*
I think that says it as I feel it should be said. I’ve let Taima read it, and she isn’t sure I’m taking the right tactic, thinks I should be more aggressively against the racism, but I tried to explain that I have to take their point and lead them gently to a new one instead of trying to kick them to look at their faults.
Bedtime.
Tuesday, April 8th 2014
Morning
Had a big big fight with Taima last night. Apparently her ‘not sure I was taking the right tactic’ meant ‘you’re a typical white racist pig, taking their side and leaving me out in the cold’. Great. I think three years with her proves I’m not racist, but apparently that’s just not good enough, I should re-write the article or - well, she never said or else what, but I expect it wasn’t nice.
I’m not going to rewrite it though, no matter how angry she is. I know I’m right, and she’s wrong. She may have valid points, but she knows crap all about journalism.
Evening
Apparently I also know crap-all about journalism. My article was rejected, too wishy washy, not a topic that is right for the local news, I don’t really make my point very well - well Nigel can kiss my arse, if he thinks his precious white-dominated community is all oh so perfect. What a twat.
I sent off an angry freedom of information letter to the government today, asking for details of the decision making on not funding the Sabre engine. I hate having to write snail mail, but even now the stupid government won’t respond to even emails, let alone vmails, for most things.
As you can probably tell, I’m in a foul mood.
Wednesday, April 9th 2014
I spent today writing a bunch of bland articles for the boss, his high and mightiness. I looked for the most dull and boring and most conforming topics I could find. I handed them in smack on 5pm and walked out of the office without a backward glance.
Got home and Taima had made dinner. We’ve talked and we’re good again. She saw I was angry with the boss, and I think it made her understand I really WAS on her side, I was just doing it differently than she would have. I’m a journalist, she’s a teacher, you have to be more direct sometimes when dealing with young kids, but when trying to change the opinion of adults, a bit more subtlety is needed.
I’m glad we’re not fighting any more. I think I’ll see how much forgiven I am when we head off to bed in an hour or so...
Thursday, April 10th 2014
The boss thanked me for the hard work on the new articles. He liked them. He especially liked the one about the problem of gum sticking to the pavements. He wasn’t being sarcastic either. He actually thinks it’s a good story. No wonder this newspaper gets given away for free if the final word on what gets published is given by someone that boring.
I dropped my mum a call, and she was all cheerful, as if the weekend problem had never happened. My dad joined in on his pad from the garage half way through the call, and seemed his usual self too. I hate it when they do that, pretend a fight never happened. I hate not knowing if they’re really not fighting any more, or they’re just faking it. I’ll have to be careful what I say for the next few weeks, so I don’t set them off again.
3pm
What the hell, it’s snowing in April...
Evening
The snow finished by 4, and didn’t settle. Shame, I do like snow.
Got home to the good news that Taima has an interview. With a school on the other side of London. Argh, not good. We could have stayed in London, and each had an equal commute, if we’d known this was going to happen, instead of me walking to work and her having a two hour commute. Assuming she gets it of course.
Friday, April 11th 2014
Just looked out of the bedroom window, and I’m working from home today. Thick snow is coming down. Absolutely covering everything, it must have started quite early in the night, there’s about 30cm of snow out there, maybe more.
Mid-morning
In the office. The boss didn’t want me working at home. ‘If I can make it in from Oxford, you can make it in from four streets away’. Sure, but why did I need to, I’m writing today, and I’m pretty sure I can do that just as well at home as I can in an office, probably better as at home I can speak it instead of typing it in the office, where voice recording gets a bit irritating if everyone is doing it at once. I hate managers that just order employees to do something because they can, rather than for a real verifiable reason. Power trips, even small ones, really piss me off.
Evening
I wrote an article about the snow. It’s stopped now, but it snowed heavily for most of the day, and it’s probably at about 50cm now. I laughed my arse off when I saw the boss looking at his car, and then looking at the snow, and then looking at his car. I think he went to catch a bus from round the corner. So much for ‘if I can make it so can you’ - serves him right!
Extreme weather, just what the Chinese ordered.
The snow that blanketed Oxfordshire today was an unexpected treat for schoolchildren, and caught weathermen by surprise. While not as extreme a mistake as the hurricane back in 1987, with modern computers and satellites, it is rare for the Met Office to make such a large mistake these days.
The forecast had been for cold rain, but no snow. As such, no roads had been gritted, no preparations made, and most of the county ground to a halt, with almost all schools closed for the day, and many companies remaining shut.
The Met Office confessed to completely dropping the ball, but blamed their error on the fact that, with the changes in climate that the world is predicted to experience, more of the same can be expected as weather models fail to follow normal patterns, and unexpected extremes such as this April snow become more and more common.
With China, the worlds largest polluter, having recently blocked a new UN resolution on climate change, we can expect more of the same for years to come, with unpredictable weather causing disruption both locally and around the world. The Spanish drought, now in its seventh year, is a prime example of this. While in some ways, the UK has benefited, with Scottish and Welsh companies exporting bottled water to Spain, days of snow causing shutdowns across the country will more than offset the economic benefit we have seen from those industries.
It had been the hope of global environmental groups, that with China’s five year drought in their Yunnan province, the country may be more willing to accept UN proposals for emissions limiting, despite the slowdown that China’s economy would suffer because of them. However it seems that China has leaders no more able to look beyond tomorrow than anywhere else in the world.
With more snow on the way, don’t put your wellies away yet!