Swim class number 4

Steve's torture hour. Yes, it was the same instructor from last week, and the same old routine. Last week it was breaststroke, this week crawl. As last week, we started with floats in our outstretched arms, and concentrated on the kick. Hips as high as possible, kick with the feet together just below the surface and ROTATE THOSE HIPS! My first two tries I was going nowhere fast. So my legs were tiring after only a couple of minutes. But after a rest, the next proved more fruitful, and I even had an "excellent" from Steve, so I must have been doing something right.

We then dispensed with floats, kicking off from the wall into a glide and kicking with arms outstretched. Seemed a little better. Onto using one arm outstretched, then the other, then one pull every eight kicks, then six kicks, then alternate arms every four kicks. I know what was going on, Steve was showing the breakdown of the technique before we were allowed to do a proper crawl, by which time 40 minutes had gone by. But by this time my legs were objecting, so technique goes out of the window. Some gentle breaststroke and with ten minutes left we were on to diving. After last weeks pathetic two attempts (my first ever) of a crouch dive, I did get in five this week. The last felt the best so far. I just need to get used entering the water head first before I can concentrate on the push off with the legs. Luckily Steve is away next week.

131 Songs - Numbers 4 and 5

Number 4 - The Fat Man by Fats Domino

The early fifties were marked by the transition of black American rhythm and blues into white rock and roll, led by Bill Haley and the Comets. There are a number of black artists who pioneered rhythm and blues, from Muddy Waters to Little Richard. But for me, Fats Domino was the greatest. Even Little Richard wanted to sound like him. The Fat Man, released in 1950, was his first hit record, and predates many of his contemporaries. It may be cruder than his subsequent, and probably better successes from incredibly four years later of Ain't that a Shame, Blueberry Hill and, what was almost my first pick, the little known Let the Four Winds Blow, but the sheer power of his dominant piano sounds like he was teaching the world how a few basic chords can get you on your feet. When you think that Bill Haley and Elvis were unknown before 1953/4, Fats may have been the first to make the transition from blues to the raw sound of rock and roll. I cannot think of anyone else.

Number 5 - Roll Over Beethoven by Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry often covered the songs of his idol Muddy Waters. But his moulding of rhythm and blues with rock and roll brought much bigger success than his idol. There are just too many great songs to pick from. Maybellene was his break through record in 1955 when he was signed by Chess records. And Chuck was still composing fabulous songs in 1964 such as No Particular Place to Go, and two songs that also make it onto my list. Promised Land appears later under a section of favourite cover versions, and You Never Can Tell in those from movies. But going back to Roll Over Beethoven, recorded in 1956, it obviously inspired groups like The Beatles who used it on their second LP, and the Rolling Stones who also made a cover version. I saw Chuck in concert at what was then the Odeon (now Apollo) Hammersmith, and as I said in a previous posting, ".... in May 1964 by the best rock and roll show ever with Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins. They were supported by new British groups such as The Nashville Teens (Tobacco Road had not yet entered the charts), The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Animals. Wikipedia confirms they played their version of House of the Rising Sun on their tour with Chuck Berry in May 1964 but did not release a recording until a month later. I can still remember what a great job they did with Alan Price on keyboards." And I now have the programme, courtesy of eBay.

Romola Garai

The four episodes of Emma on the BBC were a delight, particularly for a fabulous performance from Romola Garai in the title roll. She has a magnetism I cannot recall from any actress for a long time. Her first major film role in I Capture the Castle in 2003 impressed the critics, and she has gone from strength to strength.

I was lucky enough to see Romola in two RSC productions in 2007, playing Cordelia opposite Ian McKellen's King Lear, and as Nina in The Seagull. Then came Atonement where I thought she gave the best performance.

I had hoped that Emma would go on for ever, but I will have to make do with her starring in the forthcoming film Glorious 39, written and directed by one of my favourites, Stephen Poliakoff. Roll on November. I have just seen the trailer on You Tube.

A Chilterns Autumn Weekend

My favourite walk for a Friday afternoon is at the reservoirs and canals at Marsworth, where British Waterways have a good size car park and stoned footpaths. A walk here on a Friday afternoon always reminds me how lucky I am to be retired and enjoy the outdoors. The canal was particularly picturesque as the sun showed dazzling reflections in the water.

Saturday was wet, so in the morning we went to Milton Keynes shopping. Quite successful, mainly adding to the profits of M&S. Coffee and a toasted sandwich in Thortons was very nice.

Sunday was another sunny morning, so my camera and I headed for the Ridgeway out of Wendover. The beech avenue at Boswells Farm, looking towards the Amersham Road, was quite spectacular.

Up into the woods, the views were equally colourful. After some cold nights, the mild weather of the last couple of days has made this one of the best autumns I can remember.

Swim class number 3

Aaaaahhhhhhhh. Our third instructor in three weeks. It gets even harder. When Steve said it's breaststroke tonight, I thought good, an easy session. I could not have been more wrong. We started off with floats in our extended arms, and so we had to concentrate on the kick, keeping our hips as high as possible. Disposing of the floats, it was then one pull to three kicks working down to one pull and one kick. I thought that was it, but no. There is the glide. Steve wanted us to hold the glide for three or four seconds. I have to say that after a couple of lengths, it was improving my technique.

Then onto crawl. Again it was with floats to start, and just using the legs. I went nowhere. Apparently it's all about turning your hips and kicking like mad. To say this is tiring is an understatement. Maybe I should have done this twenty years ago. A couple of crouch dives at the end (my first ever attempt from a standing position), the first quite good, the second awful. As I write, it is beautiful blue sky outside, perfect for a walk. I just don't think I could get very far.

The Invention of Lying, Zombieland and Up

I guess with that face, Ricky Gervais always has to play the loser. So it is no surprise that is how he starts off in The Invention of Lying. Although there are quite a few funny moments, it is hard to make a full length movie out of one concept. So it is patchy and loses momentum half way through. For me, it is the songs in the second half which hold it together: Donovan's "Try and Catch the Wind", Supertramp's "Give a Little Bit" and ELO's "Mr Blue Sky".

I do not like movies that have a narrator, but this time I will make an exception. Zombieland shows what can be done with a brilliant script. In fact, the scenes with Zombies being dispatched are the only boring and repetitive parts of the movie. The rest is the relationship that build between the four characters, and this is so well done. That they only use their destinations as names, is a neat twist. Woody Harrelson is made for the part, and Jesse Eisenberg is convincing as narrator and lead. Ruben Fleisher directs with a flourish, and the set piece ending wraps up the film nicely. There is one cameo appearance, and that is also terrific. In the same league (and another romcomzom) as Shawn of the Dead, it was a great fun movie.

If it were not for the critical acclaim, I might have given Up a miss. I am glad that I didn't. It is a great piece of film making. Again it is the script that makes it so good. The characters are lovable, and the movie has a real emotional impact. It is just not necessary to see it in 3D. I'm glad I stuck to the standard format. You could see in the action sequences that these were made for 3D, and although they were well done, it was the relationship between Carl and Russell that makes the movie. Bring on an exotic bird and Dug the dog, there are plenty of laughs. Equally good as WALL-E, it is no surprise that it gets 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Family History - The 533

I have now traced 533 of my father's ancestors and their families and they are now all on the database of my Family Historian programme. There remain a few tasks for the future, but the list of individuals is complete as far as I can go. They have now been transferred to a folder which can be written to a CD with the following introduction:

Charles Augustus Roberts, the brother of my great Grandfather Vincent Littlewood Roberts, created a family tree in 1937 entitled "Genealogy of the family of Roberts of Sheffield". So the contents of this CD are not only the ancestors of my father, but also updates Charles' family tree with the descendants of Oliver Roberts of Wooldale born around 1496.For this, I am indebted to the book given to me by Sir Samuel Roberts of Cockley Clay called "Some Memorials of the Family of Roberts". This was originally written by his ancestor, Sir Samuel Roberts of Queens Tower in 1862 and distributed to family members including Grandfather Vincent. This was updated by the next two Sir Samuel Roberts and finally (and extensively) by Sir Peter Roberts in 1971. It was Sir Peter who, as he describes in the "Introduction Extended", made a special study of the area of Holmfirth and concludes "At Wooldale in the first half of the XV1 century lived two families; one, that of GEORGE ROBERTS, who died in 1568, and the other of OLIVER ROBERTS, who died in 1588. It is likely that both these families had a common ancestor in one OLIVER ROBERTS who was a farmer, and paid King's Subsidy on land worth £50 in 1524. I consider that it is beyond reasonable doubt that the said GEORGE ROBERTS is the progenitor of the present Roberts family".I also wish to give thanks to Chris Rathbone and Nigel Buchanan who have given me invaluable information.

I still have to create some family trees ( ancestor and descendant diagrams), and add some other material. The CD will then be available for distribution, and sometime I will put it all on a website. The modern equivalents to those described above.

I can then turn to my mother's ancestors, a far different proposition. No previous researches this time. If I get more than fifty ancestors and their families, I shall be doing well.

131 Songs - Number 3

No 3 Travellin' Light - Cliff Richard


This is only on the list for one reason. In October 1959, when I was fourteen, my family came into possession of it's first gramophone. It was very second hand and only played 78's. It may have been Nanan (again) who took my brother John and I to a nearby shop in Braintree to purchase our first two records. Cliff was No 1 in the charts at the time with Travellin' Light, so we chose this and his previous chart topper Living Doll. Both records are notable mainly for his backing group, originally known as The Drifters on the earlier record, they had to change their name for legal reasons to The Shadows for Travellin' Light.

I cannot remember any other 78's we bought, except for Lonnie Donegan's Battle of New Orleans, also from 1959. It wasn't long before I had my own tiny record player, again second hand, that would play 45's and LP's. That was when my record collection really started.

Tring Park in October

One of the best places in the Chilterns to see autumn colours is Tring Park, as the open parkland gives great views of the surrounding hills. I park in Tring, walk past the Natural History Museum, and take the footbridge over the A41 dual carriageway. You are greeted by the view above. At the top of the hill is the Ridgeway footpath.

It was deserted when I took this photo.

The Secret Scripture, A Most Wanted Man and December

I often search the bestseller lists for human dramas, and The Secret Scripture was there for some time. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and Costa Book of the Year, I had to give it the novel by Sebastian Barry a try. I have to say that despite the beautiful writing, the first half of the book was heavy going. Written from the alternating accounts of Roseanne McNulty, who is close to her one hundredth birthday, and her psychiatrist Dr Grene, the book picks up when Roseanne memories go from childhood into when she was a young woman. It then becomes a masterpiece of tragedy, and the revelations of a shocking secret lead to an uplifting conclusion. I am so glad I stuck with it.

Whenever I pick up a new novel by my favourite author, John Le Carre, I am strangely anxious that very soon it will be over and I will have to wait another two or three years for the next one. A Most Wanted Man is right up there with his best work. A great plot, the story is fuelled with superb characters on a collision course to the dramatic conclusion. I now don't have to wait for Le Carre's next book, I am picking up a couple of his earlier work that I may not have read.

I'm not sure why I went for December by Elizabeth H. Winthrop. It is about an eleven year old girl who has not spoken in nine months and the impact on her mother and father. Told from the alternating views of the three, the only good parts are surprisingly from those of young Isobel. Her father and mother are not particularly interesting or sympathetic. Nothing much happens, although at times absorbing, the writing carries you along to the inevitable conclusion.

My second swim class

It's all happening at the pool on a Thursday evening. I thought it was all going to be easy, improving my breaststroke. But then Tamzin suggested I might like to learn backstroke, something that I have never tried. It started with just kicking my legs furiously, trying to get movement from the hip and teaching me to relax my ankles. The first two times were hopeless, including getting cramp in my foot and then my thigh. After being ordered to do some stretching poolside, the next time felt so much better. I was actually getting some propulsion out of the leg movement. So I then had to try with my arms, but was stopped immediately and told it was little finger first. A couple of tries and was advised to wait until next week to try again.

On to crawl, and I now know I really need to slow down the stroke. Actually, it did seem a lot better when I did. It was nearing the end of the session, and the other three in my group were off practising diving at the other end. Eventually I decided it was time I joined them. I cannot remember the last time I tried a dive, so I had to start off with sitting on the edge. This was fine until I lost a contact lens. So that was that. But if I can learn backstroke and diving by Christmas, I shall be delighted.

131 Songs - Numbers 1 and 2

No 1 Rock Island Line - Lonnie Donegan


There could be no other place to start. It was on one of my first blog postings in May 2007 that I described my introduction to popular music, and American folk music in particular:
"When we lived in London in the 1950's, I can remember my brother and I being put in the care of the guard on the train from St Pancras to Rotherham to visit our grandmother (Nanan) in the summer holidays. She used to meet us at the station and take us to the semi on Wordsworth Drive. Still living at home with her were three uncles, all in their twenties. The youngest was Geoff and he was the one who owned "Rock Island Line" by Lonnie Donegan on a single 78 (rpm). During the day we were allowed to play this and an LP of Bill Haley's "Rock around the Clock". It was the single that I thought was magic, and it was played time and time again. It certainly has influenced my musical taste to this day. When Johnny Walker included requests in his Drivetime show on Radio 2, the four he played of mine started with "Rock Island Line"."

Rock Island Line was first recorded by Hudie Ledbetter (or Leadbelly) in the 1930's. Alan Lomax was collecting folk and blues numbers and on his travels with Hudie, heard this sung by a prison gang. Lonnie's recording is described on my posting in May this year:

"On July 13th 1954, Chris Barber and his jazz band went into the Decca studios in Maida Vale to record their first album. At the end of the session, they persuaded the producer to let them put down two "skiffle" numbers. With Chris on bass (quite a change from his usual trombone), Lonnie Donegan on guitar (He normally played banjo in the band) and Beryl Bryden on washboard, they recorded Rock Island Line and John Henry.
The album called "New Orleans Joys" was fairly popular. During the mid fifties, the band toured extensively, and the "skiffle" group always had a session in the middle. This was hugely popular and became quite notorious. This encouraged the record company to eventually release the two skiffle tracks from the album as a single in November 1955. By the following year, Rock Island Line had sold over 3 million copies and entered the top ten. John Lennon said he listened to it incessantly. He was not the only one. At my grandmothers in Rotherham, I must have worn out the 78. In my view, this was the first ever British guitar based popular/rock record. So July 13th 1954 is when it was born.
Early in 1956, Lonnie insisted he would not leave Chris Barber, and recorded more songs with him, even though later in the year he toured on his own in the USA. When he returned, his popularity was such, it was obvious he could not continue with the jazz band, and embarked on his successful solo career. In 1958, one of my favourite TV shows, "The Six-Five Special" (an early version of "Top of the Pops") was made into a movie, on of the first I saw at the cinema. Lonnie's Jack O'Diamonds was the highlight."

No 2 Only You - The Platters

This was the only other record I can remember listening to at Nanan's. Also released in 1955 ( this confirms my age at the time as ten or eleven), this was the first hit for the American vocal group. Composed by Buck Ram and Ande Rand, it's melody and harmony have stuck with me all these years.

Coming soon - 131 Songs

When I read Nick Hornby's 31 Songs, I thought that everyone should write about the songs that mean something to them. Each might reflect a moment in one's life, or just be a favourite piece of music. I could not limit my list to thirty one, but I am a lot older than Nick. Only one of his songs (from the Velvelettes) appears on my list, and it was only because he reminded me in his book what a great track it is. Four of his other of his favourite artists will also appear (Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne) but with different songs. So far I have one hundred and twenty eight on my list, so I'm sure by the end I will have found another three.

My first swimming lesson

I started swimming 24 years ago and have never had a lesson, until last week. I have improved my technique with the help of books. But now our pool has adult classes on a Thursday evening, I decided to give it a go, even though the course had been going a few weeks. Three teachers alternate between learners, improvers and advanced. I think I was in the final category of one, as my hour's session with Tim seemed to be on a one to one basis.

Apparently my breaststroke only needs some fine tuning. But crawl, which is not my favourite stroke, needs a lot of work. Although I didn't do many lengths during the session, I was absolutely shattered at the end. Something tells me the improvement will be slow and hard. I have booked for the remainder of the lessons which go on until the end of the year. Hopefully, by then, I might have even learnt how to do backstroke.

District 9, Surrogates and Pandorum

District 9 was all I hoped it would be and more. There have been a few comments about the holes in the plot, but who cares when you are watching such an original, clever and fun movie. A cast of newcomers always seems to help this type of film, and adequate as they are, it was all about the direction. The humour is always black, exactly as it should be, and the second half "man in peril" works in a highly novel way. I'm sure we shall hear a lot more of writer/director Neill Blomkamp.

They must have worked really hard on Bruce Willis to make him look forty years younger in Surrogates. All the other surrogates look equally young, good looking but sterile, typified by his wife played by Rosamund Pike. The only one who looks half human is Radha Mitchell who is always worth the admission alone. When the "real" Bruce Willis ventures out on his own, it is fun to watch his grizzled, ageing body being transported into DieHard territory. The movie? I thought it was entertaining and a good high tech thriller.

Reading the reviews of Pandorum, I thought there would be a cast of just two as Dennis Quaid (another actor worth the admission) and Ben Foster wake up on their spacecraft. How wrong I was. Elements from every movie ever made about a disaster in space have been shoehorned into this scifi thriller. Dark and noisy with very little plot, waking up after so may years with just an hour left to save the reactor seems just a little too far fetched, even for me.

Cornwall Holiday

It's September and our eighth successive visit to the National Trust property at Doyden outside Port Quin. And as usual we arrived on Friday to be greeted by beautiful sunshine. Not a bad journey down, 4 hours 45 minutes plus a stop at Taunton Deane for lunch. After unpacking. there was still time for a walk down to Port Quin and back.

Saturday was also sunny, so we went for our usual coast walk to Rumps. But this time we went further to Pentire Point. This was well worth it for the views to Padstow and the Camel Estuary, and particularly to Polzeath as the photo below. This is where we go bodyboarding.

Sunday was sunny again, so we did what we normally do. Alison runs from the house to Rock from where she gets the ferry to Padstow. I drive there and go for a bike ride down the Camel Trail to Wadebridge before meeting back at the car. We then have a wander around the resort and I have fish and chips at the Quayside cafe. We then walk up to the monument to sit on one of the many benches overlooking the harbour and across to Rock.

Monday started a little cloudy, so it was off to Polzeath for bodyboarding. We were at it for an hour and a half which was probably too long. Back to the apartment for a shower and rushed to Wadebridge to catch a late lunch at our favourite cafe called The Granary. My all day breakfast is always superb, as was Alison's bacon and sausage roll. Still cloudy, so we decided to take the car explore and explore the beaches to the south of Padstow. Harlyn Bay was £3.50 to park, so we went on to Constantine Bay. A walk along the almost deserted beach thinking how nice it would be if it had been sunny.

Tuesday was equally cloudy, so for a rest day after the exertions of yesterday, combined with the day we look for new places to see, we plumped for the National Trust property at Trerice. It was very quiet there, to the extent that we were the only ones in the cafe when we stopped for coffee and cake. We didn't go in the house, but the gardens were quite pretty.

The clouds refused to shift so we decided to see what Truro was like. We had forgotten it was a city, and so headed for the cathedral that is prominent from all around. As a relatively new building, it was quite impressive. We found a Costa Coffee in Waterstones, Alison visited Lush and it was time to head back. Calling in at the Porteath Bee Centre for some honey, as it is only a couple of miles from Doyden.

Wednesday was brighter and we took the car to Port Isaac. We had a lovely morning wandering around, especially a climb up the hill for the views.

The tide was out when we arrived so we were able to walk along the path to the sea wall (see above) where we climbed a ladder and walked along the top. We even had a baguette and coffee sitting on a bench just above the slipway. We needed to be back at the apartment in reasonable time to get out to dinner at Watergate bay, but we still had time to stop in Polzeath for a walk along the beach. We could have gone bodyboarding again, but we probably stayed too long the first time. We had a couple of hours to have a rest before we went out, but Alison decided on a run while I finished the latest John Le Carre novel.

We had booked a table at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant at Watergate Bay for 6.45pm. It was a set tasting menu, something that was new to us. We were the first diners to arrive, so we actually had a choice of tables next to the full height windows overlooking the bay. It was the most perfect view, particularly as it was a sunny evening and we able to watch a glorious sunset.

The menu looked fabulous and the food was excellent. After the bread and two tasters, there were two choices of the Insalata and Primi courses. These were so good, we had each selected a different choice so that was four that we each could try. We both had sea bass for the main course and a heavenly chocolate tart for desert. Even the coffee and Amedie chocolates were perfect. Some reviews had said that people left hungry, that was definitely not the case for us. It was a memorable experience, one we hope to repeat sometime.

Thursday. We always do the same thing on the last day. Park in Rock, a walk down the beach of Daymer Bay, the ferry to Padstow, a walk up to the church through the pretty lanes, then back up the other side of Padstow and along the coast path, before returning for some shopping. Goan curry paste from Rick's, a jute bag from seasalt, some cards from Whistlefish and some pasties to take home. An energetic conclusion to a fairly action packed holiday. Glad to get home for a rest.