An Inspiration for Whom???

Oh, boy.  What a hectic day!  Work, as usual, was relatively sedate.  Did my final reading-up on Bronze Age matters and got my short paper finished. Am I happy with it?  Yes.  Would I use it as the basis for a conference paper?  Absolutely!

After work came horse-riding.  Molly, once again, worked like a Trojan (?horse).  We were brushing-up on lateral work - in particular, shoulder-in, which I find difficult at the best of times.  It was easier in trot than walk, strangely enough.  We did it rather well on one occasion, at which point I remarked, "I can almost close my eyes and imagine I'm in Spain, flouncing along on a magnificent Andalusian."

"Who needs an Andalusian?" came the injured retort.  "You've got Molly."

I have been given permission to post photos of Molly, so I'll get some for you next week.  Charming she is.  But an Andalusian, she is most certainly not.

I then managed to jump a straight bar at about 2' in height, which for me is something remarkable.  My brain did not disengage.  I did not panic, even though there were one or two tense, hair-raising moments.  I felt quite competent and secure throughout, in spite of yesterday's killer workout.

When I went home, I was confronted by a scene of chaos!  A delivery of baby plants had arrived - sweet peas and Callibrachea (I hope I spelt that right....).  Now, when I order 70 sweet peas, I want 70 sweet peas, not 10 plugs of 7 sweet peas.  This means that I have to do some delicate dividing work (what I like to call 'root treatment').  Thomson & Morgan say 'Do not divide these plants', but hey, they survive and spring back from the shock after a few days,  And I have a secret weapon - a small plastic soldier whose rifle is quite good at prying apart roots.

On an entirely unrelated note...  I learned today that a poll has voted Cheryl Cole to the exalted position of 'Inspirational Woman of the Decade,' on account of her 'beauty' and 'success.'  Eh??  Since when did forming part of a run-of-the-mill girl band and gaining notoriety as a WAG constitute success?  Okay, she's rich, but...  As far as I'm concerned, she ain't no inspiration.  She doesn't even write her own songs!!

Throughout the day I've been racking my brains over the subject of inspiring women of the decade.  Hilary Clinton, yes.  Condolezza Rice, yes.  Aung San Suu Kyi, most definitely.  The late Benazir Bhutto makes my list, too.  And J K Rowling - anyone who can endure 60+ rejection slips and still keep trying to make it as a writer gets my respect.  The fact she then became a mult-millionaire on the strength of Harry Potter is neither here nor there.  Oddly enough, J K Rowling was the only one on my list that made it into the top ten, and she was down at either six or seven.

I was curious to find out more about this daft poll, so I checked it out on the internet.  A grand total of 1100 women were polled and they were - wait for it!- drawn from users of a cosmetic surgery review website,  Hmm, I'd put my faith in their judgement any time - not!!

On the subject of inspirational women, my own role models are closer to hand. 

My mother, who managed to combine family life with a career in education.  She ended up as Head of Department (teaching French) at a Secondary school, and combined this busy working life with success in amateur opera and some dalliances into local politics. 

My aunt, who struggled hard to succeed in the cut-throat world of Classical opera until she had to give up on account of acute rhinitis. 

One of my mum's teaching pals, who was also my English teacher at school, who taught me to love literature, introduced me to history and archaeology, and told me, as she lay in her hospital bed dying of breast cancer, that I had to keep on going and finish my Ph.D. 

My erstwhile Head of Department at Glasgow University, who is now a Senior Research Fellow at Liverpool University, Professor Emerita Elizabeth Slater. 

I am also inspired by several women writers, in particular Hilary Mantel, whose writing is just brilliant, Linda Proud, whose research is just brilliant (and her writing ain't half bad, either!) and C J Cherryh, who managed to make her way in the male-dominated genre of science fiction at a time when women writers weren't well represented.  And last but not least, the late Dorothy Dunnet, who wrote engaging historical fiction set in Scotland and whose example I once hoped to follow.

Then there's a swathe of female archaeologists who were active in the mid-late 20th century, in particular, Margaret Brown, who swam against the tide and offered such a radical interpretation of Late Bronze Age sword typologies that her work has been nicely swept under the carpet right up to the present day.

You will note that Cheryl Cole doesn't feature anywhere in my list.  Nor, for that matter, do any WAG's or celebrities.  Or even sportswomen.  I have a lot of respect for cyclists like Beryl Burton, Nicole Cooke, Yvonne Macgregor and Emma Pooley, but they don't inspire me to follow their example.  And I think it's a real shame that modern women are defining success by wealth and column inches in tacky tabloids, instead of hard graft and intellectual achievement.

My mother, who always encouraged me to strive for success regardless of my gender, would be turning in her grave...

An Inspiration for Whom???

Oh, boy.  What a hectic day!  Work, as usual, was relatively sedate.  Did my final reading-up on Bronze Age matters and got my short paper finished. Am I happy with it?  Yes.  Would I use it as the basis for a conference paper?  Absolutely!

After work came horse-riding.  Molly, once again, worked like a Trojan (?horse).  We were brushing-up on lateral work - in particular, shoulder-in, which I find difficult at the best of times.  It was easier in trot than walk, strangely enough.  We did it rather well on one occasion, at which point I remarked, "I can almost close my eyes and imagine I'm in Spain, flouncing along on a magnificent Andalusian."

"Who needs an Andalusian?" came the injured retort.  "You've got Molly."

I have been given permission to post photos of Molly, so I'll get some for you next week.  Charming she is.  But an Andalusian, she is most certainly not.

I then managed to jump a straight bar at about 2' in height, which for me is something remarkable.  My brain did not disengage.  I did not panic, even though there were one or two tense, hair-raising moments.  I felt quite competent and secure throughout, in spite of yesterday's killer workout.

When I went home, I was confronted by a scene of chaos!  A delivery of baby plants had arrived - sweet peas and Callibrachea (I hope I spelt that right....).  Now, when I order 70 sweet peas, I want 70 sweet peas, not 10 plugs of 7 sweet peas.  This means that I have to do some delicate dividing work (what I like to call 'root treatment').  Thomson & Morgan say 'Do not divide these plants', but hey, they survive and spring back from the shock after a few days,  And I have a secret weapon - a small plastic soldier whose rifle is quite good at prying apart roots.

On an entirely unrelated note...  I learned today that a poll has voted Cheryl Cole to the exalted position of 'Inspirational Woman of the Decade,' on account of her 'beauty' and 'success.'  Eh??  Since when did forming part of a run-of-the-mill girl band and gaining notoriety as a WAG constitute success?  Okay, she's rich, but...  As far as I'm concerned, she ain't no inspiration.  She doesn't even write her own songs!!

Throughout the day I've been racking my brains over the subject of inspiring women of the decade.  Hilary Clinton, yes.  Condolezza Rice, yes.  Aung San Suu Kyi, most definitely.  The late Benazir Bhutto makes my list, too.  And J K Rowling - anyone who can endure 60+ rejection slips and still keep trying to make it as a writer gets my respect.  The fact she then became a mult-millionaire on the strength of Harry Potter is neither here nor there.  Oddly enough, J K Rowling was the only one on my list that made it into the top ten, and she was down at either six or seven.

I was curious to find out more about this daft poll, so I checked it out on the internet.  A grand total of 1100 women were polled and they were - wait for it!- drawn from users of a cosmetic surgery review website,  Hmm, I'd put my faith in their judgement any time - not!!

On the subject of inspirational women, my own role models are closer to hand. 

My mother, who managed to combine family life with a career in education.  She ended up as Head of Department (teaching French) at a Secondary school, and combined this busy working life with success in amateur opera and some dalliances into local politics. 

My aunt, who struggled hard to succeed in the cut-throat world of Classical opera until she had to give up on account of acute rhinitis. 

One of my mum's teaching pals, who was also my English teacher at school, who taught me to love literature, introduced me to history and archaeology, and told me, as she lay in her hospital bed dying of breast cancer, that I had to keep on going and finish my Ph.D. 

My erstwhile Head of Department at Glasgow University, who is now a Senior Research Fellow at Liverpool University, Professor Emerita Elizabeth Slater. 

I am also inspired by several women writers, in particular Hilary Mantel, whose writing is just brilliant, Linda Proud, whose research is just brilliant (and her writing ain't half bad, either!) and C J Cherryh, who managed to make her way in the male-dominated genre of science fiction at a time when women writers weren't well represented.  And last but not least, the late Dorothy Dunnet, who wrote engaging historical fiction set in Scotland and whose example I once hoped to follow.

Then there's a swathe of female archaeologists who were active in the mid-late 20th century, in particular, Margaret Brown, who swam against the tide and offered such a radical interpretation of Late Bronze Age sword typologies that her work has been nicely swept under the carpet right up to the present day.

You will note that Cheryl Cole doesn't feature anywhere in my list.  Nor, for that matter, do any WAG's or celebrities.  Or even sportswomen.  I have a lot of respect for cyclists like Beryl Burton, Nicole Cooke, Yvonne Macgregor and Emma Pooley, but they don't inspire me to follow their example.  And I think it's a real shame that modern women are defining success by wealth and column inches in tacky tabloids, instead of hard graft and intellectual achievement.

My mother, who always encouraged me to strive for success regardless of my gender, would be turning in her grave...