Chore Wars

I wasn't going to talk about it, I turned down a company who asked me to talk about women doing the lions share of the housework. I saw posts on twitter about it, I read blog posts about it, but I stayed strong. I didn't blog about it. And then today, finally, a radio ad for Woman's Hour (a show I've appeared on and yet loathe) broke me. So here I am.

Chore Wars

How ridiculous. Are women really so feeble we can't ask a bloke to help if we need to? Are men really so lazy and feckless they just lay around watching footie and drinking beer from the can, unless poked by a feisty female?

I don't think so. I think we are grown ups. I think that mothers raise sons and we raise them to be equals in a relationship, just as we raise our girls. I hope that mothers of boys (I only have a daughter) teach them to cook, clean, wash up, split the laundry into lights and darks, and how to handle babies just as I teach my daughter.

I hope other mothers of daughters are teaching their girls how to light real fires, check their oil and antifreeze levels (ooh must take car to garage - don't let me forget) I hope they are learning to change a wheel, use power tools and mow lawns with stripes.

I think the constant bashing of men as lazy hurts us all and the frequent martyr language of the long suffering mum at home does the same. Are you a couple? Then you are a partnership. You split the chores and housework as best suits you, as a partnership. Your gender is irrelevant. You are a team. Pull together, face the world, win.

In my house there is a full time worker and a stay at home partner who does the majority of the housework and looks after DD. This has worked for us as a family for 14 years.

The fact that it's me that works and DH that knows how the washing machine works, is neither here nor there.

Swamps, Stages, Sun, and Sweat (Glastonbury ...continued)

Friday arrived damp and drizzly. We donned wellies (and clothes, I wasn't allowed to wander naked, the teen DD had forbidden it, tsk, teens eh) And headed down to the festival for some breakfast. The field by the Other Stage was a quagmire. Proper sticky, slippy Glastonbury mud. Hungover festival goers slithered and slid along the walkways, sometimes falling with a satisfying 'splat'. We stopped for breakfast of bacon and egg in a bap (well I did, DD claimed not to be hungry) and then walked about in the mud, we squelched onward and suddenly were forced, FORCED, to eat warm blackberry and apple pie with cream, when we spotted the aptly named Just Desserts (absolutely scrumptious!)

 We then staggered onward to the kids field as DD had been dying to visit and see what was going on there. By this time the sun was out, so I lounged while she played in the spider tower, the pingpong thunderdome and other assorted amusements. I wasn't just watching beards (I was).

Later we went to Williams Green to meet Lemon Fancy at the Ecover Bee, we also bumped into Ptolemy the bee's creator. We chatted, admired the bee and then popped into the 'souper' Soup Library, a place we discovered last year at Wilderness, and one we were delighted to see again.

We were sad to miss Amanda Palmer but DD was very happy to catch up with Rita Ora's set on the Pyramid stage.

We had pizza (cooked in a wood fired oven, smokey goodness) for lunch, and also had to eat crumpets after spotting old friends from Camp Bestival the Strumpets  with Crumpets (I seem to have turned  into a Glastonbury food critic and it's true we did eat ALL THE TIME! but it's hard work festivalling) DD had two luxury jam crumpets, while I had the Bloody Mary - best crumpet ever!

In one of the shops DD cunningly bought a Jessie J T-shirt for a £5 (I say cunning, it was priced at £10, I said no, the guy selling instantly reduced it LOL) And then we went to the Cider Bus for beard watching warm cider. We could hear The Vaccines playing from there so it seemed churlish to move, it's a bit blurred at this point to be honest. :-)

We went to watch the rather fab and funny Dizzee Rascal complete with swearing and balloons, a rather spirited and fun performance that DD loved, and we stayed  for the Arctic Monkeys set too because I rather love them.

After dark we went back to  Williams Green to see the bee in the dark, and it didn't disappoint, cunning light effects rippled over its body and it looked amazing.

 Saturday Morning broke bright and warm. The mud had all dried, and after an  ostrich burger for breakfast we were off!The green kids field was first on the list as DD was obsessed with the climbing wall there. The people in the field were so lovely and friendly too, oh and we were dressed as bees.

 We took a walk up to The Park to the Crow's Nest hoping to see  Professor Brian Cox but it was so busy we couldn't even get close, reminded me of stories of people trying to hear Jesus! So we took photos of the lovely view over the festival, and had some lunch then walked back past the stone circle (where we saw the most romantic of marriage proposals, he: down on one knee, she:crying and saying yes, everyone:hugging)

We went to watch some comedy next, DD's choice, and chanced on Torann Drummers (young, hunky, sweaty topless drummers, what's not to like?) and then listened to Jeremy Hardy and some other people that raised a giggle or two.

Tea was a fishfinger butty while watching stunt men lay on beds of nails. Which fortified us to go and see The Proclaimers in the Accoustic tent.

 We nipped back to the tent for chairs and shmangles so we would be comfy for The Rolling Stones later. The field was heaving with fans and we were far far away but it was amazing. I was exhausted just watching them for over two hours, incredible the stamina they have and Mick was clearly loving it all.

Sunday. Dressed as bees again today after washing our hair in a bucket by the tent, no queueing at showers for us! Even though there were free showers in the Green Futures field, stocked with Ecover products.

We caught a bit of Zulu Winter on the Other Stage, and DD danced about with her breakfast ostrich.

We went to the West Holt stage to see Riot Jazz (mostly by accident, you really do find all the best things by accident at festivals)

Then we spent an hour or so at the Circus Pavement (DD's favourite spot) watching such great acts as Great Dave, Billy Kid and Mr H. (no Photos of Billy Kidd though - too busy cringing as she dislocated her shoulder to escape from a straight jacket)

 And at 1:30 we were back at the Other stage for what turned out to be my favourite act of the festival (and the cruel BBC didn't film it!!) Stornoway, so there I sat sipping gin from a tin, listening to lovely music on hard baked earth that had been a swamp only days before.

Lianne La Havas (someone we discovered at Wilderness and instantly loved) was great on the West Holt stage later, I sat eating Goan Fish Curry (delicious and very spicy) while listening.

Mumford and Sons performed a stonking set later, much of which we listened to from the comfort of bed, we really are wimpy festival goers :-)

Monday. I'd been dreading getting the trolley back up the hill but I needn't have worried. Delightful friendly men helped us at every steep bit, one guy helped push for so long that we awarded him a medal (I bought some at the 99p stores for just an occasion such as this, we had already awarded one to one of the litter picking team) and so we were gone, driving away from several days of action packed fun. I miss being in the tent, I can't wait for the next festival.

All the photos you've already seen plus a whole load more are in the slide show below. (Well done if you read this far)

Big thanks to Ecover for sending us to Glastonbury

Created with flickr slideshow.

Glastonbury: beats, bars, bands and bees, with Ecover

Early on Wednesday morning (I say early it was actually 8am - the time the gates opened at Glastonbury) I set off with some trepidation, (and DD)  to the biggest music festival in the UK.

The journey was stupidly easy, no queues anywhere despite AA signs and dire warnings online of long waits around the site. We arrived at the Purple car park as instructed and were shown to a parking spot about as far from the main festival site as was possible without still being at home.

The view from the car park (which was high on a hill) over the festival was amazing. We had packed light (we hadn't) and so we put the trolley together and set off.

We camped on Hitchin Hill as the family camping was already full when we arrived at 11am. It was very steep but luckily DD's beauty and my feeble helplessness attracted manly types to grab the trolley and RUN with it to the top of the hill in a show of awesome macho-ness.


We pitched the tent, dropped the trolley and our valuables off at the free lockup and then wandered off to the Green Fields, through the circus fields, to Williams Green where we could finally see the holy grail of our journey, the finished Ecover Bee sculpture by Ptolemy that we had previously seen in pieces in Brighton. The bee looked amazing. So different to last time we saw it. (more of that in later posts)

We bought ourselves a Glastonbury T-shirt each and moseyed on back to the tent via the craft field and the 50p tea tent (the clue is in the name there) where oddly everyone was spilling their tea....

At the tent by 7pm and DD was out for the count, all that healthy exercise, early morning rising and hauling a stupidly overladen trolley across Glastonbury will do that to a person.

I had a gin and watched the sun setting.

On Thursday we were raring to go, a great nights sleep (although my hips were aching - I must be getting old - not sure how that happened) We started the day with coffee and hot chocolate at the tent (ah ha bringing the camp cooker suddenly seemed like a better idea!) And then went down to the festival site to shop, stare and eat.

We spent time at all the best places, the Cider bus, the kid's field, played giant twister, made stick people in the green kid's field and then....then it began to rain

 We braved the rain for some time, chatting to friendly hot pork sellers (ooh er) and getting wetter and wetter. Finally as there were no bands we were desperate to see we went back to the tent. 2 early nights...what was going on!

It continued to rain all night, and when we woke it was still raining, luckily I had two pairs of wellies...

to be continued .....

Did I mention......?

I realise this may come as a surprise to some of you as I've kept it pretty quiet but Ecover are sending me to Glastonbury to be a citizen journalist. I know, I know, quiet shy retiring little old me in the worlds biggest performing arts festival with only a 13 year old to keep me sober safe, why would Ecover do such a thing! It must be my obsessive love of camping and all things eco and green and hippy I guess. Maybe also my new found bee obsession. Honestly when Ecover told me about the sculpture and the bee connections to their product I was a little perplexed...bees? But then I started reading about bees and...well bees are amazing! no really, amazing

So much is written from the 'urban myth' (Bumble bees, if looked at aerodynamically, can't actually fly. Einstein claimed the world would will end in 4 years if all the bees die.) to the amazing facts about how they reuse and recycle in their own hives. Like tiny eco warriors, buzzing busily among the flowers collecting either nectar (in a special nectar pouch BUT they can switch a 'switchy thing' if they get hungry and send some nectar to their stomachs!! ) or pollen stored in rather cute pollen pouches on their legs. They transform the goodies from the flowers into honey and use the honey to create wax which they mould to create the amazing cell structure within the nest.

Just take a few minutes to google the bee. Amazing.

And Ecover are doing amazing things too! Not least the awesome art work by Ptolemy (better known for his sharks, fish and hubcap creatures) which will be unveiled in all it's glory at Glastonbury - I'll see you there - did I mention I'm going?

Created with flickr slideshow.
And also in their new take on eco cleaning products ..

Surfactants are the surface-active ingredient found in most household cleaners. Typically, they are produced through a petrochemical process, through a high-energy, high-pressure process that is, unfortunately, toxic to the environment.
However, sustainable cleaning products contain surfactants produced from plant-based alternatives. Plant-based surfactants are biodegradable and rely wholly on renewable resources, rather than fossil resources.  Sounds like an ideal solution, right?  Well… almost.
The problem is, plant-based surfactants use the same energy-intensive process as the petrochemical-based surfactants.  We needed to improve on that aspect, too.
So, after seven years and over 50,000 hours of research, our scientists invented a new biological, energy-efficient process derived from yeast that could take the place of petrochemical and plant-based surfactants.   This is not just any yeast, but the kind that was discovered in bees’ nests. This particular variety is uniquely capable of combining water-soluble sugar (glucose) and non-soluble fatty acid (oil) to produce a completely natural emulsifier – an Eco-surfactant!

 Extract from Ecover Blog

So now I'm bee obsessed, loving bees, nearly crying at some of the awful things in the news about bee deaths. And secretly hoping to convince my hubby we should get a hive!!

Follow me on twitter or check out the #beeclever hashtag to keep up with what Ecover and I are up to.

BEE Inspired

I need to blog about my new bee obsession! But right now I'm busy checking my tent for leaks. I simply can't wait to see what the world of festival goers at Glastonbury think about Ecover and Bees!! I hope I can  get them to be as excited about recycling and plastics as I am!

So here is a rather fabulous infographic from Ecover about bees, bottles, cleaning and nature to keep you going! Enjoy.

ECOVER's aim is to create powerful, fully sustainable and biodegradable ingredients that will eliminate the need for petro-chemicals. Visit The-Splash for more information and to read and support our pledge.