Category: Miscellany 2004

Back Ache

We started digging in the garden yesterday.

the start of the work in the gardenSo, this was the scene yesterday morning. It’s proved to be a lot harder work than we imagined and I can hardly walk. Still, they bring the new fence tomorrow (which will look something like the old one really) and it’s starting to make he place look better. We had an enjoyable barbecue with the neighbours for an hour yesterday afternoon which gave us a break and – probably – saved PY and I from arguing too much about the laying of the paving slabs.

Thank goodness the weather has been great this weekend – although it has made the work a little harder. This past week has had two torrential downpours which have brought parts of the transport system to a halt. A little like on this day in 2002.

Saturday News

A coule of interesting stories from this morning’s Guardian newspaper.

I think perhaps I am now behind the times. Apparently, this should be a video site:

Mr Bouwman is the vanguard of the latest internet trend: video logging or vlogging. One step up from the now familiar internet blogger, vloggers upload personal video clips of everything from the US Democratic convention to what they had for their tea, via rants about tax rises and conspiracy theories. [The Guardian]

Luckily for you, I’m no good with movie cameras. However, if I was, perhaps I would head for Hull (you know that northern town famous for The Housemartins and the Deputy Prime Minister). Do I hear you ask, Why Hull? Well, apparently, some bright sparks want to make it the new gay capital as it, apparently, has the fastest growing gay scene in the whole of Europe’.

The city council has already consulted with its hoteliers to ensure that they will welcome all visitors, and next week it will host a weekend trip for journalists from the gay media. [The Guardian]

Now I wanted to joke about it, but I can’t really think of any reason to do so.

Doesn’t Time Fly?

Silent for a while.

I posted 35-or-so entries in May and have been going down hill since. It’s been a interesting couple of months and there are some things that I should have written about. This upcoming weekend I’ll be doing a lot of working the garden (I might start with some before and after pictures) so who knows if I will have time to write.

Failing to write here is only one of the things I have not done in the past few weeks. Failing to watch any Big Brother 2004 was the other – although I am not so upset by that. Tonight, however, Nadia won and I will be waiting to see if a tv career beckons.

Finally, a sobering thought, do we still think of today as Hiroshima Day

Bang Bang For Gately

Former Boyzone star Stephen Gately is set to show an evil streak as The Childcatcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Stephen GatelyIt’s a long time since I placed any comment on here about one of the Men of the Moment. I haven’t updated that section since Andrew Kinlochan and with all the spam comments the section gets I have thought about removing it. Still, I read Stephen Gately is to start in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (which I saw and didn’t really rate). According to the article in The Scotsman,

Gately begins a four-month run on September 7, with former Neighbours star Jason Donovan playing Caractacus Potts. [source]

So it may be worth seeing just to see both Stephen and Jason in the same show!

Why Would You Be Interested?

I’ve had a good day and feel compelled to mention it.

It’s been quite a bizarre day as I have churned out a ton of documents at work. I particularly hate writing proposals to customers, work-orders and other documents related to my work but today i have cleared a nice backlog which makes me happy. There is, of course, no reason to tell you any of this except I feel I am ending the week on a high.

In totally unrelated news I am still trying to work out what to do with my new gmail storage. However, I did read a fantastic idea over at Jeremy Zawodny’s blog: Google should make an instant messaging product but make it open so other people could connect to it. Finally I would have to stop updating Trillian every time Yahoo changed a protocol or two.

Where is Ashley Paske?

He used to be in Neighbours and Richmond Hill. Where are you now, Ashley?

Ashley Paske Autographed PhotoI always thought Ashley Paske was quite cute when he was in the daytime soap Richmond Hill and, later, in Neighbours. But now where is he? The only reference I can find to him recently is in an ABC (Australia) documentary called The Fame Game that tellingly says that the stars, “reveal how they coped with the all encompassing fame followed by a sudden and unexpected return to virtual oblivion.”

And yes, that is his autographed photograph in the picture. It was a gift.

Florida, USA – First Impressions Count

My first impressions of Florida – warm and wet with long security queues, big cars and slower drivers that at home. And lots and lots of food.

Well, PY and I arrived in Florida yesterday afternoon. Security at Orlando International airport was quite strict: they re-scan your baggage on the way into the country and you must walk through the metal detectors again. I find this really odd (it happened to me in Raleigh last December) and it’s so time consuming. Don’t the American border guards trust the security measures at Gatwick? It took nearly two hours to get through the airport and I don’t want to mention the bizarre situation where you pick your bags up and then place them on another conveyor belt to appear elsewhere in the airport sometime later.

One of the things that had been concerning me was the drive. I have never driven in the US before and I have never driven an automatic car before. And with less than 24 hours since I picked up the car I am a convert to the automatic but not to this side of the road. Don’t you people know that the left is the only decent side to drive on? We didn’t pick up a fancy car (because I wanted something small but the Avis guy’s idea of small and mine are very different – this is a big car) but it seems to dive well (the ABS may be a little over the top) and I like this whole one-foot approach. We got a little lost (by which I know we took the wrong road but – somehow – that meant we missed the toll roads so it worked out well). But it poured down with rain. It was torrential. I was quite shocked by the power of the rain and it might have put me off the drive but it was OK because everybody drives so slowly here (even though they’re all breaking the speed limit). I have been quite amazed by that little fact. Six wide lanes and everybody popping along at sixty miles an hour. Of course I shouldn’t complain because it’s safer but what must American drivers think of the M6 (when it’s running)?

So far we’ve been pretty lazy: shopping, pool and eating. Tomorrow I visit my first US Disney theme park. We’re off to Epcot and I am quite excited. One thing has become very obvious though – Gym Buddy isn’t going to be happy with me. There’s so much cheap food here (a great deal of it fried) and I want to eat most of it. Oh dear.

My first impressions of Florida – warm and wet with long security queues, big cars and slower drivers that at home. And lots and lots of food.

Defining Your Own Space

The BBC is reporting on an interesting piece of research about the way people are using personal music players to claim back something personal from a world where we are surrounded by advertising messages:

Through interviews with Walkman owners and now iPod buyers, he found that listening to music acts as a shield, aura or cocoon … Using headphones helps to keep the world at bay and reclaim some space.

BBC: More than just a pretty interface

Yesterday I listened to my own choice of music in the gym rather than watching one of the televisions hanging from the ceilings. It was a very different experience and – to be honest – I almost caught myself singing along. I had purposely chosen a lot of upbeat pop/dance to keep me going and it worked. While my usual fare of Sky News and Chart Show TV are interesting, this time I knew my whole musical selection would be good and I would find the whole hour interesting and commercial-free.

But what about the aspect of the Walkman or iPod as a space definer? I think this is probably very obvious. I often ride the London Underground listening to music to cut me off from the rest of the people there. In the morning, it does give you a sense of your own space when you are sardine-squashed into a carriage. In the evening it keeps you occupied – less likely to be engaged in a conversation with somebody who you might find threatening.

A few weeks ago, cityofsound pointed me to Traffic Island Disks – an interesting radio programme looking at the music people are listening to as they wander around an area of London. It is very interesting listening to how people define their own spaces through the music they are listening to (it’s also a pretty good idea for a radio show).

South London Jazz

Finally, I found a basement jazz club that I want to go to.

Last night – to end a great weekend – we visited the 606 Jazz Club in South London. This is exactly the kind of place I have been looking for since I arrived in town in 1993 and, for some reason, none of the venues that I have previously tried have come close.

It’s an intimate basement Jazz Club, and last night Claire Teal and Anita Wardell performed. It was an excellent 3-hour-ish set of new Jazz standards, some new songs and some scat jazz (which, I believe, is Anita’s trademark). Both of the women’s voices were superb, and the backing trio fantastic. You sit right next to the stage area. All the musicians were good, but the dexterity exhibited by the drummer was incredible.

The club only has a dinner licence so you have to eat to be able to drink and the menu, if a little pricey, was certainly very good. They do crowd people in – there is very little room between tables – but it added to the atmosphere rather than being uncomfortable.

I shall be going again.

Borough Market: Southwark’s Great Food Home

Borough Market in Southwalk is well worth a visit.

So, this is the 12th Valentine’s Day I will have spent with PY. We are spending much of this weekend with friends and exploring new parts of the city.

Last night we were in Balham at Dish Dash. We had previously visited the Goodge Street branch (PY had his 30th birthday party there) but had never been out this way. The evening was spent with plenty of little Persian dishes (Swordfish Kebabs & Spinach and Chick Pea Mazza being my favourite). If you are ever in the area you must go. There were, however, a large number of other, tempting, restaurants in the area Peter Sellars once called ‘Gateway To The South’. It’s an area we must visit more often. Recommendations welcome.

Today we rose early (for a Saturday) to visit the tempting delights of Borough Market. If you have never been this is a gourmet market to be found as you head eastwards. The market sells some top-quality fresh produce, and it’s a charity so it should be preserved. It is also a wholesale market at other times of the day/week. There are all types of breads, vegetables, meat and fish sold by proper market traders who, from what I can tell, know their products very well indeed. The Spanish Chorizo stall had the longest queue I have ever seen for a take-away food stall in London. It must have been superb. We bought Ostrich streaks for dinner this evening and they certainly look very tempting (and almost fat-free, apparently).

Borough Market is in Southwark which must be one of my favourite parts of London. The South Bank from Waterloo and the London Eye via the Tate, Millennium Bridge and The Globe was a deserted riverside area when I first came to London. There was, more-or-less, no life between The National Theatre and Tower Bridge. Nowadays, it’s one of the most bustling areas for tourists and locals alike. I really think a Saturday walk down the south bank of the Thames is well worth it. This is the kind of place which makes all frustrations about living in a big city evaporate. It restores my faith in London.

Tomorrow, we head for Highgate to visit some American friends. Certainly looking forward to Sunday Lunch.

Five Second Censorship

The Oscars will be subject to a five-second delay this year. Apparently, that’s not good.

I’ve said before that I don’t really understand all the nonsense about Janet Jackson and what happened when she performed with Justin Timberlake. It seems to me that there are so many other things that the American people should be spending time worrying about. I am hoping that something similar happens at The Brits. We are in need of another Jarvis/Michael Jackson incident to spice up proceedings.

Having said that, BBC News reports that Oscar president Frank Pierson is up in arms about a five-second delay on the broadcast of the awards ceremony. To accuse it of a form of censorship seems to be a little unnecessary. I am sure it used to be pretty common for all live broadcasts to have some kind of built-in delay. What’s the big deal? Michael Moore’s acceptance would not have been censored by a five-second delay; no, it was censored by the audience at the time.

I think everybody needs a sense of perspective.

As an aside, I am thankful that I know several Americans living in London who show that not all – nay most – Americans are perfectly rational people. It’s a shame our media does not present them as such. Am I exaggerating all this?

Day At Home

I spent the day at home, but it was not as useful as I had hoped it would be.

I’ve had a day off work which I have totally wasted, but I shall not let that worry me right now. What should worry me is my inability to cope with four glasses of wine last night which resulted in the time-wasting (the day off had long been arranged).

While wasting my day, I have been reading about gay campaigning, all of which has been quite interesting. Tin Man pointed to the Faces of Family site – which, I think, could be a great project if you can get anybody who does not think our relationships constitute family to look at it. The message boards over at OutEverywhere have an interesting (but very long) thread discussing the Brazilian resolution to the United Nations which would have sexual diversity included as an integral part of Universal Human Rights. The discussion considered if it is right (or not) to support and sign the petition. I signed it and, I believe, you should think about signing it too. I guess it’s clear which side of the discussion I came down on.