Rebecca Watson: The Religious Right vs. Every Woman on Earth | CFI Leadership Conference 2011

New Stuff

I have a new gimmick on my sidebar - it's a set of thumbnails from Twitpic and maybe a way of directly posting photos to this Blog.

I Made This

Last week dreamt I was on rat killing duty and my former boss was really angry and shouting orders at me.
I also dreamt, yesterday, that I was at school in inappropriate clothing but nobody noticed. The clothing became more inappropriate as time went on, though I quite enjoyed it.

Dream: gigs going on in town. Bands played in shopfronts. I was doing something with S which concerned the bands but then missing their performances. Stopped to see a band in window with bare wood behind them and saw S going off into distance. I never saw her again. From then I was young punk in audience watching all new Stranglers performing a dramatic piece about war which involved dialogue such as: moans: "oh when will this war end". Big hairy biker bloke standing next to me asked if I was a virgin. I said no and laughed. He looked doubtful. Then asked if I was a student. No, I work. He walked off. Crowd disappeared. Band had gone. I was left alone.

A Baby Touched Me!!!!!

Fuck!! i was touched by a baby. Now I have get home, take all my clothes off and burn them, and shower, and shower, and scrub, and disinfect. This baby had sticky wet hands and kept touching my leg. The mother didn't try to stop it. It's nappy was yellow stained and it started screaming and shaking its arms around for the last two stops on DLR.
Thankfully it got off one stop before the end of the journey so I had time to recover.

At one point she kicked me.

Just before I got on the DLR and ended up sitting next to a baby, i saw a man with a kitten on the central Line. The kitten looked cute but I know it's just a matter of time before it did a fairly nasty liquid poo and/or vomited.

Stour Valley to London

I woke up earlier this morning to the sound of many many children trying to shower, get dressed, have breakfast and pack.
As I had the dorm to myself I took my time, eventually getting up just as the 3 black single-mother families from London were on their way out of the door. They all said 'bye' before they left even the one I thought didn't like me and i was left with an empty kitchen. It was after 9.00 so I had to rush a bit. Made breakfast - toast and coffee - while i packed, emptied room, got everything out onto veranda area and managed to have enjoyable leisurley breakfast. Caroline turned up with young assistant at 10.00 and I quietly slipped away at about quarter past.
Decided to take a new route and headed to East Bergholt, wandering briefly onto the A12 where I beeped by the traffic within seconds of arriving, as if i had much choice, its the only fecking main road that every other road seems to join up with.
After about 10 minutes was back on a country lane. Managed to listen to most of part two of Dawkins' "Greatest Show On Earth" which is a great book Dawkins' scathing account of creationist arguments and their refutations are the best bits. Noone does scathing like Dawkins, no wonder they hate him. His description of the evidence is also pretty good - this is an essential book for anyone who ever takes on those religious nuts who think evolution is some sort of superstitious belief system.
I thought I was fully recovered but as time went on I floundered somewhat. The wind picked up. I ended up on quite big roads (no choice!) and it all just got a bit too much. Decided to bail out at Braintree after 10 miles of quite unpeasent cycling, and knowing it just wasn't going to get any better as I got nearer to London.

Back in London

end of the line: Braintree station

A carving from times before the invention of trousers

this is the most mental village sign i've ever seen

fresh roadside bunny

Cambridge to Stour Valley

In the end I cycled over 60 miles - taking an indirect route to avoid the big scarey roads.

Left Cambridge at 10pm and arrived around 5pm - that's less than 10 mph. I did stop to look at the map quite a lot though, and rested, and stopped to drink water, etc. Well who's in a hurry anyway?

Stour Valley Riverside Walk

 Looking across the estuary towards Manningtree, Essex

Manningtree, Essex

Harwich

All the conker trees are dying

layers

Beach towards Harwich

I stayed off the bike today to allow some recovery to occur. Walked 6 miles along the Stour. Some of the bank was seriously eroded, to the point where there was no longer a path and walkers were directed onto the beach instead.
I saw only 3 people - a girl walking a dog and a young couple. Although I did see people in boats go by.
Later, I cycled to the local shop - this was after I'd knackered my walking muscles, and still with blisters on my feet. Bought a little extra food including a pizza.
Cooked pizza and chatted to the other residents. Drank. Read the Paper and Tweeted.

Wells to Cambridge

Cycled 30 miles today from Wells to Kings Lynn. then it was train allt he way to Cambridge.

Blaxhall to Wells Next The Sea

I think I bit off more than I could chew in planning this ride. I thought it would be well worth doing, if I could. And I was right.

Set off before 10 to Saxmundham - note for next year: train leaves at 5 to 10; next train leaves at 5 to 12.

So I sat around drinking coffee and reading the Guardian until it was time to catch a train. The cycle section had been taken over by 4 mothers and many babies, so I remained in the door section.

Arrived at Lowestoft before 1.00 and set off in a Northerly direction.

Made Wells soon after 8pm, after cycling 70 miles. That makes it 10 mph on average.

Ache day

I woke up aching. I barely managed to walk at first, but soon worked out how, though not without considerable pain. I don't normally try to cycle the day after the Dun Run but I had few options. Breakfast was excellent as usual here with bread rolls, croissants, cereals, and bits such as jam and butter. Then the cooked bit. And limitless tea and coffee.
I ambled into Aldeburgh. Stopped to look at pigs.

pig village

piglets

neighbourhood watch

I discovered short cut onto main road. Clever me - only took four years! Was in Aldeburgh by 11.

Beach; scallop; coffee; bookshop; fish and chips; pub for 2 hours while it rained heavily and I was done.
Found out what Broadside is supposed to taste like.
Was some serious way towards being drunk when I headed home in truly awful weather. I'd only had two, and it soon wore off. Didn't like it. Just don't like getting drunk any more, unless I'm somewhere safe.

I had an audience when eating my lunch

Something strangely Hitchockian about this bird

The controversial scallop

a rare plant

I sat and watched the waves, until a girl arrived with her three legged dog, then I felt too self conscious to keep hanging around, especially as she was rather nice looking - the girl, not the dog

parking facilities for one bicycle

rather interesting flooring material - a bit hard work for walking on though

Aldeburgh, just hanging on to land

There was only sporadic wireless all day and none at all now and I was enjoying an email correspondence with S. Oh well...