I love train travel! To me it seems the best way to travel. . . . gently easing into a new place, seeing both where I have been and where I am going. We have traveled through Europe by train, but not totally because the architect always wants to visit contemporary buildings and they are usually not easily accessible by train, so we rent cars which give more freedom. We have, though, taken the Eurostar which travels from London to Paris in 2 hours and 15 minutes. I remember being very giggly as we noticed a distinguished older man traveling with his beautiful , very young “daughter” to Paris for lunch! We, also, traveled from Cairo to Luxor on the French speed train. I remember feeling very sad at seeing the poor, poor peasants standing and waving beside the tracks. And at that moment , the train seemed a wasteful extravagance. And the latest was train travel through India. We went from Goa in the far south, on second class train with seats that folded down to cot beds and traveled for 18 hours to Mumbai and then Ahmedabad. I loved watching the changing landscape from the window. Food is available on the train with vendors coming back and forth. We had eaten on another trip and were fine but had heard of some people getting sick eating train food, so it was bananas, cookies and coke for me. Any wonder, I gained weight? Oh did I digress! Back to this sleek, elegant Italian train. . . . .
Italy and all things Italian , in my opinion , can only be described with superlatives. . . . sleek and innovative design, elegant, perfect materials. . . and that doesn’t even begin describing art and architecture! Which I will explain in another post. But with all those positive adjectives come one opposite and frustrating adjective….. summed up in the “function follows form” . . . . . We found over and over that wonderfully designed Italian objects may work but most often they don’t ! Sometimes they do , other times not, but they are beautiful. Trains need to do their job. . . . . to get the passengers to their destination safely and on time! Can this train do it? I hope this beauty will be successful and I would love to travel on it!
My friend Shaun Gibson presented me with this gift on my birthday. I was touched at his recognition and because of the meaning of the title. That is a lot to live up to! Shaun is a very special blogger and you will find him at shaunynews.wordpress.com where he keeps us all informed with world news including his beloved “football,” music and just whatever funny or interesting topic that comes his way. His old blog was prayingforoneday.wordpress.com but that is no longer available. Shaun is an encourager and knows what living with continuous pain is all about. But you will never hear him whine or complain. Shaun is truly an example of “Being a Light in the World!” Thanks my friend!
Rules:
1. Thank the person who nominates you.
2. Honor the bloggers who spread life, love, hope , and peace in the name of all people.
3. Let your nominees know of their nomination.
4. Never give-up encouraging people and speaking truth.
I heard this on the radio yesterday and checked the internet when I got home. . . . .
When I think there is no further to sink , I read this “man’s inhumanity to man, or fetus” story. But thinking of how little life is valued these days, I guess it is just another step in the downward spiral. . . . . . . . . . But wait, this is not life, is it? Just the remains of a life which now will never be.. . . . . . .
Amanda Holden on NHS “burning babies” scandal: Hospitals heated wards with fetal remains – parents thought they were cremated
The confrontation comes in Channel 4’s Dispatches as Amanda reveals how thousands of fetal remains have been incinerated along with clinical waste, instead of being cremated as parents were led to believe.
Her approach worked. The MP, Dr Dan Poulter, promised to investigate, which led to the practice being banned throughout the NHS.
Amanda said: “I think he underestimated me because of who I am – a blonde presenter ‘off the telly’ and I encouraged that because I think the best thing for any interviewer is to be underestimated.”
The show reveals freedom of information figures showing at least 15,500 fetal remains under 24 weeks old have been incinerated by 27 NHS trusts during the last two years.
Ten trusts admitted burning more than 1,000 sets of remains “as clinical waste”, while two others used “waste-to-energy” furnaces that power hospitals.
Amanda said: “It’s disgraceful to think babies were thrown into the burner alongside waste such as bandages and syringes.
“I hope mothers and fathers will be comforted by the knowledge this won’t go on any more.
“But I know it will make people think, ‘Oh my God, what happened to our baby’.
“We might have kicked over a hornet’s nest in some respects. I just hope women going through this will be comforted by the positive outcome.”
Tough: Amanda in chapel where son was cremated
The show reveals how one of the country’s leading hospitals, Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge, incinerated 797 fetal remains below 13 weeks at their own “waste to energy” plant in two years.
Forms handed to women at the hospital say remains are “cremated”, not mentioning “incineration”. This goes against guidance from Sands, the Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Charity, which states “incineration must not be called cremation”.
Another waste to energy facility at Ipswich Hospital, operated by a private contractor, incinerated 1,101 fetal remains between 2011 and 2013. They were brought in from another site. Ipswich Hospital itself disposes of remains by cremation.
Cathryn Hurley, 35, was devastated when she had a miscarriage and was told her baby would be “incinerated with the rest of the day’s waste”.
She found out during a scan her baby had died at eight weeks and later had a procedure. She said: “I was hysterical. I was crying. I asked a nurse what would happen to my baby, and she just said it will be incinerated with the rest of the day’s waste.
“That was really difficult to hear. To me it wasn’t waste, it was my baby.”
For legal reasons, the Trust involved in Cathryn’s case cannot be named.
PA
Joy: Amanda, husband Chris Hughes, Lexi and Hollie
For Amanda, who wed Chris Hughes in 2008, the Dispatches probe was close to her heart. Between giving birth to her daughters eight-year-old Lexi and Hollie, two, she suffered a miscarriage in 2010 and had a stillborn son, Theo, in 2011.
In the documentary Amanda goes to the chapel for the first time where Theo was cremated three years ago.
She was so upset that midwife Jackie Nash went on her behalf at the time, and she admits her visit for the programme was “hard, very hard”.
She adds: “I agreed to do the show but I was very strong about the fact that I always believed myself to be a champion of the NHS.
“And I still am. They saved my life and after I lost Theo we were treated with so much compassion and care.
“For me it was incomprehensible that it wasn’t the situation everywhere. I thought that when it came to the subject of babies dying, the policies wouldn’t be relaxed anywhere. But the documentary is just shocking.”
One in seven pregnancies ends in a miscarriage, and NHS figures show there are around 4,000 stillbirths each year in the UK, or 11 a day.
While the incineration of foetuses was banned in Scotland in 2012, the Human Tissue Authority currently permits it for remains under 24 weeks.
Action: Dr Dan Poulter
Yesterday Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter described the practice as “totally unacceptable”.
He added: “That is why I have asked Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, NHS Medical Director, to write to all NHS hospital trusts. He has written to the NHS and made clear that it must stop now.
“The Chief Medical Officer has also written to the Human Tissue Authority to ask them make sure that there is clear guidance on this issue.
“While the vast majority of hospitals act in the appropriate way, that must be the case for all hospitals and the Human Tissue Authority has now been asked to ensure that it acts on this issue without delay.”
A spokesman for the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “Trained health professionals discuss the options with the patients and families respectfully and sensitively, both verbally and in writing.
“Parents are given exactly the same choice on the disposal of fetal remains as for a stillborn child and their personal wishes are respected.”
Ipswich Hospital Trust said it was concerned to discover that fetal remains from another hospital had been incinerated on its site. It said the facility is run on its behalf by a private contractor.
A spokeswoman said: “The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust does not incinerate fetal remains.”
I wonder how this was ever considered an option. It brings up all sorts of horrible memories in our history.
Please share your thoughts and feelings with me. . .my blogger friends.
Erik Satie may be a name most of you will be unfamiliar with. He was a colorful French composer and pianist who lived from 1866- 1925 and was a member of the Parisian avant-garde. Satie was a sensitive, complex man who lived years with a broken heart when the woman he loved, left him. He died after a life of heavy drinking left him with cirrhosis of the liver.
No one had ever visited his stark and simple flat and it was discovered that it was filled with unpublished precious compositions , his dear friends. Ah the music. . . . I must say that I was introduced years ago to his three Gymnopedies which are in the video. Each of the three are so haunting, simplistic but elegant minimalist works for the piano. I couldn’t choose only one. Listen to one or all , but you can imagine a talented lonely man sitting and playing at his piano.
This is the first in a series of foreign films shown at the local library. The purpose is to learn about different cultures through the tales they show in their films. The subject in “Departures” is the rituals of death practiced in Japan and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film of 2009. It is the tale of an out of work cellist who in desperation accepts the job of “encoffineer” (Japanese equivalent of an undertaker,) to provide for himself and his young wife. Daigo,the protagonist, grows in the job as he realizes the importance of the position of gatekeeper between life and death. He gains greater appreciation for life as he learns that he is giving the proper send-off from this state of being to the next.
The music was written especially for the film and prominently features the cello There is great growth and emotional connection in this story of family, love, discovery, hope , and death. It brought tears to many of the viewers and certainly to me! All that sniffling means I really connected and loved it!
I am mad about March Madness. . . . .For those of you are are not in the US, it is a tournament of college basketball teams, ranked by their wins and the difficulty of their season. Many have won their conference season or their tournament. Others like Duke who are always ranked nationally, are included. Duke was ranked #3 and Mercer #14 out of 16 in their bracket. Duke is one of the power schools who always have power players who come from all over the country to be a part of this program. They have 4 NCAA championships, have played in 10 championship games,15 final four games, and definitely is “king of the hill” of basketball in the history of this this tournament of 64 top teams. They are the Goliath with the record to prove it.
Yesterday, they were to play Mercer, a small liberal arts college in Georgia with the reputation of an excellent academic program. Their basketball program is a successful stage 2 program. But yesterday, this “David” came to play . . . all seniors , talented and whats more, ready to be the “Goliath” slayer. The video shows their joy at their unexpected ( to everyone but the team’s success!) Final score was 78-71 Mercer over Duke.
This game was in the afternoon. . . and our game was the last of the day.
University of Virginia, #1 seed in the East regional having won the season and the tournament in the mighty ACC! Their opponent was Coastal Carolina, from Myrtle Beach and their name Chanticleers dates back to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. They were bracketed at #16. Do you see the Goliath vs David metaphor in this game? Same scenario, the Chanticleers came to slay the dragon. They didn’t care that VA had the #1 defense this year in all of college basketball. . . .
They came out running and shooting and were ahead most of the first half. Soon the announcers were talking about the point of no return and the fact that NEVER had a #16 beat a #1 in the first round. We started thinking we didn’t want the Hoos to be remembered as “the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question!”
We were really happy at the start of the second half when the “old Va. team” our giant returned and quickly established their rightful position . . . “the cream had risen to the top” so to speak and rallied to win 70 -59.
Virginian is in the ACC with Duke but doesn’t have their long and proud history in basketball, and in fact has often been accused of the “VA choke” finding ways to lose especially when you think they are going to win. They did themselves proud last night!
I hope you got a bit of the excitement and flavor of March Madness. Many of the players especially of the small programs will never be invited to the NBA and many of them have never played on national TV. This is their big chance to be seen and to remember their tournament experienced. Mercer lived to play again tomorrow but not Coastal Carolina, this year. So it is not too late to experience March Madness during the weekend and next weekend as the elimination continues. There will finally be a “final four”, the two, and finally the championship game on April 5. Of course I am rooting for VA, but also I watch to see the amazing , inspiring Cinderella teams that may take the ball and run and shoot their way up their brackets, like Mercer and almost Coastal Carolina !
This is one of my favorite posts. Our north trip has now moved from Jaipur to Amritsar in the Punjab. This story will touch your heart. . . . . .
A garden is a peaceful place for relaxation, rest, and contemplation. It can also be a meeting place. Such it was in a garden, Jallianwala Bagh, in Amritsar, Punjab on Sunday, April 15, 1919. The day was one of the Punjab’s largest religious festivals. During this historical period, there was unrest and protest against the British who out of fear forbade Indian people the freedom to move around the country or meet in groups.This, too, was the case of slaves in the South before the Civil War. Plantation owners feared revolt. Slaves were not taught to read or write and could only congregate on Sundays at church. And these pronouncements in India were published only in English, unread by the majority of non-English speaking or reading Indians. That Sunday in Amritsar, the group of men, women, and children numbering thousands were meeting to plan a protest of the unjust British laws as well as celebrate their festival. The crowd was peacefully sitting and listening to speakers and no one in the garden was armed.
Without warning, 50 British soldiers walked in through the one and only entrance to the garden, blocking any means of escape. The soldiers stood in execution lines. General Dyer gave the order to “Fire until all the ammunition is exhausted.” The soldiers shot over 1600 rounds of ammunition into unarmed, defenseless men, women, and children. Desperately trying to escape, people fought to climb the surrounding walls, and open the locked gates. Still the bullets kept coming. There is a large well in the center and many fleeing, panicked people decided to throw themselves and their children into the well to a death by drowning rather than be shot. I thought of the poor people on 9/11 in New York, at the World Trade Center, who decided a quick death by jumping was preferable to waiting to be burned alive. They faced the same death decision as these Indians so many years ago. The well is dry today, and is named the Martyr’s Well. The following is a reenactment of the massacre on YouTube and is a chilling picture of the event.
There is a picture of this” killing field” in the garden and when seeing it, I was reminded of Picasso’s Guiernica, a painting showing the horrors of war. General Dyer was later relieved of his command, but until this day no British leader has apologized for this their bloodiest act in India. Last year David Cameron, the Prime Minister voiced regret, but stopped just short of an apology.
This date in Indian history may well mark the beginning of their long journey for independence from Britain. And on this date, Jallianwala Bagh once known as a peaceful garden, became known as hallowed ground, the place to remember this merciless massacre.
I am very pleased that my friend Robin at witlessdatingafterfifty.wordpress.com nominated my blog for this award. First it is to honor my friend Shaun Gibson at prayingforoneday.wordpress.com who has an excellent blog and is an excellent human being. This award was started by Dr. Rex, you guessed it, another excellent human being at hrexach.wordpress.com. That is quite an excellent group which makes me thankful…(My mama taught me not to be proud!)
Now to my friend Robin who sends me the most enjoyable comments and has become more than just a fellow blogger, but a friend. She is an over 50 year old lady navigating the singles world. She is trying to eat healthier, exploring popular culture, film and all forms of art. She shares love stories that people have shared with her, either from online dating experience or from other bloggers. Check out her blog, you won’t be disappointed.
The Award Rules :
Show: humility and love
Be yourself.
Don’t gossip.
Nominate 10 deserving blogs.
Thank the person who nominated you.
Notify each nominee with the news.
My nominations for the Shauny Award are:
1. sherayx.wordpress.com
2. thedrunkencyclist.com
3. katebortell.wordpress.com
4. harbin77.wordpress.com
5. bijitdutta.wordpress.com
6. justvisitsiena.com
7. wingedprisms.com
8. etinkerbell.wordpress.com
9. eyedancers.wordpress.com
10. laxmanprajapati.wordpress.com
These Are Excellent Bloggers! Keep up the great work.
TalesAlongTheWay 