Monday 12 November 2012

Mothers Are Wonderful

Just the other day my mum with no request on my part re-sewed a button on my coat which was very close to being an ex-button of my coat.

Mothers are wonderful.

Words and That 'Orrible Thing Racism

So there has been a lot of talk recently about words, their meanings and everyone's favourite football topic of rascism.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Spurs play, I say pleasure because a) it was my mate's birthday and b) I like watching football. Now the fact I'm a Gooner makes this a little more interesting.

Some observations on this -
1. I did not spontaneously combust upon crossing the White Hart Lane threshold, this may have been due to my proximity to a vicar.
2. I only heard them sing "stand up if you hate Arsenal" twice in 90 minutes. Maybe it was our seats up in rafters but compared to how this compares to my brethren I was pleasantly surprised.
3. Whoever you support, defender/keeper balls up will always amuse/annoy you.
4. The applause for Fabrics Muamba was awesome, and his stoic attempts to hold back the tears and thank the Spurs fans was heart moving.
5. Singing "we'll sing what we want" is typical macho posturing probably fueled by alcohol and the collective being infinitely thicker than the sum of it's parts. I would add it is probably sung at every ground in the country. Still I think it is really a quite stupid chant if you think about it but so it goes.
6. I had a lot of fun, thought the Spurs fans for the most part were good natured and knowledgeable. But then again that is probably more a reflection of the three Spurs fans I was with.

And now on to the rather thorny issue of that Y word. Now I am very much open to being corrected on this but my view goes thus -

Yid is an offensive term for a Jew, therefore to a Jewish person this is a rascist term. Now in a similar way to black people co-opting the insult Nigga/er I can understand that. BUT as I would guess the majority of Spurs fans are neither Jewish through descent or religious choice I think the co-opting of this phrase however entrenched is a misappropriation. If I decided to refer to myself as a Nigga I would get all sorts of abuse and rightly so for I am a white middle class man from London.

So unless someone comes up with a convincing argument I think the use of the word Yid is at best in bad taste...

Tuesday 6 November 2012

Busy busy busy

So the last few weeks have been busy and eclectic to say the least.

It started a couple of weeks ago with an email from one of our suppliers inviting me to the Pharma Times Business Manager of the Year Awards. So far so good. Except it was the next day AND black tie! So that evening I went shopping and bought a dinner jacket and suit. The next day I schmoozed, drank champagne and ate lovely food at the Royal College of Physicians.

Two days later I and my merry band of men/wife were channelling our inner Mumford/Rend Collective depending on your particular bent as we made sweet music for Faith Missions Trust annual celebration. Much fun was had by all.

The wife and I then enjoyed a half term break involving a canal walk I'm London, James Bond, a few days in fair Lincolnshire and a visit to Warwick Uni to see her old stomping ground. Oh and some gorgeous cake. Less said about diet coke the better though.

The weekend saw me win three straight games of 7 Wonders much to the wonder and amazement of all. I'm amused at people's surprise when I'm good at something. Or maybe they just think I'm flukey.

Saturday night saw the band take to the stage at Trinity I'm Harrow and rock the socks off all 20 people who bothered to come. My sincere love and thanks to you all. Twas much fun even more if the stage is very cramped.

So busy but good.

I'm blessed to have some fabulous friends and family.