according to the Met Office -  “The last time we saw a decent snowfall in the UK in April was in 1989 [on the fifth day of the month], when heavy snow fell across parts of the south Midlands and central southern England.”

Bengal is a part of the world that I have definitely done the least amount of travelling in, ironically - it is where I am from. I am perhaps naturally fascinated by it and its history, there is so much to absorb. I was in Bangladesh over this last xmas/new years and for the first time, actually managed to do some travelling - to Chittagong - where i have never been ever, and to St. Martin’s Island -which was till January - for me, a mythical place.. the anecdotes definitely need turning into some form of travel journal. It’’s not an easy country to travel around, i can understand my parent’s objections, but i thought dammit, if i don’t do it now it will never happen, i can’t just sit tamely in dhaka every time i visit ( or in the tamer parts of dhaka..) in the end, apart from a few mishaps and a hell of a lot of curiosity + interference, and paranoia and constant calls from the folks {really!} it was all fine and good. ( i am not an idiot after all.. + just because my travelling companion, my dear husband - is a ‘phoreigner’ didn’t mean we were like a blind + deaf person combination that everyone made out we would be!)

A few photographs to start the notebook..one of the interesting places - in Old Dhaka that i had managed to sneak a peek into in the past, and visited again on this trip - is the palace, on the bank of the buriganga {old ganges} river of the nawabs of dhaka who lived in it from the nineteenth century onwards. I shall write more about it later, it is currently a museum - full of artefacts of empire and rulers and relics of a bygone age - and a popular destination for ‘outings’ - so past meets present. Sadarghat - is the historic ‘ghat’ -(wharf) - and it is a fascinating place with no doubt fascinating tales. There is something about old dhaka (purano dhaka) that fascinates me..perhaps because it shows up the distinction between what was, and what is becoming. And there is something about the fabric of the old town, the architectural details and the old houses and mosques, that evokes for me -the bygone era , i know - i can’t help it, i do find the past fascinating in a strange sort of way. A glimpse into another world..

Laptops eh? ..sit it on your lap.. and work away..(ok so in the US they call it a “notebook”)

I hadn’t thought much about this myself till a couple of weeks ago when i was afflicted with sudden and terrible pain..(i’m much better now thanks!) and i joined the millions of sufferers of back pain, of some kind or other. yep, you don’t think about it till it hits YOU, then suddenly - like with all other pain and illness - you think shit! having never experienced back pain before, i suddenly felt for all those chronic back pain sufferers - you can’t even relax..or do all the things you normally do.. - you know slouch on the sofa, ..read a book, sleep.. And then..moments of panic, as I thought, but i’m too young for this! what’s wrong with me! why me..and the usual self-pitying sort of thing..before getting on the net to discover what might be wrong with me. Now the net’s a scary place..i was freaking out about whether i had something like fibromyalgia. I did think it might have something to do with poor posture and all that sort of thing, sitting over the computer, and i realized i had been hunched over the laptop in the evenings for a few evenings in a row.. over the last couple of weeks or so. At work, in theory, i figured i was sitting in a sort-of-sensible way ( our office manager had had to go around checking with everyone, given that sitting at desktops falls under the Health & Safety scrutiny) but hadn’t been thinking about my laptop at home. And apparently - neither is anyone else! Or not too many people anyway.

Be warned - laptops are increasingly causing a lot of pain..and we need to be aware! for some reason, apparently the Health & Safety Executive doesn’t issue any guidance about laptop usage…( and isn’t planning to, for some bizarre reason..the idiots!)

the guardian warning about the dangers of laptop usage amongst students..

“Students who regularly use laptops are putting themselves in danger of persistent neck, back, shoulder and wrist pain, and they are often unaware of the risks they are taking until it is too late, according to new research.

Surveys carried out by ergonomist Rachel Benedyk and her team at University College London’s Interaction Centre found that 57% of respondents had experienced aches and pains as a result of their laptop use, with 7% having pain a lot of the time. The survey involved 649 undergraduate and postgraduate students of a range of nationalities, and the majority said they had never encountered ergonomic guidance on laptop use.”

yes we never get any guidance on laptop use, just about using desktops..

The Times goes one better and has some photos!

“With BBC’s Panorama this week pointing to the supposed dangers of wi-fi technology, back experts are pointing to a much more immediate danger from laptop computers. They say that they are creating a nation of slouch potatoes.

Michael Durtnall, a leading chiropractor, is one of a growing band of back-care specialists who say that something has to be done before children and young adults do irretrievable damage to their joints. He estimates that about 80 per cent of the patients at his three London clinics – mainly students, office workers and City types – have chronic nerve pain as a result of poor posture induced by working on a laptop. A recent British Chiropractic Association survey indicated that 50 per cent of 16 to 24-year-olds were suffering from back pain, compared with 18 per cent three years ago. Durtnall believes the simultaneous rise of the laptop is no coincidence.”

Goodness! Why is it you always read these things when its too late? Ok its not too late for me..but you know what i mean..everyone! sit up and pay attention! It could be YOU next.

You can download a poster here..spread the news. Really, we all ought to be buying laptop stands..(which then means you’re not so mobile anymore..so really the bloody laptop manufacturers need to be thinking about ergonomics. Why don’t they have it so you can extend the screen up, and the keyboard out?)

Useful links:

The Ergonomics Society

Making your laptop back friendly

British Chiropractic Association

BackCare: The charity for healthier backs

Laptop Stands

The Osteopath Network

Let’s do something about it before its too late for us. I’m mostly fine now, my shoulder is still playing up, but it’s nothing compared to the excruciating - and suprisingly (ok to me) debilitating pain i’ve had for the last couple of weeks. And i thought it would go away in a day or two. I hear a couple of weeks is still pretty lucky, it could take upto months for my shoulder to properly heal, and even then i’ll be lucky..

“The USDA recalled beef products from the Westland/Hallmark Meat Co, dating back to 1 February 2006. ..But officials said most of the recalled meat has probably already been eaten. The USDA described the recall as Class 2 - meaning there is a remote probability that the product could harm health if consumed. Operations at the plant had already been suspended after an undercover video shot by the Humane Society of America came to light. The video appeared to show crippled and ill animals being prodded with the blades of a forklift truck, kicked, given electric shocks and sprayed with high-pressure water hoses by staff. Two former employees were charged with animal cruelty on Friday, and the investigation continues.”

The wider area of concern is of course where our food comes from. Most of us prefer not to think about it too much - and you can see why! I wonder if abattoir workers end up giving up meat?

On a much more pleasant note, Cookie Mouse has been featuring mouth-wateringly delicious morsels and wonderful organic concoctions ..how about some Roquefort pain au chocolat? Sounds like an amazing combination!

“This week, millions of people across the country will celebrate the crippling delusion known as “love” by sending flowers, booking restaurants and placing stomach-churning small ads in newspapers. Valentine’s Day - the only national occasion dedicated to mental illness - is a stressful ordeal at the best of times.”

the comments ( as is generally the case on comment is free ) are just as amusing..

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the 5th Sentence.

4. Post the next 3 sentences.

(ok i always change these things somewhat! feel free to participate if you fancy it, this tagging thing i am no good at!)

“By ligature.”

“She was garrotted?” Asked McClellan.

“Yes. Why? “

The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld. now doesn’t that leave you thirsting for more! it definitely does for me, i just got it out of the library yesterday..so this is an intriguing peek for me.

I have also updated my profile page.

“A quick reminder to London readers: Abortion Rights is calling for people to come out in force this evening, for a protest against efforts to restrict access to abortion.

This is a protest against Ann Widdecome’s ‘Not on your life…’ roadshow, which the Tory MP is dragging up and down the country to promote ‘pro-life’ amendments to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which would chip away at women’s rights.

Similar protests will take place when the roadshow hits Liverpool, Coventry and Cardiff - please see the Abortion Rights website for more info. The group has also produced a detailed briefing on the bill’s progress through Parliament, and efforts to tack on anti-abortion amendments. ”

Flyer here

Thanks for reading this and please pass on the good word!

p.s. the F word:is a brilliant site - take a look

A biography of my favourite author so I read this with great interest: it’s a good complement to agatha’s own writings about her life ( she published two sets of autobiographical writings) - and goes into a lot that Agatha doesn’t reveal about herself. the disappearance in 1926, her first marriage etc.) I particularly enjoyed reading about her early life, i always do about people’s lives and the minutiae of everyday life in a bygone era.

Desertion - Abdulrazak Gurnah ( 2006)

Published in 2006, by a man who is an english lit professor at the univ. of kent and originally from the beautiful sounding island of zanzibar - i found this really fascinating. ( if only for the details and insight into life in zanzibar, that exotic place, in the 50’s, and Mombasa, at the turn of the century) the two sets of tales are intertwined.

You can’t keep a good woman down - Alice Walker (1982)

Fourteen short stories, provocative, sharp and poignant. I read that this never got the kind of acclaim that The Color Purple received..ah well, there’s no accounting for taste, is there?
Dancers in Mourning - Margery Allingham (1937)

perhaps because i spent my childhood onwards devouring Christies, Margery Allingham was a crime writer i didn’t bother to delve into very much. i found an old penguin edition in the library, and having heard lots about Albert Campion over the years, picked it up. I found the narrative interesting, and sparkingly amusing, but i didn’t find it on par with a Christie, assuming I were comparing, of course.

Miss LonelyHearts and A Cool Million - Nathanael West (1933)

this man clearly had a wicked sense of humour, and a ripping sense of satire: black comedy about the Depression years. A random find at the library, the author sounds like an intriguing character, I must read more about him. America is such a crazy place, i’m interested in finding writers who touch upon that insanity.

and season’s greetings to the world! yes it has been a long time. where does it fly?
its been a month of beautiful colour, the smell of woodsmoke which reminds me of my childhood , halloween and bonfires and of course fireworks. Tomorrow is the 5th of November!

i’ve stumbled across the books below which look like fascinating reading. Recently I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in Whitechapel, getting to know it better, and also - Limehouse. ( I’ve always had a great interest in Limehouse, the only thing i knew about it before were all the stories about the opium dens..the Picture of Dorian Gray paints a vivid portriat of the area) And of course, one of the reasons Whitechapel so intrigues many people ( across the world!) - is  thanks to our old friend jack the ripper and the Whitechapel murders, which as some have put it are perhaps the most over-documented series of events in East End history. everyone loves a good juicy unsolved mystery.

I’d like to spend more time writing about the hidden haunts of London that i’ve come across. i’ve been trying to spend more time just walking around, and its interesting how you stumble across so much - hidden squares which turn out to accommodate delightful gardens, old plaques, fountains, headstones..