Of spooky days out and broken pinky fingers

Me laddie has been put out of action for a few weeks due to breaking his little finger in two places during a rugby training session.  He had to have surgery to manipulate it back into place.  The orthopaedic registrar informed us that surgery was necessary because the breaks were on growth plates and his finger would not grow properly without the surgery.  They even kept him in overnight and I got to sleep on a chair bed right next to him.  All very dramatic for the sake of a broken pinky finger but we were looked after  very well.  Yep, I experienced for myself the greatness of the NHS, but despite the pledges and the ring-fencing, be in little doubt that the cold, hard hands of Cameron and Giddy-boy will soon be felt around the neck of our beloved NHS.  It’s already happening folks.

Anyway, me laddie . . . the poor boy is gutted.  He can’t play rugby for another four to six weeks and to rub the salt well and truly in, after waiting nervously for weeks for his teacher to make the team announcements, he just got chosen for the the school’s football team and hasn’t been able to play a single game for them yet.  He was chosen to play goalkeeper, the position that everyone usually dreads but I think they gave him that position on account of his catching skills.  Well, probably more likely because, having played rugby most of his life, he kept trying to catch the ball instead of kick it.  He doesn’t mind being goalie though.  Loitering idly whilst picking paint off the posts and wondering what’s for tea suits him splendidly.

Anyhoo, well and truly out of action is where we are right now and even cycling is out of bounds so we’ve been going on lots of walks – just so his stamina and fitness levels don’t walk away altogether never to be found again.

Yesterday we went to Bolton Abbey and to my delight, there were lot’s of Halloweeny things going on which included a pumpkin trail.  My boy, having turned eleven just last week, was a bit disgusted at such childish nonsense but I have a sneaky feeling that his buddy who came along with us unintentionally induced much of that disgust.  So, not one to miss out on anything, I took part myself and just as I thought, it wasn’t long before they were both butting in and shouting out with unreserved excitment whenever they spotted a pumpkin or a witch.  Even the hubby was caught up in it all.  T’was jolly good Halloween stuff.

I even managed to take some pictures of the beautiful Autumn day so, for your Autumnal pleasure . . .

Some things I boycott and why

Coca-cola: Apart from it being a very unhealthy drink that totally rots your pearly whites  (yes even diet coke), the company also partakes of some crafty activity of a socially irresponsible nature pertaining to India’s water supplies, which results in inconveniences such as pollution, water shortages and toxic waste.  And did you know that in 2004 coca-cola used 283 billion litres of water to make its product?  When you consider the many millions of people who can barely find enough water to get them through a single day, for a company to have the freedom to take so much of this dear Earth’s water in order to produce a crap product and then sell it on to the Western world in tin cans has got to be an unbeatably gross injustice.  And by the way, to add insult to human injury, they waste two thirds of the water they take.

Caterpillar: Caterpillar sell bulldozers to Israel who then use said bulldozers to trample all over the homes of Palestinians.  I know my boycott won’t be very effective seeing as I’m not likely to ever buy or even hire one of their bulldozers but I can boycott them symbolically, as a gesture of support towards the Palestinians who are being entirely and brutally settled upon by the Israeli’s without so much as an excuse me please, may we join you? The lovely, courageous Rachel Corrie was killed in Gaza eight years ago by an Israeli army Caterpillar bulldozer while trying to defend the Palestinians whose homes were being destroyed by the Israeli settlers.

Harrods:  Again a symbolic gesture in that they won’t miss me much because I’ve hardly been a devout customer having only ever been there twice with my parents when I was a young girl.  My dad paid a silly amount of money for a teddy bear that I begged for one Christmas and I lost it on the beach in Wales the following Summer.  I was gutted.  My dad was furious.  Well the Harrods teddy line may be sweet and cuddly and harmless but their real fur collection is built on cruelty and exploitation.  Harrods is the only department store in Britain that still stocks fur products.  Many thousands of animals are tortured and killed in order to supply Harrods with its fur products.  The animal rights issue is seen as a mis-prioritisation by some people who believe it’s impossible to care about human rights and animal rights but the way I see it, exploiting animals for reasons of vanity and cosmetics is wrong and will always be wrong. And gasp! Yes, I care about humans too.

Bluefin tuna:  Bluefin tuna is critically endangered on account of our overfishing.  There’s a global call to have the sale of bluefin banned and predictably, Japan is going to ignore it, saying it would “hunt as a matter of principle” Japan will blatantly disregard the most endangered label. It’s not the hunting I’m against.  As a species, humans have to eat too.  But we have to use sustainable methods.  Humans are the only species that takes more they need to survive and in doing so, we disharmonise the whole food chain thus disenfranchising other species and pushing them into extinction.  And in any case, it’s not for survival.  It’s for profit.

Zoos/Marine Parks: A trainer was killed recently by an Orca whale while performing circus acts.  I’m genuinely sympathetic towards the trainer and her loved ones but really, think about it, huge killer whales in goldfish bowls, captive, having to perform circus tricks daily for their supper.  It’s not hard.  Same can be said for zoo animals.

That’s it for now.   Tune in next week to see the top 100 greatest corporate swindles.  If I can be bothered.