A Wet Weekend in Wakefield

Rowan ran/cycled in a duathlon today at Wakefield. It was the worst possible conditions. Wet. Very Wet. Windy. Cold [3 degrees]. Sodden. Awful. Terrible. She, and the other kids in her race were brilliantly tough and resiliant. The freezing parents less so. Rowan came third which was a real achievement. However bad you are picturing the scene, double it and you will have an idea of what it was like.
We are now warm and cosy at home where Danielle had got baths and food prepared for our return.

Stratford 2

Here is another shot from Stratford station. What draws my eye is the juxtaposition of stark geometric lines with a human in there somewhere. This bloke had made a seat out of the banister on the stairway, and the shadows helped geometricise everything.

Stratford

Yesterday I was in discussion about a new piece of work in the south east. My route took me through Stratford which is the Olympics are going to be. I waited to get this one figure on the bridge before taking this shot. There is no doubt that is a windy old place - hopefully in July it will be warm and lovely ...

Next Exhibition

In London yesterday for a few things. Saw Victor at the Lords and stayed with Rob & Cath. In between I firmed things up with the Lumen gallery http://www.lumenurc.org.uk/Arts.htm for my photography exhibition in London which will run in November and December 2012. The private view is likely to be Thursday November 22nd 2012 - so make a note. It is a really fantastic space and I am really looking forward to getting my pictures on the walls. The idea is that it will be post-olympics and pre-Christmas.

Spring

After the heat of March it has all gone cold wet and horrible in April; a north wind is topping if off nicely. Nevertheless there are still plenty of signs of spring. The young Blackbirds and Robins are busy sitting around looking cute and waiting to be fed, with the parents rushing around looking for food to keep their ever-growing offspring happy [Sound familiar?]. The blossom on the trees on Little Hob Moor is a beautiful as ever, the gloomy light letting me get this shot.

Gym?

Rowan was in a fun relay race on Hob Moor, she enjoyed it a lot. Meantime I have grouponed a 2 month membership of a low-rent gym in York. I am enjoying it so far, and know that 2 months will be just about enough.
Another photo of Holm Dale in the Wolds.

George Harrison

This is a dew pond high on the Wolds. This was the traditional way of capturing water in a dry region; clay was puddled into a hollow to capture the moisture.
When I was little George was my favourite Beatle [Ringo too daft, Paul too popular, John too rough]. I have just watched the Scorsese documentary about him Living In The Material World. It was really good, very interesting on the spiritual side too.

Hidden Agenda

Friday evening we went to a community cinema to see a Ken Loach movie Hidden Agenda http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099768/ at a Labour Party benefit organised by friend Patrick. It doesn't sound too appealing does it? but we had a good evening and the film was really good; way better than I thought it would be. A real conspiracy thriller about Northern Ireland, 20 years old and recommended.
The photo is another from the Wolds last week.

1500

Rowan ran in her first event of the season on the track at York - part of the West Yorkshire League. True to form the weather was torrential showers punctuated by un-torrential showers. The high jump was cancelled but Rowan ran the 1500 metres and won well in a time of 5min 9seconds

OMAHD

A number of these sculpture benches have been put along the Wolds Way long distance footpath. Not sure that it needed them really, but they are OK.

Wolds

Rowan and I took Milo for our regular Wolds walk this week of the holidays. Saw no one, had a good walk and I took this photo of Rowan on the new phone; the quality of the cameras on phones now is amazing.

G&S

It was the perfect time to visit the railway museum. Most schools back, so no one there.
When I was working in Barry last month people kept saying proudly "Of course this is where Gavin & Stacey is set". I smiled, not daring to admit that I had never seen it, and, worse, knew nothing whatsoever about it. Friend David [from Cardiff] assured me that it was very good, and a completely accurate depiction of life in the area. So we have started watching it. Brilliant, as you probably already know...

NRM

The National Railway Museum has played a large part in Rowan's life. When she was at nursery we would go 2 or 3 times a week. Once she got lost, I asked an attendant if he had seen her "No, but I wouldn't worry, she knows her way around better than I do". Another time she fell asleep on me in the cafe, making it impossible for me to move - a girl came over with a cup of coffee for me without even asking.
So this week we made a pilgrimage to the old place. Still great.

Mobile Phones

I resisted getting a mobile phone for what seemed like a long time. Then Danielle and I shared one, then it merged with my PDA and now I carry it around all the time. Inevitable. Every two years the contract is up and you "upgrade". So, all this happened last week and I now have a shiny new phone that is incredible and all the rest of it. Danielle and I both use Google Latitude so we can see where the other is all the time; this might sound creepy but is very useful. Probably not what you would want in your 20s but very reassuring to know where the train back from London is etc.
Four years ago we were all in Istanbul; here is Rowan with a sweet corn from a street vendor.

The Makele of Netball

Rowan was in Sheffield for one of the last Netball Academy sessions of the season [I hope]. She has really come on as a player this year and seems to be best suited to a Claude Makele role; as Goal Defence she breaks up play then launches attacks.
I had another good walk into Sheffield in the cold sunshine.

The French Beans look very [possibly terminally] sad in the cold ...

Garden News

It has been a good couple of days. Rowan has seen her friend Lucy, on holiday from Scotland, and Danielle and I have been busy in the garden. The herb spiral is being revived, and I feel better and better about the veg garden. Although the French Beans I planted out yesterday were howling in anguish today at the cold northerly wind that cropped up; I hope I have not killed them off.

The photo is from the Nevada desert when I drove from Vegas to Derwoods in California.

White Hot Badminton

Edward and I played our usual bet of three Badminton games. The difference this time was that his son Toby was back from his second year at University, so we each played him as well. That meant 6 games instead of 3. 3 of them against a very fit young man [not Edward]. I managed to win the first game off of Toby but lost the other 2. I am now absolutely exhausted.
We have just watched the last episode of White Heat http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01db8vz which was pretty good - not perfect by any means. The best bit was the composition of some of the shots - like good photographs. The plot was a bit creaky though.

Coincidence

Rowan and I were on the train to Birmingham to see The Gadget Show Live. I used the time to finish off “Such A Long Journey” by Rohinton Mistry. This is the writer whose “A Fine Balance” is probably the best novel I have read. He wrote this one prior to A Fine Balance and it is not as good; still brilliant though.

I finished the last page, took a breath. Checked my phone. An email from Bob, telling me he had just finished A Fine Balance on my recommendation and loved it.

I know two people in Cardiff, Bob, who I stayed with last month, and Ellen a work colleague from Alder Consulting. When I saw Ellen last week she mentioned she had been cycling with a cycling group in Cardiff. “There wasn't an American bloke in the group was there?” I asked. Turns out that Bob was, indeed part of this small cycling group too. Small world.

Veg news

Rowan took this photo of me and the dog. Danielle was back at work today, Rowan in town with friends [!] so I got on with the veg garden and planted out the brassicas and put a cage over them; the good thing is it should keep the birds and the butterflies off of them, the bad thing is weeding becomes easy to forget so they get overrun. Time will tell.

Easter Day

So Lent is over and I had my first drink yesterday evening - very nice Rioja too. Easy to say now, but it barely bothered me at all. Worst time was on a sunny evening in Leeds when everyone was sitting outside with lovely cool pints of Lager; apart from that nothing.

Yesterday we all went a bike ride to the cafe in Bolton Percy with Dave and Emma [all except Milo, he can't handle the gears].
The photo is from the walk on Saturday. The way the chalk soil dries differentially caught my eye.

Easter

We are all together at home for Easter. Thursday the Queen visited York, I just happened to be Cardiff that day... Rowan and Danielle went to see The Hunger Games movie. Rowan has read the books in the trilogy with a voracity not seen since the last days of H Potter.

Friday we were all in the garden trying to sort it out for the summer. Saturday we went for a walk with Ted Chris and Lilly in my favorite bit of the Wolds.

Big Society Capital

Danielle was at the launch of Big Society Capital in London on Tuesday – she is on the board. David Cameron [the Prime Minister] was speaking at the event, so it had a high profile.

http://www.bigsocietycapital.com/our-people/big-society-capital/ Scroll down and there she is.

The photo is of Rowan at Elsecar canal.

Elsecar

Rowan and I headed off for the industrial heritage centre at Elsecar near Barnsley. The slow train trundled along from Leeds, stopping everywhere as we made our way south. Until I noticed that we had hurtled through Darton with a platform of confused travellers looking on, next thing the train shudders to a halt. The driver had forgotten to stop at the station! After 5 minutes or so the driver sheepishly walked through the train, got in the cab at the other end, and drove us back the few hundred metres to the station. Then he walked back through the train and we were on our way again.

Weekend

When we were down in London for the run we stayed with friends Cathy David and Jessie. Had a great catch up and a great meal. David is a friend from Islington days who now runs the Royal Free Hospital - so it was good to get his take on the NHS changes.

Bees

Friends Alison and Brian came to stay for the night. Alison is a journalist for the Guardian and Brian is a bee inspector. They wrote the book A World Without Bees together  http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Without-Bees-Alison-Benjamin/dp/0852650922 . They were en route to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park  http://www.ysp.co.uk/ . Had a great meal / chat etc

Olympic Park

Yes, that figure with her arm in the air at the front is Danielle on the Olympic Stadium track.

Kings Cross

We all three went down to London for Danielle to run in the Olympic Park run which finished in the Olympic Stadium. First though we experienced the glory of the magnificent new lobby at Kings Cross. Here it is.