A Room Of One’s Own….Granny Kempock Meets The Urban Pre-historian….Pets Not Bets…..Celebrity???...
by Bernie Bell - 07:40 on 03 November 2022
A Room Of One’s Own….
I’ve seen ads. on the telly for a charity whereby folk can sponsor a room – give a young person a room of their own…
https://centrepoint.org.uk/sponsor-a-room/
I was thinking of how much a space of your own matters. If it can’t be a whole room, even just your own bit of space matters. Being from a large family, sharing a bedroom with two sisters - we each had our own part of the room to keep our things in and section of the wall to put our pictures up on. One sister had The Beatles, the other had The Stones. Being quite a bit younger than them - I had animals.
We were fortunate in having a loving home – many people – young people – children – don’t. This charity hopes to provide young people with that space that they can think of as their own.
I was reminded of Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room Of One’s Own’. She presents the idea that a creative woman needs a room of their own in which to work without distraction or control.
I interpret her essay as also applying to the young people who have no-where – how can they realise their potential when they move from pillar to post and have no base from which to live their lives?
In our house, I have my den in which I sit and type and in which I have placed images and objects which I like to have around me. It’s my den – not my office - my den. I’m lucky – very lucky.
********************************************************************
Granny Kempock Meets The Urban Pre-historian….
https://theurbanprehistorian.wordpress.com/2022/11/02/galoshans/
********************************************************************
Greyhound Racing….
I saw this…. https://twitter.com/i/events/1587387434542796801 and remembered all the times when walking Ben-The-Dog on the fields near where we lived in Suffolk, I would meet folk who had adopted ex-racing greyhounds which were always gentle creatures. Didn’t need much exercise as they were used to only exercising in short spurts. These were the lucky ones – it’s often the case that when a greyhound is no longer winning, the trainers simply kill them. Greyhounds have been found dead with their ears cut off which means that their identifying mark was gone.
It’s a filthy ‘sport’ – and those dogs deserve better.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-35441386
https://www.cagednw.co.uk/normans-story.html
One tale though – me and Ben met a couple with an ex-racing greyhound which they had just adopted and, though Ben and Roscoe got on well, they didn’t let Roscoe off his lead until he’d got well used to Ben - being a Jack Russell Cross, Ben running would have looked a bit too much like a rabbit! Eventually Roscoe got used to Ben, they became friends and could play and run together.
That’s another thing – ex-greyhounds and show dogs – who are also rejected when they cease to win – often don’t know how to play. We met folk with ex-show dogs which just stood there on the fields – didn’t know what to do. Ben came into his own there – one lovely Kerry Blue called Tara became friends with Ben and would watch him running about but didn’t appear to relate what he was doing, to anything that she was familiar with. Tara was my friend too, so when she was getting used to being out and about I’d walk a bit of a way over the fields with Ben, then Tara’s owner would let her off her lead and she’d run to us to greet us and play – learning how to ….have fun!
I’m not saying that all people who have show dogs limit their actions in this way, but it’s definitely the case that many do, as we met those dogs who didn’t know how to play.
Both activities are unnatural ways to deal with an animal which is descended from a wolf, and every little dog has some wolf in them – and likes to play, and run and…live.
I hope greyhound racing is banned. They make good domestic dogs – gentle and calm – and easy to keep clean!
I won’t even start on the people known locally as The Lurchery Men – everyone knew what they were up to – hare coursing - but what could be done about it? One of them tried to persuade me to let him ‘borrow’ Ben – I knew what he’d use him for – Badger digging - no way.
And then there’s horse racing….. https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/04/28/raising-a-big-question-mark-over-horse-racing/
Personally – I don’t get it anyway - why do that? Horses or dogs going round and round? There are sports where humans do that too - but that’s their choice and they are presumably enjoying it – no one is forcing them.
If these ’sports’ did no harm fair enough, each to their own, but – they do harm - to the animals involved.
********************************************************************
'Celebrity'?...
I received this from change.org…..
“Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice
Matt Hancock isn’t a ‘celebrity’, he’s the health secretary who oversaw the UK having one of the highest death tolls in the world from Covid-19 whilst breaking his own lockdown rules.
The fact that he is trying to cash in on his terrible legacy, rather than showing some humility or seeking to reflect on the appalling consequences of his time in Government says it all about the sort of his person he is.
Families were ripped apart by Matt Hancock’s actions, and turning on the TV to see him being paraded around as a joke is sickening.
If he had any respect for families who lost loved ones to Covid-19, he would be sharing his private emails with the Covid Inquiry, not eating bugs on TV.
Then again, perhaps if those emails came to light no TV station would touch him with a barge pole. ITV should do the decent thing and remove him from the programme. Over 200,000 people lost their lives to Covid-19 across the UK.
Matt Hancock was at the very centre of decisions such as locking down late, allowing large scale sporting events to go ahead as the virus ran rampant and failed to get our healthcare workers the PPE they needed.
On top of that he was fired after breaking the rules he helped set.
His profiteering and shameless search for publicity in the run up to his book launch is another insult to already grieving families.
Sign our petition to tell ITV to pull him from I'm a celebrity
Thank you for all your help, it means so much to all of those who have lost a loved one to Covid-19.
It means we can keep fighting for justice and answers every step of the way.
Covid-19 Bereaved Families For Justice
*******************************************************************
Here’s one I made earlier….. https://theorkneynews.scot/2019/03/18/the-orkneyinga-trail-kirkwall-and-beyond-a-short-and-not-entirely-reasonable-ramble-about-the-vikings-in-orkney/
Add your comment
