Badgers and blipping and warm woollen mittens...

I couldn't put it off any longer. By it, I mean the desk-tidying that will gradually extend to whole-house clearing. In the middle of looking for a (UK) button, I found these vintage badges. I ran to tell CleanSteve that I'd found my blip. Never one with perfect hearing, he asked me where I'd found the badgers!

The war in Vietnam (or the US deploying of troops, which was apparently never a declared war but an 'action') started about the time I was born. It was something the grown ups talked about after we kids had gone to bed. I have an early memory of getting up at night to go to the bathroom, and having a chat with my mother on the landing. The adults must have been talking about 'the war' and I asked if there was a war in Vietnam. My mother said no, that it was over.

But ... it must have been a ceasefire. Or maybe that was Biafra. There was always a war. We lived in Dublin, but the Troubles didn't kick off till a bit later, so I didn't know much about them till I was seven.

The Riff Raff poets badge and the Stop the War in Vietnam and one or two of the others were given to me by Dennis, the pacifist poet and printer, for my 40th. I wore the Stop the War badge for so long that eventually someone reminded me it was over!

That could have been embarrassing.

Once, a party political candidate knocked on my door and asked me who I was voting for. I said I was for the local chappie.
He'll never get in, she said. Labour is pretty unpopular because of the war.
It was 2005, but I had been reading about World War II.
"Oh, the Second World War was ages ago!" I said, apparently having forgotten all about Iraq and the demos I'd been on...

The Texas Homecare one needs a bit of explaining. In the 70s/80s, when the DIY superstores sprung up in England, they were called Western names. B & Q was orginally Dodge City. Texas Homecare probably became HomeBase. And if we were in France now, I guess we'd get our hammers and nails from M. Bricolage, if the quincaillerie had been replaced by an out of town monstrosity.

Speaking of which, why don't DIY stores and places that sell 'lifestyles'' have coffee shops? I always fancy one after trooping down the aisles, looking for the one thing that they haven't got.

Enough rambling. Tomorrow I am going to Swindon. If you don't hear from me...