wood smoke?

After the London New Year's morning view above, eventually a neighbour's wood fire created a fine smoky atmosphere alongside twinkling lights and sullen icy puddles as we returned home. It was late afternoon and we had helped the new year find its way into our lives.

Later, I watched "Paris Je T'aime" on Sky; that's the film with twenty small segments by different directors, set in a different Arrondissements. All sections are good, from simple encounters to late night vampires. It emphasized simple scenically good story telling and is quite inspirational.

As I watched, it helped me channel all kinds of ideas for '09 projects, some which made it to my trusty pencil powered notebook.

I'm also very aware that I'll be back to normal work patterns from Monday, so I'm very conscious as I look at my own blackberry calendar beginning to get blocked, that I'll soon be back to luxuriating in a whole ten minutes a day blogging time.

So I guess I'm musing that the ideas of more elaborate projects may take some inventiveness. However, I still prefer the idea to create 'net new' rather than just consume.

i just wanted to kiss you

Some people start the new year with resolutions or projects. I'm more of an incrementalist rather than sudden makeovers, but we shall see.

I'm impressed by this project from Kim Vermillion, who has decided to write and upload a daily song throughout January. The first one 'Underwater' is already up and has some excellent lyrics!

Happy New Year

We didn't really get back to the hotel until quite late- having experienced the good natured and free Jubilee line at around two in the morning.

Unfortunately the champagne bar was still open, so we decided to keep the spirit of the evening running a little longer. This meant that today - still the first of Jan, has started somewhat late.

For the moment here’s a hand my trusty friend, And give us a hand o’ thine! And we’ll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne.

New Year Party

We headed over to Elton John's party to see in the New Year. Through some good luck we were staying in a nearby hotel in Canary Wharf and with even more good luck were given an upgrade to a rather well-appointed suite. We could see the Dome from the room, although it was the other side of the Thames, so one stop on the Jubilee to get to the event.

A bite to eat in Brown's before heading over, anticipating the rammed nature of the restaurants at the O2. A glass or two of wine and we were ready to party.

A fun evening, everyone there to have a good time. Elton had brought much of his Las Vegas Red Piano set into the venue and the evening cracked on at a good pace, with the regulation midnight Auld Lang Syne before more showers of sparkle and the bitch is back. I know some of it was also televised, although video doesn't really capture the scale or full emotion of actually being there.

A good first tick in the box for 2009.

eyeful

Almost time to wrap 2008 in a shiny parcel and to move into 2009.

I don't do the long list retrospectives that some relish. I prefer the fun of going forward. But at certain times, try as one might, its impossible not to sneak a quick peek over the shoulder to moments passed. There's a different clarity in the dark months, brought from chill and sudden ice. Throw salt as a needed vanquisher.

Familiar landscapes but more spaces than during summer months. Inner workings of trees and shrubs visible but already three centimetres of daffodil leaves strain through the earth for early signs of spring.

Most don't notice yet.

can banjo fit punk cabaret?

In the car on the way back we talked about hiring somewhere for a few days to make some music.

Not quite yet.

Sometime mid 2009. We'll all need to practice a bit more first. Amanda's story about making her album can be some sort of inspiration.

And yes, I have tix for her gig at the Electric Ballroom. Meantime enjoy her Christmas gift...


What's the Use of Won'drin'? -Amanda Palmer & Vermillion Lies- from Amanda Palmer on Vimeo.

reality is still an obstacle to hallucination

Our board games this year were decidedly retro, with an ancient copy of 'Careers' being amongst those played to the end. You had to decide whether to go for big business, or something risky like being an astronaut. Most players seemed to take the safe option to join show-biz or become uranium prospectors.

The recently acquired game was so old that the replacement rules were stated to cost 1/6d from Waddingtons, yet many of the money, fame and happiness choices and penalties still seemed to fit modern day decision making.

When we tried another old style game, about motoring around Ye Olde England, we did actually give up after 10 minutes. It was about as exciting as driving to Westfield Shopping Centre on Boxing Day.

The complex scoring system was in use as usual, with accumulated points from the mix of karaoke, movie quizzes and mad rabbit lawnmower racing on the Wii all progressively building towards our astronomic accumulated totals.

We don't usually add up the final scores, but the interim subtotal prizes of rubber band collections and balsa wood aircraft kits are something to behold. This year's pocket frisbee was much coveted, as were the 8 whistles which could create an entire musical scale.

We managed several whistled renditions of jingle bells before moving on to the banjo and mandolin.

central no heating

Well, we have all been having a fine Christmas and only now re-connecting with the internet after days of party games, silly hats and general raucousness.

Luckily we were fairly lively, because whilst we were drinking Old Peculiar in the Crooked Billet on Christmas Eve, the phone rang to say that the home central heating had just failed.

Inevitably, we developed other heating solutions which have lasted until Speedy the plumber arrived on the 28th to advise us that the 15 minute diagnostic was £102.35 and that the new pump and valves would be ready by Tuesday. Those Wii tennis games may yet come in useful as a further method of warming.

Perhaps a new definition for the chattering classes?

driving home for Christmas

Season's Greetings

Office work this morning, then some driving around London at which time I will switch into festive mode until the weekend.

smoke fairies

I was in the office today although the car park was surprisingly empty. I guess most people were en route to shops or relatives. Last night the local M&S car park was completely full at 22:30 and stayed that way until around midnight. The adjacent Tesco was open 24 hours in any case.

Whilst I've been driving for the last few days, my CD of choice has been the Smoke Fairies, which evokes a mysterious and strangely compelling soundtrack to the driving experience. It fitted perfectly with some of my recent driving scenes of 'London streets', 'twisty evening lanes' and 'empty midnight motorway'. Yet these British musicians have somehow been absorbing the vibes of the Mississippi delta. Mournful ballads with a folk edge but rooted in blues with slide guitar swagger.

Here's one of their songs: with a Christmas theme, as sung at the recent Barbican concert.

round robin 2008

Like most of us, I receive a few of those round robin letters, from varied sources including embedded in cards, as letters and also in various electronic formats.

Amongst today's was one which had used photopaper to create a card and included the letter portion as a series of bullet points a la PowerPoint on the inside left.

Sterling work. So to mine, I suppose...

Dear friend,

Its been a truly eventful and groundbreaking year and there are any number of incredible and positive items which I am about to flaunt. You'll be amazed at how we managed to pack so much into this truly award winning year.

After that January domestic bust-up and the little incident with the police, we vowed to turn over a new leaf, but of course kept our fingers crossed. I resorted to staying out until four or five every morning and the rest of the household got an even stronger reputation for being out of control.

That was until the money ran out during the casino vacation in February, but some of the gang helped us out with a loan although they are getting quite nasty now that the money is due.

We did sell the house for a knock down price to recoup part of the debts - in some kind of 'sell to let' scheme so we could still live in it, but I sort of sensed that putting the money into those Northern Rock Hedge Funds was a bad idea. It turns out that the whole thing was a scam in any case so we don't even qualify for compensation.

Luckily we'd already paid for the May safari to South Africa and carried on with it in any case. Amazingly, on the very first day, I was robbed on the way into the hotel but fortunately they missed my camera which I'd already left in a taxi by accident! How we laughed!

The very next evening the taxi driver returned the camera to the hotel and only asked for £200 by way of compensation. So I'm including a few dozen of the more whimsical photographs of wildlife as we toured around. Most of it is at quite a distance but I'm sure you will get the idea.

Whilst we were away, it turned out that the weather in the UK was quite bad, and we returned to see the new tide marks inside the property up to about half a metre. The house sitter had checked in regularly and been feeding Mimsi the cat but somehow all the fish had escaped from the fishtank. Or at least that what we were told. And Mimsi is seeing a pet psychotherapist now because she gets jumpy every time we turn on a tap.

I should mention Pixi-Trix and the recent performance of Armageddon at the local hall. She played Liv Tyler's part of Grace Stamper and we managed to get local man Johnny Depp as the other main star. Although Johnny lives in France, he keeps a small place quite near to us, just around the corner from Kate Moss and the others. Some of the special effects were quite stunning and the drilling of the space rocks to plant the explosive holds a special place in my heart.

Of course, the Guardian gave the show five stars, although the Times was a bit snooty and only gave it a muted review, saying the prawn vol-au-vents were the best thing about the evening. I have a certain pride in being the person that defrosted them.

That takes us neatly to the sporting achievements. As usual, we collected a fair number of cups and trophies from the usual sources; We've a whole cabinet of model yacht racing awards now and Branston continues to win body board trophies and can remove the parole tag from next month. He's already talking about going back to Turkey for another stint on the farm.

And its good news on the medication front too! It appears that the tricyclics were from a quite old prescription and although I'd bought a lot on the cheap from the internet, when they finally ran out the supplier I'd been using had gone out of business. The NHS then suggested something else and the new tablets are supposed to reduce the extrapyramidal side-effects of antipsychotic drugs or something. I know they have cut down on the blurred vision anyway.

But thats enough about us. I hope you are having a similarly interesting time and that these modest achievements don't overshadow those of your own.

Season's Greetings and remember there's always someone worse off than yourself.