Baggage

I am not a good traveller. I resent the time taken to get to the destination, and am happier staying in and around my hometown which, happily, has everything I need and things that I don't need also.

I have travelled to different parts of the world, on holiday, and to live, (Iceland, Hong Kong, America, Luxembourg, France) and drawing on past experience conclude that I am very much the Cancerian part of my astrology, being born on the cusp of the signs, the 22nd July.  Cancer being crab-like, carries its home on its back, its home is also a protective shell, a comfort zone, a haven, and I actively try to find the positive and beauty in the nearness and normality of things all around us.

This morning, for the second day, I drove to the Oxford Science Park, 16 miles distance, to attend a training course. As I queued in the traffic jam exiting the A34 I tried not to become frustrated behind the wheel of my car which was seemingly going nowhere for minutes on end.  I did get there, and so did 1000 other cars I must have seen this morning.  And although the training course was good, and the travelling a necessary evil, I did wonder how those other commuters coped with their journeys day after day.

I have been a commuter before and it doesn't sit well with me.  It's something I avoid if possible so my conscious is clear on the eco-warrior front:  car pollutants, fossil-fuel consumption, and not best use of time.  But that's just my opinion, and sometimes opinions have to be sacrificed in the great scheme of things.

So, in the great scheme of things I have compromised my opinion, and am trying not to bring my travelling hang-ups, my baggage, on holiday with the family at Easter.  Obviously, I'll need to take luggage, but that's just a practicality. The baggage in my head has to be dealt with first, and once I've got over this hurdle, the trip to Vietnam will be a doddle.

Anyhoo, some housekeeping of the blog at this point. Here are a few photos taken when Phoebe had her French Exchange student staying with us earlier this month.  I'd love to have been there when she told her parents that we took her to see 'some stones'.  OK, the Avebury Stone Circle is also a World Heritage Site, but, they are still 'just' stones....

We were lucky with the weather and the children burned off some energy...

Fairly certain this was a Kestral as I watched it hovering before it moved off into this tree.

This one makes me think of a teapot with a broken spout.  I think it's the most oddly shaped stone of them all.

Right ho. Positive mindset. I've just finished reading 'H is for Hawk' by Helen MacDonald - the prizewinning autobiography of how she came to terms with the grief of the sudden death of her father by training a Goshawk called Mabel.  A fantastically well written book, her prose takes you into the depth of the English countryside leading the way with a naturists eye for detail. Reading it felt comfortably enveloping, like you were in the copse with her attuned to the sound of the twigs breaking underfoot, or could feel the wind on your skin like she did on the hilltops when flying Mabel for rabbits.  I can't do it justice here, and would recommend you read it if you're at all interested in birds of prey - as she also takes you into the world of TH White and his experiences training a Gos in the 1930s.

On that note I'll make note to self to pop along to the main library to collect my reservation of 'The Goshawk' by TH White, to see why it was so influential.

Night night y'all.  Kat  :)
I've just finished reading 

Top ten gigs man .... final part

I've lost my list.  When I started this top ten I wrote down every music event that I could remember, in order to make sense of it all.  Some details must have fallen by the wayside as my braincells have aged and died, but they say the memories are stored somewhere, so perhaps it's just the retrieval process that fails me.

Anyhow, I've a few more bands to list, and maybe the names will be familiar to you, but where they stand in my list may surprise you.

I've seen the punk poet John Cooper Clark several times, usually as support to someone else, but once, perfectly, in the upstairs room of a small pub in Clitheroe (Lancashire).  He is a likeable performer, with his stick thin legs encased in black drainpipe jeans, winkle picker boots, black jacket and mad professor black hair.  I love the intimacy of a small gig but this particular evening however I was feeling rueful, as the French boy had chosen to see JCC over my double-booked pair of tickets to Echo and the Bunnymen, which I gave to my sister (she may have paid me) instead.  John Cooper Clark, up there, but not top ten, sorry pal.

When I moved to Twickenham in the early 1990s band going moved up a gear.  Not in a frenzied way, but the availability of bigger name bands was there at the end of train ride into London.  We saw Squeeze a couple of times, once at The Royal Albert Hall, which is a splendid venue and included here because whilst having a quick drink in the pub for students only(?) beforehand we noticed a motley crew downing their drinks quite quickly.  Once inside the Hall and watching the gig we spotted a couple of the drinkers on stage, playing backing instruments quite happily and competently considering how 'thirsty' they'd been beforehand.  However, this lineup, whilst having Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook at this time lacked Jools Holland.  So again, close but no banana.  Sorry Squeeze.

Jools Holland and His Big Band, and now His Orchestra have entertained us both indoors and outdoors.  One indoors gig was memorable because the seats we were given were behind a pillar, thus obscuring our view of the proceedings.  Can't remember which venue it was now.  Outdoors, we've seen him a couple of times at Kew Gardens in the summer, and more recently we took Phoebe, aged about 10, to see him perform down somewhere near Henley way.  He's a brilliant entertainer, who appears to be enjoying the proceedings as much as the audience, and his supporting artists are always very good.  I especially like Ruby Turner, there's a good rapport, and fabulous voice.

We saw U2 play at Roundhay Park in Leeds in 1993.  They had the trabant car hanging from the stage set, and although outdoors, and must have been 20-30,000 attendance the show was spectacular, and the sound epic.  As was the 3 hour traffic jam trying to leave the car-park afterwards.  So whilst a great gig, not in my top ten for all round experience.  I think I wrote a letter of complaint to Leeds Council about the shambles of lack of organisation for the after-effects of the gig.  Downer man.

We travelled to Paris to see The Rolling Stones play Stade de France in the late 1990s.  Felt sure they were on their final tour, and would all have died by now.  What do I know?  Again, great show, great venue, well organised, but too many people to make this to my top ten - our tickets were so far away from the stage that the Stones were about the height of my thumb....nail.  Teeny tiny Rolling Stones, teeny tiny 11th place so, not in my top ten.

In my top ten, at number 9 is Robbie Williams.  This was 1998 or 1999 maybe.  He'd released 2 solo albums and was headline-grabbingly popular.  Tickets to his UK gigs(?) were sold out, but we managed, via Simon's father, who lived in France, to get 2 tickets to see him in Paris.  Ah, thank you Wikipedia, 13 September 1999, Paris, France, Zenith de Paris. This was one of the best gigs of my life.  Capacity stated on the website is 6293 seated, and we were standing, I don't think they'd anticipated the ticket sales and had a smaller capacity for that night.  Anyhoo, at one point in the evening he started speaking in French, and asked how many people were there from France, and about 10 people said 'Oui', and he asked who'd come from England, and the roar was deafening.

He sang 'Let me Entertain You' like his life depended on it, and his naughty boy charisma touched every soul in the house that night, and for the first time in my life, aged 34 years and in front of my husband, I screamed like some teenage girl from the Beatles era, like every woman and girl there, like my chest would explode if I didn't and like I've never done since.  We sang Angels to him, he just stood there, basking in the adulation, and he deserved it.  He entertained us like a star from the music halls with an incredible work ethic, but there was something in the air that night that was indefinable, intangible and absolutely magical.  I'd see him again, there and then in a heartbeat.  One perfect night, Robbie Williams, I thank you.

New Order don't make it to the top ten.  Can't say why.  I've seen them half a dozen times and loved their music forever.  I've travelled to Birmingham NEC to see them, and seen them in smaller University Campus gigs in their earlier days as well.

But, first seen at Lancaster University, and loved ever since, and in the last spot of my all time top ten gigs man, is.... James.  Just a brilliant live act, who grew and matured into a stadium filling name, but who lost none of their capacity to energise and fill a room/venue with a positive vibe, a feel good factor, a join in the fun feeling, with fantastic lyrics and a mad as a hatter front man in Tim Booth.  I must have seen them half a dozen times, lastly and most recently was their farewell gig at Wembley Arena in 2001, when they were joined on stage by Brian Eno.  They reunited in 2007, and are still touring, so if the opportunity arose I'd be more than happy to see them again.  I remember being in the Arena crowd and feeling a solidarity with everyone, a sadness to see them go but glad to be there to share the experience.  They were and are brilliant, and I'm still a fan.

So my top ten gigs, in no particular order are:

Nina Simone, Joan Armatrading, The Smiths, The Fall, Eek-a-Mouse, Bhundu Boys, Darts, Public Enemy, James and Robbie Williams.

Thanks for the memories.  Happy with that.

Night y'all,

Kat  :)