February 2006 Archives
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Newtownabbey Animal Welfare
David Kerr talks to Bessie Moffett from the Newtownabbey Animal Welfare Support Group based in the Monkstown Estate.
IF YOU’RE ever in the Monkstown Estate in Newtownabbey you may well pass the dreary looking Abbeytown Square shopping centre. Don’t let the brutalist 1960s architecture put you off, though. This centre houses the Newtownabbey Animal Welfare Support Group’s excellent Thrift Shop. When the shop opened four years ago this coming May, the centre was virtually derelict. Newtownabbey Animal Welfare helped bring back some life to the centre. Today, it houses a taxi office, a hairdresser, a community group and a domestic laundry service.
Recently, I talked to Bessie Moffett, a member of Newtownabbey Animal Welfare’s committee. Mrs Moffett talks enthusiastically of the work of the group over the past four or so years since its foundation, initially to support the Mid-Antrim Animal Sanctuary in Antrim town.
The group still supports the Mid-Antrim shelter, but has extended its assistance to needy animal welfasre groups all over Northern Ireland. Through the Thrift Shop and a number of fundraising functions and sponsored activities, the group has been able to make donations to other abimal shelters – the Millvale shelter in Dromara, the Crosskennan Lane Animal Shelter in Ballynoe, Co Antrim, and the Bright Eyes shelter in Co Fermanagh. The group’s earnest fundraising helped to put a van on the road to get around its sparsely populated rural hinterland. Their contributions still help to keep this van insured and road-worthy. A donation from the group helped the Rally Equestrian Centre to rebuild the fire-damaged accommodation after a blaze hit one of its buildings.
The group also does what it can to help pet owners, especially elderly folk, who find themselves unable to pay for treatment for their much-loved pets. Mrs Moffett emphasises that the group has a strict ‘no kill’ policy. It will pay for neutering and essential vaccinations and treatment for sick animals but it will not pay for any animal to be killed.
Some readers may remember a nine-week-long protest by animal lovers at a Whiteabbey nursing home a few years ago. The then matron at the home banned the feeding of feral cats and called in pest control experts to exterminate them, claiming that they were a health hazard to residents. Newtownabbey Animal Welfare activists spearheaded the campaign to save the cats, with the help of a sympathetic neighbour who allowed them onto her land. The remaining cats in the area are still fed by a volunteer from the group as are other feral colonies in the area.
The Thrift Shop is open from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm on weekdays and from 9.00 am to 1.00 pm on Saturdays. Naturally, donations of cash, good clean clothes and household goods, bric-a-brac, CDs, videos and DVDs are most welcome as are new volunteers to help keep everything going.
There’s not much passing trade, though, in this isolated corner of the Estate, so I recommend that you take a special trip to see the place. If you have nothing to donate, then go and buy something. Every little helps!
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Film Review – Walk the Line
Certificate 12A
Directed by James MangoldWritten by Gill Dennis and James Mangold
Plot Outline: A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash’s life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.
WALK THE LINE tells the story of music legend Johnny Cash and his journey to becoming a popular country rock icon. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as ‘The Man in Black’ and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter.
The film shows Cash as a young boy growing up in a farm in Arkansas listening to the legendary Carter family on the radio. His father Ray (Robert Patrick in a strong role) is tough on him, but seems to favour his brother Jack who seems likely to become a preacher. Jack dies in a sawmill accident. His father unfairly blames the death on him – “God took the wrong son”. Thereafter he can do no right in his daddy’s eyes, even when he serves his country in the Air Force.
After serving in Germany, cash sets up home with Vivian (Ginnifer Goodwin) where they have two kids. He is not a very good door-to-door salesman but his music, especially songs he wrote while serving in Germany, impress the legendary Sam Phillips of Sun Records. He goes on tour and develops a stormy relationship with one of his childhood idols, June Carter.
No biopic can ever cover a man’s life. Mangold doesn’t try. He brings out the strong message that ‘love is a burning thing’ and that the love of a good, determined woman can turn a man around from the paths of self-destruction. The performances are very strong from both leads. They even sing all the songs themselves. This comes across well when Phoenix haltingly starts up Folsom Prison Blues – “a song I wrote when I was in the Air Force” – when he first meets Sam Phillips at the Sun studios, only to become more fluent and accomplished as he really gets into it. Wonderful.
Reese Witherspoon is a fine actress. She was superb in the romantic comedy, Sweet Home Alabama and in the two fluffy Legally Blonde films. She’s not blond in Walk the Line but she has reached the peak of her acting career so far. Joaquin Phoenix IS Johnny Cash in this wonderful biopic, but Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash sets this film on fire – a burning ring of fire!
It is one thing to portray a person’s life, with feeling and emotion. Phoenix pulls this off effortlessly. But Witherspoon surpasses even this to make June Carter the central character of this film as the woman who turned Johnny Cash around. After picking up a BAFTA award the other week for this role, she might want to get her acceptance speech ready when the Oscars are handed out.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Direct EasyJet link to Paris and the 3 Ducks Hostel
EASYJET sometimes gets a bit of a bad press these days. Occasionally this is deserved, but often it is unfair. Recently I had a mad dash to catch my Belfast bound flight in the new sparkling Luton Airport. I was the fifteenth passenger to check in but the last one to board the aircraft.
When I checked in the clerks told me to watch the departure boards for details of the proper departure gate. I passed through security, bought a newspaper and had a leisurely breakfast of dried fruits, yoghurt and granola with a lovely pot of tea. It was sheer bliss!
After what seemed like a few minutes I checked the departure board. My flight details were flashing, ‘LAST CALL’ at Gate 18.
I galloped down the corridor in double-quick time. I only just made it. As I collapsed gasping into my seat the flight attendant closed the door of the Airbus behind me. I was scarlet with embarrassment as my fellow passengers looked on disapprovingly. Honestly, I never heard a single announcement. If I had missed the flight it would not have been EasyJet’s fault. It’d have been mine alone!
For my flight to Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris I would be more prepared! I would not relax until I found out which gate my flight was leaving from. It worked. After passing through security I checked the departure board every ten minutes. I was the first passenger to notice the ‘Proceed to Gate 21’ sign and made my way there well ahead of everyone else. All went smoothly. I got a great seat with plenty of legroom. The flight even managed to leave a little ahead of time as nobody emulated my Luton experience.
The flight attendants were polite, friendly and efficient which made the time spent in the air pass quite pleasantly. We even got into Paris CDG fifteen minutes early! Transition through Passport Control and the baggage reception carousel went without a hitch.
Once into the main area of Terminal 3, it is a short walk to the RER railway station. Those with lots of luggange can take a shuttle bus. Eight Euros takes you into the gare du Nord where you can take an underground or mainline train to just about anywhere.
Gare du Nord is by far the scariest railway station I have ever been in! It’s a nightmare to find your way around its three levels – every one heaving with thousands of people – when you’ve never set foot in the place before. As I chased around the massive station for the best part of forty-five minutes I nearly took a panic attack. Eventually, more by luck than judgement, I found my way to Metro Line 4, changed to Line 8 further along the network and ended up at my destination, the Commerce Metro station.
Travelling around Paris is very easy if you invest in a Paris Visite card. This entitles you to travel on any SNCF Ile-de-France train, any Metro and RER train and on RATP and SNCF trains and buses around the city and the funicular railway that takes you up to the Sacre Couer basilica. This comes with a booklet of coupons that offer discounts on quite a few of the city’s major attractions. A three-day ticket costs just 18 Euros.
Don’t despair if you fancy a trip to Paris but have little or no money. There are quite a few places where you can stay a fortnight for the price of a night in the fancy five-star hotel down the road.
I stayed three nights in the friendly 3 Ducks Hostel, close to the Commerce Metro station. A night in a four-bed dormitory will set you back 16 Euros a night in the low season. The price includes a continental breakfast of orange juice, tea or coffee and a baguette with jam and butter. Private rooms are also available at a higher rate.
Reception is in a pleasant bar that gives access to a rear courtyard. This must be lovely in the summer. The rooms are arranged around three sides of the courtyard on the ground floor and an overlooking first floor balcony. Other doors on the ground floor of the courtyard conceal three lavatories, two showers and the guests’ kitchen.
