Wednesday 1 April 2009

Ideal Homes; cemeteries; bit of culture

Ruth and I hit the Ideal Home Show on Friday, which made for a good day out. I had been once before, around 10 years ago, and it had been so crowded that just moving around the exhibits had been difficult – this time we were sufficiently cunning to choose a weekday and the crowds were very manageable so we were able to browse the exhibits and room layouts at leisure. Saw a cute bath which could definitely have potential. Ruth was briefly enchanted by a toilet with a slow-closing lid, although we decided this couldn’t be classed as an essential. We left with a scarf each, a free copy of Ideal Home Magazine and an enormous number of leaflets.

After leaving the Earls Court Exhibition Building we wandered towards Chelsea and discovered Brompton Cemetery, where I’d never been before. Brompton was established in 1840 and was one of the so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’, a group of private cemeteries established to take over from inner London churchyards as burial places for London’s dead. There are catacombs below the colonnades at the southern end, which sound terribly exciting and mysterious – no idea whether the public can access them. We were flagging a bit by that point so didn’t investigate. People buried at Brompton include Emmeline Pankhurst, Brian Glover and the founder of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.

We had been intending to end the day with a bit of a browse around the Kings Road but in the event our feet were aching too much for this, so we collapsed onto a train back to Reading and went for a nice dinner at Bella Italia, where I think the waiting staff now know us by name.

Off to London again on Saturday to get together with my friend Helen for a catch-up and a browse around the V&A. We always give a token nod to culture by meeting in a museum/art gallery or similar, although in practice usually spend most of the time having lunch/tea. We braved the drizzle to have a quick wander around the new John Madejski Garden. Even after numerous visits to the V&A, there always seems to be something new to see - this time we looked around the William and Judith Bollinger Jewellery Gallery, sought out the Great Bed of Ware (an impressive three metres wide) and saw the very odd Dacre Beasts, four sixteenth- century heraldic figures all apparently carved from a single trunk of an oak.

In the evening met Ray for a curry in Twyford, where we used to be in the habit of meeting for dinner some years ago when it was halfway between our respective homes. Although tempted by the smart-looking Haweli, we were loyal to our old haunt the Gaylord, where we had a pleasant meal under the slightly overly-watchful eyes of around half a dozen restaurant staff with seemingly little else to do. Still, they were very polite and shook our hands on the way out.

Signing off; breakfast; boat-building

The main triumph of the last week has been obtaining approval and subsequently a completion certificate from Reading Borough Council Building Control for Ray’s re-roofing of the house and fitting of a Velux window. We were pretty sure that we had done the necessary in terms of stuff BC had asked us to do, but you can never be sure until sign-off. Now, if I ever do in future get to the stage of compiling a HIP, the certificate can slot right in. Grateful to little R for doing a good enough job during a difficult time.

Weekend got off to a good start with breakfast with Ray at the lovely Palmieri’s in Maidenhead. Fabulous coffee (had two cups) and probably the nicest ‘full English’ I’ve had – I don’t normally order full Englishes in cafes/hotels as I’m wary of being presented with a sea of grease, if I’m really unlucky, swimming in an additional sea of baked beans (which I like, but not for breakfast). However, Palmieri’s slight Italian twist on the full English was perfect, and included some perfect little charred cherry tomatoes. Ray’s baked beans were served in a separate little bowl, rather than on the plate, which was a nice touch. Palmieri’s is out of the town centre (probably no bad thing – for a presumably wealthy town, Maidenhead has a particularly drab and uninspiring town centre, although there does appear to be a regeneration planned) but it seemed to have plenty of custom when we were there at 9am, so I hope it thrives.

Then we trolled off up the M40 and out past Banbury to see the progress of the construction of Ray’s narrowboat. I was reassured to see that it does appear to be being constructed of solid-looking steel, rather than the pieces of coloured wood glued together that I had imagined.

Finished the day with a lovely walk around Bisham Woods to take full advantage of the weather. The going would have been tough if it had been wet as the ground had been well churned up by horses – much muttering from Ray about horses ruining footpaths. Luckily it was dry but still a risk of spraining ankles in ruts created by hooves. We didn’t actually see any of the huge beasts – perhaps they’ve moved on to churn up pastures new. In fact we didn’t see anybody at all, which was strange given the lovely weather.
At Book Group this weekI was slightly startled at the amount of hatred directed at our book for the month, Danny Wallace's Yes Man. I had regarded it as an appealing piece of light entertainment but I seemed to be alone in this.

Wednesday 18 March 2009

Last Thursday was distinguished by my partaking of the J D Wetherspoon’s Curry Club for the first time, during drinks at the Back of Beyond with my friend Claire. Usually the main thing that can be said about J D Wetherspoon’s food is that it’s cheap, but the chicken tikka masala was not half bad (and yes, I know it’s a British dish), although I had had a pint or so of lager by the time I ate it. BoB is one of three JDW’s in Reading town centre and probably the nicest – the others are the Monks Retreat (rough) and the Hope Tap (never yet ventured into, but suspect also rough). There’s also the supremely atmosphere-free Baron Cadogan in Caversham, where Ruth recently went for a quiet dinner and ended up being chatted up (by a man! how exciting!).

Hen dinner

Had a lovely day on Saturday at my friend Kate’s hen ‘do’. A handful of us spent the day at the revive Health Club & Spa at the Crowne Plaza making use of the facilities. I had a wonderfully relaxing De-Stress Scalp massage, followed by an Elemis Body Glow Treatment (bit of quite hard brushing, followed by exfoliation and moisturising, leaving you shiny and ready to slide right off any surfaces you might brush up against).

Was a member at revive until quite recently, but cancelled my membership before Christmas in a ‘streamlining of outgoings’ session. Kind of regretted it on Saturday as it reminded me how much I love swimming. Trouble is you often (at least, I often) get the scenario where you only end up going twice a month and then realise that a half-hour swim has cost you the equivalent of about £30 a time. Would be better to grit teeth and use the public pools, although it’s amazing how snobbish one becomes about them after one starts paying private health club fees. Also Reading’s main complex, the Central Swimming Pool, is now extremely dilapidated (or at least, was when I last went a couple of years ago) and appears to be having no money spent on its upkeep – one suspects it’s due to be a casualty of the Chatham Place development.

To return to the hen do … then met up with the larger group for dinner at Zizzi’s in Henley. Evening was enlivened by a ‘drink or dare’ game featuring horrible forfeits devised by Kate’s friend Sarah. Mine was to bite a stranger on the leg, which I eventually did actually do after a couple of the others had managed to nobble a willing (drunk?) volunteer to offer his leg. With hindsight I should have bought the poor guy a drink afterwards.

Away Day; outlying campuses; women in farming

At the risk of sounding nauseatingly spring-like and positive, it was a beautiful morning this morning ... took this picture of the park at the end of my road at around 7.30am.

Week has been enlivened so far by a team Away Day at Reading Town Hall. My equilibrium was slightly unsettled by one of the activities in the morning, but a lunchtime walk through St Laurence's churchyard restored my spirits. Took a photograph of this bush, although I'm not entirely sure why - was possibly led towards it by mystical forces of which I am unaware.

Today's main achievement was to make my way successfully to Oxford Brookes University's Wheatley campus minus a car, something I wasn't initially sure was possible. The Brookesbus service proved me wrong though - although the journey from Oxford railway station takes about half an hour so best if you don't have too many other commitments on the day in question. According to this link, the CPRE have voted the tower on the Wheatley campus one of the ten ugliest buildings in the country. Much of the campus does admittedly have a somewhat grey tinge, but the O'Regan Centre, where my meeting was, is a pleasant, airy modern building. The campus is a typical former college campus that now finds itself part of a university - in the 1960s it was the Lady Spencer Churchill College before merging with Oxford Polytechnic in 1974, which in turn then became a university in the 1992 upgrading.

Attended an interesting lecture at the Museum of English Rural Life this evening on Women in British Farming, held to mark International Women's Day 2009. Some fascinating old photographs. Still not quite clear what was involved in being a bondager, although they seem to have worn bizarre bonnets. Audience, as expected, largely full of Game Old Birds, with a smattering of Game Old Chaps accompanying in some cases. We were served tea and an extremely nice coffee cake with butter icing. All strangely congenial. Perhaps am reaching the time of life when I should join Townswomen's Guild or similar.

Real ale; Manchester; zoology

Last weekend began well with a real ale tasting hosted by the University’s Senior Common Room. I joined the SCR shortly after starting employment with the university, partly to have a potential bolthole to go and eat my sandwiches at lunchtime, but had never actually attended one of their events – this seemed a good one to start with. Staff from the Hammerpot Microbrewery in Sussex gave a brief presentation on the brewing process before letting us taste a range of their ales. I liked the Madgwick Gold, a light golden ale that’s probably at the wussy girly end of what Hammerpot produce, although Claire’s and my joint consensus was that the Woodcote Bitter was our favourite.

Amazingly, we did rather well in the evening’s quiz and won ourselves three bottles of beer in addition to the free bottle of Madgwick Gold that everyone was given – though I was less appreciative of the winnings by the time I’d carried them home.

The Bottle Wreck Porter was a bit much for me. What is porter anyway?

Then spent a lovely long weekend in Manchester with Mum - a follow-up 'British city break' to the weekend we spent in Glasgow a few years ago. Pictures here. Weather was rather grey and our hotel was only so-so (adequate but uninspiring) but we had a great time in spite of that. We spent most of the time walking around and looking at impressive buildings - took in the Royal Exchange Theatre, the Town Hall and extension, the Central Library, Urbis, a number of huge old hotels including the gloomily imposing (from the outside, at least) Palace Hotel and the brand-new Beetham Tower, home of a Hilton hotel and luxury apartments. Popped briefly into St Ann's Church (where the invitation to quiet prayer was being stymied by the shrieking laughter of a group of ladies serving tea at the back) and Manchester Cathedral. Had a couple of nice dinners, one at the down-to-earth El Macho on Portland Street and one at the fantastic Dimitris - great atmosphere, food and service. We also did an interesting urban canal walk following part of the line of the 'Rochdale Nine'. Didn't get time to do everything I'd have liked to do - including visiting Salford Quays - will have to go back.

Went for an interesting tour this evening of the Cole Museum of Zoology (again, courtesy of the Senior Common Room). The Cole Museum is one of the University of Reading’s three museums, the others being the Museum of English Rural Life (which I have been to) and the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology (which I haven’t – it’s somewhere in the depths of HumSS formerly FOLSS). We sat through a reasonably interesting talk from the curator – buoyed up by a free glass of wine – and then were allowed to have a bit of a poke about the displays. The skeleton hanging from the ceiling in the foreground of the picture on their homepage is a False Killer Whale (not sure what makes it false – haven’t bothered to look this up yet) and the one in the background is a male Indian elephant – an ex-circus performer acquired for the Museum in 1921. I was personally more charmed by a Trumpet fish (a dear little thing that apparently swims head-down) and a Microbat. Ruth briefly admired the delicacy of the 5-metre long Reticulated Python’s 400 vertebrae before becoming squeamish and having to be led quietly away.

Fixed Speed Camera 30; Chang; Pippa

Have been clocked by a speed camera for the second time in my driving career. The criminal activity happened on the A40 between Ross-on-Wye and Gloucester - this stretch is single carriageway with a few 30mph zones in villages. If only I had consulted the handy list here of West Mercia Speed Camera Locations (but honestly, who does that kind of thing).

The little critter that snapped me was Fixed Speed Camera 30, on the A40 at Lea going towards Gloucester. Obviously, one doesn't really have a leg to stand on but it's somewhat galling given the infrequency with which I actually drive these days. I had been making a conscious effort to observe 30mph zones since my previous 'clocking', but obviously one's attention does wander occasionally. Perversely, if you do slow down to observe a 30mph limit, particularly on a trunk road such as the A40, you get tailgated by other drivers who are evidently impatient that you've slowed down to the speed limit. You just can't win. Will be sure to wave to Fixed Speed Camera 30 the next time I drive past it (which will be at 30mph or less, obviously) and repress all urges to smash its shiny face in.


I was somewhat surprised to see that there's a Wikipedia entry on the A40 - ideal for those (legions of us, probably) wanting to find out more about it. There's a description of the route and the towns it passes through/round.

The good news is that Ray's fab job boarding out and insulating our attic is now finished and shelving is installed. We've certainly got our money's worth out of the IVAR shelving units from IKEA we acquired for our first unfurnished flat around 12 years ago. I had fun on Sunday relocating various of my less-used possessions and unpacking the boxes that had been stored up there since we moved in. The snag with unpacking boxes is that there's a tendency to open the box and then remember exactly why you boxed the stuff up in the first place (because you couldn't think what the hell to do with it). The trick is probably to actually give it away and resist the urge to just box it up again.

Public pressure forced me to relocate Chang, the small furry thing (can't think of a more specific word) that my dad brought me back from China some years ago (see The Banishing of Chang). It has been claimed that he stinks (certainly had a weird smell originally, but I would contend that it's worn off now), is made out of domestic cat hair (highly probable, I would think) and that his eyes follow one around the room (wacko territory).

While going through my stuff found my collection of three Pippa dolls. Pippa was a cute pocket-sized fashion doll and I remember her being popular among girls at my primary school in the 1970s. I wasn't massively into dolls but I always preferred Pippa to Sindy (might just have been the name). All three of my dolls are currently naked - their clothes would appear to have been lost over the years - so if I were particularly sad I might buy them each an outfit - Pippa outfits appear to be available on eBay. (Naturally, I'm not that sad ...) The Asian variant on the right was named Jasmine, from memory. Websites related to Pippa include http://www.pippadoll.net/ and Pippa's Obituary.

Egyptian artefacts; Millennium Dome; crowds

I was in London on Saturday as my friend Helen had very kindly bought me (as a birthday present) a ticket to the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition at the O2. I knew frankly very little about the boy king himself or about ancient Egypt in general, so I did learn stuff. The golden death mask was not part of the exhibition, a fact that seems to have caused some controversy, although there was plenty of other beautiful stuff on display, including the 'Canopic Coffinette of Tutankhamun' - a jar that once held Tut's mummified liver. A fine substitute in anyone's terms….

I knew something about the plunder of the tomb back in the 1920s and did visit the exhibition of Egyptian stuff at Highclere Castle some years back (although I seem to recall that at the time, my sister and I were less than interested in the exhibition and breezed fairly quickly through it looking for the tearoom). The O2 exhibition did have quite a lot of space given over to pictures and details of the excavation, although it didn't focus at all on the dodgy moral questions surrounding desecration of a burial site.

The day I went was both the last day of the exhibition and the last Saturday of the school holidays, so to say that it was heaving would be an understatement. It was difficult to read the labels on some of the exhibits without a good deal of pushing and shoving, although I got a good enough view of most of the exhibits themselves.

The former Millennium Dome has certainly had an internal makeover, but it remains an odd and slightly nondescript venue. I do think, frankly, that the British Museum would have been a nicer and more appropriate venue for these ancient Egyptian exhibits, given its permanent Egyptian rooms and given that London's previous exhibition of treasures from Tutankhamun's tomb was held there (in 1972). The boat trip out there on the Thames Clipper was quite fun though.

I did visit the venue in 2000, together with Ray and his nephew Adam, when it was the actual Millennium Dome. I have to say I never grasped the point of the whole project and think that arguably the Labour Government should have called a halt to it when they came to power. There are a number of other fantastic Millennium (or thereabouts) projects which will leave a much greater legacy - the Tate Modern, the London Eye, the Angel of the North. From my memory of the displays and activities inside the dome, it lacked focus and veered between trying to be a museum and trying to be an amusement park. The 'Body' was probably the most feted exhibit but an excessive amount of queuing to then shuffle slowly past a plastic pancreas wasn't my idea of fun. And we'd got there early for breakfast and the coffee was bad - enough said. At least in its current incarnation as the O₂, there are now some nice-looking restaurants there. Although as I was alone, I sat on a bench and ate my M&S sandwich. The only downside of a day out by yourself.