Boys and Men in Black - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Watching N being chased and tackled by Saracens hooker Schalk Britts - and still making the try line

England rugby captain Steve Borthwick's generosity with a bunch of enthusiastic kids doing a training evening at Saracens

Watching French-like Israeli film Broken Wings

Starspot #221

Sam Taylor Wood, Aaron Johnson and black dog (Primrose Hill today)

Punk spirit

Punk was an idea. I try to make ideas happen. It was an idea that could change lives.

Malcolm McLaren (Edwards) RIP

Recent Happiness Experiment entries from the Old Country

Fri 2 April - Jerusalem

Visiting the Kotel with N and D (memories of my father)

Catching glimpses of the Easter action in the Old City around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

An evening walk passing the abandoned old Jerusalem railway station (near the German Colony) - redolent of a heroic age

Sat 3 - Jerusalem to Bet Chananya

A blazing afternoon in the zoo - especially taken with the tamarins and other monkeys

Visiting Oskar Schindler's grave on my own, first visitor of the day to the Catholic Cemetery

Spotting the remains of a War of Independence convoy on the Jerusalem road at sunset (and a sign to the Burma Road) - memories of my dad (1976)

Sun 4 - Jaffa

Meeting Sandgold & Dafna in Jaffa - my first web-initiated real-life encounter

Touring the street art of Jaffa, above all the Rehov Auerbach derelict house

Jogging along the aqueduct in Bet Chananya - spotting parrots and poppies

Mon 5 - Caesarea & Petach Tikva

Paddling with D at the sea palace in Caesarea

Meeting my cousins Asaf and Guy for the first time, my older cousins Jaffa and Moshe after 15 years, and Ronen, Itzik and families after 34 years (my first trip to the Old Country with my dad)

Playing chariots with D in the hippodrome at Caesarea

Tues 6 - Or Akeva & Akko

A boat ride at dusk to give a view of Acre's walled old city across a dark wine coloured sea

Meeting up with Harold H, an old friend of Ma's, by chance 4 km down the road in Or Akiva

Lunch under the trees at the hummous stall in Bet Chananya, including lemon and mint drink

Wed 7 - Tel Aviv

Reading under a palm tree in a quiet court of the beautifully architected Ben Gurion airport

Playing basketball one-on-one with D in Bet Chananya

A display of Independence Day posters on the big slope at Ben Gurion

Recent Happiness Experiment entries from the Old Country

Tues 30 March - Bet Chananya to Negev (via Mishpa? Ramon to moshav Faran)

Lunch in the Ramon Crater beside rocks coloured with iron, culminating in desert tea

Off-road driving in Ohad's Range Rover

Bedouin tea in an open-sided tent at sundown

Wed 31 - Negev desert (Faran to M. Ramon) - Jerusalem

Spotting gazelles sweeping majestically along the dry river bed

Driving Li'am's desert buggy with U by my side

The perfect blue sky above a white desert canyon - colour of the flag

Thurs 1 - Jerusalem

Walking a section of Via Dolorosa

One of the waitresses (straight out of Delacroix -or is it Ingres?) in the restaurant over-looking the Old City at the Cinematheque

Reading Saul Belllow's To Jerusalem and Back

Quotable

"Frank Sinatra is the kind of singer who comes along once in a lifetime. Why did it have to be my lifetime?" Bing Crosby

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Bet Hananya to Tel Aviv

Long jog along the stream followed by a dog

Reading Ministry of Fear on a grassy bank in the sunshine

Seder on a roof top beside Ben Gurion's house

The Old Country - Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Saturday 27th: London to Rome to Tel Aviv

A plate of cheeses and meats in Rome - my first fleeting visit to Rome

Drawing cartoon characters with D - inspired by Pocket Gods(?) game

Sharing tunes with N

Sunday 28th: Tel Aviv to Bet Hananya; Zichron Jakov

Jogging with D along a Roman aqueduct

Eating felafel, salad and hummous in the shade of some trees beside the moshav

Sleeping, reading and playing in the sunshine on the football field accompanied by exotic birds

Quotables

"We're here for a good time, not a long time"

Damien Hirst to David Dimbleby on 'Seven Ages of Britain'

"Trust me, I'm telling you stories."
(Jeanette Winterson) via Jane Doe on Moblog

Today's Happiness Experiment entry

Leonardo diCaprio's performance in Lasse Hallstrom's "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" - shared with N

An extended jog round the cemetery - discovering new paths (listening to an old Simon Mayo book review)

Sorting out my CV with a focus on the Arts

Revolution - today's Happiness Experiment entry

Another encounter with Feargal Sharkey - this time at the House of Lords to support Derry's bid for UK City of Culture

Speaking gig on TV and Social Media chaired by Lisa Campbell, Editor of Broadcast

Reading 'Revolution' (by David Quantick) on the recording of the White Album

Starspot #113

Neil Kinnock on the day another Labour leader passed away, Michael Foot (who wrote the intro to the Gulliver's Travels I read at school) - Great College Street

First Light - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

Chat with Nicholas Hoult at the First Light Awards - he seems to get taller and thinner at every encounter

Chat with Jason Isaacs on his return from a Green Zone tour with Paul Greengrass

An evening of soccer festivities with the Enfants Terribles courtesy of their compatriots Ireland and the ever partying Brazilians - Ireland lead by Robbie Keane did themselves proud, there wasn't that much between the teams

Starspot #112

Nodded to Feargal Sharkey as I passed listening to Dear Prudence - 1968 meets 1978

On Money & Simple Pleasures

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 honor; 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, writer (1851-1924)

Creative Accounting #106

Paul Nash = De Chirico + Constable

Sudden Thought

It's not Where, not even What, but Who - or rather with Whom - that really matters

Art school - yesterday's Happiness Experiment entry

The street on which Chongqing Institute of Fine Art sits - bustling with life

My name in Chinese lights - posters for speech today at the art institute

Being interviewed by Chinese press including a women's mag (What brand clothes do you wear?)

Sudden thought

(In the air from Beijing to Chongqing - a while after reading Brave New World)

A whole race of people with only black hair - weird?

Best Crossword Clues of the World #23

H I J K L M N O (5)

= water