A man walks into a drug store with his 8-year old son. They happen to walk by the condom display, and the boy asks, "What are these, Dad?
To which the man matter-of-factly replies, "Those are called condoms, son.
Men use them to have safe sex."
"Oh I see," replied the boy pensively. Yes, I've heard of that in health class at school."
He looks over the display and picks up a package of 3 and asks, "Why are there 3 in this package?"
The dad replies, "Those are for high school boys, ONE for Friday, ONE for Saturday, and ONE for Sunday."
"Cool" says the boy. He notices a 6 pack and asks, "Then who are these for?"
"Those are for college men," the dad answers, TWO for Friday, TWO for Saturday, and TWO for Sunday."
"WOW!" exclaimed the boy, "then who uses THESE?" he asks, picking up a
12 pack.
With a sigh and a tear in his eye, the dad replied, "Those are for married men. ONE for January, ONE for February, ONE for March....."

I’ve been fairly quiet this week haven’t I? Well the truth of the matter is I have been a little busy again … Wednesday I had a meeting at a lovely country house where a college is located, and being preoccupied with what I am hoping will be a new career in interior design, I kept imagining wonderful design concepts for it lol! Is that sad?

Anyway, I wanted to be sure that my last message before I went away on holiday would be something worth reading (well some of you might still not think it is worth reading, but I try my best). So I was adamant to finish the book which I started last week so I could do you a mini review of it. The book I have been reading is called Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy. I’m not totally a feminist, not in the strict sense of the word, in fact I would describe myself as more old fashioned, I like to have doors opened for me, seats pulled back for me and don’t feel threatened by men in positions of power. I do though, have an interest in it, and indeed even my dissertation ‘How does the British legal and benefits systems abuse females in society?’ had a feminist theme. But I don’t often read about it… I’m so glad that I did with this book though. In it, Levy explores ‘raunch culture’ the glorification of the porn star, and in it she explores some of the landmarks of popular culture: sex and the city (she pointed out some glaringly obvious things about this but I can’t be turned off my favourite proggy), Paris Hilton, Jenna Jameson etc etc. Thus she makes the subject very current, she isn’t talking about the suffragettes or the Germaine Greer’s of our time, but what she does discuss is how women think they are being feminist by revelling in the pornification of other women, by acting ‘like men’ to get ahead and even in some cases ridiculing the misfortune of women, and all this is an attempt to ‘look cool’. For a novice like me, this book can be pretty difficult to explain, despite the fact that I totally understood what it was she was talking about. Indeed, if half of us turn into porn stars (or porn star wannabes) working for men’s sexual gratification, and the other half of us, morph into minimen, then what has become of the feminist fight? That is not celebrating womanhood for its own diversity and wonderful ways, instead it is glorifying men, either working for their gratification or trying to emulate them. And indeed, there is nothing wrong with porn stars, if they can make money at it, then fair play, but does every other woman in the world need to model themselves on them? I think not… and I think any porn star with a business head would realise that if women the world over start to emulate them, then they have lost their niche market and thus their money making skills!

Levy is a wonderful writer, I would say whether you are a woman or a man, this book is well worth the read! It really makes you think about society in a different way.

And so there you have it, my last blog before going on holiday, I hope it wasn’t disappointing. We are off to sunny (I hope) Cornwall on Monday for a week, we will be indulging in more history, lots of photography, shopping, eating and the seaside yey… so in just over a week, expect a couple of monster blogs detailing our adventures.

I know you have all being dying for me to tell you about my spiffing Sunday :o)

Sunday, we went to the Royal show. I’ve never been before. Basically it’s an agricultural show, they have livestock, horse riding, country pursuits etc etc… and despite being a lady I’ve never actually taken part in the ‘country living’ lifestyle, probably because I’m a city girl.

We arrived really very early (it was Sunday and I was awake at 7.45am…. that is so wrong) and we had free tickets of Peter’s friend who owns a saddlery business. It was blazing hot when we arrived, looking like 2 boho’s with our bags of sandwiches and flasks of tea. Once we had dropped those off, the first place to head to was the VW stand where we could book ourselves in on the 4x4 driving experience. On the way though, we got distracted by a Bently stand. One car on there was £102,000 … it was used as well, my god who can afford those luxuries? Lol. The convertible was beautiful though. Eventually we dragged ourselves away from the gleaming paintwork of the Bentleys to the VW stand, where I got to sit in the new car, the VW Eos. Ok, so it’s not a Bentley, but the [[LINK; Eos, http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/new_cars/eos]] is still really stylish with beautiful Nappa leather interior and good solid Volkswagen styling, for the price I could be swayed. Finally we booked into the 4x4 experience and off we went to the other end of the showground to meet our driver and our beautiful 2006 model VW Toureg. We went off road, over hill and hump and I have to say it was so comfortable. My only displeasure was that we were driven rather than getting to drive the beast ourselves… ah well, it was still enjoyable.

Having gotten cars out of our systems, it was time to indulge in some real country pursuits, yes you have guessed it, archery, rifle shooting and clay pigeon shooting. What fun. I’ve never shot a gun before, other than at the fair, where you never win anything anyway, so first lot of fun was the rifle shooting, I wasn’t too bad actually, but Peter got all his in the centre target… show off lol. Then onto archery, Peter was getting right into the Robin Hood swing of things, I could imagine him taking that up as a hobby at some time in the future, he’s very good at it… but I’m afraid at the clay pigeon shooting, with the double barrelled shot guns, I was the mammy! :o) I haven’t shot before, and I must say, holding the guns so hard into your shoulder does hurt, but I was successful in hitting several of the clay pigeons, some of them were great shots, and now I want to join the upper classes and start doing that as a sport, might be an expensive one to take up though I think! I’d need the whole tweed plus 4s outfit and long socks lol.

After all that excitement, the morning had passed quickly and so we took our lunch while watching a rather awe inspiring display by the King’s troop royal artillery Now that is really something worth seeing, the horses are fantastic and it is so well choreographed, and the uniforms are so perfect. I’m really glad I got to see it… even if Peter did resent having to stand up at the end lol.

Having whiled away a morning doing such fun pursuits, we took the afternoon a little easier, wandering from stall to stall, looking at crafts, clothes, countryside clothes, which are the sort of things you imagine the English aristocracy to be adorned in and just cost so very much. We wandered over to the cattle sheds where we got so see some beautiful cows, including my favourite, the Aberdeen angus :o) Then we went to a tent where we got lots of free wine, and by the time I came out I must admit I was a little tipsy. Hot, tired and with aching feet we trundled to the show jumping arena to watch a little of that, those people are so skilled, and it made me want to take up horse riding, now that would be fun! Why is everything I want to do so expensive? Actually talking of which I also fancy trying my hand at golf… I just want to try everything really, I like to buy all the kit too lol… like while we were at the show and just before we were leaving we bought some walking boots, they were our only real purchase of the day, it’s a shame that they are matching as that looks a bit sad really, but couldn’t be helped as it’s such a good deal… Finally we left when it was approaching 7pm, after around 9 hours out in the sun and air, I was exhausted… home for a bath and to get ready for work the next day

Well folks, it’s official, we are in the middle of a Heatwave

Well folks it’s been busy busy busy all the way this weekend, and I have to say today isn’t much better… bogged down with good old work. Ah well, I much prefer it when I am bogged down and busy than when I am twiddling my thumbs… I was going to say proverbial thumbs then, but I don’t quite understand why people say that… plus it sounds a bit pretentious doesn’t it?

Right, so start at the beginning I guess. Friday we went visiting, Peter’s brother’s family had a new addition, a beautiful baby girl a week ago, and we went to see her. She was the same weight as me born (8lb) but now at a towering 6ft tall I can’t ever imagine me having been so delicately perfect. Peter’s children were as amazed as I was at the perfect little baby, her perfectly formed fingers and little legs and her beautiful blue eyes. She slept a lot and then was bathed just before we were leaving, Congratulations though to the proud parents, she is gorgeous.

Saturday, I did something which I haven’t done for a tremendously long time. I went girly shopping with just me and my mum to nearby Birmingham. Unfortunately, the trains were off so we had to catch a coach :o( ( Had I known that I would have driven) but we set off quite early, and first stop in the sweltering heat was the sale at the mailbox… I was so distraught here. Harvey Nichols were having a fab sale, I mean fab… Moschino shoes reduced from £200 to £60 and Prada shoes around the same price, DKNY shoes from £140 to £49… I was determined to add to my minute (consisting of 2 pairs) designer shoe collection. Unfortunately, Harvey and I didn’t have the same idea… none of the shoes fit me, I could have cried! I hate my feet, they are large (size 8/ US size 10 I think) and so I have trouble getting shoes, Lucy has asked me to submit a pic of my feet for her latest project… I’ll have to be very creative with the pictures just because I hate my feet so very very much :o( So off I went, without my shoes, purchasing nothing other than tea, and headed back to the bullring where my shopping was more fulfilling… again sale shopping, but I got my favourite Decleor face cream, a DKNY handbag, some underwear and some jewellery… yey! We didn’t get home until really late, but it was such a great shopping trip, topped off with a glass of wine in the lounge! It’s quite easy when you haven’t done something for a long while to forget just how much fun it is… and I know mum had a good time too, we were both completely wrecked though lol.

Now time is closing in and I haven’t enough of it to tell you all about my countryside shenanigans yesterday… so I hope you can wait until tomorrow :o)