By chance last weekend I watched Solaris (the one with George Clooney) and Moon on different evenings. Now I'll try not to spoil it for you, but both of these are science fiction films that deal with issues caused by remoteness. In Solaris this is psychological and there is a crew on board the orbiting space station but in Moon it is supposed to be a solitary existence. Or is it?
Both are very worthy films and well worth the watch but for me Moon edges it because it deals with a very current issue that is affecting us now, but takes it to a new level. Moon is also delightfully grubby as opposed to the clean and polished world of Solaris. There is dirt on the space station in Moon, well they are trashing it for H3. And you have to imagine being a bloke on your own for three years - hoovering and cleaning might not be a priority and Gertie does not seem particularly domesticated.
Solaris wins hands down for music as it is Clint Mansell - enough said.
But if there was a desert island discs for DVD's (on the telly?) then I'd pick Moon to go alongside 2001 in my collection of discs.
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
An unlikely hero - for me at least!
I came to local government in 1979 almost the same time as Mrs Thatcher became Prime Minister. As she found her cause in what was to be a long period of Tory rule it became clear that the deep seated philosophy of public service was to be undermined and vilified. Comparisons between local government and industry would tell those of us in the former that we were inefficient, beauracratic, and costly. The private sector was focussed on the market, ruthlessly efficient and should be the model as to how local government should operate.
We took all this and started to try and imitate what we thought was the way the private sector operates.
It was about this time that Troubleshooter series fronted by the rotund and ebullient John Harvey Jones was launched by the BBC. It didn't seem like my cup of tea. John had been a stalwart of commerce and held high position in ICI.
I missed the first few episodes but once I had watched one I was hooked. Not only was John Harvey Jones's approach brilliant and incisive but it also gave a lie to the stereotypes being traded about the private sector. Yes, they too were inefficient, set in their ways, and in some cases hopelessly mis-managed. My view of the private sector became a little more balanced!
John Harvey Jones became one of my unlikely heroes.
We took all this and started to try and imitate what we thought was the way the private sector operates.
It was about this time that Troubleshooter series fronted by the rotund and ebullient John Harvey Jones was launched by the BBC. It didn't seem like my cup of tea. John had been a stalwart of commerce and held high position in ICI.
I missed the first few episodes but once I had watched one I was hooked. Not only was John Harvey Jones's approach brilliant and incisive but it also gave a lie to the stereotypes being traded about the private sector. Yes, they too were inefficient, set in their ways, and in some cases hopelessly mis-managed. My view of the private sector became a little more balanced!
John Harvey Jones became one of my unlikely heroes.
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Memory can be a disturbing landscape
Some things just feel ingrained in the memory and hard to shift even when you are faced with opposition to their validity.
One such memory is the morning after my Grandfather had died. I must have been only 6 at the time and this was my paternal grandfather - the only grand parent I ever had. He was a very serious rotund man in many ways very similar in stature to my father but without the shock of white hair as he was practically bald! He had worked on the docks in Liverpool and had bought the family home - a very middle class semi detached house.
It was custom that each morning I would take a tray of breakfast up to 'Pop'.
I remain convinced that, despite protestations from my parents, that on that morning the tray was prepared as usual and I took it up to an empty bedroom. When I came down and told my parents that 'Pop' wasn't there they said that he had gone away and wouldn't be coming back!
The reality was that he had suffered a number of heart attacks and this one proved to be fatal.
Why do I have such a strong memory of this incident that is and remains at odds with what my parents said?
One such memory is the morning after my Grandfather had died. I must have been only 6 at the time and this was my paternal grandfather - the only grand parent I ever had. He was a very serious rotund man in many ways very similar in stature to my father but without the shock of white hair as he was practically bald! He had worked on the docks in Liverpool and had bought the family home - a very middle class semi detached house.
It was custom that each morning I would take a tray of breakfast up to 'Pop'.
I remain convinced that, despite protestations from my parents, that on that morning the tray was prepared as usual and I took it up to an empty bedroom. When I came down and told my parents that 'Pop' wasn't there they said that he had gone away and wouldn't be coming back!
The reality was that he had suffered a number of heart attacks and this one proved to be fatal.
Why do I have such a strong memory of this incident that is and remains at odds with what my parents said?
Thursday, 13 May 2010
You wouldn't give it a second thought. If you were clearing the house after I've died then it would end up in a bin bag with all the other accumulated rubbish gathered over the years.
So you may wonder what exactly is it? To all intents and purposes it just looks like a rather worn handkerchief that for some reason is in my bedside drawer. On closer examination there are faint circles of colour now faded from repeated washing.
Why is it significant? It origins go back over 25 years. At that time I was managing the Bridleways Project (see last post) and I had a student called Sheena Bishop who turned out to be one of the most extraordinary people I've ever met. One day whilst we were eating our lunch I foolishly let it be known that one of the things that I had always craved, for reasons that even I don't fully understand even now, is one of those spotted handkerchiefs that are so commonly used by country folk. I had looked all over for one but had failed to find one.
Just a few weeks later Sheila turned up and presented me with a new handkerchief which was white and on which she had coloured in circles with felt tipped pen! Fantastic! Goodness knows how long it took her but it was a reflection of her generosity.
Two year ago I went to her funeral - easily one of the saddest days of my life.
Makes you think.......
So you may wonder what exactly is it? To all intents and purposes it just looks like a rather worn handkerchief that for some reason is in my bedside drawer. On closer examination there are faint circles of colour now faded from repeated washing.
Why is it significant? It origins go back over 25 years. At that time I was managing the Bridleways Project (see last post) and I had a student called Sheena Bishop who turned out to be one of the most extraordinary people I've ever met. One day whilst we were eating our lunch I foolishly let it be known that one of the things that I had always craved, for reasons that even I don't fully understand even now, is one of those spotted handkerchiefs that are so commonly used by country folk. I had looked all over for one but had failed to find one.
Just a few weeks later Sheila turned up and presented me with a new handkerchief which was white and on which she had coloured in circles with felt tipped pen! Fantastic! Goodness knows how long it took her but it was a reflection of her generosity.
Two year ago I went to her funeral - easily one of the saddest days of my life.
Makes you think.......
Friday, 2 April 2010
It was just one of those days
Some years ago I managed a project improving bridleways and byways in Hertfordshire. The area was delightfully rural and included some magnificent countryside. One of these routes was known as Back Lane, a 'roman' road that stretched between Baldock and Braughing although the County Archaeologist would state that this was a much more ancient trackway.
Thanks to a combination of neglect, neigbouring farmers draining their fields into it and the unwanted attentions of four wheel drive and off road motorcyclists it was in a terrible condition. In some sections it became necessary to surface the route. Rather than using the "industrial" solutions used elsewhere (the dreaded road arisings) we used local natural materials.
When gravel is dug out of the ground, mostly in the Lea Valley it is fed through a series of sieves and washed to produce different materials. What falls off at the end of this process is lumps of stone, mainly flints, known then as rejects. These formed a very open base layer which was free draining and if compacted enough very stable. The surface was made of "as raised" hoggin. This is the gravel as it comes straight out of the ground. It was important that there was a fairly high level of clay content so that it would bind together.
Because of the relatively remote nature of Back Lane it was necessary to move material to site in a dumper truck - the larger the better and great fun!
On this particular day during one trip it became clear that one of the tyres on the dumper was rapidly going flat. Traveling back to the Land Rover revealed that not only was the dumper tyre now completely flat but the rear tyre on the Land Rover was also flat. Well the Land Rover had a spare so no problem...
Except that during the last cleaning and tidying session the Land Rover jack had been taken out but not put back in! Our base was approximately 3 miles away and the nearest house about half a mile away. And this was well before mobile phones took away our initiative.
So it was just one of those days.
The solution?
We had the spanner to take the spare off the Land Rover. We also loosened the nuts on the flat wheel on the Land Rover. The using the leading edge of the dumper bucket under the towing hitch we were able to take the Land Rover wheel off and replace it with the spare. Two trips to ATS and one to our base got us moving again.
Thanks to a combination of neglect, neigbouring farmers draining their fields into it and the unwanted attentions of four wheel drive and off road motorcyclists it was in a terrible condition. In some sections it became necessary to surface the route. Rather than using the "industrial" solutions used elsewhere (the dreaded road arisings) we used local natural materials.
When gravel is dug out of the ground, mostly in the Lea Valley it is fed through a series of sieves and washed to produce different materials. What falls off at the end of this process is lumps of stone, mainly flints, known then as rejects. These formed a very open base layer which was free draining and if compacted enough very stable. The surface was made of "as raised" hoggin. This is the gravel as it comes straight out of the ground. It was important that there was a fairly high level of clay content so that it would bind together.
Because of the relatively remote nature of Back Lane it was necessary to move material to site in a dumper truck - the larger the better and great fun!
On this particular day during one trip it became clear that one of the tyres on the dumper was rapidly going flat. Traveling back to the Land Rover revealed that not only was the dumper tyre now completely flat but the rear tyre on the Land Rover was also flat. Well the Land Rover had a spare so no problem...
Except that during the last cleaning and tidying session the Land Rover jack had been taken out but not put back in! Our base was approximately 3 miles away and the nearest house about half a mile away. And this was well before mobile phones took away our initiative.
So it was just one of those days.
The solution?
We had the spanner to take the spare off the Land Rover. We also loosened the nuts on the flat wheel on the Land Rover. The using the leading edge of the dumper bucket under the towing hitch we were able to take the Land Rover wheel off and replace it with the spare. Two trips to ATS and one to our base got us moving again.
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
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