planet impiazzi

I was pleased to see that Brian Haw will be able to continue his pro-peace activities outside parliament in Westminster. But it doesn't alter the fact that our democratic (??) government have brought in a law that restricts our right to express dissenting opinions.

Is it Wednesday already? How did that happen? I've done nowt all week, and here it is half done! Actually, s'not true that I've done nowt. I've been putting together the summer newsletter at work, which includes spending a day or two compiling a crossword and looking for children's jokes online. And I've been eating lots of fruit. And I've been having text sex.

On Sunday I joined the Leeds Bookcrossers for a walk up Pen-y-Ghent. Eight of us walked the 6 miles up the hill and down again. Going up was quite a hike - the path is well used and well maintained, but very steep. The last couple of hundred metres are a scramble up limestone boulders, a bit nerve wracking at the best of times, but especially so when the local big yellow Rescue helicopter decides to buzz the crag then land in a field 20 metres away. I nearly fell off, craning my neck trying to see what it was doing as it brushed the top of my head on its way round the edge of the hillside. All that seemed to happen was it let out a man, took off again, he took some photos of it as it flew away and came back again. Then it landed, picked him up and left. Dramatic anyway. Then we climbed up to the top and settled down behind a wall for lunch. The walk back down to Horton-in Ribblesdale was much more sedate. When we arrived in the village we discovered to our dismay (not at all pre-planned) that it was 3 hours before the next train back to Leeds was due. Oh no! What could we do? All I can say is thank goodness for The Crown!

And by the way, I'm sure I don't need to rant too loudly about the ridiculous state of human rights in this country at the moment. Brazilian electricians being shot, various other random non-European looking men being arrested then released without charge, peace campaigners being evicted from Westminster, proposals to hold "suspected terrorists" without charge for 3 months, and so it goes on. Tony, meanwhile, spouts more of his divisive drivel:

"Although admitting he did not know what the US position on an "alliance of civilisations" would be, Mr Blair said: "We discussed the proposal that the Spanish prime minister has made for what he calls an alliance of civilisations, which is the idea that we join together, our countries with Muslim countries - Turkey is particularly involved in this - to form a coalition of civilised people from whatever race or religion to combat the barbarity of terrorism.
"I think this is a proposal with possibilities in it that we can develop over the months to come."
"I should think everyone can see the common-sense of having a coming together of civilised people from whatever religion.
"And that is the importance of it. And the term the alliance of civilisations is in direct contrast to the idea that we are in clash of civilisations.
"It is the terrorists who want to stir up these differences between Islam and the rest of the world."

NO TONY! It isn't terrorists who want to stir up differences between Islam and the rest of the world - it is you, and George, and the Daily fucking Mail. It is YOU who are constantly going on about Islam, you who are talking about differences, you who are ignoring all the 'coming together' that has already happened, that always happens between the global majority of caring, sharing human beings. You talk about 'coming together' as if you had just thought of it, just invented it. Hasn't Pakistan been a major player in identifying al-qaeda 'members' on her soil? Did you look at any of the faces on the numerous anti-war, anti-poverty, pro-peace protests recently? Didn't you know we are of all colours, creeds, ages? No, I don't suppose you did.

Was it something I said? Sent texts to 2 different friends today trying to find someone to have a drink with, and neither has replied. Admittedly, one was a long shot and there was a touch of seduction intended - oh well, now I know. He'll probably steer clear of me from now on, now that I've showed my hand, but nothing ventured nothing gained.
So I take the chance to get online while offspring is finishing his dinner. No emails, no comments on here. Isn't anyone talking to me today?
A girl could get paranoid.

You can't beat a lovely Sunday to set you up for a week stuck in an office. Today me & Gav headed for the hills. Despite the trains from Leeds to Ilkley not being as frequent as we would have liked - only 1 an hour - we managed a fair chunk of the day out of the city. We had planned a walk over Ilkley moor and lunch at the Cow & Calf pub, but the menu was really not very inspiring (might be ok if you like chicken or steak), so we just had a drink there and rerouted our walk back down into town to hunt for some decent food - it was very hot for walking and we had already climbed up the moor and along the edge to get to the pub. After a bit of a wander round town we settled on Escape. This appears to be a fairly new addition to Ilkley's range of eateries and I really can't recommend it highly enough. I struggled to decide what to order - there was a tempting variety of snacks & main meals, including traditional Sunday lunch of roast animal & yorkshire puddings, wraps, omelettes, jacket potatoes, salads etc. I ended up choosing a jacket potato with roasted mediterranean vegetables. Gav had a mushroom omelette with chips and salad. The meals were a bargain at £5, although the drinks were somewhat pricey. But oh how deliciously scrummy! And plenty of it! The bar/cafe was cool and airy, the clientele ranged from a couple of families with (well behaved) young children, groups of young trendy folk, an older couple, and there was a very respectable selection of newspapers to peruse while waiting for our food. Worth a trip to Ilkley I would say.
So a lovely day was had. I got to try out my new walking boots before next weeks ascent of Pen-y-Ghent. I also had chance to pop in to Tesco next to Ilkley station and pick up a cheap copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (only £7.97). Bargain!

Plenty to think about in The Sexual Life if Catherine M, whether you use it to feed your fantasies or to ponder on the nature of sexuality. I thought the translation was a bit ungainly in places and had to reread passages to understand what they were about - seriously, I'm not talking about rereading the sexy bits! Anyway, although I wasn't as wild about it as some of the reviwers quoted on the back cover I do think it is quite good at giving a frank & honest perspective on what should be a natural human activity.

Had a call tonight from the lovely Sue in London who mentioned the Freecycle network. This is an online set up that allows you to get rid of your unwanted stuff to people who want it. And it's international - if you aren't in the US click on 'all' and scroll down the list for somewhere close to you. Alternatively google 'freecycle' for your city (which is what I did). For Leeds go to Freecycle Leeds. Yahoo hosts the network so you will need to join yahoo if you aren't already a member. Easily done. Then you can pass your bits and bobs on to other folk, or pick up handy things for yourself - better than buying new!

Yeeeee-HAH! iTS friiiiiiday!!!

Finished Snow Falling on Cedars last night. The blurb on the back cover says its a 'whodunnit' - I 'd say it was a 'diddydooit'. Reminiscent of Annie Proulx's style and setting, I enjoyed this book. Pervaded by the sense of isolation experienced by the characters and their island community, the story examines the way we struggle to let go of the past, carrying our pain with us and using it to judge those around us. This is a serious book but not stodgy, and the characters are interesting and well drawn enough to suck the reader in and hold their attention.

I went to my first meetup of the Leeds Bookcrossers tonight. Pleasant, if rather warm, evening. The quality of books on the table for swapping was variable. I picked up a few - Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There, Armand Marie Leroi's Mutants, Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen, and Kate Atkinson's Emotionally Weird (nice dog on the cover). But there were definitely a few turkeys on the table. Never mind. Anyway, I met a few new people. which I think is always a good thing. Then I rushed home, leaving a merry gathering, to watch the Tarantino CSI episode only to find it had been postponed because of the bombings in London last week. Hmmm.

Well, the G8 gang have all packed up and gone home, having done very little to improve the lot of those at the hard end of global capitalism - those millions struggling to feed themselves, suffering through lack of medicine, or education, or stuck between wars and greed. I would have liked to have been up at Hori-zone, lending my strength to the protests and blockade but commitments kept me in Leeds. But there were others with time & energy who were there - read Merrick's report. While I couldn't be there, I do my best to minimise my own impact, and wherever practical I spend my money in a way that will have a positive rather than a negative impact on my community, and the lives and communities of those far away. I buy fair trade products, green electricity, bank with an 'ethical' bank, don't have a car, and avoid buying from companies I know have reputations for exploitation. Its impossible to totally avoid all the crap that capitalism carries with it, but that is no excuse for doing nothing. Anyway, read what Merrick says - I can't say it better.

Ooh its hot!! I try not to complain though, since English weather is notoriously fickle and I don't want to scare the sun away. A bit of a breeze would be good though, maybe a drop of rain overnight. The climate-controlled office building I work in was a rather unpleasant 28 degrees today. Not conducive to concentration.

I had a lovely weekend, rekindling an old intimacy. And drinking fine ale. What can be better than that? Then an afternoon in the garden with a good book and my cats. Bliss.

Watch this piece of film. You need Quick Time to watch it. It shows an illegal arrest on Saturday night in Edinburgh. A man is arrested by police wearing no identification numbers. Did you think we lived in a 'free country' that respects civil liberties? Think again.

Then have a look at the other bits of film from Edinburgh on Indymedia.org.uk - these are films by protestors, not the BBC.

I have had such a lazy day today, sitting in the garden reading. That was all I had the energy to do after going to Edinburgh yesterday for the Make Poverty History rally & march. Offspring and I got up at 4am to get the coach up to Scotland. I've never been very good at sleeping on buses and only had a couple of brief dozes. But by the time we arrived, around 11am, I was excited enough about the day to be wide awake. The sun came out and it looked like it would be a good event.
The rally was in the Meadows, and for the most part was very good. There were 3 stages, each with music and speeches. And there were lots of campaign stalls full of information about the inequalities in world 'free' trade, about the debt problem, and about poverty. The only thing that wasn't very good was the catering - there was a choice of fast food stall or...fast food stall. Alright if you like burgers and don't mind paying £1.80 for a tray of chips. Fortunately we had brought food enough with us to last the day.

Of the campaigns a few particularly caught my interest:


Traidcraft are running a campaign about Economic Partnership Agreements. The EU and other countries are currently negotiating agreements which, among other things, will force unequal trading arrangements on developing countries, or smaller economies, which will exacerbate problems of poverty, while enabling strong European countries to access the markets of the smaller their weaker trading 'partners'.

The World Development Movement have some excellent literature that explains clearly some of the problems caused by current trade arrangements, and about so-called 'liberalisation' of the economies of African countries. They are running a campaign about the privatisation of water:
"British aid money is being used to push water privatisation on poor countries - making it less likely that clean water will ever get to the poorest people. And while poor people lose out, a group of big UK companies are profiting from this aid."

Have a good read on their website - quality information there!

The march itself suffered slightly from paranoia about safety concerns (I'm being generous here) on the part of the authorities. We stood in a large crowd (in hot sunshine) for nearly an hour and a half, penned in by barriers, at the exit of the park, waiting to be allowed to join the march. We were told that 'they' had to ensure there was enough room before they could let us through. People were giving up and going back to the park, overcome by the heat. When we were finally allowed through we were kept behind barriers, and if we dared to venture onto the pavement were made to get back in the road. Many of the shops we passed were open, and displaying Make Poverty History banners, but marchers couldn't stop to shop, as we were fenced in for most of the route. Loudspeakers weren't allowed, and there was no chanting (although we did hear a couple of choirs!). I've lost count of the number of marches I've been on, but I've never been treated like a mindless sheep before! It really felt like the authorities were trying to keep us all quiet and pliant.

I came across the lovely Merrick by the park exit, handing out fliers for the Hori-Zone gathering at Stirling. Unfortunately I have too many responsibilities here in Leeds at the moment to be able to get involved, but would love to have been able to join in, and to be there on Wednesday 6th for the mass blockade ofg the G8 summit. But if you can get there, then do it!!

Anyway, 5pm arrived and it was time to make our way back to the coach for the 6 hour journey home. Would you believe the coach driver gave us a rest stop at McDonalds on the way home? Its true! And some of my fellow travellers popped in for a burger!