Becks the Cat April'11

12 April 2011: Becks, our cat is elderly now. He loves to take part in the family activity, so if you are reading the paper, he has to lie on it. Same with your attempts to write in the diary. 

Placid old gent!



If he was four times as big he might want to eat us. But he is happy to be the size he is and eat what we give him!

DNC in NYC for a week

10 April '11: DNC just got back from a week in New York City, with 17 students of the Nottingham Uni. Here's a picture of most of us in front of the Apple store in Fifth Avenue, at the south end of Central Park. We flew out American airlines, and lived in a small hostel on 337 55th St, very near to Broadway and Times Square... an easy walk to MOMA and Central Park.  I have posted a LOT of photos on Facebook!
First day was a Columbus Circle, Lincoln Ctr, Dakota, Central Park, Guggenheim, then south again to Fifth Avenue, Rockefeller ctr finishing at the Empire State.
Second was to the south end of Manhattan - Woolworth, World Trade Ctr, Battery Park, Skyscraper museum, Statue of Liberty, and finishing at Pier 17.
Third day was Midtown - MOMA, Park Avenue, Chrysler, Bryant Park, a seminar with KPF, and then off to do out own things. This was all a punishing schedule for the poor old feet.
Fourth day was to Chelsea and then Greenwich village. After that I took myself up to the Planetarium and then further north to Harlem. Finished the day with a good look round the Metropolitan museum.
Fifth day, I took an excursion to Washington DC with Thao on a chinese bus company. We only managed to see bits of Washington by taking a rather frantic taxi ride around the sights, as the tour company seemed to think we would be happy seeing nothing but the Jefferson Monument.
Sixth day was our last, and I did a bit of shopping at MOMA, then it was time to get the Subway to the airport... my feet were very relieved!

Auntie Sheila Birthday

20 March 2011: Our neighbour opposite is 80 and we organised a little party for her. We call her Auntie Sheila. She has family all over the world, but two of her daughters were able to join us on the day.

Day out on the Nottingham Eye

13.3.2011: Lovely March day in Nottingham, and Henry and Carol have been staying. We made a trip into the City centre, and the Nottingham Eye was the peak of our visit.



This is usually set up in the Spring months, and you can see it from our house, miles away!



There is a special ramp up into it, we were surprised to discover.



Carol smiling as we admire her architectural hat!

I enjoy pointing the camera through complex structures



Great view towards Trent University and the North West

The Council House, and it is enjoyable to see it from this perspective



Safely back on the ground.

Long service award jan '11

18 Jan 2011: DNC has been at the University a VERY long time, and we were invited to a dinner and award ceremony.

The award is for 35 years, although it is technically 36 years, who is complaining. I seem to be the longest serving academic, the ones who have been longer seem to be technicians.



We had the honour of being accompanied by Tim Heath who is head of department, and by the way, lives in Musters Road, nearby.

Christmas at Norwich

24-26 Dec '10: We went to Norwich for the Xmas celebration, all meeting at Sophie's house. About 200m short of the house, there was a nasty noise from the engine, and it got us to the house, but had to be brought back on a low loader to Nottingham on Boxing day. We had to use Soph's Kia for the next two days. Henry and Carol also turned up for the weekend, and Sophie also had Rachel staying.
   Xmas morning, we went to the Cathedral because it was near our hotel, and we hoped to meet Peter Tregenza and Judy Torrington - we did meet them after the service.
  Sophie had more visitors to join us for Xmas, Keith, Helen, Mike and Steve, and later Tom Plackett and Tom the Baker... and then Ian. At one point we had three dogs in the house too!
[ I have more to write, and more pics, but will add them later.]

Gauguin Exhibition

15 Dec '10: We enjoyed a day in London, at the Tate Modern... rainy, cloudy and cold getting there, but the Tate Modern is always worth a visit - the restaurant is a great place to meet people even if you are not seeing the art exhibitions.

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/gauguin/
The exhibition is expertly curated, with a very clear range of Gauguin's paintings, drawings, woodcuts, pottery and sculpture, and supported by a lot of photos of contemporary Brittany, Tahiti or the Marquesas; and books, posters and letters from the time. The tour guides were adapted iPods with a good App on them that you can actually download from iTunes if you want to hear commentary on the paintings.

We also saw Ai WeiWei's  'Sunflower Seeds', the millions of tiny ceramic particles individually hand-painted by a team of chinese women. My idea is that they should allow Every visitor to have ONE seed, so part of the art idea is that we could see it go down slightly, and there would be no waste - it would be distributed to thousands, sorry, millions of homes, and continue to live somehow.

Buses
 The buses in London are really good, always friendly to wheelchair users. We only use buses as the London Tube is impossible for disabled access. Boris is mad to be trying to bring back rear entry buses, this is like 'war on the disabled'! The classic double decker bus is now the Leyland/Daimler one with front and centre entrance (and rear engine) and it has been evolving for 50 years everywhere else except London, and the proof of its excellence is that it is used in Hong Kong, home of the best public transport in the world. How can bringing back the early 20th Century 'London Routemaster' design be an improvement?
I know his motivation was to replace the Bendy Buses, but it must be said that Bendies are excellent on routes with long straight roads, and extremely good for disabled and elderly access - being a rail-less substitute for a tram. And as the standard double decker bus can only take one wheelchair or pushchair, there are often people left in the rain at bus stops because the bus already has one. This has happened to us sometimes, and today, we were the lucky ones on the bus, and a poor woman and child had to wait in the rain for the next bus to come by.
Boris's proposal for a new Routemaster will be absurdly expensive, and it still requires a side entrance for a single wheelchair, so no improvement there! Is it part of a Mayor's job to be inventing new types of bus that no other city in the world has found a necessity for? His motivation seems to be nostalgia.