I’m really glad this week is over. It’s not been the easiest I can remember.

I feel really tired and all I want to do drink a few beers, play some Mancala with the kids and forget all that’s happened..

Posted by Mark at 7:56 PM | Permalink

Back in 1984 Roger Fisher founded the Conflict Management Group (CMG) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They specialised in facilitating negotiations in conflicts world-wide. CMG merged with the Mercy Corps humanitarian group in 2004. In 1985 he published Getting to YES, his work based on the premis of win-win negotiation.

Well, that’s what I tried today and failed dismally. There simply was no win-win.

On a lighter note I’d like to welcome the person who Googled ‘hip+happening’ and reached here : we are both.

Posted by Mark at 11:19 PM | Permalink

Cat Poem

They will not go quietly,
the cats who’ve shared our lives.
In subtle ways they let us know
their spirit still survives.

Old habits still make us think
we hear a meow at the door.
Or step back when we drop
a tasty morsel on the floor.

Our feet still go around the place
the food dish used to be,
And, sometimes, coming home at night,
we miss them terribly.

And although time may bring new friends
and a new food dish to fill,
That one place in our hearts
belongs to them… and always will.

- Linda Barnes

Posted by Mark at 11:46 PM | Permalink

Loss of legs - £115,000
Brain injury - £34,500
Fractures to arm - £2,650
Remaining 34 injuries - no payment

BBC News : Maimed soldier ‘let down’ by Army

Injury to thumb - £484,000

Daily Mail : RAF typist who hurt thumb is awarded eight times more than soldier who lost leg

Posted by Mark at 8:02 PM | Permalink

After a little more shopping and trying on at last we seem back on track, with the same outfit and the right additions.

Phew…

Posted by Mark at 7:59 PM | Permalink

Sun is shinin’ in the sky,
There ain’t a cloud in sight
It’s stopped rainin’
Everybody’s in a play
And don’t you know
It’s a beautiful new day.

ELO - which as we found out are much better than ELO2.

Picnic, blue sky and the lake - just what we needed.

Posted by Mark at 10:55 PM | Permalink

You would think that a present and one top would be easy things to get, especially with the whole of London to search in but, alas, no.

Even lunch wasn’t quite right with a last minute change from the New Piccadilly to Floridita’s. I’m not even sure about the suit I got.

Luckily the weather held for this evening and we sat out, cooked and watched the fire …

Posted by Mark at 11:26 PM | Permalink

Quote of the day :

“It’s a shame how close Windsor is to Windsor”, K as we drove into the royal town

One outfit down and one to go. Tonight Martin and I sat outside with a beer, ready for the travelling we need to do tomorrow.

Posted by Mark at 9:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Work is rather like one of those kid’s puzzles with one empty square into which you need to shuffle all the other pieces in order to solve the whole.

No sooner have you moved one piece than you realize another should have been moved. Trying to fix that you move another in the wrong direction.

I get close to solving it, stand back to take a look then watch as it falls apart.

This should be the closing chapters not the most stressful and challenging.

Posted by Mark at 7:55 PM | Permalink

Rachel from north London

“Mum died in the early hours of this morning. Dad was with her. The family had been at the hospital since Monday morning, sleeping there, being there, keeping faith. Dad never left her side. Day and night, her husband, and children and brother were always with her, praying and talking, keeping silence, thanking her, holding her hand, telling her again and again how much she is loved. She knew. She was not afraid. It was terrible but it was also beautiful.”

Posted by Mark at 10:19 PM | Permalink

I could say a lot about today but I’d much rather you went over to Rachel’s blog and spare your thoughts for her and her family today.

Thanks.

Posted by Mark at 8:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Now I’m really stuck.

Do I try to get all the ills fixed with my Canon G6 (flash doesn’t work, doesn’t bracket exposures, no digital zoom - yes I know I don’t use the flash that often and the zoom rarely) or get a smart new G9.

Thanks goodness Canon listened to all the criticism of the G8 and have brought back RAW mode for this latest camera it’s a shame that they decided to use SD cards for storage and went for a flat screen with no cover and no way to angle it for over / low shots.

Here’s a few reviews of the new camera :

• Canon G9 at DP Review
• Review at Gizmodo

Posted by Mark at 9:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

There’s something about a slow Sunday lunch and good company. Just a shame it wasn’t under the vines…

I’m off to look for some home made wine recipes - see you all later …

Posted by Mark at 10:46 PM | Permalink

You have to be of a certain age to admire Formica, the high pressure laminate used widely after the war. There is something about those classic examples of 1950s furniture which extol the feeling of those post war years. Life was good, colour was back in everyone’s life and hope was back in peoples hearts.

In those days Lorenzo Marioni’s family had arrived from Italy to run cafes and trattoria up the whole of Denman Street. His father opened the New Piccadilly in 1951, Lorenzo started to work there aged seven and on September 23rd this year he will finally close the doors after giving up a valiant struggle with a landlord who wants to redevelop the area or impose another savage rent hike.

Interviewed last year at Classic Cafes he said :

“The café is my life. I know nothing else. I’m here seven days a week. People like to see the same face, it gives a sense of comfort and familiarity.

In some places, one waiter serves you the soup, and you get another one for the main course, because the first one got sacked halfway through.

One guy said he hadn’t been here for 35 years, and that nothing had changed. Yeah, but why spend the money? If there’s nothing really wrong you don’t need to change it.

I couldn’t say I know London. All I know is this area. I grew up in council flats over there on Shaftesbury Avenue, behind the fire station. I don’t go east of the British Museum, and I’ve never been south of the river.

The west end is the centre of the world. It’s true, I have lost touch with time ­ I’m living in the time I was formed. But I’m happy with that.

I’ve got no social life, apart from what goes on here. But we can get very social here, with partying until late. We were partying here till midnight the other night.

It’s an organic living thing. I can close whenever I feel. It’s the lazy bastard’s approach. If I’ve had enough, I’ve had enough. I’m here seven days a week.

The captain’s got to be on the bridge. If I go on a ship and don’t see the captain he’s the only one who can inspire confidence.”

Sitting in the cafe on Saturday I watched Lorenzo working behind the counter and listened to him pass on his views of the world. “I hate opera”, he said after whistling along to something that sounded very operatic on the radio. I guess that’s the beauty of the place. Everything is very simple and very down to earth. if you want organic brown sugar or something that’s “lo-salt” it’s not the place to come. If you want fish and chips with a bowl of tartare sauce, the best tea in London and white sugar lumps then it’s a mecca, somewhere to hide from the bland, samey Starbucks places on every street.

The New Piccadilly is very much a place lost in time. The Formica work surfaces still have their cheerful yellow swirls, the waiters are dressed in white with red epaulets just like I remember when my parents took me to London and people are still recognised as regulars and greeted with a cup of tea and a smile. Even the menu refuses to be updated with the old 01 telephone code for London.

Soon it will be a place that’s lost forever. Make sure that you go and visit it to admire the Formica, to thank Lorenzo and get a little hope in your heart before that sad day.

Elsewhere on the Net:

• Rapiers Are Go : Cry for the New Piccadilly
• Eggs Bacon Chips And Beans : New Piccadilly
• Flickr : New Piccadilly Memories
• Classic Cafes : New Piccadilly Special
• The Girl in the Cafe : A Talk With Lorenzo

Posted by Mark at 10:03 PM | Permalink

As Max Roach sat down to “stir the soup” in the Coleman Hawkins Quintet in 1943 it would be another thirty nine years before the compact disk was produced at the Philips factory in Germany, starting a global music revolution.

Back in those days Vinyl was the leading technology, analogue ruled and Max was nineteen. In 1982, when the compact disk came out, he was fifty eight and had become one of the most important influences in drumming music has ever seen. He had worked with the greats of jazz (Mingus, Brown, Roach, Gillespie, Parker, Monk, Powell, and Miles Davis) and was embarking on concerts with gospel choirs, orchestras and rap artists.

Today the CD has seen off Vinyl, reel to reel tape, 8 track and the cassette to become the means by which the majority of us still listen to our music. Tonight, over a beer, we’ll play some CDs and remember just how good Max Roach was.

Posted by Mark at 11:01 PM | Permalink

You’ll have to excuse me I have some mutant ants to fight tonight …

“When Man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world. What he eventually finds in that new world, nobody can predict.”

Posted by Mark at 8:34 PM | Permalink

There’s no doubt that since we have got back life has been a little stressy both at home and at work.

I was tempted to write something about that and how things will turn a corner soon, plan for another trip, Bank Holiday to look forward to then I saw this in The Times :

This is the story of two brothers who worked for the British: one is dead, the other fears for his life - Times Online

“Mohammad’s body was found dumped in wasteland on the outskirts of Basra. His killers had burnt cigarettes into his back, broken one of his hands and legs and shot him three times in the head and twice in the chest. His crime: to have worked as an interpreter for the British in Iraq.”

How can you help ?

• Watch the video

• Write to your MP

• Sign the petition

Posted by Mark at 10:51 PM | Permalink

So, all of a sudden it’s all back on and people are wondering why nothing happened yesterday.

At least the weather is consistent, persistent and cold ..

Posted by Mark at 10:17 PM | Permalink

Normally the final cricket Test is a time to listen to TMS, think back on a long summer of cricket and go outside for a drink in the garden.

Today it was grey and cold outside and rather than sit out I went to hide in the front room. Can’t say things were much better in the day as we seem to be at a halt on this project and most people are off on their summer holidays.

I think for a while at least things will be a little testing…

Posted by Mark at 11:48 PM | Permalink

Quote of the day :

“I’m going to call him Colin. I think that’s a very good name for a frog.”

K on the new addition to her garden.

After a day shopping for wedding outfits and lunch outside in the sun Martin and I sat by the fire and watched the Perseids.

Posted by Mark at 11:58 PM | Permalink

It’s been a while since I sat and watched cricket and even longer since that was at a major game so it was quite a day for me and even more a memorable day for James whose stag do this was.

It wasn’t the best days cricket that we could have hoped for but we saw 300 odd runs; drank loads of larger; ate a tactical pasty and the most peppered chicken I have ever tasted and had an awful lot of laughs.

As Will Buckley wrote in The Observer :

Cricket: Tendulkar seals England’s sorry fate | England v India 2007 | Guardian Unlimited Sport

“The last two Tests here have been among the most dramatic in recent times. In 2005, England supporters cheered on the rain to stop play as the home side completed an Ashes series victory which, in retrospect, becomes ever more unlikely with every passing Test match. In 2006, it was the umpires that stopped play as Darrell Hair refused to stand in the match against Pakistan and all and sundry demanded apologies.

The ground was, therefore, due, if not a dud, a reassuringly dull affair. What they received was a match so one-sided that it was barely a contest.”

But it’s still cricket in August and soon winter will be here and, as John Arlott wrote in his poem ‘To Jack Hobbs on his 70th birthday, 16 December 1953’ :

There falls across this one December day
The light remembered from those suns of June
That you reflected, in the summer play
Of perfect strokes across the afternoon

A very memorable day.

Posted by Mark at 11:43 PM | Permalink

Tonight Martin, Ram and I sat out and listened to Nitin Sawhney and Anoushka Shankar at tonights Proms as we told each other tales of travels and India.

Bliss.

Posted by Mark at 10:30 AM | Permalink

Head over to Dan Hardie’s weblog and read the plight of the Iraqis employed by British Government who now face jihadi violence as we pull out from the country.

The response of our government seems to be that these people “register with the UN refugee agency” It seems morally wrong to abandon these people simply because they were brave enough to help us.

If you feel the same way follow Dan’s advise and contract your MP. He provides details on how to do this or you can use websites such as Write to Them.

Thanks.

Posted by Mark at 10:30 PM | Permalink

Me : “I was calling to inquire if you do food this evening ?”
Them : “When’s that ?”
Me : “Normally after 6pm …”

That’s why we didn’t go to the Northbrook Arms and went to the Gamekeepers instead.

On a summers evening we should have been sitting out watching the fields for deer. Instead we huddled by the door what Karen smoked before going back inside to get warm. The place was warm and packed with people which is a testament to Phil the owner and his chef.

“The lambs local, it came from that field over there”, said Phil as he took the order. Clearly he is on a mission to steal Gordon Ramsey’s thunder.

I had Coquilles St Jacques and steak (“Rare like it should be”, said Phil approvingly) and Karen the Crevettes and calves liver. So, over a leisurely meal we caught up with each other news and wonder just where this year’s summer is hiding.

Posted by Mark at 11:57 PM | Permalink

It depends how you look at what I have been offered at work :

Half full :

• It plays to whatever strengths I still have
• It gives me some time to think about what I want to do
• It builds on what I have done before

Half empty :

• This is probably higher profile with more stress
• There’s no new skills or career progression doing this let alone thanks or money
• It’s the same old same

Posted by Mark at 10:55 PM | Permalink

With K here tonight it was a question of finding something on the TV which we both wanted to watch.

The BBC 1 option had far too much blood for me to stomach and it was enough of a shock to be inside at 9:00pm in any case.

The solution to this problem turned out to be QVC. How have I never seen this before ? What amazing things for sale. I mean, diamonique what a stunning product !

“You ladies love your diamonique, we knows it fools the jewelers”, coos the “presenter” as the camera zooms far too closely into her chest. Across the TV screen her skin is stretched in such depth that the pores are exaggerated. I wonder if the Silurians are back on TV.

&lqduo;It’s a pendant AND a chain”, coos the Silurian. All across the country (and in one place in particular) I hear jewelers crying out in agony….

Posted by Mark at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After heat,
The smell of jasmine on the cool night air,
A bat swirls above

With apologies to Jack Kerouac and in the style of American Haiku.

Posted by Mark at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

“You could work with Daddy, he’s always helping people”, said Joanne as we walked back from the park.

The idea had been to go see the hot air balloons but none of them were flying. Instead we watched a show for the children featuring some blokes dressed up as large wrestlers. As it was a hot day they (and apparently for comic reasons) the audience needed a drink of champagne. One of the assistants drove around on a quad bike spraying water at everyone. Joanne licked her arm and looked aggrieved, “That’s not champagne”, she said. I tried not the look at the woman behind us with the disapproving look on her face. After all I’m only the Uncle.

Tonight was one of those summer barbecues at Martin’s which grow in size from just K and me to Paul, Anne, Daisy, Tony and some friends of Fhai’s up from Devon for the day.

The still summer air was full of the smells of hot coals, Thai spices and a Romeo Y Julieta Churchill fresh from Cuba …

Posted by Mark at 11:01 PM | Permalink

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. ”

John Lubbock

Posted by Mark at 11:57 PM | Permalink

It’s been a long a stressful day.

I’m wondering how some people are managing to avoid new skills and how others are happy for a few to carry the many.

Tonight all I can do is return to some familiar things and recharge …

Posted by Mark at 11:12 PM | Permalink

If the point of going into the office today was to work with people then it would have been a waste of time.

Rows of empty desks meant I could pick where I wanted to sit. It seems the holiday season and the warmer weather Martin and the kids have been enjoying have drained people from the office.

The meeting I needed to have today was held outside by the lake which was nice but I was still in long trousers and it was all far too grown up ….

Posted by Mark at 11:17 PM | Permalink