Bittersweet

National Day – 10 September – came and went.

No we didn’t dress up and parade/limp up and down Main Street. In fact I don’t think I went out at all. I’ve pulled my knee again which doesn’t lead to successful walking on dodgy pins amongst the hordes. Especially if they’ve been drinking.

There isn’t much to celebrate in Gib with the dire job situation. Despite the government proclaiming only one per cent of people are unemployed, we seem to know a fair amount of that one per cent. Perhaps oh government, people see no point in registering for work when your helpful staff tell people to find a job on the street?

And those who have got jobs are on temporary contracts, renewed every three months, or working 12 or 14 hours a day for security firms, with compulsory overtime. The minimum wage has gone up a whopping three pence from £6.25 to £6.28. But we still know people being paid less than £6.25. Some people working – compulsory – overtime don’t even get paid overtime rates. How about the firm that lays off loads of their direct labour employees only to take on agency staff at half the rate?

So much for the EU Working Hours Directive. You work the hours the boss wants – ‘voluntarily’ – or you get the sack.

No, not much to celebrate at all.

But on the bright side, Partner had finished a job for a UK client who had flown in on business so wanted to come and check the flat. All good, chequebook out, asked for some extra work to be done, and added that to the original total. Off they went for coffee. ‘You don’t want to pay for expensive coffee do you?’ asked Partner. ‘No point paying £1.50 when you can get the same coffee for £1. It’s Saccarello’s, [local coffee company] like most bars serve.’ So the Splendid Bar it was and to chat about Gibraltar. Now why can’t all customers be as reasonable? Splendid in fact.

This door was blocked up with a crazy panel, it also meant there was no fire exit route from the kitchen. Freed it up and added handles. No, he didn’t slop paint on the floor, previous sloppy painter did, before you ask.

And true to form, the weather changed after National Day, and we got our first rain only two days later on Monday afternoon/evening. The temps have dropped slightly to mid twenties rather than high twenties.

In other good news, assuming rain and lower temps are good news, although possibly not if you live in flooded parts of the UK, I see other police forces are considering following Nottingham’s example of including misogyny as a hate crime.

Police forces across England and Wales are considering expanding their definition of hate crime to include misogyny after an experiment in one city that saw more than 20 investigations launched in two months.

The initial success of Nottingham’s crackdown against sexist abuse has drawn national interest after the city’s police revealed that they investigated a case of misogyny every three days during July and August, the first months to see specially trained officers targeting behaviour ranging from street harassment to unwanted physical approaches.

and

Melanie Jeffs, the manager of Nottingham Women’s Centre, said: “Women are groped, or groups of lads shout abuse or very sexualised comments at them. We have incidents of sexual touching, women being grabbed and men trying to get women into a car with them.”

What a surprise. Who would have thought men abuse women in the streets, or treat them as sex objects? Not something I’ve been saying for the last zillion years, oh no. But finally, in a few tiny pockets of England it seems women may receive parity with religious extremists and people who aren’t white British. That’s nice.

Nottingham police force defines misogyny hate crime as “incidents against women that are motivated by an attitude of a man towards a woman and includes behaviour targeted towards a woman by men simply because they are a woman”.

Full article from The Guardian

And an earlier one about Notts police force introducing misogyny as a hate crime and some good background info and quotes.

I’m sure the fact that Nottinghamshire’s chief constable is a woman has nothing to do with this somewhat radical progress of treating women as citizens who deserve not to be harassed and abused.

But back to the rain. Or lack of. Here is my lemon tree that withered terribly over summer, so I pruned him/her back and was rewarded with lots of lovely new shoots. Maybe one day I’ll get lemons too.

My lemon tree. Maybe one day lemons?

Speaking of lemons, and misogyny, I read Lemon Girl by Jyoti Arora recently. It’s a story about relationships, rape, and, who is to blame for the rape? Is it the rapist or was the woman at fault? No prizes for guessing my point of view but it was an interesting and thoughtful read with good character development. Some errors but a strong and powerful story.

Lemon Girl

I’m a big fan of Indian authors, probably because I enjoyed my time in India, so I may be biased, but Arora captures the newer India, focused on Playstation games, money, shopping, yet traditional morals and values take priority. An amazing mix of the superficial, the traditional, and … reality.