New Year

So after the wild, wet, windy and general disaster prone year that has been 2012 the world is looking towards 2013.  Can we expect a better year than last year?

In my opinion, we can if we work for it.

I will agreed that it is fairly hard to avert natural disasters (a reminder perhaps that we don't actually own this planet, we're just squatters here) but, as I have mentioned before half of these natural disasters won't be happening if we weren't mucking up the environment.  For example - flooding.  It has been proven before and will be proven again, unless the human race grows up and stops being so damn greedy, that it you chop all the trees down not only does down stream suddenly start having trouble with flooding, all the nutriment in the soil gets washed away leading to, guess what, famine.  It happened on Easter Island, it's happening in Britain and it is definitely happening in the Third World.

Another natural disaster - drought.  Again it has been proven, put the trees back and it starts to rain.  It is true that trees don't make it rain however, it is equally true that trees make the sky rain.  How does that work?  Rain comes from the moisture in the air, if the air is very hot it cannot condense enough to fall as rain.  Trees loose moisture from their leaves, significantly cooling the air around them.  Plant enough trees and the air will become cool enough for the clouds to form and fall as rain.  Advised reading on the subject - 'The Man Who Planted Trees'.  It may not be historically accurate but scientifically it is bang on.

So that is three major world disasters that can be adverted by simply planting trees.  And the U.K. government wants to build houses on Green Belt land?  Did they leave their brains in the dust bin or something?

I know it is very easy when you look at the world's problem to be so discouraged that you say 'they're so big, what can I do?'  Well it puts me in mind of a story Mr Evans, my primary school headteacher down in Wales told us one assembly:

"One night there is a big storm down on the coast and the following morning a young man goes for a walk along the beach.  Around his feet thousands of starfish lay on the sand, dying in the sun.  He is feeling sad for all the lives lost when away in the distance he sees the figure of an old man who, every couple of steps or so, bends down and throws something into the sea.  As he comes closer he realises that the old man is picking up the star fish one by one and throwing them back into the sea.  Walking up to the old man he says 'Why are you doing that?  There are thousands of them, what difference can you make?'  In reply the old man bends down, picks up a starfish and throws it out to sea.  'Well it made a difference to that one,' he said."

Think of what a difference it would make to our landscape if every single person who owns a garden planted just one tree!  Think how much carbon dioxide would be sucked out of our atmosphere, how many more water catchers there would be.  How much more food and nest sites for our endangered garden birds.  And if we all planted one fruit tree we would be able to share in the bounty.  Instead of buying fruit, in about five autumns time after planting, we'd be able to enjoy fruit that had grown in our own back gardens, making the pennies stretch that much further.  Think of all the extra help it would be to the bees.  Does no one remember the motto of Britain during the Second World War 'Dig for Victory'?  It stands just as much in a recession as it did during the war and it would make our planet healther as well as ourselves.

Come to think of it that's four natural disasters that can be averted or at least controled by planting trees - flood, famine, drought and species extinction.  Isn't that something to think about?

Christmas Spirit

O.k. I've just sat down at my computer ready to write about what is generally in the news and how quickly they gloss over great tragedies. (To the families of the children lost in last weeks school shooting, my prayers.  Though they are but a small thing I hope that they bring you some comfort in this dreadful time.) Only then I realised that it is almost Christmas.  (Why is it that family tragedies are always worse at this time of year?)

Where has this year gone?  This time last year I was preparing to fly out to Oman in some unGodly hour of the morning the next day.  It has not been helped by the ever increasingly interesting house move at the beginning of August.  Nearly five months and we have only managed to do two rooms.  Five months, two rooms and another six to go.  This could take us years and I haven't been out on my bike since we moved.  At this rate she's going to have rusted to a lump by the time I can get her back out from under tarp.

Yes my room is now pretty much done.  I am going to have to wait until January for my new bed to arrive but I managed to take advantage of a special offer at Furniture Village so my double bed, Tempur mattress, Tempur pillow and desk chair all came to the normal price of just the mattress.  I love it when I do that.

However because of the house renovating it does not really feel like Christmas.  Normally we would put the decorations up on the first Sunday of Advent.  This year we put them up today.  Due to this none of us have really gotten into the groove of Christmas, which for us is a crying shame.  Normally Advent and Christmas is such a special family time for us and the build up of Advent is what makes Christmas so special.  Normally I baking the Christmas cake in mid-November to give it plenty of time to mature.  This year I doubt whether I'm going to have to chance to make one at all.

All this self-pity routine has made me think though.

The families that can't stand the sight of each other but force a get together at this time of year because it's 'traditional'.  Do they have any idea of what they are missing?  And the greater part of me asks 'why do you dislike each other so much'?  Have any of these nightmare families we hear about in the popular fiction tried have some family time regularly?  And is a family meal invariably ends up in a fight, why not just have the afternoon together doing say a jigsaw?  Or maybe a board game?  (Not cards, there is nearly always a fight over whether or not the winner cheated.)  I think the most important part of Christmas is TURN THE TV OFF!  Even if you've just received your most favourite film in your stocking, the TV has to remain off.  Actually talk to one another and more importantly listen to each other.  If for no other reason leaving the TV on while you have guests is the height of bad manners and even if it is just family, if all you remember of Christmas Day is what you watched on the TV what makes it any different to any other day?

Strike Two

The house has struck again.

Regulars to my blog may remember that the birthday present I received from the house was a torn muscle and a trapped nerve in the bottom of my spine that felt like someone had drive the business end of a rock pick into my back.

Well, I can now report that the house has struck again - I have Achilles Tendinopathy.

I woke up with it about a week ago (life is running pretty manic here) and thankfully it is only in my left Achilles Tendon because what it means is that I wake up some days with an extremely painful tendon that does not want to stretch for love nor money.  Apparently it is a condition most sports people run the risk of as it is more common in those of us who use their legs for heavy exercise.  I'm pretty sure cycling twenty miles a day for several years counts as heavy exercise.  How the doctor explained it to me is that over the years of cycling I've been doing micro damage to that tendon.  That has caused minute amounts of scar tissue and to try and compensate my body has been growing hundred of extra blood vessels within the tendon to try and keep the area flushed with oxygen and proteins to aid healing.  Now something in all the lifting and crouching and stretching I've been doing to work on this house has resulted in one of those blood vessels going pop.

Sounds painful?  Believe me it is and not conducive to walking easily.  So I now have exercises to do every morning to try and improve it.  Most days its barely noticeable (the joys of being Autistic = low pain sensation, sometimes dangerous, mostly useful), other days it makes me limp worse than Mad Eye Moody (sorry for the Harry Potter reference).  What is more it could take up to six months to be truly healed so watch this space.

On the good side, despite the house's attempts to scupper our efforts my room is now painted, floored, coved and skirting boarded.  I have some of my furniture up and I've started unpacking boxes so here hoping that I'll be finished by the New Year.

The only thing is that I need to buy a new bed.  Now that I have the room for one that sits on the floor I really don't want to have to go back to a bunk bed.

Vampires Rock

O.K. I know that I'm almost a week late but life has been chewing me up one side and spitting me out the other.

Went on Tuesday the twenty fifth of November to see the show of the above name at the Norwich Theatre Royal and had an absolutely fabulous night out!  If you are a fan of classical rock played so loud you can feel it in your guts, tongue-in-cheek comedy and of course, vampires, then this show is a must see.

A warning - if you are easily offended by innuendo, don't go.  The humour of this show is most definitely adult and for the adults who have dirty senses of humour at that.  Bossley the Janitor (brilliantly played by John Evans) is especially rude.  Let's put it this way, at one point Baron Von Rockular, the vampire of the title (acted by writer, director and producer Steve Steinman), actually apologised for Bossley's behaviour.  His actual words were:

"I'm so sorry Sir...(pause for the laughter)  I have to apologise for him every night.  One of these days he's going to get me into trouble."

Let's put it this way, you get a feel for Bossley's character the moment he walks on stage wearing a tool belt with the hammer hanging down in the front.

Any way the show itself is set in the 'Live and Let Die' club, owned by the Baron, who is looking for a new singer for his establishment and a new bride for himself.  Que some thumping good rock anthems, very sensual dances and a good splash of humour.

I defy any fan of rock music who goes to this show not to be on your feet and yelling by the end of it.

The only problem is that you have to book the tickets nearly a year in advice as it is a sell out, so keep your eyes on the venue list.

Oh What a Lovely War

Just went on Friday to see my actor friend in 'Oh What a Lovely War'.  It is an extremely good but very hard watch.  I would say that it accurately portrays the stupidity and futility of the Great War of 1914.

For example, accompanying the action on stage was a projector screen showing some of the statistics of the various battles such as Battle of the Somme, one and a half million British soldiers dead, gains = nil.  What many people don't realise is that the Battle of the Somme was not one day one battle affair.  It was several months of slaughter that nearly killed off an entire generation of young men, all because the old soldiers (generals) who were making the decisions believed in a war of attrition, not a war of mission objectives.

"Old soldiers never die, never die, never die.
Old soldiers never die,
The young just wish they would."

There again says that, considering the mess out in Afghanistan, it seems that the old soldiers are swinging back that way.  That or the politicians won't give them a clear cut objective.

The musical side of the play was also very well done, used to great affect to increase the pathos of the whole piece, especially the Christmas Day Cease Fire.  I wonder how many people realise that the Christmas Day Cease Fire was not official?  The leaders had promised that it would be over by Christmas so the men acted as if that promise had been fulfilled and called the cease fire themselves.  I will never understand how they could have made friends over No-Man's Land and the next day go back in the trenches and start killing each other again.  I know that they were ordered to and they had to obey or be shot by their own side.  That is what my head knows but my heart won't accept that knowledge because I could not kill a friend because he spoke with a difference accent to me.

"A soldier in a far off land
Fighting for peace in that far off land
And if somebody had to kill him
Why did it have to be me?"

The other thing I liked about 'Oh What a Lovely War' was that, especially in the first half, they included a lot of stuff from the point of view of the Germans.  The most touching piece was a single man sitting on stage, acting the part of a German soldier writing home, reading out what he was writing:

"The bodies around the guns are piled from the horizontal to an angle of sixty degrees.  Two or three men go mad... every day."

As the pacifists said "Nobody wins a war."  One side just looses less than the other.  And I wonder if those who shouted down the pacifists and pushed their young men into going to die, be wounded or broken for their King and Country every had the decency to feel the weight of their guilt.

One final thing and this one from real life.  One of my other friends, her great uncle signed up in 1914 to fight when he was just fourteen years old.  In 1918 he came home, having survived everything the Great War had physically thrown at him and threw himself into the Wensum.  He was just eighteen.

The cost of War.

Benefit Frauds

Is nothing sacred any more?

According to the newspaper a women told her young son that he had terminal cancer so that she could claim a bomb load in benefits.  Besides the fraud, it's the total breach of trust between a parent and child that horrifies me.  This is a child who has gone through years of the fear of waiting to die only to find that his mother, the caring parent who has lavished so much care and attention on him, lied through her teeth to him.

In fact, come to think of it, does this sound like a raging case of Munchhausen By Proxy?

It seems to me that over the years the Western World has gradually lost it's reverence for that which is sacred.  Churches have been robbed, graveyards desecrated and the oath upon the Bible has become pretty much meaningless for many.  However, I would have thought that the bond between parent and child would remain sacred even when all else is devalued.  Children are the immortality of the parents, they are the future of their families and their people.  Without the care and nurture of children we would cease to be civilised human beings.

So how come it seems be that in the so called civilised Western World that children are no longer valued?  Parents no longer take the time to earn the respect of their children by making them behave.  Instead they are pushed off to family members or child minders so that both parents can go out to work.  In that light why do people wonder that families are breaking down?

So having a mother who stays at home and does her job of raising her children means that the family might have to stay in a rented home instead of buying their own?  So what?  Is having happy, well balanced children not worth more than owning a house?  Let's put it this way, when my father first left us my mother sat down with me and my sister and  put it to us like this "I can go out to work and we can have our own house or I can stay at home and you will continue to be my career but that means that we will have to stay in rented accommodation.  Which would you rather?"  (Bare in mind that at this time I was eleven and my sister eight years old so we were both old enough to understand the pros and cons of both options, due to the time and effort Mother had put into us because she stayed at home and made us her job.)  Having discussed the value of both possibilities between us, my sister and I said that we would rather stay poor and still have a mum.

How many other children would make the same choice if they were given the chance?  I don't know but I do know one thing - my sister and I went through Hell at school because we had a Mum who loved us unconditionally and the other kids didn't and they knew it.

The Cost of War

O.K. here's some interesting little facts that I've recently unearthed.

In 1921 the Allies handed German the bill for the First World War - £6,650,000,000!
In 2010 the Germans finally managed to finish paying this enormous bill off!

I had no idea that no lessons were learnt from the Second World War and that we left Germany with that millstone around their necks.  I have to admit I have no idea what sort of bill we gave them for the Second World War.

What I mean by lessons from the Second World War is this - we will hand a country an extortionate bill for a war they didn't actually start (if you look at your history books) having already crippled it by taking away its best industrial and agricultural land.  We will then wonder why a nutcase of a leader gets into power by telling his people "it is the Allies who have crippled our country, who have robbed us of our land and of our jobs.  It is the Allies who have destroyed our national pride, our national standing, who have reduced our homes to squalor and our families to poverty."  At which point his people agree with him because he is right, when you stop and think about it, and go out to give the Allies a right good kick up the back side.

Hang on a minute, am I talking about pre-Nazi Germany or modern Afghanistan here?  Because put in those terms I'm not sure if there are any differences.

From where I'm standing, Developed West hasn't learnt one single thing from the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles.  We crippled a country and then wondered why it turned round and tried to bite our leg off.  Using a not-so-open trading market we are doing the same to Afghanistan and Africa.  Africa can grow sugar cane more economically and environmentally friendly than any where else in the world.  However, they cannot sell on the open market because the cane farmers in America are subsidised one hundred percent before they even put a seed in the ground.  The African farmers cannot compete with the prices of their subsidised rivals so they remain poor.

It is the same in Afghanistan, only in Afghanistan they had a leader turn up who gave them a target for their understandable anger - the West.  Throw religious fervour into that mix and it's a powder keg just waiting to explode.

And explode it did, taking the Twin Towers and hundreds of people as trapped in the system as them with it.

I totally agree that the Taliban are evil but, like the Nazi Party before them, they are an evil that could have been prevented if the governments of the West hadn't been so damn greedy.

Superstorms

To the victims of Superstorm Sandy - Our thoughts and our prayers are with you.  May God bring comfort to the bereaved and relief to the injured and homeless.

The freshness of the images in our newspapers and on our televisions and computer screens does not change the fact however that this has been the worse decade of hurricanes, typhoons and superstorms in history.  Not a year has gone by without at least one storm killing and leaving a trail of destruction across whole countries.  Have people forgotten 2005 and the destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina?  When are people going to admit that human industry is mucking up our weather patterns?

I will accept that the earths climate has changed in the past.  I'm a natural history freak and I know that in 1066 the world climate was so warm that they could grow grapes in England all the way up to Yorkshire, whereas by the 1800s the world climate was so cold that the London Christmas fair was held on the ice of the Thames river.  The world climate has cycled between hot and cold since it began.  The Chinses round 1066 sent a fleet that circum-navigated the world by sailing above Russia and what is now Canada.  That is how much the climate has changed.

But

Think about how long the climate took to cool down.  From 1066 to the 1800s is nearly eight hundred years.  Now consider that from the 1800s to 2012 is only just over two hundred years.  That and consider the historical Revolutions that happened in the 1800s.  The Industrial Revolution takes place and in less than two hundred years not only is the Thames no longer freezing, its rare if snow falls in Norfolk.  The run of snowy winters in England for the last part of the first decade of the twenty first century was a buck in the trend.

Yes the climate natural cycles between hot and cold.  What humans have done with our industry and pollution is speed up the yo-yo by about four times.  The world climate is bouncing and bouncing hard.  And we wonder why species the world over are crashing and crashing hard.  I'm not just talking the big iconic species like elephants and pandas, I'm talking the small, extremely necessary species like the honey bee, without whom most of our crops won't be pollinated. Let's think about the implications of that the next time we choose cheapness over envirmentally friendliness.

On a final note, I know of a gentleman who is now in the later years of his career.  Apparently his grandfather said one day "If we keep spraying stuff on the land and smoking stuff into the sky, we're going to muck up the weather".  At the time his family thought that he was just being cranky.  I ask you - how cranky is he now?

Improve the World - Empower Women

To all the women that have suffered at the hands of the Taliban and other such organisations for daring to ask for more than being an unrecognised slave - you are bright stars that refuse to die.  The world will remember you, even if we don't know your names.

It has made me think, once again on the state of the world.  Has anybody noticed that the countries that are the poorest in the world tend to be the ones were women are powerless and without educations?  Has anybody considered the fact that there might be a correlation between women who are little more than chattels and poverty?  I believe there is.

For starters - if a women is educated and valued for being a house wife and mother of her husband's children then it is more than likely she will still be happy to stay at home and be the mother of those children.  However, while staying at home as a mother an educated women can educate her children - teaching them how to read and write and do basic arithmetic.  Then, if the family can only afford to send the boys to school, the daughters still gain an education that they can pass on to their children in turn, while the sons go to school with the basics already in place.  Therefore they can begin their formal education at a more advanced stage than their peers who had uneducated mothers, they can advice further in the time that their family can afford to send them to school and when they leave school they will be qualified for a better paying job, therefore helping to lift their family out of poverty.

Also an educated women, if she has any schooling in health care, will know how to keep her family cleaner and therefore less likely to die of disease.  Therefore her children will more likely reach adulthood, meaning that she does not have to risk her health and her life having dozens of children in the hope that one of them will reach adulthood.  That means that the family's resources are not stretch as far trying to feed a dozen mouths, meaning each child can receive more food, further increasing their chances of surviving to adulthood.

It seems to me that the best way of eliminating Third World Debt and improving the lot of our fellow human beings lays with educating their women.

Power Failure

Do we really ever realise how much we in the Western world rely on electricity?  I mean really realise?  Part of me says I doubt it but a couple of events recently has gone a way to opening my eyes.

First off - an over sensitive RCD.  We are still in the process of cleaning the house so the TV is still off.  Therefore, my sister borrowed one laptop to watch a film.  Meanwhile I have recently started playing a real time strategy game on  my computer.  I'm doing fairly well on it so I would like to keep it up.  I plugged my laptop in to keep the battery charged up while I'm playing and immediately the RCD cut out.  I didn't even turn the socket on, it just flipped every trip in the house.  Eventually we managed to turn on both laptops without them tripping the RCD but it was something of a struggle.

The second thing - a steamer that drops dead at the sight of a socket.  We are still trying to clean all the nicotine of the previous tenants out of the house and the best way has been to steam clean ceiling, walls and in some cases, the floors.  However, it is incredibly difficult to put in a full days work on the house when the steamer not only trips out the RCD but also kills it's own element!  What is really frustrating is the fact I only bought it about a week ago.  I am beginning to suspect that even the equipment is giving up this house as a bad job.

These two events have made me realise that when the electricity stops running both work and play grind to a halt.  Kind of hints that we should take better care of the coal reserves.

Missing Persons

May every honest, decent persons thoughts be with the family of April.  What they are going through is a horror beyond imagining and we can only pray for the Divine's comfort to bless them and hold them by the hand as they face this terrible thing.

It is sad to reflect that too often our newspapers are sold on the back of one family's suffering.  Too often we hear of a child disappearing, never to be seen again.

What we don't hear about are the adults who go missing each year.  That's right. Adults!

Missing People is a charity that is run solely for the missing people who we don't read about in the papers.  The great majority of them are adults.  There appears to be no common age range and no common year for disappearances.  They happen apparently randomly and steal away sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, grandfathers and grandmothers.

For example Joseph Reid went missing from Northumberland on the 30th of August this year.  He was sixty-nine when he disappeared and his whereabouts remain a mystery.

An old man disappearing is not a story the newspapers can make a sensation out of so he is ignored but he is a human being.  He has friends and family now worried sick about him.  These people matter as much as a child and deserve to be found.  They all, adults and children a like, deserve to be found.

www.missingpeople.org.uk

Whale Wars - Update

Alright!

Captain Paul Watson has left Germany, not bound for Costa Rica either!  Apparently it is not illegal to leave Germany while under bail.  Apparently it isn't even an offence to break out of prison in Germany.  Maybe, for once, a country has learnt from it's history and has realised that sometimes people are put away for political reasons, i.e. they are innocent of any crime save disagreeing with their government and its mandates and they have every right to do their best to break out of jail.  I hope so any way.

Anyway he has left Germany and looks like he's going to be back with his crew for the winter season of hunting illegal whalers and others who rob our planet and therefore us, of it's bounty.  All this means that he is now on Interpol's 'Red List'.  Apparently, Interpol doesn't actually have any powers to arrest someone.  Apparently being red listed by Interpol means that the country you are in, if it is an Interpol Member, is lawfully bound to tell the other member countries that you are there.  It is up to the police and law courts of the country itself to arrest you.

So if the police and law courts of the country you are in takes a good look at your case and go 'the people that have charged you are involved with illegal activities themselves, therefore their case is a load of hot air and we are not going to act on it', the countries that are jumping up and down and screaming for your arrest may as well go and sit on the naughty step, nobody is taking them seriously until they stop having fingers in dealings they should not have.

I have to admit that the best part of this whole series of events has been Captain Paul Watson's response to the news that he is now on the red list and I quote:

"Put me on the blue list, the red list, the black list and even the death list - just never on the I-don't-give-a-crap list!"

Could not have said it better myself!

A Pain in The Butt

As some of you may know, my family doesn't have a big budget, so when the eight weeks of half price storage at Big Yellow in Norwich ran out we had to move everything out into the room that we have managed to half way do.  Que one long day.  However, for me it did not end there.

Saturday morning I woke up with really sore knees.  Nothing I had not expected.  They had been sore the evening before so I'd gone to bed with some heat pads strapped to them to help.  By the afternoon the knees had loosened up some I had a good visit with my friend who is in hospital and then had no trouble doing a BBQ for a couple of my friends who come over that evening for my birthday party.

What I wasn't expecting was, when I was waving my friends off, for a nerve in my back to be seriously trapped.  By the time I went to bed an hour later it felt as if someone had put the business end of  a rock pick into my spine.  The result of this was that every time I rolled over in the night and I am a fidgety sleeper, everything from the small of my back down went into spasm.  Not a very restful night and certainly not what I wanted for my birthday.

Managed to get out of bed the next day bent double.

After breakfast my mother, who is an ex-nurse (she was an army nurse and had to come out after she become pregnant with me) managed to get me laid down on my front so she could rub some arnica gel into my back and do some hot and cold treatment.  Hot and cold treatment is when you lay a bag of frozen peas over the effected area for three minutes followed by a hot water bottle for three minutes.  Repeat for half an hour, always ending with the bag of peas.

That loosen my up but it also revealed the cause of the trapped nerve.  I had ripped a muscle in my butt during the course of shifting all those boxes out of storage and then up the stairs when we arrived home.  It had swollen up during the course of the night and the day and then, when I turned to keep an eye on the dog while I was saying goodbye to my friends the swelling had nipped the nerve, which in its own turn had swollen up, becoming trapped.

I will admit that once I knew the cause it was a lot easier to bare but it still didn't make it any less disappointing when it flared up again this afternoon so I missed out on the opening evening of the Norwich Writers' Circle season.  I'll have to take the next two weeks easy so I can be there on the 2nd of October, for the talk by Amanda Addison.  It promises to be extremely interesting.  It is titled 'Writing the Visual' and sets our first competition of the year. here's hoping that I can repeat my winning streak of last year.  Every little helps on your CV.

Storage Quest

Some of you may know that before we moved house, we put a lot of our belongings into storage, including most of the furniture.  We didn't quite put the kitchen sink in there but it felt like we were close to doing so.

Due to the state that the house was and still is in, the two months of half price storage at Big Yellow Storage, Norwich (if you need something stored in the Norwich area check them out, they are well worth the price) ran out a month ago.  Therefore, the bill for storage was taking a bigger bite than we could afford out of the finances.  The only solution?  Empty the room at storage and close our account with them.

My room-to-be is the biggest of the bedrooms and the most complete.  By most complete I mean that the wall paper is off, the room has been washed down, the ceiling, walls and floor have been sealed and the plaster board put up.  It was therefore decided that work on that room would cease for the time being and it would become the new storage room.  Que a thirty miler of a day (by thirty miler I mean a day that feels like I triked thirty miles during its course).

We did a run on Saturday the eighth of September, removing two car loads of stuff from the room at Big Yellow and handing in our weeks notice of the account closure.  Yesterday, Friday the fourteenth of September, we came back for everything else.

I was up at six o'clock in the morning, where I'm used to getting up at eight.  You'll be amazed at what a difference those two hours make.  We were out the door to go and pick up the hired van at half seven and where at Big Yellow for nine o'clock.  Five hours later we finally finished loading all our stuff into the van and two cars.  Thank God for good friends otherwise we would never have done it all.

Then we had to come home and unload it all.  We actually managed to do that in four hours, probably because my room-to-be is a little larger than the one at Big Yellow so we didn't have to be quite so careful to 3D puzzle it to the very max.  That and my best buddy, Michael, was able to come over after work and help.  He's a boxer and those extra muscles come in useful.

What is more it wasn't done once we'd unloaded.  Oh no.  While Mother and Tay were taking the van back (I don't drive) Michael and I had to walk the dog because she'd been cooped up all day!

By the time I went to bed my knees were aching and this morning was not pretty.  Ow!

Dongle Adventures

O.K. first off, who thought up that name?  I'm sorry but 'dongle'?  Really?  It sounds like something from a Carry On movie - "It keeps my dongle warm."  You see what I mean?

Anyway on to the meat of this blog.

We moved on the fourth of August with no knowledge of when we were going to receive our new broadband line.  Two weeks later, in desperate need of some D.I.Y and cleaning supplies order on mass over the Internet, as well as a chance to view my e-mails I finally decided that I was going to have to bite the bullet and buy my next piece of high tech, ultra modern kit - a dongle.  The other thing that spurred this decision on was the sub-committee meeting I had with the other members of the Norwich Writers' Circle who were involved with the revamp of our website.  (For those of you who don't already know I'm the Publicity Officer.  A very fancy title for basically being the PR women.  Still it is normally fun so I don't complain that often.  I save that for when the deadlines are haring up my aft at a rate of knots.)  Anyway, during this committee meeting it was decided that the website, leaflets, posters and, when I finish them, the postcards, all needed to have common themes and graphics in their design.  Thankfully James, bless his heart, said that he would e-mail the necessaries over to me.  However, that depended on me being able to access the e-mails.  Que the decision to buy a dongle.

The committee meeting was on a Sunday so Monday morning a trip into Norwich and a visit to Maplin provided me with what I thought was a dongle.  Ha ha.  It was a wireless internet adaptor, near enough the same thing but with one very important difference - it needs a hardline connected router.  Doh!

Tuesday afternoon I take the wireless internet adaptor back to Maplin and then go down to the T-mobile shop to buy a dongle.  So far so good.  Wednesday I have the fun and games of setting the darn thing up.  A week later I finally discover that the only place in the house with a good signal is out in the garden.  Argh!

Thankfully I was just able to meet the deadline for the leaflets but it has been a month of very nearly throwing my computer across whatever room I happen to be in.  Not good for my stress levels no matter which way you look at it. If nothing else it means that if it decides to rain for a week without stopping I am sans Internet.

And we think computers make our lives easier...

Odysseus of Moving - Part 2

So the plaster board arrived and I had to start cleaning all the dust out of my room-to-be.  First hurdle with this - nearly killing the dyson.  Apparently it has no liking for sucking up large amounts of plaster dust.  I have found something that will make a dyson loose suction!  However, I think sucking plaster dust is categorised under 'industrail use' so I don't think I can complain.  Considering how much use and abuse that little machine has taken over the years its belonged to us...  I really can't complain.

Next step, wash down the room.  Well, I used the steamer in the effort to remove the nicotine from the ceiling.  A case of steam, wipe, move on, steam, wipe, squeeze cloth out into the bucket etc.  I called the resulting collection in the bucket 'my bucket of cancer'.  'The Cancer Cowboy Rides Out' (John Connolly) eat your heart out.  It put me off milky tea for quite a while.

After that I brought out the sugar soap.  After the scrub, the rinse and finally the room was ready for some sealant - watered down Eva-Bond PVA being my weapon of choice.  I put three layers of it on the ceiling and the nicotine was still trying to come through so a fourth had to go on. UGH!  I also put three layer on the walls and a less dilute solution on the floor boards before I finally killed the smell of old cigarettes.  Seriously, how can people live in this amount of dirty without becoming some horribly mutated monsters.  Or does ignorance come under that category?

We have finally started putting up the plaster board now but since that is a job that takes three of us, on the days when one of us is away, I have continued to steam the paint off the rest of the house.  I'll be the first to admit that I like coffee but not as a gloss paint up the stairway wall.  And that was what was underneath the snot green, rancid yellow and sea blue layers that had been painted over the top of it.  Either some people have very strange tastes or there's been a whole succession of people with strange tastes living in the house before us.

An up note - we should be regaining our internet access on the tenth of September.  Fun with the dongle coming up next.

Odysseus of Moving

O.K. I will try to update this page with some photographs sometime, the moment I have found the cable needed to attach my camera to the computer and have worked out how to do it but for now I'll have to rely on just description.  A challenge for my writing skills so here goes:

We moved to our new house on the fourth of August.  Four days later Mother had the kitchen clean enough to start unpacking the boxes marked 'Kitchen'.  That should give you an idea of just how disgustingly dirty this place is.  I know it is probably very unchristian but I am rather glad that we didn't have time at the old place to wash out the cupboards in the kitchen.  As I said unchristian but I don't think that it would have been appreciated any way.

What is more we can't really complain about it to the council because we had already signed the tenancy agreement which states 'taken as seen'.  However, that was signed before we saw it empty and I'm sorry but you can't see the maggots crawling in the back of the utility room when it's still full of their crap (if you'll pardon the language).

Once the kitchen was just about clean enough to use my first job was to chop down the hedge that ran along side the drive and dig out it's roots,  seeing that it was the cause of us having to call out the plumber at eight o'clock at night on the day we moved because it had blocked up the toilet drain.  Thankfully we have a terrific bunch of neighbours, the first one helping us to chop down the hedge and then dig it up.  His friend then helped us chop it all up and his other friend then donating his tractor and trailer to cart it all away.  That took us about two weeks.

The next job that I was assigned was the de-papering of my room.  You know that a very heavy smoker has been smoking in the house when you spray the wallpaper to soak it off and the water runs down the wall yellow.  And not a paint yellow either, unless you have some really, shall we say, unusual tastes.

The amount of nicotine on the walls may have had something to do with the struggle we had to remove the wall paper in the bedroom that is going to be mine.  In the end we resorted to the streamer and that finally managed to budge it.

I'm not entirely sure why, other than the fact that the plaster was falling off, the room had been papered because it was exactly the same purple under the paper as on top of it.  I was not keeping that colour, especially as it still stank of cigarette smoke so we took the plaster off the really badly cracked wall and then I tried to steam the paint off the others.  Not only was the paint horrible to look at but it had been put on only one layer thick so steaming it off was not possible, unless I fancied picking it off one square inch at a time, if I was lucky.  Out came the sander. Que lots of dust and noise.  However, it was coming off fairly quickly, until my sister came home yelling that she had found a cheap source of plaster board so we were going to do that instead.

Cheap source of plaster board?  If over a hundred and nine pounds is cheap, I'd hate to see expensive.  However, I will admit that it did mean that I could dyson up the dust a lot sooner, although the dyson objected to the treatment.

And all this only takes us up to August the twenty fourth.

Additives

I've been doing a little research, aided by the book by Bill Statham 'What's Really in Your Basket?'.
A warning - do not read this book if you are looking for some light entertainment.  However, do read this book if you wish to avoid the uncertain-effects, harmful or out right poisonous chemicals the food production companies are adding to our food.

For example:

Aspartame (also known as E951), a artificial sweetener and flavour enhancer

This additive is present in artificial sweeteners such as Nutrisweet.  It can also be present in low calorie foods, diet drinks, chewing gum, soft drinks, instant coffee and may be added to anything which is sugar free or without added sugar.

The one that is utterly horrifying, when you learn what this substance does, is its presence in medication, including those for children.

Prepared from phenylalanine and aspartic acid, Aspartame breaks down into methanol and then formaldehyde in the body.

In medical studies it has been documented as causing "headaches, depression, anxiety, asthma, fatigue, hyperactivity, MS like symptoms, blindness, aggression, migraine, insomnia, dizziness, irritability, epilepsy, memory loss, seizures - more than 92 in all, NRC, not recommended for women during pregnancy, teratogenic."

O.K. I will admit that I do not know what all of those words mean, but the ones I do understand like blindness and epilepsy do not sound good, in fact they sound out right terrifying.  And the companies are putting this stuff in our food!

Since discovering what this additive is and what it does to the human body I have started reading the labels of every soft drink I buy.  So far the only lemonade I have found that does not contain this additive is Sainsbury's Own.  This is now the only lemonade I will buy.  This is not only a health choice, it is a move to force the food companies to remove this chemical from their list of acceptable additives.  If more people refuse to buy a product with this stuff in and will only buy the products that are clean of it, then the companies will have no choice but to remove it from the recipes to stay competitive.  This is what is meant by 'the power of the people', we do not have to accept that they put this stuff in our food, a simple choice can improve our diets and force the food production companies to do something about their immoral practises.

For the full detail I would highly recommend Bill Statham's book 'What's Really in Your Basket?'.  Ignorance maybe bliss but in this case it will also see you poisoned by what you eat.

Caring About Strangers

Have just seen in the newspapers about the escalating violence in Syria and it reminds me of a conversion I over heard after one of the major earthquakes in recent years. (Is it not sad that there have been so many that I cannot remember which one it was?)

The base line of the argument was 'caring because you cannot do anything else' versus 'not caring because you cannot do anything meaningful to stop the situation'.

To my way of thinking the 'not caring because you cannot do anything meaningful' is the root of much evil in the world.  As an Asperger/Autistic I have often been accused of not being sympathetic or sensitive to those around me.  This seems to me to be a very hypercritical statement, coming from people who will read about atrocity and disaster in their newspaper and then turn over the page without comment or care.

Yes, I agree, I have had to learn how to be compassionate and I have not always got it right.  However, now that I know how to feel their pain as my pain, I do not limit my compassion to only those who I meet every day.  Compassion is not an emotion that should be limited to only those within our borders.  I will agree that are probably too many immigrants for this country's social structure to cope with.  However, I also agree that having a third world in the so called enlightened age is a hypocrisy of democracy and that third world debt is an evil that ought to have been wiped off the books years ago.  I can share my apple with my neighbour but my neighbour does not have to be in my house for me to do it.

I cannot do anything materially, finicially or physically to help the innocent people suffering in Syria.  However, I can care!  I can care that I can't do anything!  I can care that people are terrified, are being hurt, are being killed.  I can care and is that not better than not caring?

Also there is this, I cannot do anything for the people in Syria but if caring about their plight prompts me to care more for the people I meet in the street, is that not a good thing?  Perhaps the world would be a better place if more people cared for those they cannot help and therefore, helped the ones that they can.

Flooding Britain

I don't know about you but I think I have spotted a common theme in all government policies.  It appears to me that the common answer that politicians give to the 'What if?' question is 'We sweep it under the rug until it happens.'

Some of you may have read my post earlier this year about Hearthrow Airport being snowed under again.  Well it seems to have happened, again, only this time it is just plain rain.  The one thing England is famous for, our persistent precipitation and once again it is flooding out swaths of our countryside and towns.

Now, it could be noted that a country that is noted for being one of the wettest in Europe ought to have councils that build drains that can take it.  However this is unlikely to happen, even though it is what we pay them for.  Instead, for the mentioned above reason, they are going to continued to ignore the problem until it is so obvious that it has become the equivalent of trying to hide an elephant under the rug.

So, what can the ordinary people of Britain do about it?  Because I don't know about you, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for the government to do something about it, I hate passing out.

According to research done by the Woodland Trust and they should know their trees, planting a single row of trees down one side of a field will increase the grounds ability to soak up the rain by sixty percent.  The more the soil can soak up, the less there is to run away over the soil and flood the dip down the road were the village happens to be.  Also, increasing the number of trees planted within a city by five percent, in turn decreases the urban water run off by twenty percent.  That seems to me to be a large amount of returns for a small amount of effort.

For those of you worried about subsidence there is apparently no scientific evidence of planting trees causing subsidence.  The reason the lovely new concrete front garden subsides is not because of the tree planted the other side of the front garden wall.  It subsides because it is a lovely new concrete front garden, which does not allow any water to reach the soil underneath it.  Dehydrated soil shrinks in exactly the same manner as a dehydrated cell, which is why gravel driveways do not subside.

So it appears to me that the best way the people of Britain can look after themselves and prevent further flooding is to plant more trees, this having the added benefits of cleaning our air and lowing our stress levels, because what is scientific fact, is looking at a tree for five minutes a day de-stresses you almost as much as an hour in a yoga class.  It's a lot cheaper as well.

Moving with Aspergers

O.K. The rest of the family is now talking about it to others so I suppose that I am allowed to as well - we are moving.

On the one hand - great!  New house in what looks to be lovely area and a chance to leave the memories tied up in this place behind.

On the other hand - Aah!  The current house is a tip, boxes everywhere, packing in progress, trying to work out what can go into storage for possibly six months!

So I am totally up in the air and my head is in a total mess.  On top of everything else that I have to try to squeeze into the day (Trike ride to stop my ticker packing in, diary, working on my book and sending off to competitions to try and keep my career a float) I now have to deal with packing and making sure that the dinners get made and the ferret gets looked after.  I also had to take the dog for a walk the other day, because the usual walker had totally over done it and had crashed out fast asleep on the sofa.

I am rapidly approaching the point where the amount of work to be done each day is no longer an incentive to get out of bed in the morning, rather it is what is making me pull the covers over my head and do my best to go back to sleep.  In a way I am not unsurprised, looking back in my diaries before I packed them up and sealed the box, (one of the advantages of keeping a daily diary) revealed that the last house move took me in exactly the same way.  It must be the same instinct that makes a frog cover up its eyes when it sees the approaching ferret - 'if I can't see it maybe it will go away'.

That or I'm on the verge of flinging myself on the floor and having a screaming temper-tantrum. I have done so before and I have found that it gives a huge amount of relief to inner tensions.  Not that it does anything for the inner tension of my mother, hence why I'm trying desperately not to do it again.

Can I hold on?  Remains to be seen.

Whale Wars - On Going

O.K. Tried to send an e-mail to the Federal Minister of Justice in Germany on behalf of Captain Paul Watson, only to find that it is the Microsoft e-mail engine i.e. none compatible with hotmail.  However, if it had been compatible this is what it would have looked like:

"Dear Sadine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger,

Concerning the extradition of Captain Paul Watson.

I understand that this is a politically motivated order, originally sited by the shark finning barons of Costa Rica.  Are you aware that these same barons have posted a bounty upon Captain Paul Watson's head of $250,000 USA dollars?

Extraditing him to a Costa Rica prison is not, no matter what you have been assured to the contrary, delivering him for trail.  It is delivering him for murder.

He has be charged with the crime of stopping the illegal crime of poaching.  If the perpetrators of this crime can use the law to prevent those fighting their crimes from bringing them to justice, then the law is a sham and government, the representative of the law, a mockery.

I remain hopeful of your sense of justice and obedience of the law.

Yours truly,

V. J. Bartlett"

Please can people copy this message and send it on to her, with your own name of course.  It is really important that Captain Paul Watson does not end up in that prison.  Nobody was hurt during the Sea Shepard mission in Costa Rica waters ten years ago and either was any property damaged.  The e-mail address for the Federal Minister of Justice is on the Sea Shepherd web-site.

The voice of the people is the voice of God!

Whale Wars - Success

O.k. sorry for false hopes if you thought that Captain Paul Watson had been released.  As far as I know, not yet. Shame on all governments for their hypocrisy.

However, good news on the Whale War front.

Published in Wild World, the magazine of the WWF, this month is the fantastic news that 'Cold Storage', a supermarket chain in Singapore, has become the first retailer of that country to refuse to sell shark fin and other shark products.  They made the move after joining the WWF's Sustainable Seafood Group.

Though this is news from another wildlife protection group, it should be something to make all supporters of both the WWF and the Sea Shepherd and any other wildlife protection group celebrate.  Our efforts are not in vain, people in the management position of companies and organisations are listening to us, and realising that a quick buck today does not make up for the thousands lost tomorrow, if we continue to destroy this world.  It is through these people and the economic pressure they can bring to bare on the governments of the world, that real and true change for the better protection of our home will begin.

If for no other reason it proves that human beings do not need their governments to make society work for the betterment of ourselves and our world.  If enough of us can do that then maybe the governments will realise that it's time they earn their keep.

Nervous

O.K.  First off, big thank you to those that have been looking in on my blog, it is good to know that somebody out there is interested in what I write.  I think every writer at this stage of their career needs some encouragement, even the anonymous encouragement of the postview chart.

What I mean by 'this stage of their career' is where I am now.  I've entered my novel it several novel competitions and received not so much as an e-mail saying that I didn't make the grade in reply.  I'm now looking down the deadline of yet another competition and I'm not even sure that I can drum up the courage to enter it.  If for no other reason than the rules say that it is not restricted by theme or style but it makes no mention as to genre.  Therefore, do I enter it in the hope that it is open to science fiction? Because if it is not all I'm going to receive is yet another blanking, never good for the self confidence.  I suppose you could say that nothing ventured nothing gained and as a writer I'm letting myself in for a slaying from the critics anyway, so it is about time I grew a thicker skin.  At the same time, I really don't want to waste my money entering a competition I have no hope of winning.

I wish, when competition organisers made the rules for these things, they would specify what constitutes a 'literary' novel.

Competitions

I entered a competition earlier this year, the most important part of the prize being publication upon the completion of my book (I have in fact already finished my first book, am now having the second privately edited, while I work on my third but that's neither here nor there).

Part of the competition small print was that winners would be notified on or before 31st May 2012.

As you can most likely guess, I have not received any notification of any thing so I must take it as read that I have not won.  Though I do not mind this fact much, once I had dealt with my disappointment, as it means that a fellow writer is now bring their career (good luck, long life and good health to them, may their career span a hundred books) I would have liked just a little note to say that I had not won, just an e-mail.

So many people complain about rejection letters.  I am fast coming to the conclusion that it is more hurtful to receive no news at all.  Though rejection letters are undoubtedly painful in their own way, they at least let you know that your work was worth looking at instead of being thrown on to the slush pile right away.  As it is I must deal with the fact that neither of the judges felt that my work was worth a nod in my direction.

When you are throwing your work into the abyss, is it too much for the abyss to acknowledge that fact?

Whale Wars - Comments

Just been reading some of the comments about Captain Paul Watson posted after his arrest.

Some have claimed that he has threatened peoples lives in his bind to stop illegal poachers and whalers from damaging our most precious resource, that he said once that he was quite happy with the idea of killing people in the course of what he does, that he and Green Peace parted ways for a good reason, that if he was so confident about winning the Costa Rica case then why has he avoided capture for so long?

This is not the first time that he and his crew have been arrested.  He has always avoided, quote, 'justice', unquote, before because none of his ships have ever carried lethal fire arms, no person has ever died in the course of any of his campaigns and the only property he has damaged has been the property of those involved with illegal actives.

Yes, he styles himself an eco-pirate.  Apparently one person thought because of this he should be crucified. Like that proves you to be a well balanced, rational person.  Or perhaps you would prefer to see him hanged, as under the British Law.  Or locked up and never heard of again, while his followers and supporters are "put in a SAFE PLACE".

I am sorry but from where I am sitting if you are illegally poaching then you get what is coming to you.  If you weren't breaking the law you would not be putting yourself on to his radar.  He is an eco-pirate because he is going after the people who the governments of the world aren't willing to touch for one reason and enough.  If the governments of the world were more willing to tackle this problem instead of trying a blind eye to it because its 'not profitable' to notice it, people like Paul Watson would not be needed.

It seems to me that he and Green Peace parted ways because Green Peace isn't willing to sully their good name with the controversies Paul Watson is willing to face.  When was the last time a Green Peace member was arrested for their actions?

And for the record, shark finning is barbaric, wasteful and inefficient.

Whale Wars

I have just found out that Captain Paul Watson has been arrested, on what charges has yet to be made clear, but it seems that the German government plans to extradite him to Costa Rica.

This seems to be in response to the Sea Shepherd uncovering an illegal shark finning operation.  The word here is 'illegal'.  How can an 'illegal', that is to say 'against the law', operation use international law to shut down the people who uncovered the acts that where against the law?  Surely anybody can see that to jail a man who is fighting against the illegal fishing practises of companies and cabals around the world is to support the illegal practises.  And if the governments and legal systems of the world are supporting illegal practises then they are supporting that which is totally opposite to everything that they are supposed - and are voted in for - to embody.  If this is the case then the law is a mockery and government a sham.

A Different Stage

Went to see 'Holmes and the Ripper' last Friday at the Assembly House, Norwich.  An extremely good play that puts forward some all too possible theories as to the Ripper's identity.  Although the subject matter is serious there is enough humour to stop it becoming too depressing, including the police man who arrests Watson by mistake.

However, the most surprising facet of the play was the placement of the stage.  It was in the middle of the room with the audience all the way around it. This meant that no matter which way the actors where facing they always had their back towards at least part of the audience.  Despite this, in many ways, the play was more intimate than many plays I have seen before, probably because there was no curtains to close between scenes.  The use of lighting was extremely well down, however, to give the back stage crew a chance to more set pieces.

I had the chance to speak to a member of cast afterwards, who told me that it was the most liberating stage they had ever worked on, due to the fact that they couldn't help but have their back to the audience.  This meant that they did not have to worry about turning towards the audience to say their lines and make the action seem natural, leading to movement more akin to that seen in real life.  Probably another reason why the action seemed so much more intense than on a more traditional stage.

Superheroes

Just been to see the 'Avengers Assemble' film and thoroughly enjoyed it.  However, it did make me think.  Why are people addicted to stories of superheroes?  Because it is not a new phenomena.  The legends of Greece and Rome are littered with demigods that fight the hideous monsters.  The Hindu sagas have the same thing.  There are even oriental examples with the Peach Boy of Chinese legend and Tengu (the demon that, having been defeated by the hero, swears utter and undying loyalty to him) in Japanese.

I think it is because of a couple of things.  One, we humans want role models, beings who are far above us in physical power, thus giving us something to admire and aspire to.  We then want these beings to look at us small humans and see us as something worthy of being protected and guarded against the monsters out there, possibly because we want to know that no matter how badly we foul up, someone, somewhere is going to care about us.  Lastly, it is because we want stories where the good guys are going to win at the final curtain call and where the bad guys gonna get what's coming to them.  If these stories involve gods and demons and odds that seem impossible for the hero to overcome then all the better because that's even more existing and awesome!  Also, it is possibly because we want to believe that no matter how bad our life gets, someone else, somewhere has already faced worse and defeated it.

Superheroes also carry a message, beside the obvious one of good guys and bad guys. Superheroes have helped in the past to change popular ways of thinking.  The example that springs to mind is Captain America.  The first Marvel comic to feature him fighting the Nazis was published, as far as I know, during the Second World War because the writers of the Marvel Comics believe that America's stand of neutrality in the early stages of the war was not a morally acceptable decision.  Because of the comics popularity it helped change the public perception of the war.  Not bad for 'just' a comic book.

Cirque de Ciel

Just been to see Cirque du Ciel's Shanghi.  AWESOME!

In fact awesome does not cover it.  If you have a liking for stunning acrobatics, mind boggling tricks and death defying stunts, then this group is well worth a watch.  As far as I could see there were no safety lines and they only used crash mats for the rope dance and the monkey poles.  I'm not sure about the evening performances but the matinees had children doing some of the stunts, including throwing themselves of the top of the monkey poles and trusting the adults to catch them.  The level of trust between every member of the team was awe inspiring.

What I particularly liked about it was that there was an equal division of the performances between men and women, with some men having their own acrobat come ballet routines and some of the women having a chance to play the drums in one of the big drumming numbers.

I have to admit that the hat juggling number was a favourite of mine.  How do you have a hat on your head and one in each hand and make them rotate positions without either speeding up the passes as you go or having a third arm?

Grant still have to say that the hoop routine and the monkey poles were the best of the show.

Definitely one to watch out for!

Nppf

Just read about the National Planning Policy Framework.

Is any one really taken in by their babble about development only bringing about the lost of habitat only if "the need for, and the benefits of, the development in that location clearly outweigh the loss"?

Who decides if the "needs for" and the "benefits of" the development "clearly outweigh the loss"? The local people who don't want more housing?  Who have said as much in their meetings and petitions?  Who don't want more people moving into the area until there is work enough for the people already there?  Or the developers who have the bank balance to buy the solicitors and the opinion of the government?  Who have the money to keep putting forward application after application until the local people have not the money or the will to fight it any more?

I'm not a betting woman but I know who I'd put my money on.

And while habitats can be bought and sold for the money gained when the houses are built, the woodland and farm land of England will continue to disappear.  After all, if all else fails they can always slap a compulsory purchase order on the land like they did to the farm that used to be were Thorpe Marriott now stands.

However, all is not lost.

If you feel like standing up and telling the Government and its money bloated cronies were to sling their collective hooks, then the Woodland Trust does charge a large amount of money for membership.  And the money you give them will go to buy the woodlands up before the developers can get to them.  What is more, once the land is owned by the charity then compulsory purchase orders cannot stick.

Lets show the government the meaning of the words "The voice of the people is the voice of God!"

Faith

It has been said that a belief in an all-powerful deity is childish, unscientific and in some cases, out right harmful.

I beg to differ.

First of all I must point out the differences between faith, which is a belief in a something beyond our mortal understanding and religion, which is the belief of some humans that they can make other people do as they say, using a fear of Divine retribution as their beating stick.

I have, I hope, a fair amount of faith.  I also have, I hope, absolutely no truck with religion.

To me, faith encourages kindness and compassion.  The act of going to a place of faith is an act that draws the community together.  When that happens friendships and concerns are shared, people become more inclined to help their neighbours and people are encouraged to learn the art of conversation with those they don't know.  In short, the best part of communal worship is just that - the community.

If one is encouraged to take this if view of faith then it becomes a way of breaking down barriers and encouraging co-operation.  Makes me wonder what would happen if our national leaders were made to express their professed faiths together.

And finally - if there is not a God, those of us who believe in him have lost nothing.  However, if there is a God...

Successes

Having just received some very good news, it puts my in mind that many writers complain about the rejection letters, so I thought I'd have a review of my past submissions.

So far I have submitted forty five pieces of my work.  Of them I have only had five successes.  Of the other forty I have only received two rejection letters, both within the last two months.  That means thirty eight submissions without a please, a thank you or a whistle down an exhaust pipe.

Therefore, I say to the people receiving rejection letters - please spare a thought for those of us who are wallowing in the realm of ignore-dom.  If you have been flinging your work into the ether for so long without a reply, that you are on the verge of giving up all together, a rejection letter is a good thing.  It means that you are moving away from the place were the adjudicator/agent/publisher takes one look at your work and throws it out without a word.

If you take this point of view, a rejection letter is only one step away from being successful.

Thoughts on Snow

Just had a snowy beginning to the week and once again England is in chaos with everybody complaining about the roads, the rails, the airports.  I agree that once again the system has messed up, however one must consider the point of view of British Air.

(Sarcastic speech). Preparing  the airports for snow, which may not arrive, is costly and time consuming, thus irritating to the share holders.  Therefore, it is much better, financially, to not prepare for the snow and just deal with it when it does arrive.  After all, if lots of passengers are booking in but their flights are cancelled, not only do you claim the money from their tickets, they also spend money in your airport, thus providing you with a greater profit margin.  In short, the share holders prefer airports that do not prepare for snowy weather because it gives them a larger quarterly statement.

Christmas: A Time of Year or a State of Mind?

My sister and I were away in Oman December 2011 visiting our father. Because of that we could not celebrate Christmas with our Mother in England for some very obvious reasons. Therefore we are celebrating Christmas 2011 now. Starting from the twenty fifth of January we have been celebrating our Christmas at home and I have to say that so far it has been one of the best Christmases we've had in years. This fact made me start thinking.

There are lots of songs that are played around about the Christmas season that include lyrics about how good it would be if Christmas could last all year but many people seem to put a lot of effort into making one specific day a year special 'family' time and let it go the rest of the year. Having been made to celebrate Christmas a month late has made me realise that Christmas is in fact not a question of a time of a time of year, rather it is a question of care, compassion and forgiveness. In short, Christmas is the time of year when we are inclined to share time with our family, putting aside all the grievences that we normally harbour and going the extra mile to make sure other people are happy before we look to our own happiness. Whether this time of year happens to be the twenty fifth of December or the first of June should, to my mind, matter not at all.

So here is a new challenge to my readers. This year try, with other putting up the decorations and giving presents, make a Christmas day every month and just see how it affects the way your family lives together. I hope that you are pleasantly surprised.

Respect

Just had a highly interesting and fun Christmas holiday in Oman and it got me thinking. One of the best things about Oman is that, as long as you wear a T-shirt that covers your shoulders and chest and longish shorts, they don't mind women not wearing the complete body cover and as long as you are not obscene in public, they are very tolerant of other peoples customs. Their attitude is 'they do what they do, we do what we do'.

It appears to me that if more people in the world would cultivate this attitude in themselves and others, we would stop fighting so much about our differences and start talking more about our similarities. It would also mean that we would have more access to some of the beautiful places in the world to visit. However, part of this idea rests on people being tolerant and respectful of other peoples beliefs and attitudes. This means not forcing our beliefs and ways of government on other people. If we give respect, eventually respect will be give in turn.

To start this change in the attitude of the world, the first place to look is your own home. Do you give respect to the other people of your family?