the corn poppy

Saturday, 21 May 2016

The Quiet Explosion

We make our own destiny, princess

Substitute

no substitute

knock, knock, knock on wood

no more, no more, no chance

Newt Rix

Thursday, 12 May 2016

I wrote on a wall. Take that, society.

A bit of a diversion today. TheCornPoppy's day job is at QE2 Activity Centre which is a charity providing activity opportunities for people with disabilities.

One of our sources of income is charitable donations, so usually when we think of fundraising we are thinking about raising additional income for QE2 Activity Centre. But we're not totally blinkered. We know there are many other charities around doing great work. Plenty of others who need some help with fundraising. Last Saturday we did a bit of giving back . . .

QE2 Activity Centre is a community. It is made up of individuals who use our services, their families, people who volunteer here, people who work here. Not to mention many friends around the country who have been involved over the past four decades.

It is an ever changing, ever growing community. Two of our staff had children late last year. And I became a Grandpa. Our daughter gave birth to Lela at the end of November. Normally my daughter is late for things but on this occasion she was early, about 15 weeks early. Little Lela was born at 25 weeks gestation weighing less than 2lbs, with under developed lungs (and everything else). This meant that she spent her first four months in hospital and, without being melodramatic, she only made it through because of the amazing work of the staff at Southampton's Princess Anne Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.

This weekend a group from QE2 Activity Centre took part in Gung Ho! a 5k with added giant inflatable obstacles. Have a look on facebook. They were raising money as they ran, not for the Centre, but to buy equipment for the Princess Anne neonatal ICU. It is impossible to put into words the value of the work that goes on at a unit like Princess Anne's NICU.. I was there on Christmas Eve when Friends of the Hospital were carol singing outside the door of the intensive care unit while inside doctors were performing life saving procedures. The target for our team is a digital monitor. There is still time to sponsor!

If you have ever enjoyed anything here at TheCornPoppy this is your chance to show your appreciation.

donate here

The team consisted of eight of the guys who are part of the GreenHouse and Team Q day services - Amy, Lenita, Adam, Dan, Nick, Kevin, Thomas and Craig - Centre staff Kerry and me plus former staff member Andy (who organised it) and Beccy. Everyone showed great team spirit, working together and keeping going on the hottest day of the year so far. Well done Team QE2. I, for one, am really proud of you all!

Phil Oates, Centre Manager

Sunday, 8 May 2016

That's how you got killed before

this year's model

tear off your own head

Veronica

Step inside, love

hoover factory

abandon words

party girl

no one can save us but ourselves

no one can and no one may

we ourselves must walk the path

Buddah

grafitti from Southampton and Weymouth, south coast UK
song titles from Elvis Costello

Jef Aerosol

The image is one thing and the human being is another.

It's very hard to live up to an image, put it that way

Elvis Presley

If there is something to be changed in this world

it can only be done through music

Jimi Hendrix

Art is not what you see, it is what you make others see

what is your idea of a good story, Monkey?

Ganesha

Jean-François Perroy, better known under the pseudonym Jef Aerosol, is a stencil artist (French) is a pioneer since the 80s in the middle of the street art. The work of Jef Aerosol are inseparable from his famous red arrow shows off his stencils, like a second signature. Jef Aerosol spoke on the walls of many cities: Paris, Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Ile de Ré, Orleans, Tours, but also abroad as Amsterdam, Rome, Venice, Lisbon, Dublin, Beijing, New York .... Even his legendary "Sitting kid" is stuck on the Great Wall of China. Since 2011, you can find his monumental work "Chuuuuuut" (his biggest stencil 350m), it is the self-portrait of the artist overlooking the Stravinsky fountain near Beaubourg. Want to see Jeff Aerosol stencils? It's possible, in many places in Paris, but particularly: Street crossbow, Rue Jean Calvin and that of Teilhard de Chardin Paris 5, Butte quail Paris 13, Rue Biot Paris 17, Place Stravinsky (to near Beaubourg) ....

translation by Google Translate

Photos by Mme Akriche