lunababymoonchild

Surgeon's Hall, E S Thomson and What Not, Rose Macaulay

Ladies and Gentlemen, after 3 months some good news. My blood test result came back normal. That means that my diabetes is officially in remission. The level of sugar in my blood is 42 which is the highest acceptable level but I have brought it down from 46 and lost a stone in weight. I will continue the healthy eating and will introduce some exercise (!) to get to a healthy weight and decent physical fitness. I have to be very careful not to put weight back on because I might not be so lucky the next time. Feeling accomplished (and still stiff in my right shoulder!)

I saw a list of 'super long classics that are definitely worth your time' and this was on it. Never heard of Emma Goldman before and thought the life of an anarchist would be interesting, and it is.

It's not a library book and I'm very near the end (100 or so pages) but I did pay £26.88 for it. My father has a sewing hoop that's on a stand that I'll prop it up with to finish it. The 'foot' plate goes under your thigh.

This is the book I'm reading. It weighs 2.438 lbs. I now have a sore shoulder

Thanks everybody. I woke up stiff and sore this morning so there won't be any crochet today. I do like it though and it is a stash-buster (using up left over yarn to create space) so am sure there will be more. I'm going to spend the day reading! Momac, I'm glad that things are getting easier for you and that you enjoyed you visitors. Meg, I'm also glad that you enjoyed your visitors, I think you needed a bit of cheering up too.

This is what I made today. It's mosaic crochet and at 11cm square is actually huge for a sample. Was just going to use it as a dishcloth but my father decided that it was too pretty and would make a better placemat instead - so apparently I'll be making more! ETA it's NOT 11cm it's 11 INCHES that's why it's huge!

Railsea, China Miéville

The Familiars is Stacey Halls' first novel and is about a woman she first heard of when she visited a stately home near where she grew up. From one of the windows she could see Pendle Hill which is where witches were hung in the 17th Century. So, she has written about real people and real events taking place in real places in the era in which she sets the book. The story, however, is pure fiction. The Mistress of the hall is only 17 years old, been married before, and has already lost two babies and is pregnant with the third. She thinks that she may die with this pregnancy after reading a hidden letter and engages a mid-wife (common practice at the time) to help her. However, the mid-wife is accused of witchcraft, along with 9 other women, and is due to be hanged so it's a race against time for the mistress, in the last stages of pregnancy, to try and save her mid-wife and get her to help with the birth so that she can stay alive. The prose is good but not startling, the characters are very well drawn and the story is compelling. It does centre around witchcraft, or what was considered to be witchcraft at the time, and, of course, the misogyny that also existed at the time, so not a feminist work. I thoroughly enjoyed it as a bit of light reading and would recommend it.

I've never had any trouble doing that.

That, I believe, is why Steinbeck wrote OMaM and other works. He was appalled at the harshness of some people's lives and wanted to attract attention to it by writing. It's a good book, well written and not horrific at all. It just hit me hard because of my personal circumstances.

As it was a standard text I had to read it, although even I could not have predicted the effect that it would have. I can see now why it would be a school text, clearly not everybody had the same upbringing I got (there was much mental and physical disability among my mother's siblings i.e. 4 out of the 5 of them were afflicted with both) so it hit me very hard indeed. Nobody's fault but it did put me off finding if he had written anything else. It's fine now and I have several works of Steinbeck's that I will read and have already read at least one.

I have found - through family mostly - that those who hold onto a particular belief regardless of anything else are not particularly intelligent. I once saw a documentary on racism (I wanted to find out how racists thought). The camera crew were in a pub which was packed with racists and they were allowed to ask one question of one of the male individuals. It was on the subject of Pakistanis and he was asked 'but what if they are born here?' his answer was "if a sheepdog is born in a barn it's still a (expletive here) sheep dog." I said "what?" as I tried to follow the rationale and so did the film crew, clearly, as they were then asked to leave because they were upsetting (!) the racists and it could turn violent. As far as I'm aware, Pakistan is a country and those born there, regardless of colour, are Pakistani. He clearly thought that Pakistani was a race. Which pretty much says it all as far as racism goes. I've since seen the same type of opinion elsewhere on TV and one woman I was working with when a teenager expressed something equally inane and ill-informed. As for star signs ………. Einstein was Pisces, get your friend to explain that one. Some of us do think for ourselves but some don't.

To be fair any child should be safe from harm regardless of whether the parent is available or not. Unfortunately, that's not the case and we do, to a certain extent, expect the parent/s to keep their own child safe. I just wonder what she was thinking - and yes I should watch the rest of the documentary to find out. The 23 minutes I saw struck me that anybody would have known that it wasn't acceptable for a grown man even if it was Michael Jackson to behave like a wee boy (the mother's words) and just want to play with a five year old and with five year old toys. I find that odd.

I got 23 minutes into the first part and spent so much time shouting at the tv and thinking 'my parents would not have allowed that', so I've taken a break and probably won't go back. It's not my place to judge anybody and it's very easy to be clear in hindsight but even with only 23 minutes of a documentary it was clear to me that Michael's interest was unhealthy.