BunnyFactor10

Fixed in a mere 10 minutes for only £15. Hurrah for old fashioned craftsmanship!

I don't usually comment on international politics (other than to have a go at American foreign policy) but this morning I was struck by something I heard on the BBC news. Apparently the military leaders in Burma have decided that the relief effort after the recent cyclone is over and that it is now time to start rebuilding.

Excuse me, would you please repeat that? Yes, they think enough has been done and that the international community should really stop trying to get all this aid in to the country. Bodies are piling up along river banks, cholera is a real threat, people have no water or food and live on the streets among the sewage. In Rangoon, the only place where the international aid workers are allowed to go, things are pretty swell and well organised but nobody has been allowed in to the rives delta where the devastation is enormous. Army checkpoints make sure nobody can get in to the delta to see the situation first hand. it is as if the leaders actually want these people to die.

Meanwhile, the leaders claim they got 92% approval for the new constitution in last week's referendum. The upshot is that people are not getting their wallets out to donate money to the relief effort as they feel the money will be wasted anyway with aid workers not being allowed in to the country.

At the same time in China, after the earthquake, the government is doing everything it can to make it look they are on the case and, from what I read, the relief effort there seems to have gathered pace and is a million times more successful than the one in Burma. Of course China still has a terrible record of secrecy but they seem to be at least willing to let other people help them. That in itself is progress compared to only a few years ago.

Reading about these things makes me sad, sick, frustrated and angry...and happy that I am lucky enough to live in a place in the world where I can moan and bitch about politicians as much as I want, knowing that if a disaster happens, I will be in (relatively) good hands.

Jodie Foster and partner of 14 years split.

I am off to the photographer to get me some headshots that I can send to Jodie to make her see what she really needs is me.

Oh hang on. She has 2 kids. And she is so intelligent it scares me. And she is a bit of a paranoid nutjob when it comes to protecting her private life since she was stalked and John Hinkley tried to kill Ronald Reagan to impress her. Actually, no thanks. I shall just stare at a film poster from a distance.

Mind you, it is always sad when people who were apparently in a stable relationship broke up. I always admired Jodie Foster for the way she did not allow being a lesbian to become in any way shape or form (positively or negatively) important to her career. It has always been about her work and nothing else. And to be frank, it doesn't matter. An actress acts. That is what we should look at. Not what they do in their private time. So I won't mention it again. Ever.

(Jodie, my phone number is: +441604345213)

Update: JD is really upset and in denial. She just told me: "How can you expect me to come to terms with news of that magnitude in 3 minutes?!?"

JD and I went on a little mini-holiday this weekend. We packed the tent and our bikes and headed off for Sherwood Forest for some cycling in Nottinghamshire. The weather was hot, the new bicycle carrier for the car was working like a dream and the campsite had clean toilets. What more can you want. Saturday's cycling was perhaps not the most productive (we got lost at just about every junction) but it was good fun. Only 12.5km in total.

Sunday was a bit more fun. We drove to Edwinstowe and cycled around until we can to Clumber park. What a nightmare. On a sunny day, English people all get in their cars and drive to a big grassy park where they all park their cars, rent a bike and cycle no more than 200metres from their cars. We accidentally entered Clumber Park and I got really confused and wanted to leave as soon as possible. It was so busy, we could hardly cycle. And all you saw was half naked people on a big grass area next to their thousands of cars, pretending they were in the country side, surrounded by thousands of people, a visitors' centre, a chapel and bike hire shops. Really frighting experience. Of course we got lost again on our way to the exit and nearly run over by a few big 4x4 cars that were queuing up to get in to the park with their windows shut and air conditioning on full blast. AARRGGHH!

We finally managed to escape and when we arrived back in Edwinstowe, we stumbled across something wonderfully relaxing: a village cricket match on the cricket green. We sat down for 45 minutes and were mesmerised by the whole thing. So typically English. Relaxing, fun. Just lovely. The local butcher in the same team as the policeman and a couple of young boys thrown in for good measure. Wonderful end of a nice weekend.

Let me make an observation here: cycling in England is shit. The network for cyclists is terrible, signposting of cycle routes is dismal. No wonder people don't cycle much in this country, for fun or as a commuter. It is dreadful. I know as a Dutch person, I have been spoilt by how well the roads cater for cyclists but even specially created cycle tracks have terrible signposting, meaning you really need a compass to make sure you know to turn left or right at every junction. In The Netherlands, on cycle paths, be they recreational or on 'commuter routes', the signs point towards towns and places, rather than, for example 'Blue Route' or 'Green Route'. This means that if you get lost on the way, you can always find your way again really easily by going in the general direction of the route you were following. Of course I understand that The Netherlands have so many cycle tracks anyway that there is rarely a need to create separate cycle routes for recreation. But even then, recreational routes are signposted clearly below the straightforward direction signs. (see picture)

When you go cycling through the woods or countryside, you are presented at just about every junction with charming little 'toadstools' that tell you where to go. I love these and they are part of my childhood memories. They not only have the directions and distances marked on them but they also have a unique 5 digit number. These numbers are marked on the cycling maps and are very useful aid to checking your position.

How did Dutch cycling-directions become so organised? Well, it is all done by 1 organisation so the tourist-type routes are signposted by the same people responsible for signposting all the other routes hence everything fits together, all routes can be mixed & matched without any trouble and are easy to find. You can get on your bike on a Sunday without a map and with only a rough idea of where you want to go, you will be able to follow the signs and get where you want to be. (if you are interested, this site explains all about how wonderfully organised cycling in The Netherlands is)

Listening to Jodie Foster's interview in French (see below), I remembered how much I enjoy French, speaking French and listening to French music. When I was in high school I had a major crush on my French teacher from day 1. I was a lonely child with not many friends and this teacher was the first person to treat me like someone with a brain and valuable opinions. And so I had a schoolgirl crush on her. I wanted to be the best at French I could possibly be. And so I started listening to French music and radio and watching French TV. After a few years, I would say my French was pretty darn good. My teacher, initially delighted at having a young girl so interested in her subject, eventually had to ask my parents to talk to me so I would stop following her around everywhere in the school. A bit embarrassing but as a result, my French is still totally fab.

It has deteriorated a fair bit over the past 10 years as I have not spent much time in France at all. Jodie Foster, in her interview, explains it to the TV hosts by saying her French is 'old'. Like Jodie (whose French is much better than mine!), I find myself using words and expressions that were used 10 years ago and I have not 'progressed' since. So I have at least one thing in common with Jodie Foster. More than most people!

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that, during my crush on my French teacher, I spent loads of time listening to French music. The French Chanson was very popular in The Netherlands in the 70s so my parents quite enjoyed listening to my music as loads of itt was old stuff. A 12 year old girl listening to Charles Aznavour did not make me lots of friends in school though... Some more modern French music made its way in to my bedroom, together wit RTL Radio.

With summer on its way, I have already been listening to my Italian stuff lately. I will be adding Florent Pagny, Patricia Kaas, Michel Fugain and Julien Clerc to my playlist soon.

JD and I went to see "Nim's Island" this weekend. It is a children's film. The fact we went to see it has NOTHING, absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Jodie Foster is in it. Honestly. Nothing at all. Shitty film. Funny Jodie Foster. Looking quite fabulous for her age actually. I would be so totally intimidated if I ever met her. She has a million degrees from a dozen different universities and speaks fluent French. Something which I do not find strangely sexy at all. Nope. Not me. Not at all.



Recently I have been playing a lot of Guitar HeroIII on my Wii (Well, it is not technically mine but on permanent loan to me). Apparently Jodie Foster loves playing Guitar HeroIII as well so one day I am sure we will get to play a duet. Until then, I will just stare at the movie poster of "The Brave One" that hangs on the wall in my living room. Another film we only went to see because of the strong story and deeply moving plotlines. *Cough*

Last night JD & I were in bed, ready to sleep, in full spooning mode, when she mumbled: "I hope your dad lives for a long time to come yet because I don't want you to feel the pain and sadness I feel since losing mine."

What do you say to that?

I read something about feminism in the late 70s on After Ellen. It was a review of an album by Cris Williamson, 'The Changer and The Changed'. This record is seen as landmark in 'womyn's music' (read: Williamson was a lesbian and did not hide that fact). I used to have the album on a tape and I quite liked it. Very similar to Carole King and it certainly deserved a wider audience than the narrow lesbian community. Anyway, the point is that one reviewer, in a lesbian magazine of course, said she liked the album but:

The problem that I have with Cris Williamson's embracing of spirituality on this album is the same one I have with any feminist who makes this personal quest a priority and excludes politics from her vision.

So, in short, women should sing about politics and not about their own personal experiences because that is what sisters are supposed to do.
How narrow minded is that? No wonder most people saw feminists as a bunch of stupid women who were too self obsessed to realise that small steps will eventually lead to a big goal, rather than demanding everything to change at once.

Hard line feminists saw men as the enemy and so no woman should sleep with a man because by default that meant she was being submissive. And so many women slept with women, as some kind of weird sisterhood thing. Not because it made them happy but because they felt they had to do it to fit in. So they swapped one form of oppression for another one. Because 'real' lesbians, those who were with women because they really wanted to, were seen as conforming, yet again, to male stereotypes as soon as one of them had short hair and the other had long hair.

And the worst thing is that after the radical movement calmed down, many women realised they did not want to be with a woman but really wanted to be with a man. After all, you can not change your sexuality to match your political views. And so loads of them got married in the late 80s/early 90s. That just made people think that being a lesbian is just a phase women go through. And so they inflicted even more damage on the public perception of women, lesbians and feminists.

Maybe I shave my legs and armpits because I don't like the hair. As a lesbian, I couldn't care less about the opinion of a man about my body hair. I care about my OWN opinion. Which is: I don't like it. I am glad I did not live in the 70s as I would have been seriously excluded and discriminated against by large groups of feminists.

Feminism was a great movement and it did a lot of good but my God, I am sure it did a lot of emotional damage to many women who just wanted equal pay without having to sleep with other women to get it.

PS: I found some fantastically funny websites against feminism. Unfortunately they are actually serious sites by freaky Christians and I should probably not link to them but they are so funny, I will leave it up to you if you want to go and have a look or not...

- Ladies Against Feminism
- Understanding Feminists and their fantasies
- Council on Biblical manhood & Womanhood

Last night I made an asparagus quiche. I used to make that quite often but I had not bothered in the past 5 years at least. So I tried to remember the recipe and in the end, it was something like this:

Aspagarus - However many I had in the fridge
Ham - However much was in the packet (I actually used Gammon rather than a thick slice of ham)
Cream - Some
Milk - Some more
Eggs - As many as I needed to make sure it compensated for the amount of milk
Cheese - Lots
Onion - The one I happened to have left
Pastry - PUFF pastry thank you very much, none of that short crust rubbish!

Cooking time & temperature: try it on 160c first, if that doesn't work, turn it up higher and decide when you like the look of it.

So, lesson learned: who needs a recipe? Just do what you think is right because I think it was by far the most glorious quiche I have ever made!

Now that I have calmed down, I realise I should just look back at yesterday and be proud of what we did. We were GREAT. It would be wonderful (and exhausting) to play at that level every week but it will have to wait for another year. We went to Loughborough with a coach load full of supporters (they even brought pickled onions, quiche, mulled wine and samosas!).

We gave it all we had. For everything that we did wrong, we did some other stuff better than ever before. The Loughborough try came straight after one of our players had to go off injured after she was screaming in pain. I am sure we were distracted by that as they scored within a minute of play resuming. Luckily, our player is OK now, (just keep taking the morphine Sarah!) which is of course much more important.

Oh, and a thank you to our supporters. They were fabulous. And loud. And wonderful to have around.

I feel pleased that, apparently, this year I have managed to play at the higher level without making an absolute arse of myself. My tactical decisions were not always very good, my scrummaging needs some serious strength work and and my tackling is still rubbish, but all in all, I think I did quite well in a team that is certainly of a higher standard than the one I used to play for.