Today was a Saturday and a sunny day, not even that cold. I put washing out and it even dried, mostly, which was nice.
Unfortunately we spent most of the afternoon in Mark's office at Nottingham Uni, doing our Australian tax returns... you can only do the online thing on a PC, and it was the only place we have any PC access these days. I pretty much hate doing things you can't do on a Mac.
There's Mark in his office....see all those books? They were piled up in our living room for about 3 months until the new office was ready. I am so glad they are now more orderly.
At about 5pm we decided to have a break and go for a walk in Wollaton Park. There was a big red sign up at the gate saying "DEER RUTTING SEASON - DEER MAY BE VERY AGGRESSIVE AND YOU SHOULD KEEP CLEAR". We steered clear as much as possible, but we did see this noble stag:
He didn't seem too threatened by us. But we tried not to look too interested in the lady deer, just in case.
Tax return is nearly done....the only annoyance is that National Australia Bank chose today (tonight? I guess?) to have their site down for maintenance, so Mark couldn't get his interest and tax figures! Which meant we'll have to go back to finish it. Grr.
Now off to watch a French film we got from LoveFilm - Tell No One, and slumber.
I feel like I haven't really had a holiday in a long time, not since the epic holiday trio (Canberra, Melbs, North NSW) of last October/November. But we did get away a little in July, cramming a lot into a short space of time, unfortunately that did mean it felt like it was over rather quickly!
Mark and I started out with a little trip down to Dorset, primarily for Sam and Georgina's wedding. We travelled down the previous day, but the journey took FOREVER due to traffic and roadworks and we arrived late. Add to that, the weather took a turn for the worst as we arrived and poured with rain all afternoon and evening.
We stayed in Stinsford, just outside Dorchester, which those in the know will know as the place where Thomas Hardy is buried (well, his heart is buried in Stinsford, his ashes are in Westminster Abbey, in Poet's Corner), and we walked over to the church to visit the grave. We were going to walk out into the wood bit with the stream so I could show Mark the scene of many a Fellows Family Picnic, but the weather was too misery so we headed back to the B+B. It's been a long while since there has been a Fellows Family Thomas Hardy Trip, I think it should be resurrected soon. Especially as the one time Mark came with us the cottage at Bockhampton was closed.
Anyway, we ended up driving into Dorchester for the evening, having pizza for tea and a few drinks in the Wetherspoons, before taking a bottle of port and some good chocolate back to the B+B and watching some TV. We had to be up early on Saturday for the wedding, before which an emergency shopping trip had to be made as I'd left part of my outfit in Bristol, error.
The wedding was at a Victorian hall in another village north of Dorchester, it was a nice place.
I won't bore you with details but it was a super fun day of friends, cider, dancing and even some sun at the right moments (i.e. photo time!)
Sam and Georgie had got this tandem bicycle that they both left on at the end of the night, they were obviously really well rehearsed on it but a lot of the rest of us were a bit wobbly! It requires a lot of teamwork.
My favourite thing was that they made (yes, hand-made!) an individual owl for EVERY SINGLE GUEST.
On Sunday, we scoffed our big veggie breakfast (any B+B that finds you Linda McCartney sausages when you tell them you are vegetarian gets a GOLD STAR in my book) and drove down into Weymouth to meet up with everyone again. Everyone was a bit lacklustre to say the least, haha, but we had a couple of drinks at the pub and Sam and Georgina came to say goodbye to everyone before they flew off back to Melbourne a couple of days later. Weymouth is nice on the sea front, the beach is really big and golden and it seems a smarter sort of place. Mark and I got in a few rounds of cricket (cricket? sort of....) on the beach with Ed, Gen, Cat and Alex, thanks to Ed's provision of the smallest cricket bat known to man.
And then it was time to drive home, Essex for Ed and Gen, Surrey for Alex and Cat and Bristol for Mark and I, ready for a good night's sleep and the next adventure....
Which involving an early start the next morning was not something I was originally overjoyed about! But I was off to London for a day of fun times. Mark wasn't joining me, preferring instead to stay in Bristol and have my mum make him cups of tea, but he did kindly drive me to the coach station nice and early.
Arriving after a couple of hours of motorway boredom, I made my way up to King's Cross and the British Library, to see their exhibition on Mervyn Peake, which was very interesting and very thorough. I learnt a good deal about Mervyn Peake I didn't know and it was great to see his early Gormenghast sketches and plans as well as those from when he illustrated Alice in Wonderland.
I then went over east to meet my old Sydney gang! Rosie, who was on my team at HCF, was visiting Europe with her bf Alex, and our other two teammates Mark and Daniella came into London so we could all have a meetup. I found them all in the Pride of Spitalfields off Brick Lane and we had a good old catch-up, before Mark and Daniella had to set off to make Daniella's flight back home to Glasgow. Rosie, Alex and I went to the Natural History Museum for the rest of the afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed the animals, especially this one:
I think the Natural History Museum is my favourite museum at the moment. It is certainly the one in London I go to the most. They also have a really great room with lifesize models of whales and sharks and dolphins and stuff, which is my favourite bit. I sound like I'm about 5 but it really is good!
Glastonbury Festival seems ages ago now...well it is I guess - two months.
I put the photos up on my Flickr a couple of weeks back. To sum up, it was an enormous amount of fun. It's such a huge thing, like nothing I've ever been to before, and there's such a good feeling there. We were really lucky that we mostly had good weather as well.
That's our tent, taken on the Friday (the wet day) - that's as muddy as the campsite got, ie not very, so that made life a lot easier! I decided I actually love sleeping in a tent. It's like a cocoon or a womb or something, all snugglesome. Although we cheated and took an inflatable bed with us for ultimate comfort (we are old now).
We got the bus from Bristol on the Thursday lunchtime, found a good camping spot, ate our picnic, drank some of our box of wine and set out to explore the site.
The festival proper didn't start til Friday, so there wasn't a great deal to be done. The ground was thick with mud from the previous day's rain so even though the sun was shining, walking wasn't too fun. Getting a bit fed up, we ambled into a fun looking bar tent that had brilliant bright pink decor, fun music and cocktails. Best move ever. The mojitos were expensive and we thought they might be a rip off, but they were amazing! Generous and tasty. We cheered up no end.
That evening, we made our way to the Park area of the site, met a cool Irish couple and hung out with them in this amazing mirrored pergola for the night.
Friday started well with Metronomy on the Pyramid stage, can't believe I hadn't heard them before, amazing band! Their album 'The English Riviera' has been on repeat on my iPod for the last 2 months. Unfortunately, as they left the stage, the weather took a turn for the worst and the rain started. We grabbed coffee and toast and headed over to the Leftfield to see some comedy from Andy Zaltzman (an old Edinburgh Fest favourite and the man that can be credited secondly only to Mark for making me interested in cricket).
The Leftfield had the benefit of being in an indoor marquee, and was run by Billy Bragg, it had a really great mix of stuff on over the weekend. Political debate, music, comedy. It was a good place and we spent a large amount of time in there even when the sun was out! Friday evening we went back to watch Billy Bragg's live set and despite the fact that I was cold and wet and a bit miserable he is such an uplifting person to hear, so true to what he believes in. That evening we were stood next to this family, a couple and a little boy maybe 8 or 9 years old, and several times they leaned down to explain to him what Billy was saying, about why it's important we pay our taxes and what trade unions do. It gave me hope that there are still people who believe in good things, haha. Also in the Leftfield we discovered some brilliant artists, like this guy Jonny Neesom who played guitar and sang these really funny, perceptive songs (we got his CD in the tent) and this incredible spoken word artist named Kate Tempest. Seriously I've never heard anything like her, she was so powerful. I need to track down of her stuff recorded.
On Friday night we went to sleep really early, haha! We were lying in the tent and where we were camped you could hear Primal Scream playing in the distance. It was lovely to drift off listening to 'Country Girl' drift over the fields.
Saturday was a MUCH nicer day. The sun came out, it was really warm and the mud started drying up fast. We used our Green Passes to try out the solar showers (SO GOOD...well ok it was like washing under a low-pressure, luke-warm hose in a shed, but still....SO GOOD!) and feeling rested, healthier and CLEANER we hung out at the tent into the afternoon and drank some wine and ate a lot of cereal bars (main food source) before it was time for music. Annoyingly the two acts I wanted to see most out of the whole festival were on at overlapping times. So we decided to go to most of Anna Calvi, then skip the end (we saw Anna Calvi a month or two earlier at the Thekla in Bristol) and run over to Patrick Wolf for a full set. Anna Calvi turned out to be so captivating that we stayed the whole thing, but at least we still caught most of Patrick Wolf. Both were amazing, complete highlights. Patrick Wolf is pretty much the most upbeat person ever to exist. This is the video to his last single, The City. It is impossibly upbeat:
Saturday night was so amazing as we went over to the 'after-hours' part of the festival, it was the most incredible thing. I sound like I'm gushing but seriously, it took your mind to a whole other world. Block9 and Shangri-La are like whole worlds built at the festival.
That's the London Underground part of Block9, you don't get the sense of scale from the photo but that is a life size block of flats, with a life-size tube train hanging out, and underneath it is a club. The attention to detail is so amazing. Then round from Block9 is Shangri-La. This area has run on an ongoing futuristic, dystopian storyline for the last couple of years; in 2011 the city is being ravaged by a virus, so the inhabitants are moving out to a new planet, and this is the last party before they leave, 'a rave to end all raves…'
It's built like a film set, I have never seen anything like it. It's a whole town, the centre of which is the slum, a series of covered alleyways leading to all sorts of places...weird shops, crazy bars...half of it boarded up as the residents flee.
The Shangri-Spa!
This shop sold that well-known complementary trio of items phones, crack and biros, before the virus forced its untimely closure.
We went into this mad strip club behind a cage door named Fish and Tits...
...no really.
There was a bizarre mirrored nook inside.
At midnight we went through to the Arcadia midnight fire show at the 'spider', which was also fantastic.
Arcadia take military scrap and use it to make spectacular shows. They had live singers, musicians, acrobats, it was pretty impressive.
Sunday was consequently a lazy day, spent hanging out at Leftfield (trying to avoid heat this time, made a change to the rain!), eating potato wedges, seeing the epic danlesac vs Scroobius Pip show, relaxing in the green fields and the healing fields eating ice cream, and late in the evening watching the only appropriate alternative to Beyonce in existence - Simon Munnery in the Cabaret tent!
He had converted the League Against Tedium/Attention Scum hat into a BUBBLE MACHINE!
In a pleasing Simon Munnery-related side-note, I was packing up my books in Bristol to move them up to Nottingham last week and I found a book that an old friend had given me as a present in 2001, over a decade ago. I was flicking through it and I found he had inserted into the back cover a little Simon Munnery interview/article clipped out of a newspaper! That made me smile a lot and think about the many years in which my life has been made happier by Simon Munnery and his brilliance.
Service has been suspended due to riots, but I think I'm back now! It seemed a bit inappropriate to write about how I done fun stuffs when the country was experiencing a moral and practical breakdown. And I felt an enormous urge to write about my thoughts on the events but it has taken me a few days to put them into order, and also pipe down my anger enough to write sensibly about it. I'm amazed how some journalists put out such insightful and reflective commentaries within hours of stuff taking place. But I guess that's why they get paid to do writing about important topics, while I don't get paid to write about what I did at the weekend...
I've been angered by the perpetrators themselves and their blatant disregard for the communities around them, a disgusting show of greed, violence and disrespect. That goes without saying. But that wasn't where my anger ended. I was astonished, over the first few days, by a complete refusal amongst much of the public to seek and discuss possible reasons for what was going on. I know full well that the rioters were on the whole not acting with any agenda, let alone one that justified their behaviour. When journalists managed to talk to youths involved, the reasons they gave were often confused, vague and showed a clear lack of understanding of political and social issues. But that does not mean there's no wider social issue to address.
This refusal to look for an explanation seemed to stem from the fact that people felt that by rationalising the behaviour, they were somehow justifying it, saying it was right. But you can rationalise and condemn, surely, just as you can rationalise and condone. In many ways, I feel the disorder we've seen across England is no more than a vastly overblown reflection of the kind of activity seen in certain areas of towns and cities every single day.
Neglection,
Kids carry guns for protection
Weapons, buy that on the street for pence
Direction
Kids lost that a long time ago
Cos all you hear is BRAP BRAP BRAP BRAP
There is a massive underlying problem at play in our society here. The riots were just the inevitable blow up, as a window of opportunity was seized by kids normally pushed to the fringes of society. We can't pretend it happened in a bubble.
The proposed solutions have so far done little to calm my nerves. Water cannons, rubber bullets, live ammunition (apparently people genuinely thought this should be used? If I ever meet one of these people, shoot me...), these are confrontational, aggravating methods of controlling disorder that long term risk reactionary blow-ups. I have renewed respect for the police for not resorting to these methods, despite the violence they were facing.
Cameron's initial statements recognised a problem and I was briefly optimistic. However, his more recent comments have been vague and I'm not sure he is showing an understanding of the bigger picture, nor the ability to engage with the right people. I was concerned by his announcement of a 'war' on gangs. We've had the war. We don't want it again. We need the peace talks now. I'm not sure such a loaded word was the right choice. And the 'marriage solves all society's problems' line needs to be dropped. Seriously. I hate the generalising absent father argument. What's the implication? That women make ineffectual parents?
Role models
They say we need some black role models
That ain't footballers, rappers actors and no models?
Father figures
They say we need some more father figures
Like you can't grow if your mothers there but your father isn't?
F*** that, I say we need to put something back
Into communities where they think the way out is shottin crack
And I think I'm most worried of all about the justice system. Yes, everyone involved needs to be punished, but this needs to be proportional, fair, and each offence must be punished individually as it would be if it had occurred outside the riot period. Politicians need to keep their noses, and policy, out of the judiciary.
Discipline is very necessary. But what about the longer term? We can lock everyone up, but last I heard, prisons were full? We can evict them from their council homes, but where will they go? Take away their rights and there will be a bigger backlash. I don't pretend to have the answers, but I think we need a wider plan, more investment in these communities. We need to work towards inclusion, education, greater communication. I believe in the goodness inherent in everyone, and we need to find a way to bring it out. I don't think that's 'liberal', I don't think that's 'hippy'. I think that's just basic, civilised humanity. That may not be what the rioters showed, but if we all abandon it, what hope for us then?
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Title lyric from 'Great Britain' by danlesac vs Scroobius Pip; lyrics in the rest of this post from 'Don't Come Around Here' by Kano. Listen to the Kano track here. It's a favourite grime track of mine and one I think is pretty pertinent in its message, particularly at the moment.
In Bristol, we have a traditional May Day celebration every year - Jack in the Green. The Green Man, Jack, is led through the city, attracting followers along the way and is led to Horfield Common, where he is killed and the spirit of summer is released.
This year it happened on the 7th of May, and, being in Bristol for Jack in the Green for the first time in a while, I decided to follow the procession. Pere also joined me.
After a quick stop in the Amnesty Bookstore on Gloucester Road, where they were having an epic sale and all books were about 10p, we joined Jack and his followers in Redland, where they were having a dance.
He was then led onwards through Redland, down to Gloucester Road, and all the way up towards Horfield, singing all the way.
Pere took the photo of me with Jack. As you may see, I have a green nose. That is Jack's magic - his followers offer some of Jack's magic to everyone we pass.
Jack was pretty wayward on the route. He tries to run into pubs, chases women and frightens children. He has to be controlled with sticks.
We turned up Ash Road and headed for the common, with quite a crowd following Jack now. There were a lot of people waiting on the common for Jack, as this is where he meets his death.
Jack tries to escape, but he is penned in for his final dance. His fate is sealed as his followers recite the Green Man verse...
Like antlers, like veins of the brain the birches Mark patterns of mind on the red winter sky; ‘I am thought of all plants, ’ says the Green Man, ‘I am thought of all plants,’ says he.
The Hungry birds harry the last berries of rowan But white is her bark in the darkness of rain; ‘I rise with the sap, ’ says the Green Man, ‘I rise with the sap,’ says he.
The ashes are clashing their boughs like sword-dancers, Their black buds are tracing wild faces in the clouds; ‘I come with the wind, ’ says the Green Man, ‘I come with the wind, ’ says he.
The Alders are rattling as though ready for battle Guarding the grove where she waits for her lover; ‘I burn with desire, ’ says the Green Man, ‘I burn with desire, ’ says he.
In and out of the yellowing wands of the willow The pollen-bright bees are plundering the catkins; ‘I am honey of love, ’ says the Green Man, ‘I am honey of love, ’ says he.
The hedges of quick are thick with May blossom As the dancers advance on the leaf-covered King: ‘It’s off with my head, ’ says the Green Man’ ‘It’s off with my head, ’ Says he.
Jack is thrown to the ground and a spear is hurled through him. The spirit of summer is finally released!
Jack is pulled apart - if you take a piece of him home you will have good luck all summer!
And so summer began. And for me has been incredibly busy. I'll hopefully get some updates up this week so my faithful readers can see what I've been up to!
Even though we've been back in England for going on four months now, I still feel like I'm living in both Australia and the UK sometimes. Especially when I try to cope with my paperwork and finances. My red folder blows my mind right now. For every UK bank account there is an Australian one. I have separate plastic wallets for my separate tax returns, bills, statements....I started doing my UK tax return and got out all my Australian group certificates. Help?
I have so much to post, but so much of it has accompanying photos and I have one big problem - my MacBook's hard drive is full. Stuffed. Clog. Oh dear. So photos must for the moment remain on my memory card, which is a shame as I have a mega awesome new camera that I currently have on generous loan (Canon EOS 30D) - THANKS PÈRE!!!! And it is full of lovely lovely photos of all the things Mark and I have been getting up to over the Easter holiday.
The weather has been amazing. Honestly, I don't even remember Sydney ever serving up such a long-lasting chunk of sun. As a result, many many daytrips have happened - to Caerphilly, Cheddar, Glastonbury, and all over Bristol. And Mark has been off on tour with his new band for a week up and down the country. I am loving England a bit right now. We had a brilliant Royal Wedding weekend, got up early to watch the whole wedding build up on the telly, loved it! It was so perfect. I want a wedding now, with visiting dignitaries and trees in Westminster Abbey. After the wedding, we caught the bus to Bedminster to hang out with Miri and Mark (other Mark) at a street party, ate lots of cake and drank cider, then ended up in Tobacco Factory with coffee and gin and tonics (not at the same time). Mark was working that evening in the Grapes so we all went up to Clifton and hung out there all night, and they screened the Sex Pistols movie the Filth and the Fury, haha. I had to work Saturday morning in the Post Office though, which was a bit painful, but still, I quite enjoy working Saturdays, it's a different kind of mood to the week. Monday we had a really long walk in Leigh Woods with Lep and Pere which was relaxing.
You may have seen the great BRISTOL VERSUS TESCO struggle in the news, which is where the first picture in this post is taken from. I don't really know what is going on at the minute, but there has been one full blown riot and another protest turned nasty. The area concerned, Stokes Croft, is close to my house, and is somewhere I have been spending a lot of time since I came back to Bristol. There has been an enormous campaign against the planned Tesco opening down there going on for ages, but they just didn't listen. They opened the store almost in secret overnight, one day it was boarded up shopfront, the next day open for business, which came as quite a shock to all, and a vocal group of protesters set up in front of it, chatting to people and giving out free cake (tasty) for the first few days.
A longstanding squat, Telepathic Heights, stands opposite the new store and it was a reportedly heavy handed police raid on this building that triggered the original night of trouble. We were driving home from pub tea and there were police EVERYWHERE, but it wasn't until next day we realised what went on. Tesco's shopfront was smashed and has since been closed and boarded over, someone has scrawled a very beautiful poem across it in black paint. There was a lot of criticism of the way police dealt with the situation, and this was the root of the second protest last Thursday. I believe Tesco is planning to re-open, but I'm not sure why. I am not sure Stokes Croft is the place for it now, as a business, it does not quite embody what many people see as the ethos of the area. Granted, if you sit in the window of Cafe Kino or on the terrace at Canteen for a couple of hours with a flat white or a cider, you will see what my mother would call 'a slice of life'. Yes there are still the drug addicts and street drinkers that inevitably remain in any inner city area of this type, but Stokes Croft is not a 'disgrace to Bristol' as I have recently seen it described. Look closer and you will see a thriving creative and bohemian centre, the world of the co-operative and anti-capitalism, and Tesco goes directly against these values.
There is of course an argument that a small, well-run supermarket would be a good addition to the area, as I believe some residents feel that this is something currently lacking. Certainly it may be a welcome business for many people who will now be able to get affordable fresh food without having to travel further afield. However, Tesco has never sat well with Bristolians and the surrounding south west - agressive expansion over the past decade or so and a seeming refusal to really listen to local people has left a sour taste. Their controversial and stealthy opening on Stokes Croft and refusal to engage with the local community is clearly not going to help their local reputation, and it is sad to see Tesco persevering with this behaviour despite the disruption already caused.
I am Anna. I am 30. In 2008 I moved from the UK to Sydney, Australia. After almost 3 years enjoying good coffee, good wine, good sushi and a whole lot of sun, I moved back again. This is a blog about my life. Get comfortable.
