First Friday Photos

Well remarkably this is the first time in months that I've actually done this on time.

The benefit of err erm working from home this morning.


My last cycle home along the canal this year

Evening view across the Thames

Yummy!

TOWIE

Eating out in October

Not the Rugby World Cup

No month is complete without some street art - Ben Eine

Traditional punting in Cambridge

The ski show...obviously

Doughnuts on the pier

Another kind of beach...on the Thames

Cafe tables in Brighton

Boat on the beach in Brighton

Another boat

having fun go round and round

It's all just rubbish

The birthday boy

And his brother

Off to a Halloween Party

UP

The Boy

It's a laugh

Opera Girl

Kids!

Aunt and neice in the media centre at Lords

Seats good enough for a Lord

Cats together

C'mon, c'mon...keep up (3)

In blog land I'm still in last week. That's the equivalent of not changing the clocks back (or forwards) some ninety-six times if my maths is right. Which is a lot.

I celebrated Palestine being being accepted into full membership of UNESCO. It may be a small step. But it's a significant one. The US has shown its colours by cutting off UNESCO. That would be justifiable if it had a realistic alternative. But it doesn't. Its' middle-east policy is bankrupt and has been for years under successive Presidents. And whilst the middle-east remains in turmoil there is little question that extremism will grow with almost inevitable terrible consequences. Peace and prosperity in that neck of the woods would bring calm and safety in the rest of the world.

But enough...

After two days hard toil at the office last week I needed a break. You may be able to work five, six, even seven days a week, but I am more a more tender flower wilting under the the glaring heat of stress. Well that's my reasoning anyway....and I can justify it by letting you know about a senior moment I had this week. I had an important letter to post, so I stepped out of the office and walked towards the post box. As I neared, I tossed the letter in only to realise immediately that I'd put it in the black rubbish bin, not the red letterbox. As I stuck my arm in to retrieve it I had to sheepishly explain to the people walking past and whispering to each other my mistake. Well at least it amused them.

As it happens, I had the perfect excuse to escape the office on Friday. The Cat's Granddad was celebrating his eightieth birthday. That's a fine age to reach. That's thirty more years than I've managed, and he still seems to be bright as a bell. So to celebrate The Cat's Mother had organised a day at Lord's for the family. That's the world-famous cricket ground. The biggest in the world (inspite of what the Australian's might claim). It's also home to the most ridiculous trophy for any sport. A broken perfume bottle that may or may not contain the ashes of a stump. Only the English. You may feel that late October is an odd time to be at Lords, but our day consisted of being coached by two former England cricketers...John Lever and John Embury. And what a challenge they had. With the age group ranging from six through to 80 and with talent ranging from the very enthusiastic amateur to me. We were in the Lord's Indoor academy, and it was a lot of fun for everyone. My appalling bowling (it was noted that I had left a former international cricketer speechless with my performance) was compensated by a pretty respectable turn at batting even if I say so myself. Birthday boy had to race his brother round the wickets, and it was a shame we didn't quite capture that on video.






For Up and Muffin Dad, the day was a special treat. The Muffin is the keen cricketer so he was playing on holy ground, and in their younger days Up and The Cat's Mother used to be enthusiasts. UP had kept a programme from years gone by, and it was his opportunity to get it autographed...how touching is that?!

No wonder we needed a quiet weekend.

Oh no. I forgot. On Sunday we forewent the delights of Downton Abbey to see a couple of exhibitions by urban artists which were also being filmed for a BBC documentary. So it may be my second chance of fifteen minutes of fame, although I did avoid the opportunity of being interviewed this time round. There's a thing that worries me. I like modern art, I like street art, I like urban art. I also like more traditional art. The major difference as I see it is that with traditional art, the craft is more important than the concept (although I know many scholars would challenge me on that) but with urban art, too often it's all concept and little artistry. We didn't see any thing we'd like to hang on the wall at home. It would have been a fabulous time, but the teenagers took it on themselves to be teenagers. One spent the evening sulking and the other threw a mini-strop.

If only I'd had a cricket bat with me.

C'mon, c'mon....keep up (2)

Well I was somewhat disappointed really.

The Cat's Mother said we were going to spend an evening with Simon Cowell. First class entertainment I thought. As you will all know and appreciate, I'm an avid fan of X-Factor, and often watch repeats when I've exhausted my collection of TOWIE DVDs. So you can imagine the shock when it turns out that it was Simon Callow we were seeing at the Theatre Royal in Brighton last Monday. Worse still he was giving a solo performance (c'mon you know that Girls Aloud wouldn't be half as good if it was just the Ginger One) and it was Dickens. Charles Dickens. I don't know if you've ever tried to read any of his stuff, but frankly my dears it's bloody hard going. Naturally enough to make this all go a little better (less worse) we dined at Caves A Fromage (who should be paying me for the number of times I plug the best cheese, chacuterie and wine shop in the world. IMHO). As it turned out I drank nearly a whole bottle of red wine. So it's testament to the abilities of Mr Callow that I was riveted throughout his performances of Mr Chops and Dr Marigold. It was just remarkable that he managed to bring to life words that would have most schoolboys (and girls) weeping into their text books. So even if you don't like Mr Dickens, if you get the chance, give this a whirl. To cap the evening off, we leapt on a bus (there were no taxis as the sky had opened and rain was falling) and the driver didn't have the heart to charge us the £12.50 for the 10 minute journey it took us to get home. Rumour has it this is the first time The Cat's Mother has been on a bus in thirty years.

Simon Callow had followed a day in Lewes for The Cat's Mother and I as we procured tickets for the somewhat lively bonfire celebrations they have there. It's the one occasion you can hear tens of thousands of folk chanting 'Burn the catholics' 'Burn the Pope' without threat of arrest from Her Majesty's Constabulary. We managed to get the tickets, so I'll no doubt tell all after the event....and in the hope we haven't all been burnt to a cinder or blown up by a firecracker. In this health and safety obsessed age it never ceases to amaze me that the celebrations in Lewes are allowed. I always found Lewes to be a slightly odd and spooky place, and have become convinced that every ancient dwelling contains a witches coven. It's very, very beautiful...and at the heart of the town is a brewery which you can tour around. That is if you can face the two year wait, such is the popularity of the place. I may not have the best bar technique, but frankly two years is a long to wait to be served, even if it is my round.


Tuesday we had another sunny day, and headed round the Brighton Wheel before returning to Epping Forest and work on Wednesday and Thursday and the opportunity to re-engage with the outside world. I was disappointed to have missed the Tory rebellion against David Cameron. Evidently too many country squires still can't see any benefit to being in bed with Johnnie Foreigner. And as it turns out the Greeks are doing their utmost to prove them right. With a referendum which will almost inevitably end up with the Greeks rejecting the EU solution for their fiscal issues, we'll all be stuffed like one of their olive leaves. Which gives me the perfect opportunity to point out that, as I understand it, it was that fine banking institution Goldman Sachs that enabled them to cook the books in the first place.

C'mon, c'mon....keep up (1)

We seem to have been doing so much that I'm struggling to keep up with myself....and whilst the minutiae of my life may not be of much interest to too many people, it is to me, and if I don't write it down I know I'll forget...so its all about me, me, me.

On a sad note, today I'm wearing something yellow in memory of Jo McGowran

Last weekend...that's not the one that finished last night, but the one that finished a week ago, The Boy and I went off to the ski show, which this year was at http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifEarls Court. Of note was that I could buy cheaper tickets online before the event, but by the time they'd added their booking fee, I might just as well have bought them at the event. Which was pretty empty really. It was inevitably going to be an expensive trip...it always is. Works on the same principle as IKEA...you go in to buy a £2 candle and come out six hours later with an entire flatpack house costing several thousand pounds. I regard it as a major success if I get out with a bill of less than £200. This year The Boy needed new ski boots. His first pair. I said I would buy them for Christmas. The whole process took about two and half hours, which was a pain as by that time we had only and hour and a half to spare. The net result is that we had to leave before they had finished fitting them (heating them and moulding) so he had to wear them on the tube to make sure the moulding finished off....He has interestingly shaped feet and ankles...even I could see that when he stood in line with a group of other males. His ankles are so narrow, yet the front of his feet are really quite wide. Although there is a family joke to be told, I'm not aloud to say a thing. Anyway, the boots are green...pretty much as I felt when I had to pay.



Sunday we traveled down to Brighton like Royalty. Not in a posh train, nor in an RAF helicopter, but separately. It wasn't that we weren't talking it's just that there wasn't room for us all in the Jeep. A year or more ago The Cat's Mother and I bought in Brighton an old wrought iron column to put a pot plant on. The man loaded it in the back, and we realised that no matter how we tried the two of us would never be able to carry it up the 97 steps to the flat. So it got taken from Brighton to Loughton, where The Boy and I lifted it out and put it in the garage. And there it stayed as there was not an opportunity to take it back to the south coast until this weekend. So a year later The Boy, the column and I drove past the shop in Brighton that had originally sold it to us. Somewhere behind us was The Cat's Mother, The Cat and her best friend Namesake....obviously it had taken them longer to get ready and leave. The column was carried up the stairs without too much bother, the plant placed carefully on the top. And lo and behold it looked wonderful.



That evening we went out to a restaurant and had to cook our own food. It wasn't that the chef had gone on strike. It wasn't that we couldn't afford to pay so had to cook and wash up. It was because we were at Jamie Oliver's Recipease. They supply all the ingredients, and a chef to teach you how to cook. There was fourteen of us tasked with creating American-style pork chilli. We worked in pairs...I was with The Cat's Mother, The Cat was with Namesake and The Boy was with A Complete Stranger. Nobody fell out, in fact we had a splendid time chopping, adding salt, frying, adding salt, boiling, adding salt, mixing, adding salt, etc, adding salt, etc, adding salt, etc. And we all managed to turn out something quite delicious washed down with a couple of glasses of delicious wine. Who said the young don't know how to cook?





And before I go any further...thank you Rol for the comic! And see you at Christmas Scarlet....

Oh what a lovely war

I love sharing an office with a film location company:

"Did Andy know you wanted to hang someone off the balcony?"

I thought it might be Michael Jackson on the end of the telephone line. But no it's the filming of the new Sweeney!



So do we really think the politicians have sorted out the Euro problems then? No. I don't think so. Not least becasue it will mean pumping yet more money into the banks, whilst the banks themselves pour yet money into the pockets of their staff. It stinks. No wonder wealth disparity has increased so much in the last twenty years. I am a great supporter of the Occupy anti-capitalist protest camp outside St Pauls. Actually, the point is that it's really outside the Stock Exchange. THere's been a great deal of untruths spread about the protestors, but then you can't really expect the City authorities to be too truthful about the strength of feeling the cause has attracted. It is a crying shame though that The canon chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral Dr Giles Fraser has decided to step down, apparently because he disagrees with the Church's desire to evict the protestors. It seems there is an unholy trinity of Church, State and Finance. We saw Giles Fraser earlier this year at a public event to discuss 400 years of the King James bible...that's the one you've probably got tucked away in a bottom drawer somwhere. He seems very personable.

The West Pier was a pier in my beloved Brighton. It was built in 1866 by Eugenius Birch but was closed in 1975, awaiting renovation. It was Brighton's second pier, the other being the Palace Pier

The West Pier was opened in 1866 with a length of 1115 feet, and built with cast iron threaded columns screwed into the seabed. The pier did not have much of a superstructure until 1893 when a pier head was extended and a pavilion added. A concert hall was added in 1916 and a new top-deck entrance in 1932. In 1965 the pier was bought by a company that owned some seafront hotels and entertainment venues. They had ambitions for the pier but as maintenance costs increased the pier was closed in 1975 when Brighton Corporation declined to buy it and the pier passed into the hands of the Crown Estates Commissioners. A trust was formed to save the pier and in 1984 they bought it for a nominal sum. After that time there were many schemes to revive it, most were madcap and one included backing from the now bankrupt boxer and local resident Chris Eubank.

Famously it was used as the back drop for Attenborough's wonderful musical Oh! what a lovely war!


The West Pier had been cut off from the shore (partly deliberately, for safety reasons) since 1975, but the West Pier trust offered regular tours of it until the structure suffered a serious partial collapse during a storm on 29 December 2002, when a walkway connecting the concert hall and pavilion fell into the sea. On 20 January 2003 a further collapse saw the destruction of the concert hall in the middle of the pier. On 28 March 2003 the pavilion at the end of the pier caught fire. With a remarkable degree of irony firefighters were unable to save the building from destruction because the collapsed walkway prevented them from reaching it. The cause of the fire remains unknown. On 11 May 2003, another fire broke out, consuming most of what was left of the concert hall. The Fire re-ignited on 12 May. Arson was suspected: the West Pier Trust refers to the fires as the work of "professional arsonists". Suggested beneficiaries to ending any possible development of the West Pier either local residents who objected to a new development on the sea front, or the threat of competition to the lucrative Palace Pier's business.

On 23 June 2004 high winds caused the middle of the pier to collapse completely. Despite all these setbacks, the West Pier Trust remained adamant that they would soon begin full restoration work. Finally, in December 2004, the Trust conceded defeat, after their plans were rejected by the Heritage Lottery Fund, in part because of problems with achieving the required "matched funding" from outside sources. Subsequent plans to restore only the oldest, structural parts of the pier were eventually rejected by English Heritage. However, in September 2005 the Trust revealed in their newsletter that they were forming further plans to rebuild the original structure with help from private funding.

In December 2005 the last remaining physical structure, the "little white hut", was lost when strong winds broke it away into the sea. Ironically, when the rest of pier had been intact, the hut had been said to be in serious threat of falling into the sea; yet it was the last piece to remain.

These days there is a rotting skeleton...and when The Boy and I had kayaks it was always fun to paddle round and through the structure, which is much loved by the local seagulls.

Since then, the idea has been to create a pier for the 21st century - the i360, is a slender, elegant observation tower the only one of its kind in the world, that elevates visitors in a pod to a height of 150m above sea level to enjoy stunning views. There are some great pictures here. It has been designed by the same people that created the London Eye, so is quite spectacular. If it hadn't been for the financial crisis (yes those bloody bankers again) it would have been built by now. This despite fierce opposition from Brighton's other Pier, the Palace Pier (renamed Brighton Pier by the owners to make a point) which couldn't see the benefits (and visitors) that such an attraction would bring. At the time of going to press there doesn't appear to be a time-scale for getting the i360 built....although they are claiming a 2013 opening date.

So it has come as quite a surprise that at the Palace Pier to find that on a slightly smaller scale we have the Brighton Wheel. A very splendid, if somewhat clunkier reflection of the London Eye, suddenly appeared. Of course, being Brighton, this one is second hand having first made an appearance in France and then South Africa, but who's to complain?! We went up it (round it?) this week during a couple of days off, and it has provided us with views of our city that none of us had ever seen before. Fantastic.

Faces?

Tara's Photo Gallery continues to thrive I'm delighted to see. I contribute when I can, and today I thought I would with this picture:



We were on a short break to Norfolk with some friends, and we headed to the amazingly sandy beaches when I saw this lady with her dog. I thought she had so much character in her face that I had to ask if I could take a picture of her and her dog...they both seemed to be having such a wonderful time. Surprisingly she was more than happy to be pictured, and this was the result. I wish I'd been able to send her it.

Chaos.

I still remember that when I was young I didn't know whether chaos was pronounced as a k (as in kite) or a ch (as in chimney). It's strange what things stick in your mind.

I think there is a theory that says the natural state of the universe is chaos. This makes me feel good because for most of my good many years I have lived in chaos. I am somewhat less in touch with the natural world these days as The Cat's Mother sees it as her mission to keep me on the straight and narrow. But there are areas where chaos still reighs supreme, and one of those is keeping track of the blogs I like to read. Some of them are listed to the right, some of them I 'follow' and some of them are just bookmarks. The net result is that I never can seem to keep a track on what I've read and what I haven't...sometimes realising that I've missed a good post by days, weeks even. I now it's all my own fault, but really it's most frustrating.

It's such a shame that in the chaos of the protest against bankers, St Pauls has felt it necessary to close its doors to the public. As The Cat's Mother says...Hitler didn't manage it. I remain entirely sympathetic with their aims, but this does seem to be biting off the hand that feeds them.

The public sector is making enormous cut backs so that we can balance the national budget after all those bankers f*cked us over. We're not quite in the same boat as the Greeks, but then they seemed to be able to retire before they'd even graduated from nursery so they don't illicit a lot of sympathy from anyone. It's not as if holidaying in Greece is any cheaper as a result is it? With this background it does seem surprising that Southwark Council has taken it upon itself to rip up the local park/ancient churchyard to refurbish it. It's a nice place, especially in the summer to eat your lunch, but I can't imagine how it has risen to the top of the council's list of priorities. Worse still. Much worse still is Camden Council which has decided to issue every one of its employees with a Swiss Ball. If you don't know, they're big rubber balls that you tend to find in gyms and are used as part of an exercise routine. In this case, employees are encouraged to sit on them to improve their posture. I'm not sure how many people are employed by Camden, but there's enough to mean that he bill for this must run into tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of pounds. I assume they all had chairs to sit on in the first place. I'm sure that Camden Council will say this is an investment in their employees health and will reduce the number of sick days. But really. Get a grip. This is unnecessary, unreasonable spending. Of taxpayers money. Extravagance is clearly a habit that local council finds hard to kick. I've a good mind to write to the Daily Mail.

It seems my brief on TV has caused a little bit of a furore amongst friends, relatives and others. By declaring I have a large overdraft on national TV, it seems most people assume I'm about to enter the poor house....you may see me begging on your local street corner. At first I laughed at people's response, but now I'm feeling a little defensive. So let me declare here and now, that I'm not broke, I can still afford new clothes and the odd CD or two. The overdraft is just working capital which I get at a reasonable rate of interest. It's a smart business decision, not a desperate plight. Now I've got that off my chest, please tell everyone else so that I can raise my head up again in Loughton High Street as I walk past another TOWIE shop.

And just to round off with Libya, there's not much for me to add that hasn't been said already. Gadaffi's dead, and it's a shame that he was kept alive long enough to be properly interrogated. There are many questions left unanswered, not the least of which being who killed WPC Fletcher and was the truth about Lockerbie. I wonder if there can now be any full closure for the families of his victims. I don't doubt that in the heat of the moment this particular dictator was dispatched by a simple bullet to the head by an over enthusiastic (or hatred-filled) fighter. And as Crispin Black says here wouldn't it have been wonderful to see Tony Blair on the stand as a character witness. So what started as chaos ends in chaos.

The Truman Show

I'm very good at forming opinions when only aware of half the facts. Sometimes less than half is necessary. This is a skill I was taught at school, and was particularly useful when sitting my history 'O' Level. As I got an A for that, I've always felt it is one of those skills I should hang on to.

So on that basis, let me say, that if I'd built a house without planning permission, I doubt it would have taken the council ten years to tear it down. My sympathies, therefore, lie with Essex Council when it comes to Dale Farm. And it's not too often that you find me sympathysing with authority.

The Middle East has disappeared off the front pages of the newspapers, to be replaced I see by a pretty hysterical warning from The Sun that fish pedicures will give you HIV. So in the interests of balance, let me say that in Egypt the army is pretty much in control and the likelihood of true democracy breaking out is remote. Still in Egypt, the Christians are being beaten to within an inch of their lives, so the chances of me being able to go there and buy the Bible written in Arabic which I should have bought in the Lebanon seems equally remote. In Libya, the fighting is still going on, and I don't think that Gadaffi will give up anytime soon, so the likelihood of me going to visit the amazing Roman ruins there seems erm, erm remote. The Syrian government is continuing to slaughter protesters, so that too is off my list of must go places. Yesterday you may have seen the Israeli soldier Schalit was returned five years after being captured/kidnapped by Hamas. In exchange, the Israelis are handing back a thousand Palestinian terrorists/freedom fighters. In general that seems to be viewed as a humiliation for Israel, and a sign that they had no military answer to the problem. On the other hand, it might be seen that Israel views one Israeli life as worth a thousand Arab lives...and that probably explains the continuing atrocities they commit against the Palestinians every day. You can see where my sympathies lie.

On Monday Loughton High Street was chaos as a film crew was doing what film crews do best. Filming. It was the opening of a new hairdressers, and I understand that the owner is one of the stars of The Only Way Is Essex. That's the second TOWIE owned retail establishment in Loughton...the other is a lingerie shop. I'm told there will soon be a TOWIE nail shop. I may be wrong (but I never let the facts get in the way of a good story - see above), but I think one of the bar/nightclubs is also run by a TOWIE star. If you know anything about Loughton, you'll know you can walk from one end to the other in five minutes. It's not a big place. Have you ever watched TOWIE? OK, have you ever watched TOWIE for more than five minutes? No, me neither. Terrible, terrible people and a terrible, terrible programme which is occupying valuable airwaves which could be taken up more usefully by a revival of Crossroads. Living in a TOWIE world may well be my worst nightmare come true. Hopefully Jim Carey will come and rescue me.

Mid-day in Paris

Is it me or had Downton Abbey become utter crap? We loved the first series, but second time round it's just not keeping us entertained on a Sunday evening. Too many plots still going on from the last series, too many new ones introduced in this series, and it's all a bit of an Eastenders rollercoaster. We may not last the full series...if only we'd plumped for Spooks instead.

I'm delighted to see that around the globe there has been proper rioting against the greedy bankers....about time too. Interestingly the Metropolitan police decided to 'kettle' the protesters to prevent the protest making an impact. So much for freedom of speech and democratic rights.

Last week was one of those goddam awful weeks that happen from time to time. I'm generally sanguine about them as I know that these things pass on the assumption that things pick up the following week. So it was "a bit of a disappointment" when my phone went off in the middle of the night with a computer message to let me know that the office alarm had been activated. I hauled myself out of bed and jumped on the motorbike, stopping a few hundred yards down the road as it was so cold I thought my fingers were going to fall off. Having put my winter gloves on again I set off and arrived at the office to find absolutely nothing was amiss. Having double checked everything, I returned home, arriving at 6.30 am, just in time to take The Boy to school for an exceptionally early start. When I got back I climbed into bed to give myself a half hour snooze before the day started properly. Not surprisingly, when I did arrive at the office, the computer kept crashing which meant most of the rest of the morning was spent sorting that out. Humph.

It was a good job we had an interesting weekend.

Friday night we saw The Tempest. Actually inspite of having Ralph Fiennes as Prospero it was piss-poor. Poor staging, poor acting and a desperately slow pace. Rank amateur. And this from Trevor Nunn...we can only surmise that he is distracted by his dalliance with Nancy Dell'ollio who is probably sucking his emotional energy out of him like a Dementor.

Sunday we had a day-trip to Cambridge to see a Vermeer exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum. This was a special trip for us because we wanted to see this picture:



We'd seen it in Paris just a few weeks ago when we popped over for a few days, so it was just fabulous to be able to see it again so soon. The exhibition is called Vermeer's Women, and having seen it I can now tell you that in the seventeenth century:
1. All Dutch children were pig-ugly
2. The women spent a lot of time buying fish...
3. ...when they weren't peeling vegetables
I can also reveal that the curator had failed to spot one of the women was in a skimpy Santa outfit. Tardy.

Sunday The Cat's Mother and I went to the fleapit to see Woody Allen's latest film. I've never enjoyed anything by Woody Allen so my hopes for this one were not high. Yet surprisingly it entranced me almost from the opening credits. I'd rate it pretty much the perfect Sunday matinee film...light, jolly and whimsical. We spent a lot of time trying to spot the places we'd been in Paris. I'm not sure we managed very well, but Paris was certainly shown at it's best...no doubt giving the President's wife a part helped them secure some great locations. The Americans were shown at their worst. And for the first time I realised that Marion Cotillard is an absolute babe.



Why she is given second billing and her name is virtually hidden on the IMDB entry. Perhaps the Americans are still not quite on board with the French again.