Waiting for ever and nothing; then 3 come along together

This blog title mirrors my experiences of years ago when commuting to
day job by 'bus from SE27.

However I hope that it will also mirror my experiences
of entering newspaper or share investing competitions for years without
success but then hitting a winning streak of two. Having in past weeks won a Sharecrazy rumour
mill virtual investing competition; followed by a £500 premium bond win
I entered today for the Royal Bank of Scotland/Daily Mail children's
charity comp, under which some 90 children's charities should win £10K
each with one extra lucky one winning £100K. I'm hoping this will
prove to be a third win in a row so that HCPT
will win something from my entry:

I nominate HCPT - The Pilgrimage Trust which used to be called the Handicapped Children's Pilgrimage Trust for the RBS/Daily Mail charity fund, competition.
HCPT which is based in Rugby, exists largely to take disabled children of all faiths or none, on family style in holidays to Lourdes in the French Pyrenees. From its origins some 50 years ago, when a doctor and nurse took three disabed children on holiday, to today when about 2000 children travel each year with some 3000 voluntary helpers, the aims remain to give the children normal hotel breaks (full board) in a caring family atmosphere away from their hospitals and special schools.
The main trip for about 200 Groups is during Easter each year, when the children travel away from home for about a week.An HCPT Group usually comprises some 10 children in the care of some 15 helpers including a doctor/nurse, group leader, maybe a chaplain and a dozen or so musicians, students and others (all CRB checked etc). The experience not only benefits the children who enjoy much singing, football playing, painting, trips to the sea and games as well as quieter moments but also their parents back home, who themselves can take some well earned respite. Additionally the trip provides enormous benefit to the voluntary helpers, many of whom are themselves only in their late teens or early twenties, by giving them responsibility for caring for others and working, labouring is
often the more accurate description, to ensure that the children have
a really good time, whilst being look after.

A medical team and full dispensary travels with the HCPT HQ and is a freely available resource for Groups to call upon.
The trips are totally free for the children but the helpers pay their own fares though students and unwaged can be subsidised...

Results out before Christmas.

ZYZ teccie stuff

As I've blogged on about investing in Zyzygy before
an investment chart seems a good idea to (try to) download:

Immigration and Real Irish Hospitality

Went for a celebration in The Irish centre in N. London yesterday.

Irish immigration added enormously to the UK's
wealth and cultural life. Many Irish immigrants
too benefited and became wealthy. Many moved on
to more prosperous parts rather like Jewish
immigrants b4 them did and Asian and W.I.
immigrants after them are doing. Even I can
recall "No Irish" signs on available bedsit/flats
to let, which were a real indictment of British
intolerance; though the relative ease with which
those waves of immigrants were able to assimilate
is also a sign of deep seated tolerance by the
majority in the UK.

Reverting to the Irish Centre - wonderfully ironic
that nearly all the waiting and other ancilliary
staff were East European immigrants.

As an aside, often an English 'reception' means
some decent wine/beer plus crisps so mrs maytrees
and I stopped off at Victoria station's Cafe Rouge
for a quick bite. We had forgotten about Irish
hospitality - after the celebration of Mass
a(nother) full meal at tables bedecked with candles
was provided.

And traveling from S. to N London is hugely
better now than it was years ago through the new tubes/
trains created and run by many non-indigenous UK
workers. We walked from Kings Cross St Pancras
station. The new Eurostar International terminal there only
opened a day or so ago. Its whole premise is based
on two way travel into and out of the UK. Its
reconstruction doubtless owes as much to Johnny
Foreigner as to British Bulldog workers.

Yes KingsX area still shows squalor and
red lights not far away I am sure but the
atmosphere is of improvement.

Then travelling back on the tube at 11:45pm from Kings X
packed with people of all ages and
from all parts of the globe.
SWTrains from Vauxhall likewise.
Maybe some had had too much to drink
maybe such over-drinkers
were more of English appearance than those
who seemed less worse for such wear but
there was a real buzz - I celebrate
London living at present and the mainly succesful
human race mix it has become - long may immigration;
and emigration continue.

More on Remembrance Sunday

At exactly 11am whilst on our way to Beaumont, the traffic halted on the
Kingston Bridge over the Thames and was still for two minutes in memory
of the many war dead from in and around that borough.

The grounds around the war memorial at Beaumont were full of
OBs and their families. Some in wheel chairs others wore their
military decorations. The open air Mass concelebrated by three
members of the Society of Jesus was very moving, with the last post being
played and the involvement of St John's choir despite the windy
autumnal conditions. The old school song sung in Latin seemed
an appropriate way to end:

Concinamus gnaviter
Omnes Beaumontani
Vocem demus suaviter
Novi, veterani;
Etsi mox pugnavimus
Iam condamus enses,
Seu Romani fuimus,
Seu Carthaginenses.
Numquam sit per saecula
Decus istud vanum:
Vivat sine macula
Nomen Beaumontanum!

Exploring the old school again - now converted into a modern conference
centre - evoked many happy memories of boyhood times.

Giles Delaney had laid on an extraordinary welcome for
OBs and familes at St Johns. A lunch fit for royalty ensured
that conversation flowed all round the generations.

Remembrance Sunday 11th November 2007

When Beaumont College was sold an easement was reserved to facilitate
the annual pilgrimage by members of
the Beaumont Union, to the old College War Memorial, for celebration of
Mass for the Beaumont war dead. I have not attended for some years
but hope to attend tomorrow.
This year's Mass for those who have died in wars, will be
very fitting especially given the backdrop of ongoing wars
in Afganistan and Iraq.

Mr and Mrs McCann, the Media and Madeleine

On taking a dayjob lunchtime stroll most afternoons over the past
few weeks, the announcements screaming out from the London
Evening Standard news hoardings, presumably hoping to attract
purchases of the Standard, have invariably been about some further
alleged "drama" affecting Madeleine McCann's parents.

The London Evening Standard is usually quite a good read but its
bill boards of late typify the continuing media interest in the case.

Often those who seek attention through the media can expect
the attention to continue when perhaps they might prefer
certain matters to be kept private. The New Testament warning
in Matthew 26 that "those who live by the sword, shall die by the sword"
might be said to apply just as well in C21 to "those who live by the media...".

However by any yardstick the loss of the young child Madeleine, is a
tragedy. The parents' decision to try to trace her through media publicity,
could have been sucessful.
The fact that publicity has not resulted in their daughter's
whereabouts being traced is very sad. This sadness is exacerbated by the media
now treating the parents in the same way as if they were 'stars' whose publicity
stunts having been fully reported must now expect their grief and unhappiness
to form part of an ongoing tragic saga for public consumption.
The parents did not intend themselves to live by the media
and their essentially being made to die by the media is another tragedy.