Gingerjo’s Blog

Mark very much wanted to see the Turner Prize exhibition since it’s in Liverpool for the first time so we went to the Tate Liverpool yesterday.

It’s safe to say that I’m singularly unimpressed by the video of a man in a bear suit - he looked like Bungle from Rainbow after 6 months in a POW camp. I mean why?? What’s it supposed to be saying? They may as well have shown a video of David Blaine in his perspex box.

The only shortlisted work that I did like was a series of large boxes containing mirrors, sand and lights twinkling in the darkness. You looked through a small hole and could see infinity. It was very imaginative, disorientating and ‘festive’. I couldn’t help but think of ‘We three kings of orient are’. I’m not sure that was the effect the artist was looking to achieve, but hey, he got a response, what more could he want?

Experience suggests that I don’t carry the gene for addition: I can chain drink coffee for weeks, then stop, and not have caffeine cravings; I was a serious binge-drinker in uni, having 6 or 7 pints or more 5 or 6 nights a week, but I’ve never felt any desire to start the day off with a bloody mary;  I was a social smoker for several years, but only once in my life have I ever desired a cigarette when I was sober and that was the day of my PhD viva (probably the most stressful day of my life so far) - I didn’t have one. 

I’ve always thought that if I was prone to any addition it would almost certainly be gambling.  I enjoy a flutter. I even have an online gambling account.  I’ve never uploaded more than £10 though - I’ve always told myself this was because I couldn’t trust myself not to blow the lot, although in practice I never have and feel guilty if I lose a fiver.

I’ve just watched Louis Theroux on Las Vegas and high rollers. All this time I’ve been wrong - I could never get addicted to gambling. I think that my understanding that the stakes are stacked firmly in the house’s favour is far too strong. I can’t help but shake my head in disbelief and wonder what’s wrong with these people? Can hope really be that destructive?

And now it hits me - I AM an addict. It’s just that I’m the type of addict that’s completely socially acceptable, even encouraged.  I’m a WORKAHOLIC. I’m pathologically hopeful that if I work hard enough and long enough this will be recognised by my employer and I’ll be rewarded with riches beyond my wildest dreams (well a bit of a promotion).  After all, someone’s gotta earn the big bucks - why not me?  However, all that’s really happening is that my employers are rubbing their hands together with glee thinking ‘glory be, another hardworking little sucker’.  I’m a bloody idiot - but I just can’t seem to stop.

So I ask you - can you get counselling for this kind of thing?  Is there a workaholics anonymous?

Tonight I watched Panorama on GBH in the NHS.  It turns out that if you punch a doctor in the face while in A&E you’ll only get 6 months at the most. Threaten and menace enough nurses and they’ll give you your own treatment room.  Racially abuse a member of staff and it probably won’t even get reported.  Obviously this is where you should go next time you have PMT. Don’t throw things at your boyfriend - beat up a nurse instead. It’ll have far fewer consequences.

Good grief, Britain has gone completely mad!  How come two paedophiles can be let off from sentencing because the prisons are too full but they can find space for a News of the World reporter who’s been tapping a few phones?  Who is the bigger threat to society?  It’s all up side down - the judicial system is protecting those who can fend for themselves (the wealthy) and completely failing those who are vunerable.

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No, it’s not a paranoid rant about surveillence and the ‘big brother’ state.

Actually, I just discovered a pretty cool thing - http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/. This is an on-line site where you can sign up to petitions in an attempt to influence government policy. You can even start your own petition if there’s something you really care about.

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