ship workers gathered together in solidarity. The result was that Lloyd-George rushed through the Rent Restrictions Act of 1915 which improved the situation of working class tenants throughout Great Britain.
Mary tirelessly continued her work after the war, in 1920 she became the first Labour woman councillor presenting Fairfield ward on Glasgow Town Council. From 1924 until 1927 she served as the first woman bailie on Glasgow Corporation and was appointed one of Glasgow's first women magistrates, gaining distinction with her work on children's panels. She did not retire from council until 1931. During her time she continued to campaign on housing issues but also covered birth control, municipal banks, wash-houses, laundries and baths; child welfare centres and play areas, home helps, and pensions for mothers and free milk for schoolchildren.
Even after her retirement Mary was unrelenting in her campaigns and was instrumental in organising seaside outings for the poor children of Glasgow.
Mary Barbour died on 2 April 1958 aged 83, her funeral was held at Craigton crematorium in Govan.
Shamelessly gleaned mainly from;
http://www.gcal.ac.uk/radicalglasgow/chapters/mary_barbour.html
http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/redclyde/redclypeobyebar.htm
http://sites.scran.ac.uk/redclyde/redclyde/rc092.htm
The Channel 4 Lost Generation site is also quite good.
Posted by purple elephant at 09:32 PM |
The Alternative Advent Calendar ; Day 6
Here's some ideas for greener gifts to help you avoid consumer overdrive - and busy shops - in the run up to Christmas. How about vouchers for a special experience (massage, facial, theatre, cinema etc) or make your own to offer your time for baby-sitting, gardening, decorating etc. There's plenty of gifts that do good in some way, such as organic or fair trade goods, charity shop finds or recycled goods here is a good place to start. Find more tips and gift ideas, including Friends of the Earth's Green Starter Kit, here.
Posted by purple elephant at 02:07 PM |
December 05, 2005
The Alternative Advent Calendar ; Days 4 & 5
Yes despite coming into some criticism from the Christian quarter my Alternative Advent Calendar shall continue. For the record I think that reducing our negative footprint on the planet has every bit to do with Christ’s teaching, if that’s what you believe in and if you don’t then it has quite a lot to do with ensuring that our descendants can breathe and important stuff like that, much more so that just cutting and pasting a chunk from the Bible asking God to do the work for us. If I’m going to hell for blasphemous use of the word advent (or something) then I guess I’ll be seeing more people down there than I thought.
Naturally I cannot say for sure but if you are following these tips then I have a sneaking suspicion that Jesus loves you and if he doesn’t then at least I do.
Day 4;
Save cash on toys
If you have children, consider joining a toy library. It allows you to save you money on toys, and it's a great way of meeting other children and parents. There are over 1,000 toy libraries throughout the UK, serving approximately 250,000 children. See this site for more details.
Day 5;
Give a useful gift instead of one bound for the bin
Rather than searching for a present that may never be used, could you give your time instead to help with decorating, gardening or a big clear-out?
Don't forget that you can sign up for the daily email yourself.
Posted by purple elephant at 09:21 AM |
December 04, 2005
Sexual Responsibility.
I direct you to a discussion of this Washington Post article by Patricia Dalton, concerning the way in which teens and pre teens are dressing in a sexually provocative manner. (Yes in blog terms it was ages ago and comments are now closed but hey I’m still catching up here.) There are one or two sensible comments but most seem to miss the point entirely.
Firstly in these discussions I think we need to differentiate between adults and children. Although some commenters failed to make the link, there is a huge difference between 25 year old walking around in a thong, short skirt and cropped top if she is sexually and emotionally mature and therefore capable of dealing with the consequences, compared to a confused (pre) pubescent 11 year old wearing the same. There is no argument on this. Naturally I will be guiding my daughter from a young age and bringing her up so that sex is not seen as a taboo, I will also be teaching her how to cook, wash, tie her shoelaces and look after herself but it doesn’t mean that I’ll be leaving her home alone for a week while I take a holiday the second she hits puberty. The border between child/adult may be blurred and I’m not even suggesting that every 25 year old is, or should be, sexually mature but let us accept at least that childhood exists beyond toddlerdom.
Where the article contradicts itself, and I’m surprised more people haven’t picked up on this, is that it insists firstly that;
The daughters themselves may be imperious or sullen, but almost all employ the everyone-is-doing-it excuse.
and then in the next paragraph laments that
Women once complained about being reduced to sex objects. Now, their daughters are volunteering to be sex objects.
If the first extract is true then what, may I ask, is so 'voluntary' about yielding to peer pressure?
The teenage girl who doesn’t use the above excuse may argue (like some of the comments in the post) that it is her right to wear what she likes. What we need to do is ask ourselves why a twelve year old would want to go out on a cold and rainy December evening with bare legs, an exposed midriff , crippling high heeled shoes and underwear that feels as if it is cutting her in two. It’s certainly not for comfort or warmth now is it? And to those who asked why we don’t question the dress sense of our teenage boys when they go out dressed in hoodies and baggy jeans with the top of their boxers showing I would answer that a) they expose neither skin nor body shape and b) at least they look comfortable.
Now I would love to live in some sort of utopia where we can all act, speak and dress in the way that we desire without the implications that ensue, most of all I would like to live in a world where the individual (in whatever shape or form) is considered holistically and aesthetically rather than sexually. In other words as a married woman I want to be able to go out of an evening and meet a male or female who fits my definition of attractive in both body and mind and to be able to lavish praise on that person without it being assumed that I want to jump into bed with them. Likewise I would like to be able to go into Tescos and buy my 4 year old a pair of tracksuit bottoms with ‘cute’ and ‘babe’ across the backside and for the connotations to be completely innocent but I know what they are getting at, and so do you and lets not pretend that by consuming these items I can single-handedly reclaim those words back to their original and pure meaning.
But I’m afraid we have a long way to go and until we live in this world we must exercise some caution in everything we do. Of course bringing up teenagers is a lot more complex than barking orders or nodding approval as they go out the door. For a start I would assume that from a young age, to balance playground pressure, we would be promoting individuality and installing confidence in every area of their life whether they want to be top in the class at physics or make the netball team. How they choose to express themselves in dress is just a small part of the whole issue and maybe we need to get our priorities right, for instance it might be worth noting that when I was growing up most of my friends were being berated by their parents for wearing Doc Martens, ripped jeans or baggy combats and for not being ‘feminine’ enough, most parents would have given their right arm to see their daughter in ‘proper’ shoes or a skirt of any length. Well in the current climate I certainly know how I’d rather see my daughter dressed.
Finally I would suggest that the choice of language is unfortunate when Patricia Dalton refers to ‘the dangers young women are bringing upon themselves.’ But in the context of the whole paragraph, I see no indication that she truly believes that it is entirely the girl’s fault if it all goes wrong.
Well, the so-called utopia is here, and older women have reason to be alarmed at the dangers young women are bringing upon themselves. These girls are treated as objects just as surely as in any earlier generation. It’s pre-liberation treatment in post-liberation disguise. “Turn back before it’s too late!” we want to warn them — because what awaits them is not Prince Charming. It is more likely to be loneliness and regret.
With the benefit of hindsight most women my age admit that their first sexual experience was not only painful but also tinged with disappointment. Maybe by showing our daughters that the option is there and they can still ‘turn back before it’s too late,’ we are reminding them of their own power and choice in the matter, that any half decent respecting friend should respect them whatever they wear and whatever they choose to do with their virginity.
Jill at Feministe seems to think that by warning our daughters of the dangers out there we are somehow making them feel that it would be their fault if something happened to them. When I have discussed this issue before I have often used the road safety analogy. We happen to live right on top of a circular route, which is used by almost any driver as a second rate Formula One track. I install in my daughter extra road safety and don’t allow her to play on the grass verge out the front, of course she has every right to play there and it is a shame that she cannot but at the end of the day I’m not prepared to take that risk. If one day she disobeyed my rule and slipped out when I wasn’t looking and then got hit by a drunken, speeding driver who had swerved onto the grass verge, I would like to think that if I had done anything right as a parent she would not be flat on her back blaming herself.
There is a huge difference between blame and responsibility. I would argue that if a mother or a father were to say (preferably long before the daughter was walking out the door) ‘Honey let’s reach a compromise on this. Your body belongs to you and the person you eventually choose to share it with, you are worth so much more than a cursory glance from some adolescent outside the corner shop, and besides you’ll catch the death of cold dressed like that, how about a pair of tights and a jacket?’ I would argue that as guardians we would be showing her where she can find her own individual control and responsibility.
And of course, if I had a son I would also be teaching him how to respect women., it goes without saying. What I am arguing for is a balance in sexual responsibility, if we were to place it completely in the hands of the male, then that leaves the young woman powerless and vulnerable.
Posted by purple elephant at 11:29 AM |
December 03, 2005
How NOT to be a wallflower - the Purple Elephant way...
You’ll be pleased to know I survived the school Christmas party for another year. There was a time when I thought that Littleone wasn’t going to be well enough to go but she was so looking forward to it that I sent her back to school a day earlier than I would have done should the circumstances have been different just so she could go to the party afterwards. It paid off in the end.
Would you believe they played more or less the same songs as last year? Except this time we were blessed with some god awful composition I’d never heard before where the only word I could make out was ‘Pizza’ to which everybody including the parents, seemed to know all the hand movements. (Note to self; Learn them before next year so I can be down with the kids) Oh and they also played 'Amarillo' which pleased Littleone no end, (and her mother who has a secret soft spot for the song, well at least it has a tune and a story to speak of. How old am I sounding right now?)
And the very final song was ‘I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday.’ (Do I fuck? Bah Humbug!) to which all the mums and dads and teachers had to get up and dance with the kids and YES I did thank you very much and NO I don’t have a photo to prove it.
All the utter noise and nonsense was worth it somehow just to see their faces when Santa walked though the door.
*wipes tear*
When Santa asked her what she wanted for Christmas, Littleone beat all the greedy spoilt brats hands down by insisting that all she wanted was a, ‘Teddy bear.’
I’ve got her trained well methinks!
Posted by purple elephant at 05:05 PM |
The Alternative Advent Calendar ; Day 3.
Celebrating christmas with a vegetarian in the family? Get some top tips here.
And recipe ideas here.
If you need inspiration for a vegan Christmas, visit this site.
Posted by purple elephant at 12:58 PM |
December 02, 2005
The Alternative Advent Calendar ; Days 1 & 2.
I am subscribed to a daily email over at Friends of the Earth where every day they send you a tip of the day of something small you can do to make your life more green. I did wonder at first how they would find something different to send every day and feared that they might resort to; ‘Why not recycle your glass bottles?’ or something like that but I actually find most of the tips quite thought provoking. So what I thought I’d do is in the run up to Christmas I’d share a few with you day by day as a kind of alternative advent calendar.
If you like what you see you can sign up yourself here.
Tip for December 2nd.
Dreading the prospect of scraping frost from your car windows this winter? Then let someone else drive - catch the train or a bus to work. But if you really can't avoid the car, you don't have to clear your windows with de-icer, which is laced with dodgy chemicals. Remove frost by pouring a jug of cold - yes cold - water over the windows (hot water can shatter the glass - plus strangely, hot water freezes quicker than cold). Or cover your front and back windows at night with cardboard or newspaper - cover the windows fully to stop moisture sticking the paper to the window. Parking under a tree can also keep your car a little warmer, and reduce the likelihood of frosty windows - but it will increase the likelihood of bird droppings!
Tip for December 1st.
Good old-fashioned bars of soap are making a come-back, and there's plenty available that are free of animal products and artificial ingredients. Unlike liquid soap in dispensers, they don't involve unnecessary packaging. Help bars go further by keeping yours on a dish or drainer - or on a cloth, which the soap will keep impregnated with suds, ready for use. To use up slivers of soap, press down hard into a yoghurt pot, leave to dry and you'll have a large block of soap. Or put them in an old stocking, and hang from the shower head - use this to scrub your back.
Posted by purple elephant at 09:59 AM |
December 01, 2005
What Next?
Ok so this will be my last NaNo related post for a while.. Promise.
Despite having Littleone off sick I did manage to finish the final chapter last night and finished off with;
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So it was a bottle of wine, a box of chocolates and David Attenborough’s Life in the Undergrowth for me last night in celebration. Don't ever say I don't spoil myself.
And celebrate I did because there were one or two moments this year when I thought about giving up, once about a third of a way in when I thought I only had enough plot for a short story and then just over half way through when I got ill and didn’t have the energy to write. Compared to last year I found this one a lot more difficult to write, the plot is certainly tighter and more intense than last year and there are fewer characters so I had to dig a hell of a lot deeper to find something to write about.
Last year’s novel takes place in June, which I found very difficult to think about at this time of year so I swore that if I ever did NaNo again I’d set the novel in November, which of course I did but most of the action takes place by the sea at night time, so I found myself trying to remember the scenery from our holiday in September and then kind of turning the lights out, which of course didn’t really work. So I am in the process of trying to persuade my husband to take me on a nice romantic kid-free ‘research trip’ to the sea, and preferably soon before the weather improves too much because I don’t ask for much, oh no not I. Next year I should try combining the settings of NaNos 2004 and 2005 (a council estate in November?) and then maybe I’ll finally crack it.
I’ve got a list as long as my arm of bits that need fixing and of course it needs expanding into a more conventional novel size but I haven’t sorted myself out a new deadline yet.
It was my plan to put the whole thing away for a month and work on other stuff, so that I could come back to it afresh in the new year and I think the novel will benefit from a break. However last night after my glass of wine I became all misty eyed over my characters and began itching to fill some of the plot holes. So you never know.
I now have to start thinking about my next OU course and the fact that I have a long list of books I’m supposed to have read by the beginning of February. This year I am not going to fall into the trap of thinking ‘February? Plenty of time. That’s next year that is!’
Also results for the last course will be out by (whatever that means) the 16th Dec and I am slowly beginning to remind myself that I cocked up that exam big time. *shudder*
And then there’s that certain family holiday due at the end of the month for which I have done no preparation.
In the meantime dear blog, I apologise for my neglect during the month of November I do have about a hundred half-formed blog posts chasing around my head. So be warned.
No rest for the wicked I suppose.
Posted by purple elephant at 11:33 AM |