I realised this morning that I have a 'pet hate' odd term but that was the one that came to mind, so it's the one I'll use for now, unless you can suggest a better term.... anyway my particular pet hate concerns the use of grossly oversimplified, often gendered, generalisations......... you know the sort -sentences that start 'women (or men) usually do/think/react...... ' I really resent being herded in with half the population and expected to behave in just one particular way.. I do feel this biologically deterministic viewpoint irritating to say the least, surely the spectrum of behavior is inordinately diverse and although there are differences the differentiation between gendered behaviour is so overemphasised with such generalisations being commonly repeated that it sort of becomes too difficult to step away from and people start to believe that the behaviour is set in stone and irrefutable. i.e that men do behave in one particular way and that women do behave in another particular way with no leaway for looking at behaviour patterns more along a spectrum rather than distinctly grouped........

anyway moving on... have signed up for a refresher climbing course at Mile End Climbing club. went the other night and was pleased at the friendliness of the place and the diverse range of people there... so have paid up for a 2 day course in early June!

AND have got tickets for Glastonbury!!!!!!!!!

Finished reading 'If nobody speaks of remarkable things'....... a lovely book quite the best read I've had for absolutely ages, a totally absorbing and poetic journey, a journey through a day, a journey through the mundane, a look at the detail of people's lives in such a way that the mundane becomes extraordinary... even the title is a delight in that in the book the sentence 'If nobody speaks of remarkable things' is completed by the words 'then they cannot be so'..... wonderful! a pure delight indeed! It even made me cry! Right from the start you knew something dreadful was going to happen.. there was much exploration of life and death issues and how they affect the individuals. The characters were described in perfect detail but without names, all the people in a street were watched in absolute detail and described in an innovative way, conversation was not demarcated. it flowed along with all the other flotsam of the street..... it WAS a good read.. definitely recommended as a truely remarkable book

What a weekend! It seemed to start thursday.. with a visit to Highgate in the fun car, met up with Pete's two brothers and girlfriends in The Flask which was a really nice pub where we sat outside and drank copious amounts of wine and ate pistachio's! Very nice indeed, we than went on to an Indian and then it becomes a little blurred, well to be exact I fell asleep so it is less than just a blur it's not even a remote and hard to reach memory! Even managed to sleep all the way home which in an open topped no suspension 2 seater buggy is remarkable really! So friday I thought I'd give up alcohol as I don't seem able to do the sensible stopping after 2 glasses sensible thing.

Friday night was the Club Moto BBQ night and I was a bit of a party pooper really ....... though the one advantage of not drinking was that I drove myself home in the fun car having decided that I didn't really fancy the trip to Chelsea Bridge to watch old bikers and lads on scooters....

Saturday was meant to be the big day for moving the boat! It didn't happen, Enfield dock were just not ready! Jake came to visit though so I went to meet him in Kings Cross and we had a quiet evening with a BBQ .. sunday I had booked a jet ski so Pete and I left Jake in London and headed to Wyboston Lakes. had a wonderful ride there. the A507 was a lovely road all sweeping curves and picturesque countryside.. Pete enjoyed the trip down which I was pleased about as he didn't seem too excited about jetskiing!!

But we got there and we got kitted up in wetsuits and went to play! Loved it and so did Pete... we were both zipping around the lake in the sunshine until somewhat from nowhere it went horribly dark and the heavens opened up and tipped buckets on us and at speed on a jetjski rain hurts...had half an hour of play and was unable to work my arms properly! Muscles just gave up, getting the wetsuit off afterwards took ages!

Just had a look at Rose Darling (see link on the left under 'Blogs') Rose agrees with me about a recipe for youthfulness... forgot to mention the gig we went to ... the 'Godfather' boys were excellent in their usual sleazy way...... bit of a problem with their CD though ... the music is excellent, the CD design is very very polished I was really impressed and then I played the music video on my computer! All I can say is............ Lip sync ....!!! It really didn't work .. in fact it made me think of a A level art student who had big intentions but then just smoked too much weed and didn't quite get to finish the project off... but still had to hand in something!! Oh dear....

it's monday and I feel like spending money!! have an need to buy hmmmmmmmmm well anything really, though I'm trying to decide what I actually need...... after getting soaked yesterday in the fun car a waterproof jacket seems like a good option. Went to Chelsea in the sunshine, well almost sunshine and had a walk along the King's Road, looking at shops, had a coffee and sat in a pleasant little Italian place drinking my Americano and the heaven's opened up! It was pointless rushing back to the car as it's not really a convertible, there is no roof! So we just had to linger over the coffee watching the rain. When we finally got back to it we were presented with a crowd of people looking at it and two good size puddles in the seat wells!! Oddly after borrowing a sponge from another little Italian coffee house we managed to soak up most of the puddles so we weren't actually sitting in water but nevertheless it was still very very damp....... rather than driving via Hoxton on the way back we went straight home.

In the evening watched Twelve Monkeys as Pete had never seen it and was reminded how good a film it is as I'd forgotten most of it anyway.....

so might pop along to Field & Trek to purchase a suitably expensive waterproof...........