2014年7月31日 星期四

新書 「The Table 女主人的餐桌時光」

對英國菜餚有興趣嗎? 英國文化協會What’s On 私藏倫敦專欄作者的新書 「The Table 女主人的餐桌時光」於8月1號在各大書店與讀者們見面啦。

從廚房到餐桌,是趟優雅的旅程 ,此書獻給每個既堅韌又柔軟的女主人﹗50道女主人口袋的英倫食譜,從湯、前菜、主餐、甜點、下午茶等等多道簡單做食譜即時分享。此書不只是本食譜,還由歐洲飲食文化解析歐洲餐桌,從中帶入基礎的正式餐桌禮儀及主客之道,做個能滿足朋友胃蕾的優雅女主人!

(臉書部落格請搜尋: Dawn Tsai 嗜。英倫生活)

2014年7月28日 星期一

10 Lingering Effects of World War I on Britain


World War I began 100 years ago today.
Here are 10 ways the conflict continues to impact Britain - and the world: http://bbc.in/1o6budC (via Anglophenia)

10 Lingering Effects of World War I on Britain

Remembrance Day poppies at the Cenotaph, London (Rex Features via AP Images)
Remembrance Day poppies seen at the Cenotaph, London. (Rex Features via AP Images)
Today (July 28) marks 100 years since the start of the First World War. A conflict of unimaginable scale that effectively redrew the maps of Europe and the Middle East and cost 16 million people their lives. The war also left its mark on British society in all kinds of subtle ways, changing social relationships that had taken centuries to build up, and playing a huge role in the creation of the modern world.
1. Poppies
Scarlet corn poppies are very adept at growing in churned-up earth, and they’d had plenty of time to spread seeds across Western Europe thanks to the Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century. So when war came once again to Northern France and Flanders, the poppies were one of the few beneficiaries. The Canadian poet John McCrae noted the red blooms in his poem “In Flanders Fields,” and the flower quickly came to represent those who had fallen in battle. The British Legion, formed in 1921, created the Poppy Appeal, selling paper flowers to raise funds in aid of all serving army personnel, and now, from late October until Remembrance Sunday (the nearest Sunday to November 11), British citizens from shop assistants to members of the Royal Family, wear their poppies with pride.
2. Skin Grafts
The industrial scale of the war was such that the type of injuries coming back from the front line were different from those experienced before. And with medicine advancing at a similar velocity to weaponry, some giant strides took place in the treatment of badly disfigured men. Harold Gillies was the surgeon who pioneered fresh techniques in transplanting healthy bone, muscle and skin into injured areas, most notably the faces of men caught by bullets or shrapnel in the battle of the Somme in 1916. He realized the men would want as near to normal a face as possible, so he used a sculptor to create a plaster cast of the ideal finished result, and used that as a template.
3. Your Country Needs You
Lord Kitchener's poster
The famous poster of Lord Kitchener and his moustache pointing outwards has become an icon of that era, and inspired similar posters for other armies in other countries, such as the one featuring Uncle Sam above. There are countless parodies too—there’s even a Dumbledore’s Army one—and the poster is instantly recognizable in the U.K. as the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster of World War II.
4. Chemical Warfare
The French may have been lobbing tear gas grenades to try and hold the German army back, but it was the German use of heavy chlorine gas at Ypres that had the greatest effect. Both sides soon took up gas canisters, with newer and nastier strains being developed at some speed. Mustard gas was the most notorious, as it was difficult to spot, and caused blistered skin (internal and external), vomiting and often a temporary form of blindness. And these were just the symptoms of the survivors or those left without permanent injury. Chemical weapons have remained one of the most troubling methods of warfare ever since.
5. P.T.S.D.
Better known at the time as “shell shock,” post-traumatic stress disorder was first identified as a definite medical condition in the early years of the war, thanks to the work of the psychologist Charles Myers. He realized that the physiological problems suffered by seemingly unharmed men—temporary blindness, uncontrollable shaking, problems walking or using the toilet—were as a result of a psychological experience in which, as Dr. Myers put it, “the tolerable or controllable limits of horror, fear, anxiety, etc. are overstepped.”
It wasn’t easy to gain acceptance for this condition, or come up with a decent way to treat traumatized men, and it wasn’t until the 1980s that the condition was given the name “post-traumatic stress disorder,” by which time it had been widely accepted as a by-product of the intensity of modern warfare.
6. Votes for Women
Had the war not happened, it’s likely that the campaign for women’s suffrage would have taken a lot longer to see results in Britain, and those results would have come after violent and unpopular protests. However, while the men of Britain were away, two million women took their places delivering post, building munitions, driving trucks and making sure the buses ran on time. So when peace was declared, it was hard for the authorities to deny them a say in the way the country was run, providing they were over 30, owned a property (singly or by marriage) or had been to university. True parity with the boys was still another 10 years off.
7. The End of Empire
There’s a lot of ground to cover here, but before the First World War the British economy was in surplus and things looked very rosy indeed, because of the way the Empire was configured. After the war, with all commonwealth countries having made incredible contributions and sacrifices, things were not the same, which led in turn to the dissolution of the empire after the Second World War, as this clip explains.
8. Giving Blood
In 1914, it was discovered that donated blood could be kept from clotting if it was kept cold in a fridge, with a little sodium citrate. This meant that people could donate blood for transfusion to help keep injured soldiers alive. It took a while to work out the blood groups and who should get what, but this was one of the most significant medical breakthroughs in a time of many.
9. Class Mobility
The war took so many British lives that the structure of society itself had to change as a result. The upper classes took the greatest proportional hit, which meant there were far fewer confident and educated sons of privilege to take over the running of the country when the war was over. This coincided with a reduction in the serving classes, as families grew rather partial to earning wages in the factories, among their peers, rather than serving soup to Dowager Countesses. Also, the use of conscription to demand men of all backgrounds join up led to a change in the social structure of the army. Men of humble backgrounds were promoted to officer status, and for the first time, traditional forelock-tugging class distinctions were abandoned in favor of military pragmatism.
10. Daylight-Saving Time
A simple innovation that changes the lives of millions of people all over the world every year, and we have the war to thank for it. In 1916, Germany began changing their clocks to suit the hours of daylight available in the day. Forward for the summer months, to give longer sunny evenings, and back in the autumn, to maximize what little sunshine there may have been during the day. Credit should really go to Benjamin Franklin, who is the earliest person on record as having suggested it. While many countries returned to one time zone all year after the war, the Brits kept it up, eventually referring to their daylight-saving time as “British Summer Time.”

2014年7月27日 星期日

Land of Hope and Glory


這首 Land of Hope and Glory當然不只在下文的場合,我們在逍遙演唱會 ( the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941)等也常可看到。
最有趣的是在 2008年的:Reborn:Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963 by Susan Sontag (身後出版品)
(1957) :"在畢業典禮上演唱 Land of Hope and Glory" (中文本,142頁)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_ROlkMOL9s
A British patriotic song: Land of Hope and Glory.
Land of Hope and Glory is used as the national anthem of England in the Commonwealth Games and some other sporting events. The song was used by the English rugby league team for the national anthem until 2005.


Land of Hope and Glory, 
Mother of the Free,
How shall we extol thee,
Who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider,
Shall thy bounds be set,
God, who made thee mighty,
Make thee mightier yet,
God, who made thee mighty,
Make thee mightier yet.

Pictures of:
1. Buckingham Palace
2. Peak District
3. Pendennis Castle
4. Hadrians Wall
5. Stonehenge
6. River Avon
7. Westminser Abbey
8. Lake District
9. Maiden Castle

Comment and rate.

2014年7月24日 星期四

Tech City: We believe the UK is the best place to start and grow a digital business. The Time is Now.

  1. Tech City

    www.techcityuk.com/
    We believe the UK is the best place to start and grow a digital business. The Time is Now. We Connect · We Inform · We Advance. Why do we do what we do?
    About - ‎Contact - ‎Community Resources - ‎Investors

  2. 管中閔:參訪倫敦科技城眼界大開

    何孟奎 2014年07月23日 18:141358 點擊數
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    管中閔:參訪倫敦科技城眼界大開
    東倫敦科技城(取自網路)
    甫從英國訪問歸來的國發會主委管中閔,22日接受媒體訪問時表示,台北可逐步引進創新,改造為亞洲的東倫敦科技城(East London Tech City),但台灣對開放沒有共識,不把門打開,很難吸引人潮、錢潮。他認為,台灣具有人才優勢,可在創新創業贏過新加坡,「創業拔萃方案」除了政府支援外,成敗關鍵在社會支持開放的態度。

    管中閔日前應英國貿易文化辦事處邀請,率財政部、金管會等部會人員參訪英國政府、倫敦市及智庫,拜會英國財政部次長李德森(Andrea Leadsom)、倫敦金融城市長吳斐娜(Fiona Woolf)、內閣辦公室技術長麥斯威爾(Liam Maxwell)、貿易投資署執行長波伊德(Michael Boyd)、策略長華爾(Martyn Warr)、倫敦科技城(Tech City)執行長葛瑞齊(Gerard Grech)等人。

    此行除確定台英未來將在金融業進一步合作外,管中閔對於倫敦科技城、英國內閣辦公室數位服務小組(Government Digital Service Team,GDS) 的創新及開放概念「眼界大開」,認為可作為激勵台灣創新創業政策參考。國發會日前送到行政院的「創業拔萃方案」,其實就是參考科技城做法。

    管中閔說,此行參訪倫敦科技城,讓他眼界大開,英國雖然是個老牌國家,組織結構比台灣更加老化,但在推動創新創業上展現的想法與活力,「我們必須承認自嘆不如」。他說,科技城底下有一個負責推動的投資組織TCIO,其總裁從美國民間企業招聘而來,英國首相卡麥隆高度重視,每周必去視察。

    他表示,TCIO的總裁可以直通內閣,他所提出的需求內閣幾乎照單全收,盡量配合,擁有廣泛的權力;英國已經是很開放的國家,但在吸引國際優秀人才上,他們做得更開放,TCIO甚至可核發特殊的移民簽證,而英國也利用科技城將創新創業的資源連結在一起,協助有創意的小企業。

    管中閔說,英國政府每年都要花費約600億英鎊採購資通訊(ICT)設備或服務,以往幾乎都由少數幾家大公司包下,但在GDS改革下,避過政府採購法限制,改為釋出給幾乎遍布全英國的新創中小型企業,令參訪團嘖嘖稱奇。同時,GDS在政府相關部會的數位化措施也具有否決權,並提供較好的對策協助,依GDS統計、施行後,英國政府 1年可以省下12億英鎊支出。

    管中閔分析,這項改革可利用政府資源扶植創新的小企業,帶動當地經濟等效益外,由於創新企業的彈性及效率,更可免於政府採購花大錢,買過時設備的弊病。管中閔說,更令人驚喜的是,GDS大量招聘專業人才,英國青年也樂於利用3至4年的難得公務機關工作經驗,改變社會及商業環境,未來也可以在職涯中加分。

    他認為,台北可逐步引進創新,改造為亞洲的東倫敦,但台灣目前對開放沒有共識,不把門打開,很難吸引人潮、錢潮。管中閔強調,台灣具有人才優勢,絕對在創新創業方面有本錢贏新加坡;「創業拔萃方案」不僅靠政府支援,還要社會支持開放及投入,才是計畫的成敗關鍵。

2014年7月23日 星期三

Revealed: the dirty secret of the UK’s poultry industry

Revealed: the dirty secret of the UK’s poultry industry

• Two-thirds of fresh retail chicken in UK contaminated with campylobacter 菌類カンピロバクターCampylobacter 属棒状食中毒胃腸炎を引き起す
• Guardian findings prompt investigations at three major supermarkets
• Government shelves plans to name and shame suppliers 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/23/-sp-revealed-dirty-secret-uk-poultry-industry-chicken-campylobacter?

2014年7月21日 星期一

This 1961 report on the Glyndebourne Festival in Sussex, England,


This 1961 report on the Glyndebourne Festival in Sussex, England, presents a rather dramatic contrast to the modern-day parks concert concept. Instead of loud cellphone talkers and cavorting children, women arrived in evening gowns and pearls and men wore tuxedos as they ate country picnics (with champagne) and played croquet.
The New York Philharmonic parks concerts recently brought free...
WQXR.ORG

2014年7月20日 星期日

John Lewis stores and The John Lewis Partnership


A John Lewis store in Oxford Street,London.

The John Lewis Partnership is an employee-owned UK company which operatesJohn Lewis department stores, Waitrose supermarkets and some other services. The company is owned by a trust on behalf of all its employees — known as Partners – who have a say in the running of the business and receive a share of annual profits, which is usually a significant addition to their salary. The group is the third largest UK private company in the Sunday Times Top Track 100 for 2010.[4] Additionally, John Lewis also has the distinction of being UK's best high-street website after beating M&S in October 2010.[5] The chain's image is upmarket, and it appeals strongly to middle- and upper-class shoppers. Recently, however, John Lewis has broadened its marketing strategy towards all types of buyers, with the introduction of the 'Value' range to John Lewis and the 'Essential' range to Waitrose, and the expansion of the business.
(中央社記者黃貞貞倫敦特稿)提到英國百貨公司,許多人聯想到的是哈洛德或賽福居百貨(Selfridges),而全國連鎖點最多的約翰路易斯百貨(John Lewis)今年將慶祝150週年,才是深受民眾與外國觀光客信賴。

倫敦小布店 150年成為英最大連鎖百貨

創辦人John Lewis以自己的名字於1864年5月2日在倫敦牛津街上開設一家小型的布店,150年後發展成為交易量達40億英鎊的英國最大連鎖百貨公司,現在John Lewis在英國有41家分店,販售包括家飾、電器,時尚等35萬種商品,員工達9萬1000人。

John Lewis百貨總經理史屈特(Andy Street)告訴中央社記者,John Lewis在激烈競爭的市場得以持續創造獲利,除了獨特的員工合夥人制度(Partnership),還有不斷投資加強科技與市調,精準掌握甚至預測消費者的需求。

John Lewis牛津街上的起始店,同時也是旗艦店總經理佛勒(Simon Fowler)說, 的承諾,是它能創造營業佳績的重要原因。

John Lewis的長子John Spedan Lewis早在21歲時已獲得John Lewis百貨四分之一的股權,坐擁大筆財富,但是他不以此為滿足,開始思考企業獲利與員工共享的計畫,在一場騎馬意外後,讓他更進一步思考,直到1929年「合夥人制度」正式成立,是當時英國劃時代的新制度。

首創合夥人制度 利潤分享員工

John Spedan Lewis曾說,「合夥人制度」的終極目標,是讓成功企業裡努力工作的員工,都能獲得他們應有的快樂與滿足,這個前衛的企業制度,奠定John Lewis屢創營運佳績的重要基礎。

史屈特說,因為「合夥人制度」,員工之間沒有利益衝突,而是利潤共享,也因為沒有外部股東的介入,更容易在經營策略上取得共識,努力達陣。

1985年史屈特從培育英國菁英的牛津大學畢業,原本想擔任社工但未果,申請馬莎百貨(Marks & Spencer)也被拒,最後加入John Lewis。他曾在受訪時回憶說,在John Lewis工作的第一個耶誕節,大學同學看到他在收銀機旁工作,忍不住對他說,「Andy,發生了什麼事?你搞砸了嗎?」

史屈特說,他當初沒想到自己會在John Lewis工作超過20年,「一旦加入John Lewis做滿3年就很難離開了,每年都有超過700名員工慶祝他們在John Lewis服務滿25週年」,事實證明,當年為他惋惜的同學錯了。

去年John Lewis稅前獲利達3億291萬英鎊,全體員工可以支領到相當於15%的薪資,約八週薪水的紅利,羨煞許多零售業員工。

投資網購海外擴點 英式購物服務遍全球

當其它競爭者因為金融風暴及歐元危機等接連重創減縮投資,John Lewis看準網路購物潛力與商機,持續投資。史屈特指出,網路銷售金額達11億英鎊,占John Lewis整體銷售的29%。

2013/2014年John Lewis實體店銷售量成長3.5%,但網路銷售量勁升19.2%,成績笑傲百貨業。目前除了英國國內,在法國等歐洲國家,以及美國、加拿大、新加坡、南非、澳洲、紐西蘭等33個國家都提供網路購物服務,每年約有2100萬名海外消費者在John Lewis網站購物。

佛勒表示,根據John Lewis的統計,去年中國大陸是到實體店消費最多的外國消費者,消費金額成長25%,平均在店內每筆消費達285英鎊,John Lewis自2012年起接受大陸銀聯卡,就是看準陸客雄厚的消費實力。

John Lewis計劃陸續在約克、伯明罕、牛津等地展店,海外除了在南韓的百貨公司內設有專櫃,史屈特透露,亞洲地區未來計劃前進台灣、 日本、印尼、新加坡、馬來西亞等市場,讓亞洲民眾體會英式購物服務。(詳細內容請參閱全球中央雜誌7月號)1030720
John Lewis is a chain of upscale department stores operating throughout Great Britain. The chain is owned by the John Lewis Partnership. The first John Lewis store was opened in 1864 in Oxford Street, London.
The chain is known for its policy of "Never Knowingly Undersold" which has been in use since 1925.[1]
There are 43 stores throughout England, Scotland and Wales, including ten new 'At Home' stores, and a new 'flexible format' store in Exeter. The store in Cardiff is the largest operated by the Partnership outside London.
On 1 January 2008, the Oxford Street store was awarded a Royal Warrant from Her Majesty the Queen as: "suppliers of haberdashery and household goods".[2] John LewisReading is also the holder of a Royal Warrant from the Queen in 2007 as suppliers of household and fancy goods.[3] Peter Jones, located in Sloane Square, Chelsea, is the holder of a Royal Warrant to both HRH The Prince of Wales and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh as draper and furnisher.[4]

2014年7月5日 星期六

London Art Week Kicks Off with a Bang

London Art Week Kicks Off with a Bang


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Sir Joshua Reynolds, PRA (1723-1792) Lavinia, Countess Spencer 1762-1831,  aged 23 or 24 Painted 1785-86 Oil on canvas (unlined) 30 x 25 inches / 76.2 x 63.5 cm In a period English carved and gilded frame Photo: Ben Elwes Fine Art
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lavinia, Countess Spencer 1762–1831, aged 23 or 24 (1785–86).
Photo: Ben Elwes Fine Art.
The success of art fairs, and their ever-increasing number, might suggest that cruising from booth to booth has become the “new normal” way of seeing and buying art. It’s reassuring, quick, and efficient—what more could a time-pressed collector want?
A more individual experience, perhaps. And this is exactly what London Art Week, which starts today and will continue until July 11, has to offer. “Fairs are useful and very necessary, but what we do here is slightly more personal,” explains Lowell Libson of the eponymous gallery, a specialist of British art from the 17th to the 20th century and one of the major forces behind the event. “It allows a degree of discretion. I’m able to show clients, or potential clients, pictures which I probably would not wish to take into a more public arena, because I want to introduce them to clients in a much more discreet way.”
Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) Kneeling Blue Caryatid, c. 1911 Blue crayon, 430 x 265 mm Price: £650,000 Photo: Richard Nathanson
Amedeo ModiglianiKneeling Blue Caryatid (c. 1911)
Photo: Richard Nathanson
Over 50 antique and Old Masters dealers are holding special exhibitions in their premises, and out-of-town gallerists are setting up shop all over Mayfair and St James’s, showcasing artworks that range from Egyptian bronzes at Rupert Wace Ancient Art to rare Modigliani drawings at Richard Nathanson.
London Art Week is the reunion of Master Drawings and Sculpture Week and Master Paintings Week, which were originally conceived as companion events to the important Old Masters summer auctions. “It was slightly wasteful of resources, and slightly confusing to have these two very closely related events taking place in London,” says Libson, “so we came together under the banner of London Art Week, which gives extraordinary critical mass.”
 Jusepe de Ribera, called Lo Spagnoletto (1591-1652)   Saint James the Greater, c. 1632  Oil on canvas, 110.5 x 98 cm   Price: £1.1 million  Photo: Fergus Hall Master Paintings
Jusepe de Ribera, Saint James the Greater (c. 1632).
Photo: Fergus Hall Master Paintings.
A newly authenticated picture of Saint James the Greater by the Baroque master Jusepe de Ribera, also known as Lo Spanoletto or “the Little Spaniard,” will no doubt attract much attention in the coming days. When dealer Fergus Hall first came across it, it was in poor state and catalogued as an unsigned studio piece. Intensive restoration work revealed the artist’s signature and further details. The painting has since been authenticated by Ribera scholar Nicola Spinosa. It is being offered at Fergus Hall Master Paintings for £1.1 million.
Among the other highlights this year is a pastel by Alfred Sisley, The Cliffs at Langland Bay, Wales (1897), picturing an area the painter visited during his honeymoon. The piece is presented as part of Stephen Ongpin Fine Art’s “The Art of Pastel: Drawings from the 18th to the 20th Century” exhibition, which also includes work by Edvard Munch and Claude Monet. A portrait of Princess Diana’s ancestor Lavinia Countess Spencer painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds will be shown to the public for the first time ever at Ben Elwes Fine Art.
 Bust of a Young Woman Rome, 1630-1640   Marble, height: 32 cm without base Photo: Galerie Sismann
Bust of a Young Woman, Rome, 1630–1640.
Photo: Galerie Sismann.
That the gallery has chosen not to show in any art fair and concentrates instead on London Art Week as its primary platform for attracting international visibility and sales speaks volumes. As does the fact that the week is now seen as a key date in the art calendar by museum representatives from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, and Los Angeles’s J. Paul Getty Museum, all making the trip this year.
Private buyers are also set to benefit from London Art Week’s intimate approach. “It allows collectors, especially those coming into this fresh, to actually get a sense of how individual dealers operate, what their ethos is, how they approach things,” continues Libson. “It’s far more revealing and comfortable to see them on their own premises, than in the square box of a stand in an art fair.”

[Featured image: Amedeo Modigliani, Final Known Study for L’Amazone (1909). Photo: Richard Nathanson.]