Category Archives: Rant

Cake or Death?

Life, Rant, Travel, Work

A post about Eddie Izzard you ask? No.

If you offered half the students in the Hyde Park area of Leeds the option of Cake or Death, they would (in my opinion unwisely, but who am I to comment) choose Death.

I know this fact, because twice a week (at a minimum) I drive through Hyde Park at about 7pm on my way home from work. And therefore twice a week (at a minimum) I nearly kill someone. I don’t mean to, I have no violence or malice in my heart – not before the incident, anyway – but despite this fact, I almost always nearly kill someone. And that is because no-one has explained to students that the rules of the road still apply even if you’re living away from home.

Yes, I know that there are millions of students who live in Hyde Park and that most of them walk and that a lot of the roads are clear a lot of the time. However, sometimes they are not clear, and it is genuinely not up to me to perfectly time when I drive through so that I don’t inconvenience someone on foot by making them pause for oooh, five extra seconds before crossing the road.

I’d be apologetic if that wasn’t such a stupid feeling to have.

Students, please. Learn that you have to look both ways before you cross the road. Please, please understand that you are in a fragile vehicle made of only flesh and blood, and I am in a scary metal box of death. Super extra please remember that there are even larger, even scarier metal boxes of death than mine, such as buses, and if I’m fed up of your antics, just imagine how the bus drivers are feeling.

How 10 people a day don’t get mown down thanks to their own sheer stupidity is beyond me. We let these people into higher education. What is happening to the world.

Have the actual Eddie Izzard video while I disappear into my own personal little middle-class rant.

Remember Remember

Life, Rant

Oh hello, and welcome to another UK-Holiday-based-rant. The poem goes

Remember, Remember, the 5th of November
Gunpowder, Treason and PLOT
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot

And I do not debate that it is not the best poem ever. But it contains two very fundamental points. Firstly, if we’re going to be having a festival to commemorate Guy Fawkes, it should be on the 5th of NOVEMBER. Not the 3rd to the 10th (which is what everyone around here apparently thinks it is). Just the 5th.

Secondly, we are commemorating TREASON. A plot to blow up the houses of parliament, and kill a bunch of people. The plot, of course, failed, but the result of that was just the ridiculous and brutal oppression of Catholics for years after. No matter which way you look at it, it’s just not a great thing to be commemorating. And how do we choose to commemorate this event?

Bombs.

For one week, the UK government, in memory of THAT TIME IT WAS NEARLY BLOW UP allows all adults in the country to buy pretty coloured bombs, and set them off.

WHAT?!

I may be slightly influenced here by the fact that I really don’t like fireworks, but this just seems like a bit of a skewed festival all round. If we’re going to have all the pretty lights, can’t we at least be celebrating Diwali or something? Please?

People who speak loudly on phones

Rant, Work

I recently got a new workspace, working in a co-working centre in Headingley. I really like it because it is a better headspace for me to focus on work than home. I also love how light it is, and that the desks are a good size.

Most of all, I like all the people. I’ve not met a single person who hasn’t been absolutely lovely since I’ve been here, which is miraculous really, because I spend the whole time being really antisocial with my headphones in and the radio on. There is, however, a really good reason for me being like that.

Everyone in this office is SO LOUD on the phone.

I totally appreciate that being in a shared space means that you’re going to lose out on a little bit of privacy and you’re going to have to experience the way other people work, but honestly, it’s getting a bit silly. I’m certain most companies would prefer if their private calls were not aired to the nation, and I know that humans, as a species, can change the volume at which they speak. Except apparently not around me.

It’s a problem I often find. Frequently when walking home I find myself heavily engaged in someone else’s personal drama, just because they are speaking so loudly on the phone. Maybe I just have sensitive hearing, but I’m sure my family would beg to disagree on that point. I just feel like now that we’re in the era of the smart-everything, surely phone microphones are equipped to pick up a lower volume. Surely we don’t actually have to yell?

I am lucky though, because I have good headphones which block out most if not all of the office noise while I’m here. So I’ll have to be content with seeming incredibly anti-social, but at least I’ll get some work done!

Poppy Day

Life, Rant

Remembrance PoppyNovember the eleventh is coming up. It’s an important day for me every year, because it’s the Brother’s birthday. It’s also an important day because it’s Remembrance Day.

I have a fairly strong stance on the British armed forces, as I’ve mentioned before. However, that does not extend to Remembrance Day. I don’t think there is another day so important in many ways, because if there is one thing society needs to get a hold of, it is our shared history. We’re becoming more and more a global community and in order to do that one of the principle things we need to work on is ending territorial conflicts. The 11th of November represents the remembrance of one of the most devastating territorial conflicts in history, and that is undoubtedly important to commemorate.

The issue I have this year, is that I read this article. To explain it briefly, in recent years the meaning of the poppy seems to have changed. People aren’t wearing it in sad remembrance of those who died in conflicts past, and hoping that no more are sent to die. Instead they’re wearing it to celebrate the troops, support the current political campaigns that we’re involved with and sort of suggest that war might be a good thing.

Let me make one thing clear. I am not against any individual in the armed forces. I’m not against the work that they do in the cause of human rights. I am not against those individuals who have gone out and used their skills wisely by joining the armed forces. I am certainly not against those who’ve died in the line of duty, and I’m not against the families of those currently at war.

I am against the way that the armed forces are deployed by our government, among others, to facilitate capital gain at the cost of other nation’s freedom. I am against the needless deaths of members of the armed forces through conflict in territories which do not need occupation. And I am not happy to wear a symbol which glorifies that, rather than bemoans it (which is what the poppy should signify).

The poppy was the first flower to begin growing again on the soldiers graves in Flanders, after the First World War. It was chosen as a symbol because it represents the countless deaths from violence. Please don’t wear it to encourage more.

Syria

Life, Rant
First, a disclaimer. I understand the one inherent failing of my personal political viewpoint. The world is not suddenly going to realise that peace is the best option and that ultimately everyone working together would be pretty good. We live in a world sadly divided by culture, religion and tradition, and one blog post is certainly not the catalyst which will change that.That being said…

Sorry guys, I have some political views to share

Right. Everyone is blowing up about the fact that the UK and the US are looking at possible involvement in the Syrian conflict. I am not a political expert by any means (and I have the Middle Eastern Politics module results from my degree to back that claim up) but I have to say, I am really annoyed by the number of people who are taking to my favourite social media platforms to condemn any interference by Western powers in the conflict.
The fundamental problem I have with their viewpoint is that what is happening in Syria is a humanitarian crisis. I am entirely in the camp of  “the US and friends should sod off out of other peoples business”, especially when it involves a certain oil-rich and politically imbalanced part of the world, but I’m also in the camp of us all caring about our fellow man. There have been continuous attacks made against the Syrian population for years now, but somehow that doesn’t matter because there is international bureaucracy at play.
And frankly, that sickens me a little bit.
One of my friends’ husbands is Syrian, and she has hardly been able to see him since the start of the revolution (as it initially was) in Syria. The UK government won’t let him come to this country because of policy, and she has embraced that fact and instead put all her efforts into coordinating collection efforts for care-packages to be sent to the schools and hospitals of affected zones. She has daily reports of innocent civilians being involved in the conflict, and for years no-one other than her seems to have cared.
So you can understand why it frustrates me to see people suggesting that “this isn’t our business”, “we don’t have to follow the USA again” and such comments. We DO have a duty to do something. The democratic west largely supported the revolutions which swept the Arab world while I was living in Morocco, and I really think that did something to raise the spirits of those in that neck of the woods who were fighting to change the status quo. It must be unbearably disheartening for them as the same people decry the idea of helping their fellow man. If I was one of the Arab revolutionaries looking at us right now, I’d wonder if I really wanted to be like the “democratic west” if we’re willing to step into wars where oil is at stake, but not ones with a seriously high human toll.
I understand that this is a paper-thin argument, and that there are a huge number of political facets I’ve not understood here, but I can’t help asking myself how much does that matter? The Assad regime is slaughtering people, and the rebels are doing the same. How’s about the rest of the world gets off their arses and reminds them that we don’t go in for that around here.

Off the face of the Earth

Life, Rant
I had such good intentions when I left Morocco. I thought I could keep up blogging. I was wrong. The rest of the world is just so exciting, how can I have time?For example, I just left this on for 30 minutes because I had something else to do.

Back now though. So I am back from Cyprus, which was lovely, and once again, pictures to follow. Boyfriend took them all on his phone so it’s about bullying him to get them back. Anyway, the point is that it was a lovely holiday. I’m now back at home for a little while and have had a nice few day, although there is a funny story which I have for your entertainment…

Yesterday I went to Cambridge to see the outdoor Shakespeare. Shakespeare was lovely, the picnic was fantastic and the company was amazing, but the real thrill was the journey home. Essentially what happened was that as we left Cambridge, I got us lost. Which was fine, until we tried to get found again. Then came the signs. Diversion. Road ahead closed. Diversion. Frogs. Diversion. Diversion pointing the way you’ve just come. Reindeer. Two diversion signs pointing at each other. Ice. Elderly people and Ducks. Reindeer. Diversion.

It was eventful.

Defying Gravity

Morocco, Rant
Do you ever have one of those days where you spend too much time around people who don’t quite know you well enough to realise you’re going insane?

I had that day yesterday. I spent the whole day being smiley and nice and wonderful and helpful, and inside the sane part of me just kept getting more and more detached until off it floated to enjoy itself somewhere less weird. And I was left as just little old completely nuts me. I’ve mentioned this phenomenon before, the Sally-Mood, but it took off in earnest yesterday. I’m only lucky that the Boyfriend is who he is, because if he wasn’t he wouldn’t be.

Did you follow that?

Good. Basically I did a pretty good impression of someone who needs committing. Finally back down came my sanity, gave me a slap across the face and told me to grow up, which is what I’ve done. I can’t help thinking though, how nice it would be, next time, to fly off with my sanity and to leave my body to crazy itself to death, without me inside crazying away too.

But ah well. Can’t have everything.

Enter the Mosquito

Life, Morocco, Rant
Something I had forgotten about Rabat. In the summer, it’s mosquito-ville. It’s a coastal city, though the part where I live is no-where near the beach, and so it’s much more humid here than in Fes. And that means mosquitoes.I am one of those unfortunate people who just looks tasty to the mosquito. As a consequence, for the last 3 nights I’ve not slept well at all. The night of the garden party I got bitten 17 times. I woke up with itching knuckles, because I’d been bitten 3 times on my hand. One of my fingers still won’t bend properly. Work on Thursday was a bit of a non-day so I had nothing to post about. The highlight was deciding  walk home. I ended up beating the tram. Clearly there had been a hold-up somewhere, but it was nice to know that I had been healthy rather than sat around waiting for half an hour.

Friday was another non-day. I enjoy working, and doing something productive, but I can’t pretend it’s thrilling. And the thing about Rabat is that, compared to Fes, it’s just a city. Sure, men still pay a little attention, but not much. And I was a bit depressed to see two people from the office (I think they were teachers) sitting on the roof and bitching about a third person. Now, fair enough, the third person was out of order. But I’ve always liked to think that life stops being ridiculously cliquey once you get to work, and people stop behaving like children. The third person in this little exchange did one silly thing. The first two then didn’t speak to me at all even though I was alone, and instead sat and bitched loudly enough for me to hear. I honestly wanted to tell them to grow up.

Then today I slept and slept, and itched and itched and slept. Beach is on the cards later. Should be fun. One can hope.

Verb Forms and trying to be a nice person

Life, Morocco, Rant
Today I spent 5 hours writing out verb forms for my Arabic revision. It’s about a week and a half until my exams, and for once I am revising properly and efficiently.I’ve also spent a great deal of today thinking about how to be a better person. A very wise friend of mine said that it is human to say dumb and mean things about people, and to have a bad day. But I think that while I’ve been here in Morocco, I’ve been worse than usual for that. A combination of being a mess of hormones and being a small white girl in north Africa hasn’t done much for my mood.

I could take the time to look back at my blog over the last 8 months, and then cite the posts where I’ve said something a little bit unnecessary. I make a point of putting nothing on here which I wouldn’t say to that person’s face, but I’ve realised recently that sometimes it’s all about knowing when that is appropriate. There is a big difference between ‘honest’ and ‘cruel’ and just as big a line between ‘honest’ and ‘kind’. Sometimes I feel like I am doing the right thing by being honest to a person, and I dislike people who say that they are honest when they are just cruel. What the thinking I have done today has shown me is that if people are completely honest with me, I really value that, but not everyone does. Most of the time it’s best to just be kind. Not lying, or being unreasonably sweet, but being kind.

So from now on the lips are zipped. There is no need to be mean about people really, because no matter how much I get in a Sally-Mood and let people annoy me, they’re still just people, like me, and I know that in a week I’ll be really glad to have them as my friends. So the lips are zipped.

 

The Royal Wedding

Life, Morocco, Rant
Isn’t it wonderful, the lovely British spirit towards the royal wedding.Well, is it? Now, I’m not one of those people who bashes the monarchy, and of course I wish them all the luck in the world, but I can’t help but be disheartened when I see things like this…

This is the sidebar display on the BBC news page online for the now confirmed criminal attack on a café in Marrakesh, which is a popular tourist destination here in Morocco.

The wedding is a wonderful thing, and it is lovely to see a nation and even the whole world rejoicing in it, but at the same time, it’s sad that a well-known and well-respected news agency such as the BBC has articles such as ‘What are the saying about the dress?’ which are being read more than serious world news. I don’t mean to be a downer in any way, but I think that the general public lack of interest in “real” issues is a really sad commentary on the world we live in today.

Once again, I am so glad that the wedding has gone well, and that the country is so happy, and enjoying themselves so much, and I wish the newly weds a happy life together.

But please, don’t forget that yesterday 15 people lost their lives. Take an interest.