A marvellous fortnight

Over the last two weeks, it has been a game of two halves, with The Cat's Mother's birthday, and my trip to Edinburgh as the half-time snacks.

I am sure I've mentioned that our cultural tastes are different...complementary some would say.  By some coincidence, last week was all me, and this week have been all Cat's Mother.  So, I dragged her out on a guided tour looking at London lighting...no, not special lights, just how light is used in the urban environment, and the effect it has on the way we behave.  Our guide was a very mad American, who decided to describe herself as a night time designer.  In some ways that is a fair description, as without light, our night lives would be very much curtailed.  Light brings with it a sense of safety and security, as well as creating different shapes and shadows.  It was quite fun.  Really.

Then we went to Greenwich to see the new production by Shunt...the immersive theatre company. The current production, called The Boy Who Climbed Out Of His Face, takes place in a series of shipping containers, and essentially is a series of scenarios designed to discombobulate you.  I shouldn't say any more, as I'd hate to spoil it for you should you decide to go along, suffice to say The Cat's Mother came out with a face that said, "Really?" and I came out with a large grin.  Apart from the performance, there was a lovely bar serving delicious food on the side of the Thames, so we could both relax and enjoy that.

The Friday night was The Art of Dining as I mentioned.  It was fabulous with colour-coded food, cocktails and lighting.

This week, we went to the Art Fair at the RCA, with paitings and sculpture from £500 - £500,000. We do like to go because it was one of the first things The Cat's Mother and I went to went we became a couple.  Usually there's plenty of great stuff, and plenty of nonsense.  Much is over-priced and very little would I want on my walls.  The exhibition is full of a certain type....arty trustafarians who can make interesting viewing, but truthfully wouldn't be much missed if the RCA fell into a very deep pit.

The next night, courtesy of UP we went to late night Proms to see Rufus Wainright. I can't say I was much looking forward to it as he's not someone whose music I have much enjoyed in the past and I had a cold to boot.  But The Proms always sizzle, and I have to say the concert was fabulous...he was quite endearing, and his final song 'Somewhere over the rainbow' (Wizard of Oz is indeed on limited cinema release at the moment by coincidence) was mesmerising.  Lovely.

And then last night we went first to the Paramount restaurant - it's the one at the top of Centrepoint -to celebrate a 21st birthday and then on to see Once.  Views and food at The Paramount are stunning, so highly, highly recommended.  Once was also surprisingly wonderful.  There's the merest shadow of a story but some fabulous songs, beautifully sung, a terrific set and a very engaging performance overall.  Cleverly too, you can go up on stage at the interval where they have a bar...so that'll be the third West End stage we've been on...a lovely, lovely night out.

Father Muffin has read somewhere that we (that's you, me and everyone else) are using fewer and fewer words in day to day conversation.  The net result is that some words are becoming endangered, much like pandas (although there's some debate about whether we should bother with pandas anyway, as they are completely useless at everything, except looking cuddly).  Two of the endangered words are marvellous and fortnight.  I hope I have helped redress the balance and kept them alive for a little longer.

An angel in the north

It is the most extraordinary time to be in Scotland...will they won't they?  It easily beats Eastenders for a plot line.  I've always said that they would go, as much because I couldn't see the 'stay togethers' marshaling the arguments to encourage a continuing Union..and so far it looks as though I'm right.  If he strongest argument revolves around the Pound, then I too would be voting for an independent Scotland.  I've also always argued that the wrong question was being asked, and it would have been better to seize the initiative and ask the whole Union about a looser, federal-style state...it would allow each country to develop a strong identity with policies specific to each region within a stronger United Kingdom...though as I've said before, a lack of political vision by the political elite (aka political pygmies) made the likelihood of that becoming a reality remote.  If the Scots should panic and stay at the last moment what's likely to happen is the creation of an even more skewed political system that is not good for anyone south of Hadrian's Wall...and ultimately that is likely to cause real problems in the short-term.

So with that as a background, it was an interesting weekend taking McFred as he will henceforth be known up to Scotland.  But before that, Friday night we celebrated The Cat's Mother's birthday at a pop up restaurant.  The themed night was called 'The Art of Colour' so you can guess that each course...and there were five...were each a different colour.  Delicious.  As usual with things I organise we, and our friends, were the oldest there, and it may not have been coincidence that we were put on a separate table to the rest of the attendees.  It was a late finish which mean that when we rose in the morning I was rather more bleary-eyed than I would have liked for a seven hour journey.  Hey ho.


I had thought of renting a car, or perhaps renting a car one way and flying back as I thought my beloved Jeep was probably not a long distance cruiser.  But expense, inertia and something else, meant that the Jeep was called into service...after all it is just 344.3 miles from home to Edinburgh.  It was packed to the gills and we left on a sunny Saturday morning (just) eventually arriving in the trendy dock area of Leith at about 6.30.  Having checked-in we had time for a wander and a beer...I suspect he wanted more than one beer, but I though a gentle break into student life was called for.  The next morning we headed across town to his halls and under the stern watch of various marshals unloaded quickly and installed him into his room.  Compact yet comfortable.  He had a lot to do, people to meet, places to be so I departed with a tear in my eye...I hadn't expected that as this wasn't the first time he'd left us, but I guess it is a new era...an exciting one for him...and knowing how he works, he will throw himself into it 250%.  I don't doubt that by the end of the first term he will have adopted a Scottish accent, and who knows found the family tartan.

I headed south, stopping only to admire The Angel of the North - it had long been my ambition to see it, and I was delighted that my expectations were met.  Spectacular.  The Jeep proved to be an adept long-distance cruiser, and particularly enjoyable as the sunshine enabled me to remove the roof...I may even have caught a tan.  removing the roof takes quite an effort...undo a couple of clips, turn half a dozen levers, unscrew two locking knobs, remove the two sections and store in boot...something not doubt if here is any possibility of rain!

So there are a couple of pictures I like more than most...the fisheye ones make The Angel look as if he is embracing the people and land around, and the very, very overexposed one gives the wings a translucent effect, almost like a dragonfly..

A little lost

I've added another photo to my launderette blog, which for me at least is quite exciting.  You can see it here.  And don't forget if you want to contribute, just email the picture with location to me at bradstockboys@hotmail.com.

This post I've just spotted is number 1234.  I rather like that.  I like numbers which are fun.  The Cat's Mother is feintly amused when I'm driving and the odometer turns to 12345, or 15551 or some such number and I get very excited.  Little things.

It's a good job I have another blog to play with because I've started avoiding the newspapers.  Isn't the news just so depressing?  You've got hundreds of girls being abused in Rotherham because the people who were supposed to be protecting them couldn't face facts.  In Ukraine, Russia is making its presence felt more and more.  Western Europe and America are effectively standing by and letting it happen.  Mark my words when Putin gets away with it there, he will find a new playground for his thugs.  In Iraq, we're also standing by whilst the mess we created is going from bad to worse.  And in my favourite area, Palestine, Israel has made yet another land grab.  I posted the BBC news article on Facebook, and that attracted the anti-semites, which makes me very sad...I abhor anti-semitism as much as any 'ism'.  I believe that Israel as a country behaves atrociously and is run by vile politicians, but where they worship is of no interest to me at all.  Here I see we are sleep-walking into an independent Scotland...if that does happen I can only hope it causes some real soul-searching about the future of the UK, but with our muddle-headed, middle-management politicians, I doubt it will.

We hoped off down to Brighton with the small Muffins and UP this weekend (sorry Laura, not a good time to catch up).  On the way down, we stopped off at Tulley's Farm which has a long-established maize maze which I used to take The Boy to when he was younger.  I have a sneaking suspicion that I always enjoyed it more than him, but if I vocalise that it just leaves me open to all sorts of ridicule such is family life.  This year with our hot and wet summer, the maize has grown fantastically well, easily reaching six foot high...so it was particularly enticing and perhaps a little daunting.  Off we strode, quickly getting as lost as lost can be, but enjoying the exploration and trying to avoid slipping over in the mud which had been made worse by the morning's torrential downpour.  The Boy and I have done it in just under 45 minutes, but it was not to be this time because UP pulled out a map to guide us round.  For me and The Boy this was quite bizarre as everyone had been enjoying themselves as it was, but UP is a law unto himself and it did give the mini-muffins the opportunity to march round to each of the stamps that had been hidden along the secret paths.  Either way, they enjoyed it, and that is what counts.

We all went to see Annie Get Your Gun which is a fine, old musical.  Not quite my cup of tea, but there was no doubting it was well performed and well produced.  On Saturday we had planned to go on the pier, as the mini-muffins have never experienced that particular seaside delight.  However, the beach itself held plenty of attractions by itself, and by he time we'd gone up and round the Brighton wheel, there was no time for the pier itself.  Shame I was quite looking forward to it.

A wet bank holiday

The Muffins have some friends who have a whisky collection.  They inherited on the death of the father of one of them.  There's enough that they like to hold dinner parties combined with whisky tasting evenings.  As I enjoy my whisky (not so much whiskey), I was delighted to head along on Saturday evening.  The meal consisted of salmon with cream cheese on blinis, followed by smoked duck on a bed of watercress, followed by tagliatelle and finally mackerel fish cakes...that's if you don't include the chocolate and ginger drops.  With each course we sampled a different whisky or two.  Delicious.  I learnt a few things.  Firstly, a mouthful of food can radically change the flavour of a whisky (some that we liked we liked less after a bite of mackerel, etc) and that the cost of a whisky can often reflect its rarity rather than its quality.  It was a really lovely evening...with tales of disastrous weddings at Camden Registry office and wedding rings made from three generations of mothers' wedding rings...and some gold fillings.

Naturally Sunday morning was a little fuggy.

The Cat and The Boy headed off to a party near Canterbury...old school friends recounting tales of their past year since leaving school.  I don't think it got too wild, I do think it went on quite late.  And so it should.

We reconvened as a family group in Deal where we were meeting some friends who live there.  They have returned to Blighty after years of living and working abroad, most recently in Germany.  This gave The Boy a chance to practice his Austrian-accented German.  I believe he passed muster.  We all had a game or two of pool in the 'man cave'...and I was quite pleased to have won both games...it was only fun, but actually as I hadn't picked up a cue for a couple of decades there was a small joy to winning!

It also gave me the opportunity to freshen up.I hadn't realised the extent to which the #icebucketchallenge had swept the country, so had been surprised to find that I had been challenged.  I think there's a bit of a backlash as happens with these things, but I guess I feel that it's a bit of fun, and encourages people to donate money they would otherwise not, so why not.  As it happens another of the guests there had been challenged too, so we took up the challenge together.  You're probably bored with seeing these, but then what's another...



The Boy is very single-minded in all things.  That's both a blessing and a curse.  It means he has an iron determination to achieve what he wants to, and there is no doubting that is a good thing.  On the other hand he does speak incessantly about a subject when a bit of variety might be a good idea.  Still I would rather have it this way round, than him having no interests or no passion about the things he gets involved in.

The Boy and I are all set for our trip up to Edinburgh.  He's off to study German and English Literature starting early September.  It's an eight hour journey, and car rental is out of the question...he's not yet 23, so I'll be driving there and back in a weekend.  Groan.  Muffin Dad suggested renting a car one way and flying back which  is a  great idea, but the cost is horrendous, so I've had to rule that out.  Am hoping that Auntie Gwen will supply her son's  contact details so my Boy will be able to hook up with hers.

Oh what a tangled web we weave.  The Middle East is going from bad to worse it seems, and from where I sit, the west is largely responsible for stirring up this hornet's nest.  Not just in the last ten, twenty or thirty years, but going way way back.  There's even talk of us having to support the Assad Government in Syria against ISIS.  Really?  How mad is that?  Perhaps in future, the West will learn to keep its collective noses out of the region.  But I doubt it.

Viva Espana

I have a couple of projects going on at the moment...neither quite have the momentum they ought.

So firstly, I started another blog.  It's just photographs of launderettes.  Why would I do that?  Well, I suspect that they will all disappear, and that will be a shame.  They are great meeting places, and part of the traditional high street...well at least a side street off it.  But fewer and fewer homes are without laundry facilities now, so they are in decline.  It's a shame, as there's something quite romantic about being in a launderette on a dark and wintry evening.  I'd like to do this project seriously...a photo outside, a picture inside and a few lines from someone using it...but a lack of bravado on my part, some uncomfortableness from owners and not being focused has got this one stalling in the starting blocks.  Anyway, if you happen to be passing a launderette and want to send me a picture I'd be delighted...ask your friends and relatives too.  I'll credit you.  Please make sure you say where it is.  Here's the link

My other project is putting all my CDs onto a hard drive.  This particular one has wifi built in so I can then play it through pretty much whatever I want wherever I want.  It's a labour of love, and not quite completed...probably about 85% there.  That's a lot of CDs...several thousand.  It's sort of worked...some CDs are beyond their sell by date, some CDs don't have album artwork on line, and it appears that in the course of history some of my favourites have become the disappeared. The Cat's Mother has put up with me sitting watching TV with her whilst at the same time I slip yet another CD in the computer.  It's been going on for weeks.  Her patience might be wearing thin which is a shame because I wasn't quite sure how big the files were going to be so I recorded them in 320kps MP3 format.  That's not quite as good as it should be, but good enough for general listening.  Now I'm nearly at the end I can see I probably could have used a 'Lossless' format so want to start all over again.  Our relationship may not survive that, so I may have to sneak off for long weekends by myself...

Talking of which, The Cat's Mother has gone to Spain with The Muffins and UP for a short week.  I headed down to Brighton for a couple of days of RnR...I've had a lovely time, but as it's Monday I've been working which is a shame really.  It does help me be distracted from the return of The Prodigal Son tomorrow...that is a very exciting prospect!