Swiftly Comes the Night

Day 224 - 9:27pm, 13 August 2019

The night is catching up on us. I can't believe that it is not yet 9:30pm and the light has almost gone from the sky. My window in which to take a (meaningful) photo is shrinking, so from now on I must try and remember, unlike today, to go to my photo-taking spot during the working day. Although some way off it is a reminder that winter is padding ever closer, hiding behind the skirts of autumn, ready to blanket us in darkness and illuminate us in artificial light. But, on the plus side, it makes putting the kids to bed easier.

The Sky Belongs to Them

Day 225 - 9:09pm, 14 August 2019

Walking back from the Water of Leith, I am greeted by a colony of seagulls, who are kyrie-ing loudly as they pass over my head. I wonder that they should be here, especially in such large numbers. I count over 30 and then give in and estimate there must be close to 100 all told. We are miles from the sea and I cannot think of any food source nearby that would have attracted them. They are making a heck of a racket, but you have to admire them. Wings outstretched, the sky is their's and they are not afraid who knows it. Take them or leave them, these white flying griffons really don't care.

I See You

Day 223 - 7:13pm, 12 August 2019

Everyone should read Caroline Criado Perez's eye-opening book Invisible Women. The book exposes the gender bias in data sets and why not including women in data sets can have serious consequences, from missed opportunities to diagnose heart attacks in women to greater odds of dying or being seriously injured in a car crash. In a world largely designed by and for 'reference man', and where AI is learning from these skewed data sets, Caroline points out, while never losing her humour or seeking to attribute blame, just how sexist the man-made world is. (Yes, she shows how even snow clearing can be sexist!) And, once she points it out and you see it for yourself, there is no unseeing it. But as knowledge is power that has to be a good thing.

Paper Perfect

Day 222 - 4:55pm, 11 August 2019

With kids getting ready to go back to school and all the clubs and engagements about to start, it seemed a good idea to go for the big calendar update. So having bought a new weekly calendar, which starts in August 2019 and goes through to December 2020, I sit down to an afternoon of event scheduling. I am tired just writing it all down! Still, it feels better to get it all down on paper. It makes it seem as if it's the calendar's responsibility and I no longer have to carry the load.

On Being Noble

Day 221 - 08:11am, 10 August 2019

I had the opportunity to hear Professor Venki Ramakrishnan speak yesterday, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist. I went to it with only a very vague notion of what a ribosome is, and left with a slightly less fuzzy view, other than I now know they are present in every cell and are the ones to build proteins. This, apparently, makes them very important.

Rather than a greater understanding of science, what I took from him, was a greater understanding of humans as scientists, of how they can be noble in collaboration and cut-throat in competition, that scientists make lots of mistakes, even the good ones (and being a Nobel Prize winner doesn't necessarily make you a great scientist or even the best in your field).

His advice was to seek out the very hard problems that you are passionate about finding the answer for and then you go after them, because that is what will keep you motivated during the long and difficult quest to find the answers.

Changing Priorities

Day 220 - 5:06pm, 9 August 2019

I thought there were a couple of interesting figures in Ofcom's recent Media Nations report. The one that surprised me most, however, was the sheer amount of audio/video content people in the UK are consuming - 7.5 hours per day! - 4 hours 34 minutes of video content and roughly 3 hours of audio content. I must have serious time management issues because I cannot imagine having that amount of free time in a day. Are people really watching or listening to it, or is it just on in the background? And if you consider it against the average sleeping times, then we are spending more time hooked up to our electronics than we are sleeping. No wonder the world is a little crazy.

Without Boundaries

Day 219 - 7:57am, 8 August 2019

Flitting between kitchen and lounge, I catch a few seconds of an animal documentary on the telly. There is a giraffe trying to use her neck to bat away a group of jackals[?] who are eating the carcass of her dead foal. Sadly, she is outnumbered, and ultimately, they force her away. Hubby, who has been watching the show, says the foal has been dead for a couple of days. My heart goes out to her. Later on, I see a positive affirmation posted on Facebook to advertise a new book by Rebekah Borucki:

"I am a mother. a creator and creation itself. I am the Universe and boundless love."

It strikes an immediate chord, made all the more poignant by having watched another Mama's plight.  As mothers, we were created, we created and now we are creating. It never ends. Love that knows no boundaries, not even recognising death. The stuff of this world and, yet, beyond it. Creation is connected, but complicated. She is infinite love.

A Lot Less Angry

Day 218 - 12:49pm, 7 August 2019

I saw Angry Birds 2 with the two youngest at the cinema today. Eldest is going to see the film with his pals next week and so he and hubby went to see Horrible Histories instead. If I'd have had the choice, I would have joined them, but as someone had to sit with Little Master and Little Miss, I drew the short straw. It's rare that a sequel is better than its predecessor and with the first as dull as dishwasher, I wasn't holding out much hope for this other than as an excuse to sit down for a couple of hours and do nothing. 

Yet, I found myself actually laughing out loud at parts, and not in need of distraction, just the toilet by the end of it. Not wanting to leave them on their own during the film, I braved it out, only for Little Master to announce that he too needs the toilet and, of course, the boys' toilet is at opposite ends of the cinema to the girls' and there's no way, he says, he's going into a girl's toilet because he's far too big for that. So I dutifully cross my legs and wait for what seems like the longest two minutes' of my life. Ah yes, the glamorous side of parenting that nobody ever talks about!

A Sunny Face

Day 217 - 12:46pm, 6 August 2019

We went out shopping this afternoon for Little Mister's blazer; it amused us that all the private school uniforms were out on display in the front shop . . . but we had to ask the assistant to dig out his school's from the back room!

After, we went to a tiny toy shop . . . agghh, claustrophobic . . . followed by second-hand bookshop. Once home, hubby on guitar, second son invaded our bedroom (where I was trying to hide) with his handheld game and its infernal clickety-clack . . . agghh, claustrophobic . . . I go for a walk to clear my head and lift my mood, which has sunk to my boots. I go to Asda to pick up a birthday present and see bunches of sunflowers reduced from £3 to 81p. And that was all it took, bargain price flowers to retrieve my day, I am nothing if not a cheap date.

An Average Night's Sleep

Day 216 - 8:02am, 5 August 2019

According to a recent survey of 2,000 people, the average Briton gets 6 hours and 19 minutes of sleep per night. That makes me average, because according to my Garmin Connect, that's exactly how much sleep I have had over the past seven days. And, as I am yawning as I type this, it's a sure sign that I amn't getting enough sleep. There are some things I don't mind being average for, but sleep is not one of them.

Proud, Happy, Thrilled

Day 215 - 8:43am, 4 August 2019

Having exhausted our supply of House reruns on the Paramount channel, hubby is now trying to clear the moon-landing programmes from the TV recorder. I'd like to say I'm interested, but the truth is I am not. I can appreciate it was a great achievement to land on the moon and walk on it, but I feel no emotional connection to any of it.

I think it is all the talk of "landing a man on the moon". I know it was a function of the times, but despite the 400,000 people NASA estimated it took to get them there, I don't think I am aware of a single female name being mentioned among them. Just lots of pictures of the NASA wives, sat at home, waiting. The men get to travel to the moon, whereas the women are barely allowed to leave their homes for fear of fracturing the public image of the perfect wives and families they were meant to be.

Drawing In

Day 214 - 9:34pm, 3 August 2019

I leave the Water of Leith photo run until after Casualty has finished and it is very definitely dusk, which foolishly enough, I hadn't been expecting. Even in the short time between going and coming back, there is a marked deterioration in the light. The number of cars on the road is beginning to tail off and the few people that pass me by appear to be returning home from social engagements and one in particular, is slightly worse for wear. I decide he is harmless, but cross the road just to be sure. He carries on on his way and I head for home as the streetlamps begin to glow.

Hollywood Ritz

Day 213 - 08:03am, 2nd August 2019

Today was the start of the Edinburgh Festival and we were lucky enough to get tickets for the opening concert at Tynecastle. Gustavo Dudamel conducted the L.A. Phil in what was billed as a "family-friendly" concert. It was too. There were lots of children in the audience for whom I imagine it was their first concert experience. (It was my first time in a football stadium too.) And the usual concert rules of sit quiet and do not move did not seem to apply. Our stand was kept entertained by a toddler who was enjoying the freedom that the pitch offered her to stumble up and down its length, one eye on her mother, baiting her, the other on her audience, milking it. It turns out the concert was seagull friendly too. And they certainly made the best of it, dancing and singing along, causing the conductor to raise a wry smile as and when they overpowered his orchestra. This is the best of what the Edinburgh Festival should be - accessible, world-class and, most of all, prepared not to take itself too seriously.

Showing My Age

Day 212 - 7:58am, 1 August 2019

According to BBC News, it is considered rude/passive aggressive to use a full stop in instant messaging apps. Maybe that's one of the reasons why I tend to avoid group chats. To me, the full stop denotes not just the end of the sentence, it is the pause that shows you have taken the time to edit your thoughts before subjecting the rest of the world to them. Otherwise, it's just a stream of consciousness, which I guess there is nothing wrong with, but I think it feeds an addiction to social media, where you are expected to respond instantly to everything. Nor do I think it encourages linguistic creativity, as the BBC news article suggests, because in taking out that pause, however brief that might be, we are stuck reacting, rather than reflecting, as genuine creativity requires.