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Growing popularity July 31, 2007

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , 2 comments

Somehow or another, I now have 43 friends on Facebook.  Now, I’m not really a billy-no-mates, but I would struggle to think of twenty people to invite to a party and I would really struggle if they all showed up and tried to fit into the shoebox I laughingly refer to as my “flat”.  I only own 10 glasses, including the one I happened to have half full in my hand at closing time at the Marquis of Cornwallis.  ahem.  I digress.

So, 43 friends.  And most of them are or at some stage have been genuinely friends in the ‘would have you round for dinner if you’d risk my cooking’ sense of the term.  Certainly all of them are people I’d be very happy to meet for a drink or a Sunday lunch - I don’t make or accept an invitation if I don’t know them at least that well.  There’s an ex-schoolmate , my cousin’s wife, a current colleague and a couple of former ones, some people I was at University with, others I know through my sister, two from my Spanish course in San Sebastian, and some from a couple of London-based groups.  People keep appearing.

Many are people I haven’t heard from in a while, and am not in regular contact with. 

Perhaps the oddest is someone I’ve known since I was about 14.  We were close friends in my late teens and early twenties, but gradually drifted apart and have had little contact in the last 15 years, just the occasional email.  Except that we’re connected on facebook, linkedin, deli.icio.us and even flickr.  I wonder if it is really right to call that person a ‘friend’?  I think it is, because we were friends once and it was only laziness and the tyranny of distance that means we drifted.  In this connected age, old friendships don’t disappear completely, they just fade into these filigrees of the web that still link us.

The Great British Summer - warning plot spoiler July 22, 2007

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , add a comment

Today the Observer informs us that the new volume of Harry Potter is as much a part of Summer as Ascot or Wimbledon.  Its far better suited to the Great British Summer, I think, because it cannot be rained out.  Yesterday, having slept through the midnight queues I got my copy of the Boy Wizard’s latest adventures from Waterstones at 11.30, and went to sit in Gordon Square in the hope that the weather might stay sunny.  A vain hope indeed, and soon I was curled up at home with cat, chocolate and a good rainy afternoon read.

Harry Potter books are that rare thing, a book which improves on being turned into a film, and I suspect this latest will be no exception.  There’s even an epic battle scene at the end, which will give the special effects people lots of fun.  A sense of finality pervades throughout, as loose ends are wrapped up and Harry’s destiny looms nearer.  Things are not as we may have imagined, though having just seen the Order of the Phoenix last weekend, revelations about Snapes are no real surprise. 

The main child characters - Harry, Hermione and Ron - are growing up in a wooden sort of way, and Neville comes into his own.  I’m not sure why there was all the fuss about characters dying, as all of the main three make it through.  I may not forgive JK Rowling for Hedwig though.  Unnecessary and likely to traumatise small children and rather larger adults. 

It wanders rather aimlessly in the middle, as the three set off on their quest to find the Horcruxes, containers of the fragmented soul of you-know-who, or perhaps the Deathly Hallows, and I’d put money that the filmmakers will condense that and leave out Ron’s departure and return.  She even manages to get in a dragon on a lair of gold, surrounded by goblins, which was somehow very reminiscent of Smaug and the Hobbit, though in this case the dragon proves to be the means of escape for our intrepid trio in a scene which must have been written with the cinematography in mind.

Unlike Pullman, or C S Lewis, I doubt I’ll re-read this, so off to Amnesty it goes.  Good for a wet afternoon, but not a classic.  I look forward to the film.

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Epsom Girls Grammar Alumni July 20, 2007

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : New Zealand , add a comment

I went to Epsom Girls Grammar, in Auckland.  It was a good school, I enjoyed my time there and I think it set me up well for future life.  Many successful NZ women are alumni (including the NZ Prime Minister, Helen Clarke) which says a lot for the place, and also for the demographics from which its students come.

Today I got a letter from them, asking for a donation.  This is a state funded school, but the letter informs me that ‘as a decile 10 school, we are expected to raise funds from parents and our community to maintain and develop our school facilities’.  Perhaps its payback time.

Then I saw this article on Slate, about American giving to their old universities and how it rises as children get towards University age, and they hope that donations will help secure a place at the alma mater.  That’s unlikely to be a motivation for me, and I wonder to myself why I should donate to a wealthy, well-supported institution rather than, say, a charity supporting basic education in places where that is rare, or indeed other charities I support such as The Centre for Alternative Technology or Practical Action.

So, I don’t think Epsom Girls will get anything from me this time, though I wish them well in their endeavours.

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Another timestealer July 17, 2007

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Internet, London , add a comment

I have finally succumbed and joined facebook.  In fact, you might even be reading this post through facebook, because the rss feed for this is displaying on my profile.  If you know me, and are on facebook, then add me as a friend.  I could see that once you had a few friends and acquaintances linked in, it would be quite addictive, especially if your mates spend a fair bit of time online.  This evening, I’ve had a wee chat with my friend Craig, who was playing with X servers over at the bbc, and found a few other friends on it.

Amazingly, there are 775000 people in the London network, that’s nearly 10% of the population.  Mind you, a good 10% of the London population is probably down the pub right now, which is a rather better form of social networking.

Good night!

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Books for Amnesty July 15, 2007

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a comment

I have to operate a ‘one-in-one-out’ policy on books, because my flat is very small and books go soggy if you start piling them up in the bathroom.

There are a few heading for the Amnesty bookshop in Eversholt St this week.

Ratking  by Michael Dibdin is another in the Aurelio Zen series.  Zen is called back into active service  to solve the mystery of the kidnapping of the head of an Umbrian industrial family, and soon realises that it may be an inside job.  There’s also a nice sideplot around Zen’s failing relationship with an Englishwoman, and the cultural contrasts there.  I’m looking forward to reading his last novel, which has been reviewed along with his obituaries recently, after his untimely death earlier this year.

I didn’t manage to finish The Great Transformation: The World in the Time of Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah by Karen Armstrong  It sounds like a fascinating, if overworked idea - there was a fairly short period of time around 5-600BC, when many of the worlds major religions were undergoing an enormous amount of change, and some of the greatest ancient philosophers were doing their work.  It could be a fascinating story, but instead its long-winded and desperately in need of some heavy editing.

The Revolution of St. Jone, by Lorna Mitchell is from the Women’s Press Science Fiction series.  In  a post-apocalyptic future, cyborg humans run the world through a corrupted form of religion which preserves some familiar structures but is instead dedicated to playing video games and gathering memories into a giant database.  St Jone is a missionary to ‘Yukay’ which seems to be a degenerated Scotland, where she realises that humanity has more to it than her masters would have her believe.  A pleasant tale, very typical of eighties feminist science fiction, and good to brighten up a wet afternoon.

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aawwww….. July 12, 2007

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , 1 comment so far

Cuteness on the web. Strathclyde police have a puppycam, showing their new baby police dogs. dem be cute iddle doggies.

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Take the train to Spain July 2, 2007

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Travel , 2 comments

I wish I’d found this a few weeks ago Most of the online train sites either don’t work very well, or want to get you to pay a booking fee. This seems to work rather well though, and you can even print your tickets out at home.

I’m embarrassed I didn’t find it - I am sure I looked at SNCF, but think I was confused by wanting to buy a through ticket to Spain.

In fact, the easiest way to get by train from London to San Sebastian is:

London Waterloo (Kings X from 14 November) to Paris Gare du Nord on Eurostar
Paris Montparnasse to Hendaye on a TGV booked through Voyages SNCF. This cost about e90 each way, though discounts are available, and takes about 6hrs 30 minutes
Then the small but delightful Euskotren from Hendaye to San Sebastian.  Note that you need to go out of the SNCF station at Hendaye and turn right for the Euskotren.  It cost a mere e1.40, and the train leaves every 30 minutes.

Far more expensive and long winded than flying, but without the airport aggro, and you know you’re doing your bit for the planet. It feels like travelling too even though it can be done in a day, if you leave early. Personally, the chance to stop off in Paris is too good to miss.

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Mayflower - don’t bother July 1, 2007

Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Cafes & Restaurants , add a comment

The Mayflower in Rotherhithe looks nice enough.  Its a picturesque, tiny pub with bourgainvillea spilling out of pots against the white walls, in an ideal setting on the banks of the Thames.  Its certainly popular, as the restaurant couldn’t accomodate the couple of extras we had.  One was trying to find her way and called, and we were tersely told ‘no mobiles’.  The waiting staff didn’t seem to have any idea where they were, and were unable to help our lost friend.
We were told we could eat on the jetty, which would be lovely in sunshine but with no umbrellas not worth the risk today, so split the party between two tables in the pub. 

It didn’t really get any better.  The staff had a very ‘take it or leave it’ attitude, and although the main courses were reasonable, Bood’s peach crumble was out of a can, and although I ordered a dessert the waiter appeared ten minutes later to say they’d run out.  And ice cream is a £2 premium over the watery custard that comes as standard.

The wine list is extortionate.  The cheapest are in the £22-24 range, and anything old world is well over £30.  If you order wine, it takes ages to come because they have to go and get it from the restaurant, its not kept behind the bar.

And by the way, although Sunday lunch looks like a family occasion, people turning up with children were not welcome.  We won’t be trying this place again, and next time I’ll take more notice of the warnings in the review sites.  I guess most of the trade is tourists, because I can’t believe they do a lot of repeat business.

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