This stupidity would be funny if it wasn't so dangerous

A quote from the BBC News today:

Women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes, an Iranian cleric says.

Hojjat ol-eslam Kazem Sediqi, the acting Friday prayer leader in Tehran, said women should stick to strict codes of modesty to protect themselves.

"Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes," he explained.

Words fail me!

Chit Chat

It was Kite Day on the Common a couple of weeks ago. A bright sunny day and hundreds of kits being flown on the Common. Michael wanted to go but we said that we would go another day when there were less kites and a fighting chance of flying our kite without getting all tangled up. Sods law when we went last week there was no wind

Costandina passed her Drivers Licence Tuesday week ago and Sarah passed hers last week. That means that, along with Jo who passed hers sometime ago, all three of Sonya's bridesmaids are now legal and creating havoc on the roads.

Sam, Costandina's boyfriend, came up and stayed with us for a couple of days last week. He seemed to relax a bit more around us. Michael gets on well with him too which makes life a lot easier. I think in a strange way he likes having an older boy to look up to.In lots of subtle ways Michael was watching Sam and how he behaved and trying to mirror it. Something about copying being the sincerest form of flattery

Sonya has been looking for a new job recently having got sick and tired of the travelling. She had a job interview last week for a job that she didn't particularly want but figured it was good to get one under her belt to quell the nerves. I think she is glad that she did as she was very very nervous and probably didn't put her best foot forward. Anyway she has another interview next Thursday. This one she really wants. It is p/t (25 hrs/ wk) for almost the same money she in on now and it is only a half hour to work by train. Here's hoping.

It's been very hectic at work for me recently with a real log jam of projects needing my input. It has meant a lot of very late nights but hopefully we are now over the worst and life can settle back down again. I don't want to completely abandon all my good intentions.

It is threatening to get up to 18 by the end of the week. I am not sure what we will do in all this sunshine and heat. I feel quite faint and sweaty just at the thought of it.

They announced that they are going to start reopening the airports after a week of no flying because of the "ash" cloud. Sounds like a primeaval menace hanging darkly over the land. Truth is you can't see it at all. Perhaps the sunsets have been a touch pinker but the sky has generally still been blue and clear. Its all been a bit amazing though. Shed loads of people are stranded all round Europe with some astonishing numbers being bandied about regarding the extent of diruption. I read a figure somewhere that 17,000 flights a day were on hold across Europe. That's a whole lot of no flying.

Tesco is complaining because they can't get their flowers flown in from Kenya and the F1 teams can't get back to Britain to work on their engines. It's amazing how all the important things make the headlines eh

A man and his BBQ

I need to preface what follows by saying that Sonya's Dad is an absolute star, a real diamond geezer. We get such a lot of support from him. Twice a week he picks Michael up from school and drives him to his tennis lessons, stays and watches Michael and then drives him back to our place. Last Friday when we were expected Sonya's cousin over for a BBQ on Saturday he popped round and mowed our lawn without us even asking him to do it. I mean the guy needs to be canonised.

Anyway, as some of you may know the Greeks love their BBQ. But it is not just any old BBQ; it must be the right sort of BBQ.  It must have multiple height adjustable motorised rotisseries and it must cook over coal. Gas or electric just doesnt cut it.

Any chance they get - it's "Lets get out the BBQ". Sonya's Dad had cooked the traditional BBQ on Easter Sunday to mark the end of Lent. But since Sonya's cousin was coming over last weekend it was decried that we would have another BBQ.

Sonya's Dad, herein after known as the Father In Law or FIL for short, said he would come over to our place to cook the BBQ. "You do have coals dont you" says FIL. "Of course we do" says I.

Anyway we didn't, so on Friday night we stop of to get a bag of coals from the local service station. Only they didn't have the normal bag we get so we buy a bag of something called BBQ briquettes. I mean how different can they be.

Saturday afternoon comes round and the FIL arrives with sleeves rolled up ready to do his thing. Except he takes one look at my bag of coals and says "Why didn't you get proper coals?" Son in Law mutters under his breath "They look fine to me."

FIL proceeds to try and light the briquettes just using firelighters. "Don't you want some kindling?" says SIL. "No this how I do it"

SIL retreats back to the kitchen and pours himself a glass of wine. Leave him to it thinks SIL; don't get between a man and his BBQ (even if it is your BBQ).

20 minutes later SIL vetures outside to see how things are going. "These are crap coals you bought" says FIL. "I have used half the box of firelighters and I still can't get them too light." "Let me get some kindling." 10 minutes later the briquettes are alight and getting up to operating temperature. SIL goes back into kitchen to refill glass of wine. Resists termptation to say "I told you so."

BBQ is loaded up with skewers of meat and away we go; or so I thought. Soon enough the frown reappears across FIL's face. Wife pops out to take some more meat and comes back - "He's not happy; they're crap coals you bought."

"What now?"

"They're not hot enough!"

SIL strides purposefully out to BBQ, puts hand over coals and says confidently "Feels pretty hot to me." What would SIL know.

"They're crap coals you've bought, they don't retain their heat. It will take forever to cook all the meat!" This evidently isn't a proposition to be debated but a statement.

FIL suddenly makes his mind up and goes to get his coat. "Where are you going?" says SIL. "To get some proper coals!" SIL is sensible enough to know to say nothing at this point. The meat meanwhile continues its patient cooking.

40 minutes later FIL finally returns. "They didn't have coals at your local service station, I had to go all the way into Croydon" "No shit" thinks SIL. "Why do you think i bought the coals I did."

FIL goes on to say "I've bought my BBQ over too." "It's exactly the same as our BBQ" says SIL. "Why will your BBQ be any quicker?" "I know my BBQ" says FIL mysteriously.

SIL piles up his "crap" coals onto our BBQ to get it blazing away whilst FIL lights the coals pre soaked in petrol and also soon has his BBQ roaring away. "See these coals light perfectly" observes FIL sagely. "Well they would with that much petrol" thinks SIL.

Soon two BBQ's are happily churning out meat and fishing charred to perfection and the afternoon proceeds along in the lazy happy way of BBQ afternoons. Wife advises some time later that FIL is still stressed by how long it took to cook meat. Mind you no has gone hungry waiting for the meat as kitchen table was groaning under a dozen different dips and starters.

SIL decides its not worth debating and shows great maturity when FIL comes up to him later on and says that I must make sure to get the proper coals next time and not the crap coals I bought.

Rest of the day was fine

The love of mosaics

My friend Paul Spain posted me a series of pictures from Sachin Tendulkar's new home that included this wonderful handbasin

Which is wonderful on a number of fronts. Firstly it has mosaics and you can almost never go wrong with mosaics. It reminds me of Gaudi and his side kick Joseph Jujol who was actually responsible for the mosaics at Gaudi's famous Park Guell

Underneath the upper deck is an underground grotto with a famous undulating mosaic ceiling with these glorious mosiacs ceiling roses

Jujol was also responsible for some wonderful eccentric Catalan Art Nouveau buildings

Then there is Gaudi's famous dragon water sculpture which brings me back to the other wonderful aspects of handbasin that started this all off - the play of water in buildings

There was a bank HQ built in Amsterdam in the mid 1980's (the NMB Bank Building now ING) that had a lovely water feature incorporated into one of the handrails. This is the only photo however that I can find of it. Even though it is a rubbish photo, if you look closely you maybe able to get a bit of idea of what the handrail looked like

Despite the crap photo I think that water can be wonderful thing to play with in the design of a building

A very particular blue

Just thought I'd share some beauitiful pictures I came across on a random blog I stumbled across.

These rather beautiful pictures belong to a house in Marrakesh - the Jardin Majorelle. The fashionistas amongst you will recognise this as the home of the late Yves St Laurent. Before YSL bought the house in 1980 and restored it, it had been open to the public in the 1940's and 1950's before falling into disrepair. You can find out all about the house and garden at this website - Jardin Majorelle.

(The blog I found these pictures on by the way is called The House in Marrakesh)

It also reminds me how dependent colours are on the light in which we see them. This intensity of colour is only ever found in countries with really bright sunshine. You never see this vividness in Northern European countries. When you buy a can of Ultramarine Blue paint it never colours up the same as the picture in the coffee table art book you first saw it.

That said I still find this blue extraordinary.

The same problem of light also occurs when you try and explain how red the sand is in Central Australia. We didn't visit there on our trip this time so Sonya et al can't vouch for me but I remember being stunned by the colour when I visited Alice Springs many years ago. Until people from England have visited Africa or Australia they just don't know what you are talking about when you tell them the light is different.

Gratitude for our help

I see from the news that the water restrictions in Melbourne have been eased following the recent spate of good rains. Although the dams haven't filled up very much I gather from the Vic Water that they feel a good deal optomistic of late and things are much better than a year ago.

It seems to me therefore that a debt of gratitude is owed to us for our drought breaking efforts. As far as I can tell the drought broke when we bought the rain with us on our recent foray to the home country. You lot had been moaning about a decade of unbroken drought and all i got was intermittent rain on our Summer holiday. So either you lot were lying or we broke the drought; its one or the other!

Travelling back to Byzantium

It is Easter which is the holiest period in the Greek Orthodox calender. Much more sacred in fact than Christmas. They celebrate Easter with a week long series of Masses and Services culminating in a midnight Masses on Easter Saturday. In the lead up to Easter Saturday between there is almost continual prayer and worship going on in the church. In fact the devout (which usually means the little old Greek ladies) often stay all night at church on the Thursday night preparing the Church for the big Mass. It is quite a feat of stamina for the poor Priest.

We have just come back from the Saturday night ceremony and I was reminded of the emphasis that the Greek Orthodox church places on chanting. With my CoE upbring chanting had always seemed an archaic relic of times long past, now kept alive by French monks cashing in and producing CD's of Gregorian chants.

Not so I have discovered. Much of the chanting in Greek Orthodox churches is done by lay members of the congregation and although, it varies in musical quality, is well understood by the congregation. Often I would hear people standing beside me chanting along quietly under their breath. They clearly knew the words and understood the musical form. When performed by some of the more musical amongst the congregation it can take on a lovely musical quality despite all it's acapella limitations.

I am also reminded about the direct lineage that the Greek Orthodox church can trace back to Byzantium and eastern Europe. The ceremonies, the priests garb, the chanting are all ancient and unchanging. It is so a reminder that the Western viewpoint that I normally unconsciously view the world from is just one of many possible viewpoints. There is a rich and quite distinctive Eastern European cultural  heritage with its links to Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East.

Standing in these simply painted churches listening to the rhythmic droning one can get transported to back in time and imagine a very different world

That said I am also struck by how much the Greek comunity embrace their church and how loved and relevant it remains to their identity today. Its a wonderful mixture of old and contemporary

When the awful truth dawns

It is Easter and the end of another term for Michael. This means naturally end of terms reports. Oh dear. Michael had a wake up call this term. He, who had been cruising and felt it an imposition that others expected him to do more than the bare minimum, was suddenly confronted by a rash of poor results. Grades slipping from first term. The phrase "unsatisfactory" peppered throughout the subjects under Effort.

Last term was very good but now it has all come home to roost. He is a fortunate child who finds learning straight forward in most subjects. He is in the top group in almost every subject. As a result however he has yet to accept that learning involves effort. He cruises and doesn't like to have to work at a problem. He isnt particularly resilient and is easily disheartened. As such I imagine he is like about 90% of all other 13 yr olds

I guess we have a somewhat bumpy road ahead as we navigate the indignation and petulance that I imagine will mark his desperate last stand of childhood freedom. Such joys await us

For Michael Easter 2010 makes the date when the awful truth that school was no longer going to be easy finally dawned on him

Howling Wolf

My friends Gavin and Vicky were leaving to return back to Jersey and decided to throw a party. Gavin being an ex professional drummer, decided that he would play some live sets with the various bands he had played with over the last few years.

All well and good and not too bad they were too. He is good as were his musician friends. That is except the middle band who weren't just good - they were sensational. They were a really tight blues band with a fantastic guitarist. I mean seriously good. Awesome was Gavin's professional opinion. Anyway they started on this track and I'm thinking I know this one. And then it dawns on me as they break into the riff that drives the chorus that this is "Killing Floor" one of my favourite blues tracks.

Now "Killing Floor" has a history with me. When I first came over to Europe I spent some time in Amsterdam which has a wonderful flea market. It was there that I found some cheap  blues CD's. One of these was a CD of tracks by Howling Wolf. I just bought it on spec never having heard the name but thinking what the heck. Well I was blown away and became an instant fan - especially of the last 3 tracks which ended with his wonderful "Killing Floor" track

Here is the only studio version of Killing Floor that I could find on the Net - Killing Floor as Howling Wolf recorded the song

A better example of Howling's driving sense of rhythm is however this version of his immortal Shake for Me (one of the other 3 tracks that had intoxicated me) - Howling Wolf - Shake for me

Howling - born Chester Burnett in 1910 - was one of the major blues muscians who influenced the burgeoning R&B scene in England in the 60's. The Stones, the Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, Led Zepplin, Steve Winwood all looked up to Howling Wolf. A giant of a man at over 6'6" tall and nearly 300 pounds he had an amazing gruff voice that powered through his tracks and just oozed the blues.

Here is Howling playing on an American TV Show "Shindig". In it Brian Jones and Mick Jagger openly acknowledge their admiration of Howling. It is however perhaps best known for Brian Jones telling the MC to shut up and bring on Howling (just watch out for Howling swivelling his hips mid way through - the man can move too) - Howling playing with the Stones on Shindig


I think that's one of the reason I like the Stones so much. They paid their dues and knew their stuff. They were true music fans and understood the precedents for where they wanted to go musically. They covered Howling's Little Red Rooster in 1964 as well as a number of Robert Johnson tracks like Love in Vain
Howling was blues to his core as this great track shows from the same recording as Shake for Me above - Howling performing live

Having said that however I have to leave you with this clip from 1970 showing Howling terrorising his way through Killing Floor Howling Wolf Killing Floor Live in 1970. He da man