Author Archives: essiep

Atonement

Posted on by
Reply
20°C, 40% cloud, light winds.

Cinema: Today I’ve just seen a film that makes me take back all the bad things I have said about cinema. It was a film full of passion, tension, guilt driven by honour and lust. We both came out shaking, not stunned. Stunned is the wrong word, that suggests that we had our senses blunted, no we were on the edge of our seats and enthralled by the escapades of the cast, intoxicated by the production and breat taken away by the photography. Every shot was perfect , the period details were flawless apart from one aeroplane shot. It was just so clever, the visual links, the sounds the music and the way they all were interwoven into the characters and plot.
On buying tikets, we’d noticed that the staff had their favourite film printed in their name-tags, things like Die-hard, Withnail & I , and we entered the auditorium thinking what would we have on our badges. Now I know, it would have been "Shipping news" or maybe, American Beauty. But they are superseded
LINK.

Storytime

Posted on by
Reply
21°C, 50% cloud.

Commuting: on the ride to work today I stopped next to a van at the lights. In the cab were two macho lorry drivers types , big muscly arms, tattoos and shaven heads- the whole deal. They had a loud stereo playing as we waited for the green light. But it wasn’t music they were blaring out- they were listening to one of those Harry Potter audio books.
It’s good to get stereotypes overturned now and again.

Paucity

Posted on by
1
20°C, foggy then clear.
Notice the paucity of entries here lately. Blame Flickr, there is more going on there.
Actually there is there is more to it than that. Just about everyone at work is complaining of tiredness, we have a kind of collective jetlag feeling. It’s put down to the new term, and change of routine plus change of season. One curiious suggestion was to do with airt pressure, I’d considered humidity before- but pressure seems more eosoteric. Unfortunately my weather station gadget records pressure trends, but doesn’t give a reading in millibars.
 

read

Posted on by
Reply
24°C, it’s a warm month- September

Reading Freakonomics right now. It’s quite a readable volume despite lots of Americanisms that I can’t work out. It’s been a good few weeks since last enjoying a book, a book desert.
Evening routine:

…work-get home-nap-eat-walk dogs-1 hour schoolwork-washup-add blog-play Stalker-read-bed.

I’m still talking about "Wormwood", erm, hope I haven’t bored anyone.

New term, new year.

Posted on by
Reply
21°C, clear and crisp. c=20miles

Commuting on the racing bike which is far from ideal. It’s going to take ages to get that winter bike repaired. Frankly I’m in a dilemma in looking for the best way to do it.
Work: new term has started, sleep habits have gone all awry.

Adrenaline

Posted on by
1
22°C, clear today., Yesterday C=32 miles; day before C=51.

Young Oak: Below is a picture of the Acorns from a young oak tree. Some of them are malformed- perhaps due to the gall wasps laying eggs on many of the leaves. I have posted pictures of those here before.

All that post-virus malaise has gone. Yesterday, I rode for 32 miles with a bloke in his 70s. We swapped good stories, had a lot in common- he was formerly a teacher and we shared a number of other coincidental experiences. I rode to get rid of those butterflies that come of excessive adrenaline.
Yesterday was a notable high for another reason, it came like a present – realising that we had another 2 weeks before term starts. I was so excited & relieved by that discovery.

It arrived today- a very shiny thing. Hold it up to the light, and it looks flawless, solid, impenetrable. It’s going to be good, I like it.

Wednesday

Posted on by
Reply
18°C, rain
It’s Wednesday, and I forgot to put the bins out!
Linseed: another day another layer, just like old times. The linseed layers are rather patchy, but as layers are piled on, the surface gets more lustrous with a better contrast in illuminosity between light and shadow. 
No new ground is being trod on this one, it is more of a refresher. It’s enjoyable enough, it makes me think about painting, and doesn’t cost much time, each session is about an hour, and I get a finished oil painitng after a few weeks.
 
However, I am planning a quite a complex one for the day this is finished though. The idea has been rattling about since the winter.
Drawing it up will be done differently.
Chornobyl: interesting BBC links debating the ecology of the Zone.
Some useful disagreement there.

I’m back

Posted on by
Reply
 24°C, clear. C=88.9 miles

Rode home from South Wales today, not a cloud (…etcetera). I’ll upload some photos later.
chose a different route back since there were some nasty hills in the Wyre Forest going out last week. My mapdidn’t show the Malvern hills very clearly which was just as steep. Some of the climbs are quite hard work, especially bearing in mind that you have a further 50 miles to ride. A helpful trick while trying to keep a steady pedalling rhythm is to convery the roadsign gradient as from percentage to ratio- these were 16%, so that’s about 1:7
…I think.
At the top of the hill was a Cafe with a Russian tank parked outside. It must have been a hobby restoration by the Cafe owner.It looked pretty much complete, with engine and wheel rubbers. That machine must be of about 1944/45 vintage  – so that’s quite an ambitious project.

How is it doing?

Posted on by
Reply
18°C, some rain due this morning.
Pigeon: we’ve been looking out for a pigeon with no tail, not seen it yet. It can’t be too disasterous for a bird to loose its tail- crows can often be seen in this state- I bet that’s due to "hen-pecking". It must make landing difficult though- no steering on the final approach to a landing perch.

It takes about 2 hours to fit new brakes to the touring bike, and only a minute to discover that the forks are dangerously cracked. I knew a guy in Bristol who sprinted across traffic-lights and his forks snapped, he smacked the tarmac hard enough to break his jaw. Presumably that means concussion too.
I don’t want that.
The other photo is of a Dahlia, which is possibly more interesting before it flowers. It’s a little character – the sort of thing that deserves animating.