Monday, May 03, 2004

More me...

My lovely friend Justin (who made this site for me) has managed to make me look quite cool on another one he has set up, have a look at: www.smithsmuchiknow.blogspot.com



This copy was filed at 9:28 AM.

Friday, April 23, 2004

Hoaaaaarse Riding

Well I'm not exactly hoarse because I didn't scream out loud but if you can be inwardly hoarse, then that's what I am...blimey, been a while since I rode a horse. Isn't it funny how much scarier things get when you're older? I asked for an old duffer in the hope that it would plod along at a lovely slow pace...And that's what she did at first and I thought to myself 'Bracken, you and I are going to get on fine.'
We plod towards Wolstonbury Hill and our guide, Lisa, says: "Give her a little tap to speed her up a bit" - I have to admit that she was doing the equestrian version of pigeon steps but I was safe. Through the first gate, the sun is shining and you can see out across the Downs for miles, I breathe in the fresh air and relax.
"Everybody stop your horses" bellows Lisa. 'Excellent' I think to myself 'we're going to get off and have a walk' wrong. "Is it alright if we go to a canter?" she says. Every bit of me screams 'noooooooo!' inside but with 5 pairs of eyes fixed upon me I hear myself saying 'yeah, fine, no problem' - I couldn't believe I said it but I did. The next thing I know I am clinging on to the saddle for dear life and hurtling across the countryside. And there's me thinking my horse could barely walk...
I could actually feel the 3 sausages that I had eaten for breakfast, bouncing about in my belly and my breasts were very ungraciously thrown out of their scaffolding, ouch. Still it didn't go on for too long and then I didn't know what was worse, my horse, it would seem, hadn't been fed for a week and jerked his head down to munch on whatever greenery took his fancy, I had absolutely no control of him whatsoever.
Jeremy, ex army bloke in proper jodphurs and everything, who learnt to ride at Sandhurst seemed a little irritated by Bracken's eating habits and decided to take matters into his own hands, narrowly avoiding decapitating me with a low branch. I don't know what he did to my horse (slapped his arse I think) but we are walking slowly down a very narrow bridle path, Bracken is eating and stopping, eating and stopping and all of a sudden, he bolts. As stated previously, I had no control over him whatsoever. Lucky for me, I ducked, as I am not joking when I say my head would have been ripped off and it would have rolled into a ditch, thank you Jeremy. Luckily Katie, his wife, berated him sufficiently. I was too busy putting my breasts back in place discreetly.
So a long and uneventful ride back to Pyecombe village, more trotting and a final canter (that I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed.) By the time we got back to the stable I was feeling quite attached to my horse. But on dismounting, I noticed he was sweating profusely, can't think why......



This copy was filed at 3:25 PM.

Saturday, April 10, 2004

Ouch to, ouch to, ouch to be a Goooner....

It has been painful, but not just mild pain that I will recover from quickly, it is a deeper sense of mourning and loss, which, to non-Gooner's will sound utterly self absorbent but I don't care. My team, what has happened to my team? Last night, as I sit in the quiet, French village of Tourbes, I watch a half hearted Good Friday celebration centred around Thierry Henry. He got a hat-trick against Liverpool but we were still, at one point, losing. The celebrations were tepid, the players have clearly not recovered from, well, um, dare I say the word again, losing. I think that this is where some of the pain comes in, the fact is, we are not used to losing and when you're not used to something, when it happens, it hits you.
We have gone from 3 titles to 1, we played blinders and then we burnt out. People keep asking me what went wrong, why are they asking me and why do they always sound like they are laughing when they talk about it?
Do none of these people understand that it really isn't funny....at all? All I can do is put my hopes on the premiership and pray for a comeback next season...and try and forgive Freddie...

This copy was filed at 10:45 AM.

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Matchbox Memories

Matchbox Memories is an exhibition at the Hackney Museum, it has been
runnning from March 16th and continues until August 28th.

This exhibition will provoke a wide range of emotions for a huge number of
people, in particular, the residents of Hackney. People have travelled
from as far as New Zealand to see the Matchbox Toys that bring childhood
memories flooding back.

It all started in 1947 when two school friends, Leslie Smith and Rodney
Smith, combined their surnames to create 'Lesney Products.' Their
intention was to make die cast products for industrial use. By 1949, the
company had moved to a factory in Hackney.

It was not long before the third member, John (Jack) Odell joined the
company as a specialist engineer and it was he who invented the first toy.
They started experimenting with toys when the demand for industrial
products was slow.

The exhibition speaks volumes about the success that the company had after
it switched its attention from industrial products to toy cars, on one of
the museum's walls, there is a large, clear time line explaining the highs
and lows of the company from when it began, to when it was taken over.

Dinky Cars were sold to Woolworths in boxes of 12 for a bargain price
making the toys available to a larger market, in the centre of the room,
there is a glass case full of Matchbox cars, the very cars that were
selling at 100 million per year by 1966, the same cars that got the
company into the Guinness Book of Records and provided Leslie Smith and
Jack Odell with OBEs.

Keith Smith, 46, from Romford was happy to see the exhibition: "It has
brought back so many happy memories of my childhood, I went to the factory
on a careers visit in 1970 and it was absolutely lovely."

On the walls surrounding the whole room are vivid and lively murals
painted by local artist, May Ayres, she has captured working life at the
factory and made it look like a happy and fun place to be, it is easy to
imagine the benefits of having a job there.

It was this factory that makes the exhibition so symbolic for the
residents of Hackney. Erica Davies is Head of Hackney Museum, she said:
"There are no official archives of Lesneys, these have come from a
collector, we have made it an aural archive and focused on the community
around Hackney, it's recording the memories of the factory workers, it was
such an important part of Hackney."

There are two screens in the room, they are playing films of interviews of
local people who worked in the factory, it is moving and amazing what a
huge impact that one company has had on a community. There is a sound
dome that is suspended from the ceiling opposite one screen, when you
stand directly below it, it seems as though the people on the screen are
addressing you personally.

Helena Wetterberg, who is behind the exhibition made the films. "She
advertised in the Hackney Gazette and also on the Matchbox webites, she
had a good response. She went to their homes and listened to their
stories," explained Erica.

Listening to the employees, they are all enthusiastic about their old
employers, they go into great detail about life in the factory, about
their jobs, what they did and how they did it. It would seem that they
were very good employers that really looked after their staff.

Simon Goff, 26, a Campaigns Producer had listened to the entire film and
was touched by the words he heard. "It's a sad story of urban decline,
people lost their jobs, they were bought out and production was too
expensive. It must've been a real blow to the local community, they
employed 3000 people. I think it's great that they are honouring a
company that brought pride to Hackney."

That is exactly what the exhibition highlights, the pride of Hackney, yes
it is a sad story but it is also a happy one because it created so many
memories for so many people.

This copy was filed at 12:24 PM.

Monday, March 22, 2004

Arsing About in Arsenal

What a brilliant weekend, now that I have got over getting older, I can go back to enjoying life. On Saturday morning, I woke up feeling delicate having spent the night drinking wine and singing with my brother and his girlfriend. However, there is one thing guaranteed to get me out of bed without hesitation, my beloved Arsenal.
Most years, my brother manages to get me tickets around my birthday, this year I was going with Humphrey and Matt who are fellow Gooners from my course. First hiccup, the tickets that were posted on Thursday by my brother's mate Menno hadn't arrived in the post, I was told not to panic though as there was a straightforward process for getting substitutes, we needed to contact Menno and get his details, we tried a few times but couldn't get hold of him. Jeremy (bro) told me to get on the train and that it would be sorted, so I hop on apprehensively having sent Matt and Humpers mildly hysterical texts only to be called by my brother and told to get off the train at Tonbridge (he lives in Tunbridge Wells) as the tickets had arrived, what a relief.

So I disembark as instructed and as I watch the train heave onto London, my mobile goes again, it's Jeremy "stay on the train, they're the wrong tickets, these are Champions League." Tonbridge station isn't the most cheerful of places, but my brother consoles me with the news that he has made contact with Menno and I am to call him in half an hour.

I spend the journey (on the next train that is too busy to get a seat and old and smelly) chatting to my mate Nic about the previous night's events and before I know it, I am pulling into Waterloo, at which point Menno calls me with all his details, name, address, date of birth, seat, row and block numbers. In fact, just about every bit of information we could possibly need, so I continued my journey to Arsenal feeling comforted, Cinderella shall go to Highbury.

We had arranged to meet at Arsenal tube, usually we meet at Highbury and Islington but we made a group decision to get the tickets sorted before pre-match drinks at The Barn, as is tradition. Bloody good job too...

I was 20 minutes early so decided to have a wander up and down the tacky stalls and picked myself up a nice, greasy, chewy hot dog. Saw some beautifully tacky t-shirts, there is a lot to be said for tack, I personally think. Decided against buying a laminated and signed picture of Freddie, it was tacky but not quite tacky enough...made my way back to the tube station and was met shortly after by a very excited Humpers, we waited for Matt for a further 15 minutes and stood absorbing the atmosphere. Watching fathers bring their star struck children off the tube and pointing through the houses, giving them their first glimpse of Highbury - there was almost an element of romance until you heard the touts convincing two Asian tourists that the cheapest seats they're going to get together are £80 each "and that's cheap..."

Once Matt had got to us, I thrust the crumpled postik note under their noses and told them to memorise all the information that was on it, in order to convince the ticket people that they really were brothers called Menno and Quentin Faulkner, I thought it would be so easy....we walked along and Humpers, did briefly try, to convince me that Menno could be a girl's name but soon gave up. Matt walked along chanting the information mantra style and apart from a few mis-pronounciations, I thought he had it!

We queue up behind a man who is clearly blagging his tickets but feel relatively confident. The woman who greets us at the window is scary. Matt starts telling her the sorry tale about how he's left his season tickets and wallet at home.

"Name?" she barks
"Milo" says Matt
Milo she writes down, I nudge Matt and whisper hoarsely "Menno"
"No sorry, it's Nemo" says Matt
"Nemo" she repeats crossing out Milo.
I have to speak up "but their surname's Faulkner"
She sighs and starts looking decidedly pissed off.
"And what's your name?" she says, glaring at Humpers, who looks bemused but isn't panicking as his season ticket's in his pocket.
Matt and Humpers exchange glances. Last straw.
"Look you two, do you know what your names are, are these your tickets?"
"Yes, yes, my name's Quentin," beams Humpers and I am about to lose it because they are starting to look like a pair of simpletons.
She disappears for what seems like an age and then reappears.
"Address?" she asks wearily.

Somehow Matthew was home safe, he recited the address perfectly and without hesitation and I have to say that I think that's what clinched it. Having to put £100 deposit down on my card was the least painful bit but the laughter when we had the crucial pieces of paper in our hands and were walking up the hill towards the Barn, almost made it worth it.
"Milo" one of us would scream, "Nemo" someone else would collapse....I have to say it was a brilliant day. The first half was awesome, the second half decidedly average and Freddie was awful but I had a thoroughly enjoyable birthday treat made magic by my two bumbling friends. Thank you Matt, thank you Humpers, we must do it again soon!

Lawsy.


This copy was filed at 8:59 PM.

Friday, March 19, 2004

Perving over Paris!

Liza Laws
Interview with Paris Campbell Edwards.

Few people will have forgotten the beautiful man with the soulful, velvety voice that starred in last year’s Fame Academy, screened on BBC1.

Paris Campbell-Edwards was the eighth person to be evicted from the house, which was a tragedy, he was the best by far and was robbed of winning the show.

However, Paris is a determined young man and nothing will stand in the way of him and his music, he was born to perform. Born in Greenwich, the 24-year-old was influenced by his musical parents.

“My Mum and Dad used to dance for the Roxy Rollers and my Dad was in Starlight Express, he had a couple of songs out but I think he was bigger in Asia."

Paris performed in Po Na Na’s on East Street on Tuesday night, giving the clubbers a massive treat, I caught up with him before and after the show.

He went down a storm with the crowd, they couldn’t seem to get enough of him when he performed his tracks Letting Go, Until the End and Scream, and it was refreshing to hear such rich vocals. He has elements of Lenny Kravitz and Curtis Mayfield but his own unique sound really shines through, making for very pleasant listening.
MF


Paris is a frequent visitor to Brighton, he said: “My mates from school are down here, they studied at University and are still here, I come down to Brighton quite often, I really like it but because of what I’m doing, I can’t be down here all the time.”

Paris hasn’t signed a contract yet but it won’t be long before we start seeing and hearing a lot more from him. “I have recorded 24 tracks already and I’m going to record some more when I am in New York next month,” said the singer.

Paris is a charming person with huge amounts of talent, there is no doubt whatsoever that the public will be blessed with his gift in the very near future.


This copy was filed at 11:07 AM.

Thursday, March 18, 2004

Benzo addiction vs the tabloid hack

Benzodiazepines are a type of medication known as tranquilizers. Familiar names include Valium and Xanax. It is one of the most commonly prescribed medications but it is fast turning into a drug being abused. Doctors prescribe benzos to reduce anxiety, insomnia, alcohol withdrawal, seizure control, muscle relaxation, for amnesia before uncomfortable procedures and it can be given before an anesthetic.

I have been dealing with a young man, who I will not name for the time being, who has been taking benzos since he was 12 years old. He is now going through treatment to help him reduce the issues surrounding his drug abuse, it is not just benzos that he is addicted to, but it is the drug that he is most terrified about stopping, he doesn't think he can.

Tomorrow (March 19th), he is giving me over an hour of his time so that I can probe into every detail of his life, starting from the beginning - what triggered him to start substance misusing and at such a young age, where he has been, mentally, throughout his life, his family unit, his feelings and his fear of getting off benzos. Whether he sees himself, one day, getting completely clean and where he would like to be in a drug free safe world.

I am so honoured that someone who I have only worked with for a short time, is allowing me into their head. Someone who trusts me not to take advantage of their trust and to report facts truthfully and fairly and to tell it like it is, not how some media whores would like it to be.

One of my objections to certain areas of the course that I am doing, NCTJ Newspaper Journalism, (and I stress a very small area) is that there are certain tutors that are hell bent on getting the goriest, most tabloid chilling tales, disregarding people's feelings like bulldozers over eggshells. I was never cut out to destroy people in order to make headlines and if that makes me a bad tabloid hack, then so be it, stick me on G2 any day.

This copy was filed at 8:19 PM.

The people I work with when I'm not writing...

The Maze

Former heroin and crack user, Simon Phethean, 32, from Eastbourne coordinates a support group for current and former drug users. It is called The Maze and is situated on Orchard Road, next to the probation services.

Simon is a former client of the Turnaround Project and it was whilst he was on the programme that he was asked if he was willing to start The Maze.

He said: “The staff asked me if I could accept the responsibility and dedicate my time to helping others, it keeps me linked to the Turnaround Project so I was happy to do it.”

Open from 7-9pm every Thursday, the group aims to target those who can’t access other support groups. “A lot of people are working and using at the same time, they can’t attend Turnaround or any of the others that are in the day, at least they can attend The Maze and get some of the support they need.”

The drop-in offers a wide range of information about other services in the area and Simon and his co-worker, Chelsea Beaten, also from Eastbourne, give the best individual advice and relate it to the exact situation that the person’s in.

Simon hopes to run the group loosely structured around the 12 steps theory which is used by groups such as Narcotics Anonymous. The door is open for people that are still taking drugs as well as for those who are recovering.

Simon finished at Turnaround in September this year and had been addicted to drugs for 15 years prior to attendance. With the help of Turnaround, he withdrew from crack and heroin in just three months.

“The Maze is a way of keeping myself safe, I am strong minded and I can cope with addicts walking through the door, it won’t affect my recovery. This is my way of giving something back.”

For further information or advice, please call: 07765 6779812, alternatively call in on Thursday between 7-9pm at 55 Old Orchard Road
Liza Laws.

This copy was filed at 12:46 PM.

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Fighting the good fight in an ungrateful world, two-fisted journalist Liza Laws demands nothing less than total obedience and the finest wines known to humanity.

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