Shopping makes me happy.
It really does make me happy - it's like a chemical effect or something.
At the moment my office is in a street off Oxford Street in London - the most famous shopping area here. This is bad.
December and January have been the worst months i've had since i left home. Everyone told me that Londoners get the winter blues during this time, buuuut i didn't really believe it would happen to me.
After i got back from Egypt i had to face the cold and the dark again, along with work and the freakin tube (work had moved to it's new location while i was away). And my very first Christmas without my family. Also, a lot of my friends had left the country for this time of year (they knew! - they knew better than to stay in London and watch each other contemplate suicide - why didn't i believe them?)
Plus i had to face up to the fact that i had waaaaay over spent on the Egypt trip, and hadn't really accounted for Christmas and New Years. After the regular expenses like rent and travel card, almost my entire December pay cheque went towards paying off my credit card and covering the holiday season. And to be honest covering all the Christmas parties during the two weeks before the holiday!. All the remaining money i used to buy very very basic groceries. Chicken breasts, frozen vegies, soup, bread, cheese - that's it for a month. No alcohol, no socialising (unless it was free activities), and NO shopping! On Oxford street! During the SALES!!!
It was torture. Not being able to go shopping made everything a whole lot worse. Because, even though i was down, a litlle bit of shopping every now and again would have given me something to look forward to, and it would have cheered me up! So it was bad.
I didn't get paid again until the end of January when all the salas are over. I have learned a very valuable lesson, and will never make this mistake again. Next year i will hoard money for the sales, and camp out on Oxford Street waiting for the stores to open. Or i'll just go on holiday. And i will be very very happy.
Because, in the best year of my life, January - has been the most boring and depressing month i can remember.
Thank god it's pay day tomorrow!!! And all the missing friends have started arriving back too! Yay!
Sooo to celebrate - i took the credit card out to Oxford Street at lunch time today. I spent two glorious hours shopping, and came back £100 lighter - but with a great big smile on my face. I'm still buzzing off it a couple hours later :-)
There's got to be some kind of scientific evidence to prove that shopping increases a womans seratonin levels...
I've been told that a study was done on the effects of shopping on men, and that it causes similar stress reactions to what you'd find in a fighter pilot or riot police.
Hahaha! You poor buggers. You don't know what you're missing out on.
Big smiles! I wonder how long this will last me :-)
Winter Wonderland...
It snowed! This is the first snow i've seen in London.
This is the pretty sight we woke up to yesterday:
By the time i left the house for work it was already melting and i almost broke my neck. The two minute walk to the tube station took 10 minutes.
I'm over the snow - but this morning we just had ice. Definitely don't like ice.
Diving in the Red Sea - Bells to the Blue Hole
I had the most amazing experience of my life in Dahaab.
Over the first couple of days Anna and i had been diving to complete our PADI Open Water Divers course here in Dahaab (we had started the course in London). We finished that and became officially qualified divers at around lunch time Wednesday. The rest of the people we were travelling with were going to go snorkling that afternoon at a place called the Blue Hole. It's a circular coral reef with a giant hole in the middle that goes to about 250 metres deep. So, our instructor Rachal suggested we go and dive it. Unless you're a qualified diver, you're only allowed to snorkel there, and even if you are qualified you have to have a local guide with you to make sure you're safe.
It sounded like a great idea, but once we got out there and sat down for the debrief before suiting up, i realised what we were actually going to do and started to get a little freaked out. I'm afraid of the sea in particular and any water that i can't see through in general. If i can't see then i don't know if i'm going to hurt myself on a rock, or sharp branch, or if something that will hurt me or eat me will come up behind me. I don't like touching something that i can't identify, slimey or moving things, in case they bite or sting me. Also, i'm afraid of being stuck. I just don't like the idea of getting stuck and being unable to move and then eventually dieing. All pretty normal i reckon! Any sane person would be afraid of that sort of thing...
What we were going to do is begin the dive by jumping into the water from a rock further up the coast at a spot called Bells, or the 'Pond'. It's a tiny version of the Blue Hole but much much narrower, like a tunnel. Ok, so i was going to have to jump blindly into water i can't see through completely surrounded by rocks on all sides. Then i would be in a tunnel that we'd have to descend to 18 meters in, then swim through until when we reached the end, and then as we come out of the tunnel of rocks to our left and right is an enourmous cliff face of coral reef. It is rated as the number one coral reef to dive for in the world. Below us and beyond us is what is known as 'the blue'. Where we come out and all along the entire section of coast line, the ocean floor is 2000 metres below us - they call that bottomless because no one can actually go that far down.
Then we follow the coral reef along for a half an hour or so until we reach the Blue Hole, while we do that we have to hug the reef because if we get too far away from it we'll be caught in a current and swept away, but at the same time we have to be seriously careful of not touching the reef, both for it's protection and our survival. Some of the most beautiful pieces of life can be poisonos or deadly. Once in the Blue Hole we can 'relax' a bit because it's sheltered and not so dangerous.
Right, so, after the debriefing i'm sitting there shaking in my swim suit - probably had a classic horrified expression on my face. But I haven't pulled out yet. With all our gear on waddling like ducks up the coast to the entry point i pass a section of cliff covered in varous memorial plaques in different languages. One of them is in english, and it's a memorial for a man that died diving here. Fuuuuuuuuck!!!!!!! - all of the plaques represent people who have died diving here!!! Not just shaking anymore, good and proper freaked out.
The hardest thing i've ever done in my life is jump into that rock tunnel. I was standing on the edge of the cliff , my feet shaking in my flippers, huge heavey tank putting me off balance, looking out at the dark surface of the ocean with darker rocks and unidentifieable shapes underneath - scared the bejeezus out of me. But i did it... and i didn't die! Yay!
As soon as i was under the surface, breathing and realising that i was ok, visibilty was perfect and crystal clear, everything was suddenly fine. The surface of the ocean is much scarier than being underneath it. It was still scary swimming through that tunnel, but once we came out in front of the cliff face - i have never seen anything more beautiful anywhere in the world. I cannot describe it well enough to do it justice. I just spent the next half hour staring about in dumb wonderment. I wasn't afraid, i was too amazed at the colours and all the crazy looking fish. It's like a magical brilliantly coloured garden. The fish aren't afraid of us, they swim around us and ignore us completely. There was a huge cloud of tiny golden fish that surrounded us, and bright purple fish as big as my hand, there were Nimo's and other tropical fish all over the place. We saw an octopus. At one point Rachal pointed at this huge rock, and i couldn't tell what she wanted us to look at, then the rock moved and it was an enourmous fish almost as big as i was. All kinds of different corals, hard ones, living ones - a swarm of baby seahorses, a sea snake! so so many things.
We had an underwater camera. We have a few cool photo's, but they are nothing compared to the real thing! It's so disappointing that the colours don't come out on film. I want you all to go and do the same dive immediatley so you can see for yourself what i'm talking about.
I'm definitely coming back to Dahaab next year to do more diving. Dahaab is about the only place in Egypt i'm in any hurry to see again. Although i do want to go back to the pyramids and the Sahara one day too.
After those five blissful days, it was back to London and work... to suffer through the British winter.
Egypt! - Part 2
We docked in Luxor, which is a gorgeous city with great market places. Here we went into the desert on donkeys to see Valley of the Kings, Queens & Workers. That was a lot of fun, there were no proper saddles and the donkeys liked to canter and trot.
The temples in Luxor were huge, the biggest and oldest ones of the lot.
After Luxor we drove across the desert again to Hurghada, we stayed the night there and the next day took a boat to Sharm el Sheik. From there we drove through the Sinai desert this time until we reached Dahaab.
Dahaab was my favourite city in Egypt. It's a new development, it was a small beach town full of fantastic restaurants and shopping. We had 5 days in Dahaab and we were pretty much left to our own devices - this was the relaxation part of the tour.
Except for the night we were supposed to climb Mount Sinai. I opted out of that wee adventure. To do it they left the hotel at 11pm, drove for three hours until the reached the base of the mountain. Then it took them about two - three hours to walk up the paths and the final stretch was a half hour walk up a flight of stairs that was originally built to punish people. Then they had to wait on top of the mountain in freezing temperatures below zero for the sunrise. The sunrise takes approximately 30 seconds, and you're up there with hundreds of other tourists. Then you face the climb back down the mountain, and the three hour drive back to Dahaab. All for a 30 second sunrise. I was happy with the sunrises we saw on the Nile - i didn't need to kill myself climbing a mountain to see another one.
Instead i went diving. I'll tell you about that in the next post.
Unfortunately blogger is not letting me upload any pictures, but here is the link to where i keep all my travelling pics if you want to take a look: http://michelleinlondon.spaces.live.com/
Egypt! - Part 1
In the last week of November and first week of December i went to Egypt with two friends. We joined the Oasis Overland tour.
I arrived with Anna & Rolly a day before our tour started so that we had a chance to check out Cairo first. Cairo is enourmous, there are approx 20 million people, and i reckon twice that many cars. It is an odd mix of east meets west - all the signs etc are in Arabic of course, i finally feel like i'm somewhere foreign and then you see a huge blaring sign in english for Pepsi, Cadbury, KFC...
There are some amazingly beautiful areas of Cairo, but most of it is what you'd expect a city of that size to look like. It seems as though there is a level of poverty here, but if you look closer, that's just the appearance in most cases. The streets need repairing, and there are no sidewalks to speak of, the buildings all look unfinished or falling down, but actually, we found out that if a structure is left incomplete, then they don't have to pay tax for it, and we're assured that the insides of the buildings are normal. There is a layer of dust over everything of course, and donkeys being ridden amongst all the traffic on the motorways. My god, the traffic is insane. It makes it really really fun trying to cross the road!.
Cairo is where the great Pyramids and the Sphinx are. I always thought i'd get to the Pyramids and get a sense of surrealism - they always seemed like something out of a story to me, not quite real. But when we got there, it was great to finally see them, but i think i had been well and truly introduced to the realism of Cairo by then. It's not a relaxing city at all.
We went inside one of the Pyramids, through tiny enclosed sloping tunnels only a metre high, only a couple hundred metres or so into the middle, and it was like stepping into an oven. I'm sooo glad we came in November and not July. It's been about 25 degrees here on average each day, but quite a lot colder at night time. Also in Cairo i went on my first camel ride! It's not that exciting really... a lot like horses :-)
The people in Egypt are interesting. Predominantly Arabic/Muslim - and even though tourism has been around in Egypt for awhile now, most people seem to be fascinated by us foreigners. There aren't a lot of women around, they're kept hidden away, and the ones you do see are covered from head to toe with only their faces and hands exposed. Pretty much everyone i've come across can speak english. In the hotels and restaurants we've been to we get excellent service, the staff are eager to please and to pratice their english. But out on the street it's a different story. We were told by our tour manager that just for our own benefit, rather than not to offend people, the girls should keep their shoulders and knees covered in the cities and towns. The culture here has the idea that all western/white women are easy and will willingly sleep with them or even marry them. It's the whole sex before marriage thing, the notion is that if your white then you think that's ok and if you're ok with it then you must be a whore.
It's such a different way of thinking, i can't get my head around it. Emily our tour leader is a British girl, and she says that its safer to walk around Cairo at night than it is London. All that happens is that you get about two dozen people staring at you every step you take, lots of people say hello and ask where you're from - just trying to get us to talk to them. A few of the younger or older ones will call out comments and offers! But no one approaches you or touches you, so it's a bit strange, but it's fine. There were only three guys on our tour (15 of us in total) and if we're wandering around with one of them, we're assumed to be their wives. All of us. Rolly has been told many times that he is lucky to have two such beautiful wives. And by beautiful they just mean white. That's fine as long as he doesn't offer to sell one of us for some camels...
It's different again in the market places and tourist areas, there they mostly just want your money and they know we're all a bunch of suckers that have no idea as to the true value of anything. It's a good place to practice my haggling skills - but after while you get quite worn out by fending off all the tradesmen trying to entice you into their stores. If you show the teeniest amount of interest then they get in your face hassling you for a sale and offering deals, following you down the street, asking questions to keep you there. And there's always three more a metre away to fight your way through. And after them are the children with post cards and crappy wee bracelets who follow you for ages and make you feel guilty. You're so busy either talking your way out of a sale, or rushing past the next guy to avoid the whole conversation again, that you barely get a chance to look at the goods. If they only understood how much business they're scaring away...
The obsession with white skin is strange. There is an ad on tv here of an Egyptian girl who tries to get a job as a news presenter but she gets turned down. then she gets the bright idea of buying some skin whitening cream - she uses the cream, reapplies for the job - and this time she gets it. But really - i suppose it's not that different to all the ads for fake tan. We just don't get told by the media that we won't get a good job unless we have a tan!
Anyway, after Cairo we took an overnight train to the much smaller city of Aswan. From here we left at 3am to drive through the Sahara desert to get to Abu Simbel. It was here that i finally ot that sense of bewilderment at being here. I was looking out the window at the black rolling hills of endless sand under a perfect bright starry night - and i just realised - i was in the Sahara desert. The Sahara desert! Who even goes there!?! I never once in my life ever thought i'd go to the Sahara. It hit me how far i'd come all by myself, to places i couldn't even imagine. I thought about how much i'd already seen and done in the past 8 months and how much more i've got left to do. Egypt is the fifteenth country i've visited this year... still a lot more to see though.
While in Aswan we had the awesome opportunity to visit a Nubian family in their own home. They are a native people that have kept their language and culture alive so that they are living almost exactly as they did 5000 years ago. With added extras like electricity, running water and cell phones! Haha, we came across one guy who lived in a grass hut on an island in the middle of the Nile and even he had a cell phone.
After Aswan we boarded a Felucca, which is a sail boat desined by the Romans way back when, still being used today. We sailed down the Nile for two nights. We lazed around on mattresses sunbathing and being served food and beer by the two Egyptian men sailing the boat. The man who owned it is amazing. He's been sailing for over 20 years and he has learned english solely by listening to and talking to the tourists he totes around. He has a really good memory and would stump us with puzzles and tell jokes. At night we'd sit around a camp fire with people from other boats and the Eyptians all brought out their drums and teach us songs and dances. They were a lot of fun. It was good to get the chance to meet the Nubian family and the sailing crew, beause you don't really get much opportunity to get to know other people here.
So it's been awhile...
Ok - I've been guilt tripped into posting again. Mostly because i've been
tagged by something called a
Meme... basically i now have to reveal 5 things baout myself that people don't know.
Ummm... i don't have any secrets! This is hard.
#1 I'm allergic to cheap jewellery. I kid you not, i can only wear precious metals in my ears or they go all yucky.
#2 I count things. For example if i'm on a bus i'll count all the windows on the buildings that we pass. Or if i'm sitting in the lounge watching tv i'll count the ceiling tiles. Or at work i'll count how many people are in the room etc I also count to try and get to sleep - i don't mean i count sheep, i just run the numbers through my head over and over again until i fall asleep, i guess it's a little like meditating. I can even do it in three different languages!
#3 I hate computers. That may seem a little strange since i work in the IT industry - but there you have it.
#4 I get more upset by animals being hurt than i do by humans getting hurt.
#5 When i was a kid i wanted to be a vampire when i grew up. I don't know why - i think it might have been something to do with wanting to be able to fly.
Ok, now that i've got my posting groove back i'll do a bit of back logging about what i've been up to.
International Rules game - insanity
Got back from the weekend in Dublin. It was great, two days of Irish sports and Irish drinking.
After we arrived on Saturday and got settled in to our room, we immediately went down to the pub to watch the Australia vs Wales game. We had an Aussie amongst us, she insisted. It was ok though, we were looking for an excuse to start drinking at 1o’clock in the afternoon anyway! The Aussies only managed a draw (hah!), but we were in an Australian pub, so lot’s of Kiwi and Aussie accents flying about – and there was a huge group of Welsh guys on a stag do, so the atmosphere was really good, very entertaining.
That night we went Clare (my Irish friend) took us out to this awesome Bar called Zanzibar – we stayed there till about midnight before moving on to a nightclub called Spirit. Clare had called them a few days earlier and sweet talked them into putting our names on the guest list. It pays to know the locals! When we got there we found out that they had also made us VIP’s! We were escorted in by our own concierge who took our coats. We didn’t have to pay as much as everyone else and we were allowed to use the elevator and go into the private VIP balcony. It was all very exciting, but having VIP access isn’t that amazing really, there were no famous people up there that I could recognise. Spirit had three levels, the basement was a chill out zone full of couches etc and the next two levels were dance floors playing different music.
On Sunday after a sleep in we got up and had an enormous lunch before heading off to the International Rules game – the reason we went to Dublin.
Have you ever seen International rules? Its craziness, those people are insane. The Gaelic team are actually playing a different game to the Australian team… for example the Irish team aren’t allowed to run with the ball for more then three steps before passing it on – but the Aussies can run from one end of the field to the other with it if they want to. There are heaps of weird rules like that. They have to have six referees just to keep up with what’s going on! It was hilarious, there were fights breaking out all over the place, before the game even started there were three fights going on at the same time – I thought it was a joke! There are three different goal posts – one that looks like a soccer net, and two sets of rugby posts, different points are scored depending on which ones you get the ball through. The Australians quickly took the lead and stayed ahead the whole game to eventually win. I was supporting the Irish team with Clare, and Ange, the other Kiwi amongst us was supporting the Aussie team with Beck.
Here's us in the stands, Beck, me, Clare & Ange:
Ange and I left the game 10 minutes early to hoof it to the nearest pub to watch the All Blacks play England. Which they did very well, naturally. It was so funny watching the crowd shots, the stands were entirely filled out in people wearing black. There must have been only a few hundred England supporters there. I wish I could have been there, but the tickets sold out within minutes of going on sale, which is why I went to Dublin instead.
It’s the most amount of sports I’ve ever watched in any one go.
On an unrelated matter; here is a link to the site where I’ve been posting all my photos. I’ve finally managed to get the Ibiza ones up there for you.
http://michelleinlondon.spaces.live.com/
Ok that's it! I've had enough...
I'm fed up with re-posting from the old blog. It's boring and time consuming.
So, i've kept a couple of favourites, and may add a few more, but from now on it's only current posts!
Although we lost our stolen wireless internet connection, so i have to take my lazy ass down to the internet cafes - so it will probably be sporadic posts. Sorry. Better than nothing though!
Where on Earth??? - Friday, January 13, 2006 (old post)
Only 73 days to go, and where exactly am i going you ask?
Well then, i'll tell you.
England:Monday March 27th – Wellington to London (via Auckland & L.A. arrive 28th)
France:Wednesday April 5th – London to Paris
Stopping at: Dover (on the English Channel)
Calais (Somme)
Thursday April 6th – Paris
Friday April 7th – Paris to Chateau De Cruix (in Beaujolais)
Stopping at: Fontainebleau (Burgundy Region)
Saturday April 8th – Chateau De Cruix
Spain:Sunday April 9th – Chateau De Cruix to Barcelona
Stopping at: Port du Gard
Monday April 10th – Barcelona
France:Tuesday April 11th – Barcelona to French Riviera
Going to: Aigues Mortes
Wednesday April 12th – French Riviera
Going to:
Monaco
Cannes
Nice
Monte Carlo
Italy:Thursday April 13th – French Riviera to Florence
Going to: Pisa
Easter Friday April 14th – Florence
Easter Saturday April 15th – Florence to Rome
Easter Sunday April 16th – Rome
Going to: Vatican City
Easter Monday April 17th – Rome to Venice
Tuesday April 18th – Venice
Austria:Wednesday April 19th – Venice to Vienna
Thursday April 20th – Vienna
Germany:Friday April 21st – Vienna to Munich (in Bavaria)
Saturday April 22nd – Munich to Tyrol
Austria:Sunday April 23rd – Tyrol
Switzerland:Monday April 24th – Tyrol to Swiss Alps
Stopping at: Vaduz (in Liechtenstein)
Lucerne
Tuesday April 25th – Swiss Alps
Germany:Wednesday April 26th – Swiss Alps to Rhine Valley
Stopping at: Heidelberg
St Goar
Thursday April 27th – Rhine Valley to Amsterdam (through the Ruhr Valley)
Friday April 28th – Amsterdam
Stopping at: Edam
England:Saturday April 29th – Amsterdam to London (through Belgium)
That’s right, I’m going to be in Italy for Easter! And actually in Rome for Easter Sunday and Monday. On the one hand I’ll get the chance to see what it’s like in the Vatican City during an important religious holiday, and may even get to hear the Pope speak. On the other hand they probably won’t be doing the tours through the city so I can see the art work and hear about the history. Ah well, I’ll just have to go back fort that another time!
For the full itinerary you can see it
here.
Beyond the tour… i don’t know.
I’ll manage to fill in the next few years somehow :-)
posted by Michelle @ 12:46 PM 6 Comments:
At 2:40 PM, January 13, 2006, Mark said...
Hi, if you get the chance, when you're in England, go to Stratford and do the Shakespere thing. London is good, but full of Tourists :-) The cabinet war rooms is a good thing to see too. Dont go to Hull - its a dump (thatswhere im from!) You'll have a great time in Barcelona (Las Ramblas is good for bars!) Graz is good in Austria too. Have a great time!!
At 2:57 PM, January 13, 2006, Michelle said...
Haha, i am a tourist! Well at least i will be until i find a job and a place to live.I'll definitely do what you suggest, thanks!In fact if anyone has any ideas about where to go, or where to avoid i'd love to hear it :-)
At 4:10 PM, January 13, 2006, Lis said...
You will definitly have to do the Shakespeare thing. Do it for me love. :)
At 10:37 PM, January 26, 2006, Anonymous said...
aww Michelle, Dave and I are going to miss you sooo much I have tears in my eyes just thinking about it...you know michelle, you are a fab person and a great friend xx We both love you to bits xxxSkye
At 11:54 AM, January 27, 2006, Michelle said...
Thanks Skye, i'm really going to miss you guys too.How about you come and visit me? :-)
At 3:39 PM, January 27, 2006, Anonymous said... HEHE Now there is a thought..Lotto is looking promising ;)Skye
Nulliparity - Friday, October 21, 2005(old post)
I've alway's maintained that i'll never have children. Most people who hear me say this insist that it's just a phase and that i'll change my mind. Mmmm... we'll see. I'll put up an update every 10 years and then we'll find out.
Several months ago a friend of mine found the below article in the newspaper and gave it to me to read because she thought it sort of described me. It's quite funny too, at least, from my perspective it is.
Then today i was perusing the blogs that i read and i noticed a post by
A.J.Chesswas entitled 'The Intelligent Woman' - this post prompted a lot of comments and was most entertaining. I love reading a good blog debate. Anyway, it got me thinking about how i'm a nulliparae, and i checked Google to see if there was an online version of the article, and there was! It's a bit long, but worth a read, here it is...
I'm not ill or nasty, I just don't want to be a mum(Filed: 31/05/2005)Kate Battersby explains why she feels absolutely no desire to have children - and why there's nothing wrong with thatIt's because I'm ill, you know. And selfish. My illness makes me selfish. Or my selfishness makes me ill, I'm not quite sure. But I'm definitely ill and selfish, anyway. I'm also strange, and probably nasty. My illness is not catching, but increasing numbers of women have it. It's called nulliparity. Chambers Concise Dictionary defines a nullipara as a woman who has never given birth to a child, especially a woman who is not a virgin.Twenty per cent of British women fall into this group; moreover, 20 per cent of British women in their thirties have specifically opted to be childless. The very word "childless" suggests loss or absence, and I can't imagine how painful it must be to yearn for children while being unable to have them. But I don't yearn for children, or find them fascinating and adorable. I never wanted them, and am grateful to be able to exercise my choice.The many who are evangelical about breeding are dismayed, bewildered or offended by my decision. Inevitably, I'm required to explain. "Why not? Do you hate children?" "Don't you have any maternal instinct?" "Is it a physical problem?" "Isn't that terribly selfish?" After that comes: "You'll regret it", or "You'll change your mind." The diagnosis never changes. This is just a phase and I'll get over it, either in time to rectify matters; or not, in which case I will get the lacerating unhappiness I deserve.The idea that I've made a positive choice is apparently very strange indeed. But like grave-digging or shelf-stacking, motherhood is not a job I ever wanted. So I was glad to contribute to a new book by Nicki Defago, a former senior producer of Newsnight and deputy editor on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show. Nicki, 39, is not a lobbyist or campaigner for the child-free. But as a married woman who has chosen not to have children, she wrote Childfree And Loving It! when she realised that not a single relevant book existed on the subject."Amazon offers more than 1,000 titles on the single subject of what children eat," she explained. "But if you are resolutely child-free, or even undecided about starting a family, you'll go hungry."Naturally, the Americans have been tuned in to this trend for years. Over there, the 42 per cent of women without children can read lorryloads of books on the subject, all featuring contentedly upbeat titles separating motherhood from female identity: Sweet Grapes; Pride And Joy; Cheerfully Childless; No Kidding; and my own favourite, Families Of Two. I have a family quite separate from the one I was born into. I mean the family comprising myself and my partner, the kind of family ignored by politicians. "The thing that really makes me rabid is Gordon Brown's £250 gift to every new baby," foams a friend. "I strongly believe that there's a communal interest in the tax system. I have no problem with universal health and education systems, or with targeting support where there is need. I do have a problem with giving money to kids' savings."There aren't any breaks for people without children. At work, flexible contracts are offered to those with children, or to carers. These are entirely legitimate. But their work doesn't go away. Cover has to be found for it, and those who give it are not recognised. Meanwhile, when I broke my leg in six places, my partner was refused carers' leave and made to feel very uncomfortable."We nulliparae sound cross, don't we? Well, we are cross. It's just one more negative characteristic to add to the list. Personally, I bristle when being informed I will soon see the light and change my mind. It seems quite reasonable to reply: "Really? Is that what happened to you after you had children?" Then the evangelicals look offended, because my reply is indeed intended to offend, in the hope that they will spot how offensive their question is to me. But they never do. Hence I am not only ill and strange, but also nasty.And then of course, I have a dog. Guess what? The mummy mafia smile knowingly, and diagnose a child-substitute. Sigh. Pay attention at the back. How can a dog be a "substitute" for something I don't want? I love my dog in his own right. I want him specifically."Ah, but a dog won't change your life. Children will," lecture the mummy mafia. Sawing off my legs would change my life, too. I just don't feel any urge to try it.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtmlxml=/health/2005/05/31/hmum26.xml&sSheet=/health/2005/05/31/ixhright.html
posted by Michelle @ 2:24 PM 6 Comments:
At 5:19 PM, October 21, 2005, Lrav said...
I must try to remember this term. Interesting.I guess the main thing I think about when a women tells me that she has chosen not to have children is her motivation. I shall try to be more accepting in future but I am fully biased because I love children.The more I sit and ponder the more I question my view point, un-thought out as it is. As an immediate answer, I would have said that, for example, if a woman did not want to have children because it would affect her figure, It would not be a good reason. But thinking about it, I support freedom of choice, and if that is a big motivating factor I would be a hypocrite to argue against it.That all said and done Michelle I remember the time that you asked Lis to have your children for you, Hmmm?
At 2:04 PM, October 22, 2005, Michelle said...
That was a joke! I also wanted you guys to raise them for me remember? That was motivated by thinking about not leaving some of my DNA behind to continue living when i die. That's the down side of not having children. But, if i really get worried, i can always donate egg's to a fertility clinic and can die happy with the knowledge that somewhere out there some stranger has some of my DNA. Hahaha :-)
At 3:26 PM, October 24, 2005, Lis said...
Yeah I don't see what the big deal is about women not having children. If she doesn't want them, then it is probably best she doesn't have them, otherwise there will be children brought up by resenting mothers - not really the best type of parent. I know that I eventually want to have children, but that doesn't make me look down my nose at other women who don't. And I would like to think that if I was unable to have children then I wouldn't have to deal with the same treatment. Lrav, stop spreading rumours that Michelle wants to have babies with me, it's not a good look :).
At 9:30 PM, November 01, 2005, A. J. Chesswas said...
It just seems so sad. Are you sure you don't have some unresolved issues or something (I know I sound patronising). But, you know, the warmth of a mother's love is a miracle and it would be shame for a woman like yourself to not be able to realise it.
At 8:26 AM, November 02, 2005, Michelle said...
Now that's exactly what the article was talking about. 'You don't want children? - there must be something wrong with you!'.I don't have any issues, my mother is wonderful, she has a great life and her husband and children love and respect her. She's a really good role model in lot's of different ways.I'm just not interested in having children. Maybe that will change, maybe it won't. But the point is, it's not sad or wrong, it's a choice. Why is it sad? It's not like people who don't have children deprive themselves of love. It doesn't mean that they have to live a sad and lonely existence.No doubt my brother will have kids, and so will a lot of my friends. Whenever i feel the need I can be 'aunty costi' take the kids out to the zoo for a day, load them up on sugar and then send them home. I'll be the one that travels the world, has a career working somewhere cool like the UN, and spoils other people's kids rotten everytime i visit. Then when the small ones start to cry or the teenage ones start to sulk and shout... i can go home!Sounds like a great plan to me. I don't need anyone elses approval, but it's really interesting to see people's opinion on the matter.Maybe i'm helping to save the world from over population... if only more people would be so selfless... haha j/k.
At 10:32 AM, November 02, 2005, A. J. Chesswas said... That's cool, it's good to hear the thoughts of a nullipar, a species that truly baffles me!
Super hero's - Thursday, October 06, 2005 (old post)
I really like super hero's, i always wanted to be one... as a kid i mean.
Charlotte and i wondered what our friends names would be if we were all super hero's. We came up with some ideas but feel free to come up with your own ones :-)
Me - i wanted to be Wonder Woman but it's already taken, so Vinnie suggested 'Super Bitch'... i'm not so sure though, it's not that cool.
Char - 'Duck Girl' and she can say things like "Quack" or "To the duck pond!"
Luke - 'Meat Man' and he can say things like "I eat 1200 chickens, 300 cows and 2 goats a year" or "yeild to the power of meat!" and "I feel like a steak".
Shay - 'IT-tech Man' with sayings like "is that OS RedHat, Windows or OS X?" or "there's an error in the registry!"
Lisa - 'Shakespeare Girl' and she can say stuff like “I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano, A stage where every man must play a part, And mine a sad one.” or "Where for art thou Romeo" and "Dang that Marlowe".
Eddie - 'Island Boy' with sayings like "relax, take a load off" and "anyone for pina colada's?"
Kate - 'Sloth Girl' and she'll definitely say "I'm not a Sloth!" and "I can't be bothered" or "I think i'll just stay in tonight".
Tommo - 'Banker Boy' who will have sayings such as "Finance is not a joke" and "Vote National"
Sav - 'Skater Boy' who says things like "ouch" when he falls off his board and skins his knees and "I've just got to find a bush to leave my board in" and not much else cause he's real quiet.
Ewen - 'Smartass Man' who generally gives really good come backs.
Jo - 'Enviro Girl' and she would say things like 'on yer bike' and 'be a tidy kiwi'.
Haha. Give me more ideas!
posted by Michelle @ 12:38 PM
17 Comments:
At 4:52 PM, October 06, 2005, Lrav said...
What the hell sort of name is 'Meat Man'???? What did I do to deserve this?!I think you should give us all kick ass accessories. I bags the meat tenderiser. And knives. And a leather outfit. Tight leather.Another good one for Kate is 'Indicisive Girl', who says things like 'you look great in all those tops' and 'what d'you rekon?'
At 8:31 PM, October 06, 2005, Lis said...
Hmmm, does that mean my weapon of choice is the pen? Cause no matter what they say, if it comes to a pen versus a sword, the sword is going to slice you into little bloody pieces of flesh, whilst a pen will leave a dent at most. Although, one of those big quill pens would be quite cool...
At 8:12 AM, October 07, 2005, Michelle said...
Yeah! you guys have got the idea. Luke wants to wear really tight leather. Ok.Lisa, you could also use sharp edged paper to fling at people and give them paper cuts. And you could wear a cool shakespearean outfit, poofy pants, tights, waistcoat thingamee, hat with a huge feather in it. It'll be great.
At 8:55 AM, October 07, 2005, Lrav said...
So what is 'super bitch's' outfit? And apart form a lashing tongue, what are your other weapons?
At 9:14 AM, October 07, 2005, Michelle said...
Eh, i don't really want to be super bitch. Maybe i could be 'Travel Girl'. I can't think of anything cool.But, if i have to be super bitch i guess i'd wear... whaterver i damn well feel like! And besides a lashing tongue my powers would be a withering glare and a cruel laugh maybe?It just doesn't sound like me... aye? aye guys? right?
At 4:00 PM, October 07, 2005, Lrav said...
ummmm... sure.
At 4:39 PM, October 07, 2005, Lis said...
How about...tidy freak girl. Your wepons could be disinfectant and a duster
At 1:35 PM, October 08, 2005, Rosco said...
I reckon Super Bitch's weapons would be a long red spiked whip shaped like a tongue and insult stars, much like ninja stars but when they hit they release an insult that cuts deep. Not that you're Super Bitch or anything.
At 11:13 AM, October 09, 2005, Lis said...
Rosco, you should write comic books, or 'graphic novels' as some like to be refered to as these days
At 8:15 AM, October 10, 2005, Michelle said...
'Tidy Freak Girl'... i like it. Although Rosco maked the super bitch weapons sound pretty damn cool.
At 12:13 PM, October 10, 2005, sav said...
I want to see luke in some sort of meat leather, or just encased in a variety of meat with just his eyes showing. Then people can come along and eat bits off him (this would make him a popular superhero), or maybe he can slowly eat himself.
At 3:11 PM, October 10, 2005, Michelle said...
Eeeeewwwwww
At 6:18 PM, October 11, 2005, Lis said...
Sav mate, we don't want to hear about your sick fantasies. :)
At 1:48 PM, October 12, 2005, ewen said...
Im pretty keen on Smartass man, I'll hide in the shadows ready to leap out with a sharp retort to defend the weak and dim-witted.Also, Shay and Luke, I have noticed Costi refers to us as Men unlike our lesser friends, bad luck Tommo and Sav.We should also have sidekicks, here are some for starters:Mine: The Comeback Kid (who will rub some extra salt in the wounds of my well-timed quips)Sav: Avril LavigneCosti: Little BitchKate: A pet Sloth with some cool superpower, like the ability to 'play dead'
At 2:07 PM, October 12, 2005, Michelle said...
Ahaha! ahahahahaha...See what i mean? 'Smartass Man' is perfect for Ewen. BTW having man/boy or girl/woman is no reflection on the person, i just went with what names suited best... feel free to change your own super hero names if you don't like what i came up with, i can always edit the post :-)This is great, we could have our own cartoon series. All we need is a cartoonist to draw up all the characters. Rob?
At 11:31 AM, October 13, 2005, Kelly_Cali said...
What about me??? What am I going to be? :-( *sniff sniff*
At 2:20 PM, October 22, 2005, Michelle said... You're definitely 'Cat Girl' Kel :-)
Meat - Monday, October 03, 2005 (old post)
This may offend and disturb some people.
I was on my way home from work today giving a ride home to one of my colleagues, and we got talking about chicken for dinner. Then we got on to the topic of vegetarians and i said that i really wasn't willing to shorten my life in order to save thousands of animals lives. And that got me wondering exactly how many animal lives have been sacrificed for my meals. So i tried to work it out, and it's a bit shocking.
Before i get into it though, i do believe that being a vegetarian can potentially shorten your life span. The lack of protein, iron and other nutrients is detrimental to your health, and also, you don't have a healthy carb/protein balance and a lot of vegetarians eat heaps of bread, rice and pasta which if they don't balance it out with exercise will cause weight gain... which can also potentially shorten your life. I believe that if you take an average meat eater and an average vegetarian then you would find that the vegetarian is generally less healthy. *Disclaimer* This is just my belief based on personal observation not fact based on scientific or medical testing. It goes the other way of course with big fat meat eaters dying of heart attacks, but that's not the average.
So anyway... i eat meat with my meals every night for dinner and about three times a week with lunch, on a sandwhich or whatever. So on average i eat meat about 10 times a week.
Now, i know that the animal didn't die directly because i wanted it for dinner, and that lot's of people get portions from the same animal. One animal feeds several people but for the purposes of my calculations I'm going to say that each meal i have contributes to the death of one animal. I'm not good enough at math to really figure this out properly. I'd also have to know how many people each type of animal feeds and how often i eat said type. So this will be fairly simple.
10 x 52 = 520 520 animals a year die because i wanted to eat part of them.
520 x 23.3 (I'm 23 years and three week old tomorrow) = 1211612116 animals have died in my lifetime in order for me to eat meat 10 times a week.
That's countless chickens, cows, sheep, pigs and fish. One deer, two ducks, maybe a half dozen frogs, one snake... and who knows what you get in some chinese takeaways.
Does this make me want to become a vegetarian?
Nope.
In fact tonight i'm having lamb. Mmmm baby sheep... it's my fave.
posted by Michelle @ 5:24 PM 4 Comments:
At 12:52 PM, October 05, 2005, Kelly said...
Noooooooooooooooooo! Not baby sheep!!! Ew thanks for talking about meat, meat and more meat. Kinda makes me wanna be a veggie :o) p.s. DON'T EAT THE BABY SHEEP!
At 3:38 PM, October 05, 2005, Lis said...
Sometimes you scare me a little.Yeah, sometimes I wish I could be a vegetarian, I have even tried (when I was like 11) and failed miserably, had to go on yucky iron tablets, it just wasn't worth it. As it is, I eat very little red meat, don't eat pig meat at all (they are a very intelligent species). I eat chicken and fish, my sister says it is okay because they are ugly, not like cute little lambs and cows. The simple fact is, we are omnivores, can't get away from it. Still, the consumption of meat, I think, is one of the more disturbing parts of life to think about. Thanks for sharing Michelle.
At 4:23 PM, October 05, 2005, Michelle said...
You're welcome :-)
At 6:44 PM, October 05, 2005, Lrav said... Meeeeeeat, meeeeeat, glorious meeeeeeatt!!!I love meat. All people that don't are stupid.
Funky Science - Tuesday, September 27, 2005 (old post)
Recently I heard about mitochondrial sequencing for the first time. Charlotte told me about Bryan Sykes who is a professor of human genetics at the University of Oxford. He wrote a book called ‘The Seven Daughters of Eve’.
Mitochondrial DNA is inherited only from the mother and does not show paternal characteristics. This means that brothers and sisters will have the same mitochondrial DNA type as their mother, as will any relative linked through the female line.
Mitochondrial chromosomes don’t change at all when being passed down through the generations, so my mitochondria is identical to that of my mother, grandmother, aunties, great grandmother, great great great great grandmother etc all the way back to the beginning. The scientists say that the strands mutate about every 20,000 years or so, but that they can track the mutations.
So anyway, Sykes has identified 7 different mitochondrial ‘clans’ in Europe and has discovered about 95% of the European population can be traced back to 7 women. The idea is that if you were to have your mitochondria sequenced they would be able to tell you which ‘daughter of Eve’ your ancestors came from. He has named these original 7 women Ursula, Tara, Helena, Katrine, Velda, Xenia and Jasmine. And, he says that each of these 7 women originated from just one woman.
There are heaps and heaps of studies done based on this research and scientists around the world have so far discovered about 36 different clans. They’ve even been to New Zealand to see what clan the Maori originated from.
“The analysis begins from the premise that about 150,000 years ago there was a single human female, who Sykes named ‘Eve’, from whom we are all directly descended. As human DNA diversified and the population grew, particular strains of DNA developed and these have been identified by scientists and divided into 36 clans.The mitochondrial (female) and Y (male) chromosomes continue through the generations unchanged, providing stable havens where distinctive DNA sequences and markers can settle and take root, first within families, then, as those families expand, within clans and ethnic groups. This provides rich material for reconstructing the major migrations and dispersals of our past, but using it to trace the ancestral origins of individuals is less precise.”They say that potentially there were more clans that could have been ‘daughtered out’ or wiped out of existence because no female children were born.Sykes has also started a business called ‘Oxford Ancestors’ where you can go to pay to have your mitochondria sequenced. I think it would be really interesting to know your origins. I have no idea where my mother’s family comes from, I know my dad’s side is Irish and my mothers dad’s side is Polish, but nobody seems to have any idea where the females came from, so it makes me wonder… And once you know that beginning, you could look into the history of the area and see what likely happened to your ancestors.There is a really interesting article
here about what one woman found out about where she came from. Most people would not get this kind of detail though, it seems to be much more ambiguous for the average person.
posted by Michelle @ 2:03 PM 6 Comments:
At 2:42 PM, September 28, 2005, Legion said...
Oh my goodness. Those silly christians knew what they were talking about. Dang. How are we going to get avoid admitting we were wrong? Onward to the Summer Country! Let no skeptical rationalist materialist scientists, or any other powers of hell deter us, for we are victors in Christ alone! Oh, sorry, that sounded awfully closeminded. If you want to be offended or entertained and edified, investigate my blog: thecaveblog.blogspot.com.
At 3:00 PM, September 28, 2005, Michelle said...
I don't know about that, i still believe in evolution. Just because some scientist named the supposed first female homosapien he's managed to track down Eve doesn't mean she was created by God out of Adam's rib bone eh? Maybe her real name was 'grunt, snuffle'.Hahaha, i'll definitely check out your blog.
At 9:34 AM, September 30, 2005, Lrav said...
Very interesting stuff. If you do some searching around on the topic, one of the key concepts is that the Mitochondrial Eve (ME for short) lived with a whole bunch of other people and certainly wasn't the biblical Eve or anything close to it. And it most certainly does not disprove evolution at all, it is in support of the single-origins evolution theory.Think about it, when this ME was alive, there were a whole lot of other people around with her, and they would have had another ME that they all shared, that was alive long before them.legion, what I don't like about the way you put your argument forward is that you lash out at people who don't think the same as you. I know it must be frustrating having your belief constantly attacked and researched against, but it is still better to try for the high ground.This particular scientific fact is against the biblical view, the details behind the media stories are starkly clear.
At 7:47 PM, October 06, 2005, alex said...
Bonjour Michelle! C'est Alex ici, checking out your blogs and really enjoying them. Did you read in the paper today that two high ranking catholic bishops have published a teaching document that says that the bible shouldn't be read as historical fact, and that stories such as adam & eve aren't historically accurate! How open minded of them. They might convert me yet ...
At 8:33 AM, October 07, 2005, Michelle said...
Bonjour Alex!No i didn't see that in the paper, but that's great news! Maybe the stodgy old buggers are finally heading onto this century. I'll have to see if i can find an article online and post a link to it.See you next Thursday :-)
At 8:25 AM, October 13, 2005, Michelle said... Here is an online link to the article about the Catholic Bishops that released a teaching document saying that some parts of the bible are not true.http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1811332,00.htmlIt's quite an interesting read, and at the bottom it lista some parts under 'True' and 'False' headings. They say that the story of creation is not to be taken literally, but that the virgin birth is.
