Pakistan Day

Our founding fathers had resolved to carve out an independent state where democracy, constitutionalism and rule of law would reign supreme.

Asif Ali Zardari President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Seventy-two years ago, on this day, the Muslims of the subcontinent formally committed through a Resolution to work for achieving a separate homeland for themselves.

With the blessings of Allah and through the heroic struggle of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and the founding fathers, the Muslims of the subcontinent achieved their objective on August 14, 1947, within a short span of seven years of the expression of their resolve.

Our founding fathers had resolved to carve out an independent unsecured loans state where there will be democracy and where constitutionalism and rule of law would reign supreme.

Unfortunately, successive dictators tried to stifle the democratic aspirations of the people. Constitutionalism and rule of law was trampled by dictators sometime under the doctrine of necessity and sometime under the theory of successful revolution.

The unanimous Constitution of 1973 was disfigured by successive dictators to suit their own political ambitions. But the democratic aspirations could never be killed.

On the eve of Pakistan Day this year, it is reassuring to realise that the Parliament has successfully removed the vestiges of dictatorship and restored the democratic Constitution of Pakistan.

On this day let us resolve that we will not permit any dictator to usurp the basic fundamental rights of our people nor allow them to trample on our democratic aspirations. This requires that we work in the spirit of tolerance, mutual accommodation and respect for dissent.

Let us also resolve that we will uphold the Constitution and bad credit loans never allow it to be abrogated, subverted or held in abeyance. It is also important to uphold the independence of judiciary in accordance with the Constitution.

Unless there is rule of law and everyone is equal before law and unless we all work within the constitutionally defined parameters, stability will elude us.

I hope that the Parliament, the people and all institutions of the state will work in harmony towards this end.

I pray to Almighty Allah to bless our efforts to prove ourselves worthy of the heritage bequeathed to us by the Quaid-e-Azam

Human Rights Day

Today, December 10th, the international community is observing Human Rights Day to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since its adoption at the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, the Declaration has become a universal standard for the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide. On International Human Rights Day, we pay tribute to all human rights defenders, celebrate the recent victories of the human rights community, and recognize the challenges that still lie ahead in the global struggle to advance justice, accountability and an end to impunity.

2011 has been an amazing year for human rights defenders. We have witnessed thousands of people taking to the streets to demand fundamental human rights and social justice; ordinary citizens turning into activists by using social media to mobilize protest movements that brought repressive governments to an end; and dramatic changes transpiring – like Tunisia’s first elections, or the encouraging signs of progress in Burma.

The Benetech Human Rights Program (HRP) is hard at work to ensure that technology and science best meet the needs of human rights defenders in these critical times. This past year, our HRP team helped the human rights movement achieve great things. Here’s a sample of our accomplishments:

• Martus, our secure, open-source information management software for human rights defenders continued to empower many human rights groups worldwide to secure thousands of stories of human rights violations and to use this information strategically to advance their causes. Our new and long-term Martus partners crossed a milestone and backed up to our public servers over 200,000 bulletins, each of which captures crucial, sensitive information about incidents from a victim’s story or from a field investigation.
• Our Martus team trained two new partners focused on rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people: Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays, or J-FLAG and AIDS-Free World. Both organizations work in the Caribbean, where sexual minorities face widespread violence, bigotry and marginalization. In the case of J-FLAG, Martus enables the organization to protect the identity of victims of abuse who come forward to tell their stories, to secure the information from their interviews, to report on the types of  unsecured loans crimes documented, and to aggregate evidence for future court proceedings. Our support of groups advancing LGBTI rights is opening up new opportunities for helping many more such groups around the world.
• HRP members produced scientifically sound analysis that is advancing the process of legal justice in Guatemala. In a recent blog post, I described how HRP statistician Daniel Guzmán’s expert testimony in a breakthrough legal case against two former police officers helped score a remarkable victory in the fight to end impunity in Guatemala. I invite you to read Daniel’s first-person account of his expert testimony as published in the statistical magazine Chance. The testimony prompted further investigation that led to the arrest of three former senior officials. I’m proud to report here that, at the request of the Attorney General of Guatemala, bad credit loans our team has prepared statistical analysis to inform the prosecutions of these high-profile officials. We’re honored to support the process towards justice and accountability at this critical time in Guatemala’s history.
• Our team members are creating an “accountability toolkit” – a set of innovative techniques for identifying patterns of responsibility for grave human rights crimes. To that end, we combine statistical analysis of patterns of violence with information about military and police hierarchy, communication flow and deployment patterns. The combined analysis supports scientific arguments about responsibility for mass atrocities – arguments that are successful in court cases.
• Through projects that integrated statistical analyses into multidisciplinary human rights work, we engaged in the public debate about human rights violations in Colombia. First, in partnership with Colombian NGO Corporación Punto de Vista, we assessed a methodology for studying conflict-related sexual violence in the country. We identified important opportunities for developing a substantive, quantitative-based sexual violence research agenda. This analysis is now helping to reframe how sexual violence is studied and understood by groups in Colombia and by the United Nations. Second, we strengthened the public debate about the free trade agreements that Colombia negotiates with the U.S. and the European Union. Colombia’s record of violence against trade union members has been an obstacle to finalizing the agreements. HRP’s calculated estimates of trade union member homicides – part of our work with the Colombian Commission of Jurists – brought clarity to this intense debate.
• We advanced human rights advocacy and the community more broadly by placing human rights at the forefront of academic research and by educating wide audiences about statistical best practices in the analysis of violence. HRP team members presented papers at academic conferences, published articles in academic journals, and offered many public talks. All HRP’s publications are available online.

Abolition Day Puerto Rico

Since the arrival of the first sugar plantations in the sixteenth century in Puerto Rico, and generally throughout the Caribbean, sugar and slavery were synonymous. During the first half of the nineteenth century era, Puerto Rico had the largest number of slaves. In 1846 there were 51,216 slaves. The number of males did not differ much from the number of women, many were of African origin (bozales), even though since September 1817, according to a treaty abolishing the "Black Trafficking" signed by Spain and England, the slave trade from Africa had been prohibited.

Upon arrival to the island by force, the slaves were sold as mere objects in the markets of major sugar towns. During the 1840s, for example, the price of a male ranged between 350 and 400 silver pesos, a female 250 to 300 pesos and a "mulecon" (child) a little less.

Forced to work up to 18 hours a day during the sugar harvest season, soon the slaves protested against their exploitation. They demonstrated their defiance with escapes, protests and conspired to take over the island killing the people, to include their masters. The rebels that were captured were subject to harsh punishment by hanging, whippings, stockade or restrained by shackles.

The first know slave revolt took place in the nineteenth century, in 1812, the great conspiracy broke out in the vicinity of the capital, which stretches northeast from the town of El Roble, Río Piedras, to Añasco in the northwest. In this occasion the slaves believed to have freed themselves.

In 1821, approximately 1,500 slaves mainly from Bayamón, Toa Baja, Toa Alta, Guaynabo and Rio Piedras unsuccessfully conspired against the slave system with the intent to establish the kingdom of Mark Viorro. Over the next year, the slaves of Guayama and Naguabo, joined in a conspiracy that the authorities refer to as the Doucoundray Holstein conspiracy. Four years later, "bozales" slaves conspired during a dance on the Night of Saint Peter in Ponce that had been organized by slaves themselves. After the conspiracy Governor Miguel de la Torre understood that a serious problem was developing threatening the peace of loyal vasallos and consequently decreed a Slave Regulation in 1826. The regulation was preventive in nature, and in that sense, was very different to the last Slave Code of 1789, which, in its introduction, it protected slaves from abuse from their masters. Regulation 1826, by contrast, seeks to protect the owners from abuse of their slaves. There are two basic conditions that explain the differences between these two codes. First, the slave population growth: in 1794 was 17,500 slaves and by 1827 there were 31,874 slaves concentrated mostly in the farms of Puerto Rico, secondly, the fact that there was already a revolutionary movement of the birth of an ex-slaves' republic.

During the period that extended from 1826 to 1840, years that marked the incorporation of Puerto Rica as a mayor sugar producer in the international markets, a period of economic and political stability in Puerto Rico. As a result, this reduces the significance of the confrontation movements with the slave system. However, there were small uprisings, involving the slaves of some farms. These revolts and conspiracies took place in farms located in Guayama, 1828, Vega Baja, 1832, Ponce, 1833 & 1839 and Guayanilla, in 1840.

In the late 1830s, the sugar industry began to suffer a series of problems which causes lie within and outside the island, and that will bloom again the seed of a slave rebellion as in the 1820s. A key is the great conspiracy of Ponce, coordinated with other parties on the island in December 1841. Two years later the "Longoba" slaves seized the town of Toa Baja. Three other rebellions occurred motivated by different causes, such as the rebellion against the "mulatto masters", in Naguabo and Toa Baja, or the slave uprising which enforces the Rules of 1826 in Isabela. In 1848 the salves conducted the last two collective movements of conspiracy: one in Ponce and the other in Cabo Caribe, district of Vega Baja.

The Black Posse 1848 (posse against the black race )

Two months before the slave conspiracy in July 1848 Ponce, Ponce was in a deplorable state of misery. Drought, as noted, had been the main cause. But there were other problems as serious as this catastrophe. The price per 100 lbs. of sugar in the Philadelphia market in the United unsecured loans States, which was the main buyer of Ponce, had dropped to $ 5.14. This was the lowest price paid in the nineteenth century. Finally, the French market, the third largest buyer of sugar, stopped buying sugar as a result of the turbulent political events of 1848. The French Revolution and the establishment of the Second Republic of 1848, a direct impact on the lives of the slaves in the Caribbean, and therefore in Puerto Rico. The interim government abolished slavery in the French colonies of Martinique and Guadeloupe on April 29. In Martinique, the slaves did not wait for the decree and rebelled. Many whites left the island and took refuge in Puerto Rico. On their arrival to the island the French (of privileged classes), described the horrors of the racial war that had just taken place. By July 3rd , the conflict spread to the Danish colony of St. Croix, where the governor, in order to appease the colored rebels abolished the institution of slavery. However, the measure failed because the war continued.

The geographical proximity between the islands of Puerto Rico and St. Croix, and the present economic crisis which hit both the sugar plantations and the slave population of Puerto Rico, made the governor of the island, Juan Prim, to send a contingent of 500 infantry soldiers, 2 pieces of artillery and a platoon of land miners to St. Croix. This time the forces from Puerto Rico, together with the Danish triumphed and succeeded in restoring peace in St. Croix. However, governor Prim, fearing that the slave would rebel again, reaffirmed his belief that violence was the only way to abolish slavery, he needed to convince the Danish authorities and Puerto Rico that the St. Croix decree of abolition was a "dead act" because it had been imposed by force. Prim told to the Danish authorities not to enforce the decree of abolition based on the bad example in Puerto Rico.

Gov. Prim second measure took place in late May 1848, when the governor attacked free blacks and slaves in Puerto Rico. On this occasion issuing a ban against the African race. This proclamation was repressive and punitive and no difference between free or slave African. It was just enough to be African or descendant of, to be included in the provisions of The Posse (El Bando). According to Article I, an offense involving members of the African race, free or slaves, would be tried and punished by the militarily. Article II reaffirmed the law of white supremacy over black African, it stated that any black who took up arms against a white person would "even if it was a justified aggression" will be, if a slave, passed through the arms and if a free slave, will have his right hand cut off. Africans and their descendants will always be perpetrators of the justice. Article III stated that a black African who uses insulting or abusive language or threatens with a stick, stone or otherwise, would be sentenced to five years imprisonment, if a slave and if free, the appropriate penalty for the circumstances. The master was empowered by (Article V) to kill the slave who rebelled in such act.

Apparently, the purpose of the slave code was not clear, Prim himself, nine days later, dictated another explanation of the code in order for it to be carried out without difficulty. Section 1 extended the powers of Articles II, III and V, of The Black Posse to be carried out by the whites in their own properties. Any theft on part of Africans and their descendants, would be tried by a court-martial. Articles VIII, IX and X stated that if the slave stole eight reales (spanish currency) would be bad credit loans handed over to his master, but if he stole from eight to eighty reales would suffer 200 lashes. Whoever set fire to a rural farm or urban site, sugarcane or any other crops would also be judged by a court-martial. Prim was also concerned brawls that the people of color could encounter, free or slave, depending on the weapons used they will would be punished.

Because of the multiple failures of the slaves' conspiracies during the first half of the nineteenth century, from 1850 another collective popular demonstration against the institution of slavery began: the murder of the master, executed by a group of slaves. Since 1840, there were several conspiracies, such as Naguabo, in 1843, and Toa Baja in 1846, whose main purpose was the execution of the master. These two cases foreshadow what would later become the manifestation of rejection of slavery by slaves on the eve of the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico. Finally, on March 23, 1873 the National Assembly of the Spanish Republic unanimously approved the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico, ending four centuries of history of the dismal institution on the island. However, there had been for years an intense debate over the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico.

• On one hand there were some who argued that abolition would not cause any financial crisis and since most estates had a mixed workforce (free and slave).
  
  
• The capital raised through the abolition with compensation could be invested in the improvement of sugar technology.
  
  
• The price of slaves was very high (600 dollars) and the average selling price and what he produced (sugar) had a very low price. It was cheaper to pay a wage than to buy a slave.
  
  
• The theories of capitalist development expressed by Adam Smith pointed to the creation of a free labor market. This in turn pointed out that free labor was more efficient than slave labor. "Two days of free a worker amount to three days of a slave".
  
  
• Spain was the only European metropolis that had not abolished slavery in America. However, others argued as follows: It was true that the slave price was high, but freedom could not be granted on the island because there was no cheap labor force to replace it.
  
  
• Slaves work more than free laborers. "Whip a slave and he will work more hours a day."
  
  
• Day laborers left the workforce especially "that of homalla (boilers)" on the powerhouse of the sugar plantations.
  
  
• Some slaves would be devoted to idle while others rebel against the white population of the country.
  
  
• The abolition with compensation was uncertain.
  
  They could abolish slavery in Puerto Rico alone and not do in Cuba, where slavery was very significant and where there had been a war of independence that would extend for 10 years (1868 to 1878).                 

Austrailia day

I hate blonde-haired, blue-eyed yobbos prancing about in the Australian flag who intimidate people who don’t look like them.
I hate the drunk bloke who told me in Chinatown the other night that I had the personality of a rubber glove (fair enough, that’s his view) but then turns to my Sri Lankan-born son-in-law and says the problem with this country is “the coloureds”.

You know how you can sometimes be haunted by your inaction? I have been ever since. Because I was so gobsmacked by the comment I said nothing as he walked away.
I wish I’d told this ignorant bastard that he was an arrogant so-and-so and that if the truth be known we’re all migrants to this country.
I wish I’d said that he should be unsecured loans grateful that by the Grace of God he was born in this country and not in Iran or Afghanistan or wherever.
But I didn’t. And I will always carry that shame of a lost opportunity.
You may think it was such a little thing that I shouldn’t worry so much about it. CJ didn’t seem to worry. But I do.
Australia has such a wonderful history of multiculturalism which we, generally, seem to have got right when compared with what happens in the rest of the world.
But there are still pockets of bigoted, supremacist views. This Australia Day, let’s not politely ignore derogatory race-related comments from friends and relatives.
One of my proudest moments as a Dad was when my eldest daughter, as a teenager, stood up to an older relative’s constant racial jibes. Up till then we’d all just uncomfortably laughed them off.
But when Sam told them she found the comments unacceptable, it gave the rest of the family the confidence to support her view and it made a difference.
I reckon on Australia Day it’s important we all take a similar stance.
Here’s a suggestion. Give a copy of comedian Anh Do’s biography, The Happiest Refugee as an Australian Day present to a narrow-minded friend or relative.
Ahn Do makes me laugh - a lot.
I’ve read The Happiest Refugee. I laughed out loud while reading it… and I cried.
The face of Australia is changing, just as it did when Anglo Saxons started coming out, and again after World War 2 when there was a big intake of Southern European migrants.
Just look at your kid’s classroom and the number of children from an Asian heritage. Most of them born here and have broad Aussie accents.
Just as many people know the story of their First Fleet ancestors or, as in my case, of the Germans who came to South Australia under the Wakefield Scheme bad credit loans , The Happiest Refugee tells a similar story, but of a Vietnamese refugee.
I had so many laughs reading this book. The warmth just embraces you.
But the overriding lesson for me was the love Anh and his family have for Australia.
It made me guilty that I take Australia for granted. I love this country but, by comparison, I just don’t understand how good it is.
The passion, the thanks, the love this family of refugees (and I suspect most other refugees) have for this country is so sincere and moving.
And look at what the Do family has produced.
Anh is an actor and comedian who’s starred in plenty of Australian movies and TV shows.
His brother, Khoa, was 2005’s Young Australian of the Year, recognised for his “leadership, compassion, and will to inspire and inform Australians on issues that affect our community”.  He’s an actor and writer.
Then there are all the other great Australians who came to this country as refugees and don’t have blonde hair and blue eyes.
I’ve come up with a few - but help me out. Add to my list.
Frank Lowy
Australia’s richest man, founder and largest shareholder of the world’s biggest shopping centre owner, Westfield. Lowy was born in Czechoslovakia, and lived in Budapest, Hungary during World War II. In 1952, Lowy left Israel and joined his family, who had left Europe for Australia and started a business delivering small goods.
Tan Le
1998 Young Australian of the Year and voted one of Australia’s 30 most successful Women Under 30. A very successful entrepreneur who arrived from Vietnam as a refugee in 1982.
Les Murray
Australia’s Mr Football, the number one man when it comes to soccer. Host of The World Game on SBS and inducted into the FFA’s Hall Of Fame. Hungarian refugee who arrived in Australia and spent time at Bonegilla Migrant Camp near Wodonga.
Majak Daw
Recruited last year to North Melbourne at the age of 18. First Sudanese Australian to be drafted into the AFL. Fled the Sudanese Civil War to Egypt, then finally made it to Australia.
Gustav Nossal
Born in Bad Ischl, in Austria. Because his father was Jewish, the Nossal family left Vienna for Australia when he was eight. He went on to become a world-renowned research biologist and was Australian of the year in 2000.
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki

Dr Karl was born in Sweden to Polish refugee parents from European concentration camps. His father had been a member of the Polish resistance and was imprisoned in Russian jails and German concentration camps. The family migrated to Australia when Karl was two. He is a prominent scientist, medical doctor and television and radio presenter.
Huy Truong
One of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs. After arriving from Vietnam aged seven with just the clothes on his back, he has built dot-com company Wishlist, turned around and sold a large company, managed fast growing company Jurlique, and launched a fund to invest in small and medium businesses. 

National Steak and Blow-Job Day.

Do you have a husband or boyfriend who goes all out for Valentine’s Day, and takes good care unsecured loans of you all the year long? If you're single, perhaps you have an obliging neighbor who shovels your walk on snow days, or an ex-lover who still drives across town to fix your sink. If any of these circumstances apply consider this: on the day after Valentine’s Day, February 15th, give your deserving friend or significant other the gift of a steak and bj as a token of your heartfelt esteem...and no, I don't mean a trip to the wholesale club.

                         

For some years now I've heard men lightly lament the inequity of February 14th. Lately Saint Valentine's Day--a tradition associated with courtly love since the high middle ages--has been hijacked by commercial interests. In these days, it has become an occasion wherein, the woman will send and the man bad credit loans must spend. Indeed, it is the female who is most often on the receiving end of the traditional attentions and tributes--flowers, candy, cards, jewelry, etc. The male is charged with first procuring these articles, and then footing the bill for the evening's amusements.

So what can be done to right this grievous slight? I know just the thing; a fitting counterpart, a day to celebrate and promote the felicity of the male heart. But what pray tell would a man want if allowed to choose of his own accord? I'm guessing candy and flowers would not make his list, but there can be no doubt--the double delight of a steak and bj would do just fine.

So ladies, let us this day declare, with love and gratitude for the men in our lives: February 15th shall from now and forward be celebrated as National Steak and Blow-Job Day.

                                                      The Steak

                          

If you don't cook, don't worry. Steaks are easy. However, they are not indestructible. Should you feel the need to consult Bobby Flay or another of his kind, please do. The steak should be prepared lovingly and well.

First, you must know your man. If the lover in question is not your husband or steady, do your homework. Does he prefer the marbled, tender cut of a T-Bone or the lean sinew of a Filet? The cooking time is of the utmost importance. For instance, a perfect medium should have a hot, red center. Know his preference and do not overcook. You may finish your carne masterpiece with a crown of herbed butter for added decadence if so inclined. The side dish choice is left to your considered judgment. If steak is not his favorite guilty pleasure dish, do what you know is best.

The only rule, and this is a must, if the house is blessed with the fruits of your more conventional past lovemaking, the steak should be served after the little cherubs are well tucked into bed. The table may be set for one, or perhaps for two if you care to join him, but allow yourself leave to fetch his condiments, spirits and the like. If he prefers to eat in his favorite chair in front of the tube, so be it. You are at his service.

                                                   

                                                      The BJ

                        

After perusing several scholarly articles on the art of fellatio, and interviewing subjects of both the male and female persuasions, I set about compiling these worthy data into a comprehensive report on the practice. But alas, what began as a thoughtful explication seemed to drift into the category of erotica, a specialty for which I have no talent. So, I will leave that task to my betters and say simply this:

World Maths Day

As part of an international partnership with UNICEF, we will be encouraging students and schools to seek donations from friends and family for their participation in World Maths Day. Donations will be pledged and tallied on the World Maths Day website. In 2011 we aim to unite the world in numbers and giving to help provide children all over the world with the education they deserve.

 

World Maths Day

World Maths Day is the world’s largest education event where students (aged 4-18) compete in real time against other students from around the world playing mental arithmetic games on the World Maths Day website (www.worldmathsday.com). World Maths Day encourages students of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to have a go at maths in a fun, interactive and accessible way. Best of all participation in World Maths Day is free – all you need is internet access.
This year there are 4 age categories: 4-7, 8-10, 11-13 and 14-18.  unsecured loans Students and schools can join in whenever they like throughout the 48 hours, although only 100 games will count towards a student’s individual or class points score.  Students can continue playing bad credit loans beyond this point to earn points for the Mathometer.
World Maths Day 2011 will open for registration and practice on 1 February. Existing Mathletics schools can sign in with their current usernames and passwords. The official competition launches around the world on Tuesday 1 March with Auckland, New Zealand as host city.
For more information please visit www.worldmathsday.com.

Alamo Day

It's only Alamo Day if you live in Texas so don't worry about it.

Just because the Concise Oxford Dictionary says that I am a 'withered old woman' if I call myself a crone doesn't make me one.

I'm taking back the language of my foremothers. I like the idea of being a crone, a hag, a harridan, a matriarch. Why not? If I can't laugh at my three score years and three then I need my bottom smacking.

It's Tuesday 6th of March and the bin-men emptied the bin all of their own accord. I forgot to put it out last night. something I am going to have to remember over the next three months since the old git will be in Northampton, and as helpful as he is a three and a half hour journey to put out the rubbish is just a little too much doncha think?

At just gone 7.00 I donned my walking boots, thick sweater and a stop watch and set off for my first walk round the houses in months

Fifteen minutes one way fifteen minutes the other and that'll do me until I can raise my game. In the event I walked 40 minutes which was good for the soul and sole.

All the leaves were brown ( do join in with the echoes)

And the sky was grey

I went for a walk

On a winters day.....

Did you join in?

Only it really doesn't feel like winter. It was a little chilly but nothing that a brisk sprint can't fix.

Changes were afoot, I hadn't been down the hill and round the bend for ages so the new fence round the White House was a surprise. The old occupents, both now Alzheimic, have sold to a young couple. The rose bed has gone and a new summer house installed.

The house by the grange was still asleep. The curtains and blinds closed and the fruit bushes covered in polythene bags.

Down the cobbledy road and round past the chestnut tree. Four black hens scratched around in the farms yard next to clumps of daffodils waiting to burst.

My feet slapped on the ground, I sounded like an old mare. Okay LV this is not self loathing just accurate reportage....

My head was full of yesterday as I passed the rusting kissing gate. That was the first letter of complaint I wrote 28 years ago. The farmer had bolted it shut, I pestered the local council. A public footpath should be just that, I argued, not locked away for the privileged few. I won my case and the farmer had to remove the padlock.

My head was heavy with my thoughts of yesterday. Then I passed the big oak on the corner to my field. Pooh Corner, so called, since that was where the kids did the obvious. Through my field and I started to breathe in the clean air. Where there's oak there's good air I've been told.

Yesterday was a day of reflection. Not anger just working through the end of this phase. Talking,pondering, blubbing, letting go. Gods Gift sat opposite me in the kitchen and listened - no recriminations mind - as I tried to make sense of my life.

The changes have been so swift that it has been hard for me to keep up with them. The three of us have been living sheet my towel since last July. Now the dawters in her own place, and the old man moves to Northampton on the 18th.

How would I cope in the cottage, in the country, in the dark in the silence? Who would I talk to? How would I be without the sound of the coffee machine, the golf channel or his snoring? I'm too far away from anything and everything. I'm too shy to ask for help. I'm too damn stubborn to admit that I'm crumpled and sad and I'm too cash strapped to be able to buy myself out of it. I know I have all the resources within, I know I have ton of friends and I know I am not alone BUT....in the end I went to bed and read and sniffled myself to sleep.

This morning my eyes are puffy and my head is half full.

Everything must change, I know this, but whilst I am thrilled for the 'oosbinds brilliant job I hadn't banked on being solo till June. I waited for the tears to come this morning but to my delight, they seem to have dried up which I'm grateful for.

All this and more went through my head till I got to the style, unsecured loans  only there wasn't one. A brand new shiny, grey kissing gate, had been installed, with three wide steps leading down to the newly laid road. No more rolling under the gate on the gravel, or sliding over the high wooden style for me. Now a gentle swing of the hinge and three steps onwards.

The beeper had beeped and I had fifteen minutes left. Felt like no time. All the while the dead, brown copper beech leaves were rustling in the hedgerows,the birds singing, and only the one car drove out of the horses farm. My head was clearing.

I walked past the house on the corner that has a toy mole poking out from the grass and a newly erected row of spikes for the wellington boots. Past the little church with the clock, past the rocks of 133 million years old and up the hill to the ski slope. The smell of cooking wafted over the spruce trees, took me back to my first, and last camping expedition in Hertfordshire when I was sixteen. The smell of damp canvas and bacon....

I swung my arms to help me up the last bit of hill and down onto the ski slope. The big clock in the chalet read 8.00. The pathway leading to the nursery slope smelt of loamy wood and mushrooms. Then past the cut back blackberry bushes, onto the avenue and up to my tree.

I started counting the trees, at least five had been felled. There I go again, I thought, all this change without my knowing. The stumps of the trees upset me. I know that they have to be pruned and husbanded but it always hurts to see their dead arms lopped off. I counted 52 when the beeper went off agan. I had done my 30 minutes. The alarm rung right by my tree.

The ivy had been cut away, the unruly branches spliced. I had a fully frontal hug. My old lipstick mark had been erased by the weather over time. I shall have to get my 'Russian Red' on and get bad credit loans smooching.

Left back onto the road and past three sheep.

Up the hill and into the cottage.

I had walked forty minutes and cleared my head.

I have decided to take my computer into the house until Jim returns so that I am by the phone and postman. Only time will tell if it is a good idea.

French Polynesia

There is no bad time to go to French Polynesia, but some periods are better than others. The weather is at its best -- comfortable and dry -- in July and August, but this is the prime vacation and festival season. July is the busiest month because of the Heiva Nui festival. Hotels on the outer islands are at their fullest during August, the traditional French vacation month, when many Papeete residents head for the outer islands to get away from it all. In other words, book your air tickets and hotel rooms for July and August as far in advance as possible.

May, June, September, and October have the best combination of weather and availability of hotel rooms.

The Climate

Tahiti and the rest of the Society Islands enjoy a balmy tropical climate. Tropical showers can pass overhead at any time of the year. Humidity averages between 77% and 80% throughout the year.

The most pleasant time of year is the May-through-October austral winter, or dry season, when midday maximum temperatures average a delightful 82°F (28°C), with early morning lows of 68°F (20°C) often unsecured loans making a blanket necessary. Some winter days, especially on the south side of the islands, can seem quite chilly when a strong wind blows from Antarctica.

November through April is the austral summer, or wet season, when rainy periods can be expected between days of intense sunshine. The average maximum daily temperature is 86°F (30°C) during these months, while nighttime lows are about 72°F (22°C). An air-conditioned hotel room or bungalow will feel like heaven during this humid time of year.

The central and northern Tuamotus have somewhat warmer temperatures and less rainfall. Since there are no mountains to create cooling night breezes, these islands can experience desertlike hot periods between November and April.

The Marquesas are closer to the Equator, and temperatures and humidity tend to be slightly higher than in Tahiti. Rainfall in the Marquesas is scattered throughout the year, but is most likely from June through August, exactly opposite that of the rest of French Polynesia. The trade winds reach that far north and temper the climate from April to October, but the Marquesas can see hot and sticky days the rest of the year.

The climate in the Austral and Gambier islands, which are much farther south, is more temperate year-round.

French Polynesia is on the far eastern edge of the South Pacific cyclone (hurricane) belt, and storms can occur between November and March.

Another factor to consider is the part of an island that you'll visit. Because the moist trade winds usually blow from the east, the eastern sides of the high, mountainous islands tend to be wetter all year than the western sides.

Also bear in mind that the higher the altitude, the lower the temperature. If you're going up in the mountains, be prepared for much cooler weather than you'd have on the coast.

The local office of Météo France, the national weather service, posts the forecasts and climatic observations in French on www.meteo.pf.

When the Moon Is Full -- The islands are extraordinarily beautiful anytime, especially so at equinox time in late September and late March, when the sun's rays hit the lagoons at just the right angle to highlight the gorgeous colors out in the lagoons. The play of moonlight on the water and the black silhouettes the mountains cast against the sky, make them even more magical when the moon is full. Keep that in mind when planning your trip -- and especially if it's your honeymoon.

The Busy Season

July and August are the busiest tourist season in French Polynesia. That's when residents of Tahiti head to their own outer islands, in keeping with the traditional July-to-August holiday break in France. Many Europeans also visit the islands during this time. In addition, July brings the Heiva Nui, the territory's biggest annual festival, when locals flock to Tahiti to see or participate in dance contests.

Christmas through the middle of January is a good time to get a hotel reservation in the islands, but airline seats can be hard to come by, since thousands of islanders fly home from overseas.

Holidays

Like all Pacific Islanders, the Tahitians love public holidays and often extend them past the official day. For example, if Ascension Day falls on a Thursday, don't be surprised if some stores and bad credit loans even banks are closed through the weekend. Plan your shopping forays accordingly.

Public holidays are New Year's Day (government offices are also closed on Jan 2), Good Friday and Easter Monday, Ascension Day (40 days after Easter), Whitmonday (the seventh Mon after Easter), Missionary Day (Mar 5), Labor Day (May 1), Pentecost Monday (the first Mon in June), Bastille Day (July 14), Internal Autonomy Day (Sept 8), All Saints' Day (Nov 1), Armistice Day (Nov 11), and Christmas Day (Dec 25).