Posts by Jackie Clark
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or me not wanting to do things if barefoot?
that bit.
Lauredhel Hoyden's Shoes / Not Shoes post seems apropos.
that's scary. Some of those shoes, I would wager, go against the Geneva Convention.Or something. I don't know if there is any correlation between my having ugly feet that don't fit many sorts of shoes and my dislike of shoes, but it wouldn't take a genius to say that that wouldn't be too far from accurate. Why, then, has no-one made the link between women hating their feet and loving those huge high stiletto-y things? God, it makes my bunions ache just to think of wearing them!
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Now Hadyn, that can't be true. I was born and bred in Auckland and spent my childhood barefoot. Makes no difference. Interesting theory, though.
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Oh, Emma, me too. I hate shoes. I would never wear them if I didn't have to. And clothes too. But that's another story altogether. I'm not as brave as you though when it comes to the freedom of my feet. Yes, I often wear them bare when I go to the supermarket or dairy, and I don't wear shoes at work ( I wear them to work, I just take them off), possibly easier for a kindergarten teacher than some professions, I'll warrant. But. But. I have tender feet. Broad peasanty bunioned tender feet. They don't take to stones etc kindly, so I have to wear shoes sometimes. I will take your post as inspiration, though, to wear them less often.
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what a lovely idea, damien - good article too, I read it yesterday, wish it could have been longer tho'. My thanks go to a number of people - to Gus at Manisha superette on Mt Eden Rd who, if I have no money on me, gives me what I want cos he trusts me to come back tomorrow, who makes the most superb arrangements of flowers for very little money, and who often takes a few cents off things just because he can. Oh, and he gives all his regular customers a box of choccies at Xmas; to my mechanic Ashley at Ashley Automotives by the BP station in Balmoral Rd who does a really, really good job with my car, and doesn't charge me sometimes for little bits and bobs, and lets me make timepayments; to the Public Health System (as opposed to the Public Address one) that ennabled my Ian to live when he was expected to die from acute lymphoblastic leukemia 12 years ago, and it didn't cost a cent, and when they couldn't make it so my dad lived, were so lovely to us all when he was dying; and to the lovely people at all the places my mother frequents, who after my dad died, made her feel a bit better cos they hugged her when she came in.
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Oh god, I went to Rangi too, Danielle. Only for a year, mind you, in my 7th form year - 1981. I had come fresh from a girls school in Wellington after a heated discussion over whether public schools were better than private schools. I argued vehemently that public schools were just as good, and for some reason, went home in those holidays and told my parents that I wasn't going to a private school anymore, they could find me a public school in Auckland. They duly did and Rangi was it. After my small school, Rangi was a shock with it's 1500 students. That and having classes with boys. I never had any problems with bullying and the teachers were okay to me - loved Francis Bell and the art history teacher whose name I can never remember - but I wonder if that's because I had no history at the school and I was a 7th former? When I was organising a class reunion a few years ago, I found most of the 300 people who had been in "our" year. Considering that there were only about 150 kids in my 7th form, that means over half the people who started in 1977 together had left at the end of the 6th form. I was surprised by how many of them, who I had never met before, hated the school, and their time there. Some of them told me that they had been similarly told they were hopeless, and attacked for leaving a year early. I was also shocked at how many people were expelled. I know when I was there that it was supposedly pregnant teen central in Auckland. Never saw that side of it so I don't know. And I remember sitting in assemblies whilst Noel Wood warned against the dangers of drug use, and all of us who knew about his son just tittering to ourselves. I loved that year at Rangi and most of the friends I had from that year are still my friends, 27 years on. Maybe I was lucky?
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stood down for his hair? christ
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I'm not a pundit of US elections, and whilst I am interested in the outcome of this one, I can't be bothered with all the debates and to-ing and fro-ing of the candidates, so can someone clarify something for me, please? Considering what I have read, which would indicate that Americans are somewhat interested in change, and quite alot of them are sick of what's been going on the last 8 years, how come this Sarah Palin is looking quite popular, with some parts of the voting community? Does she not quite like drilling for oil, and making people have babies they don't want, and other such things that the Bush administration seem to have pushed on their public for god knows how long? Does she not subscribe to the same sort of policies as the incumbent? In which case, why is this woman the next big thing? Or do I not understand the etymology of the word "change??
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His words lingered in my ears as I passed out of the school gates for the last time: "You're going to be a failure, Haywood. Remember that."
Horrid, horrid man. The tragedy is that there are still teachers out there like that. I think of all the young people who believe what they are told - and lead lives that strive to prove those teachers right. And those, like you who, by striving or not, because of or in spite of dickheads like the teacher you mentioned, go on and live successful happy lives. My brothers went to Kings Prep as weekly boarders when they were just wee boys of 7 or so. I can remember one of them telling me about how they were made to get up in the morning and swim the length of an icecold pool, even in winter - to toughen them up. And then they both went on to Kings College, where canings and strappings were de rigeur. What on earth did they think they were doing, those masters? How does breaking a child's spirit have anything to do with producing good citizens? All it succeeded in doing was making snobby clones out of them. Thankfully, they grew up and became lovely men. In spite of, I suspect, all that ridiculous shit.
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My mum and I had a standing agreement that if I ever needed her, I could phone and she would pick me up, from anywhere at any time, no questions asked.
although I was a troublefree teen, I sure could have used my mother offering this when I was in my early twenties and getting myself into some pretty hairy sexual situations.
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Until now, it was just you and Danielle.
Sigh. Am I that predictable? :)
(The 'Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman' clip belongs to that great 'going out into the desert to pose meaningfully in chaps or chaps-influenced pants' school of music videos, doesn't it?)
I knew there was a cultural reference I was missing. Which brings me to ask, Russell, how one knows Britney Spears' songs so intimately?