It’s Blog Action Day*, and thousands of people around the world are blogging about climate change.
Is it being green the new rock’n’roll? I’d like to think so, but I suspect it’s not. Not yet anyway.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Poetry
Today is National Poetry Day. Some of us brought poems to work. I loved this one, translated from the Japanese: I have always known That at last I would Take this road, but yesterday I did not know that it would be today. NARIHIRA
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Electric dreams
The best bit was when they gave the family a power cut.
The first episode of Electric Dreams on BBC4 put a modern family into the 1970s. They start in 1970, then move on one year per day and get the gadgets to go with it.
It felt almost authentic. I don’t remember anyone having such extreme interior decoration, and we couldn’t afford a Teasmade or video games. But the arrival of the stereo (joy) and the colour telly (horror: I decided my parents had sold out) were right on time.
The first episode of Electric Dreams on BBC4 put a modern family into the 1970s. They start in 1970, then move on one year per day and get the gadgets to go with it.
It felt almost authentic. I don’t remember anyone having such extreme interior decoration, and we couldn’t afford a Teasmade or video games. But the arrival of the stereo (joy) and the colour telly (horror: I decided my parents had sold out) were right on time.
Saturday, 3 October 2009
Don’t throw your love away: frugal is now fashionable
Being a frugal type, I like freebies so I was happy this morning to find the council giving away free recipe books. It's all about their campaign to get us to stop throwing away food.
Sadly, it turned out to be one of those things where the bureaucrats talk to us as if we were children. Or stupid. Well, maybe we are stupid. Apparently, ‘we’ throw away 700,000 unopened packets of sweets and chocolates a day. Now, that really is a waste.
All the same, I found my ‘guide to using up leftovers’ just a little bit Janet and John. (And yes, I know I am showing my age by not saying ‘Peter and Jane’). Actually, I do already know how to get four meals out of a roast chicken. Doesn’t everyone? As I was thinking along these lines, I came across the bit that said ‘A long time ago, we used to know how to turn leftovers into new meals. Ask an older relative for help.’
Damn. I think they mean me.
Sadly, it turned out to be one of those things where the bureaucrats talk to us as if we were children. Or stupid. Well, maybe we are stupid. Apparently, ‘we’ throw away 700,000 unopened packets of sweets and chocolates a day. Now, that really is a waste.
All the same, I found my ‘guide to using up leftovers’ just a little bit Janet and John. (And yes, I know I am showing my age by not saying ‘Peter and Jane’). Actually, I do already know how to get four meals out of a roast chicken. Doesn’t everyone? As I was thinking along these lines, I came across the bit that said ‘A long time ago, we used to know how to turn leftovers into new meals. Ask an older relative for help.’
Damn. I think they mean me.
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Later
Quiet night in front of the TV with Husband. A rare occurrence. It’s time for Later with Jools Holland. The perfect therapy for grumpy middle-aged people.
Ordinary people with annoying daily lives – that’s most of us, then – need an outlet for some of that frustration; someone to hate. Some people go to football matches. We do heckling the telly. Husband doesn’t like football, which is one of the reasons he’s my husband.
We are united in our dislike of pointless sport. And our hatred of bad pop. Next big thing? Flavour of the month? Bring them on. We’ll demolish them in a few well-chosen words. One of them being ‘shite’. We don’t necessarily agree about everything. I find derivative art-school incompetence less annoying than dull jazz musicians who ‘can play’… Then Newsnight comes on and we remember who the real enemy is.
Ordinary people with annoying daily lives – that’s most of us, then – need an outlet for some of that frustration; someone to hate. Some people go to football matches. We do heckling the telly. Husband doesn’t like football, which is one of the reasons he’s my husband.
We are united in our dislike of pointless sport. And our hatred of bad pop. Next big thing? Flavour of the month? Bring them on. We’ll demolish them in a few well-chosen words. One of them being ‘shite’. We don’t necessarily agree about everything. I find derivative art-school incompetence less annoying than dull jazz musicians who ‘can play’… Then Newsnight comes on and we remember who the real enemy is.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
