Happy Friday!

It’s the last day of January. Hurrah! And the official withdrawal date of the UK from the EU. So quite the day. I’m working from home and then going to have dinner with some friends. For the rest of the weekend, I’m hoping to be all about new raised beds at the plot, if they ever arrive…

‘Don’t blame the mirror for your ugly face’: why foreign idioms rule My favourite is still the Danish “Plough with the oxen that you have”

Would you please please please please please please please stop talking? Men and abortion, this is worth reading, not sure I agree with all of it but this really resonated..

Here’s a theory: men are afraid of any story that they cannot control, they are threatened by any future they do not determine, and, so, the tragedy of the story in men’s novels about abortion is the tragedy of a man’s loss of control. When faced with the choice between speaking for an outcome that they do not determine, or silence, men will choose silence. Anti-choice laws are a direct result of men who are unable to tell a story that they do not control. That’s just a theory, the sort that would need more evidence; you’d want to build it on more than a handful of books. There are too few. There is more research to be done in this field. There are more stories that need to be written.

Trump’s ‘peace plan’ is beyond insulting. That’s deliberate

Country life: the young female farmer who is now a top influencer in China. This is fascinating. Full disclosure I love to watch You Tube videos about a life I can’t have and don’t really want. I love to watch the women in the US with hundreds of children do their monthly grocery hauls because there is something so interesting about shopping and food in other cultures and also love the people who live in the country and ‘farm’ and preserve. Do I want to be them? No. I fundamentally disagree with most of their ideas (the fundamental Christianity, the anti vaxxers, the waste, all the bottled water) but some of them give me a better idea of what’s going on politically in the States, why going organic in the US might be a healthier option and also why a US-UK trade deal and the cheap chicken is something I will be protesting! The thing is you have to understand that it’s only some of someone’s life and although it’s real for them, it isn’t for me. I understand the appeal but I mostly love how and where I live, I don’t want to change it but it’s like reading a book but I don’t have to make any effort at all. And clearly it’s something that everyone is doing the world over!

A nation divided over a 50p. Is this the most Brexit Britain thing ever?

‘She can’t say no’: the Ugandan men demanding to be breastfed. What on earth is wrong with these men? To put yourself and your needs before your child’s..

The power of celibacy: ‘Giving up sex was a massive relief’