Little Piece of Britain

Kitchen Sink Drama

2011-01-28T09:21:00.000-08:00

Kitchen sink realism was a recognisable English cultural movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was seen in the theatre, in art, in novels, in film and in television plays, focusing on social realism relevant to the audience of the day.

The term "kitchen sink" derived from an expressionist painting by John Bratby, which contained an image of a kitchen sink. The critic David Sylvester wrote an article in 1954 about trends in recent English art, calling his article "The Kitchen Sink" in reference to Bratby's picture. Sylvester argued that there was a new interest among young painters in domestic scenes, with stress on the banality of life. Bratby painted several kitchen subjects, often turning practical utensils such as sieves and spoons into semi-abstract shapes. He also painted bathrooms, and made three paintings of toilets. Other artists associated with the "kitchen sink" style include Derrick Greaves, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith.

The term was quickly applied to a new style of drama, the hallmark of which was a more realistic representation of social life; country houses and tennis courts were out; ironing boards and minor domestic squalor were in, as in John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger with ironing as a piece of stage business. This was a reaction against the Noel Coward/Terence Rattigan style of dramatic setting.

Kitchen sink realism is sometimes conflated with the rise of the Angry Young Men. It was in fact more substantive, less driven by journalistic excess, and is more properly its successor.

Source: http://www.jahsonic.com/KitchenSink.html

Mini: an Icon of British Culture

2011-01-11T07:27:00.000-08:00

The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s,and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout (that allowed 80% of the area of the car's floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage) influenced a generation of car-makers.The vehicle is in some ways considered the British equivalent to its German contemporary, the Volkswagen Beetle, which enjoyed similar popularity in North America, or the Spanish Seat 600 which was the best-selling of that age in Spain and Italy. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th Century, behind the Ford Model T, the fist ever created by mass production.
This distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by Sir Alec Issigonis.It was manufactured at the Longbridge and Cowley plants in England, the Victoria Park / Zetland British Motor Corporation (Australia) factory in Sydney, Australia, and later also in Spain (Authi), Belgium, Chile, Italy (Innocenti), Portugal, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela and Yugoslavia. The Mini Mark I had three major UK updates: the Mark II, the Clubman and the Mark III. Within these was a series of variations including an estate car, a pickup truck, a van and the Mini Moke—a jeep-like buggy. The Mini Cooper and Cooper "S" were sportier versions that were successful as rally cars, winning the Monte Carlo Rally four times from 1964 through to 1967, although in 1966 the Mini was disqualified after the finish, along with six other British entrants, which included the first four cars to finish, under a questionable ruling that the cars had used an illegal combination of headlamps and spotlights.Initially Minis were marketed under the Austin and Morris names, as the Austin Seven and Morris Mini Minor, until Mini became a marque in its own right in 1969.The Mini was again marketed under the Austin name in the 1980s.

Designed as project ADO15 (Austin Drawing Office project number 15), the Mini came about because of a fuel shortage caused by the 1956 Suez Crisis.Petrol was once again rationed in the UK, sales of large cars slumped, the market for German Bubble cars boomed. Leonard Lord, the somewhat autocratic head of BMC, reportedly detested these cars so much that he vowed to rid the streets of them and design a 'proper miniature car'.He laid down some basic design requirements: the car should be contained within a box that measured 10 × 4 × 4 ft (3 × 1.2 × 1.2 m); and the passenger accommodation should occupy 6 ft (1.8 m) of the 10 ft (3 m) length; and the engine, for reasons of cost, should be an existing unit. Issigonis, who had been working for Alvis, had been recruited back to BMC in 1955 and, with his skills in designing small cars, was a natural for the task. The team that designed the Mini was remarkably small: as well as Issigonis, there was Jack Daniels (who had worked with him on the Morris Minor), Chris Kingham (who had been with him at Alvis), two engineering students and four draughtsmen. Together, by October 1957, they had designed and built the original prototype, which was affectionately named "The Orange Box" because of its colour.

The ADO15 used a conventional BMC A-Series four-cylinder water-cooled engine,but departed from tradition by mounting it transversely, with the engine-oil-lubricated, four-speed transmission in the sump, and by employing front-wheel drive. Almost all small front-wheel-drive cars developed since have used a similar configuration, except with the transmission usually separately enclosed rather than using the engine oil. The radiator was mounted at the left side of the car so that the engine-mounted fan could be retained, but with reversed pitch so that it blew air into the natural low pressure area under the front wing. This location saved precious vehicle length, but had the disadvantage of feeding the radiator with air that had been heated by passing over the engine. It also exposed the entire ignition system to the direct ingress of rainwater through the grille.

The suspension system, designed by Issigonis's friend Dr. Alex Moulton at Moulton Developments Limited, used compact rubber cones instead of conventional springs. This ingenious space-saving design also featured rising progressive-rate springing of the cones, and provided some natural damping. Built into the subframes, the rubber cone system gave a raw and bumpy ride which was accentuated by the woven-webbing seats, but the rigidity of the rubber cones, together with the wheels being pushed out to the corners of the car, gave the Mini go kart-like handling that would become famous.

Initially an interconnected fluid system was planned—similar to the one that Alec Issigonis and Alex Moulton were working on in the mid-1950s at Alvis. They had assessed the mechanically interconnected Citroen 2CV suspension at that time (according to an interview by Moulton with CAR magazine in the late 1990s), which inspired the design of the Hydrolastic suspension system for the Mini and Morris/Austin 1100, to try to keep the benefits of the 2CV system (ride comfort, body levelling, keeping the roadwheel under good control and the tyre in contact with the road), but with added roll stiffness that the 2CV was very much lacking. The short development time of the car meant this was not ready in time for the Mini's launch. The system intended for the Mini was further developed and the hydrolastic system was first used on the Morris 1100, launched in 1962; the Mini gained the system later in 1964. Ten-inch (254 mm) wheels were specified, so new tyres had to be developed, the initial contract going to Dunlop. Issigonis went to Dunlop stating that he wanted even smaller, 8 in (203 mm) wheels (even though he had already settled on ten-inch). An agreement was made on the ten-inch size, after Dunlop choked on the eight-inch proposition.

Sliding windows allowed storage pockets in the hollow doors; reportedly Issigonis sized them to fit a bottle of Gordon's Gin. The boot lid was hinged at the bottom so that the car could be driven with it open to increase luggage space. On early cars the number plate was hinged at the top so that it could swing down to remain visible when the boot lid was open. This feature was later discontinued after it was discovered that exhaust gases could leak into the cockpit when the boot was open.

The Mini was designed as a monocoque shell with welded seams visible on the outside of the car running down the A and C pillars, and between the body and the floor pan. To further simplify construction, the hinges for the doors and boot lid were mounted externally.
Cross-section shows how Mini maximizes passenger space

Production models differed from the prototypes by the addition of front and rear subframes to the unibody to take the suspension loads, and by having the engine mounted the other way round, with the carburettor at the back rather than at the front. This layout required an extra gear between engine and transmission to reverse the direction of rotation at the input to the transmission. Having the carburettor behind the engine reduced carburettor icing, but the distributor was then exposed to water coming in through the grille. The engine size was reduced from 948 cc to 848 cc; this, in conjunction with a small increase in the car's width, cut the top speed from 90 mph (145 km/h) to a more reasonable (for the time) 72 mph (116 km/h).

Despite its utilitarian origins, the classic Mini shape had become so well known that by the 1990s, Rover Group—the heirs to BMC—were able to register its design as a trade mark in its own right.

The New Year's London Parade

2011-01-04T03:08:00.000-08:00

Ever wondered how one of the World’s great turn of year traditions came about?
The New Year’s Day Parade – London has evolved in to one of the World’s great street spectaculars with up to 10,000 performers from across continents, hundreds of thousands of spectators on the streets – and a live television audience of tens of millions.
But way back in the 20th Century in the event’s formative years – the parade was a relatively humble affair.
The first "Lord Mayor of Westminster's Big Parade", as it was then known, took place on 1st January 1987 and even though a lot smaller than today London had never seen anything quite like it.
It provided a feast of free entertainment for all the family on what had probably become the dreariest day of the year. Featuring hundreds of dancers and musicians from home and abroad, it put real American style razzmatazz onto the streets of London. It received such an overwhelming ‘thumbs up’ from Londoners, tourists and indeed also from the authorities, that it looked like it was here to stay.

Nearly 25 years on, the New Year’s Day Parade London is the biggest event of its kind in the world, boasts a street-side audience approaching 1/2 a million, receives a huge amount of international media coverage, has a list of Patrons that represent the very highest levels of officialdom, and also enjoys the recognition and support of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Put simply, the event has grown from something that started big to something that is now colossal.

Boxing Day

2010-12-29T02:03:00.000-08:00

In Britain, Boxing Day is usually celebrated on the following day after Christmas Day, which is 26th of December. However, strictly speaking, Boxing Day is the first weekday after Christmas (see definition in the Oxford English Dictionary).

Like Christmas Day, Boxing Day is a public holiday. This means it is typically a non working day in the whole of Britain. When Boxing Day falls on a Saturday or Sunday the following Monday is the public holiday.

Why is 26 December called Boxing Day?
Traditionally, 26 December was the day to open the Christmas Box to share the contents with the poor. And what is a Christmas Box? The Christmas box was a wooden or clay container where people placed gifts.

Boxing Day origins; Christmas Boxes were used in different ways:

-To protect ships: Exploration ship during the Age of Exploration, when great sailing ships were setting off to discover new land, A Christmas Box was used as a good luck device. It was a small container placed on each ship while it was still in port. It was put there by a priest, and those crewmen who wanted to ensure a safe return would drop money into the box. It was then sealed up and kept on board for the entire voyage. If the ship came home safely, the box was handed over to the priest in the exchange for the saying of a Mass of thanks for the success of the voyage. The Priest would keep the box sealed until Christmas when he would open it to share the contents with the poor.

-Church To help the poor: An 'Alms Box' was placed in every church on Christmas Day, into which worshippers placed a gift for the poor of the parish. These boxes were always opened the day after Christmas, which is why that day became know as Boxing Day.

-A present for the workers: Many poorly paid workers were required to work on Christmas Day and took the following day off to visit their families. As they prepared to leave, their employers would present them with Christmas boxes.
During the late 18th century, Lords and Ladies of the manor would "box up" their leftover food, or sometimes gifts and distribute them the day after Christmas to tenants who lived and worked on their lands.

And the tradition still continues today ......
The tradition of giving money to workers still continues today. It is customary for householders to give small gifts or monetary tips to regular visiting trades people (the milkman, dustman, coalman, paper boy etc.) and, in some work places, for employers to give a Christmas bonus to employees.

Schools across the country gather together gifts to be put in Christmas Boxes that are sent to poorer countries.

Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree

2010-12-22T11:18:00.000-08:00

The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree has been a seasonal symbol in London since 1947. It takes pride of place in the square until January, when it is taken down for recycling. The tree is decorated in traditional Norwegian fashion, using vertical strings of energy-efficient bulbs. Carols are performed beside the tree by a wide variety of London groups each evening from December 7 to 22, 5-9pm. The tree is a gift from the Norwegians to the British and there's a remarkable story behind this traditional present-giving. During World War II, German troops besieged Norway and in 1940 the neutral country was forced to surrender to the Nazis. Its royal family, government and defence chiefs fled to London, where they established a government-in-exile. For almost five years they were given refuge here while Norwegian soldiers fought alongside the Allies. London came to represent hope and freedom for the millions in occupied Norway, who listened to British radio broadcasts which provided news and information vital to the resistance movement. That's why the people of Oslo now give London the tree. Fondly described by the woodsmen who care for it as 'the queen of the forest', it can reach up to 25m in height and is between 50 and 100 years old. It's felled in November in a special ceremony in the midst of a snowy forest, with local schoolchildren singing. Once it's been shipped across the North Sea and installed, its official illumination takes place in early December.

English Afternoon Tea

2010-11-23T07:48:00.000-08:00

Afternoon tea (because it was usually taken in the late afternoon) is also called "low tea" because it was usually taken in a sitting room or withdrawing room where low tables (like a coffee table) were placed near sofas or chairs generally in a large withdrawing room. There are three basic types of Afternoon, or Low Tea:

Cream Tea - Tea, scones, jam and cream

Light Tea - Tea, scones and sweets

Full Tea - Tea, savories, scones, sweets and dessert

In England, the traditional time for tea was four or five o'clock and no one stayed after seven o'clock. Most tea rooms today serve tea from three to five o'clock. The menu has also changed from tea, bread, butter and cakes, to include three particular courses served specifically in this order:

Savories - Tiny sandwiches or appetizers

Scones - Served with jam and Devonshire or clotted cream

Pastries - Cakes, cookies, shortbread and sweets.

Prior to the introduction of tea into Britain, the English had two main meals, breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was ale, bread, and beef. During the middle of the eighteenth century, dinner for the upper and middle classes had shifted from noontime to an evening meal that was served at a fashionable late hour. Dinner was a long, massive meal at the end of the day.

Tea Etiquette

In order for one not to spill the hot liquid onto oneself, the proper way to hold the vessel of a cup with no handle is to place one’s thumb at the six o'clock position and one’s index and middle fingers at the twelve o'clock position, while gently raising one’s pinkie up for balance.

Tea cups with a handle are held by placing one’s fingers to the front and back of the handle with one’s pinkie up again allows balance. Pinkie up does mean straight up in the air, but slightly tilted. It is not an affectation, but a graceful way to avoid spills. Never loop your fingers through the handle, nor grasp the vessel bowl with the palm of your hand.

Do not stir your tea, with your tea spoon, in sweeping circular motions. Place your tea spoon at the six o'clock position and softly fold the liquid towards the twelve o'clock position two or three times. Never leave your tea spoon in your tea cup. When not in use, place your tea spoon on the right side of the tea saucer. Never wave or hold your tea cup in the air. When not in use, place the tea cup back in the tea saucer. If you are at a buffet tea hold the tea saucer in your lap with your left hand and hold the tea cup in your right hand. When not in use, place the tea cup back in the tea saucer and hold in your lap. The only time a saucer is raised together with the teacup is when one is at a standing reception.

Milk is served with tea, not cream. Cream is too heavy and masks the taste of the tea. Although some pour their milk in the cup first, it is probably better to pour the milk in the tea after it is in the cup in order to get the correct amount.

When serving lemon with tea, lemon slices are preferable, not wedges. Either provide a small fork or lemon fork for your guests, or have the tea server can neatly place a slice in the tea cup after the tea has been poured. Be sure never to add lemon with milk since the lemon's citric acid will cause the proteins in the milk to curdle.

14th November --- Lord Mayor's

2010-11-18T08:06:00.000-08:00

The Lord Mayors Show London celebrates an 800 year London tradition in grand, historic style. Take to the streets on Saturday 13th November to enjoy parades, festivities, fireworks and more in a truly historic London event.

Historic event
The fireworks spectacle and parade first took place in 1215, during which the Lord Mayor was presented to the Sovereign for approval. The procession's traditional journey from the City to Westminster has over the years grown in size and the event now includes a full parade and show, in which officials, workers and Londoners of all ages and all walks of life come together to celebrate London’s heritage.
Around 6,000 people will be involved in the event alongside carriages, marching bands, floats and other vehicles. The procession itself is around three miles long, and promises to be a memorable sight as it makes its way from The City to St Paul’s Cathedral. Starting out from Mansion House the beginning of the procession will be marked by aircraft fly-past.

Pomp and circumstance
The Lord Mayors Show London is a traditional affair combining eight centuries of London history. The first event to ever be broadcast live on TV, it has survived the Black Death and The Blitz and this year’s event is expected to attract 500,000 people to the capital's streets whilst millions more watch the event at home on TV.

Lord Mayors Show London 2010
Londoners of all ages can join in the fun at a landmark London event which is guaranteed to be something special for 2010. Expect plenty to see and do throughout the show, with 2,000 servicemen and women taking part in the processions alongside 220 vehicles, 71 floats, 13 marching bands and 21 carriages, including the lavish State Coach.

Showstopping fireworks
It is traditional for the Lord Mayors Show London event to finish spectacularly with a gigantic fireworks display launched from a barge on the River Thames, located between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge. The fireworks display marks the end of the show and the beginning of a new mayoral year and it is widely expected to be one of the most stunning fireworks displays of 2010. Crowds of Londoners will head to the river to watch the fireworks which start at 5pm.

The Lord Mayors Show London takes place on Saturday 13th November 2010, with the procession beginning at 11am. Arrive early anywhere along the route to ensure a good spot. The event is free to attend. Fireworks are due to begin at 5pm.

Why Big Ben?

2010-11-16T02:21:00.000-08:00

Today, if you ask someone about what image comes to his/her mind when you pronounce the word `London´ automatically 99 per cent will say Big Ben.

The title Big Ben is commonly used for the clock-tower placed at the north-west corner of the Houses of Parliament, but that is a bit inexact because the name belongs solely to the big bell inside the tower.

Two possibilities are taken into account about the name `Ben´. Some say it's in its first builder honour, Mr.Benjamin Hall. Others claim that was in Ben Caunt's honour, a very famous boxer at that time.

The present tower was raised as a part of Charles Barry's design for a new palace, after the old Palace of Westminster was destroyed by fire on the night of 16 October 1834. The new Parliament was built in a Neo-gothic style. Although Barry was the chief architect of the Palace, he turned to Augustus Pugin for the design of the clock tower, which resembles earlier Pugin designs, including one for Scarisbrick Hall. The design for the Clock Tower was Pugin's last design before his final descent into madness and death, and Pugin himself wrote, at the time of Barry's last visit to him to collect the drawings: "I never worked so hard in my life for Mr Barry for tomorrow I render all the designs for finishing his bell tower & it is beautiful." The tower is designed in Pugin's celebrated Gothic Revival style, and is 96.3 metres high.

There are six shields above each of the four clock faces, twenty-four in total, all depicting the arms of St George, representing the Flag of England, London as the Capital City of England, and St. George as the Patron Saint of England. This symbolism is also repeated in the Central Lobby of the Houses of Parliament, directly opposite the House of Commons, in an enormous mosaic created by Sir Edward John Poynter in 1869, depicting St George and the Dragon with these arms, entitled “St George for England.”

The bottom 61 metres of the Clock Tower's structure consists of brickwork with sand coloured Anston limestone cladding. The remainder of the tower's height is a framed spire of cast iron. The tower is founded on a 15-metre square raft, made of 3-metre thick concrete, at a depth of 4 metres below ground level. The four clock dials are 55 metres above ground. The interior volume of the tower is 4,650 cubic metres.

Despite being one of the world's most famous tourist attractions, the interior of the tower is not open to overseas visitors, though United Kingdom residents are able to arrange tours (well in advance) through their Member of Parliament.However, the tower has no elevator, so those escorted must climb the 334 limestone stairs to the top.

Because of changes in ground conditions since construction (notably tunnelling for the Jubilee Line extension), the tower leans slightly to the north-west, by roughly 220 millimetres at the clock dials, giving an inclination of approximately 1/250. Due to thermal effects it oscillates annually by a few millimetres east and west.

Tasty Cuisine? Curry...

2010-11-09T09:06:00.000-08:00

Contrary to popular belief, the modern British now consume more garlic per head than the French or the Spaniards, in spite of the fact that Vicky Beckham says ``Spain smells like garlic´´.

Joking apart, at least in my opinion it's quite clear than British cuisine has been unfairly vilified, and it is absolutely clear that has absorbed the cultural influence of those that have settled in the UK, producing a very rich wide range of hybrid dishes from very different origins.

Probably the most notorious influence comes from India, so I would like to write an Indian recipe that a friend of mine (from London) gave me years ago when I was in London, and I prepare it now and then. It has nothing, it's really easy and tastes nice.

Curried Rice with Prawns:

* Time: 25 min
* Difficulty: minimum (even I can do it myself)
* nº people: 4

Ingredients:
- a bit of butter/ or olive oil
- 500 g rice
- 1/2 L of stock
- 2 little onions
- 1 tea spoon of curry powder
- 300 g of frozen prawns
- 2 golden apples
- 250 ml liquid cream
- salt

How to prepare it:
Chop the little onions up and fry them lightly; peel the apples and cut them into little cubes about one centimetre. After that, add them to the lightly fried onions, let it cook two minutes and add the tea spoon of curry powder. Put the stock in the pan and when the mixture strats boiling and the rice, the prawns and salt at taste (not too much, you can always adjust the seasonig if necessary). If you fancy can add some peas, they fit well in this dish. Let it boil for four minutes and then add the cream.
Finishing: After the cream let it boiling some minutes, try the salt again, and put a bit of chopped parsley. It's OK, serve in soup dishes.

Tea Party?

2010-11-09T08:32:00.000-08:00

Nowadays we relate the words ``Tea Party´´ with the ultra-conservative right wing of the Republican party in the US. But, What's that? Why that name?

As many of you probably now, the Tea party was a revolutionary movement in the pre-American Revolution against the British Tea act wich had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773.
The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea coming into the colonies. On December 16, 1773, after officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history, and other political protests often refer to it.
The Boston Tea Party arose from two issues confronting the British Empire in 1773: the financial problems of the British East India Company, and an ongoing dispute about the extent of Parliament's authority, if any, over the British American colonies without seating any elected representation. The North ministry's attempt to resolve these issues produced a showdown that would eventually result in revolution.

Pet Shop Boys

2010-10-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

When I hear a Pet Shop Boys song automatically I travel to my teen age times because I was a real fun by then. Time's gone by but I keep thinking they are probably the best dance techno music band of all times (maybe I should make a mention for Depeche Mode).
All of you probably know them well, but if you don't I strongly recomend you to buy, download, so on..., take your music sistem and have a good time with their songs; here you have some information about:
Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards.

They are one of the world's best-selling music artists, Pet Shop Boys have sold over 100 million records worldwide,and are listed as the most successful duo in UK music history by The Guinness Book of Records.Three-time BRIT Award winners and six-time Grammy nominees, since 1986 they have achieved 42 Top 30 singles and 22 Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart, including four Number Ones: "West End Girls", "It's a Sin", "Always on My Mind" and "Heart".

At the 2009 BRIT Awards, Pet Shop Boys received an award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. The duo's latest studio album, Yes (continuing their tradition of single word titles) was released on 23 March 2009.[3] It was followed with the live CD and DVD Pandemonium released 15 February 2010, filmed and recorded live at the London O2 Arena in December 2009.

Halloween

2010-10-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

Halloween (or Hallowe'en) is an annual holiday observed on October 31, primarily in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints' Day, but is today largely a secular celebration.

Common Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, ghost tours, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, committing pranks, telling ghost stories or other frightening tales, and watching horror films.

The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces. Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames.Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.

Another common practice was divination, which often involved the use of food and drink.

The name 'Halloween' and many of its present-day traditions derive from the Old English era.

The Continent won't be isolated any more

2010-10-19T09:03:00.000-07:00

The Channel Tunnel (French: Le tunnel sous la Manche), (also informally known as the Chunnel) is a 50.5-kilometre (31.4 mi) undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent near Dover in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is 75 metres (250 ft) deep.At 37.9 kilometres (23.5 mi), the Channel Tunnel possesses the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world.

The tunnel carries high-speed Eurostar passenger trains, Eurotunnel Shuttle roll-on/roll-off vehicle transport—the largest in the world—and international rail freight trains. The tunnel connects end-to-end with the LGV Nord and High Speed 1 high-speed railway lines. In 1996 the American Society of Civil Engineers identified the tunnel as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

Ideas for a cross-Channel fixed link appeared as early as 1802, but British political and press pressure over compromised national security stalled attempts to construct a tunnel. However, the eventual successful project, organised by Eurotunnel, began construction in 1988 and opened in 1994. The project came in 80% over its predicted budget.Since its construction, the tunnel has faced several problems. Fires have disrupted operation of the tunnel. Illegal immigrants and asylum seekers have attempted to use the tunnel to enter Britain, causing a minor diplomatic disagreement over the siting of the Sangatte refugee camp, which was eventually closed in 2002.
Total cross-tunnel passenger traffic volumes peaked at 18.4 million in 1998, then dropped to 14.9 million in 2003, from then rising again to 16.1 million in 2008.

At the time of deciding to build the tunnel, 15.9 million passengers were predicted for Eurostar trains in the opening year. In 1995, the first full year, actual numbers were a little over 2.9 million, growing to 7.1 million in 2000, then dropping again to 6.3 million in 2003. However, Eurostar was also limited by the lack of a high-speed connection on the British side. After the completion of High Speed 1 (formerly CTRL) to London in two stages in 2003 and 2007, traffic increased. In 2008, Eurostar carried 9,113,371 passengers in cross-Channel-Tunnel traffic, a 10% increase over the previous year, despite traffic limitations due to the 2008 Channel Tunnel fire.

COUNTY OF YORKSHIRE

2010-10-09T04:04:00.000-07:00

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom.Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as a geographical territory and cultural region.The name is familiar and well understood across the United Kingdom and is in common use in the media and the military,and also features in the titles of current areas of civil administration, such as Yorkshire and the Humber and West Yorkshire.

Within the borders of the historic county of Yorkshire are areas which are widely considered to be among the greenest in England, due to the vast stretches of unspoiled countryside in the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors and to the open aspect of some of the major cities.Yorkshire has sometimes been nicknamed God's Own County.The emblem of Yorkshire is the white rose of the English royal House of York, and the most commonly used flag representative of Yorkshire is the White Rose on a dark blue background,which after years of use, was recognised by the Flag Institute on 29 July 2008.Yorkshire Day, held on 1 August, is a celebration of the general culture of Yorkshire, ranging from its history to its own language.

Spanish Armada (1588) La Armada Invencible

2010-09-21T02:54:00.000-07:00

The Spanish Armada (Spanish: Grande y Felicísima Armada, "Great and Most Fortunate Navy") was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England to stop English involvement in the Spanish Netherlands and English-sponsored piracy in the Atlantic. The fleet's mission was to sail to the Gravelines in Flanders and transport the famous Tercios de Flandes, a ground force of over 30,000 men led by the Duke of Parma, across the Channel to England. The mission eventually failed due to strategic errors of the Spanish Commander, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, bad weather, and early English attacks on the Armada, especially during the Battle of Gravelines.

The failed mission was an early event in a nearly twenty year long Anglo-Spanish war.
The expedition of the Spanish Armada led to a similar campaign by England the following year, the failed Drake–Norris Expedition of 1589,sent to occupy Portugal and northwestern Spain, which was also unsuccessful.

St George's Cross

2010-09-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

St George's Cross (or the Cross of St George) is a red cross on a white background used as a symbolic reference to Saint George. The red cross on white was associated with St George from medieval times.

St George's Cross has been adopted on the coat of arms and flags of several countries and cities which have St George as a patron saint, notably England, Georgia, Aragon, Greece, Genoa and Barcelona.
The cross is also found, for various reasons, on the provincial flag of Huesca, Zaragoza and Teruel as well as the municipal flag for numerous cities, including Montreal, Almería, Milan, Genoa, Padua, Zadar and Freiburg im Breisgau. It is also the basis for the Four Moors flag of Sardinia. Guernsey was permitted to use it as its state flag between 1936 and 1985.

Historically, the cross appeared on many now extinct flags, emblems and coats of arms, such as that of the Swabian League in late Medieval Germany.
Like other countries with St George as a patron, the English frequently used St George's cross as their symbol.

During the first Crusade, the Pope decided that knights of different nationalites should be distinguished by different colours of cross. French knights were allocated the red cross on white. English knights complained about this, since they considered this to be "their" St George's cross.

In 1188 the French King, Philip II of France accepted the claim of the English to the red cross on white, and the English and French officially exchanged their respective crosses. However by this time, the red cross on white had become a typical crusader symbol.
From about 1277, due to already widespread use, St George's cross officially became the national flag of England and Wales. The three lions remained the coat of arms and flag of the king.

After the dynastic union of England and Scotland in 1603 (the so-called "Union of the Crowns"), a combined British flag was created in 1606, initially for maritime display, later restricted to the King's ships, by combining St George's Cross with the St Andrew's Cross (the flag of Scotland). The St George flag remained the flag of England and Wales for other purposes until the Acts of Union 1707. At the union, the first Union Flag become official for all purposes in the new Kingdom of Great Britain.
Nevertheless, in heraldry the St George's Cross continued to be used in the fly of standards in English and Welsh grants of arms (until a gradual change in practice in the nineteenth century). It is still used to represent England and by those who wish to show pride in England specifically. Nowadays this is primarily done at events such as international football and rugby union competitions. (Since the adoption of a separate Welsh flag in 1959, the St George's Cross has become associated with England alone, rather than England and Wales.)

The flag of St George is also the rank flag of an Admiral in the Royal Navy, and civilian craft are forbidden to fly it. However, ships which took part in the rescue operation at Dunkirk during World War II are allowed to fly it as a jack.

Churches belonging to the Church of England (unless for special reasons another flag is flown by custom) may fly the St George's Cross. The correct way (since an order from the Earl Marshal in 1938) is for the church to fly the St George's cross, with the arms of the diocese in the left-hand upper corner of the flag.

The flag of St George has since the late 20th century enjoyed a resurgence in popularity partly due to football-inspired nationalism, and also in response to the devolution movements in Scotland and Wales.

Sensory Experiment

2010-05-21T03:46:00.000-07:00

Smells and Flavours

Nowadays chefs go to great lengths to be more creative and traditional concepts are fast changing in the world of cooking.

There are many chefs we could name but one place has a different approach and even wants us to test our senses. This is the Fat Duck! They have an interesting ways, for anyone who is adventurous,to have a go for themselves....what will you perceive??

The only answer to that is test your our senses...how good are they....what will you learn from this experience? Is it what you expected? Did you capture the essence of the experiment? Will it affect how you perceive food from now on?

Why don´t you have a go and don´t forget to take a good look at the whole website..you´ll enjoy it.

http://www.thefatduck.co.uk/About-The-Fat-Duck/

Have a nice weekend! ^_^

RECYCLING

2010-05-04T01:48:00.000-07:00

'Waste not want not'

This is an old English says which refers to not wasting resources, the proof of the pudding is that nowadays most parts of the world try to recycle waste products like paper; plastic; cardboard;styrofoam; aluminium cans, steel cans, waste metals, glass bottles and jars; used oils; paint and biodegradable waste products from the kitchen and garden.
These are just a few things that we can all make a personal effort in keep our planet clean...you might say to yourself...'What I do won´t make a difference' but if we all said that we´d be buried under our own rubbish! The thing is we all love to walk down a clean street, we love going to parks with our families, we even travel to far of places to relax and enjoy but imagine all of these places covered in our household rubbish...!

We all have the responsibility to keep our planet clean not only for ourselves but for future generations.

So the question is a personal one.... What do I do to waste less and to recycle more?

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

2010-04-29T02:43:00.000-07:00

William Shakespeare was baptized 26 April 1564 died 23 April 1616

Who was William Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright.
Why is William Shakespeare famous? Because Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. A lot of what he wrote is still read and performed today you only have to go to the Globe Theatre near the Millenium Bridge and the Tate Modern to see some of his work performed live. He wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems.
Shakespeares Life
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway and together they had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. They lived in a beautiful house situated in the village of Shottery, Warwickshire, England, and about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Stratford-upon-Avon. Although it is often called a cottage, it is, in fact, a spacious twelve-roomed farmhous. The visible timber framing, a trademark of vernacular Tudor style architecture

1585 -1592, Shakespeare worked in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men.

His famous works are:

A Midsummer Night's Dream
Macbeth
Twelfth Night
Hamlet
Romeo and Juliet
Julius Caesar

For more information use the official website: http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/

THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

2010-04-26T04:04:00.000-07:00

This outstanding exhibition, the first of its kind in the UK, tells the story of the Indian portrait over three centuries, exploring the fascinating ways in which Indian artists have approached the depiction of the human form and the changing role of portraiture in Indian history. Bringing together 60 stunning works from international collections, the exhibition will celebrate the beauty, power and humanity of these works of art.

The exhibition has works from the Mughal Court, including some of the earliest realistic portraits made for the Emperors Humayun (r.1530–56) and Akbar (r.1556–1605) and these magnificent court portraits made for their successors Jahangir (r.1605–27) and Shah Jahan (r.1628–58), as well as studies of Mughal courtiers, holy men and servants. The distinctive regional styles from Rajasthan and the Punjab Hills are also shown in conjunction with the European–influenced pieces produced by Indian artists under British rule.

These paintings are a rich and complex history record, embracing influences from Iran and Europe as well as local Hindu and Muslim traditions, showing that the Indian portrait can stand side by side with outstanding examples of portraiture from around the world.

Contemporary artists, The Singh Twins, will explore themes from the exhibition with a display of work in the Studio Gallery.

For more information here´s the web page:http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson.php

British Birds

2010-03-26T04:37:00.000-07:00

The National Bird, the Robin.

The Robin is a plump bird with bright orange-red breast, face, throat and cheeks edged with grey, a white belly and olive-brown upper parts.

The sexes are very similar, if not identical, though some texts suggest that the brown forehead is "V" shaped in females, and "U" shaped in males, sometimes even this is not always apparent. They have got a brown bill and legs.

The juvenile Robin has speckled buff-brown upper parts and underparts. They haven't got red feathers so that adult birds do not attack them in territorial disputes. The speckled feathers are lost in a partial moult when the bird is about two to three months old.
In the winter, resident Robins are joined by immigrants from Scandinavia and the continental Europe; these Robins are paler than the British ones, have a duller red breast. The immigrants aren´t as tame as the British Robin because they skulk in woodlands, only British Robins are a tame garden bird.

Robins are territorial all year round; Robins will defend their territory to the death. So in the poem "Who killed Cock Robin?", another Robin would have killed it instead of a sparrow:

Who killed Cock Robin?
I said the Sparrow,
With my bow and arrow,
And I killed Cock Robin.

Funky British Music

2010-03-23T02:25:00.000-07:00

JAMIROQUAI
(pronounced /dʒəˈmirəˌkwaj/) are an English jazz funk and acid jazz band. Jamiroquai were the most prominent component in the early-1990s London-based acid jazz movement, alongside groups such as Incognito, the James Taylor Quartet, the Brand New Heavies, Galliano, and Corduroy. Subsequent albums have explored other musical directions such as pop, rock and electronica. Jamiroquai have sold some 35 million albums worldwide.

Check out one of his You Tube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv1KzkQB75w&feature=related

His official website is interesting too: http://www.jamiroquai.com/

CHANGE OF SEASON

2010-03-15T02:39:00.000-07:00

SPRING IS HERE

Yet again Spring is here, the warmth of the sun is provoking Spring flowers to come out of their winter hibernation. Daffodils, primroses and bluebells are showing us their beautiful faces to brighten our day and they give us a wonderful reminder that Summer is on its way.......
The birds are singing from before first light and they are so busy calling mates and building their nest...it's a bustle of Spring time activity in nature. Even the cock crows before dawn in anticipation to coming months.
Farmers are busy ploughing the land and preparing seed stock for planting in what is probably the busiest time of the year....apart from harvest time, of course.
Have you noticed the lovely lambs in the pasture fields, prancing in the sunshine? What a wonderful sight to see...yes, Spring is here.
What does Spring mean for you? Do you have special activities related to this season of awakening? If you´re a writer or poet, artist or just a parent...what does Spring bring out in your life or work?

It´s food for thought I´m sure!

P.s: Don´t forget the clocks change at the end of the month

British Cheese

2010-03-11T01:09:00.000-08:00

• Cheese is made from milk and it takes around 10 litres of milk to make 1kg of hard cheese.
• Cheese can be made from lots of different types of milk, such as buffaloes' milk, sheep's milk and goats' milk; most of the cheese eaten in the UK is made from cows' milk.
• We all know that "Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet, eating her Curds and Whey" but I bet you didn't know that to make cheese, milk has to be separated into curds which are the lumpy bits and whey which is the liquid bit. We make cheese with the curds!
• Some cheeses, like Mature Cheddar, are stored for one year or longer before they are ready to eat. They are kept in special rooms and sometimes even caves!
• There are over 700 different named cheeses produced in Britain.
• Cheddar is named after the Cheddar Gorge caves in Somerset where the cheese used to be stored to ripen. Cheddar is one of the most widely made cheeses in the world. King Henry II declared Cheddar cheese to be the best in Britain!
• The majority of Shropshire Blue is not actually made in Shropshire, but in Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
• Cheshire is one of the oldest British cheeses. It dates from Roman times and even gets a mention in the Domesday Book
• Cornish Yarg came from a recipe found in a book in a farmer's attic - his name was Mr Gray (Yarg spelt backwards!)
• Caerphilly was traditionally eaten by Welsh coal miners for their lunch.
• Every spring sees locals in the village of Stilton, Peterborough, race along a course rolling Stilton shaped wheels.
• Cheese comes in many different colours, textures, tastes and appearances. They can be hard, soft and some are runny!
• Cheese is packed with the protein that we all need for growth and development.
• Hard cheese is source of calcium with a matchbox-sized piece providing a third of an adult's daily requirement for calcium.
• Cheese is a source of vitamin B12, which you need for red blood cell formation.
• Each day our friends in France, Italy, Greece and Germany eat more than twice as much cheese, per person, as we do.
• Cheese is one of the most versatile foods around and can be used as a starter, a main course or as a dessert - you can't do that with many other foods

TYPES OF CHEESE:

• Buxton Blue
• Caerphilly
• Cheddar
• Cheshire
• Cornish Yarg
• Derby
• Double Gloucester
• Dovedale
• Gruyere
• Lancashire
• Red Leicester
• Sage Derby
• Shropshire Blue
• Stilton
• Wensleydale
• White Stilton

For more very interesting information and great recipes go to: http://www.britishcheese.com

Jamie Oliver also has some great recipes with cheese, why not try one of them? Here´s the link:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/steak-guinness-and-cheese-pie-with-a-puf

SPORTS

2010-03-01T00:53:00.000-08:00

Football, Football and more Football

Can you imagine if you were full of cold and tired and having a slight injury..would you go out and win a football match? It doesn´t seem likely, does it? Well, it happened yesterday at Wembley. The match was between Manchester United and Aston Villa. The footballer of the day was Wayne Rooney who was one of the substitues to begin with..he was brought into the match and as a great attacker, he scored, putting Manchester United into the lead for the Carling Cup Final....What a champion! Great game! Great football! And above all Wayne Rooney, a great attacker! Good work mate!

The History Behind English Nursery Rhymes

2010-02-24T13:13:00.000-08:00

DOCTOR FOSTER

Doctor Foster went to Gloucester
In a shower of rain;
He stepped in a puddle, right up to his middle,
And never went there again.

A popular tradition in the West Country suggested that the famous Doctor Foster was King Edward I whose horse got stuck in the mud of a Gloucester street during one of his visits. The mud was so deep that planks of wood were put in front of the horse so it could regain its footing. King Edward I was so upset and angry by the incident that he vowed he would never visit Gloucester again.

The Penny Sweet

2010-02-23T11:57:00.000-08:00

Penny sweets? What are they?
In the 60s , 70s and 80s it was common for sweets to be sold individually in shops, each sweet costing a penny or two, and that's how they got the name penny sweets.
Some shops had a tray on the counter with all the different of sweets - maybe up to 20 different kinds of sweets on view.

Most every British citizen has spent some of his or her pocket money on a careful selection of penny sweets. This was tedious for the shopkeeper as sometimes it took quite a long time to pick out just what you want.
Examples of penny sweets
Black Jacks – aniseed flavoured chews which would stain your tongue inky black
Love Hearts – a packet of fruit flavoured sweets each with a romantic message written on it such as ‘Kiss me’, ‘Hug me’, ‘Forever yours’
Flumps – vanilla flavoured marshmallow strips
Flying Saucers – shaped like a flying saucer and filled with fizzy sherbet
Traffic Light Lolly – a round candy on a stick that would change colour from red to yellow to green as you licked it.
Sherbet Fountain – a cylinder filled with sherbet with a stick of liquorice. To eat the sherbet you would need to lick the liquorice stick, dip it into the sherbet, then lick it again.
Fruit Salad – sticky pineapple and raspberry flavoured chews.

My personal favourite was the Sherbet Fountain, What's yours?

If you have never tried them I suggest you do the next time you go to England ;0)

5 Minutes of British Humour

2010-02-20T06:14:00.000-08:00

For all you that like to 'Have a five minute laugh' here's a good one for the road before you take off. They say that laughter prolongs life and gets rid of depression...how about this!

Take a quick peek at Mr. Bean on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyDY0hiMZy8&feature=player_embedded

For more British comedeans check this site,,,it's a scream.

http://www.anglik.net/comedy.htm

Long Weekend

2010-02-12T03:33:00.000-08:00

Many of you will have a long weekend, this weekend, depending on where you live in the world.

For a mini break or maybe you just change of scene. Great places to visit this weekend are:

London, here's a link of interesting things to do and see:

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whats-on.aspx

To Paris: http://en.parisinfo.com/shows-exhibitions-paris/

Fly to New York: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2007/08/31/2007-08-31_whats_happening_in_new_york_city_this_we.html

Or Rome: http://www.travelplan.it/rome_guide_itineraries_weekend.htm

How about Amsterdam: http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/whats-on

Whatever your choice of country, activity or festival there is always lots to see and do. Lots of people to meet or just have a quiet leisurely time with friend, loved ones and family.

Have a nice weekend!

GREAT BRITISH ENGINEERING

2010-02-01T03:53:00.000-08:00

THE HUMBER BRIDGE

The bridge was opened officially by HM Queen Elizabeth II on 16th July 1981.
With a centre span of 1,410 metres (4,626 ft) and a total length of 2,220 metres (7,283 ft), the Humber Bridge was the longest single-span suspension bridge in the world for 16 years.
Each tower is a hollow concrete column, each measuring 155.5 metres (510 ft) tall and tapering from 6 metres (20 ft) square at the base to 4.5 metres (14.8 ft) x 4.75 metres (15.6 ft) at the top. The bridge is designed to withstand constant motion and bends more than 3 metres (10 ft) in winds of 80 miles per hour (129 km/h). The towers, although both vertical, are not parallel, being 36 millimetres (1.4 in) farther apart at the top than the bottom as a result of the curvature of the earth.
The north tower is on the bank, and has foundations down to 8 metres (26 ft). The south tower is in the water, and descends to 36 metres (118 ft) due to the shifting sandbanks that make up the estuary.

There is enough wire in the suspension cables to circle the Earth nearly twice.
The bridge held the record for the world's longest single-span suspension bridge for 16 years from its opening in July 1981 until the opening of the Great Belt Bridge in June 1997 and was relegated to third place with the opening of the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge in April 1998. It is now the fifth longest single-span suspension bridge after two longer span bridges opened in China, the Sihoumen bridge and the Runyang Bridge. It remains the longest bridge in the world that one can cross on foot.

http://www.humberbridge.co.uk/explore.php

Here you can find information about the design which is very unique due to the winds and materials. There are activities and much more.… a great piece of Britain.

The First Monarch to....

2010-01-25T04:01:00.000-08:00

QUEEN ELIZABETH II

* Queen Elizabeth II was the first monarch to CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE GLOBE. This took 6 months

* The first queen to send her children to Boarding School to keep them from the press media.

* The first monarch and only female to serve in the Armed Forces.

* The first monarch since the Act of Union (1801), to be out of the country at the moment of succession. She was in Kenya at the time.

* The first British monarch to open Buckingham Palace to the public

* Queen Elizabeth II was the first British monarch to visit China (1986).

All of these action are far from the old monarchy, very modern indeed. This show us she is quite brave when coming to breaking tradition and moving with the times. Although keeping seems tradition is foremost the Queen has broken old fashioned moulds.

When Lady Diana died she came out of the palace and stood on the street as Lady Di's funeral car drove by. This takes humility, a valuable quality in a person that is so aloof.

You could say that Queen Elizabeth is a pioneering queen of our modern day.

Scientist - Isaac Newton

2010-01-22T01:41:00.000-08:00

Although we all know that Isaac Newton was a physicist, mathematician, astronomer and natural philosopher, he also explained Universal gravitation, the laws of motion; he built the first reflective telescope and descovered how to decompose white light into many colours of the visible Spectrum. There is another side to Newton we don't always think of.

Today we recollected 10 facts you might find interesting:

1. ISAAC WASN'T EXPECTED TO LIVE. Yes, that's right. He was born so small that he wasn't expected to survive and could fit into a quart mug(32oz(UK) or 946ml)

2. NEWTON A FARMER? He came from a farming family and started out as a farmer but he was a bad farmer so his uncle persuaded his mother to send him to Trinity College in Cambridge. Aren't you glad of that! What a waste it would have been if he carried on working the land.

3. ISAAC INSPIRED BY AN APPLE. There are a few stories about Isaac and the apple, but it is known that, at least, he was in Woolsthorpe Manor when he was inspired to formulate his theory of Universal gravitation.

4. NEWTON SECRETIVE. He was so secretive about his findings, he rarely published them which led to many quarrels about who deserved the credit for discovering such new found laws.

5. DEEPLY RELIGIOUS. Isaac said that gravity explains the motion of the planets but it didn't explain how they were set in motion and stated:" The most beautiful system of the Sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the councel and domination of an Intelligent Being. The Supreme God is a Being eternal, inifinte and absolutley perfect".

6. RELIGIOUS BUT...... Newton was deeply religious but he didn't believe in Satan or the Trinity. This might seem to us quite normal in a scientific man but back then it was blasphemous.

7. MAD ABOUT THE BIBLE. Isaac was obsessed with the Bible profesy of the End of the World (Armageddon, Apocalypse, the End of the System of things) and spent much of his life investigating, calculating profetic time and looking for hidden meanings in the Bible. So much so that he wrote more about the Bible than science.

8. NEWTON THE ALCHEMIST. Isaac secretly delved into the world of alchemy. He made many efforts to turn basic metals into gold, this was, of course, illegal. Evidently he kept it secret as it was a felony under an act of 1404.

9. A COUNTERFEITER'S ENEMY. In 1696, Newton became a warden of the London Mint and was given the task of stopping counterfeiting, which was rampant in those days:

He gathered much of that evidence himself, disguised, while he hung out at bars and taverns. Newton was made a justice of the peace and between June 1698 and December 1699 conducted some 200 cross-examinations of witnesses, informers and suspects. Newton won his convictions and in February 1699, he had ten prisoners waiting to be executed. He later ordered all records of his interrogations to be destroyed.

10. A POOR POLITICIAN. Newton a Member of Parliament in 1689 and served for exactly one year. During that time, he said only one sentence during the lengthy proceedings: he asked a nearby usher to close an open, drafty window!

Curiosity lead to Treasure

2010-01-19T02:52:00.000-08:00

Most people think that everything is invented, found, discovered and exhibited in a museum somewhere. Although there are thousands of wonderous things to be seen; there still seems to be a lot that is undiscovered.

Last year Terry Herbert found a fantastic hoard of artefacts in a south Staffordshire field when he was metal detecting (Curiosity didn't kill the cat this time, ha, ha, ha). ^ _ ^

It has been estimated that the finds date right back to 600 - 700 A.D. Once the archaeological excavation started they found Sword fittings, helmets, Christian crosses, and precious gems. There are jewels with filigree work and animals interlaced into the work. Astonishing when you think how old they are.

If you want to see them for real the British Museum is currently showing the Staffordshire Hoard.

For more information use this address:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/all_current_exhibitions/the_staffordshire_hoard.aspx

One All Time Children's Favourite

2010-01-18T03:25:00.000-08:00

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE

A real children's favourite is Thomas the Tank Engine It is a British children's television series, first broadcast on the ITV network in September 1984.

It is based on The Railway Series of books by the Reverend Wilbert. V. Awdry. The books were based on stories Wilber Awdry told to entertain his son Christopher during his recovery from measles. Many of the stories are based on events from Awdry's personal experience. These books deal with the adventures of a group of anthropomorphised trains and road vehicles that live on the fictional Island of Sodor.

The series has featured storytellers like: Ringo Starr (1984-1986), Michael Angelis (1991-present), George Carlin (1991-1995), Alec Baldwin (1998-2002), Michael Brandon (2003-present), and Pierce Brosnan (Guest Narrator).

Heritage railways have also benefited from the series. "Day out with Thomas" events, in which passengers are given the chance to ride in full-size coaches pulled by locomotives resembling Thomas or his friends, provide a considerable source of income, and attract those who might not otherwise visit the railway.

A great link for your little brother, sister, son, daughter, niece, nephew, etc is:

www.randomhouse.com/kids/thomas/

It good fun for all the family.

Great British Painters

2010-01-15T03:31:00.000-08:00

JOHN CONTABLE

John Constable was born 11 June 1776 in Suffolk England. He was an English Romantic painter. He is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area where he lived—now known as "Constable Country"—which he loved and this affection comes through in his paintings. "I should paint my own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, "Painting is but another word for feeling".
His most famous paintings include Dedham Vale of 1802 and The Hay Wain of 1821. His paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art although while he was alive he was never financially successful. He did not become a member of the establishment until he was elected to the Royal Academy at the age of 52. He sold more paintings in France than in his native England, can you believe it?

Hidden History

2010-01-12T10:27:00.000-08:00

Many English nursery rhymes have a hidden history lesson for us. One example is 'There Was A Crooked Man'
Here is the rhyme:

THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN
There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

It has been suggested by one scholar that the crooked man may have been General Sir Alexander Leslie of Scotland, one of those who signed the Covenant during Charles I’s reign, securing the religious and political freedom of Scotland. The ‘crooked sixpence’ would thus be Charles I, and the ‘crooked stile’ the English/Scottish border. That the English and the Scots reached agreement, after Leslie had crossed the border and seized Newcastle in 1640, is implicit in ‘they all lived together in a little crooked house’.

Do you know any nursery rhymes that tell a story? If you do please let us know.

ABBEY ROAD

2010-01-12T09:09:00.000-08:00

If we did a ranking of the most famous streets in Great Britain, this would probably be on the top of it or, at least, very, very close.
This street is located in the Borough of Candem, city of Westminster, London. Well, in fact, there are many other streets with this same name -20 only in the area of London-, but the really famous one goes from the northeast area of St. John's Wood, close to Lord's Cricket Ground, towards the East-End.
And this could be like any other street, however, this one became an Iconic street because of the fact that the Abbey Road Studios of the discography label EMI are located at the South-East End, at number 3, and because there, The Beatles recorded their acclaimed album ABBEY ROAD in 1969.
Since then, the image of the four of Liverpool going across the street through the pedestrian crossing belongs to Music History.

Frozen Britain

2010-01-11T03:22:00.000-08:00

This is a photo taken from a NASA satellite on January 7th. It was front page last Friday on for of the six biggest newspapers in England.

Where Did the New Year's Resolution Come From?

2010-01-08T02:08:00.000-08:00

New Year’s Resolution
Well, here is a brief history of the origins of the New Year’s resolution for you:
The Babylonians The first recorded New Year’s resolutions were made by the Babylonians around 4000 years ago. Most commonly, it revolved around returning any borrowed farm equipment, as their New Year coincided with the start of their farming season.
The Romans Not long after, the Romans would start the New Year by counting the stock of the previous year and setting a goal to accomplish more in the coming year.
The Chinese The Chinese set a special New Year’s resolution - house cleaning. Most people nowadays would relate this to Spring-Cleaning. At the coming of the New Year, the Chinese would clean their house from top to bottom. What a great way to start the year, with a beautiful clean house!
The Modern World Today we still set New Year’s resolutions, and try to achieve them. They are almost always based around self-improvement resolutions and goals. They are a way to mark the beginning of changes in our habits and lifestyle. The most common resolutions include losing weight, give up smoking and/or drinking, and improving your finances.
As mentioned earlier, millions of people make these resolutions but unfortunately only 10% ever manage to achieve them. It is a sad fact, but many of these resolutions do not even last longer than a few weeks. By July, most have been completely forgotten and no real progress against the resolution has been made.

It’s always interesting to see where these traditions come from, why they are done and the basis for these traditions that are sometime ambiguous.
So if you are the sort to make a New Year’s Resolution, are you going to stick to it or will you be one of the 10% that manage to reach the goal you set yourself????????

Top Ten Resolution:
1. Spend more time with Family & Friends.
2. Keep Fit.
3. Reduce the Bulge.
4. Quit Smoking.
5. Enjoy Life More.
6. Quit Drinking.
7. Get Out of Debt.
8. Learn Something New.
9. Help Others.
10.Get Organized.

Yorkshire Terrier

2010-01-07T10:52:00.001-08:00

Hi friends. Here in S&R we are very fond of dogs, so today we are going to tell you about one of the most well-known dog breeds all around the world as a companion dog, and nowadays the most popular breed in the UK according to a list published last year for The Guardian.

Obviously, as its name indicates, it comes from the county of Yorkshire. Reportedly, the first Yorkshire Terrier was called Huddersfield Ben, and its breader was a very keen dogs man called Mr. Eastwood from Bradford in west Yorkshire, England. Huddersfield Ben was the result of the crossbreeding of a mother and her son, and it is considered the pilar of the modern Yorkshire. But his ancestors, were dogs who ranged weights from 6 to 8 or 9 kilos, and do you know what they were for? They were used to hunt rats. Disgusting?? Maybe, but necessary at those big country houses. H. Ben was born in 1865 and died in 1871, a short life for a pioneer.

Yorkshire Terrier is the product of combinig Scottish and English Terriers that was made up when a big part of Scottish population moved to England because of the Industrial revolution. Amongst the breeds that created the current Yorkshire terrier were the Waterside terrier, Clydesdale Terrier, or Paisley Terrier. The influence from Scottland comes from the Scottish Terrier, the West Highland White Terrier, The Maltese, Cairn Terrier, and Skye Terrier.
We hope you will enjoy its company. Cheers.

British Music Week

2009-12-29T00:30:00.000-08:00

For all you music lovers here's a great page to visit while you still have time during the Christmas holidays.

www.britishmusicweek.com

There's lots to see and plenty of information about your favourite singers, groups and bands. They go from the newest releases to the classics like the Rolling Stones.

You can see the results of 2009 Rising Star finalists before the year ends. There are bands from as far away as Canada and as close as Spain. Check it out! You'll love it

Who Invented Powered Flight?

2009-12-28T12:40:00.000-08:00

The year 2003 was the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ invention of the first powered airplane. The first successful flight occurred on December 17th, 1903 at Kill Devil Hills in Kittyhawk, North Carolina.
Hey, Wait a minute!
They may have made ‘the first successful flight’ but could you say they ‘invented' the first powered airplane?
Before the Wright Brothers across the Atlantic Ocean…..in Britain……
Percy Pilcher was born in Bath, England in 1867. He designed a powered triplane and built it in 1899. By the end of September 1899 his triplane was nearly ready to fly (except, that is, for mounting the engine), but while gliding in his previously reliable “Hawk”, there was a structural failure. Pilcher fell and died two days later. His triplane was never flown but the “invention” beat the Americans by 4 years.
Or could it have been Bill Frost, a Welsh carpenter, who patented the aeroplane in 1894. He flew his powered flying machine the following year in 1895 that was 8 years before the Wright brothers!
Think about it….before the famous flight in America some 55 years earlier John stringfellow took flight in his steam propelled twin engines at Chard in Somerset.

British Poetry

2009-12-22T00:55:00.000-08:00

LOSS

The day he moved out was terrible -
That evening she went through hell.
His absence wasn't a problem....
But the corkscrew had gone as well.

By Wendy Cope

I had a really good laugh when I first read this poem. Such sentiment in the first two sentences to then realize it was directed to a corkscrew. Ha, ha, ha, ha; what a giggle.

If you like contemporary poetry you can take a look at this site. It will first show you Wendy's biography and you could possible go on and on....

www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth174

How Eight Minutes Changed British Time

2009-12-21T03:15:00.000-08:00

Well, this has to do with the Railway and a court case that set time keeping in Britain. On November 24, 1858, at 10:04 a.m by Dorset clocks a Dorchester judge found against a man involved in a land battle because he was late for the 10 a.m hearing. Two minutes later the man arrived and claimed he was on time according to the Railway station clock in his home town of Carlisle in Cumberland.
The case had to be retried because of this discrepancy, and in 1880 Parliament ended the confusion by ordering the whole country to set its clocks by the Greenwich Mean Time.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to United Kingdom or UK) is a country situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe and is surrounded by the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

The UK is composed of four constituent parts: three constituent countries England, Scotland and Wales on the island of Great Britain and the province of Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland forms the United Kingdom's principal international land border. There is also a frontier with France at the Channel Tunnel with the French border control being on the English side of the English Channel (La Manche)!

The UK has several overseas territories throughout the world, relationships with several Crown dependencies and Commonwealth realms.

If you would like to find out more here is a good website:http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/eu/gmt.html

Burton Agnes Hall in Yorkshire

2009-12-18T03:40:00.000-08:00

Burton Agnes Hall is an Elizabethan manor house in the village of Burton Agnes, near Driffield in Yorkshire. It was built by Sir Henry Griffith in 1601–10 to designs attributed to Robert Smithson.[1] There is an older Norman Manor House, originally built in 1173 on an adjacent site; both buildings are now Grade I listed buildings.
The Hall contains a number of fine seventeenth century plaster ceilings and chimney pieces. The ceiling of the Long Gallery was restored in two stages by Francis Johnson between 1951 and 1974.
Frances Griffith heiress of the estate married Sir Matthew Boynton the first Boynton Baronet and on her death in 1634 the estate was bequeathed to her son Francis ( later the second Baronet). On the death of the eleventh Baronet in 1899 the house passed to his daughter, and on her death to her son Sir Marcus Wickham Boynton. He operated a successful stud farm on the estate for many years. He died in 1989 and left the property to a distant cousin, Simon Cunliffe-Lister, (then aged twelve), grandson of Viscount Whitelaw and son of the 3rd Earl of Swinton. Today, the estate is kept and owned by the Burton Agnes Preservation Trust and is managed by Cunliffe-Lister and his mother Hon Susan Whitelaw.
The walled flower garden has a games motif with a central chess board played on black and white paving stones. Other games include draughts, snakes and ladders and hoop toss. Each of these games is in a separate garden surrounded by plants selected by flower colours. There is also a market garden area with attractively planted seasonal vegetables.
Whimsical statues abound throughout the grounds. A woodland walk is well known locally for abundant snowdrop blooms in February.

This is a great family activity for the weekend, and if you like history, why not do some research before you go.

Have a great weekend!

One of Britain's favourite Poems

2009-12-17T00:53:00.000-08:00

TIDES

The evening advances, then withdraws again
Leaving our cups and books like islands on the floor.
We are drifting you and I,
As far from one another as the young heroes
Of these two novels we have just laid down.
For that is happiness: to wander alone
Surrounded by the same moon, whose tides remind us of
ourselves,
Our distances, and what we leave behind.
The lamp left on, the curtains letting in the light.
These things were promises. No doubt we will come back to
them.

By HUGO WILLIAMS 1942

There is a great write up in the Guardian it is well worth reading.

www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/mar/26/poetry.features

I am sure you will find this poet so very interesting, as well as his poems, of course!

A Delicious Autumn Treat

2009-12-16T02:35:00.000-08:00

THE TOFFEE APPLE

The Toffee Apple or Candy Apple (U.S.A) are delicious apples covered with a hard crunchy toffee and served on the end of a stick. They are usually made for the winter festivals, especially on November 5th which is Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire night. This is probably due to the fact that it is the apple harvest anyway. They are eaten during the autumn months and even during winter. If a travel fair comes to town there will always be Toffee Apples as well as many other delicious things to eat.

There is a great page by Jamie Oliver with this great tradition recipe if you want to give it a go but please be careful. Hot sugar can cause serious burns, make sure children and pets are kept away while you try your hand at making Toffee Apples.

Check out Jaime's page: www.jamieoliver.com/foodwise/article-view.php?id=1673

I'm sure you'll really enjoy this delicious but simple treat.

The Benefits of Giving Flowers

2009-12-15T01:26:00.000-08:00

PLANTS THAT NURSE THE SICK

It has long been suspected that contact with nature can reduce stress, produce positive feelings, and ease the suffering of the sick. In Britain, most hospitals are set in a park like surroundings. New research confirms that belief. “Patients were randomly assigned to hospital rooms with or without plants during their recovery period”, explains the SCIENCE DAILY. Patients who had plants in their rooms experienced less pain, needed significantly less pain medication, had better heart rate and blood pressure, and reported greater satisfaction with their rooms and counterpars. Some 93% of those exposed to plants said that these were the ‘most positive’ aspect of their hospital room.
Don’t forget to give flowers to the sick!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

2009-12-14T00:56:00.000-08:00

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous poem ‘Kubla Khan’ has been surrounded by mystery ever since it was published in 1816, 20 years after it was written and when he needed money.

Coleridge explained that the 54 lines were a mere fragment of a glorious vision inspired by an opium dream. The dream had been shattered by an interruption and the rest of the poem had been lost forever.

It came to him while he was staying at a lonely Exmoor farmhouse, recuperating from an illness. He had taken two grains of opium for medicinal purposes. On awaking he began to put down the poem in an ecstasy of inspiration.

When he got to:
For he on honey dew has fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise….

He was suddenly interrupted by an insurance salesman from the nearby town of Porlock. Desperately he tried to get of the man, but somehow he was detained for an hour, talking mundane finance.

Try as he might, Coleridge could never recapture his vision of the legendary world of Xanadu. All that was left was the first fragment of ‘Kubla Khan’, which for 20 years he did not consider worth publishing

The Poem: KUBLA KHAN

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

FOR a lot more information on Samuel Taylor Coleridge and other famous poets and writter type in the name in Wikipedia or http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Kubla_Khan.html

The Battle of England

2009-12-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

In Hitler’s morbid world view not only existed a hierarchy of races but countries too. And probably amongst the great nations of the world, the one he most admired and feared at once was Great Britain. For that reason, after defeating and occupying Poland, Holland, Belgium, and France he tried to sign an armistice with the UK. He considered his dreamed-of continental empire (from France till the very east of Russia) perfectly compatible with the great old overseas British Empire. But Britons, unlike Stalin or the Japanese, didn’t want to come to any agreement with Hitler’s Germany. It was too late. After five years of appeasement policy and several invaded countries there was no choice but war.

Hence Hitler planned the invasion of the isle. The plan was going to be carried out on September 15th (1940) in the southern part of Britain and consisted in landing a great number of troops through the English Channel. But before, all German generals fully agreed they needed unavoidably to reach complete aerial supremacy through subduing the British Royal Air Force (RAF).

In the first stages of the battle, the German air force (Luftwaffe) focused their efforts to attack the shipping traffic in the English Channel in order to make the Britons use all their air force resources to protect the very important supplies from America and the colonies. By the end of July it was clear that it was going to be impossible to do the German invasion of England on time, so they commended Luftwaffe the task of destroying as soon as possible the whole enemy’s air force. A new great offensive started on August 13th and it lasted until September de 17th. During this 35 days the fights in the air were constant. The German planes bombed aerodromes and radar stations, and in several moments they were about to make collapse the attack protection system which was decisive for the Great Britain defence. From July 10th to October 31st the RAF lost about 800 planes in this battle, and the Luftwaffe more than 1300.

We can say the battle of England marked a historical milestone because was the first time that military plans of Hitler went off the rails. The first time that German army had to go back without achieving success. And the first time that Luftwaffe, which had shown great effectiveness supporting land troops in Poland and France, exhibited weaknesses against a modern air force and motivated pilots.
Churchill summarised those weeks saying: ``Never before so many people (British people, but the whole humanity too) had never owed so much (freedom, independence) to so few (the pilots of the RAF)´´
The battle slowly became in a nocturnal bombing of the English big cities, specially London. These attacks lasted till May 1941 and had a bigger impact in civil population, although were not able demoralize them.

Favourite Children's Television

2009-12-11T01:13:00.000-08:00

THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT

When thinking back on favourite tv programmes for kids, one comes to mind straight away. It very different to children's programmes nowadays, it was innocent, nice, educational and so very cute. It was the time-lapse animation called 'The magic Roundabout'.

The Magic Roundabout was first shown on British BBC TV on October 18th, 1965 just before the 6 o'clock news (prime time). It was a popular programme about 8 million watched the five minute episode of the Magic Roundabout.

It's original name was 'Le Manege Enchante', French as you can see because it was created by Serge Danot but as it came to Britain it was re-named by Eric Thompson.

The Magic Roundabout ran on British T.V until 1977 and was phased out. However a few films have been made using this old series and they are both very entertaining for all the family. The first film featuring the characters of the Magic Roundabout is called: 'Dougal and the Blue Cat' and the other film is made in 3D digital animation 'The Magic Roundabout Movie'which is far from the old time-lapse methods of the past but they still keep that lovely quality.

This was such a popular children's programme that they translated it into 28 different language.

British Sense of Humour

2009-12-09T15:15:00.000-08:00

I remember when I was a kid at school and teachers made us study the countries of Europe and the whole world with their capital cities. I always liked geography although it was tough.
When I studied all those names, most of them didn’t mean very much to me, they were just names that I should memorize. But others automatically brought something to my mind. Italy reminded me of the cuadriga fightings and the Roman coliseum, all the Caesars and all the movies. When I heard about the US it was the New York skyscrapers, the statue of Liberty or their western movies. France stood for the Eiffel tower and those moustached bohemian painters drawing beautiful pictures at those enormous green gardens near the tower. If we talk about Portugal, towels, blankets, and those typical cocks that forecast the weather through the colour of its wings –I still have one-.

And what about Britain? Yes. When I thought of Britain the image of those series of Thames Television coming from England with the river Thames and its music of the Big Ben sounding is what I clearly associated Britain with. After that came The Roper’s or Benny Hill. So different of those other luxurious, opulent ones coming from the states: Dallas – J.R. was so evil- Dinastía, Falcon Crest, etc… I remember with affection those nights of the 80’s while having dinner with my parents and little sister we had a fantastic time with George and Mildred. Their natural grace was boosted by the Galician dubbing, I think much more suited for comedy than Castilian. Later came Benny Hill, Os Novos –I don’t know the original name was- or Mr. Bean. If they say you may know a country for their sense of humour, then if you see these series of my childhood you´ll notice that Britons are really serious reliable people but with an enormous capability to make a fool of themselves.

Bone China - Something very common in the UK

2009-12-09T03:53:00.000-08:00

Bone china?
What is bone china? Does it really contain bones?
The story of bone china starts with Josiah Spode. Spode was born in 1733 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire in England. The county of Staffordshire is world-renowned for its ceramics and porcelain. When he was 16 or 17, young Josiah apprenticed with Thomas Whieldon, one of Staffordshire’s finest potters.
Spode worked for other potters and also co-owned factories with other potters until 1767 when he formed the Spode factory. This factory was wholly owned by him by 1776 and that factory continues in operation in the same spot today. It is the oldest porcelain factory to be in business at the same site.
Josiah passed his factory on to his son, Josiah Spode II (1754-1827). Josiah II apprenticed in his father’s factory and opened a London gallery to show off his father’s porcelain.
Porcelain is an ancient ceramic material perfected by the Chinese. There are examples of porcelain that date back to the 7th century. Porcelain is commonly called china, as this is where the material originated. There are three types of porcelain, hard paste, soft paste and bone china. In 1800, Josiah Spode II created bone china by adding bone ash to the formula for porcelain. The result was the hardest, most durable porcelain available.
Hard paste porcelain is made from kaolin and petuntse. The materials are fired at high temperatures, with or without a glaze, and produce a hard, translucent material. Soft paste porcelain contains the kaolin and petuntse of hard paste but also includes frit – a combination of various materials like white sand, nitre, alum, salt and gypsum. The frit in the mixture liquefies and turns to glass when fired and the glassy bits fuse to the porcelain. The resulting soft paste porcelain has a grittier feel to it and is not as strong as hard paste porcelain.
Bone china is the toughest of porcelains and does indeed contain bones. Bone ash makes up the greatest part of the formula for bone china, with the balance of the formula containing kaolin and petuntse. The resulting material is hard, resilient and an ivory white in color. This formula remains the standard for porcelain manufactured in England.
How do bones become bone ash?. All tissue is removed from animal bones and they are fired at temperatures of up to 1000 degrees. The resulting ash is crushed to a powder and mixed with water before being added to the other porcelain material.

The best cup of tea is always out of a china cup

You Either Love It or Hate It

2009-12-07T06:09:00.000-08:00

Carol Smilie, a TV presenter, once said 'Yuck.'

Tom Baker, an actor said: ' I love it.'

What could they be talking about? Well, it is one of Britain's great culinary icons. Culinary icon you say! Yes, it is a yeast extract, a dark syrupy paste made from the waste of brewer's yeast in the beer making process with a meaty flavour called MARMITE. This was discovered by a German chemist by the name of Justin Liebig in 1866.

It can be spread on your bread and butter, used to add flavour to stews and casseroles. A spoonful in a hot cup of water and drank while hot will warm anyone's cockles. It can be used in a Roquefort, Prawn and Pear Salad, in Haddock and Artichoke Chowder with Parsnip chips....the possibilities are endless.

VITAMIN-RICH

In the early part of the 20th century people quickly picked up on the benefits of this vitamin rich paste. Marmite a yeast extract is cram packed with vitamin B complex in a highly concentrated form. That's why it found its way into hospitals, schools and homes as a great nutritional addition. It is suitable for all the family including Vegans.

Why not take a wonderful ride with Paul Hartley on his culinary ride from past to present in Marmite History. Check out his breakfast and brunch website and see what you can cook up for breakfast.

If you type in 'Marmite' on this site you will see a lot of recipes with the famous Marmite.
www.breakfastandbrunch.com

Even better read his great book: The Marmite Cookbook by Paul Hartley.
ISBN 1-904573-09-6

It's a great read! ^_^

Long weekend

2009-12-04T03:29:00.000-08:00

For all of you who are looking forward to the coming 'Long weekend' here are a few suggestions:

1. Visit your local Planetarium

2. Visit a friend that lives miles away. It's a good excuse to travel.

3. Go to a show in London. You can see: La Clique, Endgame, The 39 Steps, Speaking in Tongues and Aladdin.

4. Eat out at Princess of Shoreditch (5 star rating by customers/gastropubs) 76-78 St. Paul's Street, London EC2A or Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester (haute cuisine/restaurant) The Dorchester, 53 Park Lane, London, W1K

5. See a film: 2012, The Twilight Sage: New Moon, A Serious Man, Harry Brown, A Christmas Carol (a great new version of an old story)

6. Visit an exhibition. GSK CONTEMPORARY (Art) Until Jan 31 2010, The Royal Academy Burlington Gardens, London. 'Earth: Art of the Changing World'.

7. Ice-skating at Wembly Stadium. See Winter Wonderland; it's a great show with great professional. Don't forget to take you favourite wooly hat and gloves, it's going to be freezing!

8. Use Your Imagination! The Victoria and Albert Museum are holding an exhibition of new toys to stimulate imaginative play. They are designed by students at Middlesex University and tested by a class of six year olds at Christchurch Primary School.

9. For all you fashion lovers, take a look at the SHOWStudio's: Fashion Revolution at Somerset House, The Strand, London, WD2R 1LA. Tramps, Past, Present & Couture(Christian Dior, Couture Fall/Winter 2001/2). Absolutely Fasinating!

10. For Kids: This season there are plenty of Kid's show and pantomimes; Battersea Park Children's Zoo, The Cartoon Museum, 35 Little Russel St, London, WC1A 2HH; Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens, London; Gunnersbury Triangle Nature Park West London ( www.wildlondon.org.uk) and for the teenagers maybe the boys would like to go to The London Dungeon for a ghoulish afternoon.

I have just mention a few things but I'll bet you know so much more. Have a great weekend.

Animal Nursery Rhymes

2009-12-03T11:02:00.000-08:00

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Baa baa black sheep,
Have you any wool?
Yes Sir, yes sir, three bags full,
One for the master,
One for the dame,
And one for the little boy that lives down the lane.

That's just one, how about you? Can you think of another? ;p

A question for you.

2009-12-03T10:59:00.000-08:00

How many domestic animals can you think of in 2 minutes? You might think it is hard but you probably know more than you think! ;o)

'A Frog in the Throat? Where from?

2009-12-03T04:00:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered where the expression: ' Frog in the throat' came from? It's really strange and for any foreign student studying English this will probably raise his/her eyebrows because of such a saying. Well, here are a couple of common understandings you might find interesting.
There are a couple of explanations for this one:

One explanation says: it originated in medieval times when physicians thought that the secretions of a frog could help heal a sore throat. A live frog head was put into the patient's mouth, and the frog was believed to draw out the infection into its own body when it inhaled.

Another explanation is that years ago, people drank directly from ponds and streams, meaning there was always the fear that one could ingest an actual frog or frogspawn. It is believed that once the eggs hatched, one would experience a choking feeling when the young froglets were ready to come out. In the olden days, a travelling medicine merchant (i.e. quack) might have an assistant with a terrible cough (frog in the throat). As he administered a particular medicine supposed to cure all ills, the assistant would pretend to cough up a live frog, and then be pronounced cured.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, disgusting, imagine if it were true. : P

Gadget Quiz

2009-12-02T03:52:00.000-08:00

How many household gadgets can you think of in 5 minutes?

This is a great way to recall all that vocabulary you learnt at school.

Write your list on the Blog and we'll tell you how well you did the quiz!

I wonder...........how many? 5, 9, 15 gadgets, ummmmmmm, let me think!

Happy thinking ^ _ ^

The First Vacuum Cleaner

2009-12-02T03:24:00.000-08:00

Although considered a crecent invention, the Victorians had a machine which used bellows to suck up the dirt.
In 1901, a new railway-carriage cleaner was demonstrated at St. Pancras Station, London. It worked on the principle of blowing the dirt away but this proved unpopular and was not successful. Hubert Booth decided to reverse the process from blowing to sucking the dirt. To catch the dirt he used a cloth that let the air through but not the dirt; this acted like a filter and the dirt was easily thrown away.
Booth's first practical machine was so big that it had to be drawn by a horse. You can see it in the picture supplied by Google Images when you type in The First Vacuum Cleaner(It's like a red wagon with the words: 'Royal College? on the side.
To this day, all cylinder vacuum cleaners rely on Booth's principal. However, a Mr. Bissel in the United States, who was sick of sweeping up the straw in his china shop, made a commercial success out of vacuum cleaners by combining it with a sweeper for home use.

I'll bet you have on at home!