That thing where the books you used to read come back to haunt you

When I was younger I read rather a lot of science fiction. Being a teenager, I thought they were just stories and although we analysed things like Animal Farm at school, and I did apply some of that reasoning to science fiction, little did I realise how close to the mark some of them were.

I distinctly remember reading Brave New World, in which children at school were not taught history, science, maths or even constructive reasoning. They were taught to consume. A good consumer works all the hours they can to make as much money as they can, so that they can spend it on consumables. They watched television for recreation, which featured lots of adverts encouraging them to consume. Needless to say there was one character who tried to break out of the mould, but I don’t remember a happy ending. Must re-read that book…

The older I get, the more I feel pushed into being a consumer rather than a contributor to the good of the planet. Since I got involved with Green politics I do feel I’ve broken out of the mould a little, but it’s still pretty tempting to sit down with a glass of wine and cruise the internet to buy goods, especially at Christmas. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you’re not a profligate spender, why would you want to do that? Why buy things when the old ones haven’t broken beyond repair? Why eat until your clothes don’t fit so you have to buy more clothes? Why do we feel that the latest gadget is a must-have? Before they invented these mini-computers that everyone is addicted to, a basic mobile was quite adequate to keep in touch. Before phones were invented people managed with letters, and the bankers weren’t after you so quickly to keep your balance in the black.

Bankers. Now that’s another feature of all this. The more we earn, the more we put through our bank accounts, the more they take from us. They took – and probably still take – enough to make them more and more greedy; to gamble with the wealth they are holding to make the amount even larger. They got so greedy they sold mortgages to people they knew could not afford them. In what universe does that make sense? When the bubble burst, as it was bound to do, our stupid government bailed them out instead of letting everything collapse so that we would have to really think it through and work out an alternative. Which means that in a few years it will probably all happen again, because they’ve not been reined in, regulated, or even really watched over.

So, since it's Christmas, and before the bubble bursts, think about your life. Do you really need that new gizmo? Could you manage perfectly happily without? Why should you slave to make them fat? Robin Hood became a legend for helping people who were being bled dry by those with power. Judging by the numbers sleeping on the streets (many of whom have fought for their country, but that’s another story), we will soon desperately need him again. Unless we stop doing what they want, stop consuming, and start living. Before it’s too late.

Drivers

Driving in to work has become a lottery.

It used to take around 30 minutes in rush hour. If I left 15 minutes earlier it could be as little as 20 minutes (although that didn't happen often!).

Then something happened to the traffic - I think it may have been due to the reduction in Humber Bridge tolls. There must be more people working on the other side of the Bridge to that where they live, now they can afford the crossing.

Be that as it may, the end result is that I can no longer predict the journey time. Usually it's more like 40 minutes, so I leave a bit earlier but it doesn't make any difference to the length of the trip. Some days take longer.

Like today.

I left around 15 minutes ahead of the deadline, but never really got above 40 miles per hour. The speed limits most of the way are 50 or 60, but someone in the queue ahead wanted to drive at 40. Well, although that's a bit irritating, I wasn't in a hurry so I pootled along in the queue.

Then we got to a stretch of 30 mph limit. What did the car ahead do? Carried on at 40 - or more - it just disappeared into the distance.

Now I don't know about you, but I find that REALLY irritating. Almost as bad as the fools who sit on my bumper when I observe the 30mph speed limit, then just before the end of speed limit sign they suddenly spot a clear patch and zoom past me. Seems to irritate them when I catch up shortly after.

Is it me (as the sainted Terry Wogan used to ask), or are the latter fools almost always young and usually men? What is so difficult about observing speed limits? They're there for a reason. 

Perhaps it's because they are young, male and driving a big car, and the woman in the small car ahead has silver hair and they don't like being behind me.

What A Weekend!

I have been thoroughly "brassed" this weekend!

Friday night was the first event of Barton's Ted Lewis Jazz Festival, starring Snake Davis and the Steve Walker Milestones. I've heard Snake play lots of times, and he's an amazing saxophonist in lots of genres, so I was very pleased to be asked to help out as staff - I could hear the music without paying! 

      Steve Walker and Snake Davis

The great Snake Davis himself 

As it turned out, I certainly did, but I've paid for it - didn't get to bed till midnight, which as a Grumpy Old Woman is a bit of a shock.The music was great though, and the festival stocked Jack Carter Ale - a special brew by Tom Wood breweries, and definitely one of the best brews I've tasted.

On Saturday there was just time to get a little shopping in, before we staff turned up for the second day of the festival. Julie Edwards Quartet was followed by Ron Burnett's Mardi Gras Band. Again, I've heard Julie and her friends play on several occasions, and I love their sound. I hadn't heard Ron Burnett play before, and I wouldn't normally like that kind of jazz, but they were lovely guys and very professional. Ron Burnett played in Ted Lewis' Unity Jazz Band, and they had a guest trombonist, Alan Dickinson, who also played with Ted.

My role as staff was basically serving in the cafe area. We were serving locally made food - meat pies from a local butcher and vegetarian chilli bean casserole, made by my cheffy husband. I couldn't object to being thrown out of the kitchen when he makes food like that! Everyone seemed to enjoy it, especially many of the band members, which was nice.

The evening kicked off with the Wendy Kirkland Quartet with Pat Sprakes and finished with Will Robinson’s Southside New Orleans Band. Will had been around for much of the day, listening to the other bands. He was a very nice bloke and it was a shame that Barton couldn't give him as big an audience as earlier in the weekend. I wasn't much help, because after being around all weekend I didn't have the energy to clap! However, we enjoyed the music and after helping everyone cart their equipment down the stairs, we staggered home for another late night.

Sunday's brass came from the Remembrance Day events. As a Town Councillor, I was on the march to the Cenotaph, remembrance service there, then back to the church for the church service. The Salvation Army and Barton Town Band members provided the musical accompaniment, and it was very moving to see all the young people - army cadets, St John Ambulance cadets, scouts and guides of all ages, and many others who had just come with their families. There must have been around 400 people at the cenotaph, which is wonderful. My family was lucky and we didn't lose anyone in the Great Wars, but some of the previous generation fought and they are now all dead, so it is a good opportunity to remember them all.

To round off the weekend, I've just got home after undertaking the Ted Lewis Walk - a guided tour around Barton, explaining the sites with links to Ted himself. If you haven't heard of Ted, he wrote the book which became "Get Carter" when the movie industry found it. Michael Caine played Carter in a film where the locations were moved from Scunthorpe to Newcastle. The final scene, which should have been on the Humber Bank according to Ted's book, was on a beach in the northeast, but the film has apparently lost little of Ted's style. I haven't yet had time to read it, but I'm looking forward to doing so. Ted sounds to have been a pretty charismatic lad, and his friends still remember him with affection. He died young, which is a great sadness.

So - a weekend in the life of a Grumpy Old Woman! If any of my colleagues are reading this, don't expect too much next week ;)

Entertainment with a difference

Recently we have been partaking of entertainment.

I know! Not something a grumpy old woman should be doing, but there you are. We've seen storytellers, folk musicians (of a kind we wouldn't have gone to see earlier), I've even considered an evening of poetry, but I'm already booked to hear some jazz and can't do both. Who'd have thought that storytelling would be good when you're not only grown up but getting older? Yet the grown-up stories are fascinating and hold you spellbound. Try Three Voices at The Ropewalk soon - stories, folk and poetry all in one. And amazing entertainment!

This is something you never expect when you're younger. You try different kinds of music and find that actually it's very enjoyable. I would never in the past have thought of going to see Morris dancers, but they are a restful kind of entertainment, which you can walk into and out of if you find it's not for you, and nobody minds. We stayed for a while in Lincoln a few weeks ago, where there was a competition going on. We hadn't realised it was happening, but it was fun to see the different styles. Who knew that there are modern Morris dancers dressed in Goth outfits? Very alternative! And lady Morris dancers with big sticks!

We got into the folk because of Bellowhead, who we first saw on TV one Christmas and thought 'what on earth is that?!' Then we got into the music, and now they're heading towards their last performance so we've tried them out in smaller versions like John Spiers on his own, and Faustus. It's foot-tapping music you can dance to, or it's quiet ballads, and it's not that 'thump, thump, thump' stuff that blasts out of young men's cars, although it can still be pretty loud.

Next weekend is the Ted Lewis Jazz Festival in Barton on Humber. Ted Lewis was a young man from Barton who dabbled in art and wrote books. His pictures are displayed occasionally around Barton, but he is famous for one of the books he wrote, which became the movie "Get Carter" starring Michael Caine. The book was actually set in Scunthorpe and Barton, but as they do with movies it moved, to Newcastle, I think. Nevertheless, there is a movement to celebrate Ted's work, so as he liked jazz and played in a band, the Festival is to celebrate that side of his work. There will be a specially brewed real ale available as well, courtesy of Tom Wood brewery, as well as other memorabilia.

I never used to like jazz either, but I find a fair amount of it is now to my taste. Snake Davis will be opening the Jazz Festival. What's not to like about a bit of cool sax? Lots of other acts over the next few days should provide something to most people's taste, and there's even a Brolly Parade! New Orleans Jazz in Barton - whatever next?!

Let's move into politics...

And now for a little political grumping.

I have a conundrum for you.

The UK has a problem with unemployment. There are too many people out of work and not enough jobs for them all to start work (even if they wanted or were able to do so).

The UK also appears to have lots of problems with education. I won't list everything I think is wrong, but let's start with the standard of education in the generation unable to find work. Many can't spell properly. Many can't do basic maths. There seems to be a problem with turning up for work on time, properly dressed and with a helpful attitude. Pretty basic stuff, you might think, but in the 1980s and 1990s many didn't seem to have those things instilled into them at school, and it's really difficult to teach them now they're adults. Obviously this doesn't apply to everyone in that age range - some are hugely skilled and talented - but there are certainly a number to whom it does apply.

One way to teach the necessary skills might be a kind of adult apprenticeship (or better still, a normal apprenticeship when they left school, but it's a bit late for that). If someone wanting to work but lacking the skills could shadow an older worker and learn from them, they may well become valuable, skilled workers themselves.

But there's a problem. Older workers are still working. They are not retiring. And why is this, you might ask? It's because many (especially women who took some years out to raise families), can't afford to retire without a State pension - which they were led to expect was due to them and for which they worked all their working lives. And what has the Chancellor done? He's stopped them from taking their pensions at the time they expected to be able to do so.

I'm sure none of us would object to doing their bit (yes, of course I'm one of them!). We wouldn't mind if he stuck to his word and just put the pension date back a year or two, as he first proposed. But no - out of the blue, just as we approached the magic age of 60, the pension was pulled away by a couple of years. Then another few years. 

I'm not now expecting to be able to retire until 70. If at all - I expect he wants us to 'die in the traces' as Victorian old workers used to have to do. The Health Service is being dismantled around us, so if we get stressed out or bits of us stop working, there will be very little help - we seem to be just be expected to lay down and die on the job.

Well OK. Working keeps your mind ticking over, and keeps you feeling part of things. You slow down, and productivity might suffer a bit, but do we give a damn? We do not. At least, we don't care if the government's income suffers. What does bother me is that I'm sitting there in a job I wouldn't object to retiring from, when other younger people could do with that job, and I can't make room for them. That's the reason there aren't enough jobs to go around - because they're full of people who are strictly speaking of retirement age.

Perhaps one of the millionaires who are running this country might like to explain how in their world this makes any sense at all.

Because I can't.

Where to start?

So many topics bother me, and where to start is a good question.

Today I visited the hairdresser's for a trim. Being female, that means a wash, trim, additional products and blowdry/hotbrush. The end result looks wonderful - most grown up, so that's good, given my age! But I do have a couple of issues with the subject.

1. The various 'products' available now run a high risk of upsetting me. I seem to be allergic to hairspray, mousse and possibly even some shampoos. Having had a bit of a moan in the hairdresser's this morning, it turns out lots of other people have a similar problem. So why are we buying these products? Well, once I realise what is causing my gritty eyes, rashes and itches, I stop using them and try something different. Very soon I'll be down to washing my hair with soap - I'm already using the most basic shampoos/conditioners I can find. Do these companies have a death wish?

2. I'm aware I don't have a lot of patience (I can hear my family laughing sarcastically before they even read this!) but I can't reproduce any hairdresser's work, so my hair won't look like this for more than a few hours. Even when I try to make it look similar, it doesn't. And it's not just because I'm using the wrong products because as you see above, I have been known to use them - for a short time, anyway! Perhaps I should revert to the old-fashioned methods - dry trim, wash and go. It'll look dreadful, but at least I can do that!

3. Just to make it plain, I'm not complaining about my hairdressers (ScissorBox at Goxhill, if you are also a difficult customer!). They do a fantastic job on pretty poor material in my case. It's the fashions and the products that companies try to make us buy that I'm complaining about. It's not just hair products. Have you bought a moisturiser recently? My skin isn't getting any younger, so I need more of them, but the ones intended for older skin really upset me. I had a bright red spotty rash all over my face after using one. I can stand it for a few hours, and it did make my wrinkles smoother, but if I leave it on all day, the spots appear by evening. That's another cosmetic manufacturer who's lost my custom! I do like to complain, but with these products I can't be bothered. I can live without them, and by jove, I will!

Why start a blog?

Why does anyone start a blog?

Well in my case, we thought we'd like one at work, but nobody knew how to do it, so muggins volunteered to have a go and see how it works.

I could write a work blog quite easily, but this is mine so I need to decide on subject matter for myself. Well, I'm a community development worker, I'm a dabbler in politics, and since I'm now 'getting on a bit' I also have lots of opinions which I try not to go on about too much because I can see people glazing over.

I think Twitter and Facebook are wonderful inventions, because I can go on about what I think and be reasonably guaranteed to find someone who agrees with me. I'm not sure that's necessarily a Good Thing - we all need someone to argue with us and moderate our opinions.

As a woman, who was brought up basically to be a housewife or perhaps a secretary, I like this Brave New World where women go out to work, have opinions which they can voice, have the vote and can make a difference. I wish more women, especially younger ones who were born into this World, would use their rights more often. Too many sit on the sidelines, let men make the decisions, and wait for things to happen to them. Don't! Get out there and initiate things. Life really is very short, even if you live to 100. Things get in the way, so if you think something should happen, do it now!

I realised that as I hit 60. I had expected to be able to retire at 60, but the Government decided otherwise. I can't afford to retire without the state pension I'd always expected to receive, so I'm still working. But having reached the age at which I thought I'd be an OAP, I thought 'who's going to argue if I say what I think?' What's the worst that can happen if I decide to dress in purple and dye my hair green? Not a lot. So I stood for election in the 2015 elections - for MP, for our local council, and for our town council. I got elected to the Town Council, which was fair enough. As a newcomer, I hadn't expected to be elected for any of them, and Town Council is my size of authority. I can make a little difference - I'll tell you about that later; and I don't have to commute to the hell that is London. London is for the young and the mad. I'm neither.

So, this is your starter for 10. If you like my rantings, follow along. If you don't, cheerio!