Day: 20 October 2024

Weeknotes #91: holiday and a previously unvisited country

Enjoyable experiences in Paleokastritsa and crime dramas explored.

Week commencing Monday, 14 October 2024

Greek and Romain ruins at Butrint National Park, Albania
Butrint National Park
Inside the Old Fortress, Corfu
Old Fortress, Corfu
Sunshine over one of the bays at Paleokastritsa, Corfu, with shimmering blue sea and mountains on either side.
Paleokastritsa, Corfu
Sunset over the Paleokastritsa bay, Corfu
Paleokastritsa Sunset

Quantified Self

  • This week: Stand 7/7; Exercise 7/7 and Move 7/7. (100%). No office days as I am on vacation. Total steps: 92,938

Life

  • A week in Paleokastritsa. The hotel might be dated, but the weather was hotter than expected; the food was great and the view wonderful.
  • Corfu Town was a comfortable bus ride away. The Old Town has been a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 2007. We were served a kumquat liqueur at the end of the meal: a strong-flavoured, sweet orange-coloured drink which we both thought was delicious.
  • The donkey trail was very hard going, but the view from the top was worth the pain. Down was a lot easier than I imagined.
  • A day trip to Albania ticked off another country. The National Park of Butrint was amazing. Another UNESCO World Heritage site.
  • On Friday, the waters were too choppy for a boat but lovely views. Around 4pm we set off for the climb to Paleokastritsa Monastery. It’s on a cliff at the end of the bay. We saw a cross in the distance on the edge of the cliff. We decided to take a look and made our way along the path. I feel modern health and safety rules would have the path improved and add railings. The view was lovely but debatable if it was worth the effort.
  • The bar on Saturday afternoon was a hundred steps down to a rocky outcrop. The beer was nice, but I couldn’t shake the feeling I’d drop something over the edge.
  • The Sunday morning minibus had pickups in some lovely areas down winding roads. They felt a bit cut off to me.
  • The return flight was late, but home before 5pm meant we had an evening. We kept the holiday vibe with a kebab.

Media

Wet London 20

Back now from my holiday and it seems that London has been wet while I have been away!

Wet London 20
Wet London 20

Ah, so I am back and exhausted from my little holiday. You will see some pictures on the Flickr sidebar or at my Flickr pages. Of course while I have been enjoying some sunshine I see London hasn’t been that dry. [Wet London 20]

Taboo: The Boy George Musical
Taboo: The Boy George Musical

Time now to tackle some of the 200 or so comment spam messages that have arrived in my in box.

In the meantime, is it really two years since I went to see Taboo?

21 Dog Years: Doing Time At Amazon.Com

Daisey’s book is flagged as a comic tale but it takes a while for the comedy to warm-up. In fact, it’s only towards the end that I felt there were some laugh-out-loud moments but don’t let that put you off. ’21 Dogs Years’ in well written and compelling.

It’s quite easy to get sucked into Mike Daisey’s ‘21 Dog Years: Doing Time At Amazon.Com‘ as he moves from dilettante to corporate business development guy. On the journey we learn he is one of the (mythological?) freaks that Amazon initially wanted to help launch and then staff its growing customer service division. We learn about the training, the call-time targets, the lack of windows, the Chicken Orzo Salad and Jeff obsessions.

Unlike Robert Spector’s ‘Amazon.Com: Get Big Fast‘ this is a tale from the inside but how much is exaggerated for comic effect is unclear. For sure, life in an under-staffed call centre – where if you don’t work all hours you’re seen as letting the team down – is not the glamorous side of any business and the world of fast growing online books sellers can be no exception. The dreams that all would be multi-millionaires on the back of huge stock rises are also not unusual to any tale of this era. Perhaps the thought of sending the free books to customers on the database isn’t typical of the dot-com boom but the frenzied ‘1-click Christmas’ period will be familiar to many in a start-up venture.

Daisey’s book is flagged as a comic tale but it takes a while for the comedy to warm-up. In fact, it’s only towards the end that I felt there were some laugh-out-loud moments but don’t let that put you off. ’21 Dogs Years’ in well written and compelling. You really do want to know what Mike’s going to do at the end. Don’t look for an insight into business strategies of that time but you will get a view of the craziness of life in the trenches of rapidly growing business.

Elsewhere: Everything Taboo

I thought Taboo was fantastic, so I wrote a review.

I went to see Boy George’s Taboo last Friday and have been contemplating the blog entry ever since. I have to say that I thought that it was fabulous and I want to see it again (I even ordered the soundtrack last night!). It’s a fictional account of a lot of real people, but most of the plot must be based on Boy George’s own life story, as I recognised many of the characters and plot lines from his book Take It Like A Man. Obviously, he is a key (though not the central) character. I would thoroughly recommend this to anybody visiting London, regardless of the way you feel about Boy George. It’s a strange time capsule of a musical, and his songs are great – although several of them are old (some of which are taken from the underrated album Cheapness and Beauty, which I regard as one of the best of all time). The story is tender, the performances top-rate, and the whole thing is laugh-out-loud funny (especially Julian Clary). Lastminute.com often has cut-price tickets a few days before a show. Go see it. Often.

I also posted a review to the musical fan group at Yahoo! This is what I wrote:

I thought Taboo was fantastic – and I wasn’t sure what to really expect. I think I had envisaged it as something akin to Closer To Heaven, but it wasn’t really like that at all. I loved the fact that The Venue is quite small and quite intimate, which made you feel closer to the stage (and the audience bits help) and, of course, it brought memories flooding back (although I was watching events in the early 80s from the safety of the north).

I am a big fan of Boy George’s more recent albums – Cheapness and Beauty is one of my all-time favourites. When I heard some of the songs were being reworked for the show, I was worried. Luckily, few have been re-penned, and those that have been re-done are still as good as they are on the CD (although different). I was stunned by how much the mannerisms of the Boy George character seem to be like the Boy George we see on TV, etc. It was a remarkable performance. Duncan Bennett as Billy was superb (was he really in the band Point Break? I don’t remember him) as well as being some appealing eye candy 😉 It was a thoroughly entertaining night out, and I would recommend it to anybody.

Julian Clary was superb and, of course, looked stunning in those Leigh costumes. I would be interested to see how other people play the part as he put his own stamp on it without it seeming to be too Julian Clary.

I’ve ordered the CD – the cheapest I could find it was £10.99 at play.com – although it was on back order, I notice tonight that they have posted it to me. I’m sure the CD doesn’t do the show justice (they rarely do), but I hope it will be brilliant anyway! Lastminute.com always seems to have discounts on top price tickets. I bought the cheaper seats direct from the box office and, to be honest, I think my view was as good as anybody with the more expensive ones (the theatre isn’t really large enough for it to make a difference). However, Lastminute’s discount seats are even cheaper, and I shall certainly be going again.

[Links: BBC News – George breaks 80s Taboo | BBC News – Matt Lucas’s comic extremes | Guardian – We were so naughty | I Love the 80s]