Thursday 25 November 2010

Strange days.

I joined Mumsnet yesterday! www.mumsnet.com, started 10 years ago and is, judging by others, an influential website. I joined because I wanted to advertise the Christmas Trees, especially in the Beckenham area. But as I joined I felt like an impostor, was I allowed to join a mum's website? It felt a bit too creepy so I opted for using my wife's details (with her permission of course). Time will tell if mumsnet delivers tree sales or not. But so far the new site is going well, it has the 2nd best sales total so far.

But following my entry into the world of mumsnet I went to an Internet safety talk at my son's school. I was again reminded of the strange world of Internet identity. In fact one of the recommendations for young people is that they don't tell anyone about themselves, using a different name and a distorted picture (a Simpson's character for example). So perhaps the way of the Internet is to pretend to be someone you are not.

Talking of someone that you are not - last night I met a man who is rough sleeping in Lewisham and he came to this country aged 9 from an African country. Mother was born in England, father born in Africa. He was taken into care from 12 onwards. But now at age 23 he is not sure if has a right to remain. This means no benefit and no option of housing except through friends. If this story is true it is another example of the strange ways that our society works. People can live here for 14 years, be educated, get care through social services, go to our prisons, have a National Insurance number BUT the person still doesn't know if he has a right to remain. How strange is that!

Thankfully the cricket (England versus Australia) is not at all strange. It has followed the same pattern as many previous tours. How many times do we go into the Ashes tour in Australia with over inflated optimism, only to wake after the first days play to hear that it the same old story - the Aussies are on top!

This evening I am going to a dinner at Lord's Cricket Ground - now it doesn't get stranger than that!

2 comments:

Will said...

Keep the faith Simon! It'll be better tonight. Fingers crossed.

How come you went to Lord's?

Simon Allen said...

A friend of a friend is a member of the MCC so I got to go along. Fabulous experience!

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