The Earth Beneath Her Feet

A Spell of Rain

2009-07-08T22:19:17Z

The Aussie guy I met in Tokyo popped up in London again yesterday and asked me to meet up in Leicester Square with him and some friends at 6pm. I vaguely remembered Leicester Square was a bad idea, so jumped out at Tottenham Court Road and walked down the road towards the square. I was almost there when I heard screaming. Lots and lots of screaming.

That's ~~Cracker~~ Robbie Coltrane, aka Hagrid, being interviewed on the big screen at the soggy premiere of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. A group of teenagers next to me were squeeing over a slightly damp notebook with autographs. It wasn't possible to get any closer and anyway the others had texted to say they'd found refuge in a pub back up Charing Cross Road.

Just as I'd left the square, a well-known actor came hurrying down the road past me, presumably on his way to the premiere. Annoyingly, I couldn't remember his name. He'd been on Inspector Morse once but I wasn't about to wade through 12 series on IMDB to find him. Fortunately, Wingnut came back from the Netherlands an hour ago and helped pin it down, it was Simon Callow, who was Gareth from Four Weddings and a Funeral, Dickens in Dr Who, and the band manager in Lewis. I shall sleep well tonight.

Cool Cat

2009-07-07T22:55:59Z

It's long been a habit of mine to have a dinner break in Brussels before catching the Eurostar back to London. It's not my favourite of cities but I just like to wander round to see what I can see. There's always something good.

My Dutch uncle from NZ recently reminded me that language is still a vexed issue in Brussels. He twice trotted out his hastily learned French only to be told a little gruffly that "you can speak Dutch, it's not all French here no matter what they say." I guess it's not something that presses itself onto my attention -- I always speak French in Brussels but the worst that can happen is that someone drops a word of English into the conversation to show they're onto me. :-)

Spare Room With A View

2009-07-06T22:18:26Z

It's been a fun few days in the Netherlands, but London calls so I'm back again and starting to sort through some of the photos before heading to my own bed.

Presenting part two of why you should sleep over at an SF fan's house:

Their child's bedroom has this view too. I am unspeakably envious.

Lunchtime Happenings in Hammersmith

2009-06-30T17:01:26Z

There was heaps to do in Hammersmith (west London) last Thursday lunchtime. The Lyric Theatre's public rooftop garden opened earlier this month to provide some much needed greenery. It still looks a little bare, but that will improve with time.

From my vantage point, I took some shots of the lunchtime entertainment in Lyric Square. When I came down for the next performance, I realised the kid who'd volunteered to help the unicyclist was still there, so I asked the adult with her if they'd like to see the photos. It turned out that they were from Arizona, although the grandmother was originally from Ireland and was also an old Londoner. She reckoned the area used to be a real dump and Lyric Square certainly wasn't called that in her day.

The next performance was courtesy of a small delegation from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, members of which were playing in London throughout the day to promote the new Proms season. They had a challenge or two to contend with. After one or two Beatles songs, the person who was tinkling away on the "Play Me, I'm Yours" piano (one of 30 scattered around the city) was asked nicely to be quieter during the performance. That settled, the gusts of wind got so bad that the cellist and a violinist had to put a foot on their music stands to stop the sheets escaping. While continuing to play as if everything were normal. Don't think that'll be necessary at the Proms but it was impressive nonetheless. :-)

Goodbye London by Luke Jackson

2009-06-30T09:56:44Z

It's a little early as I'm actually leaving on Wednesday (and then only for a few days) but this vid dropped into the mailbox this morning and amused.

Goodbye London - Luke Jackson. It's worth going fullscreen.

The animations mostly visit Camden and Hampstead, but there's a little bit of East London towards the end.

Royston

2009-06-29T21:55:01Z

It was just starting to drizzle when Wingnut and me hurried out under an umbrella to be picked up by Jen. Two minutes later we blessed her good timing as hailstones smashed down from a dark sky. Um, hello? Wimbledon is over thataway ->

It was worse going on the motorway, and a number of drivers pulled over to wait out the storm. Wingnut pointed out that one of the cars seemed to be minus a windshield. It was almost the worst conditions I've ever been on the road in, the only exception being a bad storm in Wellington and that only because it was nighttime. (Customer alert in the cinema: license plate XYZ, your car is floating down the street.)

However, we made it safely north to sunny Royston (near Cambridge), well in time for dinner with the rest of the group.

By the way, here's why you should sleep over at an SF fans' house:

Royston photo gallery (not only of books, honest)

The next day, some of us were taken on a walk through Royston and up through some chalkland which had quite a few Iron Age barrows on it. I don't think anyone else was impressed but I thought it just amazing (Maori settled New Zealand about 8-900 years ago).

Later in the afternoon, we went to Royston Cave. The cave lies under a crossroads and was made by humans, possibly early 14C, and is almost eight metres high. Its walls are filled with carvings of nobility, Christian saints and pagan symbols. The cave's users would've had to climb down a steep shaft and, likely, onto a wooden platform. Fortunately, a smart 18C gentleman created another tunnel, and incidentally, a source of income for himself, so us modern tourists have an easier time of it.

Michael Jackson Tribute Flashmob

2009-06-27T14:19:22Z

I've been pretty cynical about all the coverage the death of Michael Jackson, so almost feel I should apologise for adding to the noise. But I came across this video via @LDN today and thought, "that's my London". :-) It's yet another flashmob near Liverpool Street Station, but it's still genuinely fun. The plan was to do a mass moonwalk but it's immediately obvious that there's too much mass.

Michael Jackson Moonwalk Flash Mob London 26 June

P.S. I was going to advise those who want to keep their cynicism pure to carry on reading b3ta, but apparently this was Rob Manuel's idea. *g*

This van has eyes...

2009-06-23T20:39:52Z

...in the back of its head:

Streets of London

2009-06-17T17:31:57Z

Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London
I'll show you something to make you change your mind

Streets of London - Ralph McTell

The song actually started life in Paris, but was changed to London when McTell came home to England and realised things were much the same there.[1] The creator of the video slideshow includes photos from both Paris and London and presumably other places. (I had to give up on finding a decent version without depressing pictures. *g*)

[1] BBC Radio 2 interview

Flamenco Show

2009-06-13T23:55:04Z

This was a nice surprise in Paternoster Square (near St. Paul's). Presumably it's part of a series of lunchtime concerts but I have no idea who this flamenco group is.

They were all very good, but the guy on the right was just amazing. I must've sat there for quarter of an hour before my buzzing phone reminded me I was actually there to meet someone.

June

2009-06-09T16:06:22Z

While I'm sure you're all eagerly awaiting my next political rant, I'm sadly out of time for today.

June
Came upon us much too soon
Then was gone
Gone
Like the mountains of the moon
At dawn

June - Spock's Beard at one of their many gigs in the Netherlands.

You'll have to excuse the two minute intro, they're a prog band and can't help themselves.

Voting Today

2009-06-04T11:59:09Z

It's high time to cover some election basics. The European Parliament will have 736 members after these elections, 72 will be from the UK. My region, London, will have 8 seats. Currently, London is represented by 9 members: 3 Conservative, 3 Labour, 1 Liberal Democrat, 1 UK Independence Party and 1 Green. Results won't start coming in until 7 June because the UK, along with the Netherlands, are early voters compared with the rest who will mostly vote that Sunday.

I went to the polling station at the start of lunchtime where I filled in the most unwieldy ballot paper I've ever seen, it was about a metre long. The LibDems (in the ALDE group) got my cross this time, though it was a close call between them and the Green Party.

The officials at the polling station guessed that they'd have 25% to 30% turnout by the end of the day, which they thought comparatively good. I tried not to look depressed. Of course, a higher turnout will likely be driven by the MPs' expenses scandal and other national fuck ups. Be careful what you wish for, eh?

European Alphabet Soup

2009-06-03T16:30:49Z

It's unusual for me not to have decided who to vote for the day before an election. furrfu alluded to part of one of my many problems yesterday in the comments, namely that voting for a party in one country is not the same as voting for their counterpart in another. In the Netherlands, I'd vote GroenLinks, but in France I had second thoughts about voting for Les Verts, who suffered too much from the usual green party sins. And the Green Party of England and Wales ("oi, we Scots have our own party!") is different again.

However, a vote for any of them would be a vote for the Green-EFA party coalition in the European Parliament. What's the EFA though? European Free Alliance, a name which tells me nothing. Maybe it's a small thing but this is where I start to get annoyed. In order to vote, I want to know what group my party belongs to. There's a choice of EPP-ED, UEN, PES, etc. Which have sub-parties, ELDR, AEN, AIDE, etc. It seems every member state contributed a letter. Do other people find it easier to keep track?

The BBC tries to help with a short explanation of the groups, using cake, which looks more like an excuse to buy a Belgian chocolate cake. Can't say I blame them.

Who Gets Your Vote?

2009-06-02T15:43:48Z

As demonstrated by the leaflets, the UK campaign for the European parliamentary elections is pretty uninspiring. For those who don't know where to start when choosing, you could do worse than trying out Votematch or EU Profiler. They're a useful sanity check too. The first matched me to the Greens, who I was leaning towards, and the second to the Liberal Democrats, so I'll have to have a look as to why that is.

There's a meme on Twitter encouraging people to say why we should vote. My first thought was, have you seen any EU member states go to war against each other recently? No? Well, off you go then.

More European Parliament Leaflets

2009-05-27T15:24:15Z

There are actual Marxists left in Britain and they have leaflets. Instead of slagging off a party by name, the Socialist Party took the wholesale approach of condemning them all. Like UKIP's leaflet, they also have something against professional politicians. Is that a reference to the MPs' expenses scandal? Or maybe it's something else, but that would be unkind.

The Christian Party spent two pages explaining how the proportional voting system should be used to keep the BNP out. No prizes for the conclusion. Then, half a page of small type on all the scary things the BNP will do once in power. Direct mention of the MPs' expenses scandal, which is a first. With all the bitter words against other parties, I'm surprised more haven't made grateful use of the scandal, but perhaps printing deadlines did not permit.

Lastly, one page with actual policies regarding the EU! Which ranged from reasonable to sending me to Wikipedia to check who else they hated. A depressing exercise until the section about how, once upon a time, the leader of the Christian Party co-wrote a gay hit song, ensuring a steady flow of money to the party.

Labour sent Wingnut a leaflet which is not as fancy as mine. General blah plus the horrible things the Tories are planning to do to London and the nation. It also claims to stand up for "hard-working British people", a promise designed to appeal to a Dutchman, who, incidentally, is on a work trip to Bonn. The only mention of the EU and Europe is the image of the sample ballot paper.

The Lib Dems and the Tories still have time to visit my doormat. Will they do any better? Right now I'd be grateful for any recognition that this vote is for the European Parliament. I don't remember it being quite this bad in Paris last time.

Uruguayan Writer Benedetti Dies

2009-05-23T14:40:15Z

Reading back through De Papieren Man, I discovered that Mario Benedetti had died in Montevideo on 17 May. He was one of Latin America's best loved writers though for some reason he was never well-known outside the Spanish speaking world.

My Spanish teacher gave me a collection of his poems when I left Uruguay. One of my favourites is "No te salves" / "Don't Save Yourself". At the bottom of that page, there's a YouTube video with scenes from the film in which the poem is recited (English subs, different translation). At the end is an appearance by Benedetti himself, reciting another of his poems (in German!)

A Big Bunch of Euro Parliament Leaflets

2009-05-22T16:46:27Z

Seven political leaflets have arrived so far, asking me to vote in the European Parliamentary elections on 4 June. That's more paper than the local and mayoral elections generated but that's all I have to compare it to as I haven't been living in London long enough.

The Greens were the first through the slot followed by a flyer from "East London teachers and teaching staff asking you to vote against the fascist BNP", supported by the National Union of Teachers. It's the first time I've seen anything like that.

But indeed, my doormat had the dubious honour of having a yellow and purple British National Party leaflet land on it. It's headlined "The NEW Battle for Britain" and has a picture of an old plane next to it. It put me in mind of Eddie Izzard's sketch about Saving Private Ryan and the non-Americans not being able to get a look in, "if you could just swing the camera over..." But then, it's no use expecting racists to be logical or do research.

As for the rest, No2EU won't get my vote but at least presented their arguments in black and white, unlike the UK Independence Party who also went for an eye-searing yellow and purple combo. We Can Europe seem very right on though I first mistook their flyer for a festival promo.

Labour took the trouble to pull my address off a list to send me their flyer with multiple pictures of police officers. This is amusing of course, but what is it with Labour and photos of the police? Adding to the amusement value is that the leaflet talks a lot about national and local policies, and was almost certainly written before the current MPs' expenses disaster.

Presumably there's more to come as there's been nothing from the LibDems yet and I'm still waiting to see whether the Tories will hate on Labour as much as Labour hates on them.

Quick Update

2009-05-19T22:42:56Z

Early Tube birds

What's been keeping me occupied for the last month or so:

BBQ, BBQ, burlesque v good despite compère losing the plot - not that there was much to lose, BBQ, BBQ, Finnish BBQ/Walpurgis night survived, BBQ, wedding "if you could clone yourself and have the copy teleported to the Moon, would you do it?", MP meeting, charity meeting, dinner, Coraline, dinner, pub, pub, pub, pub.

Plans so far for the rest of this week: two movies, an MEP hustings, and a party. Hurry up with that cloning technology please.

Napier Siege and De Volkskrant

2009-05-11T19:46:34Z

Comparing how the media cover a story in different countries fascinates me despite myself. This time it involved the events in Napier, where a man killed a police officer, wounded three others, and later killed himself to end the siege.

The man's name was Jan Molenaar, which seems to have led de Volkskrant to publish a small article headlined, Dutch "Rambo" Found Dead In New Zealand. It goes on to describe him as a New Zealander of Dutch descent, dressed as Rambo, etc.

Evidently, de Volkskrant needed the Dutch angle to justify publication, but here's the interesting bit: none of the New Zealand media mentioned or speculated on his identity. Guess it shows how much NZ is an immigrant nation.

The Doctor Will Sue You Now

2009-05-08T15:41:20Z

Speaking of books, I have been very remiss in not posting a link to the missing chapter from Bad Science: The Doctor Will Sue You Now about vitamin pill seller Matthias Rath and AIDs policy in South Africa.

Ben Goldacre couldn't include this chapter in the first edition of Bad Science because Matthias Rath was suing him, and The Guardian, for libel. He talked a bit about it during his book promotion last year, and IIRC he requested a video edit for the swearing. :) So I should've been prepared for seeing the chapter in its full glory, but I'm still astonished at what took place. And what makes Ben Goldacre's work so excellent is that he researches a huge story like this and then goes on to show it as part of a greater pattern.

Books for Boredom

2009-05-08T12:02:37Z

The slight cough has definitely evolved, so I'm at home, couch-ridden. It's just gone noon and I'm bored. This does not bode well.

The score so far:

Oinks, jokes about swine flu, Parmageddon, etc - 6 11
Expressions of sympathy - 1 2 3

*sniff*

Yesterday an old Penguin copy of By The Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder fell into my hands (it did!) which made me very happy. The first five chapters had disappeared out of my copy years ago and I couldn't remember how that part of the story went at all. I wound up reading the whole book again last night. As an adult, I appreciate much more the dangers the Ingalls family faced: the workers threatening Pa for more pay, taking in strange men, etc.

Reading it saved me from trying to concentrate on Watching the English, a pop sci book by social anthropologist Kate Fox. It's been interesting reading it on the Tube, and trying not to laugh out loud at her style and her observations.

Carol Ann Duffy's nomination to the post of Poet Laureate made me resolve to explore more modern English poetry, so when I saw a John Betjeman's Best Of, I took it out. Also one that requires concentration but a little easier to dip in and out of. I can see already why he was so loved.

Chocolate Mug Muffin Recipe

2009-05-05T22:50:49Z

A while back, ailbhe passed on a recipe for making chocolate goodness in a mug. One of her commenters described it as dangerous knowledge. Quite.

The recipe says not to worry about how much the muffin rises but the first time I made it, the mug went sailing round the microwave leaving small circular streaks in its wake. It might be wise to take that into account as messy microwaves could disturb the bliss.

CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

1 mug
4 tbsp plain flour
4 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp baking cocoa (I use Green & Black's)
1 egg
3 tbsp milk
3 tbsp oil

optional:
3 tbsp chocolate chips
some nuts
small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the optionals (if using) and mix again.
Microwave for three minutes on high. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed!
Allow to cool a little before eating.

The texture isn't the best but it's great if you want something quick. I just had one after coming home late and it made me happy.

The Hunt For Gollum

2009-05-04T09:53:27Z

Quite simply, the best fan film ever.

And now for something completely cheerful - part 2

2009-05-03T13:53:51Z

Previously, I'd said the dance in Liverpool Street wasn't as good as Antwerp Centraal's. But I have to hand it to T-Mobile, they really pulled it off this time.

Singalong in Trafalgar Square [HD]

I wasn't there because I knew I wouldn't get out 'til half past six. Then it turns out Pink was there too! So disappointed to miss her.

Shiny!

2009-05-02T12:00:12Z

I see the damndest things while out on my runs.

How long did it take to stick all those tiny mirrors on?