Well it seems like my post really rattled the sisterhood if my inbox is anything to go by and 24 hours have not yet passed. One of my female colleagues said I can’t really be serious about a tyre and asked me what BC’s favourite stone was. I said its Keith Richards and her favourite Stones album is Let It Bleed from 69. This apparently did not go down well and merely showed my ignorance to be truly staggering and of almost imbecilic proportions. She calmly told me I needed to think like a woman so I said aha, heels, seams, Basque, nipple rings etc, but I don’t understand the sizing system as I have pointed out. This was met with a stare that Medusa would have been proud of and she promptly turned on her heels and stormed off. Other people said why not take her away and I said fine, are you volunteering to look after my mum while I cavort around Paris for a day or two? Remember mum is housebound, needs lots of care and cannot be left on her own for more than a few hours at a time.
Some one else asked what were my favourite gifts and could I not draw inspiration from them? So I thought about the best things that had ever been bought or given to me over the years. In no particular order of importance they are; a genuine Swiss army knife from BC, a copy of lord of the rings from my brother, a tattoo paid for by my mother, a fob watch from the Tiler engraved with “Beck’s mate’s” on the back (no its not a spelling mistake we are both into Beck’s beer) a watch from my dad and a ring with a guitar engraved on it. I looked at this lot and thought she wont be impressed with a Swiss army knife, she has Lord of the rings, she doesn’t wear fob watches and she has loads of rings, she would need to grow more fingers if I got her one. I am not sure about the tattoo but thinking about it this would not be a surprise and I am pretty sure she would have to agree to it anyway. Then in a flash of inspiration I realised she does not have a barbeque. Now she really does need one of these, even her sons keep telling her to get one and if any one knows about barbeques its me. Couple that with a bunch of flowers and a soppy card and its job done, back of the net, sorted!
The last week has seen a lot of celebrations and news about the independence and separation of India and the birth of Pakistan. The one thing that has stood out in my mind after watching many programmes and documentaries on the subject has been that it’s all about religion. I gather rival religious groups killed 1 million people and the greatest forced mass migration in human history took place in the name of religion. Its nothing really new, the Romans slaughtered Christians centuries ago, the Christians took up arms against the Muslims during the crusades. Rival factions within the same religions have killed each other, witness the protestant and catholic uprisings against each other. Rival factions with the Muslims are still killing each other with Sunni and Shia in Iraq bombing each other back to the Stone Age. I was brought up to be religious but lost my faith many years ago when I discovered other religions and thought to myself they cant all be right but I did believe it was not worth killing some one for. Today I am an Atheist with agnostic aspirations and the more I hear about countries torn apart and whole communities wiped out in the name of religion, the happier I am to be an atheist and not a member of this worldwide murderous club. It would be nice to have some faith and to think that there was something out there, possibly an afterlife in which people were actually nice to each other. Hey if such a place actually exists there might even be women there who like football and dream of nothing more romantic than receiving a barbeque for their birthday. Any religion that could promise that, might be worth looking into……