Horrible or what ?

Just to put things in perspective.......not everything from the 60s was so good.

I'm sure the one second from the left is Dick Emery.

Ohhhh you are awful !

Thoughts on Optimism: Childhood and The Sixties

Strange confluence of two ideas or thoughts today.......

As anyone who comes here more than once or twice will know I love all sorts of things from the 1960s.

Lately I keep reading about a relatively obscure girl group from that era called The Cake. I had heard of them before and ocassionally heard them on radio but never seen them. Now, thanks to the brilliant offerings on You Tube, there are two short videos to watch and what a revelation !: the most extreme, maybe druggy NY girl group you could wish for with weird staging, a singer who looks like Penelope Tree and stands catatonically still and two other girls who dance round her like a couple of eels on Vaseline

I cannot imagine anything so extreme yet so strangely 'entertainment' as this today. One of the clips is from an old 'Smothers Brothers' show --- real family viewing and yet here are these three cool chicks grooving away. That incongruous meeting epitomises everything I love about the Sixties.

Later in the day I was walking the dog through the corn fields nearby. The sun was beginning to hide for the night. Fat startled pigeons were flying out from the corn as we passed, greenfinches were chirruping, there was a quiet munching from the horses in the next field. A hum and tinkle of a party in the Big House rang across the meadow. I looked up into the sky and was suddenly in a more innocent time .... I felt a brief surge of that feeling you have as a child when you realise what an amazing and beautiful world you live in and feel full of a kind of wonder and feeling of optimism. It lasted seconds. In my childhood it could go on all day.

I know that I am seeing that era through rose coloured glasses and through the glasses of a happy childhood but where does that optimsim, that freedom go ? Where has it gone? Did life in the 1960s seem full of possibility to me because I was a child ( and do my own children feel it now ?) or because I grew up in a time when it felt like we were in a time of plenty.... full of ideas and ideals and possibility.

I know that, in reality, beyond my cosy, happy suburban childhood every kind of cruelty, evil, cynicism took place just as it does now. I know that there were wars, assassinations, homelessness, poverty and disease..... but somehow there seemed to be a kind of hope that it was possible for humnanity to improve itself and those situations.

That optimisim doesn't seem to be there now.

Is it me ? Is it because I am getting old or is the world actually a sadder, harsher, grimmer place?


~~~~~~~~~~~


Reflective Cusp today.

Watch the video and laugh if you like (it is quite funny in its way) but enjoy the innocence and the freedom to look and move, think like those three cool chicks

It's the start of the summer holidays .......

Yesterday was the first proper day of the summer holidays and with two young children to keep amused for six weeks I was beginning to feel a little wobbly. This was not helped by a friend coming round with her two children who are good kids but lively.

One allowed the guinea pig to escape and we haven't seen her since.

In all honesty I think we all wanted a bit of peace and a chance to 'bed into' the new routine before we had visitors.

Anyway, today's a better day and things feel a bit more normal and relaxed. The sun is shining and I have two happy kids and a happy dog(the friend brought her dog too: it's on medication which makes it desperately hungry so she steals all the food out of our dog's bowl and drives him insane)

Yesterday I was feeling like this song. Today I'm more chilled............

My Top Ten things not to say to a PWME

Having read the new CDC’s CFS toolkit she developed a new kind of fundamental resistance against analytic psychotherapy. Any ideas, Dr. Simon?

Cartoon by Michael Sobetzko. See http://sacfs.asn.au/download/calendar_2007_english.pdf

At the Ouch website there is currently a new TopTen related to M.E.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/play/topten/

Having read it I was trying to think up ten things of my own not to say to a PWME(with response --- spoken or otherwise --- in blue )

1. I bet you enjoy having more time at home: all that time to catch up on things
Yes I love being stuck in the same place, day in day out when I used to have a life and some freedom. I've caught up with all I want to thank you

2.You need to build up your stamina.
You need to s*d off

3.Try walking a little further each day
I've tried that. There's actually a medical term for it called GET. It nearly killed me. Why don't YOU 'GET' off your behind and do the same if it's so good for you

4.What did you used to do ?
I used to do a job that was useful, brought in money, gave me a sense of fulfilment and usefulness. Thanks for reminding me: just the boost I needed

5.What did you used to be ?
Well the last time I looked I used to be an adult human being like you but maybe I'm not human anymore since you're speaking to me like a 5 year old alien

6.It's your own fault. If you hadn't.......
Well, that's as maybe (though doubtful) but maybe it's your own fault that you're drunk/ignorant/cruel/a busybody

7.If I were you........
Similar response to No.2

8.You're depressed........
You're 'sad' within the confines of contemporary lingo

9.You need to find an interest........
I've got one and it's not you, so please go away

10.Have you tried ..........?
If its been recommended by a Doctor, Health magazine, self-help book, alternative practitioner, well-meaning stranger and has cost me money, further decline of health, pain, frustration I probably have tried it. Kind though it is of you to suggest 'x' I have to decline your suggestion. Thank you and goodnight.

I have to point out that I have never uttered any of these responses, being a well brung child of the 50s but I have certainly thought them when feeling bitter and twisted

Oh B****er, I've messed up the tagging lark

I've messed up: tagged Sally when she'd already been tagged by Goldfish. Silly me.

I tag Kahless instead.

OMG I've been tagged: 8 random facts about Cusp

OMG I've been tagged. First time. A Tag Virgin. Don't quite understand it but I'll give it a go.

First the rules:
1. Let others know who tagged you.
2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.


I have been tagged by Goldfish

8 Random facts about Cusp:

1. When I was little I nearly drowned in the sea. I came out saying I had seen all the fishes down there and they were all wearing little coats. Strange child. Everyone knows the only coat a fish can wear is a coating of batter
2. I hate strawberries and anything with a strawberry flavour
3. When I was about 10 I saw Valerie Singleton in the street and asked her for her autograph. She was less than gracious (to put it mildly) and I have never forgotten it.
Bitter ? Moi ?
4. I wish Moira Stewart still read the news on TV because I think she has grace and elegance
5. I just don't get Ricky Gervais' popularity
6. I can still cry with laughter at Road Runner cartoons
7. I love too be near water ---- that's why I'm typing this in the bath (ha ha)
8. Even though I went to art school for 5 years I think my best act of creation was my part in the creation of our children (all together now......ahhhhh !)


I now tag
Amanda,
Behind the Surface,
Signs,
Sally,
Seahorse,
Singing Hawk,
Maggie,
Anne-Laure

Birthday Trip

Well as Ana has kind of let the cat out of the bag (see comments on last post) I shall own up to having celebrated my birth last week.

I'm funny about birthdays: not the ageing process. I'm just happy if I can get through a day feeling unscathed and enjoy what's offered by the Great Beyond., but I do feel funny about telling people about my birthday in case they feel obliged to say nice things or give me things when they don't really want to.

Anyroadup, this birthday was jolly good and lasted two days because my lovely partner had arranged a secret trip for me. I was driven to Ipswich with my two children (who had permission to stay off school for the afternoon) and at the new Marina we were met by my bro-in-law and his wife (she of the green hair ! --- though it now has purple, pink and turquoise mixed in too) and two old friends.

We boarded a little boat and had a cruise down the Orwell River past all the little villages and under the Orwell Bridge (a real Suffolk landmark) and down into the Felixstowe and Harwich Docks. It was really lovely --- lovely surprise, lovely weather, lovely company and, for a few short hours, I could pretend that I could do this sort of thing anytime. I love to be near the water ---rivers, sea, lakes --- and it's something I miss most of all since I was ill so this was a real treat

These two old hulks have been resting near the bridge for 7 years. I teased my friend who was with us: we're exactly the same age (birthdays two days apart) and he's not always in the best of health. I said these boats were the two of us waiting for rescue.




Passing under the Orwell Bridge

......................and seeing it from a distance



For some reason I love lightships and lighthouses but this one is really special.

It served time as one of the Radio Carolines moored off the Essex Coast.

Happy memories of listening to the Pirate Radio stations when I was a child.

Sometimes don't you just wish you could sail away ?

I'd choose this to sail away on

Roxy Music - All I Want Is You - TOTP

Woke up this morning to hear this playing on the radio. I'd forgotten how brilliant early Roxy is. They were the coolest thing when I was in the 6th Form.

Enjoy !

Sports B****y Day

For the whole of my time at school, sport and P.E. were the bane of my life ---- because I was absolutely dreadful at it. I was unco-ordinated, self-conscious, uninterested and, much 0f the time, terrified: terrified of the humiliation, shame, teasing.

One of the most terrifying days in the school sports calendar was Sports Day. Here was the chance for all my inadequacies to be highlighted in front of all my peers, teachers and colleagues' parents. Here was the opportunity to turn up the heat of competition and thrusting need to be first when I hated all competition (even in the areas of schooling where I was good).

35 years later and nothing has changed. I still hate sport, hate competition and dread the time when I might be asked to perform any sort of physical task infront of others; though the M.E. is now the perfect excuse to decline any such invitation ---hurrah ! I've found a positive attribute of having M.E.. I claim my £5 (ha, bloody ha)

35 years later my daughter is also 'rubbish' (as is the current vernacular) at sports and apporoaches it with the same dread and fear. Unfortunately, since a change of Headteacher at her school, sport has become very important since 'Mrs K.' loves all sport and especially hockey. She has adopted the modern approach of making everyone feel included, shuns and abhors teasing and comparisons of physical ability, but lets slip her true colours when it comes to Sports Day which must take place at all costs.

This cheery annual event was to have taken place last Friday. There have been many hours of placating, soothing and empathy in this house for nearly 3 weeks as we have tried to comfort our daughter. Secretly she must have been doing rain dances and chanting special rain magic in her bedroom because by the fateful day it had rained so much that the school playing field was water logged and ducks were actually swimming on its surface.

We thought we were saved. No such luck. A dry weekend has increased the possibility that the 'alternative day' may make Sports Day (Plan B) a viable option: ' Unless there is Heavy Rain this afternoon Sports Day will take place staring at 1 p.m. ' declares a notice outside the gates this morning ..........and so my poor daughter has to dawdle into school, the very picture of reluctance and fear, trailing her yellow outfit behind her.

I appreciate that it must be lovely to be good at sport. In my next life I'd appreciate it if The Divine One could spill even a little soupcon of physical co-ordination and ability in my mixing bowl, but why oh why do sporty people have to be so bloody passionate and why do those of us who are no good at it have to feel so ashamed and made to parade our lack of ability to a crowd. After all if I was dysliexic would it not be seen as unkind to force me to take part in a public spelling bee ? If I was completely tone deaf, would it not be seen as cruel to make me take part in the school's performance of Carmen ? If I could not draw a straight line, would you make me take part in a public display of 'Works by Cusp' ? ---- I think not. So why make me and my daughter and all the other unfortunate little souls who cannot run fast, cannot kick a ball, cannot swim etc etc display their lack of ability in front of everyone who knows them once every year, come hell or high water ?!

Answers on a postcard to Cusp please. Your prize of a signed football by all the team members of Ipswich Football Club, plus life membership to the gym of your choice will be posted to the lucky winner asap. :-)

Another Monkey

I made this monkey for one of my oldest, dearest friends. She's been a cook for neary 30 years. The monkey is called Suzette and she comes from Canada --funnily enough that's where my friend comes from too -- hence the maple leaf on Suzette's hat and pinny.

Suzette likes to make biscuits

Suzette likes to bake cakes

..and after all that work she likes to rest in trees........

Suzette was sent to my friend with her own little introductory booklet, so my pal has a bit of background on her new foster monkey