I adopt a polar bear, will you?

I must say I am an animal lover. In most occasions, I feel they are much more innocent than human beings. I am normally upset when I see animals are suffering. Lately an advert on Sky attracted me. It was about to adopt a polar bear for only £3 a month. So I did check their website WWF. It is interesting and the amount of money is affordable for me. So I decided to donate £3 a month for these amazing creatures.

Basically, I have an old noodle bowl into which I put the 1P and 2p change after coming back from shopping. When it is nearly full, I go to supermarket where coin star machines exist. It counts automatically and I choose the instruction to donate for UNICEF and WWF in nearly equal amount. It is my regular thing. Cash amount is not too much, maybe £ 6-7 in total. But I think something is better than nothing.

Adopting an endangered animal is one of the best ways to protect it, and the whole species. You'll be providing help to an animal in great danger of extinction, and making a connection that lasts.

You can adopt from as little as £3 a month and we'll send you an animal adoption pack which includes:

• A gorgeous soft toy of your animal
• A fact booklet about your adopted species
• A print of your adopted animal
• A greetings card
• WWF's tips on reducing your own environmental impact
• 3 issues of Insight magazine, with updates on your adopted species

Please visit WWF @ http://www.wwf.org.uk/index.cfm

Thank you for adopting the

Thank you so much for adopting the for £3 per month. With your help we can continue to protect s and their habitats. Your donation will also help fund other essential WWF conservation work around the world. We'll send the adoption pack within 3 working days but please allow up to 10 working days for delivery to your specified address. This pack contains a personalised adoption certificate, a print of the animal and a soft toy. It will also include a fascinating fact booklet about the adopted species, practical tips on how to live a 'greener' lifestyle, a greetings card and WWF screensavers.

We will also send you a copy of Insight within the next few months, to keep you up to date on the work that WWF is doing to protect s and other conservation projects. Insight will be sent out three times a year.

Would you like to adopt another animal?

Have you considered becoming a member of WWF?

Worried about your impact on the environment? The way we use the planet's resources makes up our ecological footprint. Measuring yours takes less than five minutes and could set you on a life-changing journey. Try our Footprint Calculator

If you have any queries about your new WWF adoption, please contact our hotline on +44 (0)1483 426333 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm) or e-mail supporterrelations@wwf.org.uk quoting this reference number: W000162-169-080809.

My wishes

H ours of happy times with friends and family
A bundant time for relaxation
P rosperity
P lenty of love when you need it the most
Y outhful excitement at lifes simple pleasures

N ights of restful slumber (you know - dont' worry be happy)
E verything you need
W ishing you love and light

Y ears and years of good health
E njoyment and mirth
A angels to watch over you
R embrances of a happy years!

~ Author Unknown to me ~

My wishes especially go to

Khine, Nik, Becky, Joan, Delanne, Mitchelle, Elaine, Salar, Sumi, Gemma, Saund, May, KOM and Ma Mi

World's CCTV capital

Today is Boxing day, so most shops are closed. But a few shops are trying to clear unsold items with so-called discount prices. For example, I bought a pair of discount shoes (£55) from Jones bootmaker. It's original price was £85. In fact, people are talking about Boxing day discounts much more than actually it happens.

Well, today I popped in Canary Wharf which is business and shopping complex in East London area and bought above shoes. I took a couple of photos as my hobby.



You may notice a CCTV in the photo. The news papers claimed that everyday, average Londoners are filmed by CCTVs for over 200 times on the street, on the bus, on the tube, in the stores and so on. In public places, your activities may be recorded from different angles all the time as millions of CCTVs are working 24/7 across the UK. If you parked your car on the double yellow lines or restricted area, nobody does not seem to be care. You would be happy as no police man and no traffic warden disturbed you. But you will get a £60 penalty notice in next few days. You car has been framed by local council CCTV. Definitely.

So a lobby of people have a concern about a matter of privacy issue. But the number of CCTVs has been increasing all the time across Britain, especially after 7/7 terrorist attack in London. Since then, all London buses have got CCTVs. In fact, I also fixed a couple of hidden security cameras at my place. One is for my car and one is for the main door. But these are not CCTV. I record only when I need.


This is the view from Poplar rail station. HSBC tower, Bank of America building and Canary Wharf tower. I just took this photo in time before ?changing ownership after credit crunch. In fact, whoever the ownership is, those buildings sprang up by means of British tax payer's money, I think.


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Moved to a new place

Lately, I moved to south west England from West Yorkshire. It is Dorset. For me, I haven't got a chance to explore it. Struggling with new job, new environment and new people. Everything is different here. Many doctors start working from 8:30 AM till 6-7 PM. (9-5 is normal working hours if we don't have any on-call duty).

Basically, I can live in Yorkshire while working in a very friendly and flexible atmosphere. But after sometime, I felt really bored. So started checking to move somewhere else. I found this post which is really exciting. Chest medicine. So I applied and attended an interview. I was offered the post. I took it. As a consequence, the tiring business starts running despite salary is only £1000 different a year. But it is only 130 miles away from London, my fav place.





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Some thing about Dorset

British system and British people

It is claimed that Britain is one of the best countries in terms of making and implementing a good system. Take the example for British road signs .

Well, each action has its own reason. Clearly new British systems and laws have been emerging as these are required for British people. On the undergrounds, people are kept reminding by tube workers "Mind the gap" "Mind the gap" in addition to showing such signs on the pavements. Something these made me annoyed with the thought that what kind of idiots need such repeated reminders. Similarly, on the pedestrian crossing, you can see "Look Right" "Look Left". What does that mean? Obviously, a considerable number of travellers are unable to look after themselves or lazy to check both sides, ending up in unnecessarily injuries and even deaths. As a result, those signs have to be printed.

A couple of months previously, I saw a 76 year old man who came in with the broken bones and bruises to the hospital after a fall. It happened while walking in the dim light after he went out with his wife at 10:30 PM. (in my old country , people with such age have been around with supportive children and grand children all the time). While his stay in hospital, unfortunately he contracted chest infection. Later, antibiotic induced diarrhoea happened and died after 4 weeks duration of suffering. Of course, there is a debatable wide issue about hospital acquired infection. But if that man with such age did not go out in the late evening, he would not have suffered such consequences.

It is very difficult to restrict the freedom of people in the democratic countries. But I suspect new law or system needs to be imposed to prevent similar events, such as "Old people no going out after what time without what precaution" . A few months ago, the government has already tried to introduce a curfew for some age group of youngsters in some parts of a city not to go out in the evening after a serial events of knife crimes and killings.

Related posts:

• How effective is priority seating signage?
• Forbidden London

Who am I?

Sometime Britain is confusing with different names and usages. For example, many people from far east would not be so clear between the UK, Great Britain, Britain and England. Basically, the United Kingdom is mainly formed by four countries, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Some books say Britain usually refers the main island, but in case of Great Britain, more territories, that is, Northern Ireland, Channels Islands and the Isle of Man are added (Ref: Life in the United Kingdom).

But more logical approach of explanation according to a web site is that the UK means a combination of 4 countries. The Great Britain means England, Wales and Scotland. Britain means England and Wales. The name Britain was derived from Britannia. Romans who ruled and introduced the civilization in the British islands during approximately 55BC and 400AD named it "Britannia Major". "Britannia Minor" was in France.

According to the book (Life in the UK), if Scots and Welsh are asked "What is your citizenship", they will answer "British". and if asked "What is your nationality", they will reply "Scottish" and "Welsh". For the native-born English people, they will answer "British" to both questions.

I ask myself what my citizenship is and what my nationality is.

No kiss, no cold sores and no dementia?

Could a kiss result in dementia?

The majority of people would answer "No".

But according to the latest research in Britain, cold sores, mainly transmitted by kissing, link to Alzheimer's disease, a progressive disabling and irreversible memory problem, which is the second commonest form of dementia. The DNA structure of the HSV-1, a virus causing cold sores, is found in the brains died of Alzheimer's dementia. As this finding is based on a small research , more works are still in need to confirm the discovery.

At this point, we should have an awareness of cold sore, I think. What is cold sore?

Some facts are as follow:

• -a very common illness caused by herpes simplex virus type 1
  
• -characterized by groups of fluid-filled blisters on and around the lips
  
• -transmitted by close body contact, mainly kissing (involvement of private part if having oral sex with infected partner)
• -tender and painful
• -reactivation (recurrence) happened when body resistance falls (as virus could stay inside the body for a long time or for life long )
• -Zovirax cold sore cream helps to some extent

More detail on Netdoctor

Cross-sex friendship and its outcome

I came across this interesting sociology topic, cross-sex friendship and I learnt a bit more.

What is cross-sex friendship? It is having a friend of the opposite sex, that is, a man has a female friend and a woman has a male friend.

Cross sex friendship is historically rare in many societies while partnership is better acceptable model. There have been many social territories where such kind of relationship has been prohibited on the ground of religion, tradition and culture. Even though there is no such restriction, many people would not need an opposite sex as a friend. For example, a man with a full of family commitment would not pay attention too much on his old and new friends.

On the other hand, there have been a few societies in which cross-sex friendship is well accepted as part of a social life. In this point, it can be seen that there is less discrimination between genders, treating both sex as the same.

It is suggested that it is a sort of social freedom. But it would bring some drawbacks. For example, cross-sex friendship could ruin the existing partnership or even harm the marriage life. It would force to stop a potential long term partnership. It is also inevitable that members of society often presume a sexual involvement. Further more, it is not uncommon that there is a possibility of the existence of sexual tension. Some believe that cross-sex friendship occasionally acts as a start of adultery.

However, having a friend of the opposite sex would have some benefits. Basically, one can get an emotional support which is not available from the same sex friend. Besides, it would be a very useful approach for someone who is meticulously choosing his or her future partner. That friendship could be transformed into a partnership at any time if circumstances are right.

To conclude, cross-sex friendship is one of the social models despite its variable incidence depending on individual person and society. Some one would create this relationship for one or more purposes. But it can be said that it would be an unacceptable condition if someone claim “it is just a friendship" in order to cover up what is actually happening.

Any educated argument, Welcome

Further readings

1. Cross-sex friendship in adulthood
   
2. Cross-sex friendship by Michael Monsour
3. The effect of gender role orientation on same- and cross-sex friendship formation

Referene

1. Cross-sex friendship Wikipedia

UK Job cut diary

UK Job losses on google map.

With a global economic downturn, we can hear the bad news of job market on a daily basis. My concern is £ to Kyats ex-change rate going down from well over K 2000 previously to K 1780/ £ yesterday. I came across the following list of job losses on Telegraph.co.uk which revealed that British companies have announced the loss of 31,184 jobs in the past two months.

December 4 2008 - 1,000 jobs :

• Nomura, the Japanese broker,1000

December 3 2008 - 794 jobs:

• GlaxoSmithKline 200,
• Experian, the company that runs credit checks, 300
• JA Magson, the toy and stationary distributor, 200
• Pinnacle Entertainment 94

December 2 2008 - 817 jobs

• Glasgow-based Bowie Castlebank Group, 817

December 1 2008 - 2,000 jobs

• Aston Martin 600
• Halfords 200
• HSBC 500
• Investment bank Credit Suisse 650

November 28 2008 - 800 jobs

• The Independent newspaper 100
• Aon Corporation 700

November 20 2008 - 590 jobs

• Rolls-Royce 140
• BAE Systems 200
• AstraZeneca 250

November 19 2008 - 900 jobs

• Insulation and roofing materials group SIG 900

November 18 2008 - 90 jobs

• Denis O'Brien, a major shareholder in Independent News & Media, 90

November 17 2008 - 1,815 jobs

• Global banking giant Citigroup 1500
• Avis Europe 315

November 13 2008 - 6,398 jobs

• JCB 398
• Telecoms giant BT 6000

November 11 2008 - 5,320 jobs

• Virgin Media 2200
• GlaxoSmithKline 6200
• Yellow Pages directories firm 1300
• Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey 1000
• Technology firm Psion 200

November 10 2008 - 800 jobs

• Cable & Wireless 700
• Dairy Crest, which manufactures Cathedral City cheese among its many products 100

November 8 2008 - 700 jobs

• Babcock Marine 300
• Corus, the steelmaker, 400

October 28 2008 - 500 jobs

• Credit Suisse 500

October 23 2008 - 6,060 jobs

• Goldman Sachs 6000
• Rightmove 60

October 14 2008 - 600 jobs

• Cadbury 600

October 3 2008 - 2,000 jobs

• Swiss bank UBS 2000

Full details on Telegraph.co.uk

First snow for this season

I think my blog has changed to a photo album gradually as these days almost all of my posts have got photos. But I have to post again as this morning I saw some snow outside. This is the first snow in west Yorkshire for this winter in my knowledge. We rarely see snow in London area. Maybe 1-2 days a year.


My car has also been covered with snow.


A small snow sweeper in progress inside parking place

Today's supper

This evening I intended to eat bacon sandwich. For some reason, Bacon was in the freezer. I could not wait to defrost it. So I had to eat fried egg sandwich like this. With mushroom soup. Spread was flora as usual. I know deep fried foods are not so healthy. But I like British breakfast very much. 5 items meal from hospital restaurant with one bacon, one sausage, one hush brown, one black pudding, mushroom and beans are my once a week routine.



After meal, I tidied up my things on the basin cabinet. Now all are well organized like this.