Organic-Ally

This happened a few weeks ago but I never got round to blog this. I discovered a hole in a shoe. It's not really a shoe, but a 'mule', I suppose you could call it that. It's Marks/Sparks Footglove. I showed my son the shoe, "Guess how long Mum has had this pair of shoes." "Hmm. Seven years?" "No, had these much longer than you've been around." "Longer than you've been married?" "Yes." "Ten years?" "At least." More like eleven, I think. I remember using those when I was doing my PhD fieldwork in a city "up north". I remember my 90-something neighbour (then only 80-something) saying how comfortable she found those shoes. She had a similar pair in black. Mine were an adventurous beige. I remember spilling tea on my nearly-new mules and tried very hard to rid them of the stains. No luck. Ah, well. No one's going to notice. These shoes/mules/whatever stayed with me, tramped all over S

I've run out of some of my Hankettes supplies. I placed my last order back in May. I know sometimes there was a lead time of a four to six weeks, so I always worked with plenty of time buffered in. They didn't have the flannel to do the hankies. There was delay. Then the machine needed repairs. They bought a second machine to keep up with the orders. Then finally I got the message that said the order was filled and it would be shipped. When the order did not arrive in a few days I asked for when it was shipped. Then I got a message that said it was shipped by a different method than they usually did. I waited, and waited, and waited. When still no box arrived I emailed, "Where is my order?" Then a message came to clarify that when they said "International" they meant "International via sea freight". Instead of the 10 to 16 days I expected -- which was instead of the normal three to five days -- it was now going to take four to six WEEKS! Weeks! I w

As the writer of Ecclesiates says, "There is nothing new under the sun." Years ago as a full-time Christian worker with university students I had to read up on "New Age". I could not, for a long time, understand why it was called "New Age". What is so new about this "New Age", I kept asking myself. So much of it sounds like old hat to me. Then it tweaked. I'd been living the New Age for as long as I could remember: New Age was "Old Age" as far as the oriental person is concerned. "New Age" is new only to the person who has to learn a new non-western philosophy as the basis of his worldview. Having grown up Chinese, there was nothing very new in it for me. Sorted. Second week back at school and I still find myself sewing name labels. It has not been easy trying to procure organic cotton trousers for my son. Finally they arrived this morning at seven-thirty on a Saturday morning. Typical. Because son suffers from eczema, I d

It came on after University Challenge, so we just sat there and watched. It was a certain Nigella telling us how to cook 'express meals' after a long hard day at work. I have seen a certain impressionist making fun of Nigella and this was the first time I've ever watch the real McCoy myself. And boy! Did it give me a pain in the neck. The rate at which she -- how do you describe it? -- flick her hair (head?) back at the neck was so -- how does one describe it? -- annoying after the first few minutes. She went on and on about her "busy work day". And many hard-pushed stay-at-home mothers and working mothers who come home to work a second shift want to shout: HELLO! Why do you bother to work when you are married to a very rich man? We don't grudge her marrying a very rich man. But the point is she COULD choose not to work at all. The fact that she does -- whatever 'work' she actually does -- means another person (probably a woman) who needs a job does no