Happiness Experiment - Vienna

26/8/17

LHR to Vienna
Half-circuit boat tour Danube/Danube Canal
Banks to Donaukanal

• seeing The third Man ferris wheel whilst walking across town
• boat ride along the Danube and round the Canal, with a posse of Rhinemaidens on a hen-do
• sundown by the banks of the Donaukanal, reading Atomic Blonde and drinking spritzer & coffee

Happiness Experiment entries - Finland

Monday 27 March

Dinner overlooking sea inlet with Noora in Helsinki

Evening walk through Helsinki in the lowering sun

Watching Inferno movie on the plane to Finland, Hollywood nonsense

Tues 28

Successful three hour lecture to 150 YLE staff, punctuated with cinnamon buns

Dinner with Ritva & Raimo at the art nouveau bank building - including Riesling & fish soup

Meeting about Finland centenary TV dance event with Markkus & Ritva - burst of idea generation

Wed 29

Short Form Video workshop at YLE - starting to engage with the ideas

Lunch with Erko talking docs

Run at sunset along the waterfront (with still frozen sea) to a small island

Thurs 30

Reading Bright, Precious Days on the way home from a bright, precious day

Watching more short form with the workshop

Reuniting with U

Fri 31

Creating more ideas with Distillery

Dinner with the Enfants Terribles at Yalla Yalla

Reading the end of Bright, Precious Days

Happiness Experiment entries 27/12/16 - 3/1/17

Tues 27/12/16

1 Intimate chat with JRT (£0)

2 Country walk with U between Essendon & Newgate Street (£0)

3 Reading Tom Stoppard's Travesties in the garden with water-rock (£0)

28/12/16

1 D's pals round for his 17th (£80)

2 giving D some guitar music (£20)

3 walk to copses & Parliament Hill in the fog en famille (£0)

Thurs 29/12/16

1 Walk in Kenwood in the sunny fogginess (£0)

2 Reading Ali Smith’s ‘Autumn’ in the sunny winter garden (£0)

3 Re-broaching ‘Ulysses’ (£0)

Fri 30/12/16

1 woods walk & talk with Martin - Queens & Highgate Woods (£0)

2 finishing Reasons to Stay Alive (£4)

3 watching Humans 2.0 (£0)

 

31/12/16

1 Matthew’s friendship and compliments (£0)

2 Ian’s warmth (£0)

3 Reading by the Christmas tree (with music) (£0)

Sun 1/1/17 New Year’s Day 

1 Reading TS Eliot (Murder in the Cathedral & The Waste Land) and listening to his poetry read by Jeremy Irons on Radio 4 (Prufrock & The Waste Land) (£0)

2 Watching Agatha Christie mystery in front of fire with U & N (£0)

3 Cake with rose water made by Annie B (£0)

2/1/17

1 Supporting & being supported by PJE  (£0)

2 Visiting George Michael’s house and floral shrine  (£0)

3 Supporting JRT with Dave P - visiting him in Benedict Cumberbatch’s flat with top-floor cinema  (£0)

3/1/17

1 Reading The Affair outside in the freezing garden & by the Christmas tree

2 watching Titanic documentary

3 writing SQT proposal

I will enjoy my day

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment - farewell Barcelona

D enjoying all the people on our epic journey home - from The Inbetweeners actor to Brighton woman

Reading on the balcony overlooking Sagrada Familia, the sea and all of Barcelona in the afternoon light

Picasso-Dali Dali-Picasso exhibition at Picasso Museum, Barcelona (bumping into Siobhan Sinnerton along the way)

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry - Barcelona

Thanks yous from D

Vestiges of Barcelona Olympics 1992 around the stadium (in the aftermath of AC/DC)

Stumbling across 3 Gaudi buildings

Recent Happiness Experiment entries - Barcelona: from colours to black

Fri 29 May / Maig - Music day

Hearing Back in Black (AC/DC) drifting across the night-time city

Listening to sitar music at sunset near Arc de Triomf

A perfect lunch (with backgammon) in a hidden square dappled with sunlight accompanied by two real mccoy flamenco singers

Thurs 28

An old-school games shop where D bought Civil War playing cards and I bought a wooden mini backgammon set

Discovering atmospheric back streets of Barcelona near the cathedral

Photographing together with D and passing on tips

Wed 27

Pulling off a good talk (Docs Barcelona)

Afternoon coffee with D on a palm-lined avenue, rounding off initial explorations

Catalonian custard - Crema Catalana

Today's Happiness Experiment entry - Barcelona with D

Campari & soda on ice (on arrival at Docs Barcelona)

Being in D's dreams

Travelling with a son

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Late afternoon walk around Kenwood with Adam Z

Lunch at Amicis with NG

Playing late-nite backgammon with DG

Today's Happiness Experiment entry - Beautiful

Up on the Roof and Natural Woman in Beautiful (Carole King musical) with Ma

Reading about A Love Supreme (while listening to it) Ashley Kahn book

Signing off 3 eps of 24 Hour Party Politics

Today's Happiness Experiment entry - Woods & Zombies

Buying a gig ticket for Enfant Terrible No. 2 (Flatbush Zombies) - he's so excited, planning his trip to Brixton weeks in advance

A lunchtime chat with an Australian and an American colleague (followed by a short burst of book reading, Into The Woods)

The late afternoon sun as I worked up on the top floor of C4

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching a young England rugby team beat Wales at the Millennium Stadium, in particular Jonathan Joseph's masterful try

Reading Breaking the Code in the sunlit back garden

Watching the film BAFTAs with the Enfants Terribles (after a roast beef dinner together)

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

The text from N telling me Spurs had beaten Arsenal thanks to two goals from Harry Kane

A shower in the coloured dot shower

Breakfast with Eileen and Matthew at Joan's

Thursday's Happiness Experiment entry

Some flakes of snow outside La Rugoletta with Marco & Clemence, N & D

Kick-off meeting for Just Cos with Kell & Dan

Drinking Madeira wine with Marco

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Wander around St Pancras & Islington cemetery with Marco & Clemence in late afternoon

Enjoying the paintings and interiors at Kenwood with M&C

Laughing at the dinner table with D & family (near Saracens)

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Picking up Bowie's Berlin trilogy near Checkpoint Charlie and listening to it

Saturday night at the flicks with D

Doing a walking tour of Berlin with D including the Holocaust memorial

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Seeing bits of the Berlin Wall with D (especially a section inside a new building)

Going round a flea market (in Mauerpark)

D delighting in cafe society

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Late afternoon sun catching the top of the eucalyptus tree

Lunchtime run around St Pancras & Islington cemetery

Lavender bath

Today's Happiness Experiment - Cambridge

John Craxton's paintings (on first visit to Fitzwilliam for yonks)

Walking around the gardens of Girton

Ploughman's Lunch in The Orchard, Granchester

c1922

Yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Writing some of Littlewood chapter of When Sparks Fly

Getting back to Simple Pleasures part 4

Finishing A Long Way Down late at night

Sunday's Happiness Experiment entry

Chat & stroll in Avenue House Park with N

Last Supper with Meabh & Rob before they return to Ireland

Reading A Long Way Down in the setting sun near the canal at Maida Vale