A Monarchy in Crisis

One of my favourite books that I got for my
Bat Mitzva and have kept all these years. 

I've always been a staunch Monarchist. I love the pomp and ceremony. It adds to the unique flavour of the UK. The Monarchy brings in tourist revenue. It emphasizes a connection to other Commonwealth countries, ties which can only be beneficial. I like that ordinary people who do extraordinary things can be rewarded with a knighthood - a purely honorary title with no cash prize. 

The Queen has been a model of dignity, duty, and good manners. In good times and in bad the British public enjoys her support and encouragement via television broadcasts. The Queen's speeches are unifying in a way that only football and natural disasters can compare (and we don't have street parties for natural disasters).

My attitude thus far has been that they do their jobs and I do mine. All careers have pluses and  minuses and there are plenty of overpaid civil servants, that's just the way it is. But now I'm changing my mind. 

"The Queen successfully lobbied the government to change a draft law in order to conceal her “embarrassing” private wealth from the public, according to documents discovered by the Guardian."

Is it acceptable that a woman who owns vast swathes of the country and is paid from taxpayers' money, should be able to hide the fact that she is wealthy to the tune of billions of pounds? 

Last year the Duchy of Cornwall made £21 million profit which went straight to Prince Charles' private purse. Last March (arguably before we knew the extent of the economic crisis to come) he raised rents on the Isle of Scilly, of which he owns most of it. Some leasholders have seen their rents increase from less than £100 a year to arounf £7000 a year in the space of a few years. 

The 1967 Leasehold Reform Act gave leaseholders the right to buy their freehold at a price calculated according to set guidelines. This law does not apply to land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. Leasehold rents are usually a nominal yearly charge but it means that when the lease is up, the land and your property, and any improvements you made, all revert to the freeholder. You have nothing to bequeath your children, you have no equity and you cannot get a mortgage on leaseholds with few years to run. And certainly no one is going to buy a property with less than a 99 year lease so you can't sell and move somewhere else. 

Prince Charles owns four palatial residences in England, Scotland and Wales, for his family of two. This is a complete throwback to when the world had a quarter of its present population and the poor "knew their place". Do we really want a king who lives so much in the past that he hires a man to dress him in the morning and put toothpase on his toothbrush? Is this sort of extravagant lifestyle at the expense of the working people going to be a model that we can repsect? Are we going to look to King Charles for support in times of crisis? I think not. 

Then we have the arrogant, entitlement of Andrew who in any other role, would have been fired without keeping all the perks of the job, incuding living in a grace-and-favour mansion. 

Harry and Meghan are playing at being Prince and Princess of LA. She says, "we are not ranked, we are linked," whilst fiercely retaining her HRH and Duchess titles. She sues photographers for publishing a photo of the back of her baby's hooded head but releases photos of other people's children when she visits a school during lockdown where the parents aren't even allowed to enter. And lies to the court in another of  their multiple and potentially money-making law suits. Whilst at every opportunity lecturing us about our responsibility to heal the planet (from their 16-bathroom mansion) and being kind to one another (although not to her own father, obviously). 

It's not Andrew and Harry that bring down the Monarchy. Every family has rogue members. They are no longer working Royals (even though Harry thinks he still is) and we don't have to see or hear from them (except that Harry and Meghan haven't quite got the hang of the privacy they craved and so we do see and hear from them. A lot). The complaint is that we the public, are still paying for their extravagant lifestyles, directly or indirectly, and the Queen and Prince Charles continue to fascilitate this violation of privelege. This is not just not a parent and grandparent supporting children, This is public employees abusing their position which, it seems, is above the law. 

The covid pandemic and ensuing economic crisis has made extreme privelege and extravagance much more of an issue than it ever was. With internet informaton, nothing can be hidden from the masses. We need a fresh start with a new approach to the British Monarchy. 

I would like to see Prince Charles stand down and let William and Kate become the next King and Queen (or whatever title she gets). The civil list should be restricted to them and them only. (It's a fallacy that public appearances by other Royals bring in any extra revenue for the charities they patronise.) King William would be the figurehead for all the three military branches. If they send other family members on official visits, they should be paid a daily rate - same as everyone who travels for work. 

Other members of the family can keep whatever properties they own if they can afford them - same as all other stately home owners. But leaseholders living on their lands must have the same rights to buy their freeholds as any other citizen. Grace-and-favour properties belonging to the crown should be subject to rent with the revenue going to the public purse. 

 Save the Monarchy but make it real for the 21st Century. 

Reasons 2B Cheerful

Spring is in the air

 I started this new blog and then neglected it. I almost decided to transfer the posts here back to Midlife Singlemum and just change the name. However, I do want a clean break and a completely new image, not to mention the challenge of living up to the name Panache. Spring has arrived so I'm giving Midlife Panache another go and I'm long overdue for a R2BC post. 

1 Fully Vaccinated

I got my second shot exactly three weeks after the first. The place was as empty as it was the first time so despite arriving half an hour early, I went straight into one of the vaccination booths. This time while waiting for 15 minutes before leaving, a staff member came round and asked all of the 20 or so waitees if we were feeling OK. I was impressed with that. The drive-through testing centre has been moved from the car park opposite the vaccination centre in the Jerusalem Arena, so I was able to get a taxi outside the door without worrying that it would take 20 minutes of meter time to leave the stadium-arena campus. Apart from flushed cheeks later in the evening (like a fever could break out but didn't), I had no side effcts at all. It's now two weeks later and I consider myself fully vaccintated and 95% safe - although I'm not exactly sure what that means. 

2 Spring

We really didn't have much of a winter this year. The temperature has hovvered between 15C and 20C since the beginning of December with only a few days falling below 15C and a few rain storms lasting a couple of days each. But now we're firmly back in the 20s and it really does feel like spring. 

3 Social Zooms

It took a while for this to take off as, being a teacher working from home, the last thing I want to do after a day at the computer, is to have more zoom meetings. There were a few family meet-ups with a friendly quiz which were fun. Last week I zoomed with four friends from my schooldays. We all live in different cities and on three different continents so I don't know why it took the pandemic for us to do this. This was our second zoom and we've cemented the custom of doing it on our birthdays. We may need another excuse in the summer as we were all born withn six months of each other. Or not. I've also fallen into a welcome monthly zoom date with a friend in London. Second month this Sunday as we  only started in January this year. Although I spend a lot of time on Face Book, it's not the same as actually chatting as opposed to typing. I'm starting to feel more connected to the world again. (This may also be because the balcony door is wide open and there are people outside in the sunshine.)

4 New Job

I am [remote] teaching a course at a new (to me) college this semester. It's the sister college to the one I already teach in and also very local. I'm hoping that if things go well, the work will continue next year. The pay doesn't quite cover the cuts that were made in September so it's lots more work for almost the same money I got last year for fewer hours, but under the current circumstances I'm just grateful to still be employed at all.

In a nutshell, lots to be cheerful about. 

A More Des Res for New Year Resolutions

Not every resolution is for every day. 

New Year resolutions (NYRs from now on) have the bad reputation of being discarded before the first month of the year is out. But still we're drawn to making them. I've seen some attempts at taming them by changing the name to 'goals' or 'intentions'. Who are we kidding? After a week, a res by any other name would smell as obsolete.

The forerunners of NYRs, about 4,000 years ago, were the allegiance to the King and promises to the gods in Ancient Babylon during their 12-day NY celebrations in the spring. The Romans continued making promises to the gods when Julius Ceasar changed the NY to January 1st in about 46BCE. Wanting to provide a religious alternative to reveling and getting drunk, English clergyman, John Wesley introduced the Covenant Renewal Service in 1740 (also known as Watch Night Services), to reflect on the past year and make resolutions for the coming one.  

Nowadays we make promises to ourselves. This is not as binding on our psyche as promising our gods. Hence the reported 92% failure rate. Seeing as we're not giving up on NYRs, there has to be a better way of doing it. And now, at last, someone has found it. 

I didn't make this up myself. My blogging friend of 10 years, Emma Martin, who lives on Cyprus, discovered a small switch in mindset, a loophole, an altogether more des res, that increases your chance of success. At least until December - when it could go back to 8%. But you'll have had 365 days of opportunity and many of them in the warmer weather when you're feeling more energised. 

In A Matter of Choice, Emma explains that NYRs are made on January 1st, in the NY, but you don't have to start all of them straight away. She interprets the concept as things you will start or conquer at some time during the coming year. 

How comforting to know that you can conquer Couch to 5K even if you start in the spring. You can give up eating meat by reducing gradually and have it licked (pun intended) by the end of the year. You can learn a new language or musical intrument without promising yourself to practise for 20 minutes every day. You can even schedule your studies to start at a beginners' summer course in your local college.

The pressure is off folks! This year I will..... means two doughnuts doesn't mean you've failed your diet resolution. One day of watching television all day in your pyjamas doesn't derail any of your good, industrious, healthy, productive, creative, empowering, self-improvement, super-hero resolutions. You just took a day or a week or a month off. Who cares? You have the whole of 2021 to do this thing.   

As someone who takes her NYRs as seriously as the Babylonians and Romans did, this revelation has changed my whole life. I'm stunned that no one has said it before. If we share it, we could help millions of people to do this year what they've never managed to achieve before. (Quick Emma, write the book before anyone else writes it!) 

On behalf of my friend Emma, you're welcome. 

Emma Martin blogs at Talking on Eggshells

Cooking from the HeART

What do you do when you find yourself in quarantine with a fortnight's worth of free time? For Sally-Ann Thwaites the answer was simple. She would use the time to collect all her recipes, hithertofore on scraps of paper or on her phone, together into one convenient file. 

Sally-Ann (Sassy to her friends) is a great entertainer. Her passion is to have upwards of 10, and sometimes 20 friends around her dining table almost every Shabbat. Her greatest joy is a house full of guests for a party, a barbeque, or a celebration of any sort. So, on hearing of her plan to collate all her delicious recipes, everyone encouraged her to go the extra mile and make it into a book.

Thus began a five month project which resulted in Cooking from the Heart, a 260 page cornucopia of entertaining know-how, recipes, tips and luscious photos. 

Emerging from her solitary confinement, Sassy invited all her friends whose dishes she'd been borrowing for years, to send her the actual recipes. She contacted the chefs of restaurants and hotels to request the recipes of dishes she and her husband have particularly enjoyed locally and on their travels. 

She also dug deep into her memory to recreate the best loved dishes of her childhood. Recipes from her beloved mother, also a great cook and entertainer, and her first inspiration in the kitchen. In fact the book is dedicated to Monica Slater, a lovely lady whom I remember well from my childhood in our community in London.

When I offered to do some editing, I was told there would be about 25 recipes a week for three weeks. No problem, we were in lockdown, I wasn't going anywhere. But the recipes kept on coming. When, five months later, we reached 130 recipes I asked if this was a book of her favourite recipes or of every dish she'd ever eaten. Haha, very funny. These things often take on a life of their own. 

If you're going to do something, do it properly, right? A professional photographer, graphic designer and printer were essential to make the leap from crafts project to coffee table splendor. Fun for us, because every few weeks, in between the lockdowns, there was photo shoot and a whole bunch of friends had to come over and eat all the food. 

Sally-Ann setting the table.

I learned a few things too. Apparently a grazing table is a thing. But don't worry if you've never heard of it before as there's a page dedicated to telling you how it's done with elegance and panache*. Ditto for other more familiar concepts like table settings, buffets, reception food, and fruit platters.

Obviously after all the time, effort and expense, this is not the sort of thing where you print five copies and give them to your closest family. With the help of a sponsor, Cooking from the Heart is being distributed in aid of Beit Halochem, an organisation that supports military veterans in Israel. (Suggested donation £30 and all the proceeds go straight to the charity.) 

There's a facebook page where people are posting photos of their dinners from the book. It's fun to see everyone's choices, interpretations (because no two cooks are the same), and comments. And you can find information about how to get your very own copy. 

I've completed a few little projects during this pandemic, but Sassy raised the bar considerably. In fact, in my Jerusalem neighbourhood, I'd say she won the lockdowns by a mile. 

*I am particulalry interested in panache at the moment, having just started this new blog.

The Call to Vacction (It's a Play on Words).

Jerusalem Payis Arena
The sign says: Maccabi Always With You. 
 

 3.20 pm: I'm giving a zoom English lesson to six 4th Graders. The phone rings. I don't give the lady time to tell me anything. I say I'm a teacher giving a zoom lesson and I'll be able to talk in another 30 minutes. Had I known what it was about, I would never have hung up.

 3.50 pm on the dot: She calls back. She's from Maccabi, my health fund. Would I like to make an appointment for the first round vaccination? Of course I would but as I told the person I spoke to a couple of weeks ago, after receiving invitations by sms, email and a phone call, I'm allergic to latex and they warned people with allergies to speak to their doctor first. Last time I was told that as I'm not yet 60, I don't really qualify. Which begged the question - why invite me to make an appointment then? 

Since then they are filling in free slots with people in their 50s so as not to waste opened batches of vaccination that have been out of the freezer too long to put back. 

This nice lady asks if I'm allergic to any medicines and specifically any inoculations. No and no. So you're fine, can you come at 4.20? Whoa, I'm not sure I can get there by 4.20. Ok, 4.40? Done. 

I am about to hang up when she says, "one more thing. Your second jab will be on the 25th January also at 4.40." I'm amazed. Are you an angel from heaven? The truth is that Israel does what it does best in a crisis. We're used to crises.  

 3.55 pm: I dance around my apartment feeling like I've won the lottery. 

 4.05 pm: I jump in a taxi. "Driver! The Jerusalem Payis Arena! And don't spare the horses!" (I'm paraphrasing.) 

 4.20 pm: I walk into the Arena. They give me a number at the door which corresponds exactly to the number showing on the screen. Cubicle 9. Straight in. 

 4.21 pm: I give my ID number. "Rachel Selby? I see you had your flu shot three weeks ago." Yes and yes. "Which arm?" Reader, I didn't feel a thing. 

 4.22 pm: I'm sitting in the lobby having been instructed to wait 10 minutes before leaving. 

 4.50 pm: I'm home and half vaccinated. The trouble is that no one knows which half. And anyway, my 50% immunity doesn't kick in for 8-10 days. But who's going anywhere in the next month anyway? We too are heading for a strict stay-at-home lockdown due to start within 48 hours.

Apparently we are stopping the first round of vaccinations at the end of this week and spending the rest of January giving the second round. I wasn't going to bother with this first round. I thought I'd contact my GP, maybe have to get an epipen and a doctor's note. Whatever, I planned to be ready for the February intake. I was quite happy to let the first 1.5 million people try it out before me. But, now I'm happy, relieved, honoured, and very grateful to have been given this opportunity. 

  

New Year, New Blog

Dawn of a new day. Possibly the age of Aquarius.

Happy New Year 2021! 

A New Year full of hope with covid-19 vaccinations rolling out around the world. I haven't given up on celebrating Pesach (Passover) this year with our family in London. And if not Pesach, then the summer (thank you Easyjet for Flexibooking).

Coinciding with all this anticipation for the rebirth of society and the economy, my DD turned 12 last month. Not exactly empty nest time but definitely more independence for both of us. Babysitters are a thing of the past. We can each come and go with our own keys and have our own schedules. We'll keep in touch by phone and agree a time to meet at home for dinner (because Midlife Panache demands that it must be dinner, not just tea or supper).

Oh the exciting possibilities of the coming year. I love you already 2021!

Seriously though - who is this Midlife Panache? What happened to Midlife Singlemum, that comfortable, homely, old friend of a blogger? Well Singlemum's still here but Panache is desperately trying to get out under 12 years of plain pasta. 

I loved having a baby, then a toddler, then a little girl. I didn't feel that it was hard doing it on my own but the all encompassing committement meant that I lost myself somewhat in the process. 

Fitting work around hours of available childcare meant that income was restricted. I'm an emotional eater and there were plenty of emotions to chomp my way through. I ate DD's leftovers because wasting food is a sin. I put all my efforts into DD and unwittingly let myself go. And this past year of being almost totally sedentary was not helpful, to say the least. 

Time for big changes. With thanks to Midlife Singlemum for 10 years of fun-filled blogging, and to DD who provided reams of entertainment but no longer wants to be featured in a blog, I hereby introduce Midlife Panache!

I'm not entirely comfortable with the name yet. Panache means flamboyant confidence of style or manner. I almost changed it to something tamer. Midlife In Clover was a contender as 'in clover' means a life of ease and luxury, but also connotates afternoon tea in the garden - which is more me. And a cow. So I nixed that one. 

Midlife Panache is a challenge and I'm up for a challenge this year.