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!

You know you're Scottish when...

Pinched from the internet:

1. Scattered showers with outbreaks of sunshine and a cold northerly wind, is your idea of good weather.
2. The only sausage you like is square.
3. You were forced to do Scottish country dancing every year at high school.
4. You have a wide knowledge of local words, and know: Numpty is an idiot, Aye is yes, Aye right is No, Auldjin is someone over 40, and Baltic is cold.
5. You have an irrational need to eat anything from the chippy, as long as its deep fried - Haggis, pizza, white pudding, sausage, fish, chicken and battered Mars Bars.
6. You used to love destroying your teeth with -Penny Dainties, Wham Bars, Cola Cubes, and Soor Plooms.
7. You always greet people by talking about the weather.
8. Even if you normally hate the Proclaimers, Runrig, Caledonia, Deacon Blue, Big Country, etc, you still love it when they are played in a club abroad. (in fact you’ll probably ask the DJ to play it)
9. You have an enormous feeling of dread, even when Scotland play a diddy team.
10. You are proud that Scotland has the highest number of alcohol and smoking deaths in Europe.
11. You used to watch Glen Michael’s Cartoon Cavalcade on a Sunday Afternoon with his lamp Paladdin.
12. You got Oor Wullie and The Broons books Every Christmas.
13. You only enjoy Weir’s Way on the telly when you are pissed.
14. You are able to recognise the regional dilect, (Glasgow) ‘Awright pal, gonie gies a wee swatcha yir paper nat, Cheers, magic pal. (Aberdeen) Fitlike Loon? Furryboots ya bin up tae? fair few quines in the night, min. (Inverness) Ah-eee right enuffff! How’s you keeeepeeeen?
15. You know the police are about to arrive when you hear someone shout-Errapolis.
16. You have witnessed a ‘Square Go’
17. You know that when you are asked which School you attended they really mean,’Are you Catholic or Proddy?’
18. You have eaten the following: Mince and Tatties, Cullen Skink, Tunnock’s Teacakes, Snowballs and Caramel Wafers, Porage, Macaroon Bar, Baxters Soup, Scotch Pie, Oatcakes.
19. A Jakey has asked you for 10p for a cuppa tea.
20. You wait at the shop counter for 1p change.
21. You know that the right response to ‘you dancing?’ is ‘you askin?’ followed by ‘am askin’ and finally ‘then am dancin’.
22. You associated sawdust with vomit, coz the ‘jannie’ always, used to pour it over sick in school.
23. You lose all respect for a groom who doesn’t wear a kilt.
24. You don’t do shopping, you ‘go for the messages.’
25. You’re on a bus and the drunk picks you to sit next to.
26. You are able to conduct a 20 minute phone call using three words only,– Awright, aye, and naw.
27. When you refuse the offer of a drink, you hear, ‘ You no weel?’
28. You have heard the following: You canny fling pieces oot a 20 storey flat, 700 hungry weans’ll testify to that, If its butter, cheese or jelly, If the breed is plain or pan, The chances o’ it reachin earth, Are ninety nine tae wan.
29. You know that going to a party means bringin a Kerry oot.
30. Your holiday in Benidorm is ruined when you hear there is a heatwave back home.
31. Scotland go 2-0 up against the French, and you immediately think, getting beat 3-2 was ‘no a bad result’.
32. You can pronounce: McConnochie, Ecclefechan,Milngavie, and Kirkcaldy.
33. You love deep fried Pizza.
34. You can’t pass a Kebab shop after being at the pub.
35. You are used to four seasons in one day. (winter, winter, autumn, winter)
36. You can fall when drunk and not spill your drink.
37. You see people wearing shellsuits with Burberry accessories, and think ‘thats class’.
38. You measure distance in minutes.
39. You understand Rab C. Nesbitt.
40. You go to Saltcoats because you think its abroad.
41. You can make a whole sentence using only swear words.
42. You know what haggis is made with, but you still enjoy it.
43. You know someone who planned their wedding around the football fixtures.
44. You have been to a wedding and the football results have been announced in church.
45. You are not surprised to find one shop selling ALL of the following: Pizzas, Nappies, Fags, Curries, Milk, Paint, Shoes etc.
46. Your seaside home has Calor gas under it.
47. You know that Irn-Bru is a good hang over cure.
48. You could swear before you could count.
49. You would ‘nut’ a terrorist if they tried to bomb your Airport.
50. You are not only Scottish but Glasgwian when you understand the following- How’s it hingin’, clatty, boggin’, cludgie, Ba’heid, bawbag, and double nougat.

Also:

• You know the difference between a pan loaf and a plain loaf.
• You support whichever teams are playing against England.
• When you visit Australia and New Zealand, strangers hear your accent and come and tell you that their granny came from Dumfermline or Hamilton or some other Scottish town.
• When you refer to ‘the Capital’, you don’t mean London.
• When you refer to ‘the Parliament’, you don’t mean Westminster.
• ...and the tune to the "jeely piece" song is still running through your head, hours after reading this!

"borrowed" from http://kulaprabha.net/

Thank You Jane!

Left the house this morning feeling really gloomy, but 10 minutes into my journey I met a little ray of sunshine who helped me see that life is really not at all bad and that success is not measured by material things but by relationships.

That sounds awful – and normally on reading something like that I’d be rolling my eyes and sticking two fingers down my throat, but I’m not. She didn’t give me any advice or platitudes, in fact she just chatted, showed an interest and listened, but being with such a nice person focussed my attention on all the good things in my life, like my family.

I was able to let go of all the envious thoughts about houses and money that have been consuming me lately. What does it matter if I’m stuck in a noisy old dump at the moment? Make that noisy old dump a cosy little paradise (albeit a noisy, cosy little paradise), think about the good people who surround me and forget about the awfulness of the people above me. I’m not usually such a moan you know. I do quite often have low periods but compensate for them by having far, far more happy periods in my life. Peace, joy and contentment! That’s not the new me but it’s the usual me making a determined reappearance!

Isn’t that nice? I must say that even though I got on it with a little black cloud hovering above me, I stepped off the bus with a spring in my step – which is good going considering that I was stepping off it in Dalkeith!

Thank you Jane from Lauder for being my own little ray of sunshine.

Tuesday Morning Musings

My mood is far too closely linked to whatever book I’m reading at the time. Is this a psychological weakness? If I was to start reading thrillers would that turn me into a serial killer? (Hmmmm, I know who I would be top of my victim list!) Watch out! My next book is a murder mystery!

No – it’s more a mood thing. If I read something gloomy my mood sinks to my boots and if I read something light and fluffy I feel fluffy myself. Is the lead character witty and sharp? Fancy that, so am I! Any of life's little problems that come my way can be swept aside with an amusing comment. Is my lead character suffering the old 'slings and arrows'? Oh dear... nobody loves me, the milk of life is pooling around my feet and being diluted with copious tears. Woe, woe and thrice woe!

Definitely some kind of problem, maybe I should see a doctor.... I wonder if you can get PG Wodehouse on prescription?

I've just finished the Ebony Tower by John Fowles. John Fowles is an excellent writer, you feel your mind being gently exercised as he develops ideas and situations, without abandoning plot and character. Unfortunately the series of stories in this collection is inhabited by a collection of characters who are faced with uncomfortable situations and the tales explore the ways they deal with the situations they find themselves in. Not really the kind of thing my chameleon personality needs when I'm trying to persuade myself that the world hasn't turned against me and no, it would not be a good idea to murder the people upstairs.