Saturday, March 05, 2005
Not the best of weeks. I've had a virus that left me feeling very tired, no energy, so I spent much of the week asleep. But yesterday I started to feel better - well enough to go into work for a few hours.
Today I got angry when the Absent Man phoned to cancel his visit. He cancelled last week too. I haven't mentioned him on here for a long time, but he's been calling over on Saturday afternoons since the end of October, ostensibly to see FK, although he tends to sit chatting to me while FK plays guitar in the kitchen with FG, his half-brother. FG has flu, so the Absent Man won't come on his own, it seems. It pisses me off because I don't think parenthood is something you can just turn on and off. FK says he doesn't mind, but he's never known any different from the provider of his Y chromosome.
I went to the Fair Trade Fiesta at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. It was crowded with teenagers, and their parents, from the school(s) that provided volunteers and performers. I suppose thats a good thing, because it means the fair trade message is getting to young consumers, but I don't do crowds if I can avoid it. They make me feel confused and hemmed in. There were several stalls selling tea bags, coffee and chocolate - products I buy anyway from Beano or Trade for Change (or whatever it calls itself these days) - or even from Morrisons. The Co-op had a stall, which was handy because our local Co-op closed down. I bought some tea bags (always handy to have a box in the cupboard - I hate running out of tea), a bottle of wine and some oranges. Oh, and a bar of chocolate for FK.
But there was also a clothes stall, run by Arkadash - a local business selling fairly traded organic cotton clothes. Plain long and short sleeved T-shirts and such like. Nice clothes, nice people. Have a good look at their website, go and see their stuff at the Corn Exchange. If you wear clothes, you really need to think about how they are produced. I have to admit that sometimes I buy from high street fashion chains - its not easy to find affordable, ethically produced clothes ( which is why I was so pleased to find Arkadash), but most of what I wear comes from charity shops.
Today I got angry when the Absent Man phoned to cancel his visit. He cancelled last week too. I haven't mentioned him on here for a long time, but he's been calling over on Saturday afternoons since the end of October, ostensibly to see FK, although he tends to sit chatting to me while FK plays guitar in the kitchen with FG, his half-brother. FG has flu, so the Absent Man won't come on his own, it seems. It pisses me off because I don't think parenthood is something you can just turn on and off. FK says he doesn't mind, but he's never known any different from the provider of his Y chromosome.
I went to the Fair Trade Fiesta at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. It was crowded with teenagers, and their parents, from the school(s) that provided volunteers and performers. I suppose thats a good thing, because it means the fair trade message is getting to young consumers, but I don't do crowds if I can avoid it. They make me feel confused and hemmed in. There were several stalls selling tea bags, coffee and chocolate - products I buy anyway from Beano or Trade for Change (or whatever it calls itself these days) - or even from Morrisons. The Co-op had a stall, which was handy because our local Co-op closed down. I bought some tea bags (always handy to have a box in the cupboard - I hate running out of tea), a bottle of wine and some oranges. Oh, and a bar of chocolate for FK.
But there was also a clothes stall, run by Arkadash - a local business selling fairly traded organic cotton clothes. Plain long and short sleeved T-shirts and such like. Nice clothes, nice people. Have a good look at their website, go and see their stuff at the Corn Exchange. If you wear clothes, you really need to think about how they are produced. I have to admit that sometimes I buy from high street fashion chains - its not easy to find affordable, ethically produced clothes ( which is why I was so pleased to find Arkadash), but most of what I wear comes from charity shops.
