Lily Allen’s-Riches to Rags

I was going to blog about this last week, but wasn’t quite sure what I thought about the show, but watching last night’s episode, I have to say, I’m a fan. Now for those that haven’t seen the show it follow Lily, her sister Sarah and there ‘brand manager’ as they set about opening a rent and buy vintage clothes shop in London.

Now before I go on I must say I have read a lot of the negative comments in the press about Lily not wanting Fame and then doing the show, and about how much of a success the shop really is, HOWEVER the this is not what interests me, yes Lily is being very honest, but the thing that I like about the show is the business. They are starting with a lot of Lily’s own money, but the chemistry between the girls and they ins and outs of starting a business is something that I think makes great TV. It isn’t easy for anyone starting a business we all have to put in hours and I was impressed (in this week’s episode) with Sarah’s real dedication to the business. Yes they were pitching at Coutts which is a lovely environment to pitch, but she is still pitching.

The programme is a little backwards, but that for me is one of the things that make it watchable. You are seeing two sisters embark on a journey, doing something that they have no previous knowledge in and giving it a go. Personally I think that that is refreshing and courageous. Having started a business myself with no past experience, I can really feel for the girls. I know that they are starting from a different point than most businesses but the fact that they want to do something that takes guts and time (not just invest it in someone else’s business) shows the passion that they both have for this venture.

I know that many people have different views on this programme, but I wish them all the best of luck and look forward to tuning in next Tuesday night at 10pm after Katie: my beautiful friends (which deserves it own blog post) .

IN and OUT

IN
Manufacturing- As its drawing to the end of the Global Manufacturing Festival, Manufacturing is in at right at the top of my IN list!

Uggs- I am currently living in mine, they are SO comfy. Have nothing more to say on the topic.

Hulluimi- one of my new discovery’s, along with Rice ilk in tea, and you can grill it. I must say I’m a fan.

Radio1- it seems weeks ago, but this time last week Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave started there 50hour radio stint. I loved every minute of it. It’s not an easy thing to do, it’s not just talking (although Dave was struggling with that towards the end) it is all the clips that need playing and the ‘mixing’ of the show. Fearne did her bit by wearing a swimming costume and helping to add over half a million to there total of nearly 2million. Well Done lads!
Here is a video of Fearne in here costume from the BBC Youtube channel.

Rugby- I was kindly invited by Smith Cooper to join them at the Nottingham V Bristol match. It was such a good afternoon, good company, good food and a good win! The match was really exciting and I’ve already been checking out the next matches at Sheffield.

OUT

VAT- Yay! It’s gone, all done sent off, round of applause for me. I am usually dashing round the last few days of the month, but it went off on Monday and I am more than a little chuffed (can you tell).

Head Colds- I’m fed up with this head cold, it will not shift and I’m sat snuffling around the office

Dry Skin- on a shallow note, I have been using Garnier intense 7day body lotion for the past week and a half and it’s a winner!

Bank cards- I managed to lose my bank card on a night out and the last few days have been very frustrating without my card, but it’s scary how much I rely on it. It’s nice to have my replacement, but we forget how much we depend on these little bits of plastic.

Rachael's Comment

As today is Red Nose Day I thought I might look at one of the issues affecting the UK as much of the media for today is focused on the issues faced by other countries. While there is no doubt at all that other countries face terrible hardships and poverty there is also many similar issues much closer to home.

Following some research I found that there in England in 2007 the number of households officially recognised as newly homeless was 99,500. While this in its self sounds quite high I found that Government statistics do not include people who satisfy the legal definition of homelessness but have not applied to be classified as such, nor people who were officially recognised as homeless in previous years but were deemed 'not in priority need'. The charity Crisis has estimated that there are around 400,000 additional hidden homeless people that would need to be included in the above figure.

These figures really shocked me the actual level of homelessness is almost 4 times the governments published figures. As I carried on reading I realised that there are many different types of and definitions of homelessness. Crisis has the following definitions:
· Legally homeless: A household is legally homeless if either there is no accommodation that they are entitled to occupy or they have accommodation but it is not reasonable for them to continue to occupy this accommodation.

· Officially recognised as homeless: Those who are both legally homeless and have successfully applied to their local authority to be classified as such in the current year. A household can be legally homeless but not recognised by the state as being homeless because they have not applied to be classified as such.

· Statutory homeless: Households that have been found to be eligible for assistance, unintentionally homeless and falling within a priority need group and thus owed a main homelessness duty by a local housing authority. In 2006-07, 73,360 households were accepted as statutory homeless in England. Local Authorities made 159,330 decisions on homelessness applications.

· Hidden homeless: This refers to homeless households, which may or may not have applied to local authorities for homeless status, but are not entitled to any accommodation. Crisis estimates that there are around 400,000 such 'hidden homeless' adults at any point in time.
These definitions go some way to explain the way in which the figures are so misleading. The Government only recognises people in its statistics as homeless if they are considered to be vulnerable. Looking closer it appears that 72% of acceptances are people with dependents or pregnant women, which would suggest that if a person is single or has no dependents then they are unlikely to be officially recognised as homeless and therefore will not qualify for any government assistance. Since the largest percentage of homeless people are male (61 percent), white (51 percent) and not suffering from any chronic illness or substance abuse, it is clear that the governments current method of classifying people are excluding the highest numbers of people in need.

I found another Charity, Thames Reach, again had very similar figures for homelessness. They had the following breakdown:
Statutory homeless: 74,690 households in temporary accommodation (up to June 2008)
Around 16,000 people annually are found to be homeless but not in priority need
Over 8,000 people annually are found to be homeless but not entitled to housing as a result of being intentionally homeless.

Rough sleepers: 483 people sleep rough on any one night in England (June 2008)
200-300 people sleep rough on any one night in London
3017 different people sleep rough over a year in London (2007-08)

Hostels: 16,686 hostel bed-spaces in London
40,000 hostel bed-spaces in United Kingdom
At least 75,000 individuals use hostels over a year

Hidden homeless: Estimated at 400,000.
Once all the categories of homelessness are included in the figure it shows that nearly (approximately 574,000) 1% of the population could be classed as homeless. To make that easier to visualise it is about the number of people who live in Sheffield or Glasgow. It is significantly more people than live in any of the following cities: Edinburgh (450,000), Liverpool (440,000) and Manchester (420,000).
So although I would still love to encourage you to do all you can for Red Nose Day today I want to ask you to also consider getting involved in a local charity to help some of the people in this country who equally need your help and support.

Global Manufacturing Festival

14th - 24th March 2011

Sheffield has had many events over the past few weeks to celebrate Global Manufacturing and Sheffield’s place in that. I was lucky enough to attend the Education and Business Leader Dinner at The Cutlers Hall. It was a fantastic event to help schools and business work together, discuss and plan towards making education and business work hand in hand to get our young people ‘work ready’. It was a really inspiring event and I met some really passionate head teacher’s and business leaders.

More recently I attended the ‘Get up to Speed Event’ at my favourite venue ‘The Blue Shed’. It was an afternoon and evening event that had some world class speakers and demonstrations. Along with Made in Sheffield, designed in Sheffield, Bloodhound SSC and many others, the event was open to the public and had a session particularly aimed at children and parents.

One of the most exciting speakers was the very talented Russ Danzey, I have known Russ for a few years now and even had the pleasure of speaking alongside him at a Pecha Kutach Event. In 2005 Russ won his first Cadet novice race and since then he is one of the UK’s up and coming young drivers KF2 Kart Formula 2, he competed in UK Series and was the youngest competitor to qualify for the European Championships. In 2010 after winning the John Surtees Scholarship Russ took the opportunity to step in to single seater cars and raced in Formula Young Guns taking first podium in only his third weekend of racing. He really is someone to keep an eye on and I caught up with Russ at the event and he told me a bit about his car and sponsors.

The Global Manufacturing Festival is a real platform for Sheffield to really show everyone what we do and why we are world-renowned!

IN and OUT

IN

Science and Engineering- after leaving the Big Bang Fair with so many ideas, science and engineering are defiantly IN at the moment.

Women- after International Women’s day reminded us how FAB women are they had to make it in my IN list!

Friends coming home- a good friend of mine has come back from being away and it’s so nice to see her, the girls all hit the town and it was such a fantastic night!

Nails- loving playing around with my nails, and now the screw in kid. This look was achieved with ring binder strengtheners.

Sleep- I think I must be fighting something off, last night I got twelve hours sleep! Can’t remember the last time I got that much sleep!

Writing- it’s so nice to have time to write and be creative, I love blogging more and over the last few weeks have started to get creative again writing plays, prayers and stories.

OUT

Pancakes- after Pancake Day, were now into lent. I love lent, I find it helps to focus me, not just on my faith but on my life, so this year I’m trying to be balanced and healthy.

The gym- having not been to the gym for over 2 weeks I am managing surprisingly well, mind you that hasn’t meant that I haven’t exercised, just not in a gym.

Emails- having reached 500 unread emails on my phone I spent a few hours Saturday night clearing out my inbox on my blackberry. It took a while but it’s great to be up to date. I must add that I read and deal with them on my computer but it doesn’t always re-sync that to my phone. I didn’t have 500 emails that I hadn’t dealt with.

Breaking my laptop- since cracking my laptop screen just over a year ago I get very paranoid about my laptop, also the fashion conscious side of me is fed up of carrying around flight cases, so I got myself a knomo laptop case, they had a few of their bags reduced and I jumped at the chance. They are gorgeous, I love mine.

The Big Bang Fair and a bang of a more dangerous type.

So Friday morning on a crowded train down to London through the’ All Seeing Eye’ that is twitter I found out about the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The few links and pictures that would load on train just showed the amount of ‘real time’ damage. As the days have gone on we have learnt and seen more, even now as we watch the nuclear power stations, we are reminded of how powerful our planet is.

This video and pictures really affected me:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html?hp?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB (NYTimes)
http://vimeo.com/20989521 (Jean Labelle)

Images of radiated people having to talk to loved one through glass, it’s like a very bad film. We are all thinking of everyone in Japan.


The reason I was on the crowded train to London, was a very exciting, slightly spur of the moment decision. The 10th, 11th and 12th of March were massive days in the STEM calendar, London’s Excel centre were the hosts of The Big Bang Fair- Launched in 2009, The Big Bang: UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair is the UK’s biggest single celebration of science and engineering for young people and aims to celebrate and inspire them.

www.thebigbangfair.co.uk

And what an inspiring event it is, like I said it was a last minute decision, having seen the tweets and realising it would be the first time since 2006 (when I myself was Young Engineer for Britain) that I hadn’t attended either the Big Bang Fair or the Young Engineer Awards (as they were formerly) Thursday I bought a train ticket and Friday morning headed down to London. I adore the train journey from Sheffield to London St Pancras, the scenery, the speed, but most of all it’s the stations. I tweeted with @JonatECS about my love for stations and Sheffield (not just because I’m local) and St Pancras are two of my favourites, I could spend hours in St Pancras and the food you can get there is lovely. If you’re passing through you must try Peyton and Byrne Bakery....mmmmm delicious.

Anyway I’m getting sidetracked, so I arrived in London and after topping up my Oyster Card I headed out to the Excel Centre, it’s not a short journey tubes, then the DLR out to the docklands, it was a lovely varied journey.

So just over three hours after I left Sheffield I arrived at the Big Bang Fair and after getting my pass and dumping my coat I headed along to the Young Engineers drinks reception. It was lovely to talk to sponsors, trustees, past winners and of course teachers and students. I always find talking to passionate students and teachers so inspiring, this time it was no different! Some of their projects were so exciting and the best part was that it enthused them too, I know the significance events like this make and it was so nice to be a part of it!

Then having met up with Shawn Brown (UK Young Engineer 2010) and Chris Jefferies (UK Young Scientist 2009) we headed down to watch ‘the bang goes the theory’ live tour. These were the sort of things that made science and engineering fun for me as a child; it was full of bags, flames and Jem’s fantastic inventions. All finished off with ‘the symphony of bang’ it really is quite catchy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VblqcRvN7-Y

Afterwards we went backstage to say hi to Liz, Dallas and Jem to congratulate them of such a good live show. I must admit I’m very jealous they have such fantastic jobs. We spent most of the afternoon with one of more members of the team as they met fans, filmed bits and discussed the Japanese earthquake. The team had done an earthquake and tsunami episode and were currently sorting out how to add the information about Japan. This special episode was shown yesterday (Monday) so the team had two days to film new bits. They did a really good job and even used some of our ideas. You can watch it here-

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lwxj1

by this time we had been joined by Peter Hadfield (UK Technologist 2009) Tom Hearing (UK Scientist 2010- specialises in Geology) along with Peter Girlfriend we made an interesting group who spend most of the afternoon quizzing Jem about his past and present work. It was really inspiring, and we almost missed the start of the award ceremony.

The Award show was started off with a BANG by the Braniac guys abusing science and the Kate Bellingham and Professor Brian Cox did a fantastic job of presenting all the many awards. All the projects were fantastic and with entrants from all across the UK (even Sheffield) we were surrounded by the best of the best. Read more about Connor Plant our Sheffield entry on MoreFrom’s blog

http://morefrom.blogspot.com/2011/03/young-sheffield-engineers-career-set-to.html

The main two awards are UK Engineer 2011 and UK scientist 2011 and this year Andrew Cowen was out UK Engineer and for the first time a girl, Hannah Eastman, was our UK Scientist! Well Done and love a bit of Girl-Power! See the moment that they won.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftQ5AURq5Rg

Pictures from the Big Bang Fair are up on there facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TheBigBang4U

Have a look, it really is such an inspiring event, I found this video on you tube and loved it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Kxecx42r4&feature=youtube_gdata

So I left London that evening to travel back to Sheffield having been enthused, inspired, informed and revitalised and what’s more... I managed it all in heels :)

International Women’s Day, Pancakes and the Adjustment Bureau

Yesterday was International Women’s Day- a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future- as well as one of the nation’s best loved celebrations –Pancake Day! Unfortunately I had meetings and prior engagements (doesn’t prior engagements have such a lovely sound to it) for most of the day and so I couldn’t attend any of the International Women events I was invited too (I wish I could, they all sounded great).

Instead I helped my Mum put on a Pancake Party and then collapsed in front of the film ‘Adjustment Bureau’ after eating far too many nutella pancakes....and WOW what a film! The concept was really interesting and as a Christian I thought it tackled some interesting questions, on a non-religious level it is also a very thought provoking film. Considering the way so many of us have 5 and 10 year plans, it really turned made me think about why we do thing, the way we strive for certain things and the thought process behind decisions. I obviously do not believe in the ‘Adjustment bureau’ in the manner that it is portrayed in the film, but I do believe in God and Angels.

I do not want to give anymore away, but I would really recommend that if you get the chance to see the film then do, I hope that you are all still feeling slightly sick from the amount of pancakes you have eaten (that being a fairly good indicator of how good your pancake evening was) and that all the Women out there are feeling stronger, prouder and a little bit taller that they are an amazing, incredible and world changing Women!

Also I would recommend readying http://onlyhumantoo.wordpress.com/ this is my blog of the week.

Keep smiling,
R x

More Blogging

I have been getting lots of emails and texts from people saying how much they like the fact that I am posting more. I am hoping that Rachael (our StairSteady Coordinator) will keep blogging her 'Rachael’s Comments' post; we got lots of positive feedback from her first post. This is a chance for her to comment on anything that she thinks about, experiences or just wants to share with you. I am also hoping to do regular In and Out posts, as well as the regular posts about what we are doing. I am also playing with audio and hoping to add some more audio posts.
I know that the pictures on the blog are usually very basic and I am looking forward to trying to document more events and also to film more.

Thank you so much for your support so far, and please tell your friends :)

In and Out

IN

Flowers and Bears- the Gym that I worked at sent me some lovely flowers and a Bear to say thank you, they are so lovely and as my sister has some flowers as well our house smells wonderfully fragrant.

Lemon Water- I love hot water and lemon at the moment, nice, simple, easy to make and tastes good. Thumbs up all round.

Anti-Bacterial hand gel- weird I know, but I was given one by SSl Scotland when I visited them this week and it smells so nice and I feel all germ free.

Swimming- I’ve swam competitively since I was in primary school, but the last few years it’s been really on and off, but now with more free time I’m hoping to get back into it. After yesterdays training session I’m really looking forward to being able to train more often.

Train journeys- I went up to Glasgow last week and I really enjoyed spending a day on the trains, I love people watching and it was so relaxing to be able to read and relax.

OUT

Cold Offices- The heating has finally been fixed and it’s all toasty again.

Winter weather- it seems to be getting brighter and maybe a little warmer (don’t want to jinx it), the mornings are defiantly lighter earlier, and it’s a big plus for all us morning runners.

Fat free foods- I watched the truth about fat free foods and it really put we off processed foot, especially aspartame, out with the diet coke, in with the water!

My dislike of fish- I love fish...as pets, but eating them, well that’s another matter. I love fish shop fish and prawn cocktails, but it’s really frustrating, because I wish I like fish. The fact that it is full of omega 3 and so good for you, I have decided that it’s time to expand my seas, sorry horizons, and just eat it! So I am trying to eat at least two portions of fish a week.

Have a good week,
R x

Technology Day

Sorry for the quality of pictures, all taken on my Blackberry

I was invited over to Queen Elizabeths Grammer School, Ashbourne on Saturday for their Technology Day.

http://www.queenelizabeths.derbyshire.sch.uk/About-Us.php

It is a really picturesque school set in some of the most beautiful countryside, I love old buildings and the main entrance is so grand and what I think of as a ‘proper’ school. The school is a Technology College and the whole morning event was designed for parents to see the school. With fundraising and department demonstrations, to workshops and a hall of industry stands from JCB, Derbyshire University, Fripp Design, Moy Park and of course StairSteady to name just a few. The aim of the event was to encourage, inspire and inform students about the opportunities in technology.

It was a busy morning with so many activities, I fell in love with Moy Parks little new born chicks (hatched that very morning) and the school had done a on mass school dance- which was really impressive, and funny, and must have took them all a lot of time. I did a bit of promo for the Bloodhound SSC land speed record attempt. It’s an exciting project and so many people there, young and old were energized. I mean who wouldn’t be! Take a look



http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/



It was so nice to spend time in a school where everyone was so supportive and wanted the best for everyone, the students, the teachers and the parents. Everyone was so welcoming (and they even had a BBQ) I left feeling really positive about the link that School and industry can have, I know that it’s a problem that in Sheffield we are trying to address with the work-wise intuitive, and it need business and education to work together. Events like this are a really good place to start, the students were so enthusiastic and had lots of questions to ask everyone.

More pictures of the little chicks

Well done Mrs Tynan these events only happen when someone puts in a lot of hard work!

Rachael's Comment

I thought for my comment this week I would do something topical and since it is Pancake Day tomorrow here it is!
Shrove Tuesday is part of the Christian calendar, Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent is the 40 days leading up to Easter and was traditionally a time of fasting. On Shrove Tuesday traditionally Christians went to confession and were "shriven" (absolved from their sins). Shrove Tuesday was the last opportunity to use eggs and fats before embarking on the Lenten fast and pancakes are the perfect way of using up these ingredients.

Shrove Tuesday is not just an English tradition, it is celebrated in many different ways around the world; the Brazilians samba in Rio and the people of New Orleans throw their most famous party of the year - Mardi Gras.
An interesting fact for you now though: The largest cooked pancake was 15 metres in diameter and weighed 3 tonnes. It was cooked in Rochdale in England and was estimated to contain over two million calories.. I’m hoping that it wasn’t eaten by just one person though!

Throughout the UK pancakes differ slightly region to region. Welsh pancakes are made with buttermilk, sour cream or cream and have tiny holes in their cooked surface, in Gloucester pancakes are made with suet and fried in lard before serving with golden syrup. Scottish pancakes are much smaller and thicker.

Now for my favourite bit, the recipe and toppings:

Pancake Recipe
100g Plain Flour
Pinch of Salt
1 Egg
300mls Milk (I use semi skimmed)

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly together; you can use a food processor if you want.
Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan until it is really hot and put two good ladles of the mixture into the hot oil, keeping it moving around until the entire bottom of the pan is coated with the batter. Allow the batter to cook until you can easily slide a spatula under the edge of the pancake. Then either use a spatula or toss the pancake and cook for a couple of minutes on the other side.
It’s as simple as that!
Then you can add your favourite toppings, they don’t have to just be sweet things like chilli or creamed mushrooms go well with pancakes.

A few suggestions for sweet pancake toppings:
Lemon juice and brown sugar Golden syrup Strawberries and cream
Apples, raisins and cinnamon Bananas and chocolate sauce Maple Syrup
Enjoy!