What's happening in your life?

We can all play our part, no matter how indirectly, in the ethics of responsible consumption. For instance, I once went on two dates with a Jewish man, who revealed on the second of the two that he always looked for Palestinian cleaners in his business because he enjoyed treating them like sh*t. 

He was laughing so hard it took him an extra few seconds to realise I wasn't laughing at all. I just calmly gave my response to him, insisted the card reader be brought to the table so a full 50% of the bill could be paid by me, and walked out. Every encounter is filled with ethical choices to be made. 

12/13 is sufficiently old enough to start coming to terms with that. One choice made in openly bad faith only begets another, I think.

Half of what remains of my buddleia has blown over, again. As if I'm not fretted enough already.

I love your new tagline.

It's from Donna Tartt's The Little Friend. Harriet's aunt is telling her about Hurricane Camille.

I've read that in the last 6 months.

I also then read The Secret History and have just started The Goldfinch.

I liked TLF, and it's stuck in my memory, but I've never read it again. The Secret History on the other hand I've re-read loads of times. In fact, now I've got so much time on my hands, I might just read it again.

I leafed through The Goldfinch but somehow it left me utterly cold and forgetting that it existed. Maybe if you enjoy it you can enthuse me.

SPOILERS!

The same problem has flared up again. I thought Sean was looking very trim last time I saw him, and in our latest video chat he looked incredibly well groomed. 

Apparently, spurred on by his two best friends, a coven of their wives and his sister were deployed to sharpen him up in line with they assumed I'd want. His previous scruffiness was the reason, they felt, for my lack of commitment regarding a baby, a wedding, and a house.

Having attempted to draw him into my Bel Air dream houses pastime, he's come up with a six bedroom plus granny annexe, home gym, (and 18 metre long room above an integrated triple garage, which he suggested I could use as a wardrobe - there is the potential to knock through into it from the existing walk in closet in the master suite) in zone 6. 

Which is nowhere near Southern California. The only acceptable part of zone 6 is Heathrow Airport. It is a nice house as these things go but from the price, I'd be paying a good 95% of the cost. 

That's before the money it would take the drag the interior back from the depths of vulgarity, totally revamp the bleak garden into something I wouldn't feel compelled to apologise for (and explain to all that it was like that when we arrived), and find suitable furnishings and other pieces to fill the surplus of rooms. The nearest of which to the master suite would have to be designated on arrival as something other than a nursery.

It seems we are going to have to have a very serious discussion about which pages we are on, because they aren't in the same book, let alone genre. And he looked cute before this unnecessary intervention to turn him into a human doll got underway.

Who the hell's the granny annexe for? I must ask. My mother and I would kill each other in such close proximity, and I doubt the selection of local pubs would be numerous or rowdy enough for her liking. His parents are fine where they are, and are only in their early 50's at any rate. They're nice but I don't want to live beside them.

G-d forbid it would be for his ex girlfriend and her candy floss hair. I bet that's it. So they can do their admirable shared custody more easily. And I'll pay for us all to be one big happy family. It would take my son over an hour each way to get to school. God only knows what the neighbours would be like - lawyers and gangsters probably.

I had to bury a stray/feral cat (that was basically a pet at this point) in my garden earlier today. It was one that would come around and hang out at my place over the years, was a bit of a smelly,  odd and grungy looking thing but was nice company and would often sleep in the house and was very vocal. We used to get a lot of strays that would come and go and this one was the last of the lot, the end of an era of sorts.  

I thought something was amiss as it had been about 2-3 days since we'd seen it last, and had spent nearly all of the day sleeping on the last day when he was home. Turns out he had died in the neighbours garden, which came as a bit of a shock.  At any rate, upon finding out I quickly dug a grave, wrapped him up in a blanket towel (just a black bin bag on its own seemed undignified) and now he's resting amongst the Azelias and Fatsias, close to where he would hang out on our window sill.

Rest In Peace you silly thing

In other news I had to take my mother food shopping.




Still check the dates on bread. Slowly. Bread that's she's going to freeze.

Quite right too. I start at the back first, where the longest away dates usually are, until I find one to my satisfaction. Wafer thin chicken often has a blood spot so I go through them all to find one without.

All sealed fruit that can't be individually squeezed for indications of firm fresh succulence like kiwis and peaches can, are held aloft in the packets and fully compared/examined/tilted from all angles. 

I'm not fussed about use by dates. I just find higher quality produce that way. I challenge nearing sell by dates without discounts, haggle at checkout, and will abandon product if no reduction is forthcoming.

On the checkout belt, I actually separate the stuff into two categories. The first lot is to be simply swiped through. The stuff at the back is the stuff that needs to be haggled over, or a manager called over to see things my reasonable way if the checkout operator doesn't have authority or tries to say they don't do that. 

It's one of the major reasons I've never done supermarket shopping online. It wouldn't be tested, chosen, and potentially bartered over the way I do it. I might end up with a load of old sh*t at full retail prices - strawberries going mushy, milk with a day left, yoghurts left unshaken to hear the consistency of the inside, etc.

Oh, that was good, they just had my photo of the Moon on Look East

Zarniwoop wrote:Oh, that was good, they just had my photo of me Mooning on Look East

Pictures or it didn't happen.

Isn't there supposed to be a supermoon tonight or tomorrow or something?