You call it "nothing", a word to cover ignorance.

Ignorance would be bliss if it were ignorance we could be blame.


I am not very worldly. I have travelled, but never really immersed myself in another country's culture. Excluding Trek last November, I have never spent longer than 2 weeks in one country at a time. I've been to France a lot, but I barely speak the language and generally go with the prejudice that they hate vegetarians.

I don't speak any foreign language to an acceptable standard of fluency. And until recently I had never realised how little I sought out in knowledge about foreign countries, their cultures, and their history.

A couple of weeks ago I met Brian Avery, a US activist who spends a lot of time campaigning around the Israel/Palestine conflict. (His blog is here)

Before I met him, I quickly Wikipedia'd the conflict as it is one of those things I knew existed, but not why or for how long. I accepted it as part of our world, I had never questioned it before. I knew the names of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and I've heard of Hamas as the baddies and that was it. The sum of my knowledge about what I now understand to be a complex war dating back 70 years.

I'm not going to pretend that an hour with Brian made me an expert. In fact, it made me even more confused.

I want to blame my own ignorance for not challenging my own thoughts on this. But it's a laziness to not discover more. It is a laziness that media outlets depend upon- that we will swallow their wisdom of the day on any given topic.
It's also a (terrible) way of trying to protect myself: I get so upset over the bad things in the world, I get so wound up about the killing and the hate (see this blog about my inability to cope with it). So if I seek out more knowledge of the awful things, surely I am just going to make myself more upset? There's nothing I can do about other countries problems, is there?
My ignorance would tell me there isn't. But knowledge is edging its way in. Knowledge that as an individual I can make a difference. If I understand more, then that already changes things a bit.

Australia is not a third world country (as my GP pointed out when I asked if I could get a years supply of the contraceptive pill). But that doesn't mean people don't need help. I will need to work in order to live. But I can surely find time to volunteer. It's my year, I can do what I want with it.

I have the opportunity to live in a country and get to know the people, the culture, the good and the bad. I'm not brave enough to go somewhere like Rwanda where my sister is, not yet. But I think this is a step in the right direction. A step away from ignorance.


*A big thank you to Danny Eve, whose random Doctor Who quoting on Twitter gave me the title for this blog!

Learning Curves

This weekend I have achieved one New Year's Resolution, and failed one.

I have 'achieved" going on the Bluebell Railway.

Here's me with a glass of champers in the Chelmwood carriage of the Wealden Rambler, travelling from Sheffield Park to East Grinstead.

And I failed to complete my 'Before 24' list.

The state of my 'To Do Before I'm 24' list when I turned 24:
- Play Monopoly
- Visit Belfast
- Learn how to light a BBQ
- Learn how to mow the lawn
- Get 4th tattoo
- Get a credit card

I played Monopoly for about an hour before I became a bit of a sore loser and didn't want to play anymore.

I applied for a credit card and got rejected - no surprise, as I was unemployed at the time. Now I'm too scared to apply again. I will try before I leave the country.

Claire and I tried to learn how to light a BBQ on Thursday night (my birthday eve). We didn't really succeed. At all. Ah well. We gave it a go.



Another year older, and another year wiser.
Well, another year older.




Things I've learned in the last year:
- I am gifted (in a very special, impossible way) at knitting
- How to live with my father
- How to live without my mother
- I love working in casting
- Plymouth has it's own version of the London Eye
- Alcohol is banned in Monument Valley
- What it's like to be on the other side of depression
- My sister isn't fluent in Italian
- Pubs in Belfast kick out at about half midnight

Things I haven't learned in the last year:
- What alcohol goes into a New Orleans Hand Grenade
- To knit properly (i.e conventionally) and without adding or dropping stitches with every row
- How to successfully light a BBQ
- How to make hummus without a blender
- How to make the perfect banana bread
- How to control my chocolate habit