Classic Photo #8

Rocamador is an abbey site in the Dordogne in France. I ended up there when the couple I was hitching a lift with invited me and a Canadian fellow-hitcher to stay at the Gites they were renting out. We had a great time. On the visit to the abbey all these elements fell into place at just the right moment for the photo.

Rocamador - France 

National Railway Museum

Rowan and I used to visit the Natioinal Railway Museum here in York, http://www.nrm.org.uk/html/home_pb/menu.asp at least twice a week. Once when Rowan was about 3, I lost track of her in the great hall. Slightly panicing I asked one of the staff "Have you seen my daughter?"
"No, but I would'nt worry, she knows her way around here better than me" and he was right, I heard a shout and there was Rowan beaming down at me from on top of the footbridge in the great hall

It is a fantastic place, and although we go less often now, it still feels like home. So we took Mark there yesterday and had a good look round. All the old favorites were there Mallard, the Bullet Train and Rocket We are really lucky having it within walking distance.

Football

My friend Mark came up to watch his team [Carlisle] play York in the Conference. Carlisle are second and York are nearly bottom http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/carlisle_united/default.stm but Carlisle helpfully levelled things out after twenty minutes by getting their player sent off. Amazingly York won 2-1, which didn’t please the 1,700 Carlisle fans, amongst whom we stood. There were nearly as many Carlisle fans as York, It was good to get to a game, even thought the standard was terrible. Carlisle have a Brazilian striker [who had a stinker] and York have a talented striker who willingly adopted the role of pantomime villain in front of the Carlisle end.

BMS

This evening Danielle and I are off to the monthly BMS concert at York University. This is a series of 6 monthly concerts through the dark months. It is great for us, as we buy our season ticket [really good value] and then try and go to as many as we can - we usually have no idea who we are going to see, but if you look at the programme http://www.bms-york.org.uk/ you can see they are pretty high quality. We are always guaranteed to see lots of people we know from various walks of life, so it is a pleasant social experience as well. Tonight is the Fitzwilliam Quartet who worked with Shostakovitch in the past.

Sheep Sheltering in the Snow 

Classic Photo #7

Sheep Sheltering in the Snow. There is a sheep keeping out of the cold towards the top of this picture. When I was away on my six month walk across Europe my mother had this photo and hoped that I was keeping safe too. I was. S

True Stories #1

1985. I am hitching up from Droitwich in Worcestershire to Manchester. It is 8 in the morning as I put my small rucksack on the damp ground by the Motorway slip-road. I get my thumb out, and watch all the business men in a hurry in their company cars commuting to Birmingham, pass me by.

I hear a screech; I look around and see a car [car A] has stopped for me. Unfortunately the car behind [car B] had to slam on his brakes to avoid driving into the back of car A. This caused the next car [car C] to crash into the back of car B, and the one behind car C [car D] to crash into car C. Car A was unscathed.
“Do you want a lift, the driver said to me?”
“Yes please, what about that lot?” I said looking back at the three cars and three bewildered drivers.
“Let them sort it out!” he said, and off we went.
No one was hurt, no great damage done [bumpers and lights only] and it was undoubtedly their fault [drivers should always be able to stop, even if the car in front does an emergency stop] but it did feel a bit odd. It was not my fault, but without me it would never have happened. S

Classic Photo #6

These tenaments were standing derelict round the back of the Elephant & Castle. Since demolished they were part of an area that is described brilliantly by Michael Collins in his book The Likes of Us http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1862076006/qid=1101213804/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_11_1/026-5041928-5955644

Shame - Elephant & Castle - 1985 

Owl Time

Saturday evening. We are all listening to Stephen Fry read Harry Potter in the kitchen [any parents of children of a certain age will understand this intrusion into family life] Hedwig the owl is featuring large. I go out to lock the garage door and see a Tawny Owl http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds/guide/t/tawnyowl/index.asp land on the eve of our neighbour’s roof. By chance Rowan came to the front door at just the right moment; so that we could both stare at the owl staring at us [about 10 metres away] before if flew silently and nonchalantly away... Another type of bird that we have seen here at Hob Moor. S

Portable Office 

Portable Office

Working from home and at various clients’ bases means that the internet and the laptop are pretty essential for my work. It is hard to imagine being able to function competitively prior to the internet. For example I can download all the background papers from the Department of Health [part of the UK government] on a particular issue, in a matter of minutes. Pre-internet I would have had to either purchase them from the Department [costing £20 a shot, and taking days], blag them off contacts in departments [time-consuming and not something you can do more than every so often] or go to a library [unlikely to deliver]. Couple the internet with cycling and I can become a pretty portable business. I was at Kings X this week and was glad to see that I am not alone. The bike is a Brompton, http://www.bromptonbicycle.co.uk/ and the laptop is perched on the steps down to the gents – not my idea of an ideal location, but he seemed pretty happy

Classic Photo #5

The Churchyard in Kirbymoorside, which is at the foot of the North York Moors. It was a cold February morning with imminent snow: the blackbird obliged. The town is about 20 miles north of us here in York http://www.kirkbymoorside.com/

Churchyard - Kirkbymoorside - Yorkshire 

Leverage or what?

For the past three years I have providing consultancy services to a Council in east London. That work has nearly come to an end, it has been enjoyable and successful: the Council has moved up a vital notch on the Government’s Star Rating system. Today I have been doing one last piece of work for them which is an exciting departure. I am combining my photography with consultancy [to produce a cheer-leading, illustrated calendar for the Primary Care Trust] so I get to photograph twelve diverse members of the workforce. Six done today, six in a couple of weeks. It is an area of work I would like to develop. We’ll see…

Classic Photo #4

Girl at Waterloo Station taken in the early 80s

Girl - Waterloo - 1982 

Surreal Rail Experiences

I got on the train this morning. It was windy so the East coast mainline was experiencing some delays. This meant that I climbed on the first train that arrived, which did so at 8:48am.As we climber aboard, passengers were informed that “this is not the 8:49 to London although it is 8:49 and the train is going to London”. Then, “customers with reservations in coach E will not find them in coach E, as they contain reservations for coach G. Reservations for coach E are in Coach D. Customer should note that the reserved seats on the tickets will not correspond to the actual train seats and customers will need to look at each reservation to find their intended seat.” I laughed a bit to myself as I plugged in my laptop to the sockets fitted in the coach and settled back to watch the chaos. Then I realised the battery light was flashing on the computer - the socket didn't work. I decided not to do any writing on the train after all, I am quite sure it would have wiped from the disk before I arrived in London. If I ever went...... D

The Sidings

We are in the middle of our twice-yearly state visit from Granny. As ever she kindly offers to take us all out for lunch. We went back to The Sidings which is right on the East Coast Main Line, where you eat in railway carriages and watch the trains go by http://www.sidingshotelyork.co.uk/ We had a great meal. Sadly the whole place seems to be on the slide [less punters, peeling paint] and desperately in need of some TV business guru to shake it up…can’t see it happening though.

Keys

Our lives may be complex and multi-faceted but they are also very fragile. Take today. 11.00 am I drop Rowan at a health club for her friend’s birthday party. I now have two hours to go for a spin on the Brompton folding bike http://www.bromptonbicycle.co.uk/ . After a few miles I stop for a coffee and a baguette for lunch. A nice steaming hot cup of coffee is put on my tray [decaf…but that’s another story] and as I pay my heart sinks as I realise my keys and I have parted company. Suddenly a whole range of frets emerge
Ø will I need to get the locks at home changed
Ø when can I get a new key for the car cut
Ø how am I going to get Rowan home
Ø how am I going to get into the house
Ø how will I replace the 30 year old Guinness penknife my father gave me
Ø etc etc
So I take the George Bush approach [a la Fahrenheit 911] and sit and have my coffee first. I then cycle back to the Health Club, all the while looking across at the road going the other way in case I see the shining metal of the Holy Grail in the gutter. I am resigned to a day of panic and hassle when I see that the car is at least still there in the car-park. Which is all the more surprising when I see the keys dangling from the driver’s door. One hour of luck. Back to normal

Badminton

Just had a good game of Badminton with my friend Edward today. I first started playing when I was 30 in Tottenham. What I really like about it is that you can have a really good workout even if your standard of play is not that high. Contrast that with tennis where a decent rally is rare, where the temptation to whack the ball to the boating lake is real, and where the difference between a park player and a club player is huge – I remember going a whole set before either I or my opponent could manage to hold serve – not like Wimbledon.

http://www.badminton.online.ukgateway.net/

Anyway when I was in London I formed an informal badminton group that played weekly with ever changing membership for ten years, it was a great group and I believe it is still carrying on. In York I have played with a few groups, at the moment I enjoy singles best [more room for inelegant 6 footers to charge around] and play at the Railway Institute courts which are in a disused rail shed next to the station.

Classic Photo #3

Clacton Beach - 1982. I was on a residential at Clacton in December. It was bleak but with a beutiful light which lit up this old boy on the beach to good effect.

Clacton Beach - 1982 

Classic Photo #2

This is a photo of a dancer at some festival held on Highbury Fields in the 80's when I lived in London. She was part of a dance troupe that were dancing to Orchestra Jazira a Hackney based African style band.

Highbury Fields Dancer - 1983 

Bats

Rowan and I saw a bat flying around our garden at dusk as we waited to go out to the fireworks. I think it was probably a pipistrelle http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/291.shtml I have always been worried that they would get stuck in my hair, which I think counts, for me, as an irrational fear on at least two counts.

Rosehip Syrup

Rowan and I had spotted lots of rosehips on the way to the playground, so Danielle and Rowan collected some on Saturday. Rowan and I tailed them, then made rosehip syrup to a recipe we found http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/food/recipe93.shtml It tastes great, although it needs a bit less sugar, and Rowan now has it for her morning tea.

Travail sans frontieres

I have completed my first week of "working from home". It has been an interesting experience for a hard-working gal with slight tendancies toward procrastination. I managed to evade the allure of dusting the skirting boards and the new bottle of "Shiny Sinks" in the cupboard. The mildew on the office window was my only slip-up - I couldn't resist it. The latest I started work was 9:05am, the earliest 8:25am. I discovered that I don't have the habit of eating lunch if there is nothing to scrounge off someone else and I am busy. I also noted that the heat needs to go back on in the house by 10:30am; happily this coincides with my requirement for caffeine.

The real issue is boundaries - how do I stop working? Every job I have ever had - and this one is no exception - has been infinite. There is always something that could be done or improved or re-formatted (you have to get the font right).

Friends have loads of ideas about this that they are eager to share - "if you work late at night, take time off in the day"; "Have a fixed time to start and stop and stick to it"or "Work when you need to, you'll soon get fed up and stop yourself".

I am less keen to listen to them just now - I need to build my own barriers. I think it will look like a ha-ha. Click here -
http://www.npr.org/programs/watc/features/2002/jan/security/020126.security.html

Great minds think alike.... Ha ha.

Danielle

Fireworks

Just finished our triple-header of firework parties. Yesterday it was up to a friends allotment for a bonfire and six fireworks [the adults managed for the second year running to take up some wine but forget soft drinks for the kids - tragic] which was great fun, low key but high excitement. Then today we went to a friend's bonfire party [with some rather worryingly horizontal rockets] before leaving to rush over to Rowan's schools display. This was really dramatic stuff. Anyway we are all back home now and get on with getting excited about Xmas.

Classic Photo #1

Harrow Road - London - 1980. I will be posting up a few of my best photos. This was taken when I had just moved to London. It looked incredibly dated then, hard to believe that someone was still delivering with a bike. Ironically there is now a revival in bike transporters so it is beginning to seem less dated.

Harrow Road - London - 1980 

Palmour - The Name

Apart from my mother there are only two other Palmour families in the UK, deep in the heart of Essex. There are many many Palmours in the US, including a Cherokee branch and a recorded Opera star. One of the joys of having an unusual name is that it is mis-spelt more often than not. The way to deal with this is to treasure every new mis-spelling and add it to the list. So here is the list so far, all sent to me on letters

Balfour Balmour Dalmour Pacmer Pairmer Palamour Palamovi Palar Palfrey Palimone Palkour Pallimore Pallmour Pallmoure Palmair Palmal Palman Palmar Palmaur Palme Palmer Palmers Palmerson Palmeur Palmev Palmier Palmiou Palmir Palmo Palmoen Palmoier Palmojek Palmom Palmon Palmone Palmont Palmoor Palmoore Palmor Palmore Palmorn Palmorur Palmou Palmoul Palmoule Palmoun Palmouo Palmouris Palmous Palmouth Palmow Palmowr Palmpur Palmsur Palmu Palmune Palmur Palnare Palnone Palnour Palomar Palour Palous Palpair Palpour Palsour Palvere Pamair Pamer Pamlour Pammer Pamoeer Pamour Pamur Paramour Parlmour Parlour Parlous Parma Parmer Parmoor Parmor Parmour Pasmair Patmaur Paul Paulmour Paumour Pelmore Pelmour Plamour Podmour Polman Polmour Poulmour Powelmore Powellmore Powlemore Powlmore Powmore Pownall Pqmlour Pulmour Talmont Talmour Tolnour Valmour

Simon

Hob Moor Sculpture Trail #5

The logs on Hob Moor are there presumably as a result of the great storm of 1987. Whatever, they now provide good places to aim at / run too / climb on, and are of sculptural interest in their own right.

Hob Moor Log 

Hob Moor Sculpture Trail #4

The Plague Stone.
Plague victims were housed on Hob Moor in 1604, paid for food brought to them by placing money in water or vinegar in the central depression of the stone, which sits next to the Hob Stone. This stone is at the top of the “big hill” on our cycle into school each day, so it is always a welcome sight. I was drafted / dragged onto the committee of friends of Hob Moor yesterday evening. Not only was I the youngest member, but was also called “young man” more than once – this is a rare occurrence nowadays. There is a good website on Hob Moor http://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/community/hobmoor/index.html put together by an archaeology student at the university.

Plague Stone 

The Hedge Sea Monster 

Hob Moor Sculpture Trail #3

Not quite as old as the Hob Stone, this coiffured hedge is meant to be a sea monster. It is near the bear. A neighbouring house has started to grow a “diesel” hedge, so it is obviously spreading.

Music #1

The Mighty Zulu Nation
This is a band. I have heard one track “Mdavu the Man” off of their album - “Abantu” and it is fantastic - a real blast of energy. Look at http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/article.php?story=20040611100915550 for more info on them and on http://www.nationrecs.demon.co.uk/