Even Artichokes Have Hearts....

Time for this weeks Blog This! challenge. See the bold for details:
What film has inspired you, changed you or the way you think, maybe put you on a new path?

So - for those of you who dont know, i like to consider myself a film buff. I dont have as much time these days as i would like, just to be able to sit and take in a new film. I've kind of slipped a little - in the year 2005 i watched over 200 films that i'd never seen before, now that number might be closer to 20 a year. Poo to that. The point i'm trying to make though is that this challenge was going to be hard for me. I've seen so many films, and had so many touch me in some way, that it was going to be difficult to pick just one. I had a few come to mind : " Hotel Rwanda ", " American History X ", " El Diarios De Motocicleta ", " Benny and Joon ". The one i settled on, however was.... " le Fabuluex Destin D'Amelie Poulain ". Or, just simply ( in English ) - " Amelie ".

I just simply adore this film. I love everything about it - the colour, the music, the whimsy, the beautiful Audrey Tatou. But their are two reasons i chose this film: because it made me believe that no matter how odd or weird or different you think you are, there is someone out there who is right for you and who will love you for the crazy that you are.... and it made me want to say " yes " more often.

See, Amelie is this gorgeous little Parisian women, who has a quirky father, works in a cute little cafe with an strange assortment of oddball characters and likes to pretend things in her head. She sends a garden gnome on a round the world trip, likes creme brulee and, like most women, she dreams about love. I related to her even though we had only half those things in common ( pretending, dreaming and cream brulee ). I liked that she was cute and quirky and kind of lived inside her own head a bit. I liked that she had a wicked sense of humour. And i liked that, when she had the opportunity, she took the bull by the horns and went after that perfect love she had been dreaming about. And she got it and all was right with the world. Amelie found Nino, and all because she was brave enough to say " yes " to life.

And what happened when I was brave enough to say " yes " to the opportunities that came my way, and stopped being so afraid of where " yes " may take me? I met a gorgeous man who is now my fiance and i have a beautiful baby boy. And all is right with the world.....

I Ain't Got No Beiber Fever!

Oh.My.God.... argh! Justin Beiber is in Sydney! I think i'm going to pass out i love him so much!!!!

Ok, no, not really. I know who is but i'm so NOT in love with him. That song " Baby " drives me absolutely mental and the heartfelt yet super-cheesy lyrics just make me want to gag. The dude is 16, looks 12, and if he grew his hair much longer i could mistake him for a girl.  ( As a side note, have you ever noticed how the most popular members of boy bands are always the girliest looking ? See Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys and Mark What-his-face of Take That as evidence ). So why am i even talking about the Bieb?

Well, he's doing a press tour through Australia and was due to appear on a morning tv show today. After much spruiking - like 2 weeks of it - that he would be performing live on the show, and after a petition to have him perform live out on the street instead of in the studio.... the gig was cancelled. By police. Because of safety concerns. Apparently thousands of teenage girls had camped overnight in the middle of Sydney so they would be front row for his performance and, even hours before he arrived, some of them had passed out or had been crushed into barricades, and had to be taken away in ambulances. Some of the others wouldnt do as police instructed in regards to moving back from the stage/spreading out a little/quitening down so.... bam! Concert cancelled! Unlucky hysterical teenage girls!

What amuses me - aside from the fact that they braved the cold overnight, camping on concrete, and STILL missed out - is that i totally dont see the appeal of Justin Bieber. He's illicited a reaction like the Beatles and Elvis Presley did, but he is nowhere near - NOT EVEN CLOSE - to being as talented as either of those artists. He doesnt write his own songs, he doesnt play his own instruments and knows only the most basic of dance moves. Sure, he has that whole " nice boy " thing going for him - he's the boy you could take home to meet your mum ( you know, as opposed to, like, Eminem ) - but aside from that, i cannot fathom what made all those girls so completely ga ga.

I guess they just got themselves a bad case of so-called Beiber Fever - and if its contagious as it appeared on tv and i'm unlucky enough to catch it, promise me, dear readers, that one of you will find a way to kill me before it infects everyone i love?

Firing up the Pendolino, Eating out, and the Return of Colleagues.

Giles Coren (food critic), this week spent the best part of £400 on what he described as a mediocre meal at one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants in London. I guess the meal may have cost £400 but it is unlikely to have been his money.His review of his experience was scathing and made for riveting reading. I could identify with the poor overall experience of the senses he wrote so eloquently about. Indeed, in the last ten days I have yet again endured some rather strange meals.

Two such offerings came from the University. Regular readers of this blog will know that for a variety of reasons, I no longer eat the food provided by our catering department for lunch time or evening meetings. However, even I was surprised at the lunchtime selection available at a meeting last Friday. It seemed to comprise of various dead animals (cooked) encompassed in a strangely pink wrap, which had the look and texture (I am reliably informed) of a face towel that has seen better days. Things are set to change as we take our Health and Well Being University Theme forward. Hopefully, we will start to have a more healthier range of food available to students and staff.

However, I did enjoy a very good meal with my Head of School colleagues this week. The meal was had at Beluga in Manchester, cost £20 each including as much wine as you could drink! Good selection for vegetarians, but the night we went, the Pizza oven was not working. They also had a wonderful pavement seating area which was ideal for people watching and pre meal conversation.

The other thing food wise, that threw me this week was that some how I had failed to miss that April was Enchilada Month. On Tuesday, I had fired up the Virgin Pendolino, and headed off to London for a series of meetings, one of which, was held over lunch. It was in a famous Mexican restaurant, which whilst normally having a great choice and range of food, on this occasion didn’t. We were expected to pick our food from the totally enchilada based menu. Up to this point in my life, I hadn’t realised that enchiladas had such versatility. It was an interesting lunch, although I didn’t get to eat much.

Equally interesting on that day was that having parked the Pendolino at platform 13, I walked out into the sunshine and bustle of Euston Square to be greeted by a hugely enthusiastic lady, who as is her way, was sporting Sophie Lauren type sunglasses. As usual we hugged each other, air kissed, and promised to catch up sometime soon. This lady was once, a very good staff nurse on a mental health unit I had responsibility for. Today she is an excellent Nurse Consultant for a much bigger range of services that now includes that Unit. We have enjoyed such fleeting glimpses and meetings all over the world.

I was once standing on the Staten Island Ferry waiting to go across when a women approached me, said hello, air kissed and promised to catch up soon. It was her. Four years later, we met in similar circumstances at a Leonard Cohen concert in Birmingham. We have met to do business many times in-between of course. I still find it slightly strange to have had such brief encounters all over the world. Perhaps it is a reflection of the international nature of the community of practitioners that is nursing.

And talking about the world over, the very good news this week is that some of our colleagues at long last able to begin to make their way back to the UK. The last week or so have been a trial for many. It says something that so many colleagues helped each other out in such generous ways. This also included colleagues from other Universities who were stranded in the same place. Back home, colleagues have also unconditionally and very willingly stepped into the breach and taken on extra teaching, attended meetings and been there for the students. It appears that slowly things are getting back to normal. I even had an email form a colleague in Finland that advertised a forthcoming conference by declaring that volcanoes only erupt once in a while, a that Finland is a great place to get stuck in.

Finally, the weekend Times published what surely must be the most surprising supplement they have done for a while. It was entitled the Male Vanity Supplement and was full of tips on how to reclaim that six pack, apply your make up, and yes how to eat well. So maybe a male vanity supplement is not such an oxymoronic idea after all.

Where Is The Young Mummy Love ?

So - i want to talk about the whole mummy sisterhood thing again ( apologies to those readers of mine who arent actually mothers - you're probably sick of hearing about it by now ). Seems like the whole sisterhood doesnt exactly extend past the " Baby Boomer " generation, or at least it hasnt in my experience. Let me explain:

My mothers group gets together on a Thursday morning, around 10am. We go to a cafe ( one that had enough to room to accomodate at least 10 women and, thusly, 10 prams ) and have a bit of a coffee and much conversation. Some of it is trivial - " Did you see such-an-such a movie ? " - but, of course, much of it revolves around our babies and our mothering experiences. Its nice to be able to share with other new mums, women that havent been through it before and have just as little clue as i do. We arent overly raucous however when your in a group of 10 or more sometimes you do have to speak up a little so that you can be heard across, or down, the table. This hasnt been a problem before - at 10am on a Thursday morning most cafes around here are pretty empty ( which is why our prams fit! ) or very quiet at the least. Not yesterday, however - yesterday we got asked to stop talking.

We had two babies having their " half birthday " ( ie. they were 6 months old ) so we had a little cake for them. Their mothers, naturally, were trying to figure out which of the bubs was actually older so started along the lines of " Oh, i went into labour the day before but he didnt arrive until.... ". Now, mind you, we didnt go into intimate, gory details - we may at some point, but thus far the sharing of labour stories hasnt much gone past what drugs we used and how long it all went. So, anyhoo, yesterday we're trying to figure out who was born first..... and one of the mums said " Man, my water broke then wooosh...and it was all on! ". Thats almost word for word mind you - no more, no less. Then, from a table behind us we hear - " Umm, ladies, thats enough ! ". We all look over and this old lady, sitting with another old lady and old man, goes " Really - i've been there and done that and now i'm trying to enjoy my morning tea ". What the?!?

Seriously - nothing more shocking then " my water broke... " and this old bird was asking us, politely, to shut up. How freaking rude! We have every right to gather and discuss that type of thing, and we have every right to en joy that type of discussion with OUR morning tea. Lord, nobody mentioned vaginas, or stitches, or dialation or anything vaguely " rude".... just water breaking and what time contractions started. I'd hate to see what her reaction would have been had one of us had to pop a boob out to feed our child - she might have had a bloody fit! Just because she wouldnt have had the same kind of group for support and advice in her day, or had the chance to discuss birth stories or bodily changes with anyone ( not even her mother and/or sister ) doesnt mean we shouldnt be able to. She should be proud, and happy, that women of the generation she would have raised worked hard to allow us the f reedom to break taboos. But no - she just wanted us to stop our conversation so she could enjoy a cup of tea.

So boo hoo to you, you old bag! Perhaps next time when you see a gathering of young women with babies and prams you'll be smart enough to figure out its a mothers group - and you can bugger off somewhere else for your precious morning tea!

Obama's Nuclear Policy

“President Obama has announced a new policy on America’s use of nuclear weapons,” I told the class. “He won’t be the first to use them in a conflict with another nation, he said. And, he won’t retaliate with nuclear weapons if we’re attacked by a country which is using other WMD, or ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction,’ such as chemical or biological weapons against us.”

I waited for that to sink in.

After a pause, a boy raised his hand and asked, “What would be the point of that?”

“Yeah,” said another boy. “Why have them if we’re not going to use them?”

“President Obama says America won’t retaliate with nuclear weapons against a country that has signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty - countries that have pledged not to make nuclear weapons. I think he’s trying to encourage more countries to sign it and that’s a big reason for his new policy,” I suggested.

“Who agrees with Obama’s new policy?” I asked.

A couple of girls didn’t stick their hands up, but turned their palms around to me while their elbows stayed on the desk. They smiled meekly.

“Who disagrees?”

Most of the students raised their hands. We had been studying WMD and the arms race following World War II. Students had seen “Hiroshima,” a made-for-TV docudrama focusing on President Truman’s decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Japanese Emperor Hirohito’s decision to surrender. They learned what a nuclear weapon can do - how it kills with a blast, with heat, and with radiation. They learned about kilotons and megatons. They learned what countries have nuclear weapons and when each obtained them between 1945 and today. They knew that North Korea has tested one and that Iran is trying to develop one. They knew that Iran is threatening to “wipe Israel off the map.”

A couple of days later I said to the class: “Sarah Palin criticized President Obama’s new nuclear policy saying, ‘It's kinda like getting out there on a playground, a bunch of kids, getting ready to fight, and one of the kids saying, “Go ahead, punch me in the face and I'm not going to retaliate. Go ahead and do what you want to with me,”’”

“Good for her,” said a boy. “Is she going to run for president?”

“Maybe,” I said. “I’m sure she’s thinking about it. Who agrees with Sarah Palin on this?” I asked.

A scattering of hands.

“Who disagrees?”

Another scattering. Most did not to have an opinion one way or the other.

The next day, I told the class that President Obama responded to Sarah Palin’s criticism. “He said, ‘Last I checked, Sarah Palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues.’” I paused and let them chew on that.

“And he is?” suggested a girl skeptically.

“Well, he does have experts advising him,” I said, “and he would have access to much more information than you or me or Sarah Palin would. He also said, ‘[I]f the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin.’”

“But he hasn’t been president very long and he wasn’t an expert before that,” she said.

“Okay,” I answered.

The next day, I told them, “Sarah Palin has another response to President Obama. She mocked his criticism saying, ‘all the vast nuclear experience that he acquired as a community organizer . . .’ The president was a community organizer in Chicago for fifteen years or so before becoming a state senator and a US senator. Today, he’s in Prague, Czech Republic signing a treaty declaring that the United States would further reduce the number of nuclear weapons we have. He made a speech there last year saying he wants a world without nuclear weapons.”

“Can we do that?” asked a boy. “Can we get rid of our nuclear weapons? What would we do with them”

“We can disassemble them down to the enriched uranium or plutonium that is turned into energy according to the equation E=mc2, but we cannot unmake that material. We can only store it somewhere and guard it. Also, directions for constructing a nuclear weapon can be downloaded from the internet, so a world without nuclear weapons doesn’t seem like a real possibility.”

“How many weapons would it take to destroy the whole world?” asked another boy.

“Nobody knows for sure,” I said, “and I hope we never find out. Some speculate that it would be around 3000 or so.”

“And how many are we going to get down to?”

“Around 1600 in our arsenal, I think, assuming the Senate ratifies this treaty.”

“Hmm,” he said.

An Un-Mushy Update

This one is a little TMI, unless your a mumma, in which case its just a normal thing for you.

As i previously posted, my little Flynn started on " solids " last week. However, we've backed off the mush for a few days because, ahem, the little dude is " backed up". If you know what i mean. And if you dont - it means he hasnt pooped in over 6 days now. I knew that introducing solids messes with their little digestive systems for a while, and i was expected a little break in poop proceedings - but 6 days ? Holy schmoly! I've taken him to the doctor and he's been on little baby laxative drops and prune juice for 3 days but still nothing. I feel bad because i'm the one who's fed him the stuff thats blocked him up - my only consolation is he doesnt really seem to be in any pain, except after a feed. After a feed when his tummy is full he goes all red in the face and has a big. old, screaming cry. Mama doesnt like listening to that. It makes me feel bad. He had his 4 month vaccination needles today and i asked the nurse about his " problem " and she said its completely normal, just keep up the drops and the juice, and he has to pooh eventually.

We all do, right?

( Oh, and on an unrelated note, if you havent voted for me yet, head to Blog This! and vote for me in this week challenge.... voting ends tonight! )

From One Befuddled Brain To Another

Blog This! challenge time again:
This week we'd like all of blog this members to seek out another. One you've never visited, one you don't follow. One you admire, find interest in. Write about it on your blog and 'review' it, gush about it, or re-post one of their articles with your commentary. Be nice! Leave a comment and a link for them to know you've done so.

So i read this weeks challenge with interest - go out and find myself some new blogs to read huh ? Search the members list and discover great new blogs to read and love and comment on ? Yea, ok, i can do that. Piece of cake i thought. But, to be honest with you, it wasnt all that easy. I thought i would just click on five random blogs ( scroll down the page with my eyes shut and click on which ever link the cursor rested on ... ) and i would have a hard time choosing the best of them to write my post about. But i tried that and i didnt fall under the spell of any of that first five. I tried it again - i didnt melt for any of the second five either. Its not to say that those 10 blogs that i perused were " bad " - just that the blog subject or the writing style didnt jump out and grab me. I'm a bit fussy with my blog reading i think - your style of writing really has to read well, really needs to jump out at me, other wise i'm gonna be bored. I'm a self confessed Yoga Nazi, so maybe i'm a Blog Nazi too, i dont know. What i'm saying is there is a whole bunch of good Blog This!-ers out there, some of them just dont necessarily speak to me. However, after much blog surfing, i stumbled upon ...

Brea's Befuddled Brain.

No, i did not trip over and ACTUAL brain, thats the name of Brea's blog. What is funny is that when i saw the picture of Brea on her blog i thought she looked familiar... and then i realised she was a follower of MY blog and i'd never had a look at hers. Bad, bad, blog manners Amy! What is also funny is that the most recent post when i first went to her blog ( i have been back subsequently ) was regarding the Ultimate Blog Party 2010 and she'd actually written a little introduction/welcome to her blog .... which made my job so much easier! And i like the way the lady writes - seems she shares my slightly sarcastic, kinda kooky sense of humour - which makes me wanna stick around on her blog. Hell, i even pressed the follow button and contributed to her goal of achieving 100 followers by her next birthday. Ambitious.Witness this passage, direct from Brea's post:
There's been a Party happening right under my nose for the past week and I've stubbornly resisted attending.

It's not because I'm shy or anything, nothing as glamorous as that. Truthfully? It's because I can't be bothered shaving my legs.
Also:
* We both have pierced belly buttons and tattoos
* We're both mumma's
* She just recently dyed her hair a burgundy/red colour and i'm tossing up doing the same
* She's uses the word " befuddled " which, frankly, i think is waaaaay under-used.
* She said ( above ) that she didnt attend the Ultimate Blog Party 2010 because " I can't be bothered shaving my legs ". Tongue in cheek of course because the Blog Party was an online event, but it made me cack because i'm one of these chickies that will wear long pants on a warm day because i couldnt be arsed getting the razor out ( like today, for example ).

And so, by taking part in this weeks challenge, i've reached out and virtually shook hands with Brea. Maybe you could too - pop over and do her a favour, press her Follow button and help her reach her goal!