You can see six pages of my images in this months magazine, and I am currently working on my new website for my photography and writing portfolio www.sandramdean.co.uk so please visit that site in a few weeks, to view much more of my work.   Some can be seen now at my gallery CLICK HERE and Southend’s airshow 2009 CLICK HERE

I have had photos/writing published in:

• Essex Life
• BBC wildlife magazine
• Wanderlust’s Weird World photography book
• Echo newspapers
• Real Travel magazine
• Woman’s Own
• Leigh Times newspaper

and Yorkshire Life and Pilot magazines are soon to publish some of my photos/writing.

Many of these published articles can be viewed by CLICKING HERE

The photos published in Essex Life can be viewed BY CLICKING HERE

Although I photograph and write about many topics, including Essex, Wildlife, Travel, restaurants, and of course Save the Orangutan, I have a huge selection of Aerial shots and as we fly often, I am always adding to my portfolio.

If you have any queries, please email me at info@notjustanessexgirl.com or telephone 07748 842360

Thanks,

Sandra M Dean

Billy Ocean at Heart party Essex June 2010 copyright Sandra M Dean

The soul concert in Highlands Park, Chelmsford, Essex, (Heart’s Club Classics Party in the Park) on Saturday 26th June 2010 was brilliant! We got there at 2pm and were first in the queue, but were soon joined by many others, all enjoying drink and picnics with Heart fm staff and music outside the gates. The gates opened at 5pm and we got straight up to the front of the stage.

First up was Soul II Soul, who, disappointingly, did not sing any of their old tunes live. Jazzy B took to the decks and they did dance and rap over old tunes, but we just wanted to hear ‘Back to Life’ live…….

Next up was Alexander O’Neill and my favorite of his ‘Criticize’ was just brilliant. He still rocks! Blackbox was good, and she belted out ‘Ride on Time’ which really got the crowd going. Sonique looked great and sang well, and the Gibson Brothers dance performance was awesome, as the got everyone singing and dancing to their most famous hit ‘Cuba’.

Click on the photos below and use your back button to get back to this page…..

But, top of the list and still singing beautifully, was Billy Ocean. I couldn’t believe how well he looked and he is still so fit and able to get on down he is amazing. Definitely a great finish to a sunny, hot day of entertainment, he sang all the best of his hits ‘Suddenly’, ‘Get out of my dreams, get into my car’, ‘Love really hurts without you’, ‘Caribbean Queen’ and ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’ amongst others. It was fantastic, and being down the front, I got some great photos of all the acts, which I will upload shortly.

Martin and Sue compared the event, and the concert was filmed, so it all added to the excitement.

Here is a picture of me and friends at the party, on Heart fm’s website: http://www.heart.co.uk/essex/local/pictures/hearts-club-classic-concert/79/#gallery

Essex Life Sandra M Dean June 2010 Questionnaire

Essex Life magazine interviewed me in this months back page questionnaire (June 2010) which was great for me and it also helped me to bring awareness to my Orangutan Campaign once again in the media. 

Being a magazine that promotes Essex and all it has to offer, both their magazine and my website are supporting the same thing – Essex as the great County it is!

I have submitted many of my photos from around Essex in the past and had some published in last months magazine.

I subscribe to this magazine as it has some great articles and info on Essex – see their website here: http://essex.greatbritishlife.co.uk

Essex Life Sandra M Dean June 2010 Questionnaire

Essex life Sandra M Dean photo article May 2010

Essex Life requested some of my photos for a double page article on my photography experience in their ‘Beautiful Essex’ section of the May 2010 edition….

Also, look out for me in the ‘Questionnaire’ on the back page next month!

The main photo is an aerial view of a boat in the Estuary with Southend on Sea, Essex, in the background.  The sun was just right that day, casting shadows across the sails.

The other two photos show and aerial view of Two Tree Island, with Leigh on Sea to the left, and an aerial view of the River Crouch.  The colours are enhanced by the rape fields, giving a vibrant yellow and green effect.

Essex life Sandra M Dean photo May 2010

Essex life Sandra M Dean photo article May 2010

See more about the Essex Life magazine by visiting their website: http://essex.greatbritishlife.co.uk

I first heard about this Essex registered charity on This Morning on TV, which sparked some interest and many callers/texts and emails were sent into the show. The Telegraph, Daily Mail and other newspapers/websites, also covered the news. I have now researched this group, and have made my comments below this article.

The website says “The primary aim of the Essex Women’s Advisory Group is to empower the girls who live in Essex, to broaden their vision, self-worth and belief, and hopefully to inspire them to reach further, higher and live the dream of an enhanced future regardless of their stereotyping,”

The Essex Women’s Advisory Group has formulated a three-year plan to ‘empower’ the women of Essex and help them overcome their stiletto-clad stereotype.

Elizabeth Hart, the Chairman of Essex County Council, also patron of the group, has quite a lot to say on the subject saying that she is “sick and tired of people putting Essex Girls down”

“Our girls are bright and fun, but then you see them crumble when people start putting them down for where they come from.

When her daughter was 20, she told someone at a job interview she was from Essex and she could almost see him turn his nose up and she first showed interest in the group when listening to The Weakest Link with Ann Robinson saying to someone ‘are you from Essex? Do you have white stilleto heels? Do you dance around your handbag?’

Elizabeth is also fed up of hearing all the Essex girl jokes.

However, the group is doing some great fundraising work (£38,000 already), helping the women’s refuges in Essex for vulnerable women as well as the Girl Guides and the girls in the Essex Prince’s Trust, so this is great news.

They are holding lots of fundraising events and feel the need to promote Essex.

Mrs Field, of Galleywood, who is involved with the group said: “A lot of the girls we were helping were suffering so much from this image, so we decided to do something”

She also feels that there are so many successful girls in Essex that they wanted to promote this. To avoid embarrassing situations, she says that Essex girls often claim to be from Kent, or just outside London, so as not to be associated with the Essex girl stigma.

She added that there is nothing wrong with being an Essex girl, and that there has been considerable stereotyping of girls living in Essex and this has led them to feel disadvantaged and disenfranchised at times when they reveal where they live.

They are currently organising a celebrity-studded ‘Essex Girl’ Day for the summer which is going to be a celebration of girls and women and the role they can play at all levels of society. It will also help to publicise past and present Essex Girls as role models.

Well, I can see that this charity is doing some great work for the women’s refuge, Princes trust and the girl guides, which is great news and I wish them lots of luck with their fundraising.

However, I think that the ‘Essex girl’ image is old news in some ways, and the white stiletto and dancing round the handbag image was indeed from the 1980’s which is a long time ago now.

I am currently writing my autobiography (not just an essex girl), which is partly set in the 1980’s Essex, and it will outline what really went on, but that is not what the story is based on and mainly about, as it is not topic of the day for people in this day and age. I can agree that I have at times, told people that I am from ‘near London’ when working in Japan for example, to avoid the Essex girl jokes and comments (and yes, they knew all about this image and the jokes!), but I do not do this now, as I am proud of being an Essex girl!

I too, have created my website to help create awareness of Essex people ‘doing great things’ and to help with the stigma of the Essex girl, but I personally, do not know any Essex girls who have a problem with the image in the 21st century. As for Anne Robinson on the weakest link; well, she has a dig at everyone on there and that is what her show is all about, so I don’t think that is a very good example.

I think that bringing the Essex girl back into the limelight has, in some ways, helped to bring it to mind again – certainly it gave the newspapers the chance to dig out some of those old jokes, which was disappointing of the media, albeit predictable. I think it is old news, and bringing it back to people’s minds may bring more negative, than positive results.

I will continue my work on this site, to help decrease the negativity of Essex, promote Essex celebrities, people, places and restaurants, and I wish this charity all the best to help clean up the image and raise money for the women’s refuge. I will also continue my work to help the ‘stigma of Mental health issues’ and my ‘Orangutan campaign’ to create awareness of the destruction of our environment and the environmental issues caused by unsustainable palm oil production (two new dedicated websites coming soon!)

Sandra

Vote for Olly!  If you want Olly to win, please vote as many times as you can afford to to get him through!

Click on each image to view a larger format, and use your browser back button to come back to this page..

To see all my articles, photo galleries and family stuff about Olly, including the answers to tonees of your questions,  CLICK HERE (will open all the articles in date order)

There is also a section on ‘Essex Women in Business’ where you can write an introduction about yourself and your Essex based Business. This is a free service as it is a new section, so hurry to take up the offer and showcase yourself and your business to over 14,000 visitors!

I will also be advertising women’s network meetings held in Essex or neighbouring areas. If you manage a network, go to a network or have heard about one, then please get in touch with me.

Plus, if you have any ideas for this website that you would like to see published then please let me know……

Email me at info@notjustanessexgirl.com

Thanks,

Sandra

Shortly, there will be a search box so you can search a keyword too, so look out for that.

Thanks to all of you who read my site – I hope you enjoy it!

First swine flu death of healthy man in Basildon, Essex

On Saturday, we saw the news in the Daily Mail that the first healthy person has died of Swine Flu. Since it hasn’t been high in the media lately, it is easy to forget about this awful virus. I also found it a little disturbing that he came from Essex and he died in Basildon Hospital, which is only 5 miles from where I live. I have heard so many people coughing and sneezing lately, that it is a little worrying, since it is the Summer, and there are not usually so many of these symptoms about. I get a little annoyed when I see people coughing and sneezing and not covering their mouth – it is common decency and preventative behaviour to cover your mouth and use disposable tissues, which should be disposed of properly.

With all this in mind, it will not stop me going out or living normally – I think that panic does not help situations like this – but being careful does!

The news was released on Friday night. It is believed that this is the first case of death from the virus outside of the Americas, where the outbreak started.

A spokesman for the East of England strategic health authority said on Friday “We have today confirmed that a patient with swine flu (H1N1) has died”. He had died at the Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

He was a man in his thirties, with no underlying health issues, and is the 15th person to die of swine flu in Britain. The number of people who have contracted the disease is thought to be at least 9,700. Of those, most are under the age of 20 with the majority being in the 5 – 14 age group. The number of confirmed cases in Britain is the 3rd highest in the World, just behind Mexico, with the United States having the most. This is worrying news.

Treatment mode

Health Secretary Andy Burnham had moved the Country on to treatment mode only a week before. Treatment mode means those with flu symptoms will be encouraged to quarantine themselves at home and get a friend to pick up the anti-viral drugs for them.

The Department of Health said “We urge everyone to practise good respiratory and hand hygiene, to be aware of the symptoms of swine flu and to call the Swine Flu information line on 0800 1 513 513 or visit the NHS choices website if they are concerned”

Will Swine Flu shut small firms down?

Contingency plans have been drawn up by Ministers, to allow swine flu victims to take two weeks off work without a sick not, if the pandemic becomes serious. This would double the one week sick leave that is currently allowed without a sick note. Employers said that the move could drive small businesses to the wall. I cannot help but think that these people have not thought out the facts of what could happen if they allowed a person with swine flu to go into work – that is the last thing we would want isn’t it, as it would help it spread???

However, small firms accused the Government of over reacting, as it will allow certain workers to take ‘swine flu sickies’ costing the struggling economy billions. Professor Sayeed Khan, chief medical adviser at Manufacturer’s body the EEP said that is was inevitable that employees would abuse the extended sick leave and their employers could do nothing about it.

Visitors and patients of the Hospital are very angry

The family of the man who died on Friday have asked for no more details of their relative to be released. However, visitors to the Hospital and patients staying there at the moment are very shocked and angry that they had not been warned of his death or disease or who he was. They said that they found out about it in the news or in newspapers, as the Hospital did not alert them.

How can we stop the virus spreading?

We can reduce the risk of catching or spreading swine flu.

• Catch it – cover the nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing

• Bin it – dispose of used tissues quickly and carefully

• Kill it – Wash hands frequently and practise good basic hygiene. Also clean hard surfaces with cleaning products

What next?

Health officials in the East of England said that Anti-viral drugs like Tamiflu will be offered to everyone with confirmed swine flu.

Apparently, Health chiefs are preparing to vaccinate the entire population against swine flu, but is this too late? High risk groups would be given immunity first, followed by everyone else. With 60 million people to deal with, this is a huge project and I look forward to hearing more news about this. If the virus does mutate at least we would have immunity to it.

Sir Liam Donaldson (England’s Chief Medical Officer) said “This death underlines that, although the virus is proving generally mild in most people, it is more severe in some cases. As with all flu-like viruses, some people are at higher risk than others. Unfortunately, people who are otherwise healthy could also become seriously ill, or sadly die”

Other deadly flu pandemics

All three deadly flu pandemics of the 20th Century all affected normally healthy patients rather than the sick and elderly. In the worst pandemic – the Spanish flu of 1918-19, 100 million people died. They were mainly healthy young people.

About Swine Flu

Please be very careful and think of others. If you think you have ANY of the symptoms of swine flu, please stay at home until you are sure you don’t have it. The virus could be spread much more quickly if we are in contact with others whilst we have swine flu.

According to the Health Protection Agency, the incubation period for swine flu (time between infection and appearance of symptoms) can be up to seven days, but is most likely to be between two and five days. It is, however, too early to be able to provide details on virus characteristics, including incubation period, with absolute certainty at this time (As shown on the NHS website here: http://www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/3085.aspx  )

Symptoms, High risk groups and complications – as taken from the NHS website page here: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Pandemic-flu/Pages/Symptoms.aspx

Symptoms

The symptoms of swine flu are broadly the same as those of ordinary flu, but may be more severe and cause more serious complications.

The typical symptoms are:

• sudden fever, and

• sudden cough.

Other symptoms may include:

• headache,

• tiredness,

• chills,

• aching muscles,

• limb or joint pain,

• diarrhoea or stomach upset,

• sore throat,

• runny nose,

• sneezing, and

• loss of appetite.

Most people who have contracted swine flu recover within a week and do not suffer complications, even without being given antiviral medication.

However, experts point out that as this is a new virus, its behaviour cannot be predicted with certainty.

Swine flu is different from seasonal flu in that most serious illnesses have been in younger age groups, as happened in all three 20th-century influenza pandemics.

A doctor faced with a symptomatic patient cannot yet predict with certainty the course of their illness and whether or not they will be in the small proportion who may become more seriously ill.

This is why antiviral medication is still being given to all those with swine flu in the UK, subject to their doctor’s discretion.

High-risk groups

Some groups of people are more at risk of serious illness if they catch swine flu, and will need to start taking antiviral medication as soon as they are confirmed with the illness.

Scientists are still learning more about the risk profile of the virus, but it is already known that the following people are particularly susceptible:

• people with:

- chronic lung disease,

- chronic heart disease,

- chronic kidney disease,

- chronic liver disease,

- chronic neurological disease,

- immunosuppression (whether caused by

disease or treatment) and

- diabetes mellitus,

• patients who have had drug treatment for

asthma within the past three years,

• pregnant women,

• people aged 65 years and older, and

• young children under five years old.

It is vital that people in these higher-risk groups who catch swine flu get antivirals and start taking them as soon as possible.

Complications

For most people, the illness appears to be mild and self-limiting. Cases have been confirmed in all age groups, but children and younger people seem much more likely to be affected, whereas fewer cases have been confirmed to date in older adults.

For a minority of people, the virus has caused severe illness. In many, but not all, of these cases underlying risk factors have been identified that are likely to have contributed to the severity of the condition.

Worldwide, just over 0.4% of the laboratory-confirmed cases reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) have died, which would be a rate consistent with that normally observed with seasonal influenza. However, the true number of swine flu cases is likely to be significantly higher than that reported to WHO and therefore the figure of 0.4% is likely to be an overestimate of the death rate.

Where complications do occur, they tend to be caused by the virus affecting the lungs. Infections such as pneumonia can develop.

For more information, see the Government website here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Swineflu/DG_177831  There is a symptom checker on there to help you decide if you or someone you know has the virus.

What do you think?

red-arrows-at-southend-air-show-sandra-m-dean

It has taken me ages to upload my photos and I am gradually doing so.  I have just added the Southend on Sea Festival of the Air Show 2009.  I went on Sunday 24th May, and it was sooooooo busy, but I got some lovely photos. 

See the PHOTOS by CLICKING HERE

Did you go?  Did you have fun?  Let me know……