50 SHADES OF VALENTINE’S

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So, the much hyped film 50 Shades of Grey has been released, and, presumably, if it does as well as predicted, the other two books in the series will be turned into films as well.

I do realise that by writing about it, advertising it, I am make the author even more money, and frankly, I think she’s made quite enough out of it. I don’t do love stories, unless they are written by Jane Austen, and that’s only because she was witty and wrote a social commentary as well. The book – and even less likely the film – didn’t live up to the hype. It was, in my opinion, just another love story and if that’s what is supposed to pass as S & M, well, I’m a Dutchman’s uncle. If you are going to write about S & M, make it worth reading. There are some authors who do it far, far better. I can recommend some if you like; I’m considering dabbling in that arena myself, although I doubt that they’d be able to convert those books into films. Not the type of film you’d see in a mainstream cinema, anyway. Anyway, enough of all that, I have a day’s work to do.

It’s no coincidence that the film was released just before St Valentine’s day… There’s a thing. Friday night and Saturday night, the day itself, the restaurants are absolutely chock-a-block with couples doing what couples in love do: gazing lovingly into each other’s eyes over a Big Mac and fries. No, it’s not my choice for a romantic meal, I don’t really do McDonalds either but people have different ideas about what passes for romantic.

I seem to recall being taken to my local Indian as a matter of course on Valentine’s day in one of my relationships, and much as I love a good curry, when it’s somewhere you go regularly, it’s just not quite special enough for Valentine’s day.

St Valentine or Valentinus was a Christian martyr who was reputedly imprisoned for marrying Roman soldiers to Christians, which was forbidden as Christians were persecuted in the Roman Empire. He is also reputed to have healed the daughter of his gaoler.

It was back in the days of Geoffrey Chaucer when 14 February first started to be associated with romantic love, but it wasn’t until the 18^th century that it started to become associated with giving each other cards, and the whole hearts and flowers thing started to take off. St Valentine’s keys were also given – to unlock each other’s hearts.

Traditionally, in Norfolk, in East Anglia, Jack Valentine knocked on the back door of houses, leaving sweets and presents for the children that lived there. Unsurprisingly, lots of children were scared of him! I think I’d find it a bit freaky for someone I didn’t know leaving me presents and sweets too!

St Valentine is not just the patron saint of lovers, he is also the patron saint of epilepsy, otherwise known as St Valentine’s Malady, which, it seems used to be very common in Germany. In Slovenia, St Valentine is the patron saint of spring, good health, beekeepers and pilgrims.

Back in 18^th century England, a trend for what was known as Vinegar Valentines flourished. These were cards that insulted people about everything from baldness to belly fat, and anything else besides. They might even be used to wish someone dead. Pleasant, huh?

I had a peaceful and quiet Valentine’s day this year, and watched the Equalizer starring Denzel Washington and had a curry and some wine. All things considered, that’s actually not a bad way to spend Valentine’s day.

MAKE UP ON THE TRAIN

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I was sitting on the train going to work the other day when I heard the characteristic sound of make-up being taken out and popped back into a make-up bag. Any woman who uses make-up will know the sound, it’s unlike any other. It’s the fact that women actually put their make-up on while they are on the train fascinates me, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, how do they do it without poking a mascara wand in their eye or getting eyeliner all over their cheeks? I’ll confess right now, I’ve tried doing the mascara thing on the train or in the car on less than a handful of occasions, when I’ve been in a hurry and running late, and it just doesn’t work for me.

Secondly, I think there is something very personal and faintly sexual about someone watching you put your make-up on, so I don’t really like an audience. Think Michael Douglas and Anne Archer in Fatal Attraction.

Then I am forced to wonder why they have to do it on the train and not at home? I don’t start work at the crack of dawn so by the time I am on the train all those people who do have already started their working day. Why don’t these women put their make-up on at home, in the privacy of their own bedrooms? Surely they are not all running late for a flight? Assuming, of course, that they have bedrooms, but I’m guessing by the fact that they are sitting on a commuter train that they have homes and a job.

What happens if there is a train delay and they have to stand all the way to work? What do they do then? All these things start running through my head just from the sound of a make-up bag.

I’m not averse to a top of lippy during the day in public, or a touch up of powder, but it’s just the whole putting on from scratch thing that I don’t understand.

So of course, I had to look. That was a mistake in itself, because I then get into the “what make-up is she using then?” thing. I am very particular about my make-up; anyone who knows me will tell you that. I absolutely adore the stuff and am like a kid in a sweetshop whenever I get into the cosmetic section of a department store. I study women’s lipsticks like a bacteriologist inspects a Petrie dish under a microscope.

I will make a confession right now; my friend Kate of mine put me onto to using less expensive make-up for every day use about a year ago, when I was on a cost-cutting exercise, so I’ve been using a Rimmel foundation for day-to-day use. Kate was right; you can’t tell the difference in how it looks, if you get the right shade. The difference is in the staying power. My Estee Lauder Double Wear or Lancôme Teint Idole 24 hour (I used to alternate when I wore these every day) do stay on far better, so I still wear them when I know I’m going out straight from work, and I use the Double Wear compact for touch-ups during the day. The other big difference is that there are fewer shades available in the less expensive brands.

My preferences in lipsticks tend to be Clinique, Estee Lauder or Mac, although Elizabeth Arden is pretty good too. I can’t bear the highly perfumed ones that some companies make, and for me, these three brands stay on really well, but I also think there is a bit of trial and error involved in all these things.

Of course, in my early make-up wearing days, as a teenager, I had the regulation Rimmel eye shadow compact with brown, blue, green and white eye-shadow. The green was a very interesting shade. I’m not averse to brightly coloured eye-shadow, when I was younger I even wore red (and, very fetching it looked too, if I do say so myself) but I tend to stick to more muted shades nowadays. I can’t get on with less expensive mascaras either and I probably never need to buy another blusher as long as I live, so that’s a non-topic.

I am fastidious about discarding mascara and eyeliner. I have a reminder on my ‘phone – three months and they are gone. I do not want to get any nasty eye infections, but, of course, it’s not just those items that should be discarded regularly. (As I am typing this, the woman next to me has started putting on her mascara! Maybe I should pluck up courage to ask her why? She’s got a Bobbi Brown compact, so that’s ok, I like Bobbi. But I digress.) Even lipstick gets nasty little buggy things on it so should be discarded although I confess that I am not good at that.

According to webmd.com, mascara and eyeliner that has a wand that goes back into the tube have the shortest shelf life of any cosmetics, and three to four months is the maximum time they should be kept. I would suggest that this probably applies to cream eye shadows as well, especially those in jars, where you actually have to put something in there to get the product out, although Good Housekeeping says cream eye shadows will last for six months. Remember eye pencils as well, although I do think you can sharpen off the bugs, provided that the pencil sharpener is clean.

Liquid foundation will last for about a year after opening, but don’t stick anything in the bottle (one of the reasons why those with pump dispensers are good, harder to introduce bacteria into the bottle).

Lipsticks and lip glosses are usually safe for between six months and a year. Ahem. Ladies, whilst I cannot recommend that you do this, I am going to take a sharp, clean knife and shave off the very top layer of those lipsticks older than that. I just can’t throw all my lippy’s away, but it is a good way of ensuring I don’t buy so many from now on. I think this time limit probably applies to cream blushers too.

Powders should usually last for two years.

(Looks like the lady on the train is using a Mac Lip Pencil, so that’s good too. And it’s definitely a Mac Lipstick. Actually, I recommend Mac Lip Pencils above all others. They last so-o long so they are really good value and because you sharpen them you get rid of the old bacteria. And it’s a Louis Vuitton make-up bag. How’s that for class? I use the free ones that I get with the Clinique or Lauder promotions.)

So how did we get into wearing make-up?

An unnamed Roman philosopher said,

“A woman without make-up is like food without salt.”

A bold statement to make, particularly as at times through the ages, and in some civilisations, men have worn make-up too.

We know that as far back as 10,000 years BC, the Egyptians, both men and women, used what we would now call moisturisers and cleansers. That hot sun must have played havoc with their skin, unless it was dark (and it is never depicted that way). No sun block back in those days! They used lots of herbs and flowers in their preparations: myrrh, thyme, chamomile, lavender, peppermint, and rosemary, to name but a few, as well as olive oil and almond oil.

By about 4,000BC, Egyptian women had started applying foundation. At least, what passed for foundation back in those days. The used a mixture of copper and lead ore called mesdemet and malachite, which was a bright green past of copper minerals (you may have seen the stone?). They also used a little something that most of us have heard of nowadays… a combination of burnt almonds, different coloured coppers, lead, ash and ochre known as kohl as eye liner. This is what gave Egyptian women (I’m sure the men wore it too) that characteristic almond eye shape that we are so used to seeing. They even used to take their make-up out and about with them, much the way we do nowadays.

It wasn’t just the Egyptians though, the Chinese and the Japanese also used make-up. In fact, the modern cosmetics company, Shiseido, boasts to be the oldest cosmetic company in the world. It is certainly one of the oldest, founded in 1872.

About 3,000 years BC, the Chinese (men and women) started painting their fingernails. Maybe painting is an exaggeration, it was more staining them with various natural substances. (If you want to try this at home, I find turmeric is amazing and stays of for days! Even when I don’t want it to.) In Ancient China, the colour of the stain used to denote the social class, so the Chou dynasty royals wore gold and silver. Later the royalty would wear black or red (I knew there was a reason I loved these nail colours). The lower classes were forbidden to wear bright colours on their nails. Around the same time in Greece, the women started to use a foundation made of white lead and rouge made from crushed berries. They also fake eyebrows….

Doing a fast forward to around 1,500BC, and back to China and Japan, rice powder was used to whiten the face. It was also fashionable to shave the eyebrows off and paint teeth gold or black. Henna was used too, not just to dye hair, but also to dye faces, presumably for a bit of blush in the middle of all that white. Henna has been used in India and some North African cultures for a long time, and that mehndi painting (where they paint the henna patterns on the hands and so on) started about 300AD.

As far as I can tell though, it wasn’t until about 500 years later that the first lipsticks were introduced in Greece, made from clay infused with red iron.

The Romans are feted for their civilisation and they too used a bit of slap. Barley flour and butter were used for zits (?) and they made a nail polish made of sheep fat and blood… Come back Coco Chanel, if there ever was anything to forgive, it is forgiven. The Romans also loved a mud bath (well, who doesn’t?) and the men often died their hair blonde.

It wasn’t until Elizabethan England that it became fashionable to dye hair red, a la Elizabeth I, and women would wear egg whites over their faces to make them paler, however, this later evolved into the use of white lead (not sure I fancy that all over my boat race) and the fashion for red hair becomes blonde. Dyes were made from a mixture of black sulphur and honey and the “client” had to let it dry in the sun. (Must have been an interesting trip to the hairdresser in an English winter…)

In the 1800s, it became popular to use zinc oxide in face powders, and if you check your packaging, you’ll find it is still used nowadays in sunscreens.

It was Queen Victoria, God bless her, who started the anti-make-up campaign. She publicly declared make-up improper and thought it should only be used by actors. I’m not sure she did women any favours with that; women who wore make-up, particularly bright red fingernails, were still often considered “painted whores” right up until the 1960s. It wasn’t until Edwardian times that the beauty business really took off, when women were put under pressure to appear as young as possible. (So that’s how we got to where we are today then?)

Of course, the funniest thing about the second day I saw someone putting their make-up on, the joke was really on me because it had been so cold that my eyes had watered and I had mascara all over my cheeks! Maybe there is something to this putting your make-up on the train lark?

DENTISTRY

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I had another trip to the dentist last week. Fortunately it was not a painful visit, neither in terms of treatment nor in terms of my bank balance. And I will be getting to buy myself a new toy to play with – a waterpik – once I’ve taken advice from the hygienist. Yay! I am really looking forward to that.

We were discussing what makes people go into dentistry at work this week. What is the appeal about looking in people’s mouths every day? Of course, the conversation took a turn and we started discussing other jobs that seem strange, to us office workers. Gynaecology was right up there. All you dentists and gynaecologists out there please don’t be offended, I am really glad that you do what you do; they just aren’t jobs that appeal to me. But then again, I guess maybe you guys wouldn’t want to do what I do.

Mind you, Suzette, who works with me, says that her most desired jobs are to be either a chambermaid or a picker at Argos. I’m not sure that I get either of those either.

How many of us get to do our preferred jobs in life, I wonder? When I was growing up, little boys were supposed to want to do things like becoming a train driver. I think that had something to do with the memory of the halcyon days of steam. I remember that I wanted to be an actress, which is the biggest joke going, because one of my forays into that world was when I played the narrator in something, I remember not what, and kept rushing off stage before I’d got the words out. I seem to recall playing a character called Johan in a play called A Charcoal Burner’s son, but it was only a short run. One night, I believe.

Anyway, the actress thing did not survive into adulthood, although I have done several Oscar winning performances over the years, both professionally and personally, if you get my drift… Back to dentristry.

The Ancient Egyptians suffered from dental problems, apparently they had a lot of sugar in their diets, and we all know what that does to our teeth, don’t we? As a result of the climate and burial methods in Ancient Egypt there are a number of artefacts that show that dentistry was practised there and dates back to at least 5000BC, probably earlier. One of the remains found shows that they drilled into the mouth to drain an abscess. That must have been painful, it’s bad enough when we get an anaesthetic and I don’t think they had that all that time ago. I expect that they used something to numb the pain though. Wine maybe? It wasn’t until the 1790s when a British chemist started to experiment with nitrous oxide, otherwise known as laughing gas, to help with pain. In 1863, it was mixed with oxygen before dispensing. In fact, I remember having teeth removed when I was a child and gas was used to put me out. I don’t remember too much laughing going on though.

Once the ball had started rolling, other anaesthetics were developed, and by 1900 cocaine was regularly used, however, once it was found to be addictive, its use was stopped. In 1905 a German chemist discovered procaine, which was developed and marketed as Novocain and proved very popular. It didn’t last for long though as a number of people had allergic reactions and the effects wore off quite quickly. Nowadays, most UK dentists use Lidocaine. Topicals, containing benzocaine, may also be used. In fact, I think they are essential.

The earliest filling is believed to be from as far back 6500BC, is made from beeswax. It seems that the drilling was done by bead craftsmen! Is that, I wonder, where the fashion to have jewels embedded in teeth?

From about the Middle Ages up to the 19^th century, dentistry was not a profession in itself; it was often practised by barbers or physicians. It was a French surgeon, Pierre Fauchard, known as the father of modern dentistry who adapted tools used by jewellers and watchmakers for use in dentistry. He pioneered dental prostheses made from ivory or bone and it was he who introduced dental braces.

The first toothbrushes were made of twigs smashed at one end to provide a greater surface area for cleaning, but the Chinese were the first to make a bristle brush. It first came to Europe in the 17^thcentury. The Swiss developed the first effective electric toothbrush after the Second World War, introduced in the United States in 1960, although the first one was marketed in 1880. The first cordless electric toothbrush was marketed in 1961.

The earliest toothpastes were made from powdered fruit, ground nut shells, talcum powder and dried flowers. If you were lucky. Other ingredients were mice, lizard livers, urine and rabbit heads. Can you imagine it? If you didn’t have bad breath before, you would do after that. Mind you, as toothpaste manufacture continued to develop, some other ingredients were even less savoury, and contained ingredients that dissolved the tooth enamel. Proctor and Gamble introduced Crest toothpaste in 1956.

The first toothpaste tube that we know and love was first marketed in 1892, with the pump dispenser being introduced a hundred years later in 1984.

Some famous people have shown an interest in dentistry over the years…

The famous gambler and gunfighter, Doc Holliday, graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1872, when he was just 20 years old.

Mark Spitz, Olympic Gold Medallists in 1972 had been accepted into dental school but gave it up to concentrate on his swimming career.

American Western author, Zane Grey, practised dentistry in New York before he became a bestselling novelist.

Paul Revere of American Revolution fame was a silversmith who also worked as a dentist and was famous for making false teeth for his patients.

Famous people who’ve had their gnashers improved:

Nicholas Cage… In 1984 he had some teeth removed and some smartening up done to the rest.

Gary Busey has had a full set of veneers.

George Clooney. Apparently he grinds his teeth so has a full set of veneers.

Victoria Beckham. Just take a look at the photographs pre-Spice Girls fame.

Tom Cruise. He had really crooked teeth before he had them straightened out.

Ben Affleck had veneers to lengthen his teeth.

50 Cent, the rapper. He is reputed to have spent over $50,000 on them so let’s hope they are good.

Jim Carrey. He has a chipped front tooth, but removed the cap for the film Dumb and Dumber.

Hilary Duff sports a full set of veneers.

Cheryl Fernandez-Versini nee Tweedy previously Cole. Well, you’d have to have your teeth done after that mouthful wouldn’t you! She’s another one with a full set of veneers.

Catherine Zeta-Jones had a full set of veneers to lengthen her teeth.

Michael Douglas. Probably the least said about him the better.

Courtney Love has a nice set of veneers.

Mike Tyson. After having his gold teeth knocked out by his pet tiger, he’s gone for a more traditional coloured replacement.

Clark Gable suffered from gum disease in his thirties and had a full set of dentures.

Celine Dion has certainly had work done; it looks as though she has a full set of veneers too.

©Susan Shirley 2015

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE CITY

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Gianni and I went on another of David Charnick’s walks yesterday (http://charnowalks.co.uk/) – Law and Order EC. As I’d recommended David to Gianni, I hoped she wouldn’t be disappointed. She wasn’t. David is very knowledgeable, but his passion for his subject shines through when he speaks. His tours are really well worth it and I’ll be going on more in the future.

The tour started outside of Liverpool Street Station and covered some of the history of the City of London Police as well as the murders of some City police officers, bombings and ended up at the Old Bailey. This was the first of these tours that David had run, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. It was particularly good that it took place on a Saturday – there are still places to eat and drink open in the City but not the vast numbers of people that you get during the week, so it was much more comfortable for walking and listening to a tour guide. It may only have been a small geographic area, but there was a lot to learn on this tour, and anyway, I always find the City fascinating.

One place that I found absolutely charming was the Watch House in Giltspur Street. This watch house (the places the watchmen, the law keepers before we had a police force, used to be based) was built in 1791, destroyed in 1941 and rebuilt in 1962. It was built here partly to watch over the graveyard in the church behind it, St Sepulchre’s, because of the increase in body snatching. The watch house has a bust of essayist Charles Lamb outside. The plaque below this bust says,

“This memorial was moved here in December 1962 from Christchurch Greyfriars, Newgate Street, which stands beside the former site of Charles Lamb’s school Christ’s Hospital.”

Giltspur Street itself has its own history, unrelated to the tour. It was originally known as Knightsriders Street or Knyghtsrider Street (or similar) because back in the 14^th and 15^th centuries, Knight’s used to ride along here on the way to jousting tournaments in Smithfield, which is just down the road. I’m not absolutely certain why it changed name but I suppose it’s not a stretch to become Giltspur Street – Knights wore spurs, so…

More important facts about Giltspur Street (or Knightriders Street) are that it was here, in 1381, that Richard II met with the leaders of the Peasants’ Revolt. The king agreed to meet their demands, but the then Lord Mayor of London, William Walworth, lured one of the main men, Wat Tyler, away and stabbed him. Tyler sought sanctuary in the nearby St Bartholomew’s Church but he was dragged out and beheaded, ending the revolt.

It was William the Conqueror who clearly defined the Law of Sanctuary in 1070, which was only allowed for 40 days, and it wasn’t until 1624 that a law was passed to abolish sanctuary, so I think it must have been quite bad form to actually disregard it. Not that it made a difference to poor old Wat.

One of the streets running off of Giltspur Street is Cock Lane (so-named, because it was where a number of legal brothels were situated back in the day…). At the junction of these two roads is a little statue there called the Golden Boy of Pye Corner, where the Great Fire of London ended. These are all places I shall be investigating further in due course.

At the Smithfield end of Giltspur Street stands St Bartholomew’s Hospital, or Barts as it is more commonly known in London, the oldest hospital in Europe. I’ll be writing more about Barts on Wizzley, so if you are interested, take a look there:

http://wizzley.com/authors/Telesto/

©Susan Shirley 2015

THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN… JE SUIS CHARLIE

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It was a quiet week for me, personal wise, apart from my rant at the beginning of the week (all ongoing, I’ll provide an update as soon as I have one. Suffice it to say, I am even more sympathetic to anyone who has been the victim of identity theft) and having a drink with my little friend, Hot Chocolate.

She’ll hate me for calling her that, but it’s quite a funny story. A couple of years ago, we were out in a bar in Covent Garden, having a quiet drink, minding our own business, not interfering with anyone. Hot Chocolate went up to the bar to get another bottle, and whilst there, an American chap started to talk to her. Actually, it was a bit more than talk; he took her hand in his and started stroking it, saying,

“Hot chocolate, I love hot chocolate.”

(Note to self: something vaguely creepy about that, I think.)

He proceeded to invite her to spend “some time with him,” but my little mate declined politely and came back over to our table with our wine. I dare say that the fact that he had extremely bad taste in suits had as much to do with that as my scintillating personality. It’s been a standing joke ever since. I blame Hot Chocolate for bearing her arms in public. That evening, at the beginning of last week, was peaceful and fun, and promised a good New Year.

Since then, of course, the world seems to have turned on its axis. People who know me will know that I am not a political animal. I have no desire to write a political blog. I take an interest in politics purely because it affects me, but I have never been on a political rally or been a member of any political party in my life. But like most people, I have been shocked and stunned by the events in Paris on 7 January 2015, and I want to express my condolences to the families of all who were murdered on that day.

I think that those people who don’t understand why we in the UK is showing such solidarity don’t understand the connection between what happened in Paris and what has happened here in the UK in earlier years (yes, I do mean 7 July 2005), the Twin Towers in America and other terrorist attacks across the world. There is most definitely a link and, in my opinion, all terrorists are worse than scum, but I do not approve of using bad language in my blog.

I don’t always like what is written in the press, nor do I always like some of the satirical cartoons drawn – see the Guardian on 7 January but I’m not putting the link in. I find some of them offensive, but I have the right to turn the page and not look at them any further. I’ll tell you what I’m not going to do about my displeasure. I am not going down to the Guardian offices and kill everyone who works there. If something annoys me, I write about it. Even if I don’t write it here, I write my feelings down (you never know when they might come in useful for a novel!). However much we may moan, here in the Western World, we are lucky enough to be able to pretty much say and do what we want. The pen is mightier than the sword and our right to freedom of speech is something to be defended, to the death in the case of Charlie Hebdo.

Terrorism has nothing to do with religion. It uses religion as a front, a bit like a bookies or a restaurant might be used for money laundering. And when it drives a wedge between decent people of all races and religions it wins. So it is our duty, it is incumbent on all of us, to ensure that we don’t let the terrorists win, that we don’t turn against our neighbours and start to question the beliefs of people with different religions. At the risk of offending half the world, I have always thought that the major religions all teach the same thing: treat other people the way you want to be treated, don’t kill and don’t steal. I think that pretty much covers it and I apologise if I’ve missed anything, and offended anyone, that was not my intention.

Finally, I must just say a little thank you to Aman and her young male colleague (whose name I have forgotten) in my local Nationwide branch. They were lovely people to speak to, and very helpful and polite as well. I had a nice little chat. Please don’t think that I just pop into banks and building societies for a chat, that would just be silly, I had a legitimate reason for going in there, it just happened that I spent a bit longer than I had intended. It proves to me that there are still some truly lovely people in the world.

Je Suis Charlie

THE START OF A NEW YEAR

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2015 has got off to quite a trying start. I had (and still have) some problems with my website http://www.susanshirley.me.uk. For some reason that neither I nor the hosting company can understand, it temporarily wiped all my information. Ok, it’s a static site and there is not that much on there, but that’s not really the point. The site was down for about 36 hours. The hosting company was, frankly, less than helpful, a decision they will regret when it’s time to renew my contract in 2016. When I tried to do a further update last night, the site wouldn’t let me make the changes, although I checked today and it was ok. ???????? I still have some updates to do it though, I’ve realised, so that should be fun.

Just after Christmas, I checked my credit file. I check it every month through a company called Noddle, which is free to join. Four separate credit checks showed up on 21 December, from insurance companies. I can assure anyone who is prepared to listen that I did not request any insurance quotes nor did I give any company permission to do any credit checks on me. The next thing I knew was that Equifax notified me that some checks had been done, and, lo and behold, more insurance companies had been doing checks on me. Miss Shirley was not amused.

Miss Shirley was even less amused when, having put the queries through to the credit reference agencies, two of the companies have refused to remove the checks (one agreed and the others are still outstanding). One of the credit reference agencies, unhelpfully in my opinion, told me the names of the companies to contact, but not name or address. The other one, at first, just replied and said that insurance companies may do credit checks when you ask for a quote. Really? And I thought it was just if I wanted to buy a pair of Jimmy Choos!

Now, you can call me paranoid if you want, but I think there is something decidedly dodgy about checks being done when I haven’t authorised them. I think it is even dodgier that, despite all the publicity about identity theft, it is virtually impossible to get anyone in an insurance company to give you a sensible answer as to how to deal with this. If you don’t believe me, check out the websites of a few of them: they give you a telephone number if you want car insurance, a telephone number if you want buildings and contents insurance, and so on, but do they give you a number if you are concerned about fraudulent checks? No, they don’t. At the risk of sounding like Queen Victoria, Miss Shirley was decidedly “not amused” yet again.

The Financial Ombudsman was far more helpful. They gave me addresses for the insurance companies, so I’ve now written to the offending companies, joined an organisation called Cifas (which is an organisation dedicated to prevent fraud, it’s not fee, but worth it to me) and have taken various other measures, so if anyone is trying to steal my identity, don’t waste your time, it’s not going to work, and I haven’t got any money anyway. I spent most of the morning on this, including notifying my bank, who have put a marker on my account, and this is all without being sure that any identity theft has taken place.

I’ll keep you updated about this as, I’m sure you can tell, my dudgeon is very high.

http://rcm-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?t=feliciasbloga-21&o=2&p=26&l=ez&f=ifr&f=ifr

In the meantime, please do take care of your personal data. Don’t put your full date of birth on Facebook and the like, change your online passwords regularly, don’t use the same one for all sites (stop groaning, I know it’s a pain, but trust me, it’s better than the alternative). If you do think you’ve been a victim of identity theft, start here:

http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud_protection/identity_fraud

CAFE ROUGE

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I met with my friend Anne on Wednesday, which was good because we are both so busy we rarely get time to see each other. I must start by saying that we had intended to have a quiet drink and maybe a little bite to eat in the Grosvenor Hotel. It’s attached to Victoria Station, so very convenient, and we went in there the last time we met up.

I hate to say this, but the last time we met, we found the maitre d’ a trifle off-putting, and Wednesday was exactly the same. I don’t know why, Anne was dressed in casual clothes and my coat is a bit old and tatty (what can I say? Buying a new coat hasn’t been at the top of my list of priorities. I know I need to get one for next year, but I can tell you all, I’ve seen very wealthy people look far worse than I do). Anyway, one way of another, the first time, he got a pass. This time, we decided to take our custom elsewhere. So we went to Cafe Rouge in Victoria Place instead.

How pleased am I that we did! We had the best waiter in the whole of London, a lovely young man named Curtis who was so attentive and pleasant that we nearly missed the meeting we were due to attend. Curtis, I hope you read this, because you were a star.

Anne and I had both had dental things going on, so our “meal” was quite strange – chips and olives. And, of course, wine. So the Grosvenor’s loss was our gain. The food was cheaper too.

As usual, Anne gave me some interesting info from her spooky friends, I am keeping everything crossed that they have got the timing right. I shall report back on that in due course.

I ended up going to a meeting with Anne about Organo Gold coffee. Organo Gold is known as healthy coffee, with a reduced amount of caffeine, and containing Ganoderma lucidum.

Ganoderma is a genera of mushroom currently being investigated for their potential to assist in antioxidant activities, protecting the liver, lowering blood glucose, antibacterial and antiviral effects and in reducing blood cholesterol to name a few. Ganoderma lucidum specifically is being trialled in chemotherapy patients and has been shown to give a better response to the drug therapy, although I think it’s fair to say that those trials are in the early stages. It’s also been shown to improve immune functions in those patients (chemotherapy often compromises the immune system, so anything that helps strengthen it is a plus.

It is traditionally used in Chinese medicine to enhance longevity and generally enhance health. If it does all the things I’ve said above, it’s easy to see how it would do all these things, although like most things, you can have too much of a good thing, and it also thins the blood, and is apparently useful in altitude sickness.

I am unashamedly a full-strength caffeine, filter coffee type of girl, and I don’t normally buy instant coffee at all, but I will say that the Gourmet Black Coffee was remarkably pleasant. I don’t think I’ll give up normal coffee, but as someone who has a couple of types of liver disease, I think I will try Organo Gold, to see what effect it has. I’m also going to get some for my friend Geoff, the one who had the rare form of leukaemia. They do tea and hot chocolate too. I’ve tried the jasmine tea, but not the other yet, so I can’t comment on that. You can purchase it here if you are interested in trying it:

http://annegermain.myorganogold.com/gb-en/

A little bit of history of coffee in England

Coffee is thought to have originated in Ethiopia as far back as the thirteenth century. The Arabs tried to prevent it from being cultivated elsewhere so they banned the export of fertile coffee beans. It wasn’t until 1616 that the Dutch managed to find a way around the ban and took plants back to the Netherlands to grow in greenhouses. By the late 1600s, the Dutch were growing coffee in India, in Malabar, and in 1699, they took plants to be grown in Java (now Indonesia), hence the name of my favourite, Hot Java Lava. By now, the Dutch were the main suppliers of coffee to Europe.

Of course, coffee had competition: from tea and hot chocolate. Tough choices. The first European coffee houses opened in Venice in 1683. Lloyd’s of London, the largest insurance market in the world, started life in a London coffee house in 1688. The coffee houses flourished because there was no alcohol, so they were considered to be more serious places. It’s always better to do business without those beer goggles. They played an important role in what is known as the Age of Enlightenment. In fact, the first coffee houses in England were established in Oxford rather than London, the first being opened in 1650, called the Angel. Christopher Wren was one of those who frequented the Oxford coffee houses. However, London wasn’t far behind, with the first being opened in 1652.

The coffee houses were also closely associated with news, and The Spectator and The Tatler were widely circulated and considered to be the most influential publications in the coffee houses.

Were women allowed in coffee houses? Historians disagree, with some saying they weren’t allowed, while others say that they mostly chose not to go there because they and their conversation were male dominated. There was, however, a “Women’s Petition Against Coffee,” by those who claimed it made men sterile and impotent!!! Interesting when you consider that when it was first introduced, coffee was considered to be a medicinal drink and I can think of a number of women who’d be force feeding their men coffee if that were actually true.

By the end of the eighteenth century, the coffee houses started to decline. Again, historians don’t universally agree on the reason, in fact, it seems that there were a number of reasons for it, not the least being that the government tried to influence the demand for tea, as a result of positioning of the British East India Company (the John Company). Certainly, tea overtook coffee in popularity.

As far as I can tell, it wasn’t until the 1950s that coffee bars started to rise in popularity again. Predominately frequented by the young, there is the image of juke boxes and Teddy Boys that comes to my mind. But it was in 1894 that Lyons opened a teashop in Piccadilly. By 1909 the chain of Lyons Corner Houses opened up, finally closing in 1977. They were four or five stories high, and were open for twenty four hours a day for a while.

Costa Coffee opened up in the 1970s and from there they’ve gone from strength to strength. You barely go anywhere nowadays without seeing a Starbucks or Caffe Nero or a Wild Bean Cafe. There’s even opened up a little coffee bar at my local station.

So there we have it. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate. They’ll all do for me. As I’m such a big tea fan, I probably need to write about that soon.

THE END OF ANOTHER YEAR

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Another year over and a new one just about to begin. Time for New Year’s Resolutions methinks. I always set resolutions, for me, they are just a continuation of the goal setting I do throughout the year. Of course, I don’t always achieve everything, but I always hit at least half of them, and make a stab at the rest.

One of my absolute highlights was when I was walking to work yesterday, and I saw a Robin, about a foot away from me. I stood and looked at him, he seemed totally unafraid. I so wanted to get my camera out and take a photograph (I should have got my camera out) but I was afraid of scaring him away.

I also like to reflect on things that have happened during the year, to me and the rest of the world. Some of my 2015 resolutions and achievements were:

• To finish my writing course – I did, in March, six months earlier than expected. I’ve done two other short writing courses since.

• To try to improve my photography – I’ve made a conscious effort to do this throughout the year. The next three are mine, so see what you think.

• Be published more – I’ve done that too. I’m still not making enough to live on, but it’s moving in the right direction. That one will be on the list for next year. There is a particular magazine that I’ve wanted to be published in for a couple of years now, but I’ve never actually written the piece. I’m aiming for that next year.

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What about the rest of the world? What happened in 2014? Here are few things, not all good.
January – 14 people were killed after the collapse of a three-story building construction site in Goa, India. Water vapour was discovered on the dwarf planet, Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt. A Taliban suicide car bomb assassinated senior police officer Chaudhry Aslam and killed three others in Pakistan.

February – the winter Olympics took place in Sochi, with over 2,800 athletes taking part. Same sex marriage was legalised in Scotland. Scientists at the Australian National University discovered the oldest known star -13.6 billion years old.

March – Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappeared over the South China Sea with 239 people on board. There is still no news as to what happened. Crimea voted to leave Ukraine, and the Republic of Crimea was declared. The United States closed the Syrian embassy in Washington and expelled all Syrian diplomats from the USA.

April – Peter Gabriel, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Kiss, Nirvana, Linda Ronstadt and Cat Stevens were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (Yay!) David Moyes was sacked as manager of Manchester United. (Poor old David, I like him.) Twelve Nepalese climbers were killed by an avalanche on Mount Everest whilst preparing the route for the summer climbing season. A umber of other people were injured.

May – Conchita Wurst (the one with the beard) won the Eurovision Song Contest with Rise like a Phoenix. The Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus’ flagship (we all remember that from school, don’t we?) was discovered off the coast of Haiti. Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City were each fined €60 million for breaching Fair Play Regulations. For Man City, this was something to do with a sponsorship deal with Etihad, PSG’s was to do with a deal with Qatar Tourism Authority.

June – Maria Sharapova won the French Open women’s tennis singles and Rafael Nadal won his ninth French Open title. Sir Ian McKellen was awarded an honorary degree by Cambridge University, becoming a Doctor of Letters (that’s higher than a PhD in this country). Water Lilies, by Claude Monet, was sold at auction for £32m.

July – The Church of England voted to allow women to become bishops. TransAsia Airways Flight 222 crashed into buildings in Taiwan killing 44 people. Taghrooda, a British Thoroughbred, won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth stakes at Ascot.

August – The UK commemorated the 100th anniversary of its declaration of war against Germany in the First World War. By 12 August, the death toll from the Ebola virus in West Africa exceeded 1000. William Pooley, a British nurse working in Sierra Leone, flew back to the UK for emergency treatment after contracting the Ebola virus. Fortunately, he survived, and has returned to Sierra Leone.

September – Scotland voted against becoming an independent nation. Serena Williams beat Caroline Wozniacki in the US Open for the third year running. The archaeological remains of a Viking fortress from the 900s CE, the Vallø Borgring, were discovered in Denmark.

October – New Zealand, Malaysia, Angola, Spain and Venezuela were all elected to the United Nations Security Council. Richard Flanagan’s novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North won the 2014 Man Booker Prize. Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

November – One World Trade Centre, the fourth tallest skyscraper in the world (at the time of writing) officially opened in New York. This was 13 years after the 11 September attack. Celebrations were held in Germany to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. After voting in favour of allowing them to become bishops in July, the Church of England adopted the legislation necessary to enable them to be appointed.

December – The UN warned that the world is on course for the warmest year ever. I don’t think they’ll get much disagreement round here. At least 141 people, including 132 children, were killed when the Taliban attacked a school in Peshawar, Pakistan. The wonderful Joe Cocker passed away at the age of 70.

So what about you? What have you achieved this year? And what are you planning for 2015?

Many thanks to everyone who reads my blog, and thank you to all my new followers throughout the year.

Wishing you all the very best for 2015.

https://www.justgiving.com/Hari-Rome-Marathon/

CHRISTMAS PAST AND PRESENT

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Christmas; a time for giving. If public transport yesterday is anything to go by, there’s going to be a lot of giving, so many people are doing their last minute Christmas shopping. I, of course, can sit here quite smugly because I finished all mine a few weeks ago, but then I stated in June. I don’t normally start quite that early, but I saw something that I thought someone I was going to buy for would like, so I bought it. I don’t do well in crowds at any time, so I always start early.

I’ll be spending Christmas with my family, as usual, which is always lovely, although we’ll be having Christmas dinner at my brother’s home this year, for the first time in several years. We’ve gone out to a local hotel for the past few years, which was great, but it’s safe to be at home this year, now that Bro and his wife have bought a dishwasher.

My memories of Christmas when I was a child are a house full of people coming round on Christmas morning, having a drink and eating the sausage rolls and mince pies that my mum used to make. I was allowed port and lemonade, although I think the port was only there for colouring. Later on, I progressed to snowballs, with a cherry on the top.

There were always bowls full of nuts in their shells, and dried figs and dried dates. There was always a lot of food in the house – a full English breakfast was a common start to the day, and Christmas dinner… I know we had turkey when I was an older child, but I’m not sure that’s what we had when I was very young. That said, I don’t remember what we did have, but I do remember there were always boiled potatoes as well as roasties. We always had the traditional Christmas crackers with Christmas dinner too. And we had to sit there wearing the paper hats that were inside.

The dessert. Well, this was always home-made Christmas pudding, complete with sixpenny pieces in it, a couple of mince pies and custard or cream. Or both. And if that wasn’t enough food for one day, we always had turkey sandwiches for tea. My Dad did take us out for a walk after we’d had lunch, and because we lived in the country, we could do a few miles around the country lanes.

Boxing Day always involved a boiled ham, and bubble and squeak. I love bubble and squeak, the proper stuff made from leftovers, not the frozen, pre-prepared stuff. Boiled potatoes and pickles finished off the dish. I think the only thing that surprises me with all that food is that we were not all obese.

We always had Christmas stockings too, when we were children, full of small presents; the big presents went under the tree. The tree was always real and tall, and I think my Dad used to stand it in a bucket of sand. We kids were allowed to help decorate the tree, and help put the rest of the Christmas decorations up. We went for it big style with decorations back then.

Life was good, but time passes by and we lose people we love, but that’s just life. I started this post by saying that Christmas is a time for giving, and I’m going to end with a little advert.

My dear friend Geoff contracted a rare form of leukaemia some years ago. I wrote about it here:

http://wizzley.com/survivors-of-the-bomb-tests-at-christmas-island-kiritimati/

Geoff has two granddaughters, Izzie and Hari. They are the apple of Geoff’s eye and Hari is running the Rome Marathon in March, to raise money for leukaemia and lymphoma research. I’ll update you about this in due course, but if anyone does want to donate, please click on the link below.

https://www.justgiving.com/Hari-Rome-Marathon/

Meantime, wishing you all a very, very happy and peaceful Christmas.

THE DARKER SIDE OF EAST LONDON

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I went on another walk last Sunday, this was one called The Dark Side of the Green. The tour guide was David Charnick of charnowalks.co.uk who is an extremely knowledgeable person. I’d recommend him as a tour guide for this reason.

This building was previously Bethnal Green Police Station

The walk was around Bethnal Green, hence the “Green” in the title. The “Dark Side” is in the title because all of the places we stopped at were associated with crime in one way or another. Villains who played a part in the tour were Arthur Harding, The London Burkers, The Krays, Benjamin Russen, Ginger Marks and Valline and Doyle. You need to do the tour to find out about them all, but trust me, I learned a lot.

The church where Reggie Kray married Frances Shea

For those of you who don’t know, Bethnal Green is an area in East London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Even though I live East, I’ve always had a perception that East London is poorer than the rest of London (a guy I used to go out with used to say he always knew when he hit East London because the houses were closer together and the gardens were smaller) and that the crime rate is higher. To be fair, the bit about the crime rate being higher is not accurate. The crime rate varies a bit across the whole of London, depending upon the resources being thrown at it.

I can’t absolutely prove what I’m about to say, but I suspect the reason that East London has always seemed to have a crime association has something to do with the docks, which are (were) all over the east side of the London, being nearer to the Thames estuary. All of those goods, some very high value, being imported and unloaded in East London were just ripe for the picking. Which explains why the likes of the East India Company built high walls around their docks and armed convoys took the goods into the City.

The tour was not close enough to the river (by which I mean the Thames) to cover the things I am about to write, but a woman who was quite notorious in the 17th century was Damaris or Damarose Page.

Page started working as a teenage prostitute, went to court for bigamy in 1653 and was acquitted. She was also charged with murder for an abortion that went wrong, and was convicted of manslaughter, but she escaped execution because she was pregnant at the time. It seems that the morals of the day prohibited execution of pregnant women. Page’s fortunes improved as the East End became more prosperous, and business must have been good because she became one of the famous prostitutes (bawds, as they tended to be called in those days) of her time. Samuel Pepys described her as, “the great bawd of the seamen.” She may well have been the inspiration behind Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders.

Another bad’un with an East End association because of his apprenticeship to a butcher in Whitechapel is Dick Turpin. Dick was an Essex boy and got himself into a gang when he was in his 20s. (Nothing really changes, does it?) He graduated from his part in poaching and selling the proceeds to robbery. It seems the gang was quite successful for about five years, but then one of them started singing like a canary to the fuzz and the remaining gang members split. (Ok, there weren’t any police then, but the story sounds so much better that way.)

Turpin carried on his life of crime and graduated to stealing horses, which was lucrative until you got caught, because it was punishable by death. Turpin was eventually arrested in 1738 and tried in York. He was found guilty and executed on 7 April 1739.

Finally, there’s someone infamous in the whole of London, not just the East End,
Jack the Ripper. Jack is believed to be the killer of five prostitutes in the Whitechapel area of London, although there are some who believe he killed more than this and some that don’t think all five are down to Jack. Theories abound as to who Jack really was, from the writer Lewis Carroll to Sir William Withey Gull (Queen Victoria’s physician) to the Duke of Clarence, and many more besides.

Clearly I wasn’t around in the 17th and 18th centuries (no, seriously, I am NOT that old) so I don’t have photographs of the people mentioned, so I’ve included the ones I took on the walk.

It’s one of those mysteries that I’d really like to get to the bottom of, but I honestly don’t think that will happen. Scientists thought they’d cracked it with DNA but then, earlier this year; it turned out there had been an error in the processing. Still, maybe it will feature in a future novel…

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susanshirleyblog

Susan Shirley: A writer's blog

50 SHADES OF VALENTINE’S

MAKE UP ON THE TRAIN

DENTISTRY

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE CITY

THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN… JE SUIS CHARLIE

THE START OF A NEW YEAR

CAFE ROUGE

THE END OF ANOTHER YEAR

CHRISTMAS PAST AND PRESENT

THE DARKER SIDE OF EAST LONDON