07.44 at ebbsfleet is the right time and place for fizz

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On eurostar @Craig_od is already being French Craig.

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Khaki Rose @laurahazell

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Thanks for the birthday tweets. I've made cake

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Reading this while @Craig_od watches MTW. Dara-arama

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Books I've read in 2010 - The Reluctant Bride

Lucy Mangan writes for The Guardian and I'm a semi-regular reader of her Saturday magazine column. I like her style. She was engaged and writing about getting married in that column about the same time that I got engaged and was preparing for my wedding. In my head I like to think that we got married at around the same time as I'm sure she wrote about getting the Banns read at about the same time we were having our Banns read (though I may have totally made that up as the book implies that they had a special licence so there wouldnt be any reading of Banns).
To the book: It charts the relationship of Lucy and her husband from first meeting through engagement all the way up to the wedding itself. I laughed a lot and I cried a bit. Mangan writes with feeling and as a recent(ish) bride I really identified with the situations she describes. I'm sure there is a lot of exagerration and fictionalisation but this doesn't detract from the story. I already liked her columns so it's not a suprise that I enjoyed the book. In particular I liked that it was set out in months leading up to the wedding and I liked the portrayal of her family as hilarous, frustrating and lovely all at the same time.I stayed up late to finish the book  - the mark of true enjoyment in my view.

* pic from amazon

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I am sorting out my stationery box / pile

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@v1ctoria exactly!

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Saturday at the Museum (and Library)

I moved to London 14 years ago this week but today for the first time I’ve visited the British Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum. I think the reason I’ve never been to them before is that I thought the BL was only open to researchers and the V&A is in a part of London I rarely visit.

I have recently been paying attention to exhibitions and there were two that I wanted to see. The Magnificent Maps at the BL has been on since May and is finishing next week. I have managed to leave it until the last but one weekend to decide to get there. I’m a fool - I LOVE maps in a truly geek way - and knew about the exhibition for ages but just didn’t manage to get myself there any earlier. The Raphael Tapestries and Cartoons are a different story. This is only on for a short while as the Vatican Museum has lent the tapestries to the V&A to coincide with the visit of Pope Benedict. The Queen has been in possessions of the cartoons and has agreed to let them be shown with the tapestries. It’s a rare opportunity to see the drawing and the tapestries together.

The Maps are amazing. It’s amazing how accurate but also inaccurate the ancient map makers managed to be without any of today cartography tools. I was also intrigued by the idea of maps being used to intimidate other rulers and as art to show off knowledge/lands of a monarch or duke etc. My particular favourite are the maps used for propaganda and the modern map of London depicted as an Island.

The BL was quite busy and it was difficult to get up close to some of the exhibits - I also thought I would go and look at the rest of what’s on show there but time ran out as I had to be at the V&A for 3pm. The other stuff is permanent though so I’ll go back and see it.

I jumped on the Piccadilly line to South Ken and found my way to the V&A through a tunnel - I arrived at 15.33 so was a little bit late - but it didn’t seem to matter. Since this exhibition is ticketed it was much easier to see the pieces. It was really inspiring to see the acts of St Paul and St Peter depicted first on canvas and then in tapestry. The changes made by the weavers are really interesting- mostly made to show off their talents or to make the colours more vivid. I really like the V&A itself - I’m quite impressed by it. And I’ll definitely be back - hopefully in the next few weeks to see the Grace Kelly exhibition if I can get a ticket!

So my day of culture has lead me to conclude that I need to do this sort of thing more often. No more Saturdays spent on the sofa (not that I’ve done that much recently!) - I’m going to try and visit a museum once a month. I will blog about my visits so we’ll see how I get on.

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The V&A

I'm here for my first ever visit. I love it!

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Magnificent Maps

I've just been to see this exhibition at the British Library. I was ace (but I am Map geek). I will do a longer post about my day of exhibitions later. I'm off to another one now.

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Books I've read in 2010 - How Not to Grow Up

When I finished The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's nest I didn't return to my alread started copy of Wolf Hall. I'd pre ordered Richard Herring's "How Not to Grow Up" on Amazon and it arrived at just the right time so I started that. I would describe myself as a fan of his; though sometimes his comedy is purile and childish and I should be offended - but generally I'm not. I always watched Fist of Fun and his early stuff with Stewart Lee and in more recent times I've been listening to the Collings and Herrin Podcasts, seen them live and also been to see Herring on his own live a couple of times. So I was expecting quite a lot from this book - a tale of his approach to his 40th birthday and how he's still living like a 20 year old because of his job. We follow him thought the months pre and post his birthday. He drinks him selft stupid, he tries (and mostly succeeds) to get off with loads of women, he goes on holiday to Thailand, he stops drinking (!) and eventually finds a girlfriend.

I mostly liked the book. There are a few editiing errors in the copy I have (a person's name different on two consecutive pages and a city changing name and then chaning back again in one passage for example) and they got on my nerves. Or maybe Herring changed the names on purpose to give the feel of being on tour when all towns look the same. I think that if you'd enjoy this book even if you aren't really aware of Richard Herring and his work. I am aware of him and I like him and I did enjoy the book. I just didn't love it as much as I was expecting to.

*pic from amazon

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Books I've read in 2010 - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

I'd been waiting for the third book in the Millennium Trilogy to come out in paperback since I finished the 2nd book (didn't want to get a hardback to mess up the look of my bookshelf). Steig Larsson's trilogy has become a bit of a phenomenon and I'm fairly sure that everyone has heard of it. The story is a good one but it takes a while to get in to in the first book and across all three books I found myself wishing the story would move along a little faster.
The third instalment picks up where the 2nd finished and I'm happy with the way the story is concluded. The trilogy’s themes of violence (particularly against women) and the underworld come to the fore here and in the end justice is done- to an extent. Is it really believable that the authorities would go so far to protect an obviously criminal asset? I'm not sure but I didn't live in cold war Sweden nor do I move in the world of spies. The way the old men and in fact a lot of the men treat women throughout the trilogy isn't very pleasant and this theme runs through all the books and can make for difficult reading.
It seemed at one point that everywhere you went someone was reading a Larsson book - on the train, the tube and the posters were everywhere. As the books have been out for a while it seems to be dying down a bit now - but the films are coming out so I assume that there will be another marketing push. Ultimately I have mixed feelings - I like Lisabeth Salander - I don't like what happens to her.

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ISS over H'west

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I attempted to capture the ISS as it passed over Haverfordwest last
Thursday. Hilarious sound as I was standing in the street recording on
my iPhone.

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