nothing to see here - move along

There's a fuss about the Channel 4 programme about the Diana car crash ten years ago. Clarence House represent the sons Harry and William and say it should not have been shown without further edits.

The thing I find more shocking is that the inquest from the sad event is still open after some ten years. How is it that the major Establishment figures involved are unable to ensure that such a high profile situation gets resolved?

I pick a few points from the Lord Stevens inquiry which are also on the BBC's own web-site.

There was contact between the Mercedes carrying the princess and a white Fiat Uno (never found?) shortly before the crash. Henri Paul, the driver of the Mercedes, had alcohol levels twice the British drink-drive limit at the time of the crash. There was no evidence to support claims the security services were involved in any way in Princess Diana's death.

A ring had been bought by Dodi Al Fayed. A note apparently written by the princess outlines fears the Prince of Wales wanted to clear the way to marry a woman not named in the report. The woman was not Camilla, the report said. Prince Charles told the inquiry he did not know why his ex-wife wrote the letter and never discussed it with her.

As Sir Humphrey would say, "truth is a matter of perspective".

tags technorati : rashbre diana car crash princess prince charles camilla inquest establishment conspiracy theory

affrontal logo to me

Well, they revealed the £400,000 Olympic Committee London 2012 logo and its pink fuzzy felt shapes as edgy, punky and modern. In a Rorschach test this picture has been known to yield a certain cartoon depiction of something best left to the imagination on this site. Or perhaps thats just me.

...Who needs Photoshop CS for artwork when five minutes with 1983's Paintbrush.exe can produce the above? Nice work, if you can get it. Below, Here's the old temporary logo, by way of a comparison. It sort of does what it says on the package.

So my rejection suggestions include sign a petiition, ask Mark Thomas to add it to the 1 person McDemos at Westminster, or maybe add a new petition to the UK government petition web-site.

tags technorati : rashbre olympics logo london london 2012 2012 design blooper hype pink

Wonderful Copenhagen

My hotel in Copenhagen is very central, just a short walk from the famous Tivoli Gardens. As I've been mainly in meetings and generally industrious, it hasn't given much time for sightseeing, although I have both worked and visted Copenhagen before as a tourist. A top place to visit during most peoples' time in Copenhagen, is the Tivoli Gardens and I'm pleased to say we'd arranged to meet in there in the evening for a dinner in the rather pleasant surroundings of Divan 2, which is one of the oldest restaurants in the Gardens.

A highly enjoyable evening and then exit from the restaurant into the twinkling lights of the still orientally themed garden, with many locals and visitors enjoying the late evening in a combination of restaurants, cafes and amusements.

tags technorati : rashbre copenhagen denmark tivoli europe

normal service is resumed

I suppose I should have loaded a test card or similar whilst I have been travelling and not able to post to the blog. Normal service should resume as well as a few back posts covering a few recent excursions.

I'm in Copenhagen for the next few days, but I think there will be some bandwith too. Meantime, my back posts will cover some time spent in Cornwall (West of England - some claim it is a separate country) and before that a few days in Washington.

tags technorati : rashbre test card sky HD myleene klass normal service resumed

2012 London Olympics Brand

[THIS LOGO SPACE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK]

An interesting dilemma that the new Olympics Branding for 2012 London is to be unveiled tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the Committee responsible has already published a series of downloads available explaining why if you are not a designated interest, then you cannot display the logo.

I can understand not illicitly selling merchandise with the logo, or making unauthorised commercial gain from its use, but it does seem strange that the instructions state: You can support the 2012 Games by not engaging in the unauthorised use of the Games' Marks or purchasing unauthorised merchandise.

In the same document I am told that I could, however, use the National Lottery Scratch cards as a way to show support.

tags technorati : rashbre olympics logo london london 2012 2012 design blooper hype pink

Ted's Bay

I’m not sure of the real name of this beautiful little bay, but it has many great things going for it. It is secluded, has proper sand, some interesting rock formations, a couple of caves which would be ideal for smugglers in the olden days and a great view out to sea.

To the East is Cawsand and to the West is Rame.

An idyllic and unspoilt tranquil location.

tags technorati : rashbre cornwall england travel cawsand

rainy writing

I can understand why Daphne du Maurier and other famous authors have lived and written in Cornwall. The picture above is of Daphne's house in Fowey and I'm told that her son still lives there. It's also a celebration of Daphne du Maurier in Fowey this year, which marks 100 years since her birth.

Like the above setting, there’s a peace and tranquility that can help get into the zone for writing. I decided, this week, to spend a rainy day finishing my edit of the ‘triangle’, which was the novel I started back in Nanowrimo in 2005.

Having written the novel in 30 days, the editing has hung around somewhat longer. To be honest, the edit has mainly comprised cleaning up typos, sorting out some logic errors and tightening a few plot points. I’ve realised that the edit is a much longer part than crashing out the original story.

Also, that the only time I’ve really had to do this are odd single days (usually wet days) when I’m officially vacationing and somehow cut off from everything else. So today, slightly rainy, in Cornwall, in the Mission Hall in Kingsand, has worked perfectly. I’ve managed to get through to the very last page and am now at the stage where I’ll be looking for a way to get published! And of course, I’ve still got last year’s NaNoWriMo in a rough and ready state as well. But on this occasion, one thing at a time!

tags technorati : rashbre nanowrimo writing novel triangle cornwall england travel cawsand

Eden

I was in Eden today. That’s a fabulous garden in deepest Cornwall, featuring local flora as well as a mediterranean climate area and a tropical rain forest.

The Eden Project started in 1999 and used the site of a old worn-out clay pit as its base. Prior to its physical start, the founder of the project and numerous others had been planning for around three preceding years, not least how to get the funding for this imaginative plan.

This whole project is an example of ‘can-do’ attitude, with the future minded project team taking a 60m deep area the size of 35 soccer pitches and persuading all manner of folk to give time and money to the work. The ‘I’m glad I did’ rather than ‘I wish I had’ form of persuasion worked well. Whatever the weather, Eden is a place to visit.

Two of the most spectacular parts of the site are the huge biomes (huge geodesic dome structures), one for the mediterranean zone and another for the tropical rain forest. There’s a third biome for the natural climate of the area, which doesn’t need a dome, of course.

An enjoyable day can be spent browsing the terrain and the various plants. There’s tea being grown in the open climate of Cornwall; in the mediterranean section (which also features the corresponding latitudes of California) there are the fruits and leaves of fine perfumes and in the rain forest there are the huge plants that grow in secluded tropical islands as well as coffee plants, bananas and mangoes.

Mainly the plants are not rare varieties, but many are completed with stories and points to think. The mango as an exotic to the UK but a famine relief fruit in its native land. The coffee only retrieving 7% of its value in its native habitat.

So enjoy the experience but also think about our fragile earth.

tags technorati : rashbre cornwall england travel cawsand

Rame

Today we visited Rame, which contains a small church and much larger churchyard.

Rame means ‘rams head’ and there is also the tiny St Micheal’s chapel at the summit of Rame Head, a further 800 metres along the promontory. Rame Head’s chapel was first licenced for mass in 1397 although the original hermit site is much older. Looking at the area above, it is also has amazingly good natural fortifications and there are signs of an ancient village on the furthest outcrop - perhaps a place for retreat in times of trouble?

The lookout at Rame was maintained from around 1486 and a watchman would help ships find their way into Plymouth. The nearby villages of Cawsand and Kingsand were also known as smuggling villages however, so maybe the lookout was sometimes missing the full view. Nowadays there is also a coastguard station set further back in the area, with high powered radar, telescopes and a suitably enquiring mind about any vessels pulling alongside one another.

Our visit to the churchyard was somewhat personal although to what must be one of the most spectacularly sited churches in England. Originally from 1259, the church was originally built in a cross shape, but later extended in the fifteenth century. Some of the 16th century pews still survive to this day. Like several of the churches in this area, there is no electricity and the church is lit by candles. We spent a happy hour or so wandering about before moving on in our relaxed viewing of this unspoilt part of Cornwall.

tags technorati : rashbre cornwall england travel cawsand

Cornwall

A few days away from the smoke, staying in Kingsand, Cornwall. Its a tiny village with a harbour and linked to the adjacent Cawsand. Until 1844, the two villages were in adjacent counties of Devon and Cornwall, but then the boundaries moved them both into Cornwall.

This is an unspoilt and picturesque part of Cornwall, away from many holiday maker routes by nature of the location, and therefore less commercialised. The local shop is across from the Mission Hall, where we are staying, and our location is next door to the Rising Sun pub, which was frequented by Prince Charles and Camilla a couple of weeks ago on a visit to the twin villages.

The area nestles into the twin bays of Cawsand and Kingsand and each day during this bank holiday weekend there have been many small sailing boats visiting, on trips from plymouth and further afield. For us, its great to have a few carefree days walking barefoot in an almost car free zone. Yes, you can drive a car in, but don’t expect to be able to get it out of the narrow winding streets again.

And now, will it be the Rising Sun, the Halfway House, the Cross Keys or the Devonshire Arms?

tags technorati : rashbre cornwall england travel cawsand

what dark is this?

A visit to Shaftsbury Avenue this evening, to see Peter Shaffer's Equus, where the seventeen year old boy being diagnosed by a psychologist is played by Daniel (Harry Potter) Radcliffe. The co-star protagonist is Richard Griffiths and the girl with whom Daniel has a fling is played by Joanna Christie. Interestingly, her part was played many years ago by Jenny Agutter, in the film version and Jenny Agutter appears in this version as the magistrate responsible for rescuing the seventeen year old from a prison stretch.

The well-known plot is about the young man Alan Strang, who has blinded six horses with a spike, and Martin Dysart, the middle-aged psychiatrist who agrees to treat him and along the way to discover the reason for the act.

From the beginning, the dialogue is quick and clever and its apparent that another story is unfolding about the paradoxes seen by Dysart whilst he tries to search for meaning in Alan's act and starts to question his own position in life.

Consider Equus as a horse-god and the stables as the temple invented by Alan Strang who experiences a primeval relationship to life, whilst psychiatrist Dysart has an altogether more distant and dysfunctional relationship, muted and unexciting.

There's also a good range of trails to the reason for the situation. Was it brought about by Alan's upbringing? Was he in mental pain? Was there a godly explanation? Was the behaviour simply an intrinsic part of Alan's being?

And Dysart himself isn't without his moments of strangeness. His dreams of pagan and bloody ritual to some extent synthesize the type of behavour seen in his young patient.

The denoument centres around the introduction of a fake truth drug, causing Alan to re-enact the scene at the stables. Its linked with stable girl Jill, who seduces him back to the stables where they get naked in the presence of the horses. To Alan this is like a kind of sacriledge and creates the jagged and callous reaction as he takes out his mixed emotions on the horses.

So we have a kind of explanation for the act, but some dilemmas as Dysart decides he can cure Alan by muting his passion and senses, but in a way that means he will become as insulated from 'living' as Dysart feels himself to be, metaphorically bridled.

big ben bus blur

Back in London, as can be seen from the shot here.

This is a well known picture angle that a lot of tourists miss, but can look quite fun. I took this whilst a group of us were walking over Westminster Bridge looking for a taxi. I'll fill in a few gaps when I get a moment.

Lets say for the moment that the last week and this weekend have been fairly hectic. And now I'm preparing for next week's work!