Dolls House

When our girls were small Annette made them a dolls house. This was very simply made from a set of shelves with each shelf subdivided and with an embroidered curtain across the front. This curtain has a picture of the outside of the house with the shelving unit covered in “brick design” paper.

Although the shell was simple the contents were made with loving care. Windows were made with mirrors and covered with curtains on rails. A lot of the furniture was hand made with some scrounged. The rooms had carpets and rugs

At the time Annette made and sold some Sindy clothes with some made specially for Sindy  which graced the dolls house. The bottom level housed the stables for the Sindy horses. Although there was a nearly 4 year age gap Alison and Frances always got along very well together as indeed they did with their elder bother who after all was only just over a year older. This general harmony ( the occasional squabble aside ) made for a much easier life for their parents. I may say we were duly grateful.

The suitable age gap and our thriftiness meant that Frances inherited Alison’s hand-me-down clothes. Alison in turn inherited some from her cousins. We did of course still buy much. One particularly successful purchase was matching track suits. As well as being very practical they looked very charming in these. We were quite flattered when on one ferry crossing we were complimented by an Italian family who rather wistfully said they would like to take them home.

When we moved to Beechcroft the dolls house found a home eventually in our smallest bedroom which also housed the bunk beds. Originally the bunks were for our own children when small but were put together again for housing grandchildren. The girls Ellie, Alice and Ellen would disappear to play with the dolls house. We were amused that Ellen on her latest visit carefully organised everything with great precision. They have also had fun over the years playing with some of their parents toys. A giant box of Lego makes a regular appearance during visits.

Now the time has come where Annette is doing a “decluttering” and the dolls house is going to Alice. Ellie has outgrown it and Ellen rarely visits so Alice it is. It is a pang to see it go but to a good home for a while at least.

Alison was very helpful to her younger sister in their teenage and early twenties years. After I had a stroke and it was difficult for me to be in Oxford all the time while having treatment in our local area Alison had Frances to stay with her while she was at university there. Frances was at Cheney school and we wanted to interrupt this as little as possible. This was a strictly unofficial arrangement as Alison was in a hall of residence at the time.

Rather later while she was a research student Alison arranged a place for Frances at her departmental library. This gave Frances a years working experience before doing her MA in librarianship.

It is unfortunate that they are now so widely separated with Alison in Guildford, Frances in Birmingham and Martin in North Yorkshire. When they were closer they would arrange occasional get togethers. We try and arrange occasions to all meet up, last year at Crich tramway museum and then on to here.

We are booking a large house in Derbyshire to meet up later this year. This is rather special as we hope to include Debajit’s boys. for the first time for the wider family. I don’t suppose the elder boy who goes to university in the autumn will have so much opportunity in the future. It is sobering to think that Ellie and Alex are now well into secondary school years.

Alex joined Whitby air cadets last September and seems to have taken to it. It was something of a shock when he turned up in uniform the last time we were in Whitby. As he is now a skilled trumpeter he goes on training weekends with an air force marching band. He has developed a keen interest in aviation. We plan to visit the RAF museum at Cosford when he visits at Easter.

Have you heard about the new book ”Real Ales of the UK” It’s by Bart Enda

Seriosly Curious

Easily the best Christmas Present I got was a paperback book entitled “Seriously Curious”. Published by the Economist group Frances thought it suitable for me. It is a delight. It contains about a hundred very short articles ( mostly no more than a page and a bit ) about features of the modern world.  In Economist style these are usually accompanied by appropriate evidence presented in easily digestible form but rigorously quantitative.

A flavour may be gathered by one entitled “ Why fracking puts up the birth rate “. This stems from the observation that birth rate rises in areas where fracking starts in the USA. The explanation is rather simple. Middle income parents have children a fairly constant rate in different areas. In contrast lower income parents are often constrained by their lack of money. Fracking arriving in an area provides jobs and extra income for lower income people and the extra prosperity encourages them to have more children now they feel they can afford them. In truth any economic boost to an area which drives up lower incomes would be expected to have a similar effect. Middle income families often have greater stability of income and are relatively unaffected by a sudden arrival of a local economic boost.

It has long been a slight puzzle to me why relatively well informed people such as Sir David Attenborough bang on about the horrors of overpopulation. They take historic rates of growth, extrapolate them and reel back in horror. They are simply ignorant of a fundamental truth of population growth which is that as a countries economy advances, families choose to have fewer children. The reason is not hard to understand. Underdeveloped countries suffer high rates of infant mortality. Parents may have 6 children in the hope 3 will survive to adulthood. As the economy expands mortality rates plummet so only the intended 3 are born. There is a further powerful effect that as women become more economically active the opportunity cost of a child increases. The overall effect is that advanced economies are often below the level of children to keep the population constant. The most extreme example is Japan where the population is expected to fall by about a third this century. We already at peak children and the population rise occurs because more child bearing families will arise because of past population increases.

Another item “Peak booze? Alcohol consumption is falling around the world “ Really this illustrates that while beer consumption increases as incomes increase that is only true up to a point. Beyond $27000 or so beer drinkers start to tip towards more expensive drinks and less of them. Volumes of wines and spirits have long been fairly constant. Figures are presented showing beer consumption fell about 3% in 2016. This data was particularly influenced by China. On another beer item I’m amused by the sly jokes as reference is made to “stout data” etc.

Some of the items are fairly obvious although perhaps it takes the data to set out the issue. The root of the gender pay gap lies , as is often commented, in childbirth. However some international work leads to the curious conclusion that women whose own mothers worked are more likely to carry on working themselves and vice versa. A substantial career break does lead to a lower income relative to men in later life. The Economist suggests that mothers who wish their daughters to bridge the gender pay gap need to lead by example when their girls are young.

Men are getting a hard time these days. I read a quote

The only thing holding women back is men.