Expressing indignation.

I’ve just travelled back from Uppermill on a bus that goes through Diggle and, this being the mid-afternoon, collects a bundle of school students from the high school located there. I swear there was barely a sentence to be heard that was not embellished with the word f***ing! Young people need to learn to have some variety and imagination in their cussing. On the whole it’s not even really indignant cussing; it’s just everyday language. I wonder what they say when they are really, seriously indignant about something. 

I’ve not expressed my indignation about serious stuff for a while, with or without sweary language. I’ve been avoiding the bad-news items. Here’s something new for me to get indignant about: 

“Trump, speaking on Tuesday evening at a joint press conference at the White House with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Gaza could become the “Riviera of the Middle East”, and declined to rule out sending US troops to make it happen.

“The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative,” the president said. “It’s right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down.””

He neglected to point out that Gaza is a demolition site because the US and the UK and other countries helped provide Israel with the wherewithal to make it so. Or that perhaps the Palestinians feel that they belong there, rather than in Egypt or elsewhere.

It goes on:

“Saying Palestinians could live out their lives in “peace and harmony” elsewhere, Trump added: “The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.”

“If it’s necessary, we’ll do that, we’re going to take over that piece, we’re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it’ll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of.”

Later, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote in a post on X: “The United States stands ready to lead and Make Gaza Beautiful Again. Our pursuit is one of lasting peace in the region for all people.””

There goes another slogan: Make Gaza Beautiful Again. I expect the Palestinians appreciate that sentiment but not on Trump’s terms.,

Here’s a bit of Michael Rosen on the latest Trumped up plan:

“Newsroom:

'Shit, have you seen this Trump thing?'

'Yup.'

'How the fuck are we gonna manage this one?'

'It's a serious proposal.'

'Like invading Ukraine?'

'Nope, we've got to look at this from all angles. The view from the hotels on Gaza will be amazing...'

'Good point.'

And here’s some of his poetry on the wider situation:

Searching for peace

is always a bit of a hunt

it's why we let Hitler

have Sudetenland.

And Hitler said thanks

that claim is the last

my ambitions for land

are all in the past.

Chamberlain said it

(but not in rhyme)

I've got the solution!

Peace in our time.

Hitler meanwhile

gave us a sign

wherever he went

would be judenrein.

in case you're asking

what does this mean?

It meant no Jews

the place would be 'clean'

Trump's on to it too,

You can hear him sing:

He says he'll 'clean out'

what he calls 'the whole thing'

But it doesn't end there

today he had the face

to say he'll send troops

to occupy the place.

Luckily we have

great liberal sages

who safeguard our freedoms

all down the ages.

They will defend us

they're on our side

They will safeguard us

from this genocide.

They will be outraged

by this murderous vision

and attack it with wit

and deadly precision.

We haven't noticed

their justification

for mass killing

and devastation.

In fact and of course

they are always persistent

in speaking in tongues

and being inconsistent.

It's us who must shout out

it's us who must persist

it's us who most protest

it's us who must resist.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

A worsening day. Dog & people beds. Some stuff about words. Plastic people.

It was fine when I went for a run at 9 o’clock. Later I went out to catch a bus to the supermarket and it was just beginning to rain. By the time I came out of the supermarket, it was raining heavily. The day has been deteriorating!

I went running later than I intended as I am still reluctant to leave my nest, aka my bed, in the morning. Scanning the newspapers I came upon this article in which Tim Dowling writes about a “Snuggle Pod”, a sort of dog bed for humans, advertised as “The perfect spot for quality bonding time,” in one online offer: a kind of nest for humans and dogs, in other words. He admits to having a dog bed, one intended for a dog, not a human, in his bedroom. Why he wants his dog to sleep in his bedroom, I simply cannot imagine. The dog apparently settles down in its own bed and regularly migrates to his owner’s bed in the middle of the night! He even agrees with those who say you should not sleep with your dog. So why does he allow it to sleep in his bedroom? As ever, I am mystified by the habits of dog-lovers! 

Now, here’s some stuff about words. 

It seems that January 30 is the Day of Saudade in Brazil. I have often remarked that there is a ‘day’ for everything but it must be odd to wish people a Happy Day of Saudade. A contradiction in terms. Saudade, you see, is a feeling characterized by a sad yet tender longing for something or someone absent. The word captures a sense of nostalgia and an acceptance that what is longed for may never return. You get a lot it in fado songs. It’s more than just nostalgia, involving sadness but also giving a sort of pleasure in feeling sad. In Galicia they also have ‘morriña’, the deep longing that Galician emigrants feel for their homeland. That’s why in countries like Switzerland you can find people playing the ‘gaita’, the Galician accordion, and dancing tradition dances in Galician folk costumes. 

Apparently the Welsh have something similar called ‘hiraeth’ and the Germans have ‘Sehnsucht’. I think we just have nostalgia and usually there will be somebody telling you not to be so soft. 

I found a list of Africa-related collective nouns, some of which we all know already but some new to me: 

A parade of elephants

A band of gorillas

A journey of giraffes

A clan of meerkats

A troop of monkeys

A dazzle of zebras (one of my favourites!)

A pride of lions

A flock of ostriches

A crash of rhinoceroses (another of my favourites!)

A coalition of cheetahs

A bloat of hippopotamuses (yet another of my favourites!)

There you go!

There are rather a lot of things that are really useful but which we might have been better never inventing/discovering. One of these is plastic. Our bodies have probably absorbed huge amounts of what they call ‘nanoparticles’. We are becoming plastic! They’ve been doing some research into the situation on the tops of the highest mountains and they’re still finding nanoparticles, carried up there presumably by the wind. And the biggest source of nanoplastics is car tyres! The motor industry has a lot to answer for. Here’s a link to an article about it.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Signs of spring? Viral trends.

Earlier this morning, out running, I met one of the regular dog-walkers. She commented on how nice the day was - mostly blue sky, some sunshine, no wind to speak of and, perhaps most importantly, NO RAIN! “It’s almost spring-like’” she said.

I don’t think I’d go that far but it IS a fine day and I DO have snowdrops in the garden.

And as usual at this time of year my cyclamen is blooming nicely on the kitchen windowledge.

Shortly before Christmas, belatedly seeking a Christmas tree os the right size and shape for the corner of my living room, I was persuaded to buy a tiny pot with the label “Grow Your Own Christmas Tree”. It was only £2.50 and I thought it might interest the small scientist who is our youngest grandson. Helped by their older brother, the two small ones sorted out the pot, watered the compost and planted the seed. And now the result is this:

It doesn’t look much like a Christmas tree, more like a miniature plantation of some kind. They will almost certainly need re-potting as they grow. The small people are very pleased with the result though. We shall watch with interest.

Skimming the newspapers online, trying to avoid bad-news articles, I came across a headline about the importance of silent walking. Well, I have often commented on the fact that so many people seem unable to go for a walk without listening to a podcast or to the music playlist on their phone. I don’t have a playlist on my phone, by the way. Ah, I thought to myself, “silent walking” must be taking over from “forest bathing”.

Here’s a reminder:

“What is forest bathing?

This Japanese practice is a process of relaxation; known in Japan as shinrin yoku. The simple method of being calm and quiet amongst the trees, observing nature around you whilst breathing deeply can help both adults and children de-stress and boost health and wellbeing in a natural way.

Tips for beginners

• Turn off your devices to give yourself the best chance of relaxing, being mindful and enjoying a sensory forest-based experience.
• Slow down. Move through the forest slowly so you can see and feel more.
• Take long breaths deep into the abdomen. Extending the exhalation of air to twice the length of the inhalation sends a message to the body that it can relax.
• Stop, stand or sit, smell what’s around you, what can you smell?”

Silent walking might just now be getting publicity but it seems to have been around for a while, judging by this extract from an article back in 2023:

“Silent walking began trending earlier this summer after TikTok creator Mady Maio posted about advice she received from her nutritionist to walk for 30 minutes a day “instead of doing insane cardio like I used to.” That suggestion was followed by another from her boyfriend, who challenged her not to listen to a podcast, music, or anything else while she did so. What followed was a horde of people posting across social media about their own experiences of walking daily sans distractions.”

Here are some ‘useful hints’ from that article: 

“To get started, the experts recommend keeping things simple: 

• Walk in a nearby quiet area, “hopefully somewhere in nature or outdoors,” says Guerra. It’s also best to pick a time when you know there will be minimal people or activity around that area to distract you.
• Take care of basic bodily needs, such as thirst and hunger, beforehand, “so they don’t become a distraction,” offers Guerra*.
• Make sure it’s just you and your thoughts. “No phone, no walking buddy, no dog,” says Guerra.
• Focus on your feelings, breathing and the surrounding beauty. “Be mindful of each breath and each step, listen to the sounds of nature around you, feel gratitude for the sun kissing your skin, and use the time for reflection,” advises Delia*.”

Of course, as with all things viral, there are ‘experts’ quoted in there. In this case: 

*Guerra - Juanita Guerra, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist in New Rochelle, New York

*Delia - Lalah Delia, author of the mindfulness book “Vibrate Higher Daily”. 

Here’s a link to the article in today’s Guardian that set me off on this topic. It’s amazing how common-sense activities can become trends.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone! 

The difficulty of getting up. Opting out of society. And some musicians’ pictures.

 Strange things happen when you set alarms to wake you up. Sometimes you wake up a few minutes before the alarm is due to ring. Sometimes you press the snoze button …again …and again … and again! Sometimes you switch it off, close your eyes for a minute and open them to find that half an hour (or more) has gone past. That last was this morning! I’m not sure whether this winter is actually colder than normal or if I just feel it more and so am more reluctant to leave my warm nest in the morning.

Today I came across a useful bit of vocabulary for such situations: Hurkle-durkle - a 200 year old Scottish term meaning to lounge in bed long after it’s time to get up. Her are some sayings: “Happiness is hukle-durkling”. “It’s been a long week. I think I’ll just hurkle-durkle today.” My own contribution! “Forget about hygge, just hurkle-durkle”.

I came across this article about a woman who decided to live without money, closed her bank account, gave her money away to family members and escaped from stress. ““I’d been feeling this growing despair about the economic system we live in and the harm I was doing to other people and to the planet, even when I tried to buy ethically, while I lived in this world of privilege.”

Then she read a book about someone who opted out of society and she decided to do the same. She made a list of the stuff she might need in order to be self-sufficient: 

“It turned out to be a short list because I already had things like pots and pans and a toothbrush, and I discovered I really didn’t need much to be comfortable. Then I just started ticking things off, figuring out how I could meet my needs without having any negative impacts.”

I wondered about the toothbrush. I replace mine at regular intervals. Did she plan on using the same toothbrush for the rest of her life.,

At first I stereotyped her as an latter day California hippy but it turns out she comes from New South Wales. 

She was 46 when she made that decision. Ten years on, she’s still living without money. She’s lived in a shack on a friend’s farm, done some house-sitting, shared a house with her daughter and family. While I admire her tenacity, I wonder about the while thing. It’s probably a lot easier to make that life-style choice when you have already acquired stuff and can choose what to reject. It must also be easier if you have friends with a farm where they will let you build a shack! Much harder if you are in your idealistic twenties and choose to opt out of society!

In our twenties and thirties we had the use of a patch of land where we grew a lot of our own vegetables. It’s very satisfying. I can understand the appeal of living off the land but it’s hard to combine it with working for a living. And without a network of friends and family, it’s a difficult life-style to maintain. Not something you would recommend as a solution to young people’s homelessness and joblessness! 

I think I would have to draw the line at what that lady called ‘dumpster diving”, scavenger in bins for useful stuff and even for food! 

My inner cynic also wonders if there is a book hiding in there somewhere! 

There you go.

Just because I enjoy their songs, here’s a photo of The Traveling Wilburys. Now I wonder what the lady who opted out of the cash-driven society does for music.

And here’s a photo of a pair of former lovers, Joni Mitchell and Graham Nash, together as part of the Fire Aid concert, raining money to help those who lost their homes in the recent wildfires in California. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Closing W H Smith, moving the market, changes to Oldham. And stuff about fish’n’chips.

 W H Smith is planning to close stores in a number of places all over the country, including Oldham. So that’s another quite large hole in Oldham’s already rather moth-eaten shopping centre. Boots the Chemist keeps going, as does Primark, situated where C & A once thrived. Amazingly, to me anyway, there’s a perfume shop and a jewellers in the Spindles shopping centre - I wonder who patronises those shops - as well as various other shops such as the health food store Holland and Barrett  and Greggs. Otherwise there is a large number of cafes, charity shops and second hand shops, as in high streets all over the country. 

The disappearance of W H Smith, scheduled for May I think, means the disappearance of the town centre post office which has been inside W H Smith for a few years now. Just another inconvenience.

Oldham has long given the impression of trying to pull itself up by its boot straps and even now all sorts of work is going on to beautify or gentrify the centre. And the famous Tommyfield market is about to move house to a new venue close to the Spindles shopping centre. Everything changes! 

Looking for information on these changes I found this:

“The first market in Oldham was founded in 1788. In later years, open markets were held on land owned by Thomas Whittaker, near Albion Street. The land soon became known as Tommyfield, and Tommyfield Market is still a bustling centre of activity today.
The Market Hall was destroyed by a huge fire in 1974. The blaze could be seen for miles around and damaged surrounding premises. The hall was replaced by a temporary market building, before construction work began on the new hall in the early 1990s.”

And now that building is to be bulldozed.

Apparently Tommyfield market claims to be home to the first ever  fish and chip shop. I am told there is even a blue plaque to that effect but I’ve never seen it. I’ll have to hunt it out. Other contenders for opener of the first ever fish-and-chip shop are Joseph Malin, a Jewish immigrant who opened the first recorded fish-and-chip shop in Bow, London around 1860, and a Mr Lees who opened one in Mossley, a few miles from here, in 1863. Before that it seems there were places that sold fried fish (run by Portuguese Jewish immigrants according to a friend of mine) and Charles Dickens mentions a ‘fried fish warehouse’ in Oliver Twist, first published in 1838. I wonder how fried came to be combined with fried potatoes. 

There you go. Street food with history. 

And now we have MacDonalds, KFC, Subway and a whole range of places to buy food to eat on the street. We’ve come a long way from Wimpy Bars! There are even specialist do-nut shops. My grandchildren were very excited when Tim Horton’s, a Canadian establishment, opened a branch on Market Street in Manchester. The variety of do-nuts one can buy is astounding, especially for a food item I consider to be over-rated. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!