A few holiday reads

My favourite book of the holiday, Bryson is just so good at clearing muddied waters. I have always struggled to enjoy Shakespeare, but after reading this it was like a veil was lifted and he was a mystery to me no more. I almost feel ready for Hamlet now!

I managed to read a great deal whilst on holiday despite Leylas best efforts to make me compete in a record breaking attempt at Dr Who top trumps

My favourite quote of them all is.

'Books generally just confirm in you what you have perhaps unwittingly decided to do already.

You go to a book to have your convictions corroborated. A book as it were closes the book'.

This is a quote from A bit slow to get going, the story is a simple one, but become more profound towards the end. The quote above resonated with me as I do very frequently chose books not by their cover but by whether I can empathise at all with any of the characters.

This rule is obviously not enforced all of the time. I am often drawn to very esoteric narratives as well, but even they I prefer, when pegged on a place I know or an event that interest me.

Nor does it explain my ever constant fascination with murder. As a teenager I read every single book the library van had on murder, real, fiction, I did not care, I devoured them all. I had no plans to kill and I have never had an experience of violent death, but even now I like nothing better than a good detective story.

I love Alan Bennett, he is a genius at capturing the tiny nuances of human nature. This book has both sets of stories, I preferred the first set as the latter set I found so dark they were quite unsettling.

A classic example of falling for the review, all this book did was irritate me, I wanted to give her a metaphorical 'slap' I came away empathising with her mother and I was not in the least charmed by her, I found the pieces such a hotch potch of inane tangents (not dissimilar to my emails I suspect) that I really struggled to finish the book

This reads like one long suicide note, how depressed can one man be, I did LOL though how could you not? Although I struggled to empathise or relate to him on any level, I did enjoy the crispness of his dialogue.

Hells bloody bells, how dark can a book be? I did not really pay much attention to the blurb, having read Lovely Bones I was not anticipating an easy ride, but this was so dark.

Not once have I ever dreamt of killing my mother, even at my lowest ebb my plan was always to get as far away from her as possible, so I found the story difficult, and yet despite this I could empathise with certain strands of the narrative. Even so it was a relief to finish it.

I am now just beginning Sebastian Faulks Engelby, all about Cambridge, whats not to love?

The view from Hong Kong

My sisters last email she is now home

Hong Kong has been interesting. We have done the following with varying degrees of ease & interest:
- bought a tube ticket & negotiated my way round HK.
- visited Statue Squ
- it's just a square with a statue.
- crossed to Kowloon using the Star Ferry.
- walked around Kowloon being offered 'very good tailor' every 2 mins, I'm not sure what was wrong with my clothes.
- wandered around a park which had a flock of flamingo's.
- went to Victoria Peak - OMFG - it's high up. At one point we were higher than cruising airplanes - I swear! We ate the most expensive meal in the world up there.
- went to Temple Market, load of rubbish & hardly any fakes (so Alison - no LV or Marni).
- took a bus to Aberdeen & bartered a price for a tour on a sampan (we took one that looked like it was 2 days from sinking rather than the many that looked like they'd sink that day).
Took another bus to see a Buddha & other statues.
Took another bus to Stanley, nice harbour town. Went to a Spanish restaurant for lunch - go figure.
So I'm about to pack for the last time. Eat my last breakfast (alison the buffet in the hotel is so immense it would bring a tear to Kitty's eye). Then take my last epic flight back (hopefully not landing on the shark infested waters around HK).
Ps - Alison - she's your mum!

This last small sentence is LOADED with meaning. My sister and I often refer when talking about mother, to her as MY mum, This is now a bit of a joke which we use when either of us has had enough of her occasionally poor behaviour.
I can thus infer from the final sentence, that my sister has had enough of mother and will now need to put a few months between them both before renewing her acquaintance with her! So it is my turn now.

The view from here

I have had to work hard and late this week at school, a mix of open evenings and report writing amongst many other jobs on my 'to do' list. And I don't normally make lists.
Last night I received yet another tearful phone call from Kitty. Daisy had eaten her dinner, as well as her own! The details are worthy of a Shakespearean farce but I am too drained to write (after an hour of counselling a student who has been beaten and almost disowned by her mother this week)
Whilst walking home to mediate my two princesses, I started to hum a tune from my past, I wish I could embed this for you but I can't, but if you are as old as I and want a blast from the past, theme tunes do not come better than this
If that does not raise a twitch of a smile then surely this extract from a piece Woody Allen wrote for the Guardian on Monday will.

"Received offer to write and direct film in Barcelona. Must be cautious. Spain is sunny, and I freckle. Money not great either, but agent did manage to get me a 10th of 1% of anything the picture does over $400m after break-even. Have no idea for Barcelona - unless the story of the two Hackensack Jews who start a mail-order embalming firm could be switched".

Read the rest here

Oh lucky me, the girls are at home this weekend, Kitty wants entertaining so I have suggested that she come with me and Leyla of course, to the Saatchi Gallery, perhaps I can sneak off and pretend they are live exhibits, robots out of control. A can of Coca Cola should do it.
Wish me luck

The view from the window

I was really looking forward to the various train journeys, so that I could get some fresh images for my view through a window series. The first journey we did not even have a window, then the weather was just so bad I really struggled. I finally got these, which I love but it was sparse pickings.

I want never gets

Images from style .com Oh, are these just not completely sublime? How did I miss them? They are from the Chanel spring summer 09 collection. My father was a Paleontologist and we had a lot of this polished agate in the house, how I wish I had squirreled it away to make one of these.

And these are gorgeous too, bags and jewellery, just the images are lovely, the colours and textures, it even has my favourite pattern, polka dot.

I had another email from Little Sis today, my reply may give you a taste of my life at home right now!

"It's my last day in sunny Oz. I have shorts on today as this be the last time for a long time (sorry if that delightful image gets stuck in you head all day)*. We are going to Hong Kong tomorrow & the forecast there is only 18c.

Diving was spectacular. I saw sharks just about every dive, a few turtles, eagle rays & sea snakes to name but a few. The boat was an experience - the first night the weather was so bad that no-one got much sleep, but after that it was all good weather.

We went for a 10km bush walk on Sunday - my suggestion! My legs are still throbbing from the climbing but it was worth it. We had quite a relaxing day yesterday to recover. Today I am going to the zoo. The only koala we have seen was dead in the middle of the road & I don't want that to be my lasting memory of koalas. Also I think they make kangaroos up cos I haven't seen a single one.We have seen lots of lizards & some spectacular spiders.Time has flown by - but I'm still having a great time."

* My sister is a large size 18 but carries it well as she is nearly 6ft tall

I replied

"Glad YOUR having fun....get used to a SUDDEN drop in temperature baby, because it has been V cold here, although a current balmy 4c.There are no Kangaroo's because like the Aborigine's they have shot them all, any they have missed will have been incinerated in a bush fire, hence the lack of Koala's.

Judging from the reports in the papers you are lucky not to have been munched by a shark since they have started to come closer to the shore for food. You would have been fine though because humans do not carry enough fat on them to make us taste good....mmm, well most humans anyway... Bet you miss me!

I have finally been ill, "at last" you cry.. the usual sore throat aches and pains, Emin tended to my every need, NOT, luckily Daisy and Kitty went to Gemma's Mum's* house for the weekend, it was apparently HUGE the bathroom was MASSIVE and it even had GOLD TAPS so how can I possibly compete*. Emin did enquire as to whether it had enough room for them to move in, they were not amused. They very sensibly fed Kitty steak and chips so she was tolerable. I had to listen to her wax lyrical about the wedding cake for half an hour, oh joy. Carrot cake for the bottom tier, fruit cake for the middle tier, and chocolate sponge for the top tier, maybe not in that order, but you get the picture. Sadly no Ginky figurines on top, apparently Martin finally had an opinion on that part!

I have made the mistake of telling Daisy you will be in Hong Kong for a few day's she will I am sure, send you a list of a range of goods she is sure you will not mind purchasing for her! any fake Marni anything is good for me, especially the jewellery...or Prada... or Louis Vuitton. Just in case.

See you soon XXXX"

* Gemma is Daisy and Kitty's fathers girlfriend/wife to be. She is a size 6 and 16 years younger than me! well to be fair he was 10 years younger than me, you do the maths! but thats another story.

*Sorry but I hate gold taps but hid my revulsion well, I think.

I am feeling better, but I am still too tired to go to the Gym which I find really annoying.

Melanie Rutten

I think we need a break from the holiday snaps, so have a look at this fabulous collage artist. I saw her work at an exhibition in Brussels and loved the quirky nature of her images as well as the colours she uses.

Melanie Rutten her work is on show at a lovely new gallery in Brussels called [Image]2

Berlin Modern

This monumental building sits on the opposite side of the river to the Reichstag, they complement each other beautifully and like many new buildings in Berlin the time taken to rebuild has meant a better quality of structure. Just inside this building was a section of the Berlin wall, with stencilled numbers tallying the total deaths of people who tried to escape each year . I still cannot believe walls like this are being built.

Despite arriving in the pouring rain the day before, these images taken on Christmas Day reflect the stunning clear blue skies we had until lunch time after which huge snow clouds rolled in yet sadly unleashed not a single flake of snow

Sometimes you need some figures to illustrate the sheer scale of it all

This was just the beginning of a very long walk along the river, that night we excitedly got ready to see the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, when we arrived we were directed out of the building to a back entrance we in fact had tickets to see the Berlin Chamber Orchestra, seriously on the one hand I was gutted on the other, who cares it was still an amazing way to end Christmas day.

I loved taking the photographs this year, I sometimes wish I could do this for a living, but maybe the fun comes with no pressure.