Archive for November, 2006
September may have been the month for the trip to Graz, but before going - in fact while Alison was in Germany - I read Robert Harris’ novel Imperium. After finishing it, I wrote a review on Amazon. It didn’t appear for a few days, but I looked it up recently and it’s proved useful to some, so I repeat it here. I gave it five stars as it was a cracking read.
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Imperium is essentially a political and legal thriller. But it also informs as a history lesson. Harris goes to some length to give the reader an idea of the layout of Rome in ancient times and the kind of conditions people lived in - particularly the senators - so you often feel like you’re reading a political biography, which of course you are.
Harris explains the voting process - highlighting the role of democracy, public participation and the duty of every Roman citizen to vote. Of course it’s not just one man, one vote. Cicero’s slave and secretary, Tiro the narrator, doesn’t have a vote and we see that Republican Rome is a place of many contradictions.
Rome comes across as a city high on public participation. Our age is a sad shadow of this democracy in action. However as the narrative unfolds, the will of the people is manipulated by characters such as Pompey, Crassus and Caesar until the stage is set for the undermining of democracy and the fall of the Republic.
Is it a comment on the increase of powers given to governments to combat terrorism since 9/11? Of course it is and Harris isn’t subtle about it. Through Tiro’s narrative of Cicero’s experience with Pompey and Caesar, he warns that giving too much power too quickly while disregarding democratic precedent, even at the will of the people, is dangerous.
Although loaded with history and the references to the problems of our own time, it’s still a great story with real pace, humour, intrigue and of course a lust for political power. By the end you’re really rooting for Cicero and Tiro. They are the good guys - the “new men” against the old aristocracy, the regional players caught up in a race for power.
It’s not all politics though and there are some touching moments. Although the character development between Cicero and Tiro isn’t explored as fully as it could be, you sense that Harris is going to develop that in the next two parts.
Harris has chosen an amazing character in Cicero and a turning point in the history of Rome - from the Republic to the Empire.
Roll on the fall of the republic . . .
November 30th, 2006
We thought we’d run out of weddings…and then Paul and Esther announced their engagement in May, with a wedding date set for July! As members of Esther’s family were in the UK for holidays at the end of July, it made it possible for many more relatives to attend the wedding.
Paul is a friend who also studied at Edinburgh University. He has a particular place in our hearts for nudging Dan to ask me out…and was MC at our own wedding. In the last year, he has started studying at bible college in Glasgow, where he met Esther. We were delighted when he asked Dan to be his best man, and I accompanied his mum Rosemary for part of the day.
The weather stayed bright, and Paul and Esther win prizes for having the easiest venue to get to, just walking round the corner from the church. They also wowed the crowds with acrobats and fire eaters at the reception, as well as a magnificent vegetarian curry buffet.
Paul had previously worked in a kilt shop, and is quite knowledgeable about tartans. It was a good bet that he would wear a kilt. Dan decided to match that, and so tried out the kilt for the first time…Conveniently, the company which hired out the kilt was also in the process of choosing Dan’s company to do its website, and were happy to help out.
A thoroughly happy day, and a very relaxed reception where the kids attending were free to move about, do drawings or play in the space between rows of tables. Paul and Esther were finally allowed to escape to a (partially decorated) car, and drive off in order to catch an early flight to Italy the next day.
Here’s proof of Dan in kilt.
November 30th, 2006
Although we didn’t have the same temperatures in Edinburgh as in London, I experienced some of it while spending a week with Dan’s mum Jen in mid-July.
Jen and I spent much of the time in the garden, moving round the shade. Having had a very busy previous week with the annual preparatory course for language assistants in Glasgow, I was very happy to go along with this…
We also had some time with Jen’s mum Viv, joined on one day by Anna and Beri (Beri is Dan’s cousin) who were on holiday in London at the same time. On a second day out with Viv, we headed to a former castle and gardens in Kent. This was probably one of the hottest days, and it was good to walk in the shade of various formal gardens.
Later in the same month, I had a one-day training course in London, flying down early in the morning. As the heat build-up in the Underground was quite intense during July, I walked from King’s Cross to the office at Charing Cross, rather than take public transport. Doing this in the early morning was actually quite pleasant.
Coming out of the office again at around five, it was like walking into a hot bath of air…It’s a strange experience moving in and out of air conditioned buildings and trains/planes into regular uncooled settings.
November 30th, 2006
As part of our trip to Madrid, we stayed on for the weekend, and took a day trip to Toledo.
This is probably our moment to make a plug for the Spanish trains, which got us to Toledo in a very short space of time, and are also very comfortable. It showed us also how the landscape to the south of Madrid does remain fairly flat, although we had some hills to climb within Toledo itself.
Toledo is known for making swords, but also for marzipan - good news for me! We had to take a photo of one of the specialist shops, which had a model of the front of Toledo Cathedral. Given that the cathedral is huge and detailed, that’s quite a modelling job. We were happy to sample some marzipan, just to make sure the batch was up to scratch.
We enjoyed seeing a whole range of architecture, including an early mosque, a Sephardic synagogue and some more classical European buildings. There were also others with Visigoth influences, although we didn’t manage to see them too.
Here’s a couple of pictures to show off the marzipan - and the surroundings it’s made in.
November 30th, 2006
In order to make sense of some of our postings, here’s a month by month to show what happened when:
January: Alison back to language assistants job; Dan to Kenya and Tanzania; Alison work trip to Belfast
February:snow; bird and animal visitors to the garden
March:Peebles book fair
April:trip to Aberdour; painting and gardening
May:trip to Madrid, time in Toledo
June:short trip to London (Artist in the Home); wedding anniversary and spotting JK Rowling
July:Alison’s time in London with Jen; visit from school friend Debbie; Paul and Esther’s wedding; church beach party
August:charity shops; Bill Bailey show; walk/pick brambles
September:Nederlands Dans Theater; Inverness trip; Alison work trip to Germany and Austria (Berlin, Graz);our short break together in Graz
October:Holiday to Ischia, Rome, visiting friends near Milan
November:Gourock trip; rugby match; reading Princess Bride
December: Christmas in London; Hogmanay in Edinburgh; making tarte tatin!
November 30th, 2006
Not all the recipients of our Christmas news know about Eric, but it’s probably time for them to find out.
Eric is nearly 7 now. He is yellow, and has a fluffy body with long arms and legs. His chief features are his smile (very wide) and his (rather small) quiff. Eric is probably related to the Muppets one way or another, but the main reason for mentioning him here is for the times he’s come on holiday with us.
Eric made it to Madrid in May, although it was quite hot out, and he tended to stay put and have longer siestas. The hotel, the Vincci Soho near the Prado, was also rather cool in terms of the interior design, which suited him too.
His main trip was to Italy with us in October. Determined not to miss out at any point, Eric too tried out the sunloungers, visited the Colosseum, and ended his visit by seeing his cousin, Eric, a permanent member of the toy family belonging to Rachel and David’s children. (Their eldest, Dani, was very fond of Eric when she was small, and when they moved to Italy, we found an Eric for her to keep.)
Eric’s chief party trick is to play charades. He’s particularly good at helping shy people who don’t really like playing charades. They can just sit there and Eric does all the actions for them. However, he has also been working on miming to songs. In a recent poll of the favourite James Bond title song, we were pleased for Eric that his key piece, Goldfinger (for obvious reasons), was number one favourite.
Perhaps it’s best to let Eric speak for himself… Here are some of the photos from this year.
November 27th, 2006
You know you are joining a bandwagon when you realise the City of Edinburgh Council has published a map of its charity shops.
There were even articles about the map in the papers during the summer.
Evidently theatre companies like to go around the charity shops to collect props for the productions that are then part of the Edinburgh Fringe. The articles didn’t say whether the companies then donated the articles back to charity at the end of the shows, but it seems a reasonable bet.
Our previous flat was close to Stockbridge, home to many charity shops. As it’s quite a smart part of town, the clothes on sale are a few notches higher up the designer scale than you would normally expect. I spent one happy afternoon browsing during August, and came away with two pairs of trousers and two skirts, for a grand total of £19.
The main indulgence though is book shopping at charity shops. Shelter, the charity for the homeless, is not only very good at window displays, but also has great collections of second hand books, with children’s books a particular bargain.
Our main outing of the year for second hand books is in fact a book sale held in Peebles, close to where my parents live. It’s only on for one weekend in March, and we book our night’s accommodation with Mum and Dad in plenty of time.
We all adopt different tactics when going round the fair - mine is to show the person at the cash desk a £10 pound note, tell them I intend to spend all of it, and see how many books they’ll let me get away with. The sale does also have a good antiquarian section, and as one of the organisers says, they’ll even give away old copies of National Geographic to use as loft insulation. No wonder we keep buying bookcases.
November 27th, 2006
So, we’ve been in our own home for over two years now. How is it coming along? Rather slowly is the answer.
Having helped other friends with their decorating over a few years, we roped in all the help we could get when we first moved in, and got both bedrooms painted. We also then got the sitting room and study painted, more slowly, after Daniel learned how to do plastering on the moon-like surface of the study walls.
In an attempt to move things on, we also got the hall painted over Easter time. I say we - a great deal of help came from Dan’s mum Jen, who brought her trusty paint pad with her. (She also kindly painted over the roses on the tiles in our bathroom the previous summer.)
So, it’s now just the kitchen which needs painting. As it has a pitched roof, it will be quite a job putting up new lining paper. The plan is also to put in a new cooker and fridge, and it’s probably best to do them all at the same time…
The other job we are trying to gear up for is redoing the bathroom. One of the Czechs in our little church group, Thomas, is very helpfully a tiler by profession. Another in the group, Olly, has been hard at work doing the bathroom and the kitchen in his own flat, and I suspect we will be drawing advice (and possibly numbers of plumbers) from both.
Given that cooking food and having hot water are necessary for much of the year in Scotland, I suspect we won’t get a great deal further until at least Easter next year.
There are other bits and pieces we want to do, like knock out the fake fireplace in our bedroom. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would like a go, if we put out an invitation that sledgehammers are the weapon of choice. (Only directed at the fireplace, of course.)
Both mums also helped tremendously in the garden at Easter time, moving a flower bed a foot to the right, and planting a magnolia, my birthday present from my parents. I’m hoping for some good blooms this coming spring. We had a wonderful magnolia in the garden in Malvern, where I spent my secondary school years, and as our flat is on the first floor, it’s nice to have something good to look down at in the garden.
My parents also came over in October to help with hedge cutting etc, and finally Mum and I planted some of my plants that have patiently remained in their containers ever since we moved here. Admittedly, they were in containers on the terrace outside our old flat, but it seemed a bit unfair to put them in a garden but not let them out…
Probably the main excitement for the garden is Dan’s lawn mower. It’s German. It’s bright yellow. It sounds like a dishwasher when you turn it on. Crucially, it collects the grass and is entertaining enough to make grass cutting fairly frequent.
One thing we do manage well, however, is buying bookcases. I think my brother is probably resigned to me asking for money for a new bookcase every birthday. It would no doubt cut down on the painting to put bookcases in the kitchen and bathroom, but as both rooms are very small, even I would have to admit defeat on fitting a bookcase in either.
November 27th, 2006
Ok, so I’ve nearly done on my comments about travels this year, but here’s one that was back in January.
One of the other parts of my job is school linking between Ireland and Scotland. It’s aided along by going to a partner-finding event with teachers from Scottish schools. Often these are in Ireland, and many a partnership has been cemented over a Guiness (or several) at the end of a long week of teaching.
In January, it was Belfast’s turn to host. I’d been there a couple of times before, for meetings with our language assistant colleagues. However, I hadn’t done a tour, which takes in the - possibly notorious - murals presenting both sides of the political divide.
To help us put things in context, the hosts kindly laid on a slide show on the first night. We were able to see pictures that we’d then see for real the next day, as well as others that have now vanished, either under new murals or have been cleared. The guide and deviser of the slide show was scruplously fair in portraying both sides, switching from Republican to Loyalist pictures and back.
I think few of the teachers who’d come from mainland UK had realised just how detailed the imagery is - I certainly didn’t realise there were so many symbols for each side to draw on. It was very powerful to be going in a coach along a local street, with little shops, and suddenly to hear that this was the Falls Road,and that buses didn’t serve at all at some points in the Troubles. I hadn’t realised how close the different neighbourhoods are to each other at points. Perhaps one of the most impacting sights was going along the side of a fairly normal looking estate, and see murals covering the whole side of a house on the end of a row. Our guide also told us that at times, some people tried to cover over the mural…and might be visited in the night to be told, in no uncertain terms, that the mural was to stay.
On a happier note, it was also a trip which included a Northern Irish ceilidh. It was a little confusing where some dances were the same as Scottish ones, but with different names; others had the same name but slightly different steps in between. The Scottish teachers acquitted themselves well, however. In proper ceilidh fashion, there wasn’t just dancing but also some singing, including from two Welsh teachers determined to keep the side up…
Our aim is, at some point, to manage to have a school partnership which includes Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. it didn’t come off this time, but maybe next year in Liverpool…
November 27th, 2006
The more chances we have to travel, the more we seem to bring back food…or try out new food.
We’ve been doing this for a while when visiting Italy. Some of the best options are ones our friends have introduced us to. A great alternative to crisps and nibbles is the tarrallo (tarralli if you have more than one, which of course you will), a little loop of seasoned bread baked to a similar finish to bread sticks.
We’ve also tried gnochetti sardi, not actually gnocchi but very small shell shaped pieces of pasta, which are wonderful in a stew. They cook right down but still have a little bit of a bite to them.
Our May trip to Spain was a chance to try out food that I’d read about for a while. We bought membrillo, quince paste that is meant to be best tried with sharp manchego cheese. We also found packets of very thick hot chocolate, and saffron that is much cheaper than in the UK. The market in Madrid had some fantastic pastries as well as lots of fruit - including grapes with double pips.
We benefitted from my colleagues’ experience when we all met up in the evening. A few had previously lived in Spain, and so we tried baby octopus (surprised at how good it was), grilled asparagus with lots of salt and pepper (I changed my previous dislike of asparagus) and a fair few other things as part of the tapas experience.
I managed to have some time in Berlin between my induction courses in Germany and Austria. I knew it had lots of good Turkish food, amongst other things. My surprise was just how popular the cocktails were…a little reminder of its former decadence in the Thirties? As I was leaving Berlin on the Thursday, there was also a good food market on in the Hackescher Markt, just opposite the British Council office. We have Pizza Express outside our office in Edinburgh, but it’s not quite the same!
In Graz, Austria, the local speciality was pumpkin oil, a strong green colour, which is served with every salad. But it’s also good with meat, and is meant to be very good for you. When I stayed on for the induction course, food was a key part of the way the centre (a former castle) was run. You could buy local organic apples etc - but equally lots of cake was available every breaktime. The honesty boxes were working overtime…but just in case you missed out, they kindly served cake at the end of every lunch time too. And strong red wine to finish up the course. Or finish off the tutors, most of whom then had to dash back up to Vienna and the outskirts for teaching next day.
We tried a ‘tourist menu’ in the Trastevere suburb of Rome with a certain trepidation - would it be good? In fact, it was a fantastic meal, allowing us to try some Roman specialities we knew, such as spaghetti carbonara, but also the veal dish saltimbocca, which we didn’t. It really does ‘jump in the mouth'’ as the name has it…
It’s just as well I’m writing this after an evening meal. My apologies if it’s making you hungry. Or maybe not. I may have kicked my cookbook buying habit, but I’m still happily cooking away. My great plan for the Christmas holiday: making my own tarte tatin, having now acquired some pans that will go on the hob and in the oven. Jamie would approve.
November 27th, 2006
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