Oh I do like to be…..

Promenade
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

…beside the seaside.

Woo Hoo! We went to the seaside!

Myself, Liz, Outallnight, JD and the lovely Holga Waterfalls went on a day trip to Cleethorpes.

Between us we had over 15 cameras (I had 6!), many were disposables or toy plastic film cameras – I’m rediscovering the joy of film photography again. Also, of course Liz and I had our TtV contraptions with us.

We wandered along the front taking photos of the town and the lovely people visiting (actually they were fasinating!). There were stops for cups of tea, donuts and even a land train for us to ride on.

We spent sometime debating what the thingies were – boats, giant sandcastles, spaceships……we didn’t find out until we got home and Liz looked it up on the web, well they were a long way away – didn’t stop Outallnight and JD wanting to walk out to them – we gave up at a cafe.

I haven’t laughed so much for ages – Outallnight decided to play dead on the beach – great photo op!

Dead man’s shoes
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

And then Holga graced us with her company -

Meet Holga
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

She was such a willing model, so photogenic. So much so that we found it hard to tear ourselves away from the beach.

Rushing back to Sheffield so that JD could catch his train back to Coventry we didn’t have time for the ice-cream I’d promised to buy everyone – oh well, next time.

The film of the book – Fast Food Nation

Lunch
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

‘Fast Food Nation’

The film has had the same effect on me that the book did – I can’t face eating meat right now.

Although this was a dramatisation of the book (and suffered for it in my opinion), it still addressed the original main theme – the fast food industry is selling us shit food, processed by immigrant workers who are treated like shit, made from animals who have a shit life and an even worse death.

The story follows three people involved in the process, a Mexican immigrant who comes to work in a packing plant, a young girl who works at Mickey’s (a thinly veiled clone of McDonald’s), and a marketing exec from Mickey’s who is sent to investigate how ’shit’ gets into their burgers.

Everyone should be made to watch this film – especially those who haven’t read the book.

The last scenes of the film are shot on the ‘kill floor’ of the packing company…….

We’ll see how long I stay veggie for, but one thing is for certain, I’ll only ever eat unprocessed meat now. I’ve always maintained that burgers and sausages are full of ‘lips and arseholes’ (excuse my language), but now it’s obvious they are also full of shit.

This is England

skinheads graffiti
Originally uploaded by eyko.

I remember the 1980s – for me it was school, Madness, The Police and later on Madonna. We lived in a small Gloucestershire village, and in the summer we would go out to play in the fields and not return until we were hungry or it got dark. The Falklands war was a long way off and I didn’t know anyone who was involved despite the fact that there was an army base nearby.

I’m not suggesting it was all wonderful, my grandmother died in the early 80s and my parents divorced at the end of the decade – but on the whole it was a great time.

In the North and Midlands inner cities things were very different – but at the time I only saw this on the television with news reports of miners strikes.

Despite originally coming from the North of England (in the late 70s), the North in the news reports was completely alien to me.

This is England, the new Shane Meadows film is set against the backdrop of the Falklands war and the hijacking of the Ska/Skinhead movement by the BNP.

Set in a Midlands town it tells the story of a young lad’s loneliness after the death of his father in the war, and his acceptance into a skinhead group.

Brutal, and in places very touching, I really enjoyed this film. The acting blew me away, especially the lead played by Thomas Turgoose.

I don’t expect it will have much of a run in the multiplex monstrosity cinemas (thank Bob for the Showroom), but, if you can, you should try and catch this film. British film making at it’s best.

CO2 emissions

What did you do granny?
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

If you listen to the government, and many climate change sceptics they’ll tell you that the UK is only responsible for two per cent of global CO2 emissions. But it’s a load of rubbish!

What this figure doesn’t take into account is the carbon footprint of British companies when they invest in other regions of the world – bringing the official figure of 0.7 billion tonnes up to 3.8 billion tonnes.

This means that the UK’s actual global CO2 emissions are more like 12-15 per cent.

As a nation we have to take responsibility, so that our grandchildren don’t need to ask the question.

My degree reading

My degree reading
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

Today I cleared out a filing cabinet – and finally chucked out all the photocopied articles, book chapters and reading from the three years of my degree.

When I say ‘chuckled out’ I should point out that I recycled them all.

It seems a shame that current students can’t benefit from all the photocopying that I did – but it seems that these days undergraduates don’t do very much reading, and what they do is given them in course packs – libraries are becoming completely redundant and students don’t seem to know what it means to ‘read round’ a subject.

The only papers I pulled out were those about cemeteries and graveyards – they really are the only ones I’m ever likely to read again.

We also got rid of Colin’s off prints – but the pile was only about half as high as mine.

Working

management / employees
Originally uploaded by Drunken Monkey.

I’ll make no comment about this picture, it speaks for itself!

Who the hell does she think she is?

I won’t lower the tone of my blog with a photo of the spoilt brat – but who the hell does Paris Hilton think she is? Obviously someone to whom laws do not apply?

On May 5th she was given a 45-day jail sentence in California for being caught driving whilst banned – serves her right.

Oh, but she thinks she’s been unfairly treated, and that it was an honest mistake!! She states that she was not aware that a 36 month ban for driving while drunk meant that she was unable to drive (HELLO! earth to Paris!?!) – She said in court that she never reads her mail, “I have people who do that for me, I just sign what people tell me to sign.”

Apparently, and I haven’t checked, there is a petition on her MySpace page asking Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to commute the sentence – the appeal says, “If the late former president Gerald Ford could find it in his heart to pardon former president Richard Nixon after his mistake” and “please help and sihn [sic] it. i LOVE YOU ALL!!!!”

In a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger she claims “she provides hope for young people all over the US and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives.”

Well, I’m sorry Ms. Hilton, but if my only hope in life was you I’d consider myself to be in a very, very bad place – and as for excitement in my mundane life – I’d rather watch paint dry or count blades of grass.

And before any of her ‘fans’ decide to leave a nasty comment on this blog entry, I don’t have a problem with Paris Hilton as such; I just have a problem with people who think that because they are rich or famous laws don’t apply to them.

Building Site England

Power?
Originally uploaded by Ms. Moll.

Hidden in the Society section of todays Guardian newspaper is an article that should put the fear of Bob into anyone who loves our country.

Following the publication of a review by economist Kate Barker, a Government White Paper is proposing a ‘national planning commission’ to judge on future big infrastructure project such as nuclear power stations, airport expansion, transport corridors etc.

This, it is proposed, will speed up the process of getting these massive building schemes approved – national policy statements to parliament will put them forward in the ‘public interest’.

However, for those affected by these schemes current system of public enquiries (as is currently the case in the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act), and local decisions could be weakened.

The review also suggested some building on green belt and a relaxation on restrictions on supermarket development on the edge of towns and cities (scrapping the need for retailers to prove that there is insufficient retail space).

If this happens, and I truly hope it doesn’t, the map of proposed and planned large infrastructure building that accompanied the article is terrrifying -

22 new waste incinerators
6 renewed nuclear power stations
20 airport expansions
68 new national road building schemes (not to mention the smaller local ones planned)

a paltry 1 (blink and you might miss it) Railway (London to Edinburgh via York)

Oh, and the only possible good thing (if the Nimby’s don’t get in the way) – 35 wind farms.

This would be a disaster for the English Countryside – tantamount to rape.

No hot water

washingup
Originally uploaded by smallritual.

I’ve long complained about the fact that Dad’s house is a complete icebox – but until I stayed here for more than a night (and I think this is the first time I have), I hadn’t realised that it also meant that there is no hot water!

And I’ve just realised why they don’t need hot water from the tap – they have showers and use the dishwasher – and when I say ‘use’ the dishwasher, really do mean it.

Nothing, I mean nothing, gets hand washed!

Lifesaver

Lifesaver
Originally uploaded by Merrony’s Moll.

I’m very pleased with the results of my ‘through the viewfinder’ contraption. I took a visit to the Rococo Garden in Painswick, excellent opportunity to play with the bazooka.

The interesting thing was the fact that it’s such a conversation starter – lots of people asked what the tube was and why I was shoving my camera lens into it.

I guess the only thing wrong with the design is that it’s difficult to carry about, I’ll have to put a shoulder strap on it.

Daisy Daisy
Originally uploaded by Merrony’s Moll.