The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

Synopsis (from the book cover):

We don't want to tell you what happens in this book. It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it. Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it so we will just say this: This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice. Two years later, they meet again -- the story starts there! Once you have read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

'Totally believable.' -- Daily Express '

It would be hard not to romp through it.' -- Financial Times

'Impresses as a feat of literary engineering...the plot exerts a fearsome grip.' -- Telegraph

Review:

The story is narrated by two female characters from completely different backgrounds, both of these characters are wonderfully depicted and fleshed out. Tragic events draw the two of them together and the book which starts off by describing a detention centre in Exeter slowly reveals how their lives became entwined.

I found it a compelling read and finished the book within a few days. The story was heartwarming, funny, sad, beautiful and shocking in equal measures. I found it very powerful and thought provoking.

A Weekend Away...

...with family and friends.

I spent the weekend in Kent with family (and friends). On Saturday those of us who weren't visiting the War Games show at ExCeL decided to visit the 'British Museum'. I think it is probably my favourite museum in London and I could happily spend hours there.

We were dropped off at the exhibition centre and after trying to explain to several foreign visitors what type of tickets they needed, we headed for the Dockland Light Railway. On the platform it was extremely windy and chilly and at that particular point in time my coat zip decided to break. Luckily when I got to the museum I was able to fix it, which proved useful later on.

Although as I said earlier I could spend a long time in the museum, my companions got fed after a couple of hours... So we left and visited the Board Game shop in museum street, which was also cut short due to boredom. But not before I managed to pick up a couple of new games ;-) Then the word "shopping" was mentioned and I am not really one for shopping, but never the less we ended up trogging towards Oxford Street in the rain. Luckily a call into M&S ended up being a long stay in the coffee shop until we could meet up with the others for an evening meal.

Meanwhile elsewhere in London my friends and colleauges were taking place in a peaceful demonstration in advance of the G20 summit. The demonstrators were hoping to remind world leaders of the priorities in the current economic crisis. More on that later in the week when hopefully I will have some photographs of the event.

Cherie's Place - Thought for the Week

Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.

Elbert Hubbard

PhotHunt - Hands

I have been rather busy this week so I haven't had time to take any new photos for this weeks theme. Both these have appeared on my blog before, but hopefully so long ago that most of you won't remember them.

I don't need to explain the first one, it speaks for itself, but the second one probably needs some sort of explanation. I am holding some Moo MiniCards that I had printed with details of my Trade Union action group and their website. If you have never heard of Moo cards before, they are mini business cards where you can put a picture of you choosing on the front. Each picture can be the same or they can all be different. It is up to you. Check them out here they are great fun :-)

I am still rather busy so I might not be able to visit many people this weekend, but I will catch up with you as soon as I can.

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

Friday Night Fun

It is ages since I have posted anything from Pixar. Enjoy :-)

Notre-Dame Cathedral, St. Omer

Whilst I was in Saint-Omer last year I visited the cathedral. The Cathedral is over 800 years old and a good example of Gothic architecture from the middle ages. Sadly there is no picture of this from me because it was covered with scaffolding. Just the excuse I need to go back :-)

Within the Cathedral lies the tomb of Saint Erkembode which is covered with shoes:

Saint Erkembode, who lived in the late 7th and early 8th centuries, was an Irish monk who travelled with several companions to Sithin, now Saint-Omer in northern France where he lived in the monastery. He was a disciple of saint Bertin (+709), himself a disciple of saint Columbanus of Luxeuil, the Celtic abbey in the French Vosges mountains. Later he was elected by the people as bishop of Thérouanne, while remaining abbot of his abbey. That abbey of Sithiu became part of the Order of Saint Benedict after the Carolingian reforms of Benedict of Aniane.

Meaning roughly "recognised envoy" (much like the word "apostle"), the name Erkembode comes from old germanic languages, as the region was, till 15th century, part of Flanders, Belgium. The region is now called French Flanders. The name of the See of Erkembode, Thérouanne, was already quoted as the capital of the Morini by Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars book.

After 26 years of episcopacy, in a diocese that extended far into the mainland, Erkembode died in 734 and was buried in Saint-Omer Cathedral, where his tomb remains.

His shrine is still being visited by parents with crippled children and depressive people. To aid the recovery of their children, parents leave tiny pairs of shoes on the saint's tomb, which are periodically cleared away by roman-catholic cathedral authorities. Pilgrims come from everywhere. His liturgical feast is on April 12/27.

The Seven Essential Items Meme

James has challenged his readers to name 7 essential items that make life bearable. Not things like houses, cars and jobs but things that you need (for whatever reason) and would have to replace immediately if they were lost.

I am always up for a challenge so here are mine:

1. My mobile phone. Even though I don't use it very often, it is so nice to know that my friends are just there if I need them and to know that they can get hold of me if they really need me.

2. My handbag. I never leave the house without one. I shared the contents with you in a previous post ;-)

3. My camera. I am sure you all know how much I love taking photos, especially of gardens.

4. My internet connection. It was bad enough when I was experiencing problems with it earlier in the year, but I would be lost without it.

5. My alarm clock. I don't do mornings very well, so I probably wouldn't make it to work most mornings if I didn't have one!

6. My contact lenses/glasses. I would be totally helpless without one or the other, everything further than four or five inches away is a total blur.

7. My National Trust membership card. I don't think I need to explain why I would miss that so much :-)

How about sharing your 7 things?

Is this the True Defence Cost Study?

I found this news clipping at work today. I cut it out of one of our newsletters many years ago. I would like to say it doesn't sound familiar!!! Feel free to swap MoD for any other organisation you may think of...

The Boat Race

MoD and the Japanese decided to have a competitive boat race on the river Thames. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance and on the big day they were as ready as they could be.

The Japanese won by a mile!

Afterwards the MoD team became very discouraged by the result and morale sagged. Senior Management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found and a special project team was set up to investigate the problem and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion: The problem was the Japanese had eight people rowing and one steering. MoD had one person rowing and eight people steering.

Senior Management immediately hired an expensive consultancy company to do a study of team structure. Millions of pounds and several months later, the consultancy company concluded that: Too many people were steering and not enough rowing.

To prevent losing to the Japanese again next year, a Regional Organisational Review was undertaken and the team structure was changed to 'Four Steering Managers'. 'Three Senior Steering Managers' and 'One Executive Steering Manager'. A new 'Quality Performance' system was set up for the person rowing the boat to give more incentive to work harder and become a 'Key Performer''.

"We must give him empowerment and enrichment. That ought to do it".

Next year the Japanese won by two miles.

MoD laid off the rower for poor performance, sold off the paddles, canceled all capital investment for new equipment, halted the development of a new canoe, awarded high performance awards to the consultants and distributed the money saved to Senior Management.

Cherie's Place - Thought for the Week

Remember that happiness is a way of travel - not a destination.

Roy M. Goodman

Google Error

Yesterday morning this is the (un)helpful error message I got every time I tried to post or comment on Blogger. I should have known this was a sign of things to come...

My hair appointment in the afternoon took over 2.5 hours due to a mix up with the appointments making me late for meeting a friend. Luckily they were running late too!

To top it all off I didn't get to bed until well after 3 in the morning...

Although I did get to have some fun playing board games.

GOOGLE ERROR
We're sorry...

... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.

We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

If you're continually receiving this error, you may be able to resolve the problem by deleting your Google cookie and revisiting Google. For browser-specific instructions, please consult your browser's online support center.

If your entire network is affected, more information is available in the Google Web Search Help Center.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google.

PhotoHunt - Yellow

Today I was attending a PCS Regional meeting which meant a train journey to Nottingham. My recent train journeys have been running quite smoothly and according to plan compared to this or this previous journey to Nottingham.

But today the trains were not playing! We got to Birmingham quite smoothly and got on the connecting train only to by kicked off with that dreaded comment "faulty unit". So 30 minutes later we were back on a train and back on track, but 30 minutes late for the meeting.

The meeting was a little chaotic compared to usual (great buffet though ;-) )...

I think a mellow photo is in order!

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

The Beauty of Flowers

This post from James reminded me of a conversation I had some time ago with a friend, it seems to be a recurrent theme. Firstly a picture from me and then a fun quote on the meaning of flowers ;-)

All flowers are flirtatious - particularly if they carry hyphenated names. The more hyphens in the name, the flirtier the flower. The one-hyphen flowers - black-eyed Susan; lady-smock; musk-rose - may give you only a shy glance and the drop their eyes; the two-hyphen flowers - forget-me-not; flower-de-luce - keep glancing. Flowers with three or more hyphens flirt all over the garden and continue even when they are cut and arranged in vases. John-go-to-bed-at-noon does not go there simply to sleep.

Willard R. Espy

The Latest PFI Defence Special from Private Eye

Private Eye, in this week's PFI Defence Special have this to say about the funding of PFIs:

Confirming £2bn of public funding for the ailing, er, private finance initiative the Treasury announced a number of urgent infrastructure type schemes that would qualify for the money, including road widening, waste treatment, schools and hospitals.

All very "new deal" and just the sort of thing Roosevelt might have done in 1930s America. But there was no mention of the more than ailing £12bn PFI scheme under which military training is supposed to be privatized (Eyes passim). A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman confirmed that the deal was indeed eligible, though there are "no plans" to use the public money at the moment.

Two years ago the then defence secretary Des Browne admitted that private funding for defence training "allowed us the opportunity to make captital investment that, I candidly admit, we could not otherwise make". That's right: when the economy was buoyant, the Government couldn't afford up-front investment; now that everything's gone down the toilet, it apparently can.

It follows with an article that reports on the popularity of the deal with some Welsh MPs (most notably John Smith):

Never mind the job losses elsewhere in the country when almost all training is moved to South Wales: what matters is that Smith has a majority of less that 2,000 and regularly boasts locally of his success in winning the contract. He even tried recently to present a £1bn cost hike as an extra investment (see Eye 1217), and failure to get the deal signed by the next election could cost him his seat.

This might explain why Smith became very hot under the collar at objections by Tory MP Mark Pritchard (see last Eye) whose Wrekin constituency includes Cosford and will lose out if the deal ever goes ahead.

The full version of the Defence Special can be found here.

Dancing in the Dark by Caryl Phillips

Synopsis (from the book cover):

'The funniest man I ever saw, and the saddest man I ever knew.' This is how W.C. Fields described Bert Williams, the highest paid intertainer in America in his heyday and someone who counted the King of England and Buster Keaton among his fans.

Born in the Bahamas, he moved to California with his family. Too poor to attend Standford University, he took to life on the stage with his friend George Walker. Together they played lumber camps and mining towns until they eventually made the agonising decision to 'play the coon'. Off-stage, Williams was a tall, light-skinned man with marked poise and dignity; on-stage he now became a shuffling, inept 'nigger' who wore blackface make-up. As the new century dawned they were headlining on Broadway. But the mask was begining to overwhelm Williams and he sank into bouts of melancholia and heavy drinking, unable to escape the blackface his public demanded.

What the group thought:

The novel is very elegant and compassionately written and every one at the meeting had enjoyed reading the book. We thought that the characters were portrayed very well, and the tragedy of the situation came across through the characters. The lives of the women came across especially well, leaving you feeling sorry for them. There was a discussion on why Williams might have blacked his face and made a parody of his race and we came to the conclusion that for him it was just an act, he was playing out a character. The decision alienated him from family, friends and colleagues.

The book also explores how black people were not accepted at that time and how they were not allowed to integrate with white people and had to have separate areas with in bars and the theatre.

You might also like to check out a little project I am exploring for my book group :-)

Put People First

The G20 summit takes place on 2nd April 2009. World leaders will be attempting to tackle the recession and the global financial crisis. The PCS Union urges the summit to 'put people first'.

The last year has made us appreciate even more so than before that crises in one part of the world impact on other areas of the globe.

Solutions must therefore be truly global and not just designed to protect the interests of the most economically developed countries and the wealthy elites within them.

To get this message across, PCS has joined a broad ‘Put People First’ coalition of organisations, including the TUC and many others who were part of Make Poverty History.

As the world leaders are congregating in advance of the summit 'Put People First' is organising a mass march and rally in central London on 28th March 2009. The clear message to the G20 is 'put people first'.

A coach is being organised from Shropshire but unfortunately I have a prior commitment so I will be unable to attend.

Ellee has a really good post on this issue too.

Cherie's Place - Thought for the Week

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.

Kahlil Gibran

PhotoHunt - Four

I have used the first photograph on my blog before. It is the magnificent Oak tree that I can see at the back of my garden. I called this mosaic the four seasons and posted it on flickr just over a year ago. It is one of the top searches that lands up on my blog.

The second picture speaks for itself. I was nearly 3 when the picture was taken on the occasion of my brothers Christening.

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

My Temporary Space

After a little bit of trial and error I have managed to get my latest PCS posts into a temporary place, pending repair work on the server. The new look is only slightly different from the original but I think I am liking it better. Another job for the administrator, I think I will be in trouble...

I have also been investigating a more permanent back up solution just in case there are any future problems with the server. Free WordPress isn't the answer as it doesn't do all the things I need it to do. I think I have just about come up with a viable option. At least for the time being it has stopped me being obsessed with checking who has been visiting!!!

Some of you have commented that you have problems commenting on WordPress blogs and that you have to log in and out. I have never had problems with the WordPress blogs I have visited. My username, email address and blog URL are already there and waiting on the comments forms for me. Sometimes I do find Wordpress blogs slow to load though.

But don't worry I intend to keep this blog on blogger unless something goes drastically wrong.

Busy Again!

Due to the demise of my PCS blog for the third time this year I have been working on a back up solution. I have explored many options and all of them are a compromise, I have not been able to find a suitable alternative that provides all the original features. I am determined to get it sorted out!

So what else have I been doing? Yesterday I had a long commute to and back from London. I was attending a meeting in preparation for my PCS group conference. I am on the 'Standing Orders Committee' and we were assessing the motions that had been submitted for conference and also setting the conference agenda.

And today? I was at a meeting that was trying to get the Trade Unions and management back on message with each other after a difficult start... From my point of view, things should be back on track now.

Oh! Yes! I have just remembered I didn't tell you about my water leak (flood) at the weekend...

I know I have been neglecting you all, but normal service will be resumed ASAP!

Technology is Having a Laugh!

I bet you thought I was joking when I said technology had taken over. This weekend things had almost been restored to normal but today technology seems to have the upper hand again!

The Blogger problems seem to have resurfaced. At the moment I can only see the sidebar to my blog and I find trying to post comments is difficult too. I am not the only one who is having problems with it, the latest in the queue of people unable to comment on my blog is JHL.

The problem with my PCS blog was fixed when the database administrator was home for the weekend. But now he has left for a couple of weeks I am sure you can guess what has happened... I can't access the site again, but this time it isn't just the database that is broken!

*sighs* more blog withdrawal symptoms :-/

Just to top it all off something has gone wrong with my email provider. I am only receiving emails from one of my email addresses. For the other one I keep getting pop up messages saying that my password is wrong!

What I need right now is this:

Cherie's Place - Thought for the Week

If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

Kahlil Gibran

From Me to You

Today is International Women's Day, so this post is dedicated to all women:

International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

PhotoHunt - Space

The first photographs show the board game Twilight Imperium which is a game set in space. The Board Game Geek describes the game as follows:

Twilight Imperium Third Edition is an epic empire-building game of interstellar conflict, trade, and struggle for power. Players take the roles of ancient galactic civilizations, each seeking to seize the imperial throne via warfare, diplomacy, and technological progression. With new oversize geomorphic board tiles, finely detailed plastic miniatures, hundreds of cards, and a massive plurality of options, the TI gameplay has been refined and redone by original designer Christian T. Petersen.

The first two show the game in play and the last one shows the scores at the end of the game. I am the little blue flag. It seems the guys let me win again, they were too busy fighting each other in the corner. I won using diplomacy as my strategy!

One final photograph still on the board game theme. This is a picture of my board game collection as it was just over a year ago. I have accumulated one or two more games since then and there is still space for one or two more :-)

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

O Solitude!

O SOLITUDE! if I must with thee dwell,
Let it not be among the jumbled heap
Of murky buildings; climb with me the steep,-
Nature’s observatory - whence the dell,
Its flowery slopes, its river’s crystal swell,
May seem a span; let me thy vigils keep
’Mongst boughs pavillion’d, where the deer’s swift leap
Startles the wild bee from the fox-glove bell.
But though I’ll gladly trace these scenes with thee,
Yet the sweet converse of an innocent mind,
Whose words are images of thoughts refin’d,
Is my soul’s pleasure; and it sure must be
Almost the highest bliss of human-kind,
When to thy haunts two kindred spirits flee.

John Keats

The State of the Blogesphere

Yesterday Liz was wondering why she had so few comments compared to other bloggers. I commented that comments in general are down lately. I seem to have just as many visitors, but not so many comments. Maybe it is because of the problem that everyone is experiencing with Blogger or perhaps we all have busy lives?

James had this to say about why blogging may be slowing down:

What does seem to be happening is that it’s killing itself off and it’s marginalized. Let’s face it, we don’t go to any blog to hear or see the news – we go to the MSM, in my case the Telegraph first, followed by Reuters, the BBC, Google for the U.S. news and The Age for the Australian. Don’t remember the last time I looked at the Guardian.

If we want analysis, we have our blog of choice – Dale, DK, Denninger, whoever. The rest of us, busily typing away, are at best marginalized, no matter how perspicacious we may claim to be. We don’t reach anyone except those wanting a quick, thirty second grab.

Maybe it is just me but I rarely read a newspaper, I just get the headlines and then do all my research from various sources on the web. From time to time I do read The Week which has done all the research already. Quick news and analysis for busy people, just what I need.

This year the Orwell Prize decided to include political blogs for the first time:

That the Orwell Prize has extended its remit to include political blogs is a sign, for Charlie Beckett, director of the Polis think-tank, that the Blogosphere has matured.

Two or three years ago, he says, bloggers were considered "outrageous scribblers and scurrilous rumour-mongers".

Now they have become a "fact of life" in the mainstream political debate.

Shane Greer of Total Politics magazine believes that blogs can be fitted into four categories:

The first, big group are those blogs that are "truly awful". Second are the blogs such as Burning Our Money - which analyses in detail how taxes are spent - which are thoughtful and well written, but only of interest to a small, technically-minded community.

Then there are sites that cater for a more general audience, which operate more like the comment pages in newspapers, giving a forum for debate and finding the most interesting arguments from the more technical blogs.

Finally, there are the "attack blogs" such as Devil's Kitchen, which are out there to snap at the heels of everyone else and fight for a particular political view.

Right, that is all the political blogs taken care of but what about all those other blogs out there...

To mark the 70th Birthday of Orwell's Diaries, the Orwell Prize started publishing the diaries on line in the form of a blog. The first post was on August the 9th exacltly 70 years after the diaries were written.

Hawkstone Hermitage Reveals a Secret

Twelve months ago the Hermitage at Hawkstone Park and Follies was destroyed by arsonists. Recently restoration work began on the grade II listed building, the work is not expected to be completed until April. During the course of the restoration, contractors have discovered a 200 year old secret. They uncovered a staircase that is cut into the rock face, which leads from the back of the Hermitage.

Park bosses say the staircase is likely to have been the secret back entrance into the Hermitage.

Roger Whitehouse, head park warden of Hawkstone Follies, said: “It lends credence to the old tales about how the Hawkstone Park tour guides during the 1800s used to lead people around the front path of the Hermitage, then disappear and miraculously re-appear as ‘the hermit’ to entertain the crowds.

“As we did not know about the back staircase, we could never determine how this would have worked – now of course we know how they performed their tricks.”

Garden Views

I think I have been neglecting you, I know how you love garden views and I haven't posted any for some time! It is time to change that.

Here are some views from Cragside, the flowers in the bottom left of the first picture are the ones you can see close up in the bottom right hand corner of the second picture.

They were taken on a couple of years ago when I was on holiday in Northumberland, I am seriously considering a return visit this year. There are a couple of places I have in mind abroad, but due to the current financial climate I think I should wait (especially as I love the North of England so much ;-) )...

Technology Takes Over!

Some of you may know that early last week I had problems trying to make comments on Blogger. On one occasion I spent quite some time making a detailed response then when I pressed the publish button, Blogger ate my comment! I had to start all over again...

It seems it wasn't only me that had problems, Sean is unable to comment at all! Phew that means it isn't me being incompetent.

On Friday I had an even bigger problem. The database where my PCS site is hosted suddenly decided not to play. It was working fine before I went out for the evening and when I got back it seemed to be sulking, it provided me with the following unhelpful response:

Error establishing a database connection

Normally it wouldn't matter too much - but it happened on the very day that the site administrator had gone away until next weekend! We have both tried to access the site remotely, but the firewall says 'NO'. I suppose that is reassuring, but not very helpful ;-)

Now I have a backlog of posts and suffer from blog withdrawal symptoms...

I think it is time for some peace and tranquility.

Cherie's Place - Thought for the Week

Where there is love there is life.
Mahatma Gandhi