From Little Acorns a Mighty Oak Grows

 

   I can remember when I was at school there were several subjects that I used to question the relevance of being taught in class. Not being a particularly outspoken kid, I never did let my views be known, therefore my disinterest caused me to switch off.

    One such subject was music and being tone deaf never endeared me to the singing side of things, or encouraged me to learn how to play a musical instrument. However, it was only once I had left school that the penny dropped that I finally realised music wasn't only about singing and playing in the school orchestra.

    There's much more to it, the thing that caught my attention was realising opera, classical and contemporary pieces, as well as pop all have a story to tell. The composer/song writer is using their creativity to tell that story, or maybe get a message across, in the same way an author does.

    BBC learning and BBC Performing Groups has launched a programme called '10 Pieces' which they hope will help primary school children appreciate what classical music has to offer them, encouraging them to express themselves creatively, through music, dance and digital art.

   I think this initiative is a great idea and anything that cultivates creativity amongst children can only benefit us all as a society.

Time Travels

   

    Skyscanner  has consulted with a team of experts to look at the future of travel in 10 years time; the results of which you can read for yourself skyscanner2024.com .

    On first reading the report I found some of the predictions rather far fetched, however with technology changing at a fast pace, maybe they're not.

    For example, using interactive software, an expert believes that we'll be able to summons a 'digital travel buddy' to help us choose our vacation, book the tickets etc, basically all the stuff we hate doing. Our virtual 'buddy' will take away all the hassles that we face when trying to book the perfect getaway. He will even arrange for us to try before we buy, with the help of 3D sensors.

    As someone who can be fairly anxious when I arrive at an airport, I would most certainly welcome a member of the airport staff helping me through the whole airport experience. Even the predicted  hologram making sure that I board the aircraft with relative ease, most certainly would suffice.

    Once we reach our destination there will be no more problems communicating with the locals, implants similar to contact lenses will resolve our verbal translations. Something I definitely can relate to, over the last few weeks.

    Yes, there are parts that read like the plot of an H.G. Wells novel, but 120 years ago we could never have envisaged travelling to the moon, computers, skype, or mobile phones.

   
    There was something though, that I was disappointed not to be covered in the report and that was that there was no mention of my new found friend packing my suitcase for me before I go. Do you think he's going to shirk out of doing the dirty laundry on my return too?

   

Remember

 

Robert Burns country

 
    The theme of this year's 'National Poetry Day,' which was yesterday,was remember.So here's my personal tribute; please note I know I'm not a poet laureate.

REMEMBER

I recognised you the minute I saw you.

You know my face, but you just can't place.

The mention of the commemoration,

and you spontaneously recall.

We chatted, we laughed, we reminisce.

Oh, how good it is to think back.

That was then, this is now.

A time we are unlikely to forget.

Seeing Red

    Whether I'm in a shopping mall, supermarket, restaurant, or airport I always pay particular attention to where the toilets are located. Why? Because you never know when nature will call and having been a Girl Guide in the past, I like to be prepared for all eventualities.

    Now, I've visited some horrible ones, some palatial ones and some I don't have the words to describe. But, no matter where I've 'spent my penny,' I've had privacy and I've felt under no threat to my personal safety whilst I was going about my business.

    However, this isn't the case for many of the female population of India; the young girls and women harvesting the produce that we find in our supermarkets have to find a private spot to defecate and urinate in the fields where they work.

    The problem isn't that they have to go out in the open, the problem is that they cannot go safely. Girls as young as eight years old working in the fields are being gang raped and murdered while slipping off to have a private moment. In this developing country as a whole, a rape takes place every twenty-two minutes.

    One of the country's governors said ,“Even God cannot prevent rapes.” No, God can't protect the female population from rapists, therefore there has to be human intervention. That's where the government has to please take control, using its laws and education system.

    Unfortunately, the government only seems to seeing red when they've been bragging this week about their space programme being the first Asian one to have entered Martian orbit and not that its female population faces violation on a day to day basis.   

It's in the Small Print

   

   
    In the next few days, I'll be returning home to Scotland for a few weeks and I'm hoping that I can resolve the technology problems I'm having here, there.

    One of my problems that I'm facing here, is that I don't have regular access to the Internet. Result; I haven't managed to do as much work as I would have liked and publishing my blog has been nothing short of a nightmare.

    The posts that have been published are courtesy of the free WiFi at the local tennis club and my other work is kept safely in a spiral bound pad, courtesy of my hand and a pen. No virus scanner required.

    However from October onwards, the club becomes a hive of activity when the 'Swallows', as the locals call the retirees who come here to enjoy the warm winter sunshine, arrive for normally a six months stay.

   
    The active sixty pluses take to the courts and there will not be a table to be had at the club; therefore no WiFi. Refusing to become a roving bar fly, I've been searching for an Internet provider in order that I can have it installed in my apartment.

    Now armed with the important price lists and broadband speeds, I will try to decipher the small print and pick a suitable company to do business with before my return.

    Whether that's realistic, I don't know but I do love the world of fantasy.
 

 

The Peoples Decision

   

   
    One of the things I hadn't really taken into consideration for my trip away, was the important vote taking place in Scotland yesterday. If I hadn't made my plans so spur of the moment I could have organised a postal vote, but I didn't.

    I'm proud to be Scottish, however to have voted for Scotland to become an independent country, I would have been voting with my heart rather than my head.

    To leave the United Kingdom, would have opened a real can of worms and how our new country was going to function independently hadn't as far as I could see, been thought through.

    I did feel guilty not being able to cast my vote because that's the freedom we have when we live in a democracy. Therefore, when I awoke this morning I gave a sigh of relief, because thankfully 85% of the population went to the polls and today Scotland is still part of the United Kingdom.

With a Little help from my Friends

    I can speak enough of the language spoken here, Spanish, to get by on a day to day basis. However over the last few weeks, I've been shopping for furniture for the apartment and I'm afraid home study courses and regular vacations here hasn't equipped me with the vocabulary needed to do lots of the things that I take for granted back in Scotland.

    Purchasing everyday items that make up a home is an entirely new ball game. It hasn't taken me long to find out that the wrong pronunciation can make the difference from ordering the wrong sofa to making an inappropriate proposition to the handsome sales-assistant.

    Thankfully, I have friends here of many nationalities and their help has been invaluable. Many are incomers to the islands, but having settled here a long time ago they now have a way with the local lingo.

    As they say, practise makes perfect, and one of my Canarian friends has agreed with me that from now on it's best that he no longer speaks English to me. So I'm sure his eyebrows will be raised more than once or, twice in the very near future.