SO BOOZING IN PREGNANCY IS TO BE RE-ALLOWED. Experts proclaim today: pregnant women can knock back one glass of wine a day without untoward consequences to the unborn child ... big surprise! ... it's not expected to harm the baby.
As I commented on Radio 4's PM blog just now (PM is their drivetime early evening news prog) the fears about drinking in pregnancy stem from photographs originating in America in the late 1980s depicting the horrific consequences of foetal alcohol syndrome ... ie babes so soaked in booze as they formed in the womb that they're deformed and retarded. One drink per day will not achieve this. Even - perish the very thought - getting drunk once while pregnant won't...
Another point we seem all to forget is that nearly all of OUR mothers drank when they were pregnant with US because they knew no better... what harm did this do us?
The biggest dangers to kids from alcohol are the bad example parents so often set children by drinking, fighting, falling apart in front of their offspring long after birth... and more than this the danger posed to young brains when alcohol is secretly imbibed by the grossly underage. THAT is the real problem. Not one glass of wine too many while carrying a bump!
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I've scribbled so much of my memoirs now that I ran out of paper! Would you believe it? A mere 60 sides of A4 and my notebook's finished (why? Because I procrastinated so very much before starting the damn book that I'd doodled, scrawled, timewasted all over the first 80 sides!)... Also (and this was since formally starting my work) I've gone through TWO Mitsubishi rollerballs already! In the space of 2.5 chapters! So I had to go shopping for replacements today, much to the excitement of WH Smiths' security who simply couldn't believe that someone wearing my scarecrowlike outfit complete with wooly hat was actually going to pay for my pens not steal them... How can I shoplift the materials for my book? That would be somehow... very not right at all!!
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Don't worry y'all I've indulged in no more "speed". Yes I know how reckless I was yesterday taking that unknown substance... hmmm I don't know what else to say...
Except this:
wasn't I garrulous! Wow!! And I scribbled out ten pages of blustery memoirs yesterday afternoon and posted three times (OK I'd already done one post in the night)... but hey...
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My pink-nosed roborovskis are fine. They've a new broccoli treestump to amuse them. They chew on it like mini dairy-cows. Ever-entertaining little gremlins that they are!
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Videos of the Day:
Joan Sutherland performing from Rossini's Semiramide at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City
and
Dame Kiri singing O Mio Babbino Caro... trust me you know the tune so clickonit now...
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And last but not least:
This is what Raffi sent me.
Just put the mouse on the pictures and you'll see what months and/or years of speed abuse has done to those people...
(And you wondered why I don't use it 'cept when it's free...)
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"DON'T LET DRUG DEALERS CHANGE THE FACE OF YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD"
This is the famous Metropolitan Police ad campaign.
The photos actually originate from Florida police's arrest records, but were used on British billboards to advertise a crime prevention hotline...
Ahhh, the power of speed, I remember it well. Expect I didn't put it to use to writing, I would do a million crosswords instead!
ReplyDelete;->...
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I can afford it I intend to make up for all those glasses of wine I missed during three pregnancies! :o)
ReplyDeleteHi Gledwood
ReplyDeleteI was trying to send you an invite to momtheminx but I don't see your email address.
If you would like a private invite
email me at tkkerouac@gmail.com
Hello there!!
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a bit surprised cuz we just start this blog, less than a month.
and we would like to say thank you and welcome you to our blog.
anyway, we hope that you can visit Thailand some time and can speak fluent 1500 Thai words (wondering what those 1500 words are haha)as well. you'll love Thailand.
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just thought u might interest in it if you were in Thailand....
all the best,
Yongyee
You ARE funny but I like you *!*
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to come back to read this latest post I'm still laughing over the Yorkshire Sloane. I worked with one, farmers daughter, Lady Di shirt collars, and of course pearl necklace, horse mad and held some "important" role in the Young Farmers movement.
eh up lad, am that chuffed thee likes us Yorkies *!*
I've seen that last metamorphosis in the local papers here...I was so shocked by it that I cut it out and kept it to show to my kids (there were other people shown as well).
ReplyDeleteI'm with ruth on the "getting caught up" on the wine bit. I figure I've got at least a dozen bottles or so that have my name on them.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGled, the conductor is classic...
ReplyDeleteas a pretty much life long musician it has always surprised me that these professional players need a conductor, or for that matter sheet music, I've managed to play a couple of thousand shows without sheet music, and these clowns make pretty good money....
It seems you like me prefer to go downtown, rather than uptown, always remember the old saying "Speed Kills".
I blame early television for MY drinking. Watching all the old "family" shows cracks me up today. Everyone has a drink cart in the living room that they wheel over when ever they have a guest. If someone is upset..."Here, drink this!"
ReplyDeleteIf there is reason to celebrate..."This calls for a drink!"
Someone walks in the room..."What'll ya have? Bourbon? Gin?"
I Want A Drink Cart!
thanks for the plug, gleds. glad to hear that's the end of that indulging. regarding pregnancy, there are many babies born to alcohol and drug-addicted moms and they turn out healthy for the most part. you're right, we forget the moms that were drinking before all the FAS babies started being publicized. it does happen, but in extreme cases.. and it usually has to do with malnutrition as alcoholics usually don't eat, especially a balanced diet (folate especially!!).
ReplyDeleteMilk Stout comes to mind as being THE drink for pregnant and nursing mothers a few decades ago *!*
ReplyDeleteI was listening to a similar discussion on my radio about under age drinking leading to the out of control binging - one person pointing out the obvious - that we humans are animals and our offspring learn by imitating their parents, so I agree with you. The old monkey see, monkey do routine. Plus those alco-mixer lolly water drinks that are aimed at youngsters should be taken off the market.
That poem by Philip Larkin - This be the Verse, is deliciously fitting for your post I think *!*
even the air is harmful because it is polluted then.
ReplyDeleteSo a little glass of wine won't do any harm - but will it stop at one??
ReplyDeleteRuth: red wine: yum!!
ReplyDeleteTK: I will email in a day or 2
Chayakorn: the 1500 words was what you got for finishing the entire course... I only got 1/2 way through and can't remember all of that! But I would love to start learning again!!
Bimbimbie: I know fake sloanes dreadful!!
ReplyDeleteDeb: I cut that out too (only I lost it!)
Junky: ridiculous I know ;->...
Jim: you always know when a character is evil on a show like Bev Hills 90210 or the Orange County whatever they call that dreadful thing about rich kids in california well whatever... ANYONE with a drink or worse still a cig in their mouth can never turn out to be much more than 100% devil's spawn!
ReplyDeleteRaffi: yes you're right about malnutrition... too many liquid calories not enough food... also NO B vitamins. They say at least eat Marmite if you can... I know they don't have that cross the Pond and unless you ate it as a baby you're guaranteed to hate it believe me
(Q: so how did it EVER gain a foothold on the "something to spread on toast" marketplace? I dunno...)
Bimbimbie: o man! Do you have alcopops Down Under too? They are dreadful things (v tasty though come to think of it)...
I once saw a hilarious thing on Brookside (soap) where two uptight old codgers got roaring drunk on "lemonade"... no idea it was laced with 5% alcohol!!
Ropinator: you mean like in Mexico city? They say just LIVING there is equivalent to 20 cigs a day...
ReplyDeleteAkelamalu: do you mean in pregnancy... O! I see what you mean. Very good point.
I drink but I still haven't lost the ability to STOP.
I don't really understand people who can't stop drinking... though I've seen far too much of it to discount that type of behaviour