Malvern Hills in the summer of 2016

 

Clare and myself in the Malvern Hills: August 11th 2016

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I wrote here that we'd spent a few days between Christmas and the New Year (about two months ago) in the Malvern Hills (see picture below).

We had previously spent some time there eight and a half years ago. 

As the picture above shows, we had the energy then to make it to the hilltops - the weather helped. The holiday was mostly marked by Alex, who was with us, spilling a whole jug of milk onto the lounge carpet at the Malvern Hills Hotel (near the British Camp Hill Fort).

They were (sort of) nice enough about it; we have never returned.

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Clare and myself at the hotel: Sunday, December 29, 2024

The "No Presents" Christmas: year 2

Another year, another Christmas with the "no presents" policy.

As usual, Clare had been insistent. In reality, the presents just got bought somewhat earlier. We all saved on deferred gratification.

One such gift has had us settling down each evening as a nuclear family to watch the box set of "Game of Thrones" - starting at season one, episode one.

Tonight was episode two: the one where Sansa cries while Arya murderously adds Joffrey to her kill list (she will soon have better reasons).

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So was our Christmas day merely a joyless, barren wasteland of time lost?

You decide.

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This rather balanced article caught my eye.

"Gym Showdown: Free Weights Vs. Machines

"If you want to get stronger, some kind of resistance training is the way to go. So when you walk into the gym, should you start loading plates onto a barbell or should you just walk up to the first easy-to-use machine you spot? Let's compare both approaches.

Continues .."

A triad of Christmas Cake, Mince Pies and Berry Gateau has me persuaded: weights tomorrow.

Not many posts here until the New Year

Just to warn you. We have guests arriving. That little cubby-hole where I pore over a hot laptop to bring you these messages is being repurposed. Even its function as a gym is being questioned!

The laptop will be packed away and dumbbells will be stacked out of sight. We are firmly in the Christmas spirit.

Enjoy!

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The Joy of Christmas (Part 1)

The annals of human stupidity and bias

Every time I turn on the BBC or ITV news I get another concerned presenter gravelly describing the latest terrible suffering inflicted by the savage, blistering air and ground assault on Mosul Aleppo.

From Patrick Cockburn, The Independent:

"The Iraqi army, backed by US-led airstrikes, is trying to capture east Mosul at the same time as the Syrian army and its Shia paramilitary allies are fighting their way into east Aleppo. An estimated 300 civilians have been killed in Aleppo by government artillery and bombing in the last fortnight, and in Mosul there are reportedly some 600 civilian dead over a month.

"Despite these similarities, the reporting by the international media of these two sieges is radically different.

"In Mosul, civilian loss of life is blamed on Isis, with its indiscriminate use of mortars and suicide bombers, while the Iraqi army and their air support are largely given a free pass. Isis is accused of preventing civilians from leaving the city so they can be used as human shields.

"Contrast this with Western media descriptions of the inhuman savagery of President Assad’s forces indiscriminately slaughtering civilians regardless of whether they stay or try to flee. The UN chief of humanitarian affairs, Stephen O’Brien, suggested this week that the rebels in east Aleppo were stopping civilians departing – but unlike Mosul, the issue gets little coverage.

[Continues]"

Lunchtime today Clare and myself attended the Christmas Carol Service at the Bishop's Palace chapel, here in Wells.

The conducting minister was a charming woman channelling the BBC. God was asked to intercede for those suffering civilians in Aleppo (why does God need to be asked?).

I restrained my impulse to suggest her compassionate prayers be extended to the civilians in Mosul, currently being strafed by US and British air power.

Next she recounted, in factual and heart-warming detail, the historically-fanciful story of the Nativity - as if she believed every word to be literally true:

"How did Mary feel when the Angel appeared to her? I imagine she was rather shocked and awed."

Yes, I imagine she was.

Ideas for Christmas decorations

Stourhead House decorated for Christmas. Click on pictures to make larger.

Diary: Christmas Bazaar + Clare's weights

#inconsequentialtrivia

We missed a frost last night. Just damp and cold for the Church Bazaar in the Town Hall. We do a fast flyby. Buy marmalade, bread, some cakes. Inspect the books and buy a few novels. Finish with hot drinks and a mince pie. This year Clare did not directly engage with Santa. Then Waitrose.

Father Christmas at Wells Town Hall - the RC Church Bazaar

Clare inspects one of the stalls

Back in 2015, Clare and Santa got on famously (above). This year: quieter.

A misty morning showing the weed mats - work-in-progress in our front garden

Clare has augmented her 'beauty bells' with a 2 kg pair

It's a joy to watch her flap.

A 2016 Christmas (at Wookey Hole)

We are fortunate to live in the thousand-year shadow of Wells Cathedral overlooking the Isle of Avalon and the ley lines of Glastonbury Tor. Who would not be uplifted by the spirituality of deep time?

But sometimes you just want a break from all that. And what better than to hop over one of the Mendip foothills to the world-famous Wookey Hole?

The Spirit of Christmas

A Winter Wonderland - available for office parties, etc

Perhaps a walkthrough? Pay attention to the Santa at the back (cf the aliens in 'Arrival').

A Walk through the Winter Wonderland which is Wookey Hole 2016

Here's a link to the video.

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But never let it be said that Christmas has nothing to do with religion! If you turn left before entering Santa's Grotto, in a small, derelict shed you will observe:

Tucked away in a shed in the corner .. it's the baby Jesus. How traditional!

Clare shows you the way.

The search for the baby Jesus

Here's a link to the video.

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Wookey Hole - an experience for the modern age. OK, we patronise, but at least their hot chocolate machine is of the highest quality and delivers a steaming beverage!

Wapping Wharf - how cool is that?

Saturday at Wapping Wharf.

"Wapping Wharf is rapidly becoming a new independent food and drink quarter for Bristol.

"From sourdough pizzas to organic fruit and vegetables, and from freshly baked bread to specialist coffees, Wapping Wharf is home to a plethora of independent restaurants, cafes and shops.

"Gaol Ferry Steps, the tree-lined, pedestrianised route running through Wapping Wharf, has retailers located along either side, while CARGO, a new retail yard made of converted shipping containers, brings together a range of independent traders."

Street entertainers, artisan restaurants, plenty of wood ... Bristol Harbourside is buzzing!

Here we're taking lunch at the Mud Dock cafe, perched two floors above their cycle shop. It's a 'repurposed red-brick harbourside warehouse converted in 1994'.

Above is a view, through the serving hatch, of the kitchen.

The buzz was amplified by the Tour of Britain (stage 7 circulating nearby). Crowds of tall, thin, bearded young men with their pleasantly middle-class families were earnestly expounding the finer points of bike-racing as their heroes time-trialled past every minute.

Bradley Wiggin on the morning's time trial

Mark Cavendish on the morning's time trial

We were so excited that we at once resolved to dispose of our comfortable, spacious house in Wells and lease a trendy apartment in Wapping Wharf where we could be close to the real action.

Who needs a car when you can walk to the Watershed for artistic films and organic green tea? The Arnolfini gallery is just a few hundred yards away - we could explore the subversive power of punk. And all around the delights of central Bristol: galleries, museums, parks, shopping, political activism.

We wait by the river Avon for the next arrival of the Peloton

Mark Cavendish leading the Sky team

Andrei Greipel on the right

We even saw the former Mayor, George Ferguson, in his distinctive red trousers cycling past us from his flat near the Tobacco Factory theatre.

On our way home, we did the logistics. We probably do still need the car. We would want a large bedroom plus an additional large room for guests and as my weight room cum study. The new apartment needs to be affordable. Oh, and there are no more apartments to rent in Wapping Wharf; Phase 1 is sold out.

I think this one is going to have to be deferred.

'Democracy' means we're always right

Late last night the BBC (and Fox News) predicted the success of the coup attempt in Turkey. They were rather happy about it, to be honest. The army was defending secularism against an increasingly authoritarian, Islamic-inclined President.

Yes, that would President Erdoğan. A leader elected largely by the pious, rural smallfolk. Thank God for the military, always ready to defend democracy against the small people.

We have been here more often than not. The anti-Islamic coup in Algeria in 1991 (that turned out well); the soviet tanks in Hungary (1956) and later in Czechoslovakia, in 1969.

Somehow, as Brecht observed, it's always elites defending 'democracy' against the masses.

This morning, the Turkish coup had failed. The people en masse seemed to be defending the famously illiberal and authoritarian government.

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A note to plotters: a failed coup is one of the worst career moves you will ever make. Treason doth never prosper, etc. In subterranean cellars with thick walls, in Ankara and Istanbul, the pain machines will be running night and day.

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I remember a TV programme a while back, simulating the UK cabinet committee directing affairs as the Russians invade the Baltic states. Hostilities ramp up while the few liberal politicians at the table wring their hands in gathering anguish as things get nasty. Finally, the lead liberal - asked to authorise a nuclear strike - walks out in tears.

Someone observes: the liberals always seem to leave the room once the bullets start flying.

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It's rather shocking, but my first thought on the Nice tragedy (deluded idiot + lorry + crowds = carnage) was: 'This will strengthen Marine le Pen'.

People will be furious, and the pious abstractions they're getting from the French elite won't play well.

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Long-buried tensions are emerging across the world from China/East Asia to the Middle-East through Europe and America. The new imbalances of power are testing liberal post-nationalist, dovish ideas to destruction. The feared 'new populism' is more accurately gauged as peoples perceiving where their common interests lie, in a world where diverse interests are increasingly antagonistically expressed.

President Trump is looking more likely, while the disintegration of the utopian EU-project just lurched a step nearer.