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Monday, 30 March 2015

LibDem Election Candidate and Councillor Arrested on Paedophile Charges

When I asked Oxfordshire county councillor Roz Smith to comment on the blatant promotion of paedophilia in the schools curriculum during LGBT so-called "History Month" she refused to answer any questions.

She refused to examine what was being taught or why criminals, paedophiles, drug-addicts and mass murderers were all being presented as heroes to children. She merely told me it was her philosophy that "people should be allowed to live as they wish". Not normal people of course - they get tried in secret courts and sent to prison, it's only the twisted weirdos who can "live as they wish" according to the LibDems.
Here is an example of her philosophy in practice.

Liberal Democrat candidate Jason Zadrozny photographed during the 2010 election campaign.

Jason Zadrozny, the LibDem election candidate in Ashfield, has had to withdraw after police arrested him on paedophile charges. Police said, "The 34-year-old was arrested yesterday and questioned about an allegation of buggery and gross indecency with a male under 16". He is still a LibDem councillor. Remind you of anyone?

Cyril Smith, LibDem MP for Rochdale, molested countless boys in care homes for over forty years, with full knowledge of police and many inside the political establishment. He enjoyed beating them as well as carrying out sexual perversion. One of his victims, whose complaints were not believed, is said to have committed suicide.

Roz Smith voted for  - and got  - a 14% rise in her own pay as a county councillor last year.

A Liberal Democrat candidate in a very close marginal seat has been arrested over allegations of child abuse.
Jason Zadrozny was fighting to win Ashfield against Labour shadow minister Gloria de Piero, who won by only 192 votes in 2010.
However, Zadrozny, who denies the allegations, has now withdrawn his candidacy, leaving the Liberal Democrats without a contender in a key seat with just weeks to go before the election.
The arrest of the Lib Dem hopeful, who is also a councillor, was first reported by the Mansfield and Ashfield Chad.
In a statement, Zadrozny said: “I am today withdrawing my candidacy as a prospective parliamentary candidate for the Ashfield and Eastwood constituency.
“Yesterday I was questioned by Nottinghamshire police about historic allegations, some of which are over 10 years old.
“I am in full cooperation with the police and vehemently refute the allegations. I have spent the last 10 years championing the cause of the Liberal Democrats both locally and nationally and I do not want this allegation to detract from the real issues facing local residents in the upcoming elections.
“Therefore I will step down with immediate effect as the party’s prospective parliamentary candidate to spend my time clearing my name.”
A Nottinghamshire police statement said: “The 34-year-old was arrested yesterday and questioned about an allegation of buggery and gross indecency with a male under 16 between September 2003 and April 2004, sexual activity with a child between May 2004 and December 2007 and an allegation of meeting a child under 16 following sexual grooming from May 2004 and December 2007.”

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

All This Fuss for a Murderer - Richard III Undoubtedly Killed the Little Princes in the Tower.

What is all this mummery and tomfoolery about the funeral of Richard III? Has the Archbishop of Canterbury really got nothing better to do than to flap around in purple robes waving a crook and insisting that Richard III wasn't one? After the battle of Bosworth Field, Richard's body was taken by Franciscan monks and buried in their monastery grounds. It's not their fault it ended up five hundred years later as a car-park. That could happen to anyone. But the point is that he did get a proper Christian burial. And a state funeral is way over the top, for a man who was quite definitely a murderer.

     I'm not just saying that because of Shakespeare's play, and I have no prejudice at all against people who suffer from scoliosis. I'm sure it was tough for Richard having a crooked back and being ridiculed for it. It is very important to doubt whatever we are told, and look for historical proof. When we do so, all of it seems to me to point to Richard being as guilty as hell.
     The Richard III Society is, to serious historians, what the Flat Earth Society is to serious scientists - a joke, On TV, Philippa Langley of the R3-Soc was unconvinced by the strong circumstantial evidence put forward by David Starkey. But Starkey was cut short by Jon Snow before he could state a quarter of the evidence there is against Richard III.
     Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was the younger brother of King Edward IV, who deposed Henry VI after defeating him in the War of the Roses. Edward married the beautiful widow Elizabeth Woodville and had three children, so he was well provided with heirs. Moreover, there was another brother, George, who was also older than Richard. He too had children, who preceded Richard in the order of succession. Richard was only seventh in line to the throne, yet he maneouvred in such a way as to seize power within three months of Edward IV's death. All that cannot be coincidence.
    When Edward IV died, in April 1483, he left two sons, aged twelve and ten. There was no particular reason why the elder, Prince Edward should not be crowned. Earlier kings had been crowned even younger. But wily uncle Richard declared himself Lord Protector, and immediately ordered the princes' tutors and guardians to be sent away to the North of England. He had his nephews lodged in the Tower of London, which was not a royal residence. It was a prison.
     Two months after Edward IV's death, a sermon was preached in London, declaring that his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville had been invalid, and therefore both boys were illegitimate. They could no longer claim the right of succession. Nor could their elder sister Elizabeth, who was aged sixteen. This was awfully convenient for Richard as it brought him three steps nearer to the throne. And it seems to have been done on his orders.
    The next person to be got out of the  way was George, Duke of Clarence. We all remember that in the play he was drowned in a butt of Malmsey  - the sweet white wine that came from the tiny peninsula of Monemvasia in Greece. Lovely place, it looks like a Christmas pudding. The fact is that three days after the sermon, Richard had his brother George arrested and stripped of his rank by "attainder", a sort of disgrace that was only supposed to fall on those convicted of a capital crime. It is true that George had once wavered in his support for the Yorkist line. He had changed sides during the Wars of the Roses and fought with Warwick the Kingmaker in one famous battle. This was the pretext for now accusing him of treason, though all that was twenty years ago and their brother Edward had held no grudge, after he came to the throne. In Richard's eyes, George's worst crime was that of coming ahead of Richard in the line of succession.
    George never had a trial; he had no lawyers, no defence and no rights as defined under Magna Carta. Once he was in prison, George did not live very long. Whether it was Malmsey, or sherry, or just water, he certainly did find his way into a barrel head down, and feet up. George's children were barred from the succession by the terms of their father's attainder, denied all rights of inheritance then bundled out of the way hurriedly. The huge estates that George had owned were appropriated by their kindly uncle, Richard.
    So with three more claimants eliminated, in June 1483 Richard had Parliament declare him King, and he was crowned later that year.
    The two young princes simply disappeared. What happened to them? Why were their mother and their sister not allowed to visit them or know what happened? If they had died from some illness or natural cause, there was no reason why Richard should not have said so, quite openly. The bodies could have been inspected, and a funeral held. But it never was. A doctor was visiting them often, in the Tower, so if they died of an illness why was this never diagnosed, recorded or confirmed by that doctor? They were in the Tower of London, under strict guard, so nobody else apart from Richard could have killed them or ordered their murderIt is quite possible that the two princes were simply left to starve to death.
    It was pretty obvious to most people in England in 1483, if not to Philippa Langley, that this string of coincidences was more than suspicious, it shrieked guilt at the top of its voice. Richard had managed to grab power by pushing everybody else out of his way in the space of three months.
       The universal belief that Richard was guilty was the major factor that toppled him from the throne. The family of Elizabeth Woodville and the other leading nobles could not stand by and let the usurper get away with his crimes. They led a rebellion and Henry Tudor, a distant cousin, provided them with the claimant they needed to depose Richard in 1485.
        If Richard III did not order the murder of the two little princes, only one other person could conceivably have done so, and that is Henry Tudor, who became Henry VII.  Yet shortly after he became king, he married Princess Elizabeth, their sister. Would she, or her mother, have agreed to this if they had the faintest suspicion of Henry being the murderer? I think not.
        Richard was a villain. He had it coming, he so had it coming.
        In 1789, two bodies were found that are very likely to be those of the two murdered princes. They were discovered inside the vault of Edward IV and his wife, in St George's Chapel, Windsor. There were two children's coffins with them, bearing the names of two royal children who had died in their father's lifetime. But the remains of these two bodies were found elsewhere in the vault. Somebody had replaced them with two others, which have never been identified. In 1789, no means existed to identify these skeletons, already by then three hundred years old. Perhaps it is time for some DNA testing to be carried out on them, and if one of them is indeed the murdered King Edward V, I think he should get the state funeral, not his frightfully wicked uncle, Richard III.

Elizabeth,11 February 1466 – 11 February 1503  She was four years older than her brother Edward, Prince of Wales Edward V (2 November 1470 – c.1483)[1] was King of England from his father Edward IV's death on 9 April 1483 until 26 June of the same year. He was never crowned, and his 86-day reign was dominated by the influence of his uncle and Lord Protector, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who succeeded him as Richard III on 26 June 1483; this was confirmed by the Act entitled Titulus Regius, which denounced any further claims through his father's heirs. Edward and his younger brother Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York were the Princes in the Tower who disappeared after being sent to heavily guarded royal lodgings in the Tower of London. Responsibility for their deaths is widely attributed to Richard III, but the lack of any solid evidence and conflicting contemporary accounts suggest four other primary suspects.

When Edward IV died, Prince Edward was aged twelve, and his elder sister Elizabeth was already aged sixteen,

Friday, 20 March 2015

The Evil Power of Britain's Secret Courts - Woman Gaoled for Helping Her Father

In a free country there should be no secret courts and nobody should be kept in a so-called "care-home" against their will.

Wanda Maddocks and her father John

Wanda Maddocks was gaoled by a SECRET COURT for rescuing her own father from a council care home where he was unhappy and neglected.
John Maddocks, 80, had always said to his family ‘Don’t you ever put me in a care home’ and Wanda never forgot those words.
But in 2009 when he was suffering from dementia caused by Alzheimer's Disease, he was put into a local council care home in Stoke-on-Trent. He got depressed in there and told his three sons who lived nearby, and Wanda, who ran a property firm in Turkey, that he was being ignored and neglected. So in December 2010 Wanda and her brothers Ivan, 55, Wayne, 54, and Eden, 49, took him out of the council home and put him on a plane to Turkey so that she could look after him.
To their amazement, when they returned to the UK to sort out his finances, the local council forced him to return to the home. When Wanda Maddocks challenged the authority in 2012, she was the first person in Britain to be secretly jailed by the Court of Protection.

She served six weeks of a five-month sentence, locked up with killers and drug dealers in HMP Foston Hall, Derbyshire. Mr Maddocks died in hospital in January 2013.

Even though her father is now dead, she is still facing criminal charges. THIS IS TYRANNY.

North Staffordshire coroner’s court in Stoke-on-Trent heard Mr Maddocks was taken to Stadium Court care home in Stoke after he collapsed at home while his daughter was living in Turkey.
The former property developer and grandfather was then moved to two other homes in quick succession. Wanda, 52, of Hanley, Stoke-on- Trent, told the inquest: “My dad always said to me, ‘Don’t you ever put me in a care home’ and I never forgot those words.
There was a fair amount of disagreement between myself, social services and the city council. “I thought it was better for him to be in the sunshine in Turkey rather than in a care home. “They said he was too aggressive to be in the community and he had put his fist up.” So why was he forced to be there?
The battle over her father’s care started back in 2009 when the one-time painter and decorator was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Wanda was running a property business in Turkey and her brothers Ivan, 55, Wayne, 54, and Eden, 49, lived nearby and saw him regularly.
The disagreements started over the care her father was given at home and later in care. He was “depressed”, she said, and she became convinced his needs were not being met.
It was then his children began to hatch a plot. On Boxing Day 2010 they sneaked him out of the home and within hours he was on a plane to southern Turkey.
Wanda said: “Two of my brothers got him out through the fire doors and they passed him to me and I took him to Turkey. “It was the great escape.”
But when they flew back to Britain in February 2011 Mr Maddocks was taken into Abbots House care home on the order of the Court of Protection which ruled that his dementia left him so vulnerable the council had a duty of care over him.
Stoke-on-Trent social services then made the pensioner subject to a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards order and took the family to court to take over his affairs.
The businesswoman became the first person to be jailed by the “secret court” which settles the affairs of those deemed too ill to make their own decisions.
She was imprisoned for contempt of court for repeatedly breaking orders not to interfere with her father’s life at his care home.
During her ordeal she was subjected to a gruelling secret legal battle, at the end of which she was put into a prison van and forbidden from speaking to a solicitor.
Wanda claimed her only crime was an act of compassion towards the father she loved.
But staff told the inquest that Mr Maddocks was being cared for "in the right place at the time". Care worker Amanda Cain said: “We were able to meet Mr Maddocks’s needs. At times he was aggressive but that could be very short-lived.”
The inquest continues.

Thursday, 12 March 2015

No, Ms Trollope, Mr Darcy was not in the Slave Trade.

Well, this is the first I've heard that there is a Literary Festival in Dubai  - but clearly its line-up is nothing like so distinguished as that of the Oxford Literary Festival. Why? Because they have got Joanna Trollope to talk a lot of twaddle about Jane Austen, and it is what you might describe as New-Historicism-Lite.
It seems that Trollope has been dwelling on the guilty past of the British Empire by suggesting that Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy, the heroes of Pride and Prejudice, made their money in the slave trade, and she calls this the "dark underbelly" of Jane Austen's novel.
  I am surprised that she has even ventured to bring up the subject of slavery in Dubai, one of those well-heeled gulf states that has a large population of underpaid foreign workers with no rights as citizens. Not very tactful of her!
  Ms Trollope has been paid by a publisher to write updated versions of Austen's novels. She will not be the first, and will probably not be the last. There are already many literary ventures along the lines of Pride and Prejudice: The Wild and Wanton Edition, by Michelle Pillow. Though Trollope may make a lot of money doing this, she is still no critic. I suspect that she has mixed up Pride and Prejudice with Mansfield Park. In the latter, there is a tenuous thread to slavery as Sir Thomas Bertram, the heroine's uncle, owns an estate in the West Indies where slave labour was used.
   But it is quite wrong and clumsy to try to take that and impose it on Pride and Prejudice. For a start, Mr Darcy has not made his money himself at all  - he has inherited a large estate in Derbyshire where, we are told, he has many tenants. He is a member of the landed gentry, and would undoubtedly feature in Burke's reference tome if he were anything but fictional.

DARCY, Fitzwilliam, Esq. b.1782. Only son of George Darcy of Pemberley, Derbyshire, and his wife Lady Anne Fitzwilliam, second daughter of the Earl of ---- .   Educated Harrow, Cambridge. Magistrate for county. M.P. for Chesterfield 1815. Knighted 1825.

Trollope does not understand that in Jane Austen's time there was a landed gentry who could live off the proceeds of their English estates, with no colonial activity. Income tax was introduced in 1798, as a temporary measure to finance the war against Napoleon, but the highest rate was only 10%.
    "What built Pemberley?" asks Trollope in dreadful English. "Pemberley was built, one imagines, on proceeds of the coal mines in Derbyshire. What was the life of an eighteenth-century coal-miner like? Not very nice." Not very nice?  - New Historicism doesn't get any "liter" than that.
Actually until the 1840s there were very few coal mines in Derbyshire, and they were very small, just little village pits. Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813.  Pemberley is already old enough for Darcy's father to have lived there. If Mr Darcy senior was the enterprising kind, he might have invested in limestone quarries, lead mines, water-powered cotton-mills, silk mills, stocking-factories, or even a porcelain factory, all of which existed in Derbyshire in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. He may also have invested in and profited from toll-roads going across his land. I notice that Ms Trollope's view of history gives the British no credit for their pioneering in road construction or any of these enterprises.

Arkright's Mill - Cromford 29-04-06.jpg

Cromford Mill in Derbyshire

As for Mr Bingley, the clue is in the name. The Bingley Lock is a prominent feature of the Leeds to Liverpool canal, one of the biggest projects of the early Industrial Revolution in the North of England. People who invested in canals got rich very fast. The Bingleys are a family who have not been wealthy for very long, which is why Mr Bingley looks up to his friend Darcy, and takes his advice, while Miss Bingley regards him as a very desirable catch.
    How do all the other rich people in Jane Austen's novels come by their money? Most of them are landed gentry. There is Sir John Middleton in Sense and Sensibility, with a large estate in Devonshire, large enough for him to be able to find a spare cottage for the homeless Dashwoods turned out of their house in Sussex. There could be valuable timber on his estate and I imagine that his family have encouraged lace-making and the manufacture of woolen blankets. There is Lady Catherine de Bourgh with her grand and somewhat vulgar house in Kent, Rosings. There is something so smug about her that I adduce that she has large investments in government bonds. And then there is Mr Knightley in Emma, whose father has left him the delectable Donwell Abbey. He seems to take a close interest in his tenant farmers, such as Robert Martin, and may be trying to encourage them to maximize return on their lands. It was an age of farming innovation.
How many stocks and shares had Lady Macbeth? Speculation about what lies behind the details of a fiction is a form of fiction in itself. But there is plausible fiction and then there is glaring fallacy. Joanna Trollope's accusations about Jane Austen belong in the second category.

Monday, 9 March 2015

How to Object to the Planning Application for Alterations to Holy Trinity Church Headington Quarry

A notice has appeared pinned to the post at the top of the footpath from Quarry Road to Holy Trinity Church, informing local people that a planning application has been formally submitted and we can comment on it, on the City Council's website. Somebody  - (and it wasn't me)  - has scrawled on the notice "Say No!"
   Whoever it was, is expressing the prevalent view. The plan is just not popular and Quarry residents have many misgivings about its feasibility, viability and appropriateness for this spot. There is the issue of desecrating graves - then there is also the subsidence issue  - the parking issue - and there are many more. Building on the north side would ruin the beautiful C.S.Lewis Narnia window which is one of the main attractions and features of the church.

Here is the link:-

So far all the comments submitted are against the proposal.
Mine is as follows.
I am a parish councillor for Quarry and Risinghurst. I attend the church as a parishioner.
There is very strong local feeling in the community against this plan, and I urge you to reject it. If pushed through, the result could be a long-term estrangement and resentment between the church and the village.
On January 22nd I attended the meeting organised by the Holy Trinity Preservation Group at the Mason's Arms. There were upwards of fifty people, all local residents, and when a show of hands was taken and not one person at the meeting was in favour.
The new plan is not very different from the one proposed two years ago and while it appears smaller (no precise measurements are given) it is still sited in an area on the north side of the church where there are many relatively new graves. The claim that these would not be affected by building work is just not very plausible. These are the family graves of local residents. They don't want the graves of their parents, husbands, wives, children and in some cases grandchildren built over, dug up or trampled on by people using a new northern entrance to the church.
Quarry is an area with ACUTE problems of subsidence and underground instability due to the quarrying over centuries. If builders start to dig, they may disturb the church and cause structural damage.
The extension to the nearby school encountered severe problems which make this scheme reckless and inadvisable. If the church needs a new meeting room, why don't they build it at the bottom of the vicarage garden where suitable site is available?
The space there is used for absolutely nothing at present. There is also the option of making more use of the community room in the primary school, which is just outside the churchyard gates on the eastern side.
The plan offered by the vicar is far too big and involves unacceptable changes to the interior of the building. Tourists who come to see C.S. Lewis's church appreciate it being essentially as it was in his time. The plans would ruin the beautiful memorial window which is on the North wall and needs light to be seen properly and function as a window. This is one of the loveliest features of the church.
It is absolutely stupid to rip out purpose-built choirstalls, and turn them into foldable ones, creating unnecessary chores and a need for storage space. Just leave them alone! It is also stupid to build an extension to the chancel, with a step that would just create a trip hazard. A church is not a theatre.
To rip out the two front pews would be absolutely wrong too, as the church is short of seating space and is often very full at services, funerals and weddings. The front pews are needed by deaf people. Pews are on the whole better than chairs as children can fidget in them without knocking them over. And they don't need a storage room in an extension!
With cushions they can be made comfortable.
The current plan includes a meeting-room, a large "choir room" (as well as the existing vestry), two toilets, a baby-changing room, two storage areas, a flower preparation room and a lobby. That is far too large and ambitious. If the parish council is determined to steam-roller ahead and build on this area despite the strength of local feeling against it, I suggest just building ONE room, where the current plan says "choir room". This space could include a toilet without steps. The current WC could be turned into a small kitchenette. All you need is a sink and the space to stand a kettle and a tray. It doesn't have to be cordon bleu.
If parents in church need to take their baby out because it is crying, they can at present just take it into the porch, where there is seating and which by the way, does NOT need glass doors. (Glass doors could be vandalised, as glass bus stops so often are) People don't need to bring prams inside the church and they certainly don't need a purpose-built changing room.
As for the idea of building storage cupboards at the west end of the church, that would only add to the clutter and the over-crowding in a small space. Reducing seating is perverse. All of it is needed. I suggest that the interior of the church is left alone.
Future generations with good taste may much regret the loss of beautiful choirstalls and pews that are part of the essential Victorian design.
Local parishioners certainly feel that way.
Once further word about parking. There is no vehicle access to the church from the West side, only a footpath through from Quarry Road. That would make this an unsuitable site either for building work or for frequent use as a parish hall. The only vehicle access is from Trinity Road, where there is no public parking space. A few cars are tolerated there at times of funerals and weddings, but it is an ongoing problem. Turning this area into a parish hall that would be used for a wide variety of purposes would just not work as there is no space for parking. Cars might park on the slope outside the nursery school, which is dangerous and obstructive. Far better to hold events at the Coach House where there is a car park.
Many at the recent meeting also expressed the view that this extravagant plan is a waste of money that could be spent on many worthy, and needy, causes. That is a view I share.

Sunday, 8 March 2015

International Day of Women - Whatever that means. Women Have been Undefined.

Today is supposed to be International Women's Day - but what is a woman? Human Rights Watch recently announced that people are entitled to "choose their own gender" and that gender is different from sex. If you don't have to be a biological female to be a woman, what the hell does it mean? The truth is that gender has never been more than a linguistic convention for describing someone's sex. To divorce it from sex leaves it meaning nothing more than a taste for wearing high heels and nail varnish. That is an insult to real women, what we  are, what we do and what we feel.
That is the real "war on women".
A gender without any meaningful connection with your physical sex is as much use as a dislocated knee-cap, or a floating retina. Yet this absurdity is now rife and going unchallenged. There seems to be a sort of Marfan syndrome, a disconnectedness, spread by mindless trendies.

You are female from the moment of conception. Landed with the XX chromosome combination, you will have a womb, ovaries and the outward organs of a female. You will menstruate, and if you get pregnant, lactate. Your voice will remain relatively high-pitched, while those of men deepen, Your hair will be more abundant than that of a man and distributed in different parts of your body. That is because Nature intends us to be able to tell the sexes apart. You can bear children, which is difficult, joyous, painful, amazing, onerous, but infinitely rewarding. You can also get raped, which I believe is something no man can ever truly understand.
Nobody is "born in the wrong body". If you are female in sex you can only appropriately be described with the feminine gender and anything else is a lie . No surgery or artificial hormone treatment can change your sex. They are risky, often harmful and result in sad, sterile eunuchs who are never satisfied and go on spending their lives having one cosmetic surgery after another.

If you are a woman, you should not have to compete in sport again men, That is not fair, Even if they falsify their sex, they are still men and have an unfair advantage, They are taller, stronger and faster. Venus and Serena Williams would not be famous if they had to play against Andy Murray and Novak Djokavic. But if you are a woman, Nature may give you the fantastic voice of Anna Ntrebko or Alyona Kistenyova.
Let this be the resolution for International Women's Day: to acknowledge, recognize and respect what a woman is, and stop undermining it.

Monday, 2 March 2015

Labour-run Oxford is the New Rotherham - Andrew Smith defends useless social services

Serious Case Review slams police failure in serial abuse of Oxford girls

by Sandra Laville for the Guardian Sunday 1 March 2015

"In Oxford the grooming, sexual torture and trafficking took place in the Cowley area of the city, in churchyards, parks, a guesthouse and empty flats procured for the purpose of drugging the girls and handing them around to be gang raped and brutalised."
Some of the 300 victims, mostly girls in care, were exploited for more than eight years despite repeated calls for help to authorities.
The numbers are likely to be an underestimate.
Thames Valley Police are criticised in the report for failing to act on repeated calls for help.

More than 300 young people have been groomed and sexually exploited by gangs of men in Oxfordshire in the past 15 years, a damning report into the failures of police and social services to stop years of sexual torture, trafficking and rape will reveal, the Guardian has learned.

The victims, mostly girls, come predominantly from the city of Oxford, increasing concerns that the grooming and exploitation of vulnerable young people by groups of older men is not confined to the inner cities. One senior investigative source said: “If you think you haven’t got a problem in your city or town, you are just not looking for it.”

Police and social services in Oxfordshire will be heavily criticised for not doing enough to stop years of violent abuse and enslavement of six young girls, aged 11-15, by a gang of men. Such was the nature of the abuse, suffered for more than eight years by the girls, it was likened to torture. All of the victims had a background in care.

A serious case review by the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children’s Board, to be published on Tuesday, will condemn Thames Valley police for not believing the young girls, for treating them as if they had chosen to adopt the lifestyle, and for failing to act on repeated calls for help.

Oxfordshire social services – which had responsibility for the girls’ safety – will be equally damned for knowing they were being groomed and for failing to protect them despite compelling evidence they were in danger. One social worker told a trial that nine out of 10 of those responsible for the girls was aware of what was going on.

The serious case review has put a figure on the numbers exploited to give an idea of the scale of the problem. The report will say more than 300 young people have been subjected to grooming and abuse between 1999 and 2014 in Oxfordshire alone.

The attempt to quantify the scale of abuse mirrors the work of the Jay report into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham, which said 1,400 young people had been subjected to grooming and abuse between 1999 and 2013.

An insider said the report was “brutal” in its condemnation of Thames Valley police and Oxfordshire social services.

Weeks before the publication of the serious case review, the chief executive of Oxfordshire county council, Joanna Simons, announced she would be stepping down in the summer, a move questioned by the Oxford East MP Andrew Smith, who said he was “concerned at the decision and how it had been taken”. [That's the Andrew Smith whose election manifesto says he's "on your side". On your side if you're a grooming gang or useless social services bureaucrat. ]

The council said she would not be replaced and the authority was reorganising its management structure. In a joint message with the council in January, Simons said that in order to protect frontline services, the authority would be making changes to its top team which would involve the departure of the chief executive.

The case echoes the child exploitation scandals in Rotherham, Rochdale and Derby involving gangs of men of Asian background targeting white girls in care. In Oxford, however, the grooming, sexual torture and trafficking took place on the streets of the Cowley area of the city, in churchyards, parks, a guesthouse and empty flats procured for the purpose of drugging the girls and handing them around to be gang raped and brutalised.

A 12-year-old victim was branded by the men and, when she fell pregnant, subjected to a backstreet abortion in a house in Reading. Over six years, she was repeatedly raped by groups of men in what she described as “torture sex”.

Key findings in the serious case review will expose how police officers and social workers did not listen to the girls when they spoke of the abuse they were suffering, did not believe them and dismissed them.

The girls and some of their abusers crossed the police and social services radar multiple times. In 2006 alone, the police received four complaints from the young girls about the men, with their accounts corroborated in some cases. One victim reported the abuse twice to police in 2006. She told officers: “They are doing it to other girls, little girls with their school uniforms on.”

There were thousands of contacts between both agencies and the girls and they were reported missing at least 450 times. One victim, known as Girl C, has spoken of how her foster mother reported her missing 80 times.

The number of young people identified by the report – more than 300 – as victims of child sexual exploitation in the last 15 years is considered a robust figure because the girls have all been spoken to by police or social services.

But the numbers are likely to be an underestimate. Figures from Thames Valley police reveal that 220 of the 2,000 child abuse cases reported across the force in 13 months from July 2013 to August 2014 involved child sexual exploitation.

Nearly 700 children and young people suspected of being at risk of exploitation have been referred to new specialist police and social services units in Thames Valley between November 2012 and November 2014; 250 in Berkshire, 237 in Buckinghamshire and 206 in Oxfordshire.

It was not until 2011 when DCI Simon Morton trawled through missing persons reports, health records and social services data that Thames Valley police began to link the girls’ repeated patterns of going missing, returning and going missing again with the activities of the men – some of whom were known to police for drug crimes.

After a groundbreaking two-year investigation, Operation Bullfinch, seven men – including two sets of brothers – were convicted at the Old Bailey in May 2013 of 43 offences, which included trafficking, forcing girls into prostitution, procuring an illegal abortion, rape and physical violence.

Brothers Akhtar and Anjum Dogar, Bassam and Mohammed Karrar, Kamar Jamil, Zeeshan Ahmed and Assad Hussain, who were all from Oxford, were given sentences ranging from a minimum of seven to 20 years in prison.

>>English Democrats say : Had enough yet? Time to break the mould and stop voting for the old parties. Re-train the police and social services: at the moment they are not fit for purpose.

Comments on topic are welcome but any abusive, aggressive or threatening messages will be reported to the police as harassment, together with your full name and details.


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Reviews, giveaways and memes - Jumpin Beans

Mens Vaseline - Great #FathersDay gift idea #Giveaway (ARV $150)

FTC Compliant Review Policy:
The product(s) featured in this review were provided free of cost to me by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. Opinions expressed are my own and are NOT influenced by monetary compensation.

Remember how I told you Marc was such a fan of the Vaseline Mens lotion?  Well, he was sure enough surprised when I gifted him a nice grooming kit for an early Fathers Day gift!    If you know Marc, you know that he CONSTANTLY has dry hands and is always putting lotion on his hands and feet...   Ever since he received his first Spray Lotion from Vaseline, he always has one near him.  He keeps one by the bed for when he gets ready for bed and when he wakes up.. and then he keeps another bottle in the living room for when he is just relaxing with the family!

Key Features and Benefits:
       A convenient 360° continuous spray lotion that moisturizes deeply and absorbs in seconds
       Skin will feel instantly soft and moisturized – not sticky or greasy
       Fast to apply, quick to absorb
       Targeted spray dispenses lotion quickly and evenly to leave skin feeling great

I was given the opportunity to work in a review of Vaselines Spray line and a nice "grooming kit" for Fathers day...  I was so excited, since he travels with work and everything, he needs a nice little travel bag...  He has a small one that he uses, but to be honest, they have not ever really lasted that long... I think because at times he tries to pack it full of everything he may need and there really isn't that much room...
Until I won wife of the year award for this year!
You know how I said I gifted him with a nice grooming kit?
Yeah - well let me just tell you about it...

The box arrived and I was honestly thinking it was going to be a little rinky dink travel bag...
Nope- it was a nice heavy duty one!
It is a nice sized black bag that has an inside zippered pocket (sort of
small)  and then an additional outer zippered pocket as well.  It is long (and wide) enough to place not one, but two of the Vaseline spray bottles in the bottom, with PLENTY of room left over...  So much room inside that they surprised us with a really nice Casio G Shock Watch inside!

Outer Zippered Pocket
Inside Zippered area
Casio G SHOCK Watch
To be honest, I was excited to be getting more lotion for him... (He works with his hands all the time, who am I to hinder him from having nice soft hands for me to hold and for him to play with Broxton?!)  The bag was a great addition to the gift and then the watch put it over the top!  He was so excited for it all and you can imagine how much he loved being treated to an early Fathers Day!

Do you want to win a nice set like this for someone you know and love?
It will not arrive in time for Fathers Day...but it would make a great "just because" gift...Or you could even give the lotions to him now and save the watch and travel bag for another occasion!

Marc says that the Fast Absorbing is his favorite, but truth be told, he loves them both as he really has no preference over them, just as long as they continue to get the job done - which is to moisturize his skin and not leave a greasy feeling !

Prize Pack -
ARV- $150

a Rafflecopter giveaway

  1. This would make a great gift!

  2. This would make a great gift! The fast absorbing sounds better, the people in my family hate when lotion takes forever to soak in.

  3. This would make a great gift, thanks for the chance!

  4. Fast Absorbing sounds best to me! I hate feeling all greasy.

  5. That sounds great for a lot of men.

  6. I think my Husband would prefer fast absorbing.

  7. im going to go with fast cooling! thanks !!! xoxo

  8. Fast cooling is what I think it great!

  9. Fast absorbing is great! Love love love lotion that absorbs quickly.

  10. Hopefully my comment is not a repeat...
    We love fast absorbing things.

  11. My husband would like fast absorbing best. He works w/his hands all day too, and especially in the winter they can get to be a mess. Thanks for hosting.

  12. hubby would like the fast absorbing lotion

  13. I would like the fast cooling lotion for him.

  14. I think my husband would especially enjoy Fast Cooling.

  15. The fast absorbing, who wants to wait

  16. Fast cooling sounds good to me, although I'm certain my son will appreciate Fast-Absorbing, too.

  17. I don't think the comment I tried to post actually posted, so trying again. I think the Fast Absorbing sounds great!

  18. I love the fast absorbing better.

  19. Fast cooling would be great for my dad. He's out at an oil platform thingie two weeks a month!

  20. Fast Absorbing sounds best to me.

  21. Right now, I think my husband needs the Fast Absorbing the most. So it would be better.

  22. Fast absorbing sounds excellent to me!

  23. Fast absorbing sounds great to me!

I love comments... Please leave one to show love!

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Parent & Adolescent Counselling

The Parent Adolescent Counselling services of Junction Australia aim to support families with 12-18 year old young people to work with the changes and challenges of adolescence. The goal of the service is to reduce family conflict, prevent family breakdown and work towards preventing young people from experiencing homelessness.

Click here to read more.

To contact our Counselling Service, call 8384 7877.

Junction Australia’s registered national community
housing provider is Junction and Women’s Housing Ltd.

Copyright © 2017 Junction Australia


text:
J. Johnson wins District 1 seat 3-2

Posted: Wednesday, October 03, 2001

Real estate broker and Juneau Airport Board member Jeannie Johnson said she is pleased with the results of her District 1 Assembly win Tuesday, but would have liked a bigger turnout.

According to unofficial results, Johnson had 60 percent of the tally in the District 1 race with 3,192 votes. Tony Reiger, a retired teacher and Rayco Sales clerk, had 2,031 votes and 38 percent of the total.

Turnout in Tuesday's election was about 25 percent.

Johnson, who will fill a seat held by Cathy Mu-oz, said she already has started lobbying friends and business associates in the rest of the state against a capital move and expects to continue on a bigger scale on the Assembly. On another issue, she said she hopes the city can put another public rest room downtown before the start of next year's cruise ship season.

"I said during my campaign that I was a listener and I still am. I want people to call and talk to me about anything they think is important," she said.

She said the Assembly is losing experience with the departure of Assembly members Mu-oz and John MacKinnon and expects she will need time to come to speed on city issues.

Mayor Sally Smith said Tuesday the Assembly will have a new face if for no other reason that it will have a new Finance Committee chairperson, a seat now held by Mu-oz, and deputy mayor, a seat held by MacKinnon. Smith has asked current Assembly members for input on committee assignments and expects to make appointments at the Assembly's next regular meeting.

Johnson said she considers Reiger a new friend and enjoyed working with him. And Reiger echoed the sentiment.

"A lot of people felt there wasn't too much of a difference between Jeannie and I on a variety of issues so I think it was really style and how we go about things that probably made people decide for her and not for me. I pulled no punches. I come straight on on issues and with people," he said.

Reiger said airport safety and wastewater treatment will continue to be concerns, but he doubts he will run for office again.

"I know it was a wonderful learning experience for me. I'm disappointed, but I've always respected the voters," he said.

Voter turnout, about 25 percent of registered voters overall, ranged from a low of 12 percent at Switzer Creek to a high of 32 percent at Juneau No. 2 downtown.

"I think everybody would have liked to see a bigger turnout, but that's it," Johnson said. "I think that because there were no burning issues on the ballot, even though the split of the bond was a very important issue for the schools, it obviously wasn't a contentious issue to bring people out to vote."

Turnout in last fall's city election was 49.1 percent, according to final results. That election included a contested mayor's race and six ballot measures. Turnout in the 1999 city election was 36 percent.

"It's very low, very disappointing," City Clerk Laurie Sica said of this year's turnout. She said she hoped patriotic sentiment following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would have done more to draw people to the polls.

A city board will review and count the remaining absentee and questioned ballots at 5 p.m. Friday at Assembly chambers. The canvass review board meets at 1 p.m. Tuesday in Assembly chambers to review and certify the results of the election.

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I really appreciate you taking the time to call in, view my artwork and leave such wonderful comments.
Sending you all love, hugs and blessings,

June xxx

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Metallic Fever..Gothic Arch Challenge..

With a subject like metallic, what else could I do but make it Steampunk?
This is my entry for this weeks Gothic Art Challenge. Hope you like it.

A dull day today, no sunshine like yesterday but promise of a little rain later. Another funeral this afternoon but this time in our glorious St. Nicholas Church. Unlike yesterday where there was a relatively small gathering, I expect today to there being a packed church as she was well known and loved in our village.
And this morning a trip to the dentist....Ughh!

Effie said...

That's one fabulous arch.. So much detail and great images.
Thanks for taking the time to play along.

Glitter Monkey said...

Beautiful creation - so much to look at. WOW!! Thank you for supporting Gothic Arches. Lynn ♥

Cheryl said...

oh wow Hun this is brilliant I just adore steam punk and this is one amazing piece of art hugs Cherylxxx

Yvonne said...

Fabulous collage, June!

Patti said...

Thank you for popping by earlier today. It was nice to see your familiar/beloved name. Since I have taken a break on my "Fill My Cup" blog, I rarely receive visits from the majority of my blog friends...I guess most of them couldn't give a hoot about classic movies, so they aren't interested in visiting my classic movie blog. So, I appreciate you taking the time to stop by.

It's been gloomy and cold, and I'm having my usual winter struggles. Hard to focus and concentrate. Spring can't get here quickly enough for me.

As always, June,your picture is lovely! You do beautiful work.

P.S. Are you a "Downton Abbey" enthusiast? I am in love with that show. We own the complete Season 1, and now we are waiting for Season 2 to be released.

PaisleyPeacock said...

Beautiful arch I love everything about this....really appeals to my loves....tfs

Bill said...

Yay! Steampunk! You've created a glorious arch. Wonderful work.

Salamanda's Scrappy Adventures said...

Love the steam punk take on the challenge.

Mina said...

Oh, I love this steampunk image. I have only done a couple for this theme but don't quite have it down.

LuLu said...

This arch challenge looks like it was so much FUN to create! Youve inspired me again!

Mary Lou 'LuLu'
Would love for you to visit my blog, and become a follower when you have a moment or 2! Get Freebies to celebrate my 2nd blogoversary!

Jann said...

Such a fantastic digital collage!

Ellen said...

wonderful collection of "scrap metal" and I love how you did the arch outline in old newspaper


text:
Friday, November 20, 2009

By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio

As I have said before that if a Filipino can accomplish something that is truly outstanding far exceeding that of any other competitor in his career or line of work, then the Philippines can also be comparably great or even greater than any country in the world.

Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao broke the record of winning seven championship belts in seven different weight divisions. His story is quite amazing to tell of an impoverished boy who by struggled to fulfill his dream to excel in his chosen field of sport which is boxing.

His recent victory on the boxing ring in Las Vegas technically put him on top of every other boxer in history as the greatest. So remember, it’s not Muhammad Ali but Manny Pacquiao, a Filipino who came from the ghettoes of Mindanao.

By all means, Jose Rizal is the National Hero of the Filipino people. Let no innocent boy or girl make the mistake of thinking that Pacquiao is a hero in the likes of Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Jacinto, Emilio Aguinaldo, Gregorio del Pilar, and those who sacrificed their lives for freedom against the foreign invaders.

Rizal has gained worldwide recognition as a universal genius whose martyrdom for the sake of liberty for his people is indeed outstanding. He tried to imitate the death of Christ at the Cross when he willingly “gave up his ghost” before the Spanish firing squad.

Rizal’s heroism emboldened the timid and lethargic Filipino masses to rise against their Spanish masters that finally let to the declaration of independence of the Philippines from Spain with the founding of the first Philippine Republic in Malolos, Bulacan.

It is very important to tell our young children the true merits of Filipinos who are considered super achievers in their own particular fields of endeavor such as in sports or entertainment. Such deserve our accolades and due appreciation of their outstanding skills.

At any rate, what the Filipino people need now are super achievers in inspiring the masses to believe in themselves and most especially to our God the Creator who endowed each individual with special gifts or skills for a purpose. This is what popular American pastor Rich Warren is saying in his best-selling book, “Purpose-Driven Life.”

Manny Pacquiao no doubt pays tribute for all his successes to God and he is not ashamed to show it. All our national heroes dedicated their sacrifices for liberty believing that God is a God of Liberty.

I may say that the secret to success is to acknowledge our God in Heaven for all the blessings one receives for He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The purpose of living in this world is to glorify the Creator, not the creation.

Beware to worship the Golden Calf!

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Since going to Disneyworld . . .

Madelyn has taken a renewed interest in her princess dolls. She left them out on her bed the other day and Owen saw them. I don't even think he knew what they were. He kept looking at them and looking at them. And then he just carried them downstairs and one by one would pick them up and look at them. (I wonder if he was remembering meeting the princesses at Disneyworld??) It was pretty funny to watch. He was both perplexed and entertained by them.

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Simple dinner

When Trent is out of town, I tend to simplify lots of things just to be able to keep up with everything by myself.

Tonight we had pancakes for dinner. I put the batter into a ziplock bag, clipped the corner and made the craziest little designs.

Did you know they actually taste better in crazy designs???? My kids loved them and I loved them, the thin little pieces were almost crunchy. It is amazing how changing one little thing can really make things more enjoyable. Thanks pinterest for the idea.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Small things make me happy

Before we left for Disney world I broke a couple little twigs off our weeping cherry tree and brought them inside and put them in a vase of water. I had always wanted to force branches to bloom but I thought the idea of putting sticks that look dead in a vase for a couple weeks seemed a little silly. Last year I glued popcorn on the sticks and found it to actually be cute -- so figured I could be patient this year.

And I am so glad I did. Having them in your house makes you realized that flowers don't just pop open --- it is a gradual process. It is amazing to observe. When they are on the trees I don't take the time to notice all the little things I just one day notice they have bloomed.

It has had a calming effect on me. It's like I have the chance to "smell the roses" everyday by observing these sticks. The flowers were beautiful but I was so surprised by the emergence of the leaves. I knew the flowers would bloom, but I forgot all about the leaves. I am having my own personal spring inside despite the cold outside.

I am going out in the morning to get some more dead looking sticks and enjoy watching. . . really watching spring in all her glory.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Owen's obsession

Isn't it always the case? Your kids want the one thing you don't want them to want??

In this case we have about 5 different sets of cars from the movie Cars. Four of the sets are big enough to not pose a choking hazard to Owen, 1 set is teeny. REALLY teeny. That is the only one Owen wants to play with.

He hasn't ever put them in his mouth, but I only let him play with them while I am right there. He LOVES the squinkies.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Puzzling Saturday

We had so much fun doing the 2 500 piece panoramic puzzles from Disney world that I stopped by the puzzle section at Walmart.  They had a box containing 8 Disney puzzles for $15.  I grabbed the box figuring that over time we would really enjoy doing them.

And we did.  Just a lot faster than I thought.  By bedtime we had done 7 of the 8 puzzles.  (4 150 pieces, 2 300 pieces, and 1 500 piece puzzle)

Friday, February 24, 2012

4th grade Pasta Night

We awoke to 3-4 inches of snow and a delayed start to school. Trent was out the door early to fly to Raleigh, North Carolina and I got the kids off to school. Tonight was pasta night for the 4th grader's big fundraiser. Catherine and Anna (her close friend and classmate) took their job as waitress very seriously!

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Today was beautiful

I cannot say enough times how nice this winter has been. Today was yet another day in the upper 50's. Owen wanted to spend the whole day outside.

One thing Owen loves right now is the comings and goings of the girls to school. He loves to wave good-bye and blow kisses. He loves to see the busses. He loves watching the girls come up the driveway and then he loves giving the girls loves.

Today we were outside waiting for Julianne. Aren't they cute together?

Julianne is a good big sister to him!!!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

A few more reminiscing photos of the last DisneyWorld trip

I have been looking at lots of Disney photos for the last 2 weeks.  I constantly flip back to the ones we took 4 years ago and today's to see the changes in our kids.  Like these viking hat pictures -- we took the same photos then and now.

But the most striking thing is that my mom is in a lot of the photos from 4 years ago.  I only wish she were in even more of them.  I have really tried to change my picture taking habits to make sure that I don't take for granted that ANYone will always be there.  In so many of the photos I know my mom is standing next to me helping to get all the kids attention -- what I should have done is tell her to get in there with the kids and who cares if the kids are all looking.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Missing Disneyworld

At least we brought home some souvenirs, like this puzzle which the kids promptly did when they got home from school. We have another one that I suspect they will be doing tomorrow.

Awesome puzzle

Monday, February 20, 2012

Finally . . . Home -- Happy President's day to us!!!!

Today was a long drive. We left at 5:15 in the morning.

South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.

I got in a picture of Delaware (which is tough to do since it is so small) and also New Jersey.

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

We got to eat lunch at Chick Fil A. And we got to see all the snow plowed on the side of the road that we would have been driving in if we hadn't decided to stay in Florida an extra day. On the radio in Richmond Virginia, they announced that police had responded just 24 hours earlier to over 700 motor vehicle incidents that were weather related. So it was a good call-- the roads were clear, the skies were blue, and the temperature just dropped and dropped as we headed back to the land of the frozen tundra!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

The start of the drive home

After our late, late night closing the Magic Kingdom. We ALL slept in. It was nice. We needed it.

We got checked out, loaded up and were on our way about 11:30 am. It is only a 6 hour drive to Trent's Aunt Emilie's home in South Carolina. We stopped at a Subway for lunch and the kids had so much fun watching Trent play a silly coin game where you have to position a key to win the prize. The kids were just certain that their Dad could win an ipad for them. After playing 6 times and not winning we cut our losses and got back on the road.

For dinner we ate at IHOP. And then we got to Emilie's around 8:00 p.m. The kids nearly talked her ears off. You could tell that they had been trapped in a car with literally thousands of stories of our week just desperate to burst free!!!!

Once we sent them to bed, they were all asleep in a matter of minutes. (I think we really did wear them out this whole week!)

Here is little Owen on the drive.

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

So, now a few comments on taking long drives with 5 kids.

It sure isn't the easiest thing, but it also isn't so bad.  You are free to stop.  You make your own schedule.  You can start early or finish late.  The flexibility is nice.

and DVD's help, as do Ipod touches (if you can keep them charged).

I grabbed mostly new movies to take this time (all from the $5 bin at Walmart).  The good thing about new movies is that once you can convince your kids to give it a shot they are usually hooked because they do not already know the ending.  The bad thing about new movies is that even if they are tired they tend to stay awake because they don't want to miss anything.  It is also fun to see which of the movies are a hit with the kids and which ones are a flop.  For example, one of the movies was called Aliens in the attic.  Julianne DID NOT want to watch it.  But 20 minutes into it she (and all the other kids) were in heaven.  They actually watched this movie 3 times in the car.  They did not like Sister Act???  They wouldn't even give it a chance. They loved because of winn-dixie.  The didn't like Inkheart so much.

Also the kids could watch Netflix on our iphones so that was nice.  And Trent and I listened to several podcasts.  The interesting thing is that no matter how long or short the drive the last 20 minutes are always absolute hell.  I think the combo of car fatigue, suspended anticipation, and more factors contribute, but there is no way to really prepare for that part of the car ride.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Saturday -- Our last Day -- Magic Kingdom

We thoroughly enjoyed today. It felt like a bonus (since originally we were just going to go for the morning and then start driving by noon) but now we were staying all day.

We rode all the favorite rides. Did some of the "slower" things like the tiki room, and Tom Sawyer's Island, and just had fun!

At around 2:00 (with it being the Holiday weekend) the park was super crowded and we went ahead and left. We went to Olive Garden and had a nice lunch and then checked into our new hotel and almost all of us took great naps.

At 6:30, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom.

We started using all our fast passes and we did the Laugh Floor and the kid's texted in Jokes and one of them got used (I guess because the phone number came from texas they identified the girls as being from Texas)

We were anxious to see the Electrical Parade but when 9:00 rolled around the park was still super crowded. So we decided to continue riding rides knowing that parade went again at 11:00. We watched the fireworks again, and then the parade. And as you can see it wasn't crowded at all!!!!

Owen slept through it all!

DSC_2405 DSC_2417

When the parade ended we did even more rides finishing up at Splash mountain where the kids rode over and over without having to even get off. Before we knew it-- It was 1 am. We had closed the park.

It was the perfect ending to a great week!!!!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Friday -- Animal Kingdom - Happy 38th Birthday to Trent

The Animal Kingdom -- the last Disney park. DSC_2335 We got there early and Trent got fast passes to Expedition Everest while I headed to the primeval whirl and triceratop spin. These 2 rides are fun -- one is a fun little roller coaster that I think the 3 girls rode at least 5 times and the other is just like Dumbo but they are dinosaurs and me, Adam and Owen rode it at least 5 times (without even getting off) and then Trent and I traded and the boys rode it again. We rode Dinosaur and then went to Finding Nemo the musical which was amazing. DSC_2337 Then the day got kind of drizzly -- and I guess that meant my camera got put away -- because I didn't take anymore pictures this day. We went on the safari and saw all the animals, watched the 3D It's tough to be a bug, rode Expedition Everest several times, and enjoyed spending the whole day with our friend's the Whiteley's who had come from North Carolina. When the park closed at 6 it was really raining pretty good and so we headed back to the hotel to relax, rest, and figure out our plans -- Initially we were going to leave on Saturday, but with a huge snow storm expected to hit areas of Virginia we decided to extend our stay to avoid driving in the weather. But our current hotel is booked so we had to find another (which we did) but it meant that we had to get everything packed up to change hotels the next day.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Thursday -- Universal Islands of Adventure

Today was our only NON disney day. We had high hopes and expectations.

The girls were super excited about Harry Potter world. We arrived early and walked the mile from the parking garage to the entrance of the park. And we immediately made our way straight to Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. This is the marquee ride that takes you through the castle. I really enjoyed the wandering through the queue seeing the inside of the castle. We all loved the portraits and the details about the castle. They did an amazing job on it. As for the ride itself -- well I had heard of so many people getting sick on it that my expectations were pretty low. And I was pleasantly surprised. I really liked the ride. It was really an amazing blend of technology and roller coaster. Universal has a baby waiting room (which is kind of nice, but then you have to bring the babies (without the stroller) all the way through the line which depending on the wait could be a very long time.

Then we went to the Hippogriff ride. It is a smaller roller coaster that my kids just loved (they could have gone on it over and over). Even Adam loved it. Then Julianne and I went on one of the dueling dragons roller coasters (there are 2 of them intertwined). It was fast and thrilling and I endured it. Julianne loved it.

Once we finished all the rides in Harry Potter World we got our first butterbeers (one frozen and one regular). We all loved them!

And we should have stopped there and called it a day. But instead we went to the "kid" section of the park. Dr. Seuss world. We waited in insane lines (like 45 minutes to ride the tiny elevated train that travels at 3 mph that they wouldn't let Owen ride-- really? this kind of ride has a height restriction????).

We went to the Dr. Seuss show -- which was awful. Middle schoolers with costumes could have done better with only 5 minutes of rehearsal. We did at least get to take pictures with all the characters.

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

And at least we had friend's with us at the park to make it more fun!

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

We rode the Caro seuss el.

DSC_2299 DSC_2300

We went to the stunt show -- Sinbad -- and it was not very funny, and kind of boring. And I kept thinking . . . "Don't they know we just came from Disney???"

We made our way back towards Harry Potter to have lunch at the 3 broomsticks. And on our way stopped at a quick magic show. It was a phenomenal show (only 15 minutes) and slight of hand right in front of you. It was in the shop of wonders and was probably the real highlight of the day.

Lunch at the three broomsticks was actually quite good (and pretty healthy). We did the feast which was lots of fresh veggies and chicken and ribs.

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

Here we are in front of the Hogwarts express.

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

We then made our way to the rest of the park -- stopping to watch Poseiden's Fury -- it was AWFUL.

Then to Superhero world. By now the lines were super long and most of the rest of the park only Julianne was tall enough for the rides. Julianne and I went on the Hulk (through the single rider line so we didn't have to wait).

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

Then the kids rode a spinny teacup like ride.

Owen was a good baby entertaining himself with the stroller.

At this point (given that the spiderman ride was closed) there were just a lot more roller coasters that only Julianne and either Trent and I could go on and LONG, LONG, lines. We were unwilling to pay for the express pass -- which I find to be outrageous. And so at 3:00 we left. To say we were disappointed overall would be an understatement. While Harry Potter world was neat, there were a lot of things about it I didn't like -- like that Ollivander's wand shop only let in 15 people every 20 minutes??? Who designed that??? and the shops were just too small. I kept thinking how much more amazing it would have been if Disney had done it.

We headed to Downtown Disney for the evening and shopped for souvenirs and enjoyed the nice evening weather.

This statue / person was quite entertaining.

Then we headed home for a good night's rest to be ready for another fun filled day!!!!


text:
Monday, January 24, 2011

love. no,wait. it's loathe.

This month? It is doing me in. I can't put my finger on it. But I am struggling to get though.

It's like I've encountered this wall of melancholy. And it's far too high to climb over. And it's far too long to get around.

So, basically, I'm just kind of sitting, leaning against it.

I'm trying so hard to make things work. But it's not working.

Or maybe I'm just too depleted to try very hard at all. And that's why it's not working.

Some things I can't change, or can't figure out how to change. Some things I wish would change, but aren't up to me to change. Some things might change eventually, but not in the near future. Some things I just can't figure out at all.

So I've been doing those things I know won't help (eating and eating and eating...), but seem to make it momentarily better. And even as I'm doing it, I know it won't last for more than that moment. But I do it anyway. And then I feel worse. Blah. Blah. Blah.

And part of me knows that it's temporary. That this, too, shall pass. And that part of me tells myself to hang in there, and ride it out; that it will all work itself out soon enough, and then things will get back to normal.

But that's a pretty small part of me.

Most of me is just filled with a stupid amount of guilt and sadness and self-loathing, a whole mountain's worth, sitting right on my shoulders, hunching me over and weighing me down.

Here I sit. Waiting for something, for me, to change.

Corinne said...

January is awful.
I never felt it as harshly as this year. But it's downright painful.
Hope that small part of you that knows it will work out and be good... gets bigger and bigger.

Jade @ Tasting Grace said...

Sending prayers for strength for you. And wish I knew any other way to help. {hugs}

Lyndsay said...

I think tropical vacations should be mandatory for all of us living in freezing winter climates.
Sending my best vibes your way...

InTheFastLane said...

I read the Jan 24th is the most depressing day of the year. True story.

I am sorry you are struggling right now. It is those things that we do not have the power to change that are the hardest to make peace with.


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Saturday, 22 August 2009

Verse card for a friend

Here's a card I made for a friend going thru a rough patch.
I used the Sugar Free Fix collection from Craftwork Cards
It's the first time I've used their products and I highly recommend them! The quality is very good and everything mixes and matches so well. Plus I'm trying to cut out all sugar from my diet so it's appropriate!!
I prefer this card without the medallion at the bottom but I knew it would mean much more to my friend to have it personalised so here are both versions:

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  1. oooh that looks stunning bet your friend was pleased

  2. Love the gorgeous pinks and browns on this card, it's stunning x

  3. That looks great I love the colours.


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Sunday, February 7, 2016

Sand Art Gel wax candle

Hello guys. Hope you are all doing great. It's been a long time I had posted something. Here, I come with simple yet elegant sand art gel wax candle. Making gel wax candle with colorful sand base gives a graceful look to the candle when it's lit.

Let's check out the procedure of making it. Here are the supplies needed.
  • Color sand
  • Gel wax
  • Candle wick and thread
  • Glass tumbler

Bend the tumbler a little and pour sand of different colors one after the other along walls of the glass tumbler as shown in below picture. Choose colors alternatively so it doesn't match colors adjacent and beneath it. This gives wavy look. Final look after filling in above said pattern with different colors sand is as shown in picture at bottom right corner.

You can also let your creativity play its role while playing with sand to form different designs.

Now take a thin stick and slide it down along the wall of tumbler to leave a pattern as below. (This is optional process)

It's time to insert candle wick and thread. Place the candle wick and thread at center of tumbler and insert it little in to the sand.

Melt gel wax using double boiling technique so that it wouldn't burn. Once the gel wax is melted properly, pour it in glass tumbler carefully.

Held the candle wick firmly with the help of stick like structure until gel wax cools down. Once the wax cools down, leaving a half inch cut extra part of candle wick as shown below.

Yipee, now your Gel Wax candle is ready!!

Thank you for dropping by. Have a nice day :)


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Saturday, 28 June 2014

Studio Calico July Reveal

Hi everyone! It's reveal time at Studio Calico! All new kits and add-ons were already available during an exclusive pre-sale for subscribers only and they are now available to everyone for purchase in the Studio Calico store! Be aware that they often sell out quickly, so get yours today to avoid disappointment!

Every month kits are packed with a tone of stunning products along with lots of great add-on's and this month's kit is no exception! Today, I’m sharing a few cards I made using the Penny Arcade main card kit and add-ons.

For my first card I used a gorgeous patterned paper that comes in the main kit, a Single Banner Craft Die and a Wood Veneer Star Sequins:

you make me happy

I love this oh so cute hedgehog from the stamp set by LifeLovePaper. I simply watercoloured it with "clean slate":

For the next card I used amazing floral stamp set by 1canoe2 (another great design!) from the Pinball add-on kit. I used here two shades of blue to watercolour it, "something blue" and "deja blue":

happy birthday

To create my last card I used a patterned paper from the Pinball add-on kit along with a birthday craft die and the Wood Veneer Star Sequins:

I hope you feel inspired to check out these new products! You can also pop over to the Studio Calico gallery for more inspiration and ideas from the Creative Team!

Thanks for stopping by today!

  1. Pretty pretty pretty cards!!!

  2. Wonderful cards Aga! I love the hedgies and I love the placement/pattern you created with the flowers. That big birthday die is calling to me too!

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! I really appreciate it and I hope you visit again!


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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day we went to my mom-in-laws for dinner. My son was wrestling with his cousin and hurt his left arm. (thank goodness he is right handed) After dinner we went to visit my mom also. He was running and tripped. On Tuesday, he said it was still hurting so we took him to the doctor. They did an x-ray. They had to send it out to get a final reading on it but they did give him a splint for his arm. They called today and said they had the final reading. He does have a small fractor and they'd like to have my son get a cast on his arm. He is afraid of getting a cast on it for some reason. I'l tell him when he gets home from school. I am not looking forward to it.

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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Family Home Evening Clean Minds

Most of the ad slogan list came from Marika @ http://www.completeleeblog.blogspot.com/

Clean Minds
Opening Prayer:
Family Business:
D& C 88:118 And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out the the best books words of wisdom; yea, seek learning, even by study and also by faith.
Song: Hum Your Favorite Hymn (Children’s Songbook, page 152)
Lesson: Things that are repeated to us over and over again tend to stick with us. For instance, Can you complete these ad slogans:
Melts in your mouth, not in your hands..........M&M's
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is ..........Alka Seltzer
Nobody doesn’t like..........Sara Lee
Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese..........McDonalds Big Mac
Mmm, mmm, good..........Campbell's Soup
Just do it..........Nike
With a name like _____; it has to be good..........Smuckers
Be all that you can be..........U.S. Army
Breakfast of champions..........Wheaties
It keeps going, and going, and going..........Energizer
Just as we keep our bodies clean and healthy by following the Word of Wisdom, we should keep our mind clean by giving it nourishing “food”.
Though it is okay to occasionally have something that tastes good but may not be that good for you, your mind is not the same. You must be careful about what goes in to your mind. Once you’ve seen something, you can never go back. It can come back into your consciousness at any time. You don’t always have control over what comes into your head but you do have control over what stays. You should always be prepared to have something good to put in to your mind in case something bad pops in. Good music is a good way to do this.

We also need to be careful what books we read, what TV shows and movies we watch.

Closing Prayer: Closing prayer before the activity so we don’t forget after the movie.

Activity and Refreshments (combined for the night): This could also be used as family home evening in itself Family Night at the Movies- Give each family member 3 tickets for refreshments: popcorn, drink and a cookie-each item individually packaged and wrapped of course.

Millie said...

Thank you sister for joining my blog. I'll keep viewing your blog also. God Bless.

America Jane said...

Lots of great FHE ideas. Thanks! (I found you through the yahoo group.)


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Understanding True Love and Respect for the Game

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By Julie Dailey, Club Director, Team Sting Volleyball Club(Birmingham, Alabama)

As a partner club of Sports Performance Volleyball Club, I was given the unbelievable opportunity of traveling to Nagano and Tokyo, Japan with Rick Butler and the staff of the Great Lakes Center, as well as the National Champion Sports Performance 18 Elite team for 11 days of training. Spring in Japan is full of cherry blossoms and volleyball and I was fortunate to get to experience both at their fullest capacity.

After a 12 hour non-stop flight from Chicago to Tokyo, we embarked on a bus trip to the former Winter Olympic city of Nagano. We settled into the Lodge at the Sports Training Center in Nagano. The girls had time for a quick lunch of traditional clear soup, ginger salad and protein, and then went across the street for their first practice. We were the first team to arrive and walked into the gym with a welcoming banner, which made the girls feel right at home. Sports Performance foundation is based on the training systems of Japanese volleyball and SPVB 18 Elite immediately went into warm up and practice mode.

After dinner, the girls began their first of 9 practice sessions with Seitoku Senior High School volleyball team. Seitoku High School is coached by 9 time Japan National High School Coach of the Year, Yoshiki Ogawa. It was the beginning of school semester and pre-season for preparation for Seitoku's upcoming season. I am well aware of the discipline and structure of Sports Performance Volleyball Club, as our own club, Team Sting Volleyball clubis shadowed under the same philosophy. What was amazing to see, was the foundation of that structure with Seitoku and Coach Ogawa.

The girls ranged in age from 14-17 and walked in the gym with a complete focus and determination that was evident from their walk, to their work ethic and communication. Although the language barrier was difficult at times, the love of the sport between these two teams tied them together immediately. Both Seitoku and Sports Performance were in Nagano for one thing....to become the best team as possible that season.

Day in and day out, Seitoku and Sports Performance battled during wash drills, fighting tooth and nail as if in a national championship. I felt at times as though I was watching Olympic athletes in competition. Although Sports Performance had a massive height advantage on Seitoku, this 9 time Japan National High School Championship team battled with precision ball control and an unwillingness to lose a point to such an extent that I must have witnessed twenty five rallies that lasted at least 45 seconds, which is a very long life span for a single volleyball point to be one. Sports Performance would offensively set the court on fire as well as put up a massive block, only to have Seitoku battle back with the most unselfish defensive point that I have ever seen.

The coach for Seitoku, Yoshiki Ogawa, is a fantastic man who has devoted his life to the sport and the development of new techniques. Rick Butler and Coach Ogawa are really the same person... a full and devoted life to bettering youth volleyball worldwide. Coach Ogawa's philosophy is "not to stereotype a volleyball player but develop their potential to the fullest". It seems that so many times here in the United States we look at the here and now, the size, the speed or what a player possesses now. However, in Japan, they want the players with full dedication to the sport and they will train them to be volleyball players.

Not only were these 2.5 hour training sessions massively intense, drenched with blood, sweat and tears, but after every session Seitoku and Sports Performance would condition for 30 more minutes. I am not talking about light conditioning; I am referring to a workout that would drop most grown men.

After a grueling 4 days of competition we bid farewell to Seitoku and the other 5 high school teams that were practicing at the Nagano Sports Facility and traveled by bus back to Tokyo to begin 4 more days of training with Kiatsu University. Kiatsu is one of the top female university programs in Japan. An interesting fact is the girls trained with Kiatsu twice a day and had to travel 40 minutes each way to get there. The Cherry Blossoms were in bloom in Tokyo and the anticipation of getting to train with Kiatsu made the second leg of the trip even more exciting.

Walking into Kiatsu University, the first thing I noticed was the floor of the gym. They do not varnish the wood floors. They sand them down as much as they can and that is what they play on. It allows for great traction in attacking and blocking but also the availability to play the ball on the floor. The University team was taller than the Seitoku, and had several players from Seitoku on the team. As with Seitoku, the players walk in to practice with such focus and a sense of respect for the sport that it definitely takes you aback. Watch the 45 second rally below.

It was great to see Sports Performance and Kiatsu with such a true love of competition and respect for each other. As in Nagano, the players did not have to speak the same language for the competition, drive, desire and intensity to be immediate. Day in and day out, Kiatsu gave Sports Performance all that they had. It was such an amazing time for me, because I knew that I was watching a Sports Performance team that WAS going to win AAU Nationals. The girls were led by Lauren Carlini, Gatorate HS Player of the Year and JVA All-National Team member. For 11 days I watched these girls, that could have been spent this time at the beach or in the mountains or anywhere else but training, walk on to the court every practice with a sense of "We will Win", "We are Champions".

After the trip was complete, I had no doubt in my mind that this Sports Performance team would come back to the United States and dare someone in their gym to not work hard or "just get by". I knew that they would come back with so much intensity that it would be very difficult for someone to take a set off of them. It was inspiring to watch them at AAU Nationals in 2013, a team that used their spring break to train hard to become the best team in the country, players that flew 12 hours to train with the best to be the best .

Volleyball in Japan is more than a sport, it is volleyball in its truest form. Their concentration is ball control, heart, desire, dedication, team and family and those characteristics became rooted in those that spend time with them. My life is forever changed and I cannot wait to get back to Japan to continue to understand the True Love and Respect of the Game.

Julie DaileyTeam Sting Volleyball ClubBirmingham, AlabamaExecutive Director

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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

What so i don't post for 3 months and everyone gets all touchy. ha ha sorry been busyyyy. First off I Moved into a new house :) love it! So much better and much more fun :) Second I got an extension on my Office job i do on Fridays! Yay for money!! whoo! 3rd the pool season is coming to an end. Last day for that is the saturday after Thanksgiving. Its getting pretty darn cold though so we will see how the next 2 weeks go! 4th I've had 2 weddings, which inclue the bachelorette parties, bridal showers, dinners, luncheons, and all the fun stuff :) ummm 5th i have a butt load of pictures. 2 weddings and then just random good times. ha ha i actually dont' have the actual wedding pictures yet but as soon as i get them i will try to post them! I just have the few that i took on my camera. Okay so lets get to adding pictures! Oh yah **RANDOM** i sliced my foot open on the glass table the other day. OUCH!! ugh it hurt so bad and i just bumped my foot and it made me think of it. yah feel sorry for me. ha ha just kidding. but really it hurt.

Me Sarah & Sean At Sarahs "Pre Bachelorette Party"

Me & Sarah after the Pool Party event.

Jadey Me & Annie at Jadey's Wedding
(that was a cup of red bull just so you all know :) )

Me & Coty at Jadey & Brady's Wedding
(Someday we will get a good picture together)

Me & Coty At the PBR (Professional Bull Riders)
It was awesome.
Ohhhh also my hair looks short in this picture, almost makes me want to cut it. Any thoughts?

Coty & Me before Keev's wedding.

Ash. Me. Colleen. & Kels. at The Southpoint Hotel
We had a sleepover :) thanks for letting me crash!

Kels & Me before the Vampire Weekend Concert.
We were super excited :)

Me before Keev's wedding

Me and Jordan (Coty's little brother) at his birthday BBQ party.
Sorry these pictures are in random order. I suck at blogging. so be happy you get a post :) maybe one day i'll be all fancy like all of you guys :)

Colleen said...

It's about time!!! Love your pictures. Miss you Karli Sue. We need another sleep over. Love ya

rick & kels said...

FINALLY! you look so cute for your friends wedding, glad you found a black dress! :) love the little net hair thing, so cute. also DONT cut your hair because look how pretty it looks for keevs wedding, you look gorgeous. i like the picture of you and coty before his wedding too its way cute. oh hey go get the picture off my blog of me you and sam, its way cute. well that was along comment. love you friend. glad you updated :) now lets do it more regularly.

Sara Soda said...

If you do cut your hair, you should donate it to me so I can wear it as extensions. :) I have always, always, always loved your hair!!!

sdemille said...

oh my gosh i never thought this day would come! YOU BLOGGED!!! keep it up please!! love the pictures, you look gorgeous at both weddings!!!! p.s dont cut your hair!;)