http://jeanromsey.blogspot.com: THE CHANGING SEASONS

Monday, 14 October 2013

THE CHANGING SEASONS

The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness will soon give way to Jack Frost

BABY GEORGE with the royal wave

The Romsey Art Group's Autumn Exhibition opened to a packed gallery at the end of September, attended by Test Valley Mayor, Janet Whiteley. Over the past two weeks it attracted numerous visitors, including our Spanish coffee morning group. I was on rota duty for two afternoons, and had a brisk tea-time trade last Friday afternoon, thoroughly enjoyed meeting art lovers who give so much support for the work of our 300 members.

The Exhibition ended on Sunday, 13th October, coinciding with a chill in the air, as rain played havoc with the temperature, which dropped to single figures, with a North-Easterly wind sending shivers down my spine. Hats and gloves will soon be needed to accompany raincoats and anoraks.

AUTUMN REFLECTED

I exhibited three paintings and three miniatures, all in watercolour, and had only a fortnight to paint and frame them, ready for the hand-in date.
'Baby George' with his royal wave, recorded an important current event of the year;
'Autumn Reflected' was reminiscent of Fall colours in the States; and the colourful

MIXED GERANIUMS

'Mixed Geraniums' is an effort at prolonging these hardy flowers in the face of strong winds, now buffeting our terrace.

Roy and I spent the last twenty years of retirement travelling to all corners of the world. We more than made up for years of holidays we didn't have, when working almost seven days a week running our multi-faceted business of photography, exhibition design, and interior decorating. The intensity and workload of such a variety of jobs, each with its own deadline, was extremely stressful. Even as workaholics, we were more than ready to retire.

This year we stayed at home for a well-earned rest from travel, catching up with our mountain of diaries and notes of places we had visited and people we had met. Amazingly the year disappeared seamlessly and we didn't even notice that we have arrived at the autumn of our gap year. How Time flies!

Tudor House now a museum

Leslie and Bob from Hamilton, Victoria.

In September we were delighted see our Australian friend Bob Martin whom we met on our Chinese trip to the Silk Route. He and Leslie stopped with us for a week, en-route to other friends. We took them on a walking tour of our once medieval-walled city with underground wine cellars, centuries-old churches and four gateways that controlled the shipping trade of wine imported from France, and export of wool and manufactured textile.

We walked the medieval wall

Our roast lunch at the newly renovated Grand Cafe at South-Western House, took us back to its hey days, when it played host to thousands of rich Cunard passengers arriving by rail to board their cruise ships from Southampton.

Hi, I am Amelia. I am one year old today!

Last month we celebrated a few birthdays, including young Amelia's first birthday. She was such a delight and so excited at the party, that we felt she was fully aware our joy and happiness was all because of her.

We just love being with Amelia, especially now that she could communicate with smiles, laughter and a lot of joyful noises that sound like words in any of the three languages spoken by the family: French, Chinese or English.

A lovely group of friends

Her young friends at the party were all delightful little individuals with great personality, and it would be great to see how they will all grow up. The parents worked very hard to make it a wonderful and great party for the children, but the grown-ups really came for the food! We certainly enjoyed every morsel.

Next year I intend to make a conscious effort to catch up with family overseas, so we could be travelling to places we already know or meeting up with people with whom we have nearly lost touch. Busy lives lose friends and families, and it's time to slow down once again in the same way we did twenty years ago. At the time we retired, we had to learn how to slow down. We went to India for three months, to learn how to gaze as long as sheep or cows.

Click on this link: http://jeanlairomsey.blogspot.co.uk
for the next episode of my LIFE'S JOURNEY in India.

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A Change for the Better

With so many hospitals closing in the UK, today we have less than 140,000 hospital beds compared to 550,000 beds in 1948 when our National Health Service was founded. But modern technology from America will soon step in to relieve the pressure on our A & E Centres. Take a look at iDoctor here

iDoctor http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=r13uYs7jglg

We can change our life to do some of the things you have always wanted at any time you feel it is time. Take a look at the SLOMO clip below, just click on the link.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/01/opinion/slomo.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

A Lion called Christian

In 1969 Ace Bourke and John Rendall from Australia bought a lion cub from a London department store, Harrods, and named him Christian. He grew too big to keep as a pet in Chelsea and had to be returned to the wild in Kenya.

Years later Christian still remembered his 'parents' and like long lost friends. What a reunion! Click this link to watch the video: http://youtu.be/4enNZqNrwYc

My view on current situations

Could our climate really be changing in this Millenium?

Only a week ago we had snow in Devon, one of the warmest places in the South of England that even boasts a comparison with the Riviera in Europe.

In the USA's Tornado Alley, the most destructive tornado in history travelling at 200 mph, flattened the suburb of Moore in Oklahoma City in just 40 minutes without warning, causing so much grieve and loss of lives. This powerful tornado had been rated four, on a five point Enhanced Fujita Scale, making it the second most dangerous type, with more warnings to place Central Texas on further tornado watch.

More importantly the US government must ensure that any new buildings constructed in the Tornado Alley should include shelters, basement or safe rooms, specially built to protect from such tornadoes. This Great Plain experiences more tornadoes than any where else, at the height of the season in May and June, there may be two to four each day.

There are fears that tornadoes may become more common as global temperatures change, and such devastation as Moore must be avoided at all costs.

Having visited Shanghai thrice, I am still astonished at the constant changes to this great city's skyline and the speed of its industrial revolution, from 1949 when Chairman Mao's Communism took power, to 1992 when the People's Republic of China opened its doors again to foreign trade, and to today's superpower it has become, as discovered by Piers Morgan.

This video was recorded over 5 years ago, but if you have never been there, or even if you have but don't know much about the place from your tour guide, then you will be amazed to see how Shanghai has progressed - especially with regards to women CEOs. Click on the link to see modern, glamorous Shanghai today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wbGFeDR7Gg&feature=endscreen&NR=1

FOR OUR ECONOMY TO GROW

We need to get Britain manufacturing again; for goods to utilise our rail freight, road haulage and container ports; to expand our market worldwide and to be self-reliant.

With so much intelligence and creativity in our young and educated population, I am amazed to find that our UK Business Sector has not developed a strong, effective Export and Marketing Department to help develop products created by our inventive industrialists, nor facilitate co-operation between Universities and businesses to research new ideas and promote British Manufactures for export. All over the world, entrepreneurs are learning English to be able to trade with us, we do have the advantage of doing business anywhere.

For the Conservatives to win in 2015, David Cameron cannot rely simply on rhetoric about turning the tide on years of decline here or in the EU, in the battle for Britain’s future.

The government is likely to double the national debt inherited from the Labour government, if we continue to lose high street shops, vital businesses, century-old corporations and franchises, leading to empty premises and redundancies, which serve only to reduce the much needed Corporation and income tax, whilst swelling the ranks of the unemployed queuing for benefits, job-seeker and housing allowances.

The government must put a stop to the culture of rewarding failure with disproportionate pension packages, and gross bonuses unrelated to services rendered, for bankers, health service managers and local authority leaders alike, especially those who failed in their jobs. When an executive is recruited for a job in the public sector, the salary determines the job’s worth, there is no reason why bonuses or pensions should exceed the total pay, particularly in the present economic climate.

Any government that cannot legislate against this extortionate ransom culture, practised by leaders of public services, then they don’t deserve to be re-elected.

Take the news of Sir David Nicholson stepping down next year, retiring with his full pension of £2 million. Not more than a few decades ago he would have recognised his failure in running NHS England and resigned. Should he be allowed to take his full pay and pension package? It's an astronomical sum by any standard, and that same sum spent on improved nursing care at Stafford Hospital would probably have saved all those who died, from living under those unbearable conditions as described in various reports.

How does one man who could never do the job of supervising the whole of the NHS all by himself, deserve so much? We also must remember that in the costly reorganisation of the NHS, hundreds of managers were made redundant, obviously because they have not achieved success in their particular sector. After receiving huge severance pay and pension, why are some of them re-employed with new contracts, and probably on even higher pay packages, to carry on doing what they did before? Are we spending tax-payers' money wisely?

It is indeed time for the Chancellor to look into how much the re-vamping of the NHS is going to cost the nation and really cut down on management expenses, but increase training for good nursing care to properly run each hospital, to make them fit for purpose. Cut out the middleman, trim the fat and get Britain back to basic good value, responsible and trustworthy.

Only then will the Conservative government be returned to power. Austerity alone will not suffice. The voters need to see real changes, and good value for their taxes instead of wastage.

Congratulations to Nigel Farage for leading the UKIP to win almost a quarter of the votes cast at our local elections, thus forming the fourth major political party of Britain.

This is not just a protest vote from the public, but a vote of confidence in Mr. Farage as an honest man of integrity, not greedy for power for himself, but for the nation in trouble, and in debt to the tune of £billion, which no successive governments since WW2, had been able to eradicate.

UKIP's common sense approach to easing our national debt by opting out of EU membership will save us £billions in subsidies, huge MEP pay and expenses, and massive prison expenditure for un-deported foreign criminals. If we also temporarily withhold foreign aids until our own debt situation is no longer as bad as those we sought to assist, we should come out of debt sooner.

Chancellor Osborne should continue with our austerity policy, and also bring civil servants' pay and pension in line with the rest of the private sector remuneration to encourage growth in our economy with youth employment and private enterprises.

Monday, 14 October 2013

THE CHANGING SEASONS

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