Bangers…

The local Westcott Fire Works display was held after bonfire night so that it did not clash with other larger local displays. We like this one better for several reasons, it is closer (walking distance), it is friendlier (not so crowded), the display is great for the minimal entrance fee and they have a bar on the club house. We invited friends around to meet at ours where we had a couple of winter warmers (the mulled wine was nicely spiced up with some plum gin this year) and a few nibbles (sausages the food of choice), then we walked on mass to the sports ground, ooh and ahh’d at the fireworks, wandered back and re-warmed with a bowl of Sue’s butternut and sage soup dipped up with homemade sourdough bread and then followed with various cakes and cheeses all washed down with a choice of beverages.

More of wot I have read…

The Passage by Justin Cronin

This was a slightly odd book, it spent a long time with some characters developing their relationship, throwing the aside and then moving to a different location and time and doing it all over again. There is a lot about the journey and the consequences of the disaster that has befallen them all, but not so much about what really happened. It is a long book and sometimes it drags a bit, but there are times of high tension and the overall effect is of a world that has fallen low and is struggling as its characters are to find their way in it. The ending was abrupt and unexpected and not entirely satisfying, but then we found out it is part of planned trilogy.



‘Amy Harper Bellafonte is six years old and her mother thinks she's the most important person in the whole world. She is.

Anthony Carter doesn't think he could ever be in a worse place than Death Row. He's wrong.

FBI agent Brad Wolgast thinks something beyond imagination is coming. It is.

THE PASSAGE.

Deep in the jungles of eastern Colombia, Professor Jonas Lear has finally found what he's been searching for - and wishes to God he hadn't. In Memphis, Tennessee, a six-year-old girl called Amy is left at the convent of the Sisters of Mercy and wonders why her mother has abandoned her. In a maximum security jail in Nevada, a convicted murderer called Giles Babcock has the same strange nightmare, over and over again, while he waits for a lethal injection. In a remote community in the California mountains, a young man called Peter waits for his beloved brother to return home, so he can kill him. Bound together in ways they cannot comprehend, for each of them a door is about to open into a future they could not have imagined. And a journey is about to begin. An epic journey that will take them through a world transformed by man's darkest dreams, to the very heart of what it means to be human. And beyond.

THE PASSAGE’

Out in the country…

Sue took her sister away for a weekend break to the Basingstoke Country Hotel, there they took advantage of the spa facilities and took walks out in the countryside to local public houses. The hotel was nice enough for them but was quite busy as it was hosting a chess championship.

I picked them both up and we went out to the nearby pretty village of Old Basing where the ruins of the very grand Basing House are. In its time the very grand building rivalled many of the royal palaces.

The end for the building came after it was the location of a major siege during the Civil War and the Royalist defenders were defeated by Cromwell’s forces and the house pulled to the ground. The large barn on the estate though remains and has some dramatic cannon ball damage on the walls.

The site is open to walk around and the large foundations and fortifications give you feeling for the scale of the place and how important a build it must have been

After a bracing walk around the ruins in the cold wintery day we stopped at the nearby Millstone Pub and took advantage of the local Beer and Bangers event by stopping to refuel and warm up.

More of wot I have seen…

We have caught up with a few films on DVD and at the pictures recently.

Cockneys vs. Zombies… …is probably the most descriptive title since Snakes on a Plane. You get what you expect plus a bit more in this comic horror flick including one of the slowest chase scenes ever.

The Avengers… …is a good continuation of the current comic hero films and brings the various characters together in a fun and enjoyable way. I particularly like the banter between Iron Man and the Hulk, but I was never quite so comfortable with the Thor idea.

Dark Shadows… …is a charming little movie that is supposedly based on an old 60’s TV series which I know nothing about. It has some fun period jokes and I always enjoy the offbeat characters played by Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

Prometheus… …I was not as sure about this movie as it did not grab me and I found it difficult to find sympathy with the characters or understand quite what was trying to be achieved. The opening scene just plain baffled me as did the ending, which I am not sure was helped with the appearance of the alien beast.

The Host… …is a bonkers horror flick from Korea which has very odd main characters that seem to be odd to an extreme point, the monster though is quite interestingly imagined. Ultimately though the end was quite troubling for me as I was not comfortable with what happened to the young girl hero.

Skyfall… …is a bond movie, but with a difference. As with the other Daniel Craig movies this is a darker and more physical type of movie but in this they have deliberately harked back to an earlier and simpler time. The jokes and observational humour will delight the bond fan and the details and back references add some depth to the otherwise two dimension characters, but there is no doubting this is still a ‘boys-own’ action movie.

Champion Hedge Layer…

Paul won another competition and is the proud winner of South of England section in the 34th National Hedge Laying Championships.

Before we met Paul we knew nothing about the traditional trade. It entails cutting living hedges around fields and bending them over and laying them in such a fashion as they provide a barrier to keep stock secure and allow for the hedge to re-grow back healthily. There are several regional techniques each with their own methods and benefits particular to their location and usage. Paul makes a particular effort to use traditional tools and avoids using chainsaws in favour of axes and billhooks.

So congratulations to Hawkeye the Hedger, 2012 Champion Layer (long straight wood a speciality).

Party Time…

Recently we went to a party at Paul and Lorraine’s that was held for a friend Erica’s birthday. We also celebrated her engagement to Tomas and there was much talk about having the wedding in his home country of Poland. It was also an opportunity to offer Erica support with her ongoing treatment she is having for cancer.

I’ll drink to that…

What was the Crown Pub has been sold and reopened as a Wine Bar & Deli called Bertram Bees. The old establishment closed after disagreements between the owner and the landlord and a lack of investment in the place. It was boarded up and put on the market and as it was in such a bad state some of us feared that it would go the same was as many country pubs and be knocked down and the valuable land be used to put up a block a flats.

But it was bought by a very enterprising and energetic couple who have done a brilliant restoration job on the place and made what I think is a clever marketing strategy of turning it into a wine bar with its own deli counter. This means it should not compete for the same customers as the other more traditional pub across the road, and it takes advantage of the fact that this is quite a wealthy area where customers will go out and buy locally sourced produce even if it means paying a premium.

We have been in several times and there is quite a varied clientele that changes through the day with the mums coming back from taking the kids to the nearby school having their coffee and cake, the lunch time crowd of older couples and business men passing through the village and then the evening crowd enjoying the ambience over a bottle of wine.

The family who have bought it have a connection to the area and are keen to become part of the community by hosting charity car wash, donating to the firework raffle and giving one of the old pub signs to the local history group. He is a builder to and has done a lot of the work on the building and also does work in the village when he is not helping behind the bar or messing about with his two chopper motorbikes.

We hope to book the place for Sue’s 50th birthday next year.

Crop Failure…

It has been another wildly unpredictable and difficult year for the world’s weather with record hot and cold and wet and dry spells that defy expectations. We had been warned early on that we were in for a drought and with a warm spring and hosepipe ban it seemed it would be true, then the rain came, and didn’t stop drenching everything. It turned cold and froze the ground and then rained again. For us personally we escaped any of the disasters that seem to plague so many people and had a relatively mild year, however our allotment has suffered and we have had one of our worst year’s harvest since we have been growing. We got virtually nothing off the land; even reliable crops like the runner beans were poor this year.

We have now put the allotment ‘to bed’ for the year and we only need to prune the fruit bushes and plant our garlic, over-wintering onions and broad beans until we get back to it next year.

It is an interesting thing growing your own food and we a lucky that we do not have to live off what we grow, but the endless cycle of preparing the ground, planting an nurturing the seedlings, battling the pests and picking the bounty is quite a thing to be involved with at such a hands-on level. There are the rewards of a good harvest and of being able to share it with others, but too there is the disappointment and frustration when it doesn’t work, and then we go and do it all over again the next year.

More Cat Flap Fiasco…

After our troubles with uninvited feline guests we installed (eventually) an electronic cat flap that worked off Sooty’s microchip and we thought our problems were solved. But for the last few months one of the solenoids that locked the door against the cat raiders become faulty and eventually it stopped working all together, so we could either lock our cat out with all the others or allow them all free reign of our house. A big fluffy black cat from a few doors down is a particular bully and he also sprays all over the place so we wanted to keep him out. So with the weather getting colder we had to make a decision and we bought a new cat flap, similar to the first but that ran off batteries and which had a slightly simpler way of programming it. The idea was you set it to program and the next cat that came through would be remembered, unfortunately somewhere down the line it seems it might have got programmed for the bully, so we had to reset it and ‘post’ Sooty (very reluctantly) through the hole to ensure that the right cat got programmed. Our cat is not the sharpest tool in the box and it has taken him sometime to get the hang of the new flap, sometimes he just gives up and waits for us to open it for him. Never mind, hopefully that will be it for cat flap issues for a while.

Free Music…

I stumbled across a website for Noisetrade Music that promotes new and upcoming artist be giving their music away free in exchange for an email address that the artists use to send you promotional material. I have found many new and amazing artists on this site and have been bowled over by the quality of music from acts I have never heard of before. It might be worth checking them out if you like to find new sounds and want to support new acts.

More of wot I have heard…

Fake Thackray is an artist who has concentrated in keeping the talent of the late, great Jake Thackray alive with his tribute act. The alternatively wonderfully un-PC comic or heartbreakingly poignant songs song in the particularly recognisable style were all fabulously rendered and linked together with stories and jokes on a very entertaining evening. It prompted me to go and download the complete collection of Jake’s songs soon afterwards.

Scottish Singer Ewan McLennan is an accomplished guitar player with classical roots and a fine finger action that complemented his lilting voice.

Lee Collinson played the guitar wonderfully with a bluegrass style and kept us entertained with his charming wit and generous personality.

Birthday Fish ‘n Chips…

It was Sue’s Mum’s 75th recently and arrangements had been made for a small family gathering at the Littlehampton and East Beach Café for lunch. The place specialises in fish and chips but has a variety of other tasty treats on the menu. It is not just the menu that attracts people to the place, it is the venue and its location sat as it is on the promenade facing out across the sea with picture windows down one side of the structure. I write structure as it is more than just a building; it is a piece of architectural sculpture clad in attractively rusting metal shaped like a weathered piece of driftwood, or a large boulder showing the layers of sediment laid down over millennia.

The building was designed by Thomas Heatherwick who has been propelled into the limelight with his spectacular Olympic Cauldron, and it turns out he was the designer responsible for the spiky UK Pavilion and the new London Bus.

The following day we had another family gathering at Mum’s place for a traditional Sunday lunch that was relaxed and enjoyable.

Best wishes to Barbara.

Blink and miss it…

After the Olympic road cycling race we also had the Tour of Britain cycling event come through the village, travelling in the opposite direction. It attracted a good group of residents to line the main road who were in a party atmosphere. The build up was slow as people reacted to anything that came up the road, the motorcycle escort helped to entertain us reacting with smiles and waves to the cheers as they drove through, and the Police switched on their sirens and lights to the delight of the kids.

The group of cyclists came more quietly into the village until the crowd spotted them and a huge roar of cheering spread along the road accompanying the tightly packed, lycra clad athletes, and in a matter of seconds they were all past us and off up the hill out of the village. In contrast the parade of brightly be-signed support vehicles sporting spare frames and wheels, other outriders, and a special ‘sweep’ van with brooms on it took ages to pass through as they queued up the hill for many minutes after the cyclists had long gone by.

Messing about on the river…

The parents of one of my friends at work has a canal boat moored on the Thames and each year a group of the lads from work get together to cast off to explore one of the tributaries of the river. Naturally there is a vast amount of liquid inside the boat that once filtered through the occupants would mostly end up outside of the craft and there were important discussions prior to departure to ensure the barrels of beer, bottles of wine and varied spirits all found a place in the cramped narrow boat. To line our stomachs we had a full blown cooked breakfast on the gas barbeque, washed down by the first of many cold beverages.

I joined the annual outing for the first time this year as we planned to travel up the Wey Navigation for a few miles stopping at the locks and any public houses that we might encounter on the way. It was gentle progress as we chugged along with the opening and closing of the locks the only real exercise, so this left us plenty of time to drink and chat and observe the rest of the world as the rushed about us like busy worker ants.

Ian had come prepared with the ingredients for a very fine and substantial curry that fed us well that evening as we gathered around the small table struggling to find space on it for the food amongst the bottles of wine and pints of beer. We ate well with plenty of cheese and nibbles, a couple of cakes courtesy of Sue and the morning fry ups to soak up some of the alcohol.

Sleeping arrangements were more problematic as the boat only had berths for four and there were seven of us. Steve had planned ahead and brought a small tent that he pitched up on the towpath, I had a blow up single mattress that just fitted in the aisle but Ian had none of that and had the hard floor to cope with.

We had good weather and the fresh mornings with the mist on the flat calm canal and the gentle murmurings of wildlife rising for the day were peaceful and gentle, just the thing after a day of drinking.

It was a fun couple of days, though I do feel we are getting a little too old for this sort of thing now.

Summer Nights…

We went to one of the Loosley Park Summer Nights Music events recently mainly to see The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, a fun and talented band. The venue was Loosley Park, a grand old manor house and a name associated now with quality ice cream. We didn’t see the house as the show was out in one of their many fields. It was a lovely small affair and we had a nice time with our picnic on a pleasant summer’s evening.

What a Difference…

Bosham and West Wittering are but a few miles apart geographically but as a matter of market appeal and cultural attraction they are a million miles from each other.

Bosham is a quaint and historical waterside town with quaint old English village feel to it and its tea shops, public houses, church, green outside the yacht club attract a certain type of visitor who likes to stroll around, sit quietly on benches watching the kids playing in their dinghies, eat and drink in the convivial pubs and generally enjoy a gentler pace of life.

On the other hand West Wittering on a summer’s weekend is a mass of humanity, exposed skin, inappropriate clothing choices, sitting sunburned jowl by pink cheek on every available square foot of sand on the long wide beach. I have never seen so many people on one beach in my life. And the car park! The rows, upon row of cars broken only by groups of families having BBQs next to the vehicles or queuing for the fish and chips and ice creams at the café in the middle was mind boggling. We paid the $£6 to get into the car park, walked to the beach, gasped at what we saw and immediately turned around again.

Musical Notes…

We have recently been to our annual pilgrimage to a field in a small Oxfordshire village to witness the audio spectacular that is the Towersey Village Festival. There were a few small changes over the last year which seems to have been introduced due to the increased numbers of people visiting with a new camping area set aside and a larger main tent for concerts. Also this year you had to buy drinks tokens (this was apparently due to the company having been targeted by thieves at another venue).

The main reason we go for is the intimate musical experience that is mostly of the folk genre (though with some crossover alternative acts along the way). We managed to avoid the worst of the weather and saw a great number of acts such as:

Bellowhead – a folk super-group who have a big sound and bigger energy and inspire a party atmosphere from their fans, that can result in the most unlikely of people pogo dancing to the beat (honests, I couldn’t help myself – it was the music that made me do it).

Edward II – another interesting fusion, this time of folk, reggae and rock that were loud and enthusiastic, but not my cup of tea.

Abigail Washburn and Kai Welch – selling themselves as players of American old-time music these two had a nice gentle sound to them that was enjoyable to listen to.

Bev Lee Harling – an artist with an interesting CV that takes in Mediaeval, Jazz, Burlesque and now uses old junk as instruments (tin pots and pans and an old suitcase as percussion, an electric drill, cheese grater, and chopping vegetables on a board with a knife) in an act that is enhanced by the visual experience that adds to the wonderful and enchanting performance. She was one of our favourites this year.

Larkin Poe – a couple of young sisters from the US who play loud and amplified (too loud and amplified for my taste).

Jamie Smith’s Mabon – celtic inspired folk music by very accomplished musicians.

Donal Lunny, Padraig Rynne & Sylvain Barou – Irish inspired music led by Lunny, who has been playing since he started in the early 70’s with folk band Planxty, with concertina playing Rynne and piper and flutist Breton Barou, make up this traditional sounding trio. Very good musicians but not enough songs for us.

 

Esquisse – a very talented French band who were fine musicians but naturally lacked the ability to interact with their British audience.

Old Man Luedecke – another one of our ‘finds’ for this year was this gentle, amusing and talented Canadian banjo player who had a way with words and a captivating, self-effacing charm.

Roy Bailey – a stalwart of the left wing inclusive music scene and a patron of Towersey this grand old man of folk has a huge and enthusiastic following. His son-in-law the talented Martin Simpson said that if Roy recited the telephone directory the audience would applaud – and it is true, such is the devotion and love that this man inspires by his dedicated fans. He did have trouble with some songs and made a few mistakes, but he exudes passion and integrity by the bucket load.

Jon Boden – The lead singer of Bellowhead, Jon can play a different style on his own, or as he was here with a couple of other fine musicians to support him, a much calmer and more reflective mood than the behemoth group.

O’Hooley & Tidow – we saw this couple a while back and know of them when they were part of the Unthanks group. They are talented and quirky performers with a gently cutting wit to them.

Nancy Kerr and James Fagan – this couple have a well balanced act with complementary voices and an interesting turn of songs.

Reuben’s Train – This duo are a very different proposition, one that often confuses the audience. The lead singer has such a low voice that people are not sure whether it is serious or comical, and can find it all a little disconcerting. That is something I like about them and I think it brings an extra quality to the dark and bleak songs they choose to sing.

The Melrose Quartet – this is a group made of two couples, both of which have successful independent careers, but together have a wider and deeper quality to the songs and tunes they perform.

David Gibb & Elly Lucas – A very young couple who are full of talent and the enthusiasm of youth and who have some cute and quirky songs in their act.

Stephen Taberner – better known to us as the choir master for the Spooky Men’s Chorale, but on his own he shows his jazzier side to him while keeping his comic edge sharp.

JuNk – these are an interesting new performance act that use found items as musical instruments and a post-apocalypse back-story to create their own comical world that they explore in a fresh and entertaining way.

Beltane Border – one of the many dance groups that perform at Towersey who were here for the first time and camped near to us for the weekend. The dance a different style to Morris, that is more aggressive and dramatic in appearance as they black up and stomp around in heavy boots and black raggedy cloaks.

in between the music we managed to fit in a bit of drinking, eating and socialising and saw my uncle and his friends as they played and sang at the nearby pub.

All in all we had another entertaining and enjoyable weekend.

Brightest Flame…

The 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics are over and even I as a devote sport-atheist was sucked into the razzmatazz of the whole spectacular event. We did not put our names down for tickets and I feel a little pang of regret from not experiencing the enthusiasm and celebration first hand. Even when the Olympics came to us by way of the cycle race that passed through our village we avoided it, but that was to avoid being trapped here and to allow us to take my folks to visit family before they returned home.

We did however watch some of the television coverage starting with the Opening Ceremony that we thoroughly enjoyed (so impressed with the effects incorporated into the stadium, the imagery of Britain through history and the remarkable set work and visual theatre – not so impressed with the musical acts, but that is just a matter of personal taste). We also saw some glimpses of events on the wall-to-wall coverage we had access to (loved the Matrix style multiple camera shots of the gymnasts as they leapt off the beam), and thought the integration of the events into the city and surroundings was well done (personally I am grateful for the cycle race as it meant we had our roads fixed and a lot of road furniture replaced, buildings repainted and even a new sculpture commissioned for one of the roundabouts).

Equally the coverage of the Paralympics was impressive and the exposure here in the UK has done a great deal to overcome some of the population’s misconception and poor attitude towards disabilities and has increased public awareness. Hopefully it is something that can be built on in the future – one of the legacies they told us about.

Returning Home…

My folks have left the UK after a great extended holiday and eventually made it back to NZ after waiting 6 hours at Gatwick while engineers fixed something to do with the breaks on their plane but as they said ‘luckily they found out before the plane left the ground’. They had planned a layover on route which was cut short and meant they did not miss the connecting flight; it was just more tiring than usual. 

But they are back safe and sound and happy to be home.