Mormon Aversions: To anything with 'tea' in it's name

Dad: "What is that you've made?"
Me: "Lemon & Lime Iced Tea."
Dad: "Well I don't like the sound of that."
Me: "It's not actually tea. It's fruit tea. Made from lemons and limes..."
Dad: "I don't want it in the house. Throw it away."

This is the Whittard Chelsea Flavour Instant Tea. It is amazing.


This is not tea. This is made from an extract of black tea, fruit extract and natural flavourings, and sugar.


Just because it is has the word 'tea' in the title, does not mean it is actual tea. I mean come on. What about 'Tea tree Oil' or 'Rich Tea Biscuits'?! And even if it was, seriously. It's just tea. Arghh.


Seriously Mormons. Sort it out.

Worlds Apart

If you've been reading my previous posts you'll know that my little brother was waiting to find out where he was going to be sent on his religious mission for two years. We got the letter on Wednesday telling us he was being 'called to serve' in the Philippines, Angeles Mission. He leaves at the end of September.


Not long.


For those who have no idea where that is... Google Map - Angeles City, Philippines


I'm sure he'll have a fabulous time, but I can't help being sad about it. I'm gonna really miss him - surprising really as it's not as though we spend a huge amount of time together. But then, I can't call or see him at all for two whole years - a pretty long time to be honest.


He's going to one of the most volcaneous areas on the planet. Which I suppose is a little bit concerning.


He'll be right on the Equator, so no doubt he'll come back with an amazing tan - or skin cancer. Haha!


He also gets to learn and speak 'Tagalog' - I googled this, and it's basically the Austronesian language, Filipino. Very similar to Spanish to be honest.


I'll miss him.


But I've got 3 months yet. I don't know if it's better to make a point of spending time with him before he goes, or if that will make it worse because then I'll miss his company.


Either way, I'll miss him.

Called To Serve...

So, my 18 year old brother just send off his Mormon mission papers. This means that some time this week he should be receiving his 'Mission Call' - the letter requesting him to serve as a mormon missionary somewhere in the world for two years.


I don't know quite how I feel about my little brother disappearing off for two whole years somewhere - potentially just across the country, yet his family and friends are unable to visit, or call (except on mother's day and christmas).


I suppose I'd rather he went further away to be honest, at least then it's not like I could just pop to Scotland (where my cousin currently is on his mission) to see him.


I suppose there's only a few days before we all find out...

Throwing the baby out with the bathwater...

"More than one third of the approximately 205 million pregnancies that occur each year worldwide are unintended and about 20% of them end in induced abortion." - Wikipedia

So there I was on Sunday, sitting in a hospital while my best friend was going through the traumatic abortion experience.


Obviously this is a rather controversial topic so I can understand if people choose to get quite passionate over this... 


Anyway, back to my best friend. We went together to the 'Central Health Clinic' in town where she went in for a scan, some blood and urine tests and a consultation to decide if abortion was right for her. Turned out she was only 6 weeks pregnant (we originally were told 11, which was quite a lot more distressing to think about). She opted for the 'Early Medical Abortion' - You basically take a tablet, wait a while in the clinic, then go home. A couple of days later, you are given some 'vaginal pessaries' which cause the womb to contract and the pregnancy to be 'expelled'. This option is pretty much just like a miscarriage, other than that it's induced.


It's not pleasant, not gonna lie. They get you to go to the loo in a cardboard container (looks a bit like an inside out cowboy hat, haha) but it basically all comes out. Pretty graphic. I went to the loo myself at one point and someone had left one of these containers in there. Not nice. Probably wouldn't have been able to cope looking at it if I hadn't seen it all before, not that I've been through abortion, but at the age of 17 I did have a miscarriage under 10 weeks. That was definitely more horrible though I think, I didn't get pain killers or hospital conditions - I just sat at home in pain :(


Equally as distressing is typing 'abortion' into Google Images. Seriously. Don't do it!


I'm assuming due to the lack of NHS funding and overcrowding in these places was the reason for 4 beds in one room separated by a curtain. You can hear everything that's going on in all the other beds, it's not really too nice hearing another woman telling her partner or the nurse about what's being 'expelled' into the cardboard cowboy hats... Although probably the most distressing part was hearing a 15yr old girl sobbing.


Most amusing thing of the day was definitely walking into the waiting area and seeing 'The Book of Mormon' sat there on the book shelf... Oh the irony of it!

Barack Obama - The first 'Pro-Abortion' US President

I can't say I totally agree with aborting a pregnancy. In fact, I don't agree with it at all. However, I feel like if it's in the best interest of the potential mother, then it should be ok. My friend was doing it because she's in her 2nd year of Uni and couldn't financially support a child at this time in her life. The 15 year old, well, she's 15. I just worry that it would emotionally mess up a person, both in the short and long terms, knowing that they've basically killed their own child.

Homo-status

It is quite difficult to write about such things without sounding prejudiced, or sexist, but still giving it a humourous spin. I'll give it a go...!

Just to clarify, I don't personally think I am a lesbian. This is merely about the strange exposure to lesbianism I seem to have had recently.

I was brought up as a Mormon. For those who don't know, a lot of mormon kids seem to be pretty sheltered by their parents. As a child/pre-adolescent teen, I wasn't exposed to films rated over 15, allowed to listen to music with swearing, or watch TV with 'inappropriate content' - this included soaps like Eastenders or even Grange Hill.


Consequently my 'gay-dar' is atrocious. I find it really difficult to spot gay people for the simple fact that I don't really expect it of people. Someone else usually would have to point it out to me before I realised. Unless it was super-obvious, which is a bit different I suppose.


As previously stated, I have had a lot of 'exposure' to homosexuality lately. My boss is 'bisexual' and lives with her very gay girlfriend (who I also work with). I've worked there for nearly two years now but only found this out about 6 months ago (despite their relationship having been going on for over a year...) I was really surprised! I didn't even click!


I spent the day with my boss on Saturday. Not going to lie, it was very interesting. Especially as she seems really up for maybe getting married to a man and having kids in a few years. She's also quite hard on her girlfriend for being a full lesbian. Anyway, I've never really spent social time with a lesbian/bisexual person before, and it was a bit weird for me (thanks to my upbringing) to find her such a normal kind of person to hang out with, not in a sexist way, but in a naive way.

I also recently found out that one of the trainee managers (who has moved away now) was also gay, yet another shock! Only guessed because of all the gay banter about and with her.

There's a woman/man in the coffee shop across the road that apparently had a sex-change from a male to female and is rumoured to still has a wife and kids. This I find incredibly strange. How and why would a woman let her husband go off and get a sex change?! What about the kids?!


There's also some random woman in the kitchen that is definitely a gay. 


Anyway, not really sure what else to write about, other than that there's a lot of rumours going around that I'm a lesbian - which I'm not btw.

So, Some Amusing Quotes...

"Girls who put out are tramps. Girls who don't are ladies. This is, however, a rather archaic usage of the word. Should one of you boys happen upon a girl who doesn't put out, do not jump to the conclusion that you have found a lady. What you have probably found is a lesbian."

Fran Lebowitz

"It's so tiring to make love to women, it takes forever. I'm too lazy to be a lesbian."

Camille Paglia

"I am not a lesbian and I am not a slut, and somehow I am going to make people believe me."

Vanessa Williams 

"I am not, I repeat, NOT a lesbian - even though I'd like to be one when I grow up."

Dawn French