I suppose a blog ought to start at the beginning of the year so just a bit of catching up to start.2008 ended with a great ski holiday in La Plagne – great snow for Christmas time and the slopes certainly suited how I wanted to ski at my time of life. The only down side was the very long delay at Chambery on the way back – I have heard so many similar stories about frustrations at this airport.
View from the balcony in La Plagne
Good reading at this time too. I enjoyed Aravind Adiga’s “White Tiger” which offered a picture of modern India and was not as difficult and as inaccessible as other Man Booker prize novels I have attempted. It was this book that prompted me to see “Slumdog Millionaire” in mid January. I really enjoyed the film and, although not really 5 stars for me, was well worth the hype it has been getting in being nominated for so many awards. I loved the music and the atmosphere. Good experience in seeing it at the cinema at Cabot Circus (or was it the meal in Zizi’s afterwards that made it so good?).
Cabot Circus (ex Quakers Friars) at Christmas
A highlight at this time of the year is the Wildlife Photography Exhibition at Bristol Museum. This year did not disappoint but there were so many people there that my young friend and I did not enjoy it as much as last year when we could take in so much more. However, it was great fun trying on different hats in the play area - for me at least.
Before term started I read Sebastian Faulks’ “Engleby”. I liked Faulks’ style in this novel and, although I disliked the main character from an early stage, I still enjoyed the book hugely. This was definitely more interesting than ploughing through “Dreamweaver CS4 for Dummies”, “Photoshop CS4 for Dummies” and “Flash CS4 for Dummies” which I did for professional reasons rather than pleasure – not that I am averse to the occasional manual or instruction book.
I found the special weekly offer from The Times “The Shack”, a theological novel by William P Young, interesting but I had had enough of it by the end. I have to admit to giving up on Sally Vickers' “The other side of you" half way through – it was not engaging me and as I had so much I wanted to read it wasn’t worth the effort.
A subscription to The Times gives access to some free offers with their Culture + and the novel by their correspondent Sathnam Sanghera “If You Don’t Know Me By Now: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton” was excellent. This was an insight into a British Asian’s upbringing and the fascinating research into his dad’s and his sisters’s schizophrenia and also had interesting tales about growing up in the 70s and 80s.
I have grown to like Richard Thompson and, having seen Fairport Convention at St George’s Brandon Hill last year, I was looking forward to his concert “A thousand years of popular music” at the Colston Hall. He has been described as an English Bob Dylan but the eclectic music he played in this concert was quite a shock but very enjoyable. The highlight for me was the Beatles numbers he bashed out at the end. I couldn’t quite believe that it was 46 years ago since I had seen the Beatles on the same stage - “seen” being the operative word as I didn’t hear much of them through the screaming on that occasion.
First of the snow at Colston's
View from the balcony in La Plagne
Good reading at this time too. I enjoyed Aravind Adiga’s “White Tiger” which offered a picture of modern India and was not as difficult and as inaccessible as other Man Booker prize novels I have attempted. It was this book that prompted me to see “Slumdog Millionaire” in mid January. I really enjoyed the film and, although not really 5 stars for me, was well worth the hype it has been getting in being nominated for so many awards. I loved the music and the atmosphere. Good experience in seeing it at the cinema at Cabot Circus (or was it the meal in Zizi’s afterwards that made it so good?).
Cabot Circus (ex Quakers Friars) at Christmas
A highlight at this time of the year is the Wildlife Photography Exhibition at Bristol Museum. This year did not disappoint but there were so many people there that my young friend and I did not enjoy it as much as last year when we could take in so much more. However, it was great fun trying on different hats in the play area - for me at least.
Before term started I read Sebastian Faulks’ “Engleby”. I liked Faulks’ style in this novel and, although I disliked the main character from an early stage, I still enjoyed the book hugely. This was definitely more interesting than ploughing through “Dreamweaver CS4 for Dummies”, “Photoshop CS4 for Dummies” and “Flash CS4 for Dummies” which I did for professional reasons rather than pleasure – not that I am averse to the occasional manual or instruction book.
I found the special weekly offer from The Times “The Shack”, a theological novel by William P Young, interesting but I had had enough of it by the end. I have to admit to giving up on Sally Vickers' “The other side of you" half way through – it was not engaging me and as I had so much I wanted to read it wasn’t worth the effort.
A subscription to The Times gives access to some free offers with their Culture + and the novel by their correspondent Sathnam Sanghera “If You Don’t Know Me By Now: A Memoir of Love, Secrets and Lies in Wolverhampton” was excellent. This was an insight into a British Asian’s upbringing and the fascinating research into his dad’s and his sisters’s schizophrenia and also had interesting tales about growing up in the 70s and 80s.
I have grown to like Richard Thompson and, having seen Fairport Convention at St George’s Brandon Hill last year, I was looking forward to his concert “A thousand years of popular music” at the Colston Hall. He has been described as an English Bob Dylan but the eclectic music he played in this concert was quite a shock but very enjoyable. The highlight for me was the Beatles numbers he bashed out at the end. I couldn’t quite believe that it was 46 years ago since I had seen the Beatles on the same stage - “seen” being the operative word as I didn’t hear much of them through the screaming on that occasion.
First of the snow at Colston's
The weather has been exciting. I like the cold days when we see the sun; and a bit of snow generally evokes childhood memories when everyone claims it always used to snow. Let’s hope we are going to escape the dark dank days of winter in Bristol.
Duchess Pond in January
Sport on the television has been good too. I think I have enjoyed the football more than anything. I’m not a Liverpool fan (except when they are playing in Europe) but as they seem to be the only credible challengers to Manchester United I took great delight to see Torres scoring so late on against Portsmouth. Manchester United’s run of 1-0 wins has been noteworthy but I am suprised that the whole defence aren’t getting more credit for the run of blank score sheets. I like the post match interviews with Chelsea's Luis Felipe Scolari (admittedly not as theatrical as those with Mourinho) who strikes me as a really decent bloke - why is he putting himself through all that business with Chelsea?
I have enjoyed seeing Guinness Premiership and Heineken matches on the television and was particularly interested to see the performances of Colstonians playing at this level. Mat Stevens’ demise seems to have given Duncan Bell a new lease of life. I was really disappointed that Shane Geraghty let himself down for England against Italy when he seemed to have every chance of getting his international career going again. I can’t bring myself to comment on England’s performance against Italy but how can a coach of the standing of Nick Mallett make such a blunder as to play Mauro Bergamasco at scrum half (and how come an international flanker can pass so badly anyway?)? Jordan Crane and Alex Brown keep churning out great performances for their respective clubs and it’s great to see Gareth Delve looking fit again.
Looking for solace after England's rugby performance against Italy I turned to watch the cricket in the West Indies and was denied not only what I thought would be an exciting end to the test match but even some comforting views of sunshine! Who would be an England supporter at anything?
I seem to be going through an Italian period with wine tasting and nothing has been as good as the bottle of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano given to me as a Christmas present. It was so good we had to splash out for another bottle.Probably the best read in this period has been Rose Tremain’s “The Road Home” the story of an East Europen migrant worker, which was so different from “Restoration” which I also enjoyed.
Bob Dylan’s “Tell Tale Signs: the Bootleg Series Vol 8” has been getting most plays on my iPod. The TV series of Folk America on Saturday evenings has been as good as anything on TV, although I did enjoy “Above Suspicion” on ITV and ”Trial and Retribution” to a lesser extent. and "Unforgiven" on BBC (where an hour's drama really is an hour).
I think I belong to Filton Golf Club but I haven't been near there for over two months. I can't say I have missed it but will look forward to playing when the weather improves.
But it hasn’t all been reading, television and computers. I have bought a saxophone (alto) and have set about learning to play it. I have a music teacher who has been very helpful and encouraging and I have spent very enjoyable hours (generally in half hour slots as my embouchure goes to pot and I make some horrific sounds if I go on for much longer) in the garden room trying to follow “Abracadabra Saxophone”. In the garden room I am far away from everyone not to annoy them and have loved every minute of it so far. The motivating factor was to get me off the computer so why am I mucking around creating a blog?
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