Au Revoir

Well it's been over a week since the students have gone home from the guitar college in town. Most of the students are from abroad, a large majority of them coming from France, and what a nice bunch they were too. They've been here for 2 years learning to build classical style guitars and being students they've added a lot of character to the town. My friend Duncan worked as a barman in my local The Fox and Crown and came from France to study, I'll miss the guy as we had many a laugh together. I'll also miss some of the other student characters that used to come in the pub too such as Jack and Chaz. I'm sure some of them will return in time, one things for sure they'll always have a warm welcome at the Fox as they are already missed!

Duncan and Jack having fun at the beer festival

My Gran

Today I visited my gran, I don’t visit as much as I should really, It’s usually when I’m over in that neck of the woods. Every time I see her now I notice the steady decline in her health more and more. This afternoon when I saw her she looked more than old, as if all vigour and life is departing at a rapid rate. As life goes she’s sadly hanging by the last threads.

She was always pleased to see me but this time she didn’t talk as much, she seemed distant, almost resigned, bluntly she seemed tired of life. I’ve never seen her like this before or look so old, in fact she looked almost ancient today. She lives with my aunt and uncle nowadays and she’s well looked after, she sleeps much of the time and seems to want peace and quiet more than anything.

In a strange way her passing will affect me more than the passing of my mother, I can’t really explain why, I just know it will. I had to be strong when my mother died, organise things and keep a level head, when I gran goes I will have the freedom to mourn her. Of course I mourned the passing of my mother but not till long after, when I could do, when I could come to terms with my own emotions and feelings.

My Gran, or ‘Doris’ as I affectionately call her has been a remarkable woman through the years. She never seemed to stop, always a worker, a feisty red head, a character, a woman of manners and principles. I spent a lot of time as a youngster at my grandparents, especially weekends, it was a working class household that spent most of the time in the kitchen watching horse racing, eating none fancy traditional fare and drinking copious amounts of the local brew. There was nothing remotely flamboyant about my grandparents on my mother’s side, they were very common people but they were decent people. Most of all they were generous people.

Doris was an air raid warden during the war, a mother, a factory worker and on occasion a no nonsense hard drinking, hard smoking woman capable of fire and brimstone befitting of her red hair. Today I still see that in her but I also see she’s ready to cross that threshold into another realm.

I’m fast approaching my 40th Birthday and I hope she is still here when that day comes. She was by my side when my mother passed away (her own daughter), she was by my side when I was a little boy, such happy memories I have as a child in that lively household with her and my grand father who was a character in his own right.

I drove away from seeing Doris at my aunts today feeling very sad, I had to bite my bottom lip a few times and turn the music up. Seeing Doris how she was today certainly jolted my mortal coil, made me realise what she really means to me. When she passes away, she will be the last of my grand parents, both sets of grandparents have indeed shaped my life to an extent. Doris was probably my favourite, she never judged me though she’d tell me off if my manners were lacking as a child. I was always treated seemingly as an adult and spent many a happy hour with them down at the local pub, life seemed a lot simpler then as I remember.

For now though Doris is still here, in her late 80’s and despite her frailties she’s still alert and knows her own mind. She may well pass away soon but to me she’ll always be immortal.

Doomsday

Doomsday, what a film! Probably almost done at most cinema's now but go catch it if it's is still on.

A tour de force of a film which really shouldn't work but does. It's sorta Mad Max meets 28 Days Later meets Escape from New York meets Excalibur with other film references thrown in for good measure, if anything it's a perfect homage to those movies. can't say I've enjoyed a film so much in ages! And Rhona Mitra, what a leading lady... schwing!!!

May

Well May has been a different kind of month, an eventful one to say the least. It started off at break neck pace with Gary's visit back and day trips out and mucho beer! It's always a massive drop when Gary goes home though as I rarely see him these days, I kind of wish I had the money to go over to China more.

Then came the ending of an unconventional relationship I've had for a good for months, it was something I really enjoyed and to be honest I'm sad at its passing, perhaps more sadder than many past relationships have made me. It still hurts too, because it meant a lot to me.

The rest of the month has been filled with appointments, outings and interviews and has generally been really busy.

Oh and I've also embarked on adventures with somebody else. its early days yet but she's funny, genuine and very caring, and a stark raving mad Scots girl !!!

The month of May certainly hasn't been dull, a roller coaster of emotions, tears and smiles.

Sheesh I've just realised I don't often do personal blogs these days on here!

Beer Fest !

Though I've been in Newark a while now I've never been to one of the beer festivals here, the truth being I've always heard mixed reports. I'm not really a real ale sycophant either, though I do like it, I don't sample it with train spotter enthusiasm and diagnostics. Sure I worked in a brewery for many years and I do know a good pint but I've never been fanatical about real ales.

I have to confess to liking the tradition side, the fact its still alive and well and part of our heritage and culture.

This year was the 13th Newark beer festival and I really didn't fancy going but at the 11th hour and such a shitty week beforehand I went down and met up with some friends, I'm really glad I did too because I enjoyed it immensely, so much so I went Saturday night too.

There were hundreds of beers to choose from and you got to keep your commemorative glass tankard too after paying the entrance fee, which wasn't much. The whole event had some great music on and was very well organised and set up with lots of hard work from the camra (campaign for real ale) volunteers.

Saturday one of my fave local blues bands 'Booba dust' were on and I watched them whilst sampling some very weird and wonderful ciders!

And here is Booba Dust below in full boogie!

Mr Sunshine ~ 2 (Skegness)

Here are a few more photos of Gary's visit over. We went over to Skegness mid week as our craving for fish and chips (we had red snapper fish) took over. We also took my friend James with us. It was a really warm day, that was when we managed to get there, I fell asleep in the back of the car and Gary who incidentally knows the way decided to use my sat nav and we ended up going via Boston, adding about 30 mins to the journey!

It was a good day, pretty much a boys day really, video games, junk food et al. Oh and lots of competitive Mario Kart in the amusement arcade on the pier. Skegness isn't the best of places but it will always hold that nostalgia for me.

James IS Bowser!

Gary IS Mario

Gary and James prepare to race!

Ice cream and blue skies !!!

Mr Sunshine ~ 1 (London)

My friend Gary came over from Hong Kong from May 2nd - 10th to visit his family ... and me of course. Yep I know that was ages back but it's been a busy kind of month with lots of twists and turns! I've nick named Gary Mr Sunshine because last year he came back at roughly the same time and it was glorius sunshine then for a week.

Anyway, we had a great week, as ever with Gary it was very regimented with early starts and his thirst for shopping is positively feminine! We had several days out including London, Lincoln and good old Skegness for fish and chips and an ice cream on the beach.So here are some of the photos from that lovely sunny London. I must add we did do Camden in London too but I've posted plenty of Camden photos before, so this time you get more cheesy tourist ones! Our route took us down to Oxford Street from Kings Cross, then into the seedy environs of Soho with its fab cd and comic shops before going through into China town and Leicester Square. After that it was just around the corner to Trafalgar Square and through the horseguards HQ and parade ground, down past Big Ben, along the Thames and back on the tube at the Embankment up to Camden for several hours heavy duty procurement of goods! An exhausting day to be sure.

I really liked this silhouette style one of Nelson watching a distant plane trail with the sun in front of him.

The London Eye

Big Ben

National Gallery

Immigration: The Inconvenient Truth

The recent documentary by Rageh Omaar entitled ‘Immigration: The Inconvenient Truth’ shown on channel 4 was really quite insightful, only soured by its ending. During the 3 part series Rageh had identified and illustrated the problems with immigration, charting the subject from the early influx of commonwealth countries in the 1950 to the mass intake of Eastern Europeans happening today.

The series also used many passages quoted by an actor of Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of blood’ speech, a speech that Rageh had to admit was partly right at the end, though not really representative of immigration today, though personally I can still see that much of what Enoch said may still come to pass. In my eyes Powell was a visionary, much of what he said back in 1968 has come true in some form or another, that much is evident and clearly seen. Many polls seem to have been taken for the purpose of the 3 part documentary that showed we aren’t really happy with immigrants and they aren’t really happy with us, in fact less than 30% of those interviewed in one poll wanted to become British.

The whole series was interesting viewing, though sadly let down at the end in my opinion as Mr Omaar sought to illustrate the new influx of Eastern Europeans et al was just a phenomenon which as the world marketplace ebbs and flows will change, meaning people will go elsewhere, that the world is now a huge market place for global gypsies or workers to ply their skills. It was also added that Britain as a nation is reluctant to travel abroad to find work, which I find absolute bollocks. Our tradesmen have been working abroad for years, look at the building trade in the 80’s when that slumped, many travelled to Germany to gain work. Not just that, I could spend all day giving examples of the thousands of Brits that work abroad, so I pretty much find the whole not working abroad thing baseless.

The documentary seemed to u-turn at the end for me a bit, it also seemed selective in who was interviewed, from a normal if slightly inarticulate Englishman in a pub to important people that were of foreign descent and pro immigration. I found certain elements confusing as Rageh Omaah had objectively identified many problems within Britain concerning racial tension or people born here of immigrant parents who still didn’t want to be British etc despite having no real knowledge of their foreign roots. Confusing in the fact after highlighting many things some aspects seemed to be skirted around or the subject matter moved on with a series conclusion basically saying ‘immigration’ if we can even call it that these days is perhaps nothing to worry about, despite the fact he’d interviewed people struggling in the work place because of Polish tradesmen or school teachers telling of extra strain. Mr Omaah talked to Lord Tebbit who once said ‘get on your bike’ to find work but going back to the point about us working abroad – should we really have to when we like it here? Should we also have to give up our British views and stance on immigration when immigrants here have no wish to integrate or adopt our culture to their own? I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to want to retain your culture but if you’re planning on staying then surely it makes sense to become British to a degree, after all – you’re in Britain, and Mr Omaah is a good example of an African Muslim that has integrated fully and understands what it is to be a British citizen. Getting back to the documentary title, immigrants or foreign workers are becoming inconvenient and it is the truth, it’s not inconvenient in stiff upper lip typically stoic British sense, it’s inconvenient in the fact real problems are emerging and aren’t being resolved. On the whole I thought it was a good documentary series but fatally flawed in the cross section of people Mr Omaah chose to involve and the views they portrayed.

Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg!!! A class track by the Deathstars

Sleeping Giant

You see China on the television a lot these days, if it’s not in the news daily then there are plenty of documentaries about it, from cities bigger than London being built in five years to a thriving market in peoples organs. One thing is clear though, China has awoken, Napoleon III compared China to a sleeping giant and warned ‘when China awakes she will shake the world’.

Back in 2002 I spent some time in Hong Kong and China, mainly the new territories area and also did a few days in Macau as well as some other Chinese cities. A little bit was work related, well a PR thing briefly and the rest was a holiday. I spent the time there stopping with my friend Gary who has been working out there some years. What Gary did was show me the real place and not just the touristy things, what struck me, especially in China itself was how vast the country is, how rapidly it was growing. Some parts of it reminded me of America, vast roads and tower blocks festooning the horizon. Yet where there is new wealth and economy in China there is also people with very little. There is though a sense of urgency and efficiency about the place, the people are industrious and are embracing the changes there readily.

I was quite awestruck by China, the sheer sense of size it conveys, the alien nature of it as regards culture and language, the quirks of its people. Hong Kong was over powering, exhausting even, it was odd wandering back from bars at 4am and seeing markets in full swing, the place and people never seem to stop. In contrast China is a little more laid back but catching up rapidly, like the west everything seems available even if it is a copy! I recall going into a shop in Zhu Hei which resembled HMV but each and every item, be it music cd or dvd was a copy.

But let’s get to the main point of the blog here as I don’t want to reminisce too much (or I’ll want to go back!).

Once upon a time a quarter of the world lived under the British flag, it was the largest empire the world had ever known. Explorers and missionaries opened up dark continents and if countries challenged us they were invariably invaded and assimilated into the empire. Britain rose to be the workshop of the world, it dominated science, manufacturing and trade. To the Victorians back then it was merely a matter of racial supremacy, to them we were destined to be the rulers of the world.

Now of course the Imperial days have long gone and new industrial behemoths stride forward, China and India’s economy and industry are awakening over night. It’s predicted by 2050 China and India will be the first and second biggest economies over taking America. The Indian car company TATA is buying out western car companies such as Jaguar and Rover whilst China continues to invest in countries and resources in Africa, Congo especially where the Chinese are buying copper mines. Angola recently shunned western business in favour of the Chinese because of the amount of money they are pouring into the country. But its not just in Africa that was once regarded as our back yard for resources, the Chinese are investing world wide, from Russia to South America Chinese businessmen are gobbling up vast quantities of resources.

But the scary thing is how much resources these up and coming rising stars are using to build their new shining cities and transport networks. Economists have even invented a new word for it, instead of things being an economic cycle the shifts are so great they’ve termed it a ‘supercycle’. China is spending 35 times as much on crude oil as it did 8 years ago and 23 times as much on copper. China is also consuming roughly half of the worlds cement and third of its steel. This is though after all a country that is rapidly awaking and her 1.3 billion population are twice the number of America and the EU combined. The Chinese car market too is growing at an unprecedented rate as they become more westernised, so when you groan about fuel prices, look eastwards to find who is using it all and raising prices.

Of course as China becomes a dominant power in the industrial world it’s the west that is feeling the strain as workers feel threatened as businesses shift production to China where goods can be made cheaply by a massively growing workforce.

My friend Gary works as a fabric buyer over there, he was once needed for his skills and knowledge but he bow fears that because he has trained the Chinese and shared his knowledge he will soon be surplus to requirement as foreigners are needed less and less. He told me how the Chinese work long hours in factories that seemingly has accommodation that resembles WW2 prisoner camps. The Chinese flock from the poorer northern regions to sign up for year long contracts that involve working a 6 day week and often involve being separated from your partner into gender orientated huts. China is now a knowledge hungry nation, it can afford to hire the best scientists and engineers to learn from and in Britain alone 60,000 Chinese students study here, more than from any other country.

China has that kind of no nonsense purpose now, it courts military dictators in countries like Darfur, Burma and Zimbabwe. On the home front there are thousands of internet police, executions of criminals whilst medic teams stand by to pilfer their organs, whole towns displaced to make way for new super cities and people even enslaved in mines. And then of course there is the brutal suppression of Tibet.

China is now a confident nation, even its officials coordinated our police whilst the Olympic torch went through London, they even grappled with protesters. A Global shift is in progress, will people in future see America with its democracy (even if it isn’t always good) as not being so bad as a dictatorial China supersedes it? As the western economies slump the eastern ones grow my worry is what will happen when resources start to get thin, by then of course China will truly be unstoppable. A grim warning came from the national monetary fund last week stating the west now faces the largest financial shock since the great depression, whilst China and eastern economies power ahead.

China fascinates me, I loved my time there, I liked the people there, its cities and culture are amazing but I must confess to shuddering at what China in time will truly be capable of.

Thanks to Anthony Browne of the Daily Mail for some of the facts and figures.

Some photos I took whilst in China in 2002, in the city of Zhuhai (I think)

Patriotic, I think not!

I only knew it was St Georges day when I logged into Google this morning and noticed the George and dragon logo on there. How bad is that? That I don't even remember our national day!

But what's to be patriotic about lately eh? Headlines like the newspaper article here

For the record (and I got this online!) In Christian hagiographyy Saint George (ca. 275-281 – April 23, 303[2]) was a soldier of Greek-speaking Anatolia in the Roman Empire, venerated as a Christian martyr. Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental, Orthodox Churches, and the Eastern Catholic Churches.

So there you have it! He's also the saint of loads of other countries too, so its all faith related really and we know how accurate that is.

Why can't we just have a plain honest day that celebrates English culture, our art, our famous people, our buildings and our music instead of this meaningless St George rubbish?

Gone!

Saw my old place of work being demolished on the local news today. I felt really sad viewing it being toppled by bulldozers. Mansfield Brewery once employed around 4000 people, now its just an empty shell of a place, littered with drug user needles and scorched from vandals starting fires, a far cry from its former splendour. It's buildings used to dominate the Mansfield area. Soon it will be all but a memory as the rubble is cleared.

They showed some of the areas I used to work in, including the bottling plant, such good times I had working in there. I only hope the massive area that is left over is put to good use development wise for the benefit of the town, which needs all the help it can get.

There is a BBC news article here