Quote London - Stockwell Watchmen

It seems north Londoners have always felt a little bit nervous of security arrangements south of the river - I was mildly amused to come across this diary entry by Joshua Wingate Weeks for 30 January 1779:

"When the service was finished I took a walk on the other side of the river into the country as far as Stockwell which is a small village about 4 miles from London ... Vauxhall Gardens are also here, which we passed by. We dined at Stockwell & returned home by another road. It was late in the evening & the lamps which extended from London  to this place were lighted & formed a most august and beautiful appearance. At small distances watchmen armed with musquets are placed to prevent mischief & detect robberies & they have bells placed in such a manner as to give notice to each other by ringing them if any thing remarkable occurs, by which means they could readily come to each others assistance & be upon their guard to prevent the escape of any suspected person."

The security state has had a long history!

(Quote from A London Year: 365 Days of City Life in Diaries, Journals and Letters, compiled by Travis Elborough & Nick Rennison. Published by Frances Lincoln, 2013)

100 Years

While watching the Westminster Abbey service tonight I got the urge to light a candle. Both my grandfathers fought in WW1, on opposing sides. My English grandfather ran away from home and lied about his age to get into the Royal Flying Corps (the forerunner of the RAF). He survived the war and remained in the RAF for the rest of his career, retiring in the 1950s. My Polish grandfather regarded himself as Prussian and fought in the German army. He survived a gas attack, but his lungs were severely compromised. He was a farmer by vocation and ended up on a glorious smallholding in the hills above Durban, South Africa. He sent me boxes of his home-grown passion fruit when I was a child. Both grandfathers died in the 1970s.

And that was the sum total of our family's history with WWI, or so I thought. Recently my brother and I have been tracing our family tree, and I was pretty surprised to find I had a grand-uncle Percival living at home in the schoolhouse at Slapton Sands, Devon, in the census of 1911 (My great-grandparents were the school teachers there). He was a tailor's apprentice. He was born in 1894, so was peak age for cannon fodder in the war. He died somewhere in 1916. I still have to follow up all the details.

The odd thing is no one in my family ever mentioned him. My grandfather never said a word. I don't think my father or his sister Patricia even knew of Percy's existence - my aunt Patricia had a huge fund of family stories and was interested in all the connections so I feel certain she would have said something about him if she had known.

Poor Percy. In memory of his short life and miserable death, a candle tonight.

Au Bon Accueil

One of my first trips to Paris was with friends, in the winter. I remember we made our way to the Trocadèro and walked down to the Eiffel Tower and up the Champ de Mars to Les Invalides. It was beyond freezing, with a vicious wind and grim lowering leaden clouds. However, we were young and foolish and high on an exciting journey to the most glamorous city in Europe.

Yesterday, I retraced that walk with my friend Nicolas. We were in Paris to catch the Masculin / Masculin exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay and Nic had arranged for us to eat lunch at a friend’s restaurant near the Eiffel Tower. We got off the Metro at the Trocadèro to be welcomed by a sublimely beautiful winter’s day.

You just don’t get light like that in London - crisp and high-keyed and blindingly clear. The Trocadèro’s polished marble platform bounced it all around amazingly - heaven for two amateur photographers. In the distance, the tower shimmered like a mirage in the miraculously blue sky.
After walking down across the Seine to the tower we explored the bottom section of the Champs de Mars a bit before heading off to the restaurant: Au Bon Accueil - ‘The good reception’. And what a reception it is.

I was excited as although I’ve been a fairly frequent visitor to Paris I’ve never eaten at a smart contemporary restaurant at the top of its game. Au Bon Accueil has a deliciously lacquered maroon frontage onto the street, and is a calm refuge within - simple and luxurious textures of stone and wood enclose intimate spaces. One of the stone columns had been carved by a grateful customer - a Bacchus or vaguely Assyrian monarch surveys the room. Front of house staff were friendly and efficient - you just immediately feel in very good capable hands. We quaffed a delicious glass of champagne and consulted the menu.

It seems I have good luck with fish in Paris. On that earlier trip a waiter at La Coupole (of course) suggested a fish dish different to my initially ordered salmon. As it was cheaper I went with his suggestion but if my French was up to the menu I might have avoided it: I seem to remember it was mullet with red wine and bone marrow (??!) However, it came, and was totally wonderful. On my last trip - a work outing with colleagues - I was desperate to eat at the hottest, smartest place in town and spent the day trawling my trade fair consulting restaurant guides and barking instructions to Angela (who spoke French), to try to get a table. Sadly, everywhere was booked and when we got back to the hotel that evening the colleagues were too exhausted to go out, and suggested we eat at a place next door. This turned out, hilariously, to be a celebrity hang-out from the 1950s totally fossilised in its time. Our table was treated with disdain until we ordered a second bottle of wine. Jo didn’t want a starter and I fancied two on the menu, so ordered tuna tartare for her for me to eat. It came and it turned into a tuna stand-off, it was so delicious.

But my salmon starter at Au Bon Accueil trumped all: a generous slab of salmon fillet, briefly seared (basically, sashimi). Breathtakingly gorgeous - a real work of art, with delicate dabs of different sauces, condiments and vegetables arranged as if by a florist or a jeweller on the plate. Lovely textures and flavours, really leaving me wanting more: a perfect starter.

The arrival of our poached and roasted chicken breast main course was heralded on our table by a culinary implement I have not seen before: a “pelle à sauce” (sauce shovel). This is something I can get behind! Especially when the sauce in question was the unctuously smoky mashed potato accompanying the chicken.

Again, achingly beautiful composition was backed with flawless execution: the chicken was tender, flavourful and juicy, with skin crisped to perfection by the roasting. A drift of blanched brussels sprouts leaves across a smear of sweet potato added a touch of wit and colour to the plate.

For pudding I fancied the brioche perdu, which Nicolas informed me was French comfort food (he went for the chocolate tart). My brioche was lovely, a squidgy yet fluffy square of caramelised eggy goodness, punctuated by the sharpness of mango and passion fruit. It came with a separate jug of caramel-topped whipped cream. So perfect.

We ordered from the lunch menu and both thought it offered excellent value for the price. Although we both felt that nowadays one can find similar quality food in London, it typically comes at three times the cost. Also, in my experience the lunch menus in London tend not to be as generous or imaginative.
After this wonderful meal we said our goodbyes and hurried off to the Musée d’Orsay for Masculine / Masculine. All I can say is the quality of the reception at Au Bon Accueil is mirrored superbly by the quality of the food. I’d love to go back.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Onwards and upwards: it's our annual chance to forget all the troubles of the past year, start anew and to dream big again. May it bring happiness to us all. It looks like it's going to bring the long-awaited Abba Museum to Stockholm, which is another reason to visit Sweden again (along with the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö this May).

My new year was very mellow, as I didn't feel like venturing out of the warmth into rain-drenched London town to see the fireworks or do any parties. Instead I paid culinary tribute to my half-Polish origins by making a batch of placki kartoflane (pronounced PLAHTZ-kee kar-taw-FLAH-neh) and washing them down with Winter Pimms (this representing my English half). The pancakes were a huge treat when I was a child - I remember it was my dad's job to grate the onions; my mum would then mix the grated onion with grated potatoes, a tablespoon or so of flour, salt, pepper, and an egg or two and then fry the batter in a deepish slick of hot oil until the pancakes were crispy golden brown on the outside and meltingly soft inside. I think the grated vegetables allow more mixing with the fat and therefore possibly an even higher fat content than French Fries (the pancakes also take quite a lot of salt).

These days I drain them on kitchen paper before eating, and limit myself to one batch a year - usually in the winter when one needs a bit of mental and physical insulation.

I also pace myself - two medium-size baking potatoes' worth of placki go quite a long way, although they are very moreish. So the batter sits by a pan all evening - heating up the pan and frying a batch of three placki is the work of minutes (getting rid of the excess poundage from one's waistline will of course take months).

With friends and relatives spread out now across the globe, new year greetings, texts and calls started coming in at 2pm (Australia), followed by India, Zanzibar, South Africa, The Netherlands, and then finally Los Angeles. It was fun to feel the New Year wash over the globe like a gigantic wave. The world seems a lot smaller than when I was a child.

Now, of course, cities compete on YouTube for the best fireworks display - with Sydney and London being the most competitive. London's was extraordinary, if slightly spoilt by all those Tory voiceovers. New Year's fireworks as State propaganda. Oh well, at least it was over in 12 minutes!

Quote

"It was at Balmoral that I learned my first lesson in the male anatomy. My mentor was the King’s younger brother, the Duke of Gloucester, who unfortunately never quite mastered the correct technique of adjusting the kilt when seated."

- The Honourable Margaret Rhodes, from her memoir "The Last Curtsey"

My Birthday Number Ones (2002 - 2011)

This is the final post in this series looking at songs which made number one in the charts on my birthday. It been an interesting exercise, because I think it disproves the old chestnut "Pop is not as good as it used to be": every decade has thrown up classic songs as well as horrors. And the last 10 years has certainly seen some great songs that I'm pretty happy are in my birthday chart. So here is the final run down:

2002: Enrique Iglesias - Hero

Enrique comes across here as the male version of those power divas from the 90s, singing very much a power ballad. He looks good though.

2003: Christina Aguilera - Beautiful
Disabled by request A gorgeous ballad by Christina - will this be a clasic? She succeeded Tatu as number one in 2003; they were the official on my birthday number one:

2003: Tatu - All The Things She Said

Hard to believe now this manufactured girl band were number one for a whole month. Great fun pop song though.

2004: Busted - Who's David

Huge in the mid-00s. Why? Oh wait. This trio completely passed me by; I have no recall of this song.

2005: Jennifer Lopez - Get Right

Stunning sounds and moves from Jenny from the block

2006: Meck ft Leo Sayer - Thunder In My Heart Again

"It wasn't just because it was a hot tune, it was all because "Oh my God, it's Leo Sayer" - Leo Sayer
And Leo becomes the third artist to have two number ones on my birthday chart! - this time, almost three decades apart. Stunning achievement, Leo ( and great assistance from Meck)

2007: Mika - Grace Kelly

The next three hits are amongst my favourites of the last few years; amazing to think they all made number one around my birthday. Mika's video was another one directed by Sophie Muller (who did Shakespears Sister's Stay)

2008: Duffy - Mercy

Duffy's amazing voice and debut single livened up the beginning of 2008.

2009: Lily Allen - The Fear
Embedding disabled by request
How can anyone say Pop has dumbed down faced by this brilliance?

2010: Helping Haiti (Various Artists) - Everybody Hurts

I prefer R.E.M.'s original version, to be honest, but still this was in aid of a very worthy cause and it's great having something by R.E.M. in my birthday chart - they are one of my favourite bands.

And the final, most recent song, is:

Adele - Someone Like You

Words cannot express how thrilled I am Adele made it to number one with this astonishingly affecting song. She blew me away when she sang it on Later With Jools Holland last November - I pre-ordered her album on the strength of this performance - but I never imagined she would get to number one with it, even less so against Lady GaGa's hugely hyped Born This Way (which I have also bought!) Big congrats to Adele.

from viagogo:

"Adele tickets are likely to become even more in demand as she has made history this week with her latest chart positions.

The singer has become the first artist since the Beatles to have two top five singles and two top five albums in the charts simultaneously.

Fans of the soulful singer appear to have been inspired to buy her latest single 'Someone Like You' after her Brit Award performance last week as her single jumped nearly 50 places to land the number one spot."

And that's all folks - thanks for coming with me on the journey :-)

My Birthday Number Ones (1992 - 2001)

Here we are in the 90s, the time when super divas roamed the earth. It is also another decade in which an artist scored two number ones on my birthday. Who do you think? Is it one of THEM? Time to find out.

1992: Shakespears Sister - Stay

I absolutely love this, and the video must be in my personal top three (it was directed by Sophie Muller). Just wonderful stuff. This stayed at number one for 8 weeks.

1993: 2 Unlimited - No Limit

"No no lyrics" - but this slice of Eurodance was the best-selling European song of 1993, and clearly popular in the UK too, as it reached number one. I sneakily quite liked it too.

1994: Mariah Carey - Without You
The first of the super divas reigning supreme (Embedding disabled by request). Mariah takes the 1970 Badfinger song to number one again, and stays there for a whole month. Although it is possibly the most covered song of the last forty years, Badfinger themselves never released it as a single, not seeing its potential.

1994: D:Ream - Things Can Only Get Better

Maria was preceded as number one by D:Ream's biggest hit. The song achieved immortality as the theme tune to Tony Blair and New Labour's successful 1997 Election campaign.

1995: Celine Dion - Think Twice

. . . and the second super diva hoves into view. Celine's voice is of course incredible but this is surely a very poor choice of song: desperately cloying, sentimental, and obvious. I actually can't remember this at all; it must have passed me by completely in 1995.

1996: Babylon Zoo - Spaceman

A bit of an oddity, this: although it held the record for the most number of records sold in the first week of release, and stayed number one for a month. Jas Mann seems to have had bad luck with contracts which slowed down his subsequent career. Nice, very memorable debut though.

1996: Oasis - Dont Look Back In Anger

My 1996 birthday week saw Oasis's iconic song claim the number one spot, and mark out space for mid-nineties Britpop.

1997: No Doubt - Dont Speak

No Doubt's biggest international hit, featuring Gwen Stefani's stunning performance.

1998: Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On

And here it is folks - Celine Dion's second outing in my birthday charts, singing the theme from THAT film. She was number one until the 22nd February, and on that day was superseded by:

1998: Cornershop - Brimful Of Asha

Cornershop reached number 60 in 1997 with this song, but Fatboy Slim's remix took them to number one in February 1998.

1999: Britney Spears - Baby One More Time
Britney's stunning iconic debut video is disabled by request. A brilliant pop song, and one of the highest selling singles in the UK ever, it has already been covered by a multitude of artists, notably by Travis.

2000: All Saints - Pure Shores

The theme to the movie The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and witten by William Orbit and Shaznay Lewis, this was the first single off All Saints' second album (and one of the UK's best sellers of 2000). I remember the group single handedly made combat trousers fashionable in the late nineties.

2001: Atomic Kitten - Whole Again

Aww, poor Atomic Kitten! This was their real-life "save me" song, as Virgin Records wanted to drop them and were persuaded to release one more single. This was it. The record company was unwilling to plough any money into the video (hence the obvious cheapness), and finally, Kerry Katona dropped out of the band just days before the song charted, on account of her pregnancy. Well done in spite of everything!

So that's it for this decade, the last in this series coming up tomorrow.

My Birthday Number Ones (1982 - 1991)

My third decade of No.1 Birthday hits starts off with a classic:

1982: The Jam - A Town Called Malice

A bit controversial at the time, as EMI complained that as it was part of a 'double sided' single its aggregated sales were unfairly keeping their contender, Golden Brown by The Stranglers from reaching No.1. Life is tough.

1983: Kajagoogoo - Too Shy

The New Romantics are upon us! Kajagoogoo actually achieved a no.1 - this one - before Duran Duran ever did. Unfortunately it appears to have been their only one, and tensions in the band the band soon soon resulted in the lead singer, Limahl, being fired by his bandmates.

1984: Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Relax

Another iconic hit, notorious for being banned by the BBC at the time, and also for the scandalous original video, which only surfaced recently (the above is not it).

1984: Nena: 99 Red Balloons

In another amusing juxtaposition of styles and cultures, Frankie's raunchy number was followed immediately by Nena and her 99 red balloons.

1985: Elaine Paige and Barbara Dickson - I Know Him So Well

Tim Rice, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus teamed up to write the musical Chess and in the process wrote this mammoth hit for Elaine Paige and Barabara Dickson, which was number one for a whole month.

1985: Dead Or Alive: You Spin Me Round

After that, the country demanded something more energetic! - and got it with Dead Or Alive's classic. Apart from launching Pete Burns into the spotlight, the song was the first of many collaborations by Stock Aitken and Waterman.

1986: Billy Ocean - When The Going Gets Tough

Another song from the movies - this was the theme to The Jewel of the Nile starring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas.

1987: Ben E King - Stand By Me

History works in mysterious ways. This was originally released in 1961 - the year of my birth - and reached no. 27 in the UK charts. However, it recharted after the release of the movie Stand By Me in 1986 and went to no.1 in the UK following its use in a Levi's Jeans ad.

1988: Kylie Minogue - I Should Be So Lucky

I always think this was Kylie's debut but in fact it was her second hit. She flew to the UK to record with the by now ubiquitous Stock Aitken and Waterman. Apparently they forgot she was due to arrive and wrote this in 40 minutes while she waited in reception. She then recorded it in an hour. The rest is pop history.

1989: Simple Minds - Belfast Child

This beautiful song was written in the aftermath of the Enniskillen bombings.

1990: Sinead OConnor - Nothing Compares 2 U

Sinead's beautiful cover of the Prince song took it to worldwide prominence and launched her mainstream career.

1991: The Simpsons - Do The Bartman

Michael Jackson is another iconic figure who does not appear in my birthday charts. However. Michael wrote this (uncredited) because he loved the tv show. It went to number 1 in the UK but was never released in the USA.

And thus concludes my third decade - fourth coming up tomorrow.

My Birthday Number Ones (1972 - 1981)

So moviing on to my second decade of birthday week No.1 hits.

1972: Chicory Tip - Song of My Father


Chicory Tip probably hasn't remained in contemporary consciousness. But this, my friends, is real musical history. The song was co-written by Giorgio Moroder, no less, and is the first pop song to prominently feature a Moog Synthesizer.

1973: The Sweet - Blockbuster


Right - now we are in the era of Glam Rock. Sequins! Shiny! This was a massive hit for The Sweet.

1974: Suzi Quatro - Devil Gate Drive

Not I think one of Suzi's most memorable hits, but makes me think. By the end of Glam, Rock was clearly mature enough to allow for a consciously retro, nostalgic approach like this to work (with Suzi's gender being the contemporary twist). Also I wonder how much her look and attitude here fed into Punk a few years later? Fairly sure the Punks themselves would deny all influence!

1975: Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel - Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)

Good grief, just how sexy does Mr Harley think he is here? This is a lovely song though, and is probably still very familiar from its frequent use in tv ads, most recently for Marks & Spencer. It has also featured in two movie soundtracks: The Full Monty and Velvet Goldmine.

Steve Harley's birthday is the 27th February, so this was No.1 for him on his birthday in 1975.

1975 - Telly Savalas - If

Make me Smile was followed by Telly Savalas's If as No.1 - Telly making it as an add-on to his hugely succesful career as tv detective Kojak.

1976: Four Seasons: December 63 (Oh What A Night)

I loved this then, and it has stood up well to the passing of time. A remix charted in 1994.


1977: Leo Sayer - When I Need You

Leo Sayer, like Petula Clark, features twice in my Birthday No.1s! This was a huge hit for him at the time, reaching number 1 in both the UK and the USA. It was the first UK No.1 for its writer, Carole Bayer Sager. However, I feel it's all a trifle tedious and whiny now.

1978: Abba - Take A Chance On Me

But, hey! Abba! Woo!

If Armageddon swept away all late 20th-century popular music and left somehow only these blog posts, we would lose all the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elton John and Rod Stewart - all massive artists who clearly neglected to have hits in late February. However, Abba saves the day. I was a total fan - this had to be kept somewhat under wraps from cool kid friends, who followed virtually every music critic at the time and dissed them. But ha! Time has vindicated the Swedish super group.

1978 - Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights

Abba was followed at No.1 in February 1978 but this extraordinary debut single by the legendary Kate Bush. Definitely a song one remembers.

1979: Blondie: Heart Of Glass

Was 1979 the greatest ever year in the history of the popular musuc charts? Judge for yourself.This is the amazing Blondie's debut smash.

1979 - The Bee Gees - Tragedy

Followed on immediately by the Beegees! The melodrama of this one has always thrilled me.

1979 - Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive

And the Beegees were followed by this all-time classic by Gloria Gaynor! Honestly, from the Village People to Pink Floyd, 1979 has got it all!

1980 - 1980: Kenny Rogers - Coward Of The County

Down to earth with a thump. Yuck. The obvious sentimentality took this one to No.1, it can't disguise the nastiness now. It deserves oblivion.

1980 - Blondie - Atomic

However, Kenny Rogers was followed quickly by another terrific Blondie effort.

1981: Joe Dolce Music Theatre - Shaddap You Face

Another very efficient novelty number, in grand pop fashion being followed by the sublime:

1981 - Roxy Music - Jealous Guy

Was this the greatest cover ever made? I always think that Bryan is singing about Jerry, but in fact she had left him for Mick three years previously. Anyhow, he sings it with total conviction.

And another ex-Beatle, John Lennon, makes it into my Birthday charts (albeit as the writer) - posthumously, sadly.

Well, that concludes my second decade on an extremely high artistic note: what does decade three have in store? Find out tomorrow!

My Birthday Number Ones (1961-1971)

One of my dearest friends has a blog entitled Fast Approaching Fifty. I've always been in awe at her frankness, because I too am fast approaching fifty and am severely in denial about it. So maybe the time has arrived for me to come out and say I'm fabulous and (about-to-be) fifty! Yikes!

Since it is obviously way too late for me to have a whole blog dedicated to the subject, I thought I could do series of mini-blog posts counting down to this significant event, which is in 5 days' time. I've lived through a half-century of pop music. I thought it would be fun to do a count-down of every No. 1 song in the charts during my birthay week, over the last five decades. I'll do a decade every day, five posts in all, with the last on my birthday. It will be a little snapshot of musical history; a cross-section through time.

So here goes.


1961 - Petula Clark: Sailor

I imagine the nurses were humming along to this tune in my mother's maternity ward back in February 1961. Interesting fact: Petula Clark features twice in my personal charts, and neither time is her song "Downtown" or "Don't sleep in the Subway", the two songs for which she is principally remembered today. Petula actually had a major career in the 50's before she reinvented herself as a 60's pop star. This song definitely harks back to her 50's heyday, and makes me feel positively prehistoric.

1962 - Elvis Presley: Rock a Hula Baby

But hey! Rock was young! And Elvis was in the building. Strangely though, this lesser Elvis hit feels almost as if his handlers were desperately trying a new angle on Rock - as if they felt it was a fad they had to keep going as long as they could. This was from one of Elvis's movies, and is the first representative of quite a slew of movie-music hits in my charts.

1963 - Frank Ifield: Wayward Wind


Another dinosaur. *Blocks ears*

Frank was actually the first artist to have three UK No.1 hits, and was last in the charts as recently as 1990, with "She Taught Me to Yodel".

1964 - The Bachelors: Diane


Ok I've heard of the Bachelors. Didn't they use to hang out with Cliff Richard? Not a song that has lasted well.

1965 - The Kinks: Tired of Waiting for You

I'm going to cheat a bit here (but hey it's my birthday so I can). The Kinks were officially No.1 on the 22nd February 1965 (and a great classic British band they are too); but more importantly for my personal development the No.1 on the very next day, the 23rd February, the day after by birthday, was:

1965 - The Seekers: I’ll Never Find Another You

This was the very first gig I (almost) went to! Oh, the excitement! As I recall, our neighbour's teenage daughter, my babysitter, thought it would be an excellent idea to take the four-year-old me along to a Seeker's concert. I was thrilled to bits. However, my mum thought it was way too past my bedtime and I was grounded :-(

The Seekers were an Australian band and absolutely mega for a brief period mid-sixties. You can hear the way their folk sound fed into the nascent hippy movement.

1966 - Nancy Sinatra: These Boots are Made for Walking

Definitely the most iconic pop song in my charts so far. Nancy Sinatra was pretty much a one-hit wonder, but what a magnificent hit to have.

1967 - Petula Clark: This is My Song


And here we have the second Petula Clark song in my chart, and also the second to come from a movie. Written by Charlie Chaplin, no less. I've chosen the French version here because I think it sounds better. Check out Petula's mini!

1968 - Manfred Mann: Mighty Quinn

Meanwhile, the hippy thing is starting to go a bit psychedelic here. A classic song and performance, but has never done anything much for me.

1969 - Amen Corner: Half as Nice


Another little cheat coming up - Amen Corner were No.1 on the 22nd '69, but Peter Sarstedt took over on the 25th, and stayed no.1 for the next month.

Appealing stuff, Amen Corner - I was into this; hasn't really lasted.

1969 - Peter Sarstedt: Where Do You Go To My Lovely

But Peter Sarstedt's song is a classic! Sentimental and a bit kitsch, this was the ultimate in sophistication when I was 8. Many years later, my first visit to the Boulevard St Michel brought me out in goosebumps.

1970 - Edison Lighthouse: Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes

The happy innocent hippy vibe lives on! Love this, but perhaps you had to be there at the time :)

1971 - George Harrison: My Sweet Lord

The archetypal hippy song, and the only Beatle to feature in my charts. A worthy climax to my first decade!

More coming up tomorrow.

2010 - my year in twelve photos

January
Appropriately enough for a year packed with political action, I began by attending the photographers' protest in Trafalgar Square against the heavy-handed implementation of Section 44 of the Terrorism Act by the metropolitan police. Retrospectively compared to the student protests of later in the year, this was very genteel.

February
Lesley insisted I celebrate my birthday and these chocolate-mint cupcakes really cheered me up!

March
Not an easy month, but one that reaffirmed the preciousness of famiy ties: my sister-in-law had a difficult recovery from a routine operation, and while she was in hospital my niece collapsed on a shopping trip and was whisked away by ambulance for hours of tests. My nephew and I slipped away for a quick pizza. He very sweetly left half of his for his father and sister. Luckily, everyone made a full and energetic recovery.

April

A volcano who no one had ever heard of blew up in remote Iceland, and it was truly stunning how many of my friends, relations, acquaintances and colleagues its ash cloud inconvenienced. Roy and Glenis (luckily for us) were here already, but were delayed going home. We had a very jolly early picnic at Kew with their two-year old granddaughter Lulu. (photo courtesy Lulu)

May
A lovely month with many happy get togethers but perhaps the most memorable was an early birthday party at Saigon Saigon for the lovely Sue (another victim of the Icelandic volcano). All Sue's London friends were in attendance.

June
South Africa's long awaited football world cup started. I joined my flickr and facebook friend Charles for a night of supporting Holland outside London's Dutch pub, De Hems.

July

John and Caroline, being very cautious types, waited 20 years before deciding the time was right to get married. They did so in high style, in a beautiful forest ceremony at a country house in Somerset, with much pleasant carousing over the course of a weekend.

August
We all flew back to Jo'burg for my Mother's 80th birthday party at the Westcliff hotel, and a second wedding reception at Inanda country club. It was great catching up with my oldest and best friends in both Jo'burg and Cape Town.

September
The South African jaunt spilled over to early September, allowing me to post another photo - Sue again, with Mark, at another picnic in early Spring: at the West Coast Nature reserve (home to fabulous displays of daisies, as well as cliff rocks basking in sunshine with terrific views)

October

A landmark month for me, seeing my first ever paid gig as a photographer at an official event (thanks to Emma for believing in me!) Careerwise, things reached a new level with the company offering me a full-time permanent position working from home.

November
Snows in November - for the first time since I came to live in London in 1986! On the streets of London things were hotting up though with a series of protests by students against the ramping up of tuition fees (and the shocking U-turn by the Lib Dems on the issue).

December
I host Christmas! - Actually for the first time since moving to my flat. A super-jumbo turkey kept us all well-fed for three meals running!

District 9

For a Johannesburger by upbringing, I loved the sly in-joke of calling the aliens "prawns". For indeed, there actually are alien prawns in Johannesburg. Any Jo'burger will have a fund of stories about the mysterious and frightening "Parktown Prawn".

These awesome creatures - of terrifying size and menace - suddenly appeared as if from another galaxy in Johannesburg's lush northern suburbs in the 1960s. The eponymous Parktown was then an inner-city garden suburb, established originally by Edwardian gold-mining plutocrats. As the suburbs and their heavily irrigated and exotically stocked gardens spread northwards, so the prawn followed.

They reached our suburb as I reached my late teens. They arrived literally in an infestation - suddenly they were everywhere (sometimes even in your bed, or underwear drawer - a friend's sister found one in her swimsuit crotch as she put it on).

This is what they look like:


Vaguely prawn-like in appearance (and size - this in an era when Mocambiquan prawns regularly reached 9" - not like the tiddlers one gets in M&S today). They do have an attraction to swimming pools (hence I suppose their nickname). They jump quite high, and usually jump towards you when surprised, violently hissing. Frequently they land on your shirt or shoulder, where their barbed legs hook, making them impossible to brush off. Attempting to do so causes them to discharge a foul stinking dark liquid all over you.

They also tend to be more active at night. There are stories of people spending the night in their cars rather than their bedrooms in order to avoid late night interruptions.

They are apparently intelligent beings - in their own strange insect way they seem to interact with other species and each other. As I said, when jumping they have a tendency to come towards you. My friend Mark once heard his boxer Honey (usually quite a ferocious, alpha female dog) whimpering outside. When he went to check on her, she was cowering in a corner, surrounded by three Prawns pinning her down. Our Jack Russell did go after them, but he was very careful to hold them in his mouth with their spraying end pointing outwards. His 'attack' was also notably quite tentative for a terrier of his class.

Urban legend had it that these creatures were the result of a biology experiment at the University of the Witwatersrand which went wrong (the University being just over the hill from Parktown). Alas, the truth is more prosaic.

King Crickets are a distinctive insect species of southern africa, and the Parktown Prawn's biologically correct name is Libanasidus vittatus. Specimens were collected in the subtropical lowland town of Barberton in the Transvaal over 100 years ago by the Natural History Museum's William Forsell Kirkby. The current theory is that the suburban gardens of Johannesburg created optimal environmental conditions for the cricket to flourish on the highveld - the suburbs are generally regarded (by Johannesburgers) as forming the largest man-made forest on the planet, in a region which would naturally be savannah.

Anyhoo, this all takes me a long way from the film, which is generally excellently exciting. The exotic location and re-imagining of the aliens as shipwrecked outcasts rather than hostile invaders is original and works well. The film has its faults (it doesn't develop or even sustain the racial theme it posits), and harsher souls than I would argue that while it's heart is in the right place its racial attitudes do not stand close analysis (Nigeria has already banned it). Although taking place in contemporary South Africa, the government has clearly delegated dealing with the alien problem to a white dominated evil multinational. The government itself remains entirely absent from the movie.

However, the story's set up is so imaginative and original, the performances are so good, and the story rattles along at such an engaging pace one has to applaud. It's definitely a very different and very successful take on the alien blockbuster genre.

@BullyingUK

I have been thinking about doing this for several days now, ever since I was alerted to this issue by my twitter friend @efan78, but it has been surprisingly difficult to get round to it. However, time is now running out and as something which has affected my life profoundly I have to support this.

Bullying at school really blights lives - every year in the UK, at least 16 teenagers commit suicide as a result of bullying (and this figure is probably massively underreported). And the survivors suffer the effects for years afterwards - a kind of post-traumatic syndrome.

It is amazing that Britain has a charity which combats school bullying and the damage it cause - BullyingUK - and this is such a worthwhile cause to support.

I grew up in a time and place where such institutions did not exist. I was bullied at school every day for about two-and-a-half-years. No escape, knowing each day I had to return to face my tormentors and whatever cruel humiliations they had cooked up for me that day. Name-calling was the least of it: groups devised ways of getting me into trouble with the teachers; I was completely ostracized and isolated.

As a defensive strategy I emotionally walled myself in: ruthlessly guarding any access to any information about myself or my emotions. These habits I have never managed to grow out of.

Physically as well, apart from the absolute requirement of attending school I shut myself up at home in my room; not going out anywhere or socializing in case of meeting anyone from school. Very occasionally I may have accompanied my parents to the shops or the municipal library.

It is so difficult for someone in that position to seek help; you are so immersed in the horror (as well as the normal upheavals of adolescence) you don’t have the objectivity to assess what your best options are. Hence the suicides. Completely at my wit’s end, I did appeal to my father for help, but he was emotionally incapable of dealing with situation at all was was pretty useless - he didn’t even raise it with the school. And as for the school, I knew that some teachers were aware of what was going on and for whatever reason they did nothing too.

My father was quite authoritarian and made me have a very naff haircut that completely marked me out at school. Isolation as well kept me quarantined from teenage fashions - my mum bought most of my clothes anyway - so I was pretty much dressed as a freak, negatively reinforcing the situation.

Looking back now, it amazes me that I survived and went on to a very successful university career, graduating with a first in English Literature and History of Art. I then came to live and work in London, which I love.

The turning point for me was when a new boy arrived at my school who I made friends with - despite the best efforts of my tormentors this brave person chose my friendship over the popularity of the crowd. I really think that when they saw I had a strong relationship they backed off and the bullying seemed to cease as mysteriously as it began.

But one always wonders if it could happen again: trusting people and being self-confident are issues for me still.

I was lucky. Some kids don’t get that break and end up taking their lives. But survival must be possible.

So, with @efan78 - Ethan Kristopher-Hartley of 140 Characters blog - I say:


“This is why I support @BullyingUK - and why you should too.  Take a couple of seconds to vote to win them some advertising on the sides of buses from Up Everyone’s Street.  Visit their website at Bullying.co.uk and donate to them as well.  And if you’re a blogger you have 1 day left to help them in the Blogging for a Cause campaign.”




This blog post is part of Zemanta's "Blogging For a Cause" campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.

the first LP I ever bought

Animals by Pink Floyd.

Heh, no, this isn't something I have treasured over the years: I bought it last month, via Ebay!

I was of LP buying age when this came out. To be honest Pink Floyd weren't my cup of tea then - I was more into Abba. Also, my parents really hated music or "noise" and we did not have a hi-fi in the house at all - I used to tape record Abba songs from the radio.

A local framers has a line of top-slot beechwood frames for LPs, and Animals is in the window. It looks great, and Battersea Power Station is a real icon of mine (as well as being a local landmark), so I decided to make my own.

It was £10 off Ebay. The seller helpfully left a price sticker on the (perfectly preserved) LP - he got it for £3 down in Devon. Nice mark up!

I'm wondering if these things will escalate further in price, especially for albums with classic artwork?

oily adventures

Tate Modern opened its oil tanks to Tate members this weekend – yippee! Power Stations are a bit of a thing with me, ever since my work placement as a student at the HQ of a power company in South Africa. Bless her, my boss didn’t have a clue what to do with an art history student, so she sent me out on field visits to the power stations, leaving me with very fond memories of the “dark Satanic mills” kind. Actually, they are very exciting, even sublime places – the furnaces, the turbines, the cooling towers, etc etc etc.

My field of expertise is coal-fired stations, so seeing the remaining innards of an oil-fired station intrigued me. Also, I missed the tours of Bankside before the deplanting, which I have always regretted.

Anyway, I have to say the oil tanks were a slight disappointment. I’m not a driver, so I don’t really have a feel for how fast oil is burnt in a combustion engine. I was anticipating the tanks for a power station to be absolutely vast (at least 5 stories high) – so although these are big, they definitely are smaller than I was thinking.

The Tate was planning to convert the spaces into auditoria, but artists who saw them persuaded the authorities to leave them as ‘found spaces’ for artists to play in. So think circular versions of the turbine hall, not as high.

All very exciting, and the Tate is apparently going to announce Herzog and de Meuron’s developed plans for the new Tate Modern extension this week. It is planned for completion in time for the 2012 London Olympics. Yay!

P.S – I know I’m being retrogressive in insisting on ‘The’ Tate, but I really hate the branding company’s arrogance in attempting to annihilate the definite article. It’s an act of foreclosure on the English Language, no less, and imperial overstretch by ‘Tate’. Nicholas Serota will have to threaten to discontinue my membership before I submit to the ugliness of the naked Tate.

The History of Me in Cocktails: No. 2 – The Buck's Fizz

I think this is the first true cocktail I ever had: concentrate orange juice and South African sparkling wine, to celebrate something at work.

While drinkable enough, these days there are other mixers I prefer with champagne. But then, it was the height of sophistication for a spotty teenager.

I had a part-time job in the very lush HQ of a multi-national cement company, doing the weekly filing for their accounts department. My supervisor Antoinette taught me my first lesson in business: when your boss takes you to lunch, always order the lobster.

Buck's Fizz

Freshly squeezed orange juice
Champagne

Really, mix to individual taste. OJ in first, then champagne, to minimise a potentially explosive bubble situation.

The History of Me in Cocktails: No.1

The History of Me in Cocktails: No 3

The History of Me in Cocktails: No. 1 – The Beer Shandy

Now, I have just bought a very definitive book of Cocktail recipes, and the Beer Shandy doesn’t feature (from this I deduce it must be utterly utterly uncool; don’t order this at Mahiki). However, this was the first alcoholic mixed drink I ever drank, aged three-and-a-half and upwards. My mother was partial to the beer/lemonade mix and I used to have a sip or two. I also remember enjoying the froth on my dad’s beer, and apparently in solidarity with my granddad’s mates demanded Guinness at the pub aged 2. I think though I may have ultimately settled for smarties and a coke.

These were the glory years of my beer consumption: can’t stand the stuff now; I swear I’m allergic. Can only drink wine or gin or vodka. Doesn’t make life easy at the pub after work; although I am an exceptionally cheap date – I’m usually drunk after half a glass!

Thank heavens for Wikipedia – more about Shandies here.

The History of Me in Cocktails: No.2

Grandad's medals

Grandad's medals, originally uploaded by hedgiecc.

Today my grandfather would have been 107 years old. These are his medals. He ran away from home at the age of 15 and lied about his age in order to join the airforce - before it was even called the RAF. He spent his entire working life there, rising to the rank of Wing Commander, and serving all over - Malta, Egypt, Aden, South Africa, Burma, Suez.

He visited us in Johannesburg when I was about 10. Every day, we would walk together to what he called "the village" - our local suburban shopping mall, where we would sit in a cafe drinking tea (and/or chocolate milkshakes and waffles).

Finally, it was time for him to take the Blue Train back down to Cape Town to join his ship sailing back to England (despite his long career in the airforce he hated flying). I kind of knew that this would be the last time I saw him, and therefore decided to "interview" him on my tape recorder. I remember he said he hoped the next time he saw me I would be "a general in the army".

The army was never my thing - even as a child I didn't like playing with toy soldiers, so I was slightly disappointed with his comment.

But my intuition was right - it was the last time we saw each other. Three years later he died of a stroke. Dad flew to London for the funeral, bringing back the medals.

Later, I came to London to study and stayed on afterwards. My aunt told me on his bedside table they found the poem I had written for him and read on the platform at Johnannesburg station all those years ago.

The Wisdom of Yorkies

I really like Yorkshire Terriers. The first I met and came to love was my Aunt's - Ozzie.

He looked very ratty compared to our Jack Russell, but was a total charmer to live with: complete terrier mischief and fun but with an 'off-switch', unlike the Jack Russells who just never stop. And also Yorkies do have a sense of their own safety, unlike the Jacks.

His coat used to get filthy every time we went outside, so bathing him became an almost daily event. I trained him to like the blow drier - he thought it was a wonderful game.

Ozzie was named for the rock star and was a pedigree bought at Harrod's. My aunt went in one Chistmas to buy a sewing machine and came out with a dog, of course much to my cousins' delight.

I once gave Oz his evening constitutional along the sea front in Hastings. There was a massive storm that night - the waves reared up out of the darkness and hit the sea wall with awesome force, shaking the walkway and sending foam 20-30 ft into he air. It was a fantastic sight, and being outside and so close to it was exhilarating.

Suddenly I looked down and there was no dog on the leash. He had slipped it. I freaked. I just knew the animal was in the water, and spent minutes tryng to spot the unfortunate creature out there in the savage inky blackness before another monster wave could crush him against the wall.

Nothing. Other late-night dog walkers hadn't seen him either. I ran up and down, calling his name; dreading having to go back to my aunt empty-handed.

And then above the roar of the sea I heard the howling. Behind me and above. I ran up the steps to see Oz cowered in the middle of the road, head between paws, howling his heart out. He barked at me reproachfully when I put his leash back on. As if to say: "You flipping idiot. What are you thinking??!"

And then he dragged me back home as fast his legs would carry him.

Zippy and the Big Foot

I first started taking Zippy around with me on my travels in the late 1990s – Paris, Athens, Rome, New York. However, my long-term companion violently disapproved of any Zippy action and Zippy led a half-life, hidden in closets and luggage, waiting for a few stolen moments in hotel rooms, never seeing the outside world.

Since we’ve gone our separate ways, however, Zippy has come out loud and proud. He is looking forward to seeing the world.

And he's off on his next adventure.