Archive for the ‘collisions’ Category

14

Wednesday, February 12th, 2014

Good number, 14. It’s an even number though why that should mean anything is anyone’s guess. Nobody’s business. It also means you are well and truly entrenched in your teens. 13 was the first of the teen birthdays. 14 is better. Another five numbers yet to come though. 15 – 19.

14 is one of the better birthdays. When I was 14 I was half way between being 13 and 15. Things haven’t changed even though we didn’t have the internet in those days.

One of the things about being 14 is that your age starts to race away from your shoe size. I don’t know anyone with a size 14 shoe. Good job. It’s also a good job that you eventually stop growing. Imagine if you carried on growing until you were 28! Uh!? Cost a fortune in clothes, food and versions of Football Manager/GTA etc etc.

52 divided by 14 is exactly 3.7142857132 according the calc on my dog and bone. Just sayin’. 140 is a long way off but you never know…

Happy birthday. You know who you are 🙂

The meaning of Christmas

Tuesday, December 24th, 2013

Strange that the culmination of the year should be Christmas time. It is deepest mid-winter. The weather is at its most miserable nonentity. It rarely snows to make it the picture postcard scene of Christmas cards. Neither does it have the same significance as it used to – and I’m talking the midwinter festival here not the relatively modern religious aspect.

Time was, I guess, that folk got fed up with the austerity that winter brought and needed an excuse to break the monotony. Nowadays as long as you have the cash there is never a lean time of year where we await the onset of new growth with, presumably, eager anticipation. We still celebrate though.

In recent times the celebration has been themed around the birth of Jesus Christ. I am not in the least bit religious but I do still like the tradition of the whole Christmas Story. It makes me feel good. Takes me back to my childhood where we left brandy, mince pies and a carrot out for our midnight visitors and us kids were in bed at an inordinately early time to try and fast forward the night to morning.

Now as a parent with kids living away from home and knowing that they will be home for Christmas I feel almost the same excitement as I did all those years ago waiting for Santa to come. The kids themselves, I am pretty certain, like to come home. We have our community traditions: friends’ parties, carol singing in the Morning Star and early doors in the pub on Christmas Eve. For those that like to go there is the carol service at St Peter in Eastgate church.

The religious aspect now has no meaning for the majority of us. We still like to celebrate the birth of Jesus because we have always done so. It feels right but not because of any deeply held faith. For most, Christmas now means having a good time, nice presents, good food and drink. It has a feelgood factor.

As I write the fire is crackling away in the grate, there are Christmas carols on the radio and it has grown dark outside. The house is otherwise quiet and all is ready for the feasting ahead.

Have a great Christmas and good luck for the new year:)

Boston

Saturday, November 23rd, 2013

Off to Boston this morning to deliver some musicians to a midday rehearsal. Doing the “taking there” bit avoids the duty of bringing them back at around 10pm tonight. It’s not a bad drive back from Boston at that time of night but there are other things one could be doing.

For example I could be wallpapering the landing. I won’t be wallpapering the landing because it has only just been done by Anne and I wouldn’t be very popular if I did it again. If nothing else it would make the landing smaller. Anyway she would do a better job than me – better left to the experts I say.

The wallpapering bit was a random alternative job plucked out of thin air and deposited carelessly on the page in a take it if you will fashion. It isn’t the type of notion spent hours in careful crafting. Nor was it the output of an outrageously fertile imagination, a lively choice plucked dancing from the spotlit crowd neath life’s rotating mirror. It was in part the only choice. A selection of one proffered by a dullness of mind dampened by a late night Friday/Saturday morning.

Silence…

;sldfk;ds’

Saturday, September 28th, 2013

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Summer draws gently to a close

Saturday, August 31st, 2013

Today I had the first sense that summer is coming to an end. This morning there was a slight edge to the air when I went swimming at around 6.45am. This evening I put a fleece on to go out and do the barbecue.

It’s been a great summer. Probably one of the best. Great weather-wise and great family-wise. Hannah and I had a few days in Barcelona early on in the summer. Then the whole clan had a few days in North Wales followed by a week in the Isle of Man.

Everything seems to have gone right this summer. The weather, the sport – our Andy won Wimbledon and we beat the Aussies at cricket. Now as summer winds slowly down I have bought tickets to see Wales v South Africa in November. It is going to be a good autumn.

The house has been particularly noisy tonight. The three remaining kids were loud at dinner but then moved to the conservatory to play music – Hannah on flute, Joe on piano and John on sax. I sat on the settee listening, smiling.

Now all is quiet. Two of the kids are sat on the pew in the kitchen, reading quietly. Anne is watching TV. John has just wandered in with the iPad watching some instructional video! Sounds like he is learning how to build a bar! Okay, fine J

Not sure he totally appreciates the scope of the job though. I quite like the idea of having a bar in the house but you need to have lots of space. The bar should either be out near the pool or in the snooker room. We have neither. We have a pool table on the landing! I also like the idea of having a hot tub. We have space for one – provided we got rid of the play house which nowadays is only used to store garden furniture.

The problem is that we wouldn’t really use a hot tub. The idea is great but in practice it would become a very expensive pond with a cover over it that no one actually uses. Of course we could have Jacuzzi parties but we only have parties once or twice a year and not everyone could fit in.

It’s totally dark out now. Twenty to nine. The nights are drawing in. I don’t mind. Like I said it’s been a good summer and nature is quite kind to us in easing us into winter. Autumn is a rather gentle side.

I’m going to pour myself another brandy…

But is it art?

Friday, August 23rd, 2013

Giles was keen to know, and the rest of us certainly were interested…

Do we know what’s going on here?

Someone else had spotted it, but kindly remarked

I know, I saw that. I think that was the pressure jet, but pollution will sort it out.

Turns out

He thought he was being helpful by jetting away the debris that  had accumulated.

All is well now, but we still wonder…

But is it art?

The Art of Government

Monday, July 1st, 2013

As a Crown Representative for technology, working out of the Cabinet Office, I get to attend meetings in some interesting and unique places around Whitehall. As a painter myself, I’m often impressed by – and sometime in awe of – the artworks that hang on the walls and stand in the halls of Government buildings.  It’s also interesting to see that few people stop to look and consider the art around them – probably because they’re used to it being part of their day-to-day lives.

An example of this struck me when I was checking in with the security office for a meeting at Admiralty House.  Directly above the security officer’s head was one of the finest portraits of Samuel Pepys that I have ever come across. In fact, I’d seen it in an art book as a child, but to see it ‘in the flesh’ as it were, was quite a thing for me. The security chap was more than slightly bemused by my gawping at the picture above his head; a picture he must have seen everyday and therefore took no real notice of.

This got me thinking about who actually ‘owns’ these pictures and who is responsible for managing such ‘assets’. One quick search on Google gave me the answer. The works belong to the nation and are managed by the Government Art Collection; which comes under the umbrella of The Department of Culture, Media and Sport. I was delighted to see that they provide a website which is centered on a pretty well designed searchable database. It’s not clear how comprehensive this database is (for example I couldn’t find the Pepys portrait in there), but it kept me engaged for a good hour or so, and there’s a wonderful diversity of classic and contemporary work listed.

I’m going to be tweeting pictures (where I have permission) as I come across any I like. You can join me on this journey of discovery by following me on Twitter @robwilmot

Panoramic images of Barcelona

Sunday, June 30th, 2013

In years gone by we would have sent postcards home from a holiday with pictures of what we have seen – castles, beaches, pretty cottages etc etc etc. Nowadays we just take pictures with our phones and post the best to Facebook et al.

This post is a selection of panoramic views of places visited in Barcelona. Click on each one to enlarge. That’s all.

View from the waterfront.

barca10 view from waterside

Rooftop view at the Hotel Jazz

barca11 rooftop at the Jazz Hotel

Placa Reial just off La Rambla

barca12 plaza just off La Rambla

Park opposite Sagrada Familia

barca1 park opposite Sagrada Familia

Castello Montjuic

barca2 Montjuic Castle

View of port from Castello Montjuic

barca3 port

More Montaljuic view

barca4  Montaljuic

View from restaurant Xalet de Montjuic

Xalet

View from top of Park Guell

top of parc guell

Another Parc Guell view

Parc Guell

Barcelona waterfront
waterfront

To the glory of God

Sunday, June 30th, 2013

sagrada_familia_vertical

Christopher Columbus shows the way

Thursday, June 27th, 2013

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mercat st josep la boqueria

Wednesday, June 26th, 2013

wonderful colours in this market on la rambla.

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Barcelona dusk

Wednesday, June 26th, 2013

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More oasis in the Arabian desert than western city but the culture is there, along with the hordes of tourists.
The lifestyle takes getting used to. Dinner late into the evening, forced inactivity under the afternoon sun, leisurely breakfast at your pleasure. The book gets read.

flowers

Sunday, June 23rd, 2013

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The Ceiling at Temple Church.

Monday, June 17th, 2013

I went to London recently, as a tourist, and visited Temple Church.

I loved the ceiling in the nave so I made this image.

The crisp sandwich

Wednesday, June 12th, 2013

Up there in the gastronomic stratosphere where reside the world’s finest culinary concoctions lies the humble crisp sandwich. Much has been written of this delicacy and a great deal is to be found on the subject through the services of Google. I offer to you the simplest of instructions.

Some of the basics of this recipe are identical to other sandwich recipes to be found on Philosopherontap. Fresh crusty white bread sliced not too thinly and then spread with soft butter. The two slices should be laid butter side up on a large plate. An entire packet of cheese and onion crisps is then emptied onto one of the slices ensuring that any bits that fall off are retrieved and carefully stacked on top of the others.

The brand of crisp is important. Supermarket own brands don’t cut it. It has to be Walkers or Smiths. Interestingly enough the more expensive, premium crisp such as Pipers doesn’t really do the job either. We are looking for the right combination of taste and crunchiness here. Pipers crisps are too thick for the perfect crisp sandwich.

Once the rogue crisps have been carefully stacked the second slice of bread is placed on top butter side down (obv). At this stage you will find that some crisps do escape around the sides, probably in fragment form. It is perfectly acceptable to hoover these up and eat them without bread.

You may now eat the crisp sandwich taking care to hold it over the plate because no crisp sandwich put together by human hand is ever going to be totally crisp tight. Leave the excess crisps to fall to the plate and consume the whole sandwich. Note you should not cut the sandwich in half as you might with cheese prawn or ham. It needs to be eaten as one large slab.

The crisp sandwich is often accompanied by a glass of cold milk, semi skimmed or full fat to your own taste. Under no circumstance should skimmed milk be used. Skimmed milk is not only an affront to the senses of the crisp gourmet but its total lack of body is not well suited to washing down the crisps.

When the last corner of bread has been consumed you should now run your finger over the plate to mop up any loose crisp crumbs, licking your finger clean at appropriate intervals. You may then place the plate in the dishwasher or, if you are poor, wash it in the sink. Paper plates should not be used to eat crisp sandwiches.

And that dear reader is the crisp sandwich. I have no illustrations to support this text because on this occasion I am trying to lose weight and crisp sandwiches are off the menu.

As a footnote it should be mentioned that flavours other than cheese and onion may be used according to individual taste. Beef flavoured crisps offer almost the same experience but ready salted should probably be avoided.