Skuds' Sister's Brother » Jane

Not everyone has a book in them….

janeskuds — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:45:36 +0000

We have just got in a really interesting series of books from Iain Dale’s new publishing house Biteback. They give a basic outline of why you should consider voting for Labour, the Conservatives, the Lib-Dems, Plaid Cymru and the SNP. They also have a general book called ‘Why Vote’ which, hopefully, will convince people that democracy will only exist as long as we, as ‘the people’, bother getting involved by voting.

They did originally plan a ‘Why Vote UKIP’ but I hear they couldn’t get anyone from the party to provide a suitable manuscript…..

Young votes, run free…

janeskuds — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:05:59 +0000

Just a thought, but if the election does take place in early May then I may have identified a reason for a low turnout among young voters. Late spring/early summer seems to be a popular time of the year for elections but it is also the time of year when large numbers of 18-24 year olds are almost wholly absorbed in exams (from A2s to postgraduate qualifications) which could affect the rest of their lives. Most of the young people I know are deeply concerned about the world they live in and many are very well-informed on political issues but they are, quite rightly, concentrating on their personal future. It may not be as convenient for the MPs themselves but I’d like to see a July election and see what happens to the turnout of young voters.

On the Loose…

janeskuds — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:48:50 +0000

Rob got home tonight to find the cat has gone AWOL ( we’ve got some builders in and for an old cat Moth can move like lightening…) so we are sitting here with the back door open in the hope she will wander back in.Â I have the day off tomorrow so I think I will be spending the day having a really good search.

Snow up North

janeskuds — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 16:31:50 +0000

We had an official white Christmas in Leeds (I know we don’t quite live in Leeds but we were virtually there on Christmas Day when we were in Dewsbury) so here are our snow pictures.

Our street on Christmas day

Our drive

There has only been one morning when we couldn’t get right up the street and, although the road is a pretty quiet cul-de-sac, most of the street round here look like this.Â I think the main advantage we have here is that almost every driver is used to driving on snow – we get this every year, probably two or three times at least.Â Of course I am a complete wuss and hate walking on it once it gets icy – I may be the only one praying for more snow so I can make it back from the bus stop on the main road!

Not a normal Thursday

janeskuds — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:27:38 +0000

Its been an interesting week so far. ItÂ began with a phone call from a contact at our local paper (the mighty Telegraph & Argus) asking if I would be interested in attending a meeting with a very senior cabinet minister?Â He would be visiting Bradford and wanted to hear from community leaders, business people and other all-round good eggs.I’m not sure where I fit into this – although I am co-ordinator of the local Frends of the Earth group – but I’m glad I was able to make the event.Â We were only told that it was to be a very high-ranking cabinet minister, in the fact the phrase ‘as high in the cabinet as you can get’ was used, but we all guessed that it was to be Gordon Brown….. There were some really interesting questions, covering the far-right, the textile industry, the need for intelligence-led rather than random detention at airports and the problems the police face dealing with offenders in the community.Â I got in my question about the importance of global climate justice at Copenhagen and my friend Chris, who I have dubbed the politician-eating peace-vicar, got in a good one on war in Iraq/Afghanistan with a side order of Trident.Â Didn’t hang around to try and shake hands as I had to get back to work and put the rubbish out. Real life always seems to win in the end….

I love it when a plan comes together

janeskuds — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:55:12 +0000

We spent this evening at East Riddlesden Hall, near Keighley at an open-air production of The Three Musketeers. Given the weather this week we were very lucky and had a very fine evening – if only the rest of the audience hadn’t used the good weather as an excuse to ignore their children’s bad behaviour…

Still, an excellent production (Illyria theatre company – appearing near you soon!) and any play where you can bring a picnic (cakes, ale & chocolate-covered strawberries in our case) is fine by me.

Back to the Mela

janeskuds — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:13:55 +0000

After the fun we had at Bradford Mela last year (our first visit after living here for 7 years – our bad) we were back again this year but this time we were working.Last year we were impressed by how clean the site was – considering the event gets about 100,000 visitors over the weekend – but we were concerned to see that there were no recycling facilities. So, putting ourselves on the line, Bradford Friends of the Earth offered to litter-pick for the weekend.

Oddly enough most of the group quite enjoyed the litter collecting (and a lot of the crowd were great – helping pick up recyclables, saying they’d been saving cans and bottles for us) and it did give a feeling of great acheivement. We had a set on recycling bins by the tent our stall was in and, on the first day, we were rather dismayed by the amount of non-recyclables put in there. So, for Sunday,Â we prepared some clearer labelling (remembering that many of the Mela participants didn’t read, or certainly didn’t read English)Â

and had one volunteer at a time sat by the bins to keep them pristine. Since it was a lovely day this job was the most popular one – particularly when accompanied by some suntan lotionÂ and an ice-cream.Â This seemed to work though as the bins were still looking good and recylable when we left some time after 6pm.

I never thought I’d get so worked up about rubbish but, when you are running around picking up cans, paper and plastic bottles and people walk up and put soiled nappies in your binbag you can see that there is still some work to do…

Probably not a serious website…

janeskuds — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:25:28 +0000

A work colleague pointed me to the website of one of my favourite authors today. Jasper Fforde is an author of comic genius who should be made compulsory reading at English ‘A’ level. (Then the exams would be easy and fun!) I am currently enjoying Toad News http://www.jasperfforde.com/toad/nikon.html and can heartily recommend you do too!

What Women Want

janeskuds — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:44:36 +0000

I heard the results of a survey on the radio yesterday morning (at about 6.30am so I didn’t hear any details of where the survey was done…) which came up with the thing that women envy most about men.Â Given the wage gap, worldwide maternal mortality, the use of rape as a weapon in various wars/conflicts and other residual injustices in the world I was pleased to see that what women envied most was a man’s ability to pee standing up.Â I have tried to find more details on the survey because I think even Hello magazine would have baulked at that one but Google has failed me.

Loving the Art

janeskuds — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:32:00 +0000

Just thought I would say that I am loving the Rijkswidget.Â Now I shall have to tune in daily for an art fix even if I get fed up of politics and pictures of shopping trollies. (Although I haven’t seen any recently – maybe they are unworthy subjects for the glories of the new camera…)