who the hell do you think you are?

Moira+I were discussing family history with Bob+Christine over the weekend and saying we were somewhat envious of all these celebrities being able to call upon the services of the BBC’s researchers on the “Who Do You Think You Are?” programme - who help dig up the really interesting bits that we would find almost impossible to discover. Given that they have programmes such as “Masterchef” and “Celebrity Masterchef”, we felt there was an opportunity for a non-celebrity version of the WDYTYA series featuring ordinary people like us! We’ll obviously be writing to the BBC very soon with this brainwave of an idea; we’ve even come up with a title for non-celebrity version: “Who The Hell Do You Think You Are?”.
You read about it here first!

university challenge and the sun newspaper

Watched the final of University Challenge this evening and, after watching the programme over recent weeks, wasn’t at all surprised that Corpus Christi College, Oxford won. In previous rounds, their captain Gail Trimble had been outstanding but seemed strangely nervous in the final until the last few minutes when she seemed to come into her own (which was good for the other team members, as it demonstrated that they were pretty bright too!). I’ve been amused by the attention that she seems to have attracted; Moira read out extracts from an article in yesterday’s Observer which included the following quote from someone’s blog: "Not for some time have I been so angry at a complete stranger as I was with this Trimble character. Each answer was met with a smug grin or a cocky smirk. My normally placid girlfriend ended half-poetically seething: 'Not a friend did she own at school', before physically turning her back on the screen so she didn't have to bear this odious little smug specimen."
When I googled Trimble’s name, I came across a wonderful(?) “report” in the “Sun” newspaper essentially claiming that, although she’d been hailed as the brainiest woman in Britain, the Sun’s pub quiz questions had caught her out! She apparently DIDN’T know who had won the Brit Award for Best Female or the name of the 13 year-old father who’d featured in the Sun last week or who had won the most recent series of “Big Brother” or even the name of the Chelsea football manager!

Thank goodness for the Sun newspaper some say (not sure whether to laugh or cry)!
Photo: extract from the Observer’s team picture (which actually only showed three of the four team members for some reason).

thame weekend

Moira+I spent a great weekend with lovely old friends Bob+Christine in Thame (where we used to live before moving to Bristol). The weather was ideal (sunny+mild) and on Saturday we had a wonderful walk through the woods skirting Swincombe village before “retiring” to the Five Horseshoes pub (Maidengrove, near Henley-on-Thames) for an excellent lunch. We had a very relaxing time – and spent the entire time just eating, drinking and talking. Went along to one of the services at our old church (St Mary’s, Thame) this morning and it was lovely to meet up with so many old friends. We felt very humbled by the amazing welcome we received. We’ve known Bob+Christine for nearly 35 years (from our days when we all lived in East Oxford and subsequently followed them to Thame) and, although we hadn’t got together for nearly two years, it was as though we’d never spent much time apart.
Bob+Christine are very special people and very special friends.
Photo: Christine+Moira+Bob on the woodland walk.

golfing in sunshine (again)

Had a really great day with Steve+Ken on Friday (golfing at Studley Wood, Oxford). The sun shone and we all played well, despite not having played for ages. I’ve been on a bit of a winning streak over the past year or so when we’ve occasionally managed to organise the odd game together…. but NOT this time! Ken, despite not having played for 5 months, went round in a gross score of just 76 (three over par). We let him play off a handicap of 8 (were we stupid or what?), which effectively meant his score was 5 under par. Needless to say, Steve+I had to be content for battling it out for second place (we drew!).
Can’t wait to play Ken again - on his adjusted NEW handicap!
Photo: Ken+Steve during a break in play on the 7th.

three colours white

I continued my cinematic education this afternoon by watching part two of Kieslowski's trilogy “Three Colours White” on DVD (part one “Blue” is definitely one of my all time favourite films and I’ve yet to see “Red”). The film originally came out in 1993!
Although not quite in the same class as “Blue”, I really enjoyed it. I was struck by the greyness of its setting (by and large) and also surprised by the fact that it was a droll, almost cruel, black comedy (apparently it’s the light relief of the Trilogy). The main character Karol (played by Zbignieu Zamachowski) is a Polish hairdresser; his French wife Dominique (Julie Delpy) divorces him after six months of unconsummated marriage in Paris and the rest of the film is essentially about him plotting to win her back.
I’ve just looked up the Film Four Review and it reckons that the last few seconds of the film - in which the two leads conduct a sign language conversation across a prison yard (if the film wasn’t 16 years old, I’d be really nervous about giving anything away!) - is a “transcendent moment of modern cinema”. Although I think the scene is quite touching, I’m not sure I quite agree with Film Four’s assessment. However, with my somewhat limited experience as a cinema-goer/film-watcher, you will appreciate that I’m no Mark Kermode!

vicky cristina barcelona

Went to the Watershed with the lovely Ithaca crowd yesterday to see Woody Allen’s latest film “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”. The first line of the Watershed’s blurb describes the film thus: “Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson burn up the screen in this sexy black comedy of impulsive romance set against the vibrant colours and rhythms of Barcelona”. Whilst, in many ways, this encapsulates the film it fails to point to what, for me, was the heart of the movie – namely the straight-laced Cristina character (Rebecca Hall), who effectively plays the “Allen part” with her self-questioning uncertainty…. hovering between passion+restraint and desire+duty. It’s an engaging film, not much more than that for me – although it did evoke very fond memories of our trip to Barcelona some ten years ago.

Perhaps it’s time we returned!

kielder challenge begins again

This is the time of year when Laura+I start working with a few pupils at school for this year’s Kielder Challenge event. When I first became involved, three years ago, we were virtually “given” our team of four pupils. Now, perhaps due to its higher profile within school, competition for places is extremely keen - we had an initial shortlist of some twenty names. The criteria for getting on to the shortlist are pretty wide-ranging. They DON’T necessarily mean that we’re looking for the brightest students academically – sometimes we end up working with pupils who perhaps lack self-confidence or self-esteem or with a history of behavioural issues. The selection process consisted of interviewing the students individually and then putting them through some typical problem-solving tasks (they will actually be working our pupils from Fosseway School with severe learning difficulties or physical disabilities).
The final eight students proved to be a really lovely bunch…. I feel sure they’re going to provide us with lots of laughter over the coming months!
Photo: the final team plus four reserves (Rikki, Sean, Aimee, Laura, Jasmine, Jack, Ben and Beth).

traffic chaos

Normally, the journey to and from school is unremarkable (boring, but unremarkable).
Today was somewhat different. It was my turn to drive Andy and Pete into work. As usual, we set out at 7am. The journey normally takes us about 35 minutes.
This morning it took us just over two and a half hours!
It transpired that there was a queue of lorries (and cars) lined up on the southbound A37 between Pensford and Whitchurch after drivers had decided that conditions on Husley Hill were too dangerous due to the icy road conditions (an 18 tonne lorry had apparently hit a milk tanker and was straddling the road; this was followed by a motorcyclist coming off his bike because he hadn’t realised he was on sheet ice). The ironic thing was that we were the first of the Bristol teachers on the road (and duly phoned other teachers to warn them) but were the last to arrive at school. As we hadn’t moved for over 20 minutes, we decided to turn round and seek an alternative route, like so many others, and found ourselves in huge queues of other frustrated drivers!
On the way home, we came across an overturned van in the middle of the A362 in Paulton (not the one shown in the photograph!)…. no one appeared to be injured, but it was almost surreal seeing this overturned vehicle EXACTLY in the middle of the road straddling the white line perfectly and pointing towards us as if it had been carefully positioned there by a crane.
Hopefully, tomorrow will be a quieter day (Pete’s driving!).

another snowday!

Woke up about 3am and peered out the bedroom window to discover a magical white world. Somewhat bizarrely (I WAS awake I hasten to add!), three hours later I found myself standing in the middle of our street in almost childlike wonder and surrounded by complete silence apart from the beautiful sound of my feet padding about in the virgin snow. We’d had two or three inches of snow overnight and so it wasn’t a great surprise to find that the school was closed and that we’d got our second snowday of the week!
Strange to think that, in my former self-employed, architectural life, I would have been in the office as usual by 6.30-7.00am on such days (having travelled in the long way round to avoid the hills) and ready for a full day’s work. The great thing about school snowdays is that I feel completely guiltless and it’s a lovely feeling!
Photo: figures in the snow at Greville Smyth Park.

snowday/birthday

This is my fourth year working at Norton Hill. Before today, we’ve had only one “special circumstances” day off – a wind day when high winds were blowing ridge tiles some 50m across the playground and were clearly a risk to life and limb. You’re only 60 once in your life and the odds on you being allowed a “special day” off school are clearly incredibly rare. So yesterday’s official “snow day” came as both a surprise and a huge bonus, Through a flurry of text messages, an impromptu lunchtime get-together was arranged in the Watershed (attended by about a dozen or so); the sun shone; and I had an absolutely perfect 60th birthday. The downside was that Moira tripped and fell on the way to the Watershed and decided to return home to a hot bath instead. After about one-and-a-half glasses of red(?), I duly returned home with Iris and sat down with Hannah+Felix+Ruth+Stu+Iris+Moira to consume yet more lovely birthday grub.
Photo: some of the non-teaching Watershed lunchtime crowd (plus Hannah+Iris).

birthday bash

I was “persuaded” by other family members that I needed to have a party to celebrate my 60th birthday. I have to admit that I felt very uncomfortable by the prospect and, having reluctantly agreed to it, really just wanted to get the whole thing over and done with.
In the event, of course, I had a lovely time (I even had my first ever helium birthday balloon!)(thanks Heather!) and it was great to see so many familiar faces – many of whom had travelled quite lengthy distances. Moira+Ruth+Hannah did a brilliant job sorting out wonderful food, flowers and stuff….. and the birthday festival will continue when Alice comes down to Bristol in about three weeks time!
Photo: Rookery Road Junior School football team, season 1959-1960 (I’m the one sitting in the middle with the ball) - the photograph was used for the party invitation…. sorry, I didn’t take any photographs of the party itself – probably a wise move!
PS: Chris+Lal gave me a CD they’d compiled of music from 1949 and, somewhat frighteningly, I can remember over half of them!
PPS: in order to keep numbers down, it was a shame not to have been able to invite any of my lovely school friends to this prestigious occasion…. although we might just drink the odd glass together at tomorrow night’s the Bristol Self-Help Group meeting!

PPPS: didn't realise until today that Buddy Holly died on my 10th birthday!

john martyn 1948-2009

John Martyn died on 29 January, aged 60. Although I’d come across his music over the years, it wasn’t really until a couple of summers ago, when lovely friend and illustrator Si Smith told me that Martyn’s “Small Hours” was probably his favourite single piece of music, that I really started to appreciate John Martyn’s amazing repertoire of work. “Solid Air” is regarded as one of the classic albums (I’ve seen it described as “the musical equivalent of a reassuring hug”!); the title was apparently dedicated to his friend Nick Drake, who died shortly after the album was completed.
Click on this link to watch him performing “Small Hours” at Reading University in October 1978.

“sorry, I haven’t got anything smaller…”

Amused, but also very depressed, by this image of a trillion dollar Zimbabwean bank note (yes, trillion!) which was introduced a couple of weeks ago (this one is obviously a spoof, but…!) – a real one is worth about £20 on the black market. As of yesterday, Zimbabweans are being allowed to conduct business in other currencies, alongside the Zimbabwean dollar, in an effort to stem the country’s runaway inflation. It now appears that the real inflation rate has actually exploded beyond calculation but, back in November 2008, the inflation rate was judged to be 13.2 billion per cent a month (or just 516,000,000,000,000,000,000 per cent a year or, if you’d prefer, 516 quintillion per cent)!
The moral of this tale is presumably: “don’t put your Z$ trillion note under your mattress - because it might not be worth anything by the morning”?

burns supper

Our lovely Scottish friends Alan+Gareth (Gareth was actually born in India but her parents were Scots!) invited Merry-Carol+Gerry+Moira+I round for a wonderful meal to celebrate RB’s 250th birthday last night. We had the whole works: cock-a-leekie-soup, “haggis warm reeking, rich wi’ champit tatties and mashed neeps” and cranachan plus the Selkirk grace, some poems (fortunately, we didn’t do speeches!) and the odd glass of whisky!
Pity today is Monday and a school day!
PS: Had a lovely weekend in Oxford with our old friends John+Caroline. Even managed to attend a presentation on building plans for their church in Summertown (and realised that I’d been a member of the original building committee – some 35 years ago! Blimey!).

obama

Really moved by yesterday’s inaugural speech by President Obama.

A measured speech, but containing some inspirational and yet quite humble assertions.
Somehow, at this time of enormous global challenges, the time seems absolutely right for a charismatic world leader to emerge who can provide people with hope and inspiration. Whether or not he “succeeds” is another matter but, for this moment, I feel reinvigorated with a fresh heart and a very real sense that we WILL be able to overcome the obstacles before us if we all pull together.
Strangely, having watched “Slumdog Millionaire” at the weekend, I’m feeling wonderfully energised with hope, inspiration and the resilience of the human spirit!
Ridiculously naive? Maybe, but don’t knock it!

PS: I think Messrs Brown, Cameron and Clegg may be feeling somewhat daunted by it all!

message to a nation....

“Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated.
Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.
The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men”.
Extract from Franklin D Roosevelt’s inaugural speech on 4 March 1933 (nearly 76 years ago!)
Sounds familiar?
PS: Today is Martin Luther King Day in the States (born 80 years ago today)…. if ever there was a time we needed to dream, this is it!

1,000 must-read novels

This weekend’s Observer+Guardian newspapers included the first two supplements (of seven) entitled “1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read”. If one assumes (perhaps somewhat optimistically!) a reading life of say 70 years, this amounts to reading nearly 15 novels a year. Frankly, I’m not going to make my 1,000. Although I can read up to five books on a fortnight’s holiday, my current annual average is about a measly three or four. Moira, on the other hand, is on her fifth book of the year already!
PS: I checked out the newspapers at the Watershed while Moira was buying drinks yesterday and, somewhat bizarrely, came across the “Daily Telegraph Review” which featured “100 Novels Everyone Should Read”. How embarrassing! A spy in the camp perhaps?

slum dog millionaire and fire alarms

Gareth+Alan+Moira+I went to the Watershed again this afternoon to see Danny Boyle’s wonderful “Slum Dog Millionaire”. Just brilliant! Some pretty harrowing bits, but also some amazing (sometimes pretty sordid) colourful images of India.
Incredibly, the fire alarm went off about ten seconds before the final kiss (listen, I’m not giving anything away here – afterall, the publicity blurb talks about it being the “feel-good film of the decade”!). At the time, we didn’t actually know it was quite so close to the end and so we all had to exit the cinema (in an orderly fashion of course!). After all the suspense of the film, the fire alarm interruption was somewhat surreal. Most people re-entered the cinema after the “all clear” – by which time the audience seemed to have inherited a great sense of camaraderie (“we’ve been through this experience together chaps”) and immediately burst into applause when the final kiss was eventually planted! Actually, there’s a great dance sequence on the platform of the railway station at the end, so we were very pleased to have stayed on for that.
Lovely film - definitely a “must see”!

there’s a recession on….

Thought this extract from an article by Liz Ford in last Saturday’s “Guardian” (“Work” supplement) was pretty pertinent:
“Students who expect a career in investment banking to bring untold riches may be in for a rude awakening. A survey of students around Europe applying for graduate trainee schemes this year, conducted by UK-based global financial careers website, eFinancialCareers, found that more than a third of British applicants believe they will be earning more than £90,000 five years after graduation, compared with 14% in France and just 3% in Italy. The majority also believe they will land a job straight after graduation. We feel duty bound to remind students that around 30 applications are received for every one available job and, unless you have friends in high places, it could be a long time before you hit the magic £90K – there’s a recession on.”

brian eno’s singing manifesto

In this week’s “Something Understood” on Radio4 (introduced by “The Kitchen Sisters”?), I was amused and intrigued by a brief clip from Brian Eno (iconic “artist, musician, idealogue and systems-maker”) on the virtues of singing:
“I believe that singing is the key to long life, a good figure, a stable temperament, increased intelligence, new friends, increased self-confidence, heightened sexual attractiveness and a better sense of humour”. No wonder I can’t sing!
He also maintained that, in a recent Scandinavian survey, three factors stood out as being crucial for a happy and healthy old age: “camping, dancing and singing”.
So, there you have it…..

motivation

Sorry – another posting on education!
I spend some of my time at school sitting down with individual pupils - listening to their problems and, when appropriate, offering advice. This is a particularly important time for Year 11 pupils. With only some 15 school weeks before they sit their GCSE examinations, this often means trying to motivate students (particularly boys!) to get off their backsides and to start focussing on their impending exams. I’m finding it particularly difficult this year with one boy (with whom I actually have a very good relationship). He’s very bright, articulate and incredibly lazy! He really doesn’t like school (although he reckons he wouldn’t turn up his nose to one-to-one tuition in all his subjects!). His mock exam results were well below his target grades and he says he just can’t be motivated to do any work. He reckons he’s “always managed to turn things round at the very last minute” and that he needs this sense of danger/potential failure to push him into action. I’m left feeling incredibly frustrated by my inability to motivate him to modify his thinking and, as a result, am left with a huge sense of my own inadequacy and “lack of tools” to deal with this pupil.
At the end of the day, I know he’ll be absolutely fine, but that doesn’t help ME right now!
PS: He had one of his Science module exams on Monday and, somewhat proudly, told to me that he’d actually done some revision over the weekend!

losers?

I’ve been thinking quite a lot recently about a particular Year 11 boy at school. He’s being sensitively mentored by another teacher. He’s intelligent and capable of going to study at university and gaining an excellent degree in whatever subject he chose. The trouble is that he is adamant that education is pointless. Why should he achieve good results in his GCSEs and/or his A Levels? Why can’t he just be left to muddle along in his own sweet way? He has no desire to travel the world (or even leave Somerset!). He has no ambitions other than to rid himself of people constantly nagging him to push himself. It’s all very sad and he’ll no doubt look back in five years’ time and accept that his current views are somewhat ridiculous.
Having said that, the implications of the global credit crunch could yet make us all change our thinking. Parents, teachers and politicians have constantly been telling young people that a university education was the key to getting a good job. Unfortunately for today’s graduates, the world is no longer their oyster. In the words of the excellent article by Patrick Barkham and Polly Curtis in Saturday’s “Guardian”, they’ve been “floored by the sucker punch of recession”. The article highlights demoralised graduates unable to find work (“2:1s are not worth anything anymore because everyone’s got them”) and talks to influential economists (one of whom believes that 3million will be out of work by the end of the year – and warns about the long-term “scarring” if this new generation of unemployed people are out of work for more than a year).
This all reminds me of previous tough times (eg. in the early 1980s) when the construction industry, in particular, was very badly hit and my firm had to downsize and were unable to take on young graduates. Perhaps we’ve just become too used to the “good times”? For me, going to university was the best thing I’d done in my life up to that point and I certainly have no regrets. Would our daughters say the same thing? I’m not sure.
PS: Just don’t get me on to the subject of “hey, why don’t we keep all young people in schooling until they’re 18 (mumblings that the Government might even be considering such a move as early as THIS summer…. aaaaargh!)!

the reader

Moira+I went to the cinema for the first time this year to see “The Reader” at The Watershed (no, I didn’t have another “bed day”!). Very glad we did. Beautifully-crafted, haunting love story set in post-war Germany – essentially all about coming to terms with the past. Kate Winslet is just brilliant (overnight Golden Globe winner for best supporting actress). Despite less than encouraging reviews in The Guardian and The Observer, I found it absolutely riveting.
PS: Moira+I set ourselves a target of going to the cinema (DVDs don’t count!) once a month during the course of 2008 (our previous average was about once every 18 months!). Well, I’ve just checked and it appears that we managed a total of ten visits last year – pretty good for us!

bed day

As those you who know me will be aware, I’m normally not one for staying in bed in the morning (understatement!). The last time I can actually recall spending any daytime in bed was a few years ago after I’d been following detox instructions from a friend (I can remember being violently sick after only a couple of caffeine-free days and a liquid diet – no red wine I hasten to add - which included starting the day drinking two litres of water. Never again!). Well, I’ve been feeling pretty rough over the Christmas/New Year period with a heavy cold so, having de-camped to Bedroom 2, decided to remain in bed yesterday and, amazingly, did so until late afternoon. I managed to read some of my books (“Surprised by Hope” by Tom Wright and Michael Palin’s “Dairies 1969-1979”) plus “The Guardian” from cover to cover. I wasn’t feeling ill, but in a strange way (and it rather pains me to admit this), I really rather enjoyed it!

misunderestimated president?

Gerry pointed out this link on the BBC website last night.
I just can’t wait for Obama to become president but, having been reminded of some of the amazing utterings from the present incumbent, I think might actually miss George W (just a tiny bit!)!

christmas carol

With the new school term starting today, it seemed a little strange to spend last night at the theatre instead of getting books ready or ironing clothes. A group of us went along to the Tobacco Factory to see “A Christmas Carol” and the added bonus for Moira+me was that Felix (Hannah’s husband) was in the cast. It proved to be an excellent evening and we agreed with the Guardian’s theatre critic when she said that “Felix Hayes turns in the best performance of the night as the Ghost of Christmas Now: a hilarious, blaxploitation-tinged interpretation, looking like Brian Blessed in a floor-length fur coat and sounding like Barry White”.
We thought he was wonderful (obviously)!

saturday morning

Had a rather unusual, but very enjoyable morning yesterday. Unremarkably, I got up pretty early and messed around downstairs but then, very unusually(!), went back to bed to read for an hour or so. I remained in bed (unheard of for me!) to listen to “Saturday Live” on Radio4 (it’s not the same with Fi Glover still on maternity leave!) before getting up and having a lazy bath. Meanwhile, Ruth rang to find out if we fancied a walk with them along the beach at Sand Bay so, by noon, that’s exactly what we did – in glorious sunshine. Absolutely beautiful, despite the cold (lots of ice on the beach and strips of snow/slush marking the high tide). Had an hilarious game of football with Iris – who spent most of the time giggling and repeatedly saying "I'm laughing!" in between kicks – before returning home to cheese+beans on toast!

Wonderful!
Photo: footie on the beach at Sand Bay (starring Ruth+Iris+Moira+Stuart).

earth abbey, mark tully+satnav

Went to the Earth Abbey “Mid-winter Celebration” at Faithspace in Stackpool Road yesterday afternoon. EarthAbbey is a movement of people helping one another to live more in tune with the earth. Some really interesting stuff.
It seems to me that Earth Abbey has quite a few links with this morning’s “Something Understood” on Radio4 (always thought-provoking and usually presented by the wonderful Mark Tully – another contender for a place in my World XI?) entitled “Is This the Way?”. He couples this question with another: “How Should I Travel on This Way?”. The programme included an amusing reference to SatNavs via Michael Bywater’s article ‘The Curse of SatNav: On a Road to Nowhere…’ published in The Independent in April 2008. The following is a brief extract:
“The more we rely on satnav, the more the world becomes something seen – or unseen, or barely noticed – through glass. The glass of the satnav display and the glass of the windscreen become indistinguishable; the former is merely a better, more reliable (we believe) version of the latter. The cityscape, the buildings, the landmarks, this cathedral, that office block: they merge into something called "information", a better recension of which is available by looking at the satnav. We no longer notice the subtle shadings of terrain, the movement from escarpment down to estuarine plain, the changing crops”.
Image: flier for the Earth Abbey Mid-winter Celebration.

former golfer returns (again!)

Pathetically, I only played golf TWICE during the whole of 2008.
I’m pleased to say that 2009 is looking far more positive as Steve and I managed to play at Studley Wood yesterday in glorious sunshine (I’d had my doubts on my drive up to Oxford – snow in Swindon and mist+fog elsewhere). Unfortunately, Ken+Pete weren’t able to make it, but Steve+I had a great time nevertheless. Despite having to play on “temporary greens” and not picking up a club in ages, we both played pretty well (for the record, I won on the 17th green!).
Photo: grotty picture, but at least it gives a “feel” for the weather!

happy new year!

Had a really enjoyable New Year’s Eve at Chris+Lal’s (eating/drinking/laughing and watching the city centre fireworks) and then tried to get rid of some of the excess weight by going for a New Year Day’s walk (with Gareth, Alan, Gerry+David) around Bristol…. failing miserably because we ended up at A+G’s and consumed yet more food+drink!
Photo: hadn’t previously noticed the clock on the Exchange Building in Corn Street – erected at a time when Bristol couldn’t decide whether or not to comply with Greenwich Mean Time… it shows two minute hands – one London time and the other (11 minutes later) Bristol time!

christmas music, books+films

My collection of books, DVDs and CDs has been greatly enhanced by an influx of some excellent new stuff over the Christmas period. I’ve watched “Persepolis” and “This is England” over the past couple of days – both excellent. Music has included contributions from Ray LaMontagne, Miles Davis, Tom Waits, Emiliana Torrini and Cara Dillon (as soon as the CD is released at the end of January - I know Matt Rees speaks very highly of her!). I’ve also been reading Peter Barton’s brilliant book: “The Somme” which contains vivid photographs underlining the utter devastation that took place there, together with harrowing personal accounts from diaries and notebooks. For example: “Dear Mother: I am writing these few lines severely wounded. We have done well. Our Battalion advanced about three-quarters of a mile. I am laid in a shell hole with two wounds in my hip and through my back. I cannot move or crawl. I have been here for 24 hours and never seen a living soul. I hope you will receive these few lines as I don’t expect anyone will come to take me away…”.
These poignant final words perhaps work well alongside my favourite song from my new music – Emiliana Torrini’s wonderful “Bleeder” – which she apparently wrote for a friend who had just lost someone very close to them. She said she wrote the song because she didn’t know what to do or what to say to her friend (“I wrote it to give them a hug”).

christmas at the buckleys

Moira+I have just returned home after spending a really lovely few days with Alice+Dave in Leyland. They were brilliant hosts and seemed to take dealing with Mikey+Dan/Christmas/a houseful of guests completely in their stride. Alice also cooked an amazing Christmas dinner for ten (not counting Mikey+Dan!) as if it was something she did most weeks! As a bonus, we had a wonderful walk along Southport pier on Boxing Day in beautiful sunshine+blue skies. Also great to spend time playing+giggling with Mikey+Dan (I could tell that Dan was really impressed by my athletic reactions each time he threw the ball in my general direction – although I now have a very nasty bruised thigh after diving full length across the floor and landing on the keys that were in my trouser pocket…. but a brilliant catch nevertheless!).
Photo: break to watch Wallace+Grommit on TV.
Alice+Moira+Sheila (Moira’s sister) plus Dave’s family comprising Helen (in the background), Harold+Jean+Jenn+Dave (poor Kat had to stay at home ill).
PS: you can see more “Christmas family photos” by clicking on this link (optional!).

staying away from school

I had a great day “at school” today. Pete, the Head of the Geography Faculty, had asked me if I’d be prepared to accompany him and a group Year 13s on a tour of Bristol. They were looking at the city from the perspective of challenges and issues affecting the decline and development of cities - with me offering my architectural/urban design experience. It proved to be a fascinating and enjoyable day. Hopefully, I was able to offer an insight into the changing face of the city – particularly in the redevelopment of the harbourside area. Pete - who is just an amazing teacher with a wonderful rapport with his students - amused me by insisting that we started off by walking into Southville (where we live) as an example of “gentrification”! Thanks to Pete, I learnt a lot new things about “my” city – including what a CBD is (Central Business District!) - and thoroughly enjoyed my day.
PS: an added bonus for me was that Pete thought it would be “silly” for me to drive into school first – so we met up in the SS Great Britain car park instead (I tried to persuade him otherwise, but….).

dino wine

Had our lovely Ithaca friends (Merry-Carol, Gareth, Gerry+Alan) round for food and the odd glass last night. Ended up eating in the basement because our dining room was still full of clutter following the exhibition. Moira happened to notice one of the (empty!) wine bottles on the worktop next to Felix’s brilliant coloured dinosaurs.

It just seemed rather appropriate!

number40 christmas exhibition (again)

Lovely sunny weekend for our exhibition in the basement (with work from Hannah, Felix, Ruth, Stuart, Becky, Moira and me). Brilliant that lots of friends came round on Friday night - which effectively turned into a bit of a party. Much laughter combined with the odd glass of wine (or was it the other way round?). After a pretty quiet Saturday, today was really enjoyable – a constant stream of lovely friends, regular number40 exhibition-goers and one or two newcomers.
Next exhibition is the SouthBank Arts Trail in May!
Photo: various images from the show.

forest of dean

Got back from three days in the Forest of Dean yesterday (just before the start of our number40 exhibition in the basement!) with a group of Year 8s from school. Really excellent time and the pupils were great. We stayed at the Dean Field Study Centre as usual (the school has undertaken this trip with all year 8 pupils every November/December for the past 29 years!). Always a relief to get back with no accidents or complications (or losing anyone on the two night exercises through the forest!). I even managed to climb the vertical face of the climbing tower (perhaps 15m high?) – which, with my huge fear of heights, felt like quite an achievement. However, I didn’t attempt the “leap of faith” (I think that’s what it was called)! This involved climbing a telegraph pole, struggling on to an incredibly small platform, standing upright and then launching oneself into mid-air aiming to catch a trapeze bar some 5-6 feet in front of you!! Just fantastic to see pupils go from “there’s no way I can do that and I’m not even going to try” to “that was the most brilliant thing I’ve ever done in my life”!

parking in southville

I’ve been moaning (who me?) lately about the appalling car parking in our neighbourhood. In our area of narrow streets of terraced houses, one regular frustration is the business of cars parked nose-to-tail at street corners – making it impossible for pedestrians with pushchairs to negotiate and also causing a visibility problem for pedestrians and car drivers alike as they try to ease themselves out at junctions.
Well, I’m not alone! Moira pointed out (via our freebie “The South Bristol Pigeon”) a blog for those “tired of negotiating themselves around the un-enforced parking free-for-all that Southville has become”. Check it out – you might find a photograph of your car featured (eg. “it is written in law that you must not park within 10 metres of a junction…”)!

I have to admit that there are times that I do resort to parking our own car partly on the pavement (ie. on Fairfield Place) – when I do, this is usually on a small section of pavement that it virtually unused by pedestrians…. but I promise to be more aware in future!

quick questions?

As you’ll already know if you read my last blog, we’ve got another exhibition in the number40 basement this weekend. For the first time (I think), we haven’t asked the featured artists to answer a questionnaire of slightly strange questions to go along with their words of wisdom describing what they’re currently doing and/or the work featured in the exhibition. We ran out of time and ended up not bothering.
Actually, the real reason was that it takes time to think up the questions in the first place!
So, dear reader, in order to avoid the same thing happening for our next exhibition in May, we’d be REALLY grateful to receive your suggestions – they could ultra-serious or just rather silly (or both).
Very much look forward to hearing from you (note: our questionnaires normally run to say 10 questions – but even one good new question would be helpful!).
PS: I’ll be out of commission for the next few days – I’m off to the Forest of Dean with a large group of Year 8 pupils!

number40 christmas exhibition

We’re having another number40 exhibition in the basement next weekend (Friday-Sunday 5-7 December). Somewhat scarily, it’s the twelfth exhibition we’ve had since moving to Bristol. Lovely Becky, from school, is one of the participating artists – together with members from the Broadway clan (daughter Ruth plus husband Stu; daughter Hannah plus husband Felix; plus Moira and me!). It could be even more of a Von Trapp (pathetic!) gathering if other daughter Alice (who can knit and bake for England) plus husband Dave (who studied ceramics at Uni) were taking part – which would be a little awkward, given that they live in Lancashire.
We try to hang the exhibition a week before the event, so this weekend is going to be a VERY busy one.

identity cards?

Yet more articles in the newspapers over the weekend about Identity Cards - on-going debates about cost; about security; about fines for failing to update registration blah blah. Ironically, I came across my OWN official Identify Card yesterday (as you might imagine, I hadn’t realised I had ever possessed such a document!). Admittedly, mine (issued for persons “under sixteen years”) expired in February 1965 but, hey, the principle seems pretty foolproof to me…. just a simple card (none of this plastic stuff), with space for a few official-looking stamps and a couple of handwritten details (name and address etc) and, crucially, a printed warning regarding changes of address: “no entry except by National Registration Officer, to whom removal must be notified”. As I say, absolutely foolproof and virtually nil cost. I think I may have to contact those chaps at the Home Office.
I really don’t know what all the fuss is about!
Photo: the latest specimen card (“expected to be up and running by 2012”) alongside my own old card.

red wine

Had Liz, Mike, Merry-Carol+Gerry round for supper last night. Good to have time to sit and relax and to enjoy each other’s company. Gerry brought along a bottle of red that, in his words, he “just HAD to buy” while he was on his Tesco shop yesterday. It was bottle of Stormhoek “Pinotage” 2007. The wine was very enjoyable – but, as you can hopefully see from the photograph, it was the label that caught his eye:
Be Passionate
Love
Dream Big
Be Spontaneous
Celebrate
Change the World or Go Home.
Brilliant!

heather

We had a lovely surprise last night. Great friend Heather (neighbour from our days in Thame) contacted us to say she was in Bristol to visit her daughter Harriet and wondered if we might be available for a drink and perhaps some food (silly question)? The original plan was to meet up in the Arnolfini bar, but it was packed out when we arrived (for a private view of the exhibition we think?). We ended up at the Mud Dock Café – which was absolutely fine.
Lovely evening of red wine, laughter and stories!
Photo: strange how things work out…. I was searching through my boxes of stuff this morning looking for a particular photograph of my grandfather (which I didn’t find!) but came across this picture of Heather, taken on cold January morning walk along Chessel Beach (I think?) in 2001.

mags+jez

Had a really lovely day visiting our great friends Mags+Jeremy in Devon yesterday. Arrived for breakfast before walking along Lannacombe beach. We’d never been to Lannacombe before and it was just as well that Jez was driving, as we seemed to drive down endless narrow Devonian lanes to get there. But it was well worth it - and we were the only people on the beach too! We were really lucky as our walk coincided with a brief break in the weather (grey and drizzly) and we actually saw glimpses of the sun.
Back to Mags+Jez’s house for fish pie late lunch (perfect!) before watching the England-Australia rugby on tv (not so perfect!).
Long, but really enjoyable day with lovely friends.
Photo: Jez+Mags+Moira on Lannacombe beach

11 november 1918

Ninety years ago today, as war ended, my grandfather Frank was on leave in the UK. He was only granted three brief periods of leave during the course of The Great War – from the time of his arrival at Le Havre on 19 August 1914 to the end of the conflict in 1918. The last of these began on 6 November when he was allowed back to the UK via Boulogne for 14 days leave. It must have been somewhat unreal for him to hear the news when he was away from his wartime colleagues, just after he’d arrive back at home. I suspect he might have had a couple of beers to celebrate perhaps?
I’ve just been updating the “Tracking Frank” blog (now virtually complete up until the end of 1916) based on the information I’ve compiled at the National Archives. The war diaries include map links that I've created (thanks to those clever people at Google!) showing his movements for each year of WW1.
Photo: very poor photograph of Frank, taken in 1972.

leigh woods (in the rain)

There are clearly lots of missing persons and dogs in Leigh Woods! Yesterday, Moira+I decided it would be good to go for a walk in Leigh Woods. As we set out, of course, it started to rain but we persevered and were very pleased we did – the Autumn colours were stunning (and there’s something really nice about walking in the rain – as long as you know there are dry clothes and hot drinks waiting for you when you get home!). As we set out for our walk, we came across two joggers who’d lost their dog and were calling its name somewhat forlornly. As we got back to the car, we passed a man who, happily, HADN’T lost his dog (it was at his side) – unfortunately, however, it appeared that he HAD lost his wife (well, I assume it was his wife?) and was just standing in the rain, with his sad-looking dog, calling out: ”Rachel…. Rachel….. Rachel, where are you?” at 10 second intervals. By the time we were disappearing out of earshot, his cries had become rather more desperate: “Rachel, where ARE you?”.
By this time, if Rachel had any sense, she would stay hidden in the woods for another day or so because her husband(?) was really getting pretty cheesed off – of course, it would be all HER fault - and he would probable make her sit in the very back of the car with Fido until they got home.
Photo: Autumn colours at Leigh Woods.

birthday boy

Lovely to get together with Gail+Ian in Bristol yesterday to celebrate Ian’s birthday. Great pity that Ken+Debby weren’t able to make it too, but sometimes these things can’t be helped! Met up for lunch at Howard’s Restaurant in Avon Crescent (near Cumberland Basin) which, despite the fact that we were the only customers, was excellent – we’d never been there before, but will definitely do so again.
In our Thame/Oxford days, we used to see Gail+Ian at least once a week and we really miss seeing them more regularly than we now do. Nevertheless, it was great to have an opportunity to catch up on things and to enjoy their company again (we love them very much!).
Photo: Moira, Gail, Ian+me at Howard’s (just for the record!).

of time and the city

Moira+I went to the Watershed again on Wednesday evening to see Terence Davies’s film “Of Time and the City” (a bit of a rush but we made it for the 6.20pm slot). Having spent a couple of lovely days in Liverpool last week, we thought this film would be a good way to cement our fond memories of the city on the basis of the following text in the Watershed’s November Programme: “Images of Liverpool past and present are magically combined with a wonderfully rich selection of music ranging from Handel to The Hollies, voices, radio clips and the director’s own voice-over narration. The result is a poetic love letter to his native city and a haunting evocation of post-war Britain.”
Well, actually, we weren’t that impressed!
Yes, there WERE some fascinating/amusing/poignant images and, yes, the musical accompaniment was at times quite inspirational but we ended up feeling somewhat disappointed by what we’d seen and, rather than a “poetic love letter”, we felt that at times Terence Davies gave every impression of being just a grumpy old man!

Photo: Liverpool's Albert Dock - taken on our trip last week.

president-elect obama!

It feels a little like that May morning in 1997 when a new Labour government had finally been elected back into office under the charismatic leadership of Tony Blair. Rather pathetically perhaps, I’ve been listening to the radio throughout the night. At this early hour, it really does appear that Barack Obama WILL be the next US President – although I seem to recall that exit polls declared John Kerry the winner of the 2004 election and, of course, there were those “hanging chads” that “allowed” Bush to win in 2000 (eventually)!
I just pray that Obama will survive (literally) the hateful rhetoric/ threatening accusations made against him by the extreme minority during the course of the campaign.....

“unpatriotic”; “socialist”; “Marxist”; “the anti-Christ”; and, of course, there’s always the “Race Card”.
Having just listened to President-elect Obama (speaking to ecstatic crowds in Chicago), I admit that I was somewhat shocked to find myself holding back the tears!
I feel absolutely elated and at last, maybe ridiculously naively, optimistic for the world again.
YES, WE CAN!
PS: I note that “George W” has recently been voted equal 37th Greatest US President (out of 42!). Significantly, the other president sharing equal 37th place was Richard Nixon!
PPS: How come the world still has to suffer George W until 20 January 2009 (help!)?

liverpool+crosby

As well as visiting the Leyland mob, Moira+I decided to treat ourselves to a couple of days in Liverpool and we were genuinely very impressed. Neither of us really knew the city (although we’d both visited it on odd occasions in the past). We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Albert Dock (and can thoroughly recommend it – great location) and spent our time checking out The Liverpool Biennial and various European Capital of Culture sites (including both cathedrals, the Tate and the Walker Art Gallery) – and even found time to shop at the new Liverpool One centre! It was also lovely to meet up with Ellen+Mark again (they left Bristol in the summer to return home). The weather was very kind to us and we enjoyed a great hour or so walking along Crosby beach and being captivated by Antony Gormley’s “Another Place”.
We’ll definitely go back again – we were made very welcome and there are still lots of things we didn’t get to do!
Photo: Crosby Beach and Gormley figures.

alice+dave+mikey+dan

Moira+I spent a lovely three days in Leyland with Alice+Dave et al. We went up for Mikey's+Dan's Thanksgiving Service.
I was great to see them all again - we just don’t get together as often as we’d like (they live in Leyland, Lancashire)! We were incredibly impressed by just how much progress they’d managed to make on their house and the basement is now very habitable and cosy (as we discovered for ourselves, it makes an excellent spare bedroom)! Life with the two boys is full-on to say the least and we continue to be amazed by Alice+Dave’s stamina!
Photos (left to right): Mikey; Dan; Alice+Mikey (all taken at the playground); Dan at home; and Mikey on the swings.