sitting pretty

So after the band, I spend an indulgent time sitting in a waterfront bar watching the world.

Sunshine, with boats and people bobbing by.

I'll admit to some blackberrying when I first sat down, but then I decided that I needed a little down time and awarded myself the chance to chill out somewhere pleasant before the hike back to London.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is pretty positive about Norway and the 'crinkly bits' and sure enough its a pretty country, especially on a beautiful sunny day. The snap is from the plane's window.

strong arm of the law

I finished my work with a little time to spare, so instead of heading back to the airport, I asked the taxi to take me back to the harbour.

As luck would have it, there was a rock band playing, so what could I do but stop and listen?

It was a bluesy and pretty good band of Norwegians all in a kind of black get-up. Hmm, then I noticed the checkerboard around their legs. And then I noticed the insignia on their shoulders. It was the local police force blues band - de Politie? no they were (I think) called "Strong arm of the law" (My Norwegian language skills are minimal). See the two Politie fans taking a few minutes from their patrol duties!

And the band rocked.

Look carefully in the video and you can see behind the stage, where a huge cruise ship is parked in the harbour. I stayed for the whole enjoyable set, before seeking a lazy cafe along the waterfront.

here is a brief rashbrecam extract

or the end of voodoo chile

norwegian pizzas are expensive

Headed to Stavanger, Norway this afternoon which seems to be about ten degrees hotter than London. When I've been here before, its had a kind of bleak North Sea climate with mists and rain, so this is quite a pleasant experience and I managed a quick stroll armed with a small camera.

They were clearing up from some kind of rock concert in the main area near to the harbour and getting ready for an ecology related open air exhibition. A rather large cruise ship named Aida was stopping by, so with the combination of events, the whole place was lazily filled with all manner of tourists.

Stavanger appears to be quite small, but has plenty of cafes and bars and is the staging post for people involved with the North Sea oil industry, so as well as the high traffic heliport, there's a big and interesting museum dedicated to the oil industry.

All this contributes to the throughput of people, which increases the urban style street entertainment possibilities.

I spotted this group of four umbrella wielding performance artists doing a circuit, as well as stopping suddenly in poses for the tourists to catch.

And later, a homage to Banksy, on the side of a warehouse near to the quay. I wonder if its linked to the one in Hoxton in a manner similar to the giant tectroscope that links London's City Hall to Manhattan's Brooklyn Bridge?

And if so, where do you have to look?

My pictures today (except the two older London ones) are uploaded straight from the camera to flickr because (a) I'm Mac-less and (b) I set myself an eight o'clock cutoff this evening and am now enjoying the evening sunshine and a delicious if astonishingly expensive, pizza.

Maybe I've got the conversion rate wrong?

coinage

High coinage utilization today; sandwich, parking, tall latte to go, taxi, standard. A very wobbly route around part of London, featuring the City, the South Bank, Park Lane and Paddington at different times. A certain amount of oystering included.

A lunchtime meeting with no lunch. Hence the late sandwich.

Norway next.

hilary delighted at obama's result

The end of the first stage of the caucus race is now in sight. Like the Lewis Carroll story, the rules are not that obvious and it seems to finish at the will of the contestants.

I'm not sure what happens next because it sounds as if the grandees of the party can overturn any result they don't like and if necessary there's still a couple of previously defunct State results that could be reactivated.

Its particularly interesting that Florida can again claim special circumstances, although they've moved on from chads this time around.

I'll post this ahead of the result. Obama seems to have most of the cards although I expect Hilary will stay in play somehow or other; there has to be further leverage available. Unless the Americans want to double down and opt for the McCain war developments.

pivotal?

I see our premier Gordon has been visiting Sunderland today, to look at the factory where Nissan cars are assembled. I gather the plan is to build a next generation car in the factory, which is good for UK jobs, although the car itself didn't appear to get named during the visit.

I doubt whether it will look as 'next generation' as the prototype Pivo above from Nissan with its special wibbly parking wheels and its robotic talking companion. Although I suppose if the new car looks too much like an SUV gas guzzler, then maybe there will be some further explaining to do, perhaps to the robo-friend?

Then again, they always say that low angles flatter a car profile, I gather the new car is a similar size to the outgoing Micra. Will we be seeing low angle photos of Gordon next? or maybe a robot companion?

taxing day

Busy, blurred day crunching through a few tasks, although some of the items were 'important' rather than 'interesting'.

Just items that needed doing and won't go away.

We all have days like that, I'm sure, and I look forward to the rest of the week being more upbeat.

Yawn.

romeo and juliet

Supper yesterday in Covent Garden, at the Royal Opera House before enjoying the ballet Romeo and Juliet. This is one of London's venues for a proper occasion. We dined before the show in the lofty Auditorium Restaurant and arranged courses to fit with the ballet acts which we watched throughout the evening.

Our good fortune was to enjoy a box for this performance and we had a delightful and comfortable view of the excellent dancing, returning to the champagne bar for the first interval and briefly to the restaurant at the end of Act Two.
This was the Royal Ballet performing the 20th century Kenneth McMillan flowingly choreographed version of Prokoviev's score to Shakespeare's story, so we had plenty of greatness to enjoy. Renaissance Italy, the chance meeting between the couple amidst the bloody feud of Montagues and Capulets, sword fighting, bravado, flamboyant dressy formal ballroom scenes, intimate pas de deux, amazing and dramatic dancing, the first rate orchestra powering the score, superb silken, flowing costumes, a strong and moody set and dramatic lighting. Frankly a flawless performance with great set pieces of ballet and scenes which would make beautiful paintings.

Okay - and the score includes the Alan Sugar theme from the Apprentice(!)

fleet foxes

WIth my manic rushing yesterday, I had to jump into the car in the afternoon to dash some work related material somewhere. I hurriedly grabbed the new Fleet Foxes CD to listen to in my travels. From the opening, it broke into my conscious like an early start to a peaceful weekend.

Strong, harmonious vocals and crisp instrumentation. A kind of chilled american folk style (not country & western) which emanates from Seattle (a favourite place of mine) and delights throughout the album.

In the little piece of paper that dropped out of the sleeve, it said they had recorded a lot of the tracks in various people's homes and that they'd done the recording as much for their own pleasure as anyone else's.

I found it a highly entertaining listen, my criticism being more one of my mindset at the time of playing, when I was in a mad, driven work mode and the guiles of this music had a possibility of slowing down my internal bpm more than I needed. But thats more about me than them.

Its quite difficult to categorize their musical style which is quite varied within folk-based roots, harmonies, gospel like interludes, some quite baroque moments across a wide variety of instruments. I'm reminded of a favourite band of mine, the Decemberists, for their range, albeit a somewhat different form of story telling. And I like bands that can play and sing well and want to cut their own rather unique path.

I see they are playing the meltdown on the South Bank in a couple of weeks; I assume they will get some UK publicity at this time and its good to see some new and interesting folk bands on the scene.

line

Awake 4am trying to dream sleep formulae.
Still hope, still open for business.
A wash of moments flittering,
tugging clock hands,
drifting ever closer to deadline.
Not stopping as reverse
calculations become necessary.
Minutes brush away hours.
Small devices contrive to add delay.
No toner. More paper.
Bright red cut drips onto everything.
Others demand. Norway next Friday. Hotel Monday.
Laura in a church.
Make a neat bundle and a second one.
Large print on white covering.
Car keys. Apply business look.
Start out whilst everyone else
winds down.
Take the second exit at the roundabout and continue to follow the A33.
Felt mountain on M4.
Wobbling Vaux. Two cops outside.
Gates, barrier, rotating lights.
Reflective jacket.
Package. Done.

cheesy post

Here's a picture I took a few days ago...

This is one of those weeks where I'm just about keeping my head above water. I think its a feature of short weeks (courtesy of Bank Holidays) and single days off (Tuesday).

The rest of the week becomes compressed as a consequence of the missing days. So by Friday, when this post should bip its way into the blogosphere, I'm hoping that I'll be back on top of whatever it is I'm doing.

I don't very often pre-post, but can't resist experimenting with blogger's post-dated function, hence creating this on Wednesday whilst sipping tea before diving back into the maelstrom.

If I really had time to drop into the Cheshire Cheese in Fleet Street on Friday evening then I'd be making progress, but I'll have to leave it for the inquisitive tourists. It'll still be there the next time I'm passing, judging by its heritage.

white out

Working hard to reduce the panic attacks.

an eco-friendly recycled post