What I would have added….

Some weeks I appear on London Lives‘ breakfast show, Wake Up London. I’m on for about 5mins every hour talking about some of the stories that are in the papers and making the news in the capital. With only 5 minutes, I don’t really get a chance to stay everything I’d like to, so I thought I’d create a weekly post on my blog for some ‘added value’ lol. Enjoy and feel free to comment and share!

First up was this AMAZING story – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2734481/Woman-54-kills-leopard-spade-hour-long-fight-death-attacked-Indian-village.html Yes it’s in the Daily Mail… But put that aside for one moment and check this story out! A woman in her fifties fights off a leopard with a sickle and a small shovel! It’s one of those stories you hear and instantly wonder what you’d do in that situation. I’ve had a think and I’m not sure I would have lasted 10 minutes, let alone the hour that this woman fought for her life. I guess when you are in that ‘fight or flight’ situation and when flight really isn’t an option it can be amazing what the human body can overcome. Despite suffering some fractures and wounds that required 100+ witches it looks like this woman will make a good recovery! Not so lucky for the leopard though – it was found dead a short distance away.

Next was this wonderful use of technology – https://www.goodsamapp.org  – An app that could literally save your life! It was developed by a neurosurgeon and London Air Ambulance doctor, Mr Mark Wilson, (along with two techies, Ali Ghorbangholi and Ali Haddad). The app as two functions, Responder and Alerter. The Responder is for people that have some form or formal first aid qualification. They register and are notified of any emergencies in their local vicinity, which they can choose to respond to. The Alerter is for members of the public (like you and me). Signing up for the service means that should you be involved in an emergency or witness one, you simply press the button on the App and it will call the emergency services and also notify any Responders that might be close by and able to help. It’s one of those creations that make you think, why oh why do people keep sending me Candy Crush invites when they could be forwarding on this life saving app instead! I’m not one for promoting things (unless I’m getting paid), but I definitely think everyone should sign up as an Alerter – you never know who you might be able to help – it might even be yourself!

And finally this week – to recline or not to recline. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-28943131 This story’s been doing the rounds on the inter web for the last few days (Guardian Comment is Free) and although on one hand it’s the story of two people arguing over the position of a seat (#firstworldproblems), it does raise the question of airline seat etiquette. Is there a right time to recline your chair, should you inform your fellow passengers that you are about to violate their 4 inches of legroom, or whatever it is these days? I know that on long haul flights I used to be upset when the passenger in front instantly pushed their seat back, as if the seatbelt sign was some sort of formula one starting light. I’ve been on many an uncomfortable flight stuck in the position unable to watch the little telly or find any position of comfort, but in my old age (relative) I now don’t seem to care so much. With the every increasing cost of flights (taxes) just being on a plane is worthy of a celebration and if part of that celebration involves kicking my feet up and making the most of my economy ticket then I will. Maybe #firstworldproblem isn’t correct – it should be #economyclassproblem lol

 

Advertisement

Life after 2012

It’s a year since I experienced one of the greatest days of my life and performed at the London 2012 Ceremonies.

I vividly remember every detail, from the months and months of dance preparation to the first moment my fellow volunteers and myself walked into the stadium surrounded by a thousands of excited spectators!

20130726-173139.jpg
(My wonderful ceremonies costume lol)

The weeks of training culminated in just 15 minutes of performance time!

And boy what a performance – if I don’t say so myself 🙂

I never could have imagined that little old me would be dancing away in front of her Royal Highness, 007 and almost 2 billion TV viewers!

And after the performance there was the after-party! The least said about that the better, but from all accounts it was brilliant!! 🙂

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FFkqZhXkID0&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DFFkqZhXkID0

As for my working relationship with the London 2012 Games, I’d been living with them since the capital won the bid back in 2005. Working for BBC London, I facilitated the production of community stories for TV and radio, presented a series where I competed alongside olympic and paralympic athletes, managed online radio stations, gave a speech on the Olympic Spirit for TedXYouth and also managed a directing credit alongside legend, Jon Plowman on BBC’s comedy series, Twenty Twelve – so all in all a pretty amazing seven years!

href=”https://dekanapajee.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/20130726-171028.jpg”>20130726-171028.jpg

<a
(That’s me preparing for my TedXYouth speech)

So 12 months on and and what now? Well for me I bid farewell to the BBC at the end of last year after 10 years of what I consider a good career! After some much needed time away, I’m finally ready to move forward and carve out a new career (hopefully in the media) Any offers of work will now be looked on seriously 😉

As for east London, it’s been difficult to see where exactly the Games have really made a significant impact. Yes there’s a stadium and new Queen Elisabeth park, but neither is open to the public yet. (Just over six hours to go when writing this) Westfield’s Stratford city shopping centre seems to be the only clear winner at the moment.

Yes we’ve had the odd festival in the park, but they really could have been anywhere…

Housing is one of the legacy (not sure I still like that word) plans that I think everyone is eagerly anticipating, but from the little news that’s been released into the public domain it would appear that any benefits for working Londoners is some way off!

http://m.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2013/jul/21/london-2012-olympics-architecture-legacy

As for athletics, it was a great Games – both the Olympics and Paralympics truly inspired generations, but with news stories of funding cuts every other month, it’s hard to believe Team GB or Paralympics GB will have a similar medal haul in any future Games without a reconsideration of how grass root and elite sport is funded. But we wait and see.

I’m just touching on a few of the issues that are lingering about at the moment. No doubt that these will all be forgotten as we relive the glory this weekend with the British Athletics Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games. I guess the real future can wait for two more days as we enjoy the likes of Usain Bolt and Jessica Ennis-Hill on our screens again!

20130726-171010.jpg

<a
(Carrying the Ukrainian flag at the Paralympics closing ceremony)