The dreaded telly

Last night was awful. But it's over now. The downside to an awful night is that the children watch telly while I come to. But we'll get there; everyone is dressed, Linnea had a smoothie for breakfast (must buy more imported out of season fruit and veg to get some variety into her, since she seems totally uninterested in other breakfasts), I've tidied the bathroom, cleared the kitchen surfaces, washed the dishwasher filter, and put on a teeny weeny load of laundry - the children got new red dresses for Christmas and I want them clean for taking to Ireland, so I'm washing a little red load. I could wait for a full one but I'm wearing red trousers and an orange top today so I'd have to wait until the trousers were dirty.

Still, a little now and then makes a difference to the house, so I'm fairly cheerful. I'm looking forward to going grocery shopping, too, since Linnea and Emer are in better form today.

Those of you who recently popped up and commented, hitherto unheard of - who are you all? That is to say, who are you both?

Glorious girls

We went to Sweet Masala for lunch! They are not quite closed down, though they really look pretty shabby now, and they are still incredibly cheap. The three of us shared a thali - chickpea curry, potato curry, rice, naan, popadoms, and a bhaji - and the guy who cooked it was very surprised to see the children wolfing it down. "It's too spicy?" he kept saying, but it wasn't, and the loved it. Linnea was ecstatic to get popadoms again, and then he put on a CD and she danced in her chair, and eventually she got down off her chair and danced on the floor, to the proprietor's applause.

Emer danced in her chair too, and kept asking me to carry her over the counter so she could say hello, and then back to the table to eat some more.

We shopped as best we could, but the co-op had almost no fresh fruit and veg. Nor did they have biodegradable bin-liners, so I took biodegradable carrier bags instead of using my own bags. Luckily the other co-op opens on Tuesday after the Christmas holidays so I can get things then. I did buy something for the birthday presents. And tomorrow morning is the Farmers' Market.

The four-year-old's gift is assembled, as per his mother's instructions - no Stuff, maybe art things, nothing that won't get used up pretty quickly, and keep it small.

( In case his mother doesn't want to know ahead of time )

When we got home we found that the meat delivery had arrived. We're having sausages for tea, and will probably spend Sunday cooking for the freezer. It's all in the freezer now, in case we don't.

We're also having broccoli for tea, because Linnea refused to walk past the broccoli display at the co-op.

Emer is dismantling a bunch of grapes and laying them out precisely according to some inner pattern. So far it looks like some kind of mandala.

And I? Am going to make tea.

Weight loss: It's not a bonding kind of conversation

On Thursday someone at the library remarked on her packed lunch - "Look at how healthy I'm being!" she said. I looked; potato, salad, stuff in a jar. Looked like lunch. I made a noncommittal kind of noise, because I was busy doing something, and she continued, "I have to be careful because I gained so much weight over Christmas!"

I believe I grunted. But she went on... I don't remember what she said, but eventually she asked for a sympathetic response (along the lines of "because we all need to lose weight sometimes, don't we?) and I said "I don't do weight-loss conversation."

She went on, so I explained myself further, in as socially acceptable a way as I know how - I said something along the lines of: All my weight problems are from being underweight, not overweight, and usually if someone says "Oh wow Ailbhe, you've lost weight!" I say "Yes, I'm REALLY ILL."

What I didn't do, and want to be commended for, is give her a lecture on the health and political stuff around the whole "women all want and need to lose weight through their food choices based on the moral value of foods" and all that. You all know what I'm talking about. Sometimes it's carbs bad, protein good - sometimes it's refined bad, raw good - sometimes it's real food bad, peculiar milkshake science goop good. It's never chocolate good; chocolate and cake are universally evil foodstuffs, and will go straight to hell. And it's never "most women look fine just as they are and should stop worrying about whether they're fat or not because worrying won't change a damn thing."

Jeez.

Body mass index

I just did a quick check.

Currently, I'm a healthy "weight", even according to the BMI people, who are insane and not terribly scientific.

If I were two stone lighter, I'd be clinically underweight. If I were two stone heavier, I'd be *barely scraping* overweight, according to the BMI people.

But I'm expected to join in conversations where the assumption is that weight loss is always a good thing, and something we should all strive for?

What's the stats on preteen anorexia again?

Privilege meme, from kightp and others

from:
http://quakerclass.blogspot.com/2007/11/what-privilege-do-you-have.html
( Cut for the meme-avoidant )