Had a few days without an L…

so my Laptop became an aptop and lol became just plain old o…I never knew just how many times I typed the letter l, it was so frustrating…it seems either the contact has gone awol or I need a new keyboard! So, at the moment I have a usb to PS/2 adapter and a full size keyboard on which I am typing my l’s, I’m still using the laptop keyboard for every other letter.

On Monday I took a friend over to the local college to enrol for some English courses, as she was off doing her tests to see what level she would be in, I was waiting in the main reception and other prospective students were arriving, there was a good selection of countries represented and I got chatting to some of them. They were mainly young although there was an older Japanese guy enrolling. One of the people milling around was a mum with 3 kids and a young girl in tow. Most of the kids around were playing and having fun, this particular mum would’t let her kids play, no, her kids had to do writing excercises and get them right, she told them  ‘if you want to go to a good school you have to do these excercises…’ the poor kids looked crestfallen they wanted to play… it turns out that she was here with the young girl, the girl was her au pair and from Hungary. Judging by the mother and her attitude the girl from Hungary is going to be very busy!!

After that I was at work and the place was full of feral children, parents were there but were letting the litte darlings run wild..I remember the days when a Library was a quiet and tranquil place..no more I’m afraid!!

 

see that’s 55 l’s in this little piece oops 58 now!!!

Green fields and Holiday weekends

It is a holiday weekend here and as ever the weather is unpredictable, one minute sun and the next heavy rain..on Friday after work I was ‘picked up’ by some friends and we went to Llangollen a lovely little village along the banks of the River Dee. It was very busy, it usually is busy, this time though I noticed a change in the place…it is now full of tacky shops selling what can only be described as ‘tat’. There used to be a plethora of unusual little shops seling interesting things. Perhaps its a sign of the times and nobody soes tat anymore.

Yesterday I went there again with another mate and we only stayed for a coffee before heading out to a little village called Carrog, it was a lot quieter there and trés peaceful.  We wandered around an old railway station and made some photos…it was good to get out and away from the town and into the stunning Welsh countryside…one good thing about the amount of rain we’ve been having is that everywhere is so green, I mean really green, there are so many different shades of green it’s wonderful.

     

Detail from an old Railway carriage

            

          

 

 

 

 

 

Castell Dinas Bran above Llangollen

 

            

Elvis dashboard dancer

 

                                        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the ‘Thomas’ characters

Odd Book titles

Some of you may know that I’ve been making a series of photos of books from my collection and posting them here, I’ve been trying to make sentences, phrases out of the titles. I was told at work today about the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year…here are some of the previous winner’s…

2002: Living With Crazy Buttocks (Kaz Cooke – Penguin US/Australia)
2003: The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories (Kensington Publishing)
2004: Bombproof Your Horse (J A Allen)
2005: People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It (Gary Leon Hill – Red Wheel/Weiser Books)
2006: The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification (Harry N Abrams)
2007: If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs (Simon & Schuster US)

I’ve had a look at a few of them and if you’re interested they’re still available on Amazon, and at other good bookshops no doubt… There is going to be a ‘Book of Books’ the oddest title ever…it’s being published in September and I for one cannot wait!! My order is already in…see here for more past winners

as usual it is the civillians who suffer…

war has broken out in Georgia, the Russians have gone into South Ossettia to ‘rescue’ ethnic Russians. The Russians have launched airstrikes on targets in the west of Georgia some miles from the acutual supposed heart of the conflict. Is this the Russians flexing their muscles, it seems to me that it is no coincidence that a major oil pipeline runs through Georgia, a pipeline that carries oil to the west. Is the spectre of ‘ethnic cleansing’ raising its ugly head again? Putin has now asserted that ‘Genocide is taking palce against the Ossetian people…’ So, in the confusion of war the rhetoric is being hyped up and both sides are using the ‘Genocide’ card! The Russians demolished Grozny in Chechenya to ‘cleanse’ their suposed opponents, I do hope that Tblisi isn’t next. Russia have said that 34,000 South Ossetian refugees have so far been registered in North Ossetia, as always it is the civilian population that suffers.

Books

Among the Cities by Jan Morris

The Joke’s Over  by Ralph Steadman

I hope that this conflict in the Caucausus doesn’t escalate into another Groznyesque situation.

Communication,coffee and cameras

I had a day off today, but the day was busy, I was looking through some old images to see if I had any that were suitable for a presentation I’m giving next week. I came across an old box of prints that I hadn’t looked at since 1998. I’d forgotten some of the events the photos were of…instantly I saw the images those times came flooding back. It’s wonderful the power that photography has; the power of the still image to communicate and leave a lasting impression, the ability of photography to cross cultural and linguistic barriers (although I was once asked ‘Do you have Photos of your friends in this country? In my country it is dangerous to have these photos’!)

I look at images every day, I am a visual person, I love images. I’ve had a camera of once sort or another for a very long time, I carry one with me every day…

I met a mate for coffee and she is the type of person who knows everyone…it is rare for us to have any time together because there is always someone else passing that we know and they come and join us…amongst the people we met today some of the questions/topics that came up today were ’Why is the word GAY banned from the computers in the Library’, ‘I need to find a boarding school that is cheap’, ‘My car is knackered’, ‘My computer is broken’, ‘I want to play football for a good team, not a bad one’ and many, many more…

I had a message to ask me to go into work on Monday morning and caretake! I’ve been offered a WHOLE, yes WHOLE Jelly Baby as an extra incentive to do it…how can I refuse with such an incentive…

I’m staring a Participatory photo project where I give disposable cameras to a group of people I work with to document their day to day lives, hopefully this will help dispel some myths and at the same time encourage a degree of self development. Now comes the harp part, getting the cameras…the letter writing begins, I’m hoping that I can get some cameras donated…so if you want to donate a disposable camera for the project you can contact me for more information.

wrigglies, iced buns and floating around different social groups!

I worked this morning and I was not alone, we had a ‘Wriggly Worm Roadshow’, someone came in and brought some interesting little creatures, including a snake, a rat and cockroaches and various other little things…most of the kids were great, there was the odd screamer and it went well, there were no escapees…well not that anyone admitted to at least.

We were busy, it’s great to see so many people enjoying themselves in a Library. There were the usual moaners saying things like ‘in my day Libraries were quiet places…’ no more I say.

On the way home I bought a couple of iced buns, and saw my mate ‘Olive’ and offered her one…I’m not sure what she’d been up to in the past with an iced bun but she burst out laughing!! She won’t tell me any stories from her life for fear they’ll end up here…of course they will, but all names will be changed to protect the not so innocent. So, come on Olive tell all.

I have just heard on some tv programme that it is really important to ‘float around different social groups’  i dunno what that’s supposed to mean, it’s just more psycho babble, I guess it just means we should just mix and be happy in any situation!

sorry world…

I’ve been on my travels and my carbon footprint is a bit like my real shoe size (UK size 13; European size 48 and a half!)…this weekend I travelled from my town to BHX, BHX to AMS, AMS to CDF,CDF to SWS all in all a total of 1590km or approx 938 miles, and today I feel every single one of them.

I had beer in AMS,CDF and SWS and saw the sights and also met friends in all. I also got rained on in all, the rain was sometimes light, sometimes horizontal, always wet. Ah the great European summer its the same everywhere!

I had my ear licked in CDF by a charming young lady with golden hair. In fact, she wouldn’t leave me alone, and let me tell you I’m not used to the attention. Her name is Lucy and she is gorgeous…

I’ll be going back there soon….thanks to Gaby for the photo.

I’m back now and writing a proposal to get some Gallery space for my photo project with Refugees. We are giving disposable cameras to a group of Refugees to document their lives, we are hoping that by having an exhibition of images made by Refugees about their lives we might be able to dispel a few myths.

From  piece of sculpture in Cardiff, the weathered hand clutching in this instance a symbolic piece of wire could be a symbol of resitance or of defiance/hope.

l to r  Gaby,Karen,Paul and Stef

Someone to care, someone to mind

working with Refugees makes me constantly realise that there are many, many, people worse off than me…I’ve never cared about material things, never been one for the status of luxury items. I sometimes wonder about my lack of ambition, what would have happened if I had pushed for that thing, that intangible thing, see, I don’t even know what it is. I think, all I’ve been searching for all these years is Someone to care and someone to mind. Watching the people around me arm in arm, laughing, joking seemingly without a care in the world I am jealous, jealous of what though, jealous of the companionship of a good woman! Many of my friends think I have a great life, I have only me to please, I can, if I wish hop on a plane,train or bus and go anywhere, when I get there  it’s still only me to keep me company, yes I can talk to anyone and frequently do, but its not the same. They keep telling me that there’s more to it than this…

So, the big clean up after the night before starts, the street cleaners have been out and the portable loos have been collected, the city starts to recover from its weekend hangover, as for me I have no hangover, just a strange fuzzyness, and a longing for someone to care and someone to mind…

Weekend toilets in Amsterdam are placed at strategic places throughout the city…it’s fun watching the girls trying to hop up!!!

 

Travelling is tiring…or maybe i’m just getting old

Or perhaps it’s because I worked today…anyway the trip itself was uneventful and I made it to Amsters without incident only to be greeted by rain and the aftermath of the GAY Parade. 

I’d forgotten, or rather forgotten to look what was on in town before this trip, if I’d known methinks I’d have thought twice about this weekend’s trip it’s going to be really busy here this weekend. All the bars are heaving and the streets too…still into the breach dear chums…the first task before hitting my pit for the night is to sort out a little request for a mate of mine who has just come out of hospital and can’t go out or drink at the moment, she’s suffering down in the valley’s so this is for you Sian…

They were lovely!!!!! So, now that the task is complete I can sleep safely…

Virtual Tag huh?

I was tagged ‘virtually’ yesterday by a friend
the idea is to tag blogs you visit and to say 6 random things about yourself. Unfortunately I haven’t anyone else to tag but here are 6 random things about me:

1. I photographed Donny Osmond exclusively at an event
2. I once burnt a pile of photographs by a canal in Amsterdam and was questioned by the Politie
3. I once went to Belize (Central America) for 1 night
4. I am an Emile Zola look-a-like apparently!
5. I played football once…I was in goal and we lost 13-0 so never played again.
6. I hate intolerance

well there are today’s random things.