I come from a line of mixed parentage and grew up in a mixed culture.
I have never dated someone from my culture and never will because noone will have experienced my particular mix of culture. Even my sister experienced our childhood culture differently than I.
When we have a relationship we find commonalities and we find difference whether that relationship is mixed race, or same race.
In my student days I house-shared with many different people, but only once with people who were culturally similar to myself. I really enjoyed it and there was a certain comfort in feeling that my cultural quirks were understood and accepted.
If I look at some of the other people I shared a part of my life with, however, people who were culturally very different and had different belief systems, there was a great deal of kindness, acceptance, communication and humour.
If we don't have the skills, or emotional maturity to have kindness, acceptance, communication and humour it doesn't really matter how alike, or unalike we are in a relationship. Race, or culture isn't the most salient feature in having a healthy relationship.
I'm just getting into wearing a mask. They're not mandatory here, but with the public transport and travel ban lifted, there's no way I'm getting on a bus without one.
I'm not worried about catching it because I'm pretty sure I had it in early April, but I am worried about being over-confident that I can't be carrying it and infecting others.
Masks are horrible: I keep thinking my nose is running, but it's just condensation; it keeps slipping up under my eyelashes impeding easy vision; & my glasses steam up when I'm trying to grocery shop. I take it off the moment I'm outside and well distanced from others.
As a side note, I seem to have ongoing symptoms which I read yesterday were common: I've had frequent headaches (very unusual for me), my vision seems to have deteriorated and I'm struggling with ongoing fatigue. Thankfully I don't have continued breathlessness, coughing and my heart rate is healthy.
Given the short and long term impact of Covid-19 on people's health is unclear, I would suggest that precautions are not just about people dying. We have no idea if some people will experience permanent, or even degenerative issues as a result of infection.
The problem we have in the UK is that election campaigns are becoming more like yours in the US, that is, they are becoming advertising campaigns.
It appears many people in the US are unaware that election campaigns are advertising campaigns. Here it is in this commercial on this blog, a carefully crafted advert and you can't, or won't see what's under your nose.
Brand success is about packaging, frequency of exposure and psychological manipulation, not the content, or efficacy of the product.
I see from your profile you have a passion for travel, so I imagine you're feeling especially cooped up at the moment. Are you able to continue with your studies from home, or is your entire life on hold?
England has eased a lot of restrictions, but here in Wales there has been little change. Wales has been the hardest hit country per capita in the UK.
Next weekend I hope to take the 20 minute bus journey to the village where my daughter and family live. I haven't been able to use public transport since February.
The only thing we can do together is go for a walk where I will have to maintain a two metre distance from my daughter and four grandchildren.
My daughter has dropped off supplies a couple of times because there aren't many shops in my village. We have been able to chat in the street, but because they only have a small car, I've only seen my two biological grandchildren. They have had to come up when my two inherited grandsons (her partner's boys) have been with their mother.
Despite restrictions in England easing, the UK infection rate is still going down gradually. There are a couple of concerning hotspots, but I don't think they've locked back down as yet.
Like our opinions are irrelevant and once we've been found we're just going to fall into line?
I don't open most of my mail, but occasionally in moments of boredom I pick up a message which comes across as some bloke thinking it's a done deal, like they've found what (not who) they want.
Sometimes I empathise with sandwiches on a lunch menu.
It's 5 pence for a small, thin bag, 10 pence for a larger, sturdier one.
Some supermarkets have a 'bag for life' scheme. You buy a 10 pence sturdy bag which they'll replace when it breaks, or wears out from repeated use. They recycle the old ones and have a bank outside the supermarket where you can drop off any plastic bags you no longer want.
I use my own cloth bags.
Soon after the law was introduced I no longer saw plastic bags blowing about streets and the countryside. They used to be everywhere.
Tell her that she's not obligated to die according to someone else's time scale.
My mum's determined to stay alive simply to stop her pension from going back into Boris Johnson's coffers. I have reassured her that if she does pop her clogs, I'll have a letter box fitted in her coffin so we can keep posting her cheques.
My mum's life is her choice. Her treatment, or the right to decline any, is her choice. When she's good and ready she'll know.
It's my job to accept and support her life choices. It's my job to know what she would and would not want; what constitutes quality of life in her terms in case one day I have to speak for her.
I have to let go when she's ready. That's the only way I can be ready to let go.
Chancer, I made a comment about your choice of language.
Your freedom of speech would not have been thwarted had you chosen to express yourself without disparaging people who genuinely experience mental illness.
Discrimination has it's roots entangled in language and the way we use it; with freedom of speech comes responsibility.
I have yet to make a comment about the particulars of Trump being suspended from a platform owned by Jeff Bezos, other than I said, "My word, that's interesting."
I haven't commented further because I think it's a multi-faceted issue which I wish to observe and think about.
I don't need to think about your use of language: the name calling and negative discrimination is glaringly obvious.
Just a thought, if the turnout was low for whatever reason(s), but viewing figures were through the roof and that indicates the true level of support, is Trump going to regret blocking voting by mail?
I'm not overly fond of leeks. If I see them reduced to pennies on their sell buy date, I'll use them like onions in a blended soup.
I've been known to make them into a salad, cooked, cooled and well drained with olive oil, cider vinegar, salt, wholegrain mustard and minced capers dressing.
Tell me how to cook them properly, or I'll come and beat you with one.
Well, Nestlé coffee is off the menu because they're baby killers, specialising babies of colour.
Can I interest you in you trying some Bird and Wild RSPB espresso dark roast, or some Percol Fairtrade Organic Columbian which comes in plastic free packaging?
There's loads of coffee to choose from. Here's an interesting link:
OldeGuy commented on another blog about the paradigm shift taking place in the wake of black communities being hardest hit by coronavirus and the murder of George Floyd.
The social change towards a fairer, healthier global community, the thing we were struggling to envision and to vocalise all those weeks ago appears to be taking hold.
online today!jac_the_gripper Blog Comments (3,002)
RE: interracial dating...
I come from a line of mixed parentage and grew up in a mixed culture.I have never dated someone from my culture and never will because noone will have experienced my particular mix of culture. Even my sister experienced our childhood culture differently than I.
When we have a relationship we find commonalities and we find difference whether that relationship is mixed race, or same race.
In my student days I house-shared with many different people, but only once with people who were culturally similar to myself. I really enjoyed it and there was a certain comfort in feeling that my cultural quirks were understood and accepted.
If I look at some of the other people I shared a part of my life with, however, people who were culturally very different and had different belief systems, there was a great deal of kindness, acceptance, communication and humour.
If we don't have the skills, or emotional maturity to have kindness, acceptance, communication and humour it doesn't really matter how alike, or unalike we are in a relationship. Race, or culture isn't the most salient feature in having a healthy relationship.