The Uterus Question

Just as we have the West Lothian Question (why Scottish MPs get to vote on matters only affecting England), perhaps we should have the Uterus question: why male MPs get to have any say in the abortion laws in this country.

Regardless of my stance on the issue, it does strike me that the loudest voices in the debate, both medical and parliamentary, seem to be men. I know they can't help sounding off at the slightest opportunity, but really, its not as if we're always chiming in and telling them what to do with their prostates.

Just a thought.

Daylight Saving

Could someone please explain to my children the concept of daylight saving? The clocks went back at 2am this morning, so even though they woke up at their normal time of 6am, its actually 5am by the sun.

So here I am, Sunday morning at nearly 5.30am, watching Heffalump's Halloween Movie for the umpteenth time because its too early for any of the children's channels to be on air yet. I was smart enough to anticipate this and go to bed early last night, but its still far too early for anyone to be up.

One consolation is that by the time they go to bed tonight they'll have been up for an hour longer than normal and will be so tired that they sleep straight through till 7am tomorrow morning. At least, that's the theory....

Interesting Facts

I found this little tidbit while wilfing aimlessly as I waited for the sunday paper to be delivered:-

Link

It is a perennial favourite in my family - I read it, and my children love it. But I really can't see how they're going to make a film out of it!!

Rugby

I don't like rugby. This is mostly because I don't tend to like the people who support it. They have upper middle class aspirations, and this is reflected in their choice of sport; they couldn't possibly be seen supporting something as proletarian as football, with its rather unsavoury reputation for crowd trouble and bovril and players that didn't go to a decent public school. Its somewhere that your Henrys and Charleses can take their Henriettas and Charlottes without fear of them being exposed to the lower classes at play, without any chance of them being jostled by someone who isn't listed in Debretts. Someone once told me that England is the only rugby-playing country where its not the game of the common man and is instead the preserve of the boarding school and the upper classes; this is probably why everything about the game raises my hackles.

The other reason I don't like it is that I don't understand it. I'm not a stupid person (IMO, obviously), and if I watch a sport I can generally pick up the basics quite quickly. However, rugby eludes me. I know that there's something in there about not throwing forward, but other than that, I'm stumped.

On Saturday night, Doug watched the France v England semi final, and, in the spirit of marital harmony, I (sort of) watched it with him. I still have no idea how its played, and that actually made it very tense; especially when you have no idea what action will lead to points being awarded, which part of the field they need to be in for that to happen or, indeed, how many points are given for doing something.

Anyway, well done the English team. I know enough to know that they weren't expected to get this far, especially on pre- and early tournament form, and that when they met their fellow finalists, South Africa, in the group stages they didn't score a single goal/point/try/whatever. Which probably means that they'll get properly thumped in the final, despite any amount of jingoistic hype in the media this week bigging up their chances. Which sounds suspiciously like football :-)

Jacob

Not that he was posing or anything for this photo:-



What a little heartbreaker :-)

Sam

For no other reason except that they're lovely photographs of him:-




I will look at these photos after we have another bad night with him, when he keeps both parents awake from 3am with his very annoying habit of whining in his sleep. It will help to remind me that he isn't a demon or a three headed monster, but is instead my lovely little boy :-)