Rev Stan's other stuff

Postcard from my life: Weeks 18 & 19 or growing stuff

Ever since a former neighbour put spade into the grass in the communal garden of our block of flats and started growing some flowers and some veg, I've wanted to have a go myself. I was brought up on home-grown veg, some of my fondest childhood memories is helping out in the garden, digging up potatoes, picking broad beans or stringing runner beans ready to be blanched for the freezer.

But life excuses have got in the way and I thought I'd left it too late, once again to plant anything this season until a friend who has an allotment told me different. Bouyed by a growing-veggies-for-simpletons type book and a few packets of easy to grow seeds I set about with my similarly-minded neighbour Franesca to have a go at growing stuff.

We dug a very small border using a trowel, which is all the equipment we had on that first gardening session, mixing some compost in to the barren, grey looking earth. Then with our seeds in hand we divided up our modest plot into sections planting, in a rather slap-dash fashion, various herbs, radishes and peas. The idea being if it grows great, if not then we haven't wasted much time and money.

Postcard from my life: Week 18 or the last book I'll ever read...

Probably. It's out with the old and in with the new. Anthony Horowitz's Scorpia Rising, the last in the Alex Rider series may be the last novel I read in mulched tree format as I am now the proud owner of a Kindle.

I've been thinking of getting one for a while. Mainly because I like to have a book with me to read when I'm out and about as I never know when I might have 10 minutes spare. And, when I'm out and about I tend to do quite a bit of walking and bulky books just do my back/shoulder in. (There is also the storage issue when you have a one bed flat).

For a while the size of the book has been a big factor in whether I'll read it or not. Hardbacks were definitely out. But with the Kindle it is always the same size. It is slim and light and I can carry more than one book with me, 3,500 in fact (and a dictionary).

It has taken a little getting used to. I hadn't realised that I'd got into the habit of starting to lift the page to turn it as I was still finishing the last sentence or two and of course you can't do that on the Kindle, you start pressing the arrow to move on and bang you are there so there was a bit of back and forth in the beginning.

Postcard from my life: Week 17 or The Birthday

Wow I think it is going to take me a week to recover from this. Spent my 4oth birthday doing this:

And this:

Etc. The one above is Oblivion and it scared the living day lights out of me. I was petrified, unlike any other ride I went on, whole new streams of expletives were invented. It pauses at the top of a 150ft drops - dangling you over the edge before plunging down into a big, black hole. My hands are sweating just writing about it.

Postcard from my life: Weeks 15 & 16 or the sun and celebs

Been a bit neglectful hence the two in one to catch up but I'm using the bank holidays as an excuse.  Two consecutive four-day weekends coupled with lovely sunny weather and I've been out and about, rather a lot which usually means writing posts for other blogs, particularly as there has been a good dose of celeb influence to add to the excitement.

So how to sum up the past two weeks. Well there has been lots of sun - April has been the warmest and driest since records began apparently:

Postcard from my life: Week 15 or friends and the famous

Had my bezzy mate Chris to stay for a few days this week. It's her birthday soon and as she's a theatre fan I took her to see War Horse and then we got day seats for Flare Path the next day. I've seen both before but was keen to see them again and she loved both of them too which was most important thing.

It was great to spend some rare quality time together - living at other ends of the country doesn't make it easy. Aside from the plays we did some theatre tours, a trip to the National Portrait Gallery (a personal favourite of mine) and lots of general mooching around the shops.

I don't really like shopping with other people but this was fun as I ended up going to loads of shops I don't normally go to as well as some of my favourites. Chris filled her boots buying two scarves, a pair of Birkenstock trainers and a new charm from Links for her charm necklace although the latter was technically a birthday present from her brother.  

Postcard from my life: Week 14 or the Bro's big birthday

My brother moved back to London last year and it's great having him in town again. It means we meet up more often, usually on the spur of the moment.

It was his 40th yesterday (which means it's three weeks and five days until mine!) and so I sent him a text to see if he fancied lunch or coffee and cake or something and said 'both'. He likes his food.

And so we met up for what turned out to be an afternoon of eating in the sun, people watching, car watching (we were near the King's Road) and catching up. There was a brief sniff around the shops to see if we could find the sunglasses he wanted but that was about it.

Simple but lovely.

 

 

Postcard from my life: Week 12 or when I discovered The Killing

Not been doing very well with all the popular TV series recently. I bought the DVD of the first series of The Wire because everyone was talking about it and have watched the first three episodes twice but never felt compelled to watch the fourth.

Then Sopranos started from the beginning on Sky Atlantic. Yawn, after two episodes. Then I ordered the first series of Mad Men on Love Film for the same reasons as The Wire. Watched the first five episodes and asked myself 'would I care if I never got to see another episode?' So back went the disc and the remainder were scrubbed from my rental list.

This week I reached crisis point on my Sky+ box because I've been recording Danish murder mystery series The Killing which has been airing on BBC 4. It's 20 episodes in (hence the box being full) so I thought I should really start watching it or delete the lot.

I can't actually remember why I started recording it. Certainly being on BBC 4 helped as they tend to have less mainstream and therefore usually more interesting stuff. And also the fact that it is Danish. There have been some interesting films coming out of the Scandinavian countries in recent years which seem to have a trademark grittiness that I like. Swedish film Let The Right One in is one of my favourites.

Postcard from my life: Week 11 or small pleasures

Saturday was one of those days when just the simplest things put a smile on my face. It was a beautiful blue-sky day with some of the year's first warmth in the sun's rays. I spent a chunk of the day roaming with my camera capturing more signs of spring and enjoying the entertainers that proliferate public spaces in London when the weather is good.

Particularly like the street dancers (more pics over on Flickr)

 

Postcard from my life: Week 10 or in the Cannes

Was away for work all last week. It's an annual international trade fair in Cannes for the industry I write about. Some 18,000 people go. It's huge. But I can't complain about the location as it's by the sea, generally sunny and about six or seven degrees warmer than London.

While I'm there I literally live, breath, eat and sleep work. It is all consuming, my mind can't function on any other level than work - it doesn't have time. And it is quite good fun in a perverse, adrenalin-fuelled buzz kind of way. With the newish technology we have and the internet you can do so much more reporting on the hoof. (I've still got pains in my thumb and fore finger from overuse of the Crackberry.)

But you can only survive on a few hours sleep, adrenalin and diet coke for so long and I'm always glad to catch the early morning train back to London on the Friday morning. Snapped the beautiful sunrise (below) on my Crackberry as the train skirted the coast on its way out of Cannes. Such a lovely journey and worth the long train ride alone.

The thing I really don't like about this annual event is it how it takes more than a weekend to purge my system and start to properly relax. I actually get something akin to jet lag, waking up at 6am (7am French time) and work-thoughts continue to invade. I need to get back to normal things, to a normal level of hectic at work.

I'm so glad it's over for another year.

 

 

Postcard from my life: Week 9 or frustration

This youtube video best sums up the working week I've had, I'm with him every step including the final boot.

The reason? I've had computer problems, I've had old equipment that isn't capable of doing what I want it to do problems and I've had the 'can't do barrier going up constantly. In a word it's been frustrating and I have been stressed and feeling 'grrrr'. A lot.

Next week should be better. Hard work but better. Hopefully.

 

 

Postcard from my life: Week 8 or Spring is in the air

After seemingly endless gloom there were a couple of days this week that were mild and sunny and very Spring-like. The days are getting noticeably longer - if I leave the office on time there is still a bit of light in the sky by the time I get home which helps lift the spirits immensely.

Today started out bright and sunny and I got out with my camera for the first time. The brightness soon turn to heavy clouds and rain, some very damp washing on my return home the stark reminder that we aren't quite over winter yet. But I did get a few pics of the first signs of Spring before the weather turned:

 

Postcard from my life: Week 7 or musical disappointment and discovery

Found out yesterday that Radiohead released a new album: King of Limbs. I've been a bit out of loop on music news throwing all my energies into theatre and film stuff so I happened upon the news by accident. But that didn't stop me quickly buying it.

Their last album In Rainbows is one of my all time favourites - not just of Radiohead's back catalogue but of my entire music collection. That isn't to say I've liked everything they've ever done. I could never get past track three of Kid A before having to switch off. In Rainbows was a return to form. Taking everything I loved about their early work and building on it.

 So would they surpass what they'd achieved with In Rainbows? I'll premis this by saying I've only listened to the album through once but my initial response is 'no'. So far it feels like they've hit on a sound style and, well, repeated it. In a nutshell it's very repetitive.

Maybe I need to give it a bit more of a chance and I will listen to it some more - it's not quite Kid A it has some redeeming features but I have to confess that I am disappointed.

Postcard from my life: Week 6 or baking delights

It's been a busy, busy week. First there was the day less ordinary then three days away from home for work, putting in long hours, then coming back and going straight to the theatre on Friday night to see little Colin Morgan on stage.

Barely time to take breath.

And I'd like to say the weekend has been more restful. And it has in a way because I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen which is mentally very restful. Yesterday is was baking and roasting stuff for me for the freezer and then today baking for our charity cake sale at work tomorrow. I decided to try out a new recipe book from a newish cookbook, it's the same one I got the courgette and camomile cupcakes from.

It's got grated beetroot in it which gives it a lovely pink colour - a cheesy-homage to the cheesy romantic theme of tomorrow Valentine sale - I've added my own little garnish.

So this is what I was aiming for:

And this is how it went:

 

Postcard from my life: Week 5 or that was January

Phew. It's over for another 11 months. January is done and dusted. And I'm feeling quite smug because I seem to have come through it without feeling any blues.

I put it down to just keeping busy, not having regrets and seeing life as something that changes organically not because the year has a different number on the end of it. But mainly keeping busy.

It's been a cracking month of films particularly and theatre and there is plenty to look forward to this month. I'm particularly excited about seeing little Colin Morgan on stage this Friday.

Work is cranking up nicely towards our busiest period and the much dreaded and enjoyed work trip to Cannes at the beginning of March. Tomorrow we are having our photo taken for the marketing material which will be a first. Must try not to grin inanely. We've apparently to look approachable, I'll just settle for not looking like an idiot.

Anyway January was:

7 London plays

1 Edinburgh play

5 films

88 miles cycled too and from work

3 cities visited for work which equated to 992 train miles

12 camomile and courgette cupcakes I made for my Mum's birthday (a new recipe, pictured)

Twice I had ribs for tea. Love ribs.

 

 

Postcard from my life: Week 4 or the old mystery Valentine card

An old school friend contacted me this week asking for help in identifying the examining boards on our O-level and A-level school certificates. She'd lost her originals and needed the names to apply for copies.

It took some searching to find them but when they eventually turned up they were in a cardboard pocket file full of old diaries, letters, cards, poems and other tokens from my childhood and through my teens.

I only had time to skim through a handful of these delightful memories but one of the first things that I put my hand to was my first ever Valentine Card (right). I was 14 and had crushes on at least six different boys at the time but I never did find out who sent it. Still, nice to know someone fancied me, even if they were too scared to admit it.

Not quite such a fond memory was a letter my first boyfriend wrote to me. We were 17 and I was losing interest in him and he could sense it. He put into words what he couldn't confront me with, that he felt I didn't want to spend time with him anymore.

Postcard from my life: Week 3 or why some plays should carry health warnings

You know when you hurt yourself doing something quite normal and undramatic and even though it's painful it still makes you smile at the randomness?

Well that was me this week. The scenario? Well I was at the theatre (of course) with Poly and our seats were on the front row.

The stage was built in the centre of the auditorium so we had to walk across it to get to our seats. As there was very little space between seats and stage the easiest way to get to them, rather than use the steps at the end of the row and ask everyone to stand, was to step down from the stage, a drop of around two and a half feet.

I did this fine the first time and so took the same route on my return to my seat after the interval. Unfortunately this time I managed to step onto Poly's Manga copy of Much Ado About Nothing that had slid out of her bag. So I down onto the book  which slipped under my foot and with my full body weight I went over on my ankle. Ouch!

It hurt. A lot. I quickly sat down and gingerly tried to move my toes and ankle. Despite being painful it all moved which was slightly encouraging. The lights went down and I enjoyed the second half of the play occasionally attempting to move my poorly ankle just in case it had miraculously healed.

Did I mention that the play was about doctors and nurses?

Postcard from my life: Week 2 or cold fighting

Sometimes you have to know when to give in; to rest and let your body use all its energy to fight whatever bug is infecting you. That moment came on Tuesday morning. Having struggled through Monday feeling bunged up and washed out with this head cold, I was half way through my breakfast feeling just as bunged up and washed out when I thought "it is time to throw in the towel".

So I got back into my jim-jams and back into bed. It was the right thing to do. Now it wasn't an instant cure, the cold has lingered and developed a cough but I certainly was feeling a little more human by Wednesday.

The silver lining is that while I was nursing my cold, having grown tired of day-time telly (after about 10 mins - who watches that crap????) I flicked onto Twitter to see what was going on. The Young Vic had just launched a retweet competition for which the prize was a priority booking pass for their new season (worth £50). I had been planning to go halves with PolyG so we can get decent Michael Sheen Hamlet tickets when they go on sale next month so I retweeted and forgot all about it.

Postcard from my life: Week 1 or keeping the January blues at bay

Mindful of the terrible neglect I've been inflincting on this blog (can you inflict neglect?) and inspired by some of my fellow ex-voxers weekly and daily projects last year, I thought I should come up with something that would at least give me a weekly topic now that film and theatre are dealt with elsewhere.

And so I thought of a post about the week past, the trials and tribulations, things I learnt, things I observed, anything really that strikes me. Fingers-crossed I keep it up...

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So this is the end of the first full, working week back in January. Usually a slightly depressing time, in recent years I've developed tactics for dealing with the post holiday flat feeling. Working on a features section in a weekly magazine that has its topics carved in stone for the year can make the first days back tough to face as you see the working year with all its pressure points stretched out in front of you.

So these are my rules:

1. Never, ever go back to work on the 2nd, it brings festivities to such an abrupt end it heightens the risk resentment towards the office. This year was easy because New Year's Day was a Saturday so the bank holiday was added to the Monday giving us two extra days before the return to work. Yay!

2. Order yourself something on the internet which will arrive the first week back - always nice to have a little treat. I went a bit mad this year (well I don't buy or receive Christmas presents so I save my pennies for the sales) and ordered a new food processor and a DAB radio iPod dock for the kitchen.

 

3. Book one or two things into the diary. Nothing gets you through those early days back at work better than something diverting to look forward to in the evening

4. Fill out your calendar/diary for the year, preferably with lots of nice things to look forward to. Doing it the first week back adds as a reminder that it is not just the start of the working year but the start of all sort of other adventures.

And with all that in place the week streaked by leaving me quite exhausted. There was one hitch, well two if you count coming down with my annual head cold on Friday. I'd booked to see the King's Speech with a post screening Q&A with director Tom Hooper for Wednesday evening. Loved the film when I saw it at the London film festival and was really excited to see it again and hear what the director had to say.