The history of the Euro

Today I am going to write about the history of the Euro and how it has changed along the way.

The euro was first introduced in 1999 but was only actually used for electronic payments until 2002 when 12 countries in the EU abandoned their currencies and all started using euros.

Imagine well over three million people from various countries all trying to change there money to one currency? This was ranked the worlds largest civilian project in the history of the world!

At one point there was an era called the transition period were you were able to spend your own currency and the euro at the same time. This came to an end in 2002 when the euro was officially entered into circulation.

Since then many different countries have joined the eurozone including Australia, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

There are seven different euro notes each one a different size, colour, and face value: €5 (grey), €10 (red), €20 (blue), €50 (orange), €100 (green), €200 (yellow), and €500 (purple).

There are also eight different coins: €0.01, €0.02, €0.05, €0.10, €0.20, €0.50, €1, and €2.
Each countries euro has the same thing on one side but on the other side is usually some kind of mint to match the country and/or the countries history.

The Euro sign is € most people describe it as a capitol C with an = in the middle of it.

The Euro sign in its original colours

    

The battle of the Beanfield

Today I visited Stonehenge for the second time and although I have already written a blog about it (which you can find here) I am now going to write about the Battle of the Beanfield.

The battle of Beanfield occurred on the 1st June, 1985.

It all started when about 600 new age travellers and their families were heading towards Stonehenge for the annual free festival when they came across a roadblock. Due to the damage to the stones at the previous year's free festival the police decided that the festival should be cancelled and that the people attending should have no permitted access to the stones from then on.

When everybody saw the police they all moved into a neighbouring beanfield. People expected that the police would leave them alone now but all the police got in the vehicles and drove into the field and surrounded all of the people.

There were about 600 travellers all in their homes with their pets and family and everything they owned. There were also about 1,300 police officers, all covered in armour and armed with truncheons, so that's two armed police men or more to each individual person!

The chief police officer eventually came over in a helicopter and ordered for everyone to be arrested.
Afterwards the police claimed that most of the travellers chucked rocks and threw sticks when only ten or so actually did so.

What happened next is horrible. The police came round smashed the windows of the travellers' homes and dragged out any people inside and arrested them, if anybody resisted (which most did) they would get hurt.

Here are some quotes from the people who where there,

'But it wasn't a battle, we offered no resistance.' - Rose Brash (above, with her baby).

'Police rushed out on foot, from behind their barricades. Clutching drawn truncheons and riot shields, they ran round to the driver's door of each vehicle, slamming their truncheons into the bodywork to make a deafening noise, and shouting at every driver, 'get out, get out, hand over your keys, get out!' - The Earl of Cardigan.

'I was trying to give first aid to people who'd been injured. An observation I made was the number of people who'd been clouted around the back of the head. They must have been running away.' - Alan Lodge, former paramedic

About 80% of the travellers were arrested! The people who weren't arrested were let go but without their vans or anything of theirs that they owned. It was the biggest arrest in British history. Once everyone was arrested the Battle of Beanfield was over and no one else was hurt.

Several years later about twenty people were awarded money for damage to their vehicles and wrongful arrest.
S

Today you aren't allowed to get near the stones and touch them except on the solstice and as long as you don't climb on the stones or bring in alcohol.

How to make slime

Today I made slime and I was soooooooo happy with how it came out and how satisfying it was to play with! I had so much fun making it and its really easy!

You will need:

PVA glue
Contact lens solution
Shaving foam
Food colouring or paint (optional)
A large bowl
A sealable contianer (like a jam jar or Tupperware)
A spoon
A large plate

To start you want to put about 125ml of PVA glue into your bowl and add and add about half  cup of shaving foam and mix!

Next add the contact lens solution to the mixture until it isn't sticking to the bowl.

If it is still sticking to the bowl keep adding bits of shaving foam and tiny splashes of contact lens solution till it is doesn't anymore.

At this point it should still stick to your finger a bit but to stop it from sticking to your skin you need to put al the slime on your plate (it shouldn't stick to the plate) and stretch it and play with it until it isn't sticking to your hands (you may need to add some shaving foam along the way.)

This is my absolute favourite step, Playing with it! It is so satisfying playing with the slime, mixing in paints or food colouring, mixing in beads and bits of styrofoam, mixing in glitter, Kneading in lip balms and lipsticks, blowing bubbles with the slime with a straw, cutting the slime with scissors or a knife, stretching it, and much, much, much more!!