Itisi

The nebulous ramblings; grammatical & punctuational experiments of a girl born on the fifth of November

Category: Religion

Music, bad handwriting and dull television

Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) by Florence and the Machine. This is from the album Lungs, which I think most people will have heard, but if you haven’t it’s well worth a listen. This track in particular will always remind me of the summer of 2009 – such as it was – and it’s a great one to sing along to.

In other news:

- I’ve set up a group on Facebook – well, everyone else seemed to have one, I didn’t want to be left out – it’s yet another writing group, but hopefully that won’t put you off joining. The idea is it will be a friendly place for writers to share advice, tips and resources in a positive and encouraging environment, so if that sounds like something you’d enjoy, feel free to join in!

- This morning, I spent some time in a state of puzzlement because of a badly written entry on my to-do list. I’d actually written ‘MEDIA POST’, but in my drunken spider handwriting, it looked more like ‘MEO RAT’, which sounds like a Latin insult, and was even more confusing than the ‘jammy spoon‘ episode a couple of weeks ago.

Even worse than the confusion, was the thought that my old primary school headmistress was probably laughing her sensible shoes off in whichever corner of hell they keep mean teachers who pick on little girls.

This woman had a deep aversion to left-handed people in general, she was even more averse to left-handed people whose parents had the audacity to get divorced – if it had turned out that, by some fluke, I was also CofE, I think she’d have sent someone off to the store cupboard to dig out the ducking stool.

A generation before, she would have insisted I use my right hand, but that wasn’t allowed by the time I started school. Instead, she would come into the classroom, stand behind me and make ‘helpful’ remarks to the effect that I was doomed to certain failure because no one would ever be able to read what I wrote. With hindsight, I suppose I could have pointed out the fact that by the time I left school the world would have progressed into one in which handwriting documents was practically an obsolete art form, and everything would be produced with keyboards, but, I suppose she could counter that by reminding me it would still be better if I could actually read my own post-it notes.

- Could some kind soul suggest something good to watch on television? Now Survivors and Being Human have ended, I’m at a complete loss, I don’t seem to be able to find anything that doesn’t involve cookery, dancing celebrities, or Ant and Dec cooking dancing celebrities – I made that last one up, but I think it could work!

I did watch 5 Days last week, which started well, but then turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Lured in by the promise of a ‘tense thriller’, I watched every night, but not much happened, it was neither tense, nor thrilling. Before the penultimate episode, the announcer told us there would be a ‘terrifying incident at a royal walkabout’. Ooh, I thought, it’s finally getting somewhere. However, instead of a terrifying incident, one of the characters had a panic attack, but then felt better.

Bernard Hill and Anne Reid were very good, in fact, the series would have worked better if it had focused on them, instead of trying to be something it wasn’t. Ultimately, the plot was quite preachy, concentrating on ‘issues’, and the portions that should have been tense and thrilling were predictable and obvious – oh come on, who couldn’t guess that Maureen, the hard-faced cleaner, was also Soraya, the not-so mysterious lady of the night?!

Anyhow, if anyone can suggest something good – it doesn’t have to be tense and thrilling but that would be a bonus – I’ll be very appreciative.

That’s all, have a great weekend :-)


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School trips: a breeding ground for extremism

It’s Tuneful Tuesday, ’cause as ever, I’ve missed Musical Monday. Anyhoo, my offering is early 90s hair rock, Low Life in High Places from Thunder, featuring a singer who looks remarkably like someone I used to know*. No, it’s not my usual thing, but I rather like it because  despite my complete lack of vocal talent, I can sing along with it quite well. And because it seems so incredibly appropriate, I’d like to dedicate it to the subjects of a couple of recent posts.

In other news: I’m not getting this whole banning of minarets in Switzerland thing. Apparently, it’s to prevent the rise of extremism – how does that work exactly? Has someone found a causal link between architecture and extreme views? I suppose they could be connected, if you think about it: the Nazis were pretty extreme, and Germany has a lot of architecture. Same with Cromwell, maybe prior to going up to Cambridge with all it’s architectural temptations, he was a lovely guy who had absolutely no problem with women, catholics, Irish people, Christmas … And of course, there’s Nick Griffin**, part leader of the (British Nutty Party) British National Party, part Terry Gilliam animation gone horribly wrong, and (obviously) wholly damaged by exposure to London at an early age.

At this point I’ve got to say: won’t somebody please think of the children!!!! We’re sending vulnerable, young minds out on school trips to castles and bridges and castles and museums and castles and universities, even theatres for goodness sake! It’s only a matter of time before we produce a generation who decide to go out and take over the world and tell everyone they have to speak English, and that they jolly well will spell colour with a ‘u’, and they’ll drink tea and play football and jolly well like it.

Hang on a minute ….. didn’t that already happen? Well, there you are, if you needed proof, you have it. School trips should obviously be banned immediately! We should be protecting children from the harmful effects of balustrades and cornices and – dare I say it – arches! Of course, that won’t happen, you know why? Political Correctness Gone Mad.

One more thing: We Brits are not immune to architectural controversy. You may think of St. Pauls in London as a rather nice building and a symbol of resistance during the Blitz, but back when it was all new and shiny, it was considered quite provocative. If you compare it to other English cathedrals, it is very different; instead of a soaring spire to heaven it has a Roman (Catholic) dome, and the base is very similar to a pagan roman temple. This didn’t go down too well with some sections of polite society who were very busy trying to be good Anglo-Saxon protestants****.

Bet you’re glad I told you that ;-) *****

* If you happen to be J – yes, I see the stats I know you read – imagine our mutual ‘friend’ Mr M of S’Boro in a wig … oh, and with a life, friends, and probably a personality.

** BTW,  Griffin is a Norman name, therefore, French. Just saying.

*** Have to add lots of exclamation marks, that is the correct punctuation for that phrase; I saw it in the Daily Mail, so it must be right.

**** Yes, we’re back to Nick Griffin again.

***** O, that wink’s for you ;-) To everyone else: my son says I shouldn’t wink on the internet. I say it could be worse, I could follow it up with ‘you betcha’.

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