Angels , Greenbelt

Greenbelt Angels

A host of Greenbelt Angels feeding back on this weekend.

Greenbelt

Bedtime

A full day. The workshop went very well, with a dozen or so people present. I was fearful looking at who was there that I'd be preaching to the converted, but a couple of folk seemed keen to start blogs when they get home.

I got some intellectual stimulation in other sessions, then wound down with the gigs this evening (highlights: Cathy Burton and Jude Simpson) before retiring to the lounge with a cluster of friends for a late night drink.

So now I'm heading to bed, hoping we'll not see today's rude awakening repeated.

Greenbelt

A bad start

Seven-thirty. Bells and sirens. My trip to the shower rudely diverted to a cold patch of grass outside the conference centre. At least I was dressed though... those who the fire alarm woke up were less fortunate.

Greenbelt

Workshopping the wee hours

So the Wing and a Prayer weekend has started. Some food for the mind from John Bell on the meaning of festival, followed by an evening drinking, laughing and chatting with friends. Friends I'd known would be here, those I'd hoped would be here and those I'd not expected to see.

The evening rounded off with a preview of tomorrow's blogging workshop. A brief explanation of what my session would be looking at snowballed into a full-blown workshop in its own right. If the official workshop tomorrow goes anything near as well as it did tonight I'll be very pleased.

Personal

A good start

1. I woke up to snow, and remembered I'd parked last night in a place that's easy to get out of when everything's iced over. Much better than last time.
2. A good chunk the morning was spent in the local pub. And it was all work.

This is a good way to start the weekend.

Arts

Oscar predictions

Of course, the Loon Award was merely the warm-up. The big show's this Sunday night. In anticipation, here are my predictions for the Academy Awards.

Tech

Grammar for spammers

Several years ago, some friends and I tried to devise the 'ultimate' spam filter. We never hit the perfect solution, but one came close: check incoming messages grammatically and ditch any that don't make the mark. The idea was that most spam was terribly punctuated so would be stopped. Sure, some genuine messages would get caught too, but heck (and see if you can spot the arrogance here) if someone wanted to communicate with us, they'd best use language correctly.

Personal

Window view

Things I saw on my journey to Belfast:

• The 'nuclear train' fighting the snow in Woodbridge, looking like an anachronism from the 1970s
• A forest of cranes bravely sitting between the two runways at Heathrow, presumably building Terminal Five
• The spitting image of Katarina, one of the team in Prague
• An aeroplane with registration G-JEDI
• The shadow of my aircraft cast onto the clouds below

Personal

Belfast Central

I love it when reality turns out so different to how I imagine it.

Belfast Central, waiting for a train.
It seems to me things have come full circle
and I won't be here again.

Personal

Lost in Translation

Tonight I'm lost in translation. I'm away overnight in a city I've never visited before, a place of unusual banknotes and soft voices. It's my first time in Ulster, and for an evening's entertainment I'm staying in the hotel.

Greenbelt

Last chance

Thanks to everyone who's responded to my question, whyblog?

Anyone who's reading (yes, anyone) and hasn't responded: I'd love to hear from you too.

I'll provide a summary of everyone's responses in a week's time.

Coastwalk

Aldeburgh → Sizewell

Distance: 3.94 miles
Ascent: 191 metres
Duration: 1 hour 17 minutes

Scallop
« Orford | Dunwich Heath »

I'd been saving up today's walk for a time I had some company. On the beach just north of Aldeburgh is a new sculpture that's been causing some controversy, and I wanted to experience it for the first time with someone I could bounce my thoughts off. However, with news that the sculpture may be moved, I headed out there today to see it in situ. (And as with my trip to Seahenge, I was successful.)

Angels

Angel of Oxford Street

Personal

Five years, one thousand miles

Has it really been five years?

I remember well the random event that sparked my holiday in February 1999: the shelf in Waterstones that held the walking guides, and the arbitrary selection that took me to Pembrokeshire. Had I known then that it would lead to an obsession, would I have slotted the book back and dossed round the house for a week instead?

Personal

Hometime

How do you get geeks to go home?

You trip the power.

Watching my computer take a dive at seven this evening was a signal to leave. I headed outside where dozens of other frustrated late-night workers were stumbling out of their cocoons and into the night.

Personal

Twice, just to be sure

As I waited at Rainham station on Sunday for the train that would take me back to my car, I realised that by the time I'm done with all this coastwalking I'll have completed two circuits of the country: once in each direction.

Angels

Rainham Angel

My quest to bring you every angel I can find continues...

This one marked the way to the railway station at the end of Sunday's walk. It's not the first time a pub has indicated to me that I should stop walking.

Arts

Loon '04

This is what it's all about.

Last night it transpired that I was correct in ten of my my predictions for the Bafta film awards. It was a close run, right down to the award for Costume Design. But as Wendy Stiles gave her acceptance speech, I was punching the air: I'd pipped Jay to the post; nine plays ten.

For the first time since 2000 I took home the Loon award that we've been competing over for five years now.

A fortnight's time it's Oscar night, when our little competition really hots up.

Coastwalk

Sittingbourne → Rainham

Distance: 16.2 miles
Ascent: 174 metres
Duration: 5 hours 15 minutes

Industry to marshland
« Faversham | Strood »

The first five miles out of Sittingbourne follow an industrial landscape. Water treatment works, a paper mill, a landfill site and a quarry. The sentence of chimneys, jetties, silos and sluices is punctuated by the great full-stop of the Kingsferry lifting Bridge, rising high above the Swale. Beyond the bridge the path stretches across Ferry and Chetney marshes, a change in landscape that is sudden, dramatic and welcome.

Coastwalk

Faversham → Sittingbourne

Distance: 14.9 miles
Ascent: 138 metres
Duration: 4 hours 33 minutes

Discarded shells
« Whitstable | Rainham »

Faversham is a delightful town. There's a dock on the creek, but the town centre is a little further inland. The railway station is further still, so I've had to walk through the centre twice now. It seems to be a town of narrow streets, a traditional square with wooden-framed buildings, a church with a graceful, slender spire and an independent cinema.

Greenbelt , Tech

Just how nice do I have to be?

Have you given me your wisdom on blogging yet?

No? Shame on you.

Ten people have told me they read this blog; how about the rest of you? Please spare me five minutes and respond to my survey. I'll be ever so grateful.

Arts

Bafta predictions

Here are my predictions for the winners at Sunday night's Bafta film awards.

Personal

Three years

Monday would have been Dad's sixtieth birthday. I didn't even notice. It wasn't until Tuesday when I saw the reminder in my diary that I realised.

This then is the answer: three years. The question's changed a bit over time though.

Greenbelt

The Postcard

While the front of the postcard was a surprise, the back stopped me dead in my tracks.

"STOP WAR," declared the image. Not what I'd expected for find in the racks at the cinema last Friday. The usual messages are about forthcoming pictures, fragrances or gadgets. Never bold declarations I'm inclined to agree with.

Arts

September 10

This looks interesting:

September 10

A Play Written and Performed by Douglas Coupland
Royal Shakespeare Company
Stratford-on-Avon

4 - 24 October, 2004

No sign of it yet on the RSC website, but as soon as it is I expect I'll book. Anyone else for a trip to the Midlands?

Arts

Film: Big Fish

"Tales for an Accelerated Culture" is the subtitle of Douglas Coupland's most famous book. Walking out of the cinema after watching Big Fish this evening, I'm left with just one thought: storytelling maintains the vitality of life.

It's a Tim Burton film so expect the fairy-tale to be peppered with darkness. Expect quirky characters and love standing side-by-side with regret. But above all, expect a story where the tangents are as enthralling as the main thread.

Greenbelt , Tech

whyblog?

I shouldn't have let him talk me into it, but Oli can be persuasive at times.

I've agreed to run a workshop at the Greenbelt Wing and a Prayer Weekend. The workshop's about blogging.

Arts

Film: The Last Samurai

We must be in the awards season if I considered watching a particular film to be a waste of time. I caught The Last Samurai so that I'd be better placed to predict the results of next Sunday's BAFTA awards. My mistake: it didn't receive a single nomination.

Website

Dreaming of walking

It's a cold day. Too cold to be walking. Instead I'm writing up walks I completed four years ago. (I'll clear this backlog eventually.)

My latest updates always appear under Updated Walks on the top page.

Today's write-ups will take you from Emsworth to Eastbourne via Fishbourne, Selsey, Bognor Regis, Goring by Sea, Brighton, Rottingdean, Peacehaven and Cuckmere Haven.

Greenbelt

At the racecourse

Over the few years I've been involved with Greenbelt one clear pattern has emerged: everything's happening sooner. Where previously the final acts might have been booked in August, in recent years the line-up's been confirmed much sooner. There's a joke that if we don't watch out we'll start planning two festivals ahead. (Except it's not a joke; in some places this is already happening.)

And so to the traditional first site visit. Previously held much later in the year, this year we've leapfrogged back over the racecourse's big day and been on site today.

Personal

"His other woman"

Or at least, that's how she was introduced to me. Here's the latest addition to our extended family. Apart from being inexplicably afraid of closing doors, Heidi's the perfect cat. And if she helps Jane keep Jez in order...

Arts

Film: The School of Rock

Not exactly fine art, but The School of Rock is certainly a great way to unwind with my brother (a music teacher) and his wife.

There's superficial depth here: about individuality, acceptance, passion and art. But who am I trying to kid? It's Jack Black improvising with a bunch of school children, and it's great. It also has inventive opening titles, and closing credits that you'll watch to the very end.

And for the record, the Ozone multiplex in Oxford has tonight taken the title of the newest, cleanest, most comfortable multiplex I've ever been to.

Tech

Hunting hotspots

Last week was the first time I've been on the road with my laptop. A week's holiday was the main intent, but as a secondary project I wondered how easy it would be to come across wireless Internet hotspots.

The answer? It's not trivial yet.

Personal

Figures in the shadows

On a late walk down by the river tonight, a shouting came from the darkness of a car park.

I moved on to investigate and found, in the shadows, the blurry sight of cadets on drill practise. Their instructor barked and shouted; the words of his colleague were less clear, but in a coarse vocabulary they seemed to sketch a particularly tabloid image of a soldier's life.

In front of them, a dozen young people. From a distance I'd guess some were no older than fifteen.

"Wars will cease when men refuse to fight."

These words have been on my mind for the past two years, challenging my attitudes and beliefs. But tonight I just wanted to repeat them over and over again.

"Go home," I cried out in my head. "Come back when you can convince me that you really want to fight."

Personal

Inflexible hours

Bummer: I'm on a course this week so can't make it down to London in time for the BRMC gig I've just been offered a ticket to.

If this happens any more frequently I'll have to follow through on my threat to move home nearer civilisation.

Arts

Film: Cold Mountain

Three lines of dialogue from Cold Mountain:

1. God must be weary of being called down on both sides of an argument.
2. What colour is the sky?
3. I wish metal would be completely banished from this earth.

Personal

Cafédirect share issue

It seems that my preferred tea and coffee supplier is planning a share issue in the next few months. More information - and a chance to request a prospectus - is on the Cafédirect website.

Greenbelt

Fresh in February

Driving round the M25 tonight I passed the Freshly Toasted Sandwiches van that appears annually at Greenbelt. It's my favourite food outlet on site, and the inspiration for our community's name.

Sometimes Greenbelt sneaks up on you in the most unlikely places.

Tech

Binary day

01/02/04. But if it's all the same to you I'll not be up at eight sixteen to complete the sequence. Goodnight.

For those reading from the USA, please imagine this post was made on the second of January not the first of February.