Also trying to bake some bread, something we have lapsed in more recently. However my efforts in getting the dough to rise has been stumped by the spot not being warm enough. Have resorted to cranking the heating up and pushing the armchair against the radiator to hold the dough. I have my doubts about the success of this venture but I won't know how badly I'll fail until I try!
Pictured: the general aim
One a different note; something very strange happened to me last night. I stayed at home instead of going to the pub (that's not too unusual, I'm very lazy) and ended up watching a couple of TV shows I've heard about but not seen. First one was 'Don't Tell The Bride', a programme where a couple are separated on the run up to their wedding and the groom has to plan everything as a surprise for his lucky Mrs-to-be. It's a strange thing that nowadays in our culture weddings tend to have more emphasis on it being a female affair full of discussions on dresses, colour schemes and cakes etc. and the man stays mostly out of it. Whenever I get married I want it to be a joint affair (bad words?!) and not a case of the groom just 'turning up'. The drama comes from the fact the bride gets pretty much no say in anything, even the dress is picked by the groom, and the bride has to like it or lump it.
This is not from the show but it made me chuckle! At least she seems happy.
Ok, I guess it's easy for me to be a bit cynical as I've not been married and so don't know exactly exciting/ important having the 'right' dress is, but surely the whole point of getting married is to unite the two individuals as one unit in love and promise? With something so huge as the focus of the entire event frivolous details like decoration and themes shouldn't be such a cause of conflict, but it seems to. In fairness, the brides seem to always be pleased with the result and everyone has a fantastic day even if it wasn't how they had expected. I am actually quite an emotional person so I did get a bit welled up watching it (tut tut) but then things got stranger...
Now, I understand as a 23-year-old who is not yet married and has many plans for the directions of my life, children are not currently anything that appeal. Parenthood, once entered into, cannot be escaped; children are hard, hard work; I will ruin their lives inadvertently if I were to create any lifeforms in the near future (so I promise I won't!)
NOTHING about this appeals. And who cut her hair?!
The next programme was 'One Born Every Minute' which is not, as suggested, a marathon of births squeezed into 60-second slots, but follows people about to and giving birth. What did catch me out was this scene: https://lifebegins.channel4.com/explore/parents/mothers/series-3/video/dawn-gives-birth-to-baby-laragh
For those who don't wish to be horrified/ traumatised/ never reproduce etc, the clip shows a woman called Dawn and her husband Paul during the birth of their daughter. The labour became difficult due to the baby's shoulders getting stuck, so though her head was out the rest of her wasn't moving. You can see the baby turning blue and the parents who cannot see anything trying hard not to panic as mum and baby are wrenched and tugged by the doctors trying desperately to get things done. There is a happy ending, but the harsh reality is that in real life of course things don't always go too well.
Just watching it shook me up, and I was feeling absolutely devastated for the parents who couldn't do anything more to get their baby delivered. It's easy to see how so many women have (and tragically, will) die during childbirth, even in these modern times.
In seriousness I have often found the idea of adoption more appealing than being pregnant should I ever get the urge to have a baby - which I'm informed should hit me in my late 20s/ early 30s when the hormones kick in - and not for vain reasons, but because there are so many babies and children out there who need homes and parents. Again, I know it's easy for me to say, but so what if you aren't tied by blood? Parenthood is raising children with care and love, not just sharing some DNA.
"Wait, I'm adopted?"
That said, who knows what may happen? Well, God does. I'm sure He'll let me know when the time is right.
2 comments:
Interesting mix of stuff there.
You're already old enough to have the hormones kick in for wanting a baby. It's much more that when a woman gets to 30 odd she will often realise that time is running out and will focus on what she hasn't done than what she can do, and that will usually including becoming desperate to have a child.
As for the clip, Ben was born like that (with forceps) and it was a grim and desperate time, with Chris in huge amounts of pain, yet out of control because the pethidine only made her woozy. The medical team was also fairly unsympathetic, and at one time we had a group of medical students all watching the business end so they could see what might go wrong.
Birth helps you realise how close life & death are. 100 years ago Chris & Ben would have very likely not survived, although she might have done if he had died and then he could be cut up in situ (a procedure I've seen in older medical textbooks). As for the clip I wondered what they would do about the 'business end'.
Re: weddings, the important bit is what happens afterward, although the whole celebration is about 2 people becoming one flesh, and with so many couples having sex before marriage and therefore already being one, it somewhat takes the celebration of something marvelous about to happen out of it. FWIW I helped Chris choose her dress.
I'd suggest a wedding should be designed to celebrate and bring people together, rather than as a kind of fashion show. Again, in older times couples were keen to get away fairly rapidly (we certainly were!) in order to start as they meant to continue. That coloured things quite a bit, and removed the sense of anti-climax that is so often present at the reception & afterward.
Oh I think a wedding is a 2-person creation, not a girly occasion where the bloke just turns up. And of course the most important part is the union of the two people, which is why I lose patience with all the other crap surrounding it.
And hormones aside I still have no real desire to start a family! Though that could well change. That birth still scares me. Sounds like Ben's birth wasn't the smoothest of moments, and I'm sorry people weren't more sensitive. But at least he arrived alright :)
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