On Education

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.

Plutarch

Sexperience embed test

Neologisms

Polypill - cocktail of 5 non-patent drugs to counter heart disease (30/31.3.09 reporting of article in medical journal)

Virtual reality financial products - the labyrinthine 'products' that brought about the Credit Crunch (31.3.09 Rowan Williams on BBC Radio 4)

Thought for the day - the nature of creative work

They are happy men whose natures sort with their vocations.

Francis Bacon (essayist, philosopher, and statesman 1561-1626)

More compelling than Mark Twain's rather glib:
"The secret of success is to make your vocation your vacation."

Sinead O'Connor at the Pigalle Club, London, 30.iii.09

Theology acoustic



Days without end

If I had a Vineyard

Dust and ashes

I have the universe inside of me

The Emperor's New Clothes *

Black boys on mopeds *

Bunch of junky lies **

Nothing Compares 2U

Stretched across your grave

Thank you for hearing me
++++

Paddy's Lament

The glory of Jah (Sinead's favourite of her songs)

Rivers of Babylon



Keyboards (Kieran K), Guitar (Steve P)



Roddy, Adie Dunbar

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Jogging in the rain

Making love in the afternoon

Making a video for Wordia

Creative Accounting #33

The Good German = The Third Man + Casablanca + Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

Creative Accounting #32

Bon Iver = Fleet Foxes + Elliott Smith + 0.25 Antony & the Johnsons

Old school joke

[To be spoken aloud with Irish accents]

An Irishman pitches up at a building site in Dublin looking for work. The foreman says "First you'll have to prove you know your stuff. Do you know what the difference is between a joist and a girder?"
"Sure, that's easy," says the builder, "Joyce wrote Finnegan's Wake and Goethe wrote Faust."

Starspots #45

Tony Robinson, Christopher Biggins (Channel 4 11.3.09)
David Steele (Whitehall 18.3.09)

Ship shape & Bristol fashion - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Glimpses of Bath including at sunset

Chairing an enjoyable speaking gig at Crossing the Void (Watershed, Bristol) - a multiplatform case study of Sexperience - with Andy Bell of Mint Digital, Iain Dodgeon of STV and Kirsty Stephenson of Cheetah TV

Watching Ireland-Scotland match with my technicallly Irish son on Paddy's Day

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching Ireland play rugby, especially Rob Kearney

Playing tennis with N at Waterlow Park - first game of the year - beautiful crisp sunshine

Reading 1602 which I got from Alfie Dennen yesterday

yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

drinking Badoit from a wine glass

having a run before work

Digital Britain discussion at NESTA with Charlie Leadbeater, Mark Earls, JP Rangaswami et al

Rules of the Movies 3

Butlers are always as evil as the people they work for

(by N age 12 - inspired by Terry Thomas in How to Murder Your Wife)

Track of the Day

Don't You Go - John Martyn (from Glorious Fool) - heart-achingly beautiful

Belfast bound - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Local Friday lunch at Rugoletta

Vestiges of George Best around Belfast - like on Theo McLaughlin's mantlepiece

Running easily (around the St Pancras cemetery course)

Sudden Thoughts

Isn't it wrong that only one company makes Monopoly?

If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?

What happens if you're in a spaceship going at the speed of light and you turn on the headlights?

Could a million Shakespeares write like a monkey?

Jokes wot I like

A sausage walks into a bar and asks the barmaid for a double entendre so she gives him one.

Creative Accounting #31 - The Counterfeiters

Salomon 'Sally' Sorowitsch = Oskar Schindler (complexity, dark & light) + Col. Nicholson (River Kwai - becomes blinded by the task)

Track of the Day

Cold Water - Lisa Hannigan & Damien Rice

Cold, cold water surrounds me now
And all I've got is your hand

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking the Seven Sisters from Crowlink to Birling Gap with the Enfants Terribles - Crowlink hamlet

Jogging East of Brighton Marina listening to In Our Time on the Consolation of Philosophy

Reading about John Martyn whilst listening to Van in the wee small hours in Mariners Quay

Moving - Friday's Happiness Experiment entry

Offloading piles of paper

A desk with light and a view

Pub meeting in Rosebery Avenue about Secret Millionaire

On the road to Brighton - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Laughing with the Enfants Terribles at Pink Panther 2 (Cineworld Brighton Marina)

Comparing Shakeaway flavours

The late afternoon sunshine over the sea at Brighton - the town covered by a lid of cloud whose edge was in the east towards the marina - the sun spilled golden over that edge and into the sea

The Consolation of Philosophy

Confronted by the absurd meaninglessness of the world, the individual has to impose his own meaning on the world and establish the value of his life through Creativity.

Art (and in particular Music) is a form of Creativity. As is Love.

Philosophy revolves around the relationship between reason and the irrational, head and heart, order and chaos, meaning and meaninglessness.

Consolation is to be found by pulling back from the time-bound process of our lives to a more God-like eternal perspective out of time.

Love is Stronger than Death

[First reading at Bronagh Murphy's funeral]

1. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

2. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

3. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

...

13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13

[Bronagh Murphy's funeral homily by Fr. Brendan McManus - 4 Feb 2009]

If you have been inspired by Bronagh's life - think about what it was that inspired you and how you could make this part of your own life. They say the best way to remember someone is to make your own a trait that you admired in them. Let’s take a moment to reflect on what that would be and take Bronagh into our hearts forever...

Care (of people) and Compassion.

Bronagh & John Remixed

Way over yonder is a place that I know
Where I can see shelter from hunger and cold
And the sweet-tastin' good life is so easily found
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound

I know when I get there, the first thing I'll see
Is the sun shining golden, shining right down on me
Then trouble's gonna lose me, worry leave me behind
And I'll stand up proudly in a true peace of mind

Nothing compares, nothing compares to you

And if you gave me all the things I'd never ask of you
And if you showed me all the ways you have to cry
And if you laid all night in the rain for me
I couldn't love you more
I just couldn't love you more
Just couldn't love you more

The cracks in the ground grin up at me
Even the creases in my shoes smile up at me
Thought it would end in tragedy
But I'm swimming around in your glory
O baby
O maybe
I'm the lost and found

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily,
Joyfully, playfully watching me.
But then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible,
Logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.

There are times when all the world's asleep,
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am.

Some people are crazy
Some people are just plain good
Some people talk wouldness and couldness
Some people don't do as they should.

But this loving kind of business
Might make your poor heart glad
Yes this loving kind of business
Might be the best thing that you ever had
The best find you ever had.

Moon River, wider than a mile,
I'm crossing you in style some day.

I could have been a whistle, could have been a flute
A real live giver, could have been a boot.
I could have been a signpost, could have been a clock
As simple as a kettle, steady as a rock.
I could be even here
I would be, I should be so near
I could have been
One of these things first
I could have been
One of these things first.

Has anyone here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
You know, he freed a lot of people
But it seems the good die young.
I just looked around and he was gone.

I am the gas in a womb of light, the evening star,
The ball of sight that leads, that sheds the tears of Christ
Dying and drying as I rise tonight.
Isabella, we are rising.
Isabella, we are rising . . .

As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise

When the day is done
Down to earth then sinks the sun
Along with everything that was lost and won
When the day is done.

{silence}

Way over yonder is a place I have seen
It's a garden of wisdom from some long ago dream

Maybe tomorrow I'll find my way
To the land where the honey runs in rivers each day
And the sweet-tastin' good life is so easily found
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound...

Ruby

You lay as on a beach

Spindley legs entwined

Nails bloody red



Waxy flesh, draping brittle bones

Like a golden yellow stole



Courtesy, not of a Floridian tan,

But a boulder of cancer

Blocking the duct



Visions of you in your days of yore

A lusty Jewish broad

Vocals etched with

Sediment of Scotch and tobacco



And as you gasped your last

I begged my God to make it fast

Bereft of drugs to ease your pain

I thought of French's sweet refrain



As your daughter wrestled with traffic

On the Finchley Road

I climbed in bed and held you tight



And from crazy Celt to dying Jew

I did the only thing I knew

Sang

"Are you right there, Ruby, are you right?"





by Bronagh Murphy, my late lamented sister-in-law

Wind & Water

"Laughter and tears are meant to turn the wheels of the same machinery of sensibility; one is wind-power, and the other water-power."

Oliver Wendell Holmes - writer & physician (1809-1894)

Track of the Day

Theme from Schindler's List

At the end of the week of Holocaust memorial (Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated on 27th January 1945)

While reading 'I Am David' to help N with homework

Filled with sadness about Bronagh

Thinking of Bronagh - Way over yonder

Way over yonder is a place that I know
Where I can see shelter from hunger and cold
And the sweet-tastin' good life is so easily found
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound

I know when I get there, the first thing I'll see
Is the sun shining golden, shining right down on me
Then trouble's gonna lose me, worry leave me behind
And I'll stand up proudly in a true peace of mind

Way over yonder is a place I have seen
It's a garden of wisdom from some long ago dream

Maybe tomorrow I'll find my way
To the land where the honey runs in rivers each day
And the sweet-tastin' good life is so easily found
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound
Way over yonder, that's where I'm bound...

It was written for Bronagh, every word

Track of the Day - Solid Air

John Martyn - Solid Air



He's going home - over the hill...



The last thing I saw him play live was the whole Solid Air LP at the Albert Hall



We shared a birthday - RIP

Creation

The artist brings something into the world that didn't exist before, and he does it without destroying something else.

John Updike, writer (1932- yesterday 2009)

Channeling energies - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Elvis Costello's voice on New Amsterdam

Starting big work on Landshare with Six to Start, Mint and Keo

Channel 4 winning Channel of the Year at the Broadcast Awards

Starspot #56

Gok (Channel 4 reception yesterday)

Howard Jacobson, writer (Channel 4 21.i.09)

Jeremy Isaacs, first Chief Exec of Channel 4 (C4 21.i.09) - we spoke about Public Service Broadcasting

Feargal Sharkey of The Undertones (East Finchley tube, 13.i.09) - we chatted about music and the impact of digital

Track Of The Day - Inauguration

Abraham, Martin and John - Marvin Gaye

They paved the way for TODAY

Track Of The Day

Left Bank Two by the Lance Gambit Trio - in memory of Tony Hart

Creative Accounting #45

Fleet Foxes = Crosby Stills Nash & Young + Beach Boys + The Band

Teenage Kicks - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Chatting to Feargal Sharkey on the tube in to town

Listening to vinyl in the back room (Weekend, Miles, James Moody, Santana, etc.)

Brainstorming for URM8

Best of 2008

[Work in progress]



Film:
1 The Visitor
2 Frost/Nixon
3 In Bruges
4 Il y a longtemps que je t'aime/I've Loved You So Long
5 Hunger
6 Wall-E


Actor:
Michael Fassbinder (Hunger)


Actress:
Kristen Scott Thomas (I've Loved You So Long)


Supporting Actor:
Heath Ledger (Dark Knight)


Supporting Actress:
Anne-Marie Duff (Garage)


Director:
Steve McQueen (Hunger)


Script:
Martin McDonagh - In Bruges


Animation:
Wall-E


TV:
Osama bin Everywhere (Channel 4)


LP:
(Asa - Asa)
(Givin' It Up - George Benson & Al Jarreau)


Single:
Beggin' - Madcon (Asa - Jailer, Portishead - The Rip)

Gig:
Schlomo & various guests [Jarvis Cocker, Cleveland Watkiss et al] (Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank)

Book:
(The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon)

Art exhibition:
Francis Bacon (Tate Britain)

Play:
Brendan at the Chelsea (Lyric)

Sports event:
Saracens vs Newcastle Falcons
(Snatches of the Olympic action glimpsed in and around Bayonne)

Website:
http://www.foundmagazine.com

Late Christmas Cracker

Q: What's the first sign of madness?
A: Suggs coming up the driveway

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Seeing August: Osage County at the National Theatre performed by Steppenwolf Company from Chicago with Janey Walker - and bumping into my cousin Jonathan, Carl, my cousin's cousin Chloe, Luke formerly of Channel 4's drama dept. and Sarah friend of Manou (all the world's a small stage)

Walking home through fog coloured with diffused sodium light

Listening to Soul Music about So What (Radio 4)

Creative Accounting #421

The Corrections + The Cocktail Party/Family Reunion(?) + Tennessee Williams + Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf = August: Osage County

Track of the Day

So What - Miles Davis - from Kind of Blue (1959) as featured on Soul Music (BBC Radio 4)

Image courtesy of Miles Constable: "I attempted to capture the swirl and tones of Miles Davis's Kind of Blue"

True Value

For money you can have everything it is said. No, that is not true. You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun, but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; grey hair, but not honour; quiet days, but not peace. The shell of all things you can get for money. But not the kernel. That cannot be had for money.

Arne Garborg, Norwegian writer (1851-1924)

Track of the Day

Three Little Birds - Bob Marley



Don't worry about a thing
cause every little thing gonna be all right
Singin don't worry about a thing
cause every little thing gonna be all right

Rise up this mornin
Smiled with the risin sun
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true
Sayin: this is my message to you-ou-ou

New Year's Happiness Experiment entry

Wed 31 Dec 2008:

A pint of the black stuff with Matteo in PJ's, Carlingford - plus a chat with Ian Fox, same spot an hour before

People giving the (Irish) finger from their passing cars

A chat with Pierre McDonagh in his kitchen in Greenore

Thu 1 Jan 2009:

Making a fire with D - in Bernadette's house (kept it going all day)

Watching war movies with N (looking after him while sick)

Reading Watchmen while listening to Kind of Blue in bed

Today:

Jogging along the mountain for the last time this trip - to the white forest gate past the steps by the stream

Lunch with my nieces Meabh and Orla, with a fleeting appearance from Eileen and Mateo - at McKevitt's

Taking leave of Bronagh - she read from Seamus Heaney's Clearances (the one about peeling potatoes)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Guinnesses and hot port with Dan, Eoin, Colum and Angie over at McKevitt's - the walks there & back through nighttime Carlingford

Taking the Enfants Terribles, Joe and Mikey to the cinema (Madagscar 2) in Newry

Talking literature with Bronagh on the bunk bed (after a run around Slieve Foy)

Track of the Day - 25 Dec 08

Way Over Yonder - Carole King - from Tapestry

For Bronagh - listening in the bedroom at Bernadette's with Bronagh, Una and Elizabeth - tears flowing...

Creative Accounting #601

Adem = Coldplay + Damien Rice

TrackOfTheDay

Statuing by Adem from Homesongs (good after a shower when the house is empty & you're contemplating food at Dan's Stonewall Caff)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading Richard Price's Samiritan - reminded he is one of my favourite writers, writes great dialogue, loves story telling

Watching old sitcoms with Bronagh and the Enfants Terribles

Walking around Dundalk with U - Modern Fashions, the stationery/art shop opposite the Court House, etc.

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Saturday 27th Dec:

Watching D laughing at Vicar of Dibley and Only Fools and Horses

Family walk along Shelling Hill strand in late afternoon sunshine

Hanging with the young cousins (Conor McG, Conor McK, Orla, Meabh, Sean)


Sunday 28th Dec:

Giving D his Stylaphone

Running along the harbour, Carlingford

Watching D and Bronagh together in the sitting room at Ceol na Mara

Best of 2008

[Work in progress]



Film:

The Visitor



Actor:

Michael Fassbinder (Hunger)



Actress:

Tbc



Supporting Actor:

Heath Ledger (Dark Knight)



Supporting Actress:

Marie-Anne Duff (Garage)



Director:

Steve McQueen (Hunger)



Script:

Martin McDonagh - In Bruges



Animation:

Wall-e



LP:

Tbc



Single:

Asa - Jailer



Gig:

Schlomo & various guests (Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank)



Book:

Tbc



Art exhibition:

Francis Bacon (Tate Britain)



Play:

Tbc



Sports event:

Saracens vs Newcastle Falcons

TrackOfTheDay

Look Up - Zero 7 (reading Watchmen - memories of running along the dunes in Rush, Co. Dublin)

Christmas Eve Happiness Experiment entry

Jogging around the foot of the mountain in Carlingford in bright winter sunshine



A spontaneous gathering at Dan's caff in the afternoon with Bronagh making an appearance with her friends Theresa and Peter



(Getting some fresh blood on my ipod thanks to Connor McKevitt and having a music tidy-up session just before) Christmas eve wrapping time, always a quiet contemplative time

Science and Religion

"Science is a good system for understanding materials and material things, but there are plenty of things in life that don't fall into that category. Poetry, music, art, the love I have for my grandchild. Even if I could, I wouldn't want to weigh and measure that, or my relationship with my friends, or with the sunset.



But equally I do want the ideas I formulate about God to be consistent with my knowledge of Science. So I've never needed to believe in impossible things."



Prof. Pauline Rudd, biologist, UCD (Dublin)

Pantheism

What separates me from most so-called atheists is a feeling of utter humility toward the unattainable secrets of the harmony of the cosmos

Einstein

Christmas Cracker #3

I just bought the wife a bag for Christmas.
(Hoover's working a treat now.)

Starspots #55

Alexa Chung
Victor Lewis Smith
124 Horseferry Road - last week

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Jogging around the foot of Slieve Foy in a rare burst of sunshine (listening to The Word podcast)

Talking painting with Bronagh and N

Listening to Blood on the Tracks loud alone in Bernadette's place

Newry - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Reading Alan Moore's Watchmen by the fire

Playing Monopoly with the Enfants Terribles on an old Irish set I bought for 10 euros in the junk shop in Carlingford - dates from the Free State (1921-1937), in great nick

Caff lunch with U in downtown Newry

TrackOfTheDay

You're a Big Girl - Bob Dylan

"Love is so simple
To quote a phrase"

TrackOfTheDay

Lola - the Kinks (alumni of the school down our road [Fortismere, back then Muswell Hill something school], as was The Faces' Rod Stewart) heard in caff in Newry

Christmas Cracker #2

Q. What do you get if you cross a centipede with a parrot? A. A walkie-talkie

Christmas Cracker #1

Q. Why did the scientist fit a knocker to his door?

A. Because he wanted to win the No Bell Prize

Gusto - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching D deliver his nativity play line with great gusto (coached by his mum?)

Watching the Maccabbean fighters in Defiance with the Enfants Terribles

Sorting cashflow for D's new phase

Track of the Day

When Poets Dreamed of Angels - David Sylvian from Secrets of the Beehive

Oz wizardry - Thursday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching preview of Australia at 20th Century Fox in Soho Square with U

A haircut which is good from the moment you walk out (by Chris at Concrete)

The boy in 'Australia' (Brandon something) - a wonderful presence

The missing ingredient

Q.

"What can be added to the happiness of a man who is in health, out of debt, and has a clear conscience?"

Adam Smith, economist (1723-1790)

A. Love

Living in Fear

"A life lived in fear is a life half lived." from Baz Luhrman's Strictly Ballroom - the line is now carried on the logo of his production company - spotted last night at the start of Australia

Thought of School - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

D's excitement at the prospect of his new school - using a saw was a highlight of his trial days there

Talking London history with D as we walked along the Albert Embankment

Moderating animations on 4mations

close to home - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

low winter afternoon sun - illuminating purposeful stroll around our high street with N, including coffee from Amici

buying sports gear with N - tracksuit, etc. with style advice from a 12 year old

watching Mama Mia en famille round the fire

Track of the Day

Moonriver performed by Morrissey

Track of the Day (yesterday)

Moonriver performed by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's

Henry Mancini said of Audrey H: "'Moon River' was written for her. No one else had ever understood it so completely. There have been more than a thousand versions of 'Moon River', but hers is unquestionably the greatest".

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Breakfast overlooking a canal corner with Mirjam Winkelman, friends now for 25 years

A wander around the canals

Beetroot soup

A'dam - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Very happy memories of my trip to Amsterdam this summer (the only really hot days) with the Enfants Terribles - the spirits of the Enfants Terribles roam far & wide across this beautiful city

View down onto the sea and Dutch coast from a little propellor plane out of City Airport in the Docklands

Italian dinner with Adam Dorrell

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Fresh snow on my face

Reading The Spectator - echoes of the much mourned The Listener

Doing maths with D

Creative Accounting #214

Hunger + Garage + In Bruges / Irish = Filmfour + WAITING

Track of the Day

Leaving Me Behind - Nick Drake (a rarity not on the studio albums)

Reminds me of this photo I just bought a print of - Nick Drake moving at a different pace from the day-to-day world, not quite of it - which in turn reminds me of my friend Steve who was also not cut out for this world - greetings Steve (and while I'm at it Ian Harris whose birthday has just passed) - miss you both...

The world humes on at its breakneck pace
People fly in their life-long race
For them there's a future to find
But I think they're leaving me behind.

The chances they come, but the chances have been lost
Success can be gained, but at too great a cost
For some there's a future to find
But I think they're leaving me behind.

Uncanny, you wonder whether he had this picture (by Keith Morris from Five Leaves Left) in mind.

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Life drawing at the Angel with Andy DCruz



Heinz tomato soup when the weather's cold



A jog in the cold winter sunshine - round St Pancras & Islington cemetery

Star Spot #54

13.XI.08
Melvyn Bragg (Broadcasting House reception)
Tony Blackburn (Broadcasting House reception)
Ian Hislop (Portland Place)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Walking through Fitzrovia - on the way to Broadcasting House

Meeting Tony Blackburn and talking about pirate radio/Radio Caroline

Thinking about Mitch Mitchell GIP

Spark - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

The annual bonfire party on the allotments

Picking up Eddie Wagland, our old neighbour from Carleton Road, and bringing him to chat with Maurice from the allotments

Hanging with N on a Saturday afternoon - desultory shopping, hot drinks, a bookshop browse

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

N's awesome interception and run for the line against Teddington at the Met Police rugby ground, East Molesey

Late lunch at Blooms with N - chicken soup to counter the cold and combat illness

Watching docs about the making of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

Creative Accounting #213

Ron Perlman / Israel = Al Pacino / Italy

Dublin day - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Kilmainham Gaol in the late afternoon autumn sun

Speaking on the subject of the future of documentary at Screen Training Ireland event at Odessa, Dame Court, Dublin

The goose-down pillow at No. 31, Leeson Close, Dublin

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Cooley peninsula under a bright, bright blue sky

Jogging around autumnal St Stephen's Green, Dublin

Kilwerra Cemetery in the crisp sunshine

Donegal bound - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Driving through the rolling hills of Armagh at sunset

Hearing of Spurs long-awaited victory while pulled up at Aughnacloy

Gig at the Bridge Bar, Ramelton - punctuated by the old faces - Anita, Don, Tricia (sister of Gerry Gallagher), Noel (singer in the band), Kenny, Brid, Marcel - 16 years of coming to Ramelton, music at The Bridge, the magic of North Donegal

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

The smell of peat fires through the Streets of Carlingford

A family gathering marking our arrival up at Bernadette's with Bronagh at its centre

A rainy walk with the Enfants Terribles in search of an old telescope

Autumn vibe - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Morning jog round St Pancras & Islington cemetery with glimpses of blue behind the clouds

Lunch at Rugoletta with the Little One (strachiatella, tonno e fagioli)

Checking the Embarrassing Teenage Bodies site

Creative Accounting #886

Bobby McFerrin + Kate Bush = Camille
(who played a cracker at the Roundhouse last night)

The Orange

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave —
They got quarters and I had a half.

And that orange it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.

The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all my jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I’m glad I exist.


The Orange by Wendy Cope

Party boyz - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Hearing an amazing sermon by a charismatic and warm religious leader (Jonathan W)

Seeing some second cousins and other relatives for the first time in many years at Clive + Jeanie's

Late night Brick Lane bagels with the Enfants Terribles

Cannes Do - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

A good performance on stage at Mipcom with Bebo, MySpace, YouTube and Orange - was proud of the progressiveness of our work at C4

A beautiful thigh on the beach at Cannes - observed from an afternoon table de vin with Matt and Mark

Sea spray (Med) on my face - as I worked on the beach (hoorah for mobile working)

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Hooking up with the Marble Media boys from Toronto and the Aardman crew from 4mations on board the Decode boat in Cannes - remarkably high quality karaoke singing for entertainment

Walking along the promenade at night

Thinking about social spaces in preparation for my talk at Mipcom with Bebo MD the lovely Kate Burns

BarbiCan Do - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Listening to Steven Johnson and Danah Boyd at the Handheld Learning conference at The Brewery, Barbican

Lunch at Knipferl in Long Lane, Barbican - Austrian sausages, sauerkraut and apple cake washed down with Neil Young

A bit of design work with Mark Limb and Stephen Hardingham

Storytelling

"If you can tell a good story, it's the best chance you have of affecting people".

Writer/Director Thomas McCarthy on his film 'The Visitor' which puts a human face on the issues of immigration and detention, encouraging compassion and the questioning of the status quo.

Living life

"It is a small part of life we really live. Indeed, all the rest is not life but merely time."



From 'On the shortness of life' by Seneca (49 ad), cited in the epilogue of Engleby by Sebastian Faulks

High spirits - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

The high spirits of the Enfants Terribles after rugby in the rain - Chingford 7: Finchley 19

Making a compilation based on Beggin' (Frankie Valli redone by Madcon)

Chilled out Sunday lunch - catching up after a long while with old friends Sean and Siobhan

Thought for the Day

"One should count each day a separate life."

Lucius Annaeus Seneca - philosopher (3 BC - 65 AD)