I was going to post my blog y'day, but I ended up watching 5 episodes of Peep Show.
I Hope you had a more productive Bank Holiday Monday.
I was out and about last Thurs, compering a book launch for the Oldham Writing Cafe, for their book Shadows (you can order this bookby emailing writingcafe@hotmail., a book about Oldham, by Oldham writers, inspired by stories from Oldham people. Whilst I was there I met a regular reader of this blog, Simon, which is always nice. It is also a bit weird meeting someone who knows so much about you (by virtue of my posts) and yet you don't really know each other. He probably knows more about what is going on in my life than my friends and family. I suppose this is the modern way.
One of the stories from the book was about items of clothing being stolen from a washing line. So I asked the audience, which included the Mayor of Oldham and was generally an older crowd, had they had any clothes stolen from their washing line. One woman mentioned that some lads had nicked a load of her bras and then one lady, Pauline, mentioned she'd had her 'rape skirt' nicked when she was younger. That I have to admit was definitely not a phrase I thought I was going to hear when I left my flat to go to this event, especially coming out of the mouth of an older lady. Feel free to let me know, via the comments button, if you've had any items of clothing stolen from your washing line, or even better, have you ever stolen anything from someone's washing line. Ps. For those unfamiliar with a 'rape skirt' apparently it is a skirt with a zip on the front, which goes all the way down from the top to the bottom.
Someone else who was out and about in the Northwest was Gordon Brown, you may have heard about it, cos he made a gaff by calling a Rochdale woman, Gillian Duffy, a "bigotted woman", whilst his TV mic was on. Obviously, it wasn't the wisest of things to do, but as off the mic remarks go, it could have been worse. He could, for example, have described a black man as a "Thick, lazy, f*cking n*gg*r". Hello Ron Atkinson if you are reading this.
I've heard Gillian Duffy is set to earn between £10 000- £80 000, from newspaper articles etc. which makes me think it was just a clever tactic by Gordon Brown to sort out the pension crisis, one pensioner at a time.
Til Next Time, Stay Safe (and vote wisely)!