A Movember Thought
This was yesterday’s Thought of Angel.
A Movember Thought
They do very well at Angel tube station to get a new thought every day.
Smoking In The Car Isn’t Good For You
Any sensible person knows that smoking anywhere is not a good idea, but now scientists have shown that you can exceed toxic limits in a car. It’s all here on the BBC.
As I rarely go in a car and certainly not one that ever gets smoked in, if smoking was banned in cars, I wouldn’t bother personally. Although, I believe if smoking stopped in this country, we’d all have a better standard of living and the NHS would see less cancer.
According to this article, we raise about £12.1 million from taxes related to tobacco, so we might have a budget hole to fill.
But then every action has an equal and opposite reaction. How many people have changed their evening habits because now all pubs and restaurants are smoke free? And how many jobs has that created.
John Edrich
John Edrich was in his time a difficult opening batsman to get out and if there was a fight on the pitch, he would do his best to win it. Wikipedia says of him.
He earned a reputation as a dogged and fearless batsman, and his figures show that he was amongst the best players of his generation.
Now he has a bigger fight on his hands; a rare form of leukaemia called Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia. He seems to have got some respite from the cancer using injections of mistletoe. It’s reported here in the Mirror.
I’m not belittling the mistletoe effect, but to my unmedical mind, it could just be that Edrich, is just applying his dogged and stubborn attitude to enjoying himself and staying alive. After all, he was born and brought up in Norfolk and all East Anglians have a stubborn determination, unmatched by most of the country.
Was Kate Caught Smoking?
It does appear that the infamous photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge, might show her smoking, as well as sunbathing topless.
I suspect many will find smoking a greater moral crime. Especially, as you probably get a worst cancer from smoking than sunbathing.
Ian Brady
The lead story on the BBC is Ian Brady. Why are the news media and the public so obsessed with this gruesome man?
He should just be left to rot in his cell. And when he does die, the story should be given little publicity.
I know it’s bad for the mother of his still undiscovered victim, but nothing will bring the victim back and it just makes it so much worse for all the others in the area, who lost a child to Brady or might have.
I speak as someone, who lost a son prematurely to pancreatic cancer. That is in many ways different. but I do feel guilty at times, that I didn’t do more to stop him smoking and get properly medically tested when his health started to go downhill. Now he’s gone, there’s just a big hole in my life!
Strangely, the case could be an argument against the death penalty. If Brady had been hung, there would now be no chance of recovering Keith Bennett’s body. On the other hand, Brady is now 74, so he’s been lucky in some ways to still be on this world.
The phone-in on BBC Radio 5 will probably about Ian Brady and/or the death penalty. I’m going out to do something more productive.
Regular Charity Donation
There are some charities I support and others I don’t. For instance as someone who has lost his wife and son to cancer, anything with cancer or loss in it, gets my consideration. On the other hand charities who use chuggers don’t. You will see from the links on the blog, a couple of the charities that I currently support.
So I had this idea to set up a suitable payment for all of these and other charities every year on my birthday, which just happens to be in a few days time. The advantage as I see it, is that because of the payment date they will be easy to find, modify and if necessary remove.
I have chosen to do it on my birthday, as that is a good psychological day for me. I suspect it is for others too! There is also this feeling that you’ve made another year, so perhaps these payments are your present to say thanks for still being here.
I will of course know that on my birthday, I better have a certain amount in my bank account. But then a reminder on my computer for say the first of August every year, would cure that.
I also feel that say £50 each year for ten years is probably better than £500 one year and then a whole lot of aggro as the charity tries to get more.
When in the future I pop my clogs, it will also be easy for my executors to sort out my charity payments. Especially if you put a little note in your will, explaining the payments. I think a good solicitor could write a nice clause for a will saying that some of the estate would be distributed to various charities in proportion to the birthday standing orders.
Since I wrote this piece originally, I’ve set up two of these charity payments.
One was for a small charity and all I needed was their bank account number and bank sort code.
For a national charity, I actually chose them from a list on Nationwide’s on-line computer system.
My only worry is that the charities get the Gift Aid right!
But let’s face it, bankers have had a lot of bad publicity lately and perhaps putting a Gift Aid check box, when you choose a charity from their list can’t be the world’s most difficult programming task.
I would welcome the views of anybody involved in charity fund raising.
I Am A Man Who Is Approaching His Terminus
Not me, I hasten to add!
But the very brave Clive James has said this about himself, as he battles against cancer.
He is obviously determined to go with dignity and humour.
Is there any other way? Not in my book there isn’t!
One of the Worst Days of my Life?
Today, my youngest son, George, would have been forty, which we always think is an important milestone in a person’s life. We tried to arrange a party or even a drink, but gradually everyone has cried off, so I shall celebrate this all by myself. I understand more and more the fortitude with which Aung San Suu Kyi endured her isolation. All of those birthdays and important milestones, that I’ve missed. And I will miss in the future.
But hey, at least I’m still here, despite the efforts of the Devil.
Luckily, by chance, I was given an overdose of survival gene at conception and that keeps pulling me through.
All I can say, to others now, is make sure your children don’t ever start smoking. George’s smoking probably led to his pancreatic cancer, especially if he was an undiagnosed coeliac and thus had a compromised immune system because of his gluten-rich junk food diet.
In Search of Small Waists
The BBC’s web site today is verging into dangerous territory this morning, with a serious article called the re-re-re-rise of the corset. The article is in their magazine, so comments are not allowed, so we will not see the opinions of both fetishists and feminists.
The article does say that sales are on the rise.
But sales figures suggest ordinary people are turning to one of the greatest symbols of the Victorian era. Corsets are making a comeback.
Rigby & Peller, the Queen’s brassiere-maker, says sales of traditional corsets in May were 45% up on 2011.
Ebay has reported a 185% rise in the number of corsets being sold over the last three months, with 1,900 listed over the period. It says most corsets are bought in the UK (40%), the US (34%) and Australia (8.6%).
Many women aspire to Marilyn Monroe’s hourglass figureMarks & Spencer says it sells one item from its new corset-inspired Waist Sculpt lingerie line every three minutes.
The article then goes on to discuss why, which includes a comment by Liberty Sweet of the Folly Mixtures.
On a personal level, I always believed that C’s small waist was one of her physical characteristics, that attracted me to her. I could have probably made my hands touch round her waist, when we got married in 1968.
She never actually wore a corset, but she did wear a basque at times, especially after she had her brush with breast cancer, as she felt a proper fitting basque, gave her more support after the operation. In one instance, having a basque in her holiday suitcase, actually saved the day at a New Year’s Eve ball in Venice.
Doing Cancer Research
Was this lady doing cancer research, by having a quick cough and a drag outside Cancer Research UK?
Doing Cancer Research
I think smokers are one of the reasons why people prefer shopping malls.
