Personal

Buses and cakes

"You know what it's like," said Jez, "birthday cakes are like buses: you wait for ages for one, then two turn up at the same time."

Arts

Gig: Astrid

First gig of the new year and I'm in the same venue as the last gig I went to last year. It's the same act, although back then Astrid was playing support while tonight she's top of the bill.

Personal

Birthday girl

It's Mum's birthday today, so I raced over to take her out for lunch at The Stage. My siblings and I have organised a party for her on Saturday, but it was great to see her on her actual birthday too.

Personal

Competitive families

This just in from Saranac Lake:

"I hear they are warning of Arctic weather for the UK tomorrow but I can't find any warnings of temperatures lower than -4C. We are currently -29C in the middle of the day!"

This is what happens when families get competitive.

Well, dear sister, overnight we had just under an inch of snow followed by a much heavier snowfall (another inch and a half?) after dark. Sure you probably had a foot or two in the past twenty minutes but you'll have to learn to be impressed by a dusting when you come back home.

Personal

No snow

The threatened snow hasn't reached the services on the M2 where I spent last night. (This is good news; visions of the M11 in the snow last year have haunted me overnight.) It's bitterly cold though, and my calves complain when I try to stand up. I can probably talk my legs round, but the weathermen are insistent that the snow will come.

Either way, this walking is meant to be enjoyable, not tiresome so I'm calling it quits for the moment. Hopefully that way I'll still have the energy to throw a snowball if the forecasters are finally right.

Coastwalk

Whitstable → Faversham

Distance: 9.95 miles
Ascent: 238 metres
Duration: 3 hours 29 minutes

Squelch!
« Margate | Sittingbourne »

Beyond Whitstable is Seasalter, a private estate that seems a world away from down-to-earth Thanet.

Beyond Seasalter the Isle of Sheppey blocks views of the sea, marsh farmland replacing holiday homes in the view inland. Underfoot: mud, not prom.

Coastwalk

Margate → Whitstable

Distance: 16.5 miles
Ascent: 210 metres
Duration: 5 hours 15 minutes

Go west
« Sandwich | Faversham »

St Mary's Church in Reculver is a useful landmark on this walk. It's about half-way between Margate and Whitstable, and its two prominent towers are visible almost all the way. And no surprise too: a stone inside the ruined church explains that the after original towers collapsed in a storm, they were rebuilt so they could continue to function as a navigational aid in 1810.

Personal , Tech

The shame of it

1. I buckled. Less than 48 hours and I'm back online.

How?

2. BT Openzone have hotspots in drive-through McDonald's

Yes, not only am I online but I've paid for the privilege and I'm stuffing junk food in my mouth as I type.

If I'd not walked sixteen miles today I'd feel really guilty. (A write-up for today's walk will follow later.)

Arts

Film: The Runaway Jury

And so to Margate's one cinema (the final operating business of the once great Dreamland / Benbom Bros theme park) for an evening's unwind.

I've been looking forward to The Runaway Jury for a while now. After all, it's John Grisham's best novel (I've read most of them, and this is the only one to really stand out), and once you've cast Rachel Weisz, John Cusack, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman you've pretty much got it in the bag.

Coastwalk

Sandwich → Margate

Distance: 16.6 miles
Ascent: 360 metres
Duration: 5 hours 10 minutes

A sudden blast of white
« Deal | Whitstable »

And so to the reason I'm in Margate. If you've known me for more than a month in the past five years you'll have guessed: I'm spending this weekend constructively. Back to the Kent coast.

Personal

The Dog and Duck

Welcome to Margate.

"Who would go for a holiday in Kent?" I wondered earlier this week. Kent's a gateway: a county of ports, not a destination. It's the county I spent the majority of my teenage years in. A county of fond memories, not a place for holidays.

So I smiled to myself as I drove down this evening. It wasn't a smile for Coldplay singing Everything's Not Lost as I left work. It wasn't a juvenile smile for the road sign pointing the way to Thong, for the radio announcing traffic jams far away from my route, or for the boy racer on the A12.

Website

Offline

Updates to angel lane .org will be a little sporadic over the next few days. I'll still be writing daily, but they'll come in batches; the next delivery will be on Sunday or Monday.

If you're in need of some reading in the meantime, why not try John Davies' blog?

Personal

Goodbye Ship Meadow

Behind my house - just the other side of Chapel Street - the land drops away into a small valley known as Ship Meadow. Local legend has it that a creek used to run down to the River Deben from here. Ships, it is said, would sail to the meadow on their final voyage before being dismantled and sold off piece by piece.

They say this is where the timber for my house came from.
They say it's what the cottage in this picture was built from.

Personal

County carpet

This week I carpeted my bedroom floor with maps of Kent. I'm planning my next set of walks. I've made it half-way round the county already and I'm determined to complete it before the year's end.

Just inland from the east coast sits a stone marking my latest position in Sandwich. Right the way over on the opposite edge is my destination: Gravesend.

It's about seven days' walking so I should be able to find time to complete it this year. In which case I'll have to find another county to cover my floor.

Personal , Tech

Family phone conference

I've just got off the phone with my mum, my brother and one of my sisters. It's Mum's birthday next week and us 'children' have been organising a party for her. A phone conference seemed the natural way to get us all together. We use them all the time at work, so I didn't think twice.

Arts

Film: The Return of the King

I'll level with you: this isn't my cup of tea.

For two years now I've been lazy and arrogant with my words about Lord of the Rings, but during the final film I realised the truth: my opinion is simply based on taste, and this isn't the kind of film that I generally enjoy.

Tech

Geek nostalgia

A chance comment today led me back to the first computer I ever touched.

It was 1978 or so. Dad was head of maths at Heathland School and he brought home the department's latest toy so he could learn about it during the summer holiday.

Arts

Film: Girl with a Pearl Earring

Another weekend, another film with Scarlett Johansson. (And yes, once again I'm in the dreaded screen five.)

Personal

Deeply insignificant

A total stranger booted me up the backside today.

This, it seems, it the task of every thirty-two year old in Suffolk: to be the straight man that twelve year old boys use to prove their worth to thirteen year old girls.

Very strange.

Personal

Achtung Regret

I've been reading the book about U2 that Martin gave me as a thank-you for setting up his wireless network after last night's meeting. And I realise another big regret.

I regret sleeping that night in 1991. I vividly remember seriously considering heading down to Earl's Court where the queue for U2's Zoo TV show was already forming, the day before the tickets went on sale. Instead I tucked myself up in bed thinking I could always catch them another time.

And I regret the similar logic that led me to missing the Zooropa and Popmart tours too. How did I let this happen?

At least I caught Elevation.

Greenbelt

Ideas unbound

Last night's brainstorming session was wonderful. There must have been eighty or so people, and huge numbers of faces I didn't recognise. It's always wonderful to catch up with old friends, but even more exciting was engaging with people who've not directly contributed to the festival planning before.

So many ideas, by the end of the evening I was exhausted. And today I can hardly remember any. Thankfully they're locked away scribbled on pieces of paper that will form the flesh of this year's festival.

Right now we're half-way through an all-day meeting of the Trustees where we're working out some of the thornier issues about how Greenbelt maintains its edge. It's an exhausting but exciting day.

Angels

Days of Angels

Rather than head back to Suffolk after last night's meeting, only to come down again this morning I stayed the night in London. In Martin's study to be precise. And I woke I saw this Angel looking down on me from the bookshelf.

Greenbelt

Faith/arts collision

I'm heading in to London for the Greenbelt brainstorming session. It's the biggest planning meeting for the festival, where we gather perhaps a hundred visionaries in one room and ask them to dream. It's always a surprising but exhausting time.

And I'm reading as I travel. I'm reading a paper for tomorrow's EGM. One phrase has leapt off the screen at me. It's a phrase I've heard many times before, but for some reason it resonates louder than usual today.

Greenbelt is a place where Christianity and the arts collide

So tonight we dream up a festival: a collection of collisions, and places to openly discuss resolutions.

Arts

Cockahoop

1. Exclamation, expression of joy
2. The title of Cerys Matthews' debut solo album

Around the time of its release I read many wonderful reviews of Cockahoop. But having been slightly disappointed by the past couple of releases from Cerys' previous band Catatonia, I didn't buy it until I saw it in the HMV sale on Saturday.

And now I wonder what took me so long!

It's a delightful collection of three-minute songs. Joyous melodies and rootsy Americana arrangements cross with classic hymns and Welsh poetry. At the centre of the album a thunderstorm is caught in wide stereo as a violin improvises a tune. Cockahoop is a surprisingly wonderful eclectic mix.

Personal

Naked garden

At last some movement on my damaged wall.

Today my garden was stripped bare, the shrubbery that was saving the blushes of road-users has been turned to pulp. Click on the image (beware: 500KB file) to see the before and after shots looking out from my house.

Personal

The theatre

Theatre Street crosses the top of Angel Lane. Although I've lived here six years, today was the first time I'd been found the theatre. The building I wandered into this evening served as a playhouse for just under fifty years and is now an auction saleroom.

Greenbelt

A brief minute

I think that's a record. We've just pulled into Manningtree and I've finished off the minutes from tonight's Greenbelt Management Group meeting. When you consider we had a full meeting and a debrief in the pub that's not bad going. I'll be home before the shipping forecast too.

Angels

The 3 Angels

The 3 Angels is a curious installation.

Three shapely metal figures hold aloft between each pair a TV screen providing visitor information to Ipswich. But despite siting the Angels in a covered location, the sun always glares on the screens and you can never read what they're saying.

If I had my way, I'd move the Angels into the middle of Tavern Street so people stumbled across them on their dash round the shops. Where they are they tend to be ignored by folk on their way back to the car-parks.

Is it art? (There's no information on the artist.)
Is it advertising? (It was "donated by BT".)
Is it a public service?

Whatever it's meant to be, to me it's a place to get out of the bustle of the crowds for a moment and I'll always pause there whenever I'm in town.

Arts

Film: Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation is a captivating film. Starting with its opening shots beckoning us to Tokyo, I kept connecting with the hearts of the protagonists of the film. Never before have I seen such an accurate depiction of that sense of loneliness you can feel in a crowded city, or the acceptance of it and the aching happiness that comes from recognising sulking isn't the way to go.

The film's particularly sparse with dialogue, instead relying on the actors abilities to convey complex emotion through their visual presence alone.

Stunning film-making.

Comment

On multiplexes

More than one person has asked me in the past month how I could possibly find myself watching the wrong film at a cinema. Today's visit to the multiplex provided an opportunity for me to present the evidence.

So now tell me: is Screen Five the door to the left or the door to the right? (I would at this point like to assert that although Screen Five is clearly showing Brother Bear, the photograph is for illustrative purposes only. I did not see Brother Bear today.)

Of course it's the door to the right. To the left is Screen Four. See what I mean?

Arts

Film: Tron

For the second time this week I've been watching a film I really should have seen years ago.

I first became interested in computers in the late '70s, so I've known about Tron for years. It's a film that's become so iconic over the past two decades that whenever I come across blue neon - for example pictured here at the Broadgate Centre last month - I immediately think of Tron.

Personal

PipQs

On his website today, Pip asks some questions. Here are my answers.

Tech

Set the inner geek free

Don't be frightened. This photo is to scale, but I'm a fully qualified geek. I'm trained to deal with intimidating books like these.

I may be able to write that paragraph without shame but I'm not yet able to buy such nerdy books in person. I knew I had to buy them when I first saw them last month in Foyles. (Hasn't time changed that eccentric shop? First they dispose of the 'Russian' payment system, and now a website!) To spare my blushes though, I ordered them online. And at the same time I ordered Dave Gorman's new book to try and convince the packer I have a life really.

The books arrived today, and I started wading through one at work. Everyone was giving me strange looks, but I know they're just jealous.

It's OK, I'll accept myself for who I am one day.

Arts

Film: The Italian Job

You know that feeling, that you're the only one who's seen a particular film? Or worse, that you're the only one who's seen a film and actually enjoyed it?

Last year I enjoyed the remake of The Italian Job.
Last night I watched the original on DVD.

Comment , Tech

Twenty-first century spells

cirrus socrates particle decibel hurricane dolphin tulip

Seven words from the film AI. Seven words that, when heard by the robot David, instruct him to adopt their orator as a parent. Seven words that tell David to love.

Personal

Mistaken greetings

First day back at work after the break, and I find a Christmas card on my desk. "To Paul and family," it says. Lovely to know the sender was thinking of my Mum and siblings, unless of course work colleagues send way too many cards and simply got confused.

Arts

Film: Master and Commander

"An act of war will cripple them...
 the power of Nietzsche nature will threaten them..."

This film was very nearly ruined by a misleading trailer with a terrible dramatic voice-over. If you look beyond the trailer though, it's quite a good film.

Personal

I know I'll see your face again

Three years ago, at around this time, I was on the M25. My phone rang as I pulled onto the roundabout where a bridge my uncle built carries the motorway over the A12.

On the phone was Jez. I pulled over.

Angels

An Angel in my inbox

Flying in from Bruges, this Angel brought New Year greetings from Pip.

Tech

Cash machines

Today I watched a cash machine boot up. (You can tell I'm a geek not a girl: anything half-techie distracts me from shopping.)

More interesting was watching the reactions of startled shoppers. Instead of being politely asked to "insert card" they were blasted with bold jargon:

  OS/2 Warp
  Loading 00020
  System Ready

I started daydreaming about borrowing an ATM for a day so I could greet strangers. "You're looking fine today," would be one message, swiftly followed by "have you lost weight?"

Personally I'd rather do that than run the more traditional subvertisements:

  buy nothing
  greed is good
  watch more tv

(By the way you are looking fine today, but nobody loses weight over Christmas.)

Comment

On comedy road signs

Just outside the town of Sandwich is a hamlet called Ham.

It's a difficult village to find. Whenever a sign is erected directing you to the place, it's stolen within days. The root of the problem lies in the name of the village and that of its neighbouring town.

Coastwalk

Deal → Sandwich

Distance: 6.3 miles
Ascent: 100 metres
Duration: 2 hours 22 minutes

Fish sarnies
« Dover | Margate »

From Deal to Sandwich the coastline is flat once again. As I left Deal, the early drizzle was threatening to turn into a full shower so I paced on.