Friday, December 19, 2008
Christmas Spirit
It will be an odd Christmas this year. There hasn't been quite so much hysteria because of the credit crunch so perhaps looking at Christmas in a new light will benefit us all. We need to slow down and take stock of what is really important in our lives and appreciate all that we do have. I have just finished reading "The Poisonwood Bible" and found it fascinating. We really do need to have a new understanding off Africa and the appalling way the Europeans and the Americans have behaved. Yes, it is in the past and we are not personally responsible but we are by proxy. We are not well-informed enough, we do not ask enough questions, we are concerned about our own little worries and grumbles and gripes which in the larger picture do not count for a lot. We have enough food, we have houses over our heads, and we do not care enough to stop the repossessions and the break-up of families going through the stress of hard times. The effect on the children and the marriage can be devastating. It is not a good time to be losing your job or your home. We could do so much more to help before families get to breaking point and the split starts. Relationships are hard work and we become complacent. We need to work on ourselves all the time or we atrophy and become whining, complaining victims. We can change our reaction to what happens to us and start to take responsibility for our reactions and our lives and this beautiful planet. Have a wonderful Christmas!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
A Deep, Crisp Frost.
The pavements are sparkling this evening. It is very, very cold and my heart goes out to anyone trying to sleep on the streets tonight.
There was a young girl sitting out in the rain at 10.30pm about 2 weeks ago as I was on my way home at Ealing Broadway. I asked her if she had tried a hostel and she asked if I had ever tried to get into one. I did follow it up and now have a phone number for young people and there is a duty team at social services 24 hours but presumably she didn't want their help or she didn't know. A very senior police officer did not know if there were any hostels for young women in the borough, in fact he thought there wern't so I am taking it up with the council officer in charge of Housing so we shall see.
The wildlife will be having a hard time of it as well. Today I found my way into the Gunnersbury
Triangle which is off Bollo Lane in between the tube lines and the overground. It is a beautiful small reserve, a real oasis in a busy, polluted, litter-strewn part of Acton. I saw a pair of robins, a wren and a feeding party of long-tailed and great tits were above me in the silver birches and not at all shy. This will be a delight in the summer as it is so little known. Just like a secret garden! The water in the main pond is so clear you can see every leaf on the bottom. It is very well managed with no litter and lots of places for wild-life to hide away.
What a pity we havn't sorted housing for the homeless properly yet.
There was a young girl sitting out in the rain at 10.30pm about 2 weeks ago as I was on my way home at Ealing Broadway. I asked her if she had tried a hostel and she asked if I had ever tried to get into one. I did follow it up and now have a phone number for young people and there is a duty team at social services 24 hours but presumably she didn't want their help or she didn't know. A very senior police officer did not know if there were any hostels for young women in the borough, in fact he thought there wern't so I am taking it up with the council officer in charge of Housing so we shall see.
The wildlife will be having a hard time of it as well. Today I found my way into the Gunnersbury
Triangle which is off Bollo Lane in between the tube lines and the overground. It is a beautiful small reserve, a real oasis in a busy, polluted, litter-strewn part of Acton. I saw a pair of robins, a wren and a feeding party of long-tailed and great tits were above me in the silver birches and not at all shy. This will be a delight in the summer as it is so little known. Just like a secret garden! The water in the main pond is so clear you can see every leaf on the bottom. It is very well managed with no litter and lots of places for wild-life to hide away.
What a pity we havn't sorted housing for the homeless properly yet.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Fishy Supermarket Doings
Various supermarkets are crowing that they are riding the credit crunch well making good profits and appealing to all tastes to provide wide choice and what consumers want.
Yet I was appalled when I recently visited a large very busy branch in west London by the blatant filling of every conceivable centimetre of floor space blocking access to the freezers, even adding acohol on to the end of the soft drinks aisle and yoghourt sections.
The first thing you see as soon as you enter the store is a huge display of cheap alcohol filling the large entrance. You cannot miss it nor the other countless cheap beer and wine temporary displays all around the store. Yet we are spending large amounts of money in the anti-obesity
healthy towns initiative just announced this week but here are the supermarkets in the run-up to Christmas peddling for all they are worth cheap alcohol offers and white sugar and flour biscuits and mince pies. There seems to be no sense in this other than the supermarkets making huge profits on the backs of those who are addicted to alcohol, tobacco and sugar. Then we spend huge amounts of tax payers money to try to sort out the problems of under-age drinking, obesity, and heart problems as well as lung cancer from tobacco.
Daft.
Yet I was appalled when I recently visited a large very busy branch in west London by the blatant filling of every conceivable centimetre of floor space blocking access to the freezers, even adding acohol on to the end of the soft drinks aisle and yoghourt sections.
The first thing you see as soon as you enter the store is a huge display of cheap alcohol filling the large entrance. You cannot miss it nor the other countless cheap beer and wine temporary displays all around the store. Yet we are spending large amounts of money in the anti-obesity
healthy towns initiative just announced this week but here are the supermarkets in the run-up to Christmas peddling for all they are worth cheap alcohol offers and white sugar and flour biscuits and mince pies. There seems to be no sense in this other than the supermarkets making huge profits on the backs of those who are addicted to alcohol, tobacco and sugar. Then we spend huge amounts of tax payers money to try to sort out the problems of under-age drinking, obesity, and heart problems as well as lung cancer from tobacco.
Daft.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
A Busy Week - 8th November 2008
Yesterday I attended the first session of the local Silversurfers intermediate session. Being self-taught it seemed a good idea to take advantage of the opportunity to plug some of the gaps I have. It appears it will help and devoting time and practice to focus on improving in a pleasant social setting is too good an opportunity to miss.
It was a soft, warm and sunny day and thoughts of a visit to Kew Gardens did enter my head but I thought I could do that later if the sun lasted. Unfortunately it didn't! But I found my way through the pleasant grounds marred byscattered lunch litter. The building is very new and quite striking with a lot of wood and glass. I wonder if the young realise how lucky they are with these light and modern buildings? My secondary school was 30 or 40 years old with far less light and long corridors and a dreadful smell of urine one end of the school where the boys toilets were. I wonder if they were ever cleaned or they were always in such a hurry they always missed and they were never cleaned thoroughly enough?
We were greeted pleasantly but then came the usual digs that we would have to work hard as of course we did but things were so different then and it was very far from perfect in the 50's and 60's and I resent the assumption that it was so much better then. The tv series that conclude that being shouted at by bullying teachers is somehow a recipe for tackling the problems of youth today is rubbish. Everything is so different now and the young have opportunities we could never have dreamed of. Much of the teaching was very dull and boring and many of the teachers were frustrated, cynical and bullies. I had chalk thrown at me by the Physics teacher and others shouted and put you down mercilessly. Fortunately, some were very good, imaginative and supportive but I remember my sister having nightmares about the teacher she had at 7 who had been a prison officer and was very frightening. He should never have been near primary children. My top year junior teacher slippered his adopted son in front of us and gave me nightmares too. We did nothing but tests and the seating for the next week was according to how well you did in the tests. There was no time for anything but the tests and I do not remember doing any art or anything else except swimming, netball and PE which was military type physical jerks and very bad for posture.
Many of the teachers had been in the forces and with the 'bulge' coming through after the war they were quickly trained and many were very unsuitable. There are parallels with today's graduates who have all the academic qualifications but no understanding whatever of child development. Yes, you do pick some up eventually but it seems a very unprofessional way to do it. The professional tutors at my teacher training college were remarkable and taught us a huge amount just by seeing them in action with young children. I learned so much with has stood me in good stead for a lifetime of teaching young children.
It was a soft, warm and sunny day and thoughts of a visit to Kew Gardens did enter my head but I thought I could do that later if the sun lasted. Unfortunately it didn't! But I found my way through the pleasant grounds marred byscattered lunch litter. The building is very new and quite striking with a lot of wood and glass. I wonder if the young realise how lucky they are with these light and modern buildings? My secondary school was 30 or 40 years old with far less light and long corridors and a dreadful smell of urine one end of the school where the boys toilets were. I wonder if they were ever cleaned or they were always in such a hurry they always missed and they were never cleaned thoroughly enough?
We were greeted pleasantly but then came the usual digs that we would have to work hard as of course we did but things were so different then and it was very far from perfect in the 50's and 60's and I resent the assumption that it was so much better then. The tv series that conclude that being shouted at by bullying teachers is somehow a recipe for tackling the problems of youth today is rubbish. Everything is so different now and the young have opportunities we could never have dreamed of. Much of the teaching was very dull and boring and many of the teachers were frustrated, cynical and bullies. I had chalk thrown at me by the Physics teacher and others shouted and put you down mercilessly. Fortunately, some were very good, imaginative and supportive but I remember my sister having nightmares about the teacher she had at 7 who had been a prison officer and was very frightening. He should never have been near primary children. My top year junior teacher slippered his adopted son in front of us and gave me nightmares too. We did nothing but tests and the seating for the next week was according to how well you did in the tests. There was no time for anything but the tests and I do not remember doing any art or anything else except swimming, netball and PE which was military type physical jerks and very bad for posture.
Many of the teachers had been in the forces and with the 'bulge' coming through after the war they were quickly trained and many were very unsuitable. There are parallels with today's graduates who have all the academic qualifications but no understanding whatever of child development. Yes, you do pick some up eventually but it seems a very unprofessional way to do it. The professional tutors at my teacher training college were remarkable and taught us a huge amount just by seeing them in action with young children. I learned so much with has stood me in good stead for a lifetime of teaching young children.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
American Election Fever
The near land-slide victory of Obama has been amazing to witness. The far right are appalled and in a state of shock but it has given hope to many millions who have not been engaged with politics before and that is very heartening. The young have found new hope as have very many women and of course those who are black or of mixed race. The fact that it is an impossible task to live up to all their expectations especially in the current economic climate will inevitably lead to some disappoinment but the air of change and renewal and the fact that this has happened is remarkable. We can only wish him all the luck in the world. After the 6 month honeymoon period cynicism may well set in but it has happened and most people will think that is a miracle and hope for the whole world
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
A Long Gap!
I had my blog blocked and then was not informed it had been unlocked! It was reported as spam at the same time as the internet was off for the whole weekend so we thought the police would be knocking on the door next! I thought that perhaps my first article had been rather outspoken but I am delighted to be up and running again!
I do have another blog which shows some of my nature and wild life photos on Yahoo 360 which also gives details of places I have recently visited and walks I have done. I am reading up about the Ridgeway which runs from Dorset to the Wash and thinking that I need to get out and complete the Capital ring here in London and then be ready to undertake it gently, stopping off and resting when I like next summer.
In the meantime I am exploring eco-housing as that seems the most sensible option with oil running out and costs spiraling and a son who will not turn off the lights and puts the oven on to prepare breakfast!
I do have another blog which shows some of my nature and wild life photos on Yahoo 360 which also gives details of places I have recently visited and walks I have done. I am reading up about the Ridgeway which runs from Dorset to the Wash and thinking that I need to get out and complete the Capital ring here in London and then be ready to undertake it gently, stopping off and resting when I like next summer.
In the meantime I am exploring eco-housing as that seems the most sensible option with oil running out and costs spiraling and a son who will not turn off the lights and puts the oven on to prepare breakfast!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Autumn is on the way!
Today there is no sun and that makes a huge difference in this modern flat with a lot of windows. I managed to find some gloves and a scarf and have bought myself a new coat which is nice and warm. The stallholders at the market were freezing and shiverering as it has been so warm up till a few days ago.
After coming home and having a hot cup of tea I was still chilly and like some many of us this year, I do not want to put on the heating yet so I rooted out my vest. Magic! Lovely and warm but it is going to be a long, hard winter judging by the generous amount of red berries on the holly and the hawthorn trees and in the hedgerows.
Sadly, there are going to be a lot of pensioners who die of hypothermia this year because of the huge rises in fuel prices and the reluctance of the government to give any real help and financial aid to all those who find it hard to pay. People are already struggling with huge food price increases and the abolition of the 10 pence tax band. That has meant that for many on low incomes and pensions that tax has doubled overnight. The knowledge that money is being poured into prop up shaky banks and that financiers are still making millions and the fuel companies are also making obscenely huge profits is very hard to stomach especially when we can see there is no quick fix for the economy. Oil is going to run out and the only person who has come out straight with it is Jeremy Clarkson in The Sun. Everyone else is like the boy in the dyke, plug the hole with money and we will be safe but unfortunately this time it is the whole wall that is collapsing and no amount of plugging will stop this erosion.
There needs to be strong and meaningful help for those on low incomes and pensions now. Actions speak far louder than the reams of words we get from politicians of all colours and persuasions. Brown, we are watching.
After coming home and having a hot cup of tea I was still chilly and like some many of us this year, I do not want to put on the heating yet so I rooted out my vest. Magic! Lovely and warm but it is going to be a long, hard winter judging by the generous amount of red berries on the holly and the hawthorn trees and in the hedgerows.
Sadly, there are going to be a lot of pensioners who die of hypothermia this year because of the huge rises in fuel prices and the reluctance of the government to give any real help and financial aid to all those who find it hard to pay. People are already struggling with huge food price increases and the abolition of the 10 pence tax band. That has meant that for many on low incomes and pensions that tax has doubled overnight. The knowledge that money is being poured into prop up shaky banks and that financiers are still making millions and the fuel companies are also making obscenely huge profits is very hard to stomach especially when we can see there is no quick fix for the economy. Oil is going to run out and the only person who has come out straight with it is Jeremy Clarkson in The Sun. Everyone else is like the boy in the dyke, plug the hole with money and we will be safe but unfortunately this time it is the whole wall that is collapsing and no amount of plugging will stop this erosion.
There needs to be strong and meaningful help for those on low incomes and pensions now. Actions speak far louder than the reams of words we get from politicians of all colours and persuasions. Brown, we are watching.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
