Random Facts About Yourself

Friday evenings travelling home on the bus from Burnley to Manchester can be very boring indeed. I usually amuse myself by day-dreaming of taking control of the worlds courgette markets or similar, but mostly it is an obsessive commenting on peoples postings on Facebook or Twitter. However last night I decided to do something slightly different.

I asked all of my friends on text to tell me a random fact about themselves. Once I arrived home I continued this on Facebook and Twitter. The results of which are below - with visual representations - some are random, some are fears and phobias we all suffer from and some are just plain odd.

Anyway enjoy:

Random Facts About Yourself:

1) I am ambidextrous

2) I have eaten chicken korma on the 25^th December every year – for 27 years...

3) I love getting my feet tickled

4) I once had eight tattoos but I have only seven now

5) In 1978 I was the tallest baby born, on record, at Johannesburg general hospital

6) I'm scared of escalators that go down, I stand at the top tapping my foot like a horse counting out numbers

7) I cannot send texts (sent in a text)

8) I have a twisted leg that makes me fall over if I walk fast, but not if I run

9) Sometimes when people eat boil sweets and have false teeth the sound makes me want to fall asleep

10)I’m thinking of becoming Jewish

11) I don’t like beans and egg together

12) I was once mistaken for an armed robber, who it turns out was in fact a one armed man. So he was strictly speaking an arm robber. It turns out he had been previously convicted of stealing prophetic limbs from a hospital, so in more than one way he was an arm robber

13) I once sat on an ants nest and got ants in my pants – I was three years old

14) I lived with a man for five years who was scared of cutlery and buttons. All we ate with were plastic picnic forks and my wardrobe was edited

15) My feet haven't grown since I was 11

16) I like to pick my nose while texting

17) I auditioned for to become a kids TV presenter

18) My son picks his nose because he’s watched me do it as he has grown up

19) A friend texts me random things quite often

20) I was born the exact time the clocks go back. The midwife couldn't work out what time to put on the certificate

21) I have put a bet on the football game for Saturday – but it is for my team to lose

22) I have been on Newsnight

23) I have a slightly twisted spine

24) I once fell and fractured my arm trying to climb in through the family car window like the dukes of hazard – I was 6 years old

25) I am wearing the second dental brace of my adult life

26) I had an imagery friend (until I was about 5) called Sherlock and I can still picture exactly what he looked like

27) Every time I move house I have to plan my living room ready for the Christmas tree

28) I was born with a trigger thumb. It was at permanent right angle and if I lifted it, it 'triggered' straight back down. Mum and dad didn't notice till I was 4!

29) I went to school with one of the London suicide bombers. He sat next to me in English

30) I love you

Many thanks to all who offered their random facts about themselves. Quite literally a random blog post...
What's next then????

The first holiday abroad - 1991

Let me tell you about a little incident that happened to me while on holiday with my family in Tunisia back in 1991.

This would be my families first holiday abroad. Things didn’t bode well when we had to change our plans part way through the year just after we had booked our holiday. We had booked to go to Dubrovnik in Yugoslavia. However the in a matter of weeks of booking and placing our deposit the country fell into civil war and we had to change our destination. The only place that we could afford with the change was Hammanet in Tunisia.

However I wasn’t fussed about the change one bit. My first holiday abroad was not to Spain or somewhere touristy in Europe, it was instead AFRICA. It sounded so exotic. In a sense it was.

Our first day there we were given a guided tour of the region, and in the half French/ half broken English of the guide we learnt it was still re-building after the war. Knowing a little about North African history I couldn’t think of a recent war. When I asked, “What war is the country rebuilding from?” The guide answered perplexed, “The Second World War young man, your good man Montgomery and that naughty German Rommel.” Good lord I thought, where had we come on holiday.

After a week of a great, hot and exciting holiday we decided to visit a local market town for their weekly market. Nabeul market was not use to tourists, but they were savvy enough on how to sell tat to the stupid English. My brother and I to make us stand out even more from the crowd, bought Laurence of Arabia head gear. We looked fantastic, if not a bit stupid.

After ten minutes of walking around the market we still had groups of children trying to sell us the same headgear we were actually wearing. After I had politely told them to go away, I saw the group of children run up to my brother and try to sell him another head gear. It was at this point I saw the cheekiest mugging in my life. While one child tugged on the left of my brother, him turning to speak, another child on the other side quickly and quietly unzipped the front of his bum-bag (this is the early 90’s remember) and take out a wad of notes. What annoyed me was not that the child was pick pocketing my brother but more that the child counted the notes, took two out of the wad and placed them back into his bum-bag and zipped it back up. Then tugged on his right shoulder and tried to sell him his batch of head gear.

I don’t know what happened next but all I know was I had the pick-pocket held by the neck, shouting at him to give the money back, my brother screaming behind me, in a whisper, “what the f’ing hell are you doing Glen!!!” and the whole market at a standstill, watching, murmuring, and in the corner of my eye I noticed we were stood outside a butchers, a massive Tunisian man sharpening his cutting knife. It was at this point I realised that whatever I did next may determine if we were flying back to Manchester in one piece, or being served as kebabs within the hour.

I told the young boy that if he didn’t give back the wad of money I would prosecute him and he knew what happened to robbers in Tunisian law, they get their hands chopped off, at which point he put his hand into his pocket, passed back the money, I let him go and his friends and him disappeared as quick as they appeared and the market came back to life. My brother still fuming, still not realising what had happened, hit me across the head, so I stormed off and bought a bunch of tourist tat as gifts for people back home out of his wad of money.

It was a great first holiday abroad and that was just one of the adventures we got up to that two hot and interesting two weeks in 1991.

Rhetoric Palin and the Media

Today we wake with US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in a 'critical condition' in an Arizona hospital after being shot point blank through the head by a 22 year old man outside a campaign stall at a local mall in Tucson. An incident that up to now has seen 6 people die and over 20 injured by the young gunman. The dead including a 9 year old girl.

One of the most emotional moments of the press conferences and media coverage of the incident was Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik plea and finger pointing at media backing and coverage of bigotry of the right wing. Sherriff Dupnik clearly said the coverage and rhetoric by news outlets such as Fox News and Sarah Palin is having a huge influence on people with tendencies to mental problems, disengaged society members and dividing the nation of the USA and making the country once renowned for tolerance now a country of hatred and bigotry. With particular reference to Arizona. Dupnik who is 74 has lived through some of the most dramatic changes in American short history so is a man who seen a lot and is well placed as a head of his community to see the influence of bigotry spewed out by politicians and media.

Watching from afar on the other side of the pond the last 5 years I too have seen a huge shift towards a hating campaign and bigotry. This has been seen in a xenophobic policy on non-white European population of the states, a huge increase in religious creationism believing in principle that the world started with 'Adam and Eve' and nothing before or after. A belief even the Roman Catholic church teaches as a metaphor for the origin of human civilisation. A huge anti-science hatred has risen with stem cell research - research that is saving and will save hundreds of peoples lives in the coming years if not more - the focus has been a fear factor that the scientists are developing monsters in labs and creating some sort of super human.

All of this influential rhetoric is lead by fear and the two main dealers of this fear are FOX News and Sarah Palin. Fox news has always had a right wing agenda, which is no bad thing to have a media out there but to have a major outlet constantly feeding right wing propaganda to a public use to believing the nightly news programmes they watch is not a good thing. Of course news agencies, bias or not, have an agenda - a story or point of view they wish to present, but when that news angle is for the benefit of a small minority of society and for the political benefit of just one party or candidate is not healthy. As a journalist Fox ?News? and increasingly Sky ?News? in the UK the beliefs and morals of press training one must feel like they are producing bad journalism, and if not maybe they need to have a long hard look at themselves. The techniques used by FOX and Sky is fast approaching the propagandist techniques of the Nazi party of 1930's Germany, regardless of the morals of the Nazi power of the 30's and 40's the propagandist and marketing party has influenced marketing and political parties till today. The main winning technique of the Nazi propoganda? Fear of identity, fear of change and fear of religion. Sound familiar?

Sarah Palin as a political leader is the spokesperson for this fear. After her arrival on the political national scene during the last presidential campaign, Palin has been taken into the right wing media propaganda and promoted as the future of the country. This has come to the development of the Tea Party, a political movement whose benefit is to a small minority of the country and not the benefit of the States as a whole, after 8 years of inward looking outward kicking Bush administration the introduction of this Tea Party is probably the most damaging to Americas future as a leader and influence in the world. Palin during the November election campaign encouraged Tea Party candidates to attack and overthrow Senate and congress members who voted for the health care changes. The advertising for this you can see above, with political targets placed with a guns hairpin. Since the campaign was launched all candidates have had threats, attacks and more happen to them. And although political voices have asked the Tea Party and Palin to renounce the tone of the campaign they have simply increased the violent rhetoric. Resulting in yesterdays attack on congresswoman Giffords. Palin has come out and said she sends best wishes to Giffords and her family and how sad she is for the attack and loss of life. But surely that is just the obvious reaction to send out.

Unfortunately the increase of realisation by the media that this sort of rhetoric and bigotry can have drastic after effects will only result in the right wing media crying out that their is a left wing liberal campaign against the right, something Fox News always reels out in times like this. But hopefully it will have some influence on the people of America, the politicians and most of the media.

The thoughts today need to go out to those families who have been killed, injured and a hope that their loss will breed some good in the USA and incidents like this never happen again and the media and politicians of little intellect realise the consequences of their actions.

Arts Funding - Should We Worry?

The Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition’s decision to cut all, except essential services, public funding by 10%, within the first 4 weeks of their parliamentary term has caused many changes to take place across the nation’s landscape. This is very apparent in the arts and culture sector. The Find Your Talent programme was cancelled with immediate affect. Thereby cancelling the whole of all of the 10 pathfinder’s 3rd year programmes. This meant that thousands of young people would now not be able to partake in cultural activities planned for that third year. Interaction with leading arts organisations was stopped suddenly. Smaller organisations lost a large percentage of their revenue, resulting in staff being laid off and the cultural landscape in these pathfinder regions becoming a barren land that was four weeks before a hive of the future cultural leaders of our country and outstanding community examples to other young people.

With the announcement that Arts Council England will be forced to make a further 10% cut of all regularly funded organisations this will see those organisations already badly affected by the Find your Talent cancellation, going out of business. Early estimates suggest across England 20% of Arts Organisations will no longer be able to function and will go to the wall by the end of 2011. This will undoubtedly affect not just financially the country, (According to DCMS 2009 figures for every £1 spent on the arts this brings £2 back into the English economy), but also intrinsically the people of the country will be undoubtedly affected by the lack of a strong, diverse and participatory arts scene.

Is this a time to worry though? The Arts will go through a tough time in the next 4 years and we may see some of our favourite organisations cease to exist. But we have been here before. In the 1980’s the arts landscape had it’s heart ripped from it’s cultural centre and a whole generation of audience was lost to TV, video games, anti-social behaviour and drugs and drinking.


Over the last 15 years we have been investing in the next generation and the trying to convince the current generation to come and experience culture in its many different forms. One can only hop that arts organisations and those large organisations certainly, have been building for a situation like this to arise. It was inevitable that the apparent land of milk and honey funding that we have had since 1997 wouldn’t last, and it would be sad to think people were blinkered and had not planned for change.

My fear is this hasn’t happened across the board and some organisations have had the philosophy that it is a given right they should be funded by the state. Whoever that state is. But I believe it isn’t a given right. You have to have a purpose and matter to your community and your practitioners to be entitled to funding. If you are having a positive impact on them then you should be funded. If you are carrying on expecting funding and not advancing your art or work then you don’t deserve to be kept like a French mistress.

One can only hope the coalition, once it deconstructs our systems, starts to rebuild with legacy and independence, realistic independence, at its heart. Lets hope our Arts Organisations understands that change is a good thing and works positively to make our Arts Landscape carry on being one of the best in world.

Men Crying at Films

It has been talked about quite alot over the last couple of weeks about Men crying at films. Why do we shed a tear, why are we ashamed to admit it? It tends to be linked to family or loss why men cry, or the passion of losing a sports game. I think when one is a teenager coming home from school and viewing Neighbours/Biker Grove/Home and Away, when one was tired and an emotional scene appeared the occasional tear would pour down my cheek. I'm sure this was the same of many others. But of course it was not something you would discuss the next day, not even to your girlfriend.



However as I got into my 20's films discussing relationships with father and son always used to make me clear my throat and take deep breaths, just to stop an outbreak of hysterical tears. I remember watching Big Fish at my local cineplex on a first date. By the end of the film I was so upset and looking somewhat pathetic with tears and tissues my date looked somewhat appalled to be with me. We did carry on going out a few more dates but she dumped me after a month or two saying I was too sensitive, I always think that first date was the death knell in that relationship.

I went to the pictures this weekend to watch Inception and ended up in tears again, this wasn't anything to do with the film however. I tripped down the cinema steps in the dark and nearly knocked myself out, after about an hour of the film I was in so much pain I shed a few tears. Turns out I'd broken my arm. So yes men cry at movies but not always because of the subject on the big screen, Excuse me while I go and take a few more painkillers.

Why Does Football Take Over Our Lives

Today was a day of fan passion and examples of the majestic athletic performances.

While most of us were bunking off work for the afternoon to catch the England game, or as I was, watching over the net at my desk, there was a majestic game of tennis taking place at Wimbledon.

John Isner and Nicolas Mahut tore up the record books as their first-round match at Wimbledon lasted 10 hours and ended up 2 sets all and 59-59 games all in the final set. Bad light then stopped play. This is after playing the first two sets the evening before.

Now any other day, or non world cup year, this would have had a lead article on our flagship news channels, but because our stuttering national football team needed to win against a team low down the rankings to stay in the world cup. This football game took precedent over the tennis.

Now don't get me wrong, I watched the game, was caught up in all the action and at some point even cheered and shouted out. But it wasn't till I returned home at 7:30pm did I know anything about the tennis game. But surely the pure athleticism of Isner and Mahut far outweighs any of the efforts of the England team?

This brings to the fore the thought why do we become obsessed with our national football team? They constantly disappoint, they contain the players of our club teams we despise and abuse anytime outside of the World Cup or Euro championship, we can't relate to the players who traditionally are working class and now are paid so much from such an early age the working man has nothing in common with them.

No other national sport causes such a fever of attention. The only time I have seen anything similar is when the England cricket team won the Ashes 4 years ago (last years win didn't have the same effect, simply because it wasn't shown on terrestrial television but on Sky Sports).

Why is this?

I think this is clearly linked back to historical tribal tradition. We all have our local teams who we support, that support come from the community, the players used to come from that community, when you play the local town or village the fans flock out to see them hopefully beat the neighbours. So in that sense it is a tribal community proud sport. A case of getting one up on your neighbours so to speak.

But why do them tribes unite to support a national team?

In years gone by the country would be split into small baronies. When those small kingdoms were under threat they had to unite those baronies and defend their territory. Somewhere like Wessex would have up to 25 different sections within it that would unite under the King of that region. As those Kingdoms became more powerful one way to unite the regions and to prevent fighting between them was to marry into the different ruling families. This ultimately helped when the whole country or one particular region was under threat by invaders. All the regions would join up and fight together, and with relative success till that ole bastard William of Normandy set foot in Hastings.

This ethic of joining together still exists and has spread across the world. we all have our favourite club team but most of us support the national team and join together. Where this is most apparent is Spain. Because of the issues between Catalan and Spanish identity, Spain you would think it would be difficult to come together under a flag of Spain. but it doesn't and Spain is one of the most strong teams at this world cup.

So that, I believe, is where that passion for football comes from.
My only gripe is fat men should not wear football tops! They are made for athletic men on a pitch not beer guzzling jingoists.


Anyway good luck to the tennis fellas and also to England who now have Germany in their next game. we've no chance!!

How do you do a first post?

Right hello and good evening to you.
It has been a few days of scorching sun in the UK and typically in an English way we are starting to moan about it already.

I think it's something particulary english to have a good bloody rant about something at all times. That, you will find, is what i tend to do. Lots of things annoy me and hopefully when i have a right good moan about it I do it in an interesting, entertaining, passionate and funny way. (but not necessarily all of those in that particular order I have to admit).

So if you are popping back to my blog or subscribing to it let me know if you like what i'm saying, dislike what i'm saying, think you can say it better or just want to have a good bloody rant yourself.

Subjects I will tend to touch on the most are as follows:
Music
Politics
The Art World
TV
British bloody stupidness
Racism and ignorance
and general scouse stupidness.

Anyway that's my first post. Now on to my 2nd post!!!