The Blog...

This is for National Grief Awareness Week in the UK, December 2nd to 8th 2022.

If an author set out to write a story of family tragedy they would have approached the end of this story and thought, nope, that’s just way too much. The readers wouldn’t believe it. This is a story of great sadness but also an insight into the positives, the support that people can receive and also give.

It all starts from my mother’s family that is made us of seven sisters and three brothers. This is a large family in today’s numbers, that come from a small island off Hong Kong and close to the China border.

From the early 1960s, all but one sister has made the UK their home, in particular finally settling in the North East of England and Scotland as their permanent homes. Their early history in the UK involved places like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Aberdeen, Dundee and the likes of Elgin right at the top of Scotland. That history is for the second generation to find more about.

We made it into a featured article on the Ramblers Association website. Got interviewed by Carol for this.

I've been to a few knowledge sharing, networking events, over at the Technopole in Portsmouth hosted by the South Coast Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications. I wanted to learn more about the Space domain, especially with regards to work and opportunities at the Dorset Innovation Park where we are already involved in the Land, Sea, Air and Cyber domains.

Only starting to understand the wide range of satellite applications and it has moved away from the pure comms side of things into data. Everything is data and what insight and intelligence you can get from it, for both societal and security purposes.

One particular session really caught my mind and that was by 4 Earth Intelligence. The day centred around air quality and it really brought home the idea that bad air quality is a public health burden. It's not just a hazy day every now and again. Living close to congested roads, roundabouts and crossings, means you are enveloped in the pollution and particulates every day of the year. Your lungs will be in continual decline, whether slowly or quickly, if you don't get respite from it.

There was a doctor that did a quite technical/medical presentation but you could understand the issues if not the phrases.

It took me a while but here is a lovely little video from the footage I shot walking around our Southbourne community.

Growing sunflowers was to bring some colour to the area and act as a little reminder about charity. Charity organisations have all suffered too under the pandemic restrictions, which curtailed many fundraising activities.

We sourced packets of sunflowers from Lewis Manning Hospice Care and we wanted to raise some money for them via this dedicated Just Giving page. If you took part or enjoyed the flowers on your walkabout, please consider a small donation, either to Lewis Manning or your own favourite charity.