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Plastic Tides

30/8/2015

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The summer's coming to an end , and this is probably the last chance most of us will have to get to a beach. Unfortunately the problem of plastic rubbish in the sea isn't going away. If you've been to the seaside this summer you'll have seen the evidence: abandoned plastic bottles, drifting plastic bags , unidentifiable bits of broken plastic. These last are especially worrying, because the rest of them has probably already choked or poisoned some kind of marine wildlife.

Look up www.plastictides.org to learn about four people who are doing everything they can to prevent more damage.

One thing we can all do is try to use less plastic. This is how much I managed to collect in my own house yesterday:


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That took ten minutes to collect. it will all be recycled - but the world would be a healthier place without it.

Anyway - have a good end of the summer -

Rachel



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This week I'm reading

22/8/2015

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This summer I've become a devoted Discworld fan - not quite  enough to camp outside a bookstore when the last - postumously published - novel  came out last week , but I do love them. Unfortunately you have to be quite old to enjoy them ; the language is complicated and you really need to have read lots of other famous authors first . This one, however, is just good fun. It includes some familiar Terry Pratchett themes - such as 'the trousers of time' - and it makes you think, but it's easy to understand.
If  you've read your way through the entire Cherub series (I love that too) - this might be an acceptable next book.
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August 16th, 2015

16/8/2015

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Last weekend was the RSPB Big Wild Sleep-out when families all over the UK spent the night outside, finding out what wildlife appears at night.  I decided to watch day time wildlife instead. This is some I found not very far from my house.
Most of my regular letter-writers now know my real-life 'Owl and Pussycat' story. (There was an owl, and there was a cat : those are the facts . Also the owl was still around a few days later).
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This week I'm reading

12/8/2015

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Don't try this at home. Don't try any of it - advertising your party on social media, climbing into people's gardens at night, playing with swords....Also I don't really recommend reading it. Shakespeare didn't mean his plays to be read. He meant them to be performed. Anyone can enjoy the 30 minute  Animated Shakespeare version ; if you want to see the whole play, watch the 1996 Baz Luhrmann film.
There are many things I don't like about this play. It makes you embarrassed to be an adult, for one thing. For another, I dont believe the great love would have lasted. Romeo and Juliet get married knowing nothing about each other except that they're both good looking and none of their parents will approve.
Of course there is some beautiful poetry. But the parts I like are the little glimpses of real human behaviour. Catch Juliet trying to sound casual when finding out Romeo's name (Act 1 Scene5 lines128 onwards ) - or the Capulets organising a party at the beginning of Act IV Scene 4, before everything goes horribly wrong.
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How to write a thank you letter

2/8/2015

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Waving goodbye - it was a lovely visit - did they have a good time?
This is the time of year when you get invited to stay with friends and family  - and sometimes the family of your friends. Then you get home and you have an

EMERGENCY!
It's not an ambulance type emergency but it is a writing emergency. You need to get that letter written right away.
As with a medical emergency, the sooner you do it, the less you have to do.
If, as soon as you get home , you dash off a quick email, you can just write something like

Dear Count Dracula,
Thank you for having me - it was wonderful - I absolutely loved it!

Count Dracula will be most gratified that you couldn't wait to thank him. Of course, the risk is that he will immediately invite you for next year, so if you really don't want to go, you'd better be ready with a pretend long-standing invitation from your old family friends, the Frankensteins.

If you weren't able to write immediately, you'll need to produce something a bit more thoughtful.
Even if you've had the best time of your life, it's sometimes difficult to know how to start, so here is a suggestion for a simple but effective letter.

The important word is 'thank you', so begin with that. Then think of at least three things you enjoyed, and you can write something like this:

Dear Count Dracula,
Thank you very much for having me to stay.
I loved hearing the bats whirling round the castle in the evening.
I loved being allowed to stay up all night.
I loved sleeping in a coffin - it was amazingly comfortable.
You were a wonderful host. Now I'm looking forward to going back to school so I can tell my friends about my visit to Transylvania!

No need to mention the horrible food, the creepy servants or the strange noises.

Remember the first rule of thank-you -letter writing: do it NOW.
Rachel
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This week I'm reading

2/8/2015

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...The Iliad and the Odyssey in this 'comic strip'version by Marcia Williams. These are two of the oldest and most famous stories in the world. Even though they tell of events that can  never have  happened in a time that never existed, the characters in them behave just like ordinary people  - at their best and at their worst. You can read both stories many times and keep finding something new.
I like this version because it finds lots of humour in what can be a serious tale of war followed by one of harrowing adventures. Watch out for the fierce Achilles being seasick....
You can enjoy this book at any age.
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    Rachel

    graduated with an MA in English from Somerville College, Oxford University, and  continued her post-graduate studies with a PGCE, specialising in Primary Education.

    She has taught at leading schools in London and New York, and now works as a tutor teaching English and Latin to children aged between four and fifteen.

    She and her husband have five grown-up children who attended leading universities in  the UK, USA, China and Germany, and are  variously employed in law, journalism, hospitality, advertising and theatre. 

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