| 13/3/2007 I sent Sajida an e-card for her birthday and I haven't had a notification to say she's seen it. That was a couple of weeks ago. It makes me wonder if she even uses that email any more... Yeah well, I've been making good progress with my essay for my Czechoslovakia model. Even though I have 500 (750 in total) more words to work with this time around, I still find myself worrying about the word limit. The problem is, you have to be very concise and only provide the most important information with the relevant analysis. I'd prefer to explain the entire situation and all the interesting bits within it, but the only reason a professional historian can get away with doing that is because they have an entire book to work with. Oh well, one good thing about writing Uni essays is that you know your lecturer/expert in this module will be marking your assignment so you don't feel obliged to put in every single detail. Unlike essays in High School, in which you are told to expect the marker knows nothing about the subject. *slams head on the table* I tried Baileys for the first time last night. I don't see how anyone can love it. It's a tasty enough drink: it smells of chocolate, upon sipping it it's like sipping chocolate milk and afterwards your mouth feels as if it's covered in a frothing-choccy lining. However within the chocolatey-ness you can feel a sharp spirit. Don't know what, possibly vodka. You can taste the spirit and you can feel it rub along your throat as you swallow, course it goes away pretty quickly. Once you finish the entire drink, you want another one (but not Baileys. You're not going to wash away the aftertaste of Baileys with another Baileys now are you? Unless you wanna get pissed.). I just watched 'China Blue' at the cinema. I was with some people from People and Planet, though I was surprised by the presence of some hiking people. Now it's not like I knew nothing about the injustices of the sweatshops or which shops sell the kinds of products, but...well that documentary was very good at showing the conditions. A typical working day is 8am-7pm...if they're lucky. If they're behind schedule and a deadline is fast approaching they'll work all night. One shift didn't finish 'til 9am the next day. And get this: it's illegal to form unions in China! I felt so sorry for them 'cos comparing their working conditions to mine last Summer: sometimes on an unlucky Sunday, we'd get no lunch break, but that's 'cos we understood we were behind and we needed to finish laying the tables. There were a certain few days when we would be at the restaurant after the end of our shift, but we knew that was because there were tons of customers and we were expected to clear the mess. The managers would take a portion of the burden and...we got free food. The workers in that denim factory have to pay for every meal. (except the midnight snack) And sometimes I silently grumbled about a couple of my superiors, but at least I was allowed to grumble. I never said anything out loud 'cos I didn't want tension, but at least I knew I was allowed to grumble. It's typical to get fined for having a bad attitude in Chinese factories. It's terrible. Now I've decided I definitely don't want to buy from Matalan-not that I've ever bought anything from Matalan, but I'd fallen in love with Primark!!! Now I feel dirty for having their underwear and jeans. What was also ridiculous was the visiting entrepeneurs from Canada-they were so damn ignorant! They walked through the factory where the workers put on a grim face and got on with their work, they ask if they're happy and they take one smiling supervisor's word for it. They also see the dorm building (right next to the factory) and the woman comments: "Wow! How convenient!" Oh please! Didn't you see the glum face of the girl leaning on the window? Didn't you even see that the windows were just cut squares in the walls? THERE WAS NOTHING COVERING THEM! NO GLASS! NO CURTAINS! NOT EVEN CRAPPY SHUTTERS! |