Why we can’t let the terrorists win in London, Brussels, and around Europe

I live in London and I’m going on a city break to Brussels this month.

I got thinking about this after two police officers outside Buckingham Palace in London were injured by a man with a large knife on the same night (August 25) that soldiers on patrol in Brussels were attacked, also by a knifeman.

Both incidents are being treated as suspected acts of terrorism.

These events follow horrific incidents in recent months and years throughout Europe, in places that feel very close to home. London, Brussels, Manchester, Barcelona, Paris, Nice, Stockholm and Berlin have all been targeted.

Tributes in Brussels after terrorist attacks in March 2016

But we can’t let the terrorists change our way of lives; that’s what they want. We must keep doing what we want to do in our home cities and go on holidays, supporting our fellow Europeans and their cultures and economies.

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International Cat Day and why I love my job

Not every job would let you go and pet cats at the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home in Old Windsor on a Tuesday afternoon!

International Cat Day was the perfect opportunity to organise this – the day was trending on social media all day and we had incredible success earlier in the day asking people to send in photos of their cats on the Get Surrey Facebook page. I’m sure the fact I put a photo of my beautiful cat, Shanti, on the post made it all the more attractive to readers 😉

Things to be grateful for

In today’s fast-paced world, surrounded by news of Trump and Brexit and celebrities dying, it’s easy to get caught up and forget what’s really important in your own life.

Even if you manage to ignore the cyclic nature of the news as driven by social media, repeating the same fears and worries and bad news over and over, most of us are still racing around to and from work with barely a second thought about the important things which are quickly passing us by.

So, inspired by this post on The Pool (which is always on point) I have decided to spend a week listing three good things I’m grateful for each day – because it’s important to pause, remember, and let these positive thoughts rise to the forefront of our priorities.

Fifty Shades Of Grey Casting! (If You Still Care…)

It took so long coming that the project had all but been forgotten about. Over the last year, there was much speculation and rumour of who might play the leads in the film adaptation of E L James’ ridiculously successful erotic novel, Fifty Shades of Grey (including by yours truly). Few characters have been as talked about as Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, but the announcement has come a good year after the height of the book’s hype, so it has yet to be seen if it can maintain its popularity.

Yesterday (Monday 1st September) the trilogy’s author herself broke the news on Twitter (in a rather teasing manner):

JK Rowling And The Failed Pseudonym

You may have noticed the huge story this week in which someone at The Sunday Times worked out that a book released in April, The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith, was in fact written by none other than JK Rowling under a pseudonym.

Some people have been reacting to this in a confused manner- “why would she want to use a pseudonym? Why would the publishers let her when they’re losing potential sales?” To me it seems simple: just look at The Casual Vacancy. There was a massive rush of anticipation around it: “JK Rowling’s first book since Potter! What’s she going to do next?! I hope it’s just as amazing!!!!”

But then the book wasn’t what everyone expected and they were disappointed: The Telegraph deemed it “uneven, and often harrowing.” This isn’t good news when judged against the bestselling children’s series of all time; the harrowing part at least could have been interesting on its own terms. Rowling seemed excited by this new venture, and she was quite promptly shot down as no one seemed to deem it worthy of her, when she was obviously proud of it. I can therefore understand why she might try and avoid this happening again for a while.