Monday 18 March 2024

The accuracy of weather forecasts. The importance of birthday cakes. Children’s screentime.

Here we are at the start of another week. And half way through another month. Time is rather rushing past at the moment! But at least the days are growing longer, always a good thing, in my opinion. 


Today my weather app was frighteningly exact in its correctness. It told me there was a high percentage chance of rain at 9.00. I fully expected to be back from my run by then and before that there was 0% chance of rain. So I decided to leave my raincoat hanging in the peg. At almost exactly 9.00 I was within a few hundred yards from home when I realised that rain was indeed splashing off the puddles at the side of the path. Yes, as predicted, it was raining. It didn’t last long but it was uncanny how precisely accurate the forecasting was!


By midday there was blue sky and sunshine. I could almost believe spring was beginning.


Yesterday the family came to dinner, as they often do on a Sunday. I had made a cake, as I often do. The small boy was quite indignant because the cake was not decorated and demanded sprinkles, at the very least, to put on his slice of cake. Ideally he would have liked me to ice the cake there and then. We had a little discussion about decorated cakes being for special occasions such as birthdays and the need to remember to make a chocolate cake for the imminent birthday of his older sister, Granddaughter Number Two. (Chocolate cake is her favourite kind.) 


This prompted me to ask if the family will be around for the aforementioned birthday as they are off to Houston, Texas for a holiday some time soon. Yes, my daughter assured me, they will still be here. Upon which the small boy declared, ‘I will because I’m here for birthdays of any type’ 😆 Oh, to be four years old and so full of enthusiasm for birthdays and celebrations! 


Grandson Number Two is a very articulate four year old, keen to tell you things and eager to boss everyone about. There’s quite a lot of discussion about early years development at the moment and the problem of children unable to express themselves. Many blame it on the isolation of being a baby during the pandemic lockdown. This does not seem to have affected our small boy, despite his having been a very ill baby in the early days of lockdown.


Someone called Janice White, now 81, a former speech teacher, wrote recently about the importance of learning to speak properly, and the importance of actually speaking to and interacting with babies and toddlers. Here’s part of what she had to say:


“In public I often see a parent with child in pushchair, the parent completely engaged on their mobile phone while the child, given a tablet to keep them quiet, taps and swipes distractedly as the screen changes.

In contrast, in a pre-digital age children in prams and pushchairs sat facing their parent as they walked along, able to engage in a lively exchange, the child cooing and gooing in conversation and in so doing developing muscularity in the speech organs.”


I have long argued in favour of pushchairs facing the pram-pusher - so much easier to talk to the baby! I confess to not having thought about the need to “develop muscularity in the speech organs” but I suppose it makes sense. And, as Janice White went on, children who can’t articulate the sounds of the language properly are going to have difficulty learning to read. Make sure children learn nursery rhymes, that’s what I say. Oh, and there’s little wrong with them watching stuff on screens, so long as someone watches with them and talks about it with them. That’s my opinion, anyway!


But here’s a link to some letters in response to what Janice White wrote about children’s screen time and development. 


Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Sunday 17 March 2024

Saints’ Days. A bit of Michael Rosen. The sillier consequences of protesting.

It seems to be Saint Patrick’s Day again.


“Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (Lá Fhéile Pádraig) is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. 385 – c. 461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland.


Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century and is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland), the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Lutheran Church.” 


Wikipedia doesn’t include in that list “anybody at all who fancies dressing up and getting drunk”.


I never remember it being celebrated when I was a child but then we didn’t celebrate St George’s Day either. Nowadays people seem to need more celebrations. 


Here are a couple of items by Michael Rosen.


'Do you ever wonder, tutor, 'said the King, 'that we only exist because others want us to exist?'

'That's a very deep question,' said the tutor, 'I'm glad that you're thinking along philosophical lines. Go on.'

'What if,' said the King, 'we are only who we are, me the King, you the tutor, and only here because others want us to be here?'

'That would be to deny our self-will, though,' said the tutor.

'Yes, indeed,' said the King, 'but what if we are pursuing the objectives of others?'

'Too easy to say,' said the tutor, 'better that it should be expressed as two mutually approving objectives perhaps.'

'You mean it just so happens that our objectives coincide with others' objectives?' said the King.

'Yes,' said the tutor.

'The only problem with that,' said the King, 'is that I can't help feeling sometimes that we are very, very small and those who want us to be here are huge. Massive. Gigantic.'

'That's not a problem,' said the tutor, 'it's an advantage.'


'Some people are hurting, tutor,' said the King.

'You mean poor people?' said the King's tutor.

'No,' said the King, 'they are people who think that we are good and who do good things but who discover that we are not always good and sometimes do bad things.'

'O dear,' said the tutor, 'and you want me to worry about them?'

'I just think that we should bear them in mind,' said the King.

'Why?' said the tutor.

'Because they have our best interests at heart.,' said the King.

'I don't think so,' said the tutor, 'I used to think so, but not anymore.'

'Don't we need them?' said the King.

'No,' said the tutor.

'Oh,' said the King, 'who do we need then?'

'We need people who are 100% with us,' said the tutor.

'What? No matter what we do?' said the King.

'Exactly,  said the tutor.


No comment.


And here’s an article about how doctors who take part in protests might find themselves struck off and banned from practising medicine. In a time when we have a shortage of doctors this seems like an amazingly silly idea.


But it’s okay. People have other stuff to worry about, such as whether the Mother’s Day photo sent out by the Princess of Wales was a secret message that all is not well. The fact that you can’t see a wedding ring on her finger is taken as a sign. Good grief!


Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Saturday 16 March 2024

Thinking about children and their problems.

On Thursdays I collect Grandson Number Two from pre-school. This saves my daughter the cost of an after-school club. If we make the mistake of referring to his pre-school as nursery, the little chap indignantly corrects us. If he gets himself together fast enough and we don‘t dawdle down the hill to the bus stop, we’re usually in time for a bus at 8 minutes past 3, give or take a minutes or two. This Thursday it was either early or just spot on time as we saw it sail round the corner on the last stage of our descent to the stop. A little later, another bus arrived, S350. S for “school bus” and 350 indicating the route. The driver stopped for us. Some school bus drivers won’t stop if you clearly do not attend the local comprehensive school. We got on. 


As we sat down a cheeky little joker, probably 12 years old, informed me, “This is a school bus”. So I replied, “Well, he’s been to school.” Cheeky little joker was delighted. He and his mates laughed their socks off and asked where we were going. They were again delighted to find we were all headed for Delph. By the time we arrived, we were firm friends and everyone waved goodbye. Probably the best experience of a school bus I’ve had in a long time. 


Our local school kids seem to be the lucky ones; they are all equipped with coats and shoes at any rate. According to this article many schools are having to provide clean clothes for their pupils, in some cases arrange for them to have showers at school, even in some cases take them out of lessons to let them sleep for a while. All this because their homes are inadequate (the actual homes, despite best efforts of the parents, although some of them are also inadequate) with no heating, not  enough beds to go round, no electricity for the washing machine, assuming it works, of course. Such is the UK in the 21st century. Who would have thought it?!


I was reminded of an episode of The Wire where a teacher, former policeman, arranges shower facilities, clean clothes, etcetera, to try to keep a student in school and prevent him getting pulled into selling drugs in Baltimore. 


According to the article, it’s more difficult here in the UK to help secondary school pupils than primary school pupils. Cuts in education spending have reduced the number of pastoral staff, making it easier for problems to slip through the cracks. 


Still on the subject of children, last night I heard a report about another aspect of the Gaza situation. 90% of pregnant wpmen in Gaza ate receiving inadquate nutrition. As a result babies are born smaller. Organs have developed but do not function well. There are more miscarriages, more still births, more neonatal deaths. Malnutrition in utero and in early life lead to developmental problems later. So it’s not just today’s Palestinians who are suffering. The next generation stands no chance either.


Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Friday 15 March 2024

Prejudice, Racism. Fairness. Moral tales.

 What’s the difference between prejudice and racism? Diane Abbott had the Labour party whip withdrawn back in April last year because she wrote a letter suggesting that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people had never been “subject to racism”, only to prejudice. She wrote: 


“They undoubtedly experience prejudice. This is similar to racism and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable.

“It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice.

“But they are not all their lives subject to racism. In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus.”


In the modern age of online abuse and threats, the two terms have grown closer together. As a redhead myself, I find it odd to be included in the list, but then I’ve never been threatened with any kind of violence because of having red hair and freckles. 


Diane Abbott was persuaded to apologise for the letter she wrote but it didn’t really help. She’s been an MP since 1987. Before that she served on Westminster City Council. My daughter pointed out the other day that Diane Abbott has been active in politics almost as long as she, my daughter, has been alive. And for as long as I can remember she has also been the butt of all kinds of jokes in satirical programmes and the like. She’s had to be a strong woman forever. 


And now there have been rumours of a deal for her to have the whip reinstated as long as she agrees to stand down from her Hackney seat, where she has a majority of 33,188, at the next election. This despite the fact that her supporters on the left want her to stand again for parliament. Her political future then remains unclear. She’s almost certainly been active in the Labour party longer than those who want to tell her how to think … as is the case for Jeremy Corbyn as well, of course. 


It’s a funny old world. 


Yesterday I read something about a new documentary about Gene Wilder. The article began by telling us the generations of viewers first got to know him as Willy Wonka. That maybe be so, but I’ve never seen the film of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” although I remember him from Mel Brooks’ films such as The Producers, Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles. All those films are well worth watching, by the way! 


I went on to read about how the film of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” was initially something of a flop despite a four-star review which declared the adaptation the finest kids’ picture since The Wizard of Oz. Apparently parents bristled at this Wonka, a mercurial oddball delighting in bad things happening to bad apples. “One kid disappears in a chocolate tube, another one blows up, one shrinks down. Mothers thought it wasn’t good for their children, and it died in the box office. It was only revived with the home video sales.” But that’s exactly what happened in the original book. Did those parents never read the story to their children? Probably not! 


And I found myself thinking about other children’s literature. What about Enid Blyton? Not Noddy and Big Ears, although calling a character Big Ears has come in for some criticism, nor even the golliwogs. And not The Magic Faraway Tree, although again there is the oddly (perhaps offensively) named Moon Face. No, I was thinking of some of her short stories, moral tales of people getting their comeuppance. 


One in particular springs to mind, a story I must have read at primary school about a boy who threw stones at a swan. Admonished by some other children, he laughed at them and grew bolder, throwing his stones from closer quarters. The “good” children, returning from their walk found him nursing a broken arm. He had gone too close to the swan’s nest and she had lashed out with her strong wing, protecting her cygnets from harm. The “good” children helped the “wicked” boy to get medical assistance but there was definitely an element of it-serves-you-right in that tale.


And what about the original fairy tales? The wolf in “The Three Little Pigs” originally fell down the chimney into a cooking pot in the house built of bricks and was eaten by the piggy siblings! 


Hmm!


Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Thursday 14 March 2024

Feeling pessimistic about aid to Gaza and about definitions of extremism in the UK.

Just when you think things can’t possibly get any worse, that really the very depths of wickedness have been reached, you hear that a further bit of nastiness has occurred. This time it’s an Israeli attack on a UNRWA station. At least 5 people were killed and 15 injured. Now that’s just nasty! How do you justify such an action. They need the UNREA workers to get food and medicines out to people who have lost everything. 


By the way, UNRWA has been around almost as long as Israel. It was established in 1949 by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to provide relief to all refugees resulting from the 1948 conflict and the Nakba. It also provided relief to Jewish and Arab Palestine refugees inside the State of Israel following the 1948 conflict until the Israeli government took over responsibility for them in 1952. So right from the start it has been recognised that there were Palestinians who needed help. And yet it was allowed to happen and the situation was allowed to get worse. 


Now our government is coming up with a new definition of extremism (which Mr Sunak tells us is splitting the country apart). It goes like this:


“Extremism is the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to: 1 negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others; or 2 undermine, overturn or replace the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights; or 3 intentionally create a permissive environment for others to achieve the results in (1) or (2).” 


According to Michael Gove, author of the new definition, it would “ensure that Government does not inadvertently provide a platform to those setting out to subvert democracy and deny other people’s fundamental rights”.


So some organisations will be deemed extremist and there will be no appeal. But some people are already worried about it. For example, Jonathan Hall KC, the government’s independent reviewer of state threat legislation (who knew we had one of those?) said that there are not enough safeguards and there is a risk of labelling of people as extremists by “ministerial decree”.

“The definition focuses on ideas, on ideology, not action. So it’s a move from the previous definition … Moving the focus from action to ideology or ideas is an important one because I think people will be entitled to say: ‘What business is it of the government what people think, unless they do something with that?’” he said.

“There’s no appeal body and where you have this lack of safeguards, it’s going to be really important to make sure that this labelling does not bleed into other areas.”

“If the government says that someone is an extremist, and is essentially saying ‘You are unacceptable’, then what would stop a local authority, another public body or even a private body from deciding they will adopt it as well?”


Hmmm! It’s getting a bit like 1984 out there! We’ll all be looking over our shoulders to see if we’re being watched and maybe be wary of joining organisations … just in case! And it’s very divisive in our multicutlural  society.  


This is a very pessimistic post but … 


Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Wednesday 13 March 2024

Responses to online abuse. The best laid plans … Parents’ evenings. Home schooling.,

 On Tuesday morning I hear that the energy minister said this on Radio 4’s today programme: “Clearly it’s uncomfortable, I’m uncomfortable talking about this now, because he was clearly wrong. But we need to show understanding – and the important thing was he did apologise.” He was sort of, but not quite, apologising for what Tory donor Frank Hester said about Diane Abbott. 


There’s been rather more discussion about it since. By yesterday evening the government line  was that what he said was “racist and wrong”. Hester himself has apparently said that his remarks were not based on her gender or her ethnicity. Well, you could have fooled me! 


I can think of a number of MPs, of various parties, whose ideas I disagree with and whose physical appearance I might not find appealing (as if such things mattered!) but it would never occur to me say that those people should be shot! What a strange world we live in.


I still don’t know what will happen about the money he donated. Will it be returned to him? 


Today discussion continued in Parliament, even though Diane Abbott herself was not allowed to ask a question, because of some point of protocol! I suppose the Speaker can only change the protocol when it suits him. But the whole thing led to a lot of almost name-calling with Sunak refusing to be criticised by someone who has ‘supported an antisemitic terrorist’! It’s rather like a school playground with one child saying to another, “Well! You can’t talk because you did so and so and such and such!”


Some talk about bread and circuses but it seems to me that we have the circus but rather a lot of people can’t afford the bread! That’s another matter though.


As for me, I have just spent rather a lot of money on new glasses. Still, it means I have gained a lot of points on my Boots Advantage Card. So I can recoup some of it next time I buy vitamins or cosmetics or shampoo.

 

I went into the town centre later morning for an eye test, thinking I might return via Uppermill and catch the tail end of the market. That didn’t happen but I must say the eye test was very thorough.


After I had finished failing to read letter charts, and having photos take of the back of my eye, and other such procedures, I ventured out through the rain to the market hall. I really wanted to buy some “pasteis de bacalao”, rather tasty cod pasties, but the Portuguese cafe-restaurant stall was closed - maybe they were out to lunch! - so that idea was shelved for another day. 


Next I went to the fruit and veg stall, planning to buy a bag of mixed chopped vegetables to make some soup. I bought apples, oranges, grapefruit, green beans, avocado a whole range of produce but forgot the vegetable soup mix. Another shelved project.


I managed to return home in time for a cup,of tea and a snack before we were invaded by small people. There were parents’ evening for both the smallest grandchildren. One was done as a zoom call, the other face to face. So while my daughter and her partner spoke to the children’s teachers (both are doing well by-ball accounts) said children and I completed craft projects and cooked pizza. All good. 


We are fortunate in that the children are progressing happily. According to this article a distressing large number of children are being home-schooled because schools are not managing properly. As a good number of these are secondary school children, failing to cope with the hurly burly, the chaos of staff changes, the pressures to conform, I find myself wondering again if part of the problem is not the sheer size of our secondary schools, becoming large anonymous exam-passing factories! Just a thought … but one of my regular bugbears. 


Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!   

Tuesday 12 March 2024

Nightmare public transport! Travelling with small (not) terrorists. Mass trespassing.

On Friday I went out to lunch with a couple of old friends, as I’ve probably explained already. While I was in Manchester I popped into my hairdresser’s to make an appointment. I’ve been planning to phone for an appointment for at least the last two weeks and so, as I was going past, I decided it would be a good idea to do so in person. I hesitated about accepting a 10 ‘o’ clock appointment for today but in the end decided I could do it. So I got up rather earlier than usual this morning and was down at the bus stop on the corner in time for an early bus. Quite efficient, I thought. That’s when the trouble began.


I saw my bus head up the slope into the village where it would turn around and come back down before taking the turn towards Oldham, where I could catch the tram to Manchester. It went up but it never came back down. Two local school buses went past, not heading my way. An inappropriate bus bus to Diggle went past. The bus to Ashton (wrong direction) came and went. I stood at the bus stop in the rain for a good twenty minutes. The next bus to Ashton went up into the village to do it’s turn-around. When it came back down I asked the driver if there was a problem with buses to Oldham. Well, it turned out that the one that never came down was sitting, broken down, in the village. I was persuaded that it would be a good idea to get on the Ashton bus, get off in Uppermill and catch a different bus tomOldham, one that was supposed to run every five or ten minutes. A mistake!


Arriving in Uppermill, I discovered the next bus to Oldham would be in 15 minutes time. I should have waited for the next Delph - Oldham bus. It was too late for that now. Eventually I reached the tram stop in Oldham, just in time to see a tram disappearing. No problem! They usually run every 7 minutes. Or so I thought. Another misconception!


The next tram came some 12 minutes later. I phoned my hairdresser and explained that I would be maybe 10 minutes late. That was not quite the end of the story of mishaps!


Because of a cracked rail outside Manchester Victoria station my tram was not going to the stop closest to my hairdresser’s but taking a detour. So I alighted (alit?) at Victoria and marched quickly from there to the centre. All was well. I got there in the end. And they weren’t so busy that my late arrival was a problem. Phew!


Hair sorted, a bit of shopping done, I caught a tram homewards. The rainy morning had turned into a fine, almost sunny afternoon. i travelled back to Oldham on a tram full of very well-behaved, quite excited (apart from some who had fallen asleep) children, probably 6 to 7 year olds by the size of them. They told me they had been to the Museum of Science and Industry and had had a very good day. Most of them were Asians, so they spoke also about Ramadan and what good things they hoped to eat when they broken their fast this afternoon. 


These were not terrorists!


Neither I suspect were most of those killed, injured or arrested when Israeli forces attacked Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis – at the time the largest functioning hospital in the Palestinian territory – beginning on the 15th of February. Apparently our government is asking for an explanation! Quite so! 


Maybe the protests by the many thugs and terrorists around the UK have been having an effect.


A different kind of protest is going to take place next weekend. “Hundreds of people are expected at a mass trespass of Cirencester Park in protest against the introduction of charges and electronic gates for pedestrians and joggers.” The ‘Right to Roam” campaign is organising the mass trespass, a grand old tradition for preventing the enclosure of land. Imagine having grown up playing  the park and now discovering that it will cost you several pounds to get in, even of only to jog through it. That could make a family walk cost £20 before you even get started! Keep on protesting! say I!


Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!