Kitty Fishing

is, after a hard day's work, a great way to destress . All you need is a piece of string, a cat and room to play in.

I teach a basic course for women on computers using Mandriva Linux. We start off with the hardware and they get to build a computer up from parts. Then we install Mandriva and then we introduce them to the Desktop and some of the software on the machines.

Because the place that has achieved the funding from this is an arts venture the software components of importance are the GIMP, digital imagery and vector graphics applications such as Inkscape.

Delivering the course is great fun. All the women enjoy the hardware side of it because they are presented a challenge and they don't often get the opportunity to muck about with hardware in a non-comptetitive all-female environment.

This evening I found out from an acquaintance that she had been asked to do the next run of the course which is to be in the evenings. She had also been asked to do it on a voluntary basis, which she can of course afford to do because she has a full time day job.

I don't. That's the only job I have got and I was enjoying it.

I had to sit there with her going on about how she hoped I didn't mind if she did it because it would be so good for her career and her CV.

Well, girls, she certainly isn't going to make it onto my Christmas card list. We'll skip over the crushing defeat, bewilderment and general level of upsetness I felt over being left to find this out in this manner. And how stupid I felt.

A women's organisation is funding the course and the person who is holding the funds is getting women to work for nothing delivering a course for which they have paid him training funds. It must be really good for him if he can get the money and not spend any of it on delivering the course; zeroise expenditure on the course and he'll have the money to spend on something else.

The computers used are all recycled chuck outs from businesses and are delivered by the businesses to the site where the course takes place. The place has charitable status and is on a cheap rent from the council with the rent, heating, lighting and other running costs already funded.

Such is life. I so hate being at this end of the food chain.

So very lucky to be able to go kitty fishing.