March 2005 Archives
I've had a satisfying evening downloading my February and March photos from my Canon Ixus V, sorting them out into folders and uploading selected collections to fotopic:
- Tower42, blue skies and backlit clouds
- Valentine's Day Pasties, by Phil
- Sunny views - Farringdon, Smithfield, Barbican
- Barbican in the snow
- Snowing in Camomile Street
- Good bye Copper Grill, Sayonara Salon Yamamoto
- Spitalfields, old and new - including the noted house for paper bags, and Dino's cafe
- Dad's birthday weekend at Forty Acres - The new tree house, and walking to the Neville
- White wrapped office block, demolition in progress, Ropemaker Street / Chiswell Street / Moor Lane / Finsbury Street
- Easter weekend at Walton on the Naze (brrrr)
There's been a thread on Haddock today about not missing the chance to talk to your grandparents about their lives while they are still alive, and taping these conversations to capture that family history for posterity.
It reminded me of the tape that my dad sent out to me in the US when Hazel and I were on our round the world travels of a recording my mum had made at a family do back in the 80s when we tried to get her mum, Nana Helen, to reminisce (sp) about her life. It wasn't particularly successful on the family-history-as-told-by-nan front because she felt too self-conscious about talking near the tape recorder with everyone around, but it brilliantly captures a Print-Trumper-Tapp family afternoon of chaos at Uncle Norman's. That alone got me welling up when I first heard the tape again, and thinking about it now, out of the family that were there then and whose voices the tape holds all the grandparents and half the parents have since died.
It also got the thinking, that the next time the family gathers at dad and Jean's we should direct Barney and Rosa's regular demands to "Tell me about naughtly things you/daddy did when you were young" onto the older generation.....
... and I'd like to think that when we are 'the older generation', the youngsters will be able to mooch around here to see what was happeing in my life, and what I was like/doing/feeling from my mid-30s on.
Neil and I went to Foyles to listen to Tom Stafford and Matt Webb talk about their Mind Hacks, as documented in their O'Reilly book. A fun and relaxed talk, with several DIY tests to show you that you can carry out experiments that teach you more about cognitive science.... cool!
'I'll show you mine...', Phil's article on Flickr, appeared on the BBC website today.....
.... as did this 'E-mail is under-used in politics' technology article, which has WriteToThem as a related link.
I'm a very proud girlfriend and sister.
Phil and I went to see 5x2 this evening... I like modern french films, and the Barbican's 3 cinemas (count 'em!) are soooooooo handy. So handy in fact that Phil wore his sandals there!!
What did I think? The concept worked well - 5 scenes from a couple's life, workng back from their divorce to the start of their relationship. I didn't particularly enjoy the early scenes - they felt too much like things were on the edge of violence, which made them good, strong scenes, and made the later scenes, dealing with the couple's history, all the more effective.
and I hardly thought about work at all!
*and* we have Monday's ER to watch on the vid while we have tea too!!
I'm mooching around websites that are produced using the various content management systems NR are looking at, and on the Cathay Pacific website I spotted their Viewing tips link at the foot of the page..... and I think it is a really nice, general user-oriented page of information. One to remember....
Something to look forward to - a week in Provence over my birthday.
We booked return tickets (Waterloo - Lille Europe - Avignon) on the Eurostar and TGV yesterday, for a grand total of £109 each (I'd expected more, but then again it's more expensive than a cheap budget airline flight, and than a comparably long train journey in the UK, eg London - Aberdeen).
And today Phil's confirmed a booking for a double room at the Hotel d'Angleterre, a family run, Logis de France hotel in central Avignon with WiFi in every room!!! Phil's in seventh heaven at the prospect (of WiFi), as I am (at the prospect of a holiday, in France)
Rach came to stay last night, and we had a great evening gassing away about life, the universe, Frankfurt, jobs and..... Moscow!!
Yes, more than a decade after spending 6 months there as part of her degree (and when Ruth and I went to visit after our 3rd year finals) Rachel Graham's heading back east! She's got a job on The Moscow Times, and starts in the summer. Cor!
I've already put in my request for a trip on the Trans-Siberian-or-Mongolian once she's settled in :) Oooh look - you can take in the Ice Festival at Harbin....
So that's next year's holiday sorted!
Hmmmm, *maybe* I could combine it with a trip back westwards along the Silk Route....