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Decemberween
I like this time of year. I like the endless eating and drinking, parties, visiting friends and family, gift giving, lots of stuff on the telly, lots of cheesy songs on the radio (only for a few days!), cold days, empty roads and... did I mention the food? Recently though, I've felt a little bit guilty for enjoying it all. After a few years of utter hatred of Christmas and the gift-boxed-set-of-monogrammed-hankies-effect it has on all the high street stores, I have now grown to love the festive season once more, but have then spent a bit of time wondering if I'm actually allowed to like it. After all, isn't it a religious festival? The only faith I have right now is in the tasty Lebkuchen we bought from Asda, as that second box will most certainly disappear as quickly as the first.
However, I decided to stick to the festive traditions and customs that have since been combined with Christian ones and/or updated, and my enjoyment of the holiday season has now returned. No carols, stars and cards with nativity scenes for me. Mince pies, a (Nightmare Before) Christmas tree, mulled wine and stollen is as festive as this house gets and it's really rather nice. We were also treated to some Swedish Christmas cheer on 24th December this year by a friend of ours, and I've not felt so blummin' Xmassy since my age hit double-figures. More so, in fact, because of all the Glögg! There was a buffet with plenty of meatballs, pork sausage, ham, moose sausage, salmon, pickled herring, bread and cheese, before we were all treated to drinking songs and gift giving. Christmas curtains and other stylish decorations added a nice touch too. Looks like 'Decemberween' could end up being more enjoyable than NYE this year... hang on, that's always the case.
Incidentally, I found it quite interesting that my Muslim and Hindu colleagues seemed to be the most excited about Christmas (festooning the office with shiny decorations and playing CDs of festive songs at lunch time), especially when wikipedia told me earlier today that its article on Christmas had been removed "for fear of offending Muslim types".
Posted on December 27, 2006
What the papers say
The news of the recent murders in Ipswich has stirred up all sorts of thoughts and feelings in me... or, rather, the press coverage of the events has. Every aspect of the reports that has bothered me - from referring to the victims as prostitutes rather than as women, to suggesting that the women brought it on themselves by walking the streets at night - has been addressed by Joan Smith in her Guardian article yesterday. Nice to see that someone still has some common sense. Well, it wasn't going to be the Daily Mail, was it?
Posted on December 13, 2006
Cavemen got it right?
Every evening, after work, I attempt to avoid all the people on the streets shoving free newspapers in my face. Some days, if I do fancy reading rather that listening to music on the way home, I give in and take a copy of The London Paper which is the better of the two. However, reading it makes me realise why I like to buy a newspaper... to get some quality journalism. Yesterday's page three was dominated by a story that proclaimed "Women do love macho: it's a fact". Yes, an actual fact, apparently. I emailed them when I got home, saying that to summarise some interesting gender research using the phrase "decades of feminism has amounted to nothing", is both misleading and offensive. Just because one academic paper suggests that some women still prefer to take the submissive role in a relationship, how is it possible to conclude that many years of campaigning by women for (amongst other things) equal pay and against domestic violence is irrelevant? I pointed them in the direction of The F-Word website to discover a bit more about feminism, but I very much doubt they'll look at it. Sloppy journalism always winds me up, but I thought this one was particularly 'special'. At least I didn't pay to read it.
UPDATE: They printed my letter! Minus the link, but the rest was intact. Was impressed that it wasn't just me who was bothered by it though - they printed two other (well written) letters on the subject.
Posted on December 06, 2006
Pause for thought
A lot has happened in the two weeks since I last posted to this site. People died, there was a well attended Reclaim The Night march in London, Mr Sevitz keeps us in suspense as the final part of "a cut above the rest" approaches, Muse went Top 10 with the truly wonderful Knights of Cydonia, certain female celebs shunned the wearing of lower-half undergarments... plus, if that wasn't enough, Trav and BW have drawn more blog entries than I have written (i.e. some).
Despite all the prime blog fodder about, all I have managed to do is laugh at these cats (and a Topper-created variant involving a small cuddly toy in my kitchen, eating my 'fudgeses'). Is it possible to download a new brain from the internet? I think I've worn mine out somehow.
Posted on December 03, 2006