Oshea and Ogilvie

We needed a laugh - and we think the Sloaney humour of Oshea and Ogilvie will raise your spirits, too.





The duo OSHEA and OGILVIE, http://www.osheaogilvie.co.uk/ based in Exeter, write and perform their own material - sketches, songs, dances and mockumentaries. Their aim is to raise a laugh amongst the nation with their original new show and generally make the country a brighter, happier place; as they say, if you can't laugh in the middle of a double dip recession, when can you. They are available for festivals and other comedy or music events around the country.

Launch Night! is on the 15th Of December...and catch them on radio online ...
http://www.phonic.fm/2011/dynamic-duo-oshea-and-ogilvie-speak-to-paul-gallagher-on-phonic-fm

Happy Valentine's Day

A Valentine's Day greeting to all Sloanes and their friends. and especially to Ann Barr, loved by Sloanes everywhere.
Read Ann Barr's article on the origins of Sloanes here:
http://www.intrepid-fox.co.uk/feature/archive/sloaneorigin.html

The Volunteer

The Volunteer is a project that looks to work and volunteer with charities doing specialized projects overseas focusing on a selection of humanitarian issues. The main objective is to raise awareness and funding for the charity while also giving an insight into the life of a volunteer.
The Volunteer aims to televise the experience of volunteering as part of a series aimed at documenting and highlighting the efforts of various charities overseas often operating in difficult and dangerous circumstances.
The Volunteer series will capture the emotions, cultural differences and challenges attached to volunteering on a project overseas while looking to inspire ordinary people to make a difference.
The Volunteer is presented and founded by Hugo Chittenden who having volunteered in Africa decided to change his life and dedicate himself to helping raise awareness and funding for charities and projects overseas.
Volunteering is something that everyone adheres to and yet something that is spoken about as a distant dream rather than an actuality.
The Volunteer aims to highlight the benefits of volunteering while outlining the highs and lows one can expect as a volunteer overseas, so as to educate and inspire those who may like to try something different.
The Volunteer has partnered up with UK volunteering organizations to facilitate the process of volunteering overseas.
A few of the supporters of The Volunteer include
SIR RANULPH FIENNES OBE - GLOBAL EXPLORER
JEREMY HUNT - SECRETARY OF STATE FOR CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
JAMES BLUNT - SINGER
SIR RODNEY SWEETNAM - NEWMAN FOUNDATION
TRUSTEES, HENRY VAN STRAUBENZEE FUND
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Splendid!

Prince William to marry Catherine Middleton next year

We wish them
every happiness.
BBC Link

Posy Simmonds' "Tamara Drewe" is now a film

Congratulations to Posy Simmonds, creator of "Tamara Drewe". The creator shares her experiences as illustrator and writer here.
The series is available online ttp://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/tamara-drewe

When Boris Met Dave

Much ado about some Hoorays.

Zac Goldsmith calls for boycott of Sainsbury's

Good idea.
An affectionate profile of Zac is here.
Zac's magazine, The Ecologist, is here.

Not Sloane Ranger and the Guccis

Image from FIRST POST.

Q.E.D.

Boris Johnson writes for NOTW

See what the Lord Mayor of London wrote at News of the World here.

A Conversation with a Virtual You

You can make a virtual version of yourself here and then you and your friends can have fun chatting with it.
Tim Berners-Lee might not approve of using programming for something so frivolous, but perhaps Douglas Adams would.

Times: Are we all middle class now?

Love Chocolate? Thank a Sloane.

Love Chocolate? Thank a Sloane.

A friend gave me this poster on Valentine's Day. I asked her to make it into products for this site. She graciously agreed, and soon there will be an assortment of posters, mugs, shirts, cards and more for us and our chocolate-loving friends. The prototypes are here
and here

"It was (Hans Sloane's) visit to Jamaica that proved to be foundation of his wealth and success. During his time in Jamaican he had participated in a wreck-raising adventure in Jamaica and it was there that he met Elizabeth Langley, the widow of a wealthy Jamaican planter Fulk Rose, whom he later married in 1695; both of which proved to be a useful source of funds. It was however by means of another oportunity that Hans really made his money.

Whilst he was in Jamaica Hans Sloane had observed that "Chocolate is here us'd by all Peoples, at all times". However the natives in the West Indies drank chocolate mixed with honey and pepper, a concoction quite unpalatable as far as Europeans were concerned; Hans himself recorded that he "found it in great quantities nauseous" whilst also noting that it "colours the Excrements of those feeding on it a dirty colour". Hans's great innovation was to find a way of making chocolate palatable for European tastes, which was simply to mix it with hot milk. Back in England he began the commercial production of 'Sir Hans Sloane's Milk Chocolate' which was marketed as a medicine noted 'For its Lightness on the Stomach and its great Use in all Consumptive Cases'.
Chocolate soon joined coffee as one of the fashionable drinks of the age and made Hans yet another fortune.
His basic recipe for milk chocolate survived long after his death. It was the same recipe used by John Cadbury when he began selling chocolate in 1824, and thus Cadbury's Dairy Milk is a direct descendant of Hans Sloane's original confection."
From Sir Hans Sloane

Ann Barr, The Woman Who Invented Sloanes

Image: Ann Barr and friend, from article "Ann Barr, The Woman Who Invented Sloanes"
here

Ann Barr did most of the work on the first Official Sloane Ranger books. Peter York (Peter Wallis, actually) did much less to comprehend and map the terrain. Ann is a Sloane, and Peter is not. One source reports that York has done no work on the new book
leaving it to Olivia Stewart-Liberty

Read how the new "Sloane" book got it wrong here

Some Sloanes have always functioned - and made fortunes - in an international environment; that's why so much of the map of the world became pink. Creative marketing claims to the contrary, the basic traits of Sloanes remain solid and have not changed.

The original books remain unsurpassed, and Ann Barr deserves a Valentine!