Someone wrote to me earlier to say that when I don’t post for a week she assumes I’ve died. I can report that, unless I’ve grossly misread the situation, I am alive and well.
I have been busy, though. We went to Longleat Safari Park the other day and had a wonderful time looking at the tigers, cheetahs and other animals. I’ve also been writing as I have a lot of work on.
Other than that I’ve been reading some superb books. The first is called Here Comes Everybody, and is written by James Fearnley of The Pogues. His beautifully written and vivid account of life in the band has gripped me. I’ve also been devouring Tom Bower’s much-discussed biography of Simon Cowell. I was chuffed to see a nice mention of my own biography of Simon Cowell in Bower’s acknowledgements.
Finally, I’ve been reading The Wisdom of Sikhism. I’d always had an instinctive feeling that Sikhism would be a fascinating religion. Everything I’ve read about it thus far has indeed fascinated me. I’ll probably write more seriously about it in the coming days, but in the meantime I must say that I smiled when I learned that the creator of the faith is called Guru Nanak, that he wrote Shabads and that his sister was called Bibi.
Finally for now, I wanted to mention a marvellous initiative to raise money for Holocaust charities that has been launched by three pupils at Yavneh College. Jessica Tray, Talia Album and Rachel Kass are aiming to collect six million pennies to commemorate those who died.
They hope to complete the collection – which will total £60,000 – by the next National Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27 2013. They will split the money between six Holocaust related charities.
Read more about this inspiring and imaginative fundraising effort here.
Thank you Chas for mentioning and linking pennieswithpurpose in your blog. So far £1200 has been raised and the three young ladies/pupils of Yavneh are grateful for everyone’s support.
Superb!
You have been busy Chas! There was a really interesting documentary The Story of the Turban on BBC last week if you get a chance to watch. Think you would find it interesting.
Ooh thank you. I shall look at iPlayer/keep eye open for repeat!
Will do. Have a lot of respect for Sikhs and how the turban is their crown. Hope you manage to catch it. Just got a lovely new dog from The Mayhew. They have a beautiful three month cocker spaniel if you are interested. I was looking for a cavalier but ended up getting a saluki!
Oh, lovely.
Actually, my parents almost got a cavalier the other day. I think they’re feeling broody!
Ynet has an exclusive interview with two of the IDF heroes who intercepted the Mavi Marmara here: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4218728,00.html
Pennies with purpose is indeed an imaginative project. Good luck to them.
Chas if you haven’t already visited it, Europe’s first Sikh Museum is in Leicester. It is the Guru Nanak Sikh Museum and is in the centre of Leicester in a street named (appropriately) Holybones.
It used to be open in the afternoon but if you are going to visit ring first to check as it is part of the Gurdwara.
I can recommend a visit.
I hadn’t heard of that.
Many thanks indeed – will investigate.
Alan said perhaps it will become OyVaTurban
Haha
Hi Chas, sorry for the spam but your Contact page has an Error 404 and I got no reply to my tweet yesterday (as @un_swissroll)… I like your blog and wondered why / where your post “We must talk about Ken” has disappeared? (Got it in Google Reader, but sadly the feed is restricted to the first few words). Please don’t validate (or do remove) this comment and use my email address.
Clearly the comments are validated by a not very good robot…
Thank you so much for mentioning PenniesWithPurpose, we’re nearly at £2000 in about 5 days, so thank you so much for the publicity! Thank you once again, Jess Tray (one of the founders)
Hello Chas,
I was very happy to find your blog and even happier to see all is not lost in the Middle East debate.
As for books, if you havn’t read it, the Must book for anybody who wishes to know the facts about the Arab Israeli conflict’s sources is “From Time Immemorial” by Joan Peters.
It was an eye opener even for me.
What did you make of Tom Bower’s Simon Cowell book? Will you write a review?
Having read Tom Bower’s book I cannot help but feel Cowell charmed and lied to Bower and that Bower fell for it hook, line and sinker.