Bringing it to the boil

12:21

walking

Battersea Park

 

1 minute

Walk to Queens Circus

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Step 2

12:22

cycle

Queens Circus

8 bikes available

 

8 minutes

Cycle to Westbridge Road

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Step 3

12:30

walking

Westbridge Road

2 spaces available

 

3 minutes

Walk to SW11 4NP

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12:33

SW11 4NP

The New Bermondsey

Colliers Wood could become a beer brewing hub if plans for a pub micro-brewery are given the go-ahead.

The William Morris Pub in Merton Abbey Mills has applied to be extended and install brewing equipment for a micro-brewery not far from a new brewery which is currently being built.

A micro-brewery typically produces small quantities of beer, usually for consumption on the premises where it is based.

It is thought the new brewery would produce a local beer, like its soon-to-be-neighbour the Wimbledon Brewery.

Mark Gordon who is setting up the Wimbledon Brewery in Prince Georges Road, Colliers Wood has welcomed the plans as his own brewery takes shape.

Kevin G told me about this yesterday. I had vaguely heard of it but thought I had  it mixed up with the Wimbledon Brewery.

You can get the skinny on the application here. It looks like they will be taking over the empty Mamma Rosa restaurant. It is all good as far as I am concerned but then again I just work here, rather than living in the flats.

Formula E

The opening part of the double-header finale of the Formula E season was a cracker when we saw it at Battersea Park yesterday. I'll watch the second race on the telly this afternoon I think.

Conspiracy theory

Tyson and Williams

Rugby World Cup 2015: Liam Williams sidelined for 10 weeks but Wales remain hopeful he'll make the tournament.

Could there be another explanation for the injury?

If you build it he will come

Do you remember a blog post about Kung Fury at the end of 2013? A guy called David Sandberg made some test footage for an over-the-top action comedy he wanted to write, direct, and star in; then went to Kickstarter to try and fund it. 17,713 backers pledged $630,019 to help bring the project to life so here it is. Arcade-robots, dinosaurs, nazis, vikings, norse gods, mutants and a super kung fu-cop called Kung Fury, all wrapped up in an 80s style action packed adventure. Seventeen million plus views on YouTube and rising.

The Roots Of Rock From Cardiff To Mississippi And Back

This is an edited slice taken from the forthcoming Peter Finch: The Roots Of Rock From Cardiff To Mississippi And Back, due for publication from Seren Books in the autumn of 2015.

Route 55 is in the air every where.

Down in the Tube Station at Midnight

With all-night weekend services are set to begin on 12 September on sections of the Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines, Transport for London has released the finalised map for the night-time Tube service.

Take a gander above. There is hardly anything south of the river. Happy days for living a five minute walk from Colliers Wood on the Northern line. I wonder if it will boost property prices in relation to other parts of Sarf London?

In anticipation, the Telegraph has put together a bar crawl of favourite late-night spots from which I can catch a Night Tube home, come the fateful day.

Stronger

A huge thank you to @oldrutsrugby for their fundraising efforts for the #StayStrongForOws campaign #ThanksThursday

— Cardiff Blues (@cardiff_blues) June 18, 2015

Gracious acknowledgement for the Old Ruts U14s (soon to be U15s) efforts fund and profile raising efforts as part of the end of season tour to Wales.

The Axeman's Jazz

New Orleans 1919. As music fills the city, a serial killer strikes . . .

Winner of the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger for Best Debut Crime Novel of the Year.

Longlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year Award

As recommended on the Radio 2 Arts Show with Claudia Winkleman

A stunning atmospheric crime thriller set in New Orleans, 1919 and inspired by a real life serial killer

As a dark serial killer - The Axeman - stalks the city, three individuals set out to unmask him . . .

Though every citizen of the 'Big Easy' thinks they know who could be behind the terrifying murders, Detective Lieutenant Michael Talbot, heading up the official investigation, is struggling to find leads. But Michael has a grave secret, and if he doesn't get himself on the right track fast, it could be exposed . . .

Former detective Luca d'Andrea has spent the last six years in Angola state penitentiary, after Michael, his protégée, blew the whistle on his corrupt behaviour. Now a newly freed man, Luca is back working with the mafia, whose need to solve the mystery of the Axeman is every bit as urgent as that of the authorities.

Meanwhile, Ida is a secretary at the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Obsessed with Sherlock Holmes and dreaming of a better life, Ida stumbles across a clue which lures her and her musician friend, Louis Armstrong, to the case - and into terrible danger . . .

As Michael, Luca and Ida each draw closer to discovering the killer's identity, the Axeman himself will issue a challenge to the people of New Orleans: play jazz or risk becoming the next victim. And as the case builds to its crescendo, the sky will darken and a great storm will loom over the city . . .
Inspired by a true story, set against the heady backdrop of jazz-filled, mob-ruled New Orleans, The Axeman's Jazz by Ray Celestin is an ambitious, gripping thriller announcing a major talent in historical crime fiction.

This is the book the Bomber got me for my birthday today. Perhaps he does pay attention to some of the things I say after all, having picked up on my love of all things N'Awlins and a good detective story,

Grandma look! I'm doing Kylie bum!

I am off with a bunch of people to see Kylie Minogue at Hyde Park later. I am very far from sure how and why I signed up for this.

Needs must when the devil drives, but it has at least dislodged a memory. Ms Minogue's "Spinning Around" was released in June 2000 and the Bomber was born in September.

He seems to have been precociously influenced by the video. I have a clear, clear memory of him as a toddler thrusting out his gyrating backside while rubbing both buttocks lasciviously glancing back over his shoulder shouting, "Look, Grandma look! I'm doing Kylie bum! I'm doing Kylie bum!"

How proud of him she must have been, and what I wouldn't give to have immortalised that on video tape.

Bodean's Balham

Back in the day Balham was Peter Sellers’ Gateway to the South, a national joke coined by a comedy legend. Today the good folks of Balham have the last laugh as South London’s chuckle central is a mecca for laughter-lovers, hipsters and — hallelujah, mama! — Connoisseurs of the finest BBQ and rare beers, Bourbons and sipping whiskies to be found this side of the Atlantic divide.

Loud and proud on Balham’s main drag, Bodean’s corner site bar and BBQ is a local landmark on the highway to the stars. Whether you’ve come to worship the ultimate Kansas City BBQ or sit at our elegant U-bar sampling our selection of prime Stateside ales and rare liquors, you know you’ve come home to good times.

John,

Do you fancy Bodean's if you come up on Friday night before the 4 July Crawfish Boil? Google Maps says we will be there fifteen minutes and two Northern Line tube stops after leaving my house.

breaking it down

The Bomber won the 400m and javelin at the school sports earlier this week. The 400m in 56 seconds he says (which is three seconds faster than last year) and the javelin with 33m (which is sub par as he has done 42 in training). They are both AAA Standards Awards qualifying performances though I note.

On the downside he pulled a muscle in the run, missed training last night, and looks doubtful for the Youth Development League on Sunday.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web.

And I am interested in it this morning.

freestylin'

Posted by Marcus Campbell Sinclair on Tuesday, 16 June 2015

You can embed Facebook posts. Who knew?

Simplified Reserved Instance Options for Amazon RDS

Reserved Instances have been a part of the AWS pricing model for quite some time. You can reserve an instance and receive a significant discount, along with a capacity reservation, when you purchase a Reserved Instance (RI).

You don’t need to make any code or administrative changes in order to benefit from Reserved Instances. We’ll automatically apply Reserved Instance rates first when we compute your bill in order to minimize your costs.

New Payment Options
We are simplifying the Reserved Instance options that are available to users of Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). The new model is payment-based and provides a single type of Reserved Instance, with three payment options:

• No Upfront – No upfront payment is required. This option provides a substantial discount (typically about 30%) over the one year term of the RI when compared to On-Demand.
• Partial Upfront – With a balance of payments between upfront and hourly, this option replaces the previous Heavy Utilization RI and provides a high discount (typically about 60% for a three year term) over the course of a one or three year term.
• All Upfront – This option allows you to pay for the entire RI term (one or three years) with one upfront payment, and provides the best discount (typically about 63% for a three year term).

Yes, this is the type of thing I spend my days thinking about. Oh the insane glamour of it all.

Hostile World

Hotel World's skinny dipping back packers TV ad doesn't seem quite the same in light of:

LONDON (AP) — Eleanor Hawkins has returned to England and apologized to the people of Malaysia for having posed topless on a sacred mountain.

The student, who served a three-day jail term in Malaysia's Sabah state before being set free, says she knows her actions had been wrong.

She said Sunday that "I know my behavior was foolish and I know how much offense we all caused to the local people of Sabah. For that, I am truly sorry."

Hawkins was one of four foreigners charged in Malaysia after removing their clothes and posing for a photograph on Mount Kinabalu.

The 23-year-old seemed near tears as she read a statement outside her family's home in Draycott, 120 miles (195 kilometers) north of London. She says she's relieved to be home.

The Plato scale

I followed the beards and backpacks to the Bermondsey Beer Mile and Maltby Street Market: Ropewalk yesterday. I don't recall ever going to the area before. It was absolutely rammed. You had to queue up outside the Kernel Brewery to get in and join the internal queue.

I am sitting in the office in Abbey Mills this morning writing this, and wondering why it is so quiet in comparison.

I have however discovered that there is a craft brewery on the brink of opening around the corner.

Here's our 30 barrel brewhouse in glorious technicolor. Marris Otter, Fuggles, Golding and Target hops at the ready.. pic.twitter.com/ezqBDSorGu

— Wimbledon Brewery (@WimbledonBrew) June 11, 2015

They actually start brewing tomorrow: Britain's first national beer day.

Wales 1: Belgium 0

Group B

Position	Team	Played	GoalDifference	Points
Moving up1	Wales	6	6	14
Moving down2	Belgium	6	11	11
No movement3	Israel	6	1	9
No movement4	Cyprus	6	1	9
No movement5	Bos-Herce	6	1	8
No movement6	Andorra	6	-20	0

Bedazzled

The Bomber is not going to the Surrey Schools Athletics Championships tomorrow because he didn't get round to sending the confirmation email.

He is not going to the Ebisham League with the Harriers on Sunday. They wanted him to do the hurdles and three hundred metres, but he says he is concentrating on javelin.

It baffles me.

You knock me out- Don't get excited
You bust me up- Save your breath
You burn me up- Cool it
You plug me in- I'm not interested
You switch me on- Too much effort
You light me upI'm bedazzled, I'm bedazzled, I'm bedazzled

Only 99.85% to go!

Without great explorers and adventurers, the world as we know it would be a completely different place. Be it by the discovery of new lands or even by way of industrial and cultural innovation, great minds and brave souls have forever changed the way that we see and experience the world. Columbus, Gallileo, Da Vinci, Edison and Ford, among others, have all physically and culturally helped shape the planet that we currently call home. Recently, however, the focus has been shifting over and out to what lies beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Some are contemplating colonizing Mars while others are promising elevators into space by 2050. One way or another, there are many elements about life in space that need careful consideration and research…especially sex. As such, Pornhub is teaming up with top ranking adult studio Digital Playground in joining the ranks of Armstrong and Gagarin by pioneering a one of a kind mission to defy gravity, make history, and push the boundaries of intergalactic "Sexploration" by filming the first ever sextape in space. In doing so, we will not only be changing the face of the adult industry, we will also be chronicling how a core component of human life operates while in orbit.

With some help from our generous fan base and extended community, we can all make this happen. Our work is definitely cut out for us. We need to train and outfit our crew, consult with a dedicated team of specialists, purchase custom modified film equipment, and completely fund the use of the shuttle that’ll take us on our journey to space. We’ve projected that the overall cost of this pioneering endeavor will run us about $3.4 million. By supporting us through the purchase of one (or several!) of our amazing perks, you have the opportunity to be a part of the most epic sex adventure ever caught on tape, causing lives to change, mouths to drop, and boundaries to be broken.

God knows how The Onion keeps going when life on the interwebs is madder than any satire. I console myself that the world is not entirely mad they have only raised 0.15% of the budget so far, but who knows what the next 60 days will bring? If the figure above is much more than $5,362 as you are reading we could be in trouble.

Dear John

FAO My youngest brother.

I remember that we had a long chat last night on the phone late last night but - as I had been at the cooking sherry - details elude me in the light of day.

If I committed actually to do anything please remind me before I let you down.

As Andy Burnham so justly observed, 'I have the honour to remain, Sir, Your Royal Highness's most humble and obedient servant.'

Nick

The Machine

Yesterday, United Passions: today, The Machine.

Swansea-raised film-maker Caradog James both wrote and directed the film about Britain embroiled in a cold war with China.

“It rains a lot in Wales so we must engage our imaginations a bit more!

“There are also great spaces to use here. We used a huge abandoned electronics factory in Bridgend for all our laboratory scenes in The Machine, plus an MoD base just outside Cardiff, which was perfect with its abandoned airfield and huge air hangars.”

United Passions

Gérard Depardieu, Sam Neill and Tim Roth trace the history of the FIFA World Cup in United Passions. Discover the exclusive trailer!

Tim Roth plays Seb Blatter. This really is beyond parody.

Even bad publicity is usually good publicity — except in the case of the FIFA-financed film United Passions, which was quickly red-carded at the U.S. box office this weekend.

Writer-director Frederic Auburtin's film beyond bombed in its limited debut in 10 theaters, earning a measly $607 on Friday and Saturday, according to those with access to Rentrak figures. The FilmBar theater in downtown Phoenix reported a gross of just $9, meaning only one person bought a ticket to see United Passions, which details the history of the now-embattled FIFA.

Welcome to my world

Jim Dale was brilliant last night. Is there anything more rewarding than dutifully turning up at a gig with no great expectations only to be astounded. Seventy nine years old, limber and wasp waisted, Oscar nominated song writer, colleague of Olivier etc. etc. Who knew?

It's not given to all of us to be doing so well at that time of life.

See

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/11652158/Dementiaville-episode-1-review.html

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/31/christopher-eccleston-father-dementia-disease-dismantled-his-personality

living for pleasure alone

The Old Ruts rugby awards returned last night. When the Bomber arrived it looked like some of the squad were prostrating themselves before him as if  he was an oriental potentate. This it turns out was so they could get a better view of training shoes unavailable in the UK that he had brought back from New York and the wonder of which continues to elude me. He won an award which seemed to be something along the lines of "best player on day 2 of the Wales tour." (That's enough awards. Ed).

If that is not enough excitement for one weekend, I am going to see Jim Dale at the Vaudeville Theatre tonight.



For:

The snail is on the thorn. The lark is on the wing. The hat is on the side of my head. The rainbow is around my shoulder and everything's for the best in this best of all possible worlds where every prospect pleases and only man is vile.

Ubble, ubble toil and trouble

1. Your Ubble age is 41 years (38 to 46 years)
This means that your risk of dying in the next five years is equivalent to the average risk for men aged 41 in the UK.

2. Your five-year risk of dying is 1%
This means that, out of 100 men aged 53 years with similar answers, 99 will survive and 1 will die over the next 5 years.

The Risk Calculator (result for me above) at http://www.ubble.co.uk/ is a bit of fun, but the Association Explorer might actually be very interesting.

Oh has the world changed, or have I changed?

Rogue BBC tweet sparks global news alert about Queen's health

Nothing to do with us, but a salutary reminder of how sensitive the stuff we deal can be.

the nesting instinct

This morning I have mostly been writing:

select aucid, aucCurrentBid, aucPaidAmount, aucDeliveryCost, PYD_Datetime as Month, PYD_Amount, TYP_Namefrom dbo.vtblAPAuctions, dbo.vPaymentAudit, dbo.Typeswhere aucGUID=PYD_ItemGUID  and TYP_ID=PYD_Type and TYP_Context='PYD_Type' and                         PYD_Confirmed is not null and aucID in (select aucidfrom dbo.vtblAPAuctions, dbo.vPaymentAudit, dbo.Typeswhere aucGUID=PYD_ItemGUID  and TYP_ID=PYD_Type and TYP_Context='PYD_Type' and                         PYD_Confirmed is not null and aucID in (select aucID from dbo.vtblAPAuctions join dbo.vPaymentAuditon aucGUID=PYD_ItemGUID where PYD_Confirmed is not nullgroup by aucID having COUNT(' ') > 1) Group by aucID, MONTH(PYD_Datetime)Having COUNT(' ')=1 ) order by aucID desc , Month desc

Prodnose: That is of very little interest to me.

Myself: That may very will be so, but I think other people may be intrigued by this sort of shaving from the bench of a master craftsman. It is like reality  TV for the mind.

Lee Selby with Floyd someone or other

New world boxing champion Lee Selby is hoping he can enjoy a Welsh homecoming by making his first defence of his IBF featherweight title in Cardiff towards the end of the summer.

Selby produced a dominant technical decision over Russia’s Evgeny Gradovich at the O2 arena on Saturday evening. The fight was stopped in the eighth round due to a cut above Gradovich’s left eye and Selby was handed victory with scores of 79-73, 79-73, 80-72.

“There is talk of me fighting back in Cardiff in late August early September and hopefully I can defend again in December before the end of the year,” said Selby.

There is a World Champion from Barry who trained - among other places - at the Royal Oak in Splott. My cup overfloweth; a Welsh Born Icon.

update: it may have been somewhere other than the Oak, though still in Splott. Grumpth!

Hmmmmm

Here it is! Wales’ 47-man RWC Training Squad #iamwales pic.twitter.com/jjOw3x35t7

— Welsh Rugby Union (@WelshRugbyUnion) June 1, 2015

Tasso ham

Wikipedia

Tasso ham is a specialty of south Louisiana cuisine. In this case "ham" is a misnomer since tasso is not made from the hind leg of a pig, but rather the pig's shoulder. This cut is typically fatty, and because the muscle is constantly used by the animal, has a great deal of flavor. The butt, which will weigh 7 to 8 pounds, is sliced across the grain into pieces about 3 in (7.5 cm) thick. These are dredged in a salt cure, which usually includes nitrites and sugar. The meat is left to cure briefly, only three or four hours, then rinsed, rubbed with a spice mixture containing cayenne pepper and garlic, and hot-smoked until cooked through. Though tasso may be eaten on its own, it is more often used as part of a flavor base for stews or braised vegetables. It is used in dishes ranging from pasta to crab cakes to soup and gravy. Appropriate to its roots, tasso is most often found in recipes of southern or Creole origin, such as jambalaya.

Continuing yesterday's Louisiana theme, it has struck me that the pork shoulder that comes out of my smoker is actually closer to Tasso ham than it is to the pulled pork I was attempting (Icons passim).

A speciality of Cajun cuisine, Tasso is typically used to season dishes like soups, gumbo, grits, rice and gravies, but any recipe that needs a rich peppery kick and depth of flavour can benefit so
http://www.yummly.co.uk/recipes/cooking-with-tasso-ham will help me get through my next batch.

Grub Club

An email from Time Out has introduced me to Grub Club. Very interesting.

Party by a bayou! Celebrate USA-style with all-you-can-eat crayfish, genuine Nascraw racing, and some of the UK's best musicians.

The MENU:
No one knows crayfish, or even crawfish, like we do at Crayfish Bob. Our team have been trapping and cooking crayfish since 2002. Our Louisiana style Crawfish boils are legendary. We do it right, with top quality ingredients.

ENTERTAINMENT:
We don't think a crawfish boil would be right without some excellent authentic live music. Accordionist Geraint Watkins is a stalwart of Crayfish Bob's Crawdaddies. The guy is a legend. Geraint, is supported by fiddle player Bob Loveday, and other guest professionals are generally on hand to join them.

Oh! Then there's the crawfish racing. Be an owner in the UK’s only official Nascraw Crayfish Racing Event.

The LOCATION:
It really is beside a bayou. The Doodle Bar's "beach" could not be more perfect for a crawfish boil. It's a secret in the middle of London. A surprisingly peaceful, natural spot, alongside mud, watercress, and barges. Ideal for a crawfish boil party!

The ENVIRONMENT:
Let's not forget why we do all this! To remove as many of these tasty invasive species crayfish as possible from UK waterways. The more we serve, the better the environment.

THE CLOSEST YOU WILL EVER GET TO LOUISIANA ON YOUR OYSTER CARD!

13th June - 29th August. Coming to a Saturday near you soon, John?

Stacey Kent

The first weekend that the tube runs 24/7 (September 12), Stacey Kent is playing Ronnie Scott''s. It sounds just up my street. I can go to the second house - doors at 22:30 - and then be back home in two shakes of a lamb's tail once it finished in the wee small hours.

On second thoughts the rugby season is on then so I won't be able to do it if the Bomber has an away fixture and I need to drive.

I am plugging this

Three years on from the Mu plug, Apple's Jony Ive has thrown his hat into the ring.

Featuring a new folding-pins, ultra-compact design, this power adapter offers fast, efficient charging at home or on the go. It works with any Apple Watch, iPhone or iPod model.

It is my birthday next month; hint, hint.

Welsh rugby's 50 hardest men

25. John Hickey (Cardiff)

Responsible for some real fireworks on Guy Fawkes night in 1966 when he left his mark on great Wallaby scrum-half Ken Catchpole in Cardiff’s famous victory over Australia. An aggressive blind-side flanker who never took a backward step. Became a landlord.

Also, as reminisced about in a phone call last night, my mum's cousin. John's mother was my gran's sister. Died last month I am sorry to say.

One from the other side of the family to Dan Fish to tell the Bomber about.

Playing Rosalind, Timbuktu reviewed, Literary Festivals

As the Hay Festival gets under way, Front Row takes a look at how literary festivals have multiplied in recent years. Are they all economically sustainable? Kirsty asks Peter Florence, director of the Hay Festival; Fiona Razvi of the Wimbledon Bookfest, and bestselling Chocolat author Joanne Harris.

On Radio 4 last night (15 minutes in on http://bbc.in/1Fbzd5P) then a meeting with me at eleven o'clock this morning. Fiona is living the dream.

Rats

The Bomber is off to New York for half term with his mum in an hour or so. I checked and his three.co.uk mobile will work there for no extra charge. That is a good deal.

Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants sounds like just the book for building anticipation on the the journey.

Surprisingly funny and compulsively readable, Rats is an unlikely account of a year spent in a garbage-strewn alley in lower Manhattan. Robert Sullivan - intrepid journalist, curious writer, fearful urban dweller - sets off to contemplate New York City and its lesser-known byways by observing the lowly rat. He discovers a world almost nobody knows. Sullivan spends the year with a notebook and night-vision goggles, hunting for fabled ratkings, trapping a rat of his own, and trying (and failing) to conquer his own fear of rats. He meets the exterminators, garbage men, and civic activists who play their part in the centuries-old war between human city-dweller and wild city rat. He travels to a bizarre Midwestern conference on rats that brings together the leading experts on rat history, behaviour and control (did you know that one pair of rats has the potential for 15,000 descendants in a year? that rats' teeth are harder than steel?) And he reveals the many ways rats' lives mirror those of humans. Sullivan's unusual and absorbing book earns a place alongside the classics of travel writing.

the mother of success

The Bomber didn't even make it to the final of the javelin in the Surrey County AA Championship yesterday.

I was astounded, as was his coach. He didn't seem that bothered, though maybe he was acting; maybe the universe is reminding me it is his life not mine.

I didn't see that one coming.

Austin sits watching the TIME-LIFE The Last Thirty Years video on TV. Vanessa enters.

AUSTIN Hello, luv.

VANESSA Thirty years of political and social upheaval. The fall of the Berlin wall, a female Prime Minister of England, the abolishment of Apartheid, a fascinating tapestry of human strum und drang.

AUSTIN Yeah, I can't believe Liberace was gay. Women loved him, man. I didn't see that one coming.

Having been schooled by largely Irish Christian Brothers, my reaction to Irish gay marriage referendum: 'No' campaigners concede defeat is Austin-Powers-Man-Out-Of-Time astonishment. It only seems the other day that Clause 28 was a hot button issue over here.

Like Bill Gates said:

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.

I understand you and J.J. go way back, almost thirty years. Tell me about how you first met him.

It was funny. I was working with Steven, and I got a phone call one day. And this man was living in a house up on Lookout Mountain [in Arizona]. He'd been down in his basement, and he found this box covered in dust. And he said to me, “These are all home movies, and I think they belong to Steven Spielberg.” Now, my first cynical thought, unfortunately, was, you know, this is just somebody trying to get money. And so I’m going to not act overly excited about this. I just said, “Well, you know, great. If you don’t mind, we’re on the Universal lot. Maybe you could just swing by and drop the box off, and we’ll take a look and see if in fact they belong to Steven.” So I hang up the phone. The first thing I say to Steven is, “Did you ever live on Lookout Mountain?” He goes, “Yes, I did.” Now I'm thinking, Okay, this guy’s not making this up. So I said, “Well, somebody thinks they found your home movies.” He goes, “Oh, my God, you’re kidding!” And he had just assumed all these early Super 8 films he had made when he was 15, 16 years old were long gone. He’d lost them; he didn’t know where they were.

So this man arrives. Here’s the box. He couldn’t have been sweeter, couldn’t have been nicer. Drops off this box. Sure enough, Steven’s beside himself because here are all his old movies that he made. So ironically, I had picked up the L.A. Times that morning and read about these two kids who had won this film award, and their movies were being shown at the Nuart Theatre [in Los Angeles]. And I said to Steven, “You know what would be really great? Why don’t you hire these two kids who just won this film award, who would probably give anything to meet you, and they could clean up your movies and transfer them to tape so that we never run the risk of these movies disappearing again?” And those two kids were J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves, who just did Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

And they came in. They were 15, 16 years old. And they ended up doing exactly that, cleaning up the Super 8 movies, and we’ve all stayed great friends ever since. All our kids went to the same elementary school. We followed J.J.’s career, so when he committed to Star Wars, it was this kind of fantastic coincidence of fate, I guess—preordained destiny or something.

Now that is a great story from Kathleen Kennedy.

Hello, I must be going

It is not like me to wait so long before my daily post, but we had a server compromised today and fixing it took me so long I had to dash straight to athletics training with the Bomber.

That's done, he's fed and watered and retired for the night. I will fill the dishwasher, empty the washing machine and do the same myself. It's a glamorous life.

Sestina

A sestina (Old Occitan: cledisat [klediˈzat]; also known as sestine, sextine, sextain) is a fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The words that end each line of the first stanza are used as line endings in each of the following stanzas, rotated in a set pattern.

The invention of the form is usually attributed to 12th-century troubadour Arnaut Daniel; after spreading to continental Europe, it first appeared in English in 1579, though sestinas were rarely written in Britain until the end of the 19th century. It remains a popular poetic form, and many continue to be written by contemporary poets.

This is what I am thinking about if I seem distracted, God help us.

A Royal Day Out

I am going to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace tomorrow afternoon, which is why I can't help Mum and Dad with their trip to see Uncle Michael in Chelmsford. Perhaps I should try and squeeze this movie in as well.

Relatively speaking

Wales beat Brazil 29-0 just after ten yesterday morning with Dan Fish scoring the first Welsh try. That was a great thing for the Bomber and the Brazilian Halex to have seen together.

The very next game was the Fiji/ South Africa clash that Fiji won 19 - 7 to secure the whole series.

The revelation for me though was the US team. They blew everyone away and won the tournament.

Fixtures

Off to the sevens with Ben and Halex.

Wales play Brazil just after ten.

Didn't see that one coming.

dignity, always dignity

The Thrill is Gone

'King of the Blues' legend BB King dead at age 89. RIP.

the glass spider

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/prince-charles-letters

Dear Tessa,

Thank you very much indeed for your letter of 28th February and the welcome news of the listing of the Red House cold store at Smithfield Market.

Needless to say, I was extremely glad to read of your appreciation of the value of this group of buildings. As you know, I attach the greatest importance to preserving, restoring and re-using such precious heritage townscapes and I can only pray that the Deputy Prime Minister will take your advice and give the most careful consideration to development plans. I shall follow what ensues with the greatest possible interest, particularly in view of what happened at Bishopsgate Goods Yard…

Your affectionately,

Charles

There has been a ten year legal battle about whether we should be able to see this. Anticlimax was made for days like these.

Sevens

The draw has been made for this weekend's sevens tournament in Twickenham. Wales are in Pool B with New Zealand, Australia, and Japan.

Our tickets are for the Finals on Sunday. The Welsh group games on Saturday are New Zealand at ten to eleven, Australia at 13:34 and Japan at twenty to five.

The fixtures link is http://www.worldrugby.org/sevens-series/stage/1551/fixtures.

I will probably get a Sky Sports one day pass to watch the pool games on the TV. Coverage on Sky Sports 5 is from 8:30 until 1pm and then from three until quarter past seven. There is tennis on in the two hour break.I wonder what that means for the Australia game?

Alex is coming with us, so I am delighted to see that Brazil are iplaying. I wonder if it will be easiest if he stays at mine with Ben on Saturday night? The matches start at 9 on Sunday and we will need to get the bus to Wimbledon and then train to get there. Going round to his house in the morning to pick him would probably add about half an hour to the journey; unwelcome on an early start.

Here is Dan Fish's try for the Blues against the Ospreys as a taster - https://youtu.be/Mu2Kh2dSzQA?t=2m

Cardiff

Dear @NAT_Group, I find your new promotion in Cardiff hugely uncomfortable, not to mention objectifying... pic.twitter.com/OPipr7Ovea

— Vicky Chandler (@VickyChandler) May 11, 2015

Baltimore

I don't really pay a lot of attention to SoundCloud. Perhaps I should.

overcoming hurdles

After the Bomber's unexpected hurdles win and qualification for the Surrey schools championship, I thought a team huddle was called for so I emailed the Harriers to see if there were hurdlers he could work with for the next month or so.

Steve replied, "we have a specialist hurdles coach Debbie who trains at Crystal Palace on Tuesdays at Thursdays at 6.30 pm."

Feet have been fallen on; I can see from the Power of 10 website that last year one of her athletes recorded the UK's best time of the season, and third best ever, for U15 boys' 80m hurdles which is what Ben has to do in June. I contacted Debbie who says she coaches sprinting on Tuesdays and hurdles on Thursdays and that he is very welcome, so I am going to take him along to Crystal Palace Thursday. (A positive by-product of this is that it gives me an excuse to call my Mum, a champion 80 yard hurdler herself all those years ago, regularly; apparently to keep her up to speed but really because I know she isn't having the easiest of times at the moment.)

Usually Ben trains javelin (the event that the Harriers think is his strongest) on Thursdays. Luckily Nick, his coach in that, has just started Tuesdays in Tooting as well so we can swap days and he is happy to accommodate him.

In summary he has two weeks of javelin Tuesdays and hurdling Thursdays before competing in javelin at the Surrey AA championship on 23 May, then a week in New York with his mum, then two more weeks training before hurdling at the Surrey Schools event.

I envy us from Spinal Tap is the only quote that comes close.

wherefore art thou?

Romeo and Juliet at the Globe was good stuff on Wednesday and Steffan Donnelly was especially fine as Mercutio. I have been pleased to find out since that he is Welsh. Remember you heard it here first when he goes onto great things.

I have also found some photos (by the director and on Facebook) of the 2009 production that I enjoyed so much at the Mills. The balcony scene with Juliet at the door of our offices is on the left.

Prodnose: Actually in in Romeo and Juliet, the meaning of “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” (Act 2, scene 2, line 33) is not “Where are you, Romeo?” but “Why are you Romeo?” (i.e. “Why did you have to be a Montague?”).

Myself: Wherefore can't thou keep thy gob shut?

I am off to Radio Stanshall tonight at the Bloomsbury, which reminds me of the spooky resonance of Viv Stanshall with Mark Marlowe's various band line ups. I have seen Stanshall's biographer playing drums with Mark's trio, and the son of  the Bonzo's  Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell playing trumpet when the trio has been augmented with a horn section. 

Aunt Florrie's credenda "all musicians are nice people" perhaps?

jeunesse dorée

You may think there is other news today, but for me the above-the-fold headline is that the Bomber won the 80m hurdles (with, in his words "no spikes and no technique") at Merton School Sport Partnership Athletics Championships which means that he will be representing the borough and competing in that event at the Surrey Schools Track and Field Championships next month.

As for the election, I am with six-year-old Lucy Howarth, whose reading session with David Cameron produced a photo which gives me hope, at least for the future. What a girl! Between her and the Bomber there may be a golden generation on the way up. On VE day we remember the Greatest Generation. The sooner the world passes on from the losers between the greatest and the golden the better as far as I am concerned.

Siobhain McDonagh

I voted for Siobhain McDonagh in the general election on my way into work today.

Six years ago she wrote:

I talk to many people each week but you are all too polite to ask me any details about my expenses.

That is why I want to make it clear I do not claim anything at all for my mortgage, property maintenance, furniture or food. I pay all these myself.

Under the rules, I could claim for a second home, but I won’t, and I never have – my only home is the same one in Colliers Wood where I have lived since before I was elected in 1997. The only personal expense I re-claim is for transport.

To put that in context, I remember an occasion when Mum and Dad came up to London from Cardiff on one of those trips where a Welsh charabang drops you off in the West End on Saturday, you go and see a show, get put up in a hotel, and are taken back the next day.

I arranged to meet them for lunch in Covent Garden on Sunday and - as it was a nice day - decided to cycle in from Colliers Wood. En route I came over Westminster Bridge and past the Houses of Parliament (1). That is right I biked it from the constituency to her place of work. On that day I concluded that a system that would allow her to claim for a second home was corrupt but that she was honest and that I would vote for her as long as she stood, party politics notwithstanding.

---

1. You would have crossed via Waterloo Bridge as you are more intelligent, a shrewder navigator, and - let's face it - better looking than me.

Thank you and good night

BM Facebook Page
Week of 27 April–3 May
Weekly Total Reach - 66,377,457
People Engaged - 11,042,456

Heaven knows I don't mind bein' involved with large numbers Apollo Creed: Rocky III.

Filling my dance card

I see that Dan Fish is in the Wales 7s squad for final two rounds of the HSBC Sevens World Series in Glasgow and London. The London event is at Twickenham on 16-17 May. I must ask the Bomber if he fancies going along.

We've already got tickets http://london.fiaformulae.com/ at Battersea Park Saturday 27 June. Formula E is a new FIA single-seater championship and the world's first fully-electric racing series.

Difficult as it may be to believe though he won't be joining me on June 21st when a fabulous and fierce line up will throw the party of the summer in London’s iconic Hyde Park with music legends Kylie Minogue, Grace Jones and Chic feat Nile Rodgers; for myself I gave up on credibility and cool many moons ago.

High Brow

I think it's brilliant! What an idea! And I was there! He took the idea! He saw it ripe on the tree, he plucked it, and he put it in his pocket. It's, it's, dare I say... genius? Ah, no, no! But maybe, ooh! ah! maybe it is! Maybe I'm in the presence of greatness, maybe I just don't know it. But I saw it...

both alike in dignity

Out of the blue, I am off to Romeo and Juliet at the Globe on Wednesday.

At least up until then, the Action to the Word Theatre Company's promenade performance throughout Merton Abbey Mills in 2009 is the best production I have ever seen. (I see that they are still going though - to my embarrassment - they have rather fallen off my radar.)

Radio Stanshall

Bloomsbury Theatre

Saturday, 9 May 2015

BOOKING

Tickets: 

£25
(booking fee £2.50 per transaction)

Performance times: 

Sat, 9th May at 7:30pm

2015 marks 20 years since the passing of the late, great Vivian Stanshall. Join us for an all-star gala performance of his meisterwerk 'Sir Henry at Rawlinson End' plus Bonzos classics as originally performed on John Peel's radio show.

It is 20 years since the untimely passing of Vivian Stanshall, Bonzos vocalist and one of the greatest unsung cultural icons of the 20th Century, and the ripple effect from his contribution to music and comedy are still being felt to this day. Radio Stanshall is a celebration of the radio comedy he created for the BBC's John Peel show from the 1970s to the 1990s, and features not only a full performance of the rave-reviewed, critically acclaimed stage show of his radio meisterwerk - Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, by Mike Livesley & Brainwashing House - but also performances of further sketches and songs from Vivian's friends, including fellow Bonzos Neil Innes and Rodney Slater, keyboard wizard Rick Wakeman, Rutle John Halsey, and bass supremo Danny Thompson plus those Vivian and the Bonzos inspired such as Kevin Eldon and Thomas Walsh of Pugwash and Duckworth Lewis Method fame. More guests are yet to be announced so please keep checking back for more news regarding this evening of exquisitely quintessential English comedy from the pen of the master himself - Vivian Stanshall.

---

I have got to try and get to this. Hat tip: Pete.

deeper and deeper

From Peter Finch's 'blog

Right now I’m at the planning stages for two cycle tours which might take this no longer there hut in. They’ll run deeper and deeper into Cardiff’s east. Roath, Capital of Wales, land of hills and waterways, lost mansions and holy wells. Something like that. The tour will be managed by Pol’s Cardiff Cycle Tours – check http://www.cardiffcycletours.com/ for more information. It’ll take place on Saturday 13th June, 2015 and then repeat on Saturday the 20th. If you don’t have a bike then you can hire one from Pol.

This new tour, I’ve decided, will take in lost holy wells, lost mansions, the site of the now partially destroyed Roman Quarry, the place where Cardiff’s Corporation star observatory once stood, Cardiff’s equivalent to the Magdalena Laundries, the remains of a thousand year old mill and the place where the geese once roamed. We’ll visit the island on which Jimi Hendrix once woke unable to tell the world just how he got there. There’ll be sight of the graves of some of Cardiff’s most famous. We’ll also take in the ghosts of the Butes and the hill fort that no one knows about. I’ll enliven things with a few poems. To the point and not. But then you’d expect me to do that.

What I’ve not yet worked out is how able cycle tour attendees will be when it comes to actually getting up Penylan Hill. That’s a long slope. Welshman’s Hill as it was once known. We could walk up but that might be regarded by the fit as cheating. We could cycle the whole way but then I’d be too breathless to speak when we got to the top. Maybe some sort of half and half operation, a long and loping side street zig zag with a bit of bike pushing at the end would do it. I’m doing a few trials shortly. Watch this space to find out how they went.

I have got to sign up for that on June 13. John thinks the well was in Mum and Dad's back garden.

See http://nickbrowne.coraider.com/2007/08/penylan-well.html and
http://nickbrowne.coraider.com/2007/08/lady-in-black.html

Maybe I could combine it with the Cardiff Street Food Circus, though I was planning on taking Ben to that and I can't see him relishing a literary bike ride.

Speaking of food, the Hang Fire girls (who will be at the circus) have won the 2015 BBC Best Street Food or Takeaway award.