Monday

We took the day off: spent lunchtime in the pub and then went to Wells and the deli on the way for some final Xmas food shopping. Wells was very festive and we may be going back tonight to see NARNIA. On the way home the sky turned to a cold rose and there was a strange, low mist boiling up off the water meadows to a height of about 5 feet, which made it look as though all the trees were sailing.

Finally watched TV last night: CHOPRATOWN, which is a new private eye series set in East London with Sanjeev Bhaskar as a private eye. More like MONK than LAW AND ORDER. It was amusing (dodgy Turkish widows, cow theft) and they poked fun at typical English middle-class racism: "Of course the Hindus are so EXTREME, aren't they?" {pause as plummy-voiced woman realises she is talking to someone of Indian extraction) "But of course I LOVE India, spent 6 months travelling there, the beauty, the terrible poverty...." Bhaskar just politely raises his eyebrows. However, Bhaskar's character is not immune from foot-in-mouth syndrome either: "Turkish wrestling. Isn't that a bit....gay?" Bhaskar is an engaging comedian and actor but Vik Chopra isn't all that sympathetic, which I thought was a brave move.

Having switched on the box, I find that the BBC, in a rare moment of sanity, have decided to screen the first of the new Tennant DR WHO at prime time on Christmas Day. I am rather pleased about this.

Bearing the dead

This is via a thread on ginmar's journal. The woman in question has had her pregnancy scanned and has been told that the fetus she is carrying is dead. It's been dead for some time. Her doctor is of the opinion that it will remain there until her term is up, but refuses to remove the fetus from her womb, because that constitutes abortion, and abortion is against his principles. She has been told that she must carry her dead child to term.

I am not, to say the least, impressed. It is worth noting that I know many Catholics who do not have such extreme views, but I honestly think that this medic's beliefs verge on lunacy. The health risks to the mother are considerable, from all accounts - quite apart from any psychological impact.

http://www.livejournal.com/community/austincommunity/3367357.html