Archive for December, 2008
The season of hibernation continues. Do habits set in more quickly when it’s dark all the time? At any rate, we’re back to a reading aloud at the end of the day habit, and the book we’re on, “Full Tilt”, seems worth a mention, particularly when it contains descriptions of blue skies and heat.
We’re both keen on travel books, in this case the kind where someone else does the travelling and writes about it in a witty way. We have a few stacked up to read, and finally started this one, written by an Irish woman, Dervla Murphy, who decides to cycle to India. As you do. Or in fact, as she planned to do from the age of 10. But, unlike many of us and our early-stated ambitions, she actually sets off to do it, once in her 30s, and with a suitably heroic bike which becomes a second leading lady in the story.
She writes in the 1960s, when the Soviets are being seen to be gathering in around Afghanistan, one of her countries on route, but have not yet got going fully. The Shah is still in place in Iran (or rather, Persia, as she calls it), and hitchhiking is still an option - all to the good for Dervla, if her bike breaks down or the road gets impassable.
Rather nicely, she includes an equipment list in the back of the book, so you can work out how many tubes of sun lotion to take on your next intercontinental trek. She also packs a pistol, literally, and writes about the uses of it in amazingly understated ways (let’s just say, there are still wolves in the woods of central Europe at the time she is passing through).
In some ways, we are happily ploughing through the next set of adventures; at points, we look at each other and say ‘Nutter!’ at the general endeavour. People are often saying how it’s difficult to do travels that others haven’t done - but you would have to ask yourself how many lone women would set out to do that kind of journey now, only a few decades later, even if she’s had the sense to send spare tyres and inner tubes ahead to a certain set of international organisation’s offices.
We have just reached the point where she is entering Afghanistan, and it will be interesting to see how the descriptions compare with the images we have from news stories of recent years. And in our current midwinter torpor, reading about someone casually knocking off 80 mile cycle rides, day after day, brings only admiration.
Meanwhile, Dan looked up Dervla’s name online, and found that she is still trying to do epic cycle rides now, in her 70s, though somewhat hampered by hips and knees not behaving themselves. Once an adventurer, always an adventurer? I suspect we will be looking out for sequels.
December 9th, 2008
However many shopping days to go, and all that. The weekend papers fill up with more supplements of presents to buy that promise to help you control your kitchen, your bathroom, cats that visit your garden. Meanwhile, Lakeland continues to attempt to take over the universe…or at least, tries to add to the prospect of taming chaos, all with a nice biscuit to hand.
I have a slightly love-hate relationship with Lakeland (formerly Lakeland Plastics). I suspect quite a lot of women do. One of the Times columnists who writes in the T2 supplement during the week confessed her excitement, earlier in the year, at the latest catalogue arriving - and how many of her friends she would then have Lakeland discussions with. Another friend on Facebook seems to have a fairly similar reaction.
What is it about Lakeland? They are clearly doing something right, yet a bit different, with ever more stores opening up, yet still none in central London, for example. I should be properly grateful that Edinburgh is considered nice enough to have a store - along with other gentle (or is that genteel?) destinations like Bath, Canterbury and York. I’m told that the customer service over the phone is second to none, though the ladies who police the Edinburgh store tend to be slightly on the officious side, on the whole.
And this, it seems, is how Lakeland divides - as well as conquers. As does the list of products. Because for every item that seems over fussy and controlling, or rather too twee, there are some tremendous ones that find you circling items, or even, bending down the page too, so that the male of the household might find them and respond appropriately.
No to tea bag squeezers. To washing up gloves with very long sleeves. To water carafes with matching glasses painted with spring flowers. But yes to yoghurt makers, silicone baking tins, to sets of stacking bowls that get constant use. And they are very good at adding new products, so you have to look at the next catalogue…hmmm.
The bit that confuses me more is where kitchen items, cleaning items, are not enough - Lakeland must also be the first thought when you want to buy craft materials, or, now, toiletries, and other items that Boots would probably prefer to monopolise. I’m not sure what their main age range demographic is for customers, but clearly, they are very sure that their customers want to be clean, tidy, good at thoughtful presents, and at times, creative too.
What interests me is that you’re not being sold just one lifestyle, as you are with a lot of other brands or stores. But I do think that, ultimately, Lakeland conspires to sell you products to make you feel that some things are working properly in a few key parts of life - perhaps a very female wish, and part of the reason for their success.
It’s not just men that want new gadgets. It’s just that they don’t seem to need as many ‘inverted commas’ statements in the advertising copy to encourage them to do so.
December 8th, 2008
Next door bought a large trampoline earlier in the year. Perfect child magnet. (It works quite well as an adult magnet too, but only as long as the adults consent to have their performance critiqued by the kids). We haven’t yet been asked if we want a go, but as long as we keep making approving noises at our neighbour’s routines on the trampoline, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before we’re given a shot.
But what happens when the year turns cold, and there’s no time to play out? You need a few other options up your sleeve. Many of our readers are familiar with our yellow friend Eric - and for those who aren’t, type in ‘Eric Frydman’ on Facebook and see what you find. Eric is happy to add child magnet to his list of abilities (as well as conducting, playing charades, and general making us laugh duty).
In fact, such is Eric’s appeal that we had to find additional Erics for our friends in Italy, and Dan’s small cousin on the west coast. Other friends’ children have wised up to Eric’s importance in the household - when I got in the car to get a lift from the family a month or two back, the first question was ‘Is the yellow thing with you?’ Eric consents to dance, hang upside down, spin round and round, be tied in knots, quite apart from laughing obligingly at each ‘look at this!’
For parties, we have another trick up our sleeves - or in the box we bring out for parties involving small children (that is to say, all parties now, pretty much). One of my toys from my childhood is a Viewmaster - essentially a way to view pictures in 3D, by inserting a disc of images in the viewer and looking at the overlapped images. Despite the fact that kids now have lots of access to films and cartoons, this always gets played with and marvelled over by new visitors, particularly when they get the hang of working it themselves.
Tall bloke, child magnet. Dan discovered on our recent trip to Italy just how tempting it is for kids to have a moving climbing frame that will also tickle you and hold you upside down. Unless of course three medium sized kids jump on the climbing frame at the same time…and even then, there’s a happy balance between pretending you’re completely outnumbered and actually being so.
Meanwhile, I’m off for my tea - food being a long favoured magnet of most children, and thankfully, adults too.
December 8th, 2008
So which is the Christmas song that does it for you - that let’s you know Christmas is here? Do you need to stand up and bellow “it’s Christ-mas!” to get in the mood? Do you need some sleigh bells to jingle in the snow?
I am intrigued to know, because I am attempting to listen to Christmas-related music while Dan writes Christmas cards - and clearly, Christmas songs are a broad church. Admittedly, I’m listening to an Ultralounge Christmas collection, which makes it a slightly more chi-chi experience, but there’s certainly some stuff there that I struggle to relate to Christmas, apart from the slight note of cheese, which probably has to accompany many seasonal song collections.
Clearly, it’s something people take seriously, because otherwise, why would there be so many Christmas compilations on sale in the shops? And admittedly, if you give lots of parties at that time of year, it could be handy to have a collection of songs to put on that help your guests get in the mood.
Dan points out at this point (clearly he’s not concentrating that hard on the cards) that you could have a variety of Christmas collections, according to the various groups you might be dealing with at the meet and greet time of year. The subsets appear to be: cheesy, carols, classical music that makes you think of Christmas, rock Christmas.
So, for your entertainment, we present some of the music that helps us start to feel a bit more ready for/interested in Christmas. Mine combines classical and cheese, as I grew up listening to James Last German Christmas carols and classical music most years, while decorating the Christmas tree with my family. I downloaded it recently, and now the cheese factor does come through more than it did when I was 7, shall we say. But heck, German Christmas carols are really good, and bring us close to the second entry, which is Christmas related choral music.
When I was at secondary school, and getting into singing, we attempted our first oratorio type stuff in school choir: Vivaldi’s Gloria, plus Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols. Not hugely well known, but a good excuse to sing a bit of Latin, bit of medieval English. The older the carol, the more it’s likely to challenge what you think the season is about. “This little babe, so few days old, is come to rifle Satan’s hold…” Not a crowd pleaser chorus, no mention of figgy pudding, but one that sticks in the mind.
While I’m at it, I’ll add my favourite carol, the Coventry Carol (Lullay, thou little tiny child). It does that great thing of being mysterious, beautiful, a bit scary (Herod the king, in his raging…), and uplifting (the wonderful change to a major key at the end of the piece).
We have to even the score at this point, and let Dan have an entry. His Christmas album is Take 6’s ‘He is Christmas’, which has probably become our joint ‘getting ready for Christmas’ album to put on. Lots of joy, lots of peace. I have also just consulted Dan on his favourite carol, which is Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
So there you have it. Feel free to add your own faves below. I’ve just realised that I have to add Mike Oldfield’s “In Dulci Jubilo” for a bit more cheese but good quality jingling. Moreish, these Christmas tunes.
December 7th, 2008
Late night shopping eh? It takes on a different edge in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Crowds five deep, an air of slight panic among the shoppers - and the shop staff, who are piling on the discounts to get people through the door. But this is Edinburgh, and the setting is a definite incentive - even if only to find a safe place to stand in order to look at the lights.
Edinburgh has its light switching on evening at the end of November - although I’ve discovered that in fact it has several of these, beyond the one that puts on the lights on the Christmas tree on the Mound. The Grassmarket has its own; Leith seems to have one too.
But the one I’m looking out for is the star on top of the City Chambers. It’s of the ‘lots of sticky out lines’ kind of star that you learn to draw when you’re small. It’s not the most modern or distinctive of items, but I realised the other day that you see the star on the horizon, all the way to the north at the top of Inverleith Row. This means that you feel slightly like a wise man, ‘following the star’, while on the bus heading to work.
I’m also keen on the ‘bare tree branches covered in lights’ kind of decoration. Most years, they brighten up the edge of Princes Street. This year, they’ve added them to trees in St Andrews Square - a sign that someone is determined to keep one of the better redone parks of Edinburgh sleek and beautiful, by night as by day.
But my other favourite Christmas decorations are a little more of the regular shopping track. They are, again, to be admired on my bus route, this time heading home. Close to Tesco’s by Broughton Street, there is a car park where you can buy Christmas trees. That’s not the sight - it’s all the lights strung down the big stone wall by the car park, along with the conveniently placed ivy which grows there all year long.
And just at the bottom of that hill, as the wall stops, there’s a little church building, which looks more like a house, but puts up the most fantastic nativity picture, in a slightly Russian Orthodox style around the eyes of the figures. Having lived close to there in our previous flat, I’ve had the privilege of looking out for these for around 8 years now, and that’s good enough for a Christmas tradition for me.
Beyond these familiar sights, coming across them means I’m heading home - and for all of the distractions of a big wheel and carousels, back in town, it’s home that’s our favourite sight at this time of year. Mine, anyway.
December 7th, 2008
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