Dead Bodies

I went to an exhibition of dead bodies at the weekend….It was called Body Works and was in Manchester. 

The dead bodies were a bit disappointing they had undergone Plastination(*) which was very impressive technically but ment that they didn’t look real- they looked plastic.I obviously wasn’t expecting rotting flesh and maggots but I expected them to look slightly more fleshy.  I’ve seen a dead body once before- it was on a fun run, I somehow got lost  and a drowned man was pulled out of the river- he was all bloated and weird…. The lack of rotting flesh aside the exhibition was fascinating…I realised I have very little idea about anatomy and it was really interesting to see how the bodies all fitted together. It was also interesting to see what happened when people had a stroke etc. There was so much information that I couldn’t take it all in and have bought the book to read at home.

The positioning of the bodies was also interesting- it was more than a museum exhibition; more like art with the bodies placed in positions of people who are doing things (playing tennis, swimming etc). Some were placed to be reminiscent of artistic works (for example one was dissecting another) . It was quite stunning and grotesquely fascinating.

As well as the information about bodies there was a second stream of information; about previous attitudes to death and bodies so there was pictures of body theatre’s (dissection theatre’s) and a discussion of the symbolism around those. The exhibition was very popular so it wasn’t really possible to go out and back in which was a shame as I wanted to take it all in.

A subsection of the exhibition looked at human development- which was basically fetuses. I was amazed by how quickly a collection of cells turns into a human shape. I was also amazed by how damn predictable people were…I saw several approach the 24 week one and say..oh this is the legal limit for abortion….and seem shocked. the basic argument seems to be…but it looks so cute- it must be wrong. It did look like a baby but a have a feeling there is more to the argument than cuteness.

The exhibition was in Manchester, my dad really wanted to see it as he has just done an MA in death studies and is thinking of becoming a grief councillor. He lives in Bath and we went up to my mums house in Manchester to see it. Its really weird having both of them together. They get on so well its like two old friends with soo much to catch up on. I tend to feel like I’m disappearing…

(*)Plastination is the process of extracting all bodily fluids and soluble fat from specimens and replacing them with vacuum forced impregnation with reactive resins and elastometers, such as rubber, silicon and epoxy. The specimen is then cured with light, heat or certain gases, which give it rigidity and permanence.

Previous attempts to change…

I’ve rejected alcoholism as the most obvious way of dealing with the boredom that invades my life…So I’m looking for something else….I’ll start by reviewing things I’ve tried so far:

1) Change my job. I tried this 2 years ago; I quit my teaching job and went to a big firm to do public sector audit. There was a challenging career path, competition, excitement, more money. I lasted 2 weeks! So what went wrong…I really really hated it- the challenges weren’t challenges I cared about; the people were dicks and I had to drive miles and miles each day. I came home every day for 2 weeks in tears. I missed my teaching; I like the organization and the people I work with. I care about what I do. I phoned my boss and asked for my job back. Within a week I was back at my desk planning courses. Changing jobs seems like a good idea but I can’t think of a job that has advantages over the one I have. Mainly other jobs look like more work for less money; I need more than that to make it seem worthwhile.

2) Having more people around. One of the problems with raising children is that once you come home your kind of stuck in the house….me, husband, housework… So a year ago I got a lodger; the theory was that having somebody else around would help us to create grown up time as they wouldn’t be exhausted from the evening rush and we wouldn’t all ready know everything that had ever happened to them. This worked really well for a bit…then our schedules changed and we always seemed to be on top of each other.  We gave him his notice and he refused to move out; when he eventually did go it was a great relief!

 

3) Studying. this is the most obvious- I’d like something more to think about. I started an open university course about 9 months ago. I picked an MA in online and distance learning. I mainly chose this because my employer agreed to pay for it. The first unit was called The E-learning Professional. God was it dull….it dealt with things such as ‘what is a professional’. It was also quite easy- in my opinion not really post graduate standard as I found I could knock of an assignment (around 2,000 words) in a day with no prior reading and still get 65%. It wasn’t really challenging. I just had this guilt that I should be doing it…I finished the unit and was SO GLAD. So if its going to be studying it needs to be interesting!

 

The next step is to make a list of things that inspire me! 

Amazing coincidence of syncrinization…

Yesterday I learnt something interesting about myself….when I do things randomly I repeat patterns.

Yesterday went to the Tate Modern in London. I went to a meeting- it finished early I thought I’ll go and see a few paintings… As always when I go to the Tate they were between exhibitions in the Turbine hall…as always I was overwhelmed by the scale etc I aimless went to the third floor…took a left and found myself in the USB Openings gallery..I wondered around a bit before being grabbed by something. A Kandinsky…I love Kandinsky prob my favourite artist. Next I saw a Pollock- this was really interesting as I’ve never seen one before. I’ve seen postcards and Pollockesq works but not an actual Pollock. I’ve always thought he was a bit…crap. But seeing the real thing was different- I thought there is something here. I even read the little plaque and learnt about fractuals…and I could see what they ment there was a pattern to his work.

I saw a Rothoko, then a Monet..as I looked at the Monet I was amazed by how different that was from the calendars etc, how much more depth of feeling and how it was a picture of a day as much of Lilliies. The calenders etc tend to show the lillies much more distinctly and so lose some of the rest. I was getting a bit of a feeling of Deja vue at this point…

Then I went into the Rothoko room and was stunned- it took my breath away it was so deep and dark and brooding…I want to lie on the floor and brood…Obviously I didn’t I thought it might upset the Japenese tourists…

Anyway I read the sign outside the Rothoko room, how it had originally been painted for a restaurant but hadn’t really been suitable…and I realised that this was more than deja vue. I had actually been to the same gallery, been grabbed my the same paintings and thought the same thoughts before…

Apart from the Pollock. I hadn’t seen that. 

Would it help to be an alcoholic?

Last week I drank every day…not a huge amount just a glass or two of wine. This week I’ve stopped as I worry about becoming an alcoholic. I think my parents are alcoholic- they drink over 20 bottles of wine a week between them, open a bottle as soon as they get in in the evening and the thought of spending an evening with them alcohol free….tricky.

 

Anyway…why drink? Because I’m bored. I never expected life to be so dull….to be so old, so fat, so married…To go to work, come home, cook, watch TV. And drinking; drinking makes it seem more fun; it creates some kind of barrier between chores and the rest. Some sort of illusion that I’m having fun. Also it helps me to cross over the sexual membrane (see American Pergatorio by John Heskill) ….so it isn’t just an illusion…it is more fun!

 

I’ve just read a book that  described exactly how I feel; in fact there is millions of them that describe women lost in the daily minutia of everyday life….the idea that of all the wonder and beauty in the world I chose this..

The books tend to advise leaving the husband, and often becoming a lesbian. However I don’t think it’d help in my case; I love my partner desperately and he’s the best thing about my life. He makes the dull fun; the unmanageable manageable.I need to break out of the routine to do something different…but, but I still need to get my son to bed, take him to school, cook the dinner etc. And I don’t want to!! 

So would becoming an alcoholic help? I’m not sure but I’ve got a bad feeling that I might not really enjoy the challenges that it would create for me to overcome.

What kind of sister?

In the ongoing saga of my brothers relationship breakdown I’ve found myself wondering what sort of sister am I? Do I pledge my loyality to the family relationship to the girlfriend as a woman….

My brother and the girlfriend lived around 2 miles from my parents home in a northern city, he had a good job, she had a baby, he was happy, she was miserable. Her mum lives around 250 miles away in the southwest in a little wooden house on the edge of a river….The girlfriend asks the brother to move down there and give their baby a different life. He agrees- he wants them all to be happy. They rent out their home and move next door to the mother-in-law; and conviently next door to the grandmother-in-law. My brother gets a new job- the girlfriend is still miserable. She ends the relationship and moves back to northern city leaving him heartbroken, without his baby, living in between his ex inlaws. On top of the heartbrake of the relationship ending he feels she took him 250 miles to dump him.  

She now wants her equity from the family home and arguments break out about how much this is; he desperately wants to keep the house as he feels he’s lost everything else. So as his sister I can see that she shouldn’t have the equity; legally he put the cash in and now gets the house. However as the other sort of sister I feel great sympathy for her- she was the homemaker;looked after the child and spent any money she had on food, nappies etc. So should she now lose out?

As the argument drags on it looks more likely that lawyers will be involved and the discussion is ended- they get any cash available!

Would you have sex for £20,000?

This scenerio pops up all the time in films..often with amusing consequences….however in the ongoing saga of my brothers relationship break down this happended for real…

My brothers girlfriend dumped him; took the child and left him all alone…(ahhh..). The relationship breakdown came around 2 years after they poured everything they had (and everything the family had) into buying their first home. The girlfriend was expecting to get half the equity that had built up in the house (she estimated this at £20,000). He said no; he’d paid the mortgage; put more deposit in etc. Plus he’d lose the house if he had to give her £20,000. Legally he’s right she paid a fifth of the deposit and so gets a fifth of the equity…morally I think she may have a point…

Anyway she invites him up to the house, plies him with drink and seduces him….they spend a stormy night together…in the morning he thinks they may get back together….she whispers in his ear….so about the money….. He doesn’t give in and she immedietely stops talking to him…

So the question is, would you, could you sleep with somebody for money…or advantage? What if you’ve slept with them for love before? What if they’re cute?

Bound

This is a fab film! Its funny and clever and entertaining and unpredictable…. I watched with my partner on Friday night and was really impressed. A women, fresh out of prison moves into a building where a mob member and his glamourous girl live- cue much smouldering sexual tension between the 2 women….who eventually get it on. The glamourous girl has had enough of the mobster she describes as work and decides to rip him off…lots of shooting…and will they won’t they get away with it…A crime film with enough tension and ‘new’ characters to bring real suspense. Its really good to see some intelligent strong women characters….Although I do wonder if we could have films with women like this but straight…are the only intelligent women lesbians?

 

And why were we watching a film? Because we’d had an enormous row on Thursday about the fact that he never wants to do anything; never organises a night out etc. So Friday he comes home with a bottle of wine, some dinner ingredients and cooks me a lovely meal. I was really surprised as he’s not really one to think of this sort of thing. We had a great evening together. I noticed on Sunday that he’d added a bottle of wine to the shopping….Could this be standing order romance? If so; at least he’s trying!

Medical Choice

The current political agenda emphasises the need for medical choice. Recently I’ve been confronted with this choice and not really known what to do with it……I am intelligent, professional and relatively well informed but I don’t feel qualified to excercise choice

Scenerio 1

I went to the opticians and they found some scarring on the back of my eye and said I should go to the eye clinic. They contacted 2 eye clinics both of which wrote to me to arrange appointments. Nobody had told me that this might happen….I don’t know anything about either clinic. I phoned both and picked the one that offered me the most convenient time. They then changed the time at short notice on two occasions so I went to the other…..But I knew nothing about the care that I would receive (which was excellent).

Scenario 2

To treat or not to treat….My son has a slight speech impediment. I went to the doctors to see if he should have a hearing test as I’d been told that children normally have a hearing test before they start school. The doctor said no…but that he could be referred (infact it was a locum and he said he didn’t know who we could refer him to but he was sure that there was somebody)…the referral came through to the speech and language therapist. The doctor who referred him never heard him speak and I’m concerned that he may not need to see anybody and that the process of going to see a speech therapist may make him self concious.

Scenario 3

The dreaded eye injury…when I injured my eye recently I attended 2 A+E departments. They both saw me quickly, were friendly polite and efficent….but offered slightly different treatments. The first gave me no pain relief to speak of but recommended follow up treatment. The second recommended no follow up treatment but gave me pain killers, a tetnus injection, eye drops and an eye patch. They both felt that the eye ointment was very important and this was given by the first and checked by the second. However I’ve no idea which of the other two approaches was more appropriate….

Incidentally I saw an eye doctor and everything was fine! 

Scenario 4…the dreaded MMR debate- need I say more?

Tears

Today I was teaching financial accounting; one student ran out in tears….3 times. I assumed (wrongly) that she must have personal problems….but no its the financial accounting thats the problem. Teaching a professional qualification I’m often surprised by the number of students I reduce to tears. She feels that she just isn’t getting it….she isn’t. I don’t know what to say…there is still time.

My partially sighted student had a support assistant today- that was interesting as I’ve taught somebody with a support assistant before. I think it might have worked better if the support assistant had been that at the begining of the course as he seemed to struggle to write down what was required….If he had been for it to help now he would have had to learn accountancy to some degree. which then lead me to an interesting question…should I be trying to teach the support assistant?

The support assistant and the student talked in another language; I couldn’t tell what they were saying and therefore found it hard to offer appropriate assistance. They may have been discussing the football!!

Does my son have ADH?

No NO No….He definitely does not. I think my son is a thoughtful well behave boy; who broadly speaking does as he’s told; has the odd tantrum; and is slightly obsessive he really gets hold of an idea and likes to see it through. His teacher describes him as ‘lovely’ ; ‘adorable’; dreamy  and so so polite….She sees the boy I see. His friends and their parents seem to find him easy, his nursery teachers liked him.

However in our family he is somehow seen as this nightmare child who is totally out of control. My step-dad recently asked me if he had ADH and could perhaps be treated for his behavior…This behaviour consists of 1) being a fussy eater and 2) getting over excited. When he’s over excited he doesn’t go to sleep well…..The next day he’s overexcited and overtired….more tantrums…I admit here there is a case for me excercising more control at bedtime but I’m shocked at the desire to find a medical explanation…I’m also surprised that the child I have reflected back to me is so different from the one I see. I would think I was deluding myself but as the teachers see the same child I see…..