Merry Christmas !

For a child is born to us, a son is given us;

                      upon his shoulder dominion rests. 

           They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah - Chapter 9

The Secret of Crickley Hall

A three-part dramatisation based on the James Herbert ghost story of the same name.

Following the opening scene where we see a lovely old house, a cramped bedroom full of orphans and a boy trying to hide from a supposedly scary man, we flick to a modern day family (although they appear to have 2.4 children and a dog, so a bit traditional there). 

Rest assured the children are modern enough, as are the parent’s laissez-faire responses to their somewhat brat like behaviour: the boy wants to play ‘bombs’ with his Lego  set and when the little girl demands her breakfast and her father asks if she’d like to help him find it she simply replies “No.”

A little later mum takes her son ‘Cam’ to the park and says:

“You can go on the slide, the swings or the roundabout, but not all three, do we have a deal?”

to which her son replies “deal!”

“deal means promise” says the mum
and the boy immediately responds with

“deal!”

...We then get a clip of her letting him play on all three.

A little later, the mother falls asleep, and shortly after Cam goes missing. About a year later, they move up to the old orphanage to help take her minds off things.

The story skips neatly enough along but then when it travels back to the war era, it goes for a typical BBC style bit of traddy Christian/Catholic bashing…portraying the owners looking after the evacuees as some kind of crazy hate-filled Christian fundamentalists who insist on such outlandish things as shoes being removed upon entering the house, quiet work, toys being earned and yes-shock horror-they believe in corporal punishment as an extension of their Christian beliefs!!! 

This production also reels forth the old ‘Christians don’t like Jews’ adage which, to be fair, is tempered a little by the kindness of the new school mistress who basically represents the ‘Jesus loves everyone’ approach, in a typically trendy modern (1960s) sandal wearing/guitar strumming non-judgemental/BBC acceptable kind-of-way.

To conclude:

If you can get passed the obvious bias then the story isn't that bad. Give it a look.

All pictures are screenshots.

BBC 1, Sundays 9pm.  

Savile & the can of worms

Image courtesy of Dailymail.co.uk

For those who don't know the story: a recently deceased top celebrity, Sir Jimmy Savile, has been accused of a number of vile crimes against children, for a period spanning decades.

I suspect, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this suspicion, that Child Abuse in parts of the entertainment is, and always has been, rife.

In the 80’s and 90’s Children’s Homes, Boarding Schools and Church institutions have all been ripped apart by scandal after scandal.

In the Education world we have learnt these lessons: - not to provide easy access and opportunity to those who would do children harm, not to leave both child and adult in vulnerable situations, where abusers can abuse or false allegations can be construed; we have learnt the hard way. The world of Education is now so risk averse that many would say we've gone too far, no longer being able to physically comfort an upset child for fear of how it appears; no longer organising trips where we know children will benefit but are told by the teaching unions that they will not support us should anything go wrong. We've come out from a painful process of self-examination…but at least we've been there.

Image courtesy of IMDb

For many years we have heard stories of child stars that end up so psychologically damaged by their experiences that they have life-long therapy, battling demons like drug dependency, mental health issues and relationship problems. Many lose this battle early on and die before their time.

Those of my generation will remember teen idols like River Phoenix, who starred in many classics including ‘Stand by me’, he died of a massive drugs overdose aged 23; also, Cory Haim, famous for his role in films like ‘The Lost Boys’ (how apt!), or Gary Coleman from  ‘Different strokes’, or Dana Plato, his co-star who committed suicide. Michael Jackson, the most famous child star did more than just hint at being a recipient of abuse whilst a ward of the industry.

What was it about their lives and the lives of others like them in these formative years that has messed them up so badly? I suspect I know what…but I would never take on such a powerful industry with so little proof; is this how some felt about Savile?

But what of the countless others? What of those who didn't even get to be stars? Do we think for a second that they weren't attracted by the ‘what might be’ spin of the countless faceless representatives of the rich and famous?

Remember that catchphrase from the 90’s show ‘the Word’:-“I’d do anything to be on TV”.

What were pushy parents prepared to allow for sake of their child’s future career? What were career minded executives prepared to ignore for the sake of their own? Haven’t many in the industry bought and sold the lives of children, for decades, peddlers of the last great bastion of child exploitation in the West. Haven’t we all been complicit in our unquestioning cult of celebrity?

So perhaps, Sir Jimmy’s exploits are only the tip of a very deep and dark iceberg?

So perhaps, it’s time we learnt the whole sordid truth, no matter how unpalatable that may be…

The greatest revelations, I’m sure, are yet to come.  

Paralympics

Image courtesy of  http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/disability-sport/19429156

When you see achievements  like this, by disabled athletes, it's hard to understand how many of those who cheer the teams on would also support termination of the unborn, on the basis of such a disability.

Where's the sense in that?

Dog Shaming

Now everyone knows naughty behaviour should be punished, and as members of our family, this quite rightly applies to our pets, too. But, what has been condemned in the treatment of children has become a new internet sensation, when applied to the pets.

A new Tumblr photo site has become a hit with owners wanting to ‘show off’ the misdemeanours of their canine (and feline) friends.

Whether or not this is a form of ‘animal’ abuse is up for debate; what is certain is that some of the pictures are, I’m ashamed to admit, quite funny       

Anyway, here’s a few examples:

And here's one for the boys at school:

All images courtesy of http://dogshaming.tumblr.com

Rowling's Potter pipped by Dickens's Marley

Image courtesy of  http://collider.com

Image courtesy of  http://screenrant.com/

                                   Vs

Wondering what to get your child to read, as the dark nights draw near?

It seems that 'A Christmas Carol' is the book parents most want their children to read, according to a study by the University of Worcester.

A spokesperson from the university, said:

'It is interesting to see that most of the popular books to pass down the generations have strong moral messages entwined in them.'

'The books that feature in the top 10 all provide thought-provoking content and characters, so it is clear that parents value these books for providing challenging thoughts which can last a lifetime.'

Here is the order of parent’s preference:

1. A Christmas Carol, (Charles Dickens)

2. The Harry Potter series, (JK Rowling)

3. The Lord of The Rings trilogy, (JRR Tolkien)

4. Pride and Prejudice, (Jane Austen)

5. Alice in Wonderland, (Lewis Carroll)

6. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, (CS Lewis) 

7. Animal Farm, (George Orwell)

8. Oliver Twist, (Charles Dickens)

9. The Hobbit, (JRR Tolkien)

10. To Kill a Mockingbird, (Harper Lee)

The fact of the matter is that no matter what the parent wants-the child often has ideas of their own.

On a positive note-I personally witnessed the power of a good book to envelope the imagination of a teenage boy.....he was so focussed on what he was reading, he walked off the end of a running track straight into some bushes. Good job he was only walking.

The man from ADSENSE, he say.......

Apparently, insufficient content.

Need more paragraphs and...

stuff....


never mind

A Right Russian Riot

According to RT.com, a Feminist Russian band have been charged with ‘Hooliganism’ and convicted to 2 years in prison, downgraded from a possible sentence of 7 years.

Image courtesy of  http://rt.com/news

This scandal over the Russian punk band, “P**** Riot”, ‘seems’ to have prompted an over-the-top response from the Putin government-that is until we remember what hooded activists running into public buildings actually symbolises to many Russians.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Do you recall the school in Beslan, Russia, in 2004, where hooded terrorists stormed the school in an action that resulted in the deaths of over 300 people, 184 of whom were children? Or the Moscow Opera House siege where at least 120 hostages died. Is it any wonder the Russian government wants to clamp down on hooded activists?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/04/russian_s/html/1.stm

The band claimed to be asking the Virgin Mary to free them from Putin’s oppression? If they had any respect for the beliefs of the many Russians who use Christ the Saviour Cathedral, they wouldn’t have invaded the Church to launch a publicity stunt and mockingly danced around the sacred space.

Now I’ve no problem with punk music per se but have you read any of their lyrics? Here's a sample from the song they chose to sing: 

“All parishioners are crawling and bowing”

“The Head of the KGB is their chief saint”

“In order not to offend the Holy Women have to give birth and to love”

“Holy s***t, s****, Lord’s s***”

Clearly they were genuine in their claim they didn’t mean to offend Christians. 

Why is it that so called 'freedom of speech' activists always seem to defend those who trample roughshod over the beliefs of others.

Now the Church teaches 'forgiveness', but that is for those who are truly repentant; do we really believe this is the case with these women? OK, maybe 2 years is a bit harsh....personally, I'm all for their sentence being downgraded to something which serves the common good, like public street cleaning in Orange style jump suits. 

Google Adsense

I just opted to 'monetize' my Blog....whatever that means. 

Google promise an easy system to do this, by creating adverts which blog browsers can click on, and this brings money to the Blog writer (as well as the advertisers).

It's all part of the Google + gift. Having said that, this is my third attempt to make it work. I've had the request rejected twice before and i'm not quite sure why.

Maybe it's not meant to work for this blog; all part of God's great plan to save me from the allure of becoming 'monetized'. Who knows. Watch this space to see if anything changes.

Cameron's sporting legacy-less school sport!

Real competitiveness! image courtesy of  http://www.chavagnes.org/   

So what does the British Coalition Government really mean when it says it’s committed to an Olympic legacy: it means, at a time of rising obesity, schools will no longer have to provide the minimum of 2 hours Physical Education a week. Not only that, but Cameron et al plan to scrap rules preventing the selling off of yet more school playing fields (as they do not have to provide a minimum amount of space for team sports), according to tomorrow's 'Daily Telegraph'. 

Following the amazing success of the Olympics, this is not what we expect to see any sane government do. Why don’t we go the whole Hog and like French President Hollande, oversee the burning of Youth Clubs and Primary schools…at least the French communities will have these rebuilt.

image courtesy of  http://www.lemonde.fr

Goodbye London2012. It's been a blast,

image courtesy of  http://www.radiotimes.com

For the final Medal count follow this link:

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=london+2012+medal+count

                                 Goodbye London!

再见, До свидания, adios, au revoir, auf Wiedersehen,
じゃまたね, elalleqa, Ciao,Tot ziens, Yasou

Image courtesy of  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/olympics/article-2186944/London-2012-Olympics-Ben-Ainslie-carry-British-flag-closing-ceremony.html

                               Hello Rio!

Image courtesy of  http://www.logobird.com/rio-2016-olympics-logo/ 

A fact about Chocolate

Image courtesy of  http://www.allposters.co.uk

We all know of famous children’s author J. M. Barrie, of Peter Pan fame, but what is less well known is the play he wrote before, entitled ‘Quality Street’. The plot can be read here and it is possible to read the whole play for free, online.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_Street_(play)

The play was so successful; it inspired a Chocolate company to use its name and also a series of prints were drawn by artist Hugh Thomson, in 1913.

A friend of mine has the original prints and allowed me to take some photos. I've shared three with you here. 

Each is a representation of some aspect of the play, and if you enlarge them, you can read an explanation to accompany each picture.

Enjoy!

Real Steel!

Watching Nicola Adams enter the history books yesterday as the first woman to win Gold for Boxing, I was inspired to watch a Boxing related film, ‘Real Steal’, on Sky movies. 

(image courtesy of  BBC Sport)

The film was surprisingly good! Superficially, it is about a man who scrapes a living taking robots to fight at the Boxing matches of the future; in reality it is about a man learning to mend his relationship with his estranged 11 year old son. 

image courtesy of  
http://collider.com

The film has a real ‘feel good’ factor without being overly sentimental;

The plot is somewhere between Stallone’s ‘Over the Top’ and ‘The Karate Kid’, again symbolising the never ending struggle of the underdog against the odds. The boy helps his Father to remember that the relationship of Father and Son is one of interdependence, with each fulfilling the needs of the other. 

Ultimately, aside from the occasional swear word, I would recommend this film; its uplifting central message is carried along with enough action to keep even the ‘coolest’ of teenage kids happy.

Kid spots a Welsh Shark?

If you go down to the BEACH today, 

                             you’re sure of a big surprise….

Especially true if you mean the beach at New Quay, Ceredigion, Wales. Some truly amazing photos were taken by Jasmine Jones, aged 16, and can be seen if you follow the link below.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2185923/Baby-blue-shark-spotted-shallows-beach-Wales.html

Image courtesy of 
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/photos/sharks/

But this wasn’t any old Basking shark! It was a BLUE shark, more typically found off the coast in America and yes, they have been known to munch on more than just plankton. But don’t panic just yet…it was a baby one.

We often begrudge the infiltration of mobile (cell) phones in kids’ lives, but I’m not sure such amazing pictures and footage would have been possible without this. It certainly made for an amazing day out for Jasmine, who said:

“That is the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life”.

Although sharks have a fearsome reputation, shark attacks are still incredibly rare. For any kids wanting more facts about sharks, please follow the link under the picture above.

Size matters? But what about in the Olympics?

                         Any kid will tell you that size often matters.

Image courtesy of  http://bibleillustration.blogspot.co.uk 

But size is deceptive and great things come in little packages. 

Just look at this league table with data from yesterday:

Country	Golds	Population	Medals (total)
China	35	1,344,130,000	76
USA	30	311,591,917	72
Great Britain	22	62,641,000	48
South Korea	12	49,779,000	24
Russia	10	141,930,000	49
France	8	65,436,552	28
Germany	7	81,726,000	32

                          Population data courtesy of www.google.co.uk/publicdata

The population of my County, Yorkshire, is 5,284,000, and athletes here had gained 10 medals, by the end of yesterday. That would put them 10^th in the medal table, ahead of many countries.

Massive things can be accomplished by small countries and even small athletes...

When others help them to grow.

Congratulations to the Brownlee brothers and all who helped our athletes to accomplish their dreams.

Help! My child ISN”T on Facebook

Normally, parents across the world worry that their child is spending too much time on the computer or on their mobile (cell) phones-often using ‘social’ network sites.

Now some would have us worry if they are not using them.  

Image courtesy of Jezebel.com

According to a German magazine called ‘Der Taggspiegel’ (the Daily Mirror), one thing connecting the Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivic and the Dark Knight Rises cinema shooter, James Holmes, is the fact that neither had Facebook accounts. They say research suggests a lack of social networking may be symptomatic of underlying psychological problems. They also point out that many US employers regard such inactivity with suspicion and may go so far as to turn down job applicants on the basis of this.

http://www.tagesspiegel.de/weltspiegel/nach-dem-attentat-von-denver-kein-facebook-profil-kein-job-angebot/6911648-2.html

Of course, the Psychologist quoted also goes on to say that too much use can “reinforce basic psychological disorders and anxiety”. I think what Herr Moeller (the Psychologist) forgets is how much anxiety is created by sending parents etc. mixed signals about what’s good for their children.

It would seem, given the rise in cases of cyber bullying, decline in normal face-to-face social interaction and the need for an ever increasing proliferation of online ‘friends’, that it’s still the healthy option to use these sites in moderation….or simply avoid them altogether and, as always, take what you read with a pinch of salt….a small pinch of course….too much would be bad for us. 

Lightening Bolt strikes twice

Image courtesy of http://otr.blastmagazine.com

Usain Bolt has done it again, silencing all doubters, by winning the 100m sprint final in extraordinary style. Despite nearly all runners coming in on under 10 seconds, Bolt managed to leave the others in his wake, to claim Gold again.

Following the record number of Medals for British athletes, yesterday,  Andy Murry, won what he claimed was the biggest day of his life by beating Roger Federer and grabbed his first Gold on a wave of Olympic momentum. Ben Ainslie become the most decorated sailor in the history of the games, gaining Gold in Weymouth.

With legendary performances from the world's athletes, we can hope to see a whole generation of young people, inspired by their amazing example.

The Dark Knight Rises-new reviews

Image courtesy of  http://collider.com/the-dark-knight-rises-clips/179580/

Well here's a couple of comments about the film:

“Even if I did not understand everything, especially because Catwoman spoke very fast, I was able to understand the plot very well. The film was amazing because of many special effects but also because I really like Batman! Exciting!

4/5” Vincenzo Giuliani (age 15) from Italy

“Well I think that this movie was the best Batman film I’ve seen. It was really epic! Only one small thing was wrong…I couldn’t understand how Bane and his gang could take Gotham city in only a few hours. I also didn’t understand some of the end but its still my favourite Batman film, ever.”

4.5/5 Yury Tsarvulanov (age 16) from Russia.

Want to add your opinion?

Please comment.