What is a fax?

 

There was something on the news about fax machines that instantly brought to mind that day in 1984 when I first heard the word. I had no idea what they were talking about. It was the launch meeting for a new shopping centre that my company had secured in Ipswich. (My post in October 2014 called "A Career in Construction Part 18".

I can still hear those words from the lead architect who told us "You are going to have a fax machine on site". It wasn't a question. I'm not sure if any member of our team knew what he was talking about. I certainly did not. But over the next few months and years they were an essential piece of equipment on every construction site. Now relegated to a piece of history.

Stanley Boyd Roberts and Ralph William Askew

 

I never knew my grandfathers. Stanley Boyd Roberts died on 12th January 1937. My post of the 6th November 2009 describes his life. The last paragraph reads: 

 For the last six and a half years of his life, he was the conductor of the Sheffield Orpheus Male Voice Choir, and was involved in the Philharmonic Society. In 1936, he became organist and choirmaster at St Mathew's Church, Sheffield. Shortly before he died, he accompanied the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus in an arduous rehearsal of Berlioz's Te Deum. He died suddenly of pneumonia on 12 January 1937 at his home at 88 Ashdell Road in Sheffield. He was 47.

The photo above may be Stanley.

My other grandfather was Ralph William Askew. He was born on the 3rd August 1895 and died on the 13th April 1945 at the age of 49, just four months after I was born. I wrote about Ralph's history on my post of the 2nd November 2009. What prompted me to write this post was reading about a  new book called Black Gold by Jeremy Paxman, all about how coal made Britain. Ralph was a soldier during the first world war but joined his father and brothers at the pit after the war. He, like many others, sustained an injury, and received a small compensation. He married Edith Agnes Leather, my grandmother, in 1921. On his death certificate it says Ralph died of  a respiratory obstruction that led to a cardiac arrest. 

After Ralph died, Edith remarried. (See post of 4th February 2011).Her new husband was Harry Frost, He also had been a miner and had lost an arm in an accident at the pit. I remember him putting on his false arm when he went out. Except in the photo below.

So one grandfather and one step-grandfather, both being injured down the mine. I will definitely read Black Gold at some later date. Both my paternal and maternal grandfathers died in their forties. However, both their fathers lived to a ripe old age. Stanley's father Vincent Littlewood Roberts lived until he was 77 and Ralph's father George lived until he was 73 despite being still being a miner at 67.

Our Ladies, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and A Clockwork Orange

 

Our Ladies is a film about a convent school choir, let loose on the town (Edinburgh) before their big competition. What could possibly go wrong? Everything! The great thing about this movie is that it is so well written. Based on the book "The Sopranos" by Alan Warner, and Lee Hall's stage play "Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour", it has been adapted here by director Michael Caton-Jones and the late Alan Sharp. Everything about is brilliant. It is so emotional, even those times it seems unreal. It is great bawdy fun. Would a female team behind the camera have done any better? I doubt it. Maybe they should have had a chance. 

One critic called it "an exquisite slice of sweet ache and compassion amid the mounting chaos. What ensues is rude, funny and occasionally rather sweet". The stage play actually won the Olivier Award for  best new comedy in 2017. That would be worth seeing if it returned to theatres. All the cast are excellent, I particularly liked Kate Dickie as the harassed "nun in charge". There is a karaoke version of  "Tainted Love" that is alone worth the price of admission. Unforgettable.

A very different film is Shang-Chi. An expensive Marvel blockbuster that I only went to see because many reviews said the first two thirds was a good story. Well, the story was OKish, the dialogue was ordinary and the cast were wooden. Except for two. Awkwafina showed what a good actress she is, and to my surprise, who should turn up but Ben Kingsley. Both were head and shoulders above the rest of the cast. At least the CGI is limited for the first two thirds of the film, but I could have done with missing the last part.

I cannot remember watching the whole of A Clockwork Orange before.  Certainly not on the big screen. There are bits that seemed familiar, but the original release was fifty years ago. Here we have a new 4K restoration to celebrate it's half century. However, it still looked like a seventies movie with it's gratuitous violence and classical music soundtrack, mostly Ludwig Van. I guess that it was true to the novel by Anthony Burgess, except the end was apparently the American version of the book. What was most interesting for me were the exterior shots of London, and how the landscape has changed so dramatically over the years. There is one particular scene on the Chelsea Embankment next to the Albert Bridge. On the other side of the Thames are run down or derelict buildings when today, the South Bank is a prosperous location. The BFI have an article looking at the changes:

Another Chelsea location Kubrick selected was Albert Bridge. It’s the place where the homeless man takes his revenge on Alex. When Alex strolls along the riverside, newly reformed, you can see the south side of the river behind him, industrial towers looming in the distance. Four decades later, that skyline has completely transformed. Huge glass office buildings now line the river. No smog, no visible redbrick chimneys. The whole of Chelsea and the surrounding area has been cleaned up beyond recognition

Wycombe Wanderers vs Charlton Athletic

 

I gave up going to see MK Dons years ago. I just didn't feel the excitement I experienced when I was younger. So when Alison wanted to see a game after so long, we chose Wycombe Wanderers. So on Saturday we made our way to Adams Park to see them play Charlton Athletic. (Was this the team I watched at my first ever league game at Rotherham United when I was very young?) 

We had tickets in the upper tier of the main stand (the Frank Adams stand) and I have to say these were some of the best views I have ever had a football game. It helped as the day was sunny and warm. The game itself was OK, just kick and rush at the start but it did settle down into something quite reasonable. Although some of the tackling was x rated. The two goals Wycombe scored were excellent, both by the best player on the pitch, thirty four year old Garath McCleary. But when Charlton scored near the end, the crowd became very nervous.

It was good to see some friends before the game, and the travel arrangements were superb. There was a park and ride at West Wycombe which was on our way. We parked in a field and there were coaches waiting to take us to the ground. They dropped us outside the stadium and were waiting there at the end. Not sure if I will go again, but Alison probably will.

Just Like You, Fifty Fifty and Actress

Would I have bought a book about a relationship between Lucy, a middle class 42 year old white woman with two children, and Joseph, a young black guy in his early twenties? Probably not, but I try any new novel by Nick Hornby (my eighth). He makes it such a light yet emotional read. The reactions of family and friends is described with a sensitive aspect. There is a lot of Hornby trademark humour. The funniest bits usually involve Lucy's two young boys. The only downside was there was too much about Brexit. That is long gone. But I did have to slow down my reading in case I finished too soon.

I only read this book on the back of great reviews from those on the "Between The Covers" TV programme. I should have known better. Populated by mostly sleazy individuals and a preposterous plot, I must avoid crime fiction in the future. I was given to believe this book had some literary merit, but it didn't. Reading the first page of my new book by Anita Brookner showed me what class writing really is. There are a lot of people who will love this story, just not me.

Another great first chapter. It is Nora's (our narrator) twenty first birthday party and her mother, the extraordinary actress Katherine O'Dell, is past her best. She was born in England but invented herself as an Irish icon. The book should have been called the Actresses' Daughter as it is mostly about Nora's own life. But that title does not trip off the tongue, and Norah is trying to tell us in the first person (no, not us but "you") what is was like with a mother like Katherine. The "you" in this case is her husband who might read this story and understand more about his wife.

The novel jumps backwards and forwards in time, sometimes it made me a little dizzy, but it was always interesting if not gripping and I wallowed in Enright's prose. What is a "self-deleting man"? Nora has a weird sense of her long marriage: "Our love has always carried the freight of dread". But the story is not about the marriage, "you" knows all about that. It is Nora's life before "you" that is here. And, yes, mostly about her mother.

The Garden in September

 

I thought that I would start with the Cosmos Appollo Lovestrong (the latest trial for the bedding border) that in August I described as disappointing. Well, come September and the flowers are more prolific, although still too tall for this border.

The dark pink Impatiens in the tubs and baskets at the front are the best yet.

Below are the Viola Pineapple Crush that i planted after the Impatiens here died early.

At the same time I planted some new daffodil bulbs called Cheerfulness White. 

Some of the Astrantia are flowering again.

As are some of the roses.

The Aster is on my previous post of the far border, but here it is again.

The Rudbeckia is still going strong.

I have dug up some of the forget me nots to plant in the shrub border where I cut back a dead part of  the flowering currant,

I nearly forgot the Hibiscus that is a late flowering shrub.

I brand new Astrantia Venice is in a pot that it seems to like.

So Quite happy with the borders in September, and a few ideas for next year.

The Far Border

 

The border that stretches to the end of the garden was meant to be for just low maintenance shrubs. However, over the last few years some perennials have made their way to the front. On the left is the newish Verbena bonariensis that now seems to be in every garden.

After the Forsythia comes the Gypsophillia festival pink that is spectacular in June.

Next is the Heuchera melting fire.

Behind are the Acanthus and the Astrantia snow star which is now over. A piece is already transplanted to the main border.

To the right is a pink Achillea from which I also want for the main border.

Lastly, to the right, but not in the photo, is the Aster that seems to thrive in hardly any soil.

imagine ..... Tom Stoppard: A Charmed Life

 

This was the only episode in the current series of Alan Yentob's "imagine..." that caught my attention. The Telegraph gave the programme five stars. Obviously there was quite a lot about Tom Stoppard's latest (and most personal) play Leopoldstadt. But it was his back catalogue that was of more interest to me.

His breakthrough play (of which we had clips from various productions) was one of my three favourites of all time: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.  (of course they are). It premiered in a church hall before going to the Edinburgh Festival. It wasn't well received at first, but the top theatre critic Kenneth Tynan of the Observer was thrilled and it went on to be a big hit at The National Theatre and everywhere. I saw it at the Oxford Playhouse on 24th May 2005, performed by English Touring Theatre.

Far superior, and in my view the best production, was by the National Theatre starring Daniel Radcliffe and Joshua McGuire that was shown live in cinemas - see my post of  21st April 2017. I much preferred it to the film version that won the Golden Lion at Venice that starred Gary Oldman and Tim Roth, with Richard Dreyfuss as The Player. Not a patch on David Haig. I'm glad the clips included bits from Hamlet in juxtaposition with our two hero's. Throwing up Shakespeare's language against that of modern day is superb.

After Rsencrantz disappears at the very end, it is left to Guildenstern to utter his immortal last line: "Rosen-?  Guil-? Well, we'll know better next time. Now you see me, now you-".

There was a rush through many of Stoppard's plays that followed this success. I went to see Arcadia at the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre (review 5th March 2015), The Real Thing at the Oxford Playhouse (review 28th June 2012) and the wonderful Rock and Roll at the Duke of Yorks theatre on the 1st August way back in 2006. That cast included Rufus Sewell, Brian Cox, Sinead Cusack, Anthony Calf and Alice Eve. It's such a shame that there are so few of his other plays that are performed, I would jump at the chance to see Travesties, Jumpers, Night and Day etc.

The programme also reminded us that Stoppard is such a great screenwriter. From Shakespeare in Love (on record), Enigma, and collaboration with Steven Spielberg on films such as Empire of the Sun, The programme returns to Leopoldstadt at the end, and we hear about Stoppard's Jewish roots, and his extended family murdered by the Nazis. Fleeing Czechoslovakia and settling in England, Stoppard rates his life as an extremely lucky one. It is us who are lucky to have him.

Tring Book Club - Undue Influence by Anita Brookner

 

This book starts out with a wonderful short first chapter as Claire introduces us to her single life at 29 years old.  She is never bothered about telling us about her shortcomings.  Perhaps there is too much introspection? She has a great female friend in Wiggy (see below).

This is a novel about character and feelings. There are the few people with whom she comes into contact. Martin Gibson, who she meets in the "bookshop" where she works, is older than Claire but becomes a target, mainly in her mind. Towards the end there is too much about her dreams, and that always puts me off. But then there comes a portrait of getting old, described by the elderly Mrs Dilnot (also below). In fact, we could have done with a lot more of this character instead of meeting her so late on.

This was a choice for book club and I'm grateful for being introduced to Anita Brookner. I might have read Hotel du Lac, but probably not. I have found my wife's copy to read soon. Somehow I was under the misapprehension that she wrote romantic fiction. How wrong I was. She is an extremely intelligent writer. Looking forward to reading more of her work.

These are just a few of the brilliant one liners.

Claire tells us on one occasion that "this was not the first time guilty of a misapprehension".

This is a woman who says she is "less lonely on the street than I was at home".

Her and her friend Wiggy: "were of an age to have chalked up a certain amount of experience, most of it uncertain".

Mrs Dilnot: "The delights of old age, bridge and the telly. You can ignore all health warnings, for one thing. You can drink, smoke, take pills, eat butter, lie in the sun, it doesn't matter a damn." 

"The sick and disabled exert a (kind of) tyranny".

"I am at ease with men, to whom I am inclined to forgive much".

"Art is supposed to console although it does nothing of the kind".

Coal Drops Yard

 

It was in 2014 that I first visited The £3 Billion Kings Cross development with Zoe and Hannah, and then again in 2017 when the apartments in the old gas holders were opening. the redevelopment of Coal Drops Yard had then not started so yesterday I took the opportunity to see the finished buildings.

These are the photos I found of the old buildings in the Architectural Journal.

Coal Drops Yard has been transformed into a plush shopping and eating destination a short walk from Kings Cross.

I made my approach from the building that was the old coal office that stands right next to the Regent Canal.

Then with a view over the new complex.

It is definitely an extraordinary transformation. One that, to my mind overpowers the original buildings as the following photos suggest.

But there are still hints of the original brickwork.

And this from the outside.

At the far end is Lewis Cubitt Square where something was being erected or dismantled.

My walk back took me to Granary Square.

And then I sat on the tiered bank of the canal.

Across the bridge in the photo above, is the end of King's Boulevard which is the pedestrianised walk up from Kings Cross / St Pancras. 

And there in the background is the new Google building under construction. Or KGX1 as it is currently described.

The building is described in The Guardian as a 330 metre long "landscraper". At eleven stories high it is longer than the Shard is high, in one continuous construction running the whole length of King's Boulevard. This is what it should look like. 

The other side of the Boulevard is just as it was at my previous visit, all smart high rise buildings. I made my way back to Marylebone. The Chiltern Line trains were quite quiet although it was busier on the Underground. But I don't think I will be going into London again for a while.