Vasco era

At my first live gig in australia and it shows my opinion of the headline act that I feel I have time to blog during their set. Papa vs pretty are for all intents and purposes mediocre, they play their songs well but those songs are simply just not interesting. How they can be promoted to headline in comparison to the support of the likes of vasco era - a band who play a composed set and enjoyable set despite difficulties with amps in the very first song. This was duly dealth with by the lead singer giving an accapella version of a tom waits song whilst tuning his guitar, before eventually launching back in to finish that which they had started. A mature and ultimately enjoyable reaction which arguably made the performance all the stronger.
In other news, my syntheses are all going well now I have had a second go at them, although I need to do some further work with some waste to recover products to increase my yields. Still, it works, and aside from some prominent solvent peaks in the nmr of the intermediate all shows up clean and pure.  No mean feat for me at least, especially now i'm trusted to run my own nmrs as well.
Collectively the newer people in my office (me, ramon and max) decided that the office wasn't homely enough and needed some more personalisation. My window out onto the third year undergrad labs is now a giant union jack, back to front for them not that they would probably notice, but still. Has sparked some amusing debates. If only we had a colour printer i'd make the desk truly my own but for now it will do.
The ridiculous policy of prepay phones in australia mean that you have to recharge once a month or lose your credit, which is pretty rubbish, but at the same time gave me an excuse to ring home. As much as I laud the joys of skype and it's video capacity, phones just have the edge. No delays. No jumpy video, no disappointment. Was just nice to speak to jenny for however long ($50 worth...) and my parents the following morning. Sometimes it's nice to catch up with the things and people you miss.
On the subject of people from home it shouldn't be long before Katy gets out here, sometime next week I think. So I shall have to get down and work for that, so much work to do... Quite an inbalance here, there is no prescribed non-lab time. Everything else is off my own back or stolen from a spare moment. Still I would have it no other way. It's good, keeps me on my toes and keep me busy. Happy times, happy times indeed.

Simple pleasures.

I love the way that even when I'm however many thousand miles from home, when I'm not sharing them with anyone so no one will be annoyed they're going missing, I still painstakingly peel the label of tubs of biscuits and the like so as to make it more subtle that the box has been opened and that some might be gone.

A quick update

I feel like I've been waffling on about the chemistry I'm doing without qualifying it with the joys of pictures, which obviously make everything better. So below is the synthesis/transformation work I have done so far towards my ligand.

Hope that makes it a little clearer. Also on a side note I got my replacement headphones today (finally got a pair of proper cans, my ipod struggles with volume a little with the 32 ohm impedance but arguably not having them that loud is probably a benefit for long term aural-health... That and I now have some ridiculous classic mirrored aviators courtesy of the Australia air force recruiting/letting people play on a flight simulator outside our block. Looking forward to a bit of rugby down the pub later, come on Wales!

A different way of doing things

So it comes to that time again where I have now been in the country long enough that I no longer feel particularly like the new guy, despite being the youngest and newest in the lab. I now have my very own NMR license so I can book time on the NMR and run samples as and when I like without supervision. I more or less set up my own reactions and run them, making the right and wrong (quite often the latter...) choices about what to do. I set up, use and shut down Schlenk lines entirely off my own back. Quickly the scary things from undergrad labs are becoming tame. Even the scare stories from demonstrators are not quite as intimidating... HF was being used in the lab the last few days with those using it wearing nitrile gloves. This is one of the few times even nitriles are worn in labs... This is just a whole different ethos to York. In York they hold your hand throughout and enforce lab coats, specs and safety gloves at all times. Specs are an obvious yes, lab coats seem semi optional here although technically it should not but gloves are frowned upon. The attitude in the labs is that if you are spilling things on your hands you are a bad chemist and shouldn't be using things so gloves are only brought out for the nastiest of chemicals. This makes sense in so far as gloves were unwieldy and more often than not contributed to the spillages during undergrad labs, but the whole on your back be it attitude is something that was quite a change.

The whole taking responsibility for yourself thing is a big step, arguably as big a step up as from a level to degree chemistry. Research labs are a different beast to the labs with which we are familiar. I've been given a topic and it is my responsibility to run with it. I have to find my references and sources. I have to decide what experiments I'm going to do. If I do nothing I will look stupid, and really, that is the only real incentive to hard graft. Thankfully I enjoy it so have been working fairly hard and I'm glad as enjoyment is probably the thing keeping that effort as there is no obligation to keep to a structured week. The autonomous nature of my new study is both daunting and liberating, for now I am following moderately standard syntheses to make the ligands for my later complexes, but awkwardly when I come to my project proper, so my catalytic activity assays the catalyst which I have to synthesise is not yet reported in the literature - I have to devise an effective synthesis for it. There are a few potential routes to it but as of yet none have really been successfully tried with any vigour. But I have plenty of literature for how analogous compounds do what I want so hopefully I will get some joy out of it, and in the true style of the department - maybe even a paper. Looking at it from a cynical perspective however the chance for failure with this project is very high. Que sera, sera.

Other things that have been happening involve an improvement in badminton although it is still a less than ideal situation. I've now been watched and am viewed as someone that is not terrible, so I am invited into much better games (the jump in quality being similar to that of the York club to B/A team standard for those whom that might mean something) which is refreshing, you always play better against people of a higher standard and in general the games are more fun. So there is light in the club after all. The big bug bear for me however is that the club is not in the least bit social. Maybe a third of the members at the club if that are actually affiliated with the uni and of those that are quite a few are staff. As a result it's quite an insular community on top of what is already a cliquey and difficult to broach club with the issue that middle aged Chinese men with only broken English tend to avoid playing with people they have to speak English to. In one game there was even issues as someone on court did not understand enough English to comprehend the score. This leaves me rather jealous of this years York badminton club who seem to be having a rave time in my absence, still, I knew what I was leaving behind. Another interesting thing is that the club neglected to tell a significant number of those that go that Wednesdays playing night had been cancelled in lieu of some campus boxing/80s disco event, something for which I would not have expected sartorial elegance was of particular consequence however as I left for home somewhat disappointed, I was amused if only for a second, on overhearing someone in full cocktail dress with tuxedo-ed boyfriend at arm say "are we over-dressed for this, loads of people are wearing thongs [flip flops]." That boxing should be an event that requires dressing up confuses me but apparently this is something acutely Australian - certain events that are not particularly classy are fashionable and thus people dress up for them despite the inherent incongruity....

I have come to the unsurprising, if possibly not objective conclusion, that all Australian beer is rubbish. Some beers are passable but even then you are kicked in the teeth by the silly measures. Drinking more than 3 schooners (just over 2 pints) seems to elicit terrible hangovers the next day despite these quantities being pitiful. The same cannot be said for the wine however, I took the advice of Ant, my supervisor's lab deputy to buy a bottle of red Wynns Coonawarra Estate for the bring your own at the Italian we went to for Jess' 24th birthday last Friday, and was pleasantly surprised, maybe not all screw cap wines are cheap and nasty... I shall report back when I've had more opportunity to drink around further, but for now that bottle of wine if slightly pricey, would appear to be a safe bet.

On a side note that is not at all worthy of being sidelined, one of my worst fears in coming over here was realised last night when I learned of the ill health, and potentially terminal from what I understand, of a family friend Joe Reynolds. This has cast a bit of a shadow over my day as Joe is a wonderful and enlightened person who is the epitome of the adage 'you're only as old as you think you are.' If it is the case that I have in fact seen Joe for the last time, I wish him all the best. I'm not terribly well informed of what is happening and I do hope I'm jumping the gun, but if it is only a short time he has left I wish him all the best and hope that he enjoys whatever he has left. I suppose it has to happen to us all at some point and in Joe's case he certainly has made the most of it, but it is scary that we're all on borrowed time.

Apologies for the melancholy ending but was just something I felt I need to get off my chest, it is the things like that which bring on the homesickness, and I can definitely feel a little bit of it starting. Lets hope the extra vitamin d helps pick me up. And maybe Wales taking Australia in the third place play off tomorrow for a little bit of coffee time bragging rights.


PS something largely insignificant and very Australian that has been winding me up a lot recently, as such things often do, is the use of the word heaps. So for the phrase 'that sounds really fun', a typical Australian would say 'that sounds heaps fun'. Please tell me you would find that grating as well...

Under the old Myrtle tree

Well I have moved now and thankfully what the other landlords lacked in the fixing of major functions they made up for in being very reasonable and friendly in letting me move out without paying the rent I expected to so the whole thing was rather stress free in the end and I'm not properly set up in the new place and making it a bit more homely. I also notice from a brief look back to my last post to check that I don't repeat myself, that I used the turn of phrase from there altogether too much, so I shall endeavour to be more adventurous with my locution henceforth. The stress free nature for my move cannot be compared with the ridiculous amount of health and safety paperwork that I have to compile in order to perform the simplest of reactions with most advice suggesting that a degree of forgery and neglect is the easiest way to have reactions approved for reasonable working hours. Still my first synthesis (that of the tetraphenylcyclopentadienone roughly by this synthetic pathway) was a relative success, despite the best efforts of Leo, the guy showing me what to do to paste the inside of the fume hood with the product. Still, despite this impressive dark purple eruption the reaction proceeded fine and as I'm going to use a fair amount of it with it being a precursor to the ligand I'm investigation I made quite a lot of it so it was a minor loss in the end.

Had my first steak in Australia which was unfortunately overcooked, not quite what I expected from such a nation but I'm sure there will be a fair few to come. I do miss curries though, they don't manage it quite as well as home. Speaking of homely foods, despite not really having them at home I had a full roast on Sunday. I went back into town to join friends from the hostel and we decided to buy chicken and vegetables to make a roast. It was very well stocked and rather tasty, despite the unimpressive kitchen in which we made it. The eating was however one of the least interesting things about this meal however as the buying of the vegetables at the covered market below a shopping centre on the outskirts of Chinatown. Despite the calls of most of the sellers of $1 in a distinctly Asian twang, nothing seemed to be $1 with wide variations in prices of the simplest things. Not that you could tell what things costed until you bagged it up and paid for it - far too many people pushing by being loud, and that was supposed to be it when it was quiet. Also attended a house part at a rather impressive "suite", it would appear this apartment block is too posh for flats... Mind you it did have a pool and garden area on the roof, not that we visited either, so perhaps it can justify such pretension...

Anyway, I have written seven postcards and need to write up tomorrows experiment in my lab book so I shall call this post to an end. Hope you're all enjoying Britain, it's starting to get warm here now. Nice and sunny for my lunches now.

So, I made it... eventually.

I have now been in Australia for a whole week. It has been nearly two weeks since I finally received my visa. And now I am starting to settle down, well of sorts. Recovery from the 22 hours flying has been slow, not felt quite 100%, mind you I haven't had crippling jet lag that others have shown, although I have kept to a fairly regular sleep pattern. It seems the trick for those that survived it was to stay up as long as possible on the plan, arrive as it gets to night time in Australia and go to bed as soon as you check in. From what I can remember on the flight I saw Super 8, Bridesmaids, The Trip which were all very good, another film which I have forgotten (was clearly very good although on a quick google search of film lists for SA I think it was X Men: First Class), some big bang theory and the highlights of the 2007 Rugby world cup final which I had forgotten was really badly refereed... Ah well. Maybe this year (yes that was sarcastic). As far as planes go, the A380 flew the first leg to Singapore in was lovely, spacious, good entertainment system, great service, comfortable enough. The Boeing 777 variation I flew on the second leg however was cramped, had a poorly designed entertainment system not only were the headphone sockets dodgy but the handsets stowed in the arm rest meaning if you shifted your bum you hit random buttons, more often than note stop... The food was worse, although it being airline food it wasn't spectacular on either leg. And the service was poor compared to the first flight. I'll let that fly though (excuse the pun), I got here safely with all baggage and fairly minimal fuss. It could have been worse.

So from there I checked out at the airport avoiding bag searches etc because despite declaring shoes, seeing the boots I wore were clean he couldn't be bothered to search me (probably because they were all allegedly on strike) so I sailed straight through. From there I made it to the lobby only to realise the small print said that the free shuttle bus ran till 7pm, it was 7:20pm by the time I got there. I spoke to a nice meet a greet lady from another hostel I recognised who said it would be easiest to catch a train to Town Hall and walk as it was just round the corner. This in itself wasn't difficult, and I got my first glimpse of Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House from the downstairs of the train at Circular Quay, but was somewhat painful as the ticket was somewhat expensive at $15 or so, I later found out that this is due to an airport surcharge directed at catching out travellers, a normal ticket on a much longer commuter journey being around $5... From there I got to the hostel,  and as much as I liked the party atmosphere and made some good friends there, I wouldn't recommend it (BASE 477 Kent Street for reference) due to uninterested, unhelpful staff, inefficient room allocation systems resulting in multiple people being sent to rooms without spare beds needing to change, a generally tatty building but with the one saving grace of a pretty good club next door with an impressive regular turnout (Scary Canary). In the hostel I met people like Jemma who showed me where to find Medicare and whereabouts to find the bank to set up accounts (although she couldn't see it like finding wood through the trees), as well as finding what appeared to be the Chinese language Vodafone shops much to the staffs chagrin. Also went up the Sydney tower and to the nearby Opera House via Hyde Park and the Botanical gardens with her later in the week. As far as nights out we had been for casual drinks with another guy Mark to a place called Scruffy Murphy's and the night before that ring of fire amongst other games with Fraser and Gai as well as checking out the bar/club next door. All pretty good fun.

From there I stayed with some friends of my parents train buddies in the suburb of Turramurra, which was good, got to see family life in an Australian house, it's pretty different (they don't really lock stuff up and swap cars at will). They also took me to a Scottish pub in central to meet a relative of theirs and his friends over to celebrate his 29th for the purpose of watching the England vs Scotland match, with them mostly Sottish. It was an interesting experience, and a really close match. From there Robin took us all out to an Italian place which was lovely, and then his sons Jamie and Stewart (or Stuart, I never did ask) took me round some bars in Sydney, spending the majority of the night in the Oxford Art House Club in Kings Cross followed by a night rider bus home at 4am... All pretty good, also almost set fire to their house accidentally the following day as the toaster didn't pop up, burnt the toast to charcoal and filled the house with smoke, although I got the impression this is not an unusual occurrence. Ah well.

My frantic house hunting the previous week wasn't really successful finding me only one house in Ultimo (444 Wattle Street, Ultimo) which is for want of a better word, a bit of a hole. At first sight it seems like a nice enough compact terrace and seemed ok when I went to view it, but since I've moved in I've discovered the fridge is filthy, it's quite noisy from the road front and back, the hob and probably most of the kitchen has cockroaches, the oven is broken, the window in my room doesn't open and the blinds for the same don't shut. Also the Koreans that live downstairs who appear to be head tenants don't seem interested in socialising at all, and unless she stores water in Absolut bottles to keep it cold in the fridge (which is feasible) the lady swigs vodka throughout the day during the weekends. So I want to move, annoyingly the contract is in poor English and it looks like I might have to pay two weeks rent of $440 when I move out this weekend as I misunderstood, but I can't really cope with being here much longer and the only other place to have responded was so good that I couldn't see the other visitors that week not taking it. So I move into that house (16-18 Myrtle Street, Chippendale) at the weekend, and shall be much happier. The room is a spacious double only just refurbished, as is much of the rest of the house. It's in a kind of private student halls with a landlord that is picky about his tenants, but the ones I have met that I will share the kitchen with seem friendly and interested as they are doing much the same as me in a couple of cases. But yeah, for that joy I might just have to bite the bullet on this house as far as rent goes (thanks to the Aussie anal adoption of 14 days notice for everything, even environmental health complaints, rendering such useful as I could just move out in that time anyway). You never know, Lee, the guy who sorted the viewing etc seems sympathetic and it might still happen yet.

So this is fast becoming an essay and I still haven't complained about the cold weather yet (was 16 degrees the last couple of days, rained a couple of days last week with only one really warm day) but I am reliably informed the UK Indian summer has finished and the Australian real summer will start soon so any bragging rights will quickly go. In terms of my project, I finally took my project on proper this morning having finished all the various paperwork to start at the department and my nominal thesis title is The catalytic activity of Pentaphenylcyclopentadienyliron derivatives with respect to the Cyclopentadienyliron derivative equivalents, with possible scope for Pentamethylcyclopentadiene work as well as specific further investigations with aryl group modifications if there is any major improvement in the catalysis reactions to be investigated. A wide scope "just in case it doesn't work" to quote my supervisor, Tony Masters, who is quite the gent. I have an office shared at the moment with 6 (possibly 7, some are more elusive than others) people and have generally met and befriended most of the group. They're all friendly although regardless I'm already dreading giving a presentation in November... They have morning coffee every morning like clockwork (although it was a little late today because Faulk the regular organiser is on holiday), randomly come in to play a card game called 500 (a version of whist with some odd but entertaining rules), go out for group lunch every Friday and group + extras drinks on a Friday evening. A social group, could be hard to get serious graft done, but I'd rather this way round than a group of really boring people.

So yeah, I've settled down in Australia with the more obvious observations of it's really expensive, 3/4 pint measures being frankly ridiculous, goon being as foul as everyone says it will be amongst other things not really needing saying, I have more or less settled in and am enjoying it. Photos for those that have my social accounts are being uploaded first onto G+ and maybe FB when I get bored enough to do that all again, just ask if you think you have good reason to see them.

Till the next post, ciao

Farewell compassionate [sic] (northern half of the) world...

Something inevitably cheesy must be said on leaving the country of your birth for a significant time, so I thought I'd try the rather over-used but always effective Douglas Adams Hitch Hiker's Guide quote of "So long and thanks for all the fish", but that would be unavailing as I don't really eat fish, thus I am clearly not grateful for said produce. So instead: So long and thanks for all the... chicken. I suppose. I do like chicken a lot more than fish.

The stupid things that do cross my mind...

To the ends of the earth

On the eve of my travelling to the other side of the world I am struggling to comprehend quite what is happening. It has all been so sudden that I've not really come to terms with what I'm doing. I've not yet really had a chance to be truly anxious about going, or upset that I'm leaving although I'm sure that will come. It's not even really kicked in that I am wholly unprepared for both my quickly approaching course but also in terms of living, I don't have long term accommodation, just 4 nights in a hostel. I'm trying to avoid thinking about it really. I just have to hope that I get replies to my many frantic emails by the time I next get internet. We shall see, I'm hoping that all this stress will be worth it. Everyone keeps telling me it will be.

By the time I get to Australia (or even Singapore depending on how much time I have and whether there is any internet) I may be able to comment on several new films, the Trip, Super8, Bridesmaids, X-men something or other, a Chinese historical/martial arts film that looked good an even at a push Pirates of the Caribbean 4. You never know, I might just try to sleep. It's a shame there appears to be no sports on board, I will most likely miss a couple of rugby matches and there's nothing like watching something live. Still, will be nice to watch them in the correct timezone.

Something that deserves note and is one of my particular interests at the moment, Mark Cavendish took gold to become the first British world road cycling champion since 1965 only a few days since Bradley Wiggins took silver in the time-trial stages of the same competition. It is probably a record haul for British cycling and was compelling watching with the 8 strong team only in the final 1000m not showing the measure of calm and control they had exuded all race. They stuck to a plan that they told everyone before the race and full credit to them, they executed it perfectly. I'd like to say it's set us up perfectly for the Olympics at home next year but that isn't really the big goal in professional cycling. As Wiggins has said, the Tour de France is his aim next year and with the Sky team looking ever stronger with Geraint Thomas winning points jersey in the Tour of Britain and generally having a solid ride, Chris Froome and Wiggins taking second and third in the Vuelta against all odds. With Alex Dowsett the British national time trial champion, Steven Cummings second at the Tour of Britain and other names of note being Ben Swift and Edvald Boasson-Hagen to name but a couple with even Mark Cavendish rumoured to join them, Sky putting out the strongest team really would stand a chance of winning the Tour de France.

Trained to empty a room with just a phone...

I write this from an uncomfortable train seat returning from Brighton, having just had my joy that the foul woman in her ugly, smelly coat had her phone call cut short by signal spoiled by the fact that she didn't even leave it a minute to try again. Woe is me. Woe is also a lot of other passengers as well with her inane and vacuous talk of being a new granny (again, poor things...) and being overworked carried out in her loudest possible voice has driven passengers out of the carriage.

To this she is completely oblivious. She seems intent to chat shit the entire train journey which is even more annoying than the woman whose phone repeatedly rang but then hurriedly hung up saying she couldn't speak because she was on the train. It really does confound me quite how inconsiderate people can be, and even more how these people are always the uninteresting on whom evesdropping bears no fruit.

Almost the entire train journey I have had the urge to fake a phone call loudly proclaiming something along the lines of 'Sorry, I can't chat right now because i'm on the train and to do so would be the height of disrespect to anything with ears because they don't care about my largely uninteresting life.' I refrained, and as the woman has finally got up to leave (hopefully she trips and dies as she gets off the train) I sincerely regret not doing so. The potential satisfaction. Oh to be more controversial.

On a positive note, a nice day spent in Brighton with a friend despite the ridiculous wind, intermittent rain and high prices.

Answers on a postcard as to what it is, most people can't see it...

It's a dangerous business Frodo, going out your door, and if you don't keep your feet on the road you might just be swept away

I write this as I watch opening scenes of what is certainly a modern classic, the Lord of the Rings (the fellowship of the ring), and I am slightly embarrassed to say that, as when I first watched it, it still gives me butterflies. It will forever be ridiculed by some as cheesy fantasy but this does not do justice to the mastery of the books and sheer imagination of Tolkien in creating the world of middle earth. It will equally always be unfairly compared to the less interesting and less well produced money-spinning machine that is the Harry Potter franchise and in such, probably lose petty Facebook polls signed by thousands of misguided small children.

I have been meaning to return to the series for some time to watch the full extended works from start to finish having every now and then caught bits of films on tv. So to it I shall give it my full attention and for once keep things brief.



PS Eid mubarak to all for whom such things mean something.

A quiet place to go to write... nothing.

I find myself trying to end a run of radio silence, not that I'm using the medium of radio here, but with nothing in fact to say. I have been to quite a few events and celebrated notable milestones of age (the horrible age of 21) since I last posted yet none of these have stimulated anything other than happiness which, given its lack of debate, is itself not that interesting. Personal events, some of which I have no recollection of, probably don't translate too well to discourse.

This further leaves me trouble in so far as aside from those events I have done nothing productive with my time. I tried to start getting into a regular regime of cycling but screwed my knee. My Aunt has a new puppy which was quite fun, but then when left to play with it the bugger went nuts and tried to relieve me of the service of some of my toes, which was at best unfortunate, at worst quite painful. Still, the thing was bloody cute, even if it decided I wasn't fun to play with after a few hours because I didn't once give him a treat. No, my inactivity and lack of any direction seems to have lapsed into some form of creative drought. I can sense my soul draining away, bit by bit turning into a less interesting person, every day more suited to some form of banal office work. This depresses me. when I start to take pride in writing cryptic comments on Facebook because it is simply uninteresting to actually say what I mean, I know it has become a desperate case.

This led me to ponder the question, that if having nothing to do and being able to relax more or less to my hearts content seems to drain me of having anything interesting to say, why is a general perception of many that authors require such conditions to write their spiel. I fully accept that some impressive people have such a wonderful imagination in writing books and that such conditions lend themselves to being able to lose yourself in your own fictional world for the duration of said, but for others they write about things taking inspiration from real life events, the things that happen to them every day (often with the result, at least in my opinion, in an equally uninteresting result) to the point at which to remove oneself from the regular environment would be to remove the source of such inspiration and thus reduce the quality of the writing.

Here the travel writer seems to have it down to a tee, yes it is impractical to write everything as it happens, but taking notes and then writing up later in the day for example, a technique reported by leading lights of such trades as Paul Theroux (Great Railway Bazaar, Ghost Train To The Eastern Star, etc) seems an ideal way to go about it. And in my own inimitable way, as I realise at this juncture I am traditionally supposed to draw to a conclusion yet really have none, I shall just finish with the enlightening, if decidedly obvious revelation: boredom is really fucking shit.


PS I feel it of worth to note for the few that might appreciate a thing, watching the Comedy Prom night on BBC 2 today, Tim Minchin hosting opened sat in the audience, behind him sat a young man in a Willow t shirt, something which, along with the rest of the show rather amused me. Repin' York 2k11 4eva

Simon Bolivar

I am currently enjoying the delights of Gustav Dudamel conducting the Simon Bolivar symphony orchestra (as supposed to the youth orchestra it used to be before they all got old). They are playing Mahler's Second Symphony, The Resurrection, I am not overly familiar but I am enjoying it none the less, personally I am not finding it heavy going as some might report Mahler to be.

Now I know many for whom this is not really an enjoyable evening, some even who when suggested to them it was a travesty they had not even listed it as an option for the evening viewing (admittedly not in all seriousness, given other options were Watchmen, Goldeneye and Con Air) it was immediately ruled out as "I'm not a cultural person." Now this truly saddens me, that you can rule out something as uninteresting purely because you view it to be boring through some predisposition to some childish perception of such things I find truly repuslive. Ok, fine, classical music may not be to everyones taste, that to me is perfectly understandable. I myself like some pieces and dislike others, as with all things we have favourites, this is fair enough. But this callous, dismissive attitude really got to me, to use a phrase from a friend and fellow blogger, it boils my piss (apologies for any that didn't get the in-joke).

I shall stop complaining now. The last performance by this group at the BBC Proms was in 2007, where they were cited as one of the highlights of the season and the nights performance subsequently as arguably one of the greatest proms performances of all time. Having also seen it on television, I could only but imagine the atmosphere and sheer spine-tingling joy felt but the largely unsuspecting audience that night. Then, they performed the likes of Arturo Marquez's Danzon No. 2, now one of my favourite and most easily listened to pieces of classical music having heard it performed live courtesy of the University of York Concert Orchestra as part of their spring performance a while ago. I fully recommend all watch the youtube video, regardless of musical preference as it is a truly wonderful spectacle. And with that I shall leave you to return to what is, yet again a formidable offering from Dudamel et al, albeit it this time a fully expected brilliant performance, and with it possibly stop annoying my mum with clicking of my phone keyboard...

I did another

I done a picture

The meaning of life

I got bored today, quel surpise i hear you chunter, and found myself perusing the shelves containing the family collection of retail dvds, to see whether there were any new ones that I hadn't seen, when I discovered that my dad had bought the Monty Python box set. Shunning other contenders such as the likes of Gone With The Wind, I extracted The Meaning of Life as I couldn't remember whether I'd seen it. This choice I did not regret despite having in fact seen it, the joys of timeless comedy and all that coming to my rescue.

There were many things I enjoyed about the film, many of them the trademarks of the Python crew, the tongue in cheek wit, the sarcasm, the incredibly educated humour for which they are famed, but also the fact that throughout the film, they rather astutely comment on the nature of the audience and the ways in which one could attract them. At the very end of the film, Michael Palin's character the Lady Presenter, comments the following:

"here are some completely gratuitous pictures of penises to annoy the censors and to hopefully spark some sort of controversy, which, it seems, is the only way, these days, to get the jaded, video-sated public off their fucking arses and back in the sodding cinema."

Whilst arguably over cynical and most definitely a sweeping generalisation, one cannot deny the old argument of no smoke without fire, for which a sense of apathy as supposed to surprise seems more appropriate. I would obviously argue that for many people, myself included, this is not the case. I would like to say most people, but there is no denying that with the advent of films such as Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus* being but a tame example with many more hugely excessive films coming to mind, one can only assume that increasingly people do not go to the cinema to see something that is a genuine masterpiece of film so much as a cheap thrill or shock. Quel surprise again I hear you call out, Hollywood amongst others has been slowly but surely dumbing down cinema for years in the name of profit, to some extent this may be true but there have also been some classics come out of Tinseltown to charge to its aid.

A scathing attack of the film industry is not in fact where I was headed with this rant, no, in fact my disagreement was with the label for Lady Gaga. I say disagreement, I'm not sure whether I should applaud the calculating nature of those controlling the pop sensation. they have produced what, as Palin helpfully summarised, the public want. Whilst these thoughts seem rather tenuously linked, it was in fact a scene called Find The Fish in the same film that made me think of Gaga. A scene deliberately set up to be obtuse drawing inspiration no doubt from the surrealist movements, which in  a way is the very epitome of a deliberate intense shock to induce a reaction and/or material gain, seemed to coalesce the idea of scandal being linked to sale quite graphically with the similar ideologies of the great Gaga herself. I wonder if you can tell why:

Whilst I cannot personally deny that I am not Lady Gaga's biggest musical fan, or the fact that she has most certainly been manipulated by record labels for maximum effect, I cannot also say that I do not respect her for becoming arguably the largest pop sensation around at the moment - the Madonna of the modern age if you will.

Going back to the film however, despite all of the sketches relating to aspects of life and their amusing take upon them, fish number 5 was correct in is prediction that "Personally, I very much doubt if they're going to say anything about the meaning of life at all." In fact, in the true self mocking style of any of the truly clever and often remarkable comedians that have broached the subject, the closest they ever really get is always closely followed by ridiculous notions.

"That's right. Yeah, I've had a team working on this over the past few weeks, and, uh, what we've come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts.

One: people are not wearing enough hats.

Two: matter is energy.  In the universe, there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person's soul. However, this soul does not exist ab initio, as orthodox Christianity teaches. It has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved, owing to man's uniqueability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia."

Whether the answer indeed be a distinct lack of hats, or perhaps even 42 in the case of Douglas Adams, I care not to discuss it because ultimately it is a futile search. Taking advice from Danny in American History X, always end an essay with a quote because somebody else probably said it better before you, "The more I learn, the more I learn how little I know." Socrates might have said it first but it's sentiment has been echoed down by many great men, who would I be to argue? Because judging from this essay I digress too quickly to hold an argument.

*There is now actually a sequel; imaginatively entitled Mega Shark Vs. Crocosaurus...

Analysis of a typical Facebook debate

I shall keep it short, because anyone that cares about cricket will already know about England's impressive victory over India at Lords, and no one is faintly interested about what string I choose for my Trinity Pros when I get them restrung this week, or indeed my apparent drift towards head heavy racquets from my usual preference for balanced. I shall not even rant about Australia, for which I finally have all the documentation to send off the visa application, that will probably come another time as when it gets closer, I will probably cry myself to sleep many a night before then...

Instead I shall simply link to something amusing I saw on facebook via Janis Hopkins, which rather tickled my fancy because it is both comical genius and remarkably true. I hope you enjoy.

Well deserved?

I was struck yesterday that someone, notably Dara O'briain, was complaining on twitter that Andy Schleck had not won the Tour de France despite the near herculean effort on stage 17 with his 60km attack on the Izoard before the climb up to the Galibier because his time trialling is quite so poor and he lost a lot of time. At first I was miffed because I had personally been supporting Cadel Evans courtesy of Contador's alleged misdemeanor with drugs and the poor way in which the case is being handled but I found myself wondering why two years running I'd ended up supporting the other candidate, because Schleck now has 3 runner ups to date (subject to Contador's court for arbitration for sport ruling). Usually I support the underdog with the idea of valiantly failing being a sentiment I frequently sympathise with.

What annoyed me however was not who won, because both Cadel and Andy rode solidly throughout a very strong tour and as has been the case in recent years the victory has looked for the world like it could be down to seconds coming into Paris, but that someone should contest someone's right to win a race because of their personal preference for preferred style of stage. The Tour de France is noted by the sport as the ultimate challenge purely because it is the pinnacle of the sport championing all disciplines of cycling within the road race umbrella group. It effectively starts with a team time trial (so people haven't lost riders to elimination or injury) and ends with an individual time trial, with a healthy smattering of mountain and sprint finishes in between. It is the ultimate challenge because, to win, you need to have a variety in skill base. The great winners are the all round riders. That you should complain that someone has lost yellow because a mountain finish is more crowd pleasing than a time trial is ridiculous, especially bearing in mind the one man fight back from Cadel to drag the rest of the chasers to within a manageable time difference on that stage.

Andy did not lose the Tour de France in the time trial, he lost it when Cadel stuck to his back wheel, responding to every attack on a mountain (the Schleck stronghold) for the entirety of the tour. Yes, Schleck's Galibier attack was one of the most exciting and daring of recent cycling, but should one win a tour from one stage alone? The Tour is about consistent performance, and of the overall favourites, Evans was the most consistent, coming closest to two stage victories.

Rant aside, this years Tour was also notable because the 'Manx missile' Mark Cavendish won the green sprint Jersey with the HTC highroad team, taking in his 20th stage victory at the Tour for his career, if I am not mistaken a record for a British cyclist. What is surprising however is that sprint finishes are notable because traditionally they are a team competition - the team leads out dropping back one by one till a set distance from the finish at which point the main sprinter goes as hard as possible to win the stage, with the odd exception in a couple of stages, HTC were the only organised sprint team. It is no surprise Cavendish won green. He won green despite having been impeded in one finish, unfairly penalised in another and two sets of point deductions for coming in after the elimination time in the mountains. Yet he won 5 stages, challenged for several others losing by the slightest of margins and still finishing 62 points clear of his nearest rival, all this whilst not bothering for the majority of the intermediate sprint points due to the new system limiting their value. Mark truly is an all time great rider, it's no surprise he is dating model Peta Todd (23 from Essex of Top Gear fame).

Space race

Currently I am locked in a race to build a spaceship before Hiawatha the Iroquois chief nukes me. I have no aluminium or uranium with which I can build units to protect myself. I fear all is lost. I also feel like nobody but me cares about this, or that I have felt genuine grievance for every denunciation and declaration of war put against me by the AI, or that despite my best efforts my citizens seem to love being unhappy. I'm not even on the hardest setting. Shocking.

Indeed it would appear I'm addicted to Civilisation 5, have spent a very long time playing it now, steam might even be able to tell me (if i could pluck up the courage to save and quit) since I bought it, I may have tried before I bought but that's a whole other kettle of discussion. I find it difficult to believe that I can become quite so addicted to such immaterial things so easily yet time and time again I go through 'phases' to which I may as well be nailed to the subject.

These things drive me to staying up till ungodly hours of the night and generally dropping into unhealthy lifestyles, but then, I reflect on how bad it is for me but I have to remind myself, this is home and what else is there do to.