Boris keep your promise: save London's last rape crisis centre

London only has one remaining rape crisis centre. During the run-up to his election Boris Johnson promised, with much PR fanfare, to pay for three new rape crisis centres and to fund the one existing centre for at least 4 years. There is now serious doubt that he will fulfill this promise.

Please help us to keep this centre alive and make Boris keep his promise. There is currently a consultation period regarding funding this centre which closes on the 20th July 2009 - in this time there will be lots of opportunities to get involved with the campaign to keep London's one rape crisis centre alive.

Please spread the word and join us at the events if you can. You can help by linking to the Boris Keep Your Promise website thus spreading the word as far as possible.

Remember London only has one rape crisis centre, but it has 3.9 million women.



Sorry about the quality of the logo - it looks way better on the Boris keep your promise website... go and have a look for yourself!

New Poet Laureate

CONGRATULATIONS to Carol Ann Duffy who has just been made poet laureate. She held her first interview after the announcement on Woman's Hour this morning (go here to listen).

She is one of my favourite poets (thank you to S for introducing me to her work) and based on the interview with her this morning she is also a thoroughly nice person who is giving back to the poetry community by establishing a new poetry prize with the stipend she will recieve as a result of her becoming Poet Laureate.

There is a biography of Carol Ann Duffy available here along with critical information and a list of her publications etc.

You can become a fan of her on facebook by going here (I hope). I am starting to believe that everyone is on Facebook...

The picture is borrowed from the BBC website with thanks.

New shoes!

On Sunday I did something I don’t do on a regular basis. I went and bought shoes. This odd situation was precipitated by the amount of rain we’ve had recently – my old shoes were leaking quite badly and I couldn’t put it off any more. I always buy walking shoes for everyday wear – they’re the most comfortable and, since I don’t drive I spend quite a lot of my time either a) on foot or b) on a bike. My two modes of transport require different shoes so I wasn’t thinking broadly.

Anyway, I walked into a well known outdoor equipment supplier’s shop, had a look at the selection of shoes that were available, picked a couple to try and then attracted the attention of an assistant. This was where it all started to get a bit weird. The first question the young man asked me was: ‘What are you going to do in them?’ I resisted the temptation to respond ‘dance the fandango,’ opting instead for a confused look and ‘walk.’ What did he think I was going to do in them? ‘Where?’ By this point my thoughts were somewhere between sarcastic and confused (I have never been asked what I was going to do in shoes before... it was a bit of a shock). My response? ‘Outside.’

‘So you’re going to use them in a temperate climate then?’ I nod vaguely and mumble to his retreating back ‘I think wet’s the word you were looking for.’ When he returned he finally noticed the extremely battered walking shoes I was wearing. As I peeled off my right shoe exposing my soaked toes I commented: ‘and this is why I need new shoes.’ He looked at my shoes with an expression of pain. At first he couldn’t get his head around the idea that they were a year old (they’ve actually been leaking all winter but mostly I’ve put up with it). After that he proceeded to give me a lecture on shoe maintenance. I actually know how to look after technical footwear and I would never dream of treating my walking boots with the disrespect I treat my everyday shoes. A situation I intend to remedy – just as soon as I can be bothered.

Finding writerly blogs and the status of the blogroll

In a bored moment when I couldn't focus on any of my work I went searching on the web and found these:

Joined up writing: a writers thoughts

Write to done

My blogroll has significantly shrunk - I'm following quite a few blogs but many of the ones in the list weren't actually included. I've had a quick look and shrunk my blogroll to the select few I still follow. More will be added when I can be bothered to go through my list...

Biographical information

One of the things I struggle with the most is attempting to find a way of condensing my life into a few words without making the whole lot seem a little pointless... Having been required to do this fairly recently I went searching for some guidance.

Having found the most useful information on One Night Stanzas last time I tried looking there again. They came up trumps with this informative article. It didn't make make me feel any less like I was blowing my own trumpet but at least it gave me some guidance on HOW to blow my own trumpet and she sites some great biogs at the bottom to inspire.

Goats will eat anything

The story of how coffee was discovered is rendered in a variety of ways about the only thing that is consistent is that it happened in Ethiopia, was the fault of the goats and that the goatherd was called Kaldi.

One day Kaldi was minding his goats when he noticed that they were no longer quietly eating their way accross the mountainside and were instead dancing around. He watched the goats carefully and realised that the odd behaviour seemed to happen after the goats ate berries from a particular plant. Being a curious person Kaldi decided to try the berries the goats were eating and was soon dancing with the goats.

Shortly after this discovery Kaldi was passed by a religious man who asked Kaldi why he was dancing with his goats. Kaldi explained and the man took some of the berries home with him. When he ate them he discovered that he could stay up all night praying. Because he was having trouble keeping his disciples awake during their evening prayres he immediately ordered them to take the berries before evening prayers. And thus the coffee fruit was discovered.

The important thing about this story is that initially the fruits were eaten, it wasn't until much later that the modern way of preparing coffee (with roasted and ground beans) started.

Well done SIR Pratchett!

Just in case you have been living in a hole for the last 24 hours... Terry Pratchett has been knighted - what else could you do with a fantasy author? I heard him on the news this morning telling the world that he would be getting himself a horse and a sword (I don't think it was quite in those words - I was half asleep at the time).

The BBC News story about the New Years Honours is here. There is also a profileof Sir Terry Pratchett on the BBC website.

And of course his website is here. Where you can throw Nat Mac Feegles (spelling?) at things. It's worth a go ;)

Hmmmm

I don't know about you but I generally don't go around picking tube stations up - so which way round to put them down is generally a non issue - this was taken in Baker Street Station:

Daily prompt

Ok, so this is not so much daily as when I remember to do it...

Today sit in front of a mirror and look closely at your own face. Start to describe it focusing on things such as hair and ears rather than just eyes. Remember we don't want to just hear a description of a face we want to be able to actually see it and the stories behind the face. Our faces are our public persona but there are reasons why our faces are the faces they are. If you wear make-up think about the make-up you use and why you use it, if you have facial hair think about the choices that lead you to have it.

This is originally from a book I've been reading over the last few days, the explanation of the exercise is clearer there and I will post the title of the book (and my usual Amazon.co.uk link) in the comments section soon.

Writing exercise: virtues

Lets shake it up a bit, the Christian church does not only have a list of seven deadly sins it also has a list of seven virtues. These are less well known but are worth thinking about. Again respond to one or all of them in either a piece or a series of pieces:

The seven virtues:

1. Prudence
2. Justice
3. Temperance
4. Fortitude
5. Faith
6. Hope
7. Charity

(These are from this wikipedia article.)

As usual if you want to post your response feel free.