Curriedflavouredflipproductions

The bottom line is....

Only owe money on a car and a home. Everything else is excess.

The Jewish Phenomenon, Steven Silbiger


courtesy of news.bbc.co.uk

I love this image. It is Oscar, from Dreamworks 'Shark Tale' standing in front of a home advertising billboard. The way the animation is designed, you would think he is in this house. Oscar is dreaming about what his own 'crib' would look like.

There are a couple of issues that gets everybody arguing. One of them is our homes. As a nation because we have no real sun, we are obsessed with the look of our homes.

What is unknown, is the fact that our homes is a mosaic way of socially engineering the population. There are many who live in social housing which are operated by the council. There are those who have climbed the social ladder to have bought their own home. The difference is massive! If you own your own home you can freely roam around a show such as the Ideal Home show, the Grand Design Show, the Homes and Garden show and The Royal Chelsea show, planning further changes to your home. If you do not own your own home, you do not have direct access to credit. The best you can do is pop into Ikea or other furniture shops.

What can we expect to see at the Ideal Home Show?

A short video on the trip to the Ideal Home Show



Did you notice the price tag of a new 3 bedroom home in Surrey? It was 1/2 million pounds. Despite the recession, this house has increased by £100,000 over two years. I personally went to visit this style of house on another building development in 2008 and have the pictures for my archive.

The real issue is, most people I know would love to have one of these houses with carefully manicured lands. The expense is out of this world. If you took out a mortgage on this house, the expiry of paying the money back would indicate that you would have ended paying back to the bank about a 1 million pounds over 25 years.

How are most young people with low paying jobs and probably no higher education qualification going to afford this? Well there is a way. Cut out the stuff we seem to like to acquire. Do we really need a breadmaker? a food processor, a 42" LCD flat screen, an exercise bike I could go on. One colleague I know only buys essential items such as foods etc from September to December. No clothes or anything else is bought.

Finally it may be advisable to speak to a financial advisor if you do not have one already.

Check out this house design on a budget in Peckham. You will have to copy and paste the link into your URL as my hyperlink setting is not working.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BgM8QkmGVw

The bottom line is....

"Be a leader of something outstanding. Do not settle for managing something in a average way."

Me

For this year I am invited to see various OFSTED rated Outstanding schools. I cannot film students in their schools as there is totally no need for this. I can report back excellent facilities. It is not the facilities that make a school outstanding. It is the whole calm joined up way these institutions operate that is impressive.

Notre Dame, Sheffield



Let me tell you, the number one trait of an outstanding schools is excellent BEHAVIOUR of the students. Too many times I have been in schools and learning is hampered by poor behaviour. Even worse, the members of staff who have to work in this environment can be praised for putting up with rubbish, however, the truth to be told, it is not an acceptable way to pass a day. It is physically draining and demoralising. Particularly as the key reason why we are in schools is to encourage learning.

The second most desirable trait about an Outstanding school is their results. Achievement is always over 80% of whatever is being measured. Anything less than 80%is totally unacceptable. It must be 80% across the school.

The third desirable trait is the way you observe students and staff tackling functional problems using the following skills toolkit:

Complexity
Familiarity
Technical demand
Independence

You will see high order thinking skills, using the above in outstanding schools. It could be a reason why the environment is calmer for the students are actively engaged, rather than fighting for basic attention and other survival needs.

Heres a tip, beware of schools that uses the word outstanding in their literature profile, when they know it is only aspects of certain departments that are outstanding not the whole school.
For those who are stuck in underperforming schools, I would urge that you have a personal health check. For the stress of these schools can make one ill after awhile.

Remember this film?

'To Sir with Love' starring Sidney Poitier all the way from the 60s?

The bottom line is...

Reminisce

This is my very first album I bought in 1989. En Vogue had 'CLAMP'.



I was breaking out, invitations to house parties were coming in thick. Naturally you obliged every invitation. For motivation you had to have the latest songs. Spending over an hour in the record shops as we used to call them, searching for albums, used to be a wonderful way to spend time and money. Like most people I acquired a music database to die for.

To reminisce we are planning to see most of the groups that had the edge when were younger.
We attended the Jagged Edge concert to see if they still got what Busta Ryhmes calls:

'CLAMP'

Concept
Lyrically sound
Action, attraction and attitude
Moving music
Production class

My Small Jagged Edge Concert Video



When you get older you realise that not everything matures the way you would like it to. Unfortunately, I do feel these guys have lost their edge.

After arranging baby sitting we managed to sneak out on a SUNDAY EVENING. Many people may not realise, teaching is an anti-social profession. We score very poorly on maintaining friendships outside of work because of the pressures of being responsible for other peoples children. When you have a young family, most of us are tucked up in bed early on a Sunday evening, vexed about having a short weekend with little time for oneself. Even more vexed about the amount of tasks needed to be completed during the week.

Approaching the Millennium Dome is very difficult when there is traffic. We were waiting in the car for over an hour outside of the car parks. Inside the venue was excellent. Vocally the three who managed to turn up were ok. When you have to be listening to miming over tracks at high pitch I was wondering whether if I should have attended the X-Factor event next door. What has happened to the deep voice singers? You know, the Barry Whites, Teddy Pendergrass and Isaac Hayes. I know they may be dead, but can't we have some deep voice singers again?

We intend to see other back in the days acts.
Stay locked onto this blog for more multimedia news from other esteemed artists concerts such as Mariah Carey, Boys II Men etc.

Who remembers this happening tune 1990 En Vogue 'Hold On'?

The bottom line is:

Believe in something, but do not mix religion and politics.

You know there used to be a famous saying:

'If you want to hide something from black people, put it in a book'.

Well this obtuse comment did not work for me. One thing I miss about being a student is the freedom to read until you are blue in the face. As an undergraduate my appetite for reading was insatiable. I would read at home, while travelling abroad, before I went to sleep and first thing in the morning. I am talking about a time when Nelson Mandela was still in prison in South Africa. Hence, at the beginning of the 90s I fondly remember reading Irvine Wallaces book: "The Man"



Wow, what a book! The book was written all the way in 1964. Strangely at the time, I did not think it was conceivable to have a black man as a President. Black guys in films always died early, so you can easily be conditioned to believe Black people will not amount to much. The only way black people were portrayed in the media was in sport and music. Well the President in this book did not die. Society did try to impeach him. The killer point of the book was a powerful lesson for me. If the boxer Mike Tyson had read the book before his February 10th 1992 conviction, he could have ignored the booty call he received late one night. When the President found himself in the company of women alone in the Oval Office, he always left the DOOR OPEN.

Bam!! Beat that for advice. If you can get the book, read it.

I do not comment on religion or politics. However, when President Obama was running for election in USA my immediate thoughts went to this book. Times have sure changed.

I do not have the luxury of reading a lot these days. Here is a list of magazines I read to fill the gap:

http://shecaribbean.com

For those of us from the caribbean:



http://www.oprah.com/omagazine.html

http://www.managementtoday.co.uk

http://www.ninetyninemag.co.uk/index.html

Do you remember the award winning The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 10, 1990, to May 20, 1996? Man I had fun in them days!

I have to add one of my favourites, a short clip of Will Smith verses Helena in the boxing ring:

The bottom line is:

Every man has a poem in his heart.
Mike Gayle



I love reading. I have read all the James Clavell "Shogun" series. All the Tom Clancy "Ryan" series. All the John Grisham "Client/lawyer" series and all of the Dan Brown series. There are more authors that I could mention. Sometimes there are periods in your life when your favourite authors have not published anything.
It was through one spell of drought, late 90s, I was on one of my monthly searches in the book shops for new material to read. Along came 'Mr Commitment' written by Mike Gayle. I was immediately attracted to the colour of the cover. I was apprehensive at first. I overcame my fear and purchased the book. That was 11 years ago. Since then you do not know how many times I have bought personal copies of the same book for some of my commitment phobic friends.

Allow me to introduce you to Mike Gayle if you do not already know him.



According to www.Wikipedia.org, Mike is a British author and freelance journalist contributing to a variety of magazines including FHM and Sunday Times Style. He was an agony aunt for Just Seventeen and Bliss before he wrote books.

This is his website:

http://www.mikegayle.co.uk/ (please copy and paste address into your URL toolbar)

This is his list of books:

My Legendary Girlfriend (1998), Flame, ISBN 0-340-71816-1
Mr. Commitment (1999), Flame, ISBN 0-340-71825-0
Turning Thirty (2000), Flame, ISBN 0-340-76794-4
Dinner for Two (2002), Flame, ISBN 0-340-82342-9
His 'n' Hers (2004)
Brand New Friend (2005), ISBN 0-340-82539-1
Wish You Were Here (2007)
The Life & Soul of the Party (2008)
The Importance of Being a Bachelor (2010)
His ninth book is a non-fiction novel called The To Do List, about his own efforts to complete a 1277-item To Do List.

Let me tell you, if you were born in the 70s in England (in the midlands, like I was), here is a gentleman that takes you on a nostalgic journey through time. More importantly, his books navigate through the unsaid dramas of relationships.

If you work with 'Screenagers' like I do, his material is a fantastic foundation to build upon. He has a way of describing the highs and the lows and even the scary dilemmas. For instance one of his books describes a young couples argument in IKEA. I am sure we can all relate to this.

Another book describes the story of a young man, who goes on holiday, starts a holiday romance, only to break it at the end of the holiday. A good few years later, the same young guy is married but unfortunately his wife is unable to conceive. Then out of the blue a young girl who is his daughter (from the holiday romance) gets in touch with the same guy. He did not know he had a young pretty daughter. The dilemma was, should he tell his wife? Secretly he was ecstatic to know that he had a doting young daughter that he can relate to because the said guy wrote for a popular teenage magazine. That is how the girl found him. What would you do?



One more I must share, how many of us have best friends who are of the opposite sex? How does your husband/wife or partner feel about this? He has written a book on that topic too! I tell you for the last 11 years my family have been sharing his dramatic style of writing. Once I start one of his books, all you can hear is the frequent giggles.



I am sure one day he is going to explore the area of social networking sites. According to one research, having a Blackberry adds 10 extra working days a year. Or he may look into if Technology has taken its toll on relationships by leapfrogging the whole blind date thing.

(see http://blogs.abcnews.com/aheadofthecurve/2010/03/is-technology-taking-its-toll-on-our-relationships.html)

(Mikes kind of writing would make good mini-series TV dramas. Something else I would add to my ever growing TV channel)

You know, good books and good music are a couple of ingredients that prevent you from becoming depressed.
Thanks Mike (another one) for things we are too afraid to talk about.

Example of my back in the days raving diet, Lauryn Hill That Thing:

The bottom line is:

All 'humans' are equal, but some humans are more equal than others' (substituted the word animal for human)

George Orwell, Animal Farm

When I was growing up, we used to use the word Prejudice. Now we call it Racism. The word racism did exist, for some reason prejudice was the lingua franca at the time. Fortunately, I was shielded from the full force of prejudice. Whereas I was taught not to feel ashamed of my colour, I was not totally protected.

Even now sometimes, I have to go to an off the beaten track assignment. When I enter the premises, the look I receive from some peoples faces is astonishing. Many times, I find that I am the only one from my background to be present. Most of the time I am accepted, there have been occasions when I have blatently been ignored.

I have learned that, it does not help my cause, if I play up to the misguided stereotype of my background. In other words: 'chip on their shoulders, always loud, always lazy and definitely always late'.
Further, my cause is not advanced if I do not read. Like most people, I spend a lot of my time reading.

Quite often you can go through life either fighting tooth and nail or allowing people to discriminate against you by taking advantage of you.
I will never forget my first interview I had for teaching before leaving university. Picture the situation, mid 90s, John Majors Britain. There was that slip of the tongue prevailing thought distributed by the media that said that: "all young black men were muggers!". This did not make us young men feel good. Still it was before Islamophobia of the 21st Century.
I was virtually penniless, no assets apart from the unkempt hair on my head, cd player (young brother had to have his music), and the shirt on my back.
I was completing the final year of my teacher training course. After four years of full time studying, the pressure was on to find a job to settle quickly into routine to pay off my ever growing student debts. As usual I was competing for a Newly Qualified Teachers positions with all of the other students who were completing their degree at the same time. We are talking pre MP3 days, pre PDF documents, pre Google and Facebook.

The school was in the stockbroker belt of Surrey. A well to do secondary school in Esher to be precise. I filled in the application form, posted the letter on time and waited for a response. A day before the scheduled interview date for those successful candidates who were contacted early and shortlisted, I was phoned with the instructions to attend. I did not know that the school had an internal candidate.

I borrowed some money for a new suit, and tried to make myself presentable. I scoped out my journey to ensure that I arrived on time.
I arrived at a wonderfully equipped school. The type of school that most parents dreamed of. The reception I was given was not so great. When they saw me, I received the famous 'Blazing Saddles' look; (The teacher is a .........). Needless to say, by todays standards I was asked the most personal questions. When I reflect, it was more like an interrogation of who I am trying to impersonate. I was not incandescent with rage for wasting my time. I kept my cool. When you have grown up as the underdog, stopped and questioned countless times by the Police (believe it or not I did study in Eltham, Stephen Lawrence demise territory), you learn that shouting and screaming is not the most diplomatic way of being listened to. Thankfully, I did not get the job.
There are other non transparent events that I cannot forget. For instance, in the past, when I applied for certain courses that will advance my career prospects, at referee point, my reference have been deliberately lost. The result is that I missed the deadline round, leading to my missing the interviews.

Life is hard, however, life is hard for everyone. Even for those who practise being prejudice.
On my life journey, I have met the most wonderful people too. People who treat you with no prejudice. These are the ones who go out of their way to hospitably share what they know and who they know. They have taught me the value of TRUST. Obviously we cannot trust everyone, neither do I expect everyone to trust me without truly knowing me. It is these kind natured people that I try to model myself after today.

For what is the point of bearing grudges against people who enjoy discrimination?

Remember this?

A not so funny? Infamous scene from the film from 1974 (round abouts when I was born) Blazing Saddles starring Cleavon Little as the new Sheriff.

The bottom line is:

All children need, is a little help, a little hope and somebody who believes in them.
E.M Johnson

Have you seen the 2010 Academy Award winning film Precious? If you are looking for a good Friday feel factor, this certainly is not the film to whine down to.

Below is the trailer for the film Precious:



If you ever get involved in child protection cases, you will know that they are some of the most complex circumstances made up of imperfect knowledge, ethical dilemmas mixed into a lethal cocktail of an emotionally charged atmosphere.

Working in schools you realise very quickly that within a large percentage of families, you will find cases similar to Precious.

I do not need to go into why these cases exist. I can comment on what we can do to reduce cases such as Precious if it is part of your job specification.

All agencies, including families, need to develop critical oversight. Actually, it is harder to practice than is written. The reason for this is, we are bombarded by MEDIA HYPE.
Hype may be viewed as a tool to distract the discerning audience, however, it is more sinister than this. Incorrect interpretation of hype can lead to witch hunts.
Generally hype asserts itself by ensuring that most people (including families) do not have full access to the truth. If you look carefully, a culture of secrecy, cover-ups and defensiveness prevail.
Therefore, to be effective, critical oversight is a robust method that is open about causes and actions.
When analysing you have to constantly ask key questions. The very first one relating to the APPRECIATION of the subjects life.
To illustrate, imagine you are going to buy a new car for £14,000. 3 years later you decide to sell the car for a new model. Do you expect to receive £14,000 in transfer for a new model? Obviously you would receive less because the car has DEPRECIATED.
In other words the value of the car is lower than when you purchased it. A car is an inanimate object, one we are willing to spend thousands of pounds to maintain. Do we view life as precious as a car to the point of maintaining it?
In ideal conditions, the value of someones life should appreciate. Some kind of evidence of balanced growth should be recognisable. If physical, mental (including education attainment) and emotional growth is absent, your critical oversight should tell you to investigate deeper.
Another essential tool in the critical oversight box is the ability to use your senses. Is something not right? the colours, the smells, the subjects health appearance, is there estimated improvements? Are they being secretive? are they being defensive? If the answer is the affirmative, log your investigation by reporting to the authorities.

That said, it is hoped that you are never involved in such judgement cases in the first place.

Below is a song we used to listen to in the early days of rap music during the 80s. The group called Public Enemy: "Don't believe the hype"