Red squirrels are making a comeback in some areas of England, after the gray continental squirrel almost took over. Unfortunately the same can't be claimed for unicorns. How I wish I could see the mythical beast, shining white mane and tail swishing in the moonlight. They must have once roamed the green fields of home because the creature forms part of the English coat of arms along with the lion. However, the only lions to live in the country were imported, and spent their remaining days in captivity.

Just imagine a future world without real tigers. Around 70% of the world’s wild tigers live in India, where their habitat has been threatened by uncontrolled development and poaching. The magnificent beasts could one day be a memory too because of the robust demand for their body parts to use in the Eastern Asian and Chinese traditional medicine. In the lawless, poor northern state of Uttar Pradesh, tiger numbers have fallen, officials have said, with some reserves losing almost half of their population.

But there is good news. Although the overall current tiger population is a fraction of the 45,000 that roamed India a century ago, their numbers are once again increasing. Official information collected by the use of camera traps, state a rise of a third in the last three years.

Will man and animal ever live side by side in peace? Surely there is enough room for all.

Back in the 60s & 70s, Singapore limited each family to two children to control the increase in numbers. In 1987 they allowed three or more children, but only if families could afford it. Don't jump down my throat if your family is expanding. I'm just making a point. Although Singapore took the initial action for economic reasons, we could use their example to stop the increase of human population. Soon it will be too late.

I hope tigers will roam the wild, rather than linger in the memory by way of a child's stuffed toy.

What does the Chinese proverb He who rides the tiger is afraid to dismount mean to you? He'll eat you, or you'll lose him?

100 YEARS OF FILM INDUSTRY in ELSTREE and BOREHAMWOOD STUDIOS.

Continuing on from yesterday, I'm sharing the small part I served in the 20th century.

During the ‘20s, Alfred Hitchcock directed the first British talkie, Blackmail. Other popular sound films followed. The ground-breaking Atlantic was recorded in three languages. Hitchcock returned in 1939 to shoot Jamaica Inn starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara.

The studio produced more than 200 films before operations were shut down during the Second World War.

Attracted by the growing reputation of film production in the area, many companies set up on new ground.

Giant of the screen, Charles Laughton, won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in The Private Life of Henry VIII, filmed at Imperial. Paramount, Columbia and United Artists all made movies at Elstree in the ‘30s, until the stages were destroyed in a huge fire in 1936. That year, Amalgamated Studio (later renamed MGM British) became one of the largest film facilities in Europe.

After the Second World War, Warner Bros invested heavily in Associated British Picture Corporation (previously British International Pictures), and after much rebuilding and expanding, the facility reopened in 1947. Here, Gregory Peck starred in Captain Horatio Hornblower in 1951. He returned for an iconic adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick featuring a newly-built giant outdoor water tank, also used in The Dam Busters.

Hollywood star Douglas Fairbanks Jr rented National Studios, producing 160 made-for-television films in the 1950s.

During the same decade, MGM sent one of its most versatile actors, Spencer Tracy, to its Hertfordshire studio to star in Edward My Son with leading lady Deborah Kerr. Although married, Katherine Hepburn accompanied him to Elstree. The ‘50s also saw some of the biggest acting names of the era filming at MGM including Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Grace Kelly, Robert Taylor and Gene Kelly.

Young Audrey Hepburn got her screen break in Hertfordshire in Young Wives Tale (1951), before going on to international fame in Roman Holiday (1953) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961).

The 1960s saw a boom in TV series, along with the filming of Summer Holiday and a clutch of Hammer Horror films. Director Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) was one of the last films to be produced by MGM (he had previously filmed Lolita and Clockwork Orange in the area). The film was a slow-burning success. Extensive sets for this and other films (In 1952 the studio had built a life-size castle for Ivanhoe starring Liz Taylor) made it popular. Swollen budgets added to increasing financial troubles of the parent MGM company. In 1970, MGM closed its British Branch.

The situation at Elstree Studios changed for the better in 1976 when George Lucas produced the technically advanced Star Wars at the studio. After the film's success, his friend and acclaimed director Steven Spielberg came to the county to make the Indiana Jones trilogy at EMI Elstree.

During the late 1970s you could see famous actors walking around Borehamwood and the ‘80s was no different.

The heights reached by Thorn EMI in Hertfordshire in the ‘80s did not guarantee a secure future. Studios closed and were sold off. A large supermarket bought most of the grounds of the Elstree Film Studio where I worked.

Today, Elstree Studios is a leading UK studio, producing the hugely popular TV series Strictly Come Dancing, The Voice and Big Brother. It has also been home to Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and the Oscar-winning The King’s Speech. See the full list of productions made in Elstree at Wikipedia. 

I enjoyed working with the happy bunch working at Elstree Film Studios. Friendly staff gave me tours into their storerooms to check out the costumes and backdrops. I visited the production room, the brightly lit set during filming, and took a peek behind a camera lens. I delighted in making the staff's mealtimes run smoothly. The bible words, 'And the greatest among you is the servant to all' rang through my head.

At the end of the century, the film and television industry in England suffered a crisis, along with the businesses as a whole.

My role as hostess to a children's puppet movie series, the Hoobs, took a downturn, leaving me with choices. Find something more suitable, or remain under new management with the catering section of Elstree Film Studios.

The first option was not viable, so I remained and worked behind the counter in the cafeteria to serve all the staff who required food. Sometimes, I left home in the dark, caught a bus, and arrived in time to set up breakfast. I'd lay out a display of fruit, dishes of prunes, and packets of cereal, before the chefs arrived for the day. Then along with Head Waiter Jose (a former Colombian), we'd take orders for hot food, sometimes slipping behind into the kitchen to prepare a poached egg if the cook was busy. Perhaps a hundred people would turn up. In the hectic chaos, Jose remained calm. I couldn't say the same for me while I wrote orders and ran plates of food to tables full of shouting, laughing staff.

Business slowed and productions left at the turn of the century. New management cut costs and sacked staff. I took a few orders for food at the bar instead of the cafeteria and ran the order slips back to the kitchen. I wasn't supposed to serve alcohol, but some men insisted on purchasing cans of Red Rum. Management deemed that all right.

Finally, my employers went into liquidation. Jose and I, along with a few others, elected to work without pay for a month until finances were stabilized. At least the dwindling staff could eat. We never received recompense for that period on the grounds that all the money had been swallowed up.

At 58 years, I suffered back problems lifting, from floor level, and carrying heavy equipment. Management deemed me dispensable. And that was the end of my service in the film industry. Much later, diagnosed with osteoporosis when my femur shattered during a hip replacement, I could no longer work.

Every single person working to create something great has immense value, no matter how small their role. The same applies to you. Tell me what part you play in the great stage of life.

In June last year at Elstree, an exhibition celebrating one hundred years of film and TV opened at the Community Museum to guide visitors from 1914 right through to the present day. Not many of you will be aware of Elstree's filmmaking history, which set off to rival that of Hollywood.

theelstreeproject.org/ shows the story of the 100 years of Elstree and Borehamwood's studios.

Close to the beginning of the Great War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918) in what was then the small village of Boreham Wood in Elstree parish, the Neptune Film Company set up a small studio.

In what is thought to be the UK’s first ‘dark stage’ they used a gas-powered generator rather than sunlight through glass. The method made lighting more reliable. Here, some of the first silent movies such as The Harbour Lights were shot.

When Neptune went into liquidation after just two years, others stepped in with ambitions for the booming genre of film. Over the next two decades the original buildings were expanded by a series of film companies.

In 1926 British National Studios was built on 40 acres of land in Borehamwood's High Street, creating the foundation for today’s Elstree Studios.

When my husband and I moved to a flat there 1999, I landed a job as hostess in the catering section of the studios. I served food to the Hoobs staff, a puppet children's tv program of Jim Hanson. At the time, the studios were thriving. A white marquee for functions occupied the area in front of the building. Other productions then were the Tweenies, (children's television made with live characters), Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and the very first Big Brother. Later, I enjoyed serving the many personalities, great or auxiliary, who treated me as an equal, and felt they were all my friends. My co-worker Jose, also worked as head waiter at the local Hilton . We served breakfast, lunch, and even catered for evening functions like the Oscars.

It would take too long to mention all the rises and falls of these studios. How movie studios expanded into other sites, broke new ground, attracted the biggest screen stars and best directors, not to mention overblown budgets, disasters and closures, which make a story just as exciting as the best plots of the thousands of films and TV shows they have produced.

I'll be back with more, seeing as it's close to home—within walking distance if you're fitter than I am at the moment.

Lines from my poem, Flower on a Cliff, the title of the unpublished story of my life.

The seed settled overnight
A wind gust forced it tight
The moisture from the ocean
Gave magic to the potion. ©

Films are a kind of magic because the skill of all involved light the imagination.

Can you name your favorite old film? Mine is Ivanhoe, which I saw in 1956 as a 14-year-old in Melbourne, Australia.

The most important factor in people's lives is the weather. Extremes of heat or cold can kill a fragile body. Caveman made sure they could raise their babies tucked out of harm's way, which helped in mankind's survival.

A study in America reported that the year 2014 was the warmest record, with ocean temperatures contributing the most to the overall result. Some parts of America were colder than usual, but Australia had record heat. My sister, who lives in Adelaide, South Australia, told me via an email that the bush fires took a terrible toll. I remember a bad bushfire when flames roared up to the Adelaide Hills in 1963. My youngest daughter was not yet walking. Close to where we lived under a television transmitter, firefighters back-lit a blaze which filled the air with a red haze of smoke while we packed the car with essentials for our three children. We were lucky that day. Their strategy worked. When the raging inferno met the controlled line of blaze there was no combustible material left and the fire fizzled out.on the western tip of the south

Here in England, Cornwall on the western tip in the south, is having a mild winter. Daffodils are already flowering there, whereas Scotland is bracing for a big freeze which is expected to kill many elderly residents. In Hertfordshire, where I live, bluebell leaves are protruding several inches above the ground. It's a country of contrasting weather, and always a concern. This is why one of the first subjects to come up when greeting someone is the weather.

On my walk up the hill each day, I often meet other people out for a stroll. We greet each other by saying, "It's not too bad today. The wind's dropped," or "The sunshine makes such a difference, doesn't it?"

At the other end of the scale for human behavior is a story from Taiwan. A 32-year-old man has died after a three-day gaming binge at an internet cafe in Taiwan. Other patrons initially thought he was sleeping, but when an employee realized he was not breathing he was rushed to hospital and pronounced dead. He was a regular gamer who would sleep face-down on the table or doze off slumped in his chair. Apparently, it is the second death to occur this way in the country this year.

Can you see the appeal of living solely to pit your brain against a computer? Totally withdrawn from nature or any reality?

Reminds me of Queen's song, "Bohemian Rhapsody" See full song. 

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality.

Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see,
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy,
Because I'm easy come, easy go,
Little high, little low,
Anyway the wind blows doesn't really matter to me, to me.

Perhaps the gamer died doing what he loved most.

This brings up another question. If you could pick your time of departure from this world, what would you like to be doing?

New research suggests your bathing ritual could be bad for your skin and your health. Maybe the investigation is recent, but I've believed this for years. Of course, you are interested in finding out how often we should you lather up. You don't want to smell. How could you turn up at work in a fresh shirt over a dirty body?

Source: The Times.

A Professor of Virology at Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, told The Times: "As long as people wash their hands often enough and pay attention to the area of the body below the belt, showering or bathing every other day would do no harm.

"Even twice a week would not be a problem if people used a bidet daily as most infectious bugs hang around our lower halves.

"We pay too much attention to the body beautiful and smelling good, with perfumes for men and women," he added.

Of course, you shouldn't shun a wash after a sweaty run. The every-other-day rule is flexible depending on your lifestyle.

Take me, for example. I don't sweat any more, partly due to lack of exercise in my advancing years, but also because of a healthy diet. For ten years of so, I've showered on alternate days prompted by reading similar advice. My skin is dry already, particularly the lower legs, and I don't need to make it worse.

It seems over-bathing can dry out and irritate skin, washing away the good bacteria and even heightening risk of infection by causing small cracks in the skin. (Love that. Good bacteria, not sweat and oils.)

I looked up advice for bathing dry skin. One skincare website said: Bathe daily. A daily bath or shower can add much-needed moisture to the skin. (Huh! That's the opposite.) HowStuffWorks advised: If you suffer from habitually dry skin, one of the best skin moisturizing tips we can give you is to stop bathing. Not entirely, of course, but enough to let your sebaceous glands replenish your skin's natural layer of oil that's stripped away during washing. Both hot water and regular soap rob your body of its moisturizing oil, so basically, the more you bathe, the harder it is for your skin to keep itself moisturized. Don't soak in a bath. If this sounds too extreme, try using warm water instead of hot when washing, and limit your bathing time to 15 minutes or less. Also, use soap only on the critical areas like the armpits and genitals. Pat yourself dry with a towel, and apply moisturizer while your skin is still slightly damp. This will help your epidermis retain extra water.

On the whole, advice from dermatologists shows we're bathing a lot more than we need to. Would you skip the daily shower to improve your skin?

Over the last week, I've stumbled. A social site is blocking me from blogging. Well—not always. Three times so far, I haven't been able to post a blog on Facebook. This is the reason given: blocked because security systems detected it to be unsafe.

This made me stagger. What had I said? No way had I been incisive or talked about forbidden subjects.


On the 9th, the first blow came with this post.

I figured out the word the search engines didn't like and nodded to myself. Understandable. In the future, I'd say it another way.

Then, on the 12th, another blow came.

Ah, yes: the heading. Both words must have triggered an alarm. I should have thought about that.

Did I learn to check the words in my blog for alternate meanings? You guessed it—I didn't. 


Yesterday, a blast made me stagger. What had I done? Oh, one word must have alerted the crawlers. How should I have phrased it? Inactivity is (***ling) causing our demise.

These three knock-backs could make me stop blogging, or continue, watching where I put my feet on the road ahead.

People still visited the posts in question, but they couldn't comment. So there was no harm done, was there?

Well, as you know, comments make a blogger's effort worthwhile. When real people express understanding or show awareness of the news subject I'm writing about, I feel fulfilled.

90% of comments are earned, though. It's a case of you scratch my back (comment on my blog) and I'll scratch yours. Do I really want to spend my precious time reading about a product that someone's paid to write about, just so others in the chain will read my point of view? As an aside, not all blogs work this way. Some contain good content. (You know who you are.)

In this case, the first lesson learned is to withdraw from several blog groups on Facebook. The other is to switch my comments back to the original style and not Facebook, which looks good, but gives them exclusivity. Anyway, I'm not sure how a person could comment if they don't have an account. One clever reader sent me a message through the 'contact me' section.

The main lesson I need to learn is to check what I write. So many words in the English language have several meanings and, as a novelist, I'm not used to censoring my words. But, if I want to continue blogging, that's what I'll have to do.

That brings into question whether I should go on.

The discipline of writing every day helps me as a novelist. Also, some news subjects need to be discussed. We can learn from them, just as we can learn from the knocks we receive in life.

If you trip over a rock in your path, stand up, brush off the grime, and continue toward your goal.I've just changed back to default comments, so all 8 Facebook comments have been wiped off. Hope I don't regret it.

One of the most disappointing, annoying and frustrating things of my life is the way my stomach has expanded with age.

Once, I could eat all I wanted (albeit always healthy food) and I remained slim. Even with an undiagnosed under-active thyroid, I was always slender, fit and healthy. I used to put my lean muscles down to my body burning fuel at a high metabolic rate, and living a very active life. Being a non-driver, I walked everywhere if possible and relied on public transport for the places far away.

Now, that's not possible.

The BBC News this morning announced findings from a 12-year study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition about the killing lack of exercise. Inactivity could be responsible for twice as many deaths as obesity in Europe, the study of more than 300,000 people suggests.

In the UK, the University of Cambridge researchers said about 676,000 deaths each year were down to inactivity, compared with 337,000 from carrying too much weight.

Substantial benefits could be achieved if everyone did at least 20 minutes of brisk walking a day.

And there's the problem for me. After four operations on my malformed hips, resulting in one femur shattering, walking is becoming a difficult activity for me as I age. I guess, sitting at my computer for hours at a time contributes to my stiffening body. I read an article the other day about how the lower neck between the shoulder blades, and the hips, are affected by lengthy sitting at a desk.

As for the basic walking, I'm in the habit of walking every day at three. (I love routines.) My walk consists of holding onto my rollator as I struggle up a steep hill and back down the incline. I used to do 20 minutes, but this winter, I've stopped short of my normal target and turn back when the traffic goes quiet. On the busy narrow country road, I can almost feel the eyes watching me, judging me, ridiculing me. 'Oh, look. She's turning back.' Whereas if I swivel the face the other way when there is a break in traffic, nobody should notice.

Be it ridiculous, or vain, or both, that's where I let myself down. After all, I'm my biggest judge.

Experts have claimed exercise is beneficial for people of any weight, although obesity and inactivity often go hand in hand.

And so, the next question I should research is: why do most older people's waistlines expand? Is that due to inactivity?

You really need to ask yourself if you do enough exercise.

According to the latest news, the key to learning and memory in early life is a lengthy nap.

I've often wondered why babies spend so much time asleep. Sometimes, you wonder why they bothered being born if all they had planned was to take plenty of naps. Perhaps they are escaping from the trauma of their birth. But babies spend more and more time awake as they age.

Trials with 216 babies up to 12 months old indicated they were unable to remember new tasks if they did not have a lengthy sleep soon afterward. That's not to say they should be taught when they're nodding off. The University of Sheffield team suggested they should be fully awake and receptive while they're learning new tasks like grasping objects, and then they can sleep and cement their skill while they sleep. You can see why reading to a youngster at bedtime is so important.

I've always loved to sleep and have no trouble dropping off, as they say. In fact, if I'm bored, I nod off in front of the television during commercial breaks. My latest trick is to read a novel between episodes of the program I'm watching. That way, I can remain bright until 11pm.

I used to need to sleep at about 9pm when I was young and fit, ie. for the first 67 years of my life. How's that for precision? I know the age I changed—and the reason. My husband stopped working and I needed to keep him company, not leave him alone with the tv long before he was ready to sleep.

Some experts recommend napping for the elderly, as rest can lead to more active lives. See the article from the University of Surrey. 

Do I still need to learn at 73? Hard to know. I'm always learning new writing skills. Perhaps reading a novel before bed helps me in that respect.

My children inherited my predisposition for enjoying sleep. That was either passed on before they were born from my calm emanations or copied from my gentle behavior when they were young. My son would fall asleep on the carpet while he crawled around exploring his world. He grew to develop an IQ of 150. So, sleep set him in good stead.

I believe we should always listen to our body.

How well and often do you sleep?

On the news today, I read about the UK's National Health Service cutting back on cancer treatment for certain conditions, one of them being prostate. This will affect countless men, one of them my husband. He's suffering both pain and frustration about his slow treatments.

Okay, I understand nobody lives forever, although youthful readers will brush aside their own mortality. Yet, when we reach a certain age, one thing or another in our body will grind to a halt. Anyway, why would an octogenarian or a person even older want to go on in poor health or if they are unable to carry out their regular activities?

Be that as it may, my husband lives his life as normal, not constricted by wearing a torturesome catheter. At 76, he still drives to the shops, walks around town greeting people and chatting as he does the shopping. He plans and cooks our meals. And he supports me now I don't walk as well as I did in my youth. Our minds are still active, we run the house between us, and we work out the daily crossword together. So there's plenty of motivation for us to continue living.

I must admit the dictionary, used as a last resort in the crossword puzzle, is dog-eared, cover-less, and has split in half. I bought the hardcover edition about 20 years ago. The constant sliding to and from the bookshelf has paid toll to the wieldy volume. I've just ordered a new one from Amazon, paperback and about a fifth of the frayed dictionary's cost. Perhaps we should keep the tome close to hand to save wear and tear.

Now, let's get back to the cuts in cancer treatments. The UK health treatments are free and should last for life. My husband, a citizen from birth, has paid part of his salary into the fund for nearly 50 years. He deserves proper treatment.

I, on the other hand, arrived in England in the mid 80s from Australia and worked for about 20 years, with part of my salary being deducted for the NHS. Perhaps I don't have as much right to treatment.

The NHS may struggle to cope with cancer sufferers after reports of figures have reached an all-time high.

Macmillan Cancer Support said more people are living with the disease, which is a mounting challenge for health services. Although some will recover and survive in good health, a quarter of people in the UK face poor health or disability after treatment for cancer.

It's a difficult problem. Migrants receive free treatment too, but they haven't contributed to the fund. I wouldn't want anyone to suffer, however, in life you usually get what you pay for.

An so, 'Gone the elasticity of youth. Replaced by the maturity of truth', from two lines of a poem I wrote. I won't live forever, and wouldn't want to. Neither will I give up. 'You have a right to be here,' to quote the Desiderata.

Nowadays, it seems perfectly acceptable for celebrities to reveal dark roots below their bleached hair. But that's not the roots I mean.

The New York Times has named Adelaide, the fifth largest city in Australia, one of the 52 Places to Go in 2015. The capital of South Australia came in at number 24 for its arts scene, its sophistication, and its proximity to wine country.

I'm gloating inside because that was the place of my birth 73 years ago. I grew up in modest circumstances, but my Mother always made the best of what she had, using artistic skills to decorate. I recall her painting a single stroke on the back of a fireplace depicting the outline of a man and woman's face.

Listed as number 24, Adelaide, close to the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley, beat Florida's Miami Beach, China's Shanghai and Italy's Rome.

This is the second time the effortlessly chic Adelaide has been heralded as a sought-after destination. Travel bible Lonely Planet named it one of its top 10 destinations in 2014, ranking ninth.

The elegant colonial city is surrounded by the spacious green parklands.

Just down the tram tracks is beachy Glenelg. At the age of 16, I took the tram from Glenelg to my job in Adelaide as a receptionist at an advertising agency.

My forefathers from England settled in Glenelg and built the house I later lived in as a teenager with my mother and sisters. My great grandmother worked as a seamstress to stitch the elaborate Victorian costumes worn by the wealthy settlers. In 1836, the British governor delivered the proclamation creating the colony of South Australia right by the sea. A ceremony is held each year on Proclamation Day, with the current Governor reading out the original speech. My sister proudly displays an original painting (not the one shown) of the founding members of the group.

Now, I live on the other side of the planet, separated from my remaining family by half a rotation. Funny about life's twists and turns.

Do you have a fond memory of the place where you were born?