Sisters, are they literally doing it for themselves?

Have you read Victoria Coren's column yet today? If not, why not? It's not about poker you know.  It's about girl's having the option to do cheerleading at school rather than the football.  She makes a wonderful point about girls' roles in society being, quite literally, sidelined and wonders why it is that girl's WANT to just be the jiggling prize for the boys rather than the decorated sports star.  I, rather more clumsily, was making a similar point about TV presenters in a previous post.  What Coren asks is why aren't women allowed any serious competition with each other (let alone with men)?

With all this inverted girl power knocking about it made me think that women are competitive, just in a different way.

It's true that women are capable of making very firm friends with each other.  Over late nights of bonding and mutual secret revealing, women can quickly progress from acquaintance to friend onto full blown sisterhood in a matter of hours.  I know many men who are quite envious of this.  Some long to be able to open up to their male friends in the same way, to bond over feelings and shared experiences.  But unlike SOME women, men seem to be able to participate in creative activities in a social and mutually respectful way.  Women seem to get jealous of one anothers achievements, and here is where girl competition is rife.

Now, I'm not talking about people's friends here, more precisely, acquaintances.  Those people you know, but don't love enough to be happy for all the time. I know men can be very competitive in the work place, but I'm stepping outside of that.

I have alluded before to a certain situation that happened at the start of my blogging life.  I wrote a rather pessimistic, upset post about feeling unfulfilled.  In it, I referred to someone who represented all the opportunities I had missed and that they had taken.  I TRIED to make the post as anonymous as possible.  I TRIED to choose keywords that only the person involved would pick up on.  I thought that being a first post the likelihood of ANYONE reading it was slim, let alone anyone I may have known in a previous life.  Part of this plan was not to use "he" or "she".  What I found very interesting, and ultimately infuriating, was when someone left me a comment.

It wasn't that someone was criticising me that got me down, I was ranting and I sounded daft.  What got to me was that in their comment the person kept referring to my post subject as "she": "she must have done this", "she must be better at that".  Whoever this person was assumed that because I was a girl, the person I was writing about must be a girl too.  WHY?  Because women can only be envious of each other?  Because women can only aspire to the heights of other women? 

Do women really view competition along gender lines?  Sure, in any physical activity there are obvious reasons why Average Joe may not be suited to a heavy lifting duel with Average Josephine, but surely where creativity is concerned everyone is fair game? Say, Blog Wars broke out tomorrow, my blog would be up against ALL the trillions there are in the world, not just the ones written by women.  So why did this person ASSUME I was talking about another girl?

This is something I will definitely be coming back to.  Right now I have to beat some men at some stuff.

And yes, the person who left the comment, she was a girl.

pic: Sooki and Anna 02 by Seneschal of Avalon

Why I'm having a particularly lovely day

Cat by Cat

As you can all see this blog of mine is called Bitter Lemon and started from a rather frustrated place. But today I have had a simply lovely day, and as someone who suffers from pitiful downs and panicking panics I thought it was worth celebrating.

Now we all know the Internet loves a good list, so here is why I'm having the whimsiest day of loveliness:

* I had a substantial lie-in that went on for just the right amount of time. I got up today at 10.30, which is the perfect time: you have languished in the land of nod and fed on sleep until you are just full, but not too full to feel bloated and head heavy.

* The lie-in followed a horrible dream where Martin had left me. The relief I felt when I woke up to hear him pottering about was glorious.

* Having already tidied the kitchen and living room last night, I was greeted by the best sight to morning eyes - neatness in the two most inviting rooms.

* I had perfect, 4 and a half minute boiled eggs for breakfast.

* I wrote three letters which I went on to post on the same day they were written. They now won't rattle about in my bag for a week getting tatty and bruised.  They slipped into the post box in pristine condition. I also posted back my lovefilm DVD (Frost/Nixon) in record time.

* I decided to cook my hard-working fiance a meal that any 1950s housewife would be proud of. So out came Gizzi Erskine's book and her recipe for "Proper Beef Stew".

* I walked to the shops in the sunshine,with Stephen Fry in my ears. I went round possibly the bleakest Asda in the country and left with cheeks devoid of tears. Not bursting into tears wasn't the only first on this shopping trip, I also managed to buy EVERYTHING that I needed to make my beef stew.

* I only had to wait about 5 minutes for the bus home. This is always a delight, I wasn't even bothered that, having only a £2 coin on me, I over paid for my journey by 55p. I like to think the bus driver fished this out for himself and bought himself something nice.

* I switched on my computer in the afternoon sunshine, poured myself some very lovely coffee and got cracking on my Green and Blacks Cherry Chocolate bar. My broadband kicked in in super fast time and I was whizzing around the Internet before I knew it.

* I browsed my two new favorite shopping sites The Literary Gift Company and Folksy where I made a start on Christmas and treated myself to a Border Terrier badge:

Designed by Forever Foxed

This badge will have to do until I can get the real thing.

* I spoke to Stef, who looks like this:

Stef photographed by Ian Malone

and is one of the best people I know.

* I downloaded 'A Larum' which is a simply brilliant folk album by Johnny Flynn, and thanks to the power of the facebook status update have added more music to my Itunes wishlist.

* With 'A Larum' playing in the background I lustily prepared stew for my lover like any good folk wench would.

* Martin came home early.

These are all wonderful things. But surely the best thing is still to come: the stew should be ready in time for Only Connect. It's almost like I timed it that way.

Top photo by Cat_mcpie (wonderful photos, especially of London)
Stef photo by Ian Malone (www.malonesworld.com)
Border Terrier badge by Forever Foxed

The £10 Food Challenge continued

Missed me?

You have?!  Well miss me no longer, I'm back with another thrilling update about what me and Martin have been eating over the last two days! I am only including the highlights because otherwise Bitter Lemon will just turn into a blog of such tedium you will all go and log onto The Daily Mail or something.

You will be relieved to hear that I DID eventually treat myself to the much hyped kippers and scrambled eggs.

 It looks like dog vomit.  I will grant you that.  But it's so darn tasty!

Requirements:

* 3 eggs (yes 3. Eggs are ok again)
* TAD milk (c)
* 1 kipper

Smash up your eggs into a "scramble". I prefer the hob method, eggs deserve a hob. But if you are stuck for time just shove it in the microwave and blast the hell out of it (like you ALWAYS do). I tend to add my kippers towards the end as you don't want them to make the eggs too salty. Dish up on your most aesthetically pleasing plate, eat and sit back satisfied.

* * *

Pie. Pie is what this country is made on. Well pie and pasties (I was born in Cornwall, all the best people and pastry based goods come from there. Oh and ice creams...and holidays...and people with the name Renowden.... and Bridgewater). It was a pie that instigated a shift in The £10 Food Challenge. A moment so moving, so tantalising I cannot possibly do it's importance justice here. It was a moment so tender and marvelous that it almost made me want to pack the challenge in, move to the woods, live in a shack and just eat pie until I was shack-ridden.

It started with a request "Er...Hannah, do you have a recipe for shortcrust pastry?" and it ended in my plate looking like this around 8pm.

Martin made pie and SHARED it.  What a knight among men.

Martin's Pie

The Pastry (or Heavenly Pie Hat)

* 1lb Plain Flour (c)
* 8oz Butter (c)
* Pinch of salt (c)
* Cheese (you choose how much) (c)
* water to mix

Rub the butter into the flour until you have bread crumbs. Give it some cheese. Add water until you are able to form a dough. The best thing you can do for pastry dough is let it have a snooze in your fridge for a bit. It likes it.

The Innards

* Potatoes
* Carrots
* Sweetcorn
* Broad beans
* One pack of White Wine Mussels

yes...one pack of White Wine Mussels. This sounds RANK. But it tasted sooooo good! The white wine sauce gave the pie this lovely tasting filling and really worked with the veg. Give it about half an hour in a high oven then just eat it.

I promise I will be writing about other things than my diet soon. I already have an open love letter to Victoria Coren in the works. I've gone and said her name! Now I will have to sate your excitement with a picture!

Smashing.