What a wonderful weekend I've just had!
I'm one of those people who's not the best at keeping in touch, especially with my family. This year though is an auspicious one for a favourit aunt and uncle of mine - 2008 sees her 65th, his 70th, and their 40th, if you follow me. So their kids felt, how could you let that go by without a surprise party? They organised an amazing bash of just such a secret nature, and people came from all over to converge on Yorkshire for the fun. (We made it with 30 seconds to spare, thanks to some slight trouble with lambing. But that's another story.)
It was so wonderful to see their faces when they were ushered into the village hall to see 90 of their nearest and dearest screaming "SURPRISE!" at the top of their lungs. A marvellous time was had by all; even Fred, whom professed to be bored most of the time, tried his first ever spring roll and was impressed. I got to have a whole weekend of catching up with my cousins, to whom I was very close when I was little. I stayed up chewing the fat and drinking calvados with my cousin Willie till 4am. Fred made friends with his second cousins. Kat and I made plans to come to Yorkshire regularly. And we discussed the fascinating business of our great-grandfather and our mysterious great-uncle.
I've come back feeling very warm.
Wednesday, 23 April 2008
Monday, 7 April 2008
A Grand Day Out
On Sunday Fred and I went for a good old roam around Arthur's Seat (central Edinburgh's main hill) with the year's first picnic (courtesy of Marks and Sparks) followed by a look at the Ansel Adams exhibition that's on at the moment. It was a fantastic combination, though I hadn't particularly planned it to be such.
Adams's amazing photos of the staggering landscapes of the American West had me rethinking the hike we'd just been on. Arthur's Seat isn't Monument Valley, but it's a big enough bit of volcanic pluggery that it has an awesome physical presence. Being outdoors is an important part of the physicality of a man. Rocks have a masculine energy. Strangely, it was the pictures of the outdoors rather than the walk itself that really brought this home to me. I mean, I've had those thoughts before; but it was a wonderful feeling to be reminded of them in such a way.
There again, maybe it was the other way round. Maybe the best way to look at pictures that have so vast a scope is to spend a couple of hours hiking around a big rock first.
Frankly, I don't care. It was a bloody good day out, with manliness and fatherhood content to boot.
Adams's amazing photos of the staggering landscapes of the American West had me rethinking the hike we'd just been on. Arthur's Seat isn't Monument Valley, but it's a big enough bit of volcanic pluggery that it has an awesome physical presence. Being outdoors is an important part of the physicality of a man. Rocks have a masculine energy. Strangely, it was the pictures of the outdoors rather than the walk itself that really brought this home to me. I mean, I've had those thoughts before; but it was a wonderful feeling to be reminded of them in such a way.
There again, maybe it was the other way round. Maybe the best way to look at pictures that have so vast a scope is to spend a couple of hours hiking around a big rock first.
Frankly, I don't care. It was a bloody good day out, with manliness and fatherhood content to boot.
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Mountain biking: the new skiing?
One of the things I do with my time is write articles for Bite magazine. I'm currently writing one concerning mountain biking for its soon-to-be-launched sister publication, Bite Life. While doing this, it suddenly struck me - is mountain biking about to become the new skiing?
They do have a lot in common, after all. Both began as very fringey, extreme outdoor sports, progressively becoming more diverse, popular and accessible. The skier and the mountain biker each get to go fast under a combination of their own steam and the assistance of gravity; so you get that marvellous melange of healthiness and danger.
One difference is that mountain biking is several decades younger than skiing. Already, though, there's an abundance of mountain biking holidays you can go on in Europe, America and elsewhere. And actually, living in Scotland, there's not so much need to get on a plane to do mountain biking. We're very well provided for here.
Perhaps the truth is that I've been pretending mountain biking's like skiing in that I don't get a lot of chance to do it. That's not true of course, but I've certainly not been taking the opportunity to do it. Which is daft, because when I do it, I love it. Especially if I do it often enough to ensure that I'm fit enough to get up the hills without too much suffering.
So I guess mountain biking needs instead to be the new jogging.
They do have a lot in common, after all. Both began as very fringey, extreme outdoor sports, progressively becoming more diverse, popular and accessible. The skier and the mountain biker each get to go fast under a combination of their own steam and the assistance of gravity; so you get that marvellous melange of healthiness and danger.
One difference is that mountain biking is several decades younger than skiing. Already, though, there's an abundance of mountain biking holidays you can go on in Europe, America and elsewhere. And actually, living in Scotland, there's not so much need to get on a plane to do mountain biking. We're very well provided for here.
Perhaps the truth is that I've been pretending mountain biking's like skiing in that I don't get a lot of chance to do it. That's not true of course, but I've certainly not been taking the opportunity to do it. Which is daft, because when I do it, I love it. Especially if I do it often enough to ensure that I'm fit enough to get up the hills without too much suffering.
So I guess mountain biking needs instead to be the new jogging.
Friday, 4 April 2008
Didn't we have a TV once?
Still no TV, and I have to say I've barely noticed. It's interesting that I used to think "How could I manage without a TV?" I mean, I really thought it would be a colossal struggle to cope without being able to watch a repeat of QI and a repeat of Men Behaving Badly per evening, plus a history documentary on the rare occasions that it's not about Nazis or the ancient Egyptians.
For once I'm not exaggerating for effect - that's pretty much my erstwhile TV diet. No addiction to soaps or any other genre. I don't like to waste money on buying DVDs since I'll only watch them a couple of times, yet also don't like to waste money on renting DVDs. I displayed constant disgruntlement with the monotony of what's repeated on the cable channels and the unsatisfactoriness of what's on the terrestrials. When some promising-looking new series came along you could trust me to forget its name, overlook it in the listings and never see it. I probably spent nearly the same amount of time scouring the listings for something worth watching as actually viewing. That's how keen I was to find an excuse for flopping sofa-wards and putting my brain and body into neutral.
And yet it's been so easy in a world without TV. What I'm left with is the thought that if it was so easy to let go of something that I seemed so terminally attached to, what else could I relinquish with amazing ease?
For once I'm not exaggerating for effect - that's pretty much my erstwhile TV diet. No addiction to soaps or any other genre. I don't like to waste money on buying DVDs since I'll only watch them a couple of times, yet also don't like to waste money on renting DVDs. I displayed constant disgruntlement with the monotony of what's repeated on the cable channels and the unsatisfactoriness of what's on the terrestrials. When some promising-looking new series came along you could trust me to forget its name, overlook it in the listings and never see it. I probably spent nearly the same amount of time scouring the listings for something worth watching as actually viewing. That's how keen I was to find an excuse for flopping sofa-wards and putting my brain and body into neutral.
And yet it's been so easy in a world without TV. What I'm left with is the thought that if it was so easy to let go of something that I seemed so terminally attached to, what else could I relinquish with amazing ease?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
