Saturday 27 June 2009

Pub?


Pub. It has to be one of the best three letter words in the English language, closely followed by Sex, and occasionally in that order. It's such a beautiful day today that I've spent the afternoon in front of a computer, writing long and important emails and looking out of the window at the clear blue sky, listening to the sounds of the seagulls, swifts and some bloke who thinks we all want to listen to him wailing along to his guitar. All of which makes me want to be in a pub garden, drinking pints of shandy and eating crisps. And so I'm sat here briefly blogging...


This is from the garden of the Red Lion in Swanage, drawn in chalk on the wall in the kids play area. We have 10 pubs, I think, and The Red Lion is one my favourites, along with The Black Swan, The Anchor in the winter, The Ship when I want loud music, and the others when my friends are in those... This picture makes me think of hot summer afternoons when a long drink is in order before a few pints of ale... here's the Red on a map.



Monday 15 June 2009

Where is he from, Uranus?

I watched ET with my kids on Saturday. I hadn't watched it since I was 12 and they'd never seen it before, being only 5 and 7. We all loved it, and I'd never realised what a great film it was in many more ways than I'd appreciated as a child. I'd never noticed the child-like perception of adults, where the only recognised adult is Mary, the mother, important to the children, and everyone else is seen only in part until they intrude upon the reality of Elliot and ET and impose their significance. I'd forgotten too how influential it was to me - I remembered having toys but had forgotten how it influenced my cycling style! Both my boys want to do jumps like on ET now. I'd also forgotten the use of the phrase 'penis breath' which I hope to hear my kids using real soon...

I wanted to write about this as it reminded me that I had an 'alien' love landscape picture to put up here - I'm sure I've seen this style of street art in a book before, but that was a book about Berlin and this was taken in Barcelona. It's a lovely textural piece, cut from flock wallpaper and stuck on the smooth metal side of a news-stand. It was on La Rambla, probably the busiest street in the city - amazing that somebody had the time to get this stuck up here without getting caught.

I found it after eating at a vegan cafe around the corner and I was feeling really positive about the memory. It's been spoilt now because as I type I have the news on and there are reports about a baby deer being stamped to death by some teenage boys in Upton Country Park in Poole, too close to Swanage. No doubt they were high on KFC and Maccy-D and too meated up to have any empathy left for something helpless on the ground. Really depressing. No more depressing that the millions of animals that will be killed today in the name of food, but really depressing nonetheless.

Sunday 7 June 2009

Sun, Sea & Sagrada Familia

Was it last year I went to wet Wales, sunny Spain and New York too? Seems like another lifetime, though my carbon guilt hasn't faded. For the past few weeks Vick and I have been discussing holidays, checking cheap flights from Bournemouth (not too far to drive, so better for the environment!) and then deciding to either stay in this country this year or play it by ear if the summer's as bad as the last two.

We've been spoilt by the experience of foreign travel and now we expect so much from a trip away. We crave the exotic, the unfamiliar language, the daily joy of finding vegan food where we'd least expect it, and the warmth - warm air, warm sea. Our experiences of travelling in the UK have been generally good too, but listen - we live in a seaside resort. It doesn't get better than this! Actually, it does, but you get my drift, I'm sure. We live with the sea on our doorstep, and it's wonderful, but we do feel the urge every so often (and as often as possible) to go abroad. This year, France may beckon, travelling by car. We'll see...

This picture is one that I absolutely love. Taken at La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the astonishing cathedral designed by Gaudi and still under construction - absolutely breathtaking within and without and certainly worth the wait to ascend the towers. I was amazed to find at the base of the lift, almost as you exit the building, a wall of graffiti, all hearts and names. I don't know whether the guards are just slack at guarding or whether they accept that visitors have a desire to leave their name on a wall and they'd prefer it to be all in one place, but the hearts at least are all drawn or scratched in haste so perhaps all the work is seruptitious. The accompanying photograph is a detail of the large brass doors nearby. The doors feature polished parts which are representative of aspects of Christian faith, though I'm not entirely certain who or what this face represents as it glows amidst the dark tarnished brass. It looks to me like the face of an angel.

The Sagrada Familia is here, and if you've never been, devote a day to it. Not sure of the most carbon friendly way to visit, but if you're feeling flush, a train down through France would be nice...