Natural light

 

Natural light

Daylight is a blessing. Moonlight is magical. Starlight is bewitching.

Starlight, star bright,
First star I see tonight –
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight.

This little rhyme is a nursery rhyme which originated in America in the late 1890s and travelled to Britain and other English-speaking nations by the early 1900s.

Wishing on the first star of the evening is a superstition that may have had its origins in ancient times, when people believed the heavens were peopled with gods. Shooting stars or meteors had special significance because they were rarer and an indication that the gods were watching the people below. The Ancient Greeks thought the sbooting stars were the souls of the departed rising to heaven, although as shooting stars descend,  I can't quite understand that.

The Ancient Romans thought that making a wish when seeing a shooting star would bring good luck and prosperity. If the wish could be completed before the shooting star disappeared, it was more likely to be granted.

In some cultures, a falling or shooting star is thought to be a new soul coming to earth to be reborn.

In the Disney film of Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket sings –

When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who you are,
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you.

If your heart is in your dream,
No request is too extreme,
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do.

Fate is kind,
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfilment of
Their secret longing.

Like a bolt out of the blue,
Fate steps in and sees you through;
When you wish upon a star,
Your dreams come true.

There is a British charity called, ‘When You Wish Upon a Star,’ dedicated to fulfilling the wishes and dreams of seriously ill children. The founder is Barbara White, also known as the Fairy Godmother. There is more information here.

There are many songs about stars or inspired by stars. Here is a small selection:

Catch a falling star

Waiting for a Star to Fall

All of the Stars

Shining Star

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Choose one of the above, or think of a personal favourite, and let it haunt your brain all day.

 

 

A Good Egg

A Good Egg

In common and outdated parlance ‘a good egg’ was someone reliable and helpful. I think the term was usually applied to men. ‘He’s a good egg’ people would say but it was rarely said of women. I have a feeling it first arose in Public Schools (fee-paying Independent schools) and is used nowadays in a jocular way like ‘jolly hockey sticks’ and ‘cut along’. Young people today are more likely to use expressions like ‘well cool’ or ‘lush’ to indicate approval.

With Spring in full swing and Easter approaching it seems appropriate to focus on eggs. I think young children must get mightily confused at this time of year when eggs, chickens, lambs, rabbits and flowers are all muddled together to celebrate the new beginning that Easter signifies. Add chocolate and turkey and the mix is bewilderingly complete.

After I bought ‘Eggs for Soldiers’ a few days ago I was surprised to discover another ‘charity’ egg today. The green carton looks very seasonal with a chicken and a butterfly and the words ‘good egg’ in bright egg-yolk yellow. Buying these organic free range eggs will ‘help fund community egg farming projects in Africa.’ 100% of the profit made from selling one eggs goes to the project.

You can find out more about one here and in the following video.

I think the organisers of one are certainly 'good eggs'.

Help for Heroes

We have just heard that Help4Heroes has raised an incredibly impressive £30 million since it was launched in 2007.
This is a marvellous achievement but we feel it is extremely sad that the injured and damaged young people - some still only in their teens - who obey orders and go to war at the Government's behest have to rely on CHARITY to ease the burden of their suffering.
We hope, without much faith, that the trained killers so thoroughly rehearsed in methods of dispatch will be cared for by the Government (of whatever determination) and not condemned to despairing and possibly aggressive lives on the streets.
How far can charity stretch?

Chinook helicopters

What's the first thing you do when you buy a new car? Maybe you're an organised owner and sit down with the handbook/s and diligently read all the information therein. Perhaps you take it for a long drive, testing its capacity for speed, braking efficiency, safety, fuel consumption, noise, comfort, desirability in the eyes of other motorists. Do you look under the bonnet and calculate whether you can carry out all necessary servicing? Conceivably you give it a thorough valeting to validate your ownership. Would you consider removing the engine and replacing it with another from a different make and model? That seems unlikely as you would then have many other puzzles to solve.

However, that is precisely what the Ministry of Defence did in 1995 when ordering eight Special Operation Mk3 Chinook helicopters from US manufacturer Boeing. The MoD specified engines which would be built in UK, presumably to provide employment in a Member of Parliament's constituency. Access to security codes to test airworthiness was not included in the contract to which UK officials agreed.

In 2001, six years later, when the Chinooks were delivered they did not meet airworthiness standards, being considered safe only to fly not more than 500 feet from the ground in good visibility. They were then put into storage hangars.

A year later, in 2002, less complex Mk2 Chinooks were equipped for night flying but the infra-red computer screens had to be upgraded as the original screens partially obscured vision, making them less safe to fly. The upgrade cost £32.3 million.

Two years after this, in 2004, the MoD declared that in order to make the 'new' helicopters airworthy by 2008 it would spend £215 million on a high-level upgrade. Organising the contract took far longer than expected and it was soon abundantly clear that the Chinooks would not be ready to fly until 2011.

In 2007 the upgrade was cancelled because the MoD said it would take too long. That decision cost £17.25 million for the work already completed. The MoD decided on a cheaper option with a new night vision system. This was estimated at a cost of £53 million. This has since risen to £112 million with an unknown sum for night vision equipment.

The MoD confidently stated that it would have one of the eight Chinooks operational by 2009 with the other seven ready by 2010. It is now the seventh month of 2009 and no 'new' Chinooks are yet in service.

The RAF's 48 Chinooks are ageing; some are in poor condition and are being used to provide spare parts to keep others in the air in Afghanistan. There are currently ten deployed in Afghanistan(February 2009)

When or perhaps if the eight Mk3 Chinooks, now all 'reverted' to Mk2/2a to make them available more quickly, finally take to the air the whole procurement fiasco will have cost more than £422 million. In all probability it will cost more than £500 million. It seems that they may not now see service in Afghanistan but will be used in training aircrew.

In the meantime, in-service RAF Chinooks will fly more hours, new rotor blades have been fitted to Sea King helicopters and six Danish Air Force Merlins have been bought and are being converted.

And still the Government insists that the Military are better equipped than they have ever been –they don't seem to realise that's not at all the same as saying they are 'best equipped' which is what all the friends and relations of serving personnel desperately want to hear.

Today eight more bodies were repatriated to the UK. There was, as usual, no coverage of casualties in the media. They will be supported by charity.

Information gathered from David Hencke's article of 4^th June 2008 in The Guardian; BBC News diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams, 4^th June 2008; Sky News defence correspondent Geoff Meade, 24^th February 2009; Wikipedia

Seven days - seven fatalities! . . . and this is just the UK!!

So - seven more men have died in Afghanistan in the last seven days fighting for a cause they may not believe in but have to engage in because they have 'signed up' and are 'following orders'.
Undoubtedly many more have been traumatised if not also actually physically injured. Our young service personnel are being exposed to huge dangers - and, as is the custom in the British Army, they are being led by their officers and their senior NCOs - and the costs are tremendous. The dead pose no problems other than immense grief - I can only imagine how raw their grieving can be - but the survivors present a tremendous puzzle. How can these maimed young men and women be absorbed into the care system?

The National Health Service does what it can in its overstretched way but the slack - the very large slack - is taken up by CHARITY. Help for Heroes is working hard to ensure that returning victims are given the best possible treatment.