Ellee Seymour

I have volunteered to drive my husband Stephen and our friends this evening, and don’t mind one jot that it means having a sober new year. I just wish there were more interesting non-alcoholic drinks available in bars.

I’m not one for yucky Britvic fruit juices, they are so tasteless, and mineral water is fine - up to a point. One of my favourite non-alcoholic tipples is soda water and lime and this can cost as little as 30p - so I am very cheap to take out.

We are going to a local pub where our eldest son David is working behind the bar, and a racy comedian, Johnny Dee, will have us in stitches.

One of the friends joining us is a professional photographer, Bob Mozejko, who I have asked to take a special family portrait for me before David leaves home for uni next September. I thought it was quite a creative suggestion, to snap Stephen, David and younger sibling James all bare chested, just wearing jeans and looking relaxed. But my husband refuses to shed his shirt in the name of art.

I am not making any new year’s resolutions, just pledges (is there a subtle difference?) to spend more time with my lovely mother, enjoy our existing, family life before David flies the nest for uni, try and visit Sicily to meet up with Welshcakes Limoncello and JaneJill, and look forward to lots of new challenges, both professionally and personally. This includes improving my walking stamina from my present 10-12 mile comfort zone to a more arduous 15-18 miles so I can keep up with Geoff and Sally.

Happy New Year to you all.

What a great way to start the new year, by really making a difference to the lives of others, knowing your actions will help them live better lives.

I’m particularly referring to Prof Wayne Powell, (pic) CEO of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambridge, who will shortly be heading for Moldova - the poorest country in Europe - to set up an agricultural aid site.

I must admit I knew nothing about Moldova, a former Soviet republic, until being asked to write about this very worthwhile project. It’s hard to believe that a country exists with a missing generation of people who have fled to richer countries, leaving behind their children and elderly parents.

Here is the press release about this exciting trip:

A team of scientific experts from the National Institute of Agricultural Botany plan to visit Moldova next month, the poorest country in Europe, and set up an agricultural aid site.

The former Communist-run country suffered its worst heatwave in living memory last summer when wells – their main source of water - dried up for the first time in 70 years.

The four-man NIAB team from Cambridge, headed by Chief Executive Prof Wayne Powell, will be given a 2-hectare plot of land by the mayor in the village of Burlacu which will be transformed into a productive agricultural site to demonstrate how different crops can be grown successfully throughout the year. It will become a community project and a best practice model for nearby villages.

The trip, between 4 – 10 January, is being organised by the charity Central and Eastern European Ministries (CEEM), whose Secretary John Law, a former NIAB scientist, said the Moldovan region was desperately in need of agricultural aid.

Most of its land is presently being used to grow vines, threatening their food security. There is also little knowledge or access to improved cultivars or sources of seed to plant new crops.

Prof Powell, and team members Mike Day, Don Pendegrast and Terry Rugg, plan to set up poly tunnels in the village, which has a population of 1,200, and establish a mini research site to demonstrate how various crops can be grown to provide food over a longer growing season; for example cabbage, which can be produced throughout the year, as well as maize, peppers, tomatoes and sweetcorn.

Prof Powell said he was looking forward to helping Moldovans in this hands-on project which would make a real difference to their lives, helping them to produce healthy crops, as well as providing advice and sponsorship in the poorest European country.

He said:

“I am delighted to be involved in this project and explore how the skills and expertise of NIAB can help improve the lives of Moldovans. Indeed this project has galvanised all our staff who are collecting clothes and other old office computers and equipment which will be taken to road lorry next spring.”

Mr Law said CEEM was thrilled to have the support of NIAB, recognised as a world leading agricultural research company, and that it was a unique partnership with the village mayor and local church.

He said the region also suffered from a lost generation of 30-50 year olds who have moved to other countries to work, leaving their young children and elderly parents behind. This has added to poverty and an increase in starving “street children” who the local church is caring for. These children are expected to help with the project too.

Mr Law said:

“We hope that this demonstration farm will be in the centre of the village so villagers can come and see their local best practice. I am confident word will spread and there will be tremendous interest from neighbouring communities who will want to replicate this. NIAB will supply the poly tunnels and may sponsor, or seek a sponsor, for its irrigation which could also be extended to the whole village.

“This is a very important visit to promote self sufficiency in crop production during future year, regardless of the climatic conditions. We are also hoping NIAB’s high profile support will encourage other organisations and seed companies to follow suit and offer sponsorship too.

“NIAB is uniquely placed to help provide technical expertise with the appropriate technology solutions that can make real differences to the lives of so many in an often overlooked part of Europe. It is an extremely worthwhile humanitarian and agricultural project to support.”

What plans do you have to make a difference this year?

Update: The trip was unfortunately postponed due to treacherous snow conditions in Moldova, making it impossible for the aims of the mission to be accomplished in time. It is hoped to be rescheduled for May.

Merry Christmas wishes to you all. For the first time ever, my husband’s family and mine will all be together on Christmas Day. I always wonder if it will be the last Christmas we share with our ailing grandparents, I love hearing their stories of old when so little meant so much at Christmas. The important thing is being together, and showing some tolerance.

I send you my love and warm wishes for the festive season.

How do families with missing children  survive the festive season? How will the McCanns cope during their first Christmas without Madeleine. Their two-year-old gorgeous twins will no doubt be excited, and have even asked if Santa will bring for their sister back.

Incredibly, the McCanns have been overwhelmed with gifts from around the world for their missing daughter. They have described this as “the hardest Christmas imaginable” and plan a “very quiet, private Christmas with family”.

I imagine this is a time of year when families’ hopes soar that they will hear from missing loved ones who have inexplicably vanished from their lives. I asked Nicki Durbin to describe what it is like, how parents in her position cope. Her teenage son Luke has has not been seen since May 2006, aged 19. She sent me these two great photos which show Luke as a pensive 3-year-old and a fun loving guy celebrating his Christmas 10-years-ago with sister Alicia.

Thank you Nicki for sharing your very personal and sad thoughts with us. We all wish we could make your one Christmas wish come true, as well as for the McCanns and other distraught families with missing children. This is what Nicki said:

For six years, I have bought Luke clothes for Christmas, from a little surf shop in Ipswich. A couple of weeks ago I went in to see what I would buy for Luke if he was here. I looked, cried and left. As I drove back home, a terror gripped me. There may come a day when I don’t actually know what Luke may like anymore. There are many families out there whose children have been missing for a long time, who face that every Christmas.

This will be my family’s second Christmas without Luke. Will it be any easier than last year? No. Will it be any harder? I don’t know. What I do know is that the one percent “hope” will be back, that Luke may email, call someone or walk through the door. The come down after Christmas, being unable to contain my hope, will be as traumatic as every anniversary that has passed since Luke went missing.

Last Christmas if it had not of been for my beautiful daughter Alicia, who was 17 then, I don’t know how I would have survived. She was obviously old enough to be fully aware that Luke was missing and Christmas was as traumatic for her as it was for me. The guilt I felt for being in our home together and going through the motions of opening presents, not knowing whether Luke was dead or alive, was reflected in her eyes. When I began to cry, she had understanding of my grief and cried with me. I did not have to pretend about anything, she knew.

Along with many other families throughout the world, Kate and Gerry McCann will have the nightmare of going through their first Christmas with a missing child. For them, I would imagine, being able to be open with their grief will be more difficult than it was for me, as they have two other little children who will be very excited about Father Christmas visiting.

Is it easier getting through a day when you feel you are unable to break down? Is a day like that easier because you feel so exhausted containing your emotions? Maybe you are so shattered by “holding it together” that you have the deep sleep that does not come very often anymore. Or maybe from not being able to let your despair out, when your little ones finally go to sleep, you are unable to, as you have to have time to cry before sleep will come. Or is it easier to have an older child that has such a great understanding? The understanding being so comprehensive, you see pain etched on that child’s face and no matter what you do, you cannot take that pain away.

The pure and simple fact is nothing is “easier” when you are a parent who has a missing child. It does not matter whether your child is two or fifty two. They are loved as much at all ages. The pain and misery of just not knowing where or what has happened to your child never ceases. Parents of missing children do not have a day of respite, when they do not have the incessant, terrifying thoughts whirring through their minds of where their child is, whether they are dead or alive.

There are no right or wrong ways to be as a parent of a missing child. No right or wrong things we should or should not do at Christmas or birthdays or any other day of the year. None of us ever dreamed that our “normal” families would ever be subjected to this prior to the start of our living nightmares. We are all trying to survive in whatever way we can.

I wish all families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. To families with a missing loved one, I wish you all to have your lost child home again. To find some semblance of peace over the festive period and I hope that 2008 brings closure one way or the other.

*You can support a march for Missing People which Nicki is helping to organise and lobby the government. It is being held on Wednesday, 12 March. Details are in this link.

In memory of those who are still missing.

A charity I am promoting which aims to abolish sex trafficking has praised Harriet Harman for her bravery in considering a ban on prostitution. I agree. It is an issue which has been badly fudged in the past.

Dr Carrie Pemberton, founder and CEO of CHASTE (Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking across Europe) firmly believes it is the question of demand that should be addressed, that paid-for-sex is the modern day slavery which most women are forced into and that it is the client who should be penalised, not the woman.

She has actively been lobbying the government on this and has met Harriet Harman to recommend the line she believes they should be taking, how the UK should adopt the Swedish model where legislation has been implemented to criminalise the buying of sex, and the buyer is prosecuted.

It is thought that most women end up as prostitutes because they are controlled by pimps, need to feed a drug habit or have been trafficked illegally. That’s why Carrie believes they need a supportive exit strategy so they can move on and find less abusive forms of employment.

These issues will be highlighted at a CHASTE conference called Tackling Demand for Human Trafficking which is being held on Thursday, 24 January at the International Headquarters of the Salvation Army, London. Speakers include senior representatives from the Swedish police and a representative from the nationwide police initiative, Pentameter 2 which has concentrated police efforts on unveiling the hidden abuse of trafficked women in brothels across the country, as well as sex trafficking experts from South Africa, Canada, Denmark and America.

CHASTE will next month launch a new book called the Real Scandal of Sex Trafficking which vividly describes the abuses which lie behind sex trafficking and a substantial proportion of the use of prostitution.

Please don’t be misled by the glamourisation of prostitution following the exploits of high class hooker Belle de Jour. The truth behind it is very seedy and dangerous for the women involved, you can read about it here if you need reminding.

Update 28 Dec: The Guardian’s comment is free does not believe this legislation can be enforced.

I am not making a Christmas book list this year as I still haven’t got round to reading so many books that I bought over the last few months.

And apologies for not updating the books listed on my blog, particularly as I know readers have checked them out and bought the titles on my recommendation.

At the moment, I am very much enjoying Eurydice Street, by Sofka Zinovieff. It has won many accolades; The New York times ranked it in their top 100 notable books and The Independent as one their best summer reads. It vividly describes her love of Greece and the chaotic family life. Many of the places she mentions are familiar to me.  I find myself wishing I was in Athens again too, sitting in a taverna and soaking up the generous, local hospitality, and listening to the bouzouki music which fills their lives (and mine) with so much joy.

Besides being a brilliant read which appeals strongly to by Greek parentage - I have yet to learn how she cooked Christmas piglet at the baker’s - it appeals to me because I once met her unforgettable, eccentric father, Peter Zinovieff, a white Russian who lived outside Cambridge. And I remember him describing how his aristocratic grandparents fled Russia after the 1917 revolution.

It all happened after I went to Russia once with some students from Cambridge University’s Travellers’ and Explorers’ Club and travelled with a wonderful woman called Jean who was married to a Cambridge academic and was friends with Peter. I was soon invited to his bohemian house one Sunday for lunch and I remember him cooking the most delicious roast chicken which was served with cabbage cooked in milk, tomato puree and caraway seeds, as I remember it. I was never fond of cabbage before, but found this irresistible.

Peter was tall and had dashing good looks, very twinkling eyes, a gorgeous smile, was great company - and could obviously cook too. I can understand why women found him very attractive, which Sofka mentions briefly in her book, he was certainly a ladies man! I was very much in awe of him. So this book is very special for me, and I am enjoying every minute of it.

I have also bought the Letters of Ted Hughes by Chistopher Reid to discover what made him tick, what kind of man he was that made two women so desperately unhappy that they killed themselves. I saw him recite his poetry in Cambridge once, the room was packed, and I wondered what memories this visit brought back to him, if he remembered the days there when he met and feel in love with Sylvia Plath.

So I have plenty of reading to do, and with books that are journeys full of personal memories too.

If you can recommend any favourite titles I might like to catch up in the New Year, then please do feel free to comment about them.

If you don’t receive a New Year’s Honour this year, how about trying to get included in the next bumper volume of Who’s Who? It could be the next best thing.

There are 38 new entries from Cambridge in the latest edition, mainly academics from the University.

The Cambridge entry list was among the highest produced by a city or town outside London and more than Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle combined.

I wonder if our latest Cambridge celeb David Gest, who has just bought a house in the city, will be included in next year’s edition.

And what about Ronnie Knight who moved to the city to spend his retirement?

And before you ask, the answer is no, I am not in it either…yet!

Do you know who our Minister for Climate Change is?  He is Phil Woolas. Phil who, you might be asking? This is a man with one of the hottest jobs in government right now. His responsibilities also include flooding, as well as GMOs, chemicals, pesticides and radioactive waste.

He wrote a Bali diary from the recent climate change talks and  plans to continue writing his blog through to 2009, but does not appear to be inviting comments. Unless you read the Defra website, you would not know it existed. Because it has exactly the same format as the Defra website, it does not look like a blog. And yet this is such an important topic to be talking about, to encourage and stimulate a global conversation. It already has a high profile following, if you believe this statement on his site:

It seems as though quite a lot of people have been reading it, not least a number of the foreign dignitaries and other notables our Ministers met in Bali.

It tells us little we haven’t already read in the press. I would liked to have known something of what he talked about with Sir Nicholas Stern on their flight over the South China Seas. And what actually happened in the meeting he hosted with China about "where we go from here?"

Don’t keep us in suspense please Phil, we all want to know the answer to that question….

*While we are on this subject, I would like us to have a dedicated Minister for Climate Change which excludes the other responsibilities included with this post. Surely this is more than a full time post on its own merit. 

Phil W certainly has a lot of questions to answer on his present record. For example, why, after our catastrophic floods earlier this year, are ministers proposing that we build new homes on flood plains? Is he is agreement with such a loony idea? This is a government criticised for its tackling of water problems and for its appalling handling of the summer floods.

On top of this, researchers have just reported that the world’s sea levels could rise twice as high this century as UN climate scientists have previously predicted, according to the journal Nature Geoscience, which reports that the maximum rise could be about  163cm (64in). That is a terrifying thought.

And I hope Phil W has read the serious concerns raised by a group of top UK engineers in The Times today urging the government to implement new technologies, otherwise the aspirational targets of the UK Climate Change Bill — and the Bali conference — will fail. Their warning letter states:

While it is technically possible to meet agreed targets, bringing the necessary engineering solutions to market in the quantities required is a Herculean task. Sir Nicholas Stern showed that doing nothing will be a lot more expensive than taking action now — but it will still require massive investment in development and commercialisation.

However, the proliferation of schemes, targets and laws around the world creates a confused landscape that only climate change specialists can navigate. The tools to reduce emissions in the necessary timescale come mainly through engineering. But there are no easy answers: renewable energy sources such as wind, wave and solar could all provide low-carbon electricity but are at varying stages of development; biofuels and hydrogen could reduce transport emissions but there are inherent risks; carbon capture and storage could significantly reduce emissions from fossil fuel power plants but there is yet to be a full-scale, commercially viable demonstration.

Throughout history engineers have shown their ability to provide innovative solutions to many of mankind’s problems. We can do so again but we cannot achieve the impossible. If the practicalities and realities of successfully implementing new technologies are not adequately considered then the aspirational targets of the UK Climate Change Bill — and the Bali conference — will fail.

Climate change is new territory for us, but we must be brave and decisive and place our confidence and trust in wide ranging experts to act decisively on these issues.

*Phil W would like your feedback about his Defra blog, btw, so do check it out here, and this is the address to forward your comments: ps.phil.woolas@defra.gsi.gov.uk

I’m sure Welshcakes would be delighted to help England’s newly crowned Italian football manager Fabio Capello learn English. She is teaching it to young Italians in Sicily - but believes Capello’s linguistic dream is impossible to achieve:

“All I can say is that I’d love to know who his English tutor will be, for anyone who has taught or learned a foreign language knows that it takes years to perfect and that you never stop learning.”

When the going gets touch, he might find it a blessing not to understand all that is being said.

I have one humdinger of a day. Firstly, I shall be wearing my Headway hat today as I join its Cambridgeshire members as a helper in my role as trustee on their annual panto trip to The Arts Theatre, Cambridge to see Cinderella.

Headway is particularly thrilled and excited that Time Lord Dr Who, played by David Tennant who is Patron of Headway Essex, will be making a BBC Christmas appeal on their behalf.

Does celebrity endorsement work? Almost certainly if it is genuine and expressed with true conviction. Like David Tennant puts it across. The appeal tells the true story of Robert, a young man who was involved in a road traffic accident at just 17 years of age. He suffered severe head injuries and was in a coma for three weeks. Prior to the accident, Robert was on the verge of taking his place at Oxford University and had a scholarship to become a pilot in the RAF. The accident changed all that. Like many members of Headway, Robert had to accept his future was now very different.

The appeal will be broadcast on Radio 4 on Sunday, 23 December 2007 at 7.55 am and 9.26 pm and repeated on Thursday 27, December at 3.27 pm. Do be sure to listen in.

I shall be doing my proud mum bit in the evening when my son James sings with his school choir at their Christmas Carol Concert in Ely Cathedral. The Octagon Tower is very beautiful and I consider myself so very lucky to have this wonderful, ecclesiastical building on my doorstep, and to imagine James singing just beneath it is something special to look forward to all day.

In between these festivities, I shall also be working, I will be visiting the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambridge who I am working for in a freelance capacity and have secured some fantastic media coverage, including an interview with the Sunday Telegraph next month. They are working on so many very interesting, cutting edge projects, I find their projects totally fascinating. I will tell you more about them later.