wednesday 1 – we get up late, go for run, rip my new jacket on a sharp piece of a fence after leaving katie to take a different route – the price of going off in different directions
lazing in the bath at 2pm and listening to a great discussion on world at one.
the Birmingham City Council speaker was very good and frankly, I can’t see how the London argument stands up anymore (the Deputy Mayor’s arguments were dreadful and it shows a slight contempt that Boris was not on, perhaps because he would also only have made a bigger hash of it than the Deputy).
There was always the debate about the trickle down effect (for favouring high salaries and low taxes for the rich) and now this case, a trickle out effect (in this case for unbridled investment in London infrastructure) and frankly I believe in neither – if you want investment to happen it has to happen directly and not indirectly, as some excuse to centralise power/money; bit like HS2 – the rest of the country can have it (sure as hell, there will be no money for it or other priorities will spring up or the first phase will be such a disaster, with the net result it won’t happen), but only after we’ve got it in London first. Must also admit, I was horrifed to hear from you that HS2 is not going into coventry central, disaster imho, this reinforces the view that this is another waste of money which doesn’t really address regional infrastructure. I’m absolutely convinced you would get more growth in the country (per buck as it were), by investing even a half of the money which is going into London, into the regions.
Back on the link/topic, that the main commuter line (2 tracks) from Coventry to Wolverhampton is shared between let’s say in German language, S-bahn and ICEs is diabolical – the main lead-in to Munich Hauptbahnhof has about 20 tracks going into it or under it or around it or to the side of it (eg. since there is a big ICE maintenance depot along-side), but nonetheless, I would expect a minimum of 4, perhaps more like 6 or 8 tracks on this major route.
go for walk past südbad and over the bridge along the isar, many people out walking ended up at paulaner brauhaus and had a zwickl and weissbier – my first of the year haha!
find a good shop for vinyl and accessories.
thursday 2 – at home/office working, more productive than tuesday
friday 3 – still faffing about to get fridge/freezer plug back in its socket, takes half of the day, but get it eventually
think i am through the feelings I’ve been having since margaret’s birthday/party, time to get back to reality and snap out of delusion
talk with katie about joy, as in seeing it in the things we consciously choose to prioritise time on
saturday 4 – still listening to the podcast from broadcasting house with Camila Batmanghelidjh, kids company
also maureen lipmann and jacob rees-mogg were on the panel, there was an interesting discussion about NY resolutions with some good points around:
straightforward “willpower” (jacob) or
simply “living your spirit” (camila) or
reading a good novel to find out about the human spirit (maureen).
Camila Batmanghelidjh makes some good plugs, for the teach first organisation:
saying also, in education we are making a mistake in pushing for ever higher standards since:
“social care deficiencies must be addressed first before the educational attainment of under-priviledged children can be raised”
“some academies are permanently excluding the most vulnerable children because it depresses their results”
go swimming with kats, we take books along, i do around 34 lengths, she does 50.
going through various pieces of literature before junking it, german doctors, working abroad in poorer countries.
sunday 5 – listening to the morning service then broadcasting house on radio 4
went with eve to church, julia’s daughter becky playing amazing grace on the recorder with katie accompanying
go to gospel concert in the evening, the queen esther marrow concert at philharmonie with eve and katie
eve is quite into it as we get there, the glamour and classiness and we pre-order interval drinks and canapes at a little table
during the concert, she sings with ron williams, his song “the power of love” and then follows lots of handshakes and a lovely high-5 by a little girl with eve’s favourite singer, basically the youngest of the singers in a long, slender black dress
the concert ends with “oh, happy day” and a standing ovation of course
monday 6 – decide to go on a walk and after long deliberation, both girls are up for it
eve was mainly wanting it to happen, she likes the family outings and it is nice that she still has these child-like qualities, a need for togetherness and warmth, not yet pushing us away but drawing near to us
walk from the bottom of schliersee, fischhausen-neuhausen to spitzingsee along josefsthalstr. pass a house with an interesting quote on it, relevant for the re-focus which new year brings:
Ein bisserl mehr ‘wir’ und weniger ‘ich’;
(A little more ‘we’, a little less ‘I’;)
Ein bisserl mehr Kraft und nicht so zimperlich;
(A little more strength, a little less whining;)
Und viel mehr Blumen während des Lebens,
(And many many more flowers during life itself,)
denn auf den Grabern sind sie vergebens.
(Since those on the gravestone are in vain/to no avail.)
speaking with Reinhold in the office, he says, this kind of painting is called Lüftlmalerei,
wie “verlorene Liebesmühe” or “vergebenes Liebesmühe” – forlorn hope
from the end of josefstahlstr. go then out into the mountains, through an area with a few waterfalls, where eve comments they both would have been content to play for hours in a fairy-landscape, high-trees, babbling brook, stones and twigs everywhere – up a long stretch climbing high up where sabs is out of breath and toys with not carrying on, then out into the clearing again, over spitzingsattel and down a slippery slope with sabs just sliding down and around to the lake we wanted to reach, spitzingsee.
overall i think saby was in a good mood the whole time and really quite enjoyed it, although she wouldn’t admit it; eve was great at the start, then got crabby as we reached spitzingsee
we look around a little then stop at a cafe where katie and sabs talk about their recent dreams – sabs being left behind by a friend or the school class. The children have schnitzel in semmel or lebekase in semmel, i have a very large pfannkuchensuppe, then we go to the bus stop and take the bus back to the bob train station, falling asleep in the train till just before our stop
bake mince pies to take to work tomorrow
tuesday 7 – hard to get up for everyone, katie manages it as ever to set the tone and is up and in the breakfast routine
prayer for the day has an article about necessity being the mother of invention, talking about the time pressures which gershwin was under to create rhapsody in blue
tweet of the day has an article about the mistlethrush, which was my favourite bird when i used to have a paper round as a boy, it’s narrated by david attenborough who recalls how they nest often in the v of a tree or in unusual places, even one nest was found in a set of traffic lights
a nice start to the day as eve calls me on the mobile to wish me well, as she’d forgotten earlier!
Dan recommends a couple of russell brand films:
forgetting sarah marshall and get him to the greek.
wednesday 8 – went into office but a poor day compared with the lovely last 2 days, kind of takes away some or all of the enjoyment
thursday 9, london – flight out to heathrow and working in the office, worked quite well along with frank to build the test setup we needed
went out on bus to see john and ruth – go to leefe robinson and had nice meal
friday 10, london – stayed overnight at the holiday inn
saturday 11, skipton – had dinner with mum, then steve took me up to the wharfedale game against tynedale, which they lost but it was an entertaining match, opposition were simply better technically and hungrier
very cold watching the game but the black sheep bitter helped a bit
went out to watch “paisley rehab”, Adie’s rock group at the fleece and again back on black sheep
random ideas:
guitar riffs on whitesnakes’ “here i go again” similar to the la’s song “there she goes”
to put together some sort of graphics for the band name for posters, t-shirts
never mind the b**s, let england shake or here’s paisley rehab
sunday 12, skipton – lazy day since getting to bed too late last couple of nights so just relaxed and spent time with mum, made her a tea of tomato soup, pie and ham sandwich
we sat around listening to music, hymns which she sings along to, edelweis, rugged cross etc from favourite hymns and the aled jones CD
going through some book listings, eg, these from the trip to york in august where i was looking at the education section and elsewhere:
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sue cowley – getting the buggers to behave
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jim smith – lazy teacher’s handbook
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andy griffiths – outstanding teachers, engaging learners
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alan de bottom – religion for atheists
monday 13, london – took the east coast train from skipton to leeds, not bad for comfort – quiet, reasonable legroom, mains at seat for second class, full breakfast for first class, so i wonder if i need to revise my european rankings, from top to bottom:
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eastcoast first class – free hot meal, free wifi, big comfortable seats
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TGV first class – big comfortable seats
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ICE first class – really is not much of an improvement over second class, which are in any case also comfortable but a bit hard and functional, but good on workspace
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ICE second class
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TGV second class
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eastcoast second class – tight seats which would be comfortable for couple of hours (maybe that is where the german ones do actually win out – I’ve been on 5 hour journeys without any pain at all and easily enough leg room)
but in terms of network reach, ease of use and costs:
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deutsche bahn
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sncf
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british rail
and am struck by the thought that, if the government played its card right, eg. owning the track, licensing the operators etc, there is no reason why we couldn’t go back to the days of LNER, GWR, LMS etc, in the way that we have East Coast, Virgin Trains etc.
With Branson, i have a sneering disrespect for him, a vulture picking up assests on the cheap (northern rock, railway franchise) and then running them for profit, then we’re back to the current criticism doing the rounds that the UK is:
“privatising profit and nationalising debt” .. this will end in disaster and I’m wondering again about the nature of councils, that they actually need shrewd business people able to get a grip and start investing in, for instance, housing stock in order to get their finances in order and indeed, turn a profit on such activities, why should we expect it just go to private landlords and companies, seems we almost take it for granted nowadays?
watching bbc4 last night there was the 2nd part of a program on the decline of steam, this one focussed on the branch lines and the efforts of locals to buy track, others buying rolling stock (including an amazing lucky find of a scrap dealer in wales who hadn’t been so quick at turning the engine into scrap steel for the car industry and had 200 engines which were recovered by enthusiasts).
the conclusion is that there are 200 steam lines available with some 500 miles of track and 200 locos still running
the program focussed on the KWVR where the railway children was set of course, leaving “oakworth” as one station name, almost guaranteeing success and visitors, including a need to put in a loop for trains to pass to increase throughput
also it did highlight the role of the later Keighley MP, bob cryer, as told by his wife, Ann, also an MP afaik – Bob died in a car accident in 1994, but it was an uplifting tale of one man’s rugged determination to see something through battling against BR, recruiting volunteers, am sure this work paved the way for his later political activity, my dad knew him and held him in high regard, in fact he was the leading “socialist” of the area and my dad used such a word with the same respect and it wasn’t used then as a derogatory term as it is now, labour politicians would only have nightmares about being called one or using the word to describe their beliefs.
Going back to bob cryer, indeed it took none other than Eric Pickles to unseat him in a bitter contest, as Keighley at that time was very much a 2 way marginal, such were the richer, greener, outreaches of the town (need to check that eric pickles did unseat him – i recall all the blue and red posters around the town – to have fought and won against bob cryer was indeed a formidable achievement and in fact, pickles had also been labour at the start, so maybe knowing the inner workings would have spurred him on, i can’t imagine keighley now is any way near as close a seat, most likely a labour safe seat).
Anyway, Ann mentioned in the interview, although the quote is maybe not 100% accurate, that Bob wanted those people involved in working on the KWVR railway also to be directly involved in decision making as part of the democratic process and she said either “this was Bob’s idea of social democracy” or socialist democracy. This ties in with 2 things for me:
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generally, that railways are a social(ist) machine and the automobile is a capitalist invention (certainly thinking back to ford and the earlier public railways)
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a socially acceptable democracy is what modern democracies should be about, eg. tying in with the following quote:
“Democracy is a matter not of expediency, but of morality” – Willy Brandt
I’ve recently been drawn by how i see myself and how i also deem german politics, but in the main, irrespective of party (more or less), i could say that i am a social democrat and germany is a social democracy.
OK, there is actually a party called the social democrats, but I would even argue that even the CDU, christian democrats are committed to any social impact of policies, i recall a colleague commenting on the german system that actually regardless of which party(ies) get in, it doesn’t really affect him that much
From what katie was explaining about the german election system, after our contre-temps, it actually proved fruitful since she explained to us all at tea-time how it worked.
German system seems to bend over backwards to achieve proportionality of votes cast, ie. building a representative parliament – even to the extent of building extra seats in the parliament, since the number of MPs is dependent on the disparity of views (ie. between the chosen candidate using FPTP and the chosen party – which don’t have to be the same and of course, the beauty of this system is that it would do 2 things:
a) a crooked candidate could so easily be got rid of, without compromising one’s view
b) it allows a local representative – cited as an argument in the uk at least for keeping the status quo
all in all, the uk and particularly england suffers a democractic deficit and use of the argument that the current system is the only which retaining someone who is specifically to represent a consituency as gordon brown and the other wallahs in westminster use, it simply nonsense – they are treating the electorate as fools with their contempt for fair representation
the litmus test i’ve been using to evaluate political decisions is this:
“is this decision (or argument) serve the interests of people or the interests of profit (or cost-saving)?”
for profit, or cost-cutting reasons, it’s often basically a short-term fix with the focus on power and authority rather than acting in people’s best interests
staying at the marriot, go into sipsons in the evening and the king william pub for Greene King IPA and discuss ingo’s concerns
tuesday 14, london – after work take bus to see john and ruth, then go to sakonis vegetarian restaurant
wednesday 15, london – this evening we go in the rain to the pheasant pub round the corner for Morland Golden Hen
various tests and good quotes, including andreas’
“The light at the end of the tunnel is a fast approaching train”
thursday 16, london – after work we go to achari indian restaurant in sipon in the rain
friday 17, london then skipton – get to terminal 5 via taxi at 11.30am, has been a reasonable week
arrive back to sheila’s 80th birthday party and get invited to visit, sit with mum and her friends, then we sing for her after sandwiches, tea and lovely cupcakes with butter icing
watching a program on TV about money – martyn lewis program, with the interesting comment that:
if a flight is delayed by 3 hours or more and this is due to the airline’s fault, from 2005 can claim back, quote: EU law 261/2004 in the letter, together with full details of the booking – check flightstats website how late a previous flight was delayed.
saturday 18, skipton – shopping and getting things together for the work at number 11
got chess set and played a game against josh
went out to cross keys at east marton for excellent meals and we had our own room between bar and restaurant with a roaring fire in the bar – a great choice, excellent food and quiet atmosphere, eg. we had attempted the tempest arms but the car park was jam packed so we went to james’ original wish
mum had a smallish veg pasty
james and margaret had pan fried chicken with black pudding, which was an excellent dry version
celine had tagliatelle, josh had sausage, beans and mash with gravy and i had the fish pie
got back to mum’s flat and played another game of chess with josh, this time we drew!
sunday 19, skipton – working on bathroom on number 11, got the bath sealed in and the wood painted with one coat of gloss
stressful day getting everything done
monday 20, skipton, manchester and munich – get up early, difficulty sleeping and watch a wonderful program on channel 5 about ADHD by Louis Smith
louis smith was diagnosed at 6 with having the “condition” and he used gymnastics as his “release”, going on to win a silver medal at london 2012.
there were some interesting points brought out:
- there is of course controversy over whether it is a medical condition needing drugs or a set of symptoms, behaviours or traits which collectively are labelled “adhd”
- he goes for an analysis his brain which shows that in some areas he is typical of other adhs -classified people and others where he is perfectly normal or better than normal
- he meets one guy, josh who starts rugby to channel the aggression and provide focus
- he meets one guy who uses ritalin but is at a special school for similar children, where they have for instance, timeout rooms for anger management
- am against medication as is louis, he tried it until 11 years old then gave it up because he was like a zombie
- common threads are lack of father or strong father-figure, but a wonderfully supportive mother and family framework, typically female friends or aunts
- that 40% of young people locked-up are believed to show the symptoms of adhd
- that louis feels that “sufferers” need a release and focus which provides (gentle in my opinion) structure and discipline – such as would taking up a sport or a regular activity
- that it seems, “sufferers” are also bad at organizing and planning
- for us, that james plays a critical role but that also a gentle “no” to watching tv or computer games would also be ok from margaret
- as ideas, taking up gymnastics, rugby, fishing, a walk with his dad or playing chess or even starting to learn to swim at regular times (or even the swimming club)
Also see a link to Young Minds and their campaign in 5 areas:
journey back to munich via last minute dash to skipton station from the monday 9am conf-call, a couple of bagels at leeds station from bagelnash.com then an interesting conversation with the “portuguese” MD who’s living in york, occasionally doing work at the uni there in the medical or vet faculty with mostly european colleagues; he actually lectures on transmittable diseases like malaria (where data collection is poor that many non-malaria cases are misdiagnosed – i’d mentioned about my mum at ward 21) at a uni in portugal, commuting most weeks on the monday flight. he has multiple nationalities, including mozambique which is booming apparently (we talked about the MINTS – assuming these to be mexico, indonesia, nigeria with its concerns over corruption, turkey and south africa presumably, brought over from the previous BRICS group of countries). he makes little comment on uk health quality except for saying that his son saw 4 alleged “doctors”, presumably taking up precious time with each, let alone his own time and suffering, before a doctor had the bright idea to ask the boy to open his mouth as he wasn’t eating (the portuguese doctor knew already of course that the boy had tonsilitis, but wanted to wait until the “system” arrived at that, without his pointing it out). He reckoned that all of his 4th year med students would have been able to diagnose it straight away.
the girl who was with him mentioned about the use of granola which is a vegetable in mozambique being used to treat someone with a cancerous pancreatic tumour and it miraculously cleared up.
by amazing coincidence during disembarking from the plane, meet up with sue – ie. the mother of william in eve’s class at klenze and she kindly offers a lift home as her husband is picking her up, so I’m back for just after 5pm and eve greets with a bug hug, sabs is working at the table doing her homework, back with her “dutt” in, after a few days without it
helping sabs and katie prepare for her Referat on Naturalismus, which is very similar to realismus, describing neutrally what is going on, happened 1880-1900 when the rich were living in and amongst the poor and able to describe their situations much more clearly, there wasn’t any focus on wild romanticism since the brutality of poverty was there for them to see – we could maybe do with more of this type of approach today.
login and finish the set of work testing from last week and hit some success
tuesday 21 – working at home/office
wednesday 22 – saw an interesting quote on the u-bahn, which more or less (ie. my interpretation/gleaning of it) reads:
“the wise vest of the New Year only waits so long for you to put it on”
carrying out a survey at work for the course next week, which asks me to “focus on those interests, attitudes and values which are important to you and help guide your life”, results the following week are quite interesting
thursday 23 – went to swimming with stephan, it went quite well, stayed in the “learners’ lane” and got some good suggestions for improving my crawl style, by first taking the strength and speed and focus on:
- no windmill style with the arms and shoulders
- reach long and wide to as far as 2 o’clock as the hands enter the water
- bend elbow under water and pull water to your body
- straighten out and reach out past the thigh
- bend again as the arm comes out and over
- then straighten out to drop in at 2 o’ clock again
perhaps:
- wide and straight (entry)
- across and bend (underbelly)
- long and straight (to leg), over and bend (arm)
and most importantly: slowly and efficiently!
got some film recommendations from colleagues:
Dan – Deliverance
Andreas – J. Edgar
friday 24 – go into office and finally, despite some setbacks, get the report finished for all the work done in Bedfont Lakes last week
saturday 25 – usual falafel kebab from kebapo for lunch, cant remember anything else of interest happening
sunday 26 – taking older ones for sunday school, went ok
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