Gerber, a sweet little Persian cat, needs your help. The story of this adorable cat has completely captured my heart. Gerber is severely dehydrated and in urgent need of ongoing fluids and medicine injections to keep him alive. His owner Wendi Bear rescued him from a shelter five months ago when Gerber’s previous owner passed away. The shelter told Bear that Gerber needed special urinary food to keep him healthy at the time but recently Gerber stopped eating regularly. In response to his lack of eating, Bear took him to a vet who said he should be put on a new brand of food. But this didn’t help Gerber. His owner then took him to another vet who said Gerber should already have being on fluids. The hospital stay was too expensive however.
Gerber might not make a full recovery but funds are urgently needed to keep him alive. His owner who affectionately calls him Gerby says that he is “a gentle soul who loves nothing more than lying in the morning sun and purring under the touch of a soft hand.” And he certainly looks like a little sweetheart in his photographs.
Earlier today I donated to the campaign on the Go Fund Me website and I urge and beg you all to do the same if you can. Anything you can spare I’m sure will be very much appreciated. If you are not in a financial position to donate at present please share Gerber’s story far and wide. Any of us who have had pets in our lives who we loved know how enriching they are to our lives and how special and loving our friends, because that’s what are pets are, are. Please do what you can. Let’s all band together and help little Gerber. Please don’t stand by and do nothing. He needs our help. Stand with Gerber whatever way you can today.
Sarah Brentyn blogs at Lemon Shark and she has set a Flash Fiction Prompt to help everyone affected by the hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Sarah is set to donate $1 to hurricane relief for every flash fiction story posted with a link to her blog. Writers, come on, let’s come together here and do something good. It won’t take much out of any of your times to help so come on, let’s get together and do it everyone! 🙂
Rules:
1. Write a piece of flash fiction in 50 words or less with the theme: Help
(This can be any sort of assistance, support, encouragement, or a story of someone or something that needs help. You do not need to use the prompt word. Be creative! It can be 50 words, 15 words…even a six-word story. Anything goes provided it is prose up to 50 words. It doesn’t have to be sunshine and rainbows but keep it PG and friendly.)
2. Add a new post on your blog with your flash fiction and the hashtag #Flash4Storms in the title
On September 15th, me and my Mum were out collecting in Bray for Barnardos for their annual National Collection Day. It was an honour to be involved. It is an amazing charity. We had a great day and many lovely, generous people gave towards Barnardos on the day so thank you to them all. Worse part: trying to get stickers off the buckets to give to people. It is so difficult to get them to come off. I’ll remember that next time I’m collecting! 🙂 My sister has been a great help organising it all with us too. 🙂
On Monday the 7th of December the Bray Arts show took place in The Martello. My sister and I were at the event and it was a very special night because the Bray Arts journal’s launch for its first issue following its hiatus took place and my story At Last was one of the pieces included in the issue.
The journal was launched by writer Catherine Brophy, Artist James Devlin and the new editor of the journal Michael O’Reilly. Following the launch, entertainment was provided by painter and sculptor Paul Flynn, quartet The 4 Piece Suite and fiddle player Ger Doyle. A raffle took place in aid of the charity The Five Loaves and there was also Christmas stands with items such as jewelry and home skincare available to buy. Also everyone got a complimentary mulled wine for the Christmas period.
It was a great night and an honour to have my story published in a journal which has a long, prestigious history in Bray.
On October 19, the annual Angel Ball 2015 hosted by Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation took place at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City and the style stakes were high for the charity event in aid for cancer research. Below is my favourite style highlights from the night:
Best Dressed Ladies
Andreja Pejic
Model Andreja Pejic always looks stunning and this printed gown she wore to the recent event is no exception. I also love the silver shoes. My favourite outfit from the night. I have similar shoes, now I’ve just got to find the dress. Well a budget version of the dress. 🙂 Stunning, perfect.
Toni Garrn
Model Toni Garrn’s dress for the night was understated and beautiful. It was perfectly paired with the flowing earrings she wore.
Sara Sampaio
I loved the elegant quality of Sara Sampaio’s dress.
Sharina Gutierrez
Sharina Guierrez’s outfit was stunningly put together. I especially loved the little black shrug. Also the whole monochrome theme throughout the outfit really worked.
Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum, who was honoured on the night, looked fabulous in this dress to accept her award.
Best Dressed Gents
Usher
Looking uber cool the stunning Usher looked dapper at the event.
Nick Cannon
I love the whole quirky mixed with aristocratic style of this outfit that Nick Cannon wore.
Ryan Tedder
This look that Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic wore was quite rocky and he looked brilliant.
Billy Porter
I love the colour and uniqueness of singer Billy Porter’s suit.
Rubin Singer
Rubin Singer’s understated suit looked very dapper on him.
The Angel Ball 2015 raised $3.6 Million for Cancer Research. Great cause. Well done everyone! 🙂
A brilliant night of comedy and most importantly charity fundraising. The annual Comic Relief extravaganza, which was started by comedian Lenny Henry and comedy writer Richard Curtis in 1985, had another wonderful night filled with music and sketches and lots of fun. Let’s take a look at seven highlights from this important, prestigious night:
Sam Smith & John Legend’s Performance and Music Video
The two of these artists have such incredible, powerful and emotive voices and they sound amazing on the official Comic Relief song for 2015 Lay Me Down, a duet of Sam’s song.
National Treasure Sketch
Staring Stephen Fry, Sheridan Smith and Miranda Hart as the judges of who should be added as a national treasure and starring stars such as David Walliams, David Gandy, Cheryl Cole, Russell Brand, Robbie Williams and Liam Gallagher who eventually was the new national treasure as well as Ronnie Corbert this sketch was so funny. Really well-written and very imaginative. Loved it.
James Bond Sketch
Starring stars such as Ben Whishaw, Alan Carr, Daniel Craig and Naomi Watts, the Bond Sketch was full of humour.
David Walliams’ Kissathon & His & Davina McCaul’s Smooching Session With Orlando Bloom
David Walliams broke the kissathon World Record. Also David & Davina McCaul kissed Orlando Bloom who made a surprise appearance as well.
Little Britain Sketch
Stephen Hawking and Catherine Tate joined David Walliams for this year’s Little Britain sketch. The graphics, one word: Amazing! This sketch was very original and fab.
Cassidy & Natalie Win The People’s Strictly
Cassidy Little is so amazing and he and Natalie Lowe danced this Paso to perfection. Well-deserved win.
Victoria Wood Wins Comic Relief’s Bake-Off
Beating off competition from the other finalists Gok Wan, Jennifer Saunders and Michael Sheen, Victoria Wood took the honours in the Comic Relief’s Bake-Off.
Phillip Schofield recently did a 24-hour run-up to this year’s Text Santa so these top ten highlights are a combination of his 24-hour pre-show and tonight’s Text Santa event, Good Morning Britain and the Catchphrase show. Enjoy and make sure you help charity!
Phillip Schofield abseils
Ben Haenow Sings
Couldn’t find a vid but he was brilliant and he was super hot as always! 🙂
X Factor Contestants
McBusted
Text Santa Quiz
Jean Martyn & Reality Show Contestants
Couldn’t find vids of the rest of the talent show contestants back. Sorry! 😦
Downton Abbey
Birds of a Feather
I couldn’t find a video but it was so funny and Paul O’ Grady was playing Santa.
Catchphrase
Union J & Emmerdale Morrisons
Union J also were in the Morrisons ads been all Christmassy! 🙂
I recently read Union J’s Jaymi Hensley’s interview in Now Magazine where he talked about been a patron of Little Havens children’s hospice in Essex. It is very emotional reading about the struggles which young people and their families face and definitely makes you realise that the things we worry about on a daily basis are really not that overly important. Little Havens looks after babies, children and teenagers who haven’t long to live and strives to make sure they get to enjoy their short lives.
Speaking about how he became involved with the charity Jaymi said,
“In August, Now invited me and the rest of the band to help with their Greenfingers garden project. It was such an amazing day. The hospice is a fantastic place and the kids are incredible.”
Speaking about why he chose to become an ambassador Jaymi revealed about his own personal tragedy of losing his friend who he visited in a hospice when he was younger,
“I’ve visited hospices before and they always brought back bad memories of the times I visited my friend who passed away from a brain tumour when we were 14. They took great care of him there, but it wasn’t a nice place to be. I was actually really nervous before I first visited Little Havens. I got really upset. But as soon as I arrived it was completely different from what I’d expected. It’s a brilliant place. All my fears disappeared and I was inspired to become an ambassador.”
Speaking about the hospice he said,
“They’ve got something so special going on – it’s friendly and so vibrant. The children are all very poorly and I can’t imagine the stress their families must be going through, but the staff are incredible and there’s something about the place that makes everyone feel calm and forget about everything for a while.”
Speaking about the children and teenagers he met at the hospice Jaymi said,
“Ah, they were amazing – such cool characters, aged from one to 18. Annie’s hilarious. She’s a huge fan of Union J and we were doing karaoke and getting pictures taken together. Then there’s little Rosie who’s 15 months – she’s so cheeky and was enjoying winding everyone up.”
And speaking about their parents he said,
“The parents make me feel more emotional than the children do. It’s the families who get left behind and I can’t imagine that. I don’t have kids but I will one day and it’s awful, the loss for the parents.”
He said it has put a lot of things into perspective for him,
“They put everything into perspective – like, on my way here in the car I was stressing about moving house and what I was going to buy everyone for Christmas, but being with these kids and their families made me think: ‘What am I panicking about?’ They’ve made me wake up to what’s important and have had such a positive impact on my life. I have my family and I’m blessed.”
He said how he hopes to visit again before Christmas,
“I’m trying to arrange a day when we can go down and have a fun day and perform with them. It’s so cool – the kids don’t care that I’m in a band. I’m just this really happy, loud guy who comes in and has fun with them.”
Children In Need has been a TV fixture of my life since I was a kid and I’ve always loved the adorable Pudsey! 🙂
And this year for 2014 the TV extravaganza was out again in full force raising much-needed funds to help children and young people all over Britain with Sir Terry Wogan, Nick Grimshaw, Rochelle Humes, Tess Daly and Fearne Cotton on presenting duties. Throughout the night we seen short clips about the stories of children and young people and causes which the money would help and it’s really heartbreaking to see. It makes you very thankful for your own health and that of your loved ones and really hits home just how important it is that as much money is raised as possible.
Here is five highlights from the many high points on the night! Enjoy! 🙂
The official BBC Children In Need single
The single this year was a cover of Avicii’s Wake Me Up by Gareth Malone’s All Star Choir composing of Mel Giedroyc, Linda Robson, Fabrice Muamba, Nitin Ginatra, Craig Revel Horwood, John Craven, Radzi Chinyanganya, Jo Brand, Margaret Alphonsi, Alice Levine, Larry Lamb and a childrens’ choir. The song has went in straight at number 1 in the UK.
S Club 7 Greatest Hits Medley
I was a huge fan of S Club 7 when I was younger especially album track “Boy Like Me”. Yeah that was on repeat when I was younger! 🙂 So it was lovely to see them back.
Susan Boyle
I just love Susan Boyle’s voice. Amazing as always! 🙂
Tom and Jerry
Here’s a real blast from the past from my childhood! 🙂 The animation is great on this and who doesn’t love Tom and Jerry?! 🙂
Eastenders’ Grease
Eastenders are always very entertaining on Children In Need and this year was no exception!
BBC Song
I love the original of this song God Only Knows by The Beach Boys and I think everyone does a great job on it for a worthy cause. There’s many stars involved including Brian May, Sam Smith, Dave Grohl, Florence Welch, Chris Martin, Jaime Cullum, Chrissie Hynde, Pharrell Williams, Elton John, Emeli Sandé, Kylie Minogue, Ellie Goulding, Stevie Wonder, Gareth Malone, Jools Holland and Paloma Faith as well as original Beach Boys’ member Brian Wilson and a youth choir and orchestra.
Meanwhile on The X Factor at the weekend, Sir Bob Geldof made a thought-provoking speech about the new Band Aid 30 song in aid of helping raise funds for the Ebola crisis.
Geldof said,
‘Thanks Simon for allowing us to do this, this is hardcore, to allow X factor nation to do this, it is an enormous production, this thing [Ebola] could arrive here on a plane any time. This is the most anti-human disease but we can stop it, and we will stop it, and we will support those immensely brave NHS doctors and soldiers who have volunteered, and the government who are leading the world on this. At 8am tomorrow morning, for the first time this is about us, buy this thing, buy five by ten, it’s a great track, we wanted to show you the context of how this was done only yesterday’.
The track, Do They Know It’s Christmas?, has a whole host of stars on board including Roger Taylor, Bono, Sinead O’Connor, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Chris Martin, Guy Garvey, Bastille, One Direction and Olly Murs.
To help you can pre-order the track on iTunes.
Geldof said,
“It’s a song, it’s a track, but it’s an event and the next stage is to turn it into a phenomenon like it was in the eighties. And the only way to do that is to get people to buy the thing. Spare me this free economy. Spare me Spotify and YouTube. There’s a donate button on YouTube. Hit the donate button. It’s a badge of honour to have this on your phone or on your iPod, or whatever the hell you’re using. And don’t buy one, buy several. Give them to your mates.”
View the song’s video here:
But remember to support and please help the cause too if you can. 🙂
On Friday night me and my girls, mam and Shar went to the charity event Music For Merryn in The Royal Hotel in Bray! There was five acts performing and the gig was hosted by a guy who hosts at The Comedy Club.
Katie Noble
First up was Katie Noble who sang chart hits including Bruno Mars’ Treasure and Rihanna’s Stay before closing with the classic Wonderful World. Katie is due to perform at the Man Utd Player Of The Year.
Mick Flannery
I heard of Mick Flannery before the gig but I didn’t really know his stuff but I’ve been converted. Live he was really good. It was haunting and authentic. Such a good singer/songwriter and really good on the guitar.
Christy Dignam and Joe Jewell
I had seen Aslan before live in Oldcastle so I knew that this would be good and it wasn’t a disappointment. Amazing performance which included Aslan’s trademark Crazy World.
Chris Kavanagh (a Luke Kelly tribute act)
Bringing a bit of traditional Irish to the event was Chris Kavanagh and his Luke Kelly tribute band.
Columbia Mills
While rock band Columbia Mills closed the show with a bit of a rock out.
We had a really good night, got into the raffle and didn’t win. That was alright though because it was for such a good cause. We got a bit drunk of course and inhaled too many cigarettes. Me & my sis, not my mum! She’s a diabetic. Fun night out and a good crowd was there which was great.
If you would like to help The Merryn Lacy Trust which was set up to help Merryn Lacy who is a little girl from Bray who has a rare neuroblastoma you can do so at:
culturevultureexpress 