Credit Made Clearer

How many people do you know who don't have a credit card? I will be honest with you-with the exception of an Express Store card (from when I worked there for 2.5 seconds) I didn't have a credit card until I was 27. I got two credit cards to help cover wedding costs like flights, hotels, etc. The big stuff. Credit cards in general scare me. I always pay them on time (unless you count the one time I was late on the Express card but I got out of it because my mail was diverted because of Anthrax) for the fear of late fees.  I've paid off one of the two cards and in a perfect world I would get rid of them both.


This isn't a perfect world though and if you use them responsibly credit cards can be good, especially as an expat. If I needed to fly home at the drop of a hat, chances are I'd need to buy a ticket using a credit card. Not to mention that building up credit in a new country is essential when you want to get a mobile phone contract, overdraft or mortgages.


I met up with some other bloggers and the lovely people from Capital One in London last week and we had some really interesting discussions about credit. It's definitely interesting how people view credit based on their age, nationality and circumstances. We all agreed though that the vast majority of people don't really have a grasp of how to use credit responsibly.


Capital One has produced a series of helpful videos called Credit Made Clearer to help dispel the myths, clear up the jargon and help you make the most of your credit card. Learn all about credit, how to prevent ID Theft and credit card fraud. And if you're having problems repaying, you'll find some helpful information and support.


The videos are easy to understand and even give great travel tips, like always get currency before you head to the airport since you'll get a poorer exchange rate there (I always get my money from Cheque Centre; random but they nearly always have the best rates). 





Obviously if you need genuine financial advice about specific issues you should speak to a qualified financial advisor but the videos are a great place to start and would be excellent for helping a young adult understand credit.


Transatlantic Blonde was compensated for her time but all opinions are her own.

Feminist Friday XV Theme

No theme this week! Do you like when there is a theme or do you prefer just an open feminist link? From here on out the link will be bi-weekly or every two weeks. Please let me know if you like when I give a theme earlier in the week or if you'd prefer it just stays open.


Also a shamless plug to help my sister get to 10,000 page views on her ADORABLE cute animal page. She could win an iPad2 if she's the first to 10K and you will get to squee and have loads of good karma:


 http://avivaevents.bo.lt/4yv0j


Just click the link, load the page and ooh and ahh* at the cuteness!




*oohing and aahing optional

How I accidentally (on purpose) was an extra in World War Z and was *this* close to Brad Pitt

If you knew me before I moved to Glasgow this story will come as no surprise to you. If you don't know me I'm not quite sure how to explain it but sometimes things just happen.  I don't set out to do something but find myself in a situation and just go for it if that makes sense. That's what happened to me today on George Square.

George Square is smack dab in the centre of Glasgow and has been taken over and turned into Philadelphia for filming of Brad Pitt's new zombie flick "World War Z." It's all any and everyone in Glasgow can talk about and I decided to take a look after I had a meeting in town today. Street lights were replaced with American traffic lights, familiar green interstate signs were put up and there were even American buses, taxes and hot dog carts. It was cool seeing a little bit of home in my new home and listening to little old ladies chat about what was going on as they took photos on their old school film cameras.

I heard lots of load bangs and saw extras running and well if I'm honest that was all you could see. I'd had my fill and since filming was diverting the buses around the Square I decided to try and get a train home. I walked down along one side and was told I had to wait to cross the street. Now I could have walked back and down another street, but I waited a few minutes and this is how I accidentally (on purpose) snuck onto the World War Z set.

I say accidentally because I honestly was just walking where security told me to go to get to my destination. I say on purpose because once I realized I'd made it behind the barriers I didn't turn around and walk away. I ended up in a crowd of extras and told the two guys next to me I wasn't an extra but maybe I'd stick around. They gave me a once over for any "labels" and then pushed me ahead of them to get in the shot. 

I ran down George Street with maybe another fifty extras several times. We'd run and go back, run and go back. These extras were REALLY taking it seriously; I got pushed and shoved and fake American cops guided us away from what I can only guess were zombies that will be added in later. IT WAS AWESOME.

I'm not going to lie here; I submitted an application to the casting company to be an extra. I even got an email back asking me to come down for the casting, but we were in France. I was gutted. I'd only had the opportunity to audition to be an extra once before for Milk Money when I was 13; I also was out of town for those auditions. So that I randomly found myself as an extra for thirty minutes was pretty freaking cool.

When we were running I noticed there was a car off to the side with what I thought was Brad Pitt's stunt double in it. As the wranglers yelled for everyone to move onto George Square I hung back to try and make my escape and then it happened. The car door opened and real life, honest to goodness, sexiest man alive himself BRAD PITT stepped out of the car. He looked smaller than I imagined and his nose looked really delicate. Don't ask me why I noticed his nose but it was definitely more refined than rugged. He looked hot, but also a bit old. I hate saying that but he definitely had crinkled eyes. Brad Pitt was close enough for me to lunge over and hug him before being dragged off to jail. I knew what I had to do.

I needed to head home anyway so I had nothing to lose and I took out my iPhone and snapped a picture. Quicker than you can say "3G iPhone cameras suck" a producer-type said to me "When you're an extra you're not supposed to do that."  I mumbled back "well it's good I'm not an extra then" and wandered away up the street where I asked if they'd let me walk up to get my bus.  My thirty minutes of fame were over.

So you see I didn't try to crash a movie set but I did. There is every chance you might see a blonde girl with a grey sweater dress, black leggings, black boots and a purple bag running to escape zombies as Brad Pitt does who knows what in a car. You could scoff at me and say I messed up shooting, but really all I did was have a fucking awesome thirty minutes where I wasn't a Mom. I got to be the risk-taking, fun loving girl I was back in the day and it was AWESOME. I doubt I messed up their shots and there will be at least one more person going to see the film now that wasn't before to try and see if I spy my fat ass running away from invisible zombies.

Little Tikes Anchors Away Pirate Ship

I love Little Tikes toys; their products are sturdy, well made and classic. Blondie Boy already had a Little Tikes Basketball Hoop and Kitchen we we were asked to review the Anchors Away Pirate Ship Water Table so we jumped at the chance.

The table has a fountain, squirting cannon, cups, buckets, strainers, squirty sharks---you name it and it's there. The table comes with a lot of assembly required which I have to say wasn't the most easy thing to do. You'll need a drill to drill holes into the table as there are no pre-made screw holes. I'm sure that wouldn't bug some people but since I don't trust myself with power tools I had to wait for NotBlondeHusband to come home to put it together.

That being said Blondie Boy LOVES the table. It's easy to fill up and has a plug in the bottom so you can easily drain the water into a bucket to empty it when you are done playing.


We'd planned to have it out during a BBQ this summer, but of course it rained! Even so my friend's 2 and 6 year old and Blondie Boy loved playing with it even without the water in my living room. Her son keeps asking when he can come back over to play with it with water!


The Anchors Away Pirate Ship is part of a full range of water and sand toys by Little Tikes. Right now if you purchase the classic Turtle Sand and Water Fun you'll get a free ticket to a Sea Life Centre or Sanctuary! Visit the Little Tikes website to purchase either today!

The X-Factor: London Auditions

The X-Factor is back and with 3/4 of the judging panel stepping in for the first time I was interested to see what the dynamic would be. The same thing happened with American Idol earlier this year and well if you ask me they were *too* nice; no one wanted to step into the Simon role. No problem with that here.


Joining Louis Walsh were Kelly Rowland, Tulisa from NDubz and Gary Barlow from Take That. Gary has taken it upon himself to be the new Simon. He's not just honest, but also has taken Simon's "let them think I don't like them but I actually do" fake-em-out phrasing to the table. As for everyone else, well it's early  but so far Louis seems less grumpy than last year.


The auditions started in London and if I'm honest I wasn't impressed. I saw a lot of singers with bad hair who thought they were more talented than they are. Could they sing? Yes. Should they win the X-Factor? No. 


Each week of the auditions I'm going to pick my favourite and this week I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone: Janet Devlin. A sixteen year old with a Ellie Goulding-esque voice. Her voice is so pure and the tone is so warm you just feel like she's giving you a big hug when she's singing. She has an amazing voice but she's so humble and not in that "oh you think I can sing? little old me?" fake humility way so many have but genuine and true humility. 




What did you think of new judges table and who was your favourite?

Feminist Friday XIV: Linguistics

I don't often give warnings at the start of posts but if you are offended by strong language or only read my blog to see cute pictures of Blondie Boy (hint hint Grandma) just stop right now.


This week's theme is linguistics; I say linguistics as that is the study of language rather than just language itself or maybe I'm trying to make y'all think I'm smart, whatever reason I'm talking about words and how they are used.


Unless you live under a rock or in an Amish community you'll have heard some horrible events took place in London and other parts of England last week. My twitter stream was full of tweets about the riots and looting and I was shocked by a lot of it and I'm not talking about the actual crimes themselves.

So let's step back a second; Rufus Hound is a "comedian" and tweeted this in response to the Malaysian student who was hurt, helped to his feet as other stole things out of his backpack. That act was atrocious; what Hound tweeted was also atrocious.

You have to call those criminals a cunt? Really? Everyone knows that cunt is possibly *the* worst swear word you can use. The worst word you could call someone is cunt and what is a cunt? It's a vagina. So the worst thing you could possibly be, if you are the most horrible, offensive scum of the earth is a women's genitalia.

Dworkin and MacKinnon would argue that the use of cunt reinforces the dehumanization of women or dismembers women to the point that all we can ever be an orifice. No one can deny that the power behind the word cunt is immense.

When I was a Women's Studies student back at University and hung out in a lot of fraternity houses I used the word cunt a lot and I told my professors about it. I thought that by using the word and seeing men's faces freeze in shock as this smiley, little blonde girl uttered *that* word I was taking the power away from cunt. If I could call them a cunt, well then they couldn't call me a cunt now, could they, because it had already been said.


While my professors actually approved of what I was doing looking back I don't think I was truly reclaiming the word. If we want to reclaim the word we need to start using it in a positive light. Anyone who's seen Eve Ensler's "Vagina Monologues" will remember the one called 'Reclaiming Cunt.' In fact I performed 'Cunt,' in front of my mother-in-law no less, several years ago at a charity performance and that is reclaiming the word. 


So back to Hound's tweet. First let me say that his wasn't the only one I saw using gendered language to condone the looters; I saw several tweets calling them pussies as well but his was the only one I saw from someone in the public eye. I can only presume that Hound was trying to be cool (because aren't all comedians who use vulgarity trying to win cool points?) as when I tweeted him calling him out on his sexist tweet he didn't respond.


Am I the only one who calls people out on this? Does cunt make you recoil in disgust or do you embrace and love your cunt?

Feminist Friday XIV: Linguistics

Here's how it works. Write a blog about being a feminist mom, raising a feminist child, a rant or anything that falls under the realm of the theme for the week. Come back and link your post and post the button on your blog.


That's it.


You don't even have to be a blogger to take part - just send me your post and I will publish it on my blog for you. You don't even have to include your name if you prefer.


When you've published it, come back on Friday and via a widget thing you can add a link to your post and share it with everyone. The link remains open for 4 days.


Visit others, comment if you like them or feel inspired by them. Just go out and encourage and support other feminist Moms.


The more support you give, the more you will get back! I can't wait to meet and interact with other feminist moms around the world!

NotBlondeHusband's 99 Problems

(because Blogger does't make it clear until the bottom, this was written by NBH)


On a recent trip "down South" I found myself, to absolutely nobody's surprise, in a bar. In an other unsurprising twist the men gathered at the bar early on while the ladies crammed the dance floor.


The music was good, late 90s/ early 00s dance and R&B but I found myself thinking about the language in music when Jay-Z's 99 problems came on. Don't get me wrong, it's a nailer of a track and I definitely wouldn't expect the women present to leave the dancefloor in protest but I did raise an eyebrow watching twenty or thirty twenty to thirty year old women chanting they had "ninety-nine problems but a bitch ain't one".


It would be easy to criticise the language used by rappers, probably too easy. It can often be sexist and demeaning. But for me, worse than the fact that Jay-Z apparently thinks it's acceptable to characterise women as bitches, is the fact that women think it's O.K. for men to talk about them that way. In fact, it's not just acceptable, it's repeatable.


I find it hard to picture men allowing themselves to be stereotyped in such a way. I've got 99 problems but an arsehole isn't one? I've got 99 problems but a macho-man shit with a small prick isn't one? I don't think it would A) be published or B) be accepted by men.


The language men often use about women is problematic. Does a young man thinking it's acceptable to call all women bitches make that young man more likely to rape or otherwise harm women? I'm not sure. Does a young man thinking it's acceptable to call all women bitches lead that young man to objectify women? Certainly and that can certainly lead to far more serious problems.


As an English and journalism major, it's probably not surprising that I believe strongly in the power of words. I try to use words to make people feel good about themselves and others, to quell violence and to avoid sexism, sectarianism and racism but words can hurt; they can incite violence and instigate all of the things that are terrible about society. When people choose to use hurtful, demeaning words you should be free to tell them they are just that, whether it's some arsehole in a bar or whether it's a multi-platinum selling musical genius. If you choose to ignore, or worse condone, this language, then you can't be surprised when they use it again, or when someone else uses the same language, or when the language incites behaviour in them that causes negative action.


So I while I wasn't surprised that people out to have a good night didn't leave the dance floor, I would have preferred they hadn't chosen to join in. I know I didn't.


Objecting to negative language, whether about yourself or others, whether sexist or racist, isn't about being a killjoy or being militant about political correctness, it's about pride and self worth. The language you choose to use about yourself defines you and the way others see you. Don't sell yourself short.