Venezia, Bitches and the world are here for you to see.
Got back from Venice on Monday, a day late thanks to 'fog' at Venice Treviso Airport that diverted three Ryanair flights to Trieste but managed to allow a French plane to land and take off again in the time we were there trying to sort us-selves out. Tasha's family are all really very nice people and her young nephew and niece are both charming and incredibly well-behaved for a seven and three year old. I didn't take many pics because Tasha's brother Michael borrowed the electricity adaptor and I started running out of camera battery!
Watched the BBC North and South last night, the whole thing. Quite good. Better and rather more real feeling than anything by that Nice Miss Austen, perhaps... or maybe it's just a question of perception.
I also watched celebrity big brother tonight. Many of you may know that the treatment of one particular housemate by three others has caused a hailstorm of complaints and controversy in Britain and further afield. Why so? Because the particular housemate is a beautiful Bollywood star and the three others are apparently being racist. I chose to be outraged this morning seeing stuff on the news, but now I've seen it, I'm so much more than outraged.
I'm fucked off and I'm heartbroken. Why so? It's not just about race... in fact, as I was watching Jade Goody try and tear strips off Shilpa Shetty, I was transported back to my time at school. I've been that girl, bewildered and alone and upset because other girls were tormenting her. I've been her. It's not as simple as race. It's about some thoroughly deficient females choosing to attempt to tear down a far more impressive example of the species. It's not about colour or nationality, nor about social class. It's about having class. It's about being a decent human being. It's about some girls choosing to be wilfully ignorant of their world and the world around them and therefore having to strike at those who are different. Shilpa is a different colour, a different race... but she's totally different from Jade Goody for far more deep-rooted reasons than that.
Jermaine Jackson, by the way, appears to be a beacon of reason and decency in the Big Brother house. Who of us saw that coming? Where did his monstrous father succeed where Jade Goody's nasty mother Jackiey failed so utterly, so miserably?
I've been the girl under attack... but watching Danielle Whoever being told by BB what she'd said about Shilpa realise what she'd done in following Jade and saying tthe things she said, I wonder: Have I ever, however unwittingly, been the cause of someone else's torment? I hope so completely that I've not, but I fear that my jovial sarcasm might have been taken wrong by people in the past, or that at school I might have said things to (vainly) try and fit in. To them I apologise most utterly, most sincerely, because I've been the girl in the corner.
It's not just racism, it's out and out bullying. Put me in a room with Jade Cunting Goody and we'll see who wins. I shout just as loud, I know just as many swear words, but I also know more actual words.
Watched the BBC North and South last night, the whole thing. Quite good. Better and rather more real feeling than anything by that Nice Miss Austen, perhaps... or maybe it's just a question of perception.
I also watched celebrity big brother tonight. Many of you may know that the treatment of one particular housemate by three others has caused a hailstorm of complaints and controversy in Britain and further afield. Why so? Because the particular housemate is a beautiful Bollywood star and the three others are apparently being racist. I chose to be outraged this morning seeing stuff on the news, but now I've seen it, I'm so much more than outraged.
I'm fucked off and I'm heartbroken. Why so? It's not just about race... in fact, as I was watching Jade Goody try and tear strips off Shilpa Shetty, I was transported back to my time at school. I've been that girl, bewildered and alone and upset because other girls were tormenting her. I've been her. It's not as simple as race. It's about some thoroughly deficient females choosing to attempt to tear down a far more impressive example of the species. It's not about colour or nationality, nor about social class. It's about having class. It's about being a decent human being. It's about some girls choosing to be wilfully ignorant of their world and the world around them and therefore having to strike at those who are different. Shilpa is a different colour, a different race... but she's totally different from Jade Goody for far more deep-rooted reasons than that.
Jermaine Jackson, by the way, appears to be a beacon of reason and decency in the Big Brother house. Who of us saw that coming? Where did his monstrous father succeed where Jade Goody's nasty mother Jackiey failed so utterly, so miserably?
I've been the girl under attack... but watching Danielle Whoever being told by BB what she'd said about Shilpa realise what she'd done in following Jade and saying tthe things she said, I wonder: Have I ever, however unwittingly, been the cause of someone else's torment? I hope so completely that I've not, but I fear that my jovial sarcasm might have been taken wrong by people in the past, or that at school I might have said things to (vainly) try and fit in. To them I apologise most utterly, most sincerely, because I've been the girl in the corner.
It's not just racism, it's out and out bullying. Put me in a room with Jade Cunting Goody and we'll see who wins. I shout just as loud, I know just as many swear words, but I also know more actual words.