In the News – Fathers for Justice

Father group in new “superhero” protest

LONDON (Reuters) – A fathers’ rights group which has already pelted Prime Minister Tony Blair and scaled Buckingham Palace, has staged a “superhero” protest near Blair’s Downing Street home.

Dressed as Batman, Robin and Captain America, the three men used a ladder on Monday to climb up the Foreign Office building onto a narrow ledge about 12 metres (30 feet) up on the corner of Downing Street. They did not breach security. They unfurled a banner saying: “Access denied. Don’t let Labour stop you being a Superdad” as a crowd gathered below and police tried to talk them down.

The Fathers 4 Justice group is campaigning for better treatment by the courts for divorced fathers — specifically in visitation rights to their children.

They’re at it again. The TV news is reporting that the police aren’t actively trying to get them down. They are just letting them have their peaceful protest.

Gotta give them credit for getting their message out there on a regular basis.

Freezing in Church

Yesterday the heat was not working at the church building. It was rumoured to be because they had forgotten to buy more heating oil. It would have been miraculous indeed if it had been working with nothing to fuel it.

The weather has been chilly here for the last couple of weeks, hovering right around zero degrees Celsius. Steve took his special camping/hiking watch to church to see what the actual temperature was inside the building. It was hovering right around 10 C, (or in the low 40’s F). We were all pretty cold after basically sitting still for a full hour. At one point I was pretty sure I could see my breath as I was singing. My toes were numb by the time the service was over.

Hopefully they’ll get that worked out soon. If not then hopefully the weather will be warmer by next week!

In the News – Queen to miss Charles’s Wedding

LONDON (Reuters) – The Queen’s decision not to attend the wedding of her son has heaped humiliation on Prince Charles and his long-time lover Camilla Parker Bowles, royal-watchers say.

The marriage plans of the two divorcees had already been verging towards the farcical, with the venue changed from Windsor Castle to a town hall register office and constitutional experts even questioning the legality of the civil ceremony. But the Queen’s surprise announcement on Tuesday night that she would not be going to the town hall added a bizarre new twist. Buckingham Palace insisted the monarch’s decision was not a snub and said she was trying to respect the couple’s desire for a low-key ceremony.

The Queen, who has in the past never shown approval of Charles’ affair with Camilla, will attend the church blessing ceremony afterwards at the historic castle and is paying for the wedding reception. But for the House of Windsor, tainted by scandals, divorce and tragedy, the debacle has been a bitter blow to their image as a 1,000-year-old monarchy adapting to the 21st century. ‘It is humiliating and embarrassing for Charles,’ said royal author Judy Wade. ‘This is a PR disaster turning into a farce. Royal ceremonials always go like clockwork. Now they cannot even organise a wedding in a town hall,’ she told Reuters. Constitutional expert Harold Brooks-Baker, from the aristocratic bible Burke’s Peerage, was equally blunt. Reflecting on reports that this is the first time for 142 years that a British monarch has missed the wedding of one of their children, he said: ‘It is a definite humiliation, it is an outrage.’ ‘The advisers at Buckingham Palace must sit down and work out what they are going to do. This has got to stop, otherwise they will ruin the whole fabric of the monarchy,’ he told Reuters.

Tying the knot is proving a legal nightmare for Charles, already fearful that people will never warm to the woman widely viewed as the wrecker of his marriage to Princess Diana. The matronly Parker Bowles has always faced an uphill struggle to escape the shadow of the glamorous Diana, killed in a 1997 Paris car crash a year after her divorce from Charles.

When aides discovered that Windsor Castle could be turned into a venue for public weddings if a licence were granted to hold the ceremony there, Charles had to switch his venue to Windsor town hall, just down the road. Now the queen, perhaps mindful of the monarchy’s dignity being compromised, has turned her back on the civil ceremony. ‘I’m sure the queen does not feel it is appropriate, nor does anyone else, for her to pad across the road from Windsor Castle to the register office opposite,’ said royal biographer Robert Lacey.

The embarrassment was piled on by constitutional experts who have been arguing that members of the royal family are not allowed to marry in a civil ceremony in England.Charles, who in his fifties still calls the monarch ‘Mummy,’ will now inevitably feel that the fates are conspiring against him at every turn before the April 8th ceremony.

The latest twist in the saga of what newspapers are calling the ‘town hall wedding’ has prompted lively editorial debate. ‘For goodness sake, the Queen is the mother of the man who will one day be king,’ said royal commentator James Whitaker. ‘In any normal family throughout her land, you would expect the matriarch to be present at her heir’s wedding even if it is for the second time around.’

The Guardian could scarcely contain its glee at the downmarket lurch of the royal nuptials. ‘All it needs now is a punch-up at the reception,’ it smirked”

I shudder to think about how things will be around here on April 8. I plan to stay out of Windsor. My typical luck will be that I will forget it’s the day and try to pop over there to pick up something from one of the shops.

What a mess. I wonder if Royal types can elope?

Typical

Yesterday afternoon we went into Staines to go to the movies. We parked in a car park that said it closed at 7PM. We came back at 5:15PM, walked in one of the doors, got in the car and drove to the exit only to discover the car park was locked up tight. We checked the signs to see if we had misread them – no, they said “this car park closes at 7PM”. We tried calling the phone number listed on the notices – no answer. Eventually we had to just leave the car and go to catch the train home.

Steve went this morning via train back to Staines and picked the car up. The office didn’t open until 9AM and the car park opened at 8, so he just got the car and came home without going in and complaining. I suppose that makes him a pretty good defeatist Brit … just shake your head, say “typical” and go on with your day.

In the News – Amazon Muggle Mixup

Amazon blames muggles for Harry Potter mixup

LONDON (Reuters) – Amazon UK has apologised after it sent an erroneous email to fans who had pre-ordered the next Harry Potter book, and hinted that Harry’s nemesis Lord Voldemort might have been to blame.

The email said that ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ would not be immediately available from Amazon’s supplier, and suggested that readers search for the book elsewhere.

‘We assure you that howlers have been sent to the muggles responsible for this action and we are investigating the possibility that You-Know-Who may have been involved,’ the company said in a subsequent apology email to customers on Thursday.

The book will be delivered as promised on July 16 to the more than 100,000 UK fans who have pre-ordered it, Amazon UK said. ‘The Half-Blood Prince’, published in Britain by Bloomsbury, is Amazon.co.uk’s second-best seller five months before its release.”

Very clever! Good way to send an apology.

Lovely Bits of England – Trains

The train goes by our house many times a day, but I don’t always notice it. If I happen to be looking out the back windows at the right time I can watch it rumble by. I really enjoy the sight of it as it begins to slow going into the Datchet station. Southwest Trains has recently acquired new trains (made by Siemens) that are very nice to ride in and to look at. (Although I did see one go by last night that had been tagged. What a shame.)

Besides watching the train rumble by, I also really like that fact that there is ample public transportation here. Being able to hop a train in Datchet and be at Waterloo Station in London in 45 minutes is very nice. I wish it wasn’t as expensive as it is, but I could say that about most things here in the UK.

Riding on a train is one of my favourite ways to get around. There is something about the rhythm of the train and the lovely scenery passing by the windows.

Oreos

Oreos are something that we have missed during our time here in the UK. Often Steve will stop at Sam’s Club on one of his trips back to the states and bring us back a big box of Oreos.

The other day while we were doing our grocery shopping, the boys found Oreos! Naturally we bought them and happily brought them home. It was fun to look at the front of the box that describes Oreos as The World’s Number One Biscuit!

I sat down with a cup of tea yesterday to enjoy a couple of Oreos and much to my distress they do not taste the same. The cookie bit is right, it’s the filling that is wonky. It tastes like marshmallows! How can they say that it is an Oreo when they’ve replaced the insides with something different?

It’s a sad thing. Back to carting boxes of Oreos across the ocean. They can keep their World’s Number One Biscuit! I’ll stick with America’s Favorite Cookie!

Historic Datchet – Goodwin House

In Elizabethan times Goodwin House was owned by Richard Gallyes, three time mayor of Windsor, who figures in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor as ‘Mine Host of the Garter Inn’, which he is known to have run. The house was extended by John Goodwin in the early 1800’s, the first of a family of farmers and butchers. They bought huge amounts of land until by 1840 they owned all three farms at the centre of the village. This house was their chief farmstead and the land extended back to the Queens road.

Source: Historic Datchet

This house is on High Street, right where The Avenue dead-ends. We spend a lot of time looking at it as we wait for a break in traffic so we can get out of our neighborhood. This photo was taken this morning (Saturday) when traffic is not so bad. Of course, when the train comes through it backs up here whether it is Saturday or not.

In the News – IKEA Stabbing

Man stabbed in IKEA store chaos

LONDON (Reuters) – One man has been stabbed and several injured after 4,000 people flocked to the midnight opening of a new Ikea furniture superstore in north London, emergency services say.

The Swedish furniture giant was forced to close the store in Edmonton after 30 minutes when it was overwhelmed by shoppers seeking to buy heavily discounted items.

‘There were 500 people behind me and they were all trying to get through a three-foot gap,’ shopper Jolene Cooper told Sky News about her experience outside the store’s entrance on Thursday. ‘They kept on trying to shut the doors and not let anyone in, so all the people behind were pushing me. I was really scared.’

Shortly after midnight there were 1,000 cars queuing to get into the car park with some bargain-hunters abandoning their vehicles on the busy A406 North Circular road to get to the store on foot. The store had been offering huge discounts, including leather sofas at 35 pounds for customers arriving between midnight and 3 a.m., as part of a planned 24 hours of opening bargains.

Police said the stabbed man had sustained his injury in the area of the store, adding that his injury was not life-threatening. Five other people were taken to hospital, one suffering from chest pains. London Fire Brigade said they helped Ambulance staff deal with 22 people suffering from heat exhaustion and crush injuries.

IKEA could not immediately be reached for comment.

Last September three men were trampled to death in a rush to claim vouchers when IKEA opened its first store in Saudi Arabia.

Lots happening in the UK today! Small wonder there was chaos – £35 for a leather sofa!? That would be worth going out in the middle of the night. Not worth getting stabbed over though. Not a very well thought out promotion on IKEA’s part.

UPDATE: Here’s what they have to say about the incident on ikea.com

In the News – Charles to marry Camilla

LONDON (Reuters) – Prince Charles has revealed he will marry Camilla Parker Bowles on April 8, sparking intense debate about whether his divorced, longtime lover should become queen. A top aide confirmed the shock news to Reuters. Parker Bowles will be given the title of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall after the marriage, an official statement said.

Parker Bowles is the great love of Charles’ life — the pair met in their 20s at a polo match — but the 58-year-old mother of two has faced an uphill struggle to rival his former wife, the late Princess Diana, in the public’s affection. Charles, 56, was divorced in 1996 from Diana, who blamed ‘rottweiler’ Parker Bowles and the prying media for the break-up. Diana died in a Paris car crash in 1997. Since then, and after years of choreographed appearances, Parker Bowles has been accepted as Charles’ partner. As monarch, Charles would also assume a titular role as head of the Church of England, which is divided over the propriety of marrying divorcees. Charles’ sons William and Harry have now accepted Parker Bowles, who shares official rooms with him at his London residence.

QUEEN CAMILLA?

‘She would have to take the status of Prince Charles and ultimately that of queen unless there is legislation passed to the contrary,’ Dr David Starkey, historian and constitutional expert, told Reuters.

Charles and Camilla had a two-year love affair after first meeting in 1971 but Camilla then married cavalry officer Andrew Parker Bowles, divorcing him in 1995. Charles admitted in 1994 that he and Camilla had resumed their affair after his marriage had irretrievably broken down. Diana memorably said on national television ‘there were three of us in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded’, while he was secretly taped sharing intimate pillow talk with his lover.

Biographer Penny Junor said: ‘This will divide opinion and some people will think it is the end of the world. But once it has happened, people will accept it. ‘He’s very much in love with her and she with him. That’s just the way it is.’

I’ve always wondered why he didn’t just marry her all those years ago. I can’t say that being a “Royal” is all that appealing. Seems like having all that money would make up for being so constantly under scrutiny.

UPDATE: In the Bridge this afternoon we were talking about the announcement of this pending wedding. Here is the theory I heard espoused: “There is a report coming out at the end of the year about Diana’s death. Charles wanted to go ahead and get married to Camilla before the report comes out.” They think the report is going to show that the “Royals” were in some way involved in Diana’s death. “She was an embarrassment to them you know.”

They don’t mind Charles marrying Camilla. They are adamantly against her being Queen though.

Oh, and when I asked why he didn’t just marry Camilla in the first place, they didn’t know. There were some comments about needing an heir that didn’t make any sense to me. (Is Camilla barren?) Maybe someone out there can clear it up for me?