Marches, Aztecs, and Dance of Death

Also slash discussion, wagamama and sushi bars.

Starting w/ Aztec exhibition - lots of flayed skin, at least four goddesses of the corn, amazing sculpure and incomprehensible alphabets. The year is... four rabbit. And yes, somewhat death fixated. Me and lazulus are planning to get a large truck and hijack our fave pieces now the exhibition has ended. Shh, don't tell anyone.

Had afternoon of slash discussion, continued when we picked up megolas from KX and stuffed ourselves at Wagamama. Then back to ladymmonray's, where me and Meg decided that the world really does need a Random Quote Generator of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, only you'd have to put nearly the whole script in.

Morning, went to have brunch with dolores at Victoria, then got dragged to Hyde Park by Meg, where we realised by talking to presons other over the phone that we should be at Piccadilly to join the march. Marched from there. Got to Hyde Park, having not seen Kate and Robert, walked back through the oncoming crowd to Green Park to find them, also got Celia and Kay and Roz, marched back to Hyde Park, then we had to hie ourselves to Westminster and Waterloo East to get the train back to Tonbridge. Somehow we kept ending up in the Palestine section. Best banner had to be 'Sex Workers United Against War'. We have decided that next time, we're having a proper big fabric banner with 'Porn Writers Against War'. It's a noble cause to walk under. Me and Meg did four hours of solid walking. Burning calories for a noble cause, dammit!

Dance of Death was fantabulous, terribly caustic and extremely funny. Second half a tad scary. With the nice usher who went all the way downstairs to get more programmes just for l'il ol' me. Admittedly was wearing the cleavage flashing suede top o' doom. Went Stage Door, where Sir Ian came out and signed programmes - and he's so incredibly sweet it's not true. More slash discussion.

:deep breath: This morning, saw off Celia and Trish, then went National Gallery for Ron Mueck exhibition (the detail that man does on his sculptures is scary - tiny colourless moles, blotchiness, cellulite, discoloration on feet...) with side-track to National Portrait. Me and the Meg seem to be unable to avoid the NPG. And its postcards. Pizza slice, searched for sushi, ended up with nice sushi in SoHo (though I was on the ramen). Now have locations for good Vietnamese, sushi, best pizza slices and Wagamama if in vicinity. Basked for fifteen minutes with lots of other people on the grassy bit of Leicester Square. Went home. :collapse:

child spanking/hitting

I know this is an utter minefield, everyone with their own opinions, etc. Just thought I'd post about this while I had it in my brain.

For some reason it came up with Jaq and Meg when we were at wagamama on friday. Jaq's stance, as I understood it, was that you don't hit adults for their behaviour, so why is it okay to hit kids? I'd never thought about it like that.

I have the dichotomy of thought that comes from being born and part-raised in an utterly different culture to most of the people on my friends' list and the country where I live, so I've got pretty much two warring thought patterns on certain modes of behaviour at any time, and often the one that was implanted subliminally when I was very young is often the one that elbows the other out of the way as first instinct in certain cases - normally the most inconvenient times. I'm perfectly aware of this schizoid behaviour that occasionally happens due to it - it's subliminal behaviour patterns vs. natural personality. People who know me in real life have probably heard me angst about it. Basically, I'm a fairly loud, exhibitionist, snarky person. On the other hand my subliminal commands are things like utter respect and an inability to anyone who's older or of higher status than you (age wins out every time), especially if they start pointing out your faults, even if they're wrong. You literally can't talk back. Ways of thinking about problems. Value systems. Reaction to certain moods - actual scathing contempt of people who can't control themselves or lose it. (and no, this isn't a personality thing, it's something that has to be in a society where everyone's crushed together. See Britain's 'repressed' behaviour vs. American)

Anyway. Hitting children. Sometimes I really, really want to smack bratty children. I've been known to give them gentle cuffs/taps on the ears and pillow fights. But at the same time? I've got a voice screaming in my brain that you don't touch children under any circumstances. Indonesia is a culture where children are so valued (previous mortality rates) that it's not even an issue. Violence against children in any form is just incomprehensible and goes beyond the pale. Case in point : My dad once gave my elder brother Matt a clip round the ear when he was being particularly bratty. The staff walked out. That minute. Mum spent a couple of hours persuading them to stay and begging forgiveness. Dad's name was mud for ages. I've been smacked once in memory for the same reason - utter brattiness. It shocked me so much I bolted out of the house and spent an hour shaking at my friend's house, and I couldn't talk to Dad for that whole evening.