It's A Winner!

Remember a while back I asked you, my faithful readers, to help me pick my entry for a photography competition? Well, it seems like all your good advice paid off, as (amazingly!) I won with this one....

Long shadow

Thanks again for your help!

Now I'm going to check out Amazon to decide how to spend my vouchers...

Must Be An Angel

Probably the most famous piece of public art in the UK, Antony Gormley’s towering 20 m (70 ft) winged figure – the Angel of the North- stands guard over Newcastle and has become an icon of contemporary art. It’s also one of the most viewed pieces of art in the world - seen by more than one person every second, 90,000 every day or 33 million every year. Most of these viewers are driving by on the A1 but it’s well worth stopping off to see the Angel up close, as I found out last autumn.

The Angel spreads its 54 m wings to welcome all who enter Tyneside, and remind them of the workers who once mined coal in the ground underneath.

I sit and wait
does an angel contemplate my fate
and do they know
the places where we go
when we´re grey and old
´cos I´ve been told
that salvation lets their wings unfold
so when I’m lying in my bed
thoughts running through my head
and I feel that love is dead
I’m loving angels instead

and through it all she offers me protection
a lot of love and affection
whether I’m right or wrong
and down the waterfall
wherever it may take me
I know that life won't break me
when I come to call she won't forsake me
I’m loving angels instead

when I’m feeling weak
and my pain walks down a one way street
I look above
and I know I'll always be blessed with love
and as the feeling grows
she breathes flesh to my bones
and when love is dead
I’m loving angels instead
[Angels - Robbie Williams & Guy Chambers]

Thicker Than Water

Cousins - I have a load of them....first cousins, second cousins, third and even fourth, cousins “by marriage, once-removed”. I’ve never really been that close to any of them apart from S, my mom’s sister’s daughter. Separated by just over a year in age and growing up only a few houses apart, we were inseparable as children...united against the rest of the world, and in particular, against her bullying younger brother.

Fairly early on, it was obvious that S had gotten the looks (tall and skinny with big blue eyes, excessively long black eyelashes, blonde hair), and (apparently) I’d got the brains. She was the confident one, Miss Popularity as a teenager...whereas I was the “sensible one”, the shy one focused on getting good grades at school (read "boring geek").

One of the few photos I have from my childhood (camera film was just not available in Zimbabwe in the late 1970s to early 80s) sums us up quite well I think...

The Age of Innocence - Christmas 1978 (?)

Despite the slightly bizarre part-obscuring of the scene by the photographer’s spectacle lens, you can see S blinking up at the sunlight but confidently facing the camera, while I preferred to hide behind my brother (the two us with our matching pudding basin haircuts, and him in those ‘Daisy Dukes’).

Unfortunately, her good looks didn’t guarantee S a particularly happy life. Her parents divorced when she was very young, and my aunt got remarried, to a truly wicked man. The type of man who thinks it’s fitting to take a 10 year old girl out to the car, point at the exhaust and tell her exactly how her dad committed suicide, instead of just telling her he was in a “tragic accident”.

Perhaps not having a strong father figure in her life drove my cousin into a series of dreadful relationships with abusive men and eventually into a marriage with a compulsive liar and conman. They parted company soon after their son was born, and not long before he was imprisoned for his crimes. For a "pretty white boy", serving any time in a Zimbabwean jail is effectively a death sentence.

Eventually, S moved south of the border to start a new life and give her son a better future. Things were finally looking up for her - she had a good job, she’d made new friends and she’d met a really decent man...one with a big kind heart, capable of giving her all the love she deserved. But sadly, that good man’s heart was not strong enough to withstand a massive coronary, let alone two.

I haven’t seen my cousin for over 10 years, but we’ve been in contact almost every day this past month. I hope that she can find the inner strength to pick up the pieces of her life, again...

Pretty In Pink

Pink is the colour of today...

Rose

A box of pretty cup cakes

Ready to serve

Camellia

Gladioli

Autumnal evening sky

Wish I Was There Tuesday

Today, I have a great longing to go for a long, long walk along a beautiful deserted beach.

My favourite place in the UK is the sandy beach at Embleton Bay in Northumberland, in the north east. With the backdrop of the ruined Dunstanburgh Castle, this expansive beach provides stunning views at any time of day and in all weather.

I've already shared some of my photos from my two trips to Northumberland last year, on Sun, Sand and Soul and Britain's Best Kept Secret, but here are some additional ones taken on the beach, almost exactly a year ago....



So...where do you wish you were today?

I Just Called To Say....

Recent telephone conversations that I could have happily lived without.....

AAVR*: Welcome to the Bright Spark Electricity Supply Company Helpline. If you’re phoning to report a power failure, please press 1.

Nat: £%^$! [Trying to get my mobile phone** to realise I am indeed tapping the digit 1 on its stupid little touch screen]

AAVR: I’m sorry. I do not recognise that number. Please try again.

Nat: £%^$ing *%^$! [Still trying to get my mobile phone to realise that I am still tapping the digit 1 on its stupid little touch screen]

AAVR: I’m sorry. I do not recognise that number. Please try again.

Repeat this cycle of stupidity a few more times, until finally.....

AAVR: I notice that you are calling from a mobile phone. Please enter the landline number from which you would usually be calling.

Nat: Are you a bit slow or what? Yes, I am indeed calling you from a mobile phone...that's because my cordless landline telephone runs off  e l e c t r i c i t y....you know, the stuff you guys charge us astronomical sums of money for?

AAVR: I’m sorry. I do not recognise that number. Please try again. Alternatively, you can email us or visit our website on www.no we don’t see the irony of getting you to contact us via electricity driven devices when you are reporting a powercut.com
................................................................
*Annoying Automated Voice Responder

** UK speak for cell phone



AMPSP*: Hello...is that Nat?

Nat: Speaking. Who is calling, please?

AMPSP: This is your AMPSP. For security purposes I need you to give me the first line of your address and postal code.

Nat: Why? If I’m your customer and you’re phoning me on the number you provided me with, why don’t you have those details on file?

AMPSP: Madam, it’s for security purposes.

Nat: Yes, I can appreciate that...I’m very concerned about security myself. Which is why I’d prefer not to give those details to you, as I have no proof that you are who you say you are.

AMPSP: I can give you a phone number that you can call and they will verify that this is indeed your AMPSP calling...

Nat: No thanks. For all I know, you’ve got your mate sitting on the other end, just waiting to get hold of my details.

AMPSP: Madam, I must inform you that these calls are recorded for training purposes.

Nat: Good. Because I think you could do with some retraining in how not to wind your customers up when they are having a really bad week. [And another thing, please do not call me madam – it makes me feel like a very old woman... and one that is in charge of a house of disrepute.]

AMPSP: -Click-
................................................................
*Annoying Mobile Phone Service Provider (or so they claim)

In An Ideal World...

In an ideal world, I would not have spent the past week with my stomach tied up in knots of anxiety.

In an ideal world, there would be no diseases, no suffering, no cancer and its arsenal of horrible complications. My dad would not have needed an operation to circumvent such complications, an operation that would leave him so weak and dehydrated that his solo functioning kidney just couldn’t cope.

In an ideal world, we would have no need for intensive care units, and no one would ever have to walk quickly past other critically ill patients on life-support machines, desperately trying not to take in the seriousness of their situation, or see the young man crying quietly by the bedside of his unconscious father.

In an ideal world, no one would have to see their own dad looking so fragile and frightened, but so determined to keep fighting.

For the third time in just a year and a half my dad has been in a life threatening situation, but thankfully, he’s pulled through...again. He is slowly recovering, but he still has a long way to go.



Up, Up And Away...

I'd always wanted to take a hot air balloon ride, and was estatic when B presented me with an 'experience day' voucher for one for my 30th birthday a couple few years back.

Hot air ballooning is a VERY weather-dependent sport and cautious pilots only fly when the weather is close to ideal...when skies are clear and wind conditions are normal. Storms are extremely hazardous for hot air balloons, because of the danger of a lightning strike. Even rain is a problem, because it decreases visibility and damages the balloon material (of course, it's not much fun to fly around in wet weather anyway). And while you need a nice wind current to have a good flight, very strong winds could easily wreck the balloon. Getting just this right combination of conditions was always going to be a challenge in a country cursed blessed with the 'good' weather the UK has on offer.

It took no less than 7 attempts over 3 years, but eventually we got our chance to soar...or rather drift in a hot air balloon over Northampton, one balmy summer evening in 2006. 

Part of the experience was helping to inflate the balloon...

A load of hot air

Then we all climbed into the deceptively sturdy wicker basket, to await a rather bumpy take-off once the ropes were released. We seemed to gain height at an amazing speed.....



The pilot blasted the burners to get us to the right altitude...

And then we drifted for ages, over motorways...



And suburbia....



Even over a posh estate....



By now it was almost twilight....



And time for us to find somewhere to land....where you end up is always an adventure and can't be planned, as the balloon drifts at the mercy of the winds. We first tried landing in a field, but had to blast up again when the pilot spotted horses running around. More drifting onwards, and eventually we braced for a thump landing in a meadow. The balloon hit the ground hard, dragged along the grass for a while before coming to an abrupt stop, then tipped precariously before finally slumping back into its upright position.

Bit of a scary ending!

The deflated balloon was packed up and we drank a champagne toast to a successful ride.

Definitely something I would love to do again some day, but over somewhere spectacular and exotic, like the rainforest of Costa Rica....



or the Arabian desert....

Photos of exotic ballooning from here

Where would you go hot air ballooning?



Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon

We could float among the stars together, you and I

For we can fly we can fly

Up, up and away

My beautiful, my beautiful balloon

The world's a nicer place in my beautiful balloon

It wears a nicer face in my beautiful balloon

We can sing a song and sail along the silver sky

For we can fly we can fly

Up, up and away
My beautiful, my beautiful balloon
Suspended under a twilight canopy

We'll search the clouds for a star to guide us

If by some chance you find yourself loving me

We'll find a cloud to hide us
We'll keep the moon beside us

Love is waiting there in my beautiful balloon

Way up in the air in my beautiful balloon

If you'll hold my hand we'll chase your dream across the sky

For we can fly we can fly

Up, up and away

My beautiful, my beautiful balloon

Balloon...

Up, up, and away.....

Up, Up And Away - The Fifth Dimension

A September Evening...

Scenes from a gentle stroll this evening, to stretch my aching legs....

The Gates

Rusty shed

Rusty shed

Elderberries

Just peachy!

Horse chestnuts....soon to be conkers!

Hope your weekends were good!

10 Things I Learnt Today

1. I have the best husband in the world...happy to get up at 5 am (even with man flu) to drive me down to London in time for the start of my half-marathon, then battle for almost 2 hours with London Saturday afternoon traffic to collect me again afterwards.
2. Most people are good at heart...like the random strangers who came up to us to make donations as we walked past and the pub landlord who gave us all free lunch.
3. Then, unfortunately, there are the toe rags who find it entertaining to vandalise and destroy the course marking signs, thereby sending some of us off track, and having to go an extra mile.
4. Even after all these years, I still “connect” on so many levels with some of the people I went to school with, who were on the walk today.
5. I can walk 13.1 miles (21.1 km) in well under 4 hours.
6. Walking 13.1 miles in under 4 hours gives me hip and knee pain worse than anything I’ve ever experienced (not even the 10 hour trek in the Alps left me in this bad a state!).
7. I have a ridiculous tendency to plan for every scenario...meaning I lugged a 10 kg backpack along those 13.1 miles as I thought I may need a fleece, spare socks, rain jacket, first aid kit, 8 (!) cereal bars and 2 litres of water when in reality it was warm enough to wear just a tee shirt, the rain held off, water was handed out at various points along the route and I only ate one cereal bar.
8. Lucozade lite (electrolyte replacement drink) is the Elixir of Energy and is possibly the only reason I made it through the last 2 miles.
9. This evening, I’m doing a pretty good imitation of John Wayne’s famous walk.
10.  I have nothing but deep admiration for those brave souls who completed 26.2 miles today.

These boots have walked!

A Bum Deal...

And for the benefit of my American readers, here I’m referring to le derrière, and not some poor homeless dude.

It seems I’ve drawn the short straw at work (again!) as I’m writing a clinical study report about....how can I put this politely?....a medical drink that will ensure complete evacuation of the bowels in preparation for a surgical procedure, such as a colonoscopy. Deeeeeeelightful!!!

As the drug is in its early stages of development, the study took place in healthy young men - we call them ‘volunteers’. You’ve got to ask yourself though....who in their right mind volunteers to willingly glug down gallons of laxatives, knowing full well they are going to be spending the next few hours chained to the toilet?

It’s probably not surprising then that the study took place in an economically challenged European country, where there are more than two dozen strapping young blokes quite willing to put themselves through this torture in exchange for a few Euros. Having the runs is unfortunately not the only side effect they’d encounter.... stomach cramps, dizziness, vomiting....you name it they could suffer it!

But my sympathies lie also with the staff who worked on this clinical trial. Back in my student days, I paid my way through my PhD by working weekends in a trial unit that ran studies not all that different from this one. I had some pretty crappy roles at first, possibly none worse than having to collect the patients’ urine bottles, measure the volume they’d peed and decant a small sample into a lab tube, every 2 hours for 16 hours. Talk about taking the piss! Luckily for me, the trials that I worked on never involved Le Poop sampling... the folks that worked on the study I have to write about wouldn’t have been so lucky. In a laxative study, there’d naturally be a great deal of attention paid to that rather wiffy end product.

Just hope the trial unit splashed out on some heavy duty nose plugs for their staff...and some ultra soft 4-ply for those ‘volunteers’...

In bizarrely related news, this week I got my own back on my friend who gave me the Cock-A-Doodle pad for my birthday pad (described here) with this pretty distasteful gift of scented animal print toilet rolls....

I reckon that's a bum (w)rap!
 

Waste Not...Want Not?

I recently watched the BBC’s documentary, the “Great British Waste Menu”...it followed four well known chefs (Angela Hartnett, Richard Corrigan, Matt Tebbutt and Simon Rimmer) as they explored how and why the UK throws away and reject huge quantities of perfectly edible food. The chefs were then set a unique and seemingly impossible task: to create a fabulous banquet for over 60 guests from ingredients that have been discarded, rejected or deemed unsuitable for sale, in an attempt to change the way Britons think about waste food.

It’s been reported that the average British family wastes around £700 worth of food a year, and restaurants, supermarkets and farms are even worse culprits, chucking out prime cuts of beef and gallons of fresh milk. Supermarkets have gotten so fussy about what food looks like that an obscene amount of perfectly good fruit, vegetables and eggs are thrown away, fed to pigs or ploughed straight back into the soil before they even leave the farm.

This carrot would never have made the grade, but it does bear an uncanny resemblance to the Toy Story character...

'Buzz Lightyear' grown in a veggie patch in Henley-on-Thames

(Photo found here)

The chefs came up with a menu fit for a feast, using only supermarket items that were coming up to their 'sell by date' or had damaged packaging; bruised, wrinkly or misshapen veg and fruit; oddments of fish, and cuts of meat that were simply 'out of fashion ' to eat (things like heart, pigs trotters, etc) and thus destined for the bin or animal feed.

- Great British Waste Menu -

Beef consommé with tongue and summer vegetables

Stuffed sole parcels with pig’s trotter ‘ratatouille’

Floating island with strawberry coulis and summer fruit

Personally, I'm not a fan of offal, and I'm not about to start tucking into liver and onions or tripe....no thanks! But I am quite conscious of not buying too much fresh food at any one time, planning meals to reduce waste, and I also give a bit of leeway on those 'recommended best-before-dates' as often the food is still perfectly fit to eat.

I'm not convinced the BBC's documentary will make a huge difference to the public's attitude to food wastage - more importantly, much more needs doing to convince the all powerful supermarkets to change their ridiculous standards of food appearance, and the way they dispose of food deemed unfit to sell. Surely more could be given to soup kitchens and other charities, to ensure that no one goes hungry?

In the spirit of this programme, I'm going to share with you a really simple recipe for delicious banana cake, that can be made from bananas that are well past their prime. I'm a pretty rubbish baker on the whole but I've had great success with this recipe....

4 oz (115 g) butter or margarine
6 oz (170 g) sugar
8 oz (230 g) self raising flour
2 eggs
2 large or 3 medium, very ripe bananas

Heat the oven to 180C (350F).
Grease a 2 lb (0.5 kg) loaf tin.
Mash the bananas with a sturdy fork.
Cream the butter and sugar together and mix in the eggs.
Mix together the two yellow sludges you now have.
Mix in the flour.
Scrape into the loaf tin and bake for 40 minutes then lower the temperature to 150C (300F) and cook for a further 30 minutes.
Leave to cool (turned out on a rack) before you devour it.

Wish I Was There Tuesday

The Maldives - photo found here

Maldives beach - photo found here

Maldives restaurant - photo found here

You can see my own photos of Paradise here. It feels like decades ago and not just three years since I was there and I really want to go again someday...there are just so many other places in the world to see in one lifetime.

Where do you wish you were today?

Calgary

Quite fittingly, I'm going to conclude my Canadian trip posts with a few photos from Calgary, which was the last stop on our fortnight's tour. We had less than 24 hours in the city, just enough time to wander about a bit, eat far too much red meat - a steak dinner and a hamburger with yam fries (truely delicious!) for lunch the next day - before we had to head to the airport and catch our flight home.

Downtown Calgary

"Marble art" in the park

Towards Calgary Tower

Calgary Tower

Calgary Tower

Chinatown District

Chinese Cultural Centre

Tai chi in Sien Lok Park

 

Windmill on The Mall

"Old Town"

It was the end of a truly fantastic trip! Sadly all good things come to an end...

You can see all my Canadian trip posts here.