Sunday, May 28, 2006

Catch up

Friday 24th
1. Green and Black's Dark Chocolate bar
2. Being able to have my first drink of the year outside
3. Mangosteen in Canton Street off Carnaby Street - an excellent Pad Thai

Saturday 25th
1. I had lunch with my friends from University. The food was superb. King Prawns with chilli and shallots. And of course the wine was very fine too.
2. Having a conversation about books. It is a long time since I have had a serious conversation about books but with 5 English graduates around one table it's not surprising. for your information we were reading the following:
Foucaults Pendulum by Umberto Eco; Coalescent by Stephen Baxter; Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and waiting eagerly for the next David Mitchell.
3. A soft bed.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

SIMPLE PLEASURES part 3: sunset boulevard

13/5
Looking down on the Thames from OXO tower
Drinking a mojito at sunset
Opening Panini world cup stickers with the enfants terribles

14/5
Listening to the Archers in bed and snoozing
Seeing my nephews
Finding my old books on creative thinking

15/5
Drawing at sunset with music (esp White Stripes)
Caff lunch at the Majestic (?)
The coloured bits of the Home Office buiilding

16/5
Reading about Gandhi with N
Talking about logos with Richard Norley
Listening to Flamenco Sketches

17/5
Buying a new LP and listening to it for the first time (The Raconteurs)
Rice pudding
Buying world cup stickers for N

18/5
An outdoor beer in Lambs Conduit Street
Sherry
Traces of Dickens around London - Dombey St

19/5
Meeting Daisy Asquith and coming up with some ideas
Chatting with John Pearse about Joe Boyd
Visiting OneWord radio and talking about the best medium

20/5
Saturday morning caff breakfast in Crouch End
Saturday haircut in town routine with N
Walking down to the Phoenix for a movie (thrilller)

21/5
Wearing my John Pearse jacket
Seeing my step-sister Julia and her family over from Italy
Meeting Carol Jay, a 70 year old with spark

22/5
Hooking up with JJ Taylor and Dan Shaffer after 24 years
Sitting in the middle of Sloane Square in the drizzle
Puling off a good picture-led speech at Queen Elizabeth Conference Hall, Westminster.

23/5
Strolling through Fitzrovia
Yorkshire pudding
Reading about Big Brother in The Current Bun and related chat (with James)

24/5
Looking at the countryside out the train window
An old English country church
Being recognised by David Puttnam

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Much fine gold

With the weather so rubbish at the moment it's hard to find things to cheer me up. However here is my list from yesterday..
1. Intellectual Challenge - I went to a conference about Web 2.0 for NGOs yesterday at the RSA and it was great to spend a day out of the office just thinking and discussing with other people instead of chasing emails and missing meetings. Time spent just expanding my brain is like gold dust.
2. My necklace from Tunisia - I wore it yesterday. I had it made to my direction in the Medina in Tunis when I was there about a fortnight ago and every time I wear it it reminds me of the guys in the shop and the whole afternoon I spent there just going through the jewellery and silver, like your grandma's old costume jewellery collection.
3. A memory of my grandpa -He always asked for "much fine gold" for his birthday or Christmas. He was a miserable old bugger.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

SIMPLE PLEASURES part 3 - Music in the air

6/5/06
The array of colours of blossom in our streets
A bagpiper at EF tube
Reading comic books on my bed (not much change there then)

What this indicates:
1 Nature and her cycles 2 Live music and street surprises 3 Escape to the imaginary worlds through litereature/art

7/5/06
Snoozing in the garden
Wearing well-made (John Pearse) clothes
Shooting hoops with the enfants terribles

What this indicates:
1 Nature and rest 2 Craft 3 Playing with children

8/5/06
Life drawing in the evening
Working on Sky Orchestra with Mike S
Watching animations and talking to the makers

What this indicates:
1 art and creativity 2 creative collaboration 3 film and interacting with creatives

9/5/06
Sitting and walking by the Thames
Thinking about ideas and creative thinking
Exploring unfamiliar parts of London

What this indicates:
1 involves rivers and moving water 2 creativity 3 London and urban environments

10/5
Reading outdoors
Chatting over a picnic in the park (with Benedict Phillips)
John Martyn performing live

What this indicates:
1 reading combined with fresh air 2 artist combined with fresh air 3 MUSIC

11/5
Listening to live version of Atlantic City
Chatting to the fella from Disorder outdoors over lunch
The anticipation of watching All in the Game by Tony Grounds

What this indicates:
1 Music 2 art chat 3 cultural event

12/5
Starting a new book (Rat Pack Confidential)
Listening to Kind of Blue (the best record of all time)
Judging school students' work for the Lost Generation competition

What this indicates:
1 reading 2 music for peace 3 promise in children

Saturday, May 06, 2006

SIMPLE PLEASURES part 3

3/5/06
Sitting in the sunshine in Golden Square
A quiet moment in John Pearse's tailors shop
Chatting with Phillip Dodd

What this indicates:
1 is a combination of weather and location. 2 is a calm, artistic environment. 3 is a person with similar (artistic) passions

4/5/06
Checking out girls on the Kings Road
Eating outside in the back garden
Catching rays on a really hot Spring day

What this indicates:
1 the erotic 2 fresh air and family time 3 sunshine

5/5/06
Unexpectedly coming across the Sultan's Elephant outdoor performance
Taking mobile phone pictures and blogging them
Chairing the Outragious and Contagious Summit at the ICA

What this indicates:
1 the richness of London and pleasant surprises 2 photography and sharing pictures 3 progressive creativity and hanging with artistic types

Friday, May 05, 2006

SIMPLE PLEASURES part 3

Things that made me happy on Tuesday:-
1. Singing - one of my friends once described it as a physical incarnation of happiness...well it does the trick for me.
2. Waking up not feeling hungover and slightly tired
3. An apple

Things that made me happy on Wednesday:-
1.The beautiful weather
2. Seeing an unfeasibly blosssomed pink cherry tree (I nearly wrote cheery tree then) on the way to work - bizarrely positioned outside New Scotland Yard. But it was the tree itself and not the juxtapostition that made me happy.
3. Can't think of a third...

Things that made me happy on Thursday:-
1. Having a very peaceful prayer time
2. Sushi
3. The way that the heat transformed Streatham Hill into a small Mediterranean town complete with open windowed cafes and passagiata.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Happiness Experiment

OK, I've got it... Today I'm starting an experiment prompted by an idea I heard on the radio this morning. The sugestion (from Carol Craig, sister of Una's friend Marion) is to go to sleep at night thinking of three things that made you happy during the day. I'm going to start off doing it for a month...

2/5/06
Helping choose the Raw Cuts winners
Reading the Ladybird book of Kings with N
Listening to U2 on the way home

What this indicates:
1 combines helping people with film-making/art. 2 involves learning/teaching, resonant pictures and children. 3 is centred on music at the close of the day.