You Fib, Voting and Representation (by sarah)

A dark malaise is pouring over my country
The hate is bile rising choking community
Dear politicians You Fib
Not even the old skool twist of the figures
You simple do not check them in the first place
And it scares me how reasonable you can appear
How you have lulled the desperate and greedy
How you have twisted the heart of my land
I fear the outcome of those he seek the easy answers
Not like those other parties
Unlike them and yet... ah yes there
Hate of the different just because it is not you

Choose wisely when voting - remember MEP is proportional representation so tactical voting is stupid - you get what you vote for - also think careful about the council elections and who you want running your area and the knock on effects. PAX

Though I don't agree with it, an out of Europe policy is a valid position; I just wish that there was someone to represent my friends who feel this way without all the other baggage. I think there is a minority of those that think this is what they are working for and getting, but evidence is against it and that is sad. I see images of people trying to discuss the actual facts and figures of Europe and it sinks into obscurity due to the racism, sexism and other such topics. They do not have anyone to represent them in reality and that is wrong.

Of course there isn't really anybody to represent me and Al either, and here we hit a crux of politics - are we voting for parties or people?

If it is a party then I want a big list of all the parties and policies and to pick what I want from that - if it is people then what they do and say is incredibly important and the idea that their words and actions are not party policy becomes void, especially if they say something or do something and retain their position of power.

Given the choice I personally would probably go for Pirate Party, Green, TUSC (trade unionists and socialist coalition followed by lib dem - this is from having been lib-dem/green depending on what the vote was for and who was on offer. Sadly my choices are very limited and options here seem to be lots of far right groups, which frankly scare me.

I think if UKIP had turned into the party that was planned, then I wouldn't be worried, but that is not what I am seeing - I am seeing xenophobic, racist, sexist, homophobic view and hate of the vulnerable and different.

And that is without the privitization of the NHS and business practices - of course, I concede that privitization of the nhs is a valid political standpoint; just not one I agree with.

And of course the big three (Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dem) are not innocent at all in this - they have candidates and councillors that have said awful t hings, though they tend to lose their positions (of course the media could be covering stuff up and running a smear campaign but actually they seem to have been mostly supporting UKIP and so on. We have been astonished that there have not been any balanced pieces with the upcoming elections.).

Politics, like everything else, depends on your own story as to what you see - people can see the same interview and get different things out of it. One side sees a victory, the other evidence of bullying and so on. It is a mine field - I just wish people would actually think for themselves - go and research and think and look at their own biases - and we all have our own.

A hundred years ago women were still dying to allow me the vote - something which at least one UKIP member would have taken away.

Personally I want to stay in Europe, for human rights reasons - ie maternity leave, holiday pay etc... and I believe it can work for economics too - happy workers are hard workers (some tweaking is often needed depending on job type etc... but it pretty much holds.) And even with the risk of those I urge to vote, even voting UKIP. I will still do it as I believe voting is important (even if voting methods and politics in general have huge flaws).

At the same time I am actually sick of political canvassing - I think it kind of shouldn't be allowed - that there be one website that contains the policies (in accessible ways so explained in videos etc...) of ALL the parties. One day I had the BNP, UKIP and British Democrats in a row - this then caused me to snap at the little old man who was with TUSC who's policies I quiet like - canvasing fatigue I'm calling it!

Of cause there is the apathy issue in the UK were politics is concerned as well and therefore how you would get people to actually go and look.

I actually don't really have much of a point in this post other than - go and vote, think about who you are voting for though especially with Europe stuff as it is proportional representation and so there is no protest vote - you get what you vote for. Also though UKIP in general scare me, I feel sorry for the minority who seem to actually be trying to discuss political points and get derailed both within and without and those drawn to the party inside and outside of London seem to vastly differ.

ie political representation in this country sucks as does the actual voting system, but please still vote.

The scariest thing I've seen so far was the BNP youth video - truly scary - I kind of don't want to put it on here - even if it turns out I agreed with one policy :/

This is me looking at everything with the coolest, rationalist head I have - emotionally I want to just rage about Nazi attitudes and scapegoats.

Other good articles on voting:

Go Vote Dammit

Voting For Tomorrow

Sunshine and a fine time! (by sarah)

We went to the Cavery at Brockworth with our friend Charlee.

We sat outside and set the kids up for a picnic 🙂

After a lovely long lunch in the sunshine, Jean started reading and Mary started trying too... escape!

She even tried to climb a tree 🙂

She finally convinced her sister to become a partner in crime and they along with the rest of the kids in the pub garden, jumped the fence into the field - the field used to be open via a gate, this is the first time we've been there and they haven't been able to just stroll in!

The weather was glorious and I knitted and chatted and took photos 🙂

It was an epic day.

A Weekend of Epic (by sarah)

This bank holiday has been amazing. Below is a picture of our haul and that is not all of it!

For me it kind of began on Friday with a trip to UWE to see a friends talk on memristors (resistors with memory!) and then staying on for her leaving bash at a beer and cider festival - I had a Toffee Apple cider followed by a meal in a chinese place. Then we got up early Saturday and prepared stuff to go to the allotment but first there was Free Comic Book Day at Proud Lion in Cheltenham.

We arrived about 15 minutes before the shop opened which turned out to be a good thing as people were beginning to queue! We were ninth into the shop though and Jean knew instantly what she wanted - I was startled to see her pick up a hello kitty comic until she announced, 'it's not for me! It's for Mary.' She didn't take one of everything like she did last year which was interesting, she also got a hobbit poster and I got an XMEN badge.

I also got two pints and me and Al got a selection of comics like 2000 AD. I got to say hi to the people who are running the comic book convention I am launching the first Punk comic next year and I also bought Death by Neil Gaiman.

The girls couldn't wait to start reading and Jeany was moaning that I was taking too long in the shop! Mary I don't think gets the story form of comics - she just spent the whole time excitedly announcing there were lots of Hello Kitty's 🙂

We then nipped to the allotment and did two hours of weeding - discovering that the bit of the plot that we had planted the runner beans on was again cursed and they were all gone. We have decided that it is obviously a cursed bit of land and we will be putting a bench there in future. We also found that the stuff the farmer had sprayed for us to try and get the dandilions under control had killed the grass but not the dandilions!

I deflowered all the dandilions in our plot and then dug up a small bin bag full of plants, roots and all. The flowers I have dried and the plants the rabbit and chickens have been working their way through.

We popped home to drop off allotment stuff and pick up my new camera (as seen in the first photo), this has been an amazing discovery and I am not yet sure how I am going to share it with you! It is a 3D camera and reduced to less than my standard camera was. I decided to invest in it as they were over £400 to begin with. I think there may have to be an exhibition or something maybe with my friend who showed me her one in the first place.

Then it was off to Bristol to catch the food fair/festival 🙂 We came away with waxed cheese and chocolate coated coffee beans. Queuing for food was a bit of a nightmare though!

Mary decided she was Hermione out of Harry Potter and found herself a stick which she waved shouting the levitation spell - it seems to have worked!

Then we nipped to Costco and picked up some cling film and bits that we like to get in bulk and headed home to have a TV dinner of Lord of the Rings 🙂

On Sunday we got up and packed a cooler box, a wicker basket and the pic nic ruck sack and headed back out the door to the allotment. Where we spent all day from just after ten! The guy who likes to go there in the morning and the evening was well impressed 🙂 Of course I got sunburnt though Al and the kids didn't.

We both had to have lots of breaks and Jean and Mary helped a bit.

Jean beheaded all the newly flowering dandilions and cut a bag of lemon balm for me - along with pretending to eat the spring onions and actually trying to eat the asparagus! She also watered everything.

I dug out and chopped down weeds - I filled four large buckets of the things - this is the bucket that carries all our wellys and smaller tools! I also cut a bag full of lemon balm down and produced a good but not full bag of dandelions for the the rabbit et al. Alaric spent his time digging over a new bit of ground then hoeing it and then raking it. Between me, Al and Jeany we then planted carrots and parsnips in one half of the newly prepared section.

The hoe is called Katy and she is dutch 😉

We had an epic picnic and also went over to Primrose Vale for an ice cream and coffee whilst the girls played on the toys - I'm a cheap skate so I had a flask of decaf coffee. I also had a herbal tea made from lemon balm with me that I sat on the tyre at the end of the allotment and drank whilst reading my book, waiting for my pelvis to be ok again to do more stuff.

Jean spent a huge chunk of her time reading two books and Mary made a den in the hedge row 🙂 Al used up his phone battery in his breaks - the pacing worked well and we got a load of stuff done!

I also found some epic shrooms to photo (bigger versions will be appearing on Orange Monster and Photo Salaric).

Monday was our day off, so I processed some photos and planted out most of my tomotoe pants in pots in the garden. Al fixed the door in the girls room and Mary's little chair and did computer stuff. The girls played in the garden and board games, Jeany played Stratego with Al and then they watched films whilst I napped (me and Al were pretty achy!).

The I went off to take part in a lovely improv workshop run by Joy-Amy - you could tell I was involved as there were Romans, babs and bird eating spiders, there were also deranged hair dressers and moons being caught!

We finished the weekend off with a pear cider and some minecraft 🙂

May – the beginning of the Summer (by sarah)

It's a new month, a new season and I have a new to-do list. It is time for reordering and sorting. I handed in my last piece of coursework on Tuesday for the PGCert and have plans to take the project I've designed to the next level.

It is called Cuddly Science and you be hearing a lot more about it 🙂

Apart from that I'll be running workshops at The Brewery in Cheltenham for a Poetry Fun day and performing along side the wonderful Joy-Amy, I will also be performing at a slam at the Swindon Poetry Festival and at In Verse. I have the first of the music festivals this month too 🙂

I will also be doing some workshop with the kids at Jean's drama group.

And just to be a tad insane I am taking a ten week course in Improv and Stand Up - as in I'm going off to learn some stage crafty stuff myself. I've been meaning to do something since I left Imperial to be honest but it is now more urgent as I need better performance skills than I have to deliver Cuddly Science to the quality I want. It is ok at the moment but needs to be more - plus I felt that the performance poetry stuff could do with these sorts of skills as well.

It is also a matter of confidence and the accumulation of new skills. I find the concept of stand up comedy pretty terrifying and yet it was what I was edging towards with the Science Show-Off stuff I did. Also I don't like being scared of stuff - once I was scared of heights - petrified of them, my solution was to become a climbing instructor.

Apart from all of that there is the comic book to still be working on and the continual give aways for The Monster Blogs 5 year anniversary 🙂 I also want to get going with a bit more of the Science Writing and communication stuff in general, I still need to do some training for being a STEM Ambassador (science, technology, engineering and maths), to go into schools and things.

As always I am a glutton for punishment and the being of May is Picture Book Writing Week - so I will be attempting to write 7 picture books in the next 7 days. I am going to be focusing on the accompanying texts for Cuddly Science 🙂

The rest of month I will in general be working on my kids books and illustrations - 30 hours min. The summer in general will also involve game design and an update of the blogs.

On the domestic front we are having issues with the insurance company and the dinning room roof still but in general we are starting to get there with the house. There are some infrastructure bits that still need sorting and the garden will hopefully be getting a bit of a make over with the girls swing installed. The allotment is going to be the main priority for a while though as we still need to dig over a lot of it and plant tons of stuff.

We've sorted the play room and are almost there with the girls room, still don't think we will get around to painting the walls this year though 🙁

But we should finally get the curtains up!

A Day of Many Things (by sarah)

I am resting my bones today - I've had a hectic last few days and after a fall and during a bit of a flare up. This means I am doing Easter crafts with the girls and there will be a picnic in the garden.

Yesterday however was a day of many things.

It started early with getting Mary to nursery and Al to work, then me and Jeany walked from Al's office into Gloucester to the climbing wall. Jeany had her second climbing session of the holidays - this time Rock Ratz instead of Rock Mice, which is more challenging for her. Whilst she was in the session I did two hours of course work for my PGCert in Practical Science Communication.

Then once she was out and we were eating lunch, I did some art practice which is important for both the comic book and my college project. I drew eyes.

(Some of them I made up myself but most of them come from a manga drawing book.

We then went to the library where we bumped into two lots of friends 🙂 Jeany hunted easter eggs in the children's Library whilst I looked at story line, set out and drawing styles in various graphic novels - my conclusion is that I've been worrying too much about my drawings and my story lines are more coherent and less bitty (I think), than those I got through yesterday.

Jean won a wrist band and we moved on as I had a voucher for a free coffee 🙂 We sat in the coffee shop - Jean had picked up a for sale book at the library - just a bit of light reading you understand!

Apparently it is book five of a series and she wants the rest :/

I worked on my college work again and then scripted 3 pages of comic book, Jeany kept nagging me as she wants to know what happens in the rest of it and I'm not writing it fast enough apparently!

We then picked up a watering can and few other bits, I found a grumpy cat graffiti and we saw street performers though we didn't stop as Jeany wanted to go and read - she has said she wants to be a street performer and she is SOOOOO going to be a scientist. 😀

She got mistaken for being 12 a lot - that's 4 yrs older than she is.

We then walked down to Al's office again (Jean was navigating as I'm a bit out of it at the moment - couldn't find the library from the climbing wall!), all bundled in the car to go and get Mary. It was Mary's parents evening at nursery so we picked her up and had a picnic in the park. Al then went off to the kid free parent evening to get the little report and be shown her work whilst I stayed at the park with the girls. I am so proud of my little climber - she really hurtles up things 🙂

They really loved the spiny thing in the park.

I also found blossom to photograph for my 100 Flowers in 100 Days Challenge.

Then it was off to Copa in Cheltenham for a improve/acting/comedy workshop with the lovely Joy Amy - again this is actually part of what I am developing for college. I can't make a production without understanding stage craft and though the workshop was comedy a lot of the skills will be transferable and when dealing with kids being able to improvise is always important.

Whilst I was in learning how to be comedic, Alaric and the girls went off to Cranham to pick up some furniture his cousins have given us for the girls.

It was a busy day.