Archive for December, 2006
For the squeamish, no, it’s not that bad. It really means playing with words. Any excuse for a pun.
We all know that we grow up thinking that everyone lives like our family does. At some point or other, we realise that not everyone does, which can be a bit of a surprise.
In my family, playing with words goes on to what others may see as a dangerous degree. There is repetition of phrases from comedy shows (The Goons being a particularly frequent source). Repetition of childhood words and phrases for things - not just mine or my brother’s, but going back to my parents’, or even their brothers’. Literal pronunciation of words that are actually said differently, or puns with similar sounding words where we can possibly fit them in.
After over seven years, Dan has come on well in this area. He can play word association games with the best of them. He also beats me at Scrabble (this is not so surprising, given that he knows how to play strategically and I just like to make nice words).
The further gain is that now we have taken on each others’ families’ phrases, those of our friends’ children (see Chicken in a school post)…So send yours on, and I’m sure we’ll find a place to incorporate them.
December 4th, 2006
We’re not intending to do an account of lots of TV, music, film etc that we like.
Honest.
But we can’t go without mentioning Stephen Fry’s QI - quite interesting - quiz show on a Friday night. For any lovers of trivia, it’s a must. And for those who just feel tired and consider going to bed early on a Friday night, it’s worth staying awake a little longer for.
A lot of the delight comes from seeing the regular panel member, comedian Alan Davies, get a lower and lower score every week, while also practising his mock-Mexican accent from time to time.
Accents also get an airing with Mr Fry himself, who usually manages to include a range within each episode.
Even more impressive is the range of talents other panelists bring to the show, whether it’s Jonathan Ross’s seemingly limitless knowledge of comic books, or Roger McGough coming up with new poems during the show.
A.J.Jacobs - writer of that book about the Encyclopedia Britannica I mentioned in another post - would be proud.
For those who are still unconvinced, have a look for yourself.
December 3rd, 2006
Yesterday we went to a Christmas Fair at our local Church of Scotland, Granton Parish Church, just across the street.
At 50p entrance which included tea and biscuits, a bargain afternoon’s entertainment!
Sadly, we didn’t win anything in the raffle, but we came away with home made jam and cakes, plus a few more second hand books for the collection.
Our tip off came from Paul’s mum Rosemary, who lives up the road with us, and has got involved in the local churches. After the fair, we went back to her flat to see how it’s coming along.
Rosemary treated us to our first mince pies of the year, as well as scones and some excellent blackcurrent jelly, also bought at the fair.
December 3rd, 2006
Maybe it’s a year of celebrating small pleasures. A medium-sized pleasure was having the chance to be back in Berlin for a few days in September, as the mid-point of my work trip to Germany and Austria. But the small but perfectly formed pleasure is the traffic light men.
Some of you may know that East and West Berlin had different symbols on their lights for pedestrians. Both had a green and a red man, but of different shape. When the wall came down, there was talk of converting all the traffice lights to having the West Berlin type of red and green men.
East Berlin is becoming increasingly trendy, with films like Goodbye Lenin becoming more widely known. But part of the early assertion of East Berlin culture was the campaign to keep their traffic light men. My former German flat mate, Grit, even had a book about it, and about traffic light men in other countries. I also have postcards of the East Berlin ones in the bathroom from a previous trip.
So, the great excitement was being able to visit the Ampelmann [traffic light man] shop, situated conveniently close to the British Council office in Berlin. Many more people would have received Ampelmann Christmas presents, if only I could be sure you would like them as much as I do! But for those who are intrigued, you can also buy online: http://www.ampelmann.de/
So, I stuck to buying an Umwelttasche [’save the environment’ reusable bag] with the Ampelmaenner on. But a couple of months later, on a trip to one of these pottery shops where you choose the item and decorate it yourself, I decided to increase my stocks, and paint my own mug.
The delight of the blog is that I can also show you pictures of these to fuel your interest.
Just remember to look both ways before crossing over to the Ampelmaenner.
December 3rd, 2006
It’s not really worth a mention on its own in a newsletter of the year that has to fit on two sides of paper.
But a blog seems a good place for it to have its own little write up.
Around Easter time, a lot was going round my mind, and I had a few nights of not being able to sleep. At all. I would usually get up and read in the sitting room for a while, but still not be able to drift off.
After a while, the light would gradually start to come up. So one morning, I opened the window a little, and was able to hear the birds starting to sing. It was incredibly peaceful, and finally drifting off as they continued to sing was even better.
However, it’s one of those ‘can’t step in the same river twice’ moments. Even though birds do clearly do the dawn chorus thing on a regular basis, when I tried to capture this again a morning or two later, either the birds had decided to stay in bed longer, or I just couldn’t settle to sleep.
Not so long after, I did manage to get something of the feeling back, when listening to a new Kate Bush album. I’m sure some readers would consider that Kate would induce sleeplessness in the first place, but the album has two discs - the second is a journey through a day. And yes, it starts with bird song. Every time I hear it, a little bit of my memory recalls: yes, it really is that special a sound.
December 3rd, 2006
I have no objection to whiskers on kittens either. But the coffee pot going on on a Saturday morning, that is indeed one of my favourite things.
Channel 4 can get away with a top 50 of programmes on an almost weekly basis, it seems. I don’t think cyberspace needs these from me as well, but an ode to a few things that make me happy, that should fit in nicely.
Other happy things include sunny days. Fairly obvious, but ever more necessary when you are in Scotland in the winter. It doesn’t matter if it’s cold or hot. It doesn’t actually matter if it rains at some point. But some sunshine to lift the spirits is good. There’s a nice level of sun building up outside as I type, and the co-incidence of sun and the weekend is particularly good.
This is really meant to be a post about domestic things. I like stocking the cupboards with food after the weekly shop. I like getting into bed when it’s been clean sheeted. And I like sitting on the sofa in the sitting room, looking around me at pictures, cook books, a collection of jugs on the dresser.
For all of my travels - and I enjoy a lot of them - it’s the coming home that’s important. The making of meals that wouldn’t impress a visitor but say something about the Frydman home. And yes, the freedom to make heated beverages whenever I want them (truly the British are not quite as cheerful abroad when a hotel room doesn’t include a kettle).
December 3rd, 2006
“I write online, therefore I am…”
No, it’s not that bad, honest. I’m just writing lots of posts now to account for the last year.
I’m not a diary keeper on the scale of Michael Palin, who somehow seemed to keep a diary every day, amid the dead parrots and tropical fish called Wanda.
Nor am I a notebook keeper on par with Robert Crampton, writer for the Times, who has bike ride stats for several years at least.
But yes, I used to keep a daily diary. I do have a notebook a year, with info on visits, meals out and the like.
I promise not to put the back catalogue online. But a little light writing is fun, particularly when:1) it’s not required for work 2) I don’t have a quota and 3) the evening’s TV is less appealing.
I’ll see how much I keep writing when we’re into the New Year, the evenings (finally) get lighter again, and there are rival claims on my attention (spring bulbs to look at, perhaps?).
December 3rd, 2006
Malvern was where I spent my secondary school years. As Mum and Dad moved up to Peebles, in the Scottish Borders, a few years ago, I’ve not been back for a while.
Thankfully, Malvern came to me in July, when my school friend Debbie came up to Edinburgh for a few days. Between reminiscing with me about school days, and trading American history details with Dan, we kept her well occupied.
We even had some heat, although we explained this was not what a summer in Scotland was about. We also sneaked her in to Paul and Esther’s wedding so she could experience a Scottish ceilidh, and lined up a man in a kilt to birl her roon the dance floor.
Debbie is now hard at work again in Cheltenham, keeping the young ladies in order. I hope we’ll manage to make it down to visit her in the New Year - and perhaps a trip over to Malvern to see how it’s looking.
December 1st, 2006
We had a beach barbecue as a church in early July, at favourite beach Yellowcraigs, one of the main ones near to Edinburgh.
We spent some time digging on the beach with kids. At one point, Dan drew three different pictures with a spade. Having done a certain amount of answering ‘What’s that?’ with this particular little boy, it was Dan’s turn to be asked what he’d drawn. He replied: this one’s Mondrian, that’s Picasso and and the one there is Kandinsky…
The little boy got his own back by doing some digging of his own, creating chocolate cake, chocolate biscuits and other sand-coloured things that could stand for further chocolate food.
You can decide for yourself which was the more creative…
December 1st, 2006
Yes, I will stop writing titles that repeat the same words, but this one was hard to ignore.
When we send language assistants to start working abroad, they usually get to go to an induction course on arrival in the foreign country. There’s usually one British Council colleague at most induction courses to help answer questions and support assistants as they adjust to being abroad.
This year I was able to go to the Altenberg induction course for Germany, held at a former monastery complex near Cologne. The cathedral is visited by lots of people, and it’s a popular retreat centre for youth groups.
I was in a room which overlooked the central courtyard. It’s a really pretty setting, and you can see some pictures here. Two downsides of the location though: the assistants tend to sit out socialising until at least midnight on the courtyard side. Then at six in the morning, the cathedral (at the back of my room) kicks into action, when the bells start playing. They also play again at seven, just when you’ve drifted back off to sleep…
Despite this, the course went well, and most assistants were looking forward to starting teaching. They also put on a great cabaret on the final evening. The highlight had to be a performance of Bohemian Rhapsody, the whole thing performed on a grand piano by one male assistant. Naturally the audience sang along all the way through, at least where they could remember the words.
December 1st, 2006
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