Difference in Retail Therapy …

On behalf of the female species I just want to say this:

The female of the species in every culture, in every corner of the globe has one hobby, one pastime that is normally very high on the agenda – the shopping. It is not so much of the actual getting of the goods, but to just to be able to look at everything available, to walk about with your friends and have a quality cup of coffee in a cafe with the right ambience. To be at your leisure is the most important factor in the whole equation. Huh? Sounds complicated, this feminine maths and the female logic to the uninitiated, does it? Aahh, tis plain as mud.

I have two daughters who are all grown-up these days, yet still when we get together, we like to go browsing in the stores in whichever country we will meet. It does not necessarily mean that we will buy that much as it is more to get a feel of the locale. It is a culture test of a kind as what is in the stores speaks volumes to the one that is so inclined.

The word ‘therapy’, in Retail Therapy, means in its original language, Greek,

therap-, –therapeutic[s], –therapeutically, –therapy, –therapies, –therapist

(Greek: heal, cure; treatment; service done to the sick, a waiting on).

So true. Retail therapy could be said to be a ‘service done to the whole business world and the world economics‘, for tis really mostly the females that keep the retailers on the High Street going. This link has the ‘scientific’ – read: rather on the dull side – explanations on the High Street. Neither do I think that even if the net domain is called High Street with tons of stores and goods online that it is equal to the real retail therapy experience! No way.

Now a question

“WHO ARE THESE CONSUMERS that keep the world’s markets going?”

The answer:

LADIES, naiset, DAMEN, femmes, WOMEN, frauen ….

It is a fact universally acknowledged that it is the women in every country who mostly do the shopping and so they are the consumers that these statistics are talking about and whose shopping habits they reflect!

We should be given a credit for doing such a noble thing to help the world economy in every country. I suggest the NP aka The Noble Prize* in The Retail Therapy for the best candidate searched with the right criteria et cetera. The NP in Retail Therapy could be a section of the NP in the Economics, for example.

I have been called Queen of Retail Therapy, but I will tell you that those days are long past & gone! Truly. Seriously, now, do mean it. No joking. Actually. Rii :))

PS.
I do vouch 100 per cent that she had a swell of a time every single second of those 3 hrs and 26 mins, because the RT is a cheer for her and not a chore like tis to him,  who is suffering every split-second of those 6 mins, as he dashed into the store & out!! Her money was better spent, I say.

* Nominations taken. 🙂

(My) Fashion Trendsetters: GRACE KELLY

I don’t want to dress up a picture with just my face.
Grace Kelly

(This video has lovely pictures of Grace but i do not like the music so just do like i do: turn the sound off and enjoy the most fabulous photos of her!!)

“We all knew from the beginning there was something about Grace”
– Mum Margaret Kelly, from Princess Grace: A Biography, 1976 (Quoted in Hello Magazine online tribute to her).

”Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco, née Grace Patricia Kelly, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 12, 1929. She was the third child of a family of four. Her father, John Brendan Kelly, was a businessman and an Olympic rowing champion ; her mother’s maiden name was Margaret Majer. She was the niece of American playwright, George Kelly, a Pulitzer prize winner.

Miss Grace Kelly’s scholastic studies took place at Raven Hill Academy Philadelphia, a convent run by the Sisters of the Assumption, and later at Stevens School, also in Philadelphia. Strongly attracted to the theatre, she attended the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York, and graduated after two years. Her debut as a stage actress took place in New York, where she played the role of Raymond Massey’s daughter in Strindberg’s play, « The Father ».

After several parts in the theatre and on television, Grace Kelly went to Hollywood. There she experienced a dramatic rise towards the heights of the artistic career. Among her films were « High Noon » – « Mogambo » – « Dial M for Murder » – « High Society » – « To Catch a Thief » – « The Swan » – and « Country Girl », for which she received an Oscar in 1954, the highest American Cinema Award.’’ (Prince’s Palace of Monaco site online)

“Grace Kelly was ”characterized by an innate sense of style, classic beauty and inherent good taste. Always atop the “world’s most beautiful” lists, admired as a fashion leader and setter of trends, She “graced” the pages of many a glossy magazine with a dazzling smile, warm, enigmatic eyes and vivacious expression. “Grace Kelly style” is a well-known, well-used phrase in the English lexicon signifying incomparable beauty and all that is chic, natural and lady-like.” (Fashion Era.com)

Grace’s wholesome yet sophisticated look — neat twin sets, full skirts, and pearls — was perfect for the 1950s. It even caught the eye of fashion designer Oleg Cassini, to whom she was unofficially engaged before she met Prince Rainier. Kelly bag was born out of Grace’s desire to hide her pregnancy!* First produced in 1935, it was not until 1956 that the bag’s reputation became positively stratospheric when the newlywed Princess Grace of Monaco was famously photographed for the cover of Time magazine trying to shield her pregnant belly with a classic Hermes bag. The bag in question thereafter became known as the Kelly in her honour, and shot to global bestseller status, where it remains today. Fashion commentators at the time were quite clear about the association of bag and star: carrying a Kelly bag screamed class and old money, both then thought to be highly desirable. (Daily Mail online)

CELEBRATION of GRACE on October 15-26 in 2007 was 25 years since her death at the age of 52 in 1982. ”To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Grace’s tragic death at 52, the principality of Monaco is staging a major retrospective starting at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco (July 12 through September 23) and culminating in a special Sotheby’s exhibition in New York City titled “Grace, Princess of Monaco: The Life and Legacy of Grace Kelly” (October 15 through 25). Sotheby’s also will be conducting an auction during the Princess Grace Foundation-USA Awards Gala on October 25” (Harper’s Bazaar online)

According to the Newscom Australia her son Prince Albert said: “For my sisters and myself, this exhibition will revive happy memories we shared with our mother, who was a peerless woman.”

In the 1920’s, Somerset Maugham wrote: “Monaco is a sunny place for shady people”. That was all to change the day Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco on April 19,1956.

“I’d like to be remembered as a decent human being and a caring one” Princess Grace, 1982

I have compiled a selection of these fashion trendsetters of mine and here are the others in that link plus an entry on The Little Black Dress in this link here.

Keep so well and swell. Rii xx

Sources:
* http://www.visitmonaco.com/mtny/style_icon.html
* http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/10_01/gracekelly0710_468x390.jpg
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/magazine/feature-articles/princess-grace-0807
http://www.visitmonaco.com/mtny/life.html
http://www.visitmonaco.com/mtny/home.htm
Wikipedia on Grace Kelly http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Kelly
http://www.who2.com/princessgrace.html

HOORAY 4 WOMEN!

They used to give us a day –it was called International Women’s Day.

In 1975 they gave us a year, the Year of the Woman.
Then from 1975 to 1985 they gave us a decade, the Decade of the Woman.

I said at the time, who knows, if we behave they may let us into the whole thing. Well, we didn’t behave and here we are. Bella Abzug (1920-1998)

International Women’s Day has been observed since in the early 1900’s, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies. Great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women. Women’s oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. (International Women’s Day online)

In an article entitled ‘International Women’s Day protests highlight violence, inequality’ there is among other things this:

”Calls to end forced marriage, domestic abuse and job discrimination marked International Women’s Day on Saturday as demonstrators took to the streets worldwide.”

And this the advice in North Korea to their ladies:

’Communist North Korea marked International Women’s Day in its own way by urging its women to reject Western fashions and to “set good examples” in their clothes and hairstyles. “Women must set good examples in all fields of culture and custom, including clothes, hairdos and language,” Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the North’s ruling Korean Workers’ Party, said in an editorial.’

Even this was in the above article: “French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an end to pay inequality between men and women, and pledged to institute financial sanctions to address the problem.” — That’ll be the day, I say, when the pay will be!

If you want something said,
ask a man;
if you want something done,
ask a woman. (Margaret Thatcher)

This is what is urged in one of the sites where I got articles for this entry:

”So make a difference, think globally and act locally !! Make everyday International Women’s Day. Do your bit to ensure that the future for girls is bright, equal, safe and rewarding.”

This said as even today — and every single day — thousands of Baby Girls are terminated in the womb of their mothers, just because they are Girls, when the parents wanted boys… So many females have been ‘finished’ that the imbalance ratio on males-females is in millions in certain countries and is increasing alarmingly each day.

Take good care. Rii 🙂

© The portrait of The Girl in Cameo is by Riihele. All rights reserved.

Further read in the International Museum of Women online.

Knitting or Stitch ‘n Bitch

“Those of you who feel knitting has changed your life, welcome to the club. I can think of no better occupation to reveal your own creativity.”

Kaffe Fassett

Wikipedia defines knitting as “a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth. Knitting consists of loops called stitches pulled through each other. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can be passed through them.”

We had to learn knitting at schools in Finland from very early ages it being compulsory; I do have to admit that my ’products’ at that time were the most sorry sights ever! Really. What I managed to produce after much sweat ’n toil was one mitten, one sock instead of pairs of the same as required, a whirly-twirly scarf that looked like waves, and so on; you get the picture, for I absolutely disliked handicrafts then. That we had a sour teacher on the subject who did not like me, did not help either, it must be said.

Then years later I moved to Sweden where the girls were very partial to knitting and sewing — surprise, surprise!! as the reputation of the Swedish females would bring to one’s mind something totally different interests, eh?! — I learned to love the knitting, sewing et al. And from then on I have been doing my own patterns and whatnot, I absolutely love knitting nowadays.

Ireland, had I in my mind’s eye painted as, THE land of great yarns with the numbers of sheep the land has grazing in the fields, but when I reached the shores of the Emerald Isle, the selection was minuscule and pitiful to the ultimate as far as a variety of yarn was concerned. Sure, the meat of the mutton et al was and is ab fab over there, but as I said…The Irish, of course, are spectacularly gifted at spinning the verbal yarn, that is well-known world over.

It is funny as in ha-ha! to see that when the males want to ‘beat’ the women in females’ own games aka in cooking, etc., and even knitting — even though, Ezer Weizman said this: ‘Honey, have you ever seen a man knitting socks? ’ — they quickly become super celebrities as is Kaffe Fassett. What a brilliant name for kaffe in Swedish means coffee, by the way, and the beverage of choice in knitting sessions many a time. Here is what I found about KF on the net:

”Kaffe Fassett is known as the U.K’s King of Colour and Design – for interior and garden decoration, needlepoint, knitting and mosaic designs; also for his award-winning 1998 Chelsea Flower Show garden. Now he is designing sets and costumes for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His books include magnificent examples of tapestry, knitwear, painting, patchwork, fabrics and the latest mosaics, but the emphasis has to be on his original and daring use of colour.
Born in San Francisco, Kaffe Fassett’s earliest influences were the beauty and colour of his mother’s garden. In 1964 he moved to England and gardens are still what he loves most.” (Radio National Australia)

Great chefs carry their sets of knives, able artists carry their brush sets, and serious knitters have their knitting needle cases!

Stitch ‘n Bitch is a brilliant book of 258 pages on all things as per title; seriously, it seems like a handy guide to everybody who wants to have a fun and comprehensive reference on this grand pastime.

This is an absolutely hysterically funny video about knitting made by sharp-witted Finns:

”No longer shall I paint interiors with men reading and women knitting. I will paint living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love.”
Edvard Munch

Tis for now, Rii — who finds that knitting eases the frazzled nerves very much indeed!!

Fabulously in-vogue pages of knitting et al on Vogue online:
http://www.vogueknitting.com/vkm/?q=node/79
http://www.vogueknitting.com/vkm/

Victoria and Albert Museum great links:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/index.html

Other handy links:
http://www.knittinghelp.com/
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/learn-to-knit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knitting

LITERACY or Love of Reading

“What I can think about, I can talk about. What I can say, I can write. What I can write, I can read.
I can read what I can write and what other people can write for me to read.”

Professor Roach Van Allen

The picture, – do click at it to make it clearer, please – that I used as the lead photo, is the list of countries by literacy rate as included in the United Nations Development Programme Report 2005. Four countries lead the chart of literacy world wide with 100 per cent literacy rates Georgia, Finland, Luxembourg and Norway. Both The USA and UK are on # 21 with 99 per cent; as are Australia, France, Ireland and Germany. India is # 145 with 61 per cent. China is # 67 with 93,5 per cent.

The UNESCO literacy estimates provide basic information on the number and percentage of adults (aged 15 years and older) and youth (aged 15 to 24 years old) who are literate and illiterate. They indicate the dimensions and patterns of illiteracy within each country according to gender and age-groups, so as to aid in policy- and decision-making with regard to measures to be taken to raise the literacy level of the population. These estimates in a way reflect the performance of the national education system, as well as the quality of the human resources within a country in relation to their potential for growth, contribution to development, and quality of life.

What constitutes literacy aka literacy as defined by UNESCO:

1. A literate person is one who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement relevant to his everyday life.
2. Literacy is not the simple reading of a word or a set of associated symbols and sounds, but an act of critical understanding of men’s situation in the world.
3. Literacy is not an end in itself but a means of personal liberation and development and extending individuals educational efforts involving overall inter-disciplinary responses to concrete problems
4. A literate person is one who has acquired all the essential knowledge and skills which enable him to engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning in his group and community and whose attaining in reading, writing and numeracy make it possible to use these skills towards his own and his community’s development.

The United Nations defines illiteracy as the inability to read and write a simple sentence in any language. So, these literacy rates refer only to basic, not advanced, literacy. UNESCO Portal for the International Literacy Day. September 8 was proclaimed International Literacy Day by UNESCO on November 17, 1965. It was first celebrated on 1966. Its aim is to highlight the importance of literacy to individuals, communities and societies with celebrations taking place around the world.

An estimated 781 million adults live without basic literacy skills, of whom two-thirds are women. In addition, approximately 103 million children have no access to school and are therefore not learning to read, write or count. All these figures mentioned in the previous sentence total more or less one billion so to put in a way that it is easier to fathom: 1 in 6 in the world cannot read, write nor count! How very tragic that the wonderful pleasure of literacy is ’denied’ these folks, methinks.

This is an extract of an old article called ’Gestures not enough to teach the world’ on Guardian online site dated September 8, 2000, but still it is very relevant:

“We have been here before. The high-level conferences, the firm commitments, the hand-wringing, the international agreements that promise the earth and deliver next to nothing – all have been part of the backdrop to the campaign for debt relief. Now there is a threat that the campaign for universal primary education could go the same way.

One third of the world’s population — that is 2 billion people — live in countries which have fewer telephone lines in total than Italy — with a population of less than 60 million! Around 90% of telecommunications traffic takes place between rich countries, while 50% of the world’s population have never made a phone call. As the knowledge economy takes root in the coming years, this lack of access will take a heavy toll and widen the divide still further.

A computer is not much use to a child who cannot read. Out of a global population of 6 billion, 880m adults are illiterate, two thirds of them women, most of them in south Asia. All these figures underestimate the full extent of the literacy problem, perhaps by as much as half. They are based on school attendance figures, and ignore the problem of the numbers of children who leave school functionally illiterate. In Africa, where increasing numbers of children will be out of school unless there is emergency action by western institutions, a new generation of adult illiterates is set to create a dangerously marginalised section of society.

Even in the industrialised world illiteracy is a problem, with almost a quarter of young adults in the US having difficulty reading all but the simplest of texts. In the developed as in the undeveloped world low literacy invariably means poverty and the spiralling problems of drugs, violence and insecurity which go with it.”

Debunking myths about the “Third World” (This video has most fabulous graphics)

“If we talk about literacy, we have to talk about how to enhance our children’s mastery over the tools needed to live intelligent, creative, and involved lives.” (Danny Glover)

Tis for now from Rii – who loves to read & write. xx

These are some of the great links that I used in this article and for further reading:

http://www.literaturepage.com/
http://www.uis.unesco.org/en/stats/statistics/literacy2000.htm
http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Literacy/
http://www.literacyconnections.com/InTheirOwnWords.php
http://www.literacyconnections.com/
http://www.vocabvitamins.com/

Literacy Exchange: World Resources on Literacy
Nation Master site that has all kinds statistics on all kinds of things!

PICTURE PERFECT: OUTRAGEOUS

This week’s theme on

PICTURE PERFECT

is

OUTRAGEOUS

This luxury pair of gloves for the discerning housewives fits the bill spot-on, methinks! The hands belong to my Baby Daughter, by the way. GO GIRL!!

This very chic Chick doing the dishes and the clearing up is my Little Baby Girl. I say, one must dress up properly with one’s pearls, rings, and fur to do even the most menial of tasks, as one must not let the standards ever to drop. Becki – my Big Girl took the picture.

Isn’t it just hilarious to that these kind of posh washing-up gloves were made or even thought of?!! I like them. Well done, Heli. Keep it up!

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!
Rii xx

© Photo: All rights reserved

SONNET of Chaucer: Legende of Goode Wimmen

For thy trespas, and understond hit here:
Thou shalt, whyl that thou livest, yeer by yere,
The moste party of thy tyme spende
In making of a glorious Legende Of Goode Wimmen, maidenes and wyves,
That weren trewe in lovinge al hir lyves;
And telle of false men that hem bitrayen, That al hir lyf ne doon nat but assayen

(Legend of Good Women or as he wrote: Legende of Goode Wimmen)

Isn’t it just wonderful? I do love the way the words are so recognizeable even today when one considers that these lines were written sometime between 1385-1386! As you know, I do love words and the beauty of languages  is in the expressions and the use of words, and this is no exception, for it really appeals to me very much indeed.

Chaucer wrote in continental accentual-syllabic metre, a style which had developed since around the twelfth century as an alternative to the alliterative Anglo-Saxon metre. Chaucer is known for metrical innovation, inventing the rhyme royal, and he was one of the first English poets to use the five-stress line, the iambic pentameter, in his work. The arrangement of these five-stress lines into rhyming couplets, first seen in his Legend of Good Women, was used in much of his later work and became one of the standard poetic forms in English. His early influence as a satirist is also important, with the common humorous device, the funny accent of a regional dialect, apparently making its first appearance in The Reeve’s Tale.

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – October 25, 1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat courtier, and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales. Sometimes called the father of English literature, Chaucer is credited by some scholars with being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin. His name is derived from the French chausseur, meaning shoemaker.

The Prologe of IX Goode Wimmen

A thousand tymes have I herd men telle,
That ther is Ioye in heven, and peyne in helle;
And I acorde wel that hit is so;
But natheles, yit wot I wel also,
That ther nis noon dwelling in this contree,
That either hath in heven or helle y-be,
Ne may of hit non other weyes witen,
But as he hath herd seyd, or founde hit writen;
For by assay ther may no man hit preve.
10 But god forbede but men should leve
Wel more thing then men han seen with ye!
Men shal nat wenen every-thing a lye
But-if him-self hit seeth, or elles dooth;
For, god wot, thing is never the lasse sooth,
Thogh every wight ne may hit nat y-see.
Bernard the monk ne saugh nat al, parde!

A possible indication that his career as a writer was appreciated came when Edward III granted Chaucer a gallon of wine daily for the rest of his life for some unspecified task. This was an unusual grant, apparently, according to Wikipedia where this information comes from. Chaucer had a very interesting career as a diplomat, author, poet et al so there is so much what one could write on him but this is it for now.

Rii xx

Source: Wikipedia

(My) Fashion Trendsetters: JACKIE O

Those of you who have been following my blogs know that I was/am rather lively of myself like jumping off moving trains, jumping off a ski jump and such things; in other words not so ladylike, eh?!! Well, let me tell you that, when I was in my early to mid-teens I started to collect pictures off the magazines with styles of fashions, clothes and so on for many years. Then in my late teens I went through my vast collection of pictures and put aside the ones which still appealed to me at that stage. And guess what, my preferred style in fashion was LADYLIKE!! I remember saying to my Mum: “Ooh if I only was older so that I could wear it!” Mum’s reaction: rolling her eyes, actually!

Audrey Hepburn has been one my trendsetters that I did an entry some while back and now I’m going to write a few things on Jackie O, who has been on my list of fashion trendsetters for a very long time, and I still think that her style is elegance and chic personified. Here is a link to Jackie O-style jacket that is high fashion even this season.

Some background on JACKIE O (1929-1994): She was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier, daughter of John Vernon Bouvier III and his wife, Janet Lee. Her early years were divided between New York City and East Hampton, Long Island, where she learned to ride almost as soon as she could walk. She was educated at the best of private schools; she wrote poems and stories, drew illustrations for them, and studied ballet.

To the role of First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy brought beauty, intelligence, and cultivated taste. Her interest in the arts, publicized by press and television, inspired an attention to culture never before evident at a national level. She devoted much time and study to making the White House a museum of American history and decorative arts as well as a family residence of elegance and charm. But she defined her major role as “to take care of the President” and added that “if you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do well matters very much.” A quote of hers that I have used a lot on my entries, for I think that it sums it all up so very well, actually. Source: The White House: First Ladies

She was First Lady for only a thousand days, but Jackie Kennedy will always hold a special place in our hearts. It all began with her 1953 marriage to the dashing senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy. As a couple they epitomized the arrival of a new generation of American leadership; their years in the White House have been immortalized as “Camelot.”

As First Lady, Jackie organized receptions and dinners notable for their elegance. Her streamlined gowns and suits sent fashion spinning. She created a Fine Arts Committee to assist her in documenting and renovating the décor of the White House. Her television tour introduced 80 million Americans to the White House and won her an Emmy Award. Source: Womenshistory.about.com.

From the moment she set off on the campaign trail in 1960 as a young senator’s wife, Jacqueline Kennedy had a rapt audience in American women. The pillbox, worn despite the fact that she abhorred hats, was only the beginning: Plastic surgeons reported that many women were visiting them in search of the Jackie “nose bob”; college girls everywhere affected Jackie’s breathy voice and patrician accent: There was something about Jackie. Source: Style.com

To mark the 40th anniversary in 2001 of her emergence as America’s first lady and explore her enduring global influence on style, the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute celebrated Jacqueline Kennedy with an unprecedented special exhibition of her iconic fashions. Some 80 original costumes and accessories from the collection. Here are some images on show of her stunning outfits of the timeless impact of her extraordinary, unforgettable grace and style. Here is the link to the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum. And here is the link to the special Travels section at the exhibition that Jackie travelled as the First Lady.

Jackie was a beautiful and elegant young woman, and when she made her social debut the Hearst newspaper gossip columnist named her Debutante of 1947. Jackie Kennedy was only 31 years old when she became First Lady . She was a popular First Lady, known for her elegant sophistication and her historical interest in the White House. Source: Answers.com

Jackie O was so very young when she became the First Lady for only a thousand days that is until her husband was assassinated in Dallas that fateful day in November 22, 1963. I remember reading about her and how she was cast into the mould of widow for life – like a German magazine put it, translated into English: ‘The Widow of the World’ (Das Witwe Der Welt) When she married Aristotle Onassis in 1968, the goodwill that she had gained over the years was nigh lost for good, and I think that she never quite managed to regain it ever again.

Here is a You Tube tribute to Jackie O with the most haunting Celtic tune sung by Enya in ‘May It Be’:

“I am a woman above everything else.”
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

And why she had to underline this fact, I think is, that she first and foremost was a real person and not an icon above any other title or status she had ever had in life.

What thoughts come to your mind reading this entry today?

Tis for now. Riihele xx

Further links on Jackie O:
Who2.com on Jackie

I read several extracts on the life of Jackie O online of the book that is called ’America’s Queen: A Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,’ by Sarah Bradford, published by Viking (The Times online)

And I came to understand the ‘what was what’ in her life so much better. I will be getting this book for I want to read it all; it is that excellent. I have also read other books on Jackie O over the years but this one seems to sum them all up in a beautiful way, methinks.

ROTUNDA Hospital & Becoming Mother

Although there are many trial marriages… there is no such thing as a trial child. (Gail Sheehy)

Giving birth is compared to running a full marathon. Maybe, as I have never heard this before by anybody, but could it not be said that, the baby who is trying to be born also is running her/his own mini-marathon! I really do think that it is so. It does require so very much energy and stamina to bring it about for both the mother and the child. It was in the antenatal classes in Ireland that this fact about the marathon for the mother was told to us by our trainer, who was a midwife and a mother of six. Here is a link to the Baby University.com. Yes, there is such a thing! The baby with the mortar board on his head looks absolutely cute & clever.

The one thing that the newly-baked mama herself is in great need of more than nearly anything else is one’s own mum in fact. This is the time that she needs the most assurance and advice – that she is doing the right thing with this little totally helpless creature. Things like: what to do in times of crisis – yes, one needs one’s own mama more than any other time in one’s life! My Mum died very young, just three months before my first daughter was born, actually. My paternal Granny had died ten days before my mum, so there was a double funeral for them in Finland which I could not make because I had had the risk of miscarriage for the entire nine months and was not allowed to fly. Then the obstetrician gave me permission a week later after the funeral had been to fly over to Finland. The year after my Mom and Granny had died while I was expecting my second daughter, my younger brother was killed in a traffic accident in Finland which made it all so much tougher. I associate giving new life with death, in fact because of this.

I do not take having the girls in any way for granted because the ‘road’ to have them was paved with unbelievable obstacles all the way; even at the delivery there were never the guarantee that they and I would come out of it all in tact and alive! Not once. I gave birth to a dead baby and that ranks as the saddest of the saddest things that have happened to me, ever. I would have loved to have sons as well, but them I lost in miscarriages.

It is a funny as odd thing that one gets these repeated false labour alarms and then they reverse in the last minute and stop completely, but then when the real thing comes, it comes with a bang and there is no turning back. So when the birth got really going, I had to make my way to the Rotunda Hospital because the waters had broken – the oldest maternity hospital in the world for it was founded in 1745. Such an apt name for a maternity hospital, methinks. One goes in rather rotund and comes out lean. The delivery itself would not get going the right way so I was put into an annex in the hospital where there was a whole bunch of all the social classes in a jumbled mix and I was attached to a drip with hormone Oxytocin* – that is supposed to speed up the delivery. Sounds snobbish to talk about the ‘classes’ but it is so. Yes indeed, the class division system in Ireland is very well and alive, in every way: hospitals, housing, education – you name it!!

The mixture was a colourful circus as anything: the one mum that I do remember very clearly is this one who was just about to give birth – finally – and to be rolled into the delivery room, when her sister and mother came in with the ‘glinkety-glinkety’ sounding bags into the ward at the non-visiting hours of the day and said to the poor thing while giving a hefty slap on the back of her, even though she was already doubled-up with the sheer agony and pain:

“Have you produced anything yet? We came to celebrate!!”

She could not reply them at all. Don’t remember what the nurses said to them but out they eventually were ushered out by the staff.

When my agony finally came to an end after a day and a half – I said to himself straight after the delivery that:

‘Funny, that the music has just been put on?!’

‘Oh no’, said he, ‘it has been on the whole time!’

I had not heard a thing until the very end of the end! So – the music is not there to soothe the nerves of the mamas but the papas & the staff!

“Now the thing about having a baby –
and I can’t be the first person to have noticed this –
is that thereafter you have it.”
(Jean Kerr)

Tis for now. Riihele – in the reminiscing mode. xx

* the word ‘oxytocin’ is from the Greek word ‘oxutokia’ meaning ‘sudden delivery’ (as oxy- =sharpness and tokos = ‘childbirth’) Well, it sure caused the birthing to be sharp, don’t know so much about the ‘sudden’ as it was an age before the Baby finally popped out!!

Picture is off the net.

COFFEE: HISTORY of the BREW

Our culture runs on coffee and gasoline,the first often tasting like the second.

Edward Abbey

According to the Wikipedia the history of coffee has been recorded as far back as the tenth century. During that time, coffee remained largely confined to Ethiopia where its native beans were first cultivated by Ethiopian highlanders. However, the Arab world began expanding its trade horizons, and the beans moved into northern Africa and were mass-cultivated. From there, the beans entered the Indian and European markets, and the popularity of the beverage spread.

The word “coffee” entered English in 1598 via Italian caffè. This word was created via Turkish kahve, which in turn came into being via Arabic qahwa, a truncation of qahhwat al-bun or wine of the bean. One possible origin of both the beverage and the name is the Kingdom of Kaffa in Ethiopia, where the coffee plant originated (its name there is bunn or bunna). It has remained very closely related to the original words in various other languages such as in Finnish: kahvi; and in Swedish: kaffe. The earliest mention of coffee may be a reference to Bunchum in the works of the 10th century CE Persian physician Razi, but more definite information on the preparation of a beverage from the roasted coffee berries dates from several centuries later. Coffee beans were first exported from Ethiopia to Yemen. Yemeni traders brought coffee back to their homeland and began to cultivate the bean.

The first coffee house was Kiva Han, which opened in Istanbul in 1471. Coffee was not well received to begin with; it was first imported to Italy, according to historic sources. The vibrant trade between the Italian city of Venice and the Muslims in North Africa, Egypt, and the East brought a large variety of African goods, including coffee, to this leading European port. Venetian merchants decided to introduce coffee to the wealthy in Venice, charging them heavily for the beverage. Yes, indeed the Merchants of Venice are still famous today in our day!

The first European coffee house (apart from those in the Ottoman Empire, mentioned above) was opened in Italy in 1645. Coffee became available in England no later than the 16th century according to Leonhard Rauwolf’s 1583 account and by 1675, there were more than 3,000 coffeehouses in England. In Victorian England, the temperance movement set up coffeehouses for the working classes, as a place of relaxation free of alcohol, an alternative to the public house (pub).

What is so interesting to read is that women were forbidden in some countries such as England and France, but not in Germany, to frequent these coffee houses at the time! She was ’allowed’ to boil and serve it, though! The banning of women from coffeehouses was not universal, but does appear to have been common in Europe. What is amazing is that there was a petition against the brew by women in 1674! How far have we women got now, for is it not our dearly loved beverage of choice these days?!

In 1669, Soleiman Agha, Ambassador from Sultan Mehmed IV, arrived in Paris with his entourage bringing with him a large quantity of coffee beans. Not only did they provide their French and European guests with coffee to drink, but they also donated some beans to the royal court. Between July 1669 and May 1670, the Ambassador managed to firmly establish the custom of drinking coffee among Parisians. There is a coffeehouse in Paris ’The Cafe Le Procope’– established in 1686 – which still exists today.

In Les Entretiens des caffés, 1702, remarked:

“The cafés are most agreeable places, and ones where one finds all sorts of people of different characters. There one sees fine young gentlemen, agreeably enjoying themselves; there one sees the savants who come to leave aside the laborious spirit of the study; there one sees others whose gravity and plumpness stand in for merit. Those, in a raised voice, often impose silence on the deftest wit, and rouse themselves to praise everything that is to be blamed, and blame everything that is worthy of praise. How entertaining for those of spirit to see originals setting themselves up as arbiters of good taste and deciding with an imperious tone what is over their depth!”

The first coffeehouse in Austria opened in Vienna in 1683 after the Battle of Vienna, by using supplies from the spoils obtained after defeating the Turks, with the mysterious sacks of green beans left behind by the Turks. The officer who received the coffee beans, Polish military officer Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki, opened the coffee house and helped popularize the custom of adding sugar and milk to the coffee. Aha, that is where the origins of a good Latte are!

The introduction of coffee to the Americas is attributed to France through its colonization of many parts of the continent starting with the Martinique and the colonies of the West Indies where the first French coffee plantations were founded. The first coffee plantation in Brazil occurred in 1727 and by the 1800s, Brazil’s harvests would turn coffee from an elite indulgence to a drink for the masses.

Many believed coffee to have several medicinal properties in this period. For example, a 1661 tract entitled “A character of coffee and coffee-houses”, written by one “M.P.”, lists some of these perceived virtues:

“ ‘Tis extolled for drying up the Crudities of the Stomack, and for expelling Fumes out of the Head. Excellent Berry! which can cleanse the English-man’s Stomak of Flegm, and expel Giddinesse out of his Head. ”

And, not only the English-man’s insides but also this Finnish-woman’s et all the other nationalities these days!

This for now. Riihele xx

Sources:
Wikipedia

Picture: off the net.