2010年1月16日 星期六

There is something fishy..... a trip to seafood market

Prime Minister and his wife visit a market in Cascais, 30 miles west of Lisbon


  • Clutching sunglasses, they pointed at the shellfish for the cameras
  • But with a blue t-shirt, dark dress and staged poses, it looked like 2013
  • Last year they visited a fish market in Aljezur, some 200 miles away
  • The blue t-shirt, the slicked-back hair, the inane pointing at shellfish: It can only mean David Cameron's holiday.
    The Prime Minister's return to Portugal for a summer break was marked with the now-traditional photo opportunity, and his PR advisers are clearly taking no chances by doing anything radical or new.
    In fact readers might have struggled to tell the difference between this year's pointedly relaxed shopping trip to a seafood market in Cascais in Portugal and last year's relaxed pointing visit to a market in Aljezur, some 200 miles away.
    Mussel man: David and Samantha Cameron today visited a seafood market in Cascais in Portugal
    With a blue t-shirt, dark dress, slicked-back hair and piles of fish, today's snap was an eerie echo of last year's visit to a market in Aljezur in the Algarve

    With a blue t-shirt, dark dress, slicked-back hair and piles of fish, today's snap was an eerie echo of last year's visit to a market in Aljezur in the Algarve

    Ed Miliband recently accused Mr Cameron of being ' a very sophisticated and successful exponent of a politics based purely on image'.

    It seems that image is based largely on joining his wife Samantha in public admiration of prawns and mussels.

    The Prime Minister returned to Portugal early this morning, after attending World War One commemorations in Belgium last night.

    The Camerons and their children Nancy, Elwen and Florence jetted off for their summer holiday on Saturday.

    But the PM left his family to fly to Glasgow the following day to attend the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.


    The senior Foreign Office minister dramatically resigned in protest at the government's 'morally indefensible' policy on Gaza.
    But the drama was not going to stop the Camerons rushing out to cast a critical eye over Cascais's crustaceans.
    After a quick call to London, Mr Cameron pulled on a dark blue t-shirt, Mrs Cameron donned a dark dress and they set off to land themselves some lunch – and a photo opportunity.
    Clutching sunglasses, the couple pointed purposefully at the produce, shook hands with the locals and joined the queue to pay for their purchases. 

    It all seemed horribly familiar. Last year Mr Cameron pulled on a blue shirt and Mrs Cameron wore a dark dress as they headed out to admire the fish market in Alejezur in the Algarve.
    Maybe Tory media gurus know something the rest of us don't. They obviously think voters like to see a Prime Minister who knows his way around a fish counter.
    In 2012 Mr Cameron made an impromptu stop at a Morrisons supermarket in Plymouth, where he bought fish and vegetables for a family dinner
    In 2011 r Cameron bought monkfish, scallops and mackerel from Fresh From The Sea in Port Isaac, Cornwall
    During the 2010 election campaign Mr Cameron campaigned through the night, including a stop at Grimsby fish market
    In 2012, Mr Cameron interrupted a visit to the West Country to stop off at Morrisons in Plymouth, where he bought sea bass from the fish counter, new potatoes, lemons and other fruit. 
    A year earlier during a holiday to Cornwall – his fifth in 2011 – Mr Cameron bought monkfish, scallops and mackerel from Fresh From The Sea in Port Isaac.
    In the run-up to the general election in 2010, Mr Cameron shunned the obvious politician's photograph kissing babies to grapple with a large fish during a visit to Grimsby.
    During the election campaign Mr Cameron boasted of having a 'good fishing heritage', telling the Angling Times how his grandfather was a 'brilliant fly fisherman'.
    The Tory leader added: 'I still do a bit of fishing, but not as much as I'd like to. I went mackerel fishing with the children this summer and we ate everything we caught, I'm pleased to say. I do a very good smoked mackerel paté.' 

    PM CRITICISED FOR RAF FLIGHTS AT THE TAXPAYERS' EXPENSE 

    3,746 miles in three days
    David Cameron has been accused of wasting taxpayers’ money after he used an RAF jet to fly back from his summer holiday after just one day abroad.
    The Prime Minister flew to Portugal with his wife and three children on Saturday where they are enjoying a 10-day break staying in a villa.
    But after just a few hours in the sun, on Sunday he was yesterday flown home by the Royal Squadron so he could attend the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.
    He then used the RAF plane to fly to France and Belgium for the First World War commemorations before flying back to Portugal on a commercial flight at his own expense this morning.
    The Prime Minister has been criticised for not postponing his holiday for just a few days, which would have saved taxpayers thousands of pounds.
    Mr Cameron’s extraordinary travel plan saw him rack up around 3,700 air miles in just three days.
    Labour MP Thomas Docherty said: ‘Why couldn’t he just have booked his holiday for after these events, rather than blowing thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money jetting backwards and forwards?
    Fellow colleague Steve Pound added: ‘It’s not like he didn’t know these events were happening - we’ve known the date of the First World War anniversary for 100 years.’
    Mr Cameron, who has previously been accused of being too good at ‘chillaxing’, had an Easter break with his family in Lanzarote.
    He and his wife will also take their traditional break to Cornwall later this summer with their children Nancy, eight, Arthur, six, and Florence, 23 months. 

    From the Dailymail         August 2014

    Facebook your way to a PhD : Macleans OnCampus

    Facebook your way to a PhD : Macleans OnCampus

    〈我又見到永恆〉的文章

    懶洋洋的下午〉:

    下午,我從沒試過沒有懶洋洋的感覺,特別是那些時候,躺在他的沙發上,聽他播出Morgana King,用她貓一般的聲音唱:It's A Lazy Afternoon,直到那一天,就在沙發上爬起來告訴他,我再也不能忍受那聲音和那首歌。我喜歡那首歌,也喜歡Morgana King,只是在那些情景之下,我再不能忍受。今天,我仍然喜歡那首歌,仍然記得他說女人像一頭貓。奇怪,女人會留戀一個她已經不愛的人所留給她的一首歌。
    但是,我到底愛什麼?也許到我死的那一天我也答不出來,我想我最大的願望是保持一個自由的靈魂。我的肉身可以被人擁有,我的雙肩可以被很多責任壓着,但是靈魂,它是我唯一的財產,我不會讓任何人把它鎖起來。
    我不是花兒人,也不是傳統派,不要說我屬於上層社會,中層社會,或者下層社會,我一生最怕團體,和被人分門別類。我很少寫文章,也很多時候不滿意自己的文章,有一回被人稱為「女作家」,還用斗大的字印出來,令我自己惱了自己半天,擲筆什麼也不寫了幾個月,我不喜歡被稱為自己不配稱的東西。我會高興,如果你閒極無聊,拿起「懶洋洋的下午」作兩分鐘伴兒,雖然,我和你永遠會是那麼陌生。
    原稿紙不是團體,對着它我相當自在,在求學時期,學校內學生暴動,眾人「士氣沸騰」,我沒有參加,雖然我不支持他們所要打倒的固有傳統,但我也不願意被領袖牽着走。他自己很聰明,但是跟隨他的人一大半不知所謂,只以為加入了暴動智商便會自動升高五十。我想,我若夠腦筋便會自己走,用不着跟隨尾巴的尾巴的尾巴,既然腦筋未夠程度,不如繼續過我懶洋洋的下午好了。
    不錯,鍾拜亞絲抱着結他跑來我們學校大唱We Shall Overcome,她哭,同學們也哭,我走過那堆人沒有回頭,我害怕養成混在群眾中或者潮流中,便以為自己已經有了性格的習慣。也許我是一個孤獨者,我的下午依然是那麼的睏睏慵慵,令我頭腦清醒的早晨,離我而去之後還沒有再來過。

    專欄「寂寂燕子樓」
    《明報》林燕妮專欄「寂寂燕子樓」今日刊登題為〈我又見到永恆〉的文章。她起首寫道「昨夜,我又見到永恆」,指自己在別人眼中可能是「何等精彩,何等燦爛」,然而自己卻深明「一切盡在流光之中,時間不由我操控」。雖然如此,她相信閱讀文章的感動即使在於剎那,但「刊出來的文字,已是永恆」,而她仍可「憑一支筆,留住永恆」。
    莫問佳人何在
    林燕妮又道,人生苦樂共存,死亡並非可以一了百了,但她相信天堂是美的,亦無懼死亡,道:「如果有一天,造物主另有工作向我分派,我是樂於接受」。他朝離開人世再回首,她認為「曾經嘗過苦,不再是什麼一回事」。因此,她提出無須以生死為人劃下界線,「肉身消失沒關係,精神不滅才是永恆」,道:「如果有一天,燕子樓空,不用驚訝,莫問佳人何在」。
    「紅塵總有別」,林燕妮認為思念是種溫馨,無論是否一息尚存,也希望身邊摯親摯愛繼續「思我念我,常常」。她相信,永恆彷彿已經告一段落,唯有常常是種動態,靜靜地留住永恆,故道:「容我先跟各方好友、摯愛讀者說句,每天記我念我多一些就好」。

    著名作家林燕妮(Eunice)日前因肺癌逝世,享年75歲。她長年在《明報》副刊專欄撰文,首篇文章刊於1973年6月22日《明報》第七版,題為〈懶洋洋的下午〉。隨着林燕妮的離世,她在《明報》專欄「寂寂燕子樓」的最後一篇文章

    她終筆的專欄叫「寂寂燕子樓」,取名與她的名字有關,看來更是寄情於江蘇徐州的燕子樓。中國名勝古蹟千古名揚,不在於它的存與廢、真與偽,而在於它的歷史文化底蘊。徐州雲龍公園內的燕子樓不可能是一千二百幾年前唐朝著名女詩人關盼盼居住過的小樓,而只是寄托有關歷史和文化的所在。對這座小樓的題詠歷代不絕,同年代白居易的題詠固多,幾百年後蘇軾到來「夜宿燕子樓,夢盼盼」寫下「燕子樓空,佳人何在,空鎖樓中燕」(《永遇樂》) 使燕子樓名聲更熾。
    至今,仍可讀到不少以之為題材的散文,並有林燕妮的專欄。
    林燕妮寄情燕子樓,相信源自她自小愛讀古典文學。她說自小學起便愛看三國等章回小說,上了中學便看古文,還曾與同學仿韓愈的《祭十二郎文》,在作文課互相為對方寫了篇祭文。她曾在專欄中寫了篇〈不用怕古文〉,鼓勵讀者親近古文,「比如愛上一個男人,你是先被他的氣質風度所吸引,不需要先數他的襯衫上有多少顆鈕釦,內褲是什麼顏色,先親近他一下吧。」
    事實是,只要有好的文字根柢,白話文根本不用學,你說的是白話,寫出來有多難?現代名作家如魯迅、老舍、巴金、梁實秋、林語堂、錢鍾書……相信沒有誰在讀書時上過白話文的課。


    在《明報》專欄