Back From Paris: Here's Some Reading

Well I got home from Paris late Monday night. Going to work on a post/pics about Venice this coming week. But meantime:

They've finally proven that it's safe to eat and drink during labour. No...really?!

You mean having some kind of nutritional intake during a potentially physically grueling activity is a good thing? What'll they think of next?!

And in other "well, duh!" news.

I love how they still qualify with "virtually". *insert eyeroll here* But anyway, I really can't believe what I'm reading about what "some people thought..." I mean, hello, could you possibly be any more self-absorbed? And really, have we not learned of the dangers of setting one group up as "the norm" or the (completely arbitrary) standard to which all othes will be held and then acting on that as if it's scientific fact?

Apparently not.

And also, thank you Ian McKellen!

Organic Garden at the White House

Check out this post over at Crunchy Domestic Goddess! Apparently Michelle Obama is going to grow an organic garden at the White House. Very cool.

Michelle says:

"We want to use it as a point of education, to talk about health and how delicious it is to eat fresh food, and how you can take that food and make it part of a healthy diet. You know, the tomato that’s from your garden tastes very different from one that isn’t. And peas - what is it like to eat peas in season? So we want the White House to be a place of education and awareness. And hopefully kids will be interested because there are kids living here."

For more information on the White House's new organic garden check out this article on People.com.

This is What Happens When You Let Amber Loose in Rome

I took hundreds of pictures in Rome, the best of which are up on flickr (link below); it's a history nerd's paradise.

The weather in Rome was awesome; we got lucky, apparently it rained the entire week before we were there. There were lots of warm breezes in the air, which reminded me of Australia. It would have been nice to have four days instead of three because it was a bit hectic, but we still got to see most things.

The Colosseum and the Roman Forum were really cool. I don't tend to do too many things you have to pay for when I travel, but those were definitely worth it. I'm not really sure how to describe being inside these places; it was really neat, but almost anticlimactic. I felt the same way at Stonehenge; it's probably because of all the tourists running around...kind of ruins the ambiance. I think I've been in Europe too long--these really old things are starting to have less of an effect on me, even the ones that are thousands of years old. That's not to say that being surrounded by buildings from antiquity wasn't really cool, but it's difficult to picture things how they would have been when you're dodging cars and vespas at every turn.

Speaking of which, when you cross a street in Italy you take your life into your hands. In every other place I've been if you're at a cross walk and standing at the curb, cars will slow down/stop. Not in Italy. Eventually we started copying the locals and just walking out into the road, assuming everyone would stop. They do, but it was really scary at first.

Vatican City was pretty neat. I find it hard to believe it's actually its own country; it's only about 1 square kilometre or something like that. It was really beautiful in the square with water from the fountains catching the light and reflecting off the marble building facades. And it wasn't busy when we were there at all, which was nice. I'd like to go one day when the Pope is doing an audience, because that would be pretty cool. He does one once a week, but it didn't happen to fall at the time we were there. I saw Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day 2002 (which was seven years ago...what?!) in Toronto and it was definitely one of those experiences I'm really glad I had. He was, by all accounts, an amazing man, even if he has become a little bit larger than life. Maybe that's because he was.

The interesting thing about the Vatican, is that all of the marble used in it was "recycled" from the Colosseum and the palaces on the Palatine Hill. You may not know (I didn't before) that few to no buildings in ancient Rome were made of solid marble (like they were in Greece). In fact, they were made of concrete--which the Romans invented--and then faced with marble. After the Colosseum and the palaces fell into disuse the Popes decided to "recycle" the marble when they built the Vatican.

St. Peter's Basilica is breathtakingly beautiful. Most definitely one of the most amazing (man-made) places I've been. I have some pictures of it, but they don't compare to the awesome pro ones you see online, obviously. I like them all the same though. You don't have to pay to get into St. Peter's; I was pretty shocked about that. Especially since the Catholic Church has a bit of a history of fleecing people (if you understood that pun then two points for you).

The Palatine Hill was pretty incredible, just the history in it, and the views it offers are stunning. You can see some of them in the pictures below.

You'll also see a photo of Mussolini's palace on the Palatine. His logic was apparently that every other Roman Emperor had built a house on that hill, so he should too. Kind of amusing really, if not a little arrogant. His house is still there, I think it's a museum now.

Anyway, if you missed it before, check out my previous post on Rome for links with information about all of these places. The pictures also all have captions and notes on them so you can see what everything is. Enjoy!

(click on the image to see the rest of the photos in this set)

Venice!

We're in Venice now. We love it here. The tomato sauce is awesome.

There is a three year process for me to get my UK passport after the wedding. It goes something like this:

Step 1: Marry someone with a British passport.
Step 2: Move to the UK.
Step 3: Don't spend more than 6 months outside the UK for the next 3 years.
Step 4: Pass a silly little written test.
Step 5: Apply for a passport.

Anyway, only being able to be outside the UK for six months in THREE years is going to kill me. I mean, I've practically been outside Canada for more time than I've been in it in the last three years. Okay, that's a bit of a stretch, but not a big one; I think I've been outside Canada for about a year in total in the last three. But, if you consider the fact that Canada is very big and the UK is very small, it's pretty much like not leaving Ontario. I am going to feel like I'm in a cage, I know it. Not looking forward to that, but having an EU passport makes it worth it.

Suffice it to say after that long in the UK we're getting out of there pretty much as quick as we can to move elsewhere in Europe for 6-12+ months. It took all of being in Venice for about 3 minutes to decide that this place is definitely in the running.

More on Venice (and Rome!) in the near future. No time for a big update now...too much to see and not a lot of light left!

Hello From Roma!

We're in Rome! We're staying at a hostel called Legends that I highly recommend. You get free breakfast (various cereals, rolls with jam/butter) and free dinner. Dinner is pasta and it's actually good, which is saying something. Most free pasta hostel dinners are horrid. The place is clean, the staff is nice, the price is good. It's 2 minutes from Roma Termini (the main train station). Our room has four bunk beds (so sleeps eight...obviously) and has a bathroom in it. So anyway if you find yourself in Rome, that place is a good one.

I can't say much more than that because I'm currently stealing borrowing Internet and the signal isn't all that good. Update from the Internet cafe tomorrow!

Yay Rome!

Update:

I am so tired; we've probably done at least 15 hours of walking in the last two days. We've seen the Colosseum, the Forum, the Palatine Hill, Circus Maximus, Vatican City, St. Peter's Basilica, the Pantheon, the Fontana di Trevi, and the Tiber River, just to name the big ones. I didn't think we saw Trajan's Column, but now that I see a picture of it I actually think we did; we just didn't know what we were looking at. I'll have to look through the pictures to see. We didn't see the Catacombs (just not enough time) or the Sistine Chapel (it's closed on the weekends), but we'll definitely be in Rome again so we'll have to see them then.

Our Forum and Palatine Hill tour guide was Aussie; I got all excited when I heard her accent. I miss Australia.

I've been doing a couple of hours of work a day since I got here. I've learned that "copia" means "copy" and "incolla" means "paste". Two key words when you do the job I do.

I ate a Genoa salami sandwhich today (can't go to Italy and not eat salami...it's like, illegal or something). Soooo good. I want another one.

This is the gypsy life. Dirty clothes, no shower in three days and when you do get one the water is cold, no bathrooms when you need them. Can't speak enough of the language to get the food you actually want.

It's beautiful and I love it.

Anyways, I have a million things to say about Rome and a million pictures as well, but all that will have to wait until I'm not in an Internet cafe surrounded by a million people--I can't flesh out thoughts when this many people are talking around me (and in about 4 different languages too).

More on Rome later!

Is There Nothing Pure Left?

Who knows who that is?

If you have a kid under the age of 6 or you know someone else with a kid under the age of 6 or you own a tv or you shop in toy stores then you probably know that that's Dora the Explorer.

She's one of those "educational characters". You know the ones, the characters that entertain kids, and teach them at the same time.

Dora's pretty cool. If I'm being honest I'll admit that her frilly socks and pink shirt have kinda always annoyed me--just, why? Why frilly socks? Why pink? But all in all she's pretty okay, she speaks English and Spanish. She's smart. She goes on adventures. Hell, I've learned things from her when I've watched the show with kids I've been babysitting.

Granted, her voice and her incessant counting make me want to hurt her, but that's beside the point.

At least she counts in Spanish.

Anyway, Dora is aimed at the preschool audience. She looks pretty anatomically correct for a 3-5 year old, her clothes are age appropirate (why the belly I don't know), she's not wearing makeup. She's an ethnic minority. She's female. She's got a brain in her head. Dora was great just how she was.

Who knows who that is?

That's Dora the Explorer.

Thanks for that, Mattel and Nickelodeon.

I'm going to go cry now.



And furthermore, ABC thinks that is an acceptable representation of a middle school aged child?! As in age 12-14? In what universe?

I dunno about you dudes, but you wouldn't have caught me dead looking like that until well within the last two years...and even then. (I just turned 23, for those who don't know.) And oh lordy, we don't even know what she actually looks like yet. I'll assume she has massive boobs now, just to save myself the irritation later.

Fuckers.

A New Outlook

So it's no secret to most that Brian and I both despise working for other people. We're also not fans of working full-time for a myriad of reasons, which I'm not going to get into now because that's not the point of this post.

Brian works for himself, and I usually work for other people, but have lately been doing a teeny tiny bit of freelancing here and there. Right now, though, we're working in the same office. He's working full-time and I'm working part-time.

We complain about it a lot (to eachother) because we're not used to it. We're not the biggest fans of the 9-5 thing.

But then one day last week I gave myself a reality check.

We are so lucky. We have jobs. Jobs that we like well enough. Jobs that more than pay the bills. And one of us (not me) is in an industry that probably won't be hugely affected by the current economic climate...at least it hasn't been touched yet.

Don't get me started on what this has done to print. I'm not sure it will ever fully recover, since it was dying a slow, tortuous death anyway. *sad face*

I mean, here I am, traveling around Europe, in the middle of a global "crisis" *cough*ihatethemedia*cough* and I'm complaining about waking up to go to work?

A bunch of my friends are losing their jobs in a month. They're part-time...they're expendible.

I'm flying to Rome in four days.

I'm trying to qualify that in my head and I can't.

Brian's business is thriving. It's doing better than its ever done. We feel pretty insulated from reality at the moment; I suppose that the key here is to use this opportunity to save some money, just in case the bubble bursts.

I guess this is what it's like to watch a train wreck.

Except your best friends are the ones who are on the train.

*****
Lucy from The Smallest Smallholding is a freelance writer:

"I am now an almost-fully fledged member of the Rat Race, and am contracting initially for three months. 8:30AM - 5:00PM are my working hours. Commuting is a major headache that I would rather not deal with twice a day. But, the work is good. The people are nice. I’m learning new skills. I guess I just wish it was closer to home and that I didn’t end each day with a pain in my neck (literally) and a sore back.

And I wish I didn’t miss my Smallest Smallholding so much.

I get home about 5:40PM, which at the moment means that if it’s not too overcast, I can catch the hens for just a couple of minutes before they go to bed. I miss my hens. I miss my cats. I miss my bunnies. I miss pottering about my Smallest Smallholding if the fancy takes me. I miss the fresh air. I miss the sounds of wild birds and hens. I miss the gentle busy-ness of it, compared to the ’stressed busy’ of commuting and being amongst crowds of people that are living their lives according to the same timetable as me.

But freelancing in this current economic climate has been pretty tenuous to say the least. And I needed some security for the next few months. So I suppose that means having to make compromises. I just hope my back behaves itself and holds out."

Check out Rebecca Woolf's Portraits of an Economy

and

Andy Cook's Faces of the Recession

John Mayer has a song for everything.

New Header!

Check it out, I shamelessly ripped off made a header!

I like the design of the other one, so I remade it in photoshop with my own pictures; which I edited to increase the colour saturation. Not too bad, I don't think!

The background is in Loch Ness, and then we've got Belfast, Edinburgh, and Brian and me in Paris.

This is how I procrastinate from doing actual work...

*****
Oh, and also, Happy International Women's Day!

Who Wants to Guess Where I'm Going?

View Larger Map

Flying from London to Rome, train from Rome to Venice, train from Venice to Nice (maybe hit up Monaco?), train from Nice to Paris. Then Brian flies home, and I take the train from Paris to London (so excited to go under the Channel!).

I have this lofty goal to have the rest of the pictures sorted out by the time we leave...let us see if it happens, shall we?

This Deserves a Post of its Own

I put this in the sidebar, but if you have any interest in birth/maternity care and/or you have had or are planning to have kids, this might be of interest to you.

The Fortelesa Declaration

I found it via Sarah at Ilithyia Inspired and am very glad I did. It's interesting to know that a document like this exists from an organization like the WHO; I must say I'm shocked. If only more people knew cared about it.

*****
Fortelesa Declaration - Recommendations from the World Health Organization 1985

These recommendations are taken from a report on Appropriate Technology for Birth published by the World Health Organization in April 1985, and are known as the Fortelesa Declaration.

The recommendations are based on the principle that each woman has a fundamental right to receive proper prenatal care; that the woman has a central role in all aspects of this care, including participation in the planning, carrying out, and evaluation of the care; and that social, emotional and psychological factors are decisive in the understanding and implementation of proper prenatal care.

» The whole community should be informed about the various procedures in birth care, to enable each woman to choose the type of birth care she prefers.
» The training of professional midwives or birth attendants should be promoted. Care during normal pregnancy and birth, and following birth should be the duty of this profession.
» Information about birth practices in hospitals (rates of caesarean section etc) should be given to the public served by the hospital.
» There is no justification in any specific geographic region to have more than 10-15% caesarean section births.
» There is no evidence that a caesarean section is required after a previous transverse low segment caesarean section birth. Vaginal deliveries after caesarean should normally be encouraged wherever emergency surgical capacity is available.
» There is no evidence that routine fetal monitoring during labour has a positive effect on the outcome of pregnancy.
» There is no evidence for pubic shaving or pre-delivery enema.
» Pregnant women should not be put in a lithotomy position during labour or delivery. They should be encouraged to walk during labour and each woman must freely decide which position to adopt during delivery.
» The systematic use of episiotomy is not justified.
» Birth should not be induced for convenience, and the induction of labour should be reserved for specific medical indications. No geographic region should have rates of induced labour over 10%.
» The routine administration of analgesic or anaesthetic drugs that are not specifically required to correct or prevent a complication in delivery should be avoided.
» Artificial early rupture of the membranes, as a routine process, is not scientifically justified.
» The healthy newborn must remain with the mother, wherever both their conditions permit it. No process of observation of the healthy newborn justifies a separation from the mother.
» The immediate beginning of breastfeeding should be promoted, even before the mother leaves the delivery room.
» Obstetric care services that have critical attitudes towards technology, and that have adopted an attitude of respect for the emotional, psychological and social aspects of birth should be identified. Such services should be encouraged and the processes that have led them to their position must be studied so that they can be used as models to foster similar attitudes in other centres and to influence obstetrical views nation wide.
» Governments should consider developing regulations to permit the use of new birth technology only after adequate evaluation.

Halle-fucking-lujah.

Look What Else I Made!

I Heart Photoshop

I <3 NY!

Who wants to see pictures from our January 2006 trip to NYC?

(click on the image to see the rest of the photos in this set)

Really?

Okay, yes, obviously being obsessed with anything is generally not so good. And yes, even things that are, in and of themselves, "good" for you can become unhealthy obsessions. But are you kidding?

I'm sorry but I really have a hard time taking things like this seriously when they're discussed in a mainstream media format, because I know exactly what this is going to turn into: another excuse for people to eat garbage and justify it. This isn't about weight or size or the validity of this as something that could become or is a medical issue for some people; I'm not arguing against that, but my god can we ever twist something good into something bad. Are we that obsessed (yes, I used that word on purpose) with our unhealthy lifestyles that we have to dredge up medical evidence to make us feel better for what we're doing? How is this any different from what the maternity system does to women, for example?

As if us health "obsessed" freaks didn't already have enough people breathing down our necks for our choices, pretty soon I'm going to meet someone who's going to tell me I'm going to become orthorexic too. Because don't you know, dietary purity is the new black. All the cool kids are doing it.

And while I'm at it, why the hell does body acceptance have to equate to stagnancy? I mean, yes please, by all means love and accept yourself for who you are and how you look, I would never think to slight that in any way...

Tangent: I feel the need to write that disclaimer because people tend to make us "skinny girls" into the bad guy in these discussions. You know what, I have no idea what it's like not to be the skinny girl. I won't pretend I understand the social pressure, among other things, that people face when they're bigger than a size 10 (US). I also won't say it's okay; it's not. I don't know what that's like, just like I don't know what it's like to be a visible minority or a religious minority or any other kind of minority except female, but using the fact that society gives you a lot of BS to deal with as an excuse for not being healthy (note that I didn't say not being skinny) is completely ridiculous. That's just like saying, well, society tells me I'm not worth equal pay because I'm female, so I'll just not even try to have the job I want. It's just like saying, well, society tells me I'll pick an asshole for a partner because I come from a "dysfunctional" family, so I'll just not even date. Umm, hello, that logic does not make sense.

Anyway, where was I. Right. Using body acceptance as a reson for actively choosing not to get fit (note that "fit" does not equate to "thin") and healthy is a farce. If you're accepting yourself so that you can justify an unhealthy lifestyle then you're kidding yourself, and setting a rubbish example for anyone who may happen to look up to you.

*headdesk*

Anyway, that was literally years in the making. Sorry for the rant.

Aaaaand, society sucks, haha.

And also, why don't I have a "Rants" category...? Hmm.