OxeyeDaisy

...I've been on BBC Radio 4 talking about a really sad thing that happened near my home and started a campaign to stop my neighbour running a business from the house. The first issue was about the killing of a man in broad daylight on a Sunday morning with a broken bottle. He had just left the venue where he had been singing after a great gig and was on his way to catch a bus home. He crossed the road using a subway where someone was hanging out with a broken bottle. I think subways like that should be used for something positive as there is an enormous space down there, big enough for a building. We could have a local radio station or an internet cafe down there, something that is open 24 hours a day and serves the community. Thanks to the producer I was able to talk to an expert on urban spaces called Henry Shaftoe who thinks it's a good idea and better than CCTV but CCTV is what we're going to get. As for the second thing, well, my garden shares a border with one belonging to a house that's being used as an office. Nothing wrong with that in itself, it's the great big mixer trucks that park up outside that are causing the problems. Apart from that he's built a small house in his garden, right on our boundary which has made the whole area too shady. No consultation or apologies. Now we're worried that he will build between the house and the new bit. There are a lot of small mammals, frogs and insects here and in the long term they will suffer if this keeps happening. The local council only wrote to a few people asking if they objected so I ended up leafleting the area to alert others and got a good response. Won't know the result for weeks so fingers crossed.

I’ve been listening to the debate on the Vanessa Feltz phone-in (one of my favourite shows), a passionate discussion about the disclosing of the identities of the three people responsible for the death of an angelic 17 month old boy called Peter Connelly. In spite of his being brought to the attention of the social services in the area he was treated with a brutality that has left people open mouthed. Blonde blue-eyed Peter was tortured by his mother’s partner and his brother. His short life was spent in squalid and filthy conditions. The British public is torn between wanting to hunt down the people responsible for this and a desire to punish the social workers who let this get past them. To me it is clear that a long sequence of events, stretching decades into the past, have led to this tragedy. There is a saying, “It takes a village to raise a child”, and I have come to believe this. The trouble is, I’m one of the people that says all this and still keeps her mouth shut when she sees someone screaming and swearing their heads off in front of their frightened little children. Even though I can remember very clearly what it feels like to be that child. Cowardly me.

As I write my face is deflating - an hour ago I looked as though I had an egg on the side of my forehead and my eye was closed. This is what you get for growing courgettes in a garden inhabited by every malicious and hungry insect known to man. If it pinches, bites or sucks blood it lives outside our back door. It took hours for it to get this bad (I should have slapped on antiseptic the second I felt that gentle tickle) so I woke up looking like this. Never mind, the courgettes were terrific cooked in a casserole with chicken, onions and tomatoes, served with rice. Otherwise, things are in a chaotic state at Casa Oxeye Daisy as we are redecorating. At the moment it’s the bedroom so all our clothes, well, OK, all my clothes and the relatively small number he owns are crammed into plastic crates where we can find them quickly. Or not so quickly as it turns out. It has taken us about 18 years to get around to redecorating this particular room so a few days isn’t really a problem. Jones the (late) cat really hated it when we disturbed his routine so we did this sort of thing as little as possible. I am delighted that I managed to get the room I use as a place for making things sorted out within two weeks as it was stuffed full of things and dealing with it resembled a military operation. Not quite finished yet, pictures to put up (including one of M) but getting there. Loved the Benny Benassi remix of the new track, “Celebration”, and can’t wait to see the accompanying video.