Saturday 2 May 2009

Singleness

This has been my one weekend in the year when I get to experience singleness, Kevin's frat camping weekend. The engineers all go into the wilderness with gallons of beer and bear scarers and ...well, drink and do engineery things like making a hot tub in a lake, or some such. Whatever.

So what do I do? A friend at work asked if I were going to have a girls' weekend, but no, I have cleaned and tidied. It beggars belief why I should enjoy this so much, I mean, it's not like Kevin doesn't do any cleaning, or tries to stop me, but I have cleaned where routine, weekly cleaning just doesn't go - like the plughole in the shower, which I have levered up and attacked.
And of course, I have been able to play my own music all weekend. Again, not that Kevin would stop me doing that, but even with him, I would be too embarrassed to do my excessive air-guitaring.

I have also slept in one of the spare beds. I wanted to do this to make sure that the bed is comfie, but also because I've had a jealous eye on both the spare room beds since we bought them. They are low to the ground, with the new generation of non-spring mattresses on them. And now I have slept in one, I know how divine they are.

Still, I am glad when he's back. It's nice to have some time alone, but really, only because I know there is a limit on that time.

I have received one book already from the Book Depository ('The Secret Scripture') - unbelievable that they seem to manage to get books here so quickly. Sadly, the other book I ordered , 'Old Filth' by Jane Gardam hasn't yet arrived, I started reading a friend's copy and it was one of those instant addiction books. I'd already promised to pass it on to another friend because mine is on its way, so I'm left hooked and and now hanging in mid-air, until it turns up.

At work, the City of Richmond intranet homepage has some little homily every day, but so far, always the words of a man. I e-mailed them about this, pointing out that sometime during the next three hundred years, women were expecting to be no longer treated as the second sex, and in anticipation of this wondrous event, could they possibly occasionally slip in something by a woman. I have no idea whether it was by accident or design, but by the next day, a woman's words appeared.

And this past week, Kevin's birthday I think, marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of the grandes dames of feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft. My god she must have been a brave and insightful woman to champion women's rights back then, when you think how we are treated today when mention the word feminism.

4 comments:

Sleepy said...

Please let me know how The Secret Scripture goes.
I thought it was brilliant.

Schneewittchen said...

I will, I've started it and it's impossible to read without the accent in your head, I can just hear her voice through the writing.

Sleepy said...

I was staying 20 mins away from where her father grew up while I was reading it!

kdf said...

Darn, I would have liked to have seen the air guitar. Far less embarrassing than some of the sights I beheld at the camping trip.