Frame of my Mind

The ASA sent me a letter explaining why they cannot persue complaints againt the Christian Party’s advertisement. So it turns out that clause 12 of the ASA code makes political parties exemt from the rules. Basically, as far as they’re concerned, advertisements to influence voters are allowed regardless and by interfering with this they are interfering with democracy (what democracy?! but that’s a debate for another day…)

12.1 Any advertisement or direct marketing communication, whenever published or distributed, whose principal function is to influence voters in local, regional, national or international elections or referendums is exempt from the Code.

Oh well. You win, Christian Party. Nicely played. The letter explained the reasons why two similar advertisements were allowed to go ahead. One, from the Trinitarian Bible Society, simply contained a bible quote (The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.) and the other, from the Russian Orthodox Church, contained the slogan There IS a God, BELIEVE. Don’t worry and enjoy your life. which was deemed a clear reflection of opinion rather than trying portray something inprovable as fact. Fine by me, I never had a problem with these advertisements.

Anyway! I went ‘home’ (i.e. to Dorset) on Friday and had a nice weekend with friends and family. On Saturday one of my old friends and I went to the Rallye Sunseeker at the local woodlands. We walked up the track having to jump into bushes every minute to dodge the cars speeding past. Somehow it was more fun knowing that we could get knocked over should a car lose control. I did take some photos of the cars, but they are on my phone and I lost the cable. Watch this space – I will upload some photos as soon as I can rescue them!

After that, me and Naomi went to Winton to have a shop around and admired things like bedsheets, candles, fake flowers and vases coming to the conslusion that we were, in fact, getting old and like our parents. We walked on to Charminster (the suburb of Bournemouth, not the village!) where there is a large ethnic community and stopped in at a Turkish cafe after buying some popping corn from a foreign supermarket. We decided to be adventurous and picked a random tea and a random coffee from the menu, and I still do not know exactly what they were! The coffee arrived in a very small oddly shaped glass – it required some stirring, as there was a large amount of ‘grit’ at the bottom. I do not recommend trying to drink this grit, it was like trying to drink sand! The drink, however, was rather tasty and I would get it again if only I could remember what it was. Naomi had the tea which came in a teapot that was worth maybe two and a half cupfuls. It was green in colour and seemed to be a combination of perhaps mint and apple – but it smelled like cinnamon.

After that we crossed the road to a Japanese restaurant, Nippon Inn, that served sushi, noodle dishes, rice dishes and other such Japanese food. Seemed quite authentic to me, but maybe the pieces of sushi were a little large and there was the dubious ‘California roll’ – to be expected in western countries. After settling down to eat, shoeless on the tatami mats by the windows, we ordered some fried rice and miso soup and a variety of six sushi rolls (makizushi) as well as some tuna (maguro) and omelette (tamago) nigirizushi, all for the low low cost of £13. I did leave a little note on the table saying ありがとうございます but much to Naomi’s dismay I refused to order in Japanese. ;) Definitely a very cute little place, the staff are very, very polite and I would recommend it if you’re in the Bournemouth area and fancy some Japanese food.

I also went out with my family to Nando’s on Saturday night (but my ‘medium’ chicken pitta seemed spicer than usual so I couldn’t finish it), and on Sunday day we went shopping for some clothes where I purchased myself a cute red, blue and yellow pleated miniskirt. :) I also had a quick look at getting some new jeans, but it turns out that plain, straight cut, short leg, size 6 jeans are pretty hard to come by unless you want to pay an arm and a leg for them. >:(

In all I had a great weekend and I wished I didn’t have to come home yesterday. I found out that my lecture today was cancelled and I don’t have a lecture tomorrow so I’m a little peeved off that I could have stayed for longer.