01/01/2009 by admin.

We wanted to mark our first post of 2009 with an iconic statement - a reminder of our purpose.  Our readers will be aware of the symbolism of the sinking of the Titanic neary 100 years ago, when it infamously struck an iceberg and sunk following complacency and arrogance that the ship would never sink.

Well, the two co-stars of the marvellous Titanic movie, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, have reunited after 10 years to make the movie ‘Revolutionary Road’.  How apt!

Here’s the famous clip of the ship striking the iceberg - a poignant warning to all those complacent about the likelihood of impending human induced climate change on our world.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nMMD-XeCFiM&feature=related

And here’s the link to Leo’s site devoted to his movie, ‘The 11th Hour’.

http://11thhouraction.com/seethefilm

Posted in Q78 Do you want to be part of the picture?, Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Q.5 Do you believe in fate?, Q.4 Have you ever wanted to stop the clock?, Q.1 Does your life have a purpose? | No Comments »

14/09/2008 by admin.

Noel’s HQ is an inspirational show where ordinary people do extraordinary things.  It’s just the kind of thing our very own local champion, Ben Whittenbury would do. The magic of The Haymakers Survey is spreading! Our project about the power of art, love and nature is designed to help change the world - encouraging local champions and a new way of living, that sees a world beyond the grey, money and needless regulation.  Three cheers for Noel…

Well, the funds raised from our ‘not for profit’ scheme, in partnership with the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust is currently supporting the campaign to save Balls Wood Nature Reserve.  Together we can!

http://www.harlowstar.co.uk/hertfordshiremercury-news/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=332073

We’ve given many examples on this blog about the syncronicity of our tale and world events, well we now have a very local and in many ways most extraordinary experience to tell you about.  Our story reveals how it seems that long ago a man called Ben Whittenbury was once involved in a confrontation with the Murderous Pie Man of Ware!  Well, at a fair at Castle Hall in Hertford today some distant relatives of the orginal Benjamin Whittenbury came to our book stall.  The odds against the union must be very high. It was a most remarkable and humbling experience.

Posted in Q41 Do you like surprises?, Q56 Do you believe rules are there to be broken?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q39 Do you believe in magic?, Q.8 Do you crave a better life?, Q.5 Do you believe in fate?, Q.7 Have you dreamed of being a champion?, Q.1 Does your life have a purpose? | No Comments »

11/09/2008 by admin.

Sgt Mark Baxter has told how swift action led to the rescue of his three year old daughter, Leona, after she was sucked into a storm drain and swept 200 feet along a drainpipe and into the River Wear.  Leona was playing in what appeared to be a large puddle before she disappeared into what appeared to be like a whirlpool in the middle of the puddle.  Her father quickly realised that she’d fallen into a drain that led to the river and dashed to save her.  Leona is barely 3 feet tall and weighs just 3 stone.  Leona’s mother said, “We are the luckiest parents alive, someone must have been watching over us.”

A whirlpool features more than once in our story. Here’s one in action…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw7YGnL137E

A miracle of another kind has taken place involving an animal called Dixie.   A family in Birmingham were delighted when an RSPCA officer turned up with their cat missing for nearly a decade!  The owners were overjoyed at the micro-chipped cat’s return, and amazed that Dixie seems to have retained all her personality and mannerisms. The owner, Mrs Delaney, says the cat has hardly stopped purring since her return.  Sarah’s told her pet Dixie all about the happy ending!

In a miraculous set of events, a historic watch belonging to a champion has been reunited with its Hertfordshire owner.  The 100 year old watch awarded to James Douglas Edgar to honour his victory in the Canadian Golf Open in 1919 was stolen from Wheathampstead Golf Club in February 2008.  Yet last week James’ grandson, Douglas, received a phone call from a jewellery collector who bought the watch at a car boot sale in Surrey.   The woman, Mandy, showed the watch to her parents - who live in Harpenden in Hertfordshire - and they instantly recognised it as the missing watch.  The circumstances are a little different but its curious that a Hertfordshire champion’s watch was lost then miraculous found again, something Ben Whittenbury and Malachi know all about - an event that triggered our Watch!

What we take from these 3 stories is that it’s not too late for humanity to change our relationship with the Earth -we can still secure the miracle needed to preserve the natural world on this planet blue in a sea of black.

Posted in Q52 Do you believe in miracles?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q43 Do you believe in happy endings?, Q41 Do you like surprises?, Q.5 Do you believe in fate?, Q.7 Have you dreamed of being a champion?, Q.4 Have you ever wanted to stop the clock? | No Comments »

05/09/2008 by admin.

A parrot named Luna from New Jersey has fooled emergency services into an attempt to rescue a damsel in distress.  Concerned neighbours had called the police after they heard cries of, ‘Help me! Help me!” Police resorted to knocking the front door down, only to find a parrot was reponsible.  The owner wasn’t especially surprised as seven years ago Luna alarmed authorities by mimicking a baby’s cry for hours on end, triggering a visit by child welfare officials fearing an abandoned infant!  This is all very familiar given our story.

Meanwhile, in Kent, England, Leonard an African Grey has been showing off his repetoire of impersonations and moves.  The parrot was missing for about 4 days but has now returned home.  Here he is performing Beethoven’s Fifth and doing Dalek impressions - all features from our story!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7600955.stm

However, Sarah pointed out that this is nothing compared with Einstien’s performance. Now here’s a real superstar…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSDFzg8_Wfg

Posted in Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Q41 Do you like surprises?, Q17 Can you speak another language?, Q.5 Do you believe in fate? | No Comments »

22/08/2008 by admin.

A man who threw a message in a bottle into the sea when he was just a boy has been reunited with his note 23 years after the event!  Donald Wylie was just 11 when he tossed the bottle into the water at Sandside beach, Orkney.  It was found by eco-volunteers clearing a beach at Fife, Scotland and traced to Mr Wylie, now 33.   The organiser of the beach clean-up said, ‘The message in a bottle was quite a find and surprised us all. It’s remarkable that it should turn up after all this time.”  Maybe the discovery is a coded SOS from Mother Nature?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeQ2yXE1mpU

Meanwhile, the sprinter, Usain Bolt, has been at it again, collecting his 3rd Olympic Gold and his 3rd World Record. Quite a feat! This time he was part of a quartet, the 4×100 relay.  They ran the distance in just 37.10 seconds, smashing the existing record, set in 1992, by 0.3 seconds. A fantastic champion. Congratulations Usain.

Let’s celebrate with some Chariot’s of Fire…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYJzcUvS_NU

Posted in Q49 Do you ever think about the old days?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q41 Do you like surprises?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q.7 Have you dreamed of being a champion?, Q.5 Do you believe in fate? | No Comments »

24/07/2008 by admin.

A woman from West Yorkshire has revealed how her £1.2million Lotto win followed a good omen from her deceased father involving mysterious white bird feathers.  Mrs Crossland found a white feather on her doorstep after his death two years ago and saw it as a gift from him.  Just days before her emotional jackpot win, showers of them began appearing in her garden.  The origin of the feathers is a mystery. “My win must have been fate,” added Mrs Crossland, who won with her father’s cherished number line a day after her 44th birthday.   

This is most curious given the role played by a white feather in our story! Has ‘The Haymakers Survey’ hit the jackpot - an ecological message for all humankind?

Meanwhile in Japan, Ichero a 42 year old chimpanzee, climbed on to the roof of his enclosure to cool down during a heatwave.  Zoo staff tried to coax him down and at one point he grabbed a tranquilizer gun.  Following on the heels of the Trafalgar Square sleep-in, was the chimp trying to issue a wake-up call to humanity? After all, we share 95% of our genes with a chimpanzee. Here’s the video…

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f9e_1216810602

Posted in Q54 Do you enjoy a bit of a mystery?, Q68 Does the Earth have a spirit?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q43 Do you believe in happy endings?, Q41 Do you like surprises?, Q20 Have your eyes ever deceived you?, Q33 Do you believe in life after death?, Q.5 Do you believe in fate? | No Comments »

22/03/2008 by admin.

A silver pocket watch found with the frozen body of a man who was the last victim of the Titanic to be recovered, has gone on sale.  The watch was discovered 12 days after the liner hit an iceberg and sank. Thomas Mullins was a third class steward.  It’s regarded as a unique watch from an investment point of view its value is sure to soar in 2012, which marks the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking.  Interestingly, the watch has lost both its hands and is beyond repair; so its now timeless.

In Newquay, pronounced New-Key, a Friesian cow has given birth to female triplets - beating odds of a million to one.  The chance of bovine triplets being born is 150,000 to one - but the odds of them all being female is 1.2 million to one.  The calves have been named, Bluebell, Primrose and Violet by their farm manager.  It follows the brith of 3 male calve triplets in August 2007,  in New Zealand; which also had a million-to-one chance!  the mum was a cow called Number 26!

Well, well, well - Enid Blyton’s Famous Five are returning to our TV screens with an updated 21st century look. 

 The Famous Five: On the Case features the children of the original ginger beer-loving adventurers - and their dog, Timmy! Producers say the animated tales remain faithful to the themes of storytelling, mystery and adventure central to the original books but add a contemporary twist.  Odd how Charles Lamb describes a famous five of his own - four great artists and poets from the 19th century and a dog called Malachi!

Posted in Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Haymakers: Watch Wonders, Q39 Do you believe in magic?, Q37 Do you know how to have fun?, Q.5 Do you believe in fate?, Q26 Do you take poetry seriously?, Q.4 Have you ever wanted to stop the clock? | No Comments »

14/03/2008 by admin.

The controversial 5th Terminal has opened at London’s Heathrow Airpot costing £4bn. From the sky, it resembles a huge greenhouse.

The Terminal has divided opinion amongst top business and environmental groups.  It opens to passengers on 27 March.

They could always take a flight to Australia where much of the country is experiencing the worst drought in living memory, which has slashed its wheat exports! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7289194.stm

There are also wild fires rampaging in Adelaide, as the Southern  States experience a heatwave of record intensity.  The city expereinced its 11th consecutive day of temperatures above 35 degrees.

Posted in Q36 Should a good life cost the Earth?, Q22 Do you love our Earth? FREE CHRISTMAS PRIZE DRAW!, Q15 Do you sometimes fear the worst?, Q.5 Do you believe in fate? | No Comments »

20/02/2008 by admin.

A meteor zipped across the U.S. Pacific Northwest sky early Tuesday morning before exploding, possibly littering eastern Oregon with marble- to basketball-size space rocks.  The meteor was caught on a surveillence camera in North-Western America. This is the dramatic footage…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7250000/newsid_7255600/7255695.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&asb=1&news=1&bbcws=1 

Eyewitnesses describe the light as really bright - something unreal. An airline pilot has reported seeing the meteor hit the ground in a rural area outside of Seattle at about 6:45 on 19 February. A search has commenced for any fragments, focusing on an area around the ‘Blue Mountains’ or outside the town of Pendletown, Oregon.

People all over the world have different beliefs about meteors and meteorites. One thing they have in common though is a belief that meteors are extraordinary.  In the Philippines, for example, one must tie a knot in a handkerchief before the light is extinguished.  In Chile, one must pick up a stone when sees a meteor.

We’ve also discovered really amazing footage of a meteor that crashed to Earth in the USA in March 2007 - 3 months into our watch. Here:

http://tsr117.hi5.com/friend/video/3484654–12239959–Desert%2BMeteor%2BCaught%2Bon%2BFilm–view-html

A search to try to establish the credibility of the March 07 footage led us to discover that 1 day into the Whittenbury Watch a mysterious space object crashed into a house in New Jersey USA.  It was described as resembling a shiny lump of  ‘fools gold’. Take a look at the article here…

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/01/070105-space-rock.html

Posted in Q70 Do you like to look at the stars?, Q57 Have you ever spied on anyone?, Q.5 Do you believe in fate? | No Comments »

02/01/2008 by admin.

Liverpool has been celebrating the New Year as Europe’s Capital of Culture 2008. Twelve months of special events and regeneration projects are planned. The award came as no surprise to us given all the links to ‘The Haymakers Survey’. The artist, George Stubbs, was born in Merseyside; its also the home town of the famous Beatles - so beloved by Ben and prominent in our tale; and the Turner Prize exhibition is at the Liverpool Tate. We believe the decision further vindicates the magic of ‘The Haymakers Survey’.

Posted in Q75 Have you ever put on a show?, Q62 Have you ever helped the poor?, Q.5 Do you believe in fate?, Q.3 Do you have a good imagination?, Q.2 Are you an art lover? | No Comments »