Archive for November 30th, 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