Paris je t'adore

Ever the optimist, I wanted to see if sofagirl could get away for a few days. Since the Warfarin levels are all over the place and I still can't fly, the best option was to find three strapping lads to accompany me on the Eurostar to Paris.

I found two.














and the old man.

The Matisse blue sky was inspirational and although I left climbing the Eiffel Tower to Henri et Artuur, I enjoyed swimming around in Monet's water lilies in the Orangerie which has comfortable seats. Never before have chairs, benches, ledges etc been such an important part of my day.
We discovered an artist there who in his short life, had a wonderful way of looking at the world. Chaim Soutine (1893-1943)

Hasn't he got a lovely Stephen Fry nose?

I spent quite a while people-watching in the Tuileries Gardens where there are a huge amount of very stylish chairs to collapse into.

If you walk along the Seine over the padlock bridge, Pont des Artes, then beware the Gold Ring scam. You may notice a gleaming ring on the ground which will be picked up by a 'helpful' person who will ask if it is yours? Depending on how greedy you are, you are given the option to have it, for 'good luck' and they then proceed to walk away. They will then come back to you and say that they are hungry and need 5 Euros to buy a sandwich. Your train of thought will be "Hey, this person just handed over a gold ring they found, what's a few Euros?" The result is that you end up 5 Euros lighter and only a piece of brass to show for it. Save yourself the bother and simply do not entertain these con artists. This practice is rife in Paris. The areas concerned are between the bridge near to the Eiffel Tower down to the Pont Neufchâtel and all along the upper riversides and bridges along the way. And no, we didn't fall for it although we were approached four times with the same trick, in half an hour.
Another outrageous scam is children and adults pretending to be deaf. They approach you quite forcefully with a clipboard, indicating that you should sign it and give them some money. If you try to give them a few euros, they will turn over their clipboards which on the back say: '10 Euros Minimum.' If you give in to it and you remove your purse or wallet, they see where you keep it and when several children hug you to say thank you, they steal your purse or wallet from where they know you keep it. Just say "non" and keep walking.

At least Artuur et 'Arry's scam was a bit more entertaining.
The "Friendship" Bracelet: A vendor approaches you and asks if you'll help him with a "demonstration." He proceeds to make a friendship bracelet right on your arm. When finished, he asks you to pay a premium for the bracelet he created just for you. And, since you can't easily take it off on the spot, you feel obliged to pay up. 'Arry said it was a bargain as his was "only €15". Good thing we were only there for three days.

And thankfully, I couldn't fit into these, let alone afford them.
Isn't it odd how people who enjoy their work can end up morphing into it? We discovered this gardener (just) in the Jardin des Tuileries.

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Flying down to Rio, Gibraltar and Eurostarring to Paris

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/02/carnival_2013.html


All my chickadees have flown the nest, Polly to Gibraltar, Bill to Brazil, at the carnival in Rio and Harry's going to Paris.







I just hope Harry doesn't think that he's going to bump into Lautrec or Matisse.





Polly just skyped us from Gibraltar and she is up to her wooden spoons creating fantastic cookies for all those romantics today.











www.pollymixtures.com/

She's doing all of this whilst planning her wedding this summer. She's multi tasking really well, firstly squashing 150 people into a church which only holds 120 people max!



Just about everything is done except finding Cinderella's shoes, what's wrong with these?
www.irregularchoice.co.uk/












And we have the responsibility of the wedding cake, I'll feed you crumbs of info about that later...















Happy Valentines Day and Happy Birthday Ned and don't forget the promise  X

oooh  I say, the old man's gone all soppy.

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Spring is sprung?

My old mum would be 94 now, and that's really old. She didn't look like Norma Shearer but I reckon, she would have liked to think she did. It would have been pointless to tell her that her arm would ache an awful lot if she insisted on striking a pose at every opportunity and also, people might think she was a teapot.

And those flowers would have been awful tickly.

Thank goodness she fell in love with a jolly Glaswegian,  Bill, my dad. He would have been 94 as well and I still miss them. I'm very glad the bad hospitals are now in the news, lazy 'care' of old people has been going on for too long and my father deserved much, much better.

Harry is very happy that the GCSE's he's about to take this summer will now be valid. Michael Gove, MP (Military Police?) what a plonker. I wonder if he knows this is now the year of the snake?

Anyway, the flowers don't know about the news, they think it's Spring. My old mum always said if its snowing in New York now then we will get the same weather a week later. Sorry daffs, you'd better wrap up warm.

My boy Bill, who's as big and as strong as a tree

Although this sounds like an adventure story, Bill went to Brazil he didn't say anything about a desire to become Batman. Without a rope or hard hat in sight, his text read: 'all's well.' So that means I don't worry?

This is an earlier email from him:

"I have had a very crazy week. On Monday I met up with farmer Fred in Ponta du Tulha. Just between Itacare and Ilheus. He turned out to be a mad Parisian rasta who had lived in Brasil for the last 30 years. He had dreadlocks down to his waist and huge purple sunglasses. When he first met us he had a smile from ear to ear and hugged us all. We knew instantly he was completely bonkers but I bloody loved it. He drove us up a huge mountain in an old 1970's Chevrolet. It felt after every turn the car would breakdown, but it kept on going.

After an hour of driving on rocky roads we arrived at the top of the mountain to see one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. We looked down onto a huge jungle of vegetation and trees and then past the jungle was endless sand and sea everywhere we looked. The colours were so vivid and alive. You could even call it paradise!

It was tough work on the farm, I say farm... it was a jungle! I have never sweated so much. We chopped down many banana trees, plucked coconuts and harvested cacau. Fred worked us hard but was a good man and fed us well. Sadly the stay did not last long though. On the second night a HUGE thunderstorm brewed. The eye of the storm went right over our mountain. Me, George and Jonny were sleeping in tents on the land. Lightning struck 10 metres from our tent! We felt ground move around us. We all turned into kittens. Completely terrifying. So we ran back to Fred´s hut through all the lightning and took shelter from the storm. All the power had been cut off and it was completely pitch black. I could not even see my hand in front of me. That night we all stayed up while Fred made homemade pizzas on a fire stove and we drank and told stories by candle light. It was a special night.

Sadly in the morning we found out the lightning had hit Fred´s generator. He had many problems and there was nothing we could do to really help. So we collect 60 coconuts in the morning for him to sell at the market and we hitchhiked back to Itacare. I have really fallen in love with Itacare this week. Life has been very easy, almost too easy. I sit on my hammock and drink fresh coffee in the mornings and read Hemmingway, then in the afternoon I have a siesta on the beach and sip on acai. bliss.

I will leave this Sunday for Lencois. I have friend driving from Salvador. A new adventure awaits, I hope..."

In the meantime, back in Blighty, 2013 is turning out to be the unluckiest year for some of us. My poor sister Emma has broken her pelvis, lovely Dorothy is in hospital and Clare's eyes are having difficulty focussing. And she is sure it's not because of too much Harvey's ale. Get well soon, all of you.



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Thanks susie!

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Burns unit

http://youtu.be/BJwy2cm9QTo
Lyrics: Ae fond kiss, and then we sever [ae = one] Ae fareweel, alas, for ever! Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee, Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee. Who shall say that Fortune grieves him, While the star of hope she leaves him? Me, nae cheerful twinkle lights me; [nae = no] Dark despair around benights me. I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy, Nothing can resist my Nancy: For to see her was to love her; Love but her, and love for ever. Had we never loved sae kindly, [sae = so] Had we never loved sae blindly, Nor never met - nor never parted, We would never have been sae broken-hearted. Fare-thee-weel, my first and fairest Fare-thee-week, my best and dearest Thine be ilka joy and treasure, [ilka = every] Peace, Enjoyment, Love and Pleasure! Ae fond kiss, and then we sever Ae fareweel, alas, for ever Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee, Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee. Written by Robert Burns. Eddi Reader at Celtic Connections 2009.

How can you say the Scots aren't romantic? Even Andy Murray smiles these days. (But maybe not today).

I experienced my first ever Burn's Night last night and jolly brilliant it was too. My Glaswegian cousin has moved to Brighton and invited me and the old man to a traditional Burns supper.

We started with homemade cock-a-leekie soup which was delicious. Sandy's lovely wife Dorothy was concerned about the size of the haggis so she had four, just to get the perfect result, and that she did.

Sandy addressed the haggis which I tried to film but he would keep swaying, or was that the clear gravy (whisky)?
http://youtu.be/HmVXkA5Hg08
And which sassenach at Marks and Spencer thought it would be a good idea to put pork in their haggis? We didn't eat that one.

Scottish cheeses were the best way to finish the meal, so today the diet starts. Again.

I probably took the tartan theme a bit far, I think there were four different ones, but hey, it was fun!

So now up on the hills of eastern Brighton, there's a little bit of Glasgow.

Lang may yer lum reek.






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Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Completely housebound currently, surrounded by lots of this white stuff which every other country embraces and encourages tourists to. They all keep calm and carry on.
Not us lot, no, we buy enough food to last forever, turn up the heating and hunker down until the sun comes out. If everyone in our street cleared the snow from just outside their front door, the pavements would be clear. Do they? Guess.
There now follows everything you need to know about the snowflake. I'll test you later.

Have you ever looked at a snowflake and wondered how it formed?
Snowflakes are a particular form of water ice. Snowflakes form in clouds, which consist of water vapour. When the temperature is 32° F (0° C) or colder, water changes from its liquid form into ice. Several factors affect snowflake formation. Temperature, air currents, and humidity all influence shape and size. Dirt and dust particles can get mixed up in the water and affect crystal weight and durability. The dirt particles make the snowflake heavier, and can cause cracks and breaks in the crystal and make it easier to melt.


What are common snowflake shapes?
Generally, six-sided hexagonal crystals are shaped in high clouds; needles or flat six-sided crystals are shaped in middle height clouds; and a wide variety of six-sided shapes are formed in low clouds. Colder temperatures produce snowflakes with sharper tips on the sides of the crystals and may lead to branching of the snowflake arms (dendrites). Snowflakes that grow under warmer conditions grow more slowly, resulting in smoother, less intricate shapes.


32-25° F - Thin hexagonal plates
25-21° F - Needles
21-14° F - Hollow columns
14-10° F - Sector plates (hexagons with indentations)
10-3° F - Dendrites (lacy hexagonal shapes).




Why are snowflakes symmetrical (same on all sides)?
First, not all snowflakes are the same on all sides. Uneven temperatures, presence of dirt, and other factors may cause a snowflake to be lop-sided. Yet it is true that many snowflakes are symmetrical and intricate. This is because a snowflake's shape reflects the internal order of the water molecules. Water molecules in the solid state, such as in ice and snow, form weak bonds (called hydrogen bonds) with one another. These ordered arrangements result in the symmetrical, hexagonal shape of the snowflake. During crystallization, the water molecules align themselves to maximize attractive forces and minimize repulsive forces. Consequently, water molecules arrange themselves in predetermined spaces and in a specific arrangement. Water molecules simply arrange themselves to fit the spaces and maintain symmetry.


Is it true that no two snowflakes are identical?
Yes and no. No two snowflakes are exactly identical, down to the precise number of water molecules, spin of electrons, isotope abundance of hydrogen and oxygen, etc. On the other hand, it is possible for two snowflakes to look exactly alike and any given snowflake probably has had a good match at some point in history. Since so many factors affect the structure of a snowflake and since a snowflake's structure is constantly changing in response to environmental conditions, it is improbable that anyone would see two identical snowflakes.

If water and ice are clear, then why does snow look white?
The short answer is that snowflakes have so many light-reflecting surfaces they scatter the light into all of its colours, so snow appears white. The longer answer has to do with the way the human eye perceives colour. Even though the light source might not be truly 'white' light (e.g., sunlight, fluorescent, and incandescent all have a particular colour), the human brain compensates for a light source. Thus, even though sunlight is yellow and scattered light from snow is yellow, the brain sees snow as white because the whole picture received by the brain has a yellow tint that is automatically subtracted.

Common snowdrop
Galanthus nivalis, grows to around 7–15 cm tall, flowering between January and April in the northern temperate zone (January–May in the wild).
Crimean snowdrop
Galanthus plicatus, 30 cm tall, flowering January/March, white flowers, with broad leaves folded back at the edges
Giant snowdrop
Galanthus elwesii, a native of the Levant, 23 cm tall, flowering January/February, with large flowers, the three inner segments of which often have a much larger and more conspicuous green blotch (or blotches) than the more common kinds.
Galanthus reginae-olgae, from Greece and Sicily, is quite similar in appearance to G. nivalis, but flowers in autumn before the leaves appear. The leaves, which appear in the spring, have a characteristic white stripe on their upper side; from Sicily, northern Greece and the south of former Yugoslavia, blooms at the end of the winter with developed young leaves and is thus easily confused with G. nivalis.
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NICE one?

Tamoxifen for 'high risk' women
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has started a consultation to find out if the drug tamoxifen could be given by the NHS to women with a familial history of breast cancer.
NICE's draft guidelines for England and Wales are due for approval later this year and if they go ahead will be a first for the UK. NICE said more needed to be done to target women who have a high genetic risk of breast cancer (including those who have a mother, sister or aunt who was diagnosed with the disease before the age of 50). The new guidelines would update those made in 2006 and could see high risk women being prescribed tamoxifen for five years.
Research has estimated there would be 20 fewer cases of breast cancer for every 1,000 women who took the drug. Professor Mark Baker, director of the centre for clinical practice at NICE, said they did not fully know the causes of the disease. He added: "However, we do know that having a family history of breast, ovarian or a related cancer can significantly increase the risk of developing breast cancer, including developing the cancer at a younger age."
"It is also more likely that people with family members affected by cancer who then develop breast cancer themselves could develop a separate tumour in the other breast following initial treatment."
"This is why it's wise for any person with a family history of cancer to receive appropriate investigations and screening that would otherwise be unnecessary if a family history did not exist."

HOWEVER...
Beware of the Dark Side of Tamoxifen
There has been much ado in the press recently about the wonders of the drug tamoxifen. It has been heralded as a major breakthrough in the treatment and possible prevention of breast cancer. Tamoxifen is now the number one recommended drug treatment for women recovering from breast cancer. With half a billion dollars in annual revenues, it is currently used by more women with breast cancer than any other prescription drug.
Despite tamoxifen's supposed ability to reduce recurrence in postmenopausal women, major studies have shown that tamoxifen reduces death from breast cancer only marginally. The majority of women who take tamoxifen live no longer than women who refuse it. It is with great alarm that researchers are finding that some breast cancers actually learn how to use tamoxifen to stimulate their growth.
Blood Clots
Tamoxifen irritates the walls of the veins. The constant irritation and inflammation weakens the veins causing bleeding, clotting, thrombophlebitis, and in the worst cases -- obstruction of the blood vessels serving the lungs which can be deadly and occur with little warning. Several studies showed that the risk of developing life-threatening blood clots increased as much as seven times in women taking tamoxifen.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month which is held in October was started by Imperial Chemical Industries- a parent company to Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, now AstraZeneca. This has been a controversial issue for years since they sell Tamoxifen- a drug used to prevent breast cancer, but has been shown to cause endometrial cancers, blood clots, and strokes in some individuals. Their trademark slogan, “Early Detection is Your Best Prevention” seems to make sense to some people. However, this is a secondary prevention- since in order for it to be detected, the cancer has to be there already. I am grateful for the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and their resources that are available to cancer patients and their families. However, I think that primary prevention steps need to be taken reduce cancer morbidity.

So…. what are those primary prevention steps? One of them is eating a healthy diet. A major international report titled Food, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective found that 60 to 70 percent of ALL cancers can be prevented by staying physically active, not smoking, and “choosing predominantly plant-based diets rich in a variety of vegetables and fruits, legumes, and minimally processed starchy staple foods.” The report reviewed over 200 studies on the link between fruits and vegetables and cancer. They found that 78% of the studies showed that fruit and veg had a protective effect against cancer, while 22% showed no significant link, and no studies showed an increase in cancer.
The British Medical Journal stated: “What is remarkable about the diet-cancer story is the consistency with which certain foods emerge as important in reducing risk across the range of cancers. Millions of cancer cases could be prevented each year if more individuals adopted diets low in meat and high in fruits and vegetables.”

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They would shop at Waitrose

An amazing selection of birds have been fighting over the grub outside and what's more they are all being very fussy.

Sofa girl was fed up with the view out of the gray, cold, soggy sitting room window so enterprising old man fixed some wild bird food on the tree outside. We'd done this before so I knew it wouldn't be long before the birds arrived. So I waited, and waited, and waited.


There was an interesting chat about the old man's balls being disliked by the birds. 'Impossible' he said, 'the balls come from Yorkshire'. People from Yorkshire appear to have no self doubt at all.






Anyway, the birds ignored them. I generously suggested that maybe the birds were on a New Year's diet?





Having taken down anything Christmassy, the old man came across some old wildbird food which had been purchased in healthier, wealthier days in Waitrose.




I had joked that if we ever ran out of food, we could eat this column of glop. It even contained soft shelled crabs, a year or so ago.







Well, it was like a re-enactment of 'The Birds'. All of these little fellows have had a go and come back for more. A robin, a blue tit, a blackbird and a never seen (by me) in Brighton before, a pied wagtail.



Then fortunately two ring-necked doves.







It was all lovely until the bullies arrived. The starlings hate everyone and make a racket.







Why are magpies so spooky? Are we super superstitious about them because of 2013? Or is it just cos they hang around roads waiting...


At least seagulls can stomp around, looking stroppy, often too angry to remember to fly.


now I just need to look less like Hitchcock and more like Tippi Hendren.



http://youtu.be/Lw0FP9putKM



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The only battle I want

Paolo Uccello (born Paolo di Dono, 1397 - December 10, 1475) was an Italian painter who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art. His best known works are the three paintings representing the battle of San Romano. Paolo worked in the Late Gothic tradition and emphasised colour and pageantry rather than the Classical realism that other artists were pioneering.

I knew there was a reason for studying Italian Renaissance paintings, they showed real battles. They were brilliant, painted on wood, in tempera! (Tempera is traditionally created by hand-grinding dry powdered pigments into a binding agent or medium, such as egg, glue, honey, water, milk and a variety of plant gums. Tempera painting starts with placing a small amount of the pigment paste onto a palette, dish or bowl and adding about an equal volume of the binder and mixing. Some pigments require slightly more binder, some require less. A few drops of distilled water are added; then the binder (egg emulsion) is added in small increments to the desired transparency. The more egg emulsion, the more transparent the paint.) Then you start painting.

To clear up a common misconception, no one 'battles with cancer'. You either take the pills, have the chemo or radiotherapy or maybe you don't. Either way, you carry on or not. Ultimately, there is nothing you can do to improve the odds. You can pray and then tell yourself god saved you. You can do yoga and only eat tofu and say that saved you. Or you can just be lucky and appreciate the life you've got.

Anyway, back to the real battle. This brilliantly structured and colourful painting depicts part of the battle of San Romano that was fought between Florence and Siena in 1432. The central figure is Niccolò da Mauruzi da Tolentino on his white charger, the leader of the victorious Florentine forces, who is identifiable by the motif of 'Knot of Solomon' on his banner. This detail of a panel is one of a set of three showing incidents from the same battle in the National Gallery, London. The other two are in the Louvre, Paris, and the Uffizi, Florence. This painting and its two companion panels were commissioned by the Bartolini Salimbeni family in Florence sometime between 1435 and 1460: only the Uffizi panel is signed. Lorenzo de' Medici so coveted them that he had them forcibly removed to the Medici palace.

So I prefer to call cancer 'Medici', both wicked in their own way.





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