You can never tell with kids

Parents can never really be sure how their young children would take to exciting news and special holiday announcements.

In many cases it is the parents rather than the children who are more excited. For parents watching their children react to the news and squeal out in pleasure when presented with an exciting vacation opportunity is plenty reward.

An Atlanta-based couple were so excited about planning a Disney World holiday for their children that they decided to break the news to them with a handycam handy to tape what they were expecting would be over the top reactions.

Making lemonade with life's lemons

There are moments when you fully understand what it means to be bigger than life – in my case it came from a moment when I witnessed (albeit through youtube) someone take the lemons that life has given him to not be sour faced about it but to actually make lemonade.

Emmanuel Kelly, a 17 year old Australian of Iraqi descent, probably faced his demons in front of a live studio audience while auditioning for 'the X-Factor' Australia.

Through the powerful words of John Lennon's 'Imagine' and his heartfelt rendition of that song he looks into the camera and tells his demons that he is bigger and stronger – and that he has not been (to borrow from Lennon) crippled inside.

Life is to make a difference

Not to make light of a grave issue but people with real conviction and a determination to do their part make a difference in their own way are a dying breed. Literally.

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Anti-war activist Brian Haw, the man who camped on the greens of the Houses of Parliament in London for the last decade, died after a battle against lung cancer, in Germany. He was 62.

Brian Haw with the Big Ben in the background

Haw set up camp in June 2001 as an angry response to economic sanctions and British and American bombing raids on Iraq. The scope of the protest widened after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington DC, and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq that followed.

The British officers had tried to have him removed, succeeding recently only to move his protest to the pavement after the Greater London Authority received permission from the court to evict Haw and his supporters from Parliament Square.

Justifying his presence and his conviction he told reporters last year that “We're there because our country is committing infanticide, genocide, the looting of nations. I'm determined to be there until they kill me.”

Haw has travelled around the world to various conflict hotspots to protest injustice and war.

Jeremy Corbyn, a Labour Party legislator, said on Twitter that he was always pleased to see Haw outside Parliament. “He reminded us that one person with determination can show principles while lies and distortions abound,” he tweeted.

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Equally committed, but to fun, and doing his small part to make a difference in the lives of his buddies serving with him in Afghanistan was a Royal marine who left £100,000 in his will to send 32 of his mates on holiday.

Image from The Sun

David Hart was killed by a Taliban bomb a year ago at the Helmand danger spot of Sangin in Afghanistan. He was 23 at the time.

Hart took out a £250,000 life insurance policy before setting off to Afghanistan - £100,000 of which was left for his mates to go on holiday with their girlfriends “to go on a party trip in his memory if he died.” Thirty-two of his pals are making the trip to Las Vegas.

David, a combat medic for the 40 commando unit, also left a large sum to his family and £50,000 to his favourite charity for injured marines.

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I have to admit I had never heard of Brian Haw or David Hart until I had read news of one' death and the other's legacy, but now I will probably never forget the level of their conviction and their commitment to live life on their own terms.

Brian Haw. David Hart. RIP.