This Sceptred Isle

Thank God for the BBC. I really mean that. Today, whilst surfing the BBC History pages, I discovered that Radio 4 has been broadcasting a history of the British Empire, in 90 - yes, ninety - parts. Bless them - they can always be relied upon to do this sort of thing properly.

The programme, called This Sceptred Isle, is broadcast weekdays from 11.45 am to noon Atlantic time, so it's the perfect opportunity for me to have a coffee break and a listen. The series started back in September, in the 12th century (!), but today's installment covered the 1780s. So we had the aftermath of the US Revolutionary War and its implications for Canada, as the 'Tories' (United Empire Loyalists) streamed across the border in their tens of thousands, to Nova Scotia and other parts east. We'll probably hit the nineteenth century by the end of this week, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the series treats that.

I'll have to catch myself up at the weekend, I think - most of the previous installments seem to be available for download on the site, which is excellent.

The Opt-Out Generation

An online friend sent me the link to this contentious, thought-provoking article by Linda Hirshman of Brandeis University. It's about the legions of elite, intelligent, highly-educated women who are increasingly rejecting the world of work and choosing full-time, stay-at-home motherhood instead. Hirshman's explanation for this phenomenon? "...[W]hile the public world [of work] has changed, albeit imperfectly, to accommodate women among the elite, private lives have hardly budged. The real glass ceiling is at home."

And it's true. Women are realising that if 'having it all' means having to work the 'second shift' - of childcare and household responsibilities, at the end of a long working day outside the home - what kind of life is that? Raising children and looking after the home are still largely regarded as women's responsibilities. And although more men now participate in those activities than ever before, women still perform the lion's share of the labour.

It doesn't help that the workforce doesn't really support women with families. It's not enough to grant women access to the corridors of power, if they are expected to work like men and yet still somehow look after homes and families. The traditional 9-to-5 office workday is a nineteenth-century construction, devised by men for the convenience of men. It works perfectly well when one has a partner at home to look after all the housekeeping and childcare responsibilities. But for working women without that support (whether due to single motherhood, or male partners uninterested in domestic labour), its inflexibility makes it extremely difficult. It requires women to make personal-life sacrifices which are rarely asked of men.

It's the old conundrum, then - do women need to change to suit the working culture? Or does the working culture need to change to suit women?

Memoirs of a Geisha

Dinner and a movie with W. last night. Took the opportunity to see a chick flick, and so decided on Memoirs of a Geisha. Wasn't sure if I'd like it, but it wasn't at all bad. Mind you, I can't imagine it's a very accurate portrayal of the geisha world in the 1930s, but it was pleasant enough to watch. And visually, it's very beautiful. Actually, it's pretty much a series of attractive tableaux - wonderful costumes, picturesque settings, and graceful women dancing, pouring tea and applying makeup. Not a deep or profound film by any means, but quite nice all the same.

I've been meaning to pick up the novel by Arthur Golden for some time - must seek that out now.

"Why I Don't Much Like Contemporary Fiction," by J.

Finished reading John Banville's The Sea last night. I wanted to like it - really I did. It's not that it isn't good. It's very beautifully and poetically written; in fact, I found myself going back often and re-reading certain passages, they were so lovely. I can see why it won the Booker and heaps of other prizes and accolades.

But try as I might, I just can't get into contemporary fiction. Why? I think it's because I'm just not that interested in the banalities of other people's lives, or probing their (often grim) inner workings. The Sea, for instance, concerned a man who had recently lost his wife, returning to the Irish seaside town where he had spent time on holiday as a child. Beautifully crafted...masterful use of language...altogether very, very worthy. But I just wasn't that interested in the story.

Reading is one of my greatest pleasures, and for me, it is all about escape - the more faraway and fantastical, the better. Ordinary people, going about their ordinary lives, just don't hold much attraction for me. I get enough of that from going to work each day, watching the news, and reading the papers.

Time to go back this evening to the reassuringly firm ground of historical narrative, in Anna Pavord's The Tulip.

Election Day

Well, by the end of today we'll know the shape of things to come in this country, for the next little while at least. My prediction (and fervent hope): a Conservative minority government. Looks like there's probably no stopping the Tories, unfortunately, but a minority may keep their worst excesses in check.

I'll be off to the polls after work. Electoral result probably a foregone conclusion in my riding (the incumbent is pretty popular - and a good politician, I think), but you never know. There are actually five candidates for MP in our riding - one from each of the three main parties, one Green candidate, and one...Marxist-Leninist. Heh. I think that's completely brilliant. I really enjoy being able to tell people that there's a Marxist-Leninist jockeying for my vote. He's run in every election here for nearly 20 years now (I remember him from my undergraduate days) and he's quite the character.

Stoopid Weather...Stoopid Bulbs *grumbles*

A. reports that, while working in the garden today, he spotted shoots from some of the bulbs we planted in the autumn, coming up through the mulch he covered them in to prevent such happenings. Shoots! This isn't supposed to happen until March!

It's all this crazy mild weather we're having - plants everywhere are confused. I'm afraid that if they all start coming up now, they'll die off when we (inevitably) get socked with real winter weather. The only consolation is that the shoots we're seeing at the moment are those of the daylilies and irises, which were already here on the property when we moved in, and which are well-established by now. Hoping that my tulips, daffs and hyacinths are still slumbering in the soil, cold and peaceful...

Domestic Disaster

That's it. I'm never channelling my inner Martha again.

Feeling energetic this morning...decide to clean the bathroom. Properly, in a way it hasn't been done since we moved in. You know, bleaching the toilet bowl, scrubbing the shower grout with an old toothbrush, etc., etc. Mental, I know. Then I decide to disinfect the whirpool jets, as you're meant to do periodically. So I fill the tub with water, put in the disinfectant, turn on the jets for five minutes as instructed on the package, then go off to do other things.

When I came back, I found this:


ARGH!

Old Friends

I had a surprise email today from an old friend. R. grew up next door to me and was always in my class at school. It's been well over 10 years since I saw or spoke to him, though my parents have passed on any news they've heard over the years.

Good to hear from him - he's well, and now working in Toronto as a computer animator. I had a look at his website today - interesting stuff!

Ah, Just What I Need...an Abusive Office Stamp™!

My friend C. sent me the link to these some time ago, and I've just stumbled across them again. Entirely apropos, today. This one is the best! How do I order one?!?

Feist

Just in from seeing the quite wonderful Feist at the Marquee, with A., L., and M. Very good stuff. Surprisingly, she only played 4 or 5 songs from her album (though her set was a bit short, at just over an hour). She included 'Inside and Out', 'Gatekeeper', and 'Mushaboom' - that last one of course went down a treat with the Nova Scotia audience. Lots of new material played, which was great - she's apparently starting the recording for a new album next month.

Two rather dodgy opening acts were suffered through beforehand - though one was unintentionally hilarious...bunch of twentysomething guys singing about teen angst. Their 'best' song featured the memorable lines: "Fumbling in my pocket for a bus schedule / Pick you up at 6:12". *snorfle*

Egocasting

Very interesting piece in yesterday's Globe and Mail ("Wired Up, Plugged In, Zoned Out" - linking requires a subscription at the moment). It was about an emerging phenomenon among (mostly) young people to use new media (iPods, mobile phones, TiVos, blog subscriptions, etc.) in a selective way, thereby avoiding challenging their own opinions and tastes. It's been cleverly dubbed 'egocasting'.

For me, it's a source of both amusement and concern. Of course, it's human nature to seek out information that reaffirms our own position. But increasingly, it's becoming possible to switch off completely to anything outside our own little niches. This not only promotes egotism and deprives us of a wider world view, but also leaves us vulnerable to marketers and consumerism. It also has serious potential consequences for civil society, as the web chatter surrounding our upcoming federal election shows. It becomes more difficult to hear and consider opposing viewpoints when you get your news from blogs and other web subscriptions, rather than print newspapers and reputable mainstream news media.

I spend a modest amount of time on the Internet, compared to some people I know. Yet I see evidence of egocasting all the time. I do find it a bit disturbing, as the Globe article notes, how "...these technologies encourage navel-gazing and satisfaction of one's own taste as the pre-eminent virture, and only secondarily the understanding of others' tastes."

Right. Time to log off and go interact with the real world now. ;-)

Weird Weather

Surely it's very dull to blog about the weather. But it's just been so strange the last two months.

Other than one (relatively minor) snowstorm in early December, we've not really had winter at all. There's been very little snowfall (the ground is bare at the moment) and temperatures have mostly been hovering around the freezing mark.

This past week has been especially ridiculous - mild and rainy. Yesterday when I left for work, it was +9 degrees! Since Christmas, most days have been a few degrees above zero. I've abandoned my winter coat and boots, and gone back to my fall coat. Not that I'm complaining, mind. I'm happy to have no snow at the moment, as we'll surely get socked at some point.

It's just quite odd. What we're experiencing at the moment is more like winter in Ireland or England, not Canada.

Recent Reading

Read my way through all kinds of odd and varied stuff over the holidays, some of which I've detailed here recently. But now that the sober days of January are upon us, I've re-embarked upon a proper course of reading.

• Tomorrow on my way to work, I'll finish Long Spoon Lane by Anne Perry on audiobook (handily transferred to my iPod). Reasonably good, though standard, detective fiction set in 1890s London, and featuring the recurring characters Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. I've worked my way through nearly all of Anne Perry's many, many novels these last few years; this is probably the 7th or 8th featuring the Pitts. It's not high literature, by any means, but it's well-plotted, reasonably historically accurate, and not too heavy.
• I'm nearly halfway through The Tulip by Anna Pavord. This is another one I picked up from the sale bins at Hodges Figgis in Dublin. Who knew botanical history could be so interesting? Erudite stuff, and I'm quite enjoying it. Nevertheless, that hasn't stopped me putting it aside this week so I could pick up...
• The Sea by the Irish novelist John Banville instead. A.'s boss gave me this for Christmas. It won the Booker Prize this year and so is very worthy. Again, not the type of thing I normally read, being contemporary fiction, but I've been strangely drawn to it. So I started it a few nights ago. It's a kind of memoir, and very lyrically written. I'll review it properly once I've finished, which shouldn't take long - it's a relatively slim book.

New Boss

Bit of a bombshell dropped at work this afternoon. It seems that my immediate boss G. (who is director of the project I'm working on) is taking early retirement. He'll finish working in June this year. Unclear whether he's entirely happy with this decision, which is somewhat odd.

G. has already been in discussion with P., the Big Boss and overall director of our unit, about who will take over the project. The decision has been made to draft in B., one of the current project team leaders. So B. will be my new boss eventually. I hope it will all work out OK. When I first started working, I got the impression that B. thought I was a bit of a nitwit. But we seem to have been getting along better these last couple months, so hopefully that bodes well for a good working relationship in future.

I suspect, in the medium term, that this will mean another move of office for me, and one hell of a lot more work. Good opportunity to step up and show P. what I can do, though.

There's a Hedgehog in Me Basement!

No really, there is! A. just brought one home from the clinic, to mind for the evening:

When I lived in the British Isles (where hedgehogs are a native species), I always grumbled about the fact that I had never seen one. So when this little guy came in for boarding this week, A. asked to bring it home so I could see it.

It's actually an African Pygmy Hedgehog. He's not very interactive. If you spook him, he rolls into a ball, grunting and wheezing at you. You would need gloves to hold him, cos he's super prickly. And he's quite smelly as well...like fish. Though I don't know if that's him, or just that his cage needs cleaning.

Despite all that, he's pretty freakin' cute.

Late Christmas

Two sets of belated Christmas pressies arrived in the post for me yesterday. Always delightful when that happens. My parents sent me a pair of very nice opera glasses. And J. sent me a couple CDs - a Goldfrapp single and EP, and the new(ish) album by The Tears. Yay!

The arrival of these things was especially welcome as I've been taking down the Christmas tree and all the lights and decorations today. *snif*

Trinny and Susannah Sighting

Got home from work this evening and flicked on the TV, only to see Trinny and Susannah from BBC's What Not to Wear on Oprah. Now, Oprah's a twit, but Trin'n'Suz are brilliant. When I lived across the pond, their programme was essential viewing. Sadly, it's not shown in Canada, and I really miss it (cos believe me, the American version of WNTW, with those Stacy and Clinton people, just doesn't cut it). Their methods when making over women may be harsh, but the results are always stunning. I've adopted a bunch of their suggestions myself (tapered trousers, begone!), and they really do work.

*Note to Self*

*buy new a-ha album*

BBC Radio 2 is playing the new a-ha single, "All I Want", right now. It's not as good as "Celice", but I like it anyway. The new album isn't available through iTunes yet, but can apparently be had as an import enhanced CD via Amazon. Really must pick that one up...

Tristan and Isolde

Oh Lord. I've just seen a trailer on TV for a new movie opening next week, Tristan and Isolde. From the looks of it, it's probably dreadful. I hate it when anyone takes history and/or mythology and tries to make it all sexy and rock'n'roll (the soundtrack for this movie includes such musical luminaries as Evanescence and Gavin DeGraw, apparently) so it will appeal to the 'yoof'. Yuck.

The story of Tristan and Isolde is one of my old favourites, too - and it's been the basis for several wonderful, imaginative novels.

Houseguests

We have had some visitors staying with us this weekend - two rabbits from A.'s clinic. As they were abandoned and have been living in small carriers for months, we wanted to give them some time outside the cages.

Obviously we can't let them interact with our own critters, but they've had a fun couple of hours romping around the basement and stretching their legs a bit. They're super cute - but they need human interaction and the sooner they can be found homes, the better. In the interim, though, we may take them for weekends; even if we can at least get them housetrained, that will make them more attractive to prospective owners.

This is 'Ears', stretched out in front of the mirror:


And this is 'Gnasher', hiding in the burlap at the end of the couch:

It's 2006

Our NYE festivities stretched over two evenings this year. Fancy!

Unable to get decent reservations for last night at a restaurant we've been meaning to try, Da Maurizio, we went there on Friday night instead. And it was excellent - the cuisine is Northern Italian, the dining room is very elegant, and the service quite good. I had white bean and pancetta soup, pumpkin ravioli (which I last sampled years ago in Northern Italy...ahh) with duck, and veal tenderloin. Delicious. But I was so stuffed that I couldn't manage any dessert, which was quite disappointing. I'll just have to go back, I suppose. *sigh*

Last night, on NYE itself, we had planned a quiet night in with a bottle of champers and a few movies. But our friends M. and K. were in town and decided to throw a last-minute party. As evenings with those two are always a guaranteed good time, we didn't hesitate to accept their invitation. And quite a good evening was had, culminating with some rather shambolic dancing to old U2 and Abba records at 1.00 a.m. Oh dear.