A long time between blogs, but a blog about females going out at night.

Dear anyone that reads this,


I have not really remained a blogger, and as you realize I am using a fairly plain blog.


On Monday night I went to a book club meeting in Footscray. This book club meeting was held in a restaurant on a main street in Footscray, but I could not get a park near it. I went around a block and parked in a side street a little distance from the restaurant, but with no people milling around. As I parked, I noticed that it was well lit and was a wide street, and was around the corner from the street I was going to. I was about five parks back from the first park nearest to the corner, and that park was a distance back from the corner. A single woman leaving a car to walk deserted street at night. How did I feel?  Not frightened, but alert. No ear buds in my ears, and looking and listening as I walk past an open gate to the rear of a property. I hear voices ahead of me, on the other corner and realise that a group of men are there, but they do not come across that road towards me.


Leaving the restaurant later, a member of the book club whose car is parked across the road, asks me if I want company to go to my car, or for her to drive me. I say no, and then wonder about my choice. It is based on the desertion of the area, and the fact that I assume I will be okay for the distance that I need to walk.  Why is it that as a single female I need to take this into account?  What is it that says that a woman walking after dark is at risk of something happening?  I obviously got to my car safely, with no problems, having noted the presence and appearance of the only male in the vicinity, opposite corner at traffic lights.  Due to the fact that I walk without listening to music, I have all my facilities available.
What am I saying? I think it sad that I should have asked myself the question as I parked as to whether I felt it was an appropriate place for me to park, and if I could be putting myself in danger. I feel upset that because of this question when I was heading back to the car I was so alert to what was happening around me. At no stage was I actually unsafe, and no one threatened me in any way, and yet I was making use of my senses to check my surrounds. Why?  What is it about having life in this society that tells me a female walking alone at night that I may be in danger. Surely the statistics tell me that most women on their own travel safely. It is only a minority that have something happen. What is it about certain suburbs that give them a reputation?
Is it the sort of comment made when a minority even happens, yes, it may be. Is it because the media push that fact that it is not safe after dark?  Yes it may be. Thankfully I can type this tonight, and feel that I can take the chance again. It is sad to be starting to think this way, oh for societies where nothing nasty ever happens to anyone.
I am so conscious of that fact that I write this in a society at peace, and that there are those in societies at war that have far worse experiences, and I can speak fear. What is theirs like.

Reading continues to be fun! Christopher Gortner and Ruth Park

I have read two Christopher Gortner books about Spain recently. The Last Queen and The Queen's Vow. The author spent some of his childhood in Spain, and has written about two Queens of Castille. Neither was expected to inherit the crown, but both did and fought for their country. Spain is a country whose history I know little of before knowing of the uncle of Katherine of Aragon, and nephew of Katherine of Aragon fighting for her diplomatically on the world stage, and then the marriage between Philip and Mary I.
I found both books interesting, i had not realised how the south of Spain had had such a Muslim influence till I was an older adult. IN my childhood I did not know of Andalusia, and the university cities where Jews, Christians and Muslim scholars got together.
It is a shame that the inquisition was introduced during Isabelle of Castilles time.
I am now reading a book by Ruth Park that is fascinating. I had read Poor Man's Orange and Harp in the South a long time ago, but never had I met Swords and Crowns and Rings. I am thoroughly enjoying her writing style, and admiring her vocabulary. She paints the picture of difficulty in life really clearly and empathetically and shows ugly sides of Australian history.
The funny thing is that at the same time I am listening in the car to Carpentaria by Alexia Wright, and that is talking about the aboriginal community and the difficulties there, and is so similar in the disfunction, but so different because it is a worse existance in many ways.
I meant to do this regularly but I have not been doing so.

Irregular writing and a time of fun ahead.

Well I started this with the intention to write often and much, but that just has not happened. Life has got in the way, my brother was suddenly hospitalised at the start of May, which made us quite tired for a while and upset normal routines,creating new ones. This was interesting, for it changed the way that I completed my work day, and altered the times I could complete work at home, you know some employment requires extra to be completed after hours.
It also changed some of my reading, but I have found that this was when having books on a mobile device was good. Changing moods meant I could swap between books if I wanted to. This was such a good thing, I could read serious books on my way to visit and funny ones on the way home.
If you have not read The Reluctant Fundamentalist, please do so. It is a thought provoking book, and I think it does a good job of letting you see the difference in mindset between the western hemisphere and the eastern hemisphere. Having read it a few years ago, I went to the film. During the film I realised changes had been made to put it into cinematic presentation. There was something that I found I could not remember from the book, and another that I thought had a different setting, and a factory that I thought was making different things, and when I re-read the book I was right. It was wonderful re-reading the book and finding how wonderfully the narration of the one man's story was covered. So please if you have not read it, do.
There is a BBC World Bookclub mp3 of an interview with Mohsin Hamid, the author. It was wonderful to listen to, and had two very interesting questions asked. It was made years before the film, so the questions all relate to the book.
My fun ahead is going to be the Annual General Meeting of the Sharon Kay Penman Australian Fan Club.  We gather and talk for many hours, about the writings of this author. She has written many medieval history books, and some medieval mysteries. Those who gather come from various walks of life, but thoroughly enjoy reading her books, and find much to talk about. One of the highlights of the weekend is a Skype interview with the author, in which we get to ask questions or make comments on common interests - dogs and books.  This is the side of the internet that has so widened my horizons, being able to be in touch with people who write books that I have enjoyed. It has not been done in the past, I would not have written a letter to the publisher for them to pass on, because my mother did not think it was a good idea. So when I joined a social networking site, and found that there were interest groups, and that I could communicate with authors who wirte books I like, I got excited. Unfortunately I do not find all those I would like to communicate with, but those who do find me buying both electronic and hard copies of their books now. (Not that they know, but they get the royalties from two purchases.)

Books that keep you thinking of them over and over

I read a book about a month and a half ago, that I really really enjoyed. It was called "The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared" Jonas Jonasson is the author, and the book is so funny. It has many farcical situations, but they add to the fun of the two stories. There are two stories running through the book, the one of the one hundred year old man's life and the story of his escape and where he went after it. The escapades showed what fun you can have if you take life as it comes.
Other books that have stayed with me that I have read in the last two years, are The Kindly Ones by Johnathan Littell, a novel imagining the life of a German officer through the war, and gives insight into a different way of seeing. There are some scenes that I could not read, the sex scenes, so I just found the end of that part and left them, it did not change the story. The disintegration of the person and the strain from the experiences of life in war were shown.
The third book is called New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani. This is an interesting study of what gives us identity - and the effect of our language on our identity. Good intentions can go wrong if the wrong information is considered. The way this story runs is really interesting.

Easter is upon us and the dates coincide

My mother died in 2002 on Maudy Thursday. I did not get to see her before she died, being busy with work and making a decision based on the information I was given, for it was the last day of term, and with that came consequences for taking it off. I have over the years had times of feeling guilt and times of regret, alongside the times of grief. Yet, when we make these decisions we make them with the best information we know at the time, and have to accept them.
My brother is the one who confirmed for me what I had felt, that the days of Easter this year coincided with the days that Easter when Mum died. So Easter Saturday was the day of her funeral, we had the blessing of a friend of mine carrying out the service, and a friend of my brother in law being an undertaker. As she had died in hospital there was no need for a coroners court hearing and so no delay required. A private ceremony, with some moments of inadvertent humour was had, she wanted a private ceremony. Some of her friends were hurt by the fact that she had not wanted them to farewell her, but when her ashes were put in the ground at the memorial garden at the church she was attending, they got to join us there. It was lovely to see how they wanted to say farewell.
Who then are the funerals for - the person who has died or the living?  I think they are for the living to give them time to say farewell and to comfort each other. Many different stories of the person can come out during the time spent talking outside the funeral, because each persons experience of another if different.
What has it been like, 11 years later to have the dates come around. Interesting. Time has moved on, and my memory of my mother has faded a bit. I remember a woman who loved to laugh, and who was talented in cooking and sewing, but would never or rarely finish a knitting project. I remember a woman who loved reading and who could budget really well. An elegant woman who provided me with love, and who was proud that all three of her children went to uni, and glad that one followed her interest in science. A woman who had back problems, but whose vivacity added to the life of parties, and to the group of friends she had.

How can we keep running faster around the hamster wheel?

Workplaces seem to be getting to the days of requiring workers to complete more work than is physically possible. When will we realise that there is a limit to how much work people can actually complete. Also how much consideration goes into the balance of adding in that next task with regards the benefits, and affect on load of the workers.
It would seem that our world is getting more and more driven by profit gains. When will the ethics of cutting staff to increase profits, but hurting the health of the workers left be taken into consideration. More so when will the lack of ethics of the CEO salaries growing disproportionally to those of the workers be taken into consideration? I suspect the answer to that is never - for the world has increased in greed.
I realise that some of what I write comes from being in the position of being a worker, but that in other cases I do not understand the pressure on CEO's. Yet I do believe it would be best if their packages were tied to being a certain multiple of the lowest workers salary/wage, so that when they gave themselves a pay rise via the board, every worker in the company also obtained a pay rise. Perhaps a company could agree to only rising each year by the CPI plus.... or some other indicators, so that the position on the scale of life is maintained instead of decreasing.
Still there is a problem with the obscene salaries that many CEO's are paid, when they can receive bonuses even when the company makes a loss.

Unforgettable books

I visited the doctor today, and as always we got to talking about the books we have been reading/listening to. There are now two books that I keep on telling people to read, one is The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell. This book I keep on recommending, with the words "It is a most awful book, with horrible scenes in it, but well worth reading." Why would I recommend a book that I use that sentence with? Due to the different perspective it gives, and the explanations of behaviour and understanding of how people can be so horrible, and the effect on them. The book is presented as a memoir of a German officers experiences in the war. He seems to be undergoing a long mental breakdown during the book, but it takes you through various theatres of the war, with the SS, and showing the killing carried out of civilian populations, and Jews. I read it a year and a quarter ago, and it still has me thinking back to it.
The second book is translated from Swedish and brings a smile to my face thinking about it. It is the opposite of the first one, a farcical book in some of the events through it, but written with such good humour that I laughed a lot through it. My husband did not laugh as much as he read it, but he also enjoyed it. The title: "The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared." by Jonas Jonasson. It was such a stupid story, but that was what made it so enjoyable, for the way it was constructed kept me reading. In fact I read it over one weekend, which for me is unusual.
So two books that are staying with me, one that was horrid and the other which was enjoyable and lifted my mood.