November | 2010 | Not Just a Granny

Archive for November, 2010

thumbs up to Social Media

Posted in family and relationships, It's my life, tagged meeting with friends, social media has its uses on November 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Social Media has it’s uses! On Saturday this weekend I met up with someone who was my best friend in high school….aeons ago! (Sorry Chez) 🙂

still friends even after all these years

Someone I had known when I was 12 years old, which also means I now count my memories in decades rather than years….. LOL! or not!!!
We last saw each other 22years ago back in South Africa just before she and her husband came to live in the UK and I went to live in Cape Town. Prior to that we had last seen each other in 1971. Now I am living in the UK and they are back in SA! How bizarre, how bizarre!
After that last meeting, we lost touch as you sometimes do, and over the years I often thought of her and wondered where she was and what she was doing.
I joined facebook some years back and as you do you put up various details etc etc. One day out of the blue I got a message asking if I was the Cindy who went to Dawnview High? And of course yes, it was me! And there she was; after all these years.
So we messaged each other from time to time and emailed, catching up on news across the years. A couple of months ago I got a message to say she was visiting the UK this month and was it possible to meet up? Of course it was and so we did….on Saturday! How awesome. And how brilliant is social media! 🙂
It was amazing to see her again and sadly the 2 hours I had free disappeared in a wink and we hardly had time to really catch up before I had to go. Plans are now in the pipe-line for a longer visit when I am in SA next year.
This meeting has had a odd effect on me, and after I said goodbye, and on the way home I mused to myself how strange this life is, and how weird it is coming face to face with your past and how much has changed since those days.
I think it was the comment she made about how we had known each other when we were 12 years old that triggered all sorts of emotions and memories. One of the memories of course relates to our relationship when we were 12 years old and until we were 16 which is the last time I saw her prior to that meeting many years later.
We were very naughty young girls and one of my clearest memories of our friendship is travelling home from school on the bus. As do all naughty children we sat right at the back of the bus and caused mayhem, on one occassion the driver stopped the bus and made us get off 🙂 mmm you get the picture. I also reminded her of one day that we were laughing so much that when I got off the bus I had to hang onto the pole at the busstop to keep upright and to my everlasting hysteria wet my pants and walked home with squelchy shoes (I will leave that to your imagination). My Mother was totally unimpressed.
Strangely enough, one of the thoughts that ran through my mind on the way home on Saturday, was what would my adult self say to my 12 year-old self. I guess there would be many things, but two that spring to mind with immediate clarity would be to not get married so young (17 in my case) and secondly would be to have a plan for my life.
Of course there are many other memories, some good, some very bad and some just lovely. But that is not for now!
Wonderful to see you my friend. I look forward to next year and having more time to catch up 🙂

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succumbing to the devil

Posted in Fun Stuff, It's my life, messages, tagged advertising messages, peppermint crisp, rowntrees mint aero, stapancras station, Wicked on November 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

the devil in this instance being advertising aka marketing aka subliminally/blatantly telling us we need to have/taste/buy something that we most likely don’t need or never thought we needed until viewing said advertisement!

As mentioned in a previous post I went to St Pancras Station last sunday to see the Halloween event that was being staged there in conjunction with Wicked and the National Woodland Trust. And it was fun, I am so glad I went despite having missed the tour with the @TheSock Mob.

As mentioned in said post I stood in the queue to get an autograph from some members of the Wicked cast 🙂 and of course Lee Mead *big smile*, and while standing in said queue I was subjected to a billboard (one of those roll-up and pack away type billboards) that was advertising Nestle Mint Aero. It was kinda in your face and you could not miss it if you were in said queue for over 20 minutes!! Also it was a very pretty and bright advertisement……

On my way home I suddenly developed a craving for peppermint chocolate and thereupon stopped by at the store enroute (won’t say which one since they are one of my pet hates) and bought a ……………………

Nestle Mint Aero...the one with the bubbles

Never ever let it be said that advertising doesn’t work!!! I have bought aero before – however, never a mint aero since I am a bit picky about peppermint and chocolate and like the South African version of Peppermint Crisp.

just look at all that delicious peppermint wrapped in a creamy coating of chocolate 🙂 mmmm

(invented by Wilson-Rowntree in case you wondered but now produced by Nestle in RSA) and now my mouth is watering and drooling at the edges 🙂

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even Katie Price has nothing on this guy!!

Posted in around the UK, Fun Stuff, Health, Historical, interesting things that happen in London, things to do in London, tagged bonfire night, events in the UK, gunpowder plot of 1605, guy fawkes, Traditional events in London on November 5, 2010| 4 Comments »

Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot…

Yup, it’s that time of the year again….Bonfire night! aka ‘Guy Fawkes’ night. Guy Fawkes; infamous for attempting to assassinate King James I. All round about the UK this event (or non event) is celebrated/commemorated with Fireworks,

fireworks for November 5th

burning effigies,

effigies

and lovely brightly flaming bonfires!!

bonfire night

the sound and smell of autumn and the commemoration of an event that happened (or didn’t) 405 years ago!! talk about keeping yourself in the news!! Even Katie Price has nothing on this guy! excuse the pun! 🙂

Guy Fawkes - still in the news even after 405 years!

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606),born in 1570 in Stonegate, York, the second of four children born to Edward Fawkes, and his wife, Edith.

aka Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries
Guy Fawkes belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605
Fawkes was born and educated in York. His father died when Fawkes was eight years old
His mother then married a recusant Catholic and Fawkes later converted to Catholicism
Left for the continent; fought in the Eighty Years’ War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch reformators
Travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England; unsuccessful. Later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England
Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne
The plotters secured the lease to an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there
Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives
Incarcerated in the Tower of London,

Tower of London - Traitors Gate

over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually broke

implements of toture at the Tower - the rack and manacles

Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the drawing and quartering that followed
Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, which has been commemorated in England since 5 November 1605
His effigy is burned on a bonfire, often accompanied by a firework display.

And with the fun and fireworks comes the dangers associated with fire. Of course this year the Fire Brigade have chosen this weekend to air their grievances with a strike that starts on Friday 5th thru to Sunday 7th November.

Here is some advice to keep you safe:

use a taper to light fireworks and stand well back

once fireworks are lit, dont go back!

if you are building a bonfire, keep it clear of buildings, fences, barns, garden sheds, foliage and flammable liquids

never ever use flammable liquids to light the fire!! they are explosive and can cause massive injuries, even death

be sure to keep your bonfire under control and never leave it alone and untended

keep children at a safe distance and dont leave them unattended.

keep a bucket of water handy to douse any escaping flames or sparklers and use said water to douse the embers once the bonfire has burned down.

Bonfire night is a wonderful excuse to don those winter coats, scarves and hats and head off to the professional events that are held country wide! have a great time and be fire-wise!!! Here is a site with Bonfire Safety Advice…take a look, it’s worth the time spent.

wish you all a great time and enjoy the firework displays if you get to go!!

thanks to: edinburgh-inspiringcapital.com; chessaleeinlondon.wordpress.com and telegraph.co.uk for the pic off google images

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what do U get when U cross a turtle and a plastic bag

Posted in family and relationships, lifestyle, news from around the world, spirituality, tagged ecology, moral responsibility, our earth, plastic bags, sealife on November 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »

A. a dead turtle.

As harsh as that is, that’s not the worst of it. I follow myEARTH360 on twitter since I am keenly interested in the future of our planet and in taking a stand against plastic, especially plastic bags, (5billion p.a. and counting) as well as keeping track of whats going on in the world of the ecology. It is one of my ‘rants’ as you may have noticed from a previous post. 🙂

On facebook today I noticed one of their posts, and followed through to sign the relevant petition, http://greenhouseneutralfoundation.org/articles/2009/12/15/stoplasticbags-a-global-petition-to-ban-the-bag-3/

and reading these stats has given me a jolt:

Some of the ugly facts: plastic bags

•Once brought into existence to tote your purchases, they’ll accumulate and persist on our planet for up to 1,000 years.
•The U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags. That’s more than 1,200 bags per US resident, per year. Four out of five grocery bags in the US are now plastic.
•The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store.
•Australia, a country of only some 22 million or so, consumes about 6.9 billion plastic bags each year, that’s 326 per person. According to Australia’s Department of Environment, an estimated 49,600,000 annually end up as litter.
•Every single piece of plastic ever manufactured is still on the planet.
•It is in use, intact in landfills, as windblown litter, and also toxically contaminating global river systems and oceans.
•There is an estimated 46,000 pieces of plastic in each square mile of ocean. Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistake them for food.
•There are 39,600 deaths of children around the world who die from asphyxiation from plastic bags.
•There are over 3,300 deaths of children each year in the US alone who die from asphyxiation from plastic bags.
•WSJ Target, the second-largest retailer in the U.S., purchases 1.8 billion bags a year. In the U.S. alone $4 billion per year is spent by retailers giving away free plastic bags.

http://icountformyearth.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/yikes-could-plastic-take-over-our-oceans/

Most assuredly it is our responsibility to do something about this. This is our only home, we can’t buy a new planet, and just as much as the science community and others would like to set up ‘home’ on another planet….that is not in the forseeable future. By the time they do get to do that…..we will most likely have killed off most of our precious sealife as well as birdlife. And this is not counting all the other terrible things we inflict on this planet eg destroying forests etc.

OK, so I am not going to continue here coz my bloodpressure is going up. All I am asking is that whoever reads this blog, takes a stand… it’s like the starfish on the beach story….. you can’t save them all, but it will make a difference to the one that gets thrown back in; the creatures that don’t get to swallow plastic bags will get to live!!!! They won’t know the difference, but we do!

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face to face with a dream

Posted in Fun Stuff, interesting things that happen in London, It's my life, tagged halloween, Lee Mead, St Pancras International, Wicked on November 3, 2010| 8 Comments »

I was hoping to meet with @TheSockMob today (31.10.10) and join them for their Temple tour; sadly it was not to be 😦 Time was not on my side and the situation did not allow. However all was not lost and despite the change of plans there were a great number of things to do in London today in celebration of Halloween. Since Kings Cross St Pancras was the closest to home and as they were hosting an event I decided to stop off there. Am I so glad I did.

a 'Wicked' Halloween at St Pancras International - London

the stage show ‘Wicked’, together with The National Woodland Trust were hosting an event with face-painting for the kiddies, and a singing competition amongst other fun things to do. Along the way I met two delightful young ladies who were all dressed up and into the swing of things!!

wicked 🙂 - all dressed up for the 'Wicked' Halloween event at St Pancras on 31.10.10

St Pancras is a fabulous venue in itself and of course home to the Eurostar. The concourse is huge, very airy and bright with the fabulous roof that recently featured in ‘Climbing Great Buildings’ presented by Jonathan Foyle.

light, bright and airy

St Pancras is a meeting place and a leaving place and thousands of travellers pass through the halls daily. There is a fabulous giantsize sculpture of ‘lovers meeting’

The Meeting Place - a sculpture by Paul Day

and to my delight I came across a statue of Sir John Betjeman.

Sir John Betjeman

Co-incidently he lived in a house not far from where I live and went to school in the area. I stopped off to watch the singers and then to my delight Lee Mead gave us a final rendition. The cast of Wicked were on hand and had performed earlier. After the show the cast and Lee Mead were giving autographs and even though I am not at all a person who stands in queues to get autographs….today I made an exception.

Lee Mead - autographs galore

The queue was …….long!!! So I decided to meander about and take photos whilst the queue moved through with the intention of joining it as it got shorter. In due course I headed to the end of the queue only to be told by a delightful young lady that the queue was now closed! Really???? Mmmm!! I looked pleadingly at her and finally she relented and allowed me to squeeze in! heehee

And so 15 minutes later ( *raised eyebrows* ) I finally got to the table and there only inches away was…’Joseph’ aka Lee Mead ! whoa!!! how exciting.

it's 'wicked' to be green - my autographed bag

The story behind my delight is that many many years ago when ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’ first performed on stage in London I was desperate to see it, but South Africa is over 6,000kms away from London and it was an impossible dream.

Then I came to live in London and suddenly anything was possible. A few years on and there were plans to re-stage the play and auditions began to find the new ‘Joseph’. The winner was Lee Mead. One day I mentioned to my daughter how much I would love to see him on stage…..and voila that Christmas in my stocking was a ticket!!! dreams do come true.

So even though I did not get to tour Temple, I did get to see Lee Mead which was a totally unexpected surprise and I also got to visit St Pancras for my 3 days in London blog. I have already been a passenger on the Eurostar; in 2005 when my daughter and I went to Paris and again in 2008 when I went to Paris again for a seminar with Keith Cunningham. Awesome!