What is the most unusual invitation to a party that you have ever received? Usually they come via email, phone or perhaps a card from a pack of 10. If you have some-one really up on the IT it could be a personally designed invitation complete with photos etc.
I have just had the most unusual invitation - a rubber ear! The Hearing Care Centre, an award winning business in Suffolk, is celebrating ten years of business with a "do", and I have interviewed Karen Finch, the owner, many times - hence the invitation.
The cardboard envelope contained a card with the details of where and when.... and a man-sized rubber ear! This is, the card says, what we have to take along to the Town Hall to be admitted!
Will guests have found unusual ways to display their "ears"? On a chain as a necklace? Suspended as earrings? Pinned on as a badge? I just HAVE to go to the party now.....and will report back when the time comes.
The next time I open an envelope and find an ordinary invitation I shall be quite disappointed. Perhaps I should arrange a party too .... but it would be a bit expensive to send out mini-microphones?
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
music and singing not knives and hoodies....
All this talk of young people, knife crime, hoodies etc.... may I bang the lonely drum for all the children and teenagers who do their homework ( even if reluctantly), tidy their bedrooms ( even more reluctantly) and spend their spare time not on street corners but getting involved in clubs, youth organisations, hobbies etc.
Not so long ago I was a speaker at the conference of Young Suffolk and had to defend the bad press that they usually get. In my defence I have to say I do try to put the other viewpoint across whenever I am on the radio etc.
Two good examples of some great young people this weekend - both seen on BBC TV.
There were the young folk performers who took the stage in the interval of the Folk Proms (and what a shame there were so many empty seats in the Albert Hall for a great concert!)and the choirs in "Last Choir Standing". I LOVE that programme - and have applied for tickets for the final - fingers crossed I will have the chance to be there to cheer on the choirs, young and old .... probably crying as I do every week in front of my TV!
Not so long ago I was a speaker at the conference of Young Suffolk and had to defend the bad press that they usually get. In my defence I have to say I do try to put the other viewpoint across whenever I am on the radio etc.
Two good examples of some great young people this weekend - both seen on BBC TV.
There were the young folk performers who took the stage in the interval of the Folk Proms (and what a shame there were so many empty seats in the Albert Hall for a great concert!)and the choirs in "Last Choir Standing". I LOVE that programme - and have applied for tickets for the final - fingers crossed I will have the chance to be there to cheer on the choirs, young and old .... probably crying as I do every week in front of my TV!
Friday, 27 June 2008
Great British Picnics 2 .. in VERY unusual places.
Funny how you go months without a picnic and then end up on three in a week... and one in a VERY unusual location.
Who would have thought I would have a picnic underneath a old nuclear testing building? OK - not as dramatic or dangerous as it sounds but still pretty amazing.
Both picnics were at National Trust sites. The first, a more traditional NT property - The Vyne in Hampshire. Beautiful 16th century house, chapel and gardens, lovely cakes in the tea room etc etc.
The second was at Orford Ness in Suffolk as part of an organised trip with
Paddy Heazel, a volunteer who has carried out in-depth research into the military history of the site, as our guide. He has written a book on the subject which the National Trust will be publishing eventually.
No tea room on "the island" ...the secret base for defence experiments. Fresh water and toilets are available on the site but you get there on a NT boat (a five minute journey from Orford Quay)to be conveyed around the Ness on a large tractor drawn trailer, with our own packed lunches ready for a picnic in the vicinity of the famous pagodas.
To have such a knowledgeable guide, and one that could bring history alive with stories of the young "boffins" who worked hard and played hard developing the means for Britain to win two wars, was a real treat.
I knew the site was where radar was developed but didn't know that every bomb was tested there, or that in 1915 the Central Flying School's Experimental Flying Section developed aerial warfare there. In the Second World war it was bomb ballistics that needed the privacy of Orford Ness, and postwar it was the site of secret work on The Atomic Bomb, testing to ensure that none were accidentally triggered whilst in transport by extremes of temperature,vibrations etc.
We also heard how parachutes were developed on Orford Ness, and how it was the need for wartime pilots to be able to operate one-handed as they flew their planes that led to the easy-to-use seat buckles we take for granted on holiday flights nowadays.
How did it stay so secret for so long? A co-operative local population, individual work done on a "need-to-know" basis and the improbability of such a remote location being the site for work that needed ease of transport. It was only when the USA military began to get involved in work there during the Cold War that there was a security fence installed with a hgh number of armed guards to keep people out.
Since they took over in 1993, the NT has demolished many of the decaying buildings and the runways have been removed but they have resisted the temptation to "tidy up" the 16km shingle spit. Bomb craters and many of the old test buildings remain and debrey is still scattered around. Warning signs remind visitors to stay on the marked trails because of the possibility of old ordnance making its way to the surface of the shingle.
Whatever your views on nuclear war, Orford Ness is part of our history and must be one of the National Trusts most unusual acquisitions. The bird life is amazing (our party constantly had their eyes to their binoculars), but with an expert guide the place comes alive in your imagination and you get to go into some of the locked miltary buildings. Remember, there's no tearoom..it just wouldn't look right!
Who would have thought I would have a picnic underneath a old nuclear testing building? OK - not as dramatic or dangerous as it sounds but still pretty amazing.
Both picnics were at National Trust sites. The first, a more traditional NT property - The Vyne in Hampshire. Beautiful 16th century house, chapel and gardens, lovely cakes in the tea room etc etc.
The second was at Orford Ness in Suffolk as part of an organised trip with
Paddy Heazel, a volunteer who has carried out in-depth research into the military history of the site, as our guide. He has written a book on the subject which the National Trust will be publishing eventually.
No tea room on "the island" ...the secret base for defence experiments. Fresh water and toilets are available on the site but you get there on a NT boat (a five minute journey from Orford Quay)to be conveyed around the Ness on a large tractor drawn trailer, with our own packed lunches ready for a picnic in the vicinity of the famous pagodas.
To have such a knowledgeable guide, and one that could bring history alive with stories of the young "boffins" who worked hard and played hard developing the means for Britain to win two wars, was a real treat.
I knew the site was where radar was developed but didn't know that every bomb was tested there, or that in 1915 the Central Flying School's Experimental Flying Section developed aerial warfare there. In the Second World war it was bomb ballistics that needed the privacy of Orford Ness, and postwar it was the site of secret work on The Atomic Bomb, testing to ensure that none were accidentally triggered whilst in transport by extremes of temperature,vibrations etc.
We also heard how parachutes were developed on Orford Ness, and how it was the need for wartime pilots to be able to operate one-handed as they flew their planes that led to the easy-to-use seat buckles we take for granted on holiday flights nowadays.
How did it stay so secret for so long? A co-operative local population, individual work done on a "need-to-know" basis and the improbability of such a remote location being the site for work that needed ease of transport. It was only when the USA military began to get involved in work there during the Cold War that there was a security fence installed with a hgh number of armed guards to keep people out.
Since they took over in 1993, the NT has demolished many of the decaying buildings and the runways have been removed but they have resisted the temptation to "tidy up" the 16km shingle spit. Bomb craters and many of the old test buildings remain and debrey is still scattered around. Warning signs remind visitors to stay on the marked trails because of the possibility of old ordnance making its way to the surface of the shingle.
Whatever your views on nuclear war, Orford Ness is part of our history and must be one of the National Trusts most unusual acquisitions. The bird life is amazing (our party constantly had their eyes to their binoculars), but with an expert guide the place comes alive in your imagination and you get to go into some of the locked miltary buildings. Remember, there's no tearoom..it just wouldn't look right!
Monday, 16 June 2008
The Great British Picnic
Finding we had a couple of hours to waste between reviewing an art exhibition in Halesworth and a poetry reading in Aldeburgh, I decided that a picnic would be a) a change and b) more economical than "eating out". So we (husband and I) could be seen yesterday teatime sitting on a bench over looking the seafront and the controversial "Scallop", eating sandwiches, dipping celery into dips and munching on some fruit.
(Some thoughts on Maggi Hamblings sculpture first... I cannot understand why some people hate it so much! It rises out of the shingle and, especially when the beach is deserted, looks as though a giant beachcomber has just dropped it there. It is fabulous and so right as a memorial for Benjamin Britten. We were there from around five o'clock until six thirty and there was only one five minute period when there was no-one either sitting by it, wandering around it, climbing on it or taking photographs).
Anyway ... picnics. As a child we were a big picnic-ing family. The full works... ham salad, rolls, proper puddings, and fresh tea made on a primas stove. With all that of course came plates, cups and saucers, knives and forks. The one thing that always stays in my mind is the Washing Up.
Mum always packed a washing up bowl, Fairy Liquid, teatowels etc and everyone was expected to take part in the ritual of Washing Up (using the hot water boiled on the stove, of course. I have teased her about it so much over the forty plus years since.
Last month, when the subject came up again, she finally admitted why she did it. It was because she knew that, once we got home, Dad would sit in front of the TV and doze, while my sister and I went off to do whatever, and she's be left with the unpacking. At least this way she didn't have dirty plates too!
What a logical way to tackle a problem.. no nagging, no sulks... just put up with the teasing while smiling to yourself that you are the winner all along! Nice one Mum!
(Some thoughts on Maggi Hamblings sculpture first... I cannot understand why some people hate it so much! It rises out of the shingle and, especially when the beach is deserted, looks as though a giant beachcomber has just dropped it there. It is fabulous and so right as a memorial for Benjamin Britten. We were there from around five o'clock until six thirty and there was only one five minute period when there was no-one either sitting by it, wandering around it, climbing on it or taking photographs).
Anyway ... picnics. As a child we were a big picnic-ing family. The full works... ham salad, rolls, proper puddings, and fresh tea made on a primas stove. With all that of course came plates, cups and saucers, knives and forks. The one thing that always stays in my mind is the Washing Up.
Mum always packed a washing up bowl, Fairy Liquid, teatowels etc and everyone was expected to take part in the ritual of Washing Up (using the hot water boiled on the stove, of course. I have teased her about it so much over the forty plus years since.
Last month, when the subject came up again, she finally admitted why she did it. It was because she knew that, once we got home, Dad would sit in front of the TV and doze, while my sister and I went off to do whatever, and she's be left with the unpacking. At least this way she didn't have dirty plates too!
What a logical way to tackle a problem.. no nagging, no sulks... just put up with the teasing while smiling to yourself that you are the winner all along! Nice one Mum!
Monday, 2 June 2008
Bees, eagles, and flying experiences
My challenge for 2008 (to try something new every month for a year) is progressing well. Earlier in May I had a go at beekeeping and almost into June it was falconry at Stonham Barns Owl Sanctuary. The best bit is that the Suffolk Norfolk Life magazine want to feature them in the magazine - and I recorded the experience for a possible "special" at the end of the year on radio.
Fascinating Bee Fact 1. One of the hives had three holes in the wood (nearly as big as my fist) made by woodpeckers who get in, eat all the goodies and then fly out the other side.
Fascinating Bee Fact 2: If you stand in front of the flight path of the bees they stop flying into the hive and hover around... when you move away they resume their journey!
Fascinating Falconry Fact: Lots of our sayings come from falconry ie, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"....to cadge something comes from the "Cadge" a wooden frame used to carry hawks in the field and the "Cadger" who wheedled his way into a hunt as he owned the frame. Caddy and Cad derive from the same meaning.
Fascinating Owl Fact- We say that an owl says "Too-whit Two-whoo" but actually it is the male bird and the female bird calling to each other. The male says "Too-whit" and the female replies "Too- who"! Or is the other way round?!
Both experiences were amazing - watch out for the articles and pictures in Suffolk Norfolk Life magazine.
Fascinating Bee Fact 1. One of the hives had three holes in the wood (nearly as big as my fist) made by woodpeckers who get in, eat all the goodies and then fly out the other side.
Fascinating Bee Fact 2: If you stand in front of the flight path of the bees they stop flying into the hive and hover around... when you move away they resume their journey!
Fascinating Falconry Fact: Lots of our sayings come from falconry ie, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"....to cadge something comes from the "Cadge" a wooden frame used to carry hawks in the field and the "Cadger" who wheedled his way into a hunt as he owned the frame. Caddy and Cad derive from the same meaning.
Fascinating Owl Fact- We say that an owl says "Too-whit Two-whoo" but actually it is the male bird and the female bird calling to each other. The male says "Too-whit" and the female replies "Too- who"! Or is the other way round?!
Both experiences were amazing - watch out for the articles and pictures in Suffolk Norfolk Life magazine.
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Eavesdropping is Fun!
What is best conversation you have overheard recently? Buses and trains are good locations for ear-wigging....and you can't beat a queue too.
My latest favourite venue is the changing room at the gym.
This week two women were discussing how one of them was enjoying the freedom of an adult son finally leaving home to live in his own flat......
"Mind you", she said, towelling her toned thighs dry, "in the first week he has brought back four loads of washing for me to do, has eaten every evening meal at ours and this morning called in on the way to work to pick up a packed lunch... but it's lovely to have the house to ourselves at last."
Her friend was left speechless... but I was very tempted to say exactly what you are now thinking!
My latest favourite venue is the changing room at the gym.
This week two women were discussing how one of them was enjoying the freedom of an adult son finally leaving home to live in his own flat......
"Mind you", she said, towelling her toned thighs dry, "in the first week he has brought back four loads of washing for me to do, has eaten every evening meal at ours and this morning called in on the way to work to pick up a packed lunch... but it's lovely to have the house to ourselves at last."
Her friend was left speechless... but I was very tempted to say exactly what you are now thinking!
Friday, 9 May 2008
England v France
Having driven over 2000 miles in France over the past three weeks, I feel well qualified to comment on the experience of driving there compared to England.
Ok - much of the driving was on the toll roads so it wasn't free motoring, but even the non-peage roads were well equipped with stopping areas, picnics places and good food and cups of coffee that didn't taste as though it came from a machine, even when it did.
The more I think about it the more I felt sorry for lorry drivers in the UK. How are they supposed to have regular breaks etc when you can drive miles on our motorways with rarely a stopping place?
We came off Eurotunnel and decided to stop for a coffee at the VERY new service area just outside Folkestone. Shiny new (you could still smell the wet paint) with keen staff looking for customers to try out their new coffee making skills on, it looked great - if a little empty. To make the most of the sunny weather (and to avoid paying some VAT) we decided to have our coffee and sandwich "take-away".
Could we find a picnic table anywhere? No....and the wooden rails around the building were even shaped to a point to discourage sitters.
PLEASE can we get our act together and provide the facilites on our roads that drivers want? Especially when you consider the stories today about motorway delays....
Ok - much of the driving was on the toll roads so it wasn't free motoring, but even the non-peage roads were well equipped with stopping areas, picnics places and good food and cups of coffee that didn't taste as though it came from a machine, even when it did.
The more I think about it the more I felt sorry for lorry drivers in the UK. How are they supposed to have regular breaks etc when you can drive miles on our motorways with rarely a stopping place?
We came off Eurotunnel and decided to stop for a coffee at the VERY new service area just outside Folkestone. Shiny new (you could still smell the wet paint) with keen staff looking for customers to try out their new coffee making skills on, it looked great - if a little empty. To make the most of the sunny weather (and to avoid paying some VAT) we decided to have our coffee and sandwich "take-away".
Could we find a picnic table anywhere? No....and the wooden rails around the building were even shaped to a point to discourage sitters.
PLEASE can we get our act together and provide the facilites on our roads that drivers want? Especially when you consider the stories today about motorway delays....
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