QuietOn & Camping

 Last weekend I went to Wales to go camping for three days.

Now anyone that knows me will know that I am not a camping person.  I have memories of camping years ago and my recollection of it included cramped tents, always been cold, uncomfortable on the floor and being woken up at 5.00am with blazing sunshine and the birds singing.

Now I love sunshine and birdsong, but not at 5.00am.  I am not a morning person it has to be said.

Having been promised a comfortable tent that I could stand up in, a double mattress and a cozy duvet to sleep with; my only qualms led to being woken up in the morning.  Our tent had a bedroom with blackout so the light would not be a problem; but what about those pesky birds?

So I decided that this weekend would be the perfect time to try out my new QuietOn 3 earbuds.  I have previously reviewed the previous generation of these earbuds and use them to great use in my home office.  They drown out the sound of the household perfectly and enable me to get on with my work.  But for the outdoors, I decided to go for the newest version to see how they would work out.

Here is what they say about the QuietOn 3 earbuds:

"Everything that we want in life – professional success, personal well-being, physiological health – begins with a good night’s sleep. And a good night’s sleep begins with quietude. QuietOn 3 leverages breakthrough ANC technology to create a better environment for sleep, effectively eliminating the low-frequency noises that so often disrupt our sleep.

Some of the most common noises that interrupt sleep are low-frequency sounds from heating systems, appliances, traffic, airplanes, snoring and noisy neighbours. QuietOn 3’s ANC technology eliminates ambient sound by automatically generating opposite waveforms to nullify the low frequencies, resulting in a much quieter and more peaceful environment for sleep."

As you can see, the carrying case that holds the earbuds is tiny and therefore easily transportable to wherever you need to go.  You get a charging cable within the case with a USB and four different sizes of earbuds to ensure that you get the perfect fit.  The case also has handy lights to indicate when the earbuds are charged.

A single charge lasts 28 hours which is amazing frankly and lasted me for my whole trip without losing power.

But did they work you ask? Well the answer is, perfectly.  I tested out each earbud for sizing and found that the second smallest fit my ears perfectly.  The buds expand slightly when in your ear so there is no worry that they are going to fall out during the night or when you turn over in bed.  I can attest to this.  My partner says I turn around and around in bed all night and they never moved.

I think that I slept more soundly in those three days than I have in a long time.  As promised by QuietOn, the earbuds removed all of the noises that would normally have woken me in the night and ensured that birdsong did not wake up at sunrise, which I was extremely grateful for.

I lent them to my partner for a few days in the next week as he is often woken in the night by the cat padding around and street noise.  He said that he too had a wonderful sleep and I think we may be battling to use them from now on.  At least now, I know what to buy him for Christmas!

I can highly recommend the QuietOn 3 earbuds.  Sleep is so important to have a productive day and uninterrupted sleep is a rarity in modern life.  They are a must!

Here was our view while we were in Wales.  We will definately be revisiting, with our earbuds in place!

Chicken Licken, The Sky is Falling In

 I have had various conversations with people over the past few years about "trans issues" with varying degrees of success.  Some are shocked, horrified at what I tell them.  "I had no idea.  How can this happen?"

Some miss the point entirely and simply say "Live and let live".  Their ears are open but they are not listening.  These are the people that think that it is all really a big to-do about nothing.  It will all go away, sort itself out, somehow, they think.

Then there are others who simply don't care.  Unless something directly impacts on their life, they do not care.  It is happening to someone else, somewhere else.  Not them.  They listen to the party line of "transwomen are women" and think that if the media are saying it, it must be true.

What will it take for them to care?

There has been much in the media recently about "Laurel Hubbard", the trans athlete who identifies as a woman and is competing as a woman in the Olympics.  I see outrage from many, but many of those take it as a single incident.  An "how terrible" and never think about it again.  

Last week a Judge ruled that transwomen could enter women's prisons.  It rocketed around like a meteor of shock and pain in the gender critical circles I circulate in; but has been ignored by the main media.

Again I have had conversations.  I talk about the fact that Californian female prisoners who are sleeping in shifts to keep themselves safe.  I talk about Karen White (as the most high profile trans prisoner they may have heard of).  I talk about sex attacks happening as a result of transwomen in prisons.  I talk about nearly half of trans prisoners are in prison for sex crimes.  That 1 in 50 male prisoners now identify as female.

I see shock from some, but no anger.  No pledge to tell people, do something.  Anything.  Speak out.  Join the cause.  From others, I see their eyes glaze over.  They think "well I'll never be in prison, so".

Lets look why women are in the prison in the most part.  

53% have survived emotional, physical or sexual abuse in childhood.  7 in 10 are survivors of domestic abuse.  80% have been sentenced to prison for non violent offences, such as shoplifting and not paying your TV licence.  

I tell people about four year olds in gender clinics.  About teenagers prescribed life altering puberty blockers.  About the teenager detransitioners, let down the medical professional who are now missing breasts, have had hysterectomies.  Who have suffered loss of bone density and vaginal atrophy.

About little girls and boys who like toys or clothes deemed for the opposite sex who are put on the transgender path by the parents; who are told by the schools (thanks Stonewall) that this the right thing to do.

I tell them about women who are assaulted by transwomen who are forced by Judges to lie in Court and call their perpetrators "she".  About fathers who fight for their children going through the transgender path who are put in the dock and found in contempt of Court for calling their biological daughter female.

I get asked by these fence sitters and the people who care none; "Why do you care"?  My question is 

WHY DO YOU NOT CARE?  WHAT WILL MAKE YOU WAKE UP?

To quote the X-Files, the truth is out there; if only you would see.

What Has Happened To Us?

I am a British woman.  I am proud, very proud to be British.  

Not for who is currently in Government from one year to the next.  At this point, they are mostly the same.  Labour is no longer a party for the working class and there is no real alternative to what they used to be.  They believe in self ID which would be disastrous for women.  The Greens think that women are "non-men" (given the subject matter of this blog post, it amused me that I found myself Googling an "acceptable" news source for this link, more later).  The Liberal Democrats, do they even really exist anymore after their Judas move on tuition fees?

I am proud to be British because of the people.  Our determination.  Our self deprecation.  Our sarcasm.  The way in which we act when everything around us is a mess, but we can still come together as a nation when it counts.  The Blitz spirit that still lives in all of us.  It is part of our make up.  Who we are.

I remember when we hosted the Olympics.  Days before there had been riots in the streets.  Yet the next day, a clean up was organised on Twitter and people turned up with their brooms.  That is us.

Then watching the Olympics, the pride we felt as a nation.  The way we got behind and cheered our own.  Lets not forget.  We came third in the world that year.  This tiny island.  With so much heart.

That is what being British is to me.  Our heart and our spirit.   Our backbone.  I refuse to apologise for it.

So I have a question.  What is happening to us?  

I have said this before, but when did we as a country agree that the left were right and the right were wrong?  That there was no in-between.  No centre.  That only an ultra left leaning perspective (far past the realms of what you previously call left wing) could be listened to and anything other was Nazism.  Evil.  Not to be listened to. Deplatformed.

Because that is what is happening.  Even businesses cannot escape it.  The speed in which they immediately backtrack and change their policies is frankly shocking.  

I remember a lady known on Twitter as flashmaggie who dared to say "Death doesn't misgender. You die as you were born".  (You can read about her experience here). That is a fact last time I checked.  Nothing controversial there.  Is is biology, pure and simple.

Yet drinks company Innocent, after one tweet from someone with the massive total of 45 followers who complained to Innocent that they were following a "clear transphobe"; took it upon themselves to issue an apology for following her, and promptly unfollowed her account.

I would add that Sussex police also investigated her for a hate crime for that tweet.  Thankfully she did not fall to the current wave of "non crime hate incidents" that have been recorded on no less than 120,000 times. 2000 of those have been children under 16 (I make no apology for the Daily Mail link, when did that become a social crime?).

This week was the launch of GB News.  The reaction to this has made me simultaneously laugh, eye roll but also; frankly despair.

Again we see companies who originally signed up for advertising on the site, quickly issuing apologies for daring to do so.  Now it seems that a single tweet can change the minds of major companies.  

We see people in faux horror, dropping their knitting (sorry to knitters for that quip) and screaming in some sort of self righteous disgust that a news channel dares to have voices and opinions that might not be automatically ultra left.  Not bowing down to the current "words are violence", I am "triggered" culture that seems to be becoming more and more prevalent.

Lets look at some of the recent headlines from them.  Child marriage is child abuse.  The pandemic has blown up the public finances.  No jab, no job?  Shocking I know.  I think I need therapy just from reading them.  I jest.

But honestly.  Is this what we have become?  Given the current state of some of the press and what is reported/misreported, I would have thought another news site with a more open way of reporting would be welcomed.

Look at all the things that are kept from us.  The fact that people have been rioting in Paris, until recently, every weekend for the past two years.  Look at the many BLM riots that have either been ignored or misreported.  Do you remember the reporter saying on live telephone that the ongoing riot behind him was in fact a peaceful protest, despite the massive fire on the background.

Now, look at this image.  I bet you think that it was from the so called "insurrection" at the White House in January.  But no, it wasn't.  This was BLM/Antifa the year before.  The press called it a demonstration.  That looks like people setting things on fire and rioting to me.  

I still hold hope that the majority of the UK has better sense than those who faint on social media at voices and opinions that differ from their own.

We are British FFS.  It is time that we remembered that.  We have backbone.  We have opinions and thoughts.  Stand up.  Remember who and what we are.