A Little Northern Exposure

N and I have been watching DVDs of Northern Exposure that we ordered from Hs' DVD club. I was surprised that they have stood the test of time and are not too dated and I was also surprised that N who is almost 14 has really got into watching it too. I first watched the series when N was about 3 or 4, they used to show it late at night on channel 4, and they must have been re-runs then as it was filmed in the very early 90s. For those of you who don't remember it Northern Exposure is an American semi comedy series set in Alaska, The main character Joel is a Jewish doctor from New York who finds himself posted there after the Alaskan government pays for his medical training.

It is so much more than that though, with a cast of intriguing characters including a retired astronaut, a female pilot, an ex beauty queen, an aspiring fim maker, a spiritual dj and Marilyn Joels self apponted and extremely wise receptionist. What is great is that there is a real mix of characters and races, a large number of the cast are native americans. But the things that really steal the show apart from all that are the stunning Alaskan countryside and the music. Although I did read that on some of the later series they have changed the music on some of the dvds which I hope won't detract too much from our enjoyment - as the music was always an integral part of the plot.

This is a series that has dated quite well and I couldn't help feeling that if they showed it on UK tv today it would be more popular than when it was originally broadcast as I think that it was quite ahead of it's time.

Thirteen things I like about me

Thursday Thirteeners Have this week been Set a challenge to find Thirteen Things We Like About Ourselves 1…. I think that I am a good mum 2. Becoming a reflexologist 3. Doing well in courses - in my BTEC nursery nursing and HNC childhood studies I got mostly distictions. 4. Having a handsome and talented son 5. I think I am quite good at writing poetry 6. My photographs 7. Caring about other people, I am usually better at sorting out other peoples problems than I am my own! 8. Having got through a lot of tough times in my life (losing, a partner, losing a brother, being a single parent) without losing my marbles! 9. My love of music 10. Getting a place at art college 11 My love of literature and art 12 Working part time for years whilst my son was young but always putting him first. 13 My sense of justice and fair play, morals I suppose. I worry about doing the right thing for the planet and everyone on it. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. tink 2. mommyba 3. denise 4. caylynn 5. tinker 6. k t cat 7. ghost 8. jenny ryan

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Little Wisps of Lovliness - Wordless Wednesday

Little Wisps of Lovliness
Originally uploaded by pupski.

picture taken by Pupski

The Greedy Planet

There was an alarming article in this Sunday's Independent newspaper detailing how the world for the 6th year in a row is not producing enough food to feed everyone on the planet. This is due to various factors which include: growing population (there are now 5 people for every two living in the last century) and crop failure. So far this food deficit has been offest by using surpluses that have been stockpiled in previous years but these stockpiles are running dangerously low. Farming more land is becoming increasingly difficult as we build more roads and cities to satisfy the growing population.

I can't help but wonder though if there is more that we in the west could do to help alleviate this situation. For a start we live in a cafe culture . I am not pointing the finger here, merely stating a fact, I have coffee out at least once a week, sometimes two or three times, and we are not drinking genteel little cups like we had in the 1970s - oh no, now we drink super sized extra strong buckets of the stuff. And all that coffee has to grow somewhere. That means that millions of acres of fertile land that could be growing food are devoted to growing coffee so that plump Europeans and Americans can sup a bucketful whilst stuffing our faces with cake. Hardly seems fair does it?

Someone should put their foot down. ban or minimise coffee production and grow some real food. We'd soon get used to doing without it if we had to. Then of course there's all the land given over to drug production - I'm not even going to go there. and of course the cow crisis, not only all the land they graze on but the millions of acres used to grow crops to feed them with - this has long been cited as a enviromental problem. Apparently we now have to add to all these factors the new push for bio fuels - in the U.S thousands of acres have been given over to growing corn to produce ethanol for bio fuel. Plus there are all the millions of acres used to grow other crops that are imported mostly to the west.

Take a look in your cupboard and you will find a whole array of food that doesn't come from your home country - just off the top of my head I know I have bananas, aubergine, olives, sweet potato - none of which are grown in the UK. I should be ashamed of myself. I used to have an organic veggie box delivered to my house once a week and I may just go back to that - try to eat more local produce and what's in season. One thing that really riles me is that here in the UK the supermarkets import food that DOES grow well here. Look round Sainsburys and you will be hard pushed to find an English apple or pear - yet apples and pears grow excellently here and we have an abundance of delicious varieties - yet we are importing apples from South Africa!

It doesn't take a super brain to work out ways to help the environment, but obviously there are no governments willing to stick their necks out and do something about it. How about for starters subsidising public transport - if it was cheap to travel by train more people would - it's certainly less stressful than the motorway. In Norwich it's cheaper to take your car into the city and pay for car parking than to take the family in by bus - that certainly doesn't encourage people not to use the car. And how about imposing a ban or tax on goods imported that could have bought here like apples for instance. If English apples were cheaper everyone would buy them.

You can read the article "The Hungry Planet" here.

Pupski reccomends The Barnaby Ray Quartet

Found myself watching a youth programme on BBC2 at midnight last night and was fairly impressed. The show called Blast Friday was filmed at St Ives in Cornwall, which happens to be one of my favourite places but that was not why I enjoyed it. One of the main reasons was two tracks by the band The Barnaby Ray Quartet (BRQ) a kind of mix of folky, drum and bass with a great female vocalist. I was left wanting to hear more - you can check them out by clicking the link!

Thirteen Things this Girl Can't Live Without

Thirteen Great Inventions that This Girl Can't Live without well actually I could live without them but my life would be infinitely less convenient - I am not including all the obvious (lightbulb etc) as that would take up the whole list.... 1…. The Telephone Without this I wouldn't be able to keep in contact with my mum who lives 200 miles away. 2...Hair Crimpers These prevent my hair looking like a rookery...not that I'm vain or anything. 3...MP3 player tiny pieces of lovliness for the eyes and ears.. I love mp3 players - and to think in the 1980s we thought that ghetto blasters were cool! (and portable!?) 4...The Umbrella Much under rated, but essentially allows you to go out without always having to drag a bulky coat along with you...I just wish they could make a small one that is wind proof. 5...The Cafetiere How did we manage without this gadget. Before the cafetiere came along it was all nescafe instant or coffee makers that took an hour to make your coffee as well as taking up half of the space in the kitchen! 6...The continental quilt I still remember all those dusty, scratchy blankets that I endured as a kid, and a candlwick bedspread. They weighed a ton too, I love the quilt. 7...The Internet All that knowledge at your fingertips, not forgetting online scrabble and blogging of course. 8...Roller ball ink pens biros just suck and fountain pens leak and blot. With a roller ball you get the best of both worlds and your words can flow unchecked onto the page. 9...The bag Now what a clever invention this is and I would be lost without one - how men manage with just a jacket pocket I will never know... 10...The train Wow another marvel. You get from a to b relatively fast, they are safer than the motorway, plus you can get up, walk around, eat, drink, read, write, sleep, go to the loo and all while you are hurtling along. 11...Glasses you know spectacles, the things that help blinders like me see better...I would be lost without mine! 12...Art what a great idea that was! Someone had to take that first bit of chalk, pooh or whatever and go "Oh I wonder what would happen if I rubbed it on this wall" clever stuff! 13...The cooker without this I would be chopping kindling at 6am every morning. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Vicky

2. Natsthename
3. Mommy the Maid
4. this pastors wife
5. Knitting Maniac
6. Zeus
7. Kimmy
8. Cass
9. jenny ryan
10. jersey girl
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Girlfriend in a Coma A Must Read Book

I have just finished reading a great novel by Douglas Coupland. A kind of semi fantasy book, that starts out like a regular novel then gets progressively weirder. It also has more allusions to Smiths songs than just the title (but he has more recently published a novel title Elaenor Rigby so he must be into the song title theme).

It makes a change to read a novel that leaves you thinking about bigger issues but also is a thoroughly good read (the other that springs to mind is T C Boyles "A Friend of the Earth"). This book does both of these things in spades, it takes you on a mindbending, reality twisting, roller coaster of a journey along with its main characters and once you are hooked in to their story you are powerless to get off until the end. But at the same time it leaves you with a slightly uncomfortable feeling that there is more you could be doing with your life and more to life than we know - and that's no bad thing.

I won't say too much as that would spoil the ride for any of you who haven't yet read it but the book is essentially about a girl who wakes from a coma after 17 years and what has happened to her friends meantime. But there is oh so much more to it than that - you'll just have to go read it yourself!