IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE

I have just been forwarded a powerpoint presentation titled "IT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE" (The entire presentation is in block capitals)

This presentation is anti-Iranian and anti-muslim propaganda bundled onto a series of images of holocaust victims.

I would like to assure anyone who ends up watching this that there is no such thing as a "United Kingdom Curriculum" each country within the United Kingdom sets its own curriculum, certainly Scotland does and without any instruction from Iran.

I went to school 30 years ago and wasn't taught the holocaust, at that time Iran was still Persia and there was no muslim control of education in schools, so whether or not it is taught in schools now cannot be placed at the door of Iran or the mullahs the Islamophobes are so scared of.

I am sorry but I am absolutely blinding angry about this.

There are plenty of lessons that can be taken from the Holocaust , the killing fields of Cambodia and the distressing massacres in Rwanda and most recently DR Congo. Targeting another "enemy within" is not one of them.

(non-members can comment here)

Sunshine on Leith (The Proclaimers Musical)

I went to see Sunshine on Leith (again) today at the Dundee Rep Theatre in Dundee.
This musical first opened in 1997, and I went to see it at the Kings in Glasgow, but seeing the show at the company's home theatre, which is small and intimate compared to the Kings, was a different experience completely.

I can't improve on the rep website blurb "A fantastic, fun and poignant night’s entertainment, Sunshine on Leith follows the highs and lows of young ex-soldiers Ally and Davy as they return to their lives back home in Scotland. Families, relationships and life in Leith are not all plain sailing in this exceptional love story about everyday life in Scotland."

The music and acting were truly fantastic, and so poignant, at two points tears were running down my face - watching Jean sing "Sunshine on Leith" at her husbands bedside, and (naturally) when Hazel is packing and the family she is leaving behind sing "Letter From America"
The opening scene in Afghanistan, showing the soldiers preparing to go out on a sortie was incredibly effective - particularly a few days after all the publicity surrounding the 90th anniversary of the 1st World War.
The funny bits were hilarious, the poignant bits were tearful, and the love stories were romantic but realistic.
If ever you get a chance to see it go! It's a real slice of Scottish life.

It may be raining outside...

...but my inner weather clear and sunny!



If you want to know your inner forecast click here

Wet Feet!

Well, we’ve been having a busy time of it lately.

On Wednesday evening my nice (single, male, quiet) neighbour from downstairs came and said water was running into his kitchen, I rushed and checked my kitchen sink that I suspected was leaking, and there was a tiny bit of water in the cupboard, so I said I’d get an emergency plumber out, which I did and he replaced part of the sink drain. All sorted out, no problem.

Then last night after traipsing round B&Q and Tesco with my mother, (don't you just love these 24 hour supermarkets? it means you can do a whole days work and then spend your free time trochling round the shops...) I eventually got home at 8 o’clock, opened the door and nearly fell over the same plumber!

It wasn’t the sink.

In the afternoon my neighbour had noticed water running down his walls and called the plumber out, my DH was fast asleep, and they had to rouse him to do something about it! As you can imagine, that and the fact that I had come and taken the car away without even saying hello didn’t put him in the best of moods! Anyway the plumber was fiddling away with the hot water tank and shaking it to find where the water was coming from… eventually he decided it was corroded and needed replaced. He disconnected it, and drained it and at 10pm went off home.

So now we’ve no hot water at all. Luckily he connected the bathroom up to the mains supply, so we can use the loo and sink, (and the bath if we feel masochistic) but because the mains water is so powerful, whenever you switch on the tap, the water goes everywhere, and when you flush the loo the noise!!! It sounds like the damn thing’s going to explode!

I don’t know how I can face my neighbour again, I’m mortified. It has always been my nightmare that I would flood out the flat downstairs, but I had always expected that it would be me in the bath going through the floor! Which, on reflection, would be rather more embarrassing!