Mr Ross Noble

A while ago my better half and I went to see the Newcastle-born comic Ross Noble appearing live in the Hippodrome, right here in dear old Bristol. It was, as expected, a fantastic night out. Noble is a very surreal, flow of consciousness type of comedian and at times it's dazzling to follow the comedic mental leaps that he is prepared to take in his performance.

He never fails to connect with his audience, has a very dry wit and a bizarre English outlook on life. Any subject seems suitable for him to weave a hilarious web of mirth around and it is always done with style and aplomb.

The Geordie accent is, in my view, a joy to listen to and his engaging manner is refreshing and ultimately uplifting. I will be sure to catch him again when he next appears in town. I understand he married an Australian lady and now spends much of his time in Oz, touring around the country. I have no doubt that the Aussies will appreciate his strange wild humour stylings.

Anyway, here is a brief clip for those of you who ain't never heard of good old Ross Noble. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UyHa1mkB6Q&mode=related&search=

Kent quake

A moderate earthquake ocurred in Kent here in the UK today. BBC News story at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6602677.stm

Apparently it registered about 4.3 and there was some damage to buildings and powerlines. A year or two ago a similar tremor took place in Birmingham (or was it Manchester?) and then also there was some damage to houses and buildings.

You don't really get anything like the terrible quakes that seem to happen semi-regularly in countries like Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey, and perhaps because tremors are rare in these parts it seems a bit freakish. On the news they compared it with Los Angeles where tremors like the one in Kent this morning happen daily. I don't think I would like to live somewhere that fluid. I like to nurse the illusion of thinking the ground beneath my feet is more or less solid or at least substantial to some degree.

I saw a picture of a little old lady being led from her house by some member of the services. It must have been quite a shock to the poor old dear. Let's hope her house isn't too damaged.

Clarkson rides high

Funny article by Mr Clarkson in the comments section of The Times today:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/jeremy_clarkson/article1682382.ece

All about Britain's fading but lingering sense of itself as a world power and how it might be a good idea if Brits start to become a bit more realistic. Obviously, Clarkson makes his point with some scathing references to foreign places rumoured to be happier than these sceptred isles. But then you would expect him to do no less than that.

Politics and such

How often don’t I hear people grumble about politicians, whether on a national or local level. The accepted perception seems to be that they are all useless, more or less corrupt or morally bankrupt. I myself have been known to wax a tad cynical when it comes to matters of a political nature and it is easy to see how councillors, MPs and ministers are mistrusted as people mistrust estate agents and second-hand car salesmen.

I do believe that politics is the art of deception and manipulation and it has not helped that in this country the current government have elevated the skills of spin and media influence to an art form.

And yet, why are we surprised? We don’t consider politicians to be in any way ‘better’ than we are. So where does this expectancy that they should be morally superior and upstanding in every sense originate?

Perhaps deep down we long for the days when a dominant hierarchy told us exactly where we should be on life’s ladder. People are startled to find out that our elected leaders and parliamentarians are actually as flawed and as human as we are.

Humanum est errare as well as Homo homini lupus. In-between these two we need to try to get on with the cards we’ve been dealt. Not to worry!

Avebury standing stone

Standing stone at Avebury in Wiltshire, England. I was there at the Easter weekend and once again enjoyed the special atmosphere of the stone circle.

It's a remarkable place and I've posted a few blogs about it on a few blogging forums so I shall refrain from repeating myself here. Suffice to say that I find it more inspirational than Stonehenge. I always love the hour's drive down to Avebury, passing some other peculiar stone age features of the Wiltshire countyside.

It was a spectacularly fine day so the photos came out rather well. Hope the old gods didn't mind me flashing my digital camera about the place..

The Big Country

(Rock in the Kata Tjuta range/Olgas, near Uluru/Ayers Rock in Central Australia)






Read an interesting article in the Times about a race between car and train across the vastness of Australia. The article is at http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/features/article1590764.ece

I've always been rather impressed with the sheer size of Australia. Having grown up in Holland, a miniscule, densely populated country in North-West Europe, where travelling more than two hours in the car in an easterly or southerly direction will transport you into another country, the enormous size of Australia is daunting. You have only to look at the map or a globe to see just how big a country it is. My parents who lived in Australia for sixteen years told me stories of farmsteads that were bigger than some Dutch provinces. My mind used to wander upon hearing these stories. Another one was about the road from Adelaide north to Darwin via Alice Springs that used to be straight as a line on a piece of paper, travelling through hundreds and hundreds of miles of seemingly empty terrain. And how they had to artificially install a number of bends and twists in the road. Not because these were necessary but because too many accidents occured on the road when drivers fell asleep behind the wheel on this endless dead-straight road.

When I was in Australia for the first time again two years ago we flew from Melbourne to Alice Springs to visit Uluru. After leaving Melbourne, an ocean of red-coloured suburban rooftops, I saw the land beneath me open up and becoming ever more sparse. There were fewer and fewer signs of human activity that I could make out and in every direction the vastness stretched silently.

I saw how great furrows in the desert rockbed ran off into the horizon. It made a big impression on me to be surrounded by such imposing country. It dawned on me that Australia is about the land itself rather than anything else. The land that is so ancient you cannot help but pick up on some very intriguing vibes. I noticed this particularly in the old forests in Tasmania and also in the area around Uluru and Kata Tjuta in the Red Centre.

It is a most puzzling and challenging experience to be confronted by the land's deep silent soul. It was as if the soil was saying to me: "So, this is me. Who are you?"

Landing back home in the UK, arriving at Heathrow I was at once immersed in people, and noise, and traffic, work et cetera. Yet the memory of that big old place on the other side of the world lingers and seems to become more vivid with the passing of time.

Jobs and so on

To my own surprise I find myself still gainfully employed as a library assistant with one of the UK’s foremost universities. It is a daily returning pleasure to see today’s young bright stars playing hard at being students. It is in many ways a rewarding set of surroundings in which to make a living, even if my specific job at times proves slightly less than stimulating.

Recently, I applied for a job with the main library’s special collections department. If accepted this would have meant spending one day a week working in that fascinating department, dealing with interesting queries from researchers and scholars from around the world, and handling priceless materials and rare books and archives.

As it turned out I never got to the stage of being interviewed and the administrative person in charge of taking care of applicants for the job never acknowledged receipt of my application. Moreover, she only notified me of the fact that I would not be invited for interview once the process of interviewing hopefuls was well and truly in full swing. No top marks for communicating skills. Oh well..a library drone on a modest grade is what I’m destined to be for a while longer.

It’s funny. I never imagined ending up working in a library, it is merely what I stumbled upon a long time ago. And it is not a bad way to make a living; just not a very exciting one. The thing I need to remind myself of is that to make a success of being a writer you first need to write a successful book. Perhaps I will go and do that right now..