Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett
Dedicated animal expert Marion Garnett, founder of the Ealing Animal Charities Fair, continues her column
SOME people you wish you could forget but others, the good ones, you remember for ever.
Two years ago, during a crowded Ealing Animals Fair, a man approached me clutching a newspaper article about the benefits of having a pet. Handwritten underneath, he explained how he’d never been able to experience these benefits because he’d always lived in rented accommodation and hadn’t been allowed a pet. He told me how much this upset him. This man is not forgotten.
Also not forgotten is the rough sleeper I knew who, even in freezing weather, would not take the accommodation he was offered in London as it would mean being separated from his beloved dog. In the end he was offered accommodation in the north of England where he knew nobody but where he could take his dog. That’s where he went.
It is to help people like these that Andrew Rosindell MP has introduced a Bill into parliament which would limit the ability of landlords to have “No Pets” policies. It would prevent landlords from banning responsible owners from bringing well-behaved pets into rented accommodation. Renters would have to prove they are “responsible” by, for example, having a vet’s certificate to confirm their pet is vaccinated.
The legislation is being called “Jasmine’s Law” after a dog which was separated from its owner because of rental restrictions. This is not an insignificant issue.
Battersea Dogs and Cats Home estimate that by 2025, 60% of households in London will rent their homes. Battersea say that landlord restrictions on pets are a common reason for people having to give up an animal. On February 26, Andrew Rosindell will be hosting a Zoom event to discuss the proposed legislation. To register, go to rosindell.com
Always to be relied on for essential information, Battersea have issued advice on how to care for dogs and cats during cold weather and judging by the fun Messi, the Malamute, is having, it looks as though it’s working. Advice includes ensuring that after dogs have had a walk their paws are dried and checked to ensure there’s no salt or grit between the toes. Licking this off their paws could make them unwell.
Battersea also emphasise that dogs and cats should not come into contact with antifreeze as this can result in illness or death. Ethylene glycol, a chemical compound found in antifreeze and frequently used, for example, in car radiators can be deadly, even if only a small amount is ingested.
For more winter advice, see battersea.org.uk
REMEMBER before social distancing when we used to complain about being squashed on the underground, sitting in traffic jams or finding parking impossible?
We used phrases to describe our frustration like ‘losing the will to live,’ but the worst that could happen was that we’d arrive somewhere late, get a parking ticket, or in my case (on the tube) suffer claustrophobia.
We felt frustrated by traffic wardens, who incidentally were first introduced in Hillingdon exactly 50 years ago in 1971, and we later railed at congestion charges. Looking back, we see that all this angst was a waste of energy, and nothing compared to today’s challenges, when those of us who are shielding can’t go anywhere much.
The other day it felt like Armageddon when I went to collect medicines from Boots in Intu. It was so quiet I could hear my own footsteps and – good grief – I was the only one at the drugs counter. That’s never happened before.
I quite expected to see zombies emerge from the doorway of Next, or a deadly gas emerge from The
Perfume Shop. There were plenty of aliens: gloomy looking masked people; all of us deliberately avoiding each other like the plague (oops).
That dastardly Covid, like a cartoon character or a chameleon, tries to hoodwink us at every turn,even changing its appearance when we’re getting close to defeating it.
Where’s Superman when you need him? Probably too busy in his other guise as journalist ClarkKent, asking questions at the regular Downing Street press briefings.
I really wish certain questions at these briefings could be banned. The main one is ‘when will all this be over?’
It’s like when you’re on a long road trip to Cornwall and the children start asking how much longer before they can go to the toilet, eat their sandwiches or see the sea, when you’re hardly out of your own drive.
We can be sure that the Government, scientists and health staff will be longing for the day when we’re back to some kind of normal and they will no longer hear us whingeing ‘Are we there yet?’
Meanwhile we must just hang on to the fact that we have the vaccine – and remember that in history pandemics come and go and, for most, life goes on.
The Good Life
Actor Richard Briers died on this day (Feb 17) in 2013 but it feels like he’s still alive because of all the repeats of his much-loved sitcom in which he co-starred with Felicity Kendall.
Regular readers will remember that The Good Life was filmed in Northwood (Bm@il 1.04.2020).
We’ve all seen more of our gardens during the pandemic, even growing stuff like the Goods, but not getting anywhere near selfsufficient. Mr F’s tomatoes produced a decent crop, but not enough to fill the new kilner jars with chutney. They now stand apologetically in the spare bedroom so we don’t have to look at them.
My desk in the Gazette newsroom was, at one time, next to a fellow reporter whose name was the same as Briers’ character. The pair of us being Tom and Barbara (Kendall’s character’s name), we used to have daft conversations about having a mini allotment under our desks. Well, it amused us anyway.
Felicity is still in business. Aged 74, she is set to star in her first musical this summer at The Barbican. Let’s hope we’re allowed out by then or they’ll have to change the title from Anything Goes to Nothing Going On.
Heart to heart
We are constantly encouraged to think about our health and wellbeing, but never more than now. February is Heart month and Hillingdon Council has provided us with plenty of things to do.
Free on-line events include: Dementia Live – reminiscence and chat for those living with dementia and for their carers; Tiny Tales, stories and songs for under-fives; Laugh Out Loud Adult – inspiring stories, poetry and a good laugh; and Once Upon a Bump for expectant mothers and new-borns.
Also on offer are craft and art sessions for children, mindful creative writing, and chair exercises for older residents.
Most exciting of all, the Mayor of Hillingdon, Councillor Teji Barnes, would like residents to share their photos as part of her Feel-Good Photography Competition.
Places need to be booked for most things in February Heart Month. For more information see the council website or follow this link https// www.hillingdon.gov.uk/heart.
Vocal Locals
Mr F and I tuned in to see Dr Sarb Johal doing an author talk for on Hillingdon Libraries Facebook page last Wednesday. You will remember he is the author of Steady: Keeping Calm in a World Gone Viral.
A few days before that, I heard Dhruti Shah being interviewed by Michael Rosen on Radio 4 about her book .... Bear Markets and Beyond: A Bestiary of Business Terms.
They are both highly successful in their own fields – Dhruti, a journalist for the BBC and Sarb a psychologist who advised New Zealand on its pandemic course – but please indulge me for feeling a personal pride in both of them. Sarb’s family were neighbours and his sister Simi was a regular playmate of Fisher Junior. Every year we received a Christmas pudding from the family, so I always think about them in the festive season.
Dhruti, an Oxford graduate, whose work for the BBC recently included a stint in the USA, credited her work experience at the Gazette, while she was still at school, for giving her a kick-start in her chosen career. Best of all – and worth a huge celebratory cheer both of them grew up and went to schools in Hayes. Dhruti even mentioned to Rosen that hearing him speak at her school made her want to be a storyteller.
A tale of two locals – it doesn’t get any better than that.
FEW relationships survive the glare of the Hollywood spotlight and the clash of egos. Tinseltown is paved with broken hearts, but for some power couples falling in love is for keeps.
It was a second marriage for both Ronald Reagan and actress Nancy Davis when they tied the knot in Las Vegas at the Little Brown Church in the Valley in 1952 with Oscarwinning actor William Holden as their best man.
The future US president and his First Lady were together 52 years and Nancy said: “What can you say about a man who on Mother’s Day sends flowers to his mother-in-law with a note thanking her for making him the happiest man on Earth?”
He tried to ease her mind after he was the target of an assassination attempt in 1981 saying: “Honey, I forgot to duck,” and joked with the nurse at the hospital saying: “Does Nancy know about us?”
Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward met in his agent’s office in 1953 and their marriage lasted 50 years until his death in 2008. He said he fell in love at first sight and his first thought was “Jeez, what an extraordinarily pretty girl”.
It took Joanne a little longer to fall for the blue-eyed charmer, but they later worked together in a Broadway production of romantic drama Picnic and again on 1957 film The Long, Hot Summer.
They married in Las Vegas the following year and made their home away from the glare of Hollywood in Connecticut. They had three daughters together.
Paul would go on to make his directing debut in 1968 film Rachel, Rachel starring Joanne.
She once said: “Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat.”
Double Oscar winner Denzel Washington and his actress wife Paulettea will celebrate 38 years of marriage in June.
The couple, who have four children, met when they had small roles in 1977 TV movie Wilma, about runner Wilma Rudolph. They married five years later.
Their son, Tenet star John David was born in 1984, daughter Katia three years later and twins Malcolm and Olivia in 1991.
Denzel once joked: “The secret to a happy marriage? Do whatever your wife tells you ‘Yes, dear’. And breathe”.
On a more serious note, he said: “She puts up with me. I think also in a way the travelling helps.
“We’re able to travel together and also be apart sometimes. Not everyone gets to live like that.”
Comedy star Mel Brooks and The Graduate’s Anne Bancroft were together for 41 years before she sadly passed away in 2005.
They met when Anne made her first appearance on Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall. Mel later bribed a woman who working on the show to tell him which restaurant Anne was planning to go to so he could accidentally bump into her there.
They eventually married in 1964 at New York City Hall with a passerby acting as their witness.
Mel later called his wife Obi-Wan Kenobi for encouraging and supporting him and once said: “I’m married to a beautiful and talented
woman who can lift your spirits just by looking at you.”
She used to say: “When he comes home at night and I hear his key in the lock, I say to myself ‘Oh, good. The party’s about to begin.”
Tom Hanks and his actress wife Rita Wilson will be celebrating their 33rd wedding anniversary this year.
They met in 1981 on the set of
Rita has said the secret to a good relationship is “you’ve got to want to be married to the person you’re married to”.
Footloose actor Kevin Bacon and Born On The Fourth Of July’s Kyra Sedgwick will be celebrating their 33rd wedding anniversary in September. The couple, who have two children, met while starring in 1988 movie Lemon Sky and they have worked together in films like Pyrates, Murder In The First, The Woodsman, Cavedweller and Loverboy.
Kevin says the secret to a successful marriage is to “keep your fights clean and your sex dirty”.
Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell have been together for 38 years, but have never tied the knot.
They are Hollywood’s longest lasting unmarried couple and have been together since Valentine’s Day, 1983. They have one son, actor Wyatt Russell, and have appeared in several films including Swing Shift and Overboard in the 1980s.
Goldie once explained her relationship with Kurt saying: “We’ve both been married. I’ve been married twice, it didn’t work. He was married once, that didn’t work.
“And, you know, we were at a time when we had kids and thought ‘Well, you know, what actually would it do to get married.
“I like being independent. I like being his girlfriend. I like that notion. I think it’s sexy.”
Kurt simply says: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Kevin Bacon and wife Kyra Sedgwick
American TV sitcom Bosom Buddies and worked together again in 1985 film Volunteers.
Tom converted to the Greek Orthodox Church before their marriage and the Forrest Gump and Philadelphia Oscar-winning star once said: “It’s just as hard staying happily married as it is doing movies.”’
BASED on German author Cornelia Funke’s best-selling 1997 children’s book, director Tomer Eshed’s computer-animated adventure glides in the slipstream of the vastly superior How To Train Your Dragon.
Both pictures chronicle the coming of age of an alienated boy through a touching friendship with a benevolent winged beast, which has yet to realise its potential in a cruel, unforgiving world.
For hundreds of years, dragons have lived in peaceful seclusion from destructive, avaricious humans.
Bottleneck (Glenn Wrage) presides over the last remaining herd in a valley, which is also home to creatures called brownies. When deforestation threatens their sanctuary, outcast silver dragon Firedrake (Thomas Brodie Sangster) and his brownie best friend Sorrel (Felicity Jones) plan to find the fabled Rim of Heaven, which wise elder Slatebeard (Peter Marinker) rhapsodises as “a paradise for dragons”.
Taking flight to a nearby city under cover of darkness, Firedrake and Sorrel seek temporary refuge in a riverside warehouse so they might consult an all-knowing oracle called “the internet”. Instead, they encounter an orphan named Ben (Freddie Highmore) and mistake the teenage thief for a mystical dragon rider. The bickering trio glean valuable clues about the Rim of Heaven from Australian conservationist Professor Greenbloom (David Brooks) and folklore expert Subisha Gulab (Meera Syal). Meanwhile, dragon-hunting behemoth Nettlebrand (Patrick Stewart) learns of their plan and gives chase.
Dragon Rider harnesses the vocal talents of its starry British cast to lend gravitas to a lightweight globe-trotting yarn that gently plucks heartstrings and occasionally dazzles with slick action sequences.
Comic flourishes in Johnny Smith’s script sometimes miss the mark and a protracted narrative interlude in India, which welcomes lively vocal sparring between husband and wife Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar, unabashedly promotes lazy cultural stereotypes for easy laughs.
However, there is a big heart beating furiously beneath the film’s digitally rendered scales.
The execution may be a tad clumsy but director Eshed and legions of animators successfully claw their way to a crowd-pleasing resolution.
Dragon Rider doesn’t shy away from obvious comparisons and introduces the character of Ben during the red-carpet premiere of an animated film entitled How To Tame Your Dragon.
Firedrake is no match for the childlike wonder of How to Train Your Dragon’s titular beast Toothless and Highmore’s heartfelt vocal performance pales next to Jay Baruchel’s moving portrayal of Viking boy Hiccup in that franchise.
Judged on its own modest merits, Eshed’s odyssey boasts impressive visuals while Stewart roars through his supporting role with a generous serving of theatrical ham.
■ Streaming from February 12 on Sky Cinema
‘IF THIS was to be our last album I would consider it an exclamation point,” says rock star Dave Grohl. “Some people might consider it a question mark. But for me it would be a drop-the-mic moment for the band.”
The 52-year-old drummerturned-frontman is talking about Medicine At Midnight, Foo Fighters’ recently released 10th album.
Of course, this is not the veteran outfit’s final release – or at least we hope it isn’t. Instead, it is a celebration of 25 years’ hard touring and 10 albums of anthemic rock.
For their latest outing, Dave and co have incorporated the music of their youth. It is the music that makes them want to move – Little Richard, Elvis, Sly And The Family Stone, even Let’s Dance-era David Bowie and disco. While this may seem surprising to some, it made total sense to the band.
“Knowing it was our 25th anniversary and our 10th album, I thought it would be a good idea to really start the party now,” an ever-enthusiastic Dave explains.
The Foos, as they’re affectionately known by fans, began work on the record in late 2019, decamping to an expansive 1940s house in a Los Angeles suburb.
Sessions progressed quickly, despite vague mumblings about the property being haunted – untouched guitars would suddenly detune, mixing desks would reset themselves overnight.As the process went on, the band realised they were writing songs that were more upbeat, more disco even, although they retained their trademark stadium-ready rock sound. Dave says that during the process he kept the festival crowd in mind.
The bubblegum choruses of “na na nas” on Making
A Fire and the soaring riffs of
Holding Poison sound ready-made for the live circuit. But as well as delaying the album, the pandemic also ensured these songs will remain purely for home listening, at least for now.
“I felt like it was time for us to be the DJ at the biggest party we have ever had,” Dave chuckles. “And of course that didn’t happen.
“We have stumbled into real luck over the last 25 years. It is not often that we have just hit a brick wall.
“We have kept the forward motion for a long time. This is the first time in the band’s career that we had to just turn the key and shut it down. That felt strange.”
Dave spent lockdown in Hawaii with his wife, Jordyn Blum, and their three daughters. What was meant to be a short holiday before the band jetted off on a world tour turned into a months-long break. Dave was grounded for the first time in some 30 years.
“I felt really fortunate to have a lot of time with my family, making sure that everybody is healthy and safe,” he says.
“I have been on the road for 30 years, so having 12 months of being at home was something new to me.
“And I have got to be honest, I was really into it. People would ask me, ‘Don’t you miss being on tour?’ Of course I felt obligated to say, ‘Yes, that is the love of my life.’ But deep down I really was happy with being immobile for a little while.”
Medicine At Midnight is unique among the Foo Fighters’ back catalogue because of its special guest – Dave’s eldest daughter, Violet, 14, who sings backing vocals on Making A Fire.
After school, Violet would do her homework while the band worked on the album in their LA residence.
One day, the band’s producer, Greg Kurstin, asked her if she wanted to lay down some backing vocals. She nailed it in two takes.
Living up to his reputation as the nicest guy in rock, Dave is the doting father about it.
“She was singing along to Amy Winehouse in perfect pitch and perfect cadence and inflection when she was four or five years old,” he gushes. “So I knew she had it in her and over time she has really grown to become a musician.”
Despite its feelgood vibe, politics is baked into Medicine At Midnight. Dave was raised in a political family – his father, James, was a journalist and political consultant, his mother, Virginia, a public school teacher. He grew up in
Washington DC, within spitting distance of the Pentagon and White House.
Waiting On A War, the album’s most overtly political track, expresses the sense of impending Armageddon he felt as a boy – and feels again now living in an America reshaped by Donald Trump.
“We’re digging ourselves out of a hole right now,” he offers when asked about the state of his nation.
Dave has always been clear on his political views. The Foos performed their hit Times Like These during a special concert on the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration, with Dave dedicating their performance to his mother and “all of our unshakeable teachers that continue to enlighten our nation’s kids every day”.
It was, unsurprisingly, an emotional experience. “Having them ask us to play a song I wrote 18 years ago about a time in my life where I was at a crossroads, not sure which way to go, but felt the need for some kind of rebirth – I felt like I needed to start again.
“That is what Times Like These is about. It is not a political song but it does apply to what is going on in America right now.”
Instead of performing live in Washington DC, Dave watched himself perform from his home in Hawaii (the song was pre-recorded due to Covid-19 measures).
“I would have loved to have been there,” he sighs. “Instead I was in Hawaii on the couch in a tie-dye T-shirt, drinking a beer, watching my band perform at the inauguration. It was surreal!
“But (it was) also a very emotional moment. I was incredibly honoured to be involved in a moment like that. To me it seemed like a turning point... Thank goodness.”
“It’s funny,” he says in closing. “I sometimes liken it to seeing your life flash before your eyes as it is happening.
“I just have to pinch myself and roll with it. I wake up every day, no matter how good a day or bad a day, and can’t believe I get to live this life. It never wears thin.”
■ Medicine At Midnight by
Foo Fighters is out now.