WHAT'S ON IN LONDON?
Citizens and Kings: Royal Academy 3 Feb- 20 April 2007 Citizens and Kings: Portraits in the Age of Revolution will give an in-depth view, through sculpted and painted portraits, of an era characterised by sweeping political and social changes. www.royalacademy.org.uk/events/
Hogarth, Tate Britain, 7 Feb- 29 April No other artist’s work has come to define a period of British history as powerfully and enduringly as that of Hogarth. The exhibition incorporates the full range of Hogarth's work, highlighting his unique contribution to the development of modern British art. www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/hogarth/default.shtm
Chinese New Year Celebrations, 18 Feb This annual festival and parade, which takes place in Chinatown, Leicester Square, Charing Cross Road, Trafalgar Square and surrounding area will mark the arrival of the Year of the Pig.
Renoir Landscapes 1865 - 1883, National Gallery, 21 Feb - 20 May Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) painted landscapes throughout his life. However, during the first two decades of his long career they constituted an especially important area of experimentation for the artist where he explored composition, paint handling and pictorial structure in innovative new ways. www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/renoirlandscapes/default.htm
The Unknown Monet: Pastels And Drawings, Royal Academy of Arts, 17 March – 10 June 2007 The first exhibition to be devoted to Monet’s drawings and pastels will open at the Royal Academy of Arts in March. The exhibition will offer a groundbreaking exploration of the role of draftsmanship in Monet’s long career, demonstrating the relationship between his drawings, pastels and paintings. www.royalacademy.org.uk/events/
To the top of the pageBRITAIN & IRELAND :
WATCH THAT ROAD: The M6 motorway is claimed to be the most haunted road in Britain with sightings of Roman soldiers, a ghostly woman hitch-hiker and a spooky lorry being reported. The A9 in Scotland is known for its phantom stagecoach. The best known road ghost in Germany is the “Brocken Spectre” named from the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, south of Brunswick. This takes the form of a ghostly figure rising from the mist with its heads sheathed in a coloured halo.
IRISH FERRIES: Incurred great wrath when they announced they were replacing Irish staff with Eastern Europeans as a cost saving effort. Now the Irish taxpayer is paying out €4.3 million as a rebate for redundancies.
TAXING FLIGHT: A new tax has been imposed on airline tickets in Britain, supposedly to help pay for pollution. Trailfinders have estimated that taxes and charges comprise up to 98% of short haul and 55% of long haul flights. They state “there are 453 different taxes that travellers may be subject to when they book a flight—from US animal and plant health inspection tax and Sydney noise tax to Canadian Airport improvement fees” A £60 BA World ticket offer from London to Amsterdam includes £7.60 UK passenger service charge; £10 UK Air passenger duty; £8.70 Netherlands airport security; £8.90 Dutch passenger Service charge; £1.40 Netherlands noise isolation; £21 Airline fuel surcharge and security tax. That leaves £2.40 for the flight! *British Airways have announced that they will not bring in the new tax increase for tickets paid for before 12th December, but, low cost airlines will pass on the extra tax to passengers from 1st February.
EASYJET has announced a scheme called “Speedy Boarding” where you pay an extra fee, £2.50/£5.00/£7.50 depending on distance of flight, so as to get on board first. Still no allocated seats but whereas in the past passengers were allocated a boarding letter for priorities, now you can go to the front for a price. There is also “online check-in” so if you only have cabin baggage, print your boarding pass at home or on the airport machine and go straight to the gate.
AND FINALLY SOME USELESS TRIVIA
The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.
The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes). Also “Madam I’m Adam” and “Able was I ere I saw Elba” (Napoleon).
There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous
There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing. “Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand and "lollipop" with your right.
AROUND EUROPE :
NORWAY: has remained outside the European Union as they don’t want anybody meddling with their fishing, whaling or oil. Before the discovery of North Sea oil the country was poor, but once the carbon resources were opened up it was resolved that the government would ensure the future of the people. A fund was established to absorb a percentage of revenue from gas and oil that could be used for the good of the population. The major companies are Statoil and Norsk which have state control (Statoil 71% and Norsk 44%) but fearing aggressive attempts at takeover, the gas holdings of Norsk are to be moved to Statoil with the state holding 62.5% which it will increase to 67%. Gas is strategically important as we have seen with the Russia/Ukraine/Belarus disputes this winter and now Russia’s Gazprom is the leader with gas distribution followed by Norway. Britain receives 20 billion cubic metres of gas annually, two thirds from Norway. The Norwegian Pension Fund grew by over £30 billion in 2005 to £150 billion. The fund accounts for £30,000 per person in Norway. Seventeen per cent is invested in 326 British companies, and strict guidelines on investment in ethical business involved selling a $416 million stake in Wal-Mart following reports of abuse of human rights and $500 million of funds with companies involved in nuclear weapons (including BAe systems).
FRENCH NET: A new site called C’est So Paris offers an insight into French manner- isms and also fresh updates on current events in the capital — www.cestsoparis.com The French space agency is to post 30 years of UFO sightings on the web. The 1600 reports can be seen on www.cnes.fr/web/455-cnes-en.php. The Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales is a very good website (cnes.fr), available in English, with up- dates, such as their new Corot research satellite and the Ariane rockets. For “professionals and passionates” of Space.
RUFFLED FEATHERS: French producers are crying foul after a Spanish firm won the Coup de Coeur at the Paris International Food Salon for innovation. The seller of Foie Gras, “Pateria de Sousa”, does not fatten the animals by force-feeding, but lets them free range and harvests just before they are ready to migrate. The birds naturally overeat to fatten themselves up for the long flight and so have swollen livers. French producers say that this should not be allowed to be called Foie Gras because it is not made by the traditional method (which originated in Egypt). France produces 18,500 tonnes of the food each year, three quarters of the world’s production, and exports 3,000 tonnes. They also import 3,500 tonnes mostly from Hungary and Bulgaria.
VATICAN NOT: Public entrance into the Vatican is to increase to €13, and individuals will only have access from 10:00am. Earlier slots are for pre-booked groups (30 days in advance) through agencies that lodge a deposit of €6,000 with the Vatican. Is this the solution to cutting crowds, I think not. Pope Benedict XVI told staff at the museum that many visitors were “not Catholic, not Christian and perhaps not even believers.”
ROME-ING: Gian-Lorenzo Bernini’s fountain of the Four Rivers is suffering from pollution, acid rain, limescale and pigeon droppings that will necessitate a 12 month, €500,000 restoration. Odd repairs that have been undertaken just haven’t been enough. There will be a kiosk in Pizza Navona with details.
VILLA TORLONIA: The villa used by Mussolini on the outskirts of Rome has been undergoing renovation. It was let to him for a rent of 1 lira and used as a getaway to spend time with his family. After the war the property fell into disrepair, but has recently undergone repair and renovation. Situated on the Via Nomentana it is a collection of 13 styles of architecture and is built above Jewish Catacombs dating back to the 3rd century. Information on visits are hard to come by but it re-opened last year and some of the buildings are used for exhibitions. There is a museum of the Holocaust dedicated to 2,000 deported Jews and the bunker built by Mussolini. The Torlonia Princes also owned the Villa at Frascati, nearly totally destroyed by Allied bombing in 1943.
OUTPOST OF THE ROMANS: During excavations by the Dutch Railways near Houten parts of an old Roman road have been unearthed. Believed to mark the Northern border of the Roman Empire, the road joined Fectum (Vechten) and Traiectum (Utrecht).
GER-MANIA: For something different why not try Arschleder-Wettrodeln (or Wettruscheln) (arse leather sledding)? The Erzgebirge mountains have been known for the mining activities from the middle ages, and the silver miners used leather trousers to protect their clothes from wear as they slid down the mines on logs. Since 1998 there has been a revival of the sport of using the trousers to slide and the “World” championships take place in February at Neudorf-im-Erzgebirge. It is on the border with Czechy, north of Karlovy Vary and west of Theriesenstadt.
TURNING DOWN THE LIGHTS: Changes to the laws in Amsterdam are aimed at giving the city a cleaner image. Following the 2003 law that targeted criminal activities about one third of the 350 prostitutes’ windows will have their licences revoked.
TOLARED OUT: On the 1st January, 2007 SLOVENIA changed to the Euro system, and from 14th January only the Euro can be used for purchases. Until 1st March Tolars may be changed free of charge at banks and savings banks after which the Bank of Slovenia will change the old currency and only for a period of 10 years
ANGST: As sons leave home, mothers worry about their ability to cope without them. In this hi-tech age a website offers advice to the poor darlings. Whatever happened to taking dirty washing home while eating mutti’s favourite dishes? www.frag-mutti.de
SMOKING—NON! Non smoking restrictions in France will start with schools and offices from next month, with restaurants, bars and clubs due to comply from 1st January 2008.
PARIS’ LATEST SUPER HOTEL: Le Fouquet has opened a hotel in the building that houses the famous restaurant. There are 107 bedrooms that cost from €680 a night with a presidential suite at €8,400. Beds are at least 2.2m square and there is a butler service. www.fouquets-barriere.com
WEATHER WATCH: January is traditionally the coldest month of winter in the Alps as winds swing to blow in from the North. This is the time for skiing competitions but snow is low and the heat is high right now, in Wengen the temperatures at the base of the runs is +10 C, and in Kitzbuhel snow is being brought in by helicopter from Grossglochner as the ambient temperature is too high for snow machines to function
LEST WE FORGET: The development of chemotherapy came from observations of soldiers subjected to Nitrogen Mustard Gas in the trenches during the 1 st World War!
GRISLY SECRET OF THE SPACE SUIT - DACHAU The man who invented the space suit did so using knowledge he had gleaned from experimenting on prisoners at a Nazi concentration camp Dr. Hubertus Strughold and 34 scientists under his management were courted by the US after the war. He was later showered with honours for designing the suit Neil Armstrong wore to walk on the moon. However, the past of Dr. Huburtus Stughold has been revealed in a German documentary. As the doctor in charge of 'aviation medicine' at DACHAU, Stughold was responsible for the deaths of at least 100 inmates at the camp and the torture of many more. Some victims were immersed in ice water until they died, or crushed to death in compression chambers. Other tests involved high altitudes and starving people of oxygen.
REST OF THE WORLD :
DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME: From 2007 a new system is being used for DST in the USA, it will now start on the 2nd Sunday in March (11th March in 2007) and end on the 1st Sunday in November (4th November in 2007). Western Australia introduced “Summer Time” in December, 2006 after 30 years of debate and with 3 weeks notice. Depending on your software this may also affect your computer time.
BIRTH OF A CONTINENT: One of the World’s most inhospitable areas, the Horn of Africa, is undergoing change. The Afar (Danakil) Depression is 120 metres below sea level and the hottest place on Earth. Scientists have determined that the land is rifting and will eventually break away from the rest of Africa, thus forming a new continent. In September 2006 a fissure 8 metres deep and 600 metres long opened up, with crevices along a length of 55 kms, and eventually the whole of the horn will split away from Africa from Northern Kenya up to the Red Sea along the Arabian/African tectonic plates. Don’t make travel plans yet as this will take a million years.
FLYING EAST: High prices for flights between Oriental countries has been a problem, but Bangkok Airways have the “Discovery Airpass” that allows you to book 3 or more flights at flat rates for regional flights before you leave home. Prices are much lower than for internal flights on the big airlines. www.bangkokair.com Malaysia based AirAsia is to introduce no-frills budget flights to Britain under the name of Fly Asian Express (FAX). News as it becomes available. Good news for the 2008 IATM Convention in Vietnam!
INDIA: If you take groups to India, there is now a 5 year visa available for trips of up to 90 days
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