This one goes out to my little sister!!!

The Saturday before last during some more sorting out at my mum's house I found an old English book with a poem I'd written about my sister. Upon reading it the other day she was not best pleased since there were a few bits that were less than complimentary of her!!! I think I was just trying to be honest and reflect all sides of her character (that's my excuse) and I was only 11 at the time so I don't think I'd mastered the notion of tact yet!!! Anyway I thought I'd try to write another poem at some point, a nice one, to make up for it.

As my sister has recently had her car broken into she's not a happy bunny at the moment and so I thought I'd write a poem to try to cheer her up.

So Toni - advance apologies for its cringeworthy nature, this one's for you......

My little sister.

I no longer live at home with my sister

and to be honest I quite miss her!

The funny faces she can pull

and her generally playing the fool,

she’s got it down to a fine art

and so guaranteed to make you laugh.

Yes I love my little sister

so on greeting her I kiss her

in front of friends much to her chagrin,

- my affection she finds embarrassing!

You see it doesn’t matter how much older she’ll be

she’ll always be my ickle sister to me,

So if something’s happened to upset her

I try hard to make her feel better,

like after hearing Sunday’s news

that her car had got broken into.

But that day my humour fell flat

so this poem’s my new line of attack.

I hope she at least values the attempt,

as it really is well meant,

and I’ve stayed up half the night

so I can get the words just right!

Yes I love my little sister

and when she's not around I miss her!

MAKE POVERTY HISTORY

I've just caught the end of The Girl in the Cafe, a film which is part of the BBC's series of programmes about Africa in 2005 (see link for details). Did anyone else see any of it?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/05_may/26/africa_cafe_intro.shtml
It got me thinking about the whole Make Poverty History campaign thing which I am supporting and I wondered what other people thought about it as for some reason it doesn't seem to have come up in conversation with friends.

By now you must all have heard something about it even if it's only in relation to Bob Geldof and the Live8 concert thing but just to summarise;

MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY is a campaign that demands an end to world poverty through "trade justice, debt cancellation and more and better aid" (www.makepovertyhistory.org) by putting pressure on world leaders. The Live 8 concert on 2nd July is happening in the run up to the meeting of the G8 (the leaders of 8 wealthiest countries) in Edinburgh July 6th - 8th where influential decisions are made about global economics.

One of the main arguments I've heard against the campaign is that we shouldn't be giving money to corrupt governments and that it'll only be the Mugabe's of this world that will benefit and not the people who are actually suffering. That's no reason not to campaign for fairer global economic change though. Moreover I thought I caught someone saying on TV the other day that the money that would become available through debt relief etc would be ringfenced for specific projects like improving healthcare, and so could not be used for corrupt African leaders to buy themselves new cars!!! I would like to read this in print somewhere though!!

The other complaints I had heard are all anti Geldof - that it's just a bunch of faded has beens who are trying to jump on a publicity bandwagon whilst trying to make themselves feel good at the same time! Now I'm tired of Geldof too (especially with his defensive comments in response to criticisms about the concerts not having enough of an African presence) but again that's no reason not to support the campaign. Surely we should make our decision on whether to support something or not based on the issues rather than the personalities? Does sniping at Geldof give you an excuse for sitting on your backside and doing nothing? No it doesn't.

But that's enough of my thoughts, what are yours.......?

Thank 'evans

Yes thank Evans for existing!! Not one to usually get excited over clothes shops I am genuinely relieved that shops such as Evans exist. As the girlies will know Evans is one of those clothes shops for larger ladies, BUT, as I discovered for the first time yesterday, it also does shoes with wider fittings. Suddenly a flash of inspiration hit me as I realised that maybe I might actually be able to find some footwear that actually fitted me for a change!!! And lo and behold I did and I bought a pair of shoes. I've been so excited by this discovery that I just had to share my news with you all!! Do you know how oppressed I have felt for all these years by the fact that my feet are just slightly too wide for the eyes of fashion?? Oh, alas the trauma of realising as a small child that I could not fit into those magic princess shoes, you know, the ones with the key in the sole of the shoe that every little girl wanted at primary school? Well, they only went up to an F fitting and my feet were measured at a G. Actually, whatever happened to those feet measuring machines? If you don't know what I'm talking about you're either the wrong age, wrong gender or your mother never dragged you around Clarks shoes as a child!!!

I would like to say that I like my feet, I'm not one of those women that goes aroung asking "Do my feet look too fat in these? but it's just that its a real pain to find anything that I can fit into and so this is why yesterday's discovery has got me so excited!! Thank Heavens for Evans, that's what I say!!!