Scribbles

Hate: People who get on the bus and talk REALLY LOUDLY ABOUT ALL THE SHITE GOING ON IN THEIR LIFE. I don't care. Just keep it down. (not being dublinist but we're talking dubs here)

Like: Sunny skies

Complaint of the day: I've been receiving loadsa complaints. Stop complaining!

Writing class was brill! Very happy I joined. It was better than I predicted although I did get somethings right. There were loadsa housewifey types there. And the teacher had a beard. But there were way more younger people people than I thought, more men and a big pints session afterwards. Didn't expect that.

It's based around improving your reading knowledge, looking at other writer's work, searching for ideas and critiquing your class colleagues' scripts. Apparently the knees up afterwards is a way of getting you to relax in each other's presence so that you can bitch each other's pieces without offending anyone cos you are all 'friends'. I like it! I also enjoyed meeting new people who shared the same interest as me. It's safe to say I felt... alive.

I rushed out to buy a load of new books afterwards. I love buying books. This is only a recent phenomenon although I do geekishly remember being very excited when I rented a book from the library that I knew I'd love. It's so much easier to buy a book than find a pair of jeans/shoes/top/handbag/bra that fits you, matches everything and doesn't cost the earth. Sure a book only costs 11 euro. And it doesn't make you feel fat.

Looking forward to tomorrows' class - have to finish the readings tonight and write the task, but that should be fine. Slightly more worried about the personal essay you have to produce at the end of the term - what the hell will I write about? Having your personal problems displayed for all and sundry to see makes me feel vulnerable. Very vulnerable.

I'm not going mad with the drink either. Can't be getting locked after every class... think of the beer belly. So I've arranged it that I can't go drinking for long for the next two Thursdays. Good woman.

In other feminist news, I watched a really good doc at the weekend about honour killings. Kadriye Demirel, a 17-year-old living in Diyarbakir in Turkey, was being raped by her neighbours (it was not clear whether it was consensual or rape, but it seemed to be rape). When she became pregnant, her brothers and cousin put a sword in her head and then beat her with a rock. The rock lodged in the wound. She died later in hospital. In protest, the muslim women removed their headscarves and carried her coffin at the funeral - a big no-no in the muslim faith. It was fascinating stuff.

I know honour killings receive quite a lot of press and the stigma of pregnancy outside marriage is still taboo, even in Ireland today, but beating a young girls head in with a meat cleaver and a rock, to punish her for being raped, fills me with so much rage I could spit purple blood. The hypocrisy and injustice of it all makes me want to kill men or something. This would be pointless however, as the women seem to be included in it too. In this case, it appears that her mother knew she would be killed and let it happen. She claimed she 'fell asleep, or something' while her daughter was being butchered in the street.

So that's my feminist rant for today.

I don't hate men (actually I really like them) I just hate what I've described above.

(Inherently female) Ladysinger