Christmas is coming ...

I've started putting my Christmas decorations up. :o)

Yup, I know - it's still November. When I was little, we never put the Christmas Tree up until a day or so before Christmas, and down it came on Twelfth Night. I actually feel oddly guilty for putting it up so early.

Winter is such a miserable dark time of year. When I leave for work, the sun's only just made it up above the horizon. It is pitch black by the time I leave to go home. I'm bundled up in jumpers, scarves and gloves as I alawys feel the cold terribly. I quite often feel like the Michelin man as my body looses all shape under so many layers.

I don't think I have SAD but I certainly find that the winter months can affect my mood. So, to cheer myself up I decided to make our flat cheerful and welcoming. What better way than with twinkling fairy lights and shiny baubles?

It's comforting to know that my desire to be surrounded by light at this dark time of year is an ancient one. For thousands of years, long before Christmas supplanted the pre-Christian festivals of the Winter Solstice, humans have held mid-winter celebrations at the turning of the tide - the days will become longer, sun-light will get stronger and warmer, new life will begin.

Whatever your personal reasons for celebrating Christmas, take comfort in your warm clothes; enjoy the time spent with family and friends; have fun searching out or making thoughtful (not expensive) presents for your loved ones; ... and keep your finger's crossed for a bit of snow! :o)

Happy Journeys.

What's in a name?

Oh dearie me, I've been neglecting my loyal readship of two recently! ;o)

Birdy has inspired me to get back to the keyboard with a couple of excellent posts on language and disability - "We seem to be determined to define others by our differences".

My comment in response to this was: "We pidgeon-hole people - Disabled, Black, Working Class, Immigrant, Shy, Pacifist, Right Wing, etc. None of us is as one-dimensional as the labels that are applied to us. We're all unique individuals."

That led me to think, how have I and am I labelled by those around me:

I was four-eyes at school, I am a vicar's daughter, I'm a wife (still sounds weird), I'm a bookworm, I'm a (part-time) blogger, I'm geeky, I'm a listener, I'm shy, I'm goofy, I'm closed, I'm asthmatic, I'm an employee, I'm an online gamer, I'm a jazz-lover, I'm a pacifist, I'm a procrastinator, I'm untidy, I'm strong.

Some of these I gladly apply to myself, some I know have been applied to me by others. Different people in my life would relate to a few or more of these labels. My family know a different side to me than my friends, than my work colleagues, than my doctor, etc.

Some, as you may have noticed, seem to perhaps contradict or cetainly seem incongruous sat next to each other. Should a cross-stitching jazz-lover play geeky online role playing games? ... why not? Should we fit into neat little pidgen-holes? ... heck no.

Would you recognise me in the street now you have read these labels? Do they give you a true insight into the person I am?

It's no different to applying such heavily biased labels such as black, disabled or immigrant. These labels don't give us an insight into the individual person or group of individuals to which they are applied.

Am I as guilty as the next person in applying labels to people ... unfortunately yes. But perhaps I will think a little harder next time before turning a human being into a one-dimensional word.

Happy Journeys

Happy Diwali

I've just been staring out of our upstairs window at the fantastic firework display over east London - Happy Diwali!

Anyone got a cure for bloating ... might as well ask for a rocking horse egg, I guess. One of my IBS symptoms is bloating often for no apparent reason. I can put on a pair of size 10 trousers in the morning and feel very comfortable, then, by mid-afternoon I wish I could change into an elasticated size 12 pair. It's most bizarre.

So if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. However, if the cure is a yeast free, gluten free, this free, that free diet then I'll live with the bloating. You might think, it can't be that bad, but I already avoid a number of things and I really can't be bothered with the hassle or totally re-designing my diet. :o)

Speaking of food - Christmas is coming and I'm getting quietly excited!
The increasing number of Christmas adverts are getting a bit annoying but apart from that I always look forward to this time of year. Not for any religious reasons, in fact my enjoyment of Christmas has almost pagan overtones. The nights are getting dark, the mornings cold and the lack of sunlight makes me feel lethargic. A mid-winter festival of warmth, light, family and friendship, good food (and wine!) is very cheering. We don't spend loads on gifts, preferring to spend time looking for something unusual, fun or perhaps somthing that compliments a hobby or interest. I love seeing people's faces as they open gifts. As this is our first married Christmas, we have decided to stay in London instead of dividing our time between both sets of parents.
I'm very excited about cooking the full Christmas dinner. I've already decided the menu (apologies to any veggies reading):

Turkey Crown (not sure whether I will buy one pre-stuffed or make my own force-meat stuffing)
Roast potatoes ... well, dur!
Possibly mashed potatoes
Brussel Sprouts (hopefully ones that have had a hard frost on them before picking)
Carrots (for Hubby, the only veg he'll eat!)
Little chipolatas wrapped in streaky bacon
Lots of rich gravy
Cranberry Jelly

Yum!

Right, I'm going to put my feet up and read through my Waitrose Christmas Magazine.

Happy Journeys.

Book Review

I've had an interesting few weeks bibliographically speaking so I thought I'd share a few recommendations.

I know I'm probably a bit behind the times but I'm currently reading the rather fab The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. I'm always a bit wary of reading "you-must-read-this" books as I have an odd taste in books and quite often don't appreciate prize winners or standard best-sellers.
But a very good friend recommended it so I thought I'd give it a go. I haven't finished it yet (so no spoilers) but so far my verdict is oo-er! (hehe - I'm feeling very expressive tonight, had you noticed?). If you enjoy having your perceptions challenged and your little grey cells put to work, I would highly recommend you read it. On a simple level, it's a murder mystery but the clues aren't smoking guns, finger prints or DNA evidence but Da Vinci paintings and ... other interesting items ... :o)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon is a very odd, very well written and surprisingly intriguing book. Again this is another book that was very popular a while ago which I also resisted reading for some time. It didn't take me long to read and it wasn't challenging in the usual sense but once I'd started I wanted to find out who-dunnit and what happened so in that respect, it suceeded in grabbing my attention. It was also interesting to learn about Aspergers syndrome without it sounding like a text-book or lecture.

I was intrigued to see a new/old book by Joanne Harris called Sleep Pale Sister. This was written before her sucessful Chocolat, etc, but it is written in her distinctive style. It contains trademark magical/mystical elements and is a gripping and rather eerie read.

Terry Pratchett's Going Postal was witty, thought-provoking and daft as ever. Can a condemned criminal make the post office sucessful? (hmmm) Will old fashioned snail mail survive the threat of the new fangled and faster "clacks"? ... Well, I'm not going to tell you, you'll have to read it to find out.
Speak of TP, he's achieved the seemingly impossible - Hubby doesn't read unless it contains heiroglyphic pages full of computer programming code. However, he has recently started reading TP's first Discworld novel - the Colour of Magic - and I think he might be getting the bug.

The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg is a good read if you're interested in history and/or the evolution of language. My "mother tongue" is such a rag-tag of influences, it's quite amazing. This book takes you through each stage of it's development in a fascinating tale.

Well, I think that's my book review for now. I'll let you have an updated review on the DaVinci Code when I've finished it.

The only problem with being such a book worm ... I need another book case.

Happy Journeys.

Welcome to the war zone ...

... otherwise known as East London on bonfire night. It's crazy out there and it will go on all weekend. We never bother going to a firework display - we just open our curtains and turn the lights off for a fab free display!

I've always wondered about bonfire night and Guy Fawkes. Did this tradition come about as a celebration of the fact that his plot to blow up the houses of parliament was foiled or in comiseration of his failure? ;o)

And, as part of my blog is supposed to be my musings on married life, I have the pleasure of attending a celebration of a long standing marriage this weekend. I think it's fab when marriages prosper and flourish surrounded by so much divorce. I look forward with hope to our milestone anniversaries in years to come.

Short and sweet tonight. Have a safe and enjoyable Bonfire Night.

Happy Journeys

Blog-spiration

Thank you Birdy for this.

Today's inspiration is "If you could choose to wear the clothes of any one period of history, which would you choose?" with a link to a fashion page. As my wedding dress was very similar to the top picture, I suppose that my answer would have to be Gothic.

I haven't got round to buying a wedding dress preservation box yet so it is still hanging up in the dry cleaning bag in our hallway. I keep looking at it. I know it won't be too long before the temptation gets too great and I'll have to try it on. That was my only regret from our day - it was too hot to keep my dress on all night. I'd been planning that dress for many, many years (definately longer than I've known Hubby!) and it was lovely.

But there was one thing that was even slightly more important than the dress ... I married the right man! :o)

Happy Journeys

P.S. And as for Dubya ... words fail me at present ...

Whilst it is very sad that Harry Stanley lost his life, the policemen involved must have had reasonable fear that he was armed - we don't have a trigger happy police service (thank goodness) and I can understand the concerns of the other armed officers.

With the increased numbers of replica guns and very realistic toys, this is a problem that will get worse not better.
It comes back to "if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to fear". A simplistic statement, I understand, however - why would you need to brandish things in the direction of armed police? why would you need to carry a replica fire arm? why would you antagonize the police in any way?

I don't like the fact that we have to have armed police but you can't give a person a gun and then punish them when they feel they have used it lawfully within the prescribed guidelines. We have taken the decision to allow highly trained officers to carry and use fire-arms. Obviously, Mr Stanley should not have lost his life but surely this was a split second decision made in a stressful situation that the rest of us would be completely incapable of making. We put this responsibility on these men and women and should support them.

Finally ... will he? won't he? I wait with bated breath for the US election results. Our lives are so affected by American foreign policy at present, it feels like we're waiting for the results of a domestic election.

Happy Journeys