Where Art Thou, Lorenzo?

There is a place in Verona, Italy called Casa di Giulietta where the lovelorn go to leave notes on the wall next to Juliet's balcony asking for love advice. These letters are collected at the end of each day and answered by a group of real-life employees who regard themselves as Juliet's secretaries.

Such is the idea of director Gary Winick's postcard-pretty romantic comedy, Letters to Juliet. Its premise alone is enough to tell you that this is a chick flick through and through, but here's the surprise- despite its predictability, it actually is pretty likable. And indeed what's there not to like? It has stunning views of the Veneto and Tuscan countryside; it stars the radiant Amanda Seyfried (you'll probably remember her from Mamma Mia!); and it's about second chances in love, which anyone who has ever been in love can certainly relate to.




At the heart of its story is the American girl Sophie, a magazine (The New Yorker by the way!) fact-checker on a pre-honeymoon holiday in Italy with her restaurateur fiancé, Victor who is primarily interested in exploring the area for its culinary ingredients to use in his restaurant- so on one of those trips, Sophie decides to go visit the Casa di Giulietta on her own. There, she finds a letter written 50 years before by a young English girl who had fallen in love with a dashing Italian while on holiday, but because of family constraints she had gone back to England without even saying goodbye.

Sophie feels compelled to respond and her reply brings the elderly Claire (a luminous Vanessa Redgrave) to Italy, accompanied by her grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan). Claire wants to find her old beau Lorenzo Bartolini and so they set off on a road trip to visit the 74 men of the same name in the Siena area to locate her special one. Will Claire find the love she lost? Will Sophie find new love? Will Charlie fall in love? You'd probably already know the answers to all three questions.




A touching, romantic and beautiful movie. Even though you knew how it was going to end you slowly got completely wrapped up in the characters at each turn of events. The schmaltz, melodrama and cheese are all put together in a totally engrossing romance.

Anyway, the Tuscan scenery is staggeringly beautiful. And watching real-life couple Redgrave and Nero walk hand in hand is very heart-warming. These two first fell in love during the mid-60's while filming Camelot. This cost Vanessa Redgrave her first marriage, but the lovers did not marry until 2006. Just to prove that it is never too late for love.

Race for Life ....and the male cheerleaders!

Yesterday, together with thousands of women, we wore pink outfits and sleek pink bobs to brave one of the hottest days of the year to take part in the York Race for Life.

Temperatures soared to nearly 30 degrees C as 5500 women of all ages from 101 to primary school age tackled the 5km course on York’s Racecourse on the Knavesmire.

We were so many that it took several minutes for all the runners, joggers and walkers to cross the starting line in a vast parade of many colour but predominantly pink. The atmosphere was awesome. A lot of us had been touched personally by cancer and there were some very touching memories written on our backs. But for those 5km we were all united in our hope to do something (although it seems very little) to defeat this terrible disease. The target was to raise £340,000 for Cancer Research UK and I really hope we did it!

My daughter was the first in our group to cross the finish line. She ran/jogged the 5km in just 42 minutes, not bad for a 10-year old who didn’t want to leave her old ma behind!

And as the cherry on the cake there they were, the handsome male cheerleaders who had first helped us to warm up, then supported us all the way and finally welcomed us at the end with refreshing water and cheers….the little joys of life…

Days

(Sunset on th River Ouse, York)

'What are days for?

Days are where we live,

They come, they wake us

Time and time over.

They are to be happy in:

Where can we live but days?

Ah, solving the question

Bring the priest and the doctor

In their long coats

Running over the fields.'

(My favourite Philip Larkin's poem, "Days")

WC10 Limerick

School will linger for another month here in the UK and with the nice weather (finally!) and the football World Cup it is difficult for teachers to keep the kids’ attention. My husband is doing some World Cup writing activities with his pupils at the moment and my daughter has suggested to her class to write some WC10 limericks too. The task is rather easy. Choose any player you want from the tournament and write a limerick about him. Something like this:

There once was a player called Green
Who was a goalkeeping machine
But he fumbled the ball
And the score was one-all
And then lots of people were mean.

Now it’s your turn, my friends, come on give it a try!

Wouldn't the limerick above apply to quite a few overpaid footballers?

(An over-enthusiastic Italian fan - Photo from La Stampa)

More than just a Game

While everyone knows of Nelson Mandela's incarceration on Robben Island, what is not so well known is how football helped the players to survive there. Mandela was barred from taking part, but current South African leader Jacob Zuma was involved.

The Makana Football Association, the jail’s league, came into being on Robben Island in 1966. Starting in December 1964, every week a prisoner, a different one every time, as punishments often followed such impunity, would make an official request to be allowed to play football and every week for three years, the prison warder would refuse.

Then, one day the authorities relented, figuring that the prisoners would have little energy after their hard work and would soon tire themselves out.The opposite happened. The inmates threw themselves into football and everything to do with it. Everything was organized; a copy of FIFA’s rule handbook, was, along with Karl Marx’s Das Kapital the most popular book in the prison library. Every result was recorded as were every yellow and red card and every disciplinary action. Referees were examined and players were registered, official letters were exchanged.


Fishing nets became nets of another kind at weekends as a league began to take shape. Most of the teams formed followed membership of the different political organizations in the prison. The Pan- African Congress and the African National Congress had their differences off the pitch but the game of football had them co-operating and working together, a lesson, if one may be so trite, for the future governance of the country as a whole.

But there was one team that was open to anyone and didn’t care which faction you belonged to as long as you had what it took on the dusty pitch - which Mandela could watch through the bars until the authorities blocked the view by building a wall to stop players passing messages to him. Manong FC drew its ranks from all walks of prison life and prospered because of that fact. Manong won eight out of nine titles and even featured current South African President Jacob Zuma.

Robben Island's football association has been written about in the book ‘More than Just a Game’ by Prof. Chuck Korr and Marvin Close, which was also turned into a movie.

So if you are already fed up with the World Cup, forget all the hype around it, all the money spent and wasted around it and for a moment think of the pride of the people of South Africa who, only a few years ago, would have never dreamt to be free to host an international event of this kind and remember that no other sport can bring so many people together as football.

In April 2007, Makana FA was awarded with the honorary FIFA membership. Makana FA was established during the dark years of Apartheid by prisoners incarcerated on Robben Island.

Mindless Massacre

12 people are dead and 25 wounded after horrific shooting spree in West Cumbria. Cab driver suspect Derrick Bird committed suicide in woodland shortly afterwards

He was described by neighbours yesterday as a quiet man who kept himself to himself – until something pushed him over the edge. It is a familiar pattern in rampage killings. The perpetrators are often perceived to be very ordinary people, and to lead ordinary lives. They are very rarely seen as psychotic or cranky.

Many people have feelings of low self-esteem and may mistrust those around them or even suffer paranoia. But they don't go on a killing spree. What makes the few that do, flip? Access to firearms is one factor. Guns are, fortunately, not easy to get, but if people have lethal means of causing violence close at hand there will be more violence. How many people would be killed if every household had a gun? That, thank goodness, is not the case in this country.

Bird had two guns - believed to be a .22 rifle with telescopic sight and a shotgun – Who on Earth gave him his (double) license? Also, why was a gunman allowed to go on the rampage for 3 HOURS! Where were the police? Aren’t they meant the defend us, law-abiding citizens, from something like this? Maybe with their batons and handcuffs?
Something is seriously wrong here.

My deepest condolences go out to all the families who learned the horrible news today that their loved ones were mindlessly murdered. I will be remembering you in the days to come when it seems like no one any longer remembers.

Let's end the siege of Gaza!

Dear friends,

The world is reeling from Israel's assault on an aid flotilla trying to reach Gaza. It's time for a full investigation to begin -- and for the siege of Gaza to end. Please sign the worldwide petition, then forward this message:

Israel's deadly raid on a flotilla of aid ships headed for Gaza has shocked the world. Israel, like any other state, has the right to self-defence, but this was an outrageous use of lethal force to defend an outrageous and lethal policy -- Israel's blockade of Gaza, where two thirds of families don't know where they'll find their next meal.

The UN, EU, and nearly every other government and multilateral organization have called on Israel to lift the blockade and, now, launch a full investigation of the flotilla raid. But without massive pressure from their citizens, world leaders might limit their response to mere words -- as they have so many times before.Let's make the world's outcry too loud to ignore. Join the petition for an independent investigation into the raid, accountability for those responsible, and an immediate end to the blockade in Gaza -- please click to sign the petition, and then forward this message to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_flotilla_3/?vl

The petition will be delivered to the UN and world leaders, as soon as it reaches 200,000 names -- and again at every opportunity as it grows and leaders choose their responses. A massive petition at a moment of crisis like this one can demonstrate to those in power that sound bites and press releases aren't enough -- that citizens are paying attention and demanding action.