The Many Joys of Facebook

 I love Facebook. I really do. It allows me to keep up with the everyday goings on of people I like - and those I am not so interested in. I can keep up to date with the news without actually switching on the TV via some media savvy friends.
Other FB joys are efforts to 'out-status' everyone else. Today I like this one ; F**k wasps are stupid! The door is open you stripey f**kwit! My own status updates vary enormously from the mundane 'I love the sunshine' to writing self motivating stuff in latin (the latin I stole from a friend). It tends to sort the wheat from the chaff.  
This is as amusing as I get; 
Camellia will be spending the rest of this crappy wet grey day; running, tidying and then reading. Oh the excitement of my early 30's.

What I don't like at all is the mindless groups who begin some hate campaign and the less well informed of the Facebook society all click on JOIN or LIKE without ever actually visiting the page and seeing what's on there. I refer particularly to the groups that have popped up since the Sun printed the headline Bid to ban England tops in World Cup pubs. Well done The Sun.
Now Facebook is crawling with racist pages claiming that the 'foreigners should f**k off' etc etc. It makes me very angry and very sad that I live in a place where this is clearly rife. What irritates me greatly too, is the number of people on my own friend list who have clicked 'join'. I ummed and ahhed about this for a while and wondered what to do about it. I posted lots of  'this is a hoax' type stuff and then decided to cull these people from my list. Some of them I'm fairly sick of reading about anyway. If I read 'pmsl' once more from one girl, I swear I will go out and get her some Tena Lady myself.

For my own part, I am in various groups, two of which I set up myself. One of them is about locating my cat in the village, the other is about Vernon Burgess;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/hardchristmas/toughseason/skint.shtml
I am also a member of 'If one million people join, God will bring back the dinosaurs' in honour of all the daft groups in same vein.
I also enjoy the 'cut and paste' status updates. As a friend of mine put it, rather than waste time pasting this daft status, if you really feel strongly about autism/cancer/domestic abuse, put your money where your mouth is. I like this as an alternative ;
Please put this on your status if you know someone who has been eaten by a dragon. My wish for 2010 is that people will understand that being eaten by dragons is not something to be ashamed of. Dragons are nearly unstoppable and are truly terrifying and when people go against them unprepared... there is almost no hope.... 93% won't copy and paste this as they have been eaten by dragons.

For the second time within a week I have posted a BBC news article which says the shirt/flag ban is rubbish but for some on my list, it is too late, they have been sent to Facebook Elysium.

Stuff I feel strongly about.

 I feel happy about how my week has gone at work and happy that my sister made it to Barcelona, despite so many flights being cancelled, that my friend has been offered a new job, happy that next week is the last week before half term so I will have my dog for extra time..etc etc.
But I am also annoyed by what I hear and read about some of the priorities of the new coalition government. It seems very odd to me that they are appointing a minister for hunting and shooting when the big issue should really be our economy. I also find it infuriating that Nick Clegg is so easily bought. He has gone on record to say he is anti hunting and would not seek to lift the ban...yet here he is just days after the election, snuggling up to Cameron with this back-tracking rubbish.
I am a person of priciples and I respect people who are the same. I have none for Clegg.
I am totally anti hunting. I have been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years and I find the idea of repealing the ban, backward and repellent.I have written to my MP to this effect, though it has fallen on pro-hunting deaf ears, I have written to Nick Clegg, and I will continue writing.

There are a few things I feel very strongly about. This is one. I am posting this link in the hope you will come across it and take two minutes of your time to help our wildlife with this simple form.
It will send a letter to your MP and let them know you do not want a lift on the ban. It really is easy and minimal effort.
 http://e-activist.com/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=122&ea.campaign.id=6614&ea.url.id=30056&ea.campaigner.email=T3Y9UQaO53WQxuZqOBx8FqgNZtgXLllLILatnBtoo0w3eyJ2kENVjQ==&ea_broadcast_target_id=0&forwarded=true

Thanks, Camellia xxx

"Could be you’re here because you’re good with words and know the right thing to say at the right time. I know the words to Candle in the Wind. It don't make me Elton John." Sir Alan Sugar

 This week at work I have lost my mind a little and decided to run a project about making profits with small children. We are baking Healthy Snacks to sell at a profit. This way I tick a load of the government's Every Child Matters targets and hopefully we learn lots in a fun way;

• be healthy
• stay safe
• enjoy and achieve
• make a positive contribution
• achieve economic well-being

We did 'market research' to find out what our would be customers wanted, used a vote to pick 4 top ones and this week we're making and selling. The class have had to write to the head for permission, advertise the week, think of a name for our project 'SNACK ATTACK' and then hopefully make some money.
We'll see if I have any budding Sir Alans in the making. I am not convinced yet whether this week will be a success. Today I have missed all break time whilst I have run around like a mad thing checking on cakes, supervised icing and placing into airtight containers. We have discussed how much I have spent on ingredients and that I need that money back or I am out of pocket. We have also discussed that we need to make a profit but that the children in our school need to pay a reasonable amount. I hope this week will be a steep but beneficial learning curve.

 What annoys me intensely about popular culture today is that you can be rich and famous for nothing at all. There is no sense of having worked hard to achieve. Role models are men and women who do very little or at worst have no talent or even redeeming features at all. There is no link made between working hard and having nice things. Not that I think life is about this- clearly I don't. But I do think children need to be aware they will not be handed a nice life on a plate or that it comes with no skills, effort or work. Our society paints a skewed picture. Footballers can behave as abhorrently as they like, without conscience or consequence. My argument here is not that they are not talented, just they are disproportionately paid for what they do- yes I know football earns a HUGE amount of money but it also ruins men. Men who go into it as boys and are given insane wealth and privilege and are actually kids who have no idea how to be responsible adults.
Women must be thin and pretty - and if they are, they can turn their hand to anything; fashion, singing, acting, TV presenting, writing etc. I will get off my soap box now.
Some of the children are already understanding the concept behind our project but others are lagging behind. When the 'icing team' had showed everyone the finished cakes today, one child said, "when are we going to eat them?"
We'll see how the week goes.

My cat loves Whiskers and I love my cat

I just fed my dog. I keep his food with my cat's food and chuckled to myself a bit (because I am sad) at the slogan on the box. My cat loves Whiskers and I love my cat.
This could not be more fitting of my cat. How careful of the Whiskers people not to include - 'My cat loves me'.
No, instead, my cat uses this place like a hotel. He likes to be fed but he couldn't give a crap about me. I love him but this love is not reciprocated. He loves my dog and my mum's dog but not me.
I have not seen him for some days now. I think maybe a week. This is completely normal and I imagine he has spent most of the week two doors away with his best pussy cat chum.
A couple of Summers back, he went missing for the first time for several days. I was beside myself and went out round my village every night calling him. In the end, I made leaflets and delivered them with the help of my family, to the whole village in order that I locate my beloved cat. The response was great and within hours I had him home and discovered that he'd spent the last 9 days over the alottments hunting. He was skinny so I kept him in for a few days. He is now one of the best known cats in the village. It amuses me when people walk by a ginger cat and say- 'Is that Frodo?'
Since then this has become his pattern. He is an outdoor cat and I rarely see him. I do see him when he wants feeding and he will come in, miaow loudly for his breakfast, even if he wakes me up, eat and leave. Maybe I should not have given him the name of a hobbit from the 'fellowship of the ring' - perhaps he was predestined to be a wanderer.
My mum summed up my cat last night when she left my house after our dog walk;
"I hope the shitmeister turns up this weekend".
I take offence but she is correct. He has no feelings of love towards me, but I do love my cat and when he wakes me at half past five, I will continue to feed him Whiskers.

Victoria est mei!

My rant on Monday paid off. I am so relieved and starting to feel a bit better about my work situation.
Really kicking off and leaving people with no doubt about my feelings and the course of action I wanted taken, have paid dividends.
What I wanted done with a proposed letter was done, and the changes I wanted made, were made. I am very pleased, both for myself and for my colleagues - justice. I also had it confirmed by someone I respect from high up that I am as good as I think I am at my job. I also had it stated that if this were not the correct judgement in the first place, the changes to this letter would not have been made - something that apparently NEVER happens and means he got it wrong and he knows it.
Pussy cat I may be, but I do get my way......mostly. 
So this news has been good medicine.

What I'm not so thrilled about is my knees. I wanted to be in training most of this week so that I can do this run on Sunday in half an hour- not really fast, but not shameful either. My knees have decided otherwise and I will most likely be wearing very attractive knee supports and consuming giant green horse tablets of chondroitin and glucosamine. It's a good job fun runners don't get drug tested- I'd rattle my way in to the testing centre. I wonder why my body must fight my attempts at serious fitness. First shin splints and now the knee thing. This came on last Summer when I began to hear a worrying 'velcro' sound in one and then both knees. I was told to strengthen the muscles in my legs around the knee with weights - which I did. Now this issue is back. Grrrrr.
But I shouldn't moan. A friend of mine spent half her school life on crutches. We barely recognised her without them. She injures herself less now but it really was quite ridiculous for a while.
 
In other news, I wait to see what will happen with the very odd coalition between progressive left wingers and traditionalist right wingers in our country. It doesn't seem a popular decision. I watched Cameron drive from Buckingham Palace to Downing Street while Nick Robinson assured us the crowds were cheering.
Jeering maybe. As he made his speech, David Cameron's wife looked nervous - hardly surprising with loud taunts of 'Tory Scum' from the crowd.
He talked about the difficult times ahead and how he intended to work with Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. What an odd alliance this will be and how long will it 'work'?

 But as he stepped inside No.10 and closed the door behind him, Cameron must have felt a little bit of my victoria est mei, even if it hasn't gone quite as he had hoped.

Don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry!

Wow, I don't remember the last time I was this angry. I always say I don't do angry and that is true...ask my mum!
I have been thinking about this lately and discussing a bit with others. My temper that is. I don't have much of one. Feisty, yes, but I'm not an angry person. I get upset and cry when things go wrong. I'm a delicate flower, a pussy cat.
Tonight I lost my temper. I think I swore in front of the local vicar and I banged my bag down on the table in rage. Not pretty.

I have made a promise to myself that I won't live with anger again- in my personal life. When I did, it made me a shadow of myself and made me miserable. One day I had enough and realised I was scared of my own partner and asked him to leave. I cannot explain how different my home felt afterwards- it was quite remarkable, tangible even. I have never regretted that decision.

If my poxy knees weren't giving me loads of trouble again I'd be out running off the anger. As it is, I'm blogging and then I'm going to read my new book. I just bought 59 seconds and I have to start 5 days of writing about things that have been good this week. I am ignoring school, and instead concentrating on my running, improving fitness and the wonderful people who have sponsored our Race for Life so far!

Ooh, did I mention I LOVE Ed Norton? I do. He is great!

Being a doormat

Well it took me a week, but I have now responded to the person who let me down. There was much flustering and trying to dig herself out of ever increasing hole and suggestions that I misinterpreted 'context'. I quoted her directly and pointed out that I thought that pretty much did set the context.
I am becoming myself again. I never used to be a doormat, then had a few years of it, now I'm back and it's how I should be. I don't shout or lose my temper but I make sure my feelings are known.

This week a man sent me a text message asking how I was and what I'd been up to so naively I answered and said I'd been to Istanbul, got my dog back, applied for and turned down an overseas job etc etc.
He replied- 'I meant guys.'
Nice- how much more clearly can you say - I don't care what you've been up to, I only care if I still stand a chance?
I gave him my Tesco analogy to which he replied 'LOL you're too fussy! I am an ALDI man- good value but you know what you're getting'
Idiot.
I then ignored following messages until he wrote 'so do I stand a chance?'
No.
His final message was 'remember you deserve a good man'.
Ummmm yes, I know - evidently that was my point.
People will always surprise you, for good or for bad...

So, returning to my earlier issue; I would like it on record that in a silent building, but for a room of people having a meeting, wooden doors are not soundproof and I do not have WELCOME stamped all over my arse.