Yet another new blog

It was bad enough for sufferers when mental illness wasn't talked about at all. So my great-aunt, who had a nervous breakdown in her 50s and spent well over a year in hospital, was never mentioned in the family, except when little clusters of concerned relatives got together at family gatherings for a quick, whispered report on how she was doing. It's good it's all beginning to be out in the open and we can have rational discussions about all the issues around mental illness, particularly the lack of professionals able to treat people and the ignorance of large sections of the press and the public in general. Following recent developments is really upsetting, so as a total amateur, but one was has suffered from mental illness a couple of times, I want to help clear up some misunderstandings, particularly after the publication  of a study today on the state of happiness among young girls and women: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/sep/19/uk-survey-finds-sh...

I know nothing about sport and definitely nothing about tennis. I knew nothing about Serena Williams until the other day when there was a bit of a stramash on a tennis court. I'll admit - in my ignorance - I thought the top tennis people were white, wore white outfits and lived a fairly secluded life among other white folks in a sport that is pretty well the preserve of white folk. It turns out tennis has been the domain for some time of people like Serena Williams. Many nationalities, many colours, many genders.  White folk Serena ain't. She certainly doesn't look like the wimpy, white, English lassies in short white skirts that played at Wimbledon back in the 60s.  Serena is black. She's an athlete. That means she is well-built and pretty fit. I gather she's been very successful in tennis and, with that, come certain issues: I can't imagine Serena (or Andy Murray or Roger Federer, for that matter) strolling through life unrecognised. That...

I've just been reading that Nigel Farage wants to send  'home' about two million 'foreigners' if there is no Brexit deal. Do you know any 'foreigners'? I don't think I do. I was at school with people whose fathers came from Germany and Poland. My sister in law's grandad was Polish. My father's sister was married to an Austrian Jew (left for Britain in 1933 and then joined the British Army and fought his way back across Europe). My nephew is married to a Chilean woman, so their kids are Scottish and Chilean. My volunteer buddy is from a family that's half Irish and half Scottish. I've worked with - o, I can't remember how many colleagues from other European countries: France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain. My best buddy in my first teaching job came from an Italian family. My GP practice has employed locums from China, Pakistan, the Philippines and Spain - and we are glad to have them and only wish there were more of them. T...

I had a hospital appointment today. Saw the consultant audiologist (all good news). Had a wee bit of a wait to see him and then he did a couple of tests, so it was past lunchtime when I got out. Had coffee and a toastie in the cafe - run by volunteers. I looked around. It was manky: cups, napkins, paper plates, etc, left on the tables, although there are bins provided. And before I start to blame visitors, I wonder which group of 10 sat on wee yellow stools round a couple of tables and left their mess behind? Could that be NHS staff by any chance? A lot of staff eat there. I decided to visit the loo before I went home. One of the cubicles had the door hanging off. In the one I decided to use, someone had pee-ed on the seat and not wiped it. Two of the sinks had the plugs in and were filled with pretty manky-looking water. The floor was swimming in water too. None of this is the fault of the NHS. This hospital is a busy place. It was visiting time by the time I was leaving. The ca...

What do we do about sexual harassment? If you're Ariana Grande, the press will out the harasser for you: I don't know about you but I can see on the lassie's face she's not happy but she's in a kinda awkward situation. Did this old man not realise what he was doing? Did he think a young woman - very young - would appreciate his attention?  I suspect that happens in a lot of cases of sexual harassment. In fact, no. I know that happens in a lot of cases.  It may seem unfair but we rely on other people to out the harassers.  Women in the media have a responsibility:  Cathy Newman of C4 News admits (or claims, depending which side you are on) she was harassed at the posh 6th year private school she attended. She didn't report it. The police are now investigating because the school, Charterhouse, has reported it to them. Cathy is now in a position of power. She needs to step up - but will she?  Women in politics are also people we shoul...

Today's news headline from Sky: Drinking and sm oking damages heart by age 17 Semi-literate, I know, but you get the idea.  I used to work with a man who managed to put people neatly into categories. One category was: "This man never saw a bandwagon he didn't want to join." That was reserved for the boss, an eejit without an idea in his head but with a nose for sniffing out the fashion of the moment and making sure his minions chased after it.  The other one I loved was: "Live fast, die young and leave a beautiful corpse." This was normally directed at people who were unable or unwilling to take the slightest risk in work or in life.  It was this saying that came to mind when I saw the headline above. And for all the wrong reasons. If I'd read on, I'd have seen that it says if you give up smoking and drinking early on your body recovers pretty fast. Well, I knew that anyway. But I have a feeling quite a lot of 17 year-olds don't ...

I could hardly believe my eyes when I read the Wee Ginger Dug's column in The National on Thursday: a positive article about Gaelic. How astonishing! About how it's not a dead language, but an active part of Scottish culture and a big part of our heritage, with Gaelic Medium (immersion) teaching going from 15 pupils in 1985 to over 4,000 in 2018. Imagine a Scottish journalist putting it in writing in a Scottish newspaper that Gaelic Medium education is a success, instead of coming to the conclusion that Gaelic is some sort of conspiracy to turn us all into Gaelic-speaking EssEnPee clones. The Dug even pointed out that the success of Gaelic should not be - but is - constantly referred to in the same breath as the decline in foreign language learning in Scottish schools. Gaelic is a native language. French, German, Spanish, etc are foreign languages. The two types of education are not in competition. Gaelic even comes from a different part of the Scottish budget from fore...