After the party

Sally, Kerry, Kiffen, Emily, Harriet, Victoria Park

Anniversary Aftermath

Across time and oceans
After the party, after the dance
Your sleeps are laced with tranquil dreams
Your heart beats with sympathetic rhythms
Wandering, returning, seeking, striving
Listening, looking, smelling, feeling
Being.

The readiness is all
Let be

Mary, John, Michele, Kerry, Tony, Sally, Emily, Alex, Harriet, Janet, Michael, Kiffen

The Thousandth Man by Rudyard Kipling

One man in a thousand, Solomon says.
Will stick more close than a brother.
And it's worth while seeking him half your days
If you find him before the other.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine depend
On what the world sees in you,
But the Thousandth Man will stand your friend
With the whole round world against you.

'Tis neither promise nor prayer nor show
Will settle the finding for 'ee.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine of 'em go
By your looks, or your acts, or your glory.
But if he finds you and you find him,
The rest of the world don't matter;
For the Thousandth Man will sink or swim
With you in any water.

You can use his purse with no more talk
Than he uses yours for his spendings,
And laugh and meet in your daily walk
As though there had been no lendings.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine of 'em call
For silver and gold in their dealings;
But the Thousandth Man he's worth 'em all
Because you can show him your feelings.

His wrong's your wrong, and his right's your right,
In season or out of season.
Stand up and back it in all men's sight
With that for your only reason!
Nine hundred and ninety-nine can't bide
The shame or mocking or laughter,
But the Thousandth Man will stand by your side
To the gallows-foot – and after!

Tony, Graeme, Nick, Sally, Marco, Russ, Amy, Jack, Mark, Juliet, Kiffen, Janet, Emily, Michele, Mary, Alex, Harriet, Basit

Extract from "Joy To The World" (by Hoyt Axton) as sung by Three Dog Night and featured in the film The Big Chill

Singin'
Joy to the world
All the boys and girls, now
Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea
Joy to you and me

Tony, Sally, Sue, Brian, Michael, John, Nick

Extract from "Love Train" (by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff) as sung by The O’Jays

People all over the world (everybody)
Join hands (join)
Start a love train, love train
People all over the world (all the world, now)
Join hands (love ride)
Start a love train (love ride), love train

The next stop that we make will be England
Tell all the folks in Russia, and China, too
Don't you know that it's time to get on board
And let this train keep on riding, riding on through
Well, well

People all over the world (you don't need no money)
Join hands (come on)
Start a love train, love train (don't need no ticket, come on)
People all over the world (Join in, ride this train)
Join in (Ride this train, y'all)
Start a love train (Come on, train), love train

Zaara's Restaurant in Saltaire

All of you brothers over in Africa
Tell all the folks in Egypt, and Israel, too
Please don't miss this train at the station
'Cause if you miss it, I feel sorry, sorry for you
Well

People all over the world (Sisters and brothers)
Join hands (join, come on)
Start a love train (ride this train, y'all), love train (Come on)
People all over the world (Don't need no tickets)
Join hands (come on, ride)
Start a love train, love train

Seeding, planting, watering, weeding, tending, growing....

Think well, love well, sleep well

Curry capital

Bradford has been named curry capital of the year for the fifth year in a row and the Autumn nights and approaching winter means that going for a curry is a great way of celebrating. Zaara’s remains my favourite place to have a curry in Saltaire for two very good reasons (Edited 2020 - Zaara's has sadly now closed): I can walk there; and, more importantly, the dishes we choose are always cooked to perfection. Recent research has shown that curry may be actually good for you, easing arthritis and even affording some possible protection from Alzheimer’s. What’s not to like?

The glory of Zaara's in Saltaire

Tolkien’s wisdom

Hobbits famously had two breakfasts during their morning routines and, since I’ve blogged about the joys and dangers of drink, it feels that the time is ripe for talking about the wonders and glories of tasty food. Tolkien wrote: “If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." Too true. And Virginia Woolf, a writer very different from Tolkien, concurred: "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well." 

Luxury Carriage
In an episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun Dick Solomon expressed one of my default justifications of why I enjoy eating so much: “Why should I be concerned about gaining weight? My body is just a carriage that carries my brain around. And my brain deserves a smooth luxurious ride.”  There is Shakespearean precedent too, to celebrate plump people.  In Julius Caesar, Caesar himself says:

Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights:    
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;    
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

Joys of Food and Drink

Retirement Pleasure

Eating cheaply but well, shopping carefully and trying new recipes – these are all retirement activities that are new to me. But after all these years of over-eating, I wonder whether or not I could become healthier by losing some of my luxury carriage that is surplus to requirements. I’ve been doing some research into men’s attitude to weight loss, made notes, devised a spreadsheet and bought some cheap dumbbells. (Typical man, I think, reminiscent of Mr Toad's hobbies.) I’m hopeful I won’t become a bore about it because I am a foodie through and through – but I’ll try and keep a track of my progress – or lack of it – and let you know how it goes….

Mr Toad from The Wind in the Willows who enjoys new hobbies....

What A Difference A Year Makes

Fragility of health

In January 2004 I had a mini-wake-up heart attack.  A million and more historical events prove to us that a heart-beat of time can change lives, from freak accidents to man-made evil crimes (in peace and war), to unexpected natural disasters or virulent diseases.  But, more mundanely and frequently, the wear and tear of modern life on one’s own body and mind can contribute to life-changing reassessments of priorities.  My own parents and my mother-in-law died over relatively short periods (see blog below.)  Ray my father-in-law’s long slow decline from Alzheimer’s was not an ending anyone would hope for.

Questions, questions

Should I have worked less hard during my career?  Would that have prevented my heart attack in 2004?  Should I have changed my working life more profoundly after the heart attack in order to reflect what I knew about my unhealthy working habits?  

Giving Attention  

All the above questions are of course pointless.  Pointless, I tell you.  The past is a country you cannot revisit; only the present and future can command attention.  And thus, in my newly-retired and philosophical state, I look back on the maelstrom of Christmas 2013 and thank goodness for the impending arrival of 2015.  I’m looking forward to Giving Attention to things I want to give attention to.

So Goodbye to the elements of 2014 – in an order that makes sense to me….

Kitchen transformed....

Game of Life, Dorking/Dorking Halls, Old Tiles,

Hello Dorking.... Farewell Dorking....

Polesden Lacey, Blake Ward, Elgar Ward, Retirement, Box Tree Dinner, Bistro Pierre, Farewell Raymondo, Top Withins, Zaara’s, Ghosts, Johnson Over Jordan, Wolf Hall, Bring Up The Bodies, King Lear, The Likes of Us,

Hailsham, Pevensey Castle, Battle, Sissinghurst, Monks House, Chawton, Paris, Denbie’s, Pericles, University Reunion, Goodbye Work, Recipes, Cooking, Menus, Walking, Northcliffe, Hirst Woods, Canal, Salt’s Mill, Macmillan Cancer Support, Kerry Madden-Lunsford and Norah, the Bronte Parsonage,

The Lancelot-Barr Crew and The Unicorn's Ruin at Saltaire Festival...

Lancelots, Brown-Shelton, Thompsons, Tuffnells, Hickey-Howsons, Boyhood (my film of the year), Houses, Gardens and Abbeys, Hampton Court, Kew Gardens, Wandsworth Common, Tower of London, Wicked, North-South Divide, Margaret Atwood, Owen Jones, Flaxby and RR Donnelly.

Images of New Year's Eve at Bolton Abbey

Many of the above elements will return

More Shakespeare, of course.  And blogging and starting to learn how Facebook works....  Many of the above elements will return and a welcome return they will be.  Family, friends and beautiful places – may there be many more of those memories.  But there are a few nuggets amongst the list that I hope will never return…. Here’s to 2015!

Happy New Year One And All