From Miss UK to Jimmy Savile

I just watched 'Wonderland' on BBC2 all about ladies who were once beauty queens of the 1970's and 80's - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008tj5q - it was truly shocking, but explains a lot about where we are today...

As one girl walked across the screen the TV announcer described her swimsuit as "that provocative little item she is nearly wearing..." FFS, that was on NATIONAL TV!

Another compére asked a girl what she wanted to be and she said 'a bank manageress' his response "Really? Do we have such things as bank manageresses" he went on to ask "surely the men would be put out that you girls are muscling in..." never mind the arcane use of 'manageress', the whole attitude is shocking - and he was able to say it openly on national TV... That was 1982 I think - I was 10! I was alive when such  was the norm and accepted on the telly, every year for Miss England, Miss UK and Miss World.

What was most shocking was that, at the time, no one seemed to notice this misogynistic bent to our nations entertainment - no one thought it was belittling and wrong. No one shouted 'No! Stop! you can't treat girls like that!' and there in lies a stark reminder of a current news story. 

The accusations about Jimmy Savile and other radio and TV presenters from that era abusing young women are making headlines and the talk of rumors and gossip abounding, but no one doing anything about it, is the sickening sub-story to it all.

The blasé attitude of (it would seem) the entire nation to the objectification of young women allowed barely clad girls to parade across our TV screens and our TV listings magazines, declaring their life ambition to work with children or animals (heaven forbid they would want to be manageress of a Bank!) and to marry someone famous.

This total lack of realisation that this was not right, added to the casual attitude, described brilliantly by Katy Brand here (http://t.co/cag1lBbQ) in the Telegraph, of those involved in the world of entertainment to young females at the time - even those who have since the 1980's made a living out of 'good works' for children for goodness sake - makes my blood boil.

If all of this does nothing else, I hope it makes people realise that such images and events are not 'OK' and that they never were. That some one has to say' No! Stop! we can't let this go on' - because go on it does... 






The last vestige of this era that still pollutes our national consciousness  is Page 3 in the Sun newspaper - so come on lets have No More Page 3 - join the dots, see the light and sign the petition - I just have: https://www.facebook.com/NoMorePage3

A week of culture!

This week I went to see Swan Lake performed by Birmingham royal Ballet on Tuesday and the stadium production of Jesus Christ Superstar tonight - I am nothing if not eclectic in my tastes!

So, the ballet was a beautiful and classic production of this iconic ballet - just visually gorgeous and musically brilliant. 


A highlight was the curtain coming up to a scene of the lake covered in foggy smoke - only for the chorus of swans to rise up out of the fog to the "ooohs" and "aaahhhhs" of the audience.

Ballet dancers astound me - the girls look so delicate and waif like, but they clearly have immense strength and muscular control plus flexibility. The boys are more clearly muscular and bulgy (socks down the tights!) but perform amazing leaps with grace and agility... 

My own experience of ballet classes was very brief - we all knew I was no Darcy Bussell, but I was good at "naughty toes, good toes" ;-)

Tonight was totally different - a modern take on the Lloyd Webber classic I have seen before in a more traditional setting... This is the 'Stadium Tour' version of Jesus Christ Superstar, with Jesus played by Ben Forster - who won the TV talent show to find Jesus. He was very good, although if I'm being picky (and I am!) his wig was a bit odd...
Tim Minchin plays Judas and he is, quite simply, brilliant in the role. I'd seen the very clever piano  /song sketches on the telly, but I had no idea of the power and depth of his voice - shivers down the spine... and as for his anguish as he realises the consequences of that kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane, that was so well done, I don't quite know how to express it. (and that's not like me!)




Mel C as Mary Magdalene was also impressive and even (though it pains me to say it) Chris Moyles as Herod was better than expected...

So, overall a cultural week spent in the company of two lovely friends - I should do this more often!

My first Blogg by app!

Following my rant about useless iPhone apps I can not get rid of, here is one that might be helpful in meeting my objective of doing more, shorter Blogg entires...

This is the Blogger app, it was free and it appears to work :-) now, lets see if I use it...

(ps- thanks to a Twitter user I follow for pointing me in it's direction)

Quick and Dirty (ooh err Missus) & APPLE

Up to now I have posted quite long bloggs about things that impact on me / my life etc... but from now on I am going to try to do (more regular) quick and dirty bloggs about anything and everything.

Today it's the annoyance of Apple to MAKE me have 'things' on my iPhone I am never going to use.

There are 2 such items that currently irk me - the 'Newstand' icon which appeared with the last operating system upgrade and now (thanks for iOS6) the 'Passbook' icon.

Apparently 'Newstand' is imperative to my life and my use of my iPhone, because it holds all those subscription publications I pay for in 1 handy place - only I subscribe to nothing, nada, nowt - so it is totally useless to me.

The 'Passbook' holds all those smart phone boarding cards I need to travel on all those flights I take on a daily basis and are accepted by all those airlines I frequently use... Only although I am a lover of holidays and I do fly off to the sun every now and then, I have never had / used a smart phone boarding pass... and it also holds all those smart tickets to the cinema, theatre, concerts etc I have... only I don't. I have paper/card type tickets for all such events so again, useless.


I can not delete either of these useless icons. At least with the 'Passbook' thing I have consigned it to the 'Utilities' folder thing and will ignore it, the 'Newstand' is not so simple - it refuses to go into any folder, it has to have primary space on a home screen - so on my phone it sits oh home screen number 4 - alone and unused.

I've not even looked at the maps...



So there, you have it - lets see what the future brings ;-)

Ahhhh Rugby - shall I compare thee...?

I love going to rugby matches - I love the fact that you sit next to opposing fans and have a bit of banter and a chat, shake hands at the end, no matter what the result and go home, having seen no bother at all and being able to buy alcohol in the ground. I love the fact that you can see the sheer physicality of the game played out in front of you by a team of men whose shape and size define their skill and dedication. I love the fact that referees are called 'sir' and are respected, or if argued with have the authority to remove a player from the field of play for a 10 minute reflection (!) I love the songs sung by the fans with passion and no need for vulgarity or insult. I love that whole families from grandparents to their grandkids can go to a game feeling sure of a great afternoon... I just love rugby.

This all started back in my student days in Leicester... In my earlier teens I had been taken to the Holt End at the Villa ground and watched football with my brother. I enjoyed getting to the matches and looking at the police horses (my other passion is horses) and I did enjoy the matches, but I hated the exit from the ground afterwards, with running battles across Villa Park going on as we scuttled back to the car.

Then I chose Leicester for my student days, and lived in a house with a passionate rugby fan with whom I went drinking in the rugby pubs of Leicester - and went to Welly Road to watch matches, and joined the women's rugby club - social duties only! - and so began my love of rugby...

Karma meant I met and married a rugby man and so my interest in the sport has grown over the years - including standing at the side of rugby pitches on cold wet Saturdays watching him play, taking him to casualty on the odd occasion it all went a bit wrong, and now watching him referee matches...

Over recent years I've watched Munster beat Biarritz in Cardiff 2006 - and the Munster fans rendition of 'The fields of Athenry' was magnificent - I watched Leinster beat Tigers in Edinburgh 2009- broken hearted, I let my Irish family pay for the drinks ;-) and I've watched numerous Tigers matches at Welly Road, fitted a game into a weekend in Bath and watched local derby's and colts finals in local leagues... 

All this and in recent weeks my life has taken on a bit of a Twickenham theme... A few weeks back now (St Patrick's day to be exact!) the hubby and I went to watch Ireland get beaten by England, a good day for me, less so for him. But it balanced our tally as last time we watched our respective nations battle it out on the hallowed turf, Ireland beat England, so there you go and we're still speaking! 

Yesterday we made our way down to London to watch the Heineken Cup final - Leinster vs Ulster. We were both in the mainly white of Ulster - and I was wearing the hubby's 20+ yr old Ulster strip that he played age group rugby in for them... but despite all that, and meeting up with brother & sister-in-law, Ulster did not come out victorious :-( but at least the weather was dry, so I carried my coat for nothing :-) and the Murphy's did not run out at the bar!

Now, next Saturday we will return to Twickenham to see Leicester Tigers play Harlequins in the Aviva Premiership final - I will be wearing my new Tigers top, emblazoned with my name and my age - Thank you hubby - to (positive mental attitude) see Tigers victorious :-)

For next year we have our tickets for the Heineken Cup final in Dublin already - I can not wait, no matter who is in the final, it will be a great weekend!

So my affinity with rugby goes on and on top of the old adage that "Football is a game for gentlemen played by thugs whereas Rugby is a game for thugs played by gentlemen" I read a tweet today "Football - a game played by men who pretend to be injured. Rugby - a game played by men desperate to prove they are not injured" - there is no comparison to rugby :-)

Manners maketh the man (or woman)

I realise I am soon to hit a big '0' birthday, but I know I have not lost it yet - I definitely remember being taught basic manners by my mother, my grandparents and various other adults in my life - including school teachers.
I am not talking here about anything in particular, no need to put yourself out at all but just a general understanding that to be a reasonable human being and a part of society you needed to act like that... i.e. as a reasonable human being who wanted to be part of society.


So, when you're walking along and you accidentally bump into another person, you'd say sorry, check they were OK and move on. If you were going through a door anyway and another person was following you, you'd hold the door for their ease of passage and that person would say 'Thank you'. If someone dropped something right in front of you, you'd alert them, maybe even pick it up and hand it back, they'd again thank you and that would be that... is all this so much to ask?


Apparently yes, it is.


On Monday a middle-aged woman who I was walking alongside, but not 'with' if you get my drift, suddenly veered sideways - no idea why, but she did - and bumped into my arm. She tutted, muttered something about looking where you're going and glowered at me. I made a decision in that split second not to react by explaining that her change in direction had caused the bump, that she was clearly in the wrong and that to tut at me therefore made her look even more of an idiot than she already did by dint of her lack of directional control... in fact I simply smiled and walked on. What was going on in my head / under my breath is no one else's concern.


In my office, to get from the main office to the loo, you go into a communal hallway and push open a door onto a stair well, which services both the 'services' and other offices. In doing this the other day, I held the door open for another person (not a colleague of mine) who said 'thank you' and smiled - marvellous. On my return to my office someone was coming through the door towards me, not only did he let the door shut behind him when I was on the bottom stair, he then proceeded to walk straight at me as he approached the stairs, so I would have to move out of his way. I'm afraid I was not quite so controlled that time - I stopped in his path and simply smiled at him - he moved over... Sometimes of course there is the inadvertent 'dance of the route finder' as both parties on a collision course try to avoid the other - this too happened on the same day as I walked out of my place of work, we smiled at each other and mutually apologised. It restored my faith in humanity.


Then today I had the utter temerity to tell a man he had dropped something out of his pocket. It was a piece of paper and looked like a letter, something official. He said 'Oh it's rubbish' and went to walk on - this time I had to say my piece. I picked the paper up and said, 'Excuse me, this is yours' again 'yes it's rubbish', I decided not to let it go 'OK, then can I suggest you put it in a bin?' I asked. I was then asked in a most impolite manner if I was a member of the 'Litter Police', 'No' said I, 'I am not, but there really is no need to leave litter when there is a bin less than 10 feet away from you'. This man then told me to go away (only of course he was far ruder than that) and I was just about to get riled when another voice said 'There really is no need to speak to her like that - why can't you just put your rubbish in the bin?' it was another man, about the same age as 'Mr Litter' only about twice the size. Mr Litter snatched the paper out of my hand and walked away. I have no idea what he did with the paper after that, but I do know that Mr Saviour asked me if I was OK, was quite rude about Mr Litter, made me laugh and walked off...


All this has made me realise, it is not the grand gestures that are important on a day-to-day level - throwing down a cape to save my shoes from a puddle is simply not necessary - but I really value the normal niceties of human interaction and think that if we all concentrated on those a bit, the world might be a happier place.

Get Well Soon!

Is it just me? Am I so unreasonable in this thought that, if you are ill you should stay at home, keep your germs to yourself and give yourself time to get better?

In the last few weeks there have been a small, but increasingly irritating group of people who share my office who have been coming into said office and bringing with them all manner of coughs and sneezes.

I realise the correct word for this group of people is colleagues – but I fail to find anything collegiate in infecting people with your viral issues.

Seriously, and in a strictly business management view of this problem, one person off work for a few days is inconvenient, a whole office off sick because of one persons need to be indispensable could be a disaster.

This, of course is not just the fault of the infectious party – in a work situation it is also the fault of the work mates and manager… Fellow workers make the problem worse by playing their designated roles in the story of ‘the martyr who came to work’ with their "Oh poor you, you do look ill" or "you really should be at home" or the "can I get you anything" speeches. 

Needless to say I rail against this enforced type-casting of me in a supporting role, I have on a number of occasions instructed someone to go home and take their germs with them and I have meant it and I have ensured it happened. This has been followed by strict instruction not to return to work until well enough to do so without wasting company time either by moaning about being ill or by being so ill as to make their presence worthless. Harsh but fair and consistently so is my managerial motto on this matter!.

In a world in financial meltdown, some people feel pressure to show up at work and do their job, even when running a temperature, coughing, sneezing… and whilst it is understandable for those who feel their job is at risk, for anyone else it is just a form of vanity.

Some people appear to feel the need to be told how ill they sound, or how rough they look. It appears that this makes them feel more valued, indispensable and needed. They enjoy being the martyr to the cause of their job – they prove their dedication by struggling into the office to spread their germs and threaten the wider team with viral infection… It is selfish and it is unnecessary - go home, get well, come back again.

In support of this and on a more’ healing’ note, it is a well-documented fact that the human body, utterly brilliant and amazing in its capacities as it is, needs time and dedication to heal itself. If you are ill, you will only prolong the problem by not allowing your body to rest most of itself and concentrate on healing the unhealthy bit – white blood cells need to be able to travel around the body and attack an infection, why make it more difficult than it needs to be? With it's feet up on the sofa, covered with a blanket to keep it warm, with plenty of fluids to keep it hydrated, your body is far more able to focus on fixing the problem quickly and effectively than it is if you are battling it by ‘keeping on keeping on’.

So next time you are ill – and I do mean ill – do your colleagues a favour, ring in sick, lie on the sofa, take medication as prescribed, stay hydrated and let your body heal. Get well and then go back to work in fine fettle and able to do your job properly… Your colleagues will appreciate that far more than catching your germs and being ill themselves!