Tooting my horn

 

Almost my own surprise I greatly enjoyed the Summerstown walk last night.

Here's to Life

No complaints and no regrets

I still believe in chasing dreams and placing bets

But I have learned that all you give is all you get

So give it all you've got

I had my share

I drank my fill

And even though I'm satisfied

I'm hungry still

To see what's down another road beyond the hill

And do it all again

Happy birthday to me. 60 today.

Isn't it romantic?

You won't have read about it here, but I have been working my way through the Reformation and the Enlightenment. I found them both wanting; maybe the nuns and Christian Brothers that educated me cast a longer shadow than I previously imagined. 

Next up Romanticism. 

I found Isiah Berlin's 1965 lectures on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhP9EhPApKE_9uxkmfSIt2JJK6oKbXmd-

For Berlin, the Romantics set in motion a vast, unparalleled revolution in humanity’s view of itself. They destroyed the traditional notions of objective truth and validity in ethics with incalculable, all-pervasive results.

Crikey! Also Ben's up in the Lake District this week; Wordsworth and Coleridge territory. Something in the air as we move in parallel perhaps?

The Final?

 

RUROUNI KENSHIN: THE FINAL has dropped on Netflix. Ben and I watched the first three films of the series with sushi back in February. It looks like it is time to pick up the chopsticks again.

Epic Iran

 

The Iranian Presidential was on yesterday though I don't think the result has been announced yet. It also reminded me that - as well as the Theatre - we went to the Epic Iran exhibition at the V&A last Thursday and that I hadn't yet recorded that here.

Under Milk Wood

I went to Under Milk Wood at the National last night. It is the first time I have been to the theatre since I saw Paapa at the Kiln last February.

I also saw Mia for the first time in London since she started at Central. The wages of lock-down eh?

Saturday In The Park

I don't want to tempt fate, but we are having a picnic at Roath Park in Cardiff on Saturday to celebrate my nephew's 21st and it looks like my mum will be able to come. Released from the home where she resides for the afternoon and able to return without being quarantined.

Playlist: Saturday in the Park - Chicage

Tart enough for you?

I delivered chunks of salmon marinaded in chilli pesto to the Hendries' last night so that it could be run through their dehydrator and we could  snack on it during the Wales v Turkey footie today.

It turned out very well. Next time I would add a little more salt and remove the skin but it was pretty darn good. One of my favourites so far.

hottest day of year so far as temperature hits 28.6C

Myself: Honey, do me a favor. Run to the drug store and get me a lemon coke with chipped ice. Will you do that for me, sweetie, please.

Prodnose: What on earth are you on about now?

Myself: There's no air conditioning. Whenever the temperature goes above 28 degrees centigrade I become the flawed, lamenting heroine of a Tennessee Williams play.

Prodnose: Rubbish.

Myself: Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. It is the one unforgivable thing in my opinion and it is the one thing of which I have never, never been guilty

GB News

GB News: Andrew Neil’s right-leaning live news channel, which aims to take on the leftie, “woke” orthodoxy of mainstream British media has launched.

I have just returned my TV to pick it up via Freeview. It is on channel 236 just below Russia Today and Al Jazeera. Not the mos prominent of slots though Freeview seems to bunch news outlets together in the two hundred and thirties. I wonder if I will ever watch it again.

That said, I wonder if the tide is turning, I went to a Wimbledon Bookfest session (Tim Marshall: The Power of Geography) on Saturday and was truly impressed by the level and variety of the questions asked from the floor at the end of the session. They were informed, detailed and heterodox. I would have expected an audience on the Common to mouth bien pensant platitudes, but we had, for example,  provocative broadly right-wing questions that were dealt with seriously without the pearl-clutching that we would get if anyone ever asked them on the BBC. Also the questions referred to things like the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which - though germane to the talk - hadn't been mentioned in the presentation; a sign of a reflective, well informed listener.

Death at Deepcut

Documentary producer John Battsek, whose credits include Oscar-winner One Day In September and Emmy-winner Manhunt: The Inside Story Of The Hunt for Bin Laden, has made his first foray into podcasts with Audible series Death at Deepcut.

Between 1995 and 2002 four young trainee soldiers were found dead at a military training camp outside London, Deepcut....

I will listen with interest. We know a little about this peripherally as we got a forensic job analysing the backup tapes from the dispatch system Surrey Police were running at the time, as they no longer had any way of reading them. (That's a problem we'll see more and more of I think.)

What is it that you can't see?

I always try and get along to at least one event at Wimbledon Bookfest. I like to see how it is progressing physically as we have skin in the game with their IT.

I'm booked in for Tim Marshall: The Power of Geography at 2pm this afternoon. That, foolishly, was booked before I realised with Wales' first game in the Euros. I will have to try and find a pub on the common where I can catch the end of the match, which in turn means I'll have to go on the bus rather than drive.

I watched Alastair Campbell live over the video link on Thursday. It all went off seamlessly. Who would have imagined just a few years ago that such a simulcast from a park would even be possible for a small organisation as opposed to a broadcaster?

This web page is on strike

 

The TUC website's '404 error' page has cheered me up this morning. Very refreshing in this po-faced age.

Catch the Pidgin

President Nana Akufo-Addo start dey lobby for Chelsea player to play for Black Stars

Callum is in Ghana on holiday and has met the president. Despite having played three time for England at senior level he still has the option to transfer his loyalties to mother and father's country.

Ghana start dey push for Chelsea player, Callum Hudson-Odoi to play for Black Stars.

Prez Akufo-Addo make dis revelation after en meeting plus de Chelsea attacker on Monday.

Callum Hudson-Odoi who dey Ghana for holidays meet with Prez Nana Akufo-Addo who make am clear say e go like have de player in de national team.

Who knew that the BBC had a Pidgin news service? Certainly not me.

We can start to learn more at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-40975399. I wonder if there is a sense in which Pidgin is to West Africa what Swahili is to East Africa?