insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman
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Some pics
Ben took this photo of me and Elizabeth at the Handmade Burger Company on Sunday night. I love the new WordPress t-shirt I’m wearing which I got in Paris. My colleague, Kathryn, took the next two photos of us at the Jetpack booth in Paris. They’re really great. This last photo is one I took…
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Queues, parties, anxiety, and dad-friendly swimsuits
The party last night was a bit of a disaster. Everyone was told not to eat first because there would be food there but the food was a small pop-up stall selling hamburgers and hot dogs with a long and mostly stationary queue of about 100 people. To get drinks you had to purchase tokens…
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French Wapuu
I’m having a wonderful time at WCEU 2017. The venue is enormous and works well for the 2,500 people who are here. People come to WordCamps for so many different reasons. Some come to learn about WordPress and attend as many talks as possible; some come to see old friends and make new ones; some…
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Look where I am
I’m in Paris for WordCamp EU 2017. In case you’re wondering what on earth I’m talking about it’s a two-day tech conference about everything WordPress. Last year it was in Vienna and attracted over 2,000 people. This year is even bigger. It’s a community-led event organised by a team of volunteers. There are WordCamps all…
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My kids addressed the city council petitions committee
It has been an eventful day. Sometimes I wish my life was dull and uneventful because right now I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed. Today, Daniel, Elizabeth, and I presented a petition to the petitions committee at the city council. The petition is asking for cycle paths that children can use to cycle to and from…
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Criticising our leaders and faith-based leadership
We live in a free society where we can criticise our leaders without fearing for our lives and I value that immensely. We ought to be challenging Theresa May on the appropriateness of a deal with the DUP. For the same reason, Labour’s Diane Abbott can’t now claim unfair treatment for the criticism that was…
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Take me to your leader
It’s hard not to feel a bit of schadenfreude about the situation Theresa May has created for herself. When she first became prime minister about one year ago I was cautiously hopeful. I didn’t know anything about her and it was a relief just to have someone in charge because for a short period we…
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Strong and stable my arse
Theresa May’s snap election that wasn’t meant to happen turned out to be a bit of a disaster for her. She was handed a majority on a silver platter and somehow managed to squander it all on horse manure. Now she’s carrying on as though nothing happened. It’s a bit like that Monty Python sketch…
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I voted
I voted today. I am a British taxpayer and I’m happy for my tax to go towards a world-class education system, pay rises for nurses, a strong national health service, more police officers, and effective policies that protect the environment for my children and their children. I did not vote for policies that only benefit…
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Is Donald Trump right to claim unfairness over Paris?
There’s a brilliant article from Peter Singer in Project Syndicate this week about Donald Trump’s whinging over the unfairness of the Paris climate agreement. Trump is basically the fat kid who ate 3/4 of the cake and then complained that it’s unfair he didn’t get more while 3 other kids shared the 1/4 remainder between them.…
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Who is the bigger nincompoop?
Theresa May and Labour’s Diane Abbott seem to be competing for the biggest nincompoop award in this election campaign. I think Diane Abbott is slightly more incompetent than Theresa May and even worse is that she’s the shadow home secretary during a campaign with two terrorist attacks. The home secretary is the person responsible for…
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Nameless nobodies
I wish the media would not publish the names of terrorist attackers. These men get a hard-on by thoughts of media notoriety and it encourages others to copy them. We should completely ignore them and focus instead on the lives of the victims and their bravery and the bravery of those who came to help. Let…
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The pen is mightier than the sword
Wars are not necessarily won by the army with the biggest guns, although I don’t doubt it helps. They are won by the side that makes clever decisions and has an intelligent population supporting them. It is said that Britain was able to defeat Germany in WWII thanks in large part to the mathematicians at Bletchley…
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Kia Kaha
I’ve had one glass of wine and I’m really pissed. I don’t want everyone to think I’m an alcoholic or anything because alcohol is best avoided. I don’t drink very often but I bought a half case of sulphur-free wine recently and I’ve really enjoyed it drinking it, especially the red wine. The broccoli in my…
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The Maybot
John Crace from The Guardian calls Theresa May the Maybot. I think it’s very apt because she has come across as stilted and robotic in this election campaign, repeating memes and displaying a lack of independent thought and critical thinking. I realised yesterday what I am particularly fearful of with Theresa May and that is…
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Liar, Liar!
I’ll likely be voting for Labour or SNP on Thursday. I haven’t yet decided which party but I’m leaning towards Labour because I really like Jeremy Corbyn and I want him to be Prime Minister. He rides a bike, he’s vegetarian, and he wears his mother’s knitted jumpers. What more could you want from a…
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The Handmade Burger Company
We went for dinner to The Handmade Burger Company this week. It’s a chain store which sells – no prizes for guessing what – burgers! I nearly fell off my chair and had a heart attack when I saw the menu because there were six vegetarian options and four of them vegan. Usually there’s just one thing for…
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“Does that elephant need its face more than some guy in Asia needs a tusk on his desk?”
Theresa May plans to lift the ban on ivory trading. Why would anyone want to do that? The reason is because people who sell antiques are required to prove that any ivory in their products was worked before 1947 and this is apparently difficult and expensive to do. She is putting what is a minor inconvenience for antique dealers…
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Sainsbury’s vegan mac and cheese
Sainsbury’s reported earlier this year that sales of their newly launched vegan cheese exceeded expectations by 300%. This is not bad at all considering the vegan market has always been viewed as small and somewhat niche. I decided to give their vegan macaroni cheese a try. It’s a ready-made meal for one which you heat for…
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On being smug, blaming Pepper Pig for cavities in teeth, and three solutions to all the world’s problems
I was planning to be all smug in this post and write about how vegans can make their own milk from a packet of soy beans while non-vegans have to find a cow to milk. Unfortunately my first attempt at making soy milk created a watery and slightly gritty mess. I tipped it down the sink. I milked a…
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