While the Olympics were going on over the summer, I got a bit obssessed with this lot. The paired swimmers in particular were fascinating and I found out all about their costumes, hairpieces, how they do their hair (gelatine) and their make up (waterproof). But I couldn't find any really great pictures to sum up how odd but beautiful they were, like some sort of underwater circus ballet dancers. As usual, you find something once you stop looking for it, and rummaging in the depths of the internet to try and calm down my agitated mind I came across this.... Have fun.
Thursday 6 December 2012
Sunday 11 November 2012
I'M PROUD OF THE BBC!
These are the lyrics of a song by Mitch Benn.
I decided I couldn't put it any better myself, so please read the lyrics and listen to or download his song (and if you ever get to see him live you won't be disappointed either).
Watch the video
Download and get other cool stuff from the blog
Newsround, Newsnight,
iplayer website,
Tony Arthur, Brian Cant,
Spooks and Adam Adamant,
Postman Pat, Black Adder,
Hancock and Yes, Minister,
Later with Jules Holland
Pride and Prejudice,
World service, Stewart Lee,
Mr. Benn, Casualty,
6 Music Glastonbury, Horrible Histories,
Dennis Potter, Cbeebies,
Quartermass, Two Ronnies,
The Thick Of It, Radio Three,
Open University,
Kermode and Mayo,
Round the Horne,
The Goon Show,
Blake's Seven,
Dick and Dom,
Last night of the proms,
Gardener's Question Time,
Last of the Summer Wine,
Steptoe & Son,
Clangers and the Young Ones,
Edge of Darkness,
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,
The Mighty Boosh and QI,
Panorama and Bagpuss,
I Claudius, Absolutely Fabulous!
I'm proud of the BBC,
it's part of you and it's part of me,
it's just this and lousy weather
that holds us together,
oh, I'm proud of the BBC,
it's not too slick,
but it was never supposed to be,
it's comfort, and inspiration,
for the nation.
John Moston, Red Dwarf,
Our Friends in the North,
Culture Show, Woman's Lounge,
Charlie and Lola,
Alan Partridge, Sherlock,
News at six o'clock,
Live aid, Likely Lads,
Michael Palin, no ads!
This Life, That's Life,
Life on Earth, the Good Life,
Captain Pugwash, Tony Hart,
Til Death Do Us Part,
Ken Bruce, news quiz,
Keeping Up Appearances,
Outnumbered, Miranda,
Who do you think you are?,
Kirsty Wark, Paxman,
Parkinson and Wogan,
Tripods, Fireman Sam,
The Ascent of Man,
One Foot in the Grave,
Ben & Xander, Rob & Dave,
Antiques Road Show, David Attenborough,
Bruce Forsyth with the League of Gentlemen,
Hairy Bikers, Being Human,
In the Night Garden,
Have I Got News For You,
You and Me, Me and You,
Monty Python, DOCTOR WHO!!
I'm proud of the BBC,
it's part of you, and it's part of me,
we're not just listeners and viewers,
it belongs to us.
I'm proud of the BBC,
and at least it doesn't pretend to be free,
and it's nothing to what we'll pay,
if it goes away*
Top Gear, Merlin,
Ivor the Engine,
Watchdog, Wimbledon,
Springwatch, Formula 1,
Blue Peter, Swap Shop,
5 Live, Top of the Pops,
Trumpton and the Archers,
That Was the Week that Was,
the Goodies and Songs of Praise,
World at One, The Day Today,
Sorry, I haven't a clue,
Not the Nine O'clock News,
Nationwide, Mr. Men,
Doctor Who again!
Eastenders, Bottom,
Gary Lineker,
Radio One, Radio Two,
did I mention Doctor Who?
Ripping Yarns, Johnny Ball,
Test Match Special,
Bergerac, Perfect Day,
Radioactive, Howard's Way,
Jeremy Hardy, Final Score,
everything on BBC Four,
Only Fools, Sky at Night and Shooting Stars,
Pete and Dub, Teletubbies and Life on Mars,
Jackanory, a bit of Fry and Laurie,
Children in Need appeal,
Douglas Adams and John Peel!
I'm proud of the BBC,
like everybody has a right to be,
it's as British as midsummer showers,
and it's ours.
I'm proud of the BBC,
if we let it go, then it's gone perpetually,
and even if you don't always choose it,
you'll go out of your head if you lose it,
and it wouldn't be the same without it,
no doubt about it.
*A year of the BBC: £145.50. A year of the Daily Mail: £267.80. A year of Sky: £258-789 [I know what choice I'd make]
Friday 5 October 2012
On the link between the knitters and the skaters OR why we find such a cross over between the crafters and roller derby
Social networking is the future, right?
It’s what’s brought
us all together to start up derby leagues around the world since the revival
began in the US. It’s the 21st century, it makes older people mutter
that we’re all glued to our phones/ tablets/ laptops all the time and no-one
ever has a proper conversation any more. All the old ways of doing things are
going to be forgotten. Well, that’s not quite my experience. This is my take on
how social networking has actually made us get ‘back to basics’ in a number of
ways.
The first true social networking site I belonged to was
flickr. What started as a way to share photos with some friends and family
around the place quickly evolved into discovering what a true worldwide
community I now belonged to. Joining groups led me to find out about all sorts
of things. How a friend of a friend in Iowa had decorated her house. The
colourful cityscapes of Tokyo. Beautiful landscapes in Iceland where a
colleague had emigrated to. Yet there was one thing I kept discovering that I
hadn’t anticipated on the web. This was the amazing crafts that people were
making and sharing. I had dabbled in craft and embroidery for some time; but
was amazed to find the revival that was happening around the world (sound
familiar?). Making contacts and joining
groups on flickr led me to learn more and try out new ideas – you can
participate in a craft swap with people around the world, whether you work in traditional
embroidery, machine stitchery, subversive cross stitch, mixed media, knitting,
card making, scrapbooking… In the time
since 2007, I’ve joined a stitching group, gone to exhibitions and workshops
and generally met real people, but I still like to stick my pictures up online
to share with others.
I didn’t really know a lot about roller derby before I
joined my brand new league, Hulls Angels Roller Dames, towards the end of 2010.
What I did know, I now realise had been kind of filtered into my brain through
all the social networking I’d been doing.
As soon as I began to get to know people from my own league and later
from around the UK, my list of facebook friends suddenly went nuclear. If I
wasn’t sure about a move or a rule, I looked it up on youtube and straight
away, there was someone explaining it in a helpful video. I could watch my
idols at all hours of the night and day on DNN and rduk.tv There’s a simple
commonality here: these are movements where people are passionate about what
they are doing. They get up off their backsides and get it done. If it doesn't exist, these are people who find a way to make it possible and then go a step
further and share with others how it was done. I don’t think it’s a coincidence
that the stitchy/ crafy world and roller derby are both arenas in which you
will find successful women. Whatever background these women come from, it’s not
enough for them just to lead a 9 to 5 existence. They need something more and
they bring it. It’s not only women, either, as I’m sure the talented Mr X will
demonstrate.
The culmination of these two areas is where stitched craft
and roller derby meet. Browse through the Phat Quarter group on flickr or do a
quick search on Ravelry or Tumblr and you will immediately stumble across derby-related
crafts. My league and many others I've seen have hand-made items on their merch
stall: sock monkeys, hand-embroidered gifts, a rag-rug in the shape of a
skate. Recently I found out about the
roller derby quilt project, although it’s been going some time. Here is
evidence, if you ever needed it, of how one woman’s idea was made possible by
having derby contacts first around America and then around the world. Each
league or skater involved made a quilt square to be joined together into one
big quilt of derby love. It’s gone huge; it’s gone epic! The new goal is to get
a square from each league around the world. Get involved at http://rollerderbyquilt.blogspot.com.
I decided to make a square to represent the UKRDA, and next I’ll be getting the
skilled ladies of my league together to make a square representing Hulls
Angels. The passion, the skill and the
motivation to do better is what we share. Social
networking just makes the world a little bit smaller.
Thursday 9 August 2012
This was never meant to be a blog about sport
I don't really know why I've started to be so much of a sports fan over the last couple of years. Looking at it sensibly, there's two main things lining up: first I moved in with a boyfriend who watches a lot of sport, and second, I've found a sport I really like doing so maybe I have a better understanding of why people care so much about it.
This week there's been a load of brouhaha about the link between school sports and the very obvious fact that most of our Olympians were privately educated. I don't think it's a surprise. In fact, I'd crawl to the edge of a diving board on this and take the plunge on saying, hmmm, I bet most of the bankers are privately educated, I know most of the Cabinet are and I'd expect the same of most elite positions of power in this country. However, it seems to come as a shock to the Tory element of the coalition government who have spent the last few years taking money out of schools and public services that our state schools are not churning out athletes by the LOCOG-endorsed busful.
First: British kids do not like doing PE at school. Fact. Here's some mental images for you. Let's start in maybe the 60s or 70s. Picture the Dandy or the Beano. What's happening? The popular (probably "naturally good at sports" kids) are bullying the 'weedy' kids and making fun of their physique. Nicknames. Playground hierarchies. Stuck in the national psyche, that. Oh, and for the record, I would think this was 100 times worse in the private schools. I've read How to Be Topp. The difference is, and I'm being serious here, is for those kids in private and especially boarding schools, they really were spending hours and hours on the playing field, so yes, an advantage. 80s mental image is brought to you by the classic film Rita, Sue and Bob too. The world's worse taught tennis lesson participated in by reluctant girls wearing inappropriate kit, lacking the ones who'd gone off round the back to smoke. While I'm in the 80s - that sports pitch from Boys from the Blackstuff? That's what we were meant to learn on? My mental images from the 90s are probably pretty personal, but I suspect quite typical. Being put off sports I actually quite liked by bitchy girls, rule-breakers, show-offs, being the average kid who never actually learned much in the lesson because we just sort of faded into the background and learned the rules of sports by default. And hockey? St Trinian's (in any era) has that about right as how teenage girls approach a team sport. I haven't much to compare to in terms of other countries, but my time in French schools seems to show that they very much value time spent on any kind of sports and activities and they make a wide range available. In the US I'm aware that the same issues of bullying and a certain 'type' (the jocks) making up a large part of the participation is an issue, but they do get a couple of things right - extra credit for taking part in extra-curricular activities and sponsorship programmes for college athletes.
Second: You get out what you put in. Stopping funding, taking kids out of PE to catch up in other subjects, are not going to create an atmosphere where this is seen as something important. My personal struggle has always been that I lack confidence in my physical ability, and the mind rules the body when it comes to succeeding at any discipline. I wasn't born with that lack of self-confidence. I went to a school that recognised and encouraged my academic ability and made me someone who can literally stand up in front of a large number of people and speak, perform, stand up for what I believe, ask questions, whatever... But fail a task like vaulting the horse in gymnastics (I recall it well), then I'm not that confident person. I will throw a strop, give up and can probably be found sobbing in a corner. I did not have that in primary school, I started to try out new activities again once I left school and found that I quite enjoyed them, and so I'm forced to conclude that the atmosphere of high school did that to me. My union, the ATL, has this to say:
"It seems that David Cameron has forgotten that the ethos of the Olympics is about taking part and doing your best. Schools and teachers would love to have the curriculum time and facilities to teach a range of sports that will appeal to sporty pupils as well as non-sporty so that they can keep fit, enjoy sports, learn the importance of taking part, being a good team player, of persevering, the determination to win, and being competitive. But instead of helping, this government has sold off playing fields, cut funding for the Schools Sports Partnership, and removed the requirement to teach a minimum amount of PE while increasing the pressure to focus on subjects that will score well in league tables. "
There's been a lot of fuss about "doing your best" becoming so politically correct that kids aren't allowed to win any more etc etc. Read it carefully, that's not what this is saying. This is saying, allow each person to do his or her own best and give them the determination that it requires.
Kids learn very quickly who is good at what - give them the same 100m race to run every week and the ones who know they can't win stop trying. Allow them to try out some new things and they might find out what they're good at. Show them how to improve a skill, get them to aim for personal best, create a team that actually needs and values each player and BOOM! Then we all achieve. I do have good memories of school sports. My favourite is from sports day when we were about 13. Horrible age of hormones and bodies changing and moody strops. My form had just realised we were going to suffer terrible defeat at sports day because we were seriously lacking in people who could run races and jump over things and that. I'm guessing this to be the age when a lot of us stopped enjoying putting on horrible shorts and running around the lumpy field. Then the PE teachers announced there would be some other events now we were a bit older. Hammer throwing. Turns out we had a boy in our class who went on to compete nationally. Tug of war. Brilliant. The entire class, boys and girls, got to compete in the tug of war together - and guess what? We took on every form in our year and won. It made us feel strong and united and whenever any of us meet now it's one of the things we talk about. That's a powerful mental attitude, I wish more of us had been able to apply that attitude to other challenges. Javelin? Total nightmare, but we enjoyed having a go!
It is a sad fact that, at a time when teaching in all subjects has really improved, that the focus has been pushed so hard onto such a small number of factors - mainly passing Maths and English - that PE has often been pushed aside. I had at school, and I know now, lots of really good PE teachers, who give up their time to run clubs, tournaments, take pupils to matches and events and really support them. So please don't blame the teachers. But please do give them the curriculum time to teach things properly, a class size where more kids can achieve and be coached properly and the opportunities to do the things that you simply can't do in a hour in school.
*I'd like to include this viewpoint add right here*
I still struggle to be competitive - against myself and in a team. However, I did learn the positive benefits of physical and mental challenge and developing a skill. And I think this is the first time in my life when I would rather be doing or watching a sport than quite a lot of other things and my nerd side is still pretty shocked about that. I still hate being out of my comfort zone, I'm still a massive wimp with a fear of failure, and you'll still find me throwing a strop or dissolving into tears fairly regularly...but years and years of forcing myself out to try things and persevere with some of them reports a little like this:
- I can dance fairly well, in about 6 kinds of dance
- I can double timestep
- I can swim better backwards than forwards
- I am hopeless at diving
- I can swim well outdoors
- I can jump over an object on skates
- Still can't reverse crossover on quad skates, although I can on ice skates
- I can ride a unicyle
- I can't juggle
- I like to play on the wing in hockey and netball
- I'm better in defense in football and basketball
- I can abseil
- I can flip a kayak under water (I'm mainly proud of this because I wouldn't even out my head under water until I was about 11 years old)
- I can cycle up bigger hills than I think I can
- I am petrified of going downhill on anything with wheels
- I can somersault on a trampoline
- I can hip check pretty well in derby but I generally miss
- I can run for 15 minutes
- I can serve in tennis.... but I pretty much suck at anything that involves hitting a ball with a bat
- I can kick a door in with my roundhouse kick and have done so in both anger and emergencies.....
This week there's been a load of brouhaha about the link between school sports and the very obvious fact that most of our Olympians were privately educated. I don't think it's a surprise. In fact, I'd crawl to the edge of a diving board on this and take the plunge on saying, hmmm, I bet most of the bankers are privately educated, I know most of the Cabinet are and I'd expect the same of most elite positions of power in this country. However, it seems to come as a shock to the Tory element of the coalition government who have spent the last few years taking money out of schools and public services that our state schools are not churning out athletes by the LOCOG-endorsed busful.
First: British kids do not like doing PE at school. Fact. Here's some mental images for you. Let's start in maybe the 60s or 70s. Picture the Dandy or the Beano. What's happening? The popular (probably "naturally good at sports" kids) are bullying the 'weedy' kids and making fun of their physique. Nicknames. Playground hierarchies. Stuck in the national psyche, that. Oh, and for the record, I would think this was 100 times worse in the private schools. I've read How to Be Topp. The difference is, and I'm being serious here, is for those kids in private and especially boarding schools, they really were spending hours and hours on the playing field, so yes, an advantage. 80s mental image is brought to you by the classic film Rita, Sue and Bob too. The world's worse taught tennis lesson participated in by reluctant girls wearing inappropriate kit, lacking the ones who'd gone off round the back to smoke. While I'm in the 80s - that sports pitch from Boys from the Blackstuff? That's what we were meant to learn on? My mental images from the 90s are probably pretty personal, but I suspect quite typical. Being put off sports I actually quite liked by bitchy girls, rule-breakers, show-offs, being the average kid who never actually learned much in the lesson because we just sort of faded into the background and learned the rules of sports by default. And hockey? St Trinian's (in any era) has that about right as how teenage girls approach a team sport. I haven't much to compare to in terms of other countries, but my time in French schools seems to show that they very much value time spent on any kind of sports and activities and they make a wide range available. In the US I'm aware that the same issues of bullying and a certain 'type' (the jocks) making up a large part of the participation is an issue, but they do get a couple of things right - extra credit for taking part in extra-curricular activities and sponsorship programmes for college athletes.
Second: You get out what you put in. Stopping funding, taking kids out of PE to catch up in other subjects, are not going to create an atmosphere where this is seen as something important. My personal struggle has always been that I lack confidence in my physical ability, and the mind rules the body when it comes to succeeding at any discipline. I wasn't born with that lack of self-confidence. I went to a school that recognised and encouraged my academic ability and made me someone who can literally stand up in front of a large number of people and speak, perform, stand up for what I believe, ask questions, whatever... But fail a task like vaulting the horse in gymnastics (I recall it well), then I'm not that confident person. I will throw a strop, give up and can probably be found sobbing in a corner. I did not have that in primary school, I started to try out new activities again once I left school and found that I quite enjoyed them, and so I'm forced to conclude that the atmosphere of high school did that to me. My union, the ATL, has this to say:
"It seems that David Cameron has forgotten that the ethos of the Olympics is about taking part and doing your best. Schools and teachers would love to have the curriculum time and facilities to teach a range of sports that will appeal to sporty pupils as well as non-sporty so that they can keep fit, enjoy sports, learn the importance of taking part, being a good team player, of persevering, the determination to win, and being competitive. But instead of helping, this government has sold off playing fields, cut funding for the Schools Sports Partnership, and removed the requirement to teach a minimum amount of PE while increasing the pressure to focus on subjects that will score well in league tables. "
There's been a lot of fuss about "doing your best" becoming so politically correct that kids aren't allowed to win any more etc etc. Read it carefully, that's not what this is saying. This is saying, allow each person to do his or her own best and give them the determination that it requires.
Kids learn very quickly who is good at what - give them the same 100m race to run every week and the ones who know they can't win stop trying. Allow them to try out some new things and they might find out what they're good at. Show them how to improve a skill, get them to aim for personal best, create a team that actually needs and values each player and BOOM! Then we all achieve. I do have good memories of school sports. My favourite is from sports day when we were about 13. Horrible age of hormones and bodies changing and moody strops. My form had just realised we were going to suffer terrible defeat at sports day because we were seriously lacking in people who could run races and jump over things and that. I'm guessing this to be the age when a lot of us stopped enjoying putting on horrible shorts and running around the lumpy field. Then the PE teachers announced there would be some other events now we were a bit older. Hammer throwing. Turns out we had a boy in our class who went on to compete nationally. Tug of war. Brilliant. The entire class, boys and girls, got to compete in the tug of war together - and guess what? We took on every form in our year and won. It made us feel strong and united and whenever any of us meet now it's one of the things we talk about. That's a powerful mental attitude, I wish more of us had been able to apply that attitude to other challenges. Javelin? Total nightmare, but we enjoyed having a go!
It is a sad fact that, at a time when teaching in all subjects has really improved, that the focus has been pushed so hard onto such a small number of factors - mainly passing Maths and English - that PE has often been pushed aside. I had at school, and I know now, lots of really good PE teachers, who give up their time to run clubs, tournaments, take pupils to matches and events and really support them. So please don't blame the teachers. But please do give them the curriculum time to teach things properly, a class size where more kids can achieve and be coached properly and the opportunities to do the things that you simply can't do in a hour in school.
*I'd like to include this viewpoint add right here*
I still struggle to be competitive - against myself and in a team. However, I did learn the positive benefits of physical and mental challenge and developing a skill. And I think this is the first time in my life when I would rather be doing or watching a sport than quite a lot of other things and my nerd side is still pretty shocked about that. I still hate being out of my comfort zone, I'm still a massive wimp with a fear of failure, and you'll still find me throwing a strop or dissolving into tears fairly regularly...but years and years of forcing myself out to try things and persevere with some of them reports a little like this:
- I can dance fairly well, in about 6 kinds of dance
- I can double timestep
- I can swim better backwards than forwards
- I am hopeless at diving
- I can swim well outdoors
- I can jump over an object on skates
- Still can't reverse crossover on quad skates, although I can on ice skates
- I can ride a unicyle
- I can't juggle
- I like to play on the wing in hockey and netball
- I'm better in defense in football and basketball
- I can abseil
- I can flip a kayak under water (I'm mainly proud of this because I wouldn't even out my head under water until I was about 11 years old)
- I can cycle up bigger hills than I think I can
- I am petrified of going downhill on anything with wheels
- I can somersault on a trampoline
- I can hip check pretty well in derby but I generally miss
- I can run for 15 minutes
- I can serve in tennis.... but I pretty much suck at anything that involves hitting a ball with a bat
- I can kick a door in with my roundhouse kick and have done so in both anger and emergencies.....
Thursday 2 August 2012
Love for the Lympics
"Honestly, I think the thing I find moving about The Lympics is not the medal table but humans trying. It's fucking great." - Tweeted Chris Addison on 29 July.
So, there've been a few great moments in the Games so far. I'm angry about the whole corporate money/ sponsorship/ banning stuff/ interfering side of the Games... BUT humans trying is really truly amazing. Sports are fun to watch and the athletes try so hard. And I found out that I don't only like the really really exciting, edge of your seat type moments, but also the "what is that bit of equipment for?" type moments. So I'm going to write as many of them down here as possible. The boyfriend pointed out earlier that we're a third of the way through the Olympics, but hell, I'm doing it anyway. I'll start with a few from the last week in no particular order:
- why do the divers have small wet towels?
- the divers wear a lot of that physio tape
- I still gasp on every single dive and I even watched some of the qualifying events this year
- there's some random extra people standing on the edge of volleyball. Who are they?1
- the women's hockey uniform is great. Hockey skirts did not look like that when I played at school!
- There is no way Wiggins will not win Sports Personalty of the Year - but some women are nominated - YES! Winning the Maillot Jaune and a gold medal in one week. Awesome! I've been watching cycling for years, glad the rest of Britain and probably the world has caught on!
- They don't fasten their belts when they come undone in judo - later found out it is against the code of the discipline to do this unless the umpire tells them to. The ladies wear a vest underneath.
- Friday's events in the velodrome have brought some classics:
- The team pursuit which just looks like a computer game. The riders are so streamlined and so alike, that when they just go round and round and round they look computer generated.
- Their helmets make them look a bit like gnomes (just seen 3 twitter posts describe it as Smurfs)
- There is a race called the Keirin which brings with it some new vocabulary. Most notable is the oldish bloke on a bike who comes out to set the pace like the speed car in motor racing. Except that he looks like a cross between a copper and a Dutch guy popping out to the shops - upright with a load of streamlined fixed speed riders behind him. Anyway, this is called a derny, it's a small motorised scooter basically. The Keirin originates in Japan - this does not surprise me!
- also the Omnium, which is basically the heptathlon of cycling.
Super Saturday was amazing, but I think the whole world was watching and nothing new to me.
However, my attention was drawn to the young men participating in the long jump. Without exception "You're fit, but don't you just know it...!" Very good looking; very arrogant. Like the sprinters they all have a little signature move they do when the camera is on them.
There were three young British girls who won a medal in the team pursuit in cycling (Dani King, Laura Trott, and Joanna Rowsell ). They were so down to earth and enthusiastic. Also, they all had matching Union Jack nails. That was immediate-post-event interview of the year for me, as others have been so awkward and imposing at times. More of this please, Team GB.
-Synchronised swimming is pretty awesome, it's always been a favourite of mine
- The costumes are amazing; Brazil had a costume representing the human body
- A lot of the girls put their nose clips onto the bottom of their costume when they get out of the pool (like when I put my gumshield in my helmet?!?!)
- Apparently they put their hair up with gelatine!
- They walk about like models from the 1950s
some ace photos here
-Some of the table-tennis and basketball players (male) have a round thing under their knee. That's different from the kinesio tape but I'm guessing it does the same job. What is it though? It looks like a quoit.
-Laura Trott has been interviewed quite a lot. She's just lovely and inspiring and she herself talked about being influenced by Victoria Pendleton and Bradley Wiggins (got to be honest, I'd never even heard of Wiggins until last year...)
- Watched some BMX; it was oddly similar to watching a ski or snowboard event (time trials), not that exciting really. Latvian guy went over his handlebars and got winded.
-Today everyone seems mainly to be watching horses dancing. I don't agree with the use of animals in sport, so I'm not, but it's making for an amusing facebook and twitter feed anyway!
So, there've been a few great moments in the Games so far. I'm angry about the whole corporate money/ sponsorship/ banning stuff/ interfering side of the Games... BUT humans trying is really truly amazing. Sports are fun to watch and the athletes try so hard. And I found out that I don't only like the really really exciting, edge of your seat type moments, but also the "what is that bit of equipment for?" type moments. So I'm going to write as many of them down here as possible. The boyfriend pointed out earlier that we're a third of the way through the Olympics, but hell, I'm doing it anyway. I'll start with a few from the last week in no particular order:
- why do the divers have small wet towels?
- the divers wear a lot of that physio tape
- I still gasp on every single dive and I even watched some of the qualifying events this year
- there's some random extra people standing on the edge of volleyball. Who are they?1
- the women's hockey uniform is great. Hockey skirts did not look like that when I played at school!
- There is no way Wiggins will not win Sports Personalty of the Year - but some women are nominated - YES! Winning the Maillot Jaune and a gold medal in one week. Awesome! I've been watching cycling for years, glad the rest of Britain and probably the world has caught on!
- They don't fasten their belts when they come undone in judo - later found out it is against the code of the discipline to do this unless the umpire tells them to. The ladies wear a vest underneath.
- Friday's events in the velodrome have brought some classics:
- The team pursuit which just looks like a computer game. The riders are so streamlined and so alike, that when they just go round and round and round they look computer generated.
- Their helmets make them look a bit like gnomes (just seen 3 twitter posts describe it as Smurfs)
- There is a race called the Keirin which brings with it some new vocabulary. Most notable is the oldish bloke on a bike who comes out to set the pace like the speed car in motor racing. Except that he looks like a cross between a copper and a Dutch guy popping out to the shops - upright with a load of streamlined fixed speed riders behind him. Anyway, this is called a derny, it's a small motorised scooter basically. The Keirin originates in Japan - this does not surprise me!
- also the Omnium, which is basically the heptathlon of cycling.
Super Saturday was amazing, but I think the whole world was watching and nothing new to me.
However, my attention was drawn to the young men participating in the long jump. Without exception "You're fit, but don't you just know it...!" Very good looking; very arrogant. Like the sprinters they all have a little signature move they do when the camera is on them.
There were three young British girls who won a medal in the team pursuit in cycling (Dani King, Laura Trott, and Joanna Rowsell ). They were so down to earth and enthusiastic. Also, they all had matching Union Jack nails. That was immediate-post-event interview of the year for me, as others have been so awkward and imposing at times. More of this please, Team GB.
-Synchronised swimming is pretty awesome, it's always been a favourite of mine
- The costumes are amazing; Brazil had a costume representing the human body
- A lot of the girls put their nose clips onto the bottom of their costume when they get out of the pool (like when I put my gumshield in my helmet?!?!)
- Apparently they put their hair up with gelatine!
- They walk about like models from the 1950s
some ace photos here
-Some of the table-tennis and basketball players (male) have a round thing under their knee. That's different from the kinesio tape but I'm guessing it does the same job. What is it though? It looks like a quoit.
-Laura Trott has been interviewed quite a lot. She's just lovely and inspiring and she herself talked about being influenced by Victoria Pendleton and Bradley Wiggins (got to be honest, I'd never even heard of Wiggins until last year...)
- Watched some BMX; it was oddly similar to watching a ski or snowboard event (time trials), not that exciting really. Latvian guy went over his handlebars and got winded.
-Today everyone seems mainly to be watching horses dancing. I don't agree with the use of animals in sport, so I'm not, but it's making for an amusing facebook and twitter feed anyway!
Thursday 21 June 2012
or how I learned to stop worrying and love the education system
I'm lucky. I have 2 jobs and as such I get to go into a variety of schools and education settings across the age ranges, sectors and in different local authorities. I also think this puts me in a fairly good position to judge the current state of the education system in this country. Not as good as say, an OFSTED inspector, but, you know, probably in a better position than that idiot Michael Gove who may as well put schools into a time machine, set it to 1954 and have done.
If you'd told me 10 years ago that I could walk into 3 schools and an adult education classroom in one week, and find good standards of teaching, excellent resources, polite and well managed behaviour and staff with the time to have a chat at break time and make you a cup of tea, I would not have believed you. This week would have been the absolute dream when I entered teaching 10 years ago. In a 3 hour class on Monday evening with adults, and with 3 classes at KS3 on Tuesday, every single learner had access to a computer. With an internet connection that worked. And not once did a technician have to be called to fix something. Amazing - and made the lessons run like clockwork. This week I saw adults, many of whom had been out of education for several years, learn to research and reference, and enjoy it too. I saw GCSE students engage with contemporary poetry and a group who were inspired enough to make their own videos about it. Some of them showed me the poems they had written themselves. I held a mature and sensible discussion with 13 year olds about pet ownership and welfare and helped them to edit a leaflet about it that was frequently better than published material I have seen. I saw 5-6 year olds investigating the poles of a magnet, but more importantly I could see them learning about how to treat others, under the watchful eye of the 4 adults in the classroom. 4 people who really cared about their needs and patiently set good examples over and over. Every lesson set challenging yet achievable targets, made good use of ICT and engaged learners - so OFSTED would have been happy. But what amazes me about this week most of all is that there was nothing special about this. I've had a few bad experiences in my time, but I'm willing to bet that if you walked into schools or education settings anywhere around the country, the majority of them would be like this.
So I was a little surprised on Wednesday evening when Gove 'leaked' his plans to return to a two-tier education system. Apparently GCSEs haven't worked. BASED ON WHAT EVIDENCE? Ok, these points I concede, but I see them as simply indicators of where reform could happen (as opposed to, just press the undo button and start again): 1. Perhaps we do need a higher level of challenge for more able pupils, especially in the academic subjects. Fine, but we tried doing the GCSEs early to give pupils chance to do something else, the system couldn't cope, the kids were stressed, the parents complained and ultimately Gove stopped it (not that I'm giving him any credit for that, someone else would have had to anyway). And what happened to the EBACC that was meant to give a gold standard for this within the existing system? It's not even been around long enough to judge yet. 2. People have looked to countries like Germany to compare the standards of England and Wales. Fine, but in Germany children begin their formal education at a later age and stay on longer. I qualified as a teacher at age 22, but in Germany I would have been in at least my mid to late 20s to do the same. Perhaps if people in Britain were willing to give that amount of commitment to their education, we would have engineers who were competing on the same level. Germany still holds a system similar to the old secondary modern/ grammar school system we had here. That only operated for about 20 years and so I think we can assume the reasoning behind the comprehensive system still hold. To stream kids at a fairly young age is unfair and gives no choices, no aspirations and therefore no social mobility. Although I rather suspect this is what the Tories want to achieve. 3 There's no incentive to stay in education after GCSE. In fact, the government have gone to some length to take it away. So either you want a school leaver's criteria test (the GCSE, O Level or Standard Grade), or you don't - in which case you need something additional or alternative. But why abandon what you have.
As far as I can see, there's nothing wrong with the system. This morning, I constantly heard government ministers and industry bosses saying young people lack skills and aren't ready for work. Again, address what needs to be reformed. I don't think ever before so many 16-18 year olds left school with qualifications such as 5 A-Cs at GCSE. That doesn't make them automatically able to work in the career of their choice - though this could also be a part of their education. I also heard over and over, the voices of pupils, their parents and the teaching unions saying what everyone who works in education already knows. Messing about with exams, curriculum, standards etc is messing with children's futures. When the National Curriculum was introduced, I was at primary school. I had great teachers (that's not an opinion, it's a fact). Yet the obvious atmosphere of change and uncertainty did rub off on us as pupils. I am now able to look back at gaps in my own education as a result, although at the time it was no more a feeling of something being a bit off and repeating the same things over and over for quite a few years. Remember those 4 adults in the primary school class I observed this week? We didn't have them in the 1980s. Our teachers were just muddling through those changes. I don't think the first pupils to do GCSEs had it any different, and now we want to inflict it on another generation? Every time a government changes the system, that's a set of textbooks a school has just bought and can't use. Every change to an exam board is millions of pounds. Fiddling with something you don't understand is dangerous, whether you're a secretary of state or not. Fixing something that ain't broke at a cost of millions and millions of pounds in a country that appears to be on the breadline in more ways than one is patently ridiculous and can't be allowed to happen.
Thursday 9 February 2012
The trouble with football...
So I've been driving my friends, the boyfriend, and twitter feed mad with my complaints about why professional football (aka soccer) in this country is completely poisonous, and how it's starting to make me hate all football as a result. This is mainly a rant about the media and the FA, but I've realised the other tenets of my argument have a lot to say about how we view sport in the UK too.
First of all, let me say the good things about football in Britain:
There are actually other sports!
So the Olympics are going to be held in London this year, 2012! (End of the world notwithstanding). The British government has paid lip service to promoting sport, getting behind the sports played in the Olympics, funding more sports and generally trying to get people off the sofa. It doesn't really seem to be working though. Last night for example, I watched the scrolling news channels for about 2 hours. The story? The England football manager, Fabio Capello had quit. Despite having really nothing at all to say beyond speculation, BBC News and Sky News managed to spin that out for over 2 hours. People are getting bombed to death in Syria and it got about 5 minutes coverage. Over the week, the sports news (and I mainly listen to the BBC) on the radio referred to player transfers between teams, some things that some players/ managers had said, some stuff from Twitter and some mild analysis of the one or two games that had actually been played. Harry Redknapp's court case got most of the attention. I think cricket was mentioned once or twice. There was a notable half an hour on Sunday morning when 5Live managed to go an entire half an hour discussing other sports, and 5 minutes of that was about Scottish football teams. My point is this: if the media spent half the time covering other sports that it spends on professional football, people may actually have heard of them and want to go out and watch them or see them on a TV channel that isn't obscurely buried somewhere behind the adult channels. Sports that are newsworthy for any reason do get some seasonal coverage - notably the cycle races such as the Tour de France. This went apparently unnoticed here for several decades until Lance Armstrong became news... viewers realised it was interesting to watch... Britain got some good cyclists with some good sponsors... there's now a lot more TV and radio coverage of the Tour and the Giro. My point is, if the British government was actually serious about getting people into sport, they really could influence the funding and the media coverage of sports that are not football. I've just spent hours staring at a Sport England grant application and I can tell you, they are not making this easy.
The other sports in this year's Olympics: http://www.london2012.com/sport
It's actually quite boring
This never used to be a criticism I held of football. I grew up in a family that took it pretty seriously; watched, played, knew all the rules, but perhaps without the passion of some families as we didn't have a real team loyalty. England matches were pretty sacred and also how I learned that my dad did know swearwords. I played hockey at school and the rules are pretty similar so I never questioned it. But now, here's a strange thing... and once you've started to think it, you can't unthink it. It's like someone telling you how magic tricks work. Turns out the Americans were right. You can get through a whole football match without either team scoring. The players can literally pass the ball to each other for half an hour, or there might be a whole load of "ooooh" moments when a goal is narrowly missed, is saved, the ball hits the post. But face facts here - that's quite boring, it messes up the statistics (play the pools? have a fantasy league team? a no-score draw doesn't get you much, does it?) and I've actually watched fans walk out of the ground before the match ends. The commentators start to talk absolute drivel, and probably just read out some tweets. It seems to be one of those British things that we just accept this. The only way to score in football is to get a ball in the goal -you might get 3 or 5, but you might get 0. Your team might get some points without a score, but then, if you're not obsessed with where it is in the league table, are you really bothered? I only really noticed this when I started to watch other sports more. You can't watch an entire game of rugby league without anybody scoring anything, can you? It's also easier to see which team has the advantage at any given point in the game. I was always amused by American sports which seemed to have 5 minutes break for every minute of play, but guess what? They are entertaining to watch. Sports fans love the baseball, the basketball, the tennis, the NFL because stuff actually happens, points are scored, and not just by that one flukey moment when the ball actually goes in the goal. My latest theory is the more complicated the rules are, the harder it is to take your concentration off the action, and therefore, your interest is more often rewarded. Sports fans love to watch ice hockey, NASCAR, Gaelic football, rugby league, rugby union, roller derby because contact is made between the competitors and also it's great to shout "Hit someone!" while you're watching this... and because quite often a fight actually breaks out as well. Especially in ice hockey. The rule here is, any game that needs a large number of referees and officials is going to have those moments. Not sure? Watch five minutes of football and watch what the players do with their arms. If they look stupid, you've just learned how the magic trick is done. Now go and watch a contact sport. Or the movie Dodgeball.
The FA
http://www.thefa.com/
As a national, European, and international body. Now this is where I have to admit, I don't know that much about the governing body of any other sports. I play roller derby and the governing body is still in its quite early days, still mainly run by volunteers who play(ed) and love the sport, so maybe I'm biased. Still. It makes a mockery of any sport when all officiating, rule sets, funding, affiliation etc is overseen by a bunch of older white men sitting in a room, operating as a network of "old boys" who all know each other, and if they didn't go to school together, took a bribe from someone to get a decision made. It's known the whole thing is totally corrupt, but no-one seems to challenge this. Last week, BBC3 showed a documentary about homophobia in football. Barely any teams or players from the Premiership or top English leagues would comment and the FA seemed fairly closed off. Eventually, the presenter got an interview with the Equality rep from the FA. Who was a black woman. I ought to be fairly impressed with this, but I'm really not. If a Harry Redknapp-esque older white man with a London accent had invited the presenter into his office and had the same conversation I would have been more impressed, because I might have believed it. Standing outside Wembley with the token woman from the FA just looked really really staged, and for all I know, she might be the only woman who works there. It just added to the fact that the FA appear to be doing nothing about homophobia in football. Yes, there was a very successful campaign to "get racism out of football", but I think this had more to do with the players who were already role models to young men in this country. It was supported by the media, and the law was very clear, forcing the FA to act against any racism with fines, investigations, banning fans etc. I can't see that this has been done in every country in Europe thus far. The FA do what they like and they go where the money is.
The WAGs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAGs
Oh my god, the WAGs! Yes, any sport or profession with any glamour attached is going to attract media attention and hangers on, but really, this has been one of the worst things to drag down the reputation of professional football. The reason that many young lads grow up wanting to be a footballer is not because they want to be an athlete and represent their team or even their country. It's because they want to make loadsa money, drive fast cars and drink champagne with over-impressed women in nightclubs. It's a good thing that David Beckham, Wayne Rooney or Rio Ferdinand can demonstrate that talent and hard work can get you all the way to the top, and there are some true rags-to-riches stories in football, as there are in American football and basketball. Where the rot sets in is that this has become an aspiration, a reason not to try hard and get a good education. In turn, there's now a generation of young girls who aspire simply to be the wife, girlfriend, or even the mistress of a famous footballer. Instead of being themselves, they think society wants them to dress and act a certain way and the media is feeding this. If the government and sponsorship really got behind attracting young people to other sports it would do a great deal for their self esteem instead of telling them that having an affair with a footballer is a good thing. One of my new year's resolutions was to put my money where my mouth is and stop buying celebrity magazines, because otherwise you look at the fallout from Jordan and Imogen Thomas and Ashley Cole and go "we created that monster." Idolatry is dangerous, plain and simple. If you're still struggling with this concept, I have one question "Peter Crouch: would you? Really?"
In conclusion: The twenty-first century is all about having more leisure time, more choice in how we spend our time and money (if we have any left), being able to connect with anyone, any time through all these different forms of media we use every day. It's time Britain stopped being all about "any given Saturday" and enjoyed some other sports and past-times on some other days of the week. Preferably some that aren't controlled by a single-minded news media and a corrupt governing body. You can risk your life and spend your money trying out extreme sports, you can teach your children to actually be good at tennis or golf or cricket or another glamorous sport that brings home the cash, or you can just go down your local leisure centre and whack the odd shuttlecock about. It's your life. If you do love football, love it for its heroes, its history, for your team loyalty... and not for putting an England flag up once every few years and having an excuse to shout at the telly in the pub because you've got nothing else to do.
First of all, let me say the good things about football in Britain:
- It's our national sport. Especially in England where it's pretty much the only sport we're good at. I mean cricket is going ok at present, but it does seem to be mainly a summer obsession and it's got some faintly snobbish overtones that seem to put people off. Scotland isn't quite as good at football, but the Scottish certainly have the same passion for it. I'm not sure how Wales fits into this one...
- Football is our national sport for a few strong reasons: it comes from, broadly speaking, working class roots, it's easy to watch and to play and to talk about in the pub. A football player is something that kids grow up aspiring to be. Pretty much anyone can play on a Sunday or 5-a-side team and failing that, eat pies at the match or sit in the pub and talk about it. You don't need any special equipment and it's possible to play with one referee (or often none, judging by the boyfriend's 5-a-side team...). "Jumpers for goalposts."
- A certain level of fitness is required to be any good at it, and people getting fit is a good thing.
- It promotes town/ city/ county and national pride.
There are actually other sports!
So the Olympics are going to be held in London this year, 2012! (End of the world notwithstanding). The British government has paid lip service to promoting sport, getting behind the sports played in the Olympics, funding more sports and generally trying to get people off the sofa. It doesn't really seem to be working though. Last night for example, I watched the scrolling news channels for about 2 hours. The story? The England football manager, Fabio Capello had quit. Despite having really nothing at all to say beyond speculation, BBC News and Sky News managed to spin that out for over 2 hours. People are getting bombed to death in Syria and it got about 5 minutes coverage. Over the week, the sports news (and I mainly listen to the BBC) on the radio referred to player transfers between teams, some things that some players/ managers had said, some stuff from Twitter and some mild analysis of the one or two games that had actually been played. Harry Redknapp's court case got most of the attention. I think cricket was mentioned once or twice. There was a notable half an hour on Sunday morning when 5Live managed to go an entire half an hour discussing other sports, and 5 minutes of that was about Scottish football teams. My point is this: if the media spent half the time covering other sports that it spends on professional football, people may actually have heard of them and want to go out and watch them or see them on a TV channel that isn't obscurely buried somewhere behind the adult channels. Sports that are newsworthy for any reason do get some seasonal coverage - notably the cycle races such as the Tour de France. This went apparently unnoticed here for several decades until Lance Armstrong became news... viewers realised it was interesting to watch... Britain got some good cyclists with some good sponsors... there's now a lot more TV and radio coverage of the Tour and the Giro. My point is, if the British government was actually serious about getting people into sport, they really could influence the funding and the media coverage of sports that are not football. I've just spent hours staring at a Sport England grant application and I can tell you, they are not making this easy.
The other sports in this year's Olympics: http://www.london2012.com/sport
It's actually quite boring
This never used to be a criticism I held of football. I grew up in a family that took it pretty seriously; watched, played, knew all the rules, but perhaps without the passion of some families as we didn't have a real team loyalty. England matches were pretty sacred and also how I learned that my dad did know swearwords. I played hockey at school and the rules are pretty similar so I never questioned it. But now, here's a strange thing... and once you've started to think it, you can't unthink it. It's like someone telling you how magic tricks work. Turns out the Americans were right. You can get through a whole football match without either team scoring. The players can literally pass the ball to each other for half an hour, or there might be a whole load of "ooooh" moments when a goal is narrowly missed, is saved, the ball hits the post. But face facts here - that's quite boring, it messes up the statistics (play the pools? have a fantasy league team? a no-score draw doesn't get you much, does it?) and I've actually watched fans walk out of the ground before the match ends. The commentators start to talk absolute drivel, and probably just read out some tweets. It seems to be one of those British things that we just accept this. The only way to score in football is to get a ball in the goal -you might get 3 or 5, but you might get 0. Your team might get some points without a score, but then, if you're not obsessed with where it is in the league table, are you really bothered? I only really noticed this when I started to watch other sports more. You can't watch an entire game of rugby league without anybody scoring anything, can you? It's also easier to see which team has the advantage at any given point in the game. I was always amused by American sports which seemed to have 5 minutes break for every minute of play, but guess what? They are entertaining to watch. Sports fans love the baseball, the basketball, the tennis, the NFL because stuff actually happens, points are scored, and not just by that one flukey moment when the ball actually goes in the goal. My latest theory is the more complicated the rules are, the harder it is to take your concentration off the action, and therefore, your interest is more often rewarded. Sports fans love to watch ice hockey, NASCAR, Gaelic football, rugby league, rugby union, roller derby because contact is made between the competitors and also it's great to shout "Hit someone!" while you're watching this... and because quite often a fight actually breaks out as well. Especially in ice hockey. The rule here is, any game that needs a large number of referees and officials is going to have those moments. Not sure? Watch five minutes of football and watch what the players do with their arms. If they look stupid, you've just learned how the magic trick is done. Now go and watch a contact sport. Or the movie Dodgeball.
The FA
http://www.thefa.com/
As a national, European, and international body. Now this is where I have to admit, I don't know that much about the governing body of any other sports. I play roller derby and the governing body is still in its quite early days, still mainly run by volunteers who play(ed) and love the sport, so maybe I'm biased. Still. It makes a mockery of any sport when all officiating, rule sets, funding, affiliation etc is overseen by a bunch of older white men sitting in a room, operating as a network of "old boys" who all know each other, and if they didn't go to school together, took a bribe from someone to get a decision made. It's known the whole thing is totally corrupt, but no-one seems to challenge this. Last week, BBC3 showed a documentary about homophobia in football. Barely any teams or players from the Premiership or top English leagues would comment and the FA seemed fairly closed off. Eventually, the presenter got an interview with the Equality rep from the FA. Who was a black woman. I ought to be fairly impressed with this, but I'm really not. If a Harry Redknapp-esque older white man with a London accent had invited the presenter into his office and had the same conversation I would have been more impressed, because I might have believed it. Standing outside Wembley with the token woman from the FA just looked really really staged, and for all I know, she might be the only woman who works there. It just added to the fact that the FA appear to be doing nothing about homophobia in football. Yes, there was a very successful campaign to "get racism out of football", but I think this had more to do with the players who were already role models to young men in this country. It was supported by the media, and the law was very clear, forcing the FA to act against any racism with fines, investigations, banning fans etc. I can't see that this has been done in every country in Europe thus far. The FA do what they like and they go where the money is.
The WAGs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAGs
Oh my god, the WAGs! Yes, any sport or profession with any glamour attached is going to attract media attention and hangers on, but really, this has been one of the worst things to drag down the reputation of professional football. The reason that many young lads grow up wanting to be a footballer is not because they want to be an athlete and represent their team or even their country. It's because they want to make loadsa money, drive fast cars and drink champagne with over-impressed women in nightclubs. It's a good thing that David Beckham, Wayne Rooney or Rio Ferdinand can demonstrate that talent and hard work can get you all the way to the top, and there are some true rags-to-riches stories in football, as there are in American football and basketball. Where the rot sets in is that this has become an aspiration, a reason not to try hard and get a good education. In turn, there's now a generation of young girls who aspire simply to be the wife, girlfriend, or even the mistress of a famous footballer. Instead of being themselves, they think society wants them to dress and act a certain way and the media is feeding this. If the government and sponsorship really got behind attracting young people to other sports it would do a great deal for their self esteem instead of telling them that having an affair with a footballer is a good thing. One of my new year's resolutions was to put my money where my mouth is and stop buying celebrity magazines, because otherwise you look at the fallout from Jordan and Imogen Thomas and Ashley Cole and go "we created that monster." Idolatry is dangerous, plain and simple. If you're still struggling with this concept, I have one question "Peter Crouch: would you? Really?"
In conclusion: The twenty-first century is all about having more leisure time, more choice in how we spend our time and money (if we have any left), being able to connect with anyone, any time through all these different forms of media we use every day. It's time Britain stopped being all about "any given Saturday" and enjoyed some other sports and past-times on some other days of the week. Preferably some that aren't controlled by a single-minded news media and a corrupt governing body. You can risk your life and spend your money trying out extreme sports, you can teach your children to actually be good at tennis or golf or cricket or another glamorous sport that brings home the cash, or you can just go down your local leisure centre and whack the odd shuttlecock about. It's your life. If you do love football, love it for its heroes, its history, for your team loyalty... and not for putting an England flag up once every few years and having an excuse to shout at the telly in the pub because you've got nothing else to do.
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