Sunday, 11 April 2021

Salute Prince Philip—the Duke of Edinburgh

Salute Prince Philip—the Duke of Edinburgh

This weekend is the particularly sad time in the UK as Prince Philip—the Duke of Edinburgh — passed away in the age of 99.

Source: BBC, 2021

He is regarded as an extraordinary man who had given the "most remarkable, devoted service" to the Queen, the Royal Family, the country, and the Commonwealth over the last 70 years. —said Prince Charles.


As former Prime Minister Sir John Major stated, ‘being the head of state was a "lonely position in many ways" for the Queen, and the duke was "the person to whom she could unburden herself".’


Gun salutes have been fired across the UK, and people across the world have paid tribute to his death. His title is never merely ‘the husband of Queen Elizabeth II’ but is recognised as a good officer, family royal member, husband and father.


Prince Philip's funeral will take place at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on Saturday April 17, and a national minute's silence will be held to coincide with the start of the funeral at 15:00 BST.


菲利普親王(愛丁堡公爵)

當愛丁堡公爵菲利普親王99歲去世時,這個週末在英國尤其令人難過。

他被認為是一位非凡的人,在過去的70年中,他為女王,王室,國家和英聯邦提供了“最傑出,最奉獻的服務”。 查爾斯王子說。

正如前首相約翰·梅傑爵士所說:“對女王而言,擔任國家元首在許多方面都是孤獨的,而公爵則是”她可以減輕自己負擔的人”。

菲利普親王的葬禮將在溫莎城堡的聖喬治教堂舉行,與國家葬禮的開始時間同步於英國下午3點將有一分鐘的靜默時間。 

Monday, 29 March 2021

Being an organic farmer: Smart farming

The 54-year-old British actress Elizabeth Hurley has been in an ageless fitness for decades and is praised ‘looks...pretty damn incredible’. She recently shared her secret diet to the Magazine:

Source: elizabethhurley1 (Instagram)

I like simple, natural, easy food. I don’t really like food with a lot of chemicals or additives,’ she told The Cut.

All through summer we eat fruit and vegetables from my own garden. I used to have a small organic farm, and all the meat my son ate was from the farm.

Many ideas and values are developing to respond the changes resulted from the epidemic since 2019. For people stay at home more during Covid19, it is a good opportunity of transition from a food consumer to a producer, if they own a piece of land.  

Creating farm area in some places has become a social place for local community as part of the growth of the eco-system. It is evident that people spend leisure time in growing vegetables and share common interests in this way. Different farm has been customised by different owner—a productive landscape-shaping artwork.

The good example is the land behind the University of York, nearby Walmgate Stray, Heslington Lane.



It has been seen as a public good for those who would like to try a new way of life. Back to nature, combining food production and sustainable eco-environments.

Obviously, that's not possible for most people, but supporting local farmers wherever you live is a good thing,’ Elizabeth said.

However, modern agriculture not only needs some labour force but also requires expertise knowledge and financial sources to manage the lands.

Luckily, Funding Schemes from bigger banks, such as Barclays, is offering financial support for farm business in the UK countryside and this idea is supported by the government to direct the system and encourage more food production sources after Brexit. 

(site: Walmgate Stray, Heslington Lane)

(site: Walmgate Stray, Heslington Lane)

成為有機農夫: 智慧農耕

現年54歲的英國女演員伊麗莎白·赫爾利(Elizabeth Hurley)幾十年來一直是保持看不出年齡的健美,被譽為“看起來……真要命的美好”。她最近向雜誌分享了自己的飲食秘訣:

她對The Cut表示:“我喜歡簡單,自然,輕鬆的食物。我真的不喜歡含有很多化學物質或添加劑的食物。”

“整個夏天,我們都在自己的花園裡吃水果和蔬菜。我曾經有一個小的有機農場,兒子吃的所有肉都來自農場。”

2019年以來,隨著疫情流行帶來的變化,許多想法和價值觀正在發展。對於在Covid19期間人們更多常待在家裡的人,如果他們擁有一塊土地,這是一個從食品消費者過渡到生產者的好機會。

作為生態系統發展的一部分,在某些地方創建農場區域已成為當地社區的社交場所。 顯然,人們將休閒時間花在種植蔬菜上,並以此方式擁有共同的興趣。 不同的所有者已經客製出不同的農場,這是一種富有生產力的景觀塑造藝術作品。

有一個很好的例子是約克大學後方的Walmgate Stray附近的土地.

對於那些想嘗試一種新生活方式的人來說,這已被視為一種公共利益。 回歸自然,將糧食生產與可持續的生態環境結合起來。

伊麗莎白說:“顯然,對於大多數人來說,這是不可能的,但是無論您住在哪裡,支持當地農民都是一件好事。”

但是,現代農業不僅需要一定的勞動力,還需要專業知識和資金來管理土地。 幸運的是,來自巴克萊等大型銀行的資助計劃正在為英國農村的農場業務提供財政支持,這一想法得到了政府的支持,以指導該系統並鼓勵英國退歐後的更多糧食生產來源。

Wednesday, 17 March 2021

🍀St. Patrick's Day Food

St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on every 17 March, the day Saint Patrick himself died. The Irish have regarded it as a religious holiday for over 1,000 years and has become a global celebration of Irish culture.

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, it generally involves public parades and festivals and the wearing of green attire or shamrocks. A festive that is full of green and gold vibes.

At home, the traditional Irish way to celebrate this special day is to serve tasty Irish meals with beer, ideally a pint of Guinness (or a classic Irish dessert with some boozy flavour).

Classic Irish Stew is one of the Irish recipes which is truly, truly easy, but will make you feel like a star chef. Today, to spend St. Patrick's Day at home, I made this cozy, savoury stew and also hand-made some green shamrock (which is, of course, green) crafts for an extra dose of luck.

As I did not buy any Guinness beer, it is always a good idea to be creative to make an alternative green drink, such as celery juice.

I learnt Classic Irish Stew recipe from the following website, which is really helpful, you may want to try and enjoy!

🍀60 Best St. Patrick's Day Food Ideas for the Ultimate Irish Feast



I use lamp chops instead of diced lamp

Chop potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, gingers and garlics into small pieces 

Lamp chops have been roasted a bit and chopped into pieces 

Fry garlics, gingers and celery 

Then add potatoes, onions and carrots

Finally add lamp chops and water to stew for 15 minutes (you can add a bit potato starch to thick up soup, and then sea salt, black pepper and thyme or parsley to season)

St. Patrick's Day Food has been done


St. Patrick節美食

St. Patrick節於每年的317日(St. Patrick本人去世日)慶祝。愛爾蘭人將其視為宗教節日已有1000多年的歷史,並且已成為愛爾蘭文化的全球慶祝活動。

為了慶祝St. Patrick節,通常會舉行公共遊行和節日以及穿著綠色服裝或三葉草。。 一個充滿綠色和金色氛圍的節日。

在家裡,慶祝這一特殊日子的傳統愛爾蘭方式是搭配啤酒品嚐可口的愛爾蘭美食(最好是一品脫健力士啤酒(或經典的帶有一些波西米亞風味的愛爾蘭甜點)。

經典愛爾蘭燉菜是愛爾蘭的食譜之一,它確實非常簡單,但會讓您感覺像星級大廚師。今天, 為了在家中感受St. Patrick節,我製作了這種舒適,美味的燉菜,還手工製作了一些綠色三葉草(當然是綠色)手工藝品,以增加好運。由於我沒有購買任何健力士啤酒,因此,有創意性地製作其他綠色飲料(例如芹菜汁)始終是一個好主意。

這裡有一個有關St. Patrick節美食食譜的好網站,就嘗試一下並享受吧!

Sunday, 14 March 2021

House-move during the Covid19🏡

  • "When talking about your house-move, it must always be described as traumatic, fraught with difficulty and disruption, eve if in fact the process was completely  smoothly and without noticeable stress." - Kate Fox (British social anthropologist)
🏠This was my third time of house-move during the Covid19 national lockdown in England.

⌛Last time when I considered home moving, I was concerned about the distance of in-store grocery shopping during lockdown as many online shopping services are always in a long queue. As such, I move to the city centre. However, my living room faces the main street with a lot of traffic noise, making mw feel uneasy. And its 'antique' building structure also generated a lot of unnecessary noises from neighbours that quite disturbed my life, especially kids sometimes visited their grandpa who lived upstairs on me and run around the floor, driving me very crazy.

🔓On 4 January Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new national lockdown in England- the England's third national lockdown; I have decided that I want to move to somewhere to re-boost my mood and have a better window view, although I just furnished my flat last September.  I know that I have to choose either the ground floor or the top floor, and a nice furnished one. 

🌈Now everything is resettled down just upon my March birthday arrival.

💒I am living in my favourite house choice. The location is still near city centre within 15-minute walk, while its living and bedroom are facing against the River Ouse which flows through the city of York and the house is surrounded by many green spaces and parks. The view from my windows is quite European scenery.

🍊Besides, online shopping is easier to book now as we can see that the COVID-19 vaccine is helping to reduce the spread of infection and elder people and others have more confidence to walk out. And I have a big refrigerator in my new house so I can take advantage of online shopping more without walking to the supermarkets.

👌Most importantly, neighbours living nearby are those who enjoy quiet life so that I do enjoy a peaceful moment without noise disturbance in a pretty house.  

💖The house-move is troublesome but is definitely worthy of!

The view form my window is picturesque💖


a great view to watch a summer football game 

The view form my bedroom 

Opposite the River

The way to the city centre

The way back home

Riverside night view

封鎖期間搬家🏡

"在講到搬家時,必須始終將其描述的很煩擾,充滿困難和混亂,即使事實上該過程是完全順利的並且沒有明顯的壓力。" -凱特·福克斯(英國社會人類學家)

這是我在英格蘭進行的Covid19全國封鎖期間的第三次搬家。

上一次考慮搬家時,我擔心封鎖期間到雜貨店購物的距離太遠,因為許多網路購物服務總是大排長隊。因此,我搬到了市中心。但是,我的客廳面對主要街道,交通噪音很大,使我感到不安舒服。而且它的"古董"建築結構還產生了很多從鄰居那裡的不必要的噪音,這極大地打擾了我的生活,尤其是孩子們有時會拜訪他們的爺爺,他住在我樓上並在地板上跑來跑去,使我非常抓狂。

14日,英國首相Boris Johnson宣布了對英格蘭的新的國家封鎖,這是英格蘭的第三次國家封鎖;我已經決定要搬到某個地方來重新提振心情,並擁有更好的窗戶視野,儘管去年9月我剛剛佈置了公寓。我知道我必須選擇一樓或頂層,以及一間佈置精美的有家具的房子。

現在一切都在我三月的生日之前重新安頓好了。

我住在我最喜歡的房子裡。 該位置仍然在市中心附近,步行15分鐘即可到達,而其起居室和臥室都面對著流經約克市的Ouse河,房屋四周被許多綠地和公園所環繞。 從我的窗戶看出去的景色頗具歐洲風情。

此外,現在可以更輕鬆地預訂網路購物,因為我們可以看到COVID-19疫苗正在幫助減少感染的蔓延,老年人和其他人更有信心走出去。 而且我的新房子裡有一台大冰箱,這樣我就可以不用逛超市就可以利用網路購物的更多便利。

最重要的是,住在附近的鄰居是那些享受安靜生活的人,因此我確實在漂亮的房子裡享受著平靜而又不受噪音干擾的時刻。

這次搬家很麻煩,但絕對值得!

Sunday, 28 February 2021

Spring is on the way

As in most other places in the UK, spring visits Yorkshire in March. After winter, days get longer, and although snow sometimes falls as late as early spring. Yorkshire is getting warmer and signs of the season are popping up everywhere.

Yorkshirefolk are gradually getting their legs out, it is not because Boris Johnson has announced the government's roadmap to cautiously ease lockdown restrictions, but due to the sunny and flower blooms.

Tomorrow is the first day of March, Spring is on the way! 









與英國大多數其他地方一樣,春天在三月時到約克郡。 冬季過後,日子會變長,儘管雪有時會晚點在早春下, Yorkshire越來越暖了,到處都有春天到的跡象。

約克郡人正在逐漸出門,這不是因為Boris Johnson宣布了政府謹慎放寬封鎖限制的路計畫,而是由於陽光明媚和鮮花盛開。

明天是三月的第一天,春天來了!

Saturday, 20 February 2021

Housing discrimination in the UK

The best intentions pave the way to Hell: housing problems in the UK

Why are most tenancy related fees banned by British government which dated back on 1 June 2019? These various fees were normally asked to pay for references, administration credit and immigration checks, renewing your tenancy when your fixed term contract ends. 

The good intention of policy change aims to protect the disadvantageous group—people without real estate in this wealthy society—from being deprived of their basic human right to have a decent place to live and provide an affordable approach for them in search of housing. 

As a result, the good intention turns into a bad result. As the agent hopes to gain profits from the landlord, they try to attract more than one person to view the house in one day, and then put them in a list for the landlord to consider who is the best candidate instead of first comes first serves. As such, students often get themselves into relatively undesirable places where are not on the lists of middle or working class (people with annual income). It seems that the only effortless choice for students is live in school or private-owned student accommodations. However, these housing rental prices are very likely to be as expensive as that of the properties not targeted for students. 

Potential tenants now have to compete for winning over the landlords’ hearts according to their values, making people like students more disadvantageous; what is worse is, in fact, students are asked to pay 6 months payment in one time before moving in with the same rental price as other groups. 

Ironically, when the money goes to the agent pocket, it actually origins from the tenants but not from the landlord, while the agent often forgets who their cash contributor is and only serves the landlord as the highness master. If the things go wrong, they often try to cover everything or strategically make the landlord as a bad guy to be their excuses to avoid losing their business. 

"The best intentions pave the way to Hell". Another example of the practice of governmental policy change.

Student voices on Facebook:

 






最好的意圖變成通向地獄的道路:英國的住房問題

為什麼英國政府禁止與租賃有關的費用其最早可追溯到201961日?通常要求這些各種費是用來支付參考資料,行政費和移民資格調查,並在您的定期合同終止時續簽您的租約。

政策改變的良好意圖旨在保護弱勢群體這些在這個富裕社會中沒有房地產的人們--免遭剝奪擁有像樣居住地的基本人權,並為他們在尋找住房提供負擔得起的方法。

結果,好意變成壞結果。由於房仲希望從房東那裡獲得利潤,他們試圖在一天之內吸引一個以上的人來看房屋,然後將其列入房東的選單上,以讓其考慮誰是最佳候選人,而不是先到先服務 。因此,學生經常租到相對不好的地方,這些地方不在中產階級或工人階級(有年收入的人)的名單上。對於學生來說,唯一輕鬆的選擇似乎是住在學校或私人擁有的學生宿舍中。但是,這些房屋的租金價格很可能與非學生公寓的價格一樣昂貴。

現在,潛在的租戶必須根據自己的價值來贏得地主的心,使像學生這樣的人更加不利。更糟糕的是,實際上,學生被要求在入住前一次性支付6個月的房租費用,然後才能以與其他團體以相同的租金入住。

諷刺的是,當錢流到經紀人的口袋裡時,它實際上是從房客而不是房東那裡獲得的,而經紀人卻常常忘記了他們的金主是誰,而僅服侍房東陛下主人。如果事情出了問題,他們通常會試圖掩蓋一切,或者策略地使房東成為壞人,以此作為避免失去生意的藉口。

“最好的意圖成了通向地獄的道路”。政府政策改變實踐下的另一個例子