kielder challenge again

We’ve now had a few training sessions (the Regional Heats take place in Bristol on 20 May) and it’s been really rewarding seeing how brilliantly the four pupils from our school work with the four from Fosse Way (a school catering for young people with physical disabilities and/or severe learning difficulties). They’re so natural with each other and communication is easy… and constantly amusing! I love being involved with the pupils and it’s been really good to see them all really enthused by the competition, determined to do well and growing in confidence and self-belief. It’s extremely humbling working with these pupils and VERY enjoyable.

Photo: Roxy, Megan, Alihan, Charlie, Becky, Chris, Polly and Andrew in action.

february/march books

Yet more books, I’m afraid: The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly (Jean-Dominique Bauby): This is a really beautiful and quite remarkable book. The author had suffered a massive stroke and “dictated” it using his left eyelid. He died within 16 months of the fateful day of his stroke, but this short book is a wonderful epitaph. AL Kennedy’s book review simply states: “A staggering piece of work. It represents an almost inconceivable act of generosity, the gift of the mind and spirit for which writing was designed”. A Spot of Bother (Mark Haddon): Enjoyable and very readable. Fast-moving, funny, family saga – which, fortunately, never quite reduced itself to farcical levels. At times, it almost felt like reading a Tom Sharpe novel. The Progressive Patriot (Billy Bragg): Bought this signed hardback for £2 (feeling smug)! Bragg is another hero of mine; I like his music and his passionate campaigning. This book (written after the BNP won 11 local council seats in Bragg’s beloved Borough of Barking in May 2006) is a mixture of family history, social history, music, politics and English history. It’s really a series of essays rather than a reasoned argument about what patriotism is or should be (he ends up arguing about the need for a “Declaration of Rights”), but very enjoyable and illuminating nonetheless. The Crossing (Cormac McCarthy): I know Cormac McCarthy isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (eg. “The Road”) but I find his books quite mesmerizing. This one (the second in the Border Trilogy) is bleak, unrelenting and brutal but, at the same time, reveals a surprising degree of kindness and generosity. Another powerful book. Italian Shoes (Henning Mankell): A few weeks ago, Moira remarked on FB that this was her “book of the year” thus far. Well, I’m in complete agreement. It’s an absolutely beautiful book. It’s about an ageing, former surgeon who lives in self-imposed exile on a deserted island. He’s visited by a woman whom he loved, but abandoned, 40 years ago who asks him to fulfill a promise. PS: without intending to do so, I seem to be reading an awful lot of books recently that deal with ageing!!

march for the alternative

I didn’t make it to yesterday’s march. I feel bad about this and about how I’d pathetically left it to the middle of last week before trying to sort out transport. In the event, over 250,000 (500,000 if you believe the “Mail on Sunday”!) demonstrated in a powerful, peaceful and good-natured protest against the government’s cuts in public. Moira+I have just been drinking coffee by the harbourside and were saddened to see the right wing press’s “take” (well, “Mail on Sunday” and “The Sunday Telegraph” at least) on yesterday’s events – the two newspapers being read by a couple sitting at a neighbouring table. ALL they wanted to concentrate on were the activities of a violent minority of anarchists (perhaps 300 people?). These people had NOTHING to do with the march itself. Check out the “Mail on Sunday” online stuff and keep scrolling down to see if you can find ANY photographs (there are 16 in total!) of the march itself… no, you won’t be able to.

I thought the letter from Caroline Lucas, Green Party Leader, in yesterday’s “Guardian” letter got it right: “Today will see the largest march in London since the 2003 protest over Iraq. People will march to Hyde Park in support of an alternative to the coalition government’s savage cuts. These cuts are not inevitable – they are driven by ideology, not economic necessity. We can address the deficit by putting hundreds of thousands of people back to work in low-carbon jobs, implementing a Robin Hood tax, cutting spending like Trident, and seriously cracking down on tax evasion and avoidance”.

Photo: the “real” demonstration.

edna shorey RIP

My aunt Edna died yesterday. She was 90. My cousin David telephoned me with the news last night. She’d been taken into hospital only the day before, so her death was quite sudden. Last year, she’d been very ill and there seemed little likelihood of her making it to her 90th birthday – but, remarkably, she did.
Any family bereavement is obviously sad, but Edna’s death is particularly poignant. For BOTH Moira+me, it marks the end of that particular generation – WE are the oldies now!
A somewhat sobering thought.
Photo: David had only recently re-discovered this photograph of his parents’ wedding (February 1947, with thick snow on the ground) and had e-mailed me a copy just 10 days ago. It shows the bride+groom, Len+Edna, plus my father Ron (second from left); my grandmother Ada (seated right); my grandfather Frank (just behind her); and my mother Mary (extreme right).

the super marketplace

Following Bristol CC’s recent appalling decision to approve Sainsbury’s proposals for a new megastore at Ashton Gate, I’ve been reflecting just how much the big supermarkets appear to be taking over local communities (or perhaps the world?!).
In Bristol, according to BBC research, “at least 21 new supermarkets from the 'big four' chains were given the go-ahead” in and around the city in the past two years.
Outrageous.
The relatively small market town of Thame in Oxfordshire, where we lived for over 20 years, is now facing the threat of another supermarket (Sainsbury’s) – it already has a Waitrose, Co-op and Sainsbury’s Express (plus ASDA and Tesco’s within 5 miles). A number of our friends have mounted a campaign to fight the proposals.
Yes, most of us use supermarkets for a proportion of our shopping but, worryingly in my opinion, they also have the financial muscle in both retail and town planning terms to transform communities for the worse (eg. they’re more than happy to throw big money at lawyers in the knowledge that Local Planning Authorities won’t be able to compete). It’s now all about market share – with one supermarket competing against another for prime (and not-so-prime) sites. It’s about profits for shareholders and the bigger you are, the more “successful” you will become.
To me, this just seems fundamentally wrong.
But the even more worrying thing is that people don’t seem to be “alive” to what is happening. It’s so easy for the big supermarkets to offer hard-pressed Local Authorities “town planning incentives”. Before we know it, supermarkets (both big+small) will become the ONLY source of food shopping for any of us.
I’m afraid today’s budget hasn’t done anything to help. According the BBC website:
“There will also be sweeping changes to the planning system - to make it more difficult for local people to block ‘sustainable development’” (note: it'll be very straightforward to tick such a sustainable box).
As a former architect, I am well aware of the frustrations of the town planning process but, even as the BBC’s Robert Peston acknowledged on tonight’s PM programme, some of the principal beneficiaries of this change will be… the supermarkets!

Unsurprisingly, a spokesman from Morrison's on tonight's Channel 4 News also welcomed the changes to the planning system and the 2% cut in Corporation Tax - acknowledging that it would "aid Company growth".

Oh good!

power to intervene?

Just a month ago, I was bemoaning Ofgen’s apparent inability to do anything to protect gas+electricity customers (remember “protecting customers is our first priority”!). Well, Ofgen has been analysing a wealth of complex figures and consulting experts and, do you know what, it’s come to the conclusion that there is evidence that the "big six" energy firms "have adjusted prices in response to rising costs more quickly than they reduced them when costs fell"!
Blimey. Simply amazing. What absolutely stunning news…. but isn’t that precisely what key journalists and members of the public have been saying for months and months?
Is it just me?

Photo: another Sand Bay photograph from yesterday (not really related to energy - except the yellow haze is probably all down to pollution?).

sand bay (again)

I love Sand Bay. The sun was shining (we thought the weather forecast had indicated rain!), so Moira+I thought it would be good to revisit the bay and walk along the beach and headland. It proved to be a really lovely afternoon and, for me, there’s definitely something about a walk beside water (note: I was going to write “sea”, but Moira doesn’t count the Severn estuary as “sea”!). Beautiful views from the headland and wonderful volcanic rock geology (and slimy mud!). It’s a place we’ll revisit again and again.
Magical.
Photo: beautiful Sand Bay.

moira's birthday

I was feeling very guilty that I hadn’t laid on lots of special things for Moira’s birthday.
We’d bought her present together the previous weekend and, with a full-on week, I hadn’t found time to buy any extra small gifts. Pretty pathetic really! Fortunately, it turned out to be a good day.
Ruth+Stu had already arranged a birthday supper (and with Hannah+Fee along too)…. and that proved to be a lovely evening. In addition, we’d already decided to go down to Kingsbridge for the day to see the Stillpoint art exhibition - organised by the wonderful Ian Adams(!) – which was pretty impressive overall and a lovely venue. Knowing that we were going down to the exhibition, our very good friends Mags+Jez (who live just outside Kingsbridge – and Mags was also one of the exhibiting artists) contacted us on Friday evening and invited us down to breakfast. So, we got up early and drove down to Devon for a delicious cooked breakfast, then spent a couple of hours at the gallery before driving home (stopping for a light lunch in beautiful Totnes, as you do!).
All in all, a lovely day.
PS: it rather reminded me of us driving down to St Ives for breakfast the day after I’d retired from Brocklehurst Architects (and then driving home to Bristol!).
Photo: Stillpoint exhibition at Harbour House Gallery, Kingsbridge (listening to one of the “artist talks”).

guys+dolls

Went to see the school production of Guys+Dolls on Thursday evening. Lovely to see pupils out of their normal school context and particularly good to see some individuals, who I know have been struggling with various aspects of their lives over the past couple of years, blossom and flourish in the show. I really enjoyed the evening and wonderful to see how theatre and music can boost self-confidence and help to transform lives.
Photo: some of the cast lining up for the closing song (there WERE boys in the show, honest!).

royal wedding

I’m pretty neutral as far as the Royal Family is concerned – although, obviously, I’m grateful to Will+Kate for the impending Bank Holiday! However, graphic artist Lydia Leith’s “royal wedding sick bag” did make me smile… I’m thinking of getting one for every time the BBC’s Nicholas Witchell appears on our screens to introduce yet more mind-numbingly boring royal wedding trivia.

book group

I’ve joined a book group (our first meeting is next Friday)!
I never thought I’d ever be brave enough to join one – not because I wouldn’t have anything to contribute, but because I feared I would never be able to read a book sufficiently quickly! Having said that, this consideration didn’t seem to stop certain members of Moira’s previous book group attending meetings (this is probably completely fallacious, but I seem to recall hearing that they’d sometimes failed to discuss “this month’s book” because X hadn’t finished it and the others didn’t want to give away the ending!).
Actually, this new group seems to be a revamped version of Moira’s old group – Gareth, Catherine, Mo and Lal are members – except that it now also includes blokes (Alan, Nigel and me for starters)!
Given my fears regarding finishing the set book in time, you can imagine my alarm when ‘What a Carve Up’, by Jonathan Coe, arrived in post (note: bought secondhand for 1p plus postage!) and I discovered it was 500 pages long! In the event, I actually finished it within a week (perhaps I’m no longer a member of the slow readers group?) – virtually three weeks before our inaugural meeting.
The book was published in the mid-1990s and is effectively a condemnation of Thatcher’s Britain. Whilst (as you might imagine) I found this easy to applaud and enjoy – it’s very funny at times - I was also irritated on occasions by its preposterous and, sometimes, predictably fantastic storyline. I ended up having very mixed feelings about the book. I enjoyed its humour, but found the bizarre linkages between many of the characters/situations and the far-fetched narrative just too much to take at times. Having said that, I thought it was a very clever book and it certainly reminded me of those sad Thatcher days and the sense of injustice and despair. At times, I felt I was reading a book written by David Nobbs or David Lodge or Sebastian Faulks (or, perversely, even Evelyn Waugh!).
I’ll probably get kicked off the group for expressing my initial thoughts in advance!

Photo: the image is from the "What a Carve Up" book cover.

david versus goliath

Last night, despite a wealth of opposition from local residents and retailers, Bristol City Council approved Sainsbury’s plans to build a massive 100,000sq.ft superstore on Bristol City Football Club’s ground. It will be the largest supermarket in the South-West.
Sickening, devastating, depressing.
You might recall that the Council had previously rejected an earlier application. Sainsbury’s subsequently made some comparatively minor modifications to the original scheme but the principles, scale and hugely-detrimental environmental implications remained the same – not to mention the devastating impact on local retailers.
The Council’s own planners had recommended refusal.
The Council’s own commissioned detailed study had concluded that the negative retail impact of the store on Bedminster/Southville would outweigh any benefits.
But significantly and alarmingly, five new councillors helped decide on the plan after some regular members of the committee stood aside because of ABUSE they suffered after the previous hearing.
Victory through intimidation? That CANNOT be right.
Before a final decision can be made, the application has to be sent to central government to consider whether the Secretary of State should become involved…. one can only hope that justice prevails.
But I’m not holding my breath.
Big Business. Big Money. Big Influence. Big Mistake.

filing+shredding+filing+shredding

The photograph represents just a token amount of the EIGHT large plastic sacks crammed full of shredded paper (all painstakingly shredded by yours truly) from the vaults of the outmoded Broadway family filing system. When we had the kitchen “done” last summer, I manhandled the massive, 4-drawer, metal filing cabinet down into the basement. The drawers contained filing amassed over the entire 38 years of our marriage (that sounds as if we’ve agreed to nullify our partnership - I assure you that’s not the case!).
Moira+I are not very good at filing.
We normally only do it when the filing tray pile has developed into a mountain (and, even then, we sometimes just dump the pile in the basement “for when we have more time”). Some time ago, we agreed that this half-term would be used to “sort out” our filing and, amazingly, that’s what we’ve done (well, almost done). Moira organized for someone to come and collect the filing cabinet (thanks to FreeCycle) and, at long last, the basement floor has begun to re-emerge. It’s been quite embarrassing to rediscover all the paperwork we’ve retained – gas and electricity bills from the year dot, old Council Tax bills, old Christmas letters, home insurance papers from our first Thame house, endowment mortage forms that were going to secure our financial future, countless bits of correspondence from my old practice’s accountants, draft practice accounts…. and on and on. Strange also to see the change in letterheadings (eg. graphic style etc) over the years from my former practice, our accountants, our insurance brokers and the like over more than three decades - especially the lack of fax numbers, websites and e-mail addresses.
Anyway, they’ve all gone… and Moira+I now have the makings of a new streamlined filing system – which, of course, we will be updating on a weekly basis from now on!
PS: my favourite discovery was a photocopy of a handwritten letter Moira sent to the tax man in 1985 asking when we might been receiving a small anticipated tax rebate and expressing the hope that it might be before Christmas – it included a drawing (by Moira) of Santa Claus emerging from a chimney with the words “ho ho ho, here’s your tax rebate Mrs Broadway!”. I cannot recall whether or not this cunning ploy was successful!

family lunch

Lovely to get together with my brother Alan+Lesley+girls for lunch near Gloucester yesterday – and very good that Ruth+Stu+girls were able to join us too. Wonderful also to see Megan+Eleanor blossoming into beautiful young women. Rosa+Iris didn’t let the side down and managed to provide some entertainment without too much distraction to other customers.
We don’t get together as often as we’d like but, every time we do, it feels very good!
Photo: some poor pics of a lovely afternoon!

PS: realised earlier that this would be my 700th blog (why doesn't the man get a life?). Yes, I know, pathetic!

pumping gas

Last weekend, I was bemoaning the likes of Barclays Bank.
This morning I see that British Gas announced that its operating profits had risen by 24% in 2010 (just two months after it had increased customers’ domestic energy bills by 7%). During the same period, its parent company Centrica doubled its operating profits to 29%. Don’t get me wrong, I accept that it’s good that businesses make a profit (I ran my own company for nearly 30 years), but I resent this world where the shareholder is king and the customers merely servants to the cause.
Later today, we’ll no doubt see Ofgem (it “regulates” the electricity and gas markets in the UK – “protecting customers is our first priority”) coming out with some sort of justification and, once again, we’ll be left feeling that it’s a terribly unfair world.

true grit

Moira, Hannah+I went to the Watershed this afternoon to see the latest offering from the Coen brothers. Beautifully filmed and brilliantly acted (especially Jeff Bridges as a fat, boozy, old guy with an eyepatch in late 19th-century Arkansas, who after a rackety career of gunslinging and soldiering is now employed as a US marshal). Although it was a very impressive film, I have to admit that I came out feeling just a little disappointed – perhaps I’d been influenced by the hype? I’ve just read a review that talks about “an exquisite sadness and gentleness” of its final moments – whereas I had shaken my head in disbelief as, firstly, Bridges’ weary horse – carrying Bridges and Mattie Ross (a 14-year-old girl played by newcomer Hailee Steinfeld) galloped across the screen like a Derby winner and then, after the horse had finally collapsed with exhaustion, Bridges (remember: the “fat, boozy, old guy”!) sprinted for several more miles cradling Steinfeld.
I think all the whisky he was drinking must have helped!

the diving-bell, the butterfly and the lucky man

I spent a lovely day with Iris and Rosa today (even though Rosa was a little under the weather). In the afternoon, despite the rain, we walked to the harbourside and visited SS Great Britain. We enjoyed fruit juices and muffins in the café and we chatted and laughed our way through the afternoon. It was all effortless and hugely enjoyable - simple pleasures!
After Stuart had collected the girls at the end of the afternoon, I continued to read Jean-Dominique Bauby’s beautiful and remarkable little book “The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly” - you may have already come across it yourself. After suffering a massive stroke, the author was paralysed from head to toe (locked-in syndrome) and he “dictated” the book using his left eyelid.
Within minutes of the girls’ departure, I read the following extract (Bauby had been playing “hangman” with his 10 year-old son) and it made me realise just how fortunate my life has been…. and just how much we take for granted:
“My heart is not in the game. Grief surges over me. His face not more than two feet from mine, my son Theophile sits patiently waiting – and I, his father, have lost the simple right to ruffle his bristly hair, clasp his downy neck, hug his small, lithe, warm body tight against me. There are no words to express it. My condition is monstrous, iniquitous, revolting, horrible. Suddenly, I can take no more. Tears well and my throat emits a hoarse rattle that startles Theophile. Don’t be scared, little man, I love you.”
I love you.

Photo: Rosa+Iris eating their Christmas lunch!

january/february books

More books, I’m afraid:
The Fry Chronicles (Stephen Fry): Incredibly readable. At over 400 pages, the book is probably much longer than it needs to be (Fry acknowledges this at the very start of the book) – afterall, it’s his second autobiography and it still only takes us up to his 30th birthday! I frequently had a sense that I could have skipped a few pages and not lost the general gist - a bit like tuning into the Archers every so often (which I don’t) and knowing you could catch up on the storyline very quickly. Having said that, I do love the way he writes and really didn't want the book to end.
The Wild Places (Robert Macfarlane): A simply magical, inspiring book – beautifully written – describing Macfarlane’s journeys around Britain seeking out the truly wild places. I’m really NOT one of those people who simply packs a warm sleeping bag and bivouac bag and trudges off in search of wilderness – especially at night and in the snow(!) – but even I was captivated by his adventures and stories.
All The Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy): I was incredibly impressed by McCarthy’s “The Road” and so decided to read his “The Border Trilogy” (this book is volume one). I found it a difficult book to get into at the start, but really warmed to it in the end. Set in America in the early 1950s, it deals (among other things) with the transition between boyhood and manhood. I’m looking to reading volumes two+three in due course!
Mountains of the Mind (Robert Macfarlane): Another wonderful Macfarlane book. I’m afraid I don’t have a head for heights and so mountaineering as a hobby is a definite “no no” for me. Despite this, I’ve read and enjoyed many books on the subject and this is one of the very best. Essentially, it’s a fascinating history of mountaineering but, like his “Wild Places” book, I particularly enjoyed tales of his own experiences.
What a Carve Up! (Jonathan Coe): This is our book group’s first book (blame Catherine!), so I suppose I shouldn’t really be commenting, to any great extent, here in advance of our meeting on 11 March! The book was published in the mid-1990s and is effectively a condemnation of Thatcher’s Britain. Whilst (as you might imagine) I found this easy to applaud and enjoy – it’s very funny at times, I was also irritated by its preposterous and, sometimes, predictably fantastic storyline. Having just finished the book, I’m left with mixed feelings about it. Maybe I’ll think differently once I’ve had time to reflect.

tax avoidance

Last November, I blogged about tax avoidance… and that there were some high-powered people who argued that the UK didn’t have a spending crisis, but that it had a tax avoidance crisis.
So I was absolutely furious to read an article in this morning’s Guardian which indicated that Barclays Bank had been forced to admit that it paid just £113million in UK corporation tax in 2009 – a year when it made record profits of £11.6bn (that’s 11,600million).
In other words, its tax bill represented just 0.974% of its profits!
Stunning. Sickening. Derisory. Just plain wrong.
So, at a time when most of us are being devastated by the billion-pound cuts to essential services that we all depend on, Barclays is paying out bonuses of £2bn and its CEO, Bob Diamond, is in line for a bonus of more than £8million. It’s important to understand that Barclays is not the only company accused of tax-avoidance in the UK - others include Boots and Vodafone.
Once again, clearly, we’re NOT 'all in this together'!
I’ve just signed up on the Robin Hood Tax website. Please do the same!

dad from hell and fears for the future

I’ve been haunted over the weekend by something I witnessed outside The Galleries shopping centre in Bristol on Saturday. It involved a young family – a father and a mother (I assume) and two young boys (say 3 and 5 years old). It all happened within the space of perhaps a minute. It seemed as if the mother and the youngest child had been a little late getting to a pre-arranged meeting point. “Dad” was absolutely FURIOUS – not in a huffing and puffing sort of way, but ABSOLUTELY furious. Dad was the only person making a noise – the other three remained completely silent. Dad was shouting a torrent of appalling abuse – he must have used the “F” word at least 30 times in this short period. He was SCREAMING at the woman and literally spitting out his venomous diatribe. It was really frightening and it was utterly sickening to behold.
The bewildered boys simply looked on; there were no tears, but they looked absolutely petrified. The mother remained silent. Perhaps unfairly, I got the impression that this was in no way a rare event and, by the level of the father’s rage, I couldn’t help thinking that the relationship was probably a violent one.
Since witnessing this, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the woman and her sons… in my head, I’m urging her to leave her partner and I fear for what the future holds for the boys. Have their lives already been stained forever? Will they simply “inherit” their father’s parenting “skills” and regard them as normal?
It would have been futile for me to have intervened and yet I feel massively guilty for not doing so.