LBC Radio - London's Brightest Conversation

Whilst in the London area last week, I listened to LBC Radio in the car on 97.3. It was interesting to listen to stimulating conversation on a wide range of topics including:

- Words or expressions you mistakenly believed to have a different meaning.
- Sharing names with famous people.
- Should parents work to demonstrate work ethic to their children, even if better off on benefits?
- Scams.
- If you can see the sun and the moon at the same time, does that mean that parts of the world cannot see either?
- If planets were formed by explosions, how come they are pretty round and smooth rather than odd-shaped and jagged?
- Books you have read even though you did not enjoy them and considered them a waste of time but having started, felt you had to finish.
- The DaVinci Code.
- The UK and Russia tit-for-tat over diplomats.
- Lee Mead's debut as Joseph in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat".
- Boris Johnson standing for Mayor of London.

I am delighted to find that I can listen to LBC 97.3 on-line at http://www.lbc.co.uk, on Sky TV and on Digital Radio in various parts of the UK.

Cream Tea in Alfriston, Sussex

A cream tea is one of the quintessential delights of English village life and Alfriston, Sussex is a lovely village in which to enjoy such a tea.

Forget the diet. A cream tea consists of two homemade scones, jam (raspberry or strawberry are best), clotted cream on top of the jam, a slice of cake such as carrot cake, passion fruit cake or chocolate and a pot of tea per person. The tea should be leaves of Earl Grey, Darjeeling or Assam, not a supermarket teabag.

We enjoyed our cream tea in Alfriston after our visit to Drusillas Park, just a mile or so up the road. It was around 5pm but Moonrakers at the far end of the village were open until 6pm so we enjoyed our tea overlooking the village green and church. How English! All we needed was a cricket match to watch.

See my photos of Alfriston on Flickr.

See my blog on a visit to Drusillas Park and my photos of Drusillas on Flickr.



Antonia Stuart-James is an English Hypnotherapist in Belgium.

Our Visit to Drusillas Park, Sussex, England

As always, my children enjoyed their visit last week to Drusillas Park which is a park zoo with small animals to appeal to younger children. Small visitors can stamp their books when they sight specific animals and take part in the "Zoo Olympics" which means comparing their performance with that of animals. For example, shouting as loud as a... (surprisingly there are animals which are noisier than my son), running as fast as a ...., weighing as much as a..., jumping as long as a ... etc.

There is a farm section with pigs, cows and goats with an informative description of how milk goes from the cow to our table. Children can even milk a cow, actually just plastic tubes on a pretend cow's udder.

Animals include monkeys, lemurs, walibis, guinea pigs, crocodiles, meerkats (kids love looking through the plastic dome to be at the same height as these animals), servals, beavers, otters, prairie dogs, llamas and the less attractive bats, bugs, spiders and snakes but they can easily be avoided.

Children who celebrate their birthday at Drusillas can enjoy the special treat of feeding the penguins.

There is now a special resident at Drusillas: Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends, Annie and Clarabel, Cranky, James, Diesel and of course the Fat Controller, Sir Topham Hat. When the zoo owner, Laurence Smith, advertised for a male Fat Controller, he was told that he could not specify either male or fat in his job description. How ridiculous! The Fat Controller has been a well-loved character for generations and he must be both male and fat. Visitors can ride with Thomas and his coaches from Tidmouth Halt Station.

Very small children will love the real rabbits and guinea pigs on Teletubbies Hill.

On the educational front, Drusillas sponsor a village in the Maasai so visitors can find out about life for these people and walk through a "mud hut". In fact, there are lots of educational areas suitable for tying in with Key Stages in schools.

If the children have any energy left and the grown-ups need a rest, there is an excellent play area suitable for children from the smallest toddlers upwards and cafes alongside for refreshments and rest.

One thing I particularly like about Drusillas is that it is not overly commercial. When we visited LegoLand, after we had picked ourselves up off the floor from the shock of the entrance price, we were bombarded with toyshops and food concessions every few yards which of course results in tears and complaints if not more money is spent. Instead of enjoying LegoLand, children complain about what they did not receive. Drusillas is a pleasure to visit. The entrance fees are reasonable and the toyshops and food areas are few and far between. There is an Explorers restaurant at the entrance and a couple of places in the play area, all of which charge reasonable prices for a good variety of choice. There are three toy shops and they can be avoided although prices are reasonable so cheaper token presents can be bought as a souvenir of a happy day.

Finish the day off with a round of Jungle Adventure Mini-golf, a paddle in Explorers Lagoon or more jumping around on the bouncy castle and don't miss the kookaburras and pheasants on the way out.

See my photos of Drusillas on Flickr.

There are lots of special appearances throughout the year including Scooby Doo, Postman Pat, Shrek, Bob the Builder, Angelina Ballerina, Fifi and the Flowertots, Tweenies, Wallace and Gromit, Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, Spider-Man, Fireman Sam and of course Santa.

Drusillas Zoo is on the A27, between Brighton and Eastbourne, Sussex.

Antonia Stuart-James is an English Hypnotherapist in Belgium.

Delay at Calais Car Ferry Port

When travelling by ferry from Calais to Dover on Friday 13 July, we were delayed by 1 hour, 40 minutes by UK passport control at Calais. Apparently, of the 10 available windows, only 4 were manned, of which 2 for trucks and 2 for private cars. Six lanes of traffic including trucks and coaches had to narrow and cross-over to reach the respective windows causing such a delay. The French staff said they had asked the UK passport control to open more windows but either staff were not available or they did not wish to do so. Whatever the cause, we did not appreciate such a delay.

Growing melons

My older son is fascinated by the growth of his melon plant which he has grown from one of the melon seeds in a fruit.

Bolderberg "Little Train"

Just before the end of term, my little boy's class were taken for a ride on a road train around the local village. They drove past our house so he was able to show his schoolfriends where he lives and needless to say, all the children had a lovely time.




Antonia Stuart-James lives in Bolderberg, Heusden-Zolder, Limburg in Belgium

Hypnosis on Big Brother

When Brian entered the house, we were told that "he likes to dabble in a spot of cosmic ordering and reckons he can self-hypnotize". Typically for British media, this was presented with a hint of scorn.

Well, Brian might come across as a bit thick but at least his thinking is taking him in the right direction. Cosmic ordering, if practised properly, may well take him from his present job as a data-entry clerk to something bigger and better. For more information, find out about "The Secret".

The Secret DVD

This week we were shown how he hypnotizes when he practised on Gerry and Amanda. Unfortunately, he counted forwards to take the person deeper and backwards to wake them up which is the wrong way round. To take the person deeper, count backwards which causes confusion to the conscious mind and so gains access to the subconscious mind. Counting forwards to wake the person reintroduces order which signals to the conscious mind that it is time to wake up.

Antonia Stuart-James is an English Hypnotherapist in Belgium.

"Thirteen Days" - Cuban missile crisis

We watched a riveting film about the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962 when the then US President John F Kennedy faced a nerve-wracking escalation as the Soviets built up a presence of nuclear missiles on Cuba, all within striking distance of 1000 miles within the USA. The world came so close to disaster.

The film stars Kevin Costner, one of my favourite actors, who played the part of the President's aide, Kenneth O'Donnell.

"As Hollywood history lessons go, Thirteen Days is riveting stuff. You may find yourself wondering what might happen if reality presented a repeat scenario under less intelligent leadership." - Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com



Antonia Stuart-James is an English Hypnotherapist in Belgium.

Genesis in Brussels

I discovered the magical music of Genesis in 1976 when watching "Silent Movie" in the cinema and Genesis' music came through the walls. I borrowed a couple of LPs from a friend and started appreciating this music, so different to The Osmonds for whom I was still a teenybopper just one year earlier.

In Brussels, I saw them in concert for the first time in 1981, one year after "Duke" was released and the same year as "ABACAB". Again in 1983 after "Genesis" and then in Wembley Stadium, London in 1987 for the "Invisible Touch" tour. The cynics said that Genesis were has-beens and would never sell enough seats for three nights in a 100,000 seats stadium. They were wrong. They sold out four nights.

As well as outstanding, intelligent music Genesis were known for their lights show, especially during "The Cage" from "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (1974).

Sadly, Genesis split up in 1992 then reformed in 1997 with Ray Wilson as lead singer after Phil Collins had left. This album was a flop and Genesis were destined to be a memory leaving just their albums to be played again and again.

Well this year they delighted us longstanding fans with the "Turn It On Again" tour through Europe and the USA. Their main concert in London will be tomorrow at Twickenham Stadium but I decided to see them at my local arena, Stade Baudouin in Brussels on Sunday 24 June.

What can I say? Genesis were truly outstanding. Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford might be 56-57 years old but lacked no energy, especially Phil who was as fun and outrageous as ever. He is quite rightly considered to be the best drummer in the world and when out the front, leaves the drumming to Chester Thompson who is part of the touring line-up.

See my photos at Flickr

"Genesis are an English rock band formed in 1967. With approximately 150 million albums sold worldwide, Genesis are among the top 30 highest-selling recording "artists" of all time." (Wikipedia)

My favourite albums are "Trick of the Tail" and "Duke".



The unofficial 2 CDs of each concert are available from The Music.com priced $30 per set.

Abundance and "The Secret"

"If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have
more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll
never have enough."
- Oprah Winfrey

So true. "The Secret" tells us to be grateful for what we have, really show gratitude rather than being dissatisfied. What we focus on is our reality. Focus on what we do not have and it will never be ours. Focus on the abundance we already enjoy and that abundance will be magnified.

Go here to download an audio book of "The Secret".



Antonia Stuart-James is an English Hypnotherapist in Belgium.

Big Brother Earnings

I just heard on "Big Brother's Little Brother" that all of the housemates can expect to earn large sums of money when they leave the house in appearances, endorsements and stories.

Currently, their friends and families are earning from sending photos of the housemates to the press.

Our society really is obsessed with fame for fame's sake, even of non-famous people. Yet the really important people who are contributing to society eg scientists developing cures for illnesses, surgeons developing new eyehole surgery techniques etc. are only known of in their fields. What a sorry world we live in.

Antonia Stuart-James is an English hypnotherapist living in Belgium.

Big Brother

I have never understood why people spend hours watching Big Brother obsessively. Get a life!

Why watch other people doing ordinary things, all trying to stand out and become famous. Famous for what?

However, I watched the launch of the last UK Celebrity Big Brother because I thought I should be aware of who was in the house as people would be talking about it for weeks. I watched a little of the coverage but lost interest.

When the new series started two weeks ago, I again watched the launch to find out about the characters chosen as housemates. I then watched a few minutes here and there and am now pretty much hooked.

As a hypnotherapist helping people to change, I am fascinated by people's character, habits, thoughts and behaviour. Big Brother gives us a snapshot of watching how total strangers cope in such a limited environment with no contact with the outside world, no writing materials, no books to read and no idea what the public's opinions of them are. I personally could not stand the boredom of being a housemate as I need to do things. I would suffer from PC-deprivation at least.

So I watch "Big Brother's Little Brother" when having my breakfast and catch up before I go to bed.

Co-incidentally, I picked up a library book by Ben Elton called "Dead Famous" which is about a murder committed in a house. I did not realize it was about a Big Brother scenario fictiously called "House Arrest." The programme producer deliberately skews the editing to tell the story she wants, portray the character as she wishes rather than a true representation. Does this happen in Big Brother?

Did I say it was a coincidence I found this novel? No such thing. Read "The Celestine Prophecy."

Latest news from Channel 4 Big Brother



Antonia Stuart-James is an English hypnotherapist living in Belgium.

Cycling

It seems everyone in Belgium has a bicycle. Motorists are very careful regardless of whether cycle tracks are laid or not and cycling is encouraged as a healthy option. Bicycle stands are seen everywhere in towns and by bus stops. Many cities and towns offer free bicycle hire.

Yesterday my two boys of 6 and 9 rode without stabilizer wheels on their bicycles for the first time. I was so pleased and proud. All the children here can ride bicycles but as we lived in England then Spain before, there was no opportunity for the boys to learn. Cycling in both those countries can be dangerous as motorists do not give consideration to cyclists. It was very hilly where we lived in Spain and the motorists drove badly, often ignoring red lights and zebra crossings so I never felt comfortable allowing my children to cycle. I myself had not been on a bicycle for 24 years until three weeks ago when I bought a new bicycle.

This morning, the boys strapped on their helmets and we all three cycled up to their school, 1km away. We crossed one main road with a roundabout but the motorists just stopped when they saw us.

We live in Limburg, called "Fiets Paradijs" (bicycle paradise) so we shall enjoy cycling here.

Antonia Stuart-James is an English hypnotherapist living in Limburg, Belgium.

Gueuze - My Favourite Belgian Beer

It is over 25 years since I first tasted Belgian Champagne, better known as Gueuze (also spelled Geuze) due to its carbonation and corking. Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is home to the lambic style of beer. Gueuze is made by blending young (1 year old) and old (2-3 year old) lambics into a new beer which is then bottled for a second fermentation. The young lambic is not fully fermented so contains fermentable sugars which allow the second fermentation to occur. Another type of Lambic that undergoes a second fermentation in the presence of sour cherries before bottling results is Kriek, a much-loved beer closely related to Gueuze.

Since Gueuze is made by blending lambics, it tastes different from traditional ale and pilsner style beers. There is none of the traditional hop bitterness as found in British ales because hops are used. Furthermore, the wild yeasts which are specific to lambic style beers give Gueuze a dry, cidery, musty, sour, acetic acid, and lactic acid taste. Many describe the taste as sour and "barnyard-like". In modern times, some brewers have added sugar to their gueuzes to sweeten them and make the beer more appealing to a wider audience.

Traditionally, Gueuze is served in champagne bottles, which hold either 375 or 750 ml.

This article was adapted from Wikipedia.

You can find out more about Gueuze by visiting Cantillon Brewery in Anderlecht, Brussels who are one of the best brewers of this delicious beer. They only use organically grown cereals in the production. Visit this blog of Thom's visit to the brewery.

Savour a Gueuze in the traditional Brussels bar A La Mort Subite. The name means "sudden death", no doubt something to do with the outcome of drinking too many Belgian beers too quickly. So take your time, enjoy your Gueuze in the company of good friends or an interesting book.

I found extensive comments and tasting notes on the Beer Advocate website.

I recommend these books on Belgian beers:



Visit my Squidoo site on Gueuze

Cheers. Salut.

Antonia Stuart-James
Hypnosis for change, stop smoking, overcome unwanted habits, improve confidence, relieve stress related health problems
Work at Home Ideas and Opportunities