Birthday Treats...

For my birthday this year, Sue spoilt me rotten. On the Saturday we visit Two Temple Place where there was a Jazz exhibition called Rhythm & Reaction in a fabulous building that is not normally open to the public, then we went on to the National Gallery before going to the matinee of Young Frankenstein, and finishing up with a few drinks at the Savoy American Bar. On Sunday we had the godsons and their parents over and we played a couple of games I had bought them at Christmas – Charly and Virulence– both were hits with the group.

Uncle Tony...

Sue’s Uncle Tony lost his battle with cancer in January and we attended his funeral which was packed out with friends, family, and business colleagues all coming to pay their respects. It was a very moving day. 

Whilst the cat's away...

Sue, Deb, Carole and Blonde Deb visit Marrakech for Blondie’s 50^th birthday where they stayed at the Eden Andalou Hotel. Whilst they ventured out into the town and the markets, and took a drive up into the Atlas Mountains, I had the boys around and we played a variety of games (whilst the cat’s away…).

Old Wood...

Marc had another visit with us in January and we played a few games, with Sue stuffing us at Ticket to Ride. We also took a drive out into the countryside and ended up visiting a 4000-year-old Yew Tree at Crowhurst. 

Fun with Friends...

Marc & Heather & Elise came over from Sweden and stayed with us for a few days over the Christmas/New Year period whilst they visited friends and family. We kept them busy but managed to get out to play in the park and to feed carrots to the donkeys. Another semi-regular event is a walk and talk with friends and colleagues old and new. This time we were at Dinton Pastures Country Park near Reading where we walked around the ponds together (Marc played with Elise in the fabulous play area) and later we went on to have a meal at a pub called the Jolly Farmers in Hurst.

 New Year’s Eve was spent at home with Whittenburys and Harrison-Dinniss clans. We had a convivial time eating a lovely meal, chatting and consuming a few drinks that culminated in watching Jools Holland’s Hootenanny.

On New Year’s Day, we went for a walk in Banstead Woods where they have a new Narnia Trail (a wood carving artist has created large sculptures out of dead trees, and other wood products, that represent things from the children’s books). We went on over the muddy and slippery paths (unfortunately Marc had a couple of tumbles) until we got to the Ramblers Rest where we recovered.

Christmas by the sea...

Christmas and Boxing Day was spent at Seaford at Chris & Lynne’s home that had been decorated in style and where the provided a fabulous spread. We were joined by Barbara and Debs and had a merry old time. On Boxing Day, we had a brisk walk along the cliffs until a squall forced us into a pub seeking shelter. 

Furlong Road Residents and Supporters...

We have a semi-regular gathering of Furlong Road Residents and Supporters, and before Christmas this was in Dorking (our local curry house having shut down), at the Mirch Mahal where we have lovely food and enjoyed the company. 

Period Festivities...

To get some fresh air we went and visited Polesden Lacey where they decorate the house up in a Christmas style in keeping with the period of the building. There is much festivities and even a ‘reindeer’ drawn carriage ride for the kids (horses wearing antlers and red noses).

Festive Tunes...

A regular event that heralds the festive season is the carol singing arranged by my Uncle Terry in a neighbour’s house at Tring. It is always well attended by talented musical friends and enthusiastic amateurs all in good voice and humour.  

Celebrations...

Some time back now we visited Jamie and Gia in London when her mum was over. We went with Barbara and Deb and had a pleasant time together.

For Debbie’s latest birthday we went to the Railway Tavern near where she lives, and where many of her friends meet. There was a DJ set up in one corner playing Northern Soul classics and the place was heaving with people enjoying themselves. 

Relocation, relocation, relocation...

Late last year I relocated to an office in Horsham as our management has been insisting on us office workers being physically in the office every day, even if we have previously agreed to work from home a couple days a week. Considering we are a global company technology company, all have laptops and mobile skype communications, have bosses and colleagues in various locations across the globe, it seems to be an issue of trust, or the lack thereof. So, I have arranged to work from one of our group company offices closer to home even though it has no direct relationship to the work or business I do. The journey now is half the time and distance and avoids motorways and the town is quite pleasant (there is even a board game shop there). 

More of wot I have read…

Death’s End by Cixin Liu

This is the final part of an ongoing series about humans and aliens and the possibilities around their interaction. Over this series, the author has endeavoured to put forward several grand ideas and has postulated how our civilisation may evolve and the dangers we may encounter because of humanities reach into the unknown. The final book goes even further than the others, all the way to Death’s End to explore a possible conclusion (or is it?) to the story he has woven so skilfully.

‘Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay.

Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge and, with human science advancing and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations can co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation. But peace has made humanity complacent.

Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the start of the Trisolar Crisis, and her presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?’

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

This was a book given to me by a friend, which is the first in the Kingkiller Chronicle. As the first book in a planned trilogy, the author spends a lot of time developing the main character, explaining his origins and motivations that will guide his actions in the future. This could be a slow and drawn out process but he is a skilled writer who paints a detailed and intriguing world without giving away all its secrets, leaving you wanting more.

‘My name is Kvothe, pronounced nearly the same as "quothe." Names are important as they tell you a great deal about a person. I've had more names than anyone has a right to. The Adem call me Maedre. Which, depending on how it's spoken, can mean The Flame, The Thunder, or The Broken Tree.

"The Flame" is obvious if you've ever seen me. I have red hair, bright. If I had been born a couple of hundred years ago I would probably have been burned as a demon. I keep it short but it's unruly. When left to its own devices, it sticks up and makes me look as if I have been set afire.

"The Thunder" I attribute to a strong baritone and a great deal of stage training at an early age.

I've never thought of "The Broken Tree" as very significant. Although in retrospect, I suppose it could be considered at least partially prophetic.

My first mentor called me E'lir because I was clever and I knew it. My first real lover called me Dulator because she liked the sound of it. I have been called Shadicar, Lightfinger, and Six-String. I have been called Kvothe the Bloodless, Kvothe the Arcane, and Kvothe Kingkiller. I have earned those names. Bought and paid for them.

But I was brought up as Kvothe. My father once told me it meant "to know."

I have, of course, been called many other things. Most of them uncouth, although very few were unearned.

I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.

You may have heard of me.

So begins the tale of Kvothe—from his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, to years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-riddled city, to his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a difficult and dangerous school of magic. In these pages you will come to know Kvothe as a notorious magician, an accomplished thief, a masterful musician, and an infamous assassin. But The Name of the Wind is so much more—for the story it tells reveals the truth behind Kvothe's legend.’

Quality Time…

As part of uncle Terry’s birthday we met in London and visited the Science Museum, and in particular the Clockmakers of London exhibition (displayed in a non-ironic chronological order). Here we saw some very interesting pieces and got to appreciate the impact changing society had on timepieces and vice versa (such as global navigation and Joseph Harrisons marine clocks). We also saw a few of the many other interesting items on display while we were there (Babbage’s Difference Engine, Stephenson’s Rocket and a small part of the Wellcome Collection). We then walked through the Christmassy Covent Garden down to Rules restaurant where we had a most enjoyable luncheon. 

Countryside Crafts…

We supported our friend, Paul’s, new Hedges & Hurdles venture by participating in his two-day hedge-laying training course. A hands-on practical experience where you learn basic tool use and what types of wood to use for what purpose. The course starts with a day of preparation where you coppice raw materials, split wood and get used to the equipment. The second day you tackle the unruly hedge, cutting, shaping and laying the living plants and securing them in place with the stakes and binders made the day before. A very rewarding and informative course run by a champion hedge-layer and enthusiastic woodsman. 

Serious Fun…

A full day of table top gaming with friends where we played mostly space themed games including Pulsar 2849, Alien Artefacts, and Terraforming Mars among others. I didn’t win many but had a great time trying.

Gaming Nirvana…

Essen Spiel is where you can go to lose yourself completely in the world of (analogue) games, be they all things table-top (miniatures, card, dice, or abstract), Role Play Games (pen and paper, and Live Action Role Play) and for all levels (children games, casual players, party games and serious gamers).

As seems to be the general trend these conventions are growing in size and popularity and the games are becoming broader in appeal, attracting a wide variety of people. Essen has its fair share of sun deprived social outcasts but it does also attract a more ‘normal’ and family crowd as the Euro tradition of gaming seems to be wider spread.

Unlike the UK Games Expo and GenCon there is less emphasis on playing at the convention, it being more of a huge series of trade halls. And this means many people gather at hotels after the show day to play into the wee small hours.

We have used a small family hotel called Handelshof some distance away from the convention centre for many years now and have a friendly group of people to play with who have become good friends over time. This year several palls came in from far and wide (New Zealand, Sweden, Belgium and South Africa) and as well as gaming we managed to socialise at dinner and over drinks. One dining highlight was at the Mousetrap restaurant for pig knuckle followed by apple strudel. 

Family Gastronomy…

Uncle Tony gathered many of the family together for a tasting menu dinner at the newly opened Sorrel (by award winning chef Steve Drake) in Dorking. The food was quite sublime, though the exoticness of some of the dishes did not appeal to everyone. Also, as it was newly opened and extremely popular, we felt at times the service struggled to match the quality of the food. Something I am sure they will fix as they get up to speed. 

Autumnal Pleasures…

England in the autumn is a jolly fine place indeed. We have managed to get out and experience a bit of it at RHS Wisley where we witnessed woodland skills being performed and the spectacular colours of the trees. We also enjoyed a good harvest in the garden of fruits and vegetable (potatoes, pumpkin and squashes, raspberries and grapes). Mild temperatures have allowed us to go for few walks in our nearby countryside as well. I final flourish before we head into the long dark winter.

A Milestone Birthday…

We recently celebrated Barbara’s 80^th birthday (Sue’s Mum) with two events; a little party for the younger members of the family who were around; and a sit-down dinner for her children and their partners. She seemed to be happy to be in the middle of all this family hubbub. 

More of wot I have read…

A bit of a catch up on what I have been reading over the last few months.

The Long Cosmos by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

This is the final book in the Long Earth series and in it we find the combined inhabitants of Long Earth come to realise that there is a more advanced civilisation out in the Long Cosmos that has focused its attention on them. It aims to pull together several of the threads introduced in earlier books, giving more background to several storylines and offering up an interesting conclusion.

‘2070-71. Nearly six decades after Step Day and in the Long Earth the new Next post-human society continues to evolve.

Joshua Valiente, now in his late sixties, wants to make one last, solo journey into the High Meggers. Only it’s an adventure that turns into a disaster. Alone and facing death, his only hope lies with a group of trolls.

As Joshua confronts his mortality, the Long Earth receives a signal from the stars. A signal picked up by radio astronomers but also in more abstract ways, by the trolls and by the Great Traversers. Its impact will be felt by all who inhabit the Long Earths.

The message is simple but its implications are enormous: JOIN US.’

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

This is part of an ongoing series about humans and aliens and the possibilities around their interaction. It has a different view point being from a Chinese author and this along with the complexity of some of the ‘science’ being proposed, can make it a challenging read, however the characters and overarching story are compelling and thought provoking.

‘Imagine the universe as a forest, patrolled by numberless and nameless predators. In this forest, stealth is survival – any civilisation the reveals its location is prey.

Earth has. Now the predators are coming.

Crossing light years, they will reach Earth in four centuries’ time. But the sophons, their extra-dimensional agents and saboteurs, are already here. Only the individual human mind remains immune to their influence.

This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a last-ditch defence that grants four individuals almost absolute power to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from human and alien alike. Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown.

Lou Ji, an ambitious Chinese astronomer, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he’s the one Wallfacer the aliens want dead.’

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

Sue picked this book up for me when we visited Hemingway’s house in Key West. I found it a difficult read; partly I think for the ‘voice’ used to tell the reader when Spanish was being spoken; secondly, I think the slow pace of the book is a side effect of the period it was written in (we now prefer faster paced action stories in our rapid pace information age) - also I think I found the characters unsympathetic (our ideas of morality and what is acceptable also changed over time). I am not sure it stands the test of time as an enjoyable read, but has merit for the subject and for a glimpse into another time.

‘High in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra, a guerrilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer, has been sent to handle the dynamiting. There, in the mountains, he finds the dangers and the intense comradeship of war. And there he discovers Maria, a young woman who has escaped from Franco’s rebels.’

The Whispering Swarm by Michael Moorcock

Well this was an odd book! I am not sure if I got the joke. Was this really an autobiographical story or some sort of vehicle to explain the author’s influences? I found it a little self-indulgent and I lacked empathy with the ‘mail character’. Being unfamiliar with his other works I do not know if it is a typical Moorcock book or not. I am not sure I am tempted to find out.

‘London is just recovering from the Blitz and years of austerity. For a young man named Michael Moorcock, the future is rife with possibilities. From his time as the youngest editor in Fleet Street to the first inklings of his future career as a writer, as he picks his way through the hidden backstreets and private worlds most Londoners don’t know about, he believes hi is safe.

Until he meets a strange Carmelite monk, goes through a locked gate, and discovers a different London hidden in plain sight. A city filled with fantastical people and unbelievable stories. A society full of dangers, magic and love. A place which calls to him with a whisper only he can hear!’

The New World by Chris Adrian & EliHorowitz

This was an interesting concept but it was too strung out and esoteric for a full novel and would have been better as a short story.

‘What does love feel like beyond death?

Jane’s husband Jim has just died – or not quite. For Jim, a mild-mannered chaplin at the hospital where Jane works as a surgeon, has left his body to Polaris, a shadowy cryonics organisation that promises to do away with mortality forever. Stranded in the realm of the Living, reeling from the loss of her husband, Jane sets out to confront Polaris and to discover just where, exactly, his body is now. Meanwhile, awake in a strange new world, an afterlife of sorts, his body gone but his consciousness intact, Jim learns that the cost of eternal life is higher than he could ever have imagined.’

Son of the Morning by Mark Alder

I enjoyed the idea of this a lot even if it is not overly original. The span of the story was rather grand but it was helped with interesting characters and finely crafted nods to historical references. I enjoyed this book very much.

‘Edward the Third stands in the burned ruin of a church. Another French raid on the south coast of England. The king is beset on all sides and terribly in debt. He needs a victory against the French to rescue his Kingship. But this is a war he cannot win.

By his divine right as king, Philip of Valois can summon seven angels to fight for him. A French army that marches beneath his banner never loses.

Edward should be able to call his own angles, but they have not spoken since his father was king. Is God truly on the side of the French?

But a banker makes Edward an offer. The help of a young boy. A Luciferist who carries one of the keys to Hell. For a price, Edward could open the gates to Hell and take an unholy war to France.’

  

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

This was a book that inspired my reading at an early age and revisiting it I think I noticed more of the cleverly crafted ideas than I would have as a boy. I would recommend this to any young person first starting to explore books, words, numbers and the often-absurd English language.

‘When Milo receives a mysterious and intriguing package through the post, all his previous feelings of boredom are banished. Having nothing better to do, he points his pedal car towards the strange land beyond the Tollbooth, and quicker than a flash he’s entered the Kingdom of Wisdom, where everything is unexpected.’

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

This was another book bought for me by Sue, and as a short story it is a much more accessible and enjoyable read than Fore Whom the Bell Tolls. I would recommend it for its excellent use of language to conjure up a scene and to evoke an emotional response.

‘Set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Havana, Hemingway’s magnificent fable is the story of an old man, a young boy and a giant fish. In a perfectly crafted story, which won for Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature, is a unique and timeless vision of the beauty and grief of a man’s challenge to the elements in which he lives’.

S.N.U.F.F. by Victor Pelevin

Perhaps a little too clever for itself. There are some interesting ideas and a very political message that the author is trying to get a cross, but it drags at times and feels quite self-indulgent at others.

‘Damilola Karpov is a pilot. Living in Byzantion, he makes his living as a drone pilot – capable of being a cameraman who records the events unfolding in Urkaine or, with weapons aboard his drone, of making a newsworthy event happen for his employers: CINEWS, INC.

His recordings are known as S.N.U.F.F.: Special Newsreel/Universal Feature Film – an esoteric sacrament in Movism, the post-antichristian religion of Byzantion and Urkaine.’

Lock In by John Scalzi

Another interesting idea though it feels a little forced and reads a bit like a screen play rather than a novel, but nevertheless it is a fun and entertaining read.

‘Fifteen years from now, a new virus sweeps the globe. Most of those afflicted experience nothing worse than a fever and headaches. A few suffer acute meningitis, creating the largest medical crisis in history. And 1 percent find themselves ‘locked in’ – fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus.

It may not seem like a lot. But in the US alone that’s 1.7 million people ‘locked in’… including the President’s wife and daughter.

Spurred on by grief and the sheer magnitude of the suffering. America undertakes a massive scientific initiative. Nothing can fully restore the locked in, but two new technologies emerge to help. One is a virtual-reality environment, ‘The Agora’, where the locked in can interact with other humans. The second is the discovery that a few rare individuals have minds that are receptive to being controlled by others, allowing the locked in to occasionally use their bodies as if they were their own.

This skill is quickly regulated, licensed, bonded, and controlled. Nothing can go wrong. Certainly, nobody would be tempted to misuse it, for murder, for political power, or worse.’

The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

I enjoyed this story, though the setup is vague and contrived, the main story line is involving and engaging even if the conclusion is a trifle unsatisfying.

‘Brendan Doyle, a specialist in the work of the early-nineteenth-century poet William Ashbless, reluctantly accepts an invitation from a millionaire to act as a guide to time-travelling tourists. But, while attending a lecture given by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1810, he becomes marooned in Regency London, where dark and dangerous forces know about the gates in time. Caught up in the intrigues between rival bands of beggars, pursued by Egyptian sorcerers, befriended by Coleridge, Doyle somehow survives. And learns more about the mysterious Ashbless than he could ever have imagined possible.’