Rodrigues at the Barbican

Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, and to someone who had the time and energy to upload a video from their phone, you too can see Rodrigues live at the Barbican!

He was great; he seemed frail but he sure could sing! I think he was a little bemused by the level of adulation he was getting from the crowd... Someone sitting behind us said that suddenly finding out how wildly popular he was in South Africa (and, apparently Australia and New Zealand) when he thought his album had been long forgotten must have been a bit like finding out that someone had published the poems you wrote as a teenager and they had a huge following. Disconcerting to say the least!

The concert went on a bit longer than we'd thought so we very nearly missed the last train home; as it was we had to walk from Redhill. (Could have got a cab but it was a nice night so it seemed more pleasant to walk). It was a very good evening. Oh, and we ate at Wagamama beforehand - yum!

And tomorrow it's our wedding anniversary. Twenty years! I will have been married for more than half my life. Bobby's taking the day off (well-deserved, especially considering he had to work Sunday) so we plan to have coffee somewhere in town before I go to work, and then dinner out afterwards... Bobs is going to fly his plane during the day, I think. Hope it doesn't crash; the symbolism would be unfortunate.

Fridays in London

Last Friday, I took the train in to London to see a William Blake exhibition at the Tate Britain which I'd been wanting to see for ages.. It was a lovely, leisurely day; a late start, a stroll to the gallery, picnic lunch in a park...

Tomorrow, I'm taking the train in to the city again. This time, though, I'll be attending a training day for the course I'm teaching next year. I'm looking forward to it - except that, instead of leaving at 10, I have to leave before 8, along with all the suit-clad commuters with their briefcases and laptops and newspapers. What always strikes me as weird is the way that there always seems to be at least one woman doing her make-up on the train. They seem totally unself-conscious, with all their little pots and tubes arrayed on the table in front of them. Maybe it's because of that English thing of ignoring the people around you while on public transport - perhaps they really feel as though they are actually on their own. I'm glad I'll have my iPod to distract me. I love it dearly; I'm not sure it's good for me, though. It can't be entirely healthy to revel in distancing yourself from the outer world... Healthy or not, I'm addicted, and my new favourite podcast is WNYC's Radiolab - fascinating stuff!

Hard Frost

It's so beautiful outside; we went for a bike ride this morning and were amazed by how magical everything looked. Amazed, and also cold. Very, very cold.






The pond in the park is frozen right over. That's Bobby in the pictures, out in the middle of it. It got all the way down to minus 7 last night and didn't get any warmer than minus 2 all day today. It hasn't really got above freezing all week; there's still snow around from the little snowfall we had on Monday. Very unusual for our part of the world.





I have loved the cold dry weather we've had these past couple of weeks. Sadly, though, according to the weather forecast it'll be back to our normal, wetter, weather as of tomorrow.

More pictures here...

Johnny Clegg

We went to see Johnny Clegg play last night; it was brilliant. Hot and sweaty (lots of dancing people and no ventilation) but brilliant. And it felt great to dance again.

Today's good too. I'm tired, but tired in a pleasant, happy way. I've spent a peaceful afternoon sitting in the garden in the sun (yes, today it is actually sunny!!) reading all my Sociology textbooks. I'm starting to get to grips with the Sociology syllabus, I think, which is a relief. And we did the housework this morning, so tomorrow will be completely freed up for R&R. Why can't the weekends be longer and the work weeks be shorter?

Last day of freedom!

My legs are slightly stiff (we cycled 25 miles today) but I feel better for having been outdoors for most of today.

After breakfast this morning...





(mmmm, homemade jam....) we cycled to the station and took the train down to Brighton. From there, we cycled along the shoreline via Shoreham to Worthing before catching the train home.





The play areas along the beach always seem poignant to me, because they are so lovely, yet it seems like every time we are in Brighton the wind is howling and it's absolutely freezing, so every time we see them they're pretty much deserted.





We took a slightly wrong turn just after we passed this broken railing





but I didn't mind having to back-track because the wrong turn led us to this, which I thought was cool.





The landscape along here always strikes me as somewhat post-apocolyptic. It's so bleak and stony; seems like what might remain after people have vanished from the earth...





We stopped for a cup of coffee in Shoreham, then crossed the River Adur.





I can't help imagining living in each of the places we visit. We toyed briefly with the idea of life in one of these houseboats, but decided against it on the grounds that the mud looked too sludgey and the houseboats didn't look like they could actually sail anywhere.





We noted this warning; presumably a cyclist who didn't follow those Sustrans signs quite carefully enough...





We sat on the rocks and watched the kite surfers for a while. Bobby is keen to try it; I think it looks beyond my capabilities.





They are beautiful though.





I didn't have the gall to take a picture but I was intrigued by the beach huts, and couldn't stop myself peering in as we passed them. They are the line of little white huts that run between the cycle path and the beach. Inside, it seems like everyone is set up in more-or-less the same way: a two burner gas cooker thingy, with a kettle on it (for tea I assume), a couple of deck chairs, a table, and a radio. All very cosy and domestic, but rather unbeachlike, somehow! But then, a beach made of pebbles is also not truly beach-like to me. Apparently there's a huge waiting list for the beach huts; I'm told that one rents them from the council for £300-odd quid a year.





Once we got to Worthing we explored a bit,. as there was a model-aeroplane shop Bobby wanted to visit. But sadly (for him) it was shut.





I find that living here where it's often grey, things like this street fair we came across in Worthing seem beautiful to me, whereas before I wouldn't have really appreciated them.

And then we took the train back home.

I'm glad my last pre-work day was a good one. I'm quite apprehensive about the new term; to the extent that I've been having anxiety dreams about it for the last couple of nights. Hopefully the anticipation will be worse than the reality.

LLLaurie R. King

Laurie R. King is one of my favourite writers. I discovered her blog recently, and, in reading it, learned that she, too, used to be a La Leche League Leader! How cool is that? I had always felt, reading her sensitive descriptions of motherhood, that she must have been a LLL-ish sort of mother...

Laurie Anderson!

I'm excited!

I just booked tickets to see Laurie Anderson at the Barbican next weekend!

Laptop Lunchbox

Bobby and I have adorable new lunchboxes.

They fold up into neat little carry-cases ...





... and open up to reveal five sweet little containers.





The teeny container has a spill-proof lid so you can use it for dressings or dips... and there's a space at the side for eating utensils.





The blue one is Bobby's; the purple one is mine. The kids didn't want them; apparently owning one would lead to playground mockery. As of today, I can testify that owning one leads to staffroom mockery too, but I'm sure that's just a manifestation of extreme envy.

If you want to know where to get one, I ordered mine from a site called Becky & Lolo. They were incredibly quick and efficient; I placed the order on Sunday night and the lunchboxes arrived on Tuesday morning.

And it seems I'm not alone in my lunchbox love; somewhat to the kids' horror, I discovered that there's a whole Flickr group devoted to laptop lunchboxes.

For those reading from the UK, a friend at work told me about mysupermarket.com a couple of days ago, and I am really liking it.

It's an online grocery shopping site which compares prices from the four major players (Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose and Asda). It also suggests lower-cost alternatives and (if you want) lower fat or sugar options. You can fill up a virtual trolley at their website, make some swaps to lower prices or healthier options if you want to, and then checkout from the store which offers the best price and options on your particular goods. And, if you've shopped online before, it can import your favourites from that store. I imported mine from both Sainsbury's and Tesco. I'm very impressed - I spent an hour playing with it this morning, and saved £15 on my grocery bill!

It is amazing just how much more expensive Waitrose really is, by the way! I know it's a nicer bricks-and-mortar shopping experience, but really, can that be worth an extra £20 on the week's shopping??? And it's not like they were substituting fancier items, it was £20 more for the exact same things.

Well that's cool, the Go-Ape people - the Chief Gorilla himself, in fact - left me an apologetic comment! Let's hope it won't be too long before Sophie's actually tall enough to go ... 10cm though, that could be a year, at the rate she grows. Maybe for her 11th birthday...

Also cool is this Potter Puppet video - "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" - which Emily showed me this evening. (Doesn't contain any spoilers, for those who haven't finished reading yet). Enjoy!