Christ in a Coke Bottle!

Last Sunday night I was chilling out with my lovely boyfriend, reading a Sunday paper or doing something else so obviously cultural (like watching Dallas) when we were rudely disrupted by a knock on the door.

Now, I wasn’t expecting anyone and if that’s the case I simply do not open the door. Firstly because I don’t like unexpected visitors. Secondly because I live in Bermondsey. My boyfriend on the other hand is a country boy at heart and went on to open the door.

“Hello. I’m here to talk to you about Jesus”, the man on the door said (I told you so, never EVER open the door, I was thinking).

“We are both atheists”, my boyfriend replied.

“Oh. I’m not here to convert you or anything”, the man on the door continued, “but could I leave you some reading?”

“Sure, goodbye”, was the answer and the door was closed again.

So we got the November edition of the Awake! with the theme of the month appropriately being Is atheism on the March? And what do we learn?

A new group of atheists has arisen in society. Called the new atheists, they are not content to keep their views to themselves. Rather, they are on a crusade “actively, angrily, passionately trying to persuade the religious to their point of view".

Err, how did I come by this publication again? Surely not from a Jehova’s Witness actively and passionately trying to persuade the others to his point of view?

Awake! is full of articles about the bible, spirit and religion, and suddenly – a story about Natural Gas as an Energy for Home. What? Have the Christians finally found science? Are they trying to fool us into believing that the rest of the articles are based on science as well? What’s going on? Do they know that we are watching Dallas and J.R is just about to buy a refinery?

I found no answers. But the eternal wisdom never to open your door to a stranger lives on. Amen.

Do they know we're watching Dallas? 

Here's Looking At You, Kid

Not long ago I holidayed in Finland. I was staying with a friend with no TV so was having to entertain myself by other means of media. In her bookshelf I came across My Story, the memoirs of the Hollywood star Ingrid Bergman. 

Written and published in 1980 with cooperation of Alan Burgess, the book was delightful reading. Bergman arrived to Hollywood late 1930s. Even at that time the Hollywood starlets were cosmetically enhanced (Rita Hayworth’s hairline was famously lifted to better her looks) but the film mogul David Selznik decided to try something different with Bergman. She was sold to the press and audience as she was: with thick eye brows, bad teeth, too tall, too fat and with her real name – “film star au naturel”.

Bergman's own words are entertaining reading. She seems genuine and lovely, although perhaps prone to fall in love easily and ready to sacrifice a lot for romance. She was practically barred from the States after divorcing her first husband and leaving her daughter behind to be with Roberto Rosselini, her second husband. 

She writes about the pressures to be thin, her weight struggle and love of ice cream (not perhaps totally unrelated issues). When down, she wrote to her friend that she was "constantly smoking, drinking more than ever and had gained four and a half kilos".

How refreshing! Today’s movie stars are so dull and uninteresting with their macrobiotic cucumber soup diets and 3 hour a day workouts. No wonder she was favoured by Hitchcock and loved by the public. Salut for the real screen legends! 

Ingrid with Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca

With Cary Grant in Hitchcock's Notorious

With her second husband Roberto Rosselini and their three kids: Roberto, Isabella and Ingrid

Growing old gracefully in Ingmar Berman's Autumn Sonata, her last feature.

Trendsetting Force of Alexa

I’m usually a very reluctant trend follower. When enough people rave about a great new bar, film or band, I’m far more likely to be turned off by that than to follow the tip. I think shockingly many people like to be part of the herd and allow media to tell them what they should think is good and / or cool. I should know better. I used to be a journalist. Many of my friends are journalists. And as much as I love them, they are not super human nor aesthetic geniuses.

But as hard as I’ve tried, I can’t help but liking “the it girl of the moment” Alexa Chung. I’m not sure she’s the super friendly, down to earth, laid-back, modest girl-next-door who “doesn't make much effort with her appearance and doesn't have a beauty routine” that the glossies (and her agents) like us to think she is. But she DOES have a great style. And it IS her own. Obviously it is easier to dress well when you have got a LOT of money but the examples like Cheryl Cole have shown us that money doesn’t buy you style.  

Check out Alexa’s Today I’m Wearing blog on the Vogue website and her style gallery on the Elle.uk.

It's all about cardigans, shorts, skirts and socks with Alexa.

Britain, Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

The coalition government has finally unveiled their monstrous “spending review”, cutting public spending by £83 billion. The cuts will effect welfare, higher education, social housing, policing and local government – pretty much every walk of life and, I promise you, every one of us living on this island.

The critics (and Labour of course) have warned of the consequences cuts of this scale will have on society. And they are not wrong.

In the early 90s, the global recession hit especially hard on Finland. Around 20% of our foreign trade had been with Soviet Union and its collapse added just that little something to the economic disaster that was created during the yuppie years of the 80s.

The unemployment rose from pre-recession 3,5% to 18.9%. A couple of banks collapsed. The coalition government in power tried to solve the situation with excessive cuts on public spending. Sounds familiar?

But that's just numbers. The recession left us a generation who graduated to unemployment and after a few years became unemployable. They are still on the dole. It left us another generation who grew up in poverty during the recession, with constant uncertainty about mom's and dad’s job, money and even family unity (anyone who is claiming that chances in the economic situation don’t effect relationships is either really rich or stupid). We called them children of the recession, kind of like children of  the revolution, but not cool.

The Finnish welfare state was effectively being dissolved and the burden of that can still be seen: more mental problems and alcoholism go untreated. There is more poverty, which always brings along its dear friend crime. The economy recovered but unemployment is still high, hovering around 7 - 8 % with youth unemployment currently a staggering 22,5%.  

Everyone knows that the UK economy is not doing so well and that some cuts needed to be done. But the cuts made by the coalition government are done for ideological, not economical reasons. Every country in the world has got debt. Hell, most of us has got debt. But if you would decide stop buying food for the next five years and instead triple your mortgage payments, you would be considered mad.

People get the government they deserve, they say. But are they ready for the aftermath? 

The boys club stick together. RIP Public Services.

The Art of the Shoe

This is why I love London. Something so wonderful but at the same time so very dangerous has appeared on Oxford Street. Selfridges has opened its Shoe Galleries.

Shoe Galleries have been designed by an architect Jamie Fobert and the area is supposedly bigger than Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. It is the biggest shoe department in the world, stocking 55 000 shoes at any one time and 4000 shoes on display from over 150 brands. It will obviously offer you big brands like Jimmy Choo, Louboutin and Dior but the high street labels like Topshop, All Saints and Office are there too.

You think this is heaven? Imagine the sales. 

World According To Google

So Google has decided to read our minds. Or direct our minds. Take your pick. Anyhow the new Google Instant tries to guess what you are searching for while you type.

To make sure not to offend anyone or to give kids naughty ideas, Google has however put together a blacklist of words it does not react on. Or it will, but you will have to press enter to see your results.

And how interesting is the blacklist! These are some examples of the words/things/thoughts Google wants us to avoid (the list is changing, they have now unblocked for example the word lesbian, well done google nerds!):

Penis

Paris Hilton

Pimppi (Vittu however is allowed)

Vagina

Adult

Bastardo

Cocaine

Pamela Anderson

Shemale

Transexual

Pissing

Nude

Xx (unlucky for the band, eh?)

Go on, give it a try yourself! The full list can be found from here: http://www.2600.com/googleblacklist/

Kissing My Vitamins Goodbye

I have recently made a fundamentally life changing decision to give up vitamin pills. I know it doesn’t sound quite as impressive as giving up drugs, alcohol or cigarettes, but believe you me, it is a big deal for me. I have been taking my daily multivitamins for as long as I can remember. I’m one of the “vitamin fanatics”, people taking supplements once a day or more (and I’m not alone, apparently 32% of us in the UK fall into this category).

My belief in omnipotence of vitamin supplements was passed down from my mother, who still keeps sending me little pill bottles for Christmas. On top of that I really liked believing in the magic pills that would make me forever young (vitamin E), happy (St John’s Wort), lose weight (Green Tea pills) and, of course, give me a super strong immune system (not rare for me to have four colds each winter).  

However after a lot of debate with my very smart and cute boyfriend and reading some research (and this great article from The Independent), I have come to a conclusion that I can, shock horror, actually get all the vitamins I need from my diet.

More and more studies are also showing that there’s no evidence of any benefit from multivitamin intake. And quite worryingly, overdosing on some vitamins can actually do you, especially your liver, more harm than good. God forbid, my liver does not need any excess strain on it.

So if you see me shaking in the corner, not to worry. It’s just new, less toxic me, getting over my vitamin withdrawals.