Monday, 4 June 2012

Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrated in Kent - BBC News

Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrated in Kent - BBC News

Thousands of people in towns and villages across Kent have taken part in street parties to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

In Dover, visitors joined in the Big Lunch and watched events in London on the BBC's big screen.

More than a dozen Kent boats - including World War II supply ship Vic96 - have been among the hundreds of vessels in London's Jubilee Pageant.

Skipper Derek Gransden said: "It's all very exciting."

His vessel was part of the Avenue of Sail which features boats that are too tall to travel under bridges and stretches from London Bridge to Wapping.

Before the event started, he said: "We're just between Tower Bridge and London Bridge opposite the Belfast, we're lined up with lots of Thames barges.

Start Quote

The Queen's done a marvellous job considering how young she was when she started”

End Quote Barbara Macnab

"Believe it or not the banks have been jam-packed with people since about six o'clock this morning despite the fact that it's been pouring with rain.

"We get the luxury of watching it [the pageant] all go up, as it has done this morning to get on station, and then watching them come back this afternoon."

Floating parliament

A replica of the Houses of Parliament has also been unveiled in Goudhurst.

The 30ft-long (9m) plywood structure, which includes a 14ft (4.3m) high Big Ben bell tower, was created over four weeks and is now floating in the village pond.

Hundreds of small wooden boats made by local schoolchildren were placed in the water on Sunday at 15:00 BST to recreate the pageant taking place in London.

A replica of the Houses of Parliament was floated on the pond to mark the Queen's Coronation in 1953.

In Tunbridge Wells, young and old braved the weather to enjoy a picnic and slices of Jubilee cake.

Barbara Macnab, 44, of Ticehurst, said: "We came down because we wanted to join in the celebration of the Jubilee and there wasn't anything in our village.

Bruce Forsyth's daughter Julie was among the hundreds of people dancing on Ramsgate seafront

"It's a big thing for the children because they won't see anything like this again. I want them to remember it and be able to tell their grandchildren. It's nice to see everybody getting involved and celebrating - united."

She added: "The Queen's done a marvellous job considering how young she was when she started."

A tea party and mass zumba dance challenge involving 1,000 people was held in Ramsgate.

Meanwhile people in Gillingham were invited to dress up as as a famous personality from the past 60 years to mark the Queen' Diamond Jubilee at the town's Big Lunch event.

See all the latest Diamond Jubilee news and features at bbc.co.uk/diamondjubilee


Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Kent State One Win Away from Super Regionals - Waiting For Next Year

A surprising story continues to unfold over in Gary, Ind. The Kent State Golden Flashes, the No. 3 seed in the region, played in a historic 21-inning game in their first matchup. The Flashes won that battle 7-6 over No. 2 seed Kentucky to advance to the winner’s side.

From there, KSU just defeated No. 1 Purdue to bring its winning streak to 19 games. Here’s more from the Plain Dealer’s Elton Alexander:

A five-run second inning was the catalyst for Kent (43-17). The rally started with a two-out, two-strike single from Alex Miklos and did not end until after KSU had brought nine players to the plate.

“It was just one of those nights,” Purdue coach Doug Schreiber said. “They bunched hits together with two outs. Give them credit. They’re definitely a good offensive team.” Kent finished the game with 13 hits and three walks, while limiting strikeouts to just five.

Later today, KSU will play the winner of Kentucky and Purdue. Kent State will have the advantage of just needing to win one out of a possible two games, because of the usual double elimination format, in order to advance to the 16-team Super Regionals. The eight winners of best-of-three Super Regional series then advance to the College World Series in Omaha.

The Flashes are the only Ohio team remaining in NCAA contention. The Dayton Flyers, a No. 4 out in College Station, Texas, were eliminated with a 28-12 loss yesterday to TCU.


Source: www.waitingfornextyear.com

Kent man's Dunkirk Little Ship to join jubilee flotilla - Kent Online

Dunkirk Little Ship Hilfranor

Dunkirk Little Ship Hilfranor will take part in the jubilee flotilla

There will be a bit of 'Dunkirk spirit' in the Queen's diamond jubilee flotilla - as nearly 40 of the Second World War Little Ships take part in today's pageant.
 
Simon Palmer, from Tunbridge Wells, owns one of the historic boats due to set sail in the 1,000-boat seven-mile parade from Battersea Park to Tower Bridge.
 
Built in 1935, the Hilfranor - named after the original owner’s three daughters, Hilda, Frances and Nora - joins the Dunkirk Little Ships squadron and follows the royal barge, The Spirit of Chartwell.
 
On board will be the Lord Lieutenant of Kent, Viscount De L'Isle, who sailed with Simon to Dunkirk two years ago.

The Hilfranor was taking part in the jubilee flotilla

Mr Palmer said: "He knows the ship very well and he said he'd like to use this vessel as his representative boat when on the jubilee pageant."

The Lord Lieutenant's grandfather, FM Viscount Gort VC, commanded the British Expeditionary Force, which was evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk.

The Dunkirk Little Ships transported 338,000 British and French troops to Kent's ports during Operation Dynamo in 1940.

Mr Palmer added: "Because these were smaller boats they were able to get into the beaches and take the troops off to the larger ships - the troops were brought into Dover, Ramsgate and Margate so Kent was a focal point for the evacuation."Queen jubilee header

The pageant gets under way from 3pm, with an estimated one million spectators and 20,000 people on water.

The flotilla will take around 75 minutes to go past any single point.

Thursday, May 31 2012

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  • Robster wrote:

    Admiration of the rowing boats and the 'Dunkirk little ships'.
    Forgot to mention this in 1st comment.

    03 Jun 2012 7:13 PM

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  • Robster wrote:

    A truly spectacular exhibition of British celebration.
    I watched on the television, as did many millions, and enjoyed every moment.
    Her Majesty, radiant, but her look of concentration made her look quite serious. A huge smile did occur though, as the orchestra on another boat burst in to 'Land of hope and glory'.
    A great day, marred only by the British weather!

    03 Jun 2012 7:10 PM

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Source: www.kentonline.co.uk

Law firm's scheme investors face losses - Stuff

Investors who contributed $1 million to a Timaru law firm's contributory mortgage scheme face potentially significant losses after a Dunedin student complex with a bizarre sales history went into liquidation.

Pureikeriki Investments, the owner of an 11-studio student accommodation complex known as Hazelwood House, collapsed in April over unpaid taxes. The company's principal, Alistair McGaw, was bankrupted last February over other debts and is working as a real estate agent in Queensland.

Liquidators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) said in its first report into Pureikeriki that a first-ranked Raymond Sullivan McGlashan Law contributory mortgage had swollen to $1.48m following missed interest payments and this amount exceeded the property's current rating valuation of $830,000. The property has been on the market for the past three years for $1.2m.

RSM Law practice manager Greg O'Brien declined to respond directly to questions on whether investors would be short-changed, but said in a statement: "Investors have been kept fully informed of all aspects."

Hazelwood House has had a tortured past and now has four mortgages from fringe financiers.

In the year before McGraw's Pureikeriki's acquiring the property, it had changed hands twice with the sale price nearly doubling.

According to property records Hazelwood House was bought on August 17, 2005, by Gladstone Road, a vehicle for Dunedin-based investors for $980,000. A week later, on August 23, it was sold for $1.2 million to FIIC, a company owned by Tapanui man Christopher Brenssell.

On August 17, 2006, FIIC sold the property to Pureikeriki for $1.6m. Gladstone Road directors and Mr McGaw could not be contacted. Mr Brenssell said when he sold the property, $100,000 of the proceeds was kept in the property as a fourth mortgage, an amount he had now written off.

PWC liquidator Malcolm Hollis said the escalation of the property's price raised questions but was outside the remit of his administration.

Century 21 Real Estate agent Bawden Curson, who facilitated the sale between Gladstone and FIIC, said that sale was underpinned by a registered valuation of $1.4m.

He said the multiple sales and dramatically rising price were merely a function of the recent property boom. "A substantial property moving two or three times within a 12 month period, at the time, was not unusual," Mr Curson said.

Mr O'Brien said he was unable to comment on the sale history of the property. "I don't think I can responsibly or factually comment on historic fluctuating market forces," he said.

Mr McGaw received funding for his 2006 purchase from a variety of sources.

Four mortgages underpinned the Pureikeriki purchase. In order of ranking, $999,000 came from RSM contributory mortgages, an unknown amount from now-collapsed Dunedin lender Hurricane House, $466,000 from the RSM-linked Cheyne Finance and $100,000 from FIIC.

Cheyne Finance, an entity whose directors are all partners at RSM law, borrowed money from South Canterbury Finance (SCF) and lent it to developers.

Cheyne was declared a related-party loan by SCF in its December 2008 prospectus because of RSM partner Ed Sullivan's position on the finance company's board.

The prospectus records Cheyne as being the recipient of an $18.6m loan attracting 11.9 per cent interest.

According to property records, the Cheyne loan over Hazelwood attracted interest of up to 17 per cent.

Mr O'Brien said any loss from Cheyne's Hazelwood loan would be borne by shareholders – whose identity is kept hidden behind the firm's trust company – and he has said Cheyne had no outstanding loans with the collapsed SCF.

In February 2009, after defaults, RSM Law as mortgagor took possession of Hazelwood House. A year later the firm bankrupted Mr McGaw, who had by then moved to Australia.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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Source: www.stuff.co.nz

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