That's what happens when you leave your A-standard qualifiers at home.
Archive for the 'A bit of a rant' Category
P&G: Proud to be sexist?
About a week ago I watched Jacques Rogge make his speech at the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In that speech he said:
"For the first time in Olympic history all the participating teams will have female athletes. This is a major boost for gender equality."
Sadly, that spirit of gender equality doesn't seem to extend to all of the official sponsors. One of them disregards Dads, and even seems proud of having done so:
Still, it's not as if this sort of officially-approved sexism is rife in our land of equality, is it?
Past the sell-by date
You've probably seen this ad on yer telly:
If so, you might have wondered what it's all about.
On the face of it, it's an ad about how National Lottery funding has helped one K. Edwards to represent GB in the 2012 Olympics as an 800m runner. It's oddly anachronistic and we still can't figure out why her mum looks so old at the end of it, but I suppose that only the nit-picking few would be bothered by that.
Of course, K. Edwards doesn't really exist. The ad is based on the story of Team GB athlete Jenny Meadows and her mother Barbara, who was also an athlete, but unable to compete in the Olympics because of a lack of funding. The Meadows are played by actors and the story is narrated by the mother, looking back at their lives.
Here are a couple of clickable quotes from the world of the meeja:
The ad was first aired on June 11th, is still on the box today and is scheduled to run until July 13th.
Admirable stuff.
Until you consider the fact that on July 3rd Jenny Meadows was omitted from Team GB...
So, lots of funding yet no possibility of an 800m result for Jenny Meadows. Or for Marilyn Okoro, Emma Jackson and Jemma Simpson.
Surely the National Lottery folks should stop peddling this ad. It has become so detached from reality that it could be considered a lie.
Cheesed off
You'll recall the episode about the Croque Monsieur.
Well, Anna brought home a "Ready Steady Cook" recipe sheet a while ago. On it are three sweet and three savoury dishes to be prepared at school during her "Food Technology" lessons. ALL of the savoury recipes (puff-pastry tarts, baby pizza and chilli pasta-bake) include cheese and two of them include meat. Thinking back through the current year, I recall her having to make a ham/bacon pizza and a lasagne, again cheese and meat were involved. None of these savoury recipes suggest alternatives for either the cheese or the meat.
The trouble is that Anna doesn't eat cheese and she doesn't enjoy cooking with it. She brings her results home for us others to consume and they're all really well-made and a joy to behold, but of the four people in our household three don't like cheese and the fourth, while liking cheese, is a vegetarian and so can't partake of most of the savoury dishes that Anna labours to produce.
If these food-prep lessons are intended to teach Anna some of the skills needed to prepare meals for herself then they aren't hitting the mark. She loves cooking but there's a risk that her enthusiasm might be extinguished by the school seemingly promoting a foolish notion that everyone likes cheese and therefore it must be included in savoury dishes. There is a choice of many thousands of simple cheese-less savoury dishes that could have been on that recipe sheet, so why this stupid cheese fixation?
Of course, when she cooks the sweet stuff we're falling over each other to get at it - she bakes a mean cake and as for the superb blue meringues that she made at home last week, well, we didn't get a look in - they were taken to school and scoffed by her and her friends.
Let's hope that the school sees sense now that they've been made aware of the situation.
Anyway, here's the result of her "Food Technology" session today...
four huge and magnificent puff-pastry tarts with mushrooms cunningly substituted for Chorizo:
Nice work, eh?
Wrong on both counts
"To compete on English soil, we train on Argentine soil."
If they're intent on stirring up trouble again they could at least get their facts right...
NOT English...
NOT Argentine...
NOT EVEN ARGENTINIAN...
BRITISH.
BY CHOICE.
Human shield
The man came to read the meters this morning. While he was here he warned us that the JWs were doing the rounds. He's no great fan of them - if his job takes him to houses that the JWs have just left, the occupiers often refuse to answer their doors again lest they be subjected to second doses of anti-Satanism, so he has to wait a while and it puts him behind schedule.
Anyway, forewarned is forearmed...
Over the years I've used a wide range of tactics to be rid of the doorstep menace. Examples as follows:
- I've tried reasoning with them;
- I've tried their own tactic, trying to force my faith onto them;
- I've answered the door bedecked with cameras, lenses and other photographer's kit, and told them to get upstairs to the bedroom and undressed quickly as they were over an hour late for the photo-shoot;
- One time, when I was a student, I even invited them in. I plied them with much tea and coffee and kept the debate going non-stop for over five hours. Eventually they needed the loo, when I told then that it was broken they left in a hurry and never came back.
I could see them approaching the house... I rifled through the mental list of rebuffs that I've built up over the years but none of them seemed suitable... I'd have to wing it.
Then came the knock on the door. Why they always eschew the doorbell option is beyond me. Maybe it's too technologically-advanced for them? Who can say?
Anyway, I opened the door and drew breath in order to deliver the following one-liner:
"You've called at a really bad time - I'm in the middle of a training-course to become an evil fascist dictator, please go away!"
but the annoying sods took the wind right out of my sails - the woman said "Here's Harry, he has something for you" and proceeded to thrust before me a previously-concealed small reluctant-looking boy brandishing a copy of The Watchtower.
WTF? God-fearing adults using kids to do their evangelising in public? That's just plain wrong.
I was polite to Harry - I thanked him and declined his outstretched Watchtower. I gave his attendants short shrift and glared at them as they manoeuvred him to the next house in the row.
They'll be back. God help them if they're not protected by children.
