I am in Ireland with my partner for a week facilitating two 2day workshops on Talking with Voices. We are half way through and travelling by train to Cork.

Ireland is known for being green. But the grass is not just intense shades of green, no, a lot of it is actually glossy. Shining brightly in the sunlight. I wonder if they condition it or something.

Talking about conditioner, I have been thinking a lot about my hair while we’ve been here. Because in 4 days in busy Dublin I’ve probably only seen 15-20 other women with short hair. And only a couple of those were around my age and no one young. No young women with short hair… And I have been looking hard! Like staring intrusively in to people’s cars and stuff. It makes me feel like a proper rebel but it’s also a bit disconcerting. Denmark can be like that – very homogeneous and no one really stands out. Unlike where I live now. Cant walk out the door without bumping into women of all ages with short hair or brightly coloured hair or funky undercuts. It was actually having really looking natural coloured hair like I did before that was a bit unusual.

In these crazy Brexit chaos times it’s interesting travelling outside of UK and hearing people’s perspectives on what’s going on. One thing I myself have been preoccupied with is why no one has the courage to say that they don’t know what’s going on or whether Brexit is good or a bad thing…

There is such division within UK. People convinced that Brexit will be a good thing and people convinced Brexit will be a disaster. Not much space for the grey areas of not knowing. Both sides quote experts or politicians or clever people who have an opinion on either the problems with EU or the wonderful benefits of EU. I can’t help thinking reality must be somewhere in between those. And that there is no way of knowing how a Brexit will affect UK and EU. In 5, 10 or 15 years. One thing I am pretty certain of is that Brexit is unlikely to bring more power to people… Control and decision making will stay with a select few and democratic processes will continue to feel remote and flawed. Fear mongering and news and information filtered through media with their own agendas will continue to make it difficult to know which politicians or political parties we can put our trust in. Who will serve the greater population and look after the important institutions that make up our society and is supposed to help all of us stay safe, healthy and able to contribute to our communities…

Democracy is inherently flawed but I have a feeling that in western societies we’ve made a particular mess of it… But what do I know 😄