Heat and the World Cup

Too darn hot. Yesterday afternoon I had to force myself to do anything in the heat. Scotland is looking ever more attractive.

It was pleasant in the evening as the temperature started to drop, which was just as well because there was a power cut. They call it an outage here, but this one was literally more of a cut, because some blokes from BC Hydro - the electricity company - came and cut off the power to this area in order to sort out a problem in another. Kevin had come home unexpectedly at around 16.45 because the power had gone at work, so that was the other area. And then we were utterly stuck, no TV, nothing being recorded for us to watch later, House for example, couldn't make decaf, couldn't shower. I did sew and read by candlelight, that made me feel very virtuous and like Emily Carr the painter in the book I am reading, although now I have finished it. I am determined now to go and see more of Emily's paintings in the Vancouver Art Gallery.

It is of course quite impossible to sleep when it is this hot. Upstairs we had the fan on and the windows open, which meant all the outside noise came in. I remember the episode of 'House' that Karen mentioned where he said that you die after 11 days without sleep. I was surprised by this because I am sure I remember a Discovery Channel documentary about a man who couldn't sleep and everything the docs did to help him. I think the guy died after six months.

Anyway, despite my lack of sleep, and it looking like we may have another sweltering day ahead, I have to go and be talked to by the British Columbia College of Teachers this afternoon. My degree certificates from the University of London are not enough for them, I have to have something called transcripts sent to them. This is kind of a summary of the marks I got in my finals I guess. You'd think a degree certificate with the class of degree on it might be enough. Honours Degrees seem to be not the norm here, but something you have to study an extra year for. We'll see. In their literature I discovered that you can be awarded credits, that means so many terms' study at University level, for our A-Levels. Crazy stuff and I'm sure it'll get crazier.

So in the mad, mad world of journalism, I noticed a newsblog yesterday attempting to draw people's attention to the plight of women in Zimbabwe who could no longer get hold of sanitary protection. They were also no longer privy to traditional methods of protection. One of the results of this was a huge increase in infections, and the result of that was increased violence against women who were being accused of getting sexually transmitted disease. Remember, in many parts of Africa only men are allowed to get STIs.
But the most amazing thing was the response this article got. Sarcasm, 'so, should we airdrop tampons then?' vitriol, 'women's problems don't get any attention huh, so how come breast cancer gets so much more attention than prostate?' 'because it kills ten of thousands more' etc. Circumcision, men claiming that male circumcision is as evil as female, and on it went.

Ok, 'Prison Break' spoiler coming up. So the lads are on their way to Mexico, they think. I wonder if the Mexican authorities get as overheated about Americans illegally entering their country as vice versa. Hmm.

And the World Cup. My friend Christine asked me on Saturday whether the World Cup was just European. I said no, because I knew there were always teams from South America and Africa and also because there is a European Cup for footie anyway. But I thought I'd better get at least a little better informed about it, and I found this excellent map showing where all the teams come from. 32 countries from 6 continents, so I think that really does qualify as a World Cup. I'm not sure if there are some kind of unpleasant consequences if Iran wins though. I hope not.