happiness for life

I know this might sound a little weird, but I’ve just completed an eight-week “Happiness for Life” course! It was run by friend Bruce Stanley, who is a “life coach” amongst other things (he also worked in a circus in some former life!) at the rather nice Pierian Centre in Portland Square, Bristol. I first met Bruce through “Foundation” and he is just a wonderfully-gifted and inspiring man (in his low-key, personable way!). Moira had been on a previous course of his and I was persuaded to go along by good friend Gareth - so we’ve been able to compare notes together throughout! I didn’t actually attend on the basis that the course would make me any happier (I felt pretty happy already) but I found it really enjoyable – and the other “punters” were good fun too.
What was really good was that it helped to underline what a good decision it was to retire from my architectural practice when I did (despite the big drop in earnings!) and it also reinforced a number of issues and galvanised me into action on other things.
I’ve discovered lots of new and helpful pointers for living my life to the full (or “goals to develop my happiness”) as well as coming across some great quotes – for example:
“Happiness and a meaningful life come from making differences. But this is the most important rule to follow: always make the differences you can make, not the differences you would prefer to make but can’t”. Lyndon Duke
I’d thoroughly recommend the course and suggest you check out Bruce’s great “Embody” website for more details (it also contains a very good BBC radio interview about the course).

The next course starts in Bristol on 8 October.

big red party

Attended Richard+Sarah’s “big red party” to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary yesterday. It was a very special occasion and made even better because it was held in their new home - some 12 miles from Welshpool in the middle of glorious Welsh countryside (with absolutely stunning views across an incredibly green valley and layers of distant hills!). The setting is wonderful and the house is something of an architectural masterpiece (combining a refurbished/converted cottage, the remains of Listed barn and beautiful, elegant new extensions) and filled with countless pieces of Richard+Sarah’s lovely art, their extensive library of books and their wonderful knack for getting everything to look just “right”.
It was the perfect house a big party and the party was just perfect too!
(and a great opportunity to meet up with old friends).
Photo: as you might guess from the picture, the only party rule was that you had to wear something red!

history of modern britain

If you didn’t watch it the first time round (and, actually even if you did, I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s worth seeing it again), I thoroughly recommend that you check out “Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain” – the first of the five programmes was repeated on BBC2 last night at 8pm. Brilliantly presented and wonderfully informative, it provides a fascinating insight into the changing face of Britain since 1945.

kielder challenge heats

Had a great day yesterday at Ashton Court in Bristol with our Kielder Challenge team. It was one of the regional heats and the Norton Hill/Fosse Way team were really excellent and came out winners (out of five teams) by quite a margin. We now have to await the outcome of the remaining heats before we know if we’ve been fortunate enough to make the finals in the Kielder Forest in September (there are over 300 teams participating nationally and we gather it will be touch-and-go whether we make the final twelve teams).
Fingers crossed (but, whatever the outcome, the pupils did REALLY well today)!
PS: As I’ve probably explained before, the Kielder Challenge is a national annual competition involving outdoor problem-solving activities for teams of eight 13-16 year olds (four with and four without disabilities).

more football fantasy

The football season has ended and Villa have qualified for the Intertoto Cup (I think that means they need to start palying football matches again at the end June or something rather silly like that!).
The fantasy football season has also finished. As I suggested in February, I am now recognised as one of the up-and-coming managers in this particular aspect of the game….
As I previously reported, ten games into the season, I’d slumped to 630,638th in the UK; since then I’ve edged up to a mere 174,270th. I’m in various leagues and actually WON the Norton Hill league at school for example (ok, there are only 4 of us!) and ended up in 3rd place in another league (out of some 25 teams – but pipped by Colin… although, being a vicar, he did have God in his side or at least by his side!).

I can tell you’re still impressed!

Photo: Villa manager Martin O’Neill (who is rumoured to be interested in utilising Steve Broadway’s wisdom, authority and “can-do” attitude at Villa Park next season).

ten tors

Four of the five teams from school completed the gruelling Ten Tors two-day trek across Dartmoor at the weekend in very warm, strength-sapping conditions (the 55 mile team had to stop at Tor 8). Spoke to lots of them at school yesterday and they were rightly elated (and very proud of their achievements). Great to have been part of the event and to have worked with such wonderful young people – but frustrating not to have been there to see them finish!
Just hoping that the arts trail and ten tors don’t clash again next year!

arts trail (again again!)

Yesterday, I mentioned that Cara+Lisa had travelled from Oxford to see the Arts Trail. Well yesterday we were visited by four students from Japan+Korea! They were in London studying English and decided that they wanted to see some “art”. So, they apparently googled “art”, came across the arts trail event and decided to jump on a bus and check it out! Amazing!
Yesterday was another gloriously sunny day and the crowds were definitely out – in each of the previous two years, we reckon we had some 500 people through our door over the weekend and we certainly reckon we matched that by 6pm yesterday (at least).
Now need a day to recover!

arts trail (again!)

Day One of the SouthBank Arts Trail went very well – perhaps not quite the numbers of the previous year, but still pretty good – and, for a change, the weather was sunny and warm. Although I didn’t take any photographs (something to do with impracticalities of holding glasses of red wine and camera at the same time!), Friday evening was really enjoyable – lots of lovely friends came along (70-80 perhaps?) and it especially good to see so many from school (they ARE just brilliant people!). Moira+I even managed to get out and visit a few of the other venues.
There are over 140 artists in 48 venues within a mile-and-a-half radius in Southville+Bedminster!

PS: It was really lovely to see Cara+Lisa - who came all the way from Oxford to see the exhibition! Stars!

ten tors weekend

This is Ten Tors weekend on Dartmoor – the actual event, not the training. Unfortunately, for the second year running, I’m not going to be there to support our various school teams as they make their way across the moor for 35, 45 or 55 miles (with their huge rucksacks!) because it clashes with the SouthBank Arts Trail weekend. I’ve got to know the participating students pretty well over the past few months and have been hugely impressed by their attitude, determination and humour. If anyone wants to criticise the “youth of today”, I’ll introduce you to any of our students and they couldn’t fail to be impressed by them.
Quite humbling stuff and a real privilege to work with them!

southbank arts trail

Still trying to get everything ready for the Arts Trail weekend - for us, it starts tonight! Seems very strange not to have Ruth+Stu involved this time (they're very busy with other things at the moment). Artists featured at number40 will be Sharon Bishop (illustration/ceramics), Helen Brayshhaw (photography), Paul Brown (illustration), Hannah Broadway (illustration+stuff), Moira (textiles) and me (photography+drawing).

Looking forward to seeing old and new friends over the course of the weekend (and hoping that the weather will be kind to us this time!).

bank holiday walk

Moira+I went a lovely walk yesterday with friends Gerry, Gareth+Alan (and their daughters Iona+Eilidh) to Abbots Leigh – skirting Leigh Woods and via Abbots Pool and the Ashton Court Estate. It was good to discover new places right on our doorstep and very good to spend time in the company of lovely friends.
By pure chance, we ended up having a drink in the Tobacco Factory on our way home!
Photo: en route beside Abbots Pool

happy-go-lucky

Moira+I maintained our 2008 commitment to cinema attendance by going to see “Happy-Go-Lucky” at the Watershed yesterday. I thought Mike Leigh’s film was lovely (really enjoyed Sally Hawkins’s performance) and, although she enjoyed it too, Moira found it rather blacker than she had anticipated. The Watershed blurb talks about it balancing “moments of humour and glimpses of melancholy which coalesce into a deeply affecting and joyful celebration of life, happiness, friendship and love”. Think Moira thought I’d have been perfect for the role as the grumpy driving instructor!

What! Who me?

sandy denny

With i-Tunes, I don’t buy many CDs these days, but succumbed to temptation yesterday and bought the “Sandy Denny Remembered” double album for £11 at Fopp (yes, I know I’m re-living my youth). Last week I’d been at an excellent Kate Rusby concert in Bristol with Gareth+Alan and she finished her set by playing the Denny classic “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” (who indeed!). She also reminded the audience that it was 30 years since Denny’s death (which again rather reinforced the song title). I remember seeing Fairport Convention in early 1969 at Oxford Poly’s 24 hour Blues Festival (those were the days) - what I’d forgotten is that Sandy Denny left the group at the end of that year to form Fotheringay.
Wonderful to hear her songs again (listened to nearly 3 hours’ worth while I was painting the basement!).

bohemian rhapsody at lunchtime

At school, our House has been raising funds for charity by holding a two-day “Q Factor” (it’s Quantock House, hence the “Q”) talent show. Yesterday, as a finale to the event, House tutors and other lesser mortals like me formed a supergroup and gave their “live” version of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (after just one "rehearsal"!) – complete with very energetic air guitar sequence - in front of a packed hall of students and teachers. Raised a lot of money and was great fun, but difficult to be taken seriously by students for the rest of the day (and beyond probably!).
Later discovered that a number of pupils had been videoing our performance on their mobiles… we hadn’t anticipated that and now fear it becoming a cult YouTube site!
Photo: Rynagh+Ifi on inflatable/air guitar (Alan’s photo taken at a recent “quiet night out in Bristol” at the end of last term).

tom+ten tors on dartmoor

The weekend saw the final Ten Tors training exercise before the event itself in a fortnight’s time. After the horrendous weather of the previous session, Saturday’s conditions came as a welcome relief (if you can call it “relief” after setting out from school at 4.30am!) and students managed carry their heavy rucksacks across the moor before camping overnight in Princetown. Teacher Tom spent much of Saturday night complaining about his sunburn (as a result, we’ve formed a “Tom Hockaday bad sunburn appreciation society” on facebook)!
We were anticipating rain the following morning and, instead, were engulfed in heavy mist (which meant map bearings were somewhat vital as you often couldn’t see beyond 30m let alone any tors!)…. followed by rain.
The students were brilliant and, given the limited number of teams we can enter, it’s going to be a really difficult task to select the final team members.
Photo: Tom+hat+shorts+sunburn on the moor.

googling everything

After the last Ten Tors training trip to Dartmoor, my waterproofs were completely covered in mud (something to do with trying push James’s minibus out of a sodden field – but that’s all I’m prepared to say!). I duly sponged my waterproofs down but, frankly, they still looked an absolute mess. Moira suggested that I put them in the washing machine. “No,” I said with conviction, “it’ll ruin the waterproofing”.
Moira was clearly not prepared to take such powerful evidence at face value and decided to google “can you wash waterproof gear?”
She was directed to the “GearGuy” website where Miriam of Idaho had asked the same question of her boyfriend (and had been given the same response as mine). Moira was delighted to point out GearGuy’s reply: “Dear Miriam. Your boyfriend is a silly goose…. Of course you can wash waterproof gear… and keeping your gear clean will greatly prolong its life and reduce the risk of a fatal attack of mildew. Keep your gear clean! It’s happier, you’re happier, everyone is happier”.
As you can imagine, this now includes Moira (who still has a somewhat superior smirk on her face)!

revd john "latics" simmons

My mate John has just been made chaplain of Oldham Athletic FC!
It’s great news (he’s a huge fan of the club) and he’ll be perfect for the role. With this sort of influence, it might be worth putting a few bob on the “Latics” for promotion next season!
He’s even appeared on OAFC TV – I tried to upload a video but came up against problems (probably not clever enough). So, instead, you’ll just have to make do with this website link.
Photo: from John’s facebook page (note the halo!)

food for thought

My lovely brother Alan sent me a fascinating e-mail yesterday (in some ways, related to my recent Matthew Taylor blog). It contained lots of thought-provoking stuff (he's been doing lots of reading again!), so I thought I’d post an extract from it here. Hope that’s ok with you Bruv!:
“To reduce burning of fossil fuels, I thought making biofuels was a good alternative, but people are dying/continuing to die because of a global food shortage and food prices have risen 57% in the last year. Grain stocks are at a 25 year low - despite last year’s record grain harvest - 2.1 billion tons. The problem is that only 1.0 billion tons will be used for people’s food; an increasing amount (this year 100 million tons) is being diverted to make biofuels. Amazingly it takes 232 kg of grain to 'fill' a 50 litre car tank with ethanol - enough to feed a child for a year.
However, 760 million tons of grain will be used to feed animals. It’s an inefficient method of food production - it takes 8kg of grain to produce 1kg of beef...2kg to produce 1kg chicken, but consumption of animal flesh - certainly in China, India and the developing world - is seen as a mark of affluence and 'we' are now eating 50% more meat than 50 years ago.
The world cancer research has concluded that animal flesh occupies too big a place in our diet and contributes to cancer and heart disease. Cutting back on meat-eating may have environmental benefits also - the UK's 10 million cows produce more greenhouse gas per day than the average 4x4 on a 33 mile journey (who calculates these things!).
Conclusion? For all the right reasons, reduce your intake of meat. We don't eat that much ourselves...and certainly I'm content to structure our menu for a greater number of vegetarian meals...and perhaps we should go back to the 'old days' of hearty meals with little meat and filling our bellies with more the carbohydrates - Irish stew/Lancashire hotpot etc”.
“food for thought”. “feed the world”, “save the planet”. SPREAD THE WORD.
I’d go along with much of this, especially on health grounds (but there are so many other influencing factors aren’t there!). For us, on environmental grounds, I think it also comes down to trying to shop locally for locally-produced goods (even though it's more expensive) whenever possible.

Alan for Mayor of Birmingham, I say!

golf+ken+alf

Spent last night watching the final round of the US Masters in Oxford with lovely friends Ken+Ian – after playing golf with Ken during the course of the afternoon. It was the first time I’d played since last October (and to think I used to play EVERY week!). This is the longest I’ve gone without playing since I first started golf over 25 years ago and, somewhat amazingly, I ended up scoring only five shots above my 15 handicap (Ken was even better at just one over par)(ok, if you don’t play golf, this will be meaningless!)... and it hardly rained at all!
Photo: just to even up the Ian-Frank look-alike of yesterday, I thought this would be an opportunity to point out the similarities between actor Alfred Molina (Chocolat etc) and Ken.
Uncanny, don’t you think?

ian+frank

Yes, I realise this is somewhat obscure, so apologies in advance!
Later today, I’ll be travelling up to Oxford to play golf with great mate Ken. For reasons I can’t fully explain at this stage (it’s something to do with his belated birthday present!), I was looking at various early photographs of Frank Sinatra (not the ones of him his 80s and wearing a wig!) and, for the first time, became very aware that one of my other great mates Ian (see recent pace bene! blog) was a Frank-look-alike! After Ken+I finish playing golf, we will be getting together with Ian to watch the last round of the US Masters.
Spookie eh?
Photo (just in case you need help) from left to right): Ian, Frank, Ian, Frank, Ian.

son of rambow

Went to see this film yesterday at the Watershed (it was Moira’s suggestion this time!) and thoroughly enjoyed it. Funny, endearing and just the thing for Friday afternoon entertainment in the school holidays for just £3.50 each – can’t be bad! I think this also means that I've stuck to my vague new year's resolution to try to see a film every month....
It’s difficult enough to get the pupils at school wear ties properly at the best of times, but I reckon there might be a new fashion for tying them round their heads from now on!

matthew taylor

Went to a fascinating talk at St Stephen’s, Bristol with Gareth, Alan, Gerry+Moira last night on “The Future is up to us” (the first of a series of talks in the Work+Spirit 2008/9 programme). The speaker was Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the RSA, and the former Chief Advisor on Political Strategy to the Prime Minister and Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research. This recent quote from him gives a flavour:
“The big idea is about how we live our lives in a sustainable way, not just sustainable in terms of the environment, but sustainable in terms of our own sense of well-being and the things that we care about, our families and communities. The big paradox of modern society is that we are more and more affluent, but we do not seem contented or at ease in our modern world. Politicians have not found a way of talking about that. Sooner or later some people or groups will find a way of talking about it and that will be the new terrain of politics."
He talked about what he called the “Social Aspiration Gap” and highlighted three key areas: our relationship to politics (between government, communities+individuals); our own personal impact on the world (learning throughout life/self-sufficiency but with government back-up etc); and the change in the way we relate to other citizens (technology-shrinking world/competing with scarce resources etc).
Much too much to include in this blog, but I understand that a transcript and podcast of the talk will be available on here in due course.
Really fascinating and challenging stuff!
PS: Matthew Taylor’s blog makes interesting reading too.

pace bene!

These are the words of a Franciscan blessing which means ‘peace and well-being’.
This is also the name of Ian Adams’s new website. As some of you will know, as well as being a great friend and hero of mine, Ian is the abbott of mayBe – an emerging church community in Oxford – and is currently spending much of his time working with and encouraging individuals and other similar church communities in the UK and beyond.
Pace bene! provides the gathering place for the various projects he’s involved in, each of which is dedicated to bringing about, in some way, peace and well-being in our local and global world. Not only does the website look wonderful (no surprises there if you’re familiar with other things Ian does), but it’s also going to provide encouragement and resources (eg. “Morning Bell”) for those travelling along similar paths.
Check it out, I think it’s just brilliant!

1968

There seems to be an awful lot of talk about 1968 at the moment (see this Radio 4 link) - Paris riots; Martin Luther King; Vietnam; Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech; Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia; Robert Kennedy etc. A key memory for me (I started at School of Architecture in Oxford in September 1967) included this:
During the second year of my course, we were due to make a study trip abroad but in May 1968 (when I was still in my first year), a group of second year architectural students had gone to Paris… and got themselves arrested! The authorities at College were so appalled that they cancelled our international study trip for the following year and, instead, sent us to Pontin’s Holiday Camp at Southport (this is absolutely true, I swear!). The good news was that we were so well behaved(!), that they reintroduced the international study tour the following year (ie. we missed out completely) and sent that year’s students to Athens!
I bet this doesn’t make the BBC archives!
PS: of course, the REALLY concerning fact is that it’s over 40 years since I started at College!!

arts trail postcards

To save money this year, I decided to order postcard invites for our forthcoming exhibition from VistaPrint instead of our usual, very efficient Post Card Company.
Well, the invites duly arrived this morning but, instead of printing the 4”x6” image in the required “portrait” format, they’ve pathetically printed them as “landscape” – which means I have a very small invite and lots of surrounding white space! Even if I’d inadvertently ticked the wrong box (and I don’t think I did), you’d have thought that someone in Quality Control might have picked this up – it’s SO obviously wrong? I’ve sent off a complaining e-mail but don’t suppose it will help (and, anyway, we need the invites NOW). I’ll end up trimming every invite. Aaaaaaaaaargh!!
It’s just possible that we’ll set a trend for very small invitation cards?

family

Family+friends are the most important things in my life. There are times when I probably take them for granted (but hopefully not too often!). We’ve just returned from a few days away with Alice+Dave+Mikey+Dan in Lancashire. Living so far away, we obviously don’t get to be with them as much as we’d like, but it was lovely to see them developing as a family and dealing with stuff with huge amounts of confidence.
It reminded us of our own lives bringing up a young family some thirty plus years ago (but I don’t remember us coping quite as well!).

photos: Mikey+Dan+Moira

don’t do this at home

Didn’t have time to scribble a note about this before we left for Lancashire…. Iris came round to “play” on Saturday morning and, as usual, this resulted in lots of giggling and general hilarity. At one point, I found myself using the kitchen units like parallel bars and swinging my legs to+fro – much to Iris’s amusement. It was all very impressive grandfatherly stuff until I swung a little too high and ended up falling with an almighty crash on the floor! As you can imagine, Iris was somewhat concerned by this (and I initially thought I’d broken my back!!) so, despite being hurt, winded and bruised, granddad had to put on a brave face and get up off the floor (very slowly!) smiling and joking, as you do!
As they say, it only hurts when I laugh!

kielder again (+fire alarms)

Great to get together with Laura, James and the Kielder Challenge pupils yesterday for another training session. We spent the afternoon on the ropes course at Chew Valley School. It was brilliant (and quite humbling) to see the students co-operating and getting on so well together. Back at school, I was apparently sorely missed when the fire alarm went off and wasn’t around to help tick off tutor lists+help organise stuff (sad isn’t it?).
Indispensable (almost)!
Photo: we also gave Laura a bottle of champagne to celebrate her forthcoming marriage. Have a lovely day on the 12th Laura!

school loos

You’ll be fascinated (and slightly appalled) to learn that the boys’ loos in our House Block at school were in a pretty awful state – but I’ll spare you the unsavory details. I received a phone call from our Headteacher on Friday. He wanted to mark the completion of the refurbishment work with an official opening ceremony+asked me to invite a few students from our House Council to participate in this memorable occasion (he would arrange for a photographer from the local newspaper to be there too - REALLY!). Amid scenes of high emotion, you'll be delighted to learn that the boys' loos were indeed officially declared “open” yesterday afternoon - with a total of 13 people cramming themselves into the tiny executive facilities to witness the event. I'll resist the temptation to describe it as a "moving experience" (well almost).
They hope to start work on the girls' loos later in the week.... and there's talk of this being made into a movie.
Photo: I couldn’t resist smuggling in my camera (as you can see, they even allowed girls in the boys’ loos too!)

PS: this is NOT an April Fool's joke!

ooops!

Saw this on a car in Okehampton over the weekend.
Clearly, someone had bashed into the front wing of this person’s vehicle (presumably without owning up)…. so, instead of getting it repaired, he/she decided to send a message to the culprit!

ten tors training on dartmoor

Set out at 4.30am yesterday on (what was supposed to be) a two-day training exercise on Dartmoor with 15-17 year olds. In the event, things had to be abandoned due to very heavy rain+40mph winds. We had 7 teams from school participating and one of our 45mile teams had to be airlifted off the moor (everyone fine and no one injured). Over 1,000 students were on the moor yesterday – thankfully, all were taken off the moor safely (with only a few minor injuries).
Arrived back home sometime after 11pm (after a very long and somewhat eventful day)!
note: the tors are high granite outcrops and the students have to navigate themselves from tor-to-tor across the moor for 35, 45 or 55 miles over 2 days (often over very rough terrain), carrying over 30lb rucksacks and camping out on the moor overnight – so not just a gentle weekend stroll! Having walked to Beardown Tor to man one of the checkpoints, I can vouch for the difficult conditions!

Photo: minibuses waiting at one of the collection points to get students off the moor (taken through the windscreen!) – you should have been able to see a large mass of high ground plus one of the tors in the background, but visibility was rather poor!

golf tour

On the first day he started at school as a tiny Year 7, eighteen months or so ago, this young man (it would be wrong to mention him by name) spent quite a lot of time in floods of tears in my office. In time, he did settle into his new life in the BigSchool (and, in the process, clocked up the highest number of merits in the school by the end of the year!). In those early days, I also discovered that he was “quite good” at golf and joked that I would stop talking to him once he had a better handicap than me (he’s now achieved this – 13 to my 15, but we still talk!). At that time, I also crucially got him to pledge 10% of any earnings he made at golf to me! I learnt yesterday that he’d won the four golf competitions he’d entered over the Easter period and, as a result, had been asked to play in the first round of the Junior Welsh Open!
He could be the next Tiger! What’s 10% of £billion?

PS: I received a text message from great mate Ken last night saying he’d arrived at West Runton (4 day golf tour with 20+ mates that I attended for more than 20 consecutive years). School commitments (and funds) now prevent me from being there – but I’m with them in spirit! I blogged about it last year too!

laura marling

In January, my lovely brother Alan sent me a YouTube video of Laura Marling singing “New Romantic”. I’d never heard of her. Her music is unusual and quirky. I saw her on the BBC’s “Culture Show” a couple of weeks or so ago. I was still impressed. I’ve been listening to more of her music since then and think she’s going to feature regularly on my i-Pod from now on.
Click here to watch the video and see what you think (I think it’s brilliant!)?

easter

Like good friend Gareth, I’ve also been watching “The Passion” on BBC tv. Like her, I’ve been a little disappointed so far (the final episode is this evening). She refers in her recent blog to other versions of the Easter story: I too was very impressed by the BBC’s “Manchester Passion” but have still to see Scorcese’s “Last Temptation of Christ”. However, I did watch Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” again on Good Friday. Powerful, brutal film and the all the better for the lack of American and English (or Irish, if you’ve seen the BBC’s latest version!) accents - authentic Aramaic and Latin employed. I know it’s been heavily criticised in the past (accusations of anti-Semitism; excessive use of violence etc), but I still found it an impressive, if rather bloody, reminder of the Easter story.

orchid+mantelpiece+card

Moira received a birthday card a couple of weeks ago from relatives in Australia. Although the photograph here is rather small, you might be able to make out the card – of an orchid on a mantelpiece. The strange thing is that we too have an orchid (nothing particularly unusual in that!) and a mantelpiece that is almost identical to the one on the card (and our Australian relatives would certainly not have known that)!
I couldn’t resist taking a photograph!
PS: if you’re on facebook, you could see a larger version by clicking here

red elastic bands

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting more and more cheesed off seeing red elastic bands scattered at various points up and down our street (and adjoining roads!). They are clearly being deposited by our postman (who, in all other respects is fine!) - perhaps it’s some kind of insurance against them getting lost en route…. “if you get lost, just re-trace your path by following the red elastic bands”?
Here in Southville, the average seems to be roughly one elastic band every 30 metres.
My understanding is that people can be fined £50 for dropping litter…. well, on that basis, this could cost Royal Mail a small fortune in fines!! It’s tempting to shop them to the police/Local Council but, of course, this isn’t going to happen because it will either result in increased postage charges or to privatisation (which is the last thing I want).
Please Mr Postman, don’t drop litter…. recycle your red elastic bands!

flight of the red balloon

Moira was at her book group last night, so I decided to go the Watershed to see “Flight of the Red Balloon” (somewhat amazingly I managed to make the 5.50pm screening!). The Film4 review reckoned that the film would, “depending on your disposition, either quietly enchant you or bore you senseless”! Beautifully crafted (atmosphere rather than plot) and brilliantly acted (Juliette Binoche is stunningly good).
I wasn’t exactly enchanted, but it was good way to drift into the weekend.

southbank bristol arts trail

The next southbank arts trail is 10+11 May (plus 9 May when lots of us simply get together to drink red wine surrounded by art!). This will be the fifth year we’ve opened our basement as a gallery and I have to admit that we (well ok, me!) have been really disorganised this time round - we've just made the deadline for submitting material and agreed who's exhibiting!

Featured artists will be: Sharon Bishop (ceramics/illustration); Paul Brown (also known as Mister Brown to his friends)(illustration); Helen Brayshaw (photography/cards); Moira (textiles); Hannah (illustration) and me (photography and drawings, if I get my act together!). Ruth+Stu have decided to opt out on this time round.
Photo: swimmer 2007 (which we’re using as the venue image for the arts trail brochure)

autographs

I came across my old autograph book last weekend – containing football autographs of Division One team players from 1957-1958 (yes, I know…). Lots of famous names including those shown above: Billy Wright, Tom Finney, Stanley Matthews, Jimmy Greaves and Peter McParland (who scored Villa’s winning goal in the FA Cup final that year – the last time they won it!).
PS: clearly, I’m prepared to listen to offers in excess of £10,000 (some 16 teams - but sadly not ManU - plus Miss Jones, my junior school teacher!).

kielder challenge

We started “training” for this year’s Kielder Challenge event yesterday. I absolutely love it!
We’d selected four pupils from our school and Laura+I took them to meet their team mates from Fosseway School for the first time (pupils with severe learning difficulties or physical disabilities). They spent the afternoon getting to know each other. It was a lovely, humbling and happy time – with lots of laughter. At one point, I asked people to introduce themselves and tell everyone one thing about themselves. Troy (a tiny Year 7 pupil from Fosseway) decided that the special thing about him was that he could “talk for England” – which clearly brought the house down. Rather beautifully, Charlotte, from our school, then told everyone she really liked drama… and then addressed herself to Troy and said “and I can talk for England…. AND France”!
A very special moment and I just wanted to hug her for it!

photo: Laura's group picture of Dean, Josh, Jaz, Hannah, Troy, Charlotte, Frazer+Charlotte

foundation again

The wonderful Bruce Stanley has posted some lovely words and images of last week’s Foundation little/medium service on his embody website. They include photographs (see above) of some of the wine label drawings or words contributed by those attending the service - all done completely “off the cuff” in a matter of less than 5 minutes.
I think they’re rather beautiful.
PS: you really must sign up for Bruce’s “Happiness for Life” 8 week course starting in Bristol on 2 April (see this link).

foundation

Excellent “medium” service at foundation last night. It included watching clips from the film “Babette’s Feast”, eating, drinking and passing empty wine bottles to each other!
No, it really was very good!
Photo: empty wine bottles, blank labels and night lights.

eastville park

We’ve had good friends Felicity+Chris (and their dog!) staying with us over the weekend and seem to have spent a huge amount of the time since Friday evening consuming food and drinking red wine and whisky! Fortunately, we took the opportunity of yesterday’s sunshine to get in a 5 mile walk. As so often happens with us when we have visitors, we ended up seeing parts of Bristol we’ve never previously experienced! We walked beside the River Frome - through Eastville Park and on to the Oldbury Court Estate – after Moira had recently come across an article in a “City Walks” supplement.
It was lovely!

oriel glass

On our way home from Oxford on Sunday afternoon, we passed a new building on Victoria Street in Bristol. In the reception area, there’s a stunning piece of contemporary glass by Stuart Low (see this oriel glass link)(yes, the bloke married to our daughter Ruth!). There was a security guard on duty, but I managed to blag my way in to take some photographs. Here’s one of them (the piece itself must 6m high?). I probably need the permission from the building owners and Stu to post this image on my blog, but hey (sorry)!
I think it’s just beautiful!

oxford

Enjoyed a really lovely, relaxing weekend in Oxford with great friends Gail+Ian and Ken+Debby. Chilled out over food+wine on Friday evening. Revisited old haunts in the city during the course of Saturday morning before all getting together for lunch at Chez Gerard (part of the Gail+Steve on-going birthday festival celebrations – which even incorporated Moira’s birthday next month too!); then relaxing at Ken+Debby’s new canal-side apartment in Jericho; before returning to Gail+Ian’s to watch England beat France in the rugby! Got together with the mayBe crowd yesterday morning in University Parks and then on to Manos for coffee and a snack before returning home to Bristol.
Back to school today though for the start of a new term (roll on Easter)!

….and chilling at the seaside

After a few hours in Bath early on Monday, I drove to the coast and enjoyed a couple of hours in Clevedon. The sun was shining, there were hardly people around (apart from a few toddlers throwing stones on the “beach”) and the pier looked rather beautiful…. and I got back to Bristol in time for lunch!
Photo: images from the pier

virgin media

For the past few days, we’ve had intermittent loss of our e-mails and it’s fast becoming a joke (but I’m not laughing!). We now get a situation when, if we’re getting any e-mails at all, sometimes Moira gets my e-mails. The good news is that, according to the hotline (it apparently applies to all “blueyonder” addresses), their chaps have identified the problem…..
A week or so ago, I made a comment on my facebook site to the effect that the words “virgin media” and “internet provider” should never be used in the same sentence. This came on the back of several days when we kept on experiencing problems with our broadband connection and spent several hours over the course of a few days with no connection whatsoever. It was SO frustrating!!
All of this makes Virgin Media’s recent high-profile national advertisements (full page ads in daily newspapers etc) for their high-speed broadband rather difficult to take! “Really, it makes the internet work the way it should. The way you’ve always wanted it to”. It seems that Virgin Media will provide us with fast broadband (and e-mails)…. but only when it suits them (and, at the moment, that’s not very often).
No doubt we’ll be getting an e-mail from them soon, apologising for their appalling service and telling us that, in compensation, they’re waving their charges for the next three months (don’t hold your breath!).

chilling in bath (literally)

The weather forecast was for another beautiful day, so I decided to get up very early yesterday and drive to Bath with my camera. Arrived well before 7am and enjoyed walking the deserted streets. It was incredibly cold though (the car thermometer had read minus 5 at one stage on the journey!) and I didn’t actually see much sun before perhaps 9am. I ended up in a coffee shop to warm myself up, before further exploring in the sunshine!
I had a lovely time. It’s a beautiful city.
I then decided to drive to the seaside (well, Clevedon)!
Perhaps I’ll post some more stuff tomorrow….
Photos: bathtime images

dream team

In the past, I’ve often talked about people making it into my “dream team”. People I’ve admired; people who have fascinated, entertained or stimulated me; or perhaps those who just seem to be lovely, interesting, compassionate people. I can’t remember the origins of this – perhaps an extension of the “fantasy dinner guests” idea? – but that’s of no consequence (and I’d hate to get them ALL together around a dining table at the same time!).
As Moira will tell you, I’m no gardener (although I am someone who enjoys lounging in gardens!) but, having watched the latest programme in the “Around the World in 80 Gardens” series, I decided that Monty Don was definitely someone who might make my dream team – he just seems like a really good bloke!
I then tried to remember names who I’d pencilled into my eleven - and couldn't (for some reason, it used to be 11 and it couldn’t include friends or family members).
How about the following 14 (allowing for substitutes these days!): Jon Snow, Tony Robinson, Monty Don, Billy Connolly, Jane Garvey, Desmond Tutu, Billy Bragg, Fi Glover, Stephen Fry, Twiggy, David Attenborough, Verity Sharp, Thom Yorke and Tony Benn?

The trouble is: I could come up with a completely different list tomorrow (just like with music)!

football fantasy

I last mentioned my fantasy football team back in October.
At the time things were going from bad to worse.
Since then, I’ve become an astute manager – a bit of a wheeler-dealer in the transfer market; in fact, something of a gambler (but with maturity+wisdom, obviously). Although it pains for me to say this, I made the bold decision to sell some decent players and buy Ronaldo from ManU (I told you it pained me!); it cost me some crucial points, but I decided that it was all about long-term gain.
Ten games into the season, I’d slumped to 630,638th in the UK; since then I’ve edged up to a mere 222,538th. I’m in various leagues (gosh, you must be really fascinated by all of this!): I’m in 2nd place in the Norton Hill league for example (but there are only 4 of us!) – but only 23 points behind the wonderful Miles – and I’ve just discovered I’m also in 2nd place in the EK Global League (out of some 29 teams – and ahead of such mighty managers as Colin and Glenn!). Not bad, eh?
I can tell you’re impressed.
Think I might stop here!