Awakened Mage by Karen Miller
This was the second book in the Kingmaker Kingbreaker series and it continued in the same vein as the first. It drags a little and is frustrating for not explaining the reason why the conflict exists between the main characters or what the background for the world is. In the end the resolution seems rushed and unsatisfactory. It maybe that there are other books that give this information but I haven’t read them.
‘The evil foretold has risen… …and we are all that stands between it and the end.
Asher has come a long way for a fisherman’s son. Together with his friend Prince Gar, he has defended their kingdom against its bitterest enemy, but at great cost.
Now, the evil mage Morg is preparing for his most deadly assault. Desperate, trapped in a broken body, Morg has little time and fewer scruples. And he has a plan.
As Gar and Asher unwittingly fall into a dangerous deception, Morg gets ever closer to his goal. And his victory would be particularly sweet – for who better to destroy the kingdom than the two who would give anything to save it?’
The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan
This is sword and sorcery book in the traditional sense which spends most of its time exploring the relationship between the main charter and those about her with less attention on the wider world view. It is engaging and well written but as it is spread over three books it can sometimes drag a little, and if you want action in your stories you might be disappointed with this. It seems to be leaning more towards teen fiction for the genre rather than for the adult market.
Book One: The Magicians’ Guild
‘The old magician paused. ‘If this young woman is a natural, we should expect her to be more powerful than our average novice, possibly even more powerful than the average magician.’
Each year, the magicians of Imardin gather together to purge the city streets of vagrants and miscreants. Masters of the disciplines of magic, they know that no ordinary lowlife can oppose them. But their protective shield is not as impenetrable as they think.
Sonea, angry, frustrated and outraged by the treatment of her family and friends, throws a stone at the shield, putting all her rage behind it. She is amazed when it sails unrestricted through the barrier and knocks a magician unconscious.
The Guild’s worst fear has been realised. There is an untrained magician loose in Imardin who must be found before her uncontrolled powers can destroy herself and the city.’
Book Two: The Novice
‘The most important attribute of a magician is knowledge. Without it his strength is useless.’ The magician’s eyes flickered to Sonea, ‘Even if his powers surface of their own accord, he will soon be dead if he does not gain the knowledge of how to control them.
Sonea knows the other novices in the Magicians’ Guild all come from powerful families, but she also knows she can turn to Rothen and Dannyl for help when she needs it. That is, until somone starts spreading malicious rumours about her — and Akkarin, The High Lord, steps in.
Promoted to Guild Ambassador, Lord Dannyl leaves for the Elyne court. His first order from Administrator Lorlen is to resume, in secret, High Lord Akkarin’s long-abandoned research into ancient magical knowledge. Not knowing the true reason for his journey, Dannyl is soon facing unexpected dangers.
Meanwhile, Sonea has almost forgotten the High Lord’s dark secret, but keeping the truth hidden may be a grave mistake.’
Book Three: The High Lord
‘‘Why are you showing me these books?’ Akkarin’s eyes bored into her own, and she looked away. ‘You want to know the truth,’ he said. He was right. Part of her wanted to ignore the books. But she did want to know.
In the city of Imardin, where those who wield magic wield power, a young street-girl, adopted by the Magician’s Guild, finds herself at the centre of a terrible plot that may destroy the entire world…
Sonea has learned much at the magicians’ guild and the other novices now treat her with a grudging respect. But she cannot forget what she witnessed in the High Lord’s underground room – or his warning that the realm’s ancient enemy is growing in power once more. As Sonea learns more, she begins to doubt her guildmaster’s word. Could the truth really be as terrifying as Akkarin claims, or is he trying to trick her into assisting in some unspeakably dark scheme?’
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Shakespeare in the Park…
Guildford Shakespeare Company presents Much Ado About Nothing at the Guildford Castle
On Sue’s birthday this year we went into Guildford after work to eat and be merry. I had bought tickets to an open air production of Shakespeare and we originally intended to have a picnic, but the weather was looking dodgy so we went to Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant instead and had a fabulous meal. Then we walked up to the Guildford Castle grounds where a small crowd had gathered for the boutique performance arranged around the bandstand. The weather stayed fine and we had an added treat of watching a hot air balloon skimming the roof tops as it sailed majestically overhead.
On Sue’s birthday this year we went into Guildford after work to eat and be merry. I had bought tickets to an open air production of Shakespeare and we originally intended to have a picnic, but the weather was looking dodgy so we went to Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant instead and had a fabulous meal. Then we walked up to the Guildford Castle grounds where a small crowd had gathered for the boutique performance arranged around the bandstand. The weather stayed fine and we had an added treat of watching a hot air balloon skimming the roof tops as it sailed majestically overhead.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
More of wot I have read…
TheBook Thief by Markus Zusak
Death will visit the book thief three times.’
This is a strange and moving story. The oddness comes primarily in the writing style where the author uses unconventional language and imagery to reinforce the narrator being Death. It can be a bit awkward for the reader at times, but it adds rather than detracts from the overall story and is a rewarding book for it in the end.
‘Here is a small fact
You are going to die. 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath.
Death has never been busier.Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Steet. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.
Some important information
This novel is narrated by DeathIt’s a small story, about:
- A girl
- An accordionist
- Some fanatical Germans
- A Jewish fist fighter
- And quite a lot a thievery
Death will visit the book thief three times.’
Ringworld by Larry Niven
This is a book that was written in the 1970s and it has a feeling of other sci-fi books of the same period. It probably says more about me than the author, but I don’t feel comfortable about easy cohabitation of aliens and humans. I can suspend disbelief about technology and social advances, but I am not sure I can accept the mixing of intergalactic species outside of the cinematic medium.
‘The artifact is a circular ribbon of matter six hundred million miles long and ninety miles in radius. Pierson’s puppeteers, the aliens who discovered it, are understandably wary of encountering the builders of such an immense structure and have assembled a team of two humans, a mad puppeteer and a kzin, a huge cat-like alien, to explore it. But a crash landing on the vast edifice forces the crew on a desperate and dangerous trek across the Ringworld.’
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
South Africa - Lanscapes and Animals
South Africa - Lanscapes and Animals, a set on Flickr.
A few pictures from our recent trip to RSA...
Behind the Lens…
Sue got me a second hand Digital SLR camera for my Xmas/Birthday present and the first time I have used in anger was on our South African trip, with mixed success. I realised early on that I need more practice and training to be able to master the manual settings and so I have a subscription to a magazine, a book on the subject and now I have joined the Dorking Camera Club with the hope I can improve.
More of wot I have heard…
Let Them Talk by Hugh Laurie
Everybody knows the multitalented Hugh Laurie, rowed in the boat race for his university, acclaimed comedian and actor of stage, TV and film, but now we hear he is a musical genius as well… …there must be something wrong with the guy.
His new album shows his passion for the blues and showcases his not inconsiderable talent at the piano and guitar. It is a faithful and heartfelt tribute to a school of music that has influenced so many, and it’s a good listen as well.
Oh my God, Charlie Darwin by The Low Anthem
American indie-folk-rockers The Low Anthem’s music can tug at the heart strings on a wispy ballad or can have you bouncing around the room with a heavy beat, all with very accomplished musicianship and certain amount of facial hair.
Flaws by the Bombay Bicycle Club
A young UK indie-folk band who have been influenced by traditional folk music, but not let it stop them from adding their own thing to it in a familiar and at the same time refreshing style.
Jupiter’s Corner by The Carrivick Sisters
Devon based twins are as talented as they are beautiful and we witnessed this at our local folk group. They play a multiple array of instruments in a bluegrass heavy set of music and where their un-amplified voices sometimes got lost live; the album is balanced to bring the lyrics forward better.
Everybody knows the multitalented Hugh Laurie, rowed in the boat race for his university, acclaimed comedian and actor of stage, TV and film, but now we hear he is a musical genius as well… …there must be something wrong with the guy.
His new album shows his passion for the blues and showcases his not inconsiderable talent at the piano and guitar. It is a faithful and heartfelt tribute to a school of music that has influenced so many, and it’s a good listen as well.
Oh my God, Charlie Darwin by The Low Anthem
American indie-folk-rockers The Low Anthem’s music can tug at the heart strings on a wispy ballad or can have you bouncing around the room with a heavy beat, all with very accomplished musicianship and certain amount of facial hair.
Flaws by the Bombay Bicycle Club
A young UK indie-folk band who have been influenced by traditional folk music, but not let it stop them from adding their own thing to it in a familiar and at the same time refreshing style.
Jupiter’s Corner by The Carrivick Sisters
Devon based twins are as talented as they are beautiful and we witnessed this at our local folk group. They play a multiple array of instruments in a bluegrass heavy set of music and where their un-amplified voices sometimes got lost live; the album is balanced to bring the lyrics forward better.
Another Mid-Life Crisis…
I seem to have these every so often and at the moment I am hankering for a VW Kombi again. A couple of companies (Danbury and VW Kampers) import the old Type 2 van from where it is still made in Brazil and convert them into campervans, the only thing is they are about £35k each. Even the original ones and the older more iconic split-screen versions are incredibly expensive here, good ones easily demanding £15k.
We went out on Saturday to see if I could get it out of me system by visiting a motor home show. On the way we came across signs for Dubs at the Park, and so a detour was made and we found ourselves in the grounds of an old stately home crawling with old Volkswagens. There were some absolutely gorgeous examples of the splitty and bay window vans to be seen, and some were for sale, but even tatty old bangers were going for more then you would expect.
After wiping the drool off my chin we carried on to the Southern Motor Caravan Show were we found ourselves amongst all manner of sizes and shapes of motor homes, nearly all white panel work outside and dreadful chintz upholstery inside. Some were huge with lounges bigger than ours at home, but all had the feeling of old people’s homes on wheels. Some of them were very reasonably priced, in comparison to the vee-dubs we had just seen, but even the smallest ones were too big when you don’t have off street parking, and none could be used as your day-to-day runabout.
I started to realise it wasn’t a camper van that I wanted, but a VW Kombie van.
It was further complicated when we looked inside one of the static homes that was finished to look like a log cabin. Rather than the old fashioned soft furnishings and traveller external paintwork, this one was more for the holiday park market and had all the mod-cons inside, flat screen TV above the stylish wall mounted fire, piped music throughout, a fully fitted kitchen with double door American style fridge, an suite wet room and a bright and airy feel inside. We had a moment there where we started to mentally go through the possibility of selling our house, buying the cabin and having it located in some picturesque country local and still buying the camper van… …we shook our heads and decided to leave before the dark side over powered us.
After the motor home show we went on to Cliveden, a lovely former home of the Astor’s and now a grand hotel. We had a walk about and tea in the orangey, but it was getting late and the wind outside was making strolling about unpleasant, so we continued on into the city where we planned to meet some Kiwi friends of ours.
We met at the Punch and Judy on Covent Garden for a quick drink before relocating to a lovely nearby restaurant where we spent a lovely few hours over dinner chatting and catching up on what we had all been doing over that intervening period. It was a great evening, but with all the running about we had done we were glad to get back home and tumble into our bed.
We went out on Saturday to see if I could get it out of me system by visiting a motor home show. On the way we came across signs for Dubs at the Park, and so a detour was made and we found ourselves in the grounds of an old stately home crawling with old Volkswagens. There were some absolutely gorgeous examples of the splitty and bay window vans to be seen, and some were for sale, but even tatty old bangers were going for more then you would expect.
After wiping the drool off my chin we carried on to the Southern Motor Caravan Show were we found ourselves amongst all manner of sizes and shapes of motor homes, nearly all white panel work outside and dreadful chintz upholstery inside. Some were huge with lounges bigger than ours at home, but all had the feeling of old people’s homes on wheels. Some of them were very reasonably priced, in comparison to the vee-dubs we had just seen, but even the smallest ones were too big when you don’t have off street parking, and none could be used as your day-to-day runabout.
I started to realise it wasn’t a camper van that I wanted, but a VW Kombie van.
It was further complicated when we looked inside one of the static homes that was finished to look like a log cabin. Rather than the old fashioned soft furnishings and traveller external paintwork, this one was more for the holiday park market and had all the mod-cons inside, flat screen TV above the stylish wall mounted fire, piped music throughout, a fully fitted kitchen with double door American style fridge, an suite wet room and a bright and airy feel inside. We had a moment there where we started to mentally go through the possibility of selling our house, buying the cabin and having it located in some picturesque country local and still buying the camper van… …we shook our heads and decided to leave before the dark side over powered us.
After the motor home show we went on to Cliveden, a lovely former home of the Astor’s and now a grand hotel. We had a walk about and tea in the orangey, but it was getting late and the wind outside was making strolling about unpleasant, so we continued on into the city where we planned to meet some Kiwi friends of ours.
We met at the Punch and Judy on Covent Garden for a quick drink before relocating to a lovely nearby restaurant where we spent a lovely few hours over dinner chatting and catching up on what we had all been doing over that intervening period. It was a great evening, but with all the running about we had done we were glad to get back home and tumble into our bed.
More of wot I have seen…
We have just been to see Warhorse at the New London Theatre as a belated Mother’s Day treat with Sue’s mom and sister. We had read the book by the children’s author Michael Morpurgo, and were very taken with the tale. The stage production had to be altered from the original story to accommodate the point of view other than that of the horse. The sets were deliberately sparse and the animals were life sized puppets but this did not detract from the story, in fact, along with the clever use of projected ‘hand drawn’ graphics, it actually gave you room as an audience to use your imagination like you would in a book. It was very engaging and well performed and produced. The unexpected highlights were the superb singing of traditional folk anti war songs and a comedy turn by the animated goose.
I here that a film version of the book is due out at the end of the year, even so, I would recommend seeing the stage show and that youngsters read the book.
I here that a film version of the book is due out at the end of the year, even so, I would recommend seeing the stage show and that youngsters read the book.
City Living…
We were planning to visit London on the weekend to see a show and so we arranged to travel in earlier to catch up with Jamie to celebrate his 25th birthday. We had cakes at the apartment he shares with Beth and then we all went out for lunch at a lovely place in Bermondsey Square. What a cool place it is too, the whole square, café’s, museums, cinema, shops, office and residential all in an interesting and vibrant little space. It made me wish I could have a London crash-pad and spend more time in places like that one. The only down side was when we were walking back to the flat and Jamie and I were verbally abused by a couple of drunks and for a moment we both were close to turning all caveman until Nan came to the rescue and saw them off.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
More of wot I have read…
Mayan Prophecy by Steve Alten
I was given this book for my holiday away and although I don’t think I have ever given up on a book, this one came close. It was full of action and drama but there was something about the characters and the plot that was all too two dimensional and it was hard to engage with the book. Not one I would recommend.
‘For thirty-two years, archaeologist Julius Gabriel investigated the Mayan calendar, a 2,500-year-old enigma that predicts the Apocalypse. His research led him to believe that ancient constructions like the Great Pyramid, Stonehenge, Angkor Wat, and Chichen Itza, were all built as part of a primeval fail-safe system, that might save humanity from total annihilation. But now Julius is dead, and his theories have perished with him, discredited and ridiculed.
With the help of Dominique, a part-Mayan psychiatric intern, Julius' son, Michael, breaks out of an insane asylum in Miami, where he has been illegally imprisoned. Together they flee to the Yucatan Peninsula, where Michael believes he can find the evidence he needs to prove his father's theory, and to convince the world of the fast-approaching global catastrophe.
In Mexico, at the autumn equinox, a serpent's shadow appears over the northern face of the Temple of Kukulcan, as it has done for a thousand years. But this time is different - it is the beginning of the end...’
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
After reading this and Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell is my current favourite author. It was an engaging story with believable characters in a highly detailed and mysterious world. This was a superbly crafted piece of work that satisfied the reader on so many levels.
‘The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the “high-walled, fan-shaped artificial island” that is the Japanese Empire’s single port and sole window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay; the farthest outpost of the war-ravaged Dutch East Indies Company; and a de facto prison for the dozen foreigners permitted to live and work there. To this place of devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, costly courtesans, earthquakes, and typhoons comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk who has five years in the East to earn a fortune of sufficient size to win the hand of his wealthy fiancée back in Holland.
But Jacob’s original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city’s powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken. The consequences will extend beyond Jacob’s worst imaginings. As one cynical colleague asks, “Who ain’t a gambler in the glorious Orient, with his very life?”’
I was given this book for my holiday away and although I don’t think I have ever given up on a book, this one came close. It was full of action and drama but there was something about the characters and the plot that was all too two dimensional and it was hard to engage with the book. Not one I would recommend.
‘For thirty-two years, archaeologist Julius Gabriel investigated the Mayan calendar, a 2,500-year-old enigma that predicts the Apocalypse. His research led him to believe that ancient constructions like the Great Pyramid, Stonehenge, Angkor Wat, and Chichen Itza, were all built as part of a primeval fail-safe system, that might save humanity from total annihilation. But now Julius is dead, and his theories have perished with him, discredited and ridiculed.
With the help of Dominique, a part-Mayan psychiatric intern, Julius' son, Michael, breaks out of an insane asylum in Miami, where he has been illegally imprisoned. Together they flee to the Yucatan Peninsula, where Michael believes he can find the evidence he needs to prove his father's theory, and to convince the world of the fast-approaching global catastrophe.
In Mexico, at the autumn equinox, a serpent's shadow appears over the northern face of the Temple of Kukulcan, as it has done for a thousand years. But this time is different - it is the beginning of the end...’
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
After reading this and Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell is my current favourite author. It was an engaging story with believable characters in a highly detailed and mysterious world. This was a superbly crafted piece of work that satisfied the reader on so many levels.
‘The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the “high-walled, fan-shaped artificial island” that is the Japanese Empire’s single port and sole window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay; the farthest outpost of the war-ravaged Dutch East Indies Company; and a de facto prison for the dozen foreigners permitted to live and work there. To this place of devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, costly courtesans, earthquakes, and typhoons comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk who has five years in the East to earn a fortune of sufficient size to win the hand of his wealthy fiancée back in Holland.
But Jacob’s original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city’s powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken. The consequences will extend beyond Jacob’s worst imaginings. As one cynical colleague asks, “Who ain’t a gambler in the glorious Orient, with his very life?”’
Friday, May 06, 2011
Out of Africa…
We have just returned from a long three week break in South Africa with some friends of ours who came from there originally and we returning to visit family and friends and to show their young daughter some of the sights.
We flew out on Virgin Airways and did not have great service. There were over seventy children on the flight and the staff had not catered for them, so we all suffered.
Our first port of call was Cape Town where we had rented a couple of cars and an apartment in Green Point near the Victoria & Alfred waterfront.
On the first day we went around the bay to get the iconic view back towards Table Mountain. The water looked too inviting for Yendall and Sue to resist, but they were soon back out when they felt the cold Atlantic waters. Later on we went shopping for supplies and then ventured out to the waterfront for a meal.
The next day we went up the mountain on the cable car. We had spectacular views across Cape Town from the dizzying heights. The weather was brilliant and we walked around the top seeing cute little dassies along with lizards, birds and other small creatures. We were very lucky with the conditions as we later heard the mountain had been closed for days, and a day or so afterwards there was the famous table cloth cloud covering it over.
After that we drove around a few of the bays.
While we were in Cape Town we also saw sea lions, penguins at the Boulder’s Beach colony, hungry and scary baboons, and ostriches on the beach at Cape Point. We visited the lovely Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens where we saw some amazing plants and some creepy golden orb spiders. We stopped for smoked snoek at Hout Bay and went for a spin on the wheel back at the V&A waterfront.
After a few days we went on to the Wine Region where we stayed at a lovely rural location which we used for a few days of touring around the Stelenbosch region visiting a few vineyards, the historic town, and admiring the stunning scenery. Vineyards we stopped at included Simonsig, Hartenberg where we had a superb lunch, Delheim, Muratie that had great port – though no chocolate today, Spier where we visited the Cheater Outreach and Eagle Encounter centers, Neethlingshof, and Fairview where they make the Goats do Roam wine and where we had great wine and cheese sampling.
We split up for the day after that as the others went to visit friends in George and we continued on to Knysna where stopped in a delightfully quirky place and had the most amazing seafood meal.
In the morning we went up to the Heads and decided that this would be a great place to return to.
We met up again in Jeffery’s Bay on one of the few rainy days of our trip but we still managed to get out and visit the world renowned surf beach and when we returned early the next morning we were rewarded with the sight of a pod of dolphins surfing alongside the human surfers.
Near Port Elizabeth we went to stay a few days at the Addo Elephant Park and were very impressed with the site as a whole. It was our first visit to a park like this and we were not sure what we would find, but we were pleasantly surprised with the courteous and helpful staff, the comprehensive visitors facilities and the lovely accommodation, in fact we fell in love with our little cottage and could see our selves reclining on the veranda sipping cocktails as we watched the herds of animals on the horizon.
We were somewhat surprised that we were not immediately tripping over the elephants though and we were told on our first game drive, an evening one, that the rains that came the day before meant that the elephants would have retreated to the quiet valleys as they did not need to come to the waterholes to drink. We did see lots of other animals though, including kudu, zebra, Cape buffalo, antelope of various types, warthog, black back jackal and an owl.
On the morning game drive we didn’t see many different animals and we did see elephants, but they were a couple of miles away on the horizon. We also saw paw prints of a lion, but that was as close as we came to the big cats.
We were a little disappointed that we hadn’t seen the big beasts so we took a car around the pack ourselves to see if we could track them down during the day. We couldn’t, but we did see some other interesting creatures, including mere cats, a rare rhino, large snails and plenty of the rare dung beetles rolling their collected poop across the road.
Later as we sat around the swimming pool we got talking to a new arrival that had entered the park from the other entrance and had seen plenty of elephants as he drove through. We decided then when we left the next day to drive out through the park to this other exit. Luckily we did because almost as soon as we entered the park we came across the large creatures walking across the road, what a thrill, we then saw others further into the park. It was amazing how an animal so large could just seem to disappear into the undergrowth so easily.
It was a superb visit and quite the highlight, though the delay in driving through the park did add extra time to our long leg of the journey up to Kokstad, which was a particular tiring and unpleasant episode.
The long journey to Kokstad was through an area formerly known as the Transkei and it took us through the main settlement called Mthatha during the afternoon rush hour. This area had been granted ‘independence’ by South Africa, though it seems that that may have been more for show and to provide a place for the native population to be located in while limiting the central governments responsibility for financial support and development. Hence the place today still seems to be very poor and underdeveloped and we did feel a little uncomfortable as the only white people crawling through the city centre in our shiny hire cars as the locals clambered into the back of pick-ups or squeezed into the ever present taxis.
The advantage of the long journey to Kokstad was the next days travel to Durban was shorter and allowed us time to recover as we met Yendall’s brother’s family. We also had a chance to go down to the beach where we met Sally’s mother and had a dip in the much warmer Indian Ocean.
We stayed with Yendall’s family and met the extended clan and their friends over the next week of so and enjoyed socializing with real live South Africans. We joined in with a mixed and varied sampler of local culture that included visiting the uShaka marine world with its fascinating aquarium built into a mock ship wreck, cocktails and beers on the Moyo Pier, watching the Durban Sharks beat the Wellington Hurricanes in Rugby and then later going on to buy a typical after match meal of bunny chow and triple chip and cheese roti from Johnny’s takeaway, taking the SkyCar to the top of the new football stadium for a panoramic view of the city, traveling out on a boat at dawn to watch the shark net inspection and then going on to watch the Sharks Board presentation and autopsy. We also saw Yendall’s brother perform in the Durban Passion Play that is based on the one performed in Oberammergau, visited the Essenwood Market, and looked around the historic centre of Durban and had a meal in a Waxy O’Connors’s Irish Pub who are part of an international chain.
We made several visits to the various beaches around the bay and also took trips out to the Midmar Dam where our brai (BBQ) was extinguished by a dramatic hail storm.
Our second game park was the Tala Game Reserve where we saw more animals including hippopotamus, lazy rhino, giraffe and herds of wildebeest. It is a lovely small park with a picturesque picnic area and a relaxed feel to it.
The last long journey was to drive from Durban to Johannesburg where we stayed with some of their friends for the night. We only ventured out to a flash out of town shopping mall called Sandton City to pick up some last minute gifts and have a last meal together at the Lekgoltla restaurant in Nelson Mandela Square (lovely setting and staff, but I don’t think I will be having ostrich poikie again) before we took the evening flight back home.
Luckily we had the Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday to recover as the flight was again hard work and we needed the rest.
We flew out on Virgin Airways and did not have great service. There were over seventy children on the flight and the staff had not catered for them, so we all suffered.
Our first port of call was Cape Town where we had rented a couple of cars and an apartment in Green Point near the Victoria & Alfred waterfront.
On the first day we went around the bay to get the iconic view back towards Table Mountain. The water looked too inviting for Yendall and Sue to resist, but they were soon back out when they felt the cold Atlantic waters. Later on we went shopping for supplies and then ventured out to the waterfront for a meal.
The next day we went up the mountain on the cable car. We had spectacular views across Cape Town from the dizzying heights. The weather was brilliant and we walked around the top seeing cute little dassies along with lizards, birds and other small creatures. We were very lucky with the conditions as we later heard the mountain had been closed for days, and a day or so afterwards there was the famous table cloth cloud covering it over.
After that we drove around a few of the bays.
While we were in Cape Town we also saw sea lions, penguins at the Boulder’s Beach colony, hungry and scary baboons, and ostriches on the beach at Cape Point. We visited the lovely Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens where we saw some amazing plants and some creepy golden orb spiders. We stopped for smoked snoek at Hout Bay and went for a spin on the wheel back at the V&A waterfront.
After a few days we went on to the Wine Region where we stayed at a lovely rural location which we used for a few days of touring around the Stelenbosch region visiting a few vineyards, the historic town, and admiring the stunning scenery. Vineyards we stopped at included Simonsig, Hartenberg where we had a superb lunch, Delheim, Muratie that had great port – though no chocolate today, Spier where we visited the Cheater Outreach and Eagle Encounter centers, Neethlingshof, and Fairview where they make the Goats do Roam wine and where we had great wine and cheese sampling.
We split up for the day after that as the others went to visit friends in George and we continued on to Knysna where stopped in a delightfully quirky place and had the most amazing seafood meal.
In the morning we went up to the Heads and decided that this would be a great place to return to.
We met up again in Jeffery’s Bay on one of the few rainy days of our trip but we still managed to get out and visit the world renowned surf beach and when we returned early the next morning we were rewarded with the sight of a pod of dolphins surfing alongside the human surfers.
Near Port Elizabeth we went to stay a few days at the Addo Elephant Park and were very impressed with the site as a whole. It was our first visit to a park like this and we were not sure what we would find, but we were pleasantly surprised with the courteous and helpful staff, the comprehensive visitors facilities and the lovely accommodation, in fact we fell in love with our little cottage and could see our selves reclining on the veranda sipping cocktails as we watched the herds of animals on the horizon.
We were somewhat surprised that we were not immediately tripping over the elephants though and we were told on our first game drive, an evening one, that the rains that came the day before meant that the elephants would have retreated to the quiet valleys as they did not need to come to the waterholes to drink. We did see lots of other animals though, including kudu, zebra, Cape buffalo, antelope of various types, warthog, black back jackal and an owl.
On the morning game drive we didn’t see many different animals and we did see elephants, but they were a couple of miles away on the horizon. We also saw paw prints of a lion, but that was as close as we came to the big cats.
We were a little disappointed that we hadn’t seen the big beasts so we took a car around the pack ourselves to see if we could track them down during the day. We couldn’t, but we did see some other interesting creatures, including mere cats, a rare rhino, large snails and plenty of the rare dung beetles rolling their collected poop across the road.
Later as we sat around the swimming pool we got talking to a new arrival that had entered the park from the other entrance and had seen plenty of elephants as he drove through. We decided then when we left the next day to drive out through the park to this other exit. Luckily we did because almost as soon as we entered the park we came across the large creatures walking across the road, what a thrill, we then saw others further into the park. It was amazing how an animal so large could just seem to disappear into the undergrowth so easily.
It was a superb visit and quite the highlight, though the delay in driving through the park did add extra time to our long leg of the journey up to Kokstad, which was a particular tiring and unpleasant episode.
The long journey to Kokstad was through an area formerly known as the Transkei and it took us through the main settlement called Mthatha during the afternoon rush hour. This area had been granted ‘independence’ by South Africa, though it seems that that may have been more for show and to provide a place for the native population to be located in while limiting the central governments responsibility for financial support and development. Hence the place today still seems to be very poor and underdeveloped and we did feel a little uncomfortable as the only white people crawling through the city centre in our shiny hire cars as the locals clambered into the back of pick-ups or squeezed into the ever present taxis.
The advantage of the long journey to Kokstad was the next days travel to Durban was shorter and allowed us time to recover as we met Yendall’s brother’s family. We also had a chance to go down to the beach where we met Sally’s mother and had a dip in the much warmer Indian Ocean.
We stayed with Yendall’s family and met the extended clan and their friends over the next week of so and enjoyed socializing with real live South Africans. We joined in with a mixed and varied sampler of local culture that included visiting the uShaka marine world with its fascinating aquarium built into a mock ship wreck, cocktails and beers on the Moyo Pier, watching the Durban Sharks beat the Wellington Hurricanes in Rugby and then later going on to buy a typical after match meal of bunny chow and triple chip and cheese roti from Johnny’s takeaway, taking the SkyCar to the top of the new football stadium for a panoramic view of the city, traveling out on a boat at dawn to watch the shark net inspection and then going on to watch the Sharks Board presentation and autopsy. We also saw Yendall’s brother perform in the Durban Passion Play that is based on the one performed in Oberammergau, visited the Essenwood Market, and looked around the historic centre of Durban and had a meal in a Waxy O’Connors’s Irish Pub who are part of an international chain.
We made several visits to the various beaches around the bay and also took trips out to the Midmar Dam where our brai (BBQ) was extinguished by a dramatic hail storm.
Our second game park was the Tala Game Reserve where we saw more animals including hippopotamus, lazy rhino, giraffe and herds of wildebeest. It is a lovely small park with a picturesque picnic area and a relaxed feel to it.
The last long journey was to drive from Durban to Johannesburg where we stayed with some of their friends for the night. We only ventured out to a flash out of town shopping mall called Sandton City to pick up some last minute gifts and have a last meal together at the Lekgoltla restaurant in Nelson Mandela Square (lovely setting and staff, but I don’t think I will be having ostrich poikie again) before we took the evening flight back home.
Luckily we had the Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday to recover as the flight was again hard work and we needed the rest.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
More wot I have read…
Monkey by Wu Ch’eng-en and translated by Arthur Waley
I loved the old 70’s TV series about Monkey and wondered how close it was to the original story, so I decided to buy a translation of the Chinese story and find out. The translation does change things a bit but in this case it was to remove some of the verse that did not translate well and retain more of the storyline, which was fine by me. There is much in the book that was brought to the small screen quite well I thought, baring in mind it was many years ago that I saw it, but I understand the TV series stopped before the story was concluded. It is an interesting read and was far easier to understand than the last translation of a historical piece of foreign literature I read, Don Quixote.
‘Monkey depicts the adventures of Prince Tripitaka, a young Buddhist priest on a dangerous pilgrimage to India to retrieve sacred scriptures accompanied by his three unruly disciples: the greedy pig creature Pipsy, the river monster Sandy – and Monkey. Hatched from a stone egg and given the secrets of heaven and earth, the irrepressible trickster Monkey can ride on the clouds, become invisible and transform into other shapes – skills that prove very useful when the four travellers come up against the dragons, bandits, demons and evil wizards that threaten to prevent them in their quest. Wu Ch’êng-ên wrote Monkey in the mid-sixteenth century, adding his own distinctive style to an ancient Chinese legend, and in so doing created a dazzling combination of nonsense with profundity, slapstick comedy with spiritual wisdom.
Very little is known about Wu Ch-eng-en (c. 1505-80) although he is believed to have held the post of District Magistrate for a time. He had a reputation as a good poet but only a few rather commonplace verses of his survive in an anthology of Ming poetry and in a local gazetteer. Arthur Waley CBE, FBS, was a distinguished authority on Chinese language and literature. He was born in 1889 and graduated from the Universities of Cambridge and Aberdeen. He died in 1966. His many publications include 170 Chinese Poems, Japanese Poetry, The Tale of Genji (6 vols), The Way and its Power, The Real Tripitaka and Yuam Mei.’
I was lent this book by a friend and I like the premise. I enjoy a post-apocalyptic story. It is the second part to Last Light which apparently explains the crisis that leads the world to ruin, but having said that I don’t think it was necessary to have read that book to enjoy this one. There are some areas where disbelief is stretched but perhaps that is more to do with my resistance to the premise that the world is balanced on such a fine edge, perhaps this is explained more in the first book, overall though I thoroughly enjoyed it.
,Ten years after a massive oil crisis, the world lies devastated.
The towns and cities of Britain are skeletal ghosts of their former selves. Very few humans have managed to survive the horrors that followed the disintegration of their former society at breakneck speed.
But sitting quietly amidst the ravaged landscape are the few pockets of resistance; beacon communities that have managed to fashion a new way of living.
Jenny Sutherland leads one of these groups. Based on a series of decaying offshore oil-rigs – away from the carnage and the ruins – she has helped a few hundred people rebuild a semblance of normality in this otherwise dead world.
But as Jenny’s people begin to explore their surroundings after a decade in the wilderness of a post-apocalyptic society, they start to realize that not every survivor shares the same vision of a better future. Worse still, there are people out there who would try to take everything that they have struggled so hard to create. For a new war is coming, and the stakes for the future are higher than anyone could have imagined…,
More of wot I have seen…
Tattie Jam at the Dorking Folk Club
We saw this Scottish folk duo at the local club and enjoyed their lively and accomplished performance. The highlight was probably the old Scots seafaring tale with old traditional Scottish didgeridoo (a carbon-fiber tunable one at that).
I bought their CD to add to me collection and have enjoyed listening to it back.
Friday, March 18, 2011
More of wot I have seen…
Citizen Cope
We have been to a few gigs recently and the first was Citizen Cope at the Scala in London as he promoted is new album, The Rainwater LP.
Driving into town is a challenge that I don’t relish, and it always seems that there is an accident or incident set to hold you up when you need to be somewhere at a particular time that succeeds in raising the blood pressure and stressing me out. Nevertheless I made it and managed to throw some food down my throat before we went in.
The Scala is a great little venue with a mixed past as a cinema and ‘entertainment’ venue. It was well suited for this gig as Cope was performing solo and acoustic.
With an incredible voice and a charmingly rough-but-sensitive quietly strong presence he commanded the space very well. We estimated that majority of the audience must have been American, but there were a mix of youngsters and older folk throughout.
It was one of our favourite gigs so far.
Iron & Wine
One of my favourite American artists, Sam Beam and his country-folk-rock outfit was touring the UK and I saw that they were playing in Liverpool, so I bought tickets. They subsequently added dates in London, but by then it was a done deal, and besides Sue had never been to the ‘pool.
It had been many years since I visited there myself with friends from New Zealand when I first came back to the motherland. It had since been the city of culture that had brought attention and lot of investment to the place.
We were staying in a lovely apartment right on the new dock side development adjacent to the historic Albert Dock. It is long drive up, but we made it in good time arriving at lunch which we took at the docks before walking through the city taking in the sights of the Liver Building before looking in at the Slavery and Maritime Museums.
The gig was at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, a great venue with great acoustics and not too big. But before hand we had a pre-show drink at the Philharmonic Pub across the road, a popular place with fabulous décor (the gents loo attracts a lot of attention) and a couple of snug’s called Brahms and Liszt. I had been here before on my first visit and it had stuck in my mind since then.
The gig was very good and I was impressed enough with the warm-up artist, Daniel Martin Moore, to also buy his album ‘In the Cool of the Day’, a folkie-gospel-country vibe. I also bought the new Iron & Wine album, Kiss Each Other Clean, and was pleased with this too.
The next day we played tourist some more and walked around more of the city, passing by the Cavern Club and then picking up a tour bus to the Beatles’ childhood homes of John and Paul before driving to the spectacular Tudor Speke Hall and back home.
It was a great weekend.
Decemberists
Our next gig was to see the Decemberists at the HMV Apollo at Hammersmith, another American band who are hard to pigeon hole into a category… …rock, alternative, folk, Americana. They are many things to many people, but they are certainly very accomplished and sophisticated musicians. I think the Apollo is a little too big for my tastes and perhaps does not have the best acoustics for this type of music; nevertheless they were popular and put on a great show.
We came in part way through their warm up act as again we had nightmare journeys in, me by car and Sue by train. We had a quick and tasty meal at a nearby Lebanese café and saw the last half of Blind Pilot’s set which we enjoyed.
West Side Story
A different musical event we went to was the local amateur dramatic staging of West Side Story at the Dorking Halls. They made a good job of it but it wasn’t as good as some of the others they have done.
We have been to a few gigs recently and the first was Citizen Cope at the Scala in London as he promoted is new album, The Rainwater LP.
Driving into town is a challenge that I don’t relish, and it always seems that there is an accident or incident set to hold you up when you need to be somewhere at a particular time that succeeds in raising the blood pressure and stressing me out. Nevertheless I made it and managed to throw some food down my throat before we went in.
The Scala is a great little venue with a mixed past as a cinema and ‘entertainment’ venue. It was well suited for this gig as Cope was performing solo and acoustic.
With an incredible voice and a charmingly rough-but-sensitive quietly strong presence he commanded the space very well. We estimated that majority of the audience must have been American, but there were a mix of youngsters and older folk throughout.
It was one of our favourite gigs so far.
Iron & Wine
One of my favourite American artists, Sam Beam and his country-folk-rock outfit was touring the UK and I saw that they were playing in Liverpool, so I bought tickets. They subsequently added dates in London, but by then it was a done deal, and besides Sue had never been to the ‘pool.
It had been many years since I visited there myself with friends from New Zealand when I first came back to the motherland. It had since been the city of culture that had brought attention and lot of investment to the place.
We were staying in a lovely apartment right on the new dock side development adjacent to the historic Albert Dock. It is long drive up, but we made it in good time arriving at lunch which we took at the docks before walking through the city taking in the sights of the Liver Building before looking in at the Slavery and Maritime Museums.
The gig was at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, a great venue with great acoustics and not too big. But before hand we had a pre-show drink at the Philharmonic Pub across the road, a popular place with fabulous décor (the gents loo attracts a lot of attention) and a couple of snug’s called Brahms and Liszt. I had been here before on my first visit and it had stuck in my mind since then.
The gig was very good and I was impressed enough with the warm-up artist, Daniel Martin Moore, to also buy his album ‘In the Cool of the Day’, a folkie-gospel-country vibe. I also bought the new Iron & Wine album, Kiss Each Other Clean, and was pleased with this too.
The next day we played tourist some more and walked around more of the city, passing by the Cavern Club and then picking up a tour bus to the Beatles’ childhood homes of John and Paul before driving to the spectacular Tudor Speke Hall and back home.
It was a great weekend.
Decemberists
Our next gig was to see the Decemberists at the HMV Apollo at Hammersmith, another American band who are hard to pigeon hole into a category… …rock, alternative, folk, Americana. They are many things to many people, but they are certainly very accomplished and sophisticated musicians. I think the Apollo is a little too big for my tastes and perhaps does not have the best acoustics for this type of music; nevertheless they were popular and put on a great show.
We came in part way through their warm up act as again we had nightmare journeys in, me by car and Sue by train. We had a quick and tasty meal at a nearby Lebanese café and saw the last half of Blind Pilot’s set which we enjoyed.
West Side Story
A different musical event we went to was the local amateur dramatic staging of West Side Story at the Dorking Halls. They made a good job of it but it wasn’t as good as some of the others they have done.
More Writing…
I have been trying to write a new story, Half the Man, Twice the Life, but I have not got too far as work and other things has got in the way and I have temporarily lost my muse.
My story, Space Race, was submitted to the Terry Pratchett writing competition and the finalists are to be announced 31st March. I don’t expect anything to come of it, but I do occasionally allow myself to daydream and hope.
My story, Space Race, was submitted to the Terry Pratchett writing competition and the finalists are to be announced 31st March. I don’t expect anything to come of it, but I do occasionally allow myself to daydream and hope.
More of wot I have read…
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
I heard the author interviewed on the radio and liked the sound of this story. It was an easy read and tripped along quickly with a nice pace and gentle humour. I found the historical references and description of places had resonance with me as I found links with the themes in other books I had read recently and with a RGP we are playing that is based in an alternative Victorian world. What would have happened if Harry Potter grew up and joined the fuzz?
My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England.
Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden . . . and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.
The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying.
Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab
Not the sort of book I would normally read, but I was leant this and the sniper book by a friend, so I gave them I go, and I was pleasantly surprised. I think the most interesting part of it was the view into a world of the soldier and how his mind works, the culture and beliefs and seeing how they might react under extreme circumstances. I understand there has been some artistic license taken with the facts and concerns have been expressed about actions attributed to those who cannot confirm or deny them, nevertheless it is quite a good boys-own tale.
In January 1991, eight members of the SAS regiment embarked upon a top secret mission that was to infiltrate them deep behind enemy lines. Under the command of Sergeant Andy McNab, they were to sever the underground communication link between Baghdad and north-west Iraq, and to seek and destroy mobile Scud launchers. Their call sign: BRAVO TWO ZERO.
Each man laden with 15 stone of equipment, they patrolled 20km across flat desert to reach their objective. Within days, their location was compromised. After a fierce fire fight, they were forced to escape and evade on foot to the Syrian border. In the desperate action that followed, though stricken by hypothermia and other injuries, the patrol 'went ballistic'. Four men were captured. Three died. Only one escaped. For the survivors, however, the worst ordeals were to come. Delivered to Baghdad, they were tortured with a savagery for which not even their intensive SAS training had prepared them.
Sniper One by Sgt Dan Mills
This is the second war story I read, and I found this was even more interesting than the first. Perhaps this is because it was more successful and showed more of the battle conditions.
April 7th 2004: a year to the day since the city had fallen. Saddam had been deposed. The Marines and the Para's were long gone and rarely made it into the news. When Sgt Dan Mills and the rest of the 1st Batallion, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment flew in, they were supposed to be winning hearts and minds. They were soon fighting for their lives.
Within hours of arriving in Iraq a grenade bounced off one of the battalion's landrovers, rolled underneath and detonated. The ambush marked the beginning of a full-scale firefight during which Mill's killed a man with a round that removed his assailant's head. It was going to be a long tour.
Like some post-apocalyptic Mad Max nightmare, the place had gone to hell in a handcart. Temperatures on the ground often topped 50c, sewage systems that had long since packed up, the stench of cooking waste and piles of festering rubbish that grew wherever you looked. Throat-burning winds, blast bombs and well-trained, well-organised militias armed with AKs and RPGs and a limitless supply of mortar rounds were the icing on the cake.
If any of Mills's 18 man sniper platoon had thought that the people of Al Amarah were going to welcome them with open arms, they were forced to rapidly reconsider. For the next six months, isolated, besieged and under constant fire the battalion refused to give an inch. Cimic House, their HQ, may have been shit, but it was home. And its defence, the most intense the British army fought in 50 years, was a modern day Rorke's Drift.
The comical tragedy or tragical comedy of Mr. Punch by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
This is a grown up comic (graphic novel) with a dark tale and spooky imagery.
A dark and frightening fully painted novella, MR. PUNCH tells the tale of a young boy's loss of innocence results from a horrific confrontation with his past. Spending a summer at his grandfather's seaside arcade, a troubled adolescent harmlessly becomes involved with a mysterious Punch and Judy Man and a mermaid-portraying woman. But when the violent puppet show triggers buried memories of the boy's family, the lives of all become feverishly intertwined. With disturbing mysteries and half-truths uncontrollably unraveling, the young boy is forced to deal with his family's dark secrets of violence, betrayal, and guilt.
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
War Horse is a children’s book but it has a lovely written style and the themes are weighty and moving. Not only has it been turned into a successful stage play it is now a film due out this year. I think though a lot of its power lies in the imagination of the reader, and I would urge all parents to give it to their kids.
This book recounts the adventures of a horse as he moves from life on a farm into the battles of World War I, the story of a friendship lasting through the toughest of tests.
Through the eyes of the war horse, Joey, Michael Morpurgo tells this moving and powerful story of survival on the Western Front.
I heard the author interviewed on the radio and liked the sound of this story. It was an easy read and tripped along quickly with a nice pace and gentle humour. I found the historical references and description of places had resonance with me as I found links with the themes in other books I had read recently and with a RGP we are playing that is based in an alternative Victorian world. What would have happened if Harry Potter grew up and joined the fuzz?
My name is Peter Grant and until January I was just probationary constable in that mighty army for justice known to all right-thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service (as the Filth to everybody else). My only concerns in life were how to avoid a transfer to the Case Progression Unit - we do paperwork so real coppers don't have to - and finding a way to climb into the panties of the outrageously perky WPC Leslie May. Then one night, in pursuance of a murder inquiry, I tried to take a witness statement from someone who was dead but disturbingly voluable, and that brought me to the attention of Inspector Nightingale, the last wizard in England.
Now I'm a Detective Constable and a trainee wizard, the first apprentice in fifty years, and my world has become somewhat more complicated: nests of vampires in Purley, negotiating a truce between the warring god and goddess of the Thames, and digging up graves in Covent Garden . . . and there's something festering at the heart of the city I love, a malicious vengeful spirit that takes ordinary Londoners and twists them into grotesque mannequins to act out its drama of violence and despair.
The spirit of riot and rebellion has awakened in the city, and it's falling to me to bring order out of chaos - or die trying.
Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab
Not the sort of book I would normally read, but I was leant this and the sniper book by a friend, so I gave them I go, and I was pleasantly surprised. I think the most interesting part of it was the view into a world of the soldier and how his mind works, the culture and beliefs and seeing how they might react under extreme circumstances. I understand there has been some artistic license taken with the facts and concerns have been expressed about actions attributed to those who cannot confirm or deny them, nevertheless it is quite a good boys-own tale.
In January 1991, eight members of the SAS regiment embarked upon a top secret mission that was to infiltrate them deep behind enemy lines. Under the command of Sergeant Andy McNab, they were to sever the underground communication link between Baghdad and north-west Iraq, and to seek and destroy mobile Scud launchers. Their call sign: BRAVO TWO ZERO.
Each man laden with 15 stone of equipment, they patrolled 20km across flat desert to reach their objective. Within days, their location was compromised. After a fierce fire fight, they were forced to escape and evade on foot to the Syrian border. In the desperate action that followed, though stricken by hypothermia and other injuries, the patrol 'went ballistic'. Four men were captured. Three died. Only one escaped. For the survivors, however, the worst ordeals were to come. Delivered to Baghdad, they were tortured with a savagery for which not even their intensive SAS training had prepared them.
Sniper One by Sgt Dan Mills
This is the second war story I read, and I found this was even more interesting than the first. Perhaps this is because it was more successful and showed more of the battle conditions.
April 7th 2004: a year to the day since the city had fallen. Saddam had been deposed. The Marines and the Para's were long gone and rarely made it into the news. When Sgt Dan Mills and the rest of the 1st Batallion, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment flew in, they were supposed to be winning hearts and minds. They were soon fighting for their lives.
Within hours of arriving in Iraq a grenade bounced off one of the battalion's landrovers, rolled underneath and detonated. The ambush marked the beginning of a full-scale firefight during which Mill's killed a man with a round that removed his assailant's head. It was going to be a long tour.
Like some post-apocalyptic Mad Max nightmare, the place had gone to hell in a handcart. Temperatures on the ground often topped 50c, sewage systems that had long since packed up, the stench of cooking waste and piles of festering rubbish that grew wherever you looked. Throat-burning winds, blast bombs and well-trained, well-organised militias armed with AKs and RPGs and a limitless supply of mortar rounds were the icing on the cake.
If any of Mills's 18 man sniper platoon had thought that the people of Al Amarah were going to welcome them with open arms, they were forced to rapidly reconsider. For the next six months, isolated, besieged and under constant fire the battalion refused to give an inch. Cimic House, their HQ, may have been shit, but it was home. And its defence, the most intense the British army fought in 50 years, was a modern day Rorke's Drift.
The comical tragedy or tragical comedy of Mr. Punch by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
This is a grown up comic (graphic novel) with a dark tale and spooky imagery.
A dark and frightening fully painted novella, MR. PUNCH tells the tale of a young boy's loss of innocence results from a horrific confrontation with his past. Spending a summer at his grandfather's seaside arcade, a troubled adolescent harmlessly becomes involved with a mysterious Punch and Judy Man and a mermaid-portraying woman. But when the violent puppet show triggers buried memories of the boy's family, the lives of all become feverishly intertwined. With disturbing mysteries and half-truths uncontrollably unraveling, the young boy is forced to deal with his family's dark secrets of violence, betrayal, and guilt.
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
War Horse is a children’s book but it has a lovely written style and the themes are weighty and moving. Not only has it been turned into a successful stage play it is now a film due out this year. I think though a lot of its power lies in the imagination of the reader, and I would urge all parents to give it to their kids.
This book recounts the adventures of a horse as he moves from life on a farm into the battles of World War I, the story of a friendship lasting through the toughest of tests.
Through the eyes of the war horse, Joey, Michael Morpurgo tells this moving and powerful story of survival on the Western Front.
New Music…
As part of my birthday gift I bought a whole heap of music (perhaps more than I should have). Some of it was old classics to recapture my youth, and some was new tunes…
Old Classics
History: America’s Greatest Hits by America.
Showbiz Kids: The Steely Dan Story by Steely Dan
The Very Best Of 10cc by 10cc
New Stuff
In The Reins by Iron & Wine with Calexico
Mayhem by Imelda May
Hedonism by Bellowhead
Down The Way by Angus & Julia Stone
Bright Lights by Ellie Goulding
The Place We Ran From by Tired Pony
Volume Two by She & Him
There will be peace in the valley...when we get the keys to the mansion on the hill by Alabama 3
Old Classics
History: America’s Greatest Hits by America.
Showbiz Kids: The Steely Dan Story by Steely Dan
The Very Best Of 10cc by 10cc
New Stuff
In The Reins by Iron & Wine with Calexico
Mayhem by Imelda May
Hedonism by Bellowhead
Down The Way by Angus & Julia Stone
Bright Lights by Ellie Goulding
The Place We Ran From by Tired Pony
Volume Two by She & Him
There will be peace in the valley...when we get the keys to the mansion on the hill by Alabama 3
Birthday Party…
Sue held a birthday party for me this year. Normally we go away as I am not keen on being the centre of attention, but she fancied a ‘bit of a do’ and I was happy as she agreed to make sausage rolls and chocolate cake. We had a house full of guests and had a good time talking, drinking and dancing to the music. I hooked up my laptop with iTunes loaded to a portable hard drive and connected it all to the stereo. There was loads of booze and I received a whole heap of great pressies.
Bin-a-while…
I haven’t blogged for a while but this has been due to life getting in the way, or at least work. I have been very busy for the first few months of the year and it is a terrible inconvenience. After work I have been mentally drained and unable to focus on creativity. It is not so much better now, though there is a slight lull, so I will try to post updates before we go away on holiday.
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Kiwi’s flying visit...
We had a quick visit by one side of the Jackson Clan as they returned from holiday in Switzerland on route to Borneo. While they were here we managed a day out in the countryside at Bodium Castle and the Long Man of Wilmington before watching the sun go down on Brighton beach.
We were introduced to the high-tech treasure hunt that is Geocaching and found a couple of caches, one in our village and one at the castle, all quite exciting.
They had been away from home for quite a while and it sounds like they all have had a great holiday.
It was fantastic to catch up with them again.
We were introduced to the high-tech treasure hunt that is Geocaching and found a couple of caches, one in our village and one at the castle, all quite exciting.
They had been away from home for quite a while and it sounds like they all have had a great holiday.
It was fantastic to catch up with them again.
More of wot I have heard...
Our local folk club put on a special double bill night with two new bands on show.
The first was Choro Bandido who despite the name are a local group who specialise in the Brazilian style of folk called choro. They we excellent and very talented, the music was good and had a great foot-tapping rhythm to it.
The next band was three young guys calling themselves The Reverenzas and they were absolutely brilliant. They are from Oxford and are relatively new to the scene, but already they have started to gain attention by wining new comer competitions at festivals. They are a lively band that pound their feet on the ground in a hypnotic rhythm. There were elements of Bellowhead in their performance, but I think the lead singer was even better than Jon Boden with his range and passion really lifting the interestingly arranged songs. What out for them, I bet they will be big soon.
The first was Choro Bandido who despite the name are a local group who specialise in the Brazilian style of folk called choro. They we excellent and very talented, the music was good and had a great foot-tapping rhythm to it.
The next band was three young guys calling themselves The Reverenzas and they were absolutely brilliant. They are from Oxford and are relatively new to the scene, but already they have started to gain attention by wining new comer competitions at festivals. They are a lively band that pound their feet on the ground in a hypnotic rhythm. There were elements of Bellowhead in their performance, but I think the lead singer was even better than Jon Boden with his range and passion really lifting the interestingly arranged songs. What out for them, I bet they will be big soon.
Dance like you just don’t care...
We went to a wedding Reception of a friend’s daughter at The Terrace in Wimbledon and had a good time. Being on a Sunday night, though, it did ruin us for the next few days. I wasn’t drinking as we decided not to try the variable public transport; just as well as some of the rail line was closed for routine maintenance and we would have had to use a bus replacement. A friend said this was the price we have to pay for living in a nice area out of the suburbs.
Because the happy couple were in their twenties most of their friends were of a similar age and they looked like they were attempting to dress like their favourite boy band or next-top-model, all with too high heels or too much style to attempt dancing. We on the other hand were the rowdy embarrassing oldies who drank too much (except for the designated drivers) and danced outrageously.
We had fun but I bet there were a few sore heads, twisted ankles and aching hips the next day
Because the happy couple were in their twenties most of their friends were of a similar age and they looked like they were attempting to dress like their favourite boy band or next-top-model, all with too high heels or too much style to attempt dancing. We on the other hand were the rowdy embarrassing oldies who drank too much (except for the designated drivers) and danced outrageously.
We had fun but I bet there were a few sore heads, twisted ankles and aching hips the next day
Having a laugh...
We have recently seen a couple of comedians live on stage, one from the old school and the other from the latest wave of comics.
First we saw Barry Cryer’s – Still Alive show at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre.
We have seen Barry Cryer before at the Wimbledon Theatre with the late great Willie Rushton in a show called Two old Farts in the Night. He was very good, though many of the jokes were quite old and familiar he still managed to deliver them so well that you still laughed. He was an absolute pro and I couldn’t believe just how many gags he could remember and deliver in just one show. I understand that he is trying out this show before he takes it to the Edinburgh Fringe.
The second artist was Jason Manford playing at the Fairfield Halls. This gig we went to with the family rather than just the two of us. It was also a good laugh, though Jason tends to ramble on using stories and observational humour rather than gags.
Both were good nights out.
First we saw Barry Cryer’s – Still Alive show at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre.
We have seen Barry Cryer before at the Wimbledon Theatre with the late great Willie Rushton in a show called Two old Farts in the Night. He was very good, though many of the jokes were quite old and familiar he still managed to deliver them so well that you still laughed. He was an absolute pro and I couldn’t believe just how many gags he could remember and deliver in just one show. I understand that he is trying out this show before he takes it to the Edinburgh Fringe.
The second artist was Jason Manford playing at the Fairfield Halls. This gig we went to with the family rather than just the two of us. It was also a good laugh, though Jason tends to ramble on using stories and observational humour rather than gags.
Both were good nights out.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
More of wot I have heard...
I got some new music for Christmas which I have been enjoying.
Arrogance Ignorance and Greed by the Show of Hands
Side Show by The Burns Unit
Sky at Night by I Am Kloot
Arrogance Ignorance and Greed by the Show of Hands
Side Show by The Burns Unit
Sky at Night by I Am Kloot
Ho Ho Ho...
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and that you and yours are happy and well.
We had a typically busy time running around family and friends having decamped from our home due to weather concerns. Snowy landscapes are all well and good on festive cards and the TV, but not so much fun when you are trapped at home or have to tramp miles through the frozen landscape.
But we managed to get everywhere without incident and only a little amount of inconvenience and we saw almost everyone we wanted too, including some of our antipodean friends who were visiting.
We had a fun family celebration at Sue’s Mum’s house where we gave out a DVD to each of Sue’s family that was a copy of a VHS copy of original Cine films recorded by her grandfather. There was much fun seeing the siblings as young children at Xmas, birthday parties or even in the bath. Although the cine film is silent the process of copying it to VHS was done such that you could hear the reels running and comments from the guy doing the copying, this was only really evident when the last reel was being copied and it became clear that this was an early black and white porno (naughty granddad), and we were amused at the copyists comments as he too realised what it was.
Santa brought me a nice new (almost new) Digital SLR camera which I have to learn how to use before we go away on our next holiday (more on this in a later blog).
We had a typically busy time running around family and friends having decamped from our home due to weather concerns. Snowy landscapes are all well and good on festive cards and the TV, but not so much fun when you are trapped at home or have to tramp miles through the frozen landscape.
But we managed to get everywhere without incident and only a little amount of inconvenience and we saw almost everyone we wanted too, including some of our antipodean friends who were visiting.
We had a fun family celebration at Sue’s Mum’s house where we gave out a DVD to each of Sue’s family that was a copy of a VHS copy of original Cine films recorded by her grandfather. There was much fun seeing the siblings as young children at Xmas, birthday parties or even in the bath. Although the cine film is silent the process of copying it to VHS was done such that you could hear the reels running and comments from the guy doing the copying, this was only really evident when the last reel was being copied and it became clear that this was an early black and white porno (naughty granddad), and we were amused at the copyists comments as he too realised what it was.
Santa brought me a nice new (almost new) Digital SLR camera which I have to learn how to use before we go away on our next holiday (more on this in a later blog).
More of wot I have wrote...
One of the reasons I have been lax in keeping this blog up to date was that I was busy writing my second novel for a competition that closed at the end of the year. It was a tough order and the final draft was 108,000 words long and could do with a large amount of editing and rework, nevertheless I enjoyed the process though not so much how pressured the timescales were.
The book is called Space Race and it was originally envisioned to be a graphic novel, but the theme fitted the brief of the competition so I turned it into a novel. It is a composite of seven stories spread throughout the history of space craft development, from the V2 rockets developed by the Germans in 1945, to Cold War Russia, 70’s America at NASA, a tracking station in the Australian outback in the 80’s, an altered reality of a floating space launch facility in 2010, Artificial Intelligence lab in Japan in 2035 and finally on the eve of the first manned space craft journey out of our solar system in 2100. All of the stories are interlinked and have a story thread running through them and each is written in a different style (anti-war story, spy story, adventure story, personal development story, sex story, crime story and classic sci-fi story).
I plan now to work on some other stories before a revisit this one and tinker around with it. The results for the competition are announced in March, so if I have the nerve after that I might send it out to publishers for their opinion.
The book is called Space Race and it was originally envisioned to be a graphic novel, but the theme fitted the brief of the competition so I turned it into a novel. It is a composite of seven stories spread throughout the history of space craft development, from the V2 rockets developed by the Germans in 1945, to Cold War Russia, 70’s America at NASA, a tracking station in the Australian outback in the 80’s, an altered reality of a floating space launch facility in 2010, Artificial Intelligence lab in Japan in 2035 and finally on the eve of the first manned space craft journey out of our solar system in 2100. All of the stories are interlinked and have a story thread running through them and each is written in a different style (anti-war story, spy story, adventure story, personal development story, sex story, crime story and classic sci-fi story).
I plan now to work on some other stories before a revisit this one and tinker around with it. The results for the competition are announced in March, so if I have the nerve after that I might send it out to publishers for their opinion.
Living the High Life...
As a birthday treat for a close friend we joined them at a fancy hotel in the Cotswolds one weekend not too long ago. The Lygon Arms in Broadway is a very fine establishment with a history that goes back to King Charles 1st time and is frequented by the rich and famous alike. It was not cheap but we certainly made the most of the luxuries and indulged ourselves greatly. Sue got an extra treat as she mistakenly went into the wrong changing rooms after her glasses fogged up in the sauna, and our friends only realised that the complimentary bottle of champagne was for a different room after we had drunk it.
The area was in full Christmas spirit with the town and others having their festive late night markets with mulled wine, horse drawn carriages and other treats, also in town was a shop entirely dedicated to Christmas decorations. We also sampled spirits of another kind in the local hostelries as we fortified ourselves against the cold air as we walked around.
The area was in full Christmas spirit with the town and others having their festive late night markets with mulled wine, horse drawn carriages and other treats, also in town was a shop entirely dedicated to Christmas decorations. We also sampled spirits of another kind in the local hostelries as we fortified ourselves against the cold air as we walked around.
Hot Food on a Cold Night...
A recently regular occurrence in our street is several of the ‘boys’ get together near Christmas time and go out to the local curry house for some food, drink and general gossip. It is a nice opportunity to catch up with some of our neighbours and indulge in a little male bonding.
Titanic Musical...
Billed as a musical tribute to the famous ship complete with giant porthole and iceberg and without a single reference to the film or Celine Dion, this was an entertaining night at our local theatre with the three ‘plucky’ musicians putting on a great performance (with occasional slips from the ‘special effects’).
Pluck the Titanic Show
Pluck the Titanic Show
Angels Sing...
Although we did not see Jenny Agutter in the Railway Children stage show, we did see her at Guildford Cathedral where she joined acclaimed children’s author Michael Morpurgo in an adaptation of his nativity story, Angel Wings. They both narrated the tale which was accompanied by music and song from Coope Boyes & Simpson with Fi Fraser, Jo Freya and Georgina Boyes. It was a lovely performance and the venue was spectacular, we might have appreciated the snowy landscape more if we didn’t have to walk through most of it to get there and back.
My Daddy, My Daddy...
We recently went to see The Railway Children being performed live at Waterloo Station on the tracks where EuroStar used to terminate. It was a great performance with the audience split into two and facing each other across the tracks seated on the two platforms. The actors used part of the platform and an ingenious moving stage on the tracks allowing them to have a very flexible performance area and allowing a real steam train to enter (to rapturous applause) as required.
The actors were very convincing and there was not a dry eye in the house when that famous line was uttered.
The actors were very convincing and there was not a dry eye in the house when that famous line was uttered.
An Enigma...
We went with my uncle to visit Bletchley Park the site of the code breaking centre that was where the Enigma code was broken among others using machines developed by Alan Turing and the first electronic computer, now rebuilt and working again. The site is huge and we only managed a few quick diversions from the guided tour and are keen to return to see more.
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
More of wot I have read...
The Liar by Stephen Fry
This is Stephen Fry’s debut novel and there are undoubtedly elements from the author’s life represented within it hidden behind the carefully crafted and engaging story.
The story revolves around the life and times of a clever but selfish character that does some amazing things, or so he will have you believe. As the story progresses you become more aware that there are many levels of deceit occurring, but it is impossible to unravel them all, and the reveal at the ending comes as a surprise.
There is a possibility that it will be turned into a film.
‘Not one word of the following is true’
This is Stephen Fry’s debut novel and there are undoubtedly elements from the author’s life represented within it hidden behind the carefully crafted and engaging story.
The story revolves around the life and times of a clever but selfish character that does some amazing things, or so he will have you believe. As the story progresses you become more aware that there are many levels of deceit occurring, but it is impossible to unravel them all, and the reveal at the ending comes as a surprise.
There is a possibility that it will be turned into a film.
‘Not one word of the following is true’
Thursday, October 28, 2010
More of wot I have heard...
Look Where I’ve Ended Up Now by Colum Sands
We saw this Northern Irish singer songwriter at our local folk club and found him very enjoyable. He had the gift of the gab too, telling some interesting tales including one about a song on his new album that came out of a tour to New Zealand and a chance meeting in a Devenport folk club.
Beachcomber’s Windowsill by Stornoway
Terry gave me a spare copy of this album and I am very glad. This is the début album, and boy they are worth looking out for, they a bit like Munford & Sons but more folky.
We saw this Northern Irish singer songwriter at our local folk club and found him very enjoyable. He had the gift of the gab too, telling some interesting tales including one about a song on his new album that came out of a tour to New Zealand and a chance meeting in a Devenport folk club.
Beachcomber’s Windowsill by Stornoway
Terry gave me a spare copy of this album and I am very glad. This is the début album, and boy they are worth looking out for, they a bit like Munford & Sons but more folky.
A Cultural Day in the City...
Benjamin Franklins House
We had a day in London recently and we managed to cram a few things in including a visit to the only surviving home of Benjamin Franklin in the world. The rooms are bare now, but the guide is an actress who interacts with pre-recorded audio and visual presentations in each room to give you a great tour, bring to life much of the history much better than a dry display case could.
Camille Silvy at the National Portrait Gallery
The NPG does a nice thing where they have a late night opening some evenings and even have a small bar in the foyer. We decided to have a quick look at an exhibition of Camille Silvy’s work after we came out of the theatre. The gallery is a great place to pop in quickly and get a fix of culture.
Silvy was a pioneer of early photography and one of the greatest French photographers of the nineteenth century. There were some very interesting pictures that showed a snapshot of life during that period. Some of his experiments with different techniques were interesting too.
Avenue Q at the Wyndham’s Theatre
This adult puppet show is coming to an end in London, so we thought we would catch while we could. It was an absolute hoot, we loved it, never have we seen the like even puppet porn. It had great songs, funny acting, fun stage and a superb production and was very enjoyable.
We had a day in London recently and we managed to cram a few things in including a visit to the only surviving home of Benjamin Franklin in the world. The rooms are bare now, but the guide is an actress who interacts with pre-recorded audio and visual presentations in each room to give you a great tour, bring to life much of the history much better than a dry display case could.
Camille Silvy at the National Portrait Gallery
The NPG does a nice thing where they have a late night opening some evenings and even have a small bar in the foyer. We decided to have a quick look at an exhibition of Camille Silvy’s work after we came out of the theatre. The gallery is a great place to pop in quickly and get a fix of culture.
Silvy was a pioneer of early photography and one of the greatest French photographers of the nineteenth century. There were some very interesting pictures that showed a snapshot of life during that period. Some of his experiments with different techniques were interesting too.
Avenue Q at the Wyndham’s Theatre
This adult puppet show is coming to an end in London, so we thought we would catch while we could. It was an absolute hoot, we loved it, never have we seen the like even puppet porn. It had great songs, funny acting, fun stage and a superb production and was very enjoyable.
Local culture...
When We Are Married by JB Priestley at Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
This was a great production of a lovely bedroom farce, everything about it was well done – even the set got an applause as the curtain rose. The company were on the last night in the suburbs before moving into the west-end. The cast included some very familiar names including
Rosemary Ashe, Lynda Baron, Susie Blake, Michele Dotrice, David Horovitch, Roy Hudd, Vincent Brimble, Maureen Lipman, and Simon Rouse
This was a great production of a lovely bedroom farce, everything about it was well done – even the set got an applause as the curtain rose. The company were on the last night in the suburbs before moving into the west-end. The cast included some very familiar names including
Rosemary Ashe, Lynda Baron, Susie Blake, Michele Dotrice, David Horovitch, Roy Hudd, Vincent Brimble, Maureen Lipman, and Simon Rouse
Dance little piggy, dance...
Westcott Gardeners’ Club Ceilidh
The Gardeners’ Club had an event in one of the local halls. They had organised a Ceilidh (Kaylee) band – the Pugwash Band (a couple from the band run the Dorking Folk Club that we frequent).
We had a good night dancing our socks off, though Sue claims I flung her about far too roughly.
The Gardeners’ Club had an event in one of the local halls. They had organised a Ceilidh (Kaylee) band – the Pugwash Band (a couple from the band run the Dorking Folk Club that we frequent).
We had a good night dancing our socks off, though Sue claims I flung her about far too roughly.
Mong’d in Corfu...
We had a short break in Corfu recently, essentially our summer holiday but in autumn. We have friends who moved out there several years ago and renovated a small cottage, living there most of the year.
We were taken on a guided tour of the island and some of the things we saw included: Sunset Beach (where a cliff-top bar is situated and you can have a drink facing the sea - there are also swing seats), Achilleion Palace (a grand old building with an interesting history of pre-war Germany, Nazi occupation, casino and set of a James Bond movie – it also has a very tall and impressive bronze of Achilles), Kalami ( a lovely bay), Vlacherna and Pontikonisi or Mouse Island (iconic views of Corfu and entertainingly just at the end of the runway), birth place of Prince Phillip, home of the Durrell family, home of Nana Mouskouri, Mount Pandokrator (tallest point on the island with a church at the very top and a communications tower in the church yard), Kassiopi (a wonderful coastal town) and Nisaki (near where our friends live and where Sue had the best calamari – ever!)
We spent the evenings drinking way too much, partying into the night playing silly games – like pick a track from Terry’s extensive collection in turn in a multi-DJ style. The earliest we got to bed was 1am, the latest 5am. Mong’d is Terry and Alexis term for being very, very drunk.
Luckily it rained all day on the last day – we all needed the rest.
We were taken on a guided tour of the island and some of the things we saw included: Sunset Beach (where a cliff-top bar is situated and you can have a drink facing the sea - there are also swing seats), Achilleion Palace (a grand old building with an interesting history of pre-war Germany, Nazi occupation, casino and set of a James Bond movie – it also has a very tall and impressive bronze of Achilles), Kalami ( a lovely bay), Vlacherna and Pontikonisi or Mouse Island (iconic views of Corfu and entertainingly just at the end of the runway), birth place of Prince Phillip, home of the Durrell family, home of Nana Mouskouri, Mount Pandokrator (tallest point on the island with a church at the very top and a communications tower in the church yard), Kassiopi (a wonderful coastal town) and Nisaki (near where our friends live and where Sue had the best calamari – ever!)
We spent the evenings drinking way too much, partying into the night playing silly games – like pick a track from Terry’s extensive collection in turn in a multi-DJ style. The earliest we got to bed was 1am, the latest 5am. Mong’d is Terry and Alexis term for being very, very drunk.
Luckily it rained all day on the last day – we all needed the rest.
More of wot I have read...
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
This was a very interesting book not just for the narrative but for the unusual writing style. There are six stories that start in the past and proceed through to the future, each partially completed – until you get to the last story in the middle of the book that is whole, each of the other stories is then completed in turn until you get back to the first story. Each story makes reference to the previous one in a continuation but they are quite different stories, written differently in different styles (diary, pulp novel, interview etc.). I liked it very much.
“Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies...
Six interlocking lives – one amazing adventure. In a narrative that circles the globe and reaches from the 19th century to a post-apocalyptic future, David Mitchell erases the boundaries of time, genre and language to offer an enthralling vision of humanity’s will to power, and where it will lead us.”
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
More of wot I have read...
Blood River, A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart by Tim Butcher
This is an interesting read as it documents a part of the world that is almost as hidden as it was years ago during the time of the early Victorian explorers. The terrible troubles in the region are catalogued in this documentary style book and show just what circumstances led to the downfall of this natural resource rich region.
‘When Daily Telegraph correspondent Tim Butcher was sent to Africa in 2000 he quickly became obsessed with the legendary Congo River, and the idea of recreating H. M. Stanley’s famous expedition. Despite warnings that his plan was ‘suicidal’, Butcher set out for the Congo’s eastern border with just a rucksack and a few thousand dollars hidden in his boots. Making his way in an assortment of vehicles including a motorbike and dugout canoe, helped along by a cast of characters from UN aid workers to a campaigning pygmy, he followed in the footsteps of the great Victorian adventurers. Butcher’s journey was a remarkable feat, but the story of the Congo, told expertly and vividly in this book, is more remarkable still.’
Fatherland by Robert Harris
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it had a good, well paced action/police/conspiracy story and the ‘what if the Nazi’s had won’ setting was fascinating too.
‘April, 1964. The naked body of an old man floats in a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. In one week it will be Adolf Hitler’s 75th birthday. A terrible conspiracy is starting to unravel...’
This is an interesting read as it documents a part of the world that is almost as hidden as it was years ago during the time of the early Victorian explorers. The terrible troubles in the region are catalogued in this documentary style book and show just what circumstances led to the downfall of this natural resource rich region.
‘When Daily Telegraph correspondent Tim Butcher was sent to Africa in 2000 he quickly became obsessed with the legendary Congo River, and the idea of recreating H. M. Stanley’s famous expedition. Despite warnings that his plan was ‘suicidal’, Butcher set out for the Congo’s eastern border with just a rucksack and a few thousand dollars hidden in his boots. Making his way in an assortment of vehicles including a motorbike and dugout canoe, helped along by a cast of characters from UN aid workers to a campaigning pygmy, he followed in the footsteps of the great Victorian adventurers. Butcher’s journey was a remarkable feat, but the story of the Congo, told expertly and vividly in this book, is more remarkable still.’
Fatherland by Robert Harris
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it had a good, well paced action/police/conspiracy story and the ‘what if the Nazi’s had won’ setting was fascinating too.
‘April, 1964. The naked body of an old man floats in a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. In one week it will be Adolf Hitler’s 75th birthday. A terrible conspiracy is starting to unravel...’
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Autumn is on its way...
The days are drawing in, temperature is dropping and the sun has left is again. Still, we have had a few good weeks during the summer time and overall the weather here has been pretty good. We are determined not to put the heating back on until we have had our ‘summer’ holidays – going to Corfu to visit friends.
This time of year is a bumper time in the allotment and we have dug up the last of the potatoes, are picking tomatoes almost every day, and the courgettes glut is nearly over. At home we have some very interesting chillies cropping, including two fruit on the dreaded Dorset Naga (under ‘uses’ it has ‘weapon’ listed).
Folk in a Field...
Again we had a lovely time at this smaller family friendly folk festival in Oxfordshire. We were lucky with the rain that abated the day we got there and stayed fine for most of the time (apart from a small shower when we were safely ensconced in the pub listening to my uncle, his mates and others playing and singing).
Here is some of what we saw...
Established and Old School
Roy Bailey (the patriarch of the festival, does a good turn in comedy/children’s/family songs – particularly like the Ben Kenobi song)
Chris Wood and Andy Cutting (bought Chris Woods cd – great voice)
Going To Go Far
Sam Carter (bought his cd – touching lyrics)
Lauren McCormick (lovely voice)
Tyde (a very popular young group – going to go far)
Up and Coming
Gavin Osborn (comic songs with heart – bought his cd)
Bethany Weimers (beautiful voice – she could be a star)
Anna Elias (bought her cd – sublime music and voice)
From Across the Pond
Genticorum (great, fun and French Canadian)
Sara Grey, Kieron Means and Ben Paley
Foot Stompers
Bellowhead (real party band, only folk band I have pogo’d to – have there cd)
Jon Boden and the Remnant Kings (Jon from Bellowhead, toned down slightly, great tunes and lyrics – have his cd)
Kan (a new grouping of artists from other great bands, real energy and enthusiasm)
Something Else
Frumptarn Guggenband (unbelievable brass and percussion band, especially when joined by the following)
Gaorsach Rapper and Step (a fantastic dance side that well deserve their award winning status)
Pig Dyke Molly Dancers (making morris and molly dancing modern?)
Cabaret
Bruce Airhead (brilliant show – how does he do that?)
The Dragon’s Tale (great show for the kids – and sensitive adults)
Madame Ovary & Cecily Bumtrinket (great fun)
Installations
HiG Helix in Gimble (looks great, could save you energy and money)
More of wot I have read…
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
This is an interesting book with some fun ideas and nice twists, but there is a lot in it and sometimes I felt quite lost, and ultimately this meant I lost interest at times.
‘The Diamond Age or A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer
Far above the diamondoid bedrock of New Chusan, a powerful class of neo-Victorians is ruling twenty-first-century Atlantis/Shanghai. John Percival Hackworth, a brilliant nanotechnologist, has created an illicit, magical book for the education of a young lady: an interactive device crammed with folklore, science and the martial arts that teaches young women how to think for themselves.
What will happen to society of it should fall into the hands of someone like little Nell, a poor orphan girl with so much to learn?’
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Epsom Downs Racecourse – Concerts...
Throughout the summer Epsom Downs Racecourse is the venue for several concerts. You can pay for entry to the grandstand and get close to the stage, or you can sit up on the Hill for free (or for the price of car parking). We discovered if you have a meal at the Rubbing House pub, they will take the price of car parking of your bill.
We saw a couple of the acts there. The first being Simply Red (not really my thing) who are on their farewell tour; and the second being the nutty boys, Madness (who were more up my street).
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