Screening Room

Düsseldorf, November 2017

I spent the weekend in London with dad, while mum and Lola II went off to see an interesting museum that involved an overnight stay. One of the jobs I was planning was to surprise Lola II by finishing the dress that is so long overdue. Despite having brought the sewing machine and even doing a quick sewing job for mum before she left, when I sat down to get started on Lola II's dress the machine refused to behave and kept dropping stitches and being generally uncooperative. So I had to pack that in, and instead I spent far too long going through all the films showing at the San Sebastian Film Festival where I shall be in less than two weeks - and there are A LOT OF FILMS. I thought I'd watch a nice movie on Saturday night so I brought my two rented DVDs with me. Unfortunately, I had changed my rental settings back when the old TV died, and the DVDs I'd brought were actually Blu-Ray discs and wouldn't play. On Sunday Sister D visited for lunch, Lola II and mum returned with cake for me, I drove home and that was the end of the weekend.

Ilf has been at Lola Towers on and off for a week or two, working on the Screening Room / Entertainment Room / Auditorium (I haven't decided on the final name). He has taken up the parquet floor in preparation for carpeting, painted the walls, ceiling and woodwork, fixed the blinds and put up curtain tracks. I have bought blackout curtains, and made two cushions - I didn't like the idea of a curtain or blind for the round window, but the recess is quite deep so I had the idea of putting a cushion each side to block out the light when necessary. I bought some cheap cushion fillers on Amazon but they weren't dense or large enough, so I cut up my very old sleeping bag and made some very decent cushions. I am very pleased with the outcome.

Round window from the outside

My large screen woes continue - the company agreed to refund the cost of the unavailable television, but shortly afterwards sent me a message saying that they were in dispute with the company that manages credit card payments and refunds on their behalf. They directed me to instigate 'chargeback' procedures with my credit card company, which I did, and the money was returned successfully.

Meanwhile, I have been keeping an eye on prices at Currys, and it has been most interesting. Currys often advertises 'save £100's' on specific items, and shows the previous history of the price for that item. It is clear that they set a high price for a period of time in order to be able to quote this historical price when they reduce the item to make it into a bargain. When I first looked, the particular television I'd now quite like to get was £200 more than the original one I bought. The price then went up a further £300, and has now dropped by £350. But my £20 secondhand TV is doing just fine for the time being.

Volunteering

Leamington Food and Drink Festival, September 2018

Sometimes I seriously wonder whether my choice of activities is driven by the need to provide stories for this blog. But I'm pretty sure I would keep trying new things anyway, blog or no blog.

Today the big story is the Leamington Food and Drink Festival, which is an annual highlight for me. Long ago it featured the 'Taste Trail' which allowed you to go to selected food retailers around town for a taste of what they offered. Now it stays exclusively within the Pump Room Gardens, which this year is undergoing remodelling including the renewal of paths and the refurbishment of the bandstand. This meant there was less room for stalls, so there were about 20 fewer exhibitors this year.

A couple of weeks before the event I started seeing adverts encouraging people to volunteer. Usually I invite people to visit me when the festival is on, but this year Lola II and Mr M decided to go camping instead and I hadn't invited anyone else, so I didn't have any reason not to volunteer. The event is run by BID Leamington, an organisation promoting the interests of Leamington businesses through the formation of a Business Improvement District in 2008. I arrived at the Information Tent ready to serve in whatever capacity was required.

Thankfully I wasn't allocated to litter picking or toilet cleaning. A new initiative this year was set up to encourage public transport and relieve pressure on town parking: people who had come by train could present their ticket and receive a free soft drink, beer or wine in return. I had to record it all in a book, and hand out soft drink cans and vouchers for beer or wine which had to be exchanged at one of the outlets in the field. It went quite well - obviously a trainload of people tended to arrive at the same time, but the queues weren't too long. Sunday was much quieter for the train ticket exchange because there were fewer trains running, but the event as a whole seemed busier on Sunday.

The BID Leamington staff and volunteers were friendly and welcoming, and I had some quite interesting discussions with the Director about various local businesses (including the shop which has just been fined £10,000 for making illegal health claims about their raw juices), and the reasons behind the turnover of businesses in a couple of town locations. The two afternoons I spent with the team were positive volunteering experiences, and I'd be happy to join them again next year if they will have me.

What I've been reading

All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque

narrated by Tom Lawrence

"The story is told by a young German soldier in the trenches of Flanders during the First World War. Through his eyes we see all the realities of war: under fire, on patrol, waiting in the trenches, at home on leave, and in hospitals and dressing stations."

I am ashamed. I am ashamed many times over. That I had not appreciated that this common phrase originated in this astonishing work, that I waited so late in my life to read it, that it is fiction but told so powerfully that every word rings true. And more prosaic yet more shaming - that I paid so little attention at the start that I did not realise until about a third of the way through that the young soldiers I was accompanying on their horrific journey were German. The narration is by a young voice and worked so well, and the audio format allowed them the liberty of playing the Last Post at the end. I was in tears.

The Mulberry Empire
by Philip Hensher

"The courtship, betrayal and invasion of Afghanistan in the 1830s by the emissaries of Her Majesty's Empire, followed by the expulsion of Brits from Kabul following an Afghani revolt."

A account of historical events disguised as a novel, this was rather indigestible. I could tell the author was trying quite hard to tell a story rather than laying out the facts, but it was too dry for my taste. It also seeded a number of parallel stories that didn't converge, making the ending unsatisfactory. I think my most common criticism of all these books I avidly start reading is that they so often end poorly.

Babbitt
by Sinclair Lewis

narrated by Grover Gardner

"On the surface, everything is all right with Babbitt's world of the solid, successful businessman. But in reality, George F. Babbitt is a lonely, middle-aged man. He doesn't understand his family, has an unsuccessful attempt at an affair, and puts his real estate business in jeopardy when he dares to voice sympathy for some striking workers."

Another author I'd never heard of from my list of 'Classics', this book is set in 1922 during the Prohibition era, which is probably the most interesting thing about it. But the ending is quite good.

The Language of the Genes
by Steve Jones

"A tale of curious mutations, molecular clocks, and genetic bottlenecks; it illustrates biological principles with memorable examples from everyday life."

I've a strong suspicion that I've read this before, because I have a bias against Steve Jones that I can't put down to any recent experience. This book starts well with genes and inheritance as expected, but makes a detour into anthropology that I find excessively tedious. I don't know why I'm not interested in the spread of language or population across the world, but there it is, and there was quite a lot to get through. It's also an edition of an old-ish book from 1993 that's had one revision in 2000, so not very up-to-date in this most fast-moving field of biology. On balance, though, I'm going to keep it on the basis of the first half of the book.

The Examined Life: how we lose and find ourselves
by Stephen Grosz

"Simple stories of encounter between a psychoanalyst and his patients, stories about our everyday lives: they are about the people we love and the lies that we tell; the changes we bear, and the grief."

A quick read - just a day during the festival weekend, but very interesting short summaries of cases of psychoanalysis. Maybe a bit too short - problem, solution, end of chapter. It would have been interesting to get a bit more depth, feel a bit more connected to the problems being outlined.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
by Gail Honeyman

narrated by Cathleen McCarron

"Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends contain frozen pizza, vodka, and weekly chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and unhygienic IT guy from her office."

An excellent book, beautifully read, and very recently written too. All the things that I have been finding so irritating are completely avoided in this book - just the right pace, all the content was relevant, it finished well and gave me plenty to think about in between chapters. Maybe I can tolerate modern books after all - they just have to be the right ones.