Strictly Come Dancing - Behind the scenes with the costume designers!

Thanksgiving Day (USA) 2009

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Americans! Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the USA and today nearly every American will be celebrating by sharing a huge feast with their family and friends. The traditional meal will include turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. I think of all the American holidays, Thanksgiving is the most popular because it isn't religious and it doesn't involve present-giving. It's just a day for sharing good food, good conversation and relaxing. And also watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and (American) football on TV. If you aren't in the USA, you can still watch a live webcast of the 83rd annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (Times Square, New York City) beginning at approximately 9:30am EST! For American expats such as myself, I think Thanksgiving Day is the day we miss our families the most and feel the most homesick. The British do not celebrate Thanksgiving. Today is just another day in the UK with people going to work and kids going to school. This video explains more about Thanksgiving:

An Open Letter to my Readers

Dear Readers, I am asking for your help in an important matter regarding British Citizenship which affects me (and many others in the same situation). This past summer (July) the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill, was passed through Parliament and approved for implementation in 2010. A small but vital part of the Bill was regarding an amendment to the law to give British nationality to people born before February 1961 whose mothers were born in the UK. Up until 2002, if you had a British father, you got a right to citizenship, but not if you had a British mother. In 2002, they changed that law, but they only backdated it to 1961. This latest law amends that inequality but it still discriminates! My mother is English and I was born in the USA before 1961. While it's true that the law regarding children born abroad to British mothers before 1961 was amended, it continues to discriminate because I will have to register and pay a fee of £540 plus attend a citizenship ceremony before I can claim my British Citizenship by descent. However, if my father had been British, I could claim my British Citizenship by descent without registration, without the ceremony and without the exhorbitant fee. Why shouldn't my British mother be able to pass on her citizenship the same way British fathers can?! The amended law still discriminates!! How can you help? Two very easy ways: 1. If you are British or you live in the UK, please sign this petition to: stop the gender and age discrimination in the Borders, Immigration and Citizenship Bill http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/UKmothers/ We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop the gender and age discrimination in the Borders, Immigration & Citizenship Bill which does not allow UK mothers to pass on their citizenship to their children regardless of where or when they were born.. The Borders, Immigration & Citizenship Bill requires all those born abroad to a UK mother prior to 1983 to register with the UKBA and pay an exorbitant fee (presently in excess of £500) before they can apply for a UK passport. Anyone born in the same circumstances after 1983 or at anytime to a UK father can simply complete a passport application without the need to register. The registration/fee is required regardless of country of residence so that even someone who has lived in the UK for most of their lives, is a taxpayer, a home owner and has known no other country, still has to register and pay the fee. 2. Tell everyone about the petition. Please help spread the word via blogs, forums, twitter, facebook, etc. The more publicity the better. Please help me (and others like me in the same situation) by signing the petition. Thank you very much to everyone for your support. Kind regards to all my readers, Maureen P.S. An important reminder regarding the petition to No 10: You must give your name, address (which will not be published) and your email address. You will receive an email - click link to confirm. You must click the link in the email from the Number 10 Petitions system to confirm your signature on the petition or your name won't show!

NHS to offer free marriage counselling

There are plans for the NHS (National Health Service) to offer marriage counselling for free if their relationship problems are causing depression. I can understand treating depression on the NHS but marriage counselling? The NHS is struggling financially and has to ration drugs and treatments so how on earth can this kind of expense be justified? Isn't this kind of service better suited to the counselling service Relate? What do you think? Should marriage counselling be offered on the NHS? (link via guardian.co.uk)

Kudos to the Green Thing!

I love this idea! How often do you see a glove or mitten left out somewhere, lost and forelorn? Pretty often, right? Well, thanks to a brilliant idea from the people at Green Thing, the problem of lost gloves and mittens has been solved in a very creative way. Watch the video: The Making Of Glove Love The "new" re-styled gloves are sold for just £5. How cool is that? The Glove Love Shop

Marks and Spencer Christmas Advert 2009

M&S Christmas Advert 2009 M&S Christmas advert starring Wallace and Gromit, Stephen Fry, Philip Glenister, Noemie Lenoir, Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley and James Nesbitt alongside Myleene Klass and Twiggy. I've heard that the advert has attracted some contoversy because it ends with the lingerie model, Noemie Lenoir, dancing around in M & S underwear. Is it sexist? Of course it is, but that's how they sell more underwear! Am I offended by the advert? Not really. I suppose it would be better (or at least less sexist) if they showed a male model posing in underwear too but to be honest I don't think too many women will be thinking about underwear as gifts for their husband or boyfriend, whereas, there are plenty of men who will purchase sexy underwear to give to their wives or girlfriends for Christmas. What do you think of the advert? Are you offended by the way it ends?