As Victorians get a sudden reminder what cold weather feels like, we thought it might be an idea to post an article on the best beaches to go to around the world. Sadly, our own beaches are pretty awesome but clearly didn’t make the cut compared to these amazing destinations!!

If you want to escape the chill, check out this link and dream of nicer places to be!!

As a side note, one of the beaches just near Miami has its own lifeguards and police – We wonder how dune dwellers would respond to active security measures at our own beaches, such as private security?? Hmmmm….

Stephen Gough has made quite a name for himself internationally, and keeps getting jail time for standing up for what he believes in!! We realise his story is a little off topic for us – after all, he believes in the freedom to be nude everywhere!! Nudists are all about the “nude” part, while Stephen appears to be focussing on the “everywhere” part – a subtle but important difference.

There’s quite a bit of hypocrisy about the Naked Rambler case – he can’t walk the UK streets nude, but BBC and Sky TV in the UK will happily show regular programs containing full nudity!! His plight has also highlighted all the subtle differences in the laws of different countries and territories. The real issue seems to be that society can’t deal with nudity in High-Def 3D (ie real life!), we can only tolerate it safely on the TV in SD 2D!! And so they keep beating Stephen with the conformance stick, because they know no different!!

Anyway, longest jail sentence ever (21 months), and apparently in the last 7 years has spent more time in jail than out for basically the same crimes (breach of the peace and contempt of court).

There are a couple of interesting articles about if you want to read more:
Metro UK article
BBC News

There’s also a Facebook group in support of his cause if you want to participate that way. And nudist champion Lady God1va has an article on her site as well, so check that out!!

Lady God1va, famous for her work on the 4th Plinth in London, has made the front cover of Canadian naturist magazine FCN. Kudos for continuing to promote a positive message to a global audience!!

Even though it’s a Canadian magazine, it’s not overly expensive and digital as well (so no shipping costs!!) – and the article featuring Lady God1va looks like a good read too (you can get a few free “zooms” when you try the site out!). Click here to check it out!

Well done Lady God1va, keep up the great work!!

We think this is one of those articles that leads to a lot of eye-rolling – how did we get this way as a society? According to the article:

[Eric] Williamson was making coffee in the buff at 5.30am when a woman and her seven-year-old son walked past his kitchen window in Springfield [Virginia]. The woman then called the police.

Of course she did, this is America – shouldn’t the woman have been a bit more “parent-like”?? The son is seven years old, he’s probably across the whole “we have skin and stuff under these clothes”, so why couldn’t she simply have said said nothing and the kid is none the wiser? Even better, if the boy did say something, a simple laugh off and say “he’ll catch cold if he doesn’t get dressed soon…” would have sufficed.

Makes you wonder if Eric should have the woman charged with looking into his window, surely that’s a breach of his privacy and personal space – in the land of the long expensive litigation, it only seems fair to throw more silliness back over the fence, return volley!!

If you’ve not heard about the “Fourth Plinth” in Trafalgar Square in London, it’s an empty statue plinth that has been used on and off as a place to host temporary art works and exhibitions, usually involving “live” acts. The most recent project titled “One & Other” put 2400 individuals on the plinth, 24×7, for an hour per person over 100 days. The participants could do pretty much whatever they wanted (within reason, and legality, we assume), and the whole project has had its share of fame and controversy.

So, why are we talking about an art project in London on an Australian nudist website? Because there were a number of participants that incorporated nudity as part of their contribution to the project. In a few cases it was purely part of the artistic presentation, but there were 3 clear participants who had nudity as their primary message. The first to go completely nude in the project was Suzanne Kane, who used the opportunity to take calls over Skype and talk to people about naturism. You can read an article she wrote in UK’s “Naturist Life” magazine – Click here. Suzanne was nude and seated for the entire hour we believe, and made the news as the first to go completely nude.

The second person generated a lot of interest – a participant named Simon, who managed to generate some controversy when a member of the public lodged a complaint against a naked male on the plinth – interesting how a naked male results in a complaint!! It would seem we are not alone in that observation, there’s quite a discussion going on regarding the legality of public nudity and complaints in the UK – Click here to read more. Simon was the first to be completely nude and be fully visible on the plinth (we believe), and there has been some commentary that if he was seated nude like Suzanne then perhaps the complaint would not have been made… we’ll never know!

The third participant was one we found particularly interesting – a young IT business owner going by the name of Lady God1va. LadyG decided to use her hour on the plinth to present a positive view of nudism, and how it is normal and natural. She alternated between riding a wooden rocking horse (the “Lady Godiva” aspect of here message – Google it if you are not familiar with the story of Lady Godiva, you young’uns!), walking around the plinth holding up placards with various “nudity is natural” messages, and chatting with the crowd in Trafalgar Square and answering their questions.

We were particularly impressed with LadyG because she presented her message well, handled the “questions” from the crowd with decorum and grace, and overall was a fantastic ambassador for nudists in general!! We want to say well done, and send a high-five your way – the world needs more people with your pragmatic and relaxed approach to nudity as being “completely normal”!

As a side note, we do not believe any complaints were made about Suzanne or LadyG.

If you want to see the hour of LadyG’s footage, here’s the link – Click Here (be aware that 60 mins of footage can take some time to load, it appears like it has hung your browser but just go and make a cup of tea and it should be running by the time you return!!)

Other links you might want to look at:
LadyG’s project blog – http://www.oneandother.co.uk/participants/Lady-Godiva/blog
LadyG’s personal blog – http://ladygod1va.wordpress.com/
Fourth Plinth – http://www.london.gov.uk/fourthplinth/
One & Other – http://www.oneandother.co.uk/