This is the personal blog of greenygrey

What is Big Brother Jade the queen of? In the start, when she first appeared on Big Brother, she might have been the Queen of Ignorance and Unintentional Humour.

Then she was a Queen of Publicity and Celebrity, enjoying a few years of fantastic success.

But then came Celebrity Big Brother, and the clash of cultures with Shilpa Shetty: the media painted it as a case of black and white, but really it was a case of greenygrey.

Shilpa was clever, Jade was clumsy. Jade was up against it anyway, as a British society primed by multicultural fascism was almost bound to take the side of an upper class ethnic over white trash (I say that as white trash, and Jade’s family were described as such in a conversation Shilpa had with Jackson, which was largely ignored by the media.)

When Jade told Shilpa she should go back to see the Indian slums I decoded it as meaning the upper class Indian should go back to see how the poor Indians live, in a system of apartheid caste, but the media obviously didn’t think Jade has such knowledge, and interpreted as Jade talking down to Shilpa, as the British used to talk down to the Indians during colonialism. Like the white British trash of that time weren’t talked down to!

Jade would be sacrificed to pay our debts to India for past crimes. After a gruesome interrogation by Davina upon her exit, Jade became the Queen of Chavs and Racism.

The media forgot how eloquent and diplomatic she had become during the early stages of that Celebrity Big Brother, and how she had tried to mediate between her mother and boyfriend and Shilpa, after the programme had introduced her unmedia savvy family, and they’d taken an instant dislike to the very media savvy Shilpa.

But now. Jade was already on her way back to popularity, when her tragic illness struck. She has chosen to fight it public, and is now going to work on to publicise the need for screening and to set up her sons.

As she doesn’t want them to grow up in ignorance, as she did; an ignorance that was cruelly manipulated during Celebrity Big Brother.

Jade has now become the Queen of Heart and Courage.

* If people accuse me of using Jade’s illness for my own benefit, they may have a small case; it is a case of greenygrey, not black and white. But I was saying these sentiments at the time of Celebrity Big Brother, when to defend Jade was tantamount to heresy, and I also defended Jade in my 28/10/08 blog Prescott: The Class System and Me

* I also have nothing against Shilpa, Davina and the makers of Celebrity Big Brother. They all have good qualities, and are good businesspeople.

Howdy folks,

Hope you're all doing well.

Sorry I haven't been around much, but it was Christmas, then busy period, and then getaway from winter holiday.

Bit of news to report:

A poem I created for the Writelink Right Angle comp ‘Terraced Streets’ has been published on the Commonline Project website at: http://common-line.com/2008/12/shorts.html

Moreover, an interview I did with writer and editor, Ruth Kozak (also member here as Wynn), is also on the site at: http://common-line.com/2008/12/interview-w-ruth-kozak.html

Thanks also to Mater and the team for publishing a travel article about the Shrewsbury-Aberystwyth trainline and a rant about the current credit crunch and its causes in The Pages magazine.

Cheers, and have a great weekend!

It was the docs last blog, and today I’m rambling on about the best drama series I’ve seen on television this year, or for many a year maybe, although my memory might be biased towards the current (green), as the previous might be grey in the ol’ grey matter now.

It’s hopefully informative viewing for those who want to hate all Britain for its empire and colonialism.

About 400 years ago British people were battling for the freedom and human rights that are enjoyed in the country today, although the current state of the country suggests they weren’t successful enough, and that it might even be going backwards lately.

It’s also big on highlighting female status, and women’s rights, which is still an important issue in this country and even more so around the world.

It’s also got loads of greenygrey scenery. I thought they might have visited my website, although it was planned 14 years ago and was filmed in South Africa.

Links below, and have a great week!

http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/T/the_devils_whore/making.html
http://www.channel4.com/watch_online/

It’s not today, for those who woke up to a covering of snow, as I did. And 3 weeks to Crimbo Day too!

Just a TV round-up of docs I've watched this week:

Well, the likely answer to the title question is 650 million years ago, according to Catastrophe episode 2, which looked at how our sapphire jewel of a planet in space was once a bit parky to live on, as it was completely covered in ice, and therefore if you were walking on the moon at the time our world would have resembled a snowball more than a quality marble. It was apparently less hospitable than Mars, where they have just found underground glaciers, so maybe there is life on Mars after all?

You can see more about Catastrophe, and even watch it, at:
http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/C/catastrophe/programmes/programme-two.html
More on Mars at: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081124.html

Oceans was in the Indian Ocean this week, and had bad news for sharks, but good news for dugongs (what’s a dugong? A 10ft fish that is supposed to have inspired stories of mermaids)http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fzb9c/Oceans_Indian_Ocean/

If you now feel that you know when the Indian Ocean was a snowball catastrophe, think again, as Horizon this week investigated the meaning of time, and found out that nobody has a clue!tp://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fyl5z/Horizon_Do_You_Know_What_Time_It_Is/

There’s a bit of viewing for you if you're snowed in at home, or just taking a long weekend!

Just created a bit of poem from my visit to Leeds' Elland Road ground last week and submitted it to the football poets site, and it's below.

Zen Snakes and Emerald Lakes

After ascending one hundred grey steps
I arrived at the summit of Mount Upper East
and walked out into bright sunshine
illuminating the emerald lake below.

Memories of glowing red sunsets returned
And glorious victories won on cold dark evenings
that brought us hope of better things to come
only for them to fade away as the colours did.

Multicoloured trains passed through
houses and trees in the distance.
Looking like a snake passing through
stones and plants in a zen garden.

People walked dogs through parks
looking like Lowry's Matchstalk men
and their criss-crossing had worn an x
in the ground like some landing zone

For birds flew overhead, looking
like dragonflies in summer.
But it was autumn now, and the last amber and gold
would soon make way for the winter wonderland.

Also, a year after I proposed the word brangle for when your brain's in a tangle, I read this report which suggests brain's slowing down in old age is due to tangling. Link:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/081117_aged-brains.htm

Have a great weekend!

For all those who were into rock in the 80s, or are now, the new Guns n' Roses album is streaming in its entirety on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/gunsnroses

It's out on Monday in the UK, so like writing, I guess music is having to show itself before release these days in our www world.

It's got a lot of slow and thoughtful tracks, as well as innovative rocky ones, so a bit for everybody.

I took the swans and sunset on the Aire photos at Kirkstall Abbey, and was also treated to a wonderful light show after sunset. There were clouds on the horizon above the sunset, and then more above that after a clear gap, creating a kind of dome or arch effect.

Then the sky under the higher cloud turned translucent sea-green, turquoise, sky-blue and pink. After it faded away, the sky started to redden, and there was a conventional sunset which filled half the sky.

I think I saw the translucent colours before, but was half asleep on a train, and wasn't sure if I was seeing things. This second time suggested it was happening, so I asked on Yahoo answers, and got a couple of ideas:

1. It might have been Noctilucent clouds. They are the highest clouds in the Earth's atmosphere, located in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 76 to 85 kilometers (47 to 53 mi). They are normally too faint to be seen, and are visible only when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon while the lower layers of the atmosphere are in the Earth's shadow.

2. Diffraction. This is similar to the effect light has when passed through a prism. The light is split into it's constituent components (wavelengths), and depending on your viewing angle, you will see different colors.

Have any of you seen this, or know what it is. Cheers.

I went to the local derby between Leeds v Huddersfield on Saturday. We lost to an injury time goal, so it was a bit disastrous football wise, but I was sitting high in the Upper East Stand, which isn't open much these days. I remembered there were great views of sunsets there during the 3pm winter games, but this game was a 12.15 kick off, so too early for that.

But I did get to appreciate the view, with distant multicoloured trains passing through the mixture of concrete, fields and trees evoking the image of a snake passing through a zen garden.

The Elland Road pitch looked like an emerald amongst the jade fields outside, and I thought it must have been imported from the finest Dales fields.

I'm blogging the day in more detail and three parts on my blog at www.greenygrey.co.uk/blog so hopefully you'll join me there.

I've got a couple of photos from Kirkstall Abbey after the game on the BBC Leeds website at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/image_galleries/gallery_weather_november_2008_gallery.shtml?1

Beautiful sunny day here today by the way, and weather was good over the weekend.

It’s Saturday, an article’s just been published and my booklocker ebook account is up and running so life's pretty good for the writer in me.

My Dolomites Great War travel history article is at: http://www.travelthruhistory.com/html/exotic14.html and I hope you enjoy it. It took a bit of time and work!

My Guns n' Roses Worker Traveller booklocker ebook is at: http://search.booklocker.com/search-bl.cgi?q=marc+latham&t=&SEARCH=Search and there’s some of it on display to read. Please remember, it was from my youth!

Have a great weekend!

Hi all, hope you're having a nice November, and are keeping out of the wind and rain.

Been focusing on my ebook recently, with Booklocker agreeing to publish it the main news. I just sent it to them on the off chance from the Writers and Artists Yearbook, and was surprised to read they only accepted 10% of submissions in their acceptance email. So that should be getting off the ground this week, and I only have to send details for my page.

Ruth (Wynn) has also accepted an article I sent her a while ago on World War One (Great War) battles in the Dolomites, and that should be published in the next week.

I've also been publishing regularly at Suite 101, and am on course to fill their 10 articles in 3 months minimum. I'm also blogging regularly of course.

So some promising news as the year ends, and trying to keep my work going until the holidays. Cheers.