WHATS ON IN LONDON ?
HMS Belfast to launch inclusive audio tour service
HMS Belfast, London's Floating Naval Museum, launches an inclusive audio tour service to its visitor experience from October 2006. Now moored on the Thames between Tower Bridge and London Bridge visitors to HMS Belfast have nine decks of living history to explore.
For more information please contact 44 (0)20 7940 6343
Holbein in England - Tate Britain - 28 September to 7 January 2007
See the extraordinary work of one of history's greatest court painters. Hans Holbein the Younger was the first great painter to work from England. Originally from Germany, his arrival in 1526 triggered a renaissance in painting as he introduced the styles of continental Europe to Britain. This exhibition concentrates on the artist's two periods working in London, from 1526 to 1528 and 1532 to 1543. For further information call +44 (0)20 7887 8888.
Velazquez, National Gallery, 18 Oct - 21 Jan 2007
This exhibition traces the career of one of the very greatest painters, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez (1559-1660), and is the first major exhibition in Britain to do so.
Champion of the child: Janusz Korczak, 5 December 2006 – 8 April 2007
The tragic yet inspiring tale of one man’s fight to promote the rights of the child. Janusz Korczak’s work was posthumously adopted by the United Nations for the Convention of the Rights of the Child and this exhibition shows how his teachings on the treatment of children continue to resonate today around the world. For more information and to book visit: www.jewishmuseum.org.uk
To the top of the pageWHILE WE WERE AWAY :
ANNIE MOORE is immortalised in bronze in New York and Cobh as the first emigrant to enter America through Ellis Island when she arrived in 1892 as a 15 year old girl. Until now it was believed that Annie left New York for Texas where she married a descendant of Daniel O’Connell and died aged 46 when she was run over by a tram. Genealogists have now revealed that there were two Annie Moores and the woman who died in Texas was born in Illinois. The Irish Annie settled on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, married a baker and had 11 children, five of whom survived, She died of heart failure aged 47.
RYDER CUP 2006 London based, Irish fashion designer Paul Costelloe was the official dresser to the wives and girlfriends of the European team. Each woman was supplied with a wardrobe of 18 pieces including :- jackets, blazers, skirts, trousers, knitwear rainwear and umbrellas. For the golfers, the US team were wearing Ralph Lauren and the European team Paolo Canali.
PASSING WATER: You are never more than 60 miles from the sea in Britain, and water has always had a fascination for us. Traditionally canals have been an essential part of life, with the great shipping canals, as a place to live, and always a form of recreation for fishermen, for sports people and just for lazing. There are already nearly 30,000 narrow boats on the 2,200 miles of the canal network and demand grows. Mooring rentals range from £ 1,000 for a basic unit in country areas to over £5,000 in London. An extra 12,000 moorings are likely to be needed over the next 10 years to accommodate demand, and some farmers are looking at providing that service - just add up the figures:
One cow produces 7,000 litres of milk a year which sells for £ 1,260, deduct feed, concentrate, silage and fuel and the profit is around £ 430. One farmer in Cheshire has excavated a field to build a 317 berth marina at a capital cost of about £2,000,000, (the same as a new dairy parlour and silage pit) around £6,000 per cow or per mooring. Expected rental of the moorings will be £ 1,800, less insurance, water board levy and staffing, leaving £800 a year for each boat. Dairy farming is a difficult business in Britain as supermarkets force prices down make profitability low.
2,200 miles (3,500 km) of canals cross Britain, with 1,654 locks, 3,115 bridges, 417 aqueducts, 54 tunnels and 111 marinas with 15,000 berths. There are 1,000 conservation sites and 650 miles of hedgerow on the network. There are 29,000 narrow boats and security issues are leading to more demand for moorings as a new boat will cost
£ 60,000 - 150,000 (€85,000 – 210,000). Users - anglers, boaters, canoeists, cyclists and walkers spend an estimated £1.5 billion during 3 million visits supporting 54,000 jobs.
HIGH LIVING: A one-bedroom flat in Knightsbridge, London has gone on the market for £ 1.5 million (€2.2million)! Recently a garage in Highgate sold for £ 140,000 (€ 240,000) heralding the news that house prices have doubled since 1995, a rate of increase of 3 times the rate of take-home pay. Repossessions are at their highest since 2001.
THE NEW FOREST: England’s oldest forest is known for its oak trees and its ponies that run free. However the two do not go well together as acorns are toxic to the ponies (and cattle) in large amounts and traditionally pigs are brought in each acorn season to clean up the fruit. The summer of 2006 has been particularly hot and dry, so a much higher than average fall has been noted. Normally 200 pigs are let to run in the forest for 60 days, a practice known as pannage, but this year an extra 300 pigs have been called for to clear the acorns. Kew Gardens reports that this is a “mast year” for acorns which happens on an average every five years.
25 YEARS OLD: The TGV celebrated the first opening on 22nd September in 1981 between Paris and Lyons. As part of the celebrations the TGV Est line between Paris and Strasbourg has been completed. This will mean a travel time from Paris to Reims of 45 minutes and to Strasbourg in 2 hours 20 minutes.
DISINHERITAGED? UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES have become a symbol of places of outstanding interest that need to be looked after for everyone. Heritage sites attract interest and give value to an area as well as keeping a watch out for preservation.
The website http://whc.unesco.org explains their aims and lists sites that qualify:
UNESCO's World Heritage mission is to:
encourage countries to sign the World Heritage Convention and to ensure the protection of their natural and cultural heritage;
encourage States Parties to the Convention to nominate sites within their national territory for inclusion on the World Heritage List;
encourage States Parties to establish management plans and set up reporting systems on the state of conservation of their World Heritage sites;
help States Parties safeguard World Heritage properties by providing technical assistance and professional training;
provide emergency assistance for World Heritage sites in immediate danger;
support States Parties' public awareness-building activities for World Heritage conservation;
encourage participation of the local population in the preservation of their cultural and natural heritage;
encourage international cooperation in the conservation of our world's cultural and natural heritage.
Italy has been one of the most enthusiastic participants, listing cities, areas and regions, as if to say the whole country should be classified. However local politics seem not to comply, as local developers and municipalities disregard the conditions of Heritage Status, especially because this status adds to the value of the area. The Val d’Orcia near Sienna is the site of new houses being built in the protected area; in Vicenza a new motorway is planned that will cut through the garden of a Palladine villa (owned by the British Landmark Trust); on the island of Lipari excavations for building are set to destroy pumice caves; and in Matera the Sassi (caves once occupied by peasant farmers and their animals) look likely to collapse during the building of a car park. All of this has resulted in inspectors being sent to check sites for compliance, failing which de-classification may result.
TAXING TIPS: In a previous bulletin we wrote about tips in restaurants and how they were distributed. One of the concerns has been that some companies have been counting tips towards minimum pay levels, that is paying less than the national minimum wage as tips were paid to employees. The Taxman has been involved and a ruling made that states that as long as the worker gets the tips without involving employer or “tronc”, then tax must be paid on this money but is declared by the worker to the taxman. The other consideration is of NIC contributions (National Insurance), which are deducted by employers; again if the worker collects tips directly they are responsible for their own payments. How about us, well for now earnings declared to the taxman will be taxed as in the past, however the British tax system will certainly continue to discover some way to regulate all self-employed workers.
DON’T RAIN ON ME! During the Moscow Olympics (boycotted by America when Russia sent troops into Afghanistan) there were no disruptions by stormy weather and off the record it was hinted that cloud-seeding was used to precipitate rainfall before the clouds arrived. When Chernobyl erupted there were rumours that the air force was scrambled to seed the clouds to stop radioactivity falling on populous areas. Seeding involves spraying clouds with silver iodide or a similar crystal to cause rain to fall as required. Long used by farmers in arid regions to bring about rainfall when needed, the Russians refined the technique to ensure clear May Day parades in Red Square, and, during a recent Madonna concert in Moscow, expected rainfall bypassed the event. Mosnews reported the controversy surrounding the concert, with demonstrations by the Orthodox Church, and carried several predictions including Mafia attacks and the collapse of the stadium.
AND THAT TRANSLATES AS? Irish is about to become (belatedly) the 21st official language of the EU, which comprises 25 member States. This will mean 420 possible combinations of translation in official meetings. Translation services cost the European Taxpayer £110 million (€160 million) each year, although not every meeting has a full service as many organised meetings will agree a language to be used or only pick 2 or three tongues. Plenary sessions at the European Parliament require full service at a cost of over £80,000 (€ 115,000) a day, compounded by the fact that there are only 26 booths in the hall. Recently a Finnish MEP calculated that reserved services that are cancelled at short notice or go unused cost £17 million (€24 million). Most meetings that do request translation use English, French and German, but one of the biggest problems is lack of any meeting space, especially those with interpretation facilities. Any meeting rooms have to be reserved well in advance, and may easily be cancelled to make space for Commission or Parliamentary sessions.
THIRSTY FOR ENGLAND?
Wining: The English wine market is worth £16 million per year, from the 350 vineyards covering 2,000 acres that are mostly in the South of the country. Growers reap 3 to 6 tonnes of grapes per acre, at a value of £700 to £1,200 per tonne (wheat farmers earn £90 per tonne). It costs between £6,000 and £10,000 to plant an acre and takes 4 to 5 years to produce the first crop.
English wine production is 1.9 million bottles a year on average since production began, with a peak of 3 million bottles in 1996, and a good year in 2004 when 2.5 million bottles were produced and a low of 1.7 million bottles in 2005. 2006 is expected to realise over 3 million bottles and a maximum of 3.7 million bottles could be produced.
A sparkling wine from West Sussex was voted the best sparkling wine from outside the Champagne region in 1998.
Hopping about. In the heyday of hop growing 72,000 acres were under cultivation in England, but today the figure is below 5,000 acres. Cheap imports from China and Eastern Europe have caused the fall, along with artificial flavours used in cheaper beers. A switch in popularity to “cocktail” lagers has seen a fall in demand for the heavier traditional hops used in real ale.
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