glittertigger

I love having books around and my flat is full of bookshelves. I don't feel a home is furnished without lots of books. I buy a couple most weeks (mainly second hand, from charity shops) and after reading them I keep about half and either pass on the others to someone I think will enjoy them, or send them right back to the charity shop. Last weekend I was in the new Age Concern book shop on Cowley Road (which I recommend if you haven't found it yet) thinking about what makes me want to buy a book.

First and foremost, I have to believe I'm actually going to read the book and enjoy the experience. I have enough pretty reference books already and I've also given up reading things I don't enjoy just because I feel they are something I *should* read. The book has to be in reasonable condition, although not necessarily perfect. Illustrations are a bonus if they are done well. I also like to feel that this particular edition of the book is attractive and has been manufactured to a good standard (in other words, that this book is a well designed object I might want to keep). This view has been strengthened by working in papermaking and printing for years, but I had it before. I think it comes from my paternal grandmother, who used to work in a book saloon on Fleet Street, and my mother, who also collects lovely editions of books.

Harder to define is that I like the form to fit the contents, so a cheap paperback is fine for chick lit, but for a classic book I want a really attractive edition to keep and for unusual books I like interesting production values (I have a copy of Brave New World with slightly surreal illustrations and a mirror finish cover which would be a terrible combination for any other book but fits this one fine). My poetry books are mainly paperbacks and small enough to fit in a pocket or handbag and I'm happy for them to get battered. I prefer reference books to be bound in leather and built to last.

It also helps if the book is one I will be able to discuss with friends or family, so I read much more sci-fi and fantasy than I might do if all my friends didn't read so much of it. Although (unless it's been chosen for book group) I won't read a book I actually dislike. I'm also quite happy to read a book just for my own interest that no-one else I know is likely to be interested in. And I buy books written by friends (new copies rather than second hand, so they actually get some money!). Luckily my friends write books I enjoy reading.

I spent yesterday at the Marlborough Jazz Festival, as I have a friend there who kindly let a whole horde of people stay. Jazz isn't my usual kind of music, but I like most things live so I thought it was worth a try. As it happens, there was a lot of blues and folk music as well as the jazz. The first performers I saw were While and Matthews, a folk duo who had pretty enough songs, but after a few minutes they all started to sound the same. We wandered off to see Esmond Selwyn, a reasonable jazz guitarist let down by poor backing and terrible acoustics.

We managed to find the delayed gig by Souler Rhythm. They are an interesting jazz/funk fusion band containing five different nationalities. They were sufficiently lively and entertaining that I just about forgave them for being so late for a gig that it had to be rescheduled and moved to a different venue. After that I stuck my head into the pub garden where Dave Swarbrick and his cronies were playing, so I can confirm that (contrary to The Telegraph's obituary a few years ago) he is still alive and playing the fiddle. We also saw Steve "Big Man" Clayton, a fine blues singer and piano player. I finished up by seeing The Red Stripe Band, who had enormous energy and got almost everyone on their feet and dancing. I didn't dance myself, as I was just too tired and went off to get some sleep.

I'm feeling a hundred times better after sleeping ten hours a night all week and spending lots of time in cafes and bookshops. I took a week off work due to general tiredness and a desire to spend some time with

zandev before he starts the new job on Monday. The last couple of days the previous week were fun. Being driven around the Black Forest and Alsace in a Volvo S80 isn't much like work. I also got to see our oldest paper mill (founded in the 15th century) and the Cite de l'Imprimerie in Epinal. Both were fascinating. I'm happy with the world right now.

Have had a lovely day including a trip to the Cowley Road Carnival. The sun came out, I had a chat with

invisiblechoir and her new man and I got to hear The Epstein and buy their album which is finally out.

I'm off back to the flat in Kent shortly, which is starting to feel like home. I've had visits so far from

zandev and from

i_ludicrous and his wife. Anyone else who feels like visiting would be very welcome. I may even cook dinner in the shiny kitchen. I'm enjoying having a gas hob for the first time in years and the granite worktops are gorgeous. The overall decor is a bit seventies, with a huge leather sofa, a small jukebox and some sheepskin rugs borrowed from

a_llusive, but it seems to work and it has a relaxed atmosphere. It's certainly much better than spending months in a hotel room. I spend quite a lot of time in the local inn (The Woolpack) anyway having dinner with various consultants. The work project is finally going according to plan. No disasters last week. Although if the rain doesn't stop soon we may all be washed away.

I am unimpressed by Oxford City Council and their proposal to turn the parts of Southfield Golf Course which are currently protected open space into a large housing development. If you have an opinion on housing development in Oxford, please fill in one of the questionnaires on their website by May 11th. The summary online version will only take five minutes.

http://www.oxford.gov.uk/planning/corestrategy.cfm

The Oxford band I have been going on about for months are one of the winners of the Glasto 2007 Emerging Talent Competition:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/somerset/content/articles/2006/10/18/glastonbury_unsigned_bands_2007_feature.shtml

They are also playing at The Cellar on May 10th and the Zodiac on May 17th. Sadly I can't make it to either gig due to work :(

Trains are great. Eurostar is a fine way to travel and TGVs go very fast :) Airports, on the other hand, suck (although I enjoy the actual flying part, especially on a clear day with a view of the Scottish mountains). Heathrow makes me want to scream. In the last couple of weeks I lost large chunks of my life to each of the following,

- sorry, you can't get off the plane, we can't find a qualified person to drive those steps
- no idea where your luggage is, can't you wait, oh you landed an hour ago, I'll try to find out
- the equipment which was unloading your baggage broke down (not on the same trip as the point above)

I will be sticking to the Eurostar next week. My French is now good enough that I only need to ask for a phrase to be translated every ten minutes or so. French food has been excellent, as has the white wine (we spent a week in the Loire valley). Sadly the red wine has been poor, so much so in one case that it was served mixed with cassis to hide the taste. We were eating in a chateau owned by the town council and they felt obliged to serve wines from the local vineyards, even if there weren't any good red ones.

The food in Scotland was also wonderful. We had wild salmon and some really richly flavoured soups (cullen skink is a favourite of mine). We also had haggis, served in a sort of shepherd's pie with layers of mashed turnip and potato on top. I'm not going to talk about my actual work here, because I'm tired and I'm giving my brain the weekend off :)

I had another great meal last night cooked by

triskellian and

smiorgan. The lamb had been cooked for hours and was incredibly tender. It was good to have a chance to have a proper catch-up with both of them as well. Hope to see some more people soon. I'm in Oxford next weekend and don't have any plans yet, so shout if you would like to meet up.

Over the last few weeks I have learnt several new problem solving methods, mostly collaborative ones which can be used with operators on the shop floor. I am also being trained to implement visual management methods. Yesterday we had an exercise demonstrating the principles of active management and I have some leadership training coming up next week which should be useful.

Tonight I will try to repeat my unexpectedly awesome ten pin bowling results from a couple of weeks ago. I started the first game with two strikes and a spare and the second game with two spares and a strike. I'm not sure I will live up to expectations but I'll do my best!

Am exhausted after another eleven hour day (although it is all very interesting) and only have five minutes a day to spend online. Aberdeen is still a fine city and the housekeeper here is a great cook. I have the best room in the house, with fabulous river views :) Proper update to follow this weekend.

Well, it was more like summer really and it was still 25 degrees centigrade when the TGV arrived in Vendome at 7pm this evening. I'm now slightly sunburned, very well fed and extremely pleased to have seen

zandev for a couple of days. We were staying right next to Notre Dame and there was a guy doing fabulous tricks with flaming poi outside the cathedral late last night. The square was packed with people and it was T-shirt weather at 11pm.

Paris looked stunning in the sunshine and wasn't too crowded. We visited the Musee d'Orsay, which is a beautiful building and I love the impressionist paintings on the top floor. The Van Gogh's have a texture which just doesn't come over in reproductions. I was also really impressed by the intricate metal blinds at the Institut du Monde Arabe.

I think all of my senses have been pampered this weekend. We went to the Guerlain showroom on the Champs-Elysees and they have an upstairs testing room which is astonishingly glittery. The walls and ceiling of the reception area are completely covered in tiny gold tiles. I tried some lovely perfumes (some of which you can't find in the UK) and when I had found one I liked my lovely boyfriend bought it for me :)

I'm spending this week in a small friendly hotel with free WiFi, so you may hear from me a lot. My room has both a double bed and a single bed, which is rather more than I need. Sadly it doesn't have a bath (although there is a shower of course), a minibar or a kettle. So I will shortly be off to the salon for a drink and a look at the pile of English novels someone has kindly left there.

My spoken French has passed muster so far with the taxi driver and several hotel staff. No-one has either looked blank or tried to switch into English. The taxi driver did keep correcting my terrible grammer, but in a helpful sort of way.

For the last ten days, I have been driving a hire car. After some minor negotiation (no, an automatic Corsa is not equivalent to a manual MR2) they gave me a six-month-old Tigra to play with. There was lots of paperwork but they gave me coffee and doughnuts while I filled it in :) The Tigra is a two seater convertible but not quite a sports car. The suspension is too soft, it's too tall, it has an enormous boot, the engine is in the front and the handling isn't quite sharp enough. It's a lively and enjoyable drive though and has lots of gadgets to play with (heated seats still freak me out a bit!). The styling has grown on me but I still don't like the fake leather trim.

Anyway, I now have my lovely car back. I was thinking this morning how much I like the more direct contact with the road and feeling the engine throbbing just inches behind me. I approve of the way it is mostly just two seats and an engine and you aren't transporting lots of extraneous material around with you. And I love stroking the leather steering wheel :) Ahem. I'll stop now.

The music spanned the whole range of standards at the Oxford Folk Festival. The headliners were consistently good and included the best live act I've seen all year (Salsa Celtica). The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain headlined Friday evening and gave us entertaining covers of an amazingly wide range of songs, with a considerable dose of humour. Both they and the audience had a great time. Saturday afternoon was headlined by Spiers and Boden, who were on fine form and I always prefer them as a duo rather than in their big band (Bellowhead). Saturday night finished with Salsa Celtica, who had enormous energy and any one of whom could keep the audience dancing by themselves (they all proved it). They were lively, unpredictable and musically sophisticated and I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat not wanting to lose attention for a second. I thought they were better at the straight celtic stuff than the fusions and the jigs were fabulous (they have an awesome fiddler), but I guess that is a more crowded market and the celtic / latin fusion helps differentiate them. Sunday afternoon saw two folk legends combine, John Renbourn (the guitarist from Pentangle) and Robin Williamson, a great harpist and storyteller. Their instrumental work was incredibly delicate and free-flowing and the harp was re-tuned towards the end for a remarkable blues performance.

The younger support acts were at best only bearable and a few were so bad I was driven to walk out after five minutes or, when that would have caused too much disruption, stick my fingers in my ears and hope the horrid noise would become inaudible (this didn't work). Giving hour long slots to introspective teenagers wailing tedious ballads (all in the same key and time signature) in Gaelic / Norwegian / gibberish accompanied by clumsily played stringed instuments was probably an error. I've heard better in most pub sessions and I've no idea how some of these got booked.

A dozy teenager just drove into the back of my car while I was waiting at a roundabout and has caused quite a lot of damage. Grrrr. She gave me her insurance details (they've been checked and they're valid) and I took some photos, so it should all be fine, but I'm still cross and a bit shaken.

Edit: Teenager has contacted her insurance company to admit liability, so no arguments this time at least.

I'm in a bouncy mood as I've had a lovely long weekend with

zandev visiting Cambridge and Ipswich. We had a lazy time in both places with lots of food and conversation. Many thanks to

undyingking and his lovely wife for their hospitality (and to zandev's parents). The marina in Ipswich is very attractive and we had a relaxing lunch in a cafe overlooking the water. I also bought some books (more than I have space for) in a second-hand book shop. We were lucky and managed to do almost all of the driving with the top down on the car, mostly in sunshine and without getting wet, in spite of the vagaries of the weather.

My employers have just told me that the day in February when I couldn't make it in due to the last lot of snow doesn't have to be taken as holiday after all. They are also organising lots of training for me, which I will go into more detail about later.

The shower in my flat is broken, but as everything else is going well I don't mind too much. I still haven't fixed the oven either. Anyone know any good electricians?

Oxford based people, go to see this in Broad Street over the next few days: www.luminox.org.uk

We were hopeless at badminton last night. We started by messing around playing left-handed (one of us had an injured right hand and the rest tried it out of solidarity) and using a shuttlecock with half the feathers broken. Embarrassingly, we weren't noticeably better when playing right-handed with a new shuttlecock. So we gave up early and went to my flat to drink tea and eat chocolate. I'm not going to get any fitter like this...

This weekend I decided it was spring, so the hard-top has been taken off the car and stored away until next winter.

Another game, same result - this weekend

quetzyl thrashed me at Britannia. I'm sure there is a game somewhere at which I can beat him.

Last night I saw Electric Six at the Zodiac. They gave a professional performance with plenty of energy, although the sound was messier live than on their recordings. Apparently Sunday is the one night of the week when they give up on smoke and lasers and play the music straight, for which I was grateful. Shame about the incoherent political ranting though.

Yesterday morning I found myself faced with a church elder in impressive scarlet regalia, waving a large crucifix at me and shouting "I most certainly did NOT lend that woman a telephone!". This wasn't quite what I had been expecting from the small claims court. Anyway, I won and Direct Line insurance will shortly be sending me a check for £1400. The enraged man had caused a traffic accident which I was involved in a couple of years ago and at the time I foolishly only had third party insurance. Luckily I did have legal expenses cover.

On Saturday a group of us had dinner at the Aziz. The food was good, although

nickeyb and I both sent back our starters which were full of large chunks of unexpected and unwelcome chilli (we'd been assured it was mild and I'm allergic to chilli). The new milder version was quick to arrive and very tasty, so I'll let them off there. However, I'm not going to let them off on the service. We had booked an early table and they were continually rushing us in an obvious attempt to free up the table as soon as possible. It is possible to provide fast but not pushy service (Gee's managed it recently) but this was way too far on the obtrusive side and made the whole experience uncomfortable.

There was bridge again on Sunday afternoon, with another slam (6NT) for

quetzyl and his partner. I don't mind as I approve of slams being bid when the cards are right. I still didn't get dealt any interesting hands, but hopefully my luck will change soon. Sunday night was the rpgsoc banquet at Quod, which was a great excuse to dress up. The feather boa was an error, as it got a static charge somehow and behaved in a strange clinging manner. The food was fine and the service good considering the size of our group. I'd like to go back sometime with fewer people.

I did the music quiz at the Marsh Harrier on Monday with

i_ludicrous and

a_llusive amongst others. We weren't last, which counts as a victory. I enjoyed guessing the names of Slade songs from the initial letters. We didn't know the answers, but a couple of guesses were right and the team marking us gave us a comedy point for our answer to WBTHD - What Bastard Took His Drink. Any of you know the real answer? Or can you come up with a better comedy version?

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glittertigger

January 2025

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Recent Entries

Some thoughts on books

Marlborough Jazz Festival

A relaxing week

Carnival

Housing development in Oxford

The Epstein again

Another update, mostly about food!

New methods

A brief hello

Paris in the springtime

Greetings from France

I love my car

Oxford Folk Festival

Grrrr. Broken car.

Cambridge and Ipswich

Fire sculpture!

More willpower required

Electric Six

Victory!

Quick social update