Just another of those days....

It's been cold and rainy. So very, very rainy. There is a leak through one of the ceiling lights, so we won't be turning on that for a while. Although, in fairness, we have only two weeks left in this house. And if it burnt down, it would probably be quicker than getting the demolition crew in. Not that I'm advocating arson, or anything.

The Small Child is still awake. She has inherited the Irish propensity for staying awake late, exemplified by her paternal Granny, whose family are known for visiting each other at midnight, on occasion. The mind boggles.  She's currently sitting up in bed reading books to two of her plush friends, pretending to be her French teacher.

A friend of Himself and other friends, the blogger and journalist Hossam El-Hamalawy, is being hauled before a military tribunal in Egypt for criticising the on-going torture of activists. Unfortunately, while Mubarrak has gone, the military is still very much in evidence.

I have to get a new passport. This involves getting photographs, that hopefully do not make me look like a deranged axe murderer only recently released from maximum security. I am not hopeful. They are for the British passport, and all my British passport photos have that one overriding theme, regardless of continent of origin or year of photo.

Did I mention the rain? 

Every Revolution Needs Sparkle

Egypt is certainly very sparkly at the moment. The fact that the unions have had a defining role, that the dodgier elements of the religious right are not really in evidence, but women are, the feeling that people are discovering their autonomy and are defining themselves and what they what to be. It's all contributing to the sparkle.

So now I'll try to explain bobthekelpie's theory of sparkle.

Not everyone sparkles. Some people are too dull, too ponderous, too lacking in humour, too serious. Sparkle adds levity, of a good sort. Sparkle is charm, lightheartedness, an ability to see the absurd, an ability to laugh at oneself and also at others. Sparkle makes you interested and interesting to others. Sparkle can be quite muted, perhaps a hint amongst the navy blue existence of your life, or it can be full-on glamorous gold and rainbows that would not be out of place in the Mardi Gras. How much you sparkle depends on your own personality.

I think everyone is born with sparkle, but alas, some feel it neccessary to leave behind, like milk teeth, or braces, or that Star Wars collection that was your very most favourite thing ever, aged 11. Babies and toddles sparkle. That's why we (generally) are so fond of them.

Sparkle does not mean that you are a fluffy headed idiot without an idea in your head, not at all. Some of the most sparkly people I know are seriously intellectual revolutionaries.

It's part of joie de vivre, having an interest in life and in the people around you. It's knowing when to be serious and when to let your hair down and just have a laugh.

There are two things that sparkle cannot co-exist with, smugness and ernestness. Coincidentally, these two personality traits have long been sins which bobthekelpie thinks should be deadly sins. OK, the nine deadly sinds doesn't have quite the same ring as the seven deadly sins, but, hey, whatever.

Sparkle does tends to fade when confronted by these, because they have that ability to drag the life out of sparkle, until it is but a wan and pallid form of its previous self. This is why sparkly people do not have too many non-sparkly friends, because loss of sparkle can be contagious.

Conversely, I think that in many circumstances sparkle can be contagious, it just needs the right circumstances and ingredients.

Like the Egyptian revolution.

Beecause the world as a whole needs more sparkle.