Anglesey

We went to Anglesey for the day and had a fantastic time. I took a heap of photos. One thing I love about digital cameras is the fact that you can get into trial and error much more, and really capture everything that catches the attention. I have put a new header on the blog (the bit at the top of the page). The background is a photo of rocks taken on the same day out.

train fragment

…travelling through the country from London to the North West of England on a train. Looking out of the window, there are huge formations of clouds hanging in an otherwise blue sky. It is the end of an exhausting working week…

London Eye defeats vertigo

Yesterday we were in London, so we went on the London Eye. The queue was crazy – especially when you consider that this attraction has been around since the Millennium. Now, I am not particularly keen on heights. In fact I get spooked really easily. But there was something about the design of the pods and slow speed with which you work your way up into the clouds, that made the whole thing a pleasant experience.

The views over London were spectacular. There are some stunning buildings in the city. I suppose the one negative side to the experience was the confirmation that London lacks the planning on a grand scale of Paris. If you look at Paris from the Eiffel Tower you can see the thought that has gone into the big picture of the city as a whole. That is not apparent in London, which just looks like an untidy and chaotic series of developments. At least, to these eyes it does!

Today I’m listening to Salif Keita’s album “Soro” which is a wonderful album of music from Mali. I can see where Youssou N’Dour’s sound originates from. This is clearly one that will improve with repeated listening.

A pile of CDs are all benefiting from repeat listening at the moment:

Lloyd Cole – Music in a Foreign Language
Robert Plant – Dreamland
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – The Last DJ
Kraftwerk – Tour de France: Soundtracks
Robert Wyatt – cuckooland

Keeping very busy…

The Trans Pennine Express

Wobbling around in an ungainly manner on the "Trans-Pennine Express" from Leeds to Liverpool on the day before a Bank Holiday weekend. As a result of the timing of this, the train is heaving with people and I feel a little over-dressed in a suit, shirt and tie (I'm working today).

I have to say that the name of this train service is a grand illusion which is not carried through into the execution. At the sound of the "Trans-Pennine Express" one imagines a locomotive with dozens of carriages in a smart livery hurtling along at break-neck speed. The reality is a two-carriage train, which wobbles along at about 40 mph, and has seats like a bus. Comfort was left out of the vocabulary when this service was invented.

I have just been reading 'Duino Elegies' by Rainer Maria Rilke, a collection of poems which are translated by Geoff Ward. Geoff lectured me when I was an undergraduate student at Liverpool University quite some time ago. I've read his own poetry since then - I really enjoyed 'Comeuppance', and 'Breaking apart in slow motion' was excellent too. The poetry in the Rilke translations is accomplished and I'm enjoying reading it. But I'm left wondering whether they are more accurately described as 'interpretations' rather than translations. The poems are phrased and placed in such a way that it would be difficult to conceive of Rilke writing in such a way, given the period when he lived and other poetry by Rilke which I have read in other translations.

I have brought music with me to listen to during the trip, but so far I have preferred the quiet thunder of the train. Last night I listened to '10' by Kate Rusby, which is a stunning album. By coincidence, a record shop I went in to in Leeds on my way back to the station, was playing Kate Rusby. She has the most expressive and distinctive voice.

I'm having one of those days (so far) when trains arrive just as you get to the station, and 'green men' appear on the road crossings just as you get there. I like days like these.

The exhaustion of travelling

When you just know that the stopping will result in complete body shut-down. The book I am writing on coping with change within organisations, will have a chapter about energy cycles in it. On the cycle which I have mapped for myself, I am in the 'Recovery' mode - exhausted, minimising energy use, and trying to find the scope for re-building…

Here is a poem I wrote in the last few weeks, and I like it, wondering where to put it: -

love making

It took as long as the breath that first stretches on waking early morning
No more

The first day
was a speech
then a gentle fight between us both as we
searched for a point of balance
your fingers touching mine, at the very tips

Nothing that we could express would
release us from this grip
held together in a second that lasts forever

for that is the sound of love
just one last gasp
then a sliding together, materials sparking

Wednesday - travelling again again again

I'm writing this whilst wobbling about on one of the not so new Virgin West Coast trains from London to the North West of England. The last couple of days I have travelled a thousand miles, half by train and half by car.

As a result the creative expression is a bit low and lacking.

At the beginning of the week I received a real treat through the post. I had subscribed to 'The Wire' magazine, and with the subscription came a stack of compilation CDs as an opening gift. They are amazing - a hugely diverse spread of music across 4 CDs totalling some 5 hours of music. If there is so much diversity and creativity out there, why is that the mainstream music industry is so sterile and narrow in its outlook.

It's too early so far to say who I am really impressed with - after one listen I feel I need a lot more play throughs to get what is really going on here.

At the weekend I also bought some new CDs - a great range from The English Suites of Bach played by Glenn Gould, to Jane Birkin's 'arabesque'. I also got 'Bangra Beatz' which is a compilation album on the Naxos label - a great introduction to the music of bangra. The music all comes from a record label, Kiss, which is based in Oldham. Local talent!

Plenty of music to keep me busy there then…

On the writing front, it is difficult to take anything forwards when the day job is so all consuming, but the rest of the week should see a change to all that.

the longer view
showing through
with all the patience of nature