Celia
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‘A lot has changed in the last six months – but I’m very much loved’: British TV escapologist Jonathan Goodwin shares first picture of himself in a wheelchair after fireball stunt left him paralysed for life – as fiancée Amanda Abbington posts snap
America’s Got Talent star Jonathan Goodwin has shared the first picture of himself in a wheelchair – after his fiancée Amanda Abbington revealed he has been left paralysed for life after a fireball stunt went wrong. The Brit, 42, who was in hospital for four months as a result and only came home in February accompanied the Instagram image of himself and his dog, with a positive post which read: ‘Six months ago I went to rehearse something and left this little hairy monkey waiting patiently for me… ‘He didn’t see his dad again until just a couple of weeks ago and when he finally did, dad had new cool wheels
There is always someone worse off.
The twins are joined from the chest to the pelvis, sharing a bladder, bowel and a fused leg – but are currently being prepared for surgery to separate them
Dr Karl explains what’s causing Australia’s staggering rainfalls and warns it’s not going to stop anytime soonDr Karl Kruszelnicki explained why Australia is experiencing huge rainfalls He said the La Nina weather pattern was working with other climate systems The beloved science presenter also added the rain could be around for months
By BRETT LACKEY FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA
PUBLISHED: 12:10 AEST, 1 May 2022 | UPDATED: 18:05 AEST, 1 May 202
After torrential rain and flooding caused widespread havoc over swathes of Australia this summer, the wet weather looks stubbornly set to stick around.
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki explained that La Nina is working together with other weather systems to create the perfect conditions for heavy rainfall, which could continue until at least late June.
Already this year, many towns and cities along the country’s east coast have reached their annual rainfall, including Sydney, which by early April had seen at least 1112mm of rain.
The average annual rainfall in Sydney is 1164mm, and there is still nine months of the year left go.
The deluge also caused devastating flooding in northern NSW.
Lismore was particularly hard hit with the entire town submerged and hundreds of homes severely damaged after the Wilsons River broke its bank and reached a peak of about 15metres twice in a month.
Bureau of Meteorology data from the last 13 La Nina events showing where has got the most rainfall. The NSW coast has historically been drier than inland but not in 2022
Sydney weather: What’s causing staggering rainfalls | Daily Mail Online
‘Stop treating all us older ladies like we need protecting!’ After Harry’s comments about the Queen, ELISABETH LUARD, 80, says it’s part of a patronising trend she abhors
Last week that Prince Harry took it upon himself to ‘protect’ his grandmother Elisabeth Luard says just because HM is 96 it doesn’t mean she’s not in chargeUK-based writer, 80, says that like Queen she is not done yet and can make decisions for herself
By ELISABETH LUARD FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 07:03 AEST, 28 April 2022 | UPDATED: 07:03 AEST, 28 April 2022
The first time it happened, I’d tripped on a concrete step and had to go to A&E to have a gash sewn up. It was my eldest son Caspar, then 50, who spoke on behalf of all three of my children.
‘You have to move house, Mother,’ he said. ‘We’ve talked about it between ourselves… sooner or later you’ll fall downstairs and get eaten by the cat.’
That’s when it struck me: my children, all in their middle years with teenagers of their own, had decided their mother was a problem that merited discussion behind her back. I’d reached an age — 75 — that meant I could no longer be trusted to make my own decisions. From now on, they knew better.
I recalled my bitter indignation when I read last week that Prince Harry had taken it upon himself to ‘protect’ his grandmother from the wrong sort of advisers. He said of his recent tea with the Queen: ‘I’m just making sure she’s protected and got the right people around her.’
Last week Prince Harry said his grandmother needed protecting from the wrong sort of advisers. He said of his recent tea with the Queen: ‘I’m just making sure she’s protected and got the right people around her.’ Harry is pictured here with the Queen
Well, thanks Harry — but just because HM, aged 96 and in the year of her Platinum Jubilee, is sometimes obliged to use a walking stick, doesn’t mean she’s not in charge of who she is and what she does.
It seems to me (at 80 and still counting) there’s an assumption that the elderly can’t answer for themselves.
Her Majesty, if recent reports are true, has all the marbles she needs to make up her own mind. She’s unlikely to relish a reminder of what happens to us all sooner or later, rich or poor, as we lose the ability to do the things we always did. I imagine the Queen is far from amused, particularly given that young Harry is hardly the best person to offer advice on sensitive subjects.
I call this kind of patronising behaviour the ‘Does she take sugar?’ problem. By which I refer to the common scenario when a waiter in a cafe addresses an older person’s companion, rather than the older person themselves. The tacit assumption being that physical vulnerability necessarily translates into mental decline.
I share the monarch’s view: ‘I’m not done yet’
Some of us may not be as ablebodied as we were, but this doesn’t mean we don’t know if we take sugar in our tea.
In the same way, Harry seems to be assuming that now the Queen is well into her 90s, she can no longer be trusted to choose her own people. He’s 37, for heaven’s sake — he should have learnt his lesson by now.
I have experience of old ladies with firm opinions. My mother was of the same generation as the monarch and did exactly as she wanted all her life. She never hid her disapproval of the choices I, her eldest daughter, had made. Wrong husband (unreliable), too many children (in too quick succession), career as a food writer (how did that happen?).
I never dared challenge my mother’s disapproval, so we never even agreed to disagree. My mother disliked confrontation face to face (though her letters filled me with dread) and made sure it didn’t happen. Perhaps this is why I became a writer — a way of claiming a voice.
Elisabeth Luard, 80, says that no matter what age people should be allowed to make their own decisions. She points out that Harry seems to be assuming that the Queen, who is well into her 90s, can no longer be trusted to choose her own people
So when my own children were young but well able to speak for themselves, I tried to make sure they too had a voice.
‘What’s his name?’ asked wellmeaning strangers, presuming my son couldn’t speak for himself. And I’d immediately readdress the question to him. ‘What’s your name?’ I would ask him.
It expressed exactly what I then felt and still do — that everyone, however young or old, should be allowed to speak for themselves.
Which made it doubly surprising when, shortly after my 75th birthday, my children — the very same ones I’d always encouraged to speak for themselves — attempted to remove that right from me.
They staged what they called ‘an intervention’. A polite word for ganging up on someone and telling them what to do.
That’s when they decided it would be better for me to move from my beloved rambling farmhouse in the wilds of Wales to be closer to them: ‘We’ll find somewhere much safer and closer to London. Hastings or Eastbourne, somewhere the grandchildren can visit.’
Really? All five of my London-based grandchildren had been coming to stay for the holidays throughout their lives.
‘We know it’s expensive mending the roof and hard work pumping the water out of the cellar,’ my son continued, his two sisters nodding along. ‘And we won’t be able to help enough to make a difference.’ Of course it was well intentioned, coming from a place of loving care — but at the same time rather thoughtless. (In the same way Harry clearly can’t see the cringeworthy crassness of his bold — public, no less — declaration that he’s looking out for his dear old granny.)
I had no intention of leaving the beautiful place that had been my home for more than 20 years. Certainly not until I was good and ready.
Everyone, however young or old, should be allowed to speak for themselves
My mother — let alone the monarch — wouldn’t have stood for such treatment. And neither did I. My brain was still in full working order, thank you very much; I’d let them know when it wasn’t.
In the end it was three years before I decided, independently, that the time had come to move. I didn’t move to Hastings or Eastbourne, ‘safer’ though that might have been, but as close as I could get to central London, the city where I was born.
These days, I live in a studio flat in a factory conversion in Acton, which suits me fine. And I share the monarch’s view of a suitable age for retirement: ‘Thanks for asking, but I’m not done yet.’
There will be times when I will need help. And in London postlockdown I’m learning to accept help when it’s offered. A seat on the bus, a helping hand to bridge the gap between platform and train on the Tube, a kindly heave of a loaded shopping trolley.
Her Majesty has already downsized — or so it seems — making Windsor Castle her main residence and choosing to stay at the modest Wood Farm during visits to the Sandringham estate — and she’s unlikely to need a seat on the bus. So what useful help might the monarch accept from the next generation?
Perhaps an offer of company when walking the corgis in the unmown end of the garden. If it were me, best of all would be an unconditional offer from California to send the little ones, Archie and Lilibet (suitably accompanied by Nanny, of course), for a few days with their great-granny without the pressure of parents or politics.
Harry is hardly the best person to offer advice
Her Majesty is far older and wiser than her grandson. With age comes tolerance, if we care enough to take the good with the bad. And Queen Elizabeth II has certainly had enough practice in forgiving — though possibly not forgetting — to move a loving relationship with her grandson back on track.
Family loyalty is, after all, Her Majesty’s stock-in-trade.
It’ll be no surprise if the California runaways are seen waving from the palace balcony in June. Harry is her grandson and there’s often an unspoken alliance between older and younger — the problem generations that squeeze the middle.
I hope they do work it out. We can all of us change our friends (advisers too). But we can never change our family.
Well-meaning ‘advice’ and all.
NEW Today host Ally Langdon (left) ripped into Scott Morrison (right) over rising inflation as the Prime Minister blamed Covid-19 and war in Europe for the latest figure. Australia’s inflation hit 5.1 per cent – the fastest pace in 21 years – sparking fears interest rates could rise less than three weeks before the May 21 election. Mr Morrison said inflation was higher in other rich countries and claimed Australians will not blame him for the rising prices.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed petrol prices soared by 11 per cent, with Russia’s Ukraine invasion hurting crude oil supplies. Fuel prices have risen for the seventh straight quarter, marking the strongest annual rise since 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait, sparking the first Gulf War (pictured is a motorist in Sydney filling up)
[I would love to see the price of petrol lower and interest rates a lot higher please]
UK health officials said the global outbreak in cases may be as a result of pandemic measures which prevented children in their ‘formative’ years being exposed to common infections. In total, 114 cases of ‘acute hepatitis of unknown origin’ have been reported in the UK in the last four weeks, with ten youngsters undergoing critical liver transplant procedures. The first cases were spotted in Scotland less than a month ago, prompting a warning from UK health officials who have detected as many cases in three months as they would expect to see in a year. The majority of cases have been spotted in under-5s who were initially hit with diarrhoea and nausea before later getting jaundice – the yellowing of the skin/eyes. Other symptoms can include dark urine, grey-coloured faeces, itchy skin, muscle pain, a fever, lethargy, loss of appetite and stomach pains. Investigations are ongoing but officials believe the illness may be triggered by an adenovirus, a viral infection which is usually to blame for the sniffles, and has been linked to three-quarters of all cases. Experts say lockdowns – which prompted concerns for children’s physical and mental health – may have weakened the immunity of children and left them more susceptible to the virus, or the offending pathogen may have mutated to pose a greater threat.
Man, 77, who believed he’d been abandoned after being shipped to Australia as an ‘orphan’ where he was beaten and abused discovers his dad tried to rescue him – as he reunites with his late father’s family
Dorian Thomas Reece, 77, (pictured L-R) was placed in a Birmingham orphanage as a baby after his unwed mother was forced to give him up and as an eight-year-old boy was sent to live in Western Australia. Appearing on Long Lost Family in the UK, Dorian wept as he found that his father (pictured inset) had not only been paying for his upkeep, but wanted to reunite with both him and his mother before his death.
