half a sovereign, or the dragon gets it

Happy Saint George's Day, today. The dragon-slaying patron saint of the English doesn't get any where near as much press or attention as Saint Patrick, but still has an official and largely uncelebrated day.

At least Saint George is on the reverse of a coin of the realm, that well known 'half sovereign', which has fallen in to complete disuse. The official value was ten shillings (fifty pence), but as the coin is made of 22 carat gold, I suspect its probably got a street value closer to $100.

London Marathon 2007

This morning I travelled to Canary Wharf to watch the London Marathon, which is a spectacular event crossing London with a 26.2 mile race. I’d looked at the varied maps of the race to try to find somewhere that I could get a good view, with some atmosphere and some recognizable symbols of London. I’d also worked out that there would be other parts of the runners’ route that would be much busier, such as the Embankment, the Mall and the area around Tower Bridge and where the Cutty Sark is supposed to be moored. With the major traffic restrictions in London because of the road closures for the race, it also needed to be somewhere that I could reach fairly easily by public transport and walking.

Consequently, I took a tube train to Canary Wharf, listening on the way that the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) has some kind of train failure and was not running. No surprises there. As luck would have it, there were people around, but not too many. It was pretty easy to walk around and pick a vantage point. I initially selected one on a corner, but then I noticed the lack of sunlight because of the tall building shadows, so instead I found another location by one of the water pickups, around Mile 19.

Cup of coffee in hand, the area I’d selected also had a convenient wall (a) for sitting on and (b) to get a better vantage point later, if I needed it. Choosing a point at two thirds of the way around also had the advantage that by this point the runners had separated out sufficiently. It gave several distinct races- the wheelchair race, the elite womens’ race, the elite mens’ race and the mass race. Altogether around 35,000 people enter this marathon, ranging from the super fit, to people who dress up as bakewell tarts.

And what a fantastic atmosphere. The races, the participants, many running for charity, the supporters – who cheer everyone. Watch it on television by all means, but if you are from London it is one to also experience, whether from the run itself or from the sidelines.

I took quite a few snapshots, mainly from Docklands, but also a few from around Buckingham Palace near to the finish line. I’ve put a bunch of them onto flickr or you can watch the slide show

tags technorati : rashbre london marathon urban athletics sport

blur

Sometimes when I'm out and about with other people who know about my blog they will comment about what they see as a 'bloggable moment'. The last week has been a case in point and I've noticed that I've been somewhat busy working and that quite a few of the moments that I'd have considered worth an entry have been skipped over.

Let's see: I could have commented about the trip through the New Forest to catch the ferry to the Isle of Wight. Maybe a snapshot or two of the harbour or the crossing of the busy waters of the Solent. I could have reflected about the Isle of Wight Pop Festival exhibition or even on the life-sized statue of Jimi Hendrix in a garden, along with his lyrics, including the original version of Purple Haze.

Then there was the Photography Exhibition of the evocative works of Julia Margaret Cameron. The dramatic picture of Hershel the Astronomer, the sleek picture of Ellen Terry and the portraits of Alice Liddell, who became the inspiration for the Alice in Wonderland books of Lewis Carroll.

But of course the real reason for being on the sun drenched Island was the Jazz festival, so we met others and then wandered between venues. I had an excursion to The Crab in Shanklin one evening to bring back more of our number, who'd travelled down by train from London, used the catamaran from Ryde and then the ex London tube trains to reach the nearby quaint Shanklin.

Of course, there were the bands, between the free jazz of Sax Appeal, the world groove party sounds of Konkoma Maximum Love Garden Orchestra, the sultry evening clubbiness of Laura Zakian, the modern improvisations of the Dave O'Higgins and Simon Purcell Quartet and then the ultra modern musos Porpoise Corpus at the Spyglass Inn. And thats just a few of the 120 acts playing in Ventnor during the weekend. With the competition of the fine weather and the seaside as well.

Added to that we met friends who live on the island and enjoyed a great Sunday lunch together in a tranquil venue in Totland. I had to catch an early ferry back to the mainland because my week had to start with the four o clock alarm call to catch the plane to Amsterdam. Like spies, I was meeting someone outside the airport by the big plasma screen television and he came in on another plane about ten minutes after me. Then we drove to the meeting spot for some busy sessions.

Later in the week, we returned to Heathrow, to a waiting car to bundle us to a hotel in London for other meetings. A reminder that I was supposed to host an early supper somewhere that evening and a last minute reschedule to take advantage of a nice spot on the River Thames.

The next evening I'd semi forgotton that I'd agreed to go out for a drink in the evening, although this became a friendly evening to catch up on news. So now we're back to Thursday and I feel I've completed a few gaps in the week -even if I've somehow omitted sitting on the floor eating Sushi in a Yurt one evening when the soy sauce made a bit of a mess.

nikki sarko

There's plenty of causerie de note about the elections this weekend in France. There's been an asssertion that as Tony Blair gets ready to leave the British premiership, a gallic equivalent arrives in the form of Nicolas Sarkozy.

The thought of anything 'Anglo-Saxon' amongst the Parisiennes may not be quite the done thing, but the other amusing discussion has been around London as the seventh French city (after Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Toulouse, Nice, Nantes, and before Strasbourg, I presume).

I suppose the fast train links make it quicker to get from Paris to London than to Cannes, say. And the French investment bankers certainly inhabit the City of London in large numbers. But I suspect there is some French humour in the statements about the seventh city. Actually the population of London is probably larger than the rolled-up population of the top seven French cities.

So with the upcoming election, the main coverage from Britain seems to be going to Sarkozy. Front page pictures, and much discussion of his approach. The problem is that France has been broken for a long time. Low working hours (35 per week), many jobs are state related, theres high unemployment, with maybe 20% of the youth unemployed. There's a high level of state debt and a low growth rate. Generally in need of attention, and if France sneezes, much of Europe risks catching a cold.

So who else to choose between? Ségolène Royal may dish more of the Chirac same, centrist François Bayrou is reputed to favour a Germanic approach, which is probably not a strong election tactic in France. Le Pen is still hanging in there as a National Front candidate. So Sarko, Sego, Bayrou and le Pen, and I'm guessing thats the order they will finish.

And Sarkozy could win as a consequence of additive support from party followers and those anxious for reforms to put France back on the rails. And not just those leading to London.

pulped

I was confused on tonight's television news and apparently the Daily Mail which have run a story about the removal of a banksy picture from Shoreditch.

The thing is, the picture disappeared ages ago and was replaced by some crude writing and then by someone else's attempt to recreate the original picture, albeit with the bananas as a costume worn by the two characters.

Bananas, or what?

dawn

After a busy day, the three of us sat together in the bar at the hotel chatting before an early supper. I had been up since around 04:00 and was somewhat tired, but my colleague from Cape Cod hadn't slept in a bed since the previous day because of the flight from Boston to Holland.

We asked the waiter about visiting the nearby restaurant and he said he'd check whether there were any tables. We all smiled because the end of the restaurant nearest to us looked pretty deserted. How wrong we were as we were escorted inside. The middle of the restaurant had a starry dome and the majority of the tables were packed with people engrossed in earnest conversations.

We then enjoyed a buffet supper as the hours slipped away. It was around 23:30 by the time we finished, and we drifted back to the elevators and our rooms. Mine faced the Atrium where even the bluish light simulation of dawn was unable to keep me awake.

never hold a gun?

I've never held a real gun. Toy guns - yes. Even paint-ball guns. A real gun, never.

In England, unless I joined a military related group, a gun club or was a person of the land, it would be quite difficult to gain access to a gun. I'd still have to be background checked, could have medical records sought, would need two people to vouch for me and would need a certificate/licence. The gun would need to be locked away and the ammunition would need to be in a separate location.

The USA appear to let anyone over 18 years old buy a gun, after some rudimentary background checks. If the person wants to buy from a private collector, even the background checks are bypassed. When I'm in the USA, I noticed Wal-Mart has a whole counter similar in size to a mobile phone counter, dedicated to the sale of guns and ammunition. Actually, without a credit record, some mobile phone subscriptions may be harder to purchase than a cash sale for a gun.

In some States there seems to be a limit imposed on this. You can't buy more than one gun a month, so building a collection would take a little while. For the more adventurous, some States permit the purchase of semi automatic weapons and even of AK-47s and Uzi Sub-machine guns. The American Constitution says people are allowed to "keep and bear arms." The National Rifle Association in the USA doesn't talk for long on its home page without using words like "patriot" as a way to reassure that this is all okay.

Maybe the Second Amendment was right about citizens needing to have the right to protect themselves (including from an unjust Government), though interpreting this - comma by comma - as everyman can keep and bear arms seems to deliberately cloud the point. I'll stay unarmed.

isle

The sea was still quite cold, although the weather was doing its best to simulate midsummer during the weekend's Jazz festival. We took an early ferry on Friday to the island and then mixed sightseeing with hitting the festival. Part of the fun was having tickets which allowed us to visit any of the venues and that meant we could take a meandering course and spread our attentions between the seaside, bars, restaurants and the jazz venues themselves.

jazzed

Sublime, sunny and musical weekend but now to the Netherlands.

jazzy

Going jazzy on a island for an unplugged weekend

ashes to ashes?

I just watched the last episode of Life on Mars, which is the entertaining series about a policeman who gets bumped back from the 21st century into 1973. The speculation is whether its a result of a traffic accident which has thrown him into a coma and will he recover?

The real life he sees in 1973 is a politically incorrect cop force in Manchester running villains to ground with all the swagger of the old Sweeney series, right down to the use of beige and brown coloured Ford Cortinas. Amongst the street scenes are a few incongruities like closed circuit television, the occasional satellite dish, an overabundance of airconditioners, modern number plates and so forth but that actually adds to the parallel worlds aspects of the series.

There's a clever link to the WIzard of Oz concussion too, with hero Sam being refered to as Dorothy by one of the other characters and then a whole sequence of Over the Rainbow being played in the last episode. What could this mean?

The last episode featured a colliery payroll train robbery and a plot about whether the central character would be able to be brought back to the 21st Century. Suffice to say the coma-based life in the 1970s seemed more real to our hero and there are effectively two endings to the series which have been spliced together. Take your pick, but be careful or the Test Card girl will switch off your television.

I enjoyed the mind games of the series and will wait with interest to see how they flash it forward to the 1980s and maybe send someone else backwards to converge with this set of characters as they roll forward through time - assuming they make the series named after a different David Bowie track.

Of course there is life on Mars.

metropolis

Meetings in the Isle of Dogs today, in Canary Wharf, which is a part of London which has risen out of the old docklands area over the last few years. This once thriving Port of London cargo based dock area sank into uncompetitive urban decline into the 1980s then becoming a designated enterprise zone for redevelopment.

Nowadays, the area has a strong skyline of modern buildings and in a fairly compressed area has some the squeaky cleanest streets in London. Everything still has the sheen of the recently created and at this time of the year, the trees renewing their leaves only underline that feeling. There's something like 75,000 working in the area now and many high end shops and services at ground level and in the underground linking areas.

Global bank logos dominate the skyline. The area bustles the whole time; theres the folk in the offices, but also many of the cafes, shops and pubs filled with a well-heeled business clientele.