First there were two guys brushing the lawn, followed by another two with lawnmowers, close on whose heels cam the man repainting the white lines, culminating with the guy with giant hairdrying to dry off the lines. What fun for the first hour of our first ever trip to Queens.
That's one of the upsides to moving away from England, one tends to do those things that you always say: "We must . . . ". It didn't work on Saturday morning when jokingly John suggested a trip to the coast . . . we had too much work to do around the house/garden, though I was up for getting in the car immediately and going off. Instead, after watching the men's tennis final at Roland Garros, I suggested we go to Queen's on Monday since we'd never been there before.
Being organised, we pre-booked tickets, and woke up to pouring rain! It was still raining slightly when we arrived at Baron's Court, but, luckily soon stopped.
We made a good choice of court - it truly reflected our current lifestyle. The first match was between two Brits (Ward beat Cox for those of you who give a damn), followed by 2 francais. So we didn't have to choose between our native and adopted countries (Arnaud Clement beat Benoit Paire)!
Being typically British weather, after the rain the sun came out and burnt us quite badly, then went away again and it got so cold we decided to leave. Unfortunately, our plan to eat at Racine (a deluxe Bistro at South Kensington run by a chef we saw on Saturday Kitchen) was scuppered when we looked at the state of the restaurant (very posh) and the state of us (not posh at all), so we went home. Why is it when there has been a stoppage on an underground line there are long gaps between trains? If there are enough trains to run every 2-3 minutes, where do they all go after the stoppage? There had been a broken down train at Oxford Circus, so we had to wait almost 20 minutes to get the tube we wanted. Swings and roundabouts though, since we got to Tottenham Hale just 2 minutes before our train arrived rather than having to wait for 22 minutes!
To top and tail this anecdote, we also want to make sure we get to go to all the restaurants we have been meaning to for some time. Since the Spanish restaurant was closed on a Monday, we were forced to have the meal out John had intended for my birthday but time had run out - the Lock Fyne Seafood Restaurant in Hertford.
We also have decided NOT to count the money we spend on meals out until I don't have any work and we have to economise. Unfortunately, my bathroom scales isn't into this not counting lark. Oh well, there's Veeraswamy's on Wednesday too (if you don't know it, it was the first ever Indian restaurant in England).
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Friday, 20 May 2011
Old friends
It has been a year so far for getting in touch with people we haven't seen for many, many years - or even never at all. All thanks to the marvels of modern technology.
Starting at the end first, I took up a free trial on Ancestry.co.uk, and looked up my dad. (Oh, must add that to the list of things I want to do when I retire - trace not only the UK side of the family, but also the German side if possible. All I remember about the German side is mum saying they originally came from Prussia, and that she had a big photo/painting of her grandfather as a Hussar but she lost it on the 3-day ride of the back of a coal truck on the railway journey from Berlin to Kiel to escape the Russians who were going to be the first into Berlin). Anyway, when I looked up my dad I found a family photo of him when he was a toddler, which I recognised as being in our family album (which my sister is now guardian of). However it wasn't my sister that put it there - and hey presto, I find a relative I never knew I had. Haven't worked out exactly what the relationship is yet, especially since I wasn't going to pay £100 for a membership to Ancestry and so can't access his first contact.
In addition, there was contact from an old friend from University - the only good thing that Linked-In has done in my view, and then a school friend via Friends ReUnited. Finally, going to the 1st Thursday of the month pub meeting in London, who should be there but Dave Hodson, who we haven't seen for 20+ years!
So, there's contact after: 20 years, 35 years, 50+ years and never! Not bad.
In doing all the catching up with these people, it's made me think that it was time I wrote out my life story since no-one (apart from John and my sister) knows everything - so that will be my next entry.
Starting at the end first, I took up a free trial on Ancestry.co.uk, and looked up my dad. (Oh, must add that to the list of things I want to do when I retire - trace not only the UK side of the family, but also the German side if possible. All I remember about the German side is mum saying they originally came from Prussia, and that she had a big photo/painting of her grandfather as a Hussar but she lost it on the 3-day ride of the back of a coal truck on the railway journey from Berlin to Kiel to escape the Russians who were going to be the first into Berlin). Anyway, when I looked up my dad I found a family photo of him when he was a toddler, which I recognised as being in our family album (which my sister is now guardian of). However it wasn't my sister that put it there - and hey presto, I find a relative I never knew I had. Haven't worked out exactly what the relationship is yet, especially since I wasn't going to pay £100 for a membership to Ancestry and so can't access his first contact.
In addition, there was contact from an old friend from University - the only good thing that Linked-In has done in my view, and then a school friend via Friends ReUnited. Finally, going to the 1st Thursday of the month pub meeting in London, who should be there but Dave Hodson, who we haven't seen for 20+ years!
So, there's contact after: 20 years, 35 years, 50+ years and never! Not bad.
In doing all the catching up with these people, it's made me think that it was time I wrote out my life story since no-one (apart from John and my sister) knows everything - so that will be my next entry.
Monday, 4 April 2011
Life Changing Experiences - Part 2
Just to be different and buck the normal trend, my second life-changing experience actually happened before the first. Well, who wants to be predictable?
Back at the end of last November I had a little tumble. I was just walking down the pathway by the side of the multi-storey car park in Welwyn Garden City having done some early Christmas shopping when my llife changed. A bit dramatic you may say, but not from my point of view. I tripped over the uneven pavement and most probably because my hands were full of shopping bags, I fell awkwardly and couldn't get up again. My body just seemed to have stopped listening to me - especially my right arm. I thought I was moving it to lever myself up, and it felt like I was, but nothing actually happened. Yep, I'd broken my arm. It was an incredibly weird experience, though, because my brain was telling my arm to move, and the muscles/nerves etc were doing their job and sending back a message to my brain to say 'Yes, the arm has been moved'. However, when I used my eyes I could see nothing had happened.
This was a day for firsts - first time I've ever broken my arm, the first time I'd been the subject of a 999 call, the first time I'd taken that f*a*n*t*a*s*t*i*c gas and air mixture to dull the pain,the first time I've had to have my clothes cut off me and the first time I've been to the emergency ward of a hospital. And after each of those 'first times' you can add 'and last' (apart from the gas, of course).
I'd broken my humerus - and as the kind ladies kept on saying as they were plastering me up "That's the worse bone in the body to break because gravity is constantly pulling it apart". But at least I hadn't broken my shoulder.
After the first week they found that the bone was being moved sideways by the bottom plaster, so gave me just a small slab between my shoulder and elbow. But that didn't work, the bone ends were still not meeting, so they took me into hospital for an operation to pin them together. And this is where the life-changing experience really started. I spent 4 days in hospital and they never did the operation. Children and hips came before arm pinning, and though each night they put me on 'nil by mouth' in case there was a gap in the morning theatre schedule, everyone seemed to be breaking their hips that week. The only day there was a gap, was the one day they'd moved me to another ward, and the new staff had given me breakfast so they couldn't operate. That's life. On a glass-half-empty note, I lost quite a lot of weight over those four days.
Anway, I spent three days in a general ward and that is an experience I would not recommend to anyone. Since it was a trauma ward, it was mainly filled with old people who had had falls. Firstly, I noticed that the majority were widows - I knew men had a shorter life expectancy, but this was physical proof. All these lonely old women, and it would be even worse for me because we have no children. I got very scared about being left on my own. So, I made my first life-choices:
So from now on I'm going to make absolutely sure I get the quality right. And that brings me full circle to my first post on life-choices. All those things I have been meaning to do but not getting round to, and starting another chapter of my life over which I have total (virtually, not counting the lack of money!) control.
So roll on tomorrow. . . life's going to be sooo good.
Back at the end of last November I had a little tumble. I was just walking down the pathway by the side of the multi-storey car park in Welwyn Garden City having done some early Christmas shopping when my llife changed. A bit dramatic you may say, but not from my point of view. I tripped over the uneven pavement and most probably because my hands were full of shopping bags, I fell awkwardly and couldn't get up again. My body just seemed to have stopped listening to me - especially my right arm. I thought I was moving it to lever myself up, and it felt like I was, but nothing actually happened. Yep, I'd broken my arm. It was an incredibly weird experience, though, because my brain was telling my arm to move, and the muscles/nerves etc were doing their job and sending back a message to my brain to say 'Yes, the arm has been moved'. However, when I used my eyes I could see nothing had happened.
This was a day for firsts - first time I've ever broken my arm, the first time I'd been the subject of a 999 call, the first time I'd taken that f*a*n*t*a*s*t*i*c gas and air mixture to dull the pain,the first time I've had to have my clothes cut off me and the first time I've been to the emergency ward of a hospital. And after each of those 'first times' you can add 'and last' (apart from the gas, of course).
I'd broken my humerus - and as the kind ladies kept on saying as they were plastering me up "That's the worse bone in the body to break because gravity is constantly pulling it apart". But at least I hadn't broken my shoulder.
After the first week they found that the bone was being moved sideways by the bottom plaster, so gave me just a small slab between my shoulder and elbow. But that didn't work, the bone ends were still not meeting, so they took me into hospital for an operation to pin them together. And this is where the life-changing experience really started. I spent 4 days in hospital and they never did the operation. Children and hips came before arm pinning, and though each night they put me on 'nil by mouth' in case there was a gap in the morning theatre schedule, everyone seemed to be breaking their hips that week. The only day there was a gap, was the one day they'd moved me to another ward, and the new staff had given me breakfast so they couldn't operate. That's life. On a glass-half-empty note, I lost quite a lot of weight over those four days.
Anway, I spent three days in a general ward and that is an experience I would not recommend to anyone. Since it was a trauma ward, it was mainly filled with old people who had had falls. Firstly, I noticed that the majority were widows - I knew men had a shorter life expectancy, but this was physical proof. All these lonely old women, and it would be even worse for me because we have no children. I got very scared about being left on my own. So, I made my first life-choices:
- I made John promise he wouldn't die before me.
- I promised myself I would not follow the usual south-of-England habit of being totally insular - wherever we eventually live in France you can bet we'll join all the clubs and societies we can and actually talk to the neighbours.
It's the quality not the quantity of life that matters
So from now on I'm going to make absolutely sure I get the quality right. And that brings me full circle to my first post on life-choices. All those things I have been meaning to do but not getting round to, and starting another chapter of my life over which I have total (virtually, not counting the lack of money!) control.
So roll on tomorrow. . . life's going to be sooo good.
Monday, 28 March 2011
Life Changing Experiences - Part 1
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| Who is this suave man? |
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| My first ever birthday cake |
I'm 60 now - that's a life changing experience if ever there was one. But not in a bad sense. I LOVE being 60, not least of all because it was a good excuse for a party, and a party important enough that many of my friends made the effort to come along, including ones I hadn't seen for 20+ years (yes, that's you Ann). What a great time we had. It was slightly marred for me because I couldn't do my little 'turn' on the keyboards accompanied by John. My broken arm just didn't heal quickly enough to allow me enough practice. Still, it did get me back to playing again - there's always a silver lining. And the band were as good as ever - even with Chris bashing away on the drums louder than ever! He says you cannot change the volume with the drums, but he sure gets louder as the night wears on.
********
Unfortunately, due to the parsimonious government, turning 60 wasn't as lifechanging an occasion as I'd hoped. Thanks to sex equality (men and women should retire at the same age - and obviously not the lower age), I don't actually get my pension until January 2012, so can't give up work until then, or we sell our UK house, whichever comes first. Given the state of the property market I don't think we're going to be lucky enough to get a quick sale, so it looks like next year is the earliest I can retire.
However, since it's down to below 12 months, I can plan and that's most of the fun. When everything slots in place it will be totally life-changing - we'll be living in France, and able to spend whole days 'pottering' around doing things we like and not feeling guilty. My brother-in-law took early retirement and went on a course on how to prepare/cope. The key thing I took from his description, was to make a list of all the things you want to do, but just don't have the time to do. Then make sure you work your way through the list. So far my list has been in my head, and several pages long, but now I'm actually going to put in down in black and white (and no doubt constantly add to it). Here's a start as at 28 March 2011:
- Play the keyboards more proficiently
- Learn more about astronomy (possibly take a degree in it)
- Become more conversant with the formation of the universe - particularly the different theories about the Big Bang
- Actually read the books we have in the library
- Keep chickens and possibly pigs
- Definitely keep goats (think of all that goats cheese, and those goat curries!)
- Grow more food and herbs
- In particular, to have an orchard of English apples in France
- Make pickles & chutneys
- Grow olives and make up lots of flavoured olives
- Scan all my cooking recipes and put them into a database
- Scan all our photos
- Scan and save all the CDs
- Travel more in Europe
.... well, that's a start. I think I'll continue at another time.
Going back to life-changing experiences, though, planning for a totally new life is really exciting, and I find myself just sitting in the chair grinning like a cheshire cat at time. Just because we will have a blank sheet ready to write on anything we fancy. Now that's EXCITING!
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Novacon 40
Just got back from Nottingham and, as usual, feeling energised to get on with some fannish stuff. Unfortunately this feeling doesn't usually last long enough to actually result in something concrete, but I've decided that from this time forward THINGS WILL CHANGE.
That's what I wrote on Monday when we got back home, now it's Thursday and I'm only just getting on with it.
In the 'old' days, I always used to define a successful con as one where I:
Novacon 40 met 2 out of 3 of these criteria, so I count it as a success. I definitely met up with old friends - it was great to see Chris Priest & Chris Evans again, though the latter didn't hang around for nearly long enough for my liking; to meet up again with Randy Byers was an unexpected surprise and Novacons just wouldn't be the same without Lennart . I didn't develop any acquaintanceships, but having bemoaned the fact that Novacons just don't seem to be bringing in the newer fans, I was proved wrong!
The most surprising occurrence at the con, though, had nothing to do with other people, but with my and John's earlier incarnations. On the freebie fanzine table on the last night I found a copy of Wallbanger 2. Knowing I was missing one copy, but not of which issue, I decided to take this one, and then I started reading it. That was really strange, because it didn't feel like me at all. I think I need to get re-acquainted with this person purporting to be related to me and see if I can track the differences. I always thought in the early days of our fanzine activity that we were deemed too 'nice' for the KTF times we were living in, but perhaps my memory is mistaken.
And John was downright rude in his fanzine reviews. That just didn't feel right somehow, John is NEVER rude... Still, we were obviously different people then.
The zine also contained an article by the greatly missed Rob Holdstock, which I've attached it here for everyone's delectation.
Rob Holdstock article
In the intro to the article, I explained that I was asking various 'famous' authors whether and why they are still fans. Don't know if I understand Rob's answer even today - was he being satirical, or serious? Unfortunately it's now too late to ask.
One thing that I do remember which appears to be true, is how very active we were at those times - I was doing Wallbanger, and we were editing Matrix and we were doing the BSFA printing as well. We were young! It's a different situation now, though things are changing. Having ducked out of doing anything for some time (well, not since Eastercon 2003 and Worldcon 2007) we have now put our names in the hat for doing publications for next Novacon! Well, at least that job is over by the time the convention starts!
Only time will tell if this was a good idea - but at least we made it whilst sober.
That's what I wrote on Monday when we got back home, now it's Thursday and I'm only just getting on with it.
In the 'old' days, I always used to define a successful con as one where I:
- Met up with old friends
- Developed a previous acquaintance into a close friend
- Met some new acquaintances.
Novacon 40 met 2 out of 3 of these criteria, so I count it as a success. I definitely met up with old friends - it was great to see Chris Priest & Chris Evans again, though the latter didn't hang around for nearly long enough for my liking; to meet up again with Randy Byers was an unexpected surprise and Novacons just wouldn't be the same without Lennart . I didn't develop any acquaintanceships, but having bemoaned the fact that Novacons just don't seem to be bringing in the newer fans, I was proved wrong!
The most surprising occurrence at the con, though, had nothing to do with other people, but with my and John's earlier incarnations. On the freebie fanzine table on the last night I found a copy of Wallbanger 2. Knowing I was missing one copy, but not of which issue, I decided to take this one, and then I started reading it. That was really strange, because it didn't feel like me at all. I think I need to get re-acquainted with this person purporting to be related to me and see if I can track the differences. I always thought in the early days of our fanzine activity that we were deemed too 'nice' for the KTF times we were living in, but perhaps my memory is mistaken.
And John was downright rude in his fanzine reviews. That just didn't feel right somehow, John is NEVER rude... Still, we were obviously different people then.
The zine also contained an article by the greatly missed Rob Holdstock, which I've attached it here for everyone's delectation.
Rob Holdstock article
In the intro to the article, I explained that I was asking various 'famous' authors whether and why they are still fans. Don't know if I understand Rob's answer even today - was he being satirical, or serious? Unfortunately it's now too late to ask.
One thing that I do remember which appears to be true, is how very active we were at those times - I was doing Wallbanger, and we were editing Matrix and we were doing the BSFA printing as well. We were young! It's a different situation now, though things are changing. Having ducked out of doing anything for some time (well, not since Eastercon 2003 and Worldcon 2007) we have now put our names in the hat for doing publications for next Novacon! Well, at least that job is over by the time the convention starts!
Only time will tell if this was a good idea - but at least we made it whilst sober.
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Getting old
After a gap of over 5 years, there we were back at The Roundhouse for the second time in a week on 18th October to see Steve Winwood (thanks Harry for the reminder that I'd forgotten to mention him!).
Waiting in the bar for the doors to open (where else would you wait?) I looked over the rest of the audience, and it happened again - just like when we went to see The Blues Band - the rest of the audience seemed SO old! The trouble is, so are we. There I was thinking we were so 'with it' still going to gigs, and the reality is that we're as old as that audience, all of us still following our favourites from the 1970s.
Looking over the standing audience on the ground floor, it looked like a Grecian 2000 salesman's dream!
When we sat down I was really pleased with the positioning:
"Hey John, it's great I can see the whole stage - the pillars are only blocking the view of the keyboards p.. l ..a ..y ..e.. r . . . . . . aah, do you think he'll play the keyboards ALL night?"
The gig? It was good, but for me it was too jazz rock. Way too many jazz-style solos.
Below there might be a short video if I can ever get it to upload. . .
Life at the moment seems to be concentrating on making me feel age. At Novacon this weekend (there will be a separate post on the convention) Doug Bell referred to joining our table in the bar (John, me, Mike & Pat Meara and Graham Charnock) as 'visiting the 70's table' Bad enough if he was referring to us as 70's fandom, but I've just thought he might have been referring to our age! No, surely not.
And then there's John, who should know better, but still let slip that when I collect my next prescription on Tuesday, that will be the last one I have to pay for.
Excuse me while I go off into a corner and cry a little.
Monday, 18 October 2010
Metropolis and coincidences
It's quite 'fun' to be back at work again. Not least it's all change with a new boss, the departure of an old boss and a new location within the building. Which Roman general was it who made the comment about constantly being moved/rearranged? Incisive seems to follow that plan, I've been here since June 2008 and have moved 6 times over 3 floors!
Anyway, it was good to see Julie again. She told me that she'd been to the Prince Charles cinema (just round the corner from our offices at Piccadilly) to see a restored version of Metropolis. Not a science fiction fan, she still thought it was excellent and 'iconic'. This took me by surprise - not that she should like Metropolis, but that she should have seen it so recently. Only the day before John had mentioned that they were showing the film at The Roundhouse with a live orchestra. (Mind you, showing it with a dead orchestra would have been a bit silly.) What a coincidence!
"Do you fancy seeing it again?" "Yes, that would be awesome."
So I bought tickets for the next evening (the last evening) and off we went.
What a performance! John and I reckoned it must have been at least 25 years since we'd seen it, so I had forgotten most of the storyline apart from the obvious clips. I was on the edge of my seat for most of the second half, due in great part to the emotive nature of the live orchestra.
If anyone is reading this, and you get the chance to see it with live orchestra - GO! And the reconstruction with the new bits they found in 16mm in S.America makes the whole film hang together so much better than its disjointed predecessor.
There were only 2 downers
Anyway, it was good to see Julie again. She told me that she'd been to the Prince Charles cinema (just round the corner from our offices at Piccadilly) to see a restored version of Metropolis. Not a science fiction fan, she still thought it was excellent and 'iconic'. This took me by surprise - not that she should like Metropolis, but that she should have seen it so recently. Only the day before John had mentioned that they were showing the film at The Roundhouse with a live orchestra. (Mind you, showing it with a dead orchestra would have been a bit silly.) What a coincidence!
"Do you fancy seeing it again?" "Yes, that would be awesome."
So I bought tickets for the next evening (the last evening) and off we went.
What a performance! John and I reckoned it must have been at least 25 years since we'd seen it, so I had forgotten most of the storyline apart from the obvious clips. I was on the edge of my seat for most of the second half, due in great part to the emotive nature of the live orchestra.
If anyone is reading this, and you get the chance to see it with live orchestra - GO! And the reconstruction with the new bits they found in 16mm in S.America makes the whole film hang together so much better than its disjointed predecessor.
There were only 2 downers
- They wouldn't let us take our bottle of wine upstairs where we were sitting so had to decant it into large plastic glasses which meant the white wine warmed up very quickly.
- The seats in the circle at The Roundhouse are INCREDIBLY uncomfortable.
Such is life - we're going there again tonight to see Stevie Winwood, but hopefully we'll be up and dancing so the lack of padding on the seats won't be so much of a feature.
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