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    • A Homage to Meryl Streep


      I wanted to stay up late to watch the Oscars ceremony on Sunday night, only to find that even if I had done, it wasn't on a TV channel I could get easily. Seems the ceremony is not on terrestrial TV anymore. Still, the following morning, I lay in bed and watched the previous night’s/morning’s comments from the winners. I was especially interested in who won the best actress award. I was glad it was Meryl Streep. For most of my adult life, she’s been acting in mostly challenging films. A great actor is, for me, someone who is able to take on the character of the person they are playing. When I look back over Meryl Streep’s career, she’s certainly shown great versatility. Whatever your views of Margaret Thatcher, her portrayal of her in The Iron Lady was truly amazing. Even in silhouette, she looked the part. Her mannerisms, voice and walk were all really authentic. It took me back to my youth and the world I grew up in the 1980’s.

      In her acceptance speech, she was almost embarrassed to win, stating that half of America would be saying ‘oh no, not you again!’ I always thought the USA respected success far more than we do. This time, I wondered whether Ms Streep hadn't become a bit anglicised in her embarrassment of the success which she truly deserves. In the gamut of movie history, I cannot think of another female actor with the breadth and depth of range she possesses. If you can, please let me know. Keep going Meryl. Play roles right up until you can act no more (or don’t want to). In a world where older women don’t remain on TV once they hit 45, and there are scarce juicy roles for actresses apart from bit parts or elderly grandmothers, isn’t it wonderful to see an older women remaining great at her craft and getting better year on year? What a wonderful role model for generations of women around the world.

      If you want to realise your potential and become a role model for other women, join me at my Empowering Women Workshops. The next one is at the Old Courtrooms in Brighton on 4th March, followed by the MAC Birmingham on 10th March and the Arnolfini Bristol on 25th March. Workshops start at 10 and end at 4. 

    • Weighing it All Up


      A friend doesn’t go on a diet because you are fat.  Erma Bombeck

      It is said that February is one of the most depressing months because we’ve failed on all our get trim/lose weight pledges. If anyone is going to join a gym or a weight-loss scheme, they will have already done it. Just a few weeks into the New Year, almost seven out of 10 of us are not sticking to our food plan and we are dropping like flies on our weekly public weigh-ins and gym sessions.

      It’s really hard to stick to it because most of us don’t understand the calorific value of what we eat. I know from previous diets that certain fruits are five calories per 100 grams but what I’ve lost touch with is portion size. I blame my new dinner plates. They are square and twice the size of the old ones, and I am literally filling the plate!

      A friend of mine has just joined one of the well-known weight-loss programmes. We thought we’d eaten a healthy meal on Saturday when I was round at her house. Three tacos shells with re-fried beans, low fat guacamole, low fat sour cream and a tomato and onion salsa (plus two small glasses of wine.)

      But when we added up the calories, we had a real shock. Our attempts to keep ourselves in trim had failed miserably. Then we remembered the two cappuccinos and biscotti we’d had earlier in the day and it all seemed hopeless.

      The other problem is that the more I eat, the more I seem to want. My stomach is expanding! If I could put this into auto-reverse (the less I eat, the less I want,) wouldn’t that be amazing? If I manage to keep things in check over a couple of days, I’m sorely disappointed that I haven’t lost 10 kilos. Losing weight and staying fit and trim is a long-term game.

      Aunty Joan used to say she could make a lot of money out of a home truth. If you are fit and healthy and you want to lose weight , eat a little less, exercise a little more and turn down your central heating a couple of degrees.  Maybe the softly. softly approach might just work?

      If you want to learn how to get a balanced mind, body and spirit, come along to one of my Empowering Women Workshops at the Barbican (25th Feb) Old Courtroom Brighton (4th March) MAC Birmingham (10th March) and Arnolfini Bristol (25th March). All workshops start at 10am and finish at 4pm. Look up 360 WISDOM on the discounts to claim 20% off your ticket price.
        

    • Why Do Divas Die?


      I was saddened to wake up to the news of another great singer’s death. This time, Whitney Houston was found dead in her bath at 48.

      On the back of the untimely death of our great UK singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse and any number of stories circulating in the press about women singers struggling to deal with their drug, weight or alcohol addiction, it seems the pressure of fame causes these vibrant lives to end before their time.
      It was ever thus. For those of us who like the jazz and blues, Piaf, Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith set the trend.

      Why do these beautiful, talented women turn to fast cars, drugs, alcohol and binge diets in the first place?
      I believe that often, fame comes fast and they are unprepared for it mentally and emotionally. Very quickly, like moths to a flame, they get surrounded by hangers on and people who tell them the things they want and need to hear, and over time, they lose touch with reality. For those that have strong families and friends, this too can prove to be difficult as these people are no more prepared for the change in their loved one’s lives and their advice and support can be meaningless in the context of the adoration of strangers and constant media attention.

      Another worrying factor is that many of these wonderful women get into relationships with unsavoury men who introduce them to the very addictions they die from.

      If only they could have sought an independent view, to gain some all-round perspective on life. In my 360 WISDOM model, these women would be clear CREATives. When in their healthy CREATE state, they are the most fun, inspirational people to be around. But as they spend more time doing CREATE, without the balance of THINK, FEEL and BELIEVE the CREATE becomes unhealthy. Unhealthy CREATIVES believe in their own myth, feel an emptiness in their purpose and their relationships and spend little time focussing on their inner-development. To fill the deficit, it’s a classic to turn to artificial substances to gain a momentary balance.

      If you want to explore the diva in you without the dying and learn how my WISDOM circle can help you live a full, joyful life, come along to my 360 WISDOM Empowering Women Workshop at the Barbican 25th Feb, the Royal Pavilion Brighton, 4th March, the MAC Birmingham 10th March or the Arnolfini Bristol 25th March from 10-4pm  

      Tickets £50/£40 from www.tiny.cc/360wisdom Information www.360wisdom.co.uk


       


    • What the Dickens is going on?


      “To be shelterless and alone in the open country, hearing the wind moan and watching for day through the whole long weary night; to listen to the falling rain, and crouch for warmth beneath the lee of some old barn or rick, or in the hollow of a tree; are dismal things -- but not so dismal as the wandering up and down where shelter is, and beds and sleepers are by thousands; a houseless rejected creature.”
      Charles Dickens - Poverty and the Poor.

      Another anniversary! This time, we celebrate the bi-centenary of the great author and social commentator Charles Dickens, whose life was recently celebrated in a service at Westminster Abbey.

      Dickens wrote novels that most of us at school studied as set texts. Many of them were bleak and were a social commentary on Victorian England, with its grinding poverty, poor houses, open sewers and sickness. In dark, pea-souper alleys, people lay sodden drunk from gin or spaced out in opium dens. There were regular runs on banks that ruined many. Small children climbed and cleaned out chimneys and sold matches. Stealing meant transportation for the smallest of misdemeanours.

      As a result of his writings and the contribution of many other creative people, some of the most significant infra-structure projects our country has ever seen were delivered.

      Whilst Victorian England has passed from living memory and remains something we read about in history books, most of us wander through towns and cities that contain solid-built Victorian buildings. My first flat was in a Victorian building, constructed by craftsmen who were proud of what they built, full of swirling plaster mouldings, patterned architraves and tiles hand laid with care and attention.

      In London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol and most of our fine cities, we walk on the bones of these ancestors who generated wealth for us from the industrial revolution.

      Whatever the moral rights and wrongs are from this wealth creation, as we move into a period in the present where we will be celebrating the life of a great artist, I ask you to consider whether much has really changed?

      Of course we've benefited from technological advancement, but has this been shared with all the people?
      Isn’t our drug and alcohol dependency still as high as it ever was?
      Do our children and young people aspire to better their lives through good jobs and a decent education?
      Do people live in decent, affordable homes?
      Do some suffer from food impoverishment?

      Whilst some of the terrible diseases people suffered and died from 200 years ago have been eradicated (cholera, typhus, TB, smallpox), the startling fact for me is that when you pick at the surface, much remains the same, because human nature doesn’t really change all that much. It’s just that our ‘toys’ and methods of communication become more sophisticated.

      Where are the great social reformers for the 21st Century?  Who are the creative people waiting to take on the mantle of the great Dickens? Where are the leaders who will take a risk and work from conviction rather than personal interest?

      WHAT THE DICKENS IS GOING ON?
       


    • Just one word!


      Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months."
      -Clifford Stoll

      It’s all in a word. My whole life and access to all my bank account details, my password on my PC and social networking sites.

      Well, it was until recently. Now I’ve changed everything.


      Here’s why.

      About four years ago, a friend was on his PC late at night reading committee reports, when an e-mail came in from his bank saying he’d been locked out of his accounts. It was in the earlier days of internet scams when we were all a bit more naive. A bit tired, he absent-mindedly entered his details into the site.

      Five minutes later, his bank savings account had been wiped clean of all his savings, some £10,000.

      The next day at work he was a broken man. Luckily for him, a few days later the bank had refunded him, but there’s a lesson there for us all.

      I, too, have half filled in a similar form and realised just in time what I was doing. It was ‘supposedly’ from the Inland Revenue saying I was entitled to a tax refund of £185.00.

      I was fooled because it seemed someone was offering me money.

      No bank, HMRC or anyone else you have financial dealings with will ever contact you via e-mail, so ignore them or forward these e-mails to the bank section that deals with fraud.

      More importantly, internet experts say we are creatures of habit. We tend to make our passwords the names of our children, pet or mother’s maiden name plus a simple number. Much of this information can be found out about you on social media sites. Never put your date of birth on them, unless you make yourself younger by a few years!

      Believe it or not, it’s quite easy for someone to play around with a few obvious names and bingo, they hit pay-dirt.

      We work hard in the NHS and public sector, so the last thing we need is for someone to come in and do this. Change your passwords on a regular basis, otherwise, you may find yourself in the position my friend did.  

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