George Orwell, “Never Seconds” blog by Martha – pot-luck ...

Read on if you would like over 5 million page views ... or 2,338 comments on one post and you’ve only been blogging since April ....

Martha with her website "Never Seconds"

Surprisingly - this is not Jubilee orientated ... but a couple of things caught my eye and though perhaps they are not obviously linked – pot-luck took over ... and who knows when success will strike – even if you’re not looking for success.

Martha Payne, aged 9, started a blog “Never Seconds” – taking a photo of her school lunch every day and commenting on them, rating them as part of a campaign to get them improved – entrepreneurship at a young age.

Kilmory House - home to Argyll & Bute
Council

Horror upon uproar, bureaucratic officialdom kicked in and generally all hell let loose – the papers picked it up, those twittering types picked it up – Members of Parliament, journalists et al ...  food authors sent their support ...

...  success comes when it does ... sometimes when we’re not looking for it as happened to  Martha, for other authors posthumously as in Orwell’s case – we never know, but as bloggers and particularly authors we must write ...

Even if authority shuts us out and bears down with closure ... public pressure will prevail and she will be blogging once again ... while Orwell too continued to practise his craft, until TB took his final curtain call.

Lochgilphead

I have just had a look at Martha’s website “Never Seconds” blog .. and it is just clicking up visits as I sit here typing ... I think it started at 5,451,490 or something ... it’s now a over 600 .. in other words views are going faster than seconds!! 

Want to save time – stop watching Martha’s pageviews!! Over 720 now ... 20 minutes or so later .. she’s clocked up over 3,000 page views – success or what?  I’ve been gone about 3 ½ hours and she’s now added over 100,000 page views in that time!

An Israeli school lunch - see Martha's blog 7 June 2012
love the plate, as does Martha ...

Most importantly – in writing the blog she is raising funds for Mary’s Meals – a charity that feeds 600,000 school children in 16 countries ... 

Here’s Martha with “My Story” for the charity where she explains how she became involved ...

I found a quote too ... “If the Wi-Fi isn’t working, it’s ok.  Most people don’t have fresh water!”....

Feeding children and reminding us most people in the world don’t have running water or fresh water for that matter ... brings our own challenges of the financial crisis, slightly into perspective.

I subscribe to Julia Hones’ blog “My Writing Life” – where she’s posted about Orwell’s Essay: Down and Out in Paris and London ... I was intrigued ... clicked over and was taken aback.

She starts off “If history repeats itself, reading ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ can help you understand the effects of the current world financial crisis.” ... just drew me in to read the rest ... the last paragraph alone is of great relevance in today’s world.

I then looked at Orwell’s page in Wikipedia to find out about his life ... and found a link to the Orwell Prize, which carries an article by Gordon Bowker entitled “Orwell’s London” ... fascinating stuff – as I had no idea about Orwell .... the fact he was called Eric Blair, he went to school in Eastbourne, went to Wellington before gaining a scholarship to Eton.

Sleeping Rough

He embraced the down and out culture he was writing about ... living in kips and spikes – doss houses, under bridges, work houses etc ... walking from Lambeth, east London down to the hop-farms of Kent to find work in the fields ...

So this medley of thoughts is an interlude before normal service will resume ...

Well if they come looking for the crumbs of penmanship under my table I will be suitably extremely surprised – Jubilee posts will recommence shortly ... as I have realised that there will be plenty of glossy photos, magazines etc out there ...

... but these posts, will in the coming years, offer  .....  a ‘conversation starter’ or talking point to stimulate interest .... with some eclectic oddities tucked away for added extras – memory joggers.

Life is a blur at the best of times – but with this year ... it is positively racing by ... and I’m sure that most of us have not realised the significance of our Jubilee year – sixty years on the throne and the impact on history that this year will make.

Having the Olympics in a few weeks too – 2012 is certainly one for the British history books ...  so normal service will be resumed – this post probably is part of normal service .. it just sits amidst Jubilee and Olympics ... while the tennis is on – which I have not mentioned!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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