Women of the World....

...we love you ALL!!!

So, it is International Women's Day today....okay, I thought I must do something to recognise it. I had spent the morning faffing around with paperwork that I have been putting off, but had to be done today...or else!...the weather was grey, wet and miserable and I was at a loss what to do.

I then wasted more time googling Manchester and the Quays to see if anything was going on that would be worth pootling down to. I couldn't find anything and by this time it was too late to go off to town so I whizzed down to the Quays. The rain decided to join me and it was freezing cold, nothing seemed to be happening so I left. I decided to call on Ellen on the way home....maybe she could inspire me.

"Can you think of an inspirational woman?"...well we thought of a few obvious ones but nothing that inspired a photo. "We just need to find some props," I said. "Oh, I don't have any props," was the horrified response. "Of course you do, anything can be a prop, that's the fun of it all, improvising." We just needed the right woman. We looked on Google...again. 

The woman who stood out and I really wanted to do was Valentina Terashkova. "Have you got a big round vase? That and the tubing on a vacuum cleaner and we're sorted!" "I'm not putting a glass vase on my head. I can just see it...yes doctor, I'm wearing this vase for a photo. No, thank goodness, I don't have one !" 

Well, not one to be defeated I had a rummage around her kitchen. "Have you got a glass pyrex mixing bowl?" No. "A glass plate?" No. I thought we were going to have to do our reserve photo of Elizabeth Blackwell with Ellen's stethoscope when I nearly choked on my cuppa. Ellen was trying a colander on her head! As I nearly wet myself laughing she tried to be dignified and said she was thinking of the aliens from the Smash Advert...well we ended up laughing more at that. 

I realised then that I don't have to search on Google for a woman worthy of representing International Women's Day. Yes, there are amazing women who have been the first in their specialised fields, women who have pushed the boundaries, woman who have fought for what we have today...but there are also the woman we have in our lives now. Women who are there for you when you need a shoulder to cry on, woman who will take you to Tesco when you haven't got a car, women who give you a packet of fish fingers from their freezer when they know you have nothing in for your tea.......Women who will stick a colander on their head because their friend needs a photo of the day...women like Ellen!!