sparkle

I did find Swindon's Magic Roundabout yesterday. I assumed, rightly, that if I just drove to my destination along main roads, I would somehow need to pass throught this strange area.

Yesterday, I described the roundabout as reminiscent of a dreamcatcher, the artifact used by first nation tribes to filter dreams permitting only good to come through. The rest is caught in the web and disappears with the dawn.

So some interesting metaphors flicked through my mind as I passed the adjacent fast food shrines and retail sheds of the area. Was the catcher holding them here, or were there more adventurous ideas held back by the strange forces?

I found myself thinking of the sky, the land, freshness of the air and the sparkle of water as I reached my destination, which suggests either a positive force nearby, or I'm going down with a cough and cold and the codeine has kicked in.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, swindon, magic, roundabout, dreamcatcher, dreamkatcher, will+young, hidden+message, teardrops, mp3, sparkle,

magic roundabout

Excitement as I go to Swindon today! I've previously seen the famous 'Magic Roundabout' of Swindon and will be interested to know if it is still there. I believe it was an experiment in the middle ages of road planning and has amazing dreamcatcher wheels within wheels. I was thinking of checking on Google, but it will be more fun to see if I 'happen' across it.

yes, its the real streetsign

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first footing

An accidental "First footing" occurred at the hotel on New Year's Eve. For those that don't know, the tradition of "first footing" is that the "first foot" in the house after midnight should be male and dark (ie not a Viking about to bring trouble). Getting this right is supposed to be a sign of good luck for the year.

So arriving back at the hotel room on the First, at about one thirty a.m. it was a little unfortunate that the key didn't work. To be honest, we just thought it a bit funny and a member of the Hotel staff was nearby delivering a snack and joined in our attempt to get back in. Yes, it was the right room and, yes, we had the right key etc. He then called for backup and the lady in charge arrived a few minutes later. Same questions and we even had the little card showing our room number.

Still all frivolity as well.

Then the person in charge called for the duty engineer, who arrived a couple of minutes later. He did some thing slightly forceful to the door which then opened and he was, indeed, the first person in the room. He was a tallish person, with a complexion suggesting relatives in India.

So a tall, dark, stranger was indeed the 'first footings' for 2008.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, new+year, 2008, 2007, first+footings, tradition, superstition, coal, bread, whisky, hotel, berkeley

bad drive

I'll call today the first normal day of 2008, complete with me properly back to work. A slight problem though, in that I became involved in a rather long traffic jam losing around two hours as a consequence of an unexpected motorway closure.

Londoners are used to random commuter problems but today's was particularly severe. When its 'leaves on the line' or 'wrong kind of snow', its easy to be irritated about the situation, but when there's ambulances and fire-engines moving along the hard shoulder it creates a different impression.

I eventually used some local knowledge to sneak off of the motorway at an access point normally used by police. I knew the whereabouts of the exit and sure enough they were encouraging the few of us who knew this route to escape back into the country lanes.

A slightly American look at 2007

Okay. Its from the jibjab people that do that "dancing gnome with your family in the movie" meme.

Its also not a bad retrospective for people in a hurry.

Thanks, panthergirl, for spotting it.

8

We were based at a hotel for the New Year. It wasn't my idea, but it was a great one and meant we were within easy staggering distance of the various festivities. Starting with a room already supplied with Champagne and where coffee arrived almost as one thought of the idea.

Then there were the afternoon cakes, which were somehow designed to look like fashion items from the current season. Kind of Hermes handbag shaped sponges and Nina Ricci inspired slurpy things - about ten designers were featured in this little procession of cakeness. There are pictures but they are on another phone and may take a while to extricate. Suffice to say "Yum".

A little later it was time to wander across to the Apollo for the New Years Eve performance of Wicked, playing to a packed house and one of the few shows in London starting at a normal mid evening time of seven thirty. Already by this time, the effects of gentle imbibing were beginning to be felt and at the end of the show it was a decision about whether to head for the Thames in the drizzling rain or to find another venue. the Blue Bar won and we decided to experiment with the cocktails which came in tall and rather exquisite crystal glasses (or in one case complete with the shaker which contained another full measure of whatever it was in every round). Pacing was important because as the midnight hour approached, the clubby dance atmosphere flicked up a notch as the waitresses in their glittering masks started to dispense party crackers and complementary champagne.

The arrival of midnight was probably something of a guess, but we all celebrated together, whether it was the right time or not and then after the flip into 2008, we continued for another hour or so before deciding to head for the hotel room.

Luckily Brunch was served until one p.m. today. They must have known.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, wicked, new+year, 2008, london, show, berkeley, hotel, pret-a-portea, champagne, blue+bar

Happy New Year

Enjoy the transition from 2007 into 2008 an' tak' a right good-will draught!

There is fun going forward.

sugar plum

As we wend our way through the twisting narrow alleys known as Camden Passage, we were on our way from The Living Room to Sadler's Wells Theatre, to partake of the Christmas evening tradition to watch pantomime or ballet. This year it was Nutcracker, which usually features orphans and toy soldiers springing to life.

But this was Matthew Bourne's version, which manages to be extremely pink. Bourne is well known for the version of Swan Lake which also featured in the film of Billy Elliot. If you don't know what I'm talking about then just assume its, well, alternative.

And this version uses the traditional Tschaikowsky score, and does indeed start in an orphan's home. But fairly rapidly the settings diverge as well as some of the moves which twist from the choreography that Bourne applies to this dream sequence of a story. So by the sugar rush of the second half, when the cast are visiting sweetie land, it is, indeed, pantomime mixed with ballet. Packed house playing to the seasonal spirits.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, living+room, camden, sadlers+wells, angel, islington, london, nutcracker, matthew+bourne, ballet,

smooth

After a while, everything starts to be capable of being covered in chocolate, if you have one of these things. It arrived under the Christmas tree along with some bars of chocolate, so what else but to give it a spin? Instructions are for wimps, so the first attempt created an interesting jamming of the equipment, before eventually the chocolate started to flow. As you can see in the picture, the earlier dipping of strawberries, pineapple and other fruit gradually deteriorated to whatever was available, such as the salted mini-pretzel getting the treatment in the picture.

Any suggestions for imaginative uses for a half kilo of very smooth chocolate?

buzzin'

Boxing Day became the day for quizzes and general frivolity. In between the earnest music quiz with some 45 tracks crammed into 15 minutes there were other rounds including the buzzer based movie questions and not forgetting the later turn towards karaoke...wait for it...RnB style.

So no need for Amy Winehouse today because we'd decided to make our own equivalently intoxicating music.

evidence

My little trick worked.

The combination of a mince pie, some sherry and a carrot was too much for Santa. I have photographed the after effects from the next morning. Clearly someone had descended through the chimney (I'd made sure the fire was out). They'd eaten the mince pie, drank the sherry and the entire carrot was gone. There were also some new mystery parcels under the tree. We must have been more nice than naughty.

xmas music quiz

In between the quaffing, turkey, mince pies and general revelry, there will be the statutory rashbre xmas music quiz. If you are a physical visitor to rashbre acres over the festive season, please don't cheat and listen. Anyone else is free to take a peek and even guess the tracks. They start slow and easy and get faster and more tricky, including a few mashups and some obligatory WIll Young tracks demanded for inclusion by Julie. One click on the picture is all it takes to be transported to quiz-land.