Artist of the Week - Pink

This week it is the turn of an Artist I haven't listened to in a while but one I am very familiar with. Some times I find I just listen to someone over and over again until my interest wears off. Not sure why I do this, maybe it just the CD happens to be in the car CD player and I can't bothered to change it because I like the music on it. The result is they get over played and when that happens I have to take a break from their music and this week it is time to revisit "Pink".

The first "Pink" album I listened to was "Funhouse" back in the spring of 2008. I just loved the music it was catchy as well as being deeply meaningful at times with tracks such as "Glitter in the Air". I remember travelling backwards and forwards to Leeds with Emily and Catherine in the car with all of us singing away like mad things. It didn't stop just there I also remember listening to the music of the way to work singing along to the songs. The album is about the break up of her relationship with her husband. little did I know the same thing would befall me later that year and it would be so relevant to my life and the songs took on another meaning. Maybe that is why I stopped listening to that album, however I have listened to some of her other albums since.

Pink real name Alecia Beth Moore and she was born in 1979 in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She is a contralto singer-songwriter as well as being a musician, a acrobat, a dancer and a actress. Fame came for her in 2000 when she released her first single "There You Go" which was a top 10 hit in both the UK and America as well as reaching number 1 on the Australian Airplay Chart. This was track came from her first album "Can't Take Me Home" which was more R and B in nature than her later albums which are more in the pop rock genre. In fact this shift in style happened when she released her second album, Missundaztood, which became a worldwide hit. Since then she has gone onto record another five albums the last one being "Funhouse" in 2008 and toured the world over. As I said earlier the last album was about the break up of her marriage which thankfully she managed to save saying that "the separation taught her not to try to change him and that she also had to work on herself". It is good in these days of throwaway relationships that someone so much in the public eye sets the example of not giving up. That done all to easily when the going gets tough or even as things start to get better. Finally not only is a singer she has also appeared in six films to date often as herself.

I looking forward to listening to her music again and I going to make up a compilation CD of her music to play in the car which will include the tracks featured in the video's here. It will include a mix of her more upbeat songs as well as those that are more meaningful and slower. If you are interested in the other tracks I include drop me a line on Facebook or my E-Mail if you have it and I will be happy to send you the playlist.  If you decide to listen to some of Pink's music happy listening.

The Road of 6

If you remember back to the start of the month I featured a post on Kat Maslich-Bode from Eastmountainsouth fame who has been working with Mishara Music. As a precursor to releasing a full album she has just released "The Road to 6" featuring the six songs she has been working on. It is available in the UK on iTunes and all 6 tracks can be downloaded for £4.74 or as single tracks for 79p each. In America you can buy it from amazon.com as well as iTunes. If you want a free track you can download it here - "March by Kat Maslich-Bode" and if you like it why not get the rest.

So some history, soon after the breakup in 2004 of Eastmountainsouth, Kat began writing some of the for The Road of Six, and in the time between married, moved to Nashville and became a mother. Kat has described the recording as “a labor of love" and the recording features some in her words some "amazing friends, musicians and singers". All the songs are very special for her, for example the song March was written for her husband on her wedding day and features the in-utero heartbeat of her daughter which begins and ends the song. It has taken six years for her to release a solo album, I just hope the fans of Eastmountainsouth and Petter Bradley Adams help support this project and make it the success she deserves.  

X-Factor - Act of the Week

Let me start off by saying this was the most disappointing show so far. Who ever came up the idea of having a Beetles week was sadly mistaken if they thought it could have been a success. It was at best boring. I thought most of the show was tedious and dull. Nobody was particularly good especially those in the leading pack. It might have had something to do with the shock loss of Aiden last week that has unsettled everyone.

You could tell how far that the mighty have fallen when Wagner was one of the most entertaining people to watch. At least it was fun unlike a lot of the other performances. So who gets the title this week. Well it was easy. It had to be Paije with his rendition of "Let it Be". For once Katie deserves a mention in that she made "Help" her own by singing in a way I have never heard before. In fact you could relate to feeling behind the song although those feeling were mainly desperate call for help. But I'm sure we have all been there in our lives. As for the leading four of Matt, Rebecca, Cher and One Direction, well it's back to the drawing board for them, in fact it could be one of them could be leaving the show this week. It was that bad.

Misty Shopping

When I got up and saw the mist and it looked like it would be one of those days that turned out to be really nice by time had burnt the mist away, but today the sun never managed that trick and it was with us for all of the day. The only time we did manage to see the sun was late in the day when we were out driving and managed to climb enough to rise above it for a brief few minutes. I must say it did look lovely when we did see the sun with the rest of the countryside around us was covered in a sea of white.

Other than the mist the day was rather normal to start off with. Emily and Catherine to school, coffee and shower and then off to Oakham to pick up little Lucy. The only thing different today was I picked up the pushchair for latter in the day we were planning to go looking round the shops. Idea's for christmas were need as well getting an idea of what we could afford on our budget.

Lucy was in fine form chatting away as we returned to Langham telling me of her exploits that she could remember. She also told me she asked her mummies about Mary coming, something she asked me last time she was hers. Of course the answer was as I expected. I don't know what she is worried about what is she going to say, but it is up to her. It is just a shame for all of the children concerned it is like this for them. That aside we had a lovely chat and soon we were home to be greeted my George and his wagging tail dancing on his hind legs.

I spent most of the morning playing with Lucy in the house and occasionally outside in the garden with Lucy on her tricycle after I dried off the seat for her. She loves that little tricycle even though it is looking old and battered and has seen better days. Maybe in the spring I can get a can of sprat paint and tidy it up for her so it see another summer out before she grows out of it all together. IT won't cost much but it will make it look a bit more respectable. 

It wasn't until lunchtime that we headed out to the shops in Melton to get some food to each and have a noisy around. As we got out the car in the car park we could here a clarinet player busking on the street. It was strange in away because the mist was playing with the sound making it sound almost erie and I bet the poor fellow was cold on his seat it wasn't the warmest of days for earning a few pennies. 

We first headed off for the cashpoint to get some cash before finding some food from one of the many bakers in the town. As usual Lucy went for a sausage roll while we set out to indulged ourselves in some of the other fine baking the shop had to offer. Unfortunately the food had just been cooked and was far to hot to eat straight away and it all had to wait a bit until it had cooled down. To pass the time we started our look around the shops.

The first shop we pooped into of note was Wilkinsons with the aim of looking around and buying some drinks to go with our lunch. We did expect what happened next. I went to look at the plumbing stuff  before heading off to the toy area where Lucy had the time of her life. I had already spotted a toy cooker which I though she might like that she showed interest in but when I found them had moved onto the Peppa Pig mirror and makeup set and then onto a toy digger which was her favourite by miles. It had a electrically controlled bucket at the front, which I thought would be ideal for cleaning up toys at the end of the day. She also tried out the drum set and the powered tractor which turned her nose up at and returned to the digger. If Wilkinsons ever want someone small to demonstrate the digger they have found their girl. She so wanted to drive it all around the shop it was all we could do to stop her. Thankfully she wasn't upset when it came time to leave, but then we were off to a chocolate shop. 

At the chocolate shop we brought sweets for Emily, Catherine and Lucy. Lucy helped us pick what the other two girls might like and for herself pick a white chocolate snowman. She also had her eyes on all the other sweets but she was happy enough with her snowman. We looked round some of the other shops while we ate the food that cooled down along the way. It was lovely just to look around the shops and know you didn't have to get anything there and then. We got loads of ideas what Lucy might like before we had to return home.

When we got home and after we picked Emily up from school we headed off to Ashwell to the farm shop to buy some food for dinner. They stock Grasmere Farm pork products those pigs are reared on stone ground meal, milled at their own watermill. We where there to buy their Rutland sausages. I must say were weren't disappointed they were absolutely wonderful as are all the pork products we have had from the farm before. I can really recommend them as well as the sausages from Northfield Farm that is just up the road from Langham. Talking about Northfield farm the sell the some of the best pork joints I have ever tasted and they are well worth the money.

With time marching onwards and dinner out of the way it was soon time for Lucy to return to Oakham with a little bag of sweets in her hand for other sister Mary and for Emily and Catherine to set off for Leeds for the weekend. With all the girls at their respective mother it was time to think about adult time and meeting up with an old friend for a meal on Saturday.

As always I had a lovely time and it was great fun seeing Lucy play with the toys in the shop. I miss the girls the weekends I don't have them but it can't be helped. I just hope they have a great time.

Bad Planning

Let me say before I start I'm opposed to any development in Rutland until the future plans for the site at what will soon be the ex RAF base at Cottesmore are known. It seems inconceivable that plans drawn up when there was a RAF base in the area was bringing in millions of pounds into the local economy can conceivably be relevant now without that income and the jobs that money generated. This situation is made worse by the potential loss of another employer in the area namely the prison at Ashwell whose future is far from certain with the Governments cuts in the Justice budgets. This is without thinking about how it will affect the countryside and the local communities that such developments will affect. Things like this don't just affect us now but impacts on future generations.

There are plans in place to develop a thousand homes in the North Oakham. These plans will increase the population of Oakham by about three thousand people assuming four people to every new home built. It doesn't sound like many people until you consider that the current population of Oakham is in the region of ten thousand people. That is a population increase of thirty percent. Now just in terms of employment there will be a requirement for the creation of around one and a half thousand jobs just when one of the biggest employers in the area is about to be closed down and the unemployment that closure will create.  Also as far as I can tell there is no provision in the plan to create the industrial area's for these people to work in locally. So these people will either have to travel out of the county to work with ecological impact that will cause or there will have to be more erosion of the countryside around Oakham to provide the industrial site for these people to work in. This doesn't seem to have been considered in any depth. In fact the whole plan seems flawed in the current economic climate.

Still these plans march on and seem unstoppable. The economic climate when these plans were created has moved on. We are not the country we once were the banks and the greedy that were out to make a quick pound have seen to that, but still Rutland County Council seem to live in a dream world. One of them suggested that the RAF base at Cottesmore could become a regional airport in a county of thirty five thousand people with two large international airports within easy reach. Rutland isn't a massive county and Oakham is no national center of business. Rutland is a rural country full of villages and a couple of towns. Who would realistically use the airport? The answer is nobody for there isn't the demand in the area. So this is thinking we are having to deal with. People with big idea's and little concept of the reality of what Rutland really is and what it's people want. We are happy with the RAF base and it's occasional flights of Harriers, in fact most people are proud to have the base here but most people on the flight path would say no to an airport that is not needed. It is as pointless as the plan to develop so many houses at this time.

Just looking at what happens if the base at RAF Cottesmore is sold off tells us that. On the base there is existing housing in good condition. I know that because I have visited the base. These houses could be reused and deployed as housing association homes or sold off as private homes. The base itself could be redeveloped as a brown land site for more housing and light industrial use in keeping with the nature of Rutland. This would safe guard the local community at Cottesmore and the shops and services in the village as they are now. This hasn't been considered since these plans were put in place before the closing of the base was announced. In my view in light of the closure of the base the whole plan need to be put on hold until we know what is going on. Building new houses in Oakham won't help Cottesmore but utilising the existing house from at the base would keep that local economy alive with out spoiling the village.

Basically the whole plan was based in time when banks were throwing money at home owners and that isn't the case any more. Yes, we might need more houses in the county as a whole but we have to think more carefully now as to where they are built and what large numbers of people arriving into an area will do to the community as a whole. Especially when that area is just about to lose one of it's major employers. The whole thing seems a recipe for disaster. I can see area's that can be developed in Oakham but not to the scale that is planned and the same can be said of Uppingham.  Economically, environmentally and socially the effects of the development haven't been well thought out for the good of the Rutland.

If we look into the history of the development there is a clear link between the developers and the council. We just have to look at the opening of the ring road in 2007 to see that Paul Bywater, a director of developer Hawksmead and councillor Roger Begy, leader of Rutland County Council seem to have a common interest. Paul Bywater at the time said: “This new road helps to provide access to a large area of land for potential development which could provide much-needed homes and employment for Oakham.", while Councillor Roger Begy said "Hawksmead has been able, as part of their planning permission, to link the bypass to the town on this side of the railway allowing it to route traffic for the businesses away from the town centre." It was clear then why Hawksmead wanted to build the road to further their own ambitions and I'm sure that the leader of the county council knew of this at the time. Hawksmead were buying the councils favour. The thing is, all the reasons for building a bypass will be lost when it just becomes another route through a larger town. The council probably feels that they owe the company something for the bypass but the truth is repaying that debt will cost the people of Rutland dearly. Just like baling out the Banks has cost us public services that those in greatest need depend on. Councilors are politicians must remember that they are there for the good of the people and not for the good business that want to ruin the place we live in by creating a concert jungle with out thought for the wider community. Business are are in it for profit and the people that make planning decisions must think closely about the more wider picture in realistic terms. It is the people of Rutland and there children that will pay if proper thought hasn't gone into this project.

So looking away form Hawksmead and the County Council how will it affect the people of Oakham and the surrounding area's. According to one of the Doctors at the Oakham Medical Practice said can’t cope now and if we can’t cope now then how will we cope with thousands more patients? He has a good point anyone that has tried to park at the Medical practice will know that there isn't any parking and getting appointments can take ages as it is. More people would just make things worse. The developers have said that they will give them the fabric of a building but still leaves the question where are they going to get the money to equip it and the Doctor said practice can't afford to staff it. Another thing is the plan moves the Rutland Agricultural Society Show ground and separates it from the town by a major road. This will force children using the show ground either to cross a busy road have their parents pick them up creating more traffic in the area. Traffic of course is a major concern and the increased road usage will increase the traffic density in both Oakham and the surrounding area. Unlike a major towns Oakham doesn't have the public transport infrastructure  to support such a development. For starters the bus station in the town is already fully utilised so where will the new buses park. Then there is the question of employment. In an area already staved of jobs where will the people people work especially given one of the major employers will be no more by the time the project has finished. The only place I can see them working is outside the county which just add to the peak traffic in the area and to the pollution.

Clearly Hawksmead are trying to buy people over to there plan. For example they have said they will provide money to help with schooling and healthcare costs, but I have seen no figures quoted and in these days of recession question is for how long for and will it be enough. I don't think the money will that they will offer will pay for all that is need to support the influx of people. It will soon fall to the people of Rutland to make up the short full sooner rather than later and in these times of council cuts that will be a disaster. The people that will suffer will be those in greatest need in the county such as the old and the mentally ill that depend on social services.  They talk about providing money for traffic calming, but the question is why do you need traffic calming in a mainly rural area with light usage roads unless you think traffic levels are going to increase significantly. It is clear that the there know the impact of the housing development will bring to road network if there are offering such measures.

I agree with Langham Parish council that the plans are being rushed through before the local development framework, a document which will determine how many houses are needed in Rutland, is approved. What makes this worse is everyone is thinking that the plans are already approved with Sainsbury's is wanting to build a new supermarket in the area which recently won the approval of Oakham town council, Tesco's has planning enlarging it's store and has just got the go ahead to do so from the council and Marstons, a pub chain has an licensing application in to open a pub within the area of the new development. What I loved about  one of the reasons why the councillors liked the idea of Sainsbury's coming to Oakham was based on the idea that it provide of competition to Tesco's in Oakham. The thing is Tesco's already have competition to Tesco's in the form of the Co Op and it hardly comparing like with like. Sainsbury's are a high end supermarket while Tesco's service the other end of the market. If anything the competition will be between Sainsbury's and the Co Op and if anything I can see the Co Op closing down which will be a great loss given their high animal welfare ambitions and there promotion of fair trade products.

One of the reasons I read for the development came from Counciler King who said “We are under pressure from areas such as Corby and Peterborough to provide housing for people commuting there”. Well maybe the people of Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire should provide housing for there own people and not rely on the people of Rutland to provide them with housing. We don't need people commuting backwards and forwards and creating more traffic and pollution and spoiling the countryside by overdeveloping Oakham in such a small space of time. As for his claim "young people want to stay here but there isn’t the affordable housing available to them" that might be the case but it doesn't have to be achieved by such large scale developments. There are other small developments and area's that can be developed without ruining the nature of Rutland. There is no need for such a rush. Just because there is pressure from outside the county doesn't mean we have to melt and give in. Our children and our children's children won't thank us for it.

Finally as a footnote Oakham Town Council thankfully did the right thing in turning down the current application of Stamford Homes Vale of Catmose College Stamford Homes to build a high density low cost housing on the site of the old Vale of Catmose College in fear of it becoming a ghetto. It is the denisty that is the problem with this plan not the idea of it. I fear the same thing could happen to the Hawksmead Park housing area if it is allowed to continue, however I don't see that being turned down and if it is then Rutland County Council will still bulldoze the plans through. This is clear from the same council meeting where plans to build a new road by Hawksmead Limited could not be discussed since they Rutland County Council had approved them before the Oakham Town council meeting.

No councillor or MP in Rutland will get my vote that supports this development and I urge everyone one of you that lives here to make sure your councillor or Rutland's MP knows this. If there think they can increase the population of a beautiful town by so many souls in such a small amount of time let them fall on their swords. The plan is an eco time bomb that will ruin one of the most beautiful area in the country and those that support it , especially in its current form, will be leaving to future generations an concert mess that is a blot on a once beautiful landscape.

Further Reading:

Rutland Times - Fears on Impact of 1,100 New Homes

Rutland Times- Campaigners Ooppose Vast Housing Proposal