GHOST DOG!

Yes, you heard correctly. Ghost dog. This is exactly what I convinced myself I had encountered a few mornings ago when I 'awoke' in my boyfriend's bedroom from something climbing on the bed and sitting on my legs. The sensation was exactly the same as when my dog at home climbs up and goes to sleep on my legs. But as the only canine pal my boyfriend had sadly met his doggy demise a couple of years back - there was absolutely no rational explanation for what had happened to me.

You might be wondering what I saw when this happened. The answer is nothing. I was completely paralysed no matter how hard I fought to sit up. It was actually a really odd experience. I went to sleep and when I woke up again a couple of hours later I was still convinced I had a phantom doggy pal.

Later, when my boyfriend arrived back from work I explained what had happened and he advised me to look up 'sleep paralysis'. My eyes were instantly drawn to this picture...

The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli (1781) is thought to be one of the classic depictions of sleep paralysis perceived as a demonic visitation.

- Picture from Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

I was very spooked by this, as I felt it depicted exactly what I had felt the other morning - except I thought a dog was sleeping on my legs. Obviously, I'd rather have a dog than a demon sharing my bed...

Anywho - upon some reading I have established that the phenomenon of sleep paralysis usually occurs when REM sleep is disrupted and comes at a transitional stage between wakefulness and rest, which makes sense as I had woken before 7am for a wee and gone back to bed.

No ghost doggys at all... :(

Oh please! I'm British Thank you...

Us Brits. We do like to beat around the bush don't we. With that in mind, here is a selection of phrases often dropped before an insult to minimise the offence taken by the receiver.

• No offence but...  (I am about to say something offensive)
• I'm not being funny but...  (I am about to say something which could be construed as 'funny')
• With all due respect... (I have absolutely no respect for you and your views)
• Forgive me but... (I'm using naivety to get my point across)

Why can we all not just say our honest opinions without the fear that the person you are talking to might not like it? Why must we justify ourselves with these pointless phrases before making a bold statement? I'll tell you why. The intense subconscious need we all have inside us to be liked. Whether you believe this point to be true or not, ask yourself this.

If you had a very controversial view on something and felt very strongly about it, be it; the government, immigration, religion - what have you...

WOULD YOU EXPRESS THIS OPINION OPENLY IN PUBLIC? ...well you might, but the likelihood is that you would respectively keep it to yourself until you were in quieter and more trusted company.

...and why...?

Because everybody has opinions and every opinion has an opposite argument and to air your own too often would invite your points to be queried and argued thus causing friction among your peers. Why do you think Winston Churchill had no friends?

The British public in general don't like to rattle any bones. We're all so polite with our 'thank you's and 'please's. I spent a weekend in Paris once and had spent a whole week learning such pleasantries in French and was quite perplexed to find their manners were not as apparent as our own.

Although, our P's and Q's have seen the light of sarcasm and cursing. "F**k off, please." "Err excuse me but you are giving me a migraine"

If you're feeling up to taking a little survey - next time you're out, count the amount of times somebody says 'thank you' to you. And then count how many times you believe they meant it - perhaps we throw the terms around and the people of Paris only say it when it is heart-felt. They are, after all, the most romantic people on the planet. Allegedly. 

The Face of Hate.

This man is Chet Walken. Chet lives in Texas and believes that people who aren't white are of a 'degenerate' race and believes the term 'nigger' is perfectly acceptable.

Chet thinks President Obama needs to leave the White House purely because of his skin colour.

Chet believes the earth can be no older than 8000 years old because the 'Lord' made the earth and put all his creatures on it. 

In short - Chet Walken, is a moron.

At first I thought the Twitter page could be a wind-up. Some sort of ironic gag poking fun at the ignorance of Southern Americans - as hypocritical as that might sound to the argument of this blog. However, as I read on I realised this was not the case.

This Family Guy clip comes to mind when witnessing his pure ignorance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE_OehRLH3s

Chet pretty much wished 23 year old Bolton footballer dead after his collapse on Saturday and tweeted "#Muamba is a British nigger? I thought he was stinking up my beautiful #USA! In that case I care even less if he lives or dies" 

Wayne Rooney hit back at the racist 'christian' and 'conservative' Chet with the following; "u are a sick person. U should be ashamed of yourself. U make me sick. #blackorwhitewereallgodschildren"

He has been using religion as a crutch for his racism but believes he lives a good Christian life-style.

After Chet's timeline became inundated with abuse from Muamba well-wishers and other members of the British public, he suggested that people in the UK were 'pussies' for not appreciating his freedom of speech. Chet is inciting hatred everyday on his Twitter feed but outraged that anybody might actually be offended by his 'free speech'.

I cannot explain the frustration I have felt at reading this man's Tweets but I have come across a hashtag #GetWalken4GOPOffTwitter which is gradually gaining popularity. Please. If you have already taken two minutes out of your day to read this blog then please take a further 30 seconds to contribute in seeing Chet's hateful Twitter page removed.

Thank you for reading.

Udder madness!

"Breast milk, to be specific human milk, is the milk produced by the breasts (or mammary glands) of a human female for her infant offspring. Milk is the primary source of nutrition for newborns before they are able to eat and digest other foods; older infants and toddlers may continue to be breastfed, either exclusively or in combination with other foods."  Unknown. (2012). Human Breast Milk. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_breast_milk. Last accessed 19th January 2012

Perhaps one of the most natural events in the world is that of a mother feeding her newborn baby with the milk that her body has produced for that child. But what about a mother feeding another young mother's child? Is this socially acceptable? What about a mother expressing milk for her pals to taste? 

A friend of mine at work who has just given birth to a lovely baby boy, recently celebrated her birthday. While around friends under the influence of alcoholic beverages, she did exactly that. One by one the friends around her tasted her milk. When I heard of this I was quite disgusted to be frank but when I asked myself why I was disgusted, I couldn't really back up my opinion with a valid reason.

Most of us drink cow milk everyday; on our cereal, in our tea. It really is one of the most versatile ingredients in the kitchen. What most of us try to block out is the fact this milk had to be squeezed out of a cow's wobbly bits! 

Why is it okay for us to drink another species milk which nature intended for its calves but the idea of drinking another human's milk past the age of two is absolutely 'disgusting' and actually quite a taboo topic.

I realise I've asked a lot of questions in this blog post and I don't have any answers for them but I would love to hear any opinions on the topic so please leave a comment!