Firstly, the movie ‘describing’ my September visit to Mr Partridge in London. All of course shot on a basic Sony PAS camera and edited in MovieMaker. Limited material has been configured into the definitive poetic impression of my short but enjoyable trip.
It is starting to feel a lot more autumnal today, the light is changing subtly and becoming more ethereal. I must endeavour to be active with my camera(s) over the coming weeks and have a few ideas for out door light painting stuff as well as some more moody black and white landscapes. Once we get more fully into the season of long afternoon shadows, the “chiaroscuro season” as I call it, I think I will also make some B&W movies up in the top fields. Been experimenting with a red filter on the Sony W50 with camera in B&W mode and it does make a dramatic enhancement to contrast and sky detail.
The house move business is gradually grinding to a halt now, as both of my desired properties in Bolli have been sold. If I am going to move at all it is more likely to be next year but by that time all of my financial problems should have been sorted anyway. I’m still quite loathed to move away from Prestbury; it seems like an odd thing to do.
Me and Mark on Hampstead Heath.
Just returned from a brief but very enjoyable trip to London to visit Mark P. This was also my first ride on a Virgin Pendolino train, rather surprising considering that they run just a few hundred yards from my doorstep. The journey was very comfortable and fast! In fact, we were in Euston not long after I finished my can of Heineken. It is still a far cry from the days of the Manchester Pullman though, gently rattling china cups and cutlery on a white linen table cloth, the smell of real coffee percolating and at-table service from stewards dressed in smart white and blue uniforms. We didn’t have an awful lot of time to do things and I also came down with a nasty soar throat and a bit of a mild fever not long after arriving. Despite this we did manage to get over to Camden market which is truly amazing. It’s funny but when I visit other people I seem to eat so much better, either it is because my acquaintances have mastered the art of fine cuisine or simply because there is more on offer. The food from the stalls in Camden market is amazing and there is so much choice, much better for a take away than anything up here that’s for sure.
Some of the gorgeous grub on offer at Camden Market, Mark and I had the dhal (bottom right) with pilau rice.
Mark and I also went up onto Hampstead Heath and some videography and photography was undertaken on Parliament Hill.
Still not sure about proposed house move, other options have been mooted by interested parties but not so sure about these either. Last I heard the one and only place I would want / could afford in the Bollington / Kerridge area was under offer, I wouldn’t be surprised if it has now been sold unfortunately.
Here we are again, almost at the end of another year and yet, as ever, I just feel as though I have gone full circle and returned to a starting point of sorts, all grand designs on the new frontier seem to have gone a little awry this year. Maybe it has been daned in the stars (or what ever) that 2006 will be my year of “self-seeking” success and proper fulfillment, a time of revelations and possibly revolutions too no less. I’m definitely steering well clear of nonsense and tripe in 2006 that’s for sure; see previous entries. Yes indeed, I do really want to try to abate the trend for seemingly endless repetitions on this weblog too! I think I will also have to revise my theory on the prospect of odd numbered years being luckier than even numbered ones. Suffice to say that I do actually feel quite happy at long last, free to be myself, and again I’m calling the shots—hurrah!
I’m not quite so sure how this festive season is going to pan out yet, but it is more than likely to be a two date itinerary at best and definitely erring on the side of low key activities. A no money situation is partly to blame here though one does have to admit that the onset of a ‘certain age’ and the propensity to eccentric reclusion is not really conducive to social whirling; I’m in slow spin mode this year. Anyway, twirling hurts if you have a lot going on in ya head. One of my local establishments is doing an Irish themed New Years night complete with five piece Irish band—that will do me fine. Christmas day is the usual round of ineffectual “middle-class” chatter and jovial idealism with my jolly brother and sister-in- law and always culminating with a very good nosh/piss up so that in a nutshell will have to suffice.
Sometimes I feel compelled to use expletives in these writings for various emotive reasons, but I have to remember that my normal and quite robust Northern English vocabulary is not really appropriate to this website as a consequence of an incoming link from my local church. I am very happy for that mind, even as an agnostic, some would say Neo Pagan (which in fact I am) but dash it all sometimes I really want to fire off some high quality high impact cus words tha’ knows!
Many years ago Mark sent a burn of Pinback’s ‘Blue Screen Life’ CD, and for some reason which now totally defies comprehension this outstanding indie-rock trio seemed to go unnoticed. Recently I discovered it again, lost amongst a substantial collection, I’m now totally enamoured with the band and they are enjoying joint first place with Stereolab. I sent a copy to Kaz last week and she loved it too. I don’t know of any other outfit that sound quite like ‘Pinback’ though there are passing hints of vintage ‘Cure’ in those delectable baritone guitar sounds and very odd tonalities which are somehow wonderfully mellifluous in a very distinctive way. The band have perfected the art of semi heavy subtly in a way that the likes of the Chili Peppers could only dream of and now I know I have to get ‘Summer in Abaddon’. But how the hell can you improve on the perfection of ‘BSL’, apparently ‘SIA’ does—it must be something very special!!
Cycling mileage note to self: 5,362.4