August 27, 2003
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
Have you been? It's a lovely place on a plesant Summer's evening. We saw A Midsummer's Night's Dream which was nicely played. Very funny Puck and Bottom. No, really. You weren't allowed to take photos but this hardly counts:
The lights outside were nice too
The excitement
is intents. Having been out every day over the weekend we got back at 7pm Monday and the boys announced they wanted to sleep in the tent. It took 30 minutes to put it up which was a pretty poor show. Later on, flashlights were seen as night fell and we could hear everything they said. This included instructions to sleep in the "porch" section of the tent if you blew off. They cam in at 11pm. They tried again last night but gave in even earlier apparently (babysitter thought she had it made).
August 26, 2003
Stone Me
or them. We went to see the Stones at Twickenham on Sunday.
Apparently the Stadium isn't normally used for concerts because residents complain. Including a certain M. Jagger who lives a mile up the road, in Richmond, no doubt. He probably uses his bas pass to get to the gig. We met up with some other friends whilst there.
Couldn't get a decent picture but this is the flavour of the place. The light show and screens were pretty impressive.
I recorded some hopeless sounds Start Me Up and Satisfaction as usual.
The Friends Thing
We went to see some friends, Graham and Dianne. in Oxford on Saturday. Their lovely baby Harry is pictured here with Karen, Ryan and Nathan
As usual the BBQ was put into action with just a small incendary device
oooh Suit You Sir!
Funny things these BBQs - we went to one on Monday as well. The food, invariably, is awful. Especially if I'm doing the cooking. At tleast the one on Monday had the decency not to actually use the BBQ but to use the oven instead. You can't be too careful with chicken.
The Piano Man
I went out for a few drinks with Mark. After a while he, for some reason, he insisted we go to the Savoy piano bar where we fitted in nicely:
Mark decided to play the piano - a real room clearer:
August 22, 2003
Mud Pies
I spent the afternoon with friends. John and Kerry share the surname of Cooper (as they are married this seems fair). They called their first daughter Verity (centre in pic). Fair enough, not my choice but that's fine. John's a lay preacher and maybe there is aconnection or maybe they just thought it was a nice name. they called their second daughter Alice. She dies her hair and plays rock guitar luckily.
Here Nathan and Verity are part of a mud pie competition that started at 7pm and went on to gone dark, hence the torches. Now when I was a kid we couldn't even afford mud.
August 21, 2003
Too many words
Fracas. It's a brawl. Look up brawl. It's a fracas. So why did we borrow a word from the French? Maybe Orwell was right and we should remove some of the unnecessary words. I think he was silent on the French though. Words are difficult Johnnies though especially if you have to write them by hand. Have you ever done that? Well of course, but I mean a decent amount in recent times? On holiday I tried to do a paper diary and, although I wrote almost 30 smallish pages, I failed because I only got to day 4. It's hard work and makes my wrist ache. I found I wanted to write a lot more than just "Got up, went to the beach, had a bbq, drank beer" and it is not easy in the 100 degree temperatures and I lose interest at night. For posterity, or whatever, I'll copy out the first bit later on maybe.
Scooters
A major feature of my trip to Italy has to be the traffic and the complete lack of concern for traffic laws and personal safety. I only saw the one accident though...
The scooter and motorbikes are a law unto themselves in the towns of Italy. They buzz round you and overtake on blind bends and hassle you and toot their puny horns. It doesn't matter a bit except when they crash into you and it can be great fun pretending not to see them doing rediculous movements then swinging the car in to their way and watching them panic.
We were going down a quiet, dusty, straight road on a hot afternoon. In front of me was a guy on an old scooter and he had what looked like fishing rods strapped across his back and buckets and baskets attached to him. Behind me was a lorry who seemed to be eager to get passed. The scooter was going slowly so I just backed off rather than try and perform an anxious overtaking maneouvre. We were commenting on the state of the guy and wondering what he had in his bags when I saw a bottle of water fall off and roll behind him. I slowed a little and thought that would be the end of the matter but he had other plans. He turned round to see what had happened and then the bike jack-knifed throwing him off it.
I pulled over about 40 yards behind him but the lorry went straight passed and pulled up blocking the road. I thought he wsa going to try and drive past the accident at first. The scooter driver's helmet had come off - they don't all wear them and in anycase it was an open face version which he had obviously not done up - madness. He had a gash on his chin and arm, blood all over his shirt as was limping. We got his bike to the side and he was in shock and pain. The lorry driver motioned to ask me for my "carte" by which I think he meant credentials - licence etc. but I ignored him as I wasn't going to get involved any deeper. The rider phoned for help then eased his trouse leg up and you could see the broken bone pressing against the skin. Lovely. Don't try this at home.
Amazingly that was the only accident we saw although I did smash my door mirror and damage the rear wheel arch slightly. The cover flew off the mirror but it just clipped back on and I polished out the mark so it looked like a typical door mirror that had gone through a few width restrictions. They don't have width restrictions in Italy do they? Or anywhere else apart from the UK? I cleaned up the wheel arch. Unfortunately all of Naples was closed for the second week (apparently) due to it being too hot or they just don't care. I couldn't get a replacement mirror.
When I returned the car I expectec complications but the guy charged me 15 euros for the mirror, then subtracted 15 euros from the bill for fuel as a favour and I didn't tell him about the wheel arch. On the diagram of the car there was a cross by the same wheel arch I had damaged (and none of the others) so I think I didn't cause the dent but did cause a small scraping. What a result! Of course I will watch my credit card statement closely...
August 20, 2003
Foreign Menus
We soent most of our stay in Italy in non-touristy areas which meant we mostly missed the delights of dodgy translations e.g. Roast Dick a l'Orange etc.. However the enclosed looks completely deliberate to me. We only stopped for mid-morning coffee so sadly didn't order one.
August 19, 2003
More Text confusion
You may recall, but I'd be amazed if you did, some earlier text confusion and I now have some more. Its from Dave and I was prewarned about it and had a good idea what it should have said.
"Just got your docile. Did you mean lunch in a moment. He so. Yes. When. Where. Good news about the rioto."
Maybe if it is said with an Italian accent it sounds better.
Telecom trouble
The photo shows one of these signs that they put up saying who is digging up the street. Against the title where it says "contract work on behalf of..." someone has added "they made me do it". I have long suspected that there are street vigilantes forcing people to dig up streets endlessly. I believe they are burying answers to long running treasure hunts and that other "competitors" have to dig up miles of tarmac in order to "get a clue". It is clear that most Telcos remain clueless.
August 18, 2003
Michael Cainisms
Having been to Italy I had a quick look for anagrams of The Italian Job and I think there may be lots. How about "Hi! table a joint!".
Dangerous Breakfasts
According to the news this morning there is a new serial killer on the loose. Nathan is concerned for his Frosties.
BwonJooouurno
Hello
Are you still with me?
We're back from Italy and I may post a few pics and stories soon. Anyway, I missed you all.
Grahame
August 01, 2003
Just blogging around
Well that's it for a couple of weeks. Its gone 9pm so I have 7 hours to do my email, drink some wine, pack, sleep and the set off to the airport for 2 weeks in Blogfreeland. No computer, no email. Wonderful. I have decided to take along a pen and paper - remember those? The idea is to write some stuff myself about the events of the day or the nonsense in my head and perhaps get my boys to write as well. I'll have my camera with me so it's not a digital free period.
Bye for now.