This is from the BHA website 7th May 2013.

The Church of England has today released its attendance statistics for 2011.The British Humanist Association (BHA) has drawn attention to the fact that the figures show a very substantial majority of people in England have nothing to do with the Church of England and has called for a reconsideration of its privileged legal and constitutional position as the established national church in light of that fact.

Attendance figures continued to show general long-term decline and low figures of attendance of all sorts. For example:

• 98% of people didn’t go to a Church of England service on an average week
• 95% didn’t go to Church at Christmas
• 88% of babies weren’t baptised
• 66% of funerals weren’t Church of England

Taken together with other polls and surveys, these figures confirm that the majority of people do not engage in religious practice, nor have religious beliefs, nor a religious identity.

BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson commented:

‘Most people don’t look to the Church of England even at the times of year or times in their life when to do so was traditional even for non-believers. Only 2% of people went to a Church of England service on an average week and only 5% of people at the “popular” time of Christmas – a lower attendance than in many years in the past decade. 66% of funerals were not Anglican, even though older people are more likely to be Anglicans, and most marriages weren’t Anglican either. Although the Church of England undoubtedly provided useful services to its members, the vast majority of the people of England have nothing to do with it.

‘In an ideal world, these figures would be of interest only to sociologists and the church itself. In a nation where the church in question has a privileged legal and constitutional position, they must be subject to wider public scrutiny and their implications drawn out. What they illustrate yet again is a church established by national law that has long ceased to be a truly national church. It is about time the legal position caught up with the social reality and the privileged place of Anglicanism and Anglicans was brought to an end. It can’t be right for a minority concern to have unique and automatic seats in our parliament, control of nearly a third of our state schools, and almost monopoly public funding for its mission in state funded social institutions like our prisons and hospitals. Our diverse and increasingly non-religious society needs a more appropriate settlement.’

st Association (BHA) has drawn attention to the fact that the figures show a very substantial majority of people in England have nothing to do with the Church of England and has called for a reconsideration of its privileged legal and constitutional position as the established national church in light of that fact.

Attendance figures continued to show general long-term decline and low figures of attendance of all sorts. For example:

• 98% of people didn’t go to a Church of England service on an average week
• 95% didn’t go to Church at Christmas
• 88% of babies weren’t baptised
• 66% of funerals weren’t Church of England

Taken together with other polls and surveys, these figures confirm that the majority of people do not engage in religious practice, nor have religious beliefs, nor a religious identity.

BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson commented:

‘Most people don’t look to the Church of England even at the times of year or times in their life when to do so was traditional even for non-believers. Only 2% of people went to a Church of England service on an average week and only 5% of people at the “popular” time of Christmas – a lower attendance than in many years in the past decade. 66% of funerals were not Anglican, even though older people are more likely to be Anglicans, and most marriages weren’t Anglican either. Although the Church of England undoubtedly provided useful services to its members, the vast majority of the people of England have nothing to do with it.

‘In an ideal world, these figures would be of interest only to sociologists and the church itself. In a nation where the church in question has a privileged legal and constitutional position, they must be subject to wider public scrutiny and their implications drawn out. What they illustrate yet again is a church established by national law that has long ceased to be a truly national church. It is about time the legal position caught up with the social reality and the privileged place of Anglicanism and Anglicans was brought to an end. It can’t be right for a minority concern to have unique and automatic seats in our parliament, control of nearly a third of our state schools, and almost monopoly public funding for its mission in state funded social institutions like our prisons and hospitals. Our diverse and increasingly non-religious society needs a more appropriate settlement.’

The deceased’s body is taken up to a raised structure called the Tower of Silence and left there to be devoured by vultures.

I will be wearing red that day – a riot of red as suggested by a Guardian letter writer. Red was not a colour favoured by the woman who who was one of the most divisive British Prime Ministers.

Thatcher: A divisive force even in death – CNN.com

Thatcher: A divisive force even in death

(CNN) — In the week between her death and her funeral, Britons are having an awkward time coming to terms with the legacy of Margaret Thatcher, a prime minister who last held office 23 years ago — meaning no one under 40 could have voted for her, yet the mix of anger and admiration is spread across the generations.WATCH: Not everyone’s mourning Thatcher’s death

Why then does Thatcher continue to cause such trouble after her death? In years to come, it may be regarded as significant that it came on the day many of the coalition’s austerity cuts started to bite. On April 8, major benefit curbs took effect while the top rate of income tax was cut from 50% to 45% for those earning more than £150,000 (230,000), and the coalition government is attracting much flak for its economic policies.

This is from Sue Cameron Daily TelegraphMargaret Thatcher: not a lady in red

Margaret Thatcher knew how to use her “girly” side to send signals and issue put-downs. She once told me that she liked wearing red, but rarely did as PM because politically it was the “wrong” colour. Significantly, perhaps, she wore a dark red outfit the day she finally left Downing Street. Yet it is in her signature Tory royal blue that we will remember her – though she could be more adventurous with colour and pattern in the evenings.

Dressed in a long, floaty floral chiffon, she was once circulating at an evening reception when a Tory MP came up and complimented her saying: “Margaret – you look stunning tonight!” Fixing him with a steely eye she replied: “And when don’t I?”

On one occasion she herself was on the receiving end of a glorious sartorial put-down. She had an audience every week with the Queen. Once, to her horror, she turned up in a dress almost identical to the Queen’s. Determined to avoid such embarrassment again, Thatcher ordered her staff to call the Palace ahead of every audience to ask what the Queen would be wearing. An aide duly did so the following week. The Palace refused to say, adding that such calls were quite unnecessary and explaining sweetly: “Her Majesty never notices what other people wear.”

With her other fancy man, Ronnie, who was an ex film star and President of the USA.

Mrs T The Iron lady

and Joan of Arc, who also tried to bring harmony also!!

The hearse arriving at Mortlake crematorium at 4.30 0n 17th April.  The funeral cortege arriving at 4.30pm at crematorium gates, which were guarded by two police officers.

Another two police officers saluted as the hearse went into the grounds, followed by two Jaguar cars and a Range Rover.

Two coaches carrying guests had arrived at the crematorium half an hour earlier.

Summer in Gemozac at Zoe’s amongst the sunflowers field adjacent to the lovely house.

It was Barbara’s birthday.

We had a jolly trip to

Denise’s apartment in San Malo Denise, Joan, Dave and myself.

These were piles on the beach.

This was a lovely trip to Dominic and Angelica’s wedding in Ravensburg, Germany very near Switzeland and Lake Constance.

I love this photo with all the children. Angelica is a paeditrician.

Me swimming in Lake Constance.

These next few are from a Baltic cruise in 2009 cruise.

Oslo

Couldn’t resist this of the boy pulling the huge suitcase.

Quirky shop display in Helsinki.

St Petersburg.

Nevsky Prospect from the coach.

Roscoff Town hall.

Port of Copengagen, I think.

Magnificient church organ.

This is Sibton Park- Holiday Property Bond in Kent taken in winter 2011. We are going again next month. It should be warmer!!

Tea Rooms Kinvara, Co Clare.

Jody Dobrowski memorial seat and flower bed.

I am very lucky to live near the common. I do a walk around the pond, through Battersea woods when it is dry, it takes me 35 minutes if I don’t stop for a hot chocolate in the cafe.

SUMMER

I love this willow

Pushchairs and contents

Reeds on their winter colours.

Train in small common playground.

Vapour trails

I once conducted a wedding here which accomodated a white grand piano.

In his new book, Levels of Life, he writes of the grief he felt, and still feels, following the death of his wife, Pat Kavanagh. It centres on:

“the loss of shared vocabulary, of tropes, teases, short cuts, in-jokes, sillinesses, faux rebukes, amatory footnotes — all those obscure references rich in memory but valueless if explained to an outsider.”

Barnes also describes the moment when it became “less likely” that he would kill himself because he realised that she was still alive in his memory. “I was her principal rememberer … I could not kill myself because then I would also be killing her. She would die a second time.”

Pat Kavanagh was a literary agent born in Durban South Africa. Carmen Callil in her obituary of her wrote: She was small, with an exquisite face and beautiful cheek bones. Her mouth was of the kind you see in Florence, adorning a quantity of Madonnas.

For this reason, particularly as a young woman, she was pursued by all and sundry. Some of those who came under her spell were prone to exaggerate her interest in such matters, for it would be true to say that her combination of great beauty, business efficiency and wit made her in certain ways a sorceress. She was such a presence. People longed for Pat’s approval – and love.

All this became but marginal gossip after she met the writer Julian Barnes in 1978. They married on September 1 1979. At this point, Julian was publishing his first novel, Metroland, with Jonathan Cape. Liz Calder, later the founder editor of Bloomsbury Publishing, was, and remained for some years, Julian’s publisher. She remembers looking out of the window of her Bedford Square office watching Pat and Jules, who had just met, walking down the square, holding hands and laughing.

The rise and rise of the nail bar! Salons are springing up faster than pound shops

By Claire Ellicott

In these days of economic insecurity there’s plenty of people biting their nails. And in the world of the manicurist, that’s good news.

Research reveals that nail salons are enjoying a boom time in the downturn as increasing numbers of women treat themselves to a little affordable luxury.

Analysts say nail bars are one of the fastest-growing businesses on the high street, making up 16.5 per cent of new outlets in the past three years.

50 Amazing Nail Art Designs For Beginners With Pictures And …

Matthew Hopkinson, a director at retail analysts Local Data Company, said that because nail bars have relatively low set-up costs, they had been able to fill the buildings left empty by failed conventional businesses.

He added: ‘Even during the recession, people are prepared to spend money on themselves.’

Thea Green, who set up Nails Inc, Britain’s biggest chain of nail bars, said: ‘Nail salons have enduring appeal as they are a fast and affordable way to feel groomed. People are working so hard and under an increased amount of pressure, so taking 15 minutes of “me” time makes them feel pampered

After visiting a nail salon, customers are likely to receive compliments and then often feel positive and confident about themselves. Nail salons have the feel-good factor and a manicure isn’t as drastic as a haircut or other beauty treatments.’

Nail salons offer a variation of options for nail care. This includes acrylics, silk or fiberglass wraps, French manicures, polish, pedicures, etc

During the Ming Dynasty of  China noblewomen wore very long artificial nails as a status symbpol indicating that, unlike commoners   they did not have to do manual labour.  Now, it is NOT the upper class/nobility that are frequenting nail salons and it is women from the opposite end of the class spectrum who use nail salons.

In the early 19th century in Greece, many upper -class women women wore empty pistachio shells  shells over their nails, slowly spreading the artificial nail trend across Europe.

In 1954, Fred Slack, a dentist, broke his fingernail at work, and invented the first artificial nail as a realistic-looking temporary replacement. After experiments with different materials to perfect his invention, he and his brother, Tom, patented a successful version and started the company Patti Nails

In the late 20th century, artificial nails for women became widely popular all over the world.

I found that there is some fascinating stuff on why there is a preponderance of oriental mainly Vietnamese and Korean involved in the nail decorating industry.

There is interesting politics in all this.

One article claimed that Tippi Hedren was instrumental in this! Fascinating!! Vietnam’s other legacy: the rise of the corner nail salon – World …

Once upon a time there was a Hollywood princess named Tippi Hedren.

She was an actress made famous by a film magician, Alfred Hitchcock, the then-reigning king of horror movies.

One day, Hedren decided she wanted to create some magic of her own. Not Hitchcock’s magic of malevolent mischief but the compassionate conjuring of doing good.

This was California in the mid-1970s. So she went to a tent city for refugees to try to change the lives of a group of women stranded there from war-torn Vietnam.

With a wave of a wand, in this case her scarlet-tipped nails, she helped teach them the mysteries of the ancient art of turning the stubbiest of fingernails into objects of beauty.

In so doing, she not only helped get these women back on their feet but unknowingly set off an entrepreneurial revolution.

That one single act of good intentions, dear reader, is why there is now, likely somewhere near you, at least one nail salon run by Vietnamese immigrants.

Transforming an industry

What started out with a group of 20 women trained by Hedren’s personal manicurist has mushroomed across the U.S. and Canada.

That initial group would be joined by another wave, the so-called boat people, those opponents of the Communist regime who risked their lives by fleeing in rickety boats after the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Not speaking the language or having any marketable skills, they tended to cluster together once they arrived in North America, not unlike other ethnic groups in similar circumstances. Italians in construction, for instance. Koreans in convenience stores. Filipinas in nursing and child care.

Actress Tippi Hedren with Vietnamese actress Kieu Ching when Hedren was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in January 2003. Hedren aided Ching when she fled Vietnam, by providing her with living space in her home for over a year. (Fred Prouser/Reuters)But none of these groups have transformed a single industry as radically as the Vietnamese boat people did with nail salons.

Before these Vietnamese women came into the business, a manicure was a costly affair. If a woman did go to a manicurist it was usually only for a special occasion.

Now, what was once a swank industry for the well-to-do caters to the masses of women who used to do their own nails at home.

Prices are down, way down. A manicure today can cost anywhere from $7 to as much as $50 in a traditional upscale spa. But around $20 seems to be the norm.

That, by the way, is what it cost decades ago before the Vietnamese came along. But a dollar then was worth a lot more than it is today.

Return of the spas

Much of the success of the Vietnamese parlours, besides hard work and long hours, is due to the fact that many of the salons are family affairs. In one popular parlour in Toronto, the manicurists are three sisters, their aunt and a cousin. The husband of one of the sisters does much of the odd work around the place, from manning the cash register to what is surely a reversal of gender roles, doing the cleanup.

At first, the Vietnamese-run salons were a threat to the more traditional upscale establishments. In fact, in the nineties quite a few of them went under. Since then, though, the higher-priced spas have made a comeback, perhaps because customers from the Vietnamese parlours, having gotten used to regular manicures and pedicures, are opting for fancier surroundings and more elaborate service.

In a way, that may also be a manifestation of the age-old urge to show that you can afford something better than your peers.

There was also another factor at play here: the increased emphasis in recent years on sanitation and health issues, whether in hospitals, the food industry or nail parlours. Unlike other industries, the nail business is unregulated in most parts of the country. So enforcement of health standards has been more difficult. Still, the industry is responding to customer concerns by turning to newer, safer chemicals and better sterilization.

An inspiration.

Thirty years after the influx of Vietnamese-run parlours, the pioneering wave of boat people has all but dried up. More and more new recruits are no longer Vietnamese. One day, the Vietnamese may all be gone from the nail business. They will, like so many immigrant groups before them, merge into the mainstream and wander off to other greater opportunities.

Still, the story of how tens of thousands of Vietnamese women, with a little encouragement, an idea and a lot of hard work and imagination, built their own ladder of success is surely worth celebrating and remembering.

Here was a group of people with all the disadvantages that immigrants have, plus the ones that women in general face in trying to enter the workforce.

Yet they managed against all odds, with no skills and, imagine, no subsidies whatsoever to create something unique that changed the habits of hundreds of thousands of Canadians.  Their saga should be an inspiration to all of us.

There is, of course, a trade magazine.NAILS Magazine : Dedicated To The Success Of Nail Professionals

and a forumScratch Magazine: Home

There is this article in the Huffington Post about the connection between nail salons and Human trafficking.

Phillip Martin: Nail Salons and Human Trafficking

Some names of nail salons:
The Talon Salon, Top Ten Nails, The Perfect Ten
Ten Penny Nails,Ten Plus Ten Nail Salon
Out Of Hand Nails, Tips & Toes
Tip Top Nail Salon, Hot Tips, At Your Fingertips
Digitz, Betterfingers,  Final Touch 2
Immortal Nails, Fancy Fingers,  Nail Daily, New Age Nails, Real Nails, Gel Zone, Polished To Perfection, Hi-Tech Nails, Pampered Polished

It is a whole other world used by women and  serviced by lowly paid women. It leaves me queasy which is why I would consign them to room 101.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

Those brown paper packages‘ used to be porn or banned books!

Folded origami towels in hotels make me smile.

I  wonder where they learn their towel folding skills. Here is a quickie video for a How to make a Balinese flower with a face cloth – YouTube

More pictures  Cruise Ship Towel Folding Towel Origami       There is also toilet paper origami.

ENJOY

Here are some green images that celebrate our Irish national day.

Green is the obvious colour associated with Ireland and St. Patrick’s Day but green is also the colour associated with concern for the environment and nature, the colour that signifies  naivety and inexperience and the hue that symbolises jealousy. It is some what overworked as a colour!

The ubiquitous cat probably called Pardraic.

Some rather gaudy images of dancing colleens in rather gaudy frocks.

This is the google image of Irish dancers.

Here is a cute video giving a version of the St Patrick story. The Story Of Saint Patrick © 2013 – YouTube

Gwyneth Herbert is an artist who continues to redefine (and defy) our expectations. A singer-songwriter with one foot in the jazz world and one somewhere in the future, with pierrot-dotted eyes, polka-spotted shoes and swanny whistle in hand she may appear as whimsical as a Bonzo Dog, but writes beautiful melodies and has a poet’s grasp of the world around her. Her song-writing has been compared to Lennon and McCartney, Ray Davies and Janis Ian, while musically her influences range from the junk yard clunk of Tom Waits to the Brechtian punk of the Dresden Dolls and from the minimalism of Steve Reich’ to the banging drum ‘n’ bass of Hackney’s pirate stations.

Gwyneth Herbert: Blogs

She is trying to raise funds for her next project

Hello sailors

Welcome aboard me hearties! I’m Gwyn: Skipper / singer / songwriter / musician and composer.

Over the last couple of years I’ve been working on my most ambitious venture yet – making a rich and delicious genre-defying album of sea-set story-songs. On it are myths and legends and folktales and lovesongs telling of the victory of a Fishguard cobbler’s wife, a jaded seaside hotel, a sunken chapel, the shifting sands of wartime Alderney, the dangerous allure of the King’s shilling, the loves and the losses and the stars and the whores and the drink and the drowning and the drip, drip, drip…

In just the last few months Herbert has won two prestigious theatrical awards, had them queuing around the block at the Rochester Jazz Festival in New York (where her show was in the top ten out of over two hundred), seen her cover of Neil Young’s ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart’ used in a Hollywood ‘rom com’, appeared at Wilton’s Music Hall alongside Sian Phillips and Marc Almond, written a song-cycle about the sea to debut in Aldeburgh this autumn, sung a series of 18th Century murder ballads on Radio 4, and composed and performed a specially commissioned soundtrack to silent film The Patsy at the BFI. But while this breathtaking range of activities reveals Herbert to be very much a 21st century artist able to draw on a formidable range of talents, she remains at the very heart of it all a storyteller with a fine ear for a catchy hook, as her latest single, the charming Perfect Fit amply demonstrates. Gwyneth Herbert – Bittersweet and blue – YouTube

         Check her out she has an exquisite voice and an elfin, but fesisty, demeanour and is a delight to see and hear.

Sam Phillips, the legendary Memphis record producer and owner of Sun Studios once said, “Ace Cannon is the greatest saxophone player who ever lived, but then he came out of the same stables as Carl Perkins, Elvis, Jerry Lee and Bill Justice.” Dubbed the “Godfather of Sax,” by Phillips and Joe Coughi of Hi Records, Cannon is best known for his instrumental hit, “Tuff,” which he recorded in 1962.

Tuff – Ace Cannon – YouTube

Another Oh bit for my obits was the descriptive names for some of Jack’s pub mates:  daft Cumbrian, Mad Yank, John the Greek, Tom, Windows Terry, Dave the Gas, BT Dave and the Big Scot to name but a few