Snapshots of my room...

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The Scribbler turns 24!

Well, it's taken me, what, 24 years to make it here. The big two-four. Call it what you will, I feel the pangs of old age starting to kick in!

Just round the corner from my London flat, numerous Jack Daniels and Cokes were consumed at the lovely American style saloon bar, 4th Street.

I was joined by a few old faces, and a few new ones, too. Steve Brown came down, as did Malcolm from Oxford (previously my partner in crime as an estate agent), Paul, Sarah and Lucy (previously at university), then there was Billy, director at VEE-TV, who brought JR, James and Joe with him... all in all it was quite a crowd - not forgetting Zhao (flatmate) and Pexa, of course. At around midnight, Bim (editor at VEE) and David (fellow researcher) turned up, and brought such an entourage that they doubled the number of people in the bar!

It may be Tuesday now (I think this is the longest time I haven't blogged for) but I think I'm still firmly in recovery mode as I sit here at my TV researcher's desk. That wasn't all we did at the weekend, either. Friday was an American themed night (in tribute to Ady perhaps) when we scoffed down a huge burger at the Eagle Bar round the corner from work (where milkshakes cost £4 and are almost worth it!). That was followed by an evening of live blues (funny thing ith blues, all the music sounds like different variations of the same song... anyone else noticed this?). Saturday then, was 4th Street, Sunday was an afternoon in the park, then yesterday was a chance to check out the delights of the Notting Hill Carnival (watch for a blog and snaps in the next few days!). Active, to say the least!

Chilled out last night in George's room where we listened to Don McClean's American Pie and reflected on a busy weekend... and being 24!

Future Hearing (aids)

This, my friends, is the answer to every deaf person's prayers... and no, I don't mean we're all going to get a beautiful lady turning up at our door on the NHS...

More's the pity...

See that necklace around her neck? That ain't no necklace. It's a hearing-aid. Unusual. Not sure if it's my style (though she probably is) but hey, at least people are starting to think outside the box!

When I got my new fangled digitals lately, I was suprised that even in this design-led day and age, the only fashion choices I get with hearing-aids is which colour they come in. And those happened to be beige, brown or grey...

I saw a funky poster on the wall of some sexy see-through (baring all the electronics underneath) electrics, but apparently beige, brown or grey were the colours 'voted for' by their patients.

It just so happened that most of their patients were elderly (as many deaf people are), and didn't fancy a see-through option. No, forget see-through, grey would fit in perfectly with their hair colour!












Thankfully, with a whole generation of young people set to join the deaf 'massive' over the next few years (by virtue of the clubbing, iPod, walkman generation) manufacturers are beginning to sense a new market forming. Is it any suprise then, that the hearing-aid featured above bears more than a simple nod to the all-white design of the iPod?! Although I must admit, it'd be useful during some meetings if they could store a few tunes on there..! Songs like Everybody's Talking, perhaps...










Then there's designs for people who already need to wear glasses (or wear them because they think they're fashionable). These ones cleverly double up by making a dash for the ear straight from the eyes. Just one thing though, it might not be so cool when you're trying to impress someone and smile, whipping off those glasses with a flourish, when they start whistling*...

*For anyone who doesn't know, hearing-aids making a whistling noise when they come loose - it's a phenomenon called feedback, and happens when the sound literally 'feeds' back into it's own microphone... just thought you might like to know that... sorry to get technical..!













Not sure what's happening with these ones (above) , but if I was to wear one I'd just be hoping that some kid didn't come up and start trying to use them as a yo-yo... or present these ones (below) as a flower. Romantic... but don't dip them in a jar of water.













The gizmo below looks like some kind of minature space-pod... with a lightbulb. Presumably there's the added bonus of these being great for reading in bed!

























However, the 'Goldfish' is my personal favourite for pure luncy. Ok, it looks pretty cool, it's got a decent design and fits just inside the ear. But I'm not so sure about the design principles. Based on the fact that a goldfish has a 5 second memory, these ones have the 'fantastic' function (it sounds pretty cool actually) of being able to play back the last ten seconds of sound. Amazing! How do you get it to do this? You wave your hand across your ear. Fantastic, you say?! Yeah sure, until you're in a crowd, or on a busy tube train where someone merely brushing their hand past your head will consign you to an instantaneous trip - back to the future!

As if to back up the dissatisfaction with the present hearing-aids, I spoke to Ady last night (all the way from LA) and found he'd given up (momentarily at least) on his digitals. The reason? They're far more prone to whistling, he had to turn down the volume as a result, and hence he's now he's back with the old hear-all analogues. Another design fault was noted with the digitals - they easily turn themselves on in your pocket! So you're in a nightclub, bopping away, and wonder why, when you pop to the relative silence of the toilet, everyone's staring at you as a whistling sound begins as you unzip, and empty your bladder...

Perhaps the main virtue of these designs is that at last people are starting to think of what deaf people might want beyond being able to merely hear. We want to be fashionable, stylish, eye-catching... most of these designs do that for sure - for good or bad, people are going to notice you as you walk down the street! Surely there's something in between, a compromise between mad fashion and beige, brown and grey. I quite liked the in-the-ear blue moulds featured in It's all gone Pete Tong, the recent film about a deaf DJ starring Paul Kaye.
If all else fails though, you could always try the soft minatures left (which seem to be stored in some kind of lightsabre!).

They're ear plugs... you always know what you're getting with them - pure, unadulterated silence.

Something we all need once in a while!

Random Scribble # 11

"I neatly sidestepped the desk and walked from the office onto the streets. I carried on walking. Soon I reached the fields and the hills and the trees and the sea."

On chatting to Carrie on the phone..!

Sometimes there's no particular reason why, but you lose touch with an old friend. Maybe it's because your lives have changed in some way, or perhaps it's because you're both too lazy (or pigheaded) to pick up the phone... maybe there's literally no explanation.

Tonight, however, I've just put down the phone having spoken to Carrie, a friend from university I haven't seen for three years after she finished her Criminology degree (a year before I graduated). Carrie moved to York (and hasn't returned to Nottingham since!) and has gone on to buy her own boat (her family were always keen boaters - we had a great barbeque on the River Trent once in the 1st year at uni!). We spoke a few times in my final year in Nottingham, and expected that somehow we'd meet up, but for one reason or another it never happened. After that, I went off to be an estate agent for a while, moved house four times in the space of a year and a half, and here we are, three years down the line!

The best thing about Carrie was always that she was always up for a party, no matter the event, and for that reason, being friends with her was one of the defining things I remember from university life. She always listened to great music, and was generous too - especially when she was serving up the drinks! In the first year in halls, I'd often stay up chatting with her in her room, where we'd normally call it a night sometime around 4am in the morning, having watched late night poker and struggled to work out the rules...

One of my other main memories of her is that she loved to cook lasagne, and afterwards would insist that no-one wash the cooking dish, because she loved to spend hours picking away at (and eating) the crispy (burnt) cheese! She might not appreciate me writing that particular memory down, but hey, you live once, right?!

The funny thing is that speaking to her tonight, and getting a catch-up on her life, it felt like hardly a moment had gone by - as it always does with good friends. The reason we got back in touch was because I went out with another university friend, Lee-Anne, on Friday night, and we've now decided that the three of us should meet up and relive a few old times - Nottingham seems like an appropriate location, since we frequented every bar in sight for 3 years solid!

Let's hope we can get something arranged.

Darn it, forget about hoping (!), we will, we will.

Random Scribble # 10

"The problems of the world can be solved over a good breakfast"

Walking the 'pod (twice daily)

Yesterday was a lazy Sunday afternoon in London, and after a late night in Soho on Saturday with Ady's godfather, David, I spent a few hours walking off a slightly sore head, wandering around town. Traffic rumbled alongside me, people chattered past and all along I was safely in the sanctuary of my iPod, listening to my favourite tunes.

The iPod's one of those inventions which really has changed the way people live their lives - and although the gadget has been covered so much in the media of late, I thought I'd give my take on it anyway! For one thing, it's perfect for the city - whether you're on the tube, a bus, or on foot - and not only that, it actually makes going to the gym a lot more fun, too!

The iPod's a pretty personal thing - a bit like a unique fingerprint into everyone's musical tastes. Each iPod has it's own playlist, set of songs, styles of music. For the record, here's the five songs I'm listening to non-stop at the mo... and if anyone wants to add their own list, feel free to post a comment (I'm not holding my breath!)...

Here goes..!

1) Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
Beautifully written, questionning verse, and being a sucker for folk in general and songs full of wonderment (as this one is), I keep playing this song by the great Irish poet on repeat...
If I ventured in the slipstream
Between the viaducts of your dream
Where immobile steel rims crack
And the ditch in the back roads stop
Could you find me?
Would you kiss-a my eyes?













2) Kinky Afro - The Happy Mondays
I remember a weekend spent at Guy's house in Hooky when we hardly slept and the best of the Happy Mondays was the soundtrack to both the day and the night - this one always reminds me of being 17, although on the cusp of being 24, I still can't work out what the lyrics mean... still, at least I'm not yet 30...
Son, I’m 30
I only went with your mother ’cause she’s dirty
And I don’t have a decent bone in me
What you get is just what you see yeah
Yippee-ippee-ey-ey-ay-yey-yey












3) Northern Sky - Nick Drake
This was recently featured on the soundtrack to the film Garden State, and is probably Nick Drake's best known song. It's uplifting, inspiring - I first heard his music in the upstairs cafe of Oxford's Phoenix Picture House Cinema, and only recently read a biography on him while I was in Sweden. He led a tragic life, and died young, but left behind fantastic, haunting songs.
I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you're here
Brighten my northern sky.


























4) Suzanne - Nina Simone
Had to have a Nina Simone track in this list, and this cover version of Leonard Cohen's classic does it for me every time. It's a totally different song to the original- completely enhanced by her voice, not to be compared with the first, but something that stands alone from it.
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you've always been her lover
















5) Woodstock - Joni Mitchell
Ok, so all 5 of these tunes are pretty old now, but I can't help liking what I like! This is probably the saddest song of them all, but then I always liked the sad ones best! Just got into Joni Mitchell lately, though I first heard this song as a cover version by another artist. The original's best though - this one is a real classic. Poetry in song.
I came upon a child of god
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I’m going on down to yasgur’s farm
I’m going to join in a rock ’n’ roll band
I’m going to camp out on the land
I’m going to try an’ get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

So that's my current list - although my preferences change all the time. The ones that didn't make the cut this time include the 'naked' version of the Beatles' Let it Be, Keith Jarrett's The Koln Concert (the whole album!) and also Marvin Gaye's Inner City Blues. That's the beauty of music, songs become friends that remind you of old times - and it seems like you meet new songs every day.

View from a train... Random Scribble # 9

Drawn somewhere between Nottingham and London, May 2005

That's why he's my mate...

With an incredible ability to pull faces and generally act of out synch with the rest of society (only kidding mate!) it's hardly a surprise that I'd still be mates with Steve Brown some 12 years down the line from when we were first at school together. .. and even less of a suprise that sooner or later, our friendship would be condensed into a blog...

Steve's a musician, and it was perhaps this that cemented our early friendship - I had discovered music pretty late at the age of 11 (!) and he shared my admiration for the Beatles. When you're a kid, sometimes friendship really is as simple as that!

Steve went on to perform in bands at school and study music, and he's still going strong. In fact, he's recently set up his own website, which you can access from column on the right-hand side of this page, or by clicking on this link -

http://www.stevenbrown.net/

I've gotta be careful how much I write, because Steve's getting married to Laura next year - and he's asked me to be best man (little does he know what he's letting himself in for!) so I'd better not use up too much speech material...

Perhaps one of the funiest aspects of hanging out at school was that his nickname (virtue of his surname) was 'Brown.' And since I was Charlie, people would laugh about 'Charlie Brown' (as in the cartoon character) roaming the corridors... I'm still traumatised about some of the jibes we took...

Indeed, there was a period of time, when we were 16, when we fell out and didn't speak to each other for a couple of months or so. They were some of the hardest months of my life - and also the quietest, funnily enough..!

Still, one fall out in twelve years ain't bad... although I've got a feeling another fall out might be on the way when Steve reads this... so maybe I'd better big him up a bit!

Steve holds the distinction of being the only one of my friends who learned to sign, going to lessons taught by my Mum when we were 14. Because of that, my youngest brother Edwin (a signer, no less) still asks after him at every opportunity. This is probably also because myself, Ady and Edwin would partake in brutal two-a-side matches at Greystones football pitch in Chipping Norton (where the grass was terribly overgrown), and somehow, Edwin would always win, and the four of us would laugh our heads off hysterically at how bad we were at the game.

They were great times - I remember most particularly Steve always slipping over because he was often wearing trainers... and also Ady's razor sharp tackles... then there was the time when Edwin's nose started bleeding after getting hit by the ball, and we carried him home, blood everywhere. It might sound strange, but we still laugh about it... perhaps because it all turned out ok in the end!

Another fond memory I have of growing up in Chipping Norton and spending numerous Sunday afternoons over at Steve's house is that his Mum, Wendy, always cooked fantastic roast dinners, with the crunchiest roast potatoes I've ever eaten in my life... yes, with me, it always comes back to food...

So that's a few short stories about my mate Steve. Great lad, great lad. I'd better save the better (and more controversial) stories for the wedding next year (no mention of what happened on Chipping Norton School's tennis courts circa 1996 here!) - in the meantime, check out his webpage if you want to hear some juicy tunes!

The Wisdom Tooth

Maybe I'm just a late developer, but it seems that finally my wisdom teeth are making a dash for freedom!

They're looking for equality: they want to be like all the other teeth in my mouth - prominent, visible, accessible! It's a struggle for tooth rights, and to be honest, as protesters go, they're rather militant!

About 3 months ago, the upper-right side molar finally broke through gum to show a smidgeon of white. This time in my life saw me slip into a throbbing headache and earache which lasted two weeks, and was neatly followed by a head-cold! At the beginning of summer no less...

Rapidly, I booked myself in to the dentist, seeking a solution to the pain - only to be reassured that there was nothing untoward happening in my mouth, and that I should come back in 3 months time when the tooth might be extractable. Not too keen on extraction, I didn't put up any argument.

Matters calmed, and newly patient, I noticed as the tooth painlessly progressed further and further from the confines of gum, to some kind of parity with the others.

Everything was fine until last Sunday, when I woke with a throbbing in my jaw, which has now lasted for five days, rendering my eating action somewhat messy (I can't fully open my mouth) and making my speech slightly slurred! There's a swelling at the back of my jaw, and I'm waiting to see whether things calm down before another call to the dentist is made.

I probably should have called her already, but as much pain as I'm in, I'm not sure if taking the opportunity to go through more pain would be the best thing to do just yet! Although if I do have to stop doing my favourite thing - that is, eating - then I might be forced to reconsider!

Random Scribble # 8

Scribbled at work, July 2005

Great Things # 3: Kurosawa's Ikiru

OK, so virtually everybody has heard of the legendary Japanese director, Akira Kurosawa. Well, at least, film historians and all-round academics... and a few of us who watch a black and white movie once in a while!

Back in the 1950's, Kurosawa created a number of films which changed the face of cinema: two of his best known, Seven Samurai and Rashomon are regularly featured in film magazine lists of the greatest films of all time.

Ikiru is another classic, and differed from many of Kurosawa's films because it does not feature any action sequences, and is subdued compared to a lot of his output. However, the drama of Ikiru is based on the story it tells, and the message of the movie.

The word 'Ikiru' means 'to live' and thus the film focuses on the meaning of life, through an office chief who is revealed to be suffering from cancer through an x-ray image right in the first scenes of the film. We learn that he has dedicated himself to work and bringing up his son since the death of his wife years earlier. However, the discovery of his terminal illness prompts him to question the life choices he has made, particularly as we see the bureaucratic stuggles of his office life, and also how distant and ungrateful his son is towards him.

The challenge for the office chief is to find meaning in life when it is drawing to a close, at a time when death is imminent.

As if to emphasise the passing of human life, the film is seperated into two halves, the first dealing chronologically with the discovery of his illness and how he attempts to deal with this. The second half then focuses on the aftermath of his death, seeing his colleagues and friends discussing him at the wake following his funeral, and flashbacks to his final days. Through this structure we see how he exists firstly in life, then in death.


In trying to make sense of his final days, the bureacrat befriends firstly a young girl in his office (who completely mis-reads his intentions) and then a drunk in a bar. Through these relationships he finds the solution to his problem of how to make the most of his life, even though he has little time left. (I'm not going to give much more detail than this so you will have to watch it!)

One of the things I most enjoyed about Ikiru is the cinematography - considering it's a black and white film, some of the images really stick in your mind, such as the central character sitting on a swing in a park, and one of the final scenes when he looks at the sunset, which looks spectacular, even though we only see it in black and white!

Ultimately, Ikiru is still relevant because it deals with timeless issues that perhaps are of even more importance in today's world, how to combine the practicalities of life and making a success of life - achieving aims which transcend time and space, and go on after your time is up!

The Ikiru I watched is a scratchy, black and white subtitled film - of another era - which somehow skips 50 years to seem like it was made for an audience of today, rather than yesteryear. Put simply, I love it. It is a bit like It's a Wondeful Life in the sense that it leaves you with an added hope, and solution to life's issues - although thankfully, Ikiru does this without a cheesy, smaltzy ending!

The flat in Gothenburg - fond memories!

So it's just under a month since we were in beautiful Sweden, and thus over the next few days, I'm going to leak onto the web the forgotten photos from what was a wicked and wonderful week. So here are the first few, of the flat in Gothenburg we were lucky enough to stay in (for free no less) and enjoyed for six days - loved it!

Random Scribble # 7

Scribbled at work, June2005

A 'Back to the Future' moment...

"Great Scott!" This happy couple are my Grandparents, who celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary last weekend! I find it incredible to think of spending fifty hours with someone let alone 50 years (!), so perhaps that's an indication of how far they've come. They're looking a tad older nowadays (although they're both good looking in my opinion) but then it was hardly likely that they'd always stay as good looking as in these black and white photos from their wedding day..! (At least now you know where I get my looks from... or maybe not!)

So, moving swiftly on, this is the before photo -













And this is them five children (all girls) and twelve grandchildren later! They're not doing too badly at all - Grandad swims five times a week, and Grandma does the gardening with an amazing fanaticism - in fact, with looking after their grandkids, they're more busy in retirement than they ever were in work, or so they say (although maybe that's because they were really lazy workers or something! OK, i apologize, I know they weren't..!)!














So we had a big bash last weekend, with nearly all the family together (which is a heck of a lot of people by the way) to celebrate their longevity. my younger cousins James, Lucy, Joshua, Jack and Emily sang (I tried to put them off by pulling faces in a juvenile fashion!) and there were speeches aplenty.... which are always fun (and slightly emotional!)

Ady's 1st Class Degree was announced to the masses, so that even though he is sunning it (and probably checking out all the ladies) over the world, he was still dominating proceedings!

Before that we had a grand meal - here's a blurry shot of the happy couple before they tucked into their pud! -














And this motley bunch are my Uncle Vic, Fred, and Grandad, who all went to school together (the original trio - maybe George Zhao and I will try and replicate this someday!)




























As always, there was the chance for a family photo - as you can see, I'm not the only good-looking one..! Actually, looking at it again, I think I am...















And this is me (sweltering in my suit jacket) with my cousin Ben, who is thinking of becoming a teacher! This photo captures the simultaneous moments when I tried to talk him out of it - and Ben finally stopped listening to anything his older cousin had to say...
















As ever, it was great to see most of the family together (with the exception of my brother, who is travelling, and the Australian contingent) - and somewhere along the line was the thought that if not for that wedding, 50 years ago, none of us would have been there! Some people would say the world would be a better place, but I like to think that's not true..!

So a big cheer for Grandma and Grandad - just think, without them, this blog wouldn't even exist...

The Chinese Pollock

If there's one thing you could say about Zhao, it's that this Chinese gent can be somewhat unpredictable. Of the litany of tales from the times we've spent together, the occasion when he drunkenly threw himself on cars in Beijing springs quickly (and traumatically) to mind.

Luckily, I can confirm they were parked at the time. Still, he managed to injure himself. The cars suffered not a dent...

Zhao recently got a new job that, like myself and George, will enable him to work within a half mile of our flat. The job offers him better prospects, pay and closer location. Feeling sad and uncomfortable about handing in his resignation after two years at his present company, Zhao decided to disregard all of the real reasons for leaving, to tell his boss that this was a pure lifestyle choice.

He told his boss that he was moving for the simple reason that he wanted to cycle to work!

And the boss (with a tear in his eye, presumably) swallowed it (not the bike, but you know what I mean!).

So it was, last week, that Zhao decided to celebrate his new employ by embarking upon some impromtu, improvised, acrobatic art. Spying a piece of hardboard (from the back of the wardrobe abandoned in the Ghetto around our flat) and some left-over paint from George's latest attempts at house-husbandry (painting the downstairs room in anticipation of his girlfriend, Claire moving in) Zhao first pondered...





























...then decided to jump in. Quite literally...


























































On more than one occasion, George was required to carry out some fairly swift cleaning manouvres that were, if not acrobatic, certainly of the balance, poise and simple action that we have come to expect from the man with "the voice of reason"















If the creative action was spectacular, then the same could be said (though doesn't have to be) of the finished product. A result of swift dribbling, jumping and reckless flickery, it resembled a Pollock in everything but reality.












































With the hardboard struggling to remain rigid in the face of the onslaught, the piece was seperated into four equal parts, that individually, look terrible, and together, don't look much better. Still, this was, as with Ghetto Cricket and our regular 'Seinfeld' nights in, another addition to the fine heritage of the Ghetto, and the random mythery of this London life.

All jokes aside (!), Zhao has declared his piece, entitled 'Requiem In White' for sale at the price of 100 of the Queen's finest currency. All email enquires directed to zhaoesq@hotmail.com.