We have finished Le Grande Coq and moved onto a Cockfighter's Ghost...is anyone sensing a theme here? Besides drinking and happy dancing in celebration that is. Language is no barrier.
I had a great moment early yesterday morning, as I sat in the lecturer theatre waiting for the conference to begin and for my scheduled time to present my conference paper. Well, I had a couple actually, but one was earth shattering.
On the very first day of my studies this year, I struggled with flipping the lecturer table up on my seat in the first lecture hall and I had to be shown how to get the damn thing into position. Yesterday morning, in a totally different lecturer theatre, I saw my neighbour struggling with her lecturer table and assisted her to get it up and into place. I laughed and said what a sense of achievement I felt from that one little thing. It seemed to represent in some way the long journey that I have been on this year. Of course the sage in front of me laughed and said 'let's hope that is not all we have learnt this year'. It wouldn't have mattered all that much if it was, as I have changed so much over this year, met some wonderful people, who, while I know they won't stay in my life after this week, have contributed to a very profound expreince for me.
I was reading the conference booklet, looking at all the great papers being presented that day, and feeling my nervousness mounting, when my tutor walked by. I wish such a teacher on every student at some stage in their life, and hopefully at a time when they can gain most from them. She turned and called out to me 'Flamingo Dancer! You are going to be great today, you have written a really fantastic paper and your power point slides are wonderful!' I said that I guessed it was only a half hour of my life, but I was still feeling nervous. And then she stopped and thought a moment and she smiled and said ' Think of it this way, you are presenting for all the people in the world who suffer anxiety because of their difficulties with perfectionism'. And at that moment, I calmed down. She was right, as here I was having a chance to present to a group of educators a problem that I know has severely handicapped the lives of several people I know and more than a few students I saw while prac teaching. If my few simple words made an imprint on one of them, and they could help one person as a result, and even though I will never know that, I will have lived a life well lived.
I was 3rd to present. It was a good position as we were all fresh and not yet uncomforatble from sitting for too long. I was happy with my performance. Well, I am Flamingo Dancer after all! Actually I was more than pleased with my presentation because when I started this degree course I was so frightened at the thought of standing up in front of my peers and speaking that I really worried whether I would be able to complete the course. Now I can stand up in front of a room of strangers and speak. Maybe sometimes it is incoherent, or dribble, but damn I can do it.
Afterwards a couple of people came up to me and said how much they enjoyed my presentation and how they identified many aspects of their own personalities in what I had described. I suspect that most university students suffer from perfectionism to some degree, how else do they stay the course? Of course we all have to write 'attention to detail' on our resume, don't we? So we are expected to be perfectionists, even though it makes our life unhappy and often derails our learning. I felt please anyway, because I had delivered my message and hopefully the message will be passed on.
At the end of the day, most of my colleagues were going for drinks, but I was exhausted and had arranged for Son to pick me up anyway. I must admit that sitting from 8.30am to 5.30pm with just a lunch break and a couple of toilet breaks really put my back and neck into painful zones, so I really did just want to go home. They didn't need Flamingo Dancer dancing on the tables and telling everyong that she loved them in a slurred tongue. Not that I wouldn't have done it in an original memorable suprior style!
So all I can say is - take that leap, test yourself, go for the mountain top. AGE DOESN"T MATTER! It won't be easy and it will be scarey. At times you will be exhausted, and frightened and overwhelmed. There are no guarantees at the end. No promises that you will get a better job, or a pot of gold, but what you gain as a person, the little treasures that come your way on the journey are worth every moment of the journey, pain and all. Join the parade.
I am partaking of a small, well middish, glass of a cheeky little le grand coq cabernet sauvignon 2004. It's promotional claim is that it is produced from very well hung grapes. I have no idea where or when we obtained it, I suspect it was either a gift, or purchased in one of the moments of holiday hilarity when one thinks everything is humorous and a must have. It has been cellared very carefully in a cardboard cartoon that once contained reams of printing paper, in the corner of our living room, for heavens knows how long. Maybe since 2004. It did have the requisite covering of dust though.
I drink it as I write my way through my first draft of my last assignment in my postgraduate degree. Perhaps too soon to celebrate...but damn I am being creative. Luckily I don't have to hand the assignment in until Monday so I have time to sober up and edit!
It tastes very nice....
The signing of the Lisbon treaty today marks the end of a once proud nation. A
nation that has fought for the freedom of all Europeans through two
World Wars. A nation that now becomes just a vassal state of the
European Union. A nation whose Prime Minister now reports to his E.U. masters.
As Dr Richard North put it so clearly on October 9th:
Since the membership of the European Council comprises the heads of state of governments of the member states, this means necessarily that our prime minister becomes a servant of the European Union, bound by the treaty to promote its objectives, and subject to its law. He will no longer represent us in the European Union but, as part of the supreme government of Europe, is one of 27 who will determine the policies of the EU for individual vassal states to implement.
Thus, as we have remarked many times, come the next general election, we will not be electing MPs, with the wining party then go on to form our government. We will we choosing an electoral college which will then go on to choose the person it wishes to send to Brussels, not as our representative but as one of the 27 who will take part in the supreme government of Europe.
Despite the general election, therefore, the government will not change. We only get to change one member of our government – our member of the European Council. Those MPs who go on to become ministers will, by and large, assume junior roles in the rubber-stamp machine of the Council of Ministers, and then go home to implement EU laws.
To that extent, the next election is devoid of any great significance. Barring those few areas which have not been taken over by Brussels, the new "government" will be shorn of its power. The election is primarily an electorally mandated (partial) reshuffle.
And that is why the
The genius of it all though, it that so few will notice. The EU has learned that the way to take over independent countries is not by force of arms but to create "institutional changes" that go unrecognised for what they are. Leave intact the façades of the formerly independent institutions of the member states, and reward the politicians handsomely with the trappings of power, and the deed is done.
The end game is all but complete. Our politicians have sold the pass. They have allowed our government to be stolen. And if they don't care, we should. We are to be ruled by an alien power. It is not our government – it is theirs. We owe it neither loyalty nor obedience.
[Photo from England Expects]
On 3rd November, 2009 at 1500 CET, The United Kingdom ceased to exist as a Sovereign Nation, when Czechoslovakia signed the Lisbon Treaty. The Sovereign Nations of Europe are now just part of the new European Union Empire.My father fought in a World War and my Grandfather was killed in one to prevent a day such as this.
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
This website has now served its purpose. The subjects of the United Kingdom are becoming increasingly aware that all meaningful government power has been handed over to the undemocratic unelected, officials of the European Union, despite assurances to the contrary and despite no public support for this transfer of sovereignty. There are many useful websites exposing the truths behind this E.U. government and the Westminster puppet regime's blind love of all things Big Government and especially the EU.
I suggest the following sites, shown below.
But please do not forget the plight of
Andrew Symeou while he rots in a Greek jail, almost forgotten by most
of us. He epitomises the Whitehall Government's attitude to both the
individual and to the E.U. Superstate. The former is unimportant and
can rot especially if he is innocent but an embarrassment. The latter
must be obeyed and its rules implemented and gold plated.
Dr Richard North's valiant expose of the E.U. vs Truth at EUReferendum.blogspot
Roger Helmer MEP's attempts to expose the Great Global Warming Scam
Lord Lucas supporting the freedom of parents to choose how to educate their children
Helen Szamuely highlighting the almost daily increased restrictions on personal freedoms
[Photo: Andrew Symeou]
