This week, Jack and Emma's school was one of five in Dubai chosen (through a slightly corrupt voting system which clearly didn't prevent over-excited mothers voting several times) to host the presenters of the local radio station's (Dubai 92) breakfast show. The two British presenters, known in that irritating way that only makes sense to regular listeners and will just seem tragic to anyone else, as 'Catboy and Geordiebird' (CBGB for short - sigh...) presented their show on Wednesday from the school entrance foyer. They're 'irreverent' don't you know.
The kids seemed excited for a short while, and I guess it was something different, but it was all a bit of a let down to be honest. I was expecting large outside broadcast trucks, yards of cables, teams of producers. But we got the two presenters and one aide, who looked like she could have been one of the primary school teachers, each of them armed with a laptop, a couple of microphones, loads of free 'Dubai 92' branded t-shirts, and that was about it. And of course, being Dubai, it was trying to be something bigger and better than it actually was. Imagine the ego and sarcasm of Chris Moyles, filtered through several levels of political correctness, and about as cutting edge as the contents of a christmas cracker.
Meanwhile, and as if to emphasise the point, I recently discovered the excellent 'TuneIn Radio' app for my iphone, which is probably more exciting due to the fact that we don't live in the UK. It can pick up just about any radio station in the world and so, perhaps a little boringly, I've been glued to BBC Radio 2 this week, for no particular reason that to hear some genuine entertainment. Well, compared with Dubai radio at least. It's all relative!
I could happily listen to Radio 2 all day. From Chris Evans, to Jeremy Vine (via Ken Bruce - admittedly the weaker link of the day), then Steve Wright and Simon Mayo. Most of whom I listened to 15-20 or so years ago on Radio 1. So there's an element of nostalgia to it I know, but it also (on occasions when my office mate is out) makes the days at work pass much faster, and more enjoyably.
Just a little piece of home that, when compared with its Dubai equivalent, reminds me of how great the UK can still be...
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Saturday, August 06, 2011
Well I'll be Rama-damned
It's that time of year again. When all the world is fasting (or so it seems). Ramadan began on 1 August this year (the Arabic calendar being only 354 days long, means that it moves earlier each year by 11 days) and so all food and drink outlets in Dubai are closed during daylight hours and no alcohol is served anywhere for the entire month.
Or at least that's how it was the first year we were here (2003 - was it really that long ago?). Ramadan was in the comparatively pleasantly temperatured month of November then.
Fast forward 8 years and things have changed a little. Or a lot, depending on your perspective. There is, for example, an ever increasing number of Brits it seems who choose to take advantage of the cheap packages that are being offered in the UK to come and stay in the Atlantis hotel during the month of August, no doubt because of the sweltering temperatures making it otherwise the quiet season, but also with Ramadan falling across August this year, one assumes that without concessions the City would otherwise be like a ghost town as far as tourism is concerned. There are, I'm sure, the obligatory few tourists who arrived having had no appreciation in advance about either the heat or the fasting at this time of year, but I can't help but notice that it really isn't as bad as it used to be.
For one, hotels simply seem to erect shades, or curtains, to cordon off those restaurants that they are keeping open. Even at the Atlantis, it is business as usual it seems.
You can go the gym during Ramadan and all water coolers are still being used freely (but then what chance of finding a fasting Muslim wanting to go and exert himself in the middle of the day knowing he is forbidden from drinking water). And on the way home, feeling good about one's exercise, you can even stop by Subway or McDonald's to collect a take-away. No eating-in of course, but actually in this example the take-away-and-eat-it-at-your-home-slightly-cold option is not a wise one either.
But in the evenings, the bars and restaurants are seemingly unaffected, and the beer and wine flows freely.
So whilst I may be here all alone whilst Michele and the kids enjoy the British summertime, it's not the need to be respectful in public and avoid eating and drinking in front of those that are fasting that actually bothers me. It's just the lack of friends in town at the moment to go out with. Oh well - time to catch up on those box sets. I can recommend "Mad Men" by the way.
Roll on September!
Or at least that's how it was the first year we were here (2003 - was it really that long ago?). Ramadan was in the comparatively pleasantly temperatured month of November then.
Fast forward 8 years and things have changed a little. Or a lot, depending on your perspective. There is, for example, an ever increasing number of Brits it seems who choose to take advantage of the cheap packages that are being offered in the UK to come and stay in the Atlantis hotel during the month of August, no doubt because of the sweltering temperatures making it otherwise the quiet season, but also with Ramadan falling across August this year, one assumes that without concessions the City would otherwise be like a ghost town as far as tourism is concerned. There are, I'm sure, the obligatory few tourists who arrived having had no appreciation in advance about either the heat or the fasting at this time of year, but I can't help but notice that it really isn't as bad as it used to be.
For one, hotels simply seem to erect shades, or curtains, to cordon off those restaurants that they are keeping open. Even at the Atlantis, it is business as usual it seems.
You can go the gym during Ramadan and all water coolers are still being used freely (but then what chance of finding a fasting Muslim wanting to go and exert himself in the middle of the day knowing he is forbidden from drinking water). And on the way home, feeling good about one's exercise, you can even stop by Subway or McDonald's to collect a take-away. No eating-in of course, but actually in this example the take-away-and-eat-it-at-your-home-slightly-cold option is not a wise one either.
But in the evenings, the bars and restaurants are seemingly unaffected, and the beer and wine flows freely.
So whilst I may be here all alone whilst Michele and the kids enjoy the British summertime, it's not the need to be respectful in public and avoid eating and drinking in front of those that are fasting that actually bothers me. It's just the lack of friends in town at the moment to go out with. Oh well - time to catch up on those box sets. I can recommend "Mad Men" by the way.
Roll on September!
Saturday, April 02, 2011
Time Out
I left Reed Smith last week, and have been fortunate enough to be able to afford to take a month's leave before starting my new job at DLA Piper (or, more specifically, here).
There was a time, a few weeks ago, when I could (and nearly did) punch out a blogpost about all the reasons why I was leaving Reed Smith. But in the space of merely a week, I've realised that this would probably now serve no useful purpose than as some belated catharsis to make me feel better. But after a year of moaning to probably just about everyone I know about how and why my job wasn't really going anywhere, better now I feel to simply move on. Life's too important to worry about what has been and gone. I'm turning a new corner and want to look forward.
But in the interim, 31 glorious days off is proving to be quite eventful. Michele and I have made a 'To Do List'. Not as extensive as the 'To Do List' I read about (and raved about here). But, nonetheless, what started at 15 items has now rapidly grown to around 50. All those crappy admin jobs that those living the 9 to 5 would have to stir up the enthusiasm to spend their evenings doing, if only they had the enthusiasm, are currently filling our days. And we're feeling quite good about it. And cracking through the list too!
But at the same time of course, I'm also getting to spend more time with the family. Which will be the one major thing I will miss when I eventually go back to work, but also the reason why I will do so feeling all refreshed and raring to go. Especially when (if I do say so myself) 3 of them are this cute!:
There was a time, a few weeks ago, when I could (and nearly did) punch out a blogpost about all the reasons why I was leaving Reed Smith. But in the space of merely a week, I've realised that this would probably now serve no useful purpose than as some belated catharsis to make me feel better. But after a year of moaning to probably just about everyone I know about how and why my job wasn't really going anywhere, better now I feel to simply move on. Life's too important to worry about what has been and gone. I'm turning a new corner and want to look forward.
But in the interim, 31 glorious days off is proving to be quite eventful. Michele and I have made a 'To Do List'. Not as extensive as the 'To Do List' I read about (and raved about here). But, nonetheless, what started at 15 items has now rapidly grown to around 50. All those crappy admin jobs that those living the 9 to 5 would have to stir up the enthusiasm to spend their evenings doing, if only they had the enthusiasm, are currently filling our days. And we're feeling quite good about it. And cracking through the list too!
But at the same time of course, I'm also getting to spend more time with the family. Which will be the one major thing I will miss when I eventually go back to work, but also the reason why I will do so feeling all refreshed and raring to go. Especially when (if I do say so myself) 3 of them are this cute!:
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Back with another one of those Block Rockin' Beats
OK - quick blog this one, and one that will mean little to anyone who didn't share the same music tastes as me about 10 years ago.
Randomly shuffling through the 8,000+ tracks it holds, on the way to dropping Jack and Emma to school this morning my ipod found "Block Rockin' Beats" by The Chemical Brothers. A track that is best played loud, and in some sort of nightclub.
[Do you know I even had to pause then, at my great age of 35, to consider whether the word "nightclub" is still a word used in common parlance among the youth of today - unlike, say, the word "parlance".]
Now I haven't heard this song (is it actually a "song"? It has more drums (or is it, er, breakbeats?) than lyrics) for a while. But it did take me back to my DJ mixing days (yes, you remember!) when myself and Mr Smith (who, by the way, seems not to blog any more.....) would amuse ourselves, but probably nobody else, collecting vinyl and generally getting very excited about the new tracks by Underworld, Orbital, Daft Punk and other bands that our parents would never have heard of.
[And is "bands" the correct noun there? Weren't they all really just faceless DJs themselves, who preferred computers and sound-boards to instruments, and certainly never sang? Nightclubs / songs / drums / bands - I am mildly panicked now by my inability to talk about music without being all self-conscious of the words I'm using. Is that what middle-aged parenthood means?]
Anyway - I digress. This morning, as "Block Rockin' Beats" ended, Emma turned to Jack and enquired of him whether he "liked that song". He replied with an unambiguous "No".
But Emma, with a look of smug self-satisfaction that clearly was unperturbed by Jack's response, turned to look back out of the car window and announced firmly, but to no-one in particular: "Well, I did".
Oh, I was so proud.
Randomly shuffling through the 8,000+ tracks it holds, on the way to dropping Jack and Emma to school this morning my ipod found "Block Rockin' Beats" by The Chemical Brothers. A track that is best played loud, and in some sort of nightclub.
[Do you know I even had to pause then, at my great age of 35, to consider whether the word "nightclub" is still a word used in common parlance among the youth of today - unlike, say, the word "parlance".]
Now I haven't heard this song (is it actually a "song"? It has more drums (or is it, er, breakbeats?) than lyrics) for a while. But it did take me back to my DJ mixing days (yes, you remember!) when myself and Mr Smith (who, by the way, seems not to blog any more.....) would amuse ourselves, but probably nobody else, collecting vinyl and generally getting very excited about the new tracks by Underworld, Orbital, Daft Punk and other bands that our parents would never have heard of.
[And is "bands" the correct noun there? Weren't they all really just faceless DJs themselves, who preferred computers and sound-boards to instruments, and certainly never sang? Nightclubs / songs / drums / bands - I am mildly panicked now by my inability to talk about music without being all self-conscious of the words I'm using. Is that what middle-aged parenthood means?]
Anyway - I digress. This morning, as "Block Rockin' Beats" ended, Emma turned to Jack and enquired of him whether he "liked that song". He replied with an unambiguous "No".
But Emma, with a look of smug self-satisfaction that clearly was unperturbed by Jack's response, turned to look back out of the car window and announced firmly, but to no-one in particular: "Well, I did".
Oh, I was so proud.
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
The Oscars: Going for Gold (or What links Leonardo DiCaprio to Irish broadcaster Henry Kelly)
Being a film bore buff, I look forward to getting up to watch the Oscars each year. Such is my enthusiasm for this, the biggest annual luvvie group hug and mutual backslapping celebration of film, that when the show has finished and I arrive at work (usually a little late) to find people already hard at work or in meetings, I actually feel a bit disappointed for them at having clearly missed at least the big awards, if not the whole thing. Don't they care who got Best Film? Surely everyone likes going to the movies and, in so doing, has a view about what films in the year they liked and what films they didn't. The purpose of watching the Oscars (for that vast majority who have no personal connection to anyone up for an award) is to derive reassuring comfort, however shallow it may be, from the knowledge that the films you most enjoyed watching in the previous 12 months were, to those regarded as being "in the know" (ie. the film industry), similarly recognised for their quality.
The King's Speech was a good film. And it's great that the British sweeped the board on most of the main awards (best film, director, actor and supporting actor, original screenplay, etc). It won 4 awards. But whilst it is difficult to say which was "best" since the two are so completely different films, my personal favourite film of last year was Inception, which won 4 awards also. However, its awards were largely technical - no less important to why the film was, in my opinion, excellent, but since the recipients of those awards are not stars that anyone has really heard of, it will be the King's Speech that is regarded more highly.
Since I haven't seen all 10 films that were nominated, I don't feel entitled to say whether or not it should have won, but nonetheless I would have liked to see Inception get Best Film, as well as Best Director (the latter for which it now seems customary to regard as a travesty that it was not even nominated) and, in particular, Best Score because the soundtrack, which is on constant repeat on my ipod at present, is really good. Try this as a taster - it starts quiet, but turn it up loud and let it grow.
The score to Inception was written by Hans Zimmer, who also wrote the scores for The Pacific, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Gladiator, Crimson Tide, Pearl Harbour, Black Hawk Down, The Last Samurai and parts of Pirates of the Caribbean. All big movies, but bizarrely, perhaps his shining moment was in also being responsible for this (the answer to the question which heads this blog entry). Now doesn't that take you back!
[Postscript 1: I could, alternatively, have titled this blog post "What links King George VI with Ant & Dec?" The answer is Tom Hooper, who won Best Director at this year's Oscars. In addition to being the director of The King's Speech (hence King George VI), it turns out that he started his career directing episodes of Byker Grove.... Oh, don't you just love Wikipedia!]
[Postscript 2: Having resigned from my job last week (see separate blogpost to follow soon), I am actually quite brain-fryingly, mind-numbingly bored this week. And yet I'm hiding it so well, don't you think....?!]
The King's Speech was a good film. And it's great that the British sweeped the board on most of the main awards (best film, director, actor and supporting actor, original screenplay, etc). It won 4 awards. But whilst it is difficult to say which was "best" since the two are so completely different films, my personal favourite film of last year was Inception, which won 4 awards also. However, its awards were largely technical - no less important to why the film was, in my opinion, excellent, but since the recipients of those awards are not stars that anyone has really heard of, it will be the King's Speech that is regarded more highly.
Since I haven't seen all 10 films that were nominated, I don't feel entitled to say whether or not it should have won, but nonetheless I would have liked to see Inception get Best Film, as well as Best Director (the latter for which it now seems customary to regard as a travesty that it was not even nominated) and, in particular, Best Score because the soundtrack, which is on constant repeat on my ipod at present, is really good. Try this as a taster - it starts quiet, but turn it up loud and let it grow.
The score to Inception was written by Hans Zimmer, who also wrote the scores for The Pacific, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Gladiator, Crimson Tide, Pearl Harbour, Black Hawk Down, The Last Samurai and parts of Pirates of the Caribbean. All big movies, but bizarrely, perhaps his shining moment was in also being responsible for this (the answer to the question which heads this blog entry). Now doesn't that take you back!
[Postscript 1: I could, alternatively, have titled this blog post "What links King George VI with Ant & Dec?" The answer is Tom Hooper, who won Best Director at this year's Oscars. In addition to being the director of The King's Speech (hence King George VI), it turns out that he started his career directing episodes of Byker Grove.... Oh, don't you just love Wikipedia!]
[Postscript 2: Having resigned from my job last week (see separate blogpost to follow soon), I am actually quite brain-fryingly, mind-numbingly bored this week. And yet I'm hiding it so well, don't you think....?!]
Monday, February 14, 2011
Numbers
A couple of one-liners that made me smile today:
- Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarves are not happy.
- There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
- Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarves are not happy.
- There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
A Tribute to John Barry
I cannot say at exactly what age I first became aware that I was a fan of the James Bond films. But I guess it would have been around the age of 9 or 10, which would have been about the same time that I started to learn to play the electric organ. Indeed, it wasn't long before I made a Christmas tape of my playing for my grandparents. It's chosen (by me) theme? The James Bond songs.
My two great loves (music and films) combined into what now sounds embarrassingly amateurish, and is chock-full of mistakes (I was only 11 when I did it), but the one thing I do recall was that despite the many different instrumental sounds that our organ could produce, I always tended to go for either "Strings" or "Brass" in most of what I played. A preference I now recognise as perhaps having been an early attempt to emulate the sound and style of John Barry, who scored 11 of the first 15 James Bond films that I was at that time beginning to become mad about, and whose death was reported yesterday.
In its excellent leading article today, The Times asks what the film Jaws would have been without the signature 'der-dum' theme. Or the shower scene in Psycho without the screeching strings. The point it makes is that "the art of a great music score is to fuse so perfectly with what is on the screen that audiences are sucked into the mood of the movie...without their realising why." A kind of orchestral pathos I guess. Of which John Barry was, in my humble view, a master (he did win 5 Oscars - no actor has ever done that to my knowledge - although criminally none of those were for Bond soundtracks).
My music collection now contains quite a few movie soundtracks (including all the Bond films). But where other composers' film scores do contain beautiful pieces of music (I particularly like James Horner's 'Apollo 13', Thomas Newman's 'Road to Perdition' and James Newton Howard's King Kong), many are often mixed with random snippets ('cues') which are not so much tuneful as they are background noise to the particular segment of film (usually action) that they are written to support. Disappointingly, starting with Goldeneye, most of the recent James Bond soundtracks have been full of these, at the expense of melody.
But John Barry's earlier Bond soundtracks contained music that was of a style and quality all of its own. Lush sweeping pieces of such stand-alone quality that the film directors and editors often saw fit to include them in their entirety within the body of the film, even if they were several minutes long. As such, I regard many of the Bond sountracks just as much classical music as anything by Beethoven or Mozart.
Invariably fitting the style and using the instruments of the locations and time in which the films were based (eg Japan in You Only Live Twice, India in Octopussy, or Las Vegas in Diamonds are Forever) there are numerous personal favourites that I could post here. Aside from most of the film title songs themselves (Diamonds are Forever, Moonraker and On Her Majesty's Secet Service being my favourites), or the entire Octopussy soundtrack, here are merely 3:
Flight Into Space - this is 6m30s of music that completely fits the section of film it defines, namely Bond travelling into space. Don't judge the music by the often criticised over the top plot of the film; this piece is arguably as good, if not better, than the main theme from Star Wars, or Holst's "The Planets", in fitting perfectly the part of the story it represents.
Bond Lured to Pyramids - again from Moonraker, this is merely a section of the film where Bond is walking out of the Brazilian jungle and into an old Mayan pyramid, doubling as the villain's lair; yet despite this rather incidental section of plot, I think this piece is fantastic.
Wine with Stacey - from A View to a Kill, a beautiful instrumental of the Duran Duran title song, which Barry co-wrote and arranged.
Ironically, when I was driving Jack to school yesterday, a random piece from On Her Majesty's Secret Service started playing on my 'shuffling' ipod (this one, if you're interested). Jack has already discovered a liking for the official title songs from the Bond films (we even had to find him a personal CD player so that he could listen to them endlessly on repeat - his favourite is You Only Live Twice, which he first picked up from the sample used in 'Millennium' by Robbie Williams). But when asking me what the song that was playing yesterday was, and hearing me say it was from a James Bond film as well as explaining to him the difference between a song and a score, I could tell that his interest was hooked.
This despite the fact that Jack has yet to really discover or appreciate the brilliance of John Barry's finest composition; but given that he is only 4 days shy of his 6th birthday, We Have All The Time In The World.
My two great loves (music and films) combined into what now sounds embarrassingly amateurish, and is chock-full of mistakes (I was only 11 when I did it), but the one thing I do recall was that despite the many different instrumental sounds that our organ could produce, I always tended to go for either "Strings" or "Brass" in most of what I played. A preference I now recognise as perhaps having been an early attempt to emulate the sound and style of John Barry, who scored 11 of the first 15 James Bond films that I was at that time beginning to become mad about, and whose death was reported yesterday.
In its excellent leading article today, The Times asks what the film Jaws would have been without the signature 'der-dum' theme. Or the shower scene in Psycho without the screeching strings. The point it makes is that "the art of a great music score is to fuse so perfectly with what is on the screen that audiences are sucked into the mood of the movie...without their realising why." A kind of orchestral pathos I guess. Of which John Barry was, in my humble view, a master (he did win 5 Oscars - no actor has ever done that to my knowledge - although criminally none of those were for Bond soundtracks).
My music collection now contains quite a few movie soundtracks (including all the Bond films). But where other composers' film scores do contain beautiful pieces of music (I particularly like James Horner's 'Apollo 13', Thomas Newman's 'Road to Perdition' and James Newton Howard's King Kong), many are often mixed with random snippets ('cues') which are not so much tuneful as they are background noise to the particular segment of film (usually action) that they are written to support. Disappointingly, starting with Goldeneye, most of the recent James Bond soundtracks have been full of these, at the expense of melody.
But John Barry's earlier Bond soundtracks contained music that was of a style and quality all of its own. Lush sweeping pieces of such stand-alone quality that the film directors and editors often saw fit to include them in their entirety within the body of the film, even if they were several minutes long. As such, I regard many of the Bond sountracks just as much classical music as anything by Beethoven or Mozart.
Invariably fitting the style and using the instruments of the locations and time in which the films were based (eg Japan in You Only Live Twice, India in Octopussy, or Las Vegas in Diamonds are Forever) there are numerous personal favourites that I could post here. Aside from most of the film title songs themselves (Diamonds are Forever, Moonraker and On Her Majesty's Secet Service being my favourites), or the entire Octopussy soundtrack, here are merely 3:
Flight Into Space - this is 6m30s of music that completely fits the section of film it defines, namely Bond travelling into space. Don't judge the music by the often criticised over the top plot of the film; this piece is arguably as good, if not better, than the main theme from Star Wars, or Holst's "The Planets", in fitting perfectly the part of the story it represents.
Bond Lured to Pyramids - again from Moonraker, this is merely a section of the film where Bond is walking out of the Brazilian jungle and into an old Mayan pyramid, doubling as the villain's lair; yet despite this rather incidental section of plot, I think this piece is fantastic.
Wine with Stacey - from A View to a Kill, a beautiful instrumental of the Duran Duran title song, which Barry co-wrote and arranged.
Ironically, when I was driving Jack to school yesterday, a random piece from On Her Majesty's Secret Service started playing on my 'shuffling' ipod (this one, if you're interested). Jack has already discovered a liking for the official title songs from the Bond films (we even had to find him a personal CD player so that he could listen to them endlessly on repeat - his favourite is You Only Live Twice, which he first picked up from the sample used in 'Millennium' by Robbie Williams). But when asking me what the song that was playing yesterday was, and hearing me say it was from a James Bond film as well as explaining to him the difference between a song and a score, I could tell that his interest was hooked.
This despite the fact that Jack has yet to really discover or appreciate the brilliance of John Barry's finest composition; but given that he is only 4 days shy of his 6th birthday, We Have All The Time In The World.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Random thoughts and introspection...
In a period of great boredom (first working day back at work this week, and nothing - seriously, NOTHING - to do), here's a list of random stuff going on in my head. A list of things that probably need sorting out, if only I had the time... you know how it is / I am:
1. After Jack's birthday sleepover this weekend (5 and 6 year olds x 5), why is it that other people's kids seem better behaved than ours?
2. Our garden is finished (finally!). Are we going to spend enough time in it to justify what it has cost us (which will require adjusting our evening tradition of collapsing in front of the TV and instead decamping to the new al fresco majlis - that's me being multi-cultural there!).
3. With less and less to do at work each day, where is my career going and what am I going to do about it?
4. With more and more free time at work each day, would it be worth signing up for a subscription to The Times (the only UK newspaper that is printed locally here), so that I don't have to buy a paper that is at least a day old by the time it has been imported?
5. Where should we go on holiday this year - having spent Christmas in the UAE, I have a little more annual leave available than usual, so it would be nice to go somewhere other than the traditional two-centre summer holiday in Dorset and Crawley. I have an unexplainable sudden desire to go to somewhere like Japan. No idea why.
6. My parents and my Nan arrive this coming Wednesday, which I'm very much looking forward to. But will Nan 'get' Dubai? Am dying to show her around our home, our neighbourhood, our city, but I think it will be like nothing she has seen before or will see again. A little concerned as to whether she will be able to restrain her occasionally age-attributable, no-offence intended, but nevertheless slightly racist remarks!
7. Are we giving Rhys enough time and attention, or is he forever destined to suffer third child syndrome?
8. Willl Southampton make promotion this season, given their apparently impressive yet ultimately unsuccessful bid to cause a big FA Cup upset?
9. Why do mouth ulcers now seem to come more frequently than they used to, and always in two's?
10. Are the Egyptians just cashing in on recent instability in Sudan and Tunisia, or has a hostility to their 30 year President actually been building for more than the mere 5 days that have seen demonstrations taking place? And on the flipside, given that if Mubarak were to merely stick his head out of an open window it seems likely at present that there would be at least one Egyptian among the angry mob crazy enough to shoot him, what possible reason must he still have to want to remain in power?
11. Why have my music tastes recently regressed to the early 1990s (for example, R.E.M.'s "Automatic for the People", Sting's "Ten Summoner's Tales", Phil Collins' (yes, I know!) "Both Sides" - actually a great album -and Crowded House's "Woodface")?
12. Is anyone actually reading this blog apart from immediate family? Who am I really doing it for?
Just stuff that's on my mind...
1. After Jack's birthday sleepover this weekend (5 and 6 year olds x 5), why is it that other people's kids seem better behaved than ours?
2. Our garden is finished (finally!). Are we going to spend enough time in it to justify what it has cost us (which will require adjusting our evening tradition of collapsing in front of the TV and instead decamping to the new al fresco majlis - that's me being multi-cultural there!).
3. With less and less to do at work each day, where is my career going and what am I going to do about it?
4. With more and more free time at work each day, would it be worth signing up for a subscription to The Times (the only UK newspaper that is printed locally here), so that I don't have to buy a paper that is at least a day old by the time it has been imported?
5. Where should we go on holiday this year - having spent Christmas in the UAE, I have a little more annual leave available than usual, so it would be nice to go somewhere other than the traditional two-centre summer holiday in Dorset and Crawley. I have an unexplainable sudden desire to go to somewhere like Japan. No idea why.
6. My parents and my Nan arrive this coming Wednesday, which I'm very much looking forward to. But will Nan 'get' Dubai? Am dying to show her around our home, our neighbourhood, our city, but I think it will be like nothing she has seen before or will see again. A little concerned as to whether she will be able to restrain her occasionally age-attributable, no-offence intended, but nevertheless slightly racist remarks!
7. Are we giving Rhys enough time and attention, or is he forever destined to suffer third child syndrome?
8. Willl Southampton make promotion this season, given their apparently impressive yet ultimately unsuccessful bid to cause a big FA Cup upset?
9. Why do mouth ulcers now seem to come more frequently than they used to, and always in two's?
10. Are the Egyptians just cashing in on recent instability in Sudan and Tunisia, or has a hostility to their 30 year President actually been building for more than the mere 5 days that have seen demonstrations taking place? And on the flipside, given that if Mubarak were to merely stick his head out of an open window it seems likely at present that there would be at least one Egyptian among the angry mob crazy enough to shoot him, what possible reason must he still have to want to remain in power?
11. Why have my music tastes recently regressed to the early 1990s (for example, R.E.M.'s "Automatic for the People", Sting's "Ten Summoner's Tales", Phil Collins' (yes, I know!) "Both Sides" - actually a great album -and Crowded House's "Woodface")?
12. Is anyone actually reading this blog apart from immediate family? Who am I really doing it for?
Just stuff that's on my mind...
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Band of Brothers
For Christmas, I was given the box set of The Pacific. This is a WWII miniseries which focuses on the war in (of all places) the Pacific. A war about which I previously knew very little. Some will no doubt proclaim it to be just another US TV show which excessively over-dramatises the emotional impact of the history involved for the sake of good ratings. But I was very keen to not only watch it, but to own it, because I think that these types of TV dramas still do more to keep the history of the time both alive and accessible to those who did not live through it than they do any kind of disservice to the memories of those who died.
This was a sentiment that I first felt when I previously watched Band of Brothers (made by the same production team as made The Pacific). Band of Brothers is the story of Easy Company (part of the US 101st Airborne division), and was entirely developed from the single book of the same name (which I have also read), written and compiled by the late historian Stephen Ambrose from direct interviews with those who were there. Each episode in the series is book-ended with on-camera interviews with those same men; principal among them was their accidental leader, Maj. Richard Winters, who died this week.
The history of Easy Company's war is a virtual history of the war itself. Parachuting into Normandy the day before D-Day, they were tasked with paving the way for the landings themselves. They then fought through Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, and ended the war in the wine cellar of Berchtesgarden (Hitler's own Alpine home). The portrayal of Major Winters in Band of Brothers is understated and, according to those of his 'brothers' that are still alive and whose tributes have been published online this week, entirely appropriate to his natural character. The fact that Major Winters is included as one of the principal interviewees at the beginning and end of each episode seems to reinforce this.
So why does all this matter? Well, without wishing to be mawkish, I still believe this to be a fascinating period of history not just because of what went on, but also (perhaps more importantly) for what might have happened were it not for the courage, spirit and determination of the people at the time (whether American, British or otherwise). It was, it seems, a time when everyone pulled together out of a sense of pride and duty for their countries; some did massively important things and led major operation after major operation (Winters is a prime example). Others, had smaller, more localised roles (my one remaining grandparent - my Nan who, I am overjoyed to be able to say, is coming out to Dubai to visit us in 3 weeks time at the age of 89 - worked for the WAAFs, stitching together barrage balloons). But regardless of whatever military positions or medals may have separated them at the time, none that you ever meet today display any sense of arrogance over their personal triumphs, achievements and contributions. The war was a great leveller it seems.
Today, when celebrities, footballers and the like are worshipped, idolised and overpaid in a way which only feeds their already over-conceited egos, the comparison with those who genuinely have done something of which they can be proud is striking. I enjoy watching and re-watching Band of Brothers (and will look forward to watching The Pacific) for the same reason: to be able to forget that the world today is selfish and self-obsessed, and instead to wonder if there will be ever again be a time when people can derive collective pride from serving a greater common good together.
At the end of the last episode of Band of Brothers, Major Winters tells the story about a question that his grandson once asked him. I believe that the response he gives applies to all who lived and worked through that time. If you only click on one link from this blog, let it be this one.
This was a sentiment that I first felt when I previously watched Band of Brothers (made by the same production team as made The Pacific). Band of Brothers is the story of Easy Company (part of the US 101st Airborne division), and was entirely developed from the single book of the same name (which I have also read), written and compiled by the late historian Stephen Ambrose from direct interviews with those who were there. Each episode in the series is book-ended with on-camera interviews with those same men; principal among them was their accidental leader, Maj. Richard Winters, who died this week.
The history of Easy Company's war is a virtual history of the war itself. Parachuting into Normandy the day before D-Day, they were tasked with paving the way for the landings themselves. They then fought through Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, and ended the war in the wine cellar of Berchtesgarden (Hitler's own Alpine home). The portrayal of Major Winters in Band of Brothers is understated and, according to those of his 'brothers' that are still alive and whose tributes have been published online this week, entirely appropriate to his natural character. The fact that Major Winters is included as one of the principal interviewees at the beginning and end of each episode seems to reinforce this.
So why does all this matter? Well, without wishing to be mawkish, I still believe this to be a fascinating period of history not just because of what went on, but also (perhaps more importantly) for what might have happened were it not for the courage, spirit and determination of the people at the time (whether American, British or otherwise). It was, it seems, a time when everyone pulled together out of a sense of pride and duty for their countries; some did massively important things and led major operation after major operation (Winters is a prime example). Others, had smaller, more localised roles (my one remaining grandparent - my Nan who, I am overjoyed to be able to say, is coming out to Dubai to visit us in 3 weeks time at the age of 89 - worked for the WAAFs, stitching together barrage balloons). But regardless of whatever military positions or medals may have separated them at the time, none that you ever meet today display any sense of arrogance over their personal triumphs, achievements and contributions. The war was a great leveller it seems.
Today, when celebrities, footballers and the like are worshipped, idolised and overpaid in a way which only feeds their already over-conceited egos, the comparison with those who genuinely have done something of which they can be proud is striking. I enjoy watching and re-watching Band of Brothers (and will look forward to watching The Pacific) for the same reason: to be able to forget that the world today is selfish and self-obsessed, and instead to wonder if there will be ever again be a time when people can derive collective pride from serving a greater common good together.
At the end of the last episode of Band of Brothers, Major Winters tells the story about a question that his grandson once asked him. I believe that the response he gives applies to all who lived and worked through that time. If you only click on one link from this blog, let it be this one.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Never judge a New Year by its cover
Oh dear. More than two months since my last blog entry? Oh well, New Year, new renewed vigour, perhaps.
The start of this New Year sees our swiming pool complete, but the garden that surrounds it under a continual state of development (as is appropriate perhaps for a Dubai garden). Guarantees from our British builder of a foreman (slightly bolshy, slightly balding, slightly overweight and no doubt not far from retirement; not sure how he takes his cups of tea though) that it will all be done by the end of January are, in my mind, dwindling in their reliability day by day, but we shall see....
Meanwhile - and prepare yourselves for two rather random and unexciting, but to me slightly quirky facts:
(1) I have already managed to start and finish reading a book this year;, and
(2) (For no other reason than it was there when I was standing in the office kitchen boiling the kettle and I thought I'd try it) I have taken a liking to green tea. Not only because it gives me something to do to break up the otherwise long, devoid-of-work office mornings, without having to go buy/make another cup of coffee (which, by lunchtime, is usually all I can taste after maybe 3 or 4 cups). But also, apparently, because it is Good For YouTM.
The book that I read though was called The To-Do List by Mike Gayle. A throw-away trashy novel admittedly, it relates the story of the author's quest to complete a 1,277 to-do list in a year. I read it in 6 days, which by my recent standards is a minor miracle. I'll admit though that it's been a while since I read something quite as easy; a break at least from the political biographies that line my shelves. I'm not convinced that, come the end, the author felt that he had achieved the life-change that was originally his motivation, but it was entertaining none the less. And rang many a few bells.
Next up: A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks. It's one of 6 books (including "The To-Do List") that I recently bought here in the Borders sale - all for less than £20. Am already at page 30(!) after 2 days. I hope that I maintain this new found enthusiasm for reading.
And one side point (again, of questionable interest to most) that I will at least admit is that I have rediscovered that there is nothing quite like the smell and feel of a new book. I had been almost sold on the appeal (due mainly I'll admit to its inherent gadgety-ness) of the Amazon Kindle. But now, I'm fairly sure that I don't really want one. There are some things in life that you can't improve on. Brand new paper books are one.
The start of this New Year sees our swiming pool complete, but the garden that surrounds it under a continual state of development (as is appropriate perhaps for a Dubai garden). Guarantees from our British builder of a foreman (slightly bolshy, slightly balding, slightly overweight and no doubt not far from retirement; not sure how he takes his cups of tea though) that it will all be done by the end of January are, in my mind, dwindling in their reliability day by day, but we shall see....
Meanwhile - and prepare yourselves for two rather random and unexciting, but to me slightly quirky facts:
(1) I have already managed to start and finish reading a book this year;, and
(2) (For no other reason than it was there when I was standing in the office kitchen boiling the kettle and I thought I'd try it) I have taken a liking to green tea. Not only because it gives me something to do to break up the otherwise long, devoid-of-work office mornings, without having to go buy/make another cup of coffee (which, by lunchtime, is usually all I can taste after maybe 3 or 4 cups). But also, apparently, because it is Good For YouTM.
The book that I read though was called The To-Do List by Mike Gayle. A throw-away trashy novel admittedly, it relates the story of the author's quest to complete a 1,277 to-do list in a year. I read it in 6 days, which by my recent standards is a minor miracle. I'll admit though that it's been a while since I read something quite as easy; a break at least from the political biographies that line my shelves. I'm not convinced that, come the end, the author felt that he had achieved the life-change that was originally his motivation, but it was entertaining none the less. And rang many a few bells.
Next up: A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks. It's one of 6 books (including "The To-Do List") that I recently bought here in the Borders sale - all for less than £20. Am already at page 30(!) after 2 days. I hope that I maintain this new found enthusiasm for reading.
And one side point (again, of questionable interest to most) that I will at least admit is that I have rediscovered that there is nothing quite like the smell and feel of a new book. I had been almost sold on the appeal (due mainly I'll admit to its inherent gadgety-ness) of the Amazon Kindle. But now, I'm fairly sure that I don't really want one. There are some things in life that you can't improve on. Brand new paper books are one.
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