Christopher Allen

Goodbye Blogger, hello Wordpress

2007-07-10T11:12:00.000+01:00

Blogger had annoyed me for the very last time. I am therefore switching to Wordpress.

Please visit http://christopherallen.wordpress.com/.

and if you subscribe to the rss, here is the feedburner link or just use the following feed:

http://christopherallen.wordpress.com/feed/

(and if you don't, why dont you? Get google reader here http://www.google.com/reader/view/)

Campbell Diaries

2007-07-10T09:36:00.000+01:00

Would like to be posting first impressions of the Alastair Campbell diaries...but despite pre-ordering weeks ago, Amazon haven't even dispatched my copy. I don't suppose they'll have the same problem getting out copies of Harry Potter.

Prosperine, Freud and Turner

2007-07-02T13:36:00.000+01:00

I headed out to Tate Britain on Saturday to see the new Turner exhibition. I got off at Westminster and was rained upon very heavily near parliament. By the time I got to Millbank I wasn't really in the mood for it any more. Nevertheless I persevered, and am glad I did so. The Turner exhibition is very good indeed. Turner is not an artist who has ever particularly excited me. I think his oil paintings are awe-inspiring - a painting like The Fighting Temeraire , for example, thoroughly deserves its vast hordes of admirers - but they don't make me want to seek out everything by him and read everything about him. But these watercolours, and in particular the colour studies (he called them 'beginnings') chosen by David Hockney, are fantastic. Turner was obsessed by colour and light (the interactive section of the exhibition explains this well) and the beginnings strip away everything else, leaving what I suppose Turner saw as colour 'ideas'. Some of them are hauntingly beautiful, like the ghosts of his finished watercolours.

Anyway, after a relatively fleeting tour of the rest of the exhibition, I headed for Prosperine. Back in 2003 there was a Rossetti exhibition in Liverpool's Walker art gallery. I was writing my MA thesis on Oscar Wilde at the time, and reading a lot about the Pre-Raphaeilites. The exhibition was a revelation, and I have loved Rossetti ever since. The Walker was, I seem to remember, widely praised at the time, and most of his great works were on display; Prosperine, however, wasn't there. I knew from books that Prosperine was a gorgeous painting, but it's not until you stand in front of it, or rather her, that you realise how astonishing a work it is. Eveyone talks about pre-raphaelite hair and lips, but look at her hands; Rossetti, was by this point, becoming obsessed with hands.

The model for Prosperine is Jane Morris (nee Burden), wife of William Morris. It's not entirely clear whether she was Rossetti's mistress, but she was certainly his muse. She was by no means conventionally beautiful, but she so inspired Rossetti that one can only imagine how mesmeric she must have been.

If you haven't done so, I'd urge you to pay her a visit.

I'd not seen the new (well, newish) BP British Art Displays, and there is an excellent display in room 25 with some Lucien Freud and Stanley Spencer nudes. It seems a shame that there is not more Freud on display in London. I was lucky to catch the 2004 exhibition at the Wallace collection before I moved down here, but didn't see the 2002 Tate exhibition. I hope there is another one soon, because as enjoyable as flicking through Freud in books is, it hardly does the works justice.

Martin Rowson on good form:

2007-06-25T09:21:00.000+01:00

I'm currently looking for a good book on Ants

2007-06-20T14:44:00.000+01:00

Can anyone recommend one?

I particularly want to learn more about Leafcutter ants, who have evolved an advanced agricultural system based on ant-fungus mutualism:

Ant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Belgian stateside

2007-06-19T17:07:00.000+01:00

If you've ever wanted an insight into the unpredictable mind of an anglophilic Belgian academic, Ruben, my Flemish friend, is blogging his way through a secondment in the US of A.

A Dance to the Music of Time

2007-06-19T14:16:00.000+01:00

A new addiction: Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time. It is funny, clever and charming, and peopled with the most wonderful characters. It has some claim to be the longest novel in English, and is significantly longer than A Suitable Boy, but I think Clarissa must surely be longer. It's also strictly speaking not a novel, but a novel sequence (I'm about to start volume four). Whatever it is, it's brilliant. I finished Volume 3 while sampling German sausages and German beer in Bad Homburg where I was staying for a (very interesting) conference. Bad Homburg is a very pleasant town near Frankfurt, whose parks are particularly nice. Anyway, without anything to read, I bought William Boyd's Restless on Ed's recommendation. It is, as he suggested, a great read and I'm thoroughly enjoying it (if perhaps a little too eager to race through it so I can start Volume 4 of Dance).

[Oh, a couple of weeks ago I left my bag at a Friend's house, in it was The Golden Notebook; it seems I am never to finish this book!]

Jokii.com

2007-06-15T15:36:00.001+01:00

Peter's best man, Jake (the bloke who first introduced me to David Deutsch) , has started up http://jokii.com/. It's a great, simple idea. He talks about it a little bit here. He hopes it will become the internet’s biggest and best organised collection of jokes.

It's only been up and running a short time and already it blows other joke sites on the web out of the water.

Nice one Jake.

Photosynth Demo

2007-06-15T15:08:00.000+01:00

This is genuinely jaw-dropping. Thanks to Joe for sending it to me:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

Download the video file, you won't regret it.

Confluence and Facebook

2007-06-11T14:38:00.000+01:00

A major part of my job at the moment is developing a read/write intranet for work (a collaborative workspace incorporating, for those who know what one is, an 'enterprise wiki'.) I'm using a piece of software called Confluence, which I really am enjoying. Now that I can see the potential for this, it amazes me that many organisations are still using static HTML intranets. Interestingly, the project started when I was tasked last year with looking into social networking sites, and in particular, Facebook. Back then there was hardly a single person I knew on in it; now, just nine months later, virtually every person I know is on it. Even six weeks ago I was struggling to explain what it was to many of my friends, and now even those who sounded sceptical about it are becoming addicted. The one thing that I'm doing that I don't see many others doing, is using Facebook from my phone. I think this really may be the killer app. The mobile version works so well that I now have it set as my phone's homepage. Admittedly having a flat data tariff as I do helps with photos etc. What I can't decide is whether Facebook will replace Fickr and even this blog. I think I prefer having the blog separate, but the idea of integrating with flickr is very appealing...we shall see. Either way, Facebook will, I suspect become the de facto standard for social networking in coming years.

Blackwell's art and poster shop, Egon Schiele [and Ian McEwan's new novella]

2007-06-01T13:15:00.000+01:00

Oxford is very lucky to have Blackwell's bookshop. I've stopped going in the main shop so much these days because it's just far too tempting to spend a lot of money there.

[Which reminds me - I haven't forgotten to write a post about The Golden Notebook, it's just that I stupidly forgot to take it to Hong Kong; I'm back to it now and I'm enjoying it a lot, but it can be hard work at times. While I was away I therefore read Ian McEwan's new, and very brilliant, On Chesil Beach. It is quite short so I read it in one sitting on the plane, without so much as averting my eyes (the gloopy beef noodles served for dinner not quite the distraction that I hoped they would be).

McEwan is, I feel, begining to break away from the rest of the field and I cannot remember the last time he put a foot wrong (before you say it, I happen to really like Amsterdam). The Observer reviewer drew comparisons with Roth's Everyman, a book I've not yet read but I've long thought that McEwan seems set on emulating Roth in peaking in his autumn years. McEwan's not even 60 yet; Roth is in his mid seventies and in the last ten years has written most of his best books. The phrase that seems to follow Roth everywhere now is that he is writing 'at the peak of his powers'; I'm not sure McEwan is anywhere near his yet.

What struck me most about On Chesil Beach was how McEwan illustrates the the couple's problematic sexual misreading of each other and particularly their misinterpreting of each other's body language. He handles the bedroom episodes brilliantly, effortlessly weaving together two conflicting standpoints in a seamless narrative - a series of akward moments that never reads awkwardly. McEwan's mastery of the third person narrative is as evident here as it is in any of his previous work.

I also read A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian which I wasn't expecting very much from, but which I thought was quite good really. Never going to be a classic, but fine for something light hearted on holiday.]

Anyway, back to Blackwells. Today I spent my lunch in the art and poster shop which was very enjoyable. I spent most of the time flicking through a book on Egon Schiele. I can't say I'd ever really seen much by Schiele, even in books. Ruben, with whom I shared an office in Belgium had a couple of postcards pinned up which I always quite liked, but I'd now like to get to know his work a lot better. Not sure if it's the kind of stuff I'd be allowed to have hanging in the kitchen, but certainly worth a trip to a gallery or two. (Strangely I'd gone in with the intention of having a look at the large books on Titian and to see if they had a copy of Allen Staley's Pre-Raphaelite-Landscape, which they did and which I might have a look at next week).

Hong Kong

2007-06-01T08:59:00.000+01:00

My plan to blog and post photos from Hong Kong didn't quite work out; I was just too busy. I should, however, write a little about how Hong Kong has gone up massively in my estimation. I visited HK about four years ago and although I found the the city fascinating, I certainly didn't fall in love with it. Hong Kong Island seemed to me at the time to be completely devoid of culture and to have a blatant disregard for history: nothing but a vast shrine to commercialism and greed. For the most part I'd probably agree with my notes from the time stating that HK island was the ugliest place I'd ever seen. I suppose if skyscrapers and homogeneous high rise housing are your thing, then it has a great deal to offer, but for me even the most architecturally impressive buildings leave me feeling cold. What I did enjoy last time around, and even more so on this trip, was the food: crowded restaurants churning out bowl after bowl of steaming noodles; glistening, sticky dishes of meat and poultry, strangely butchered; fragrant piles of vegetables in oyster and soy; and fresh fish and seafood cooked in a myriad of styles. We ate in the full range of eateries: from street stands and tiny cafes packed with hungry locals, to chic, expensive restaurants alongside the city boys and girls, washing down the very spiciest of Szechuan dishes with surely inappropriate fine red wine (it's my understanding that the alcohol in wine intensifies the spiciness of food- so god only knows how they were physically managing this; even the [vast quantities of] beer I was drinking seemed to be making things worse. 0ne night a smiling maître d' persuaded us to try a whole fresh crab cooked Szechuan style. During the course of that meal we both experienced the most intense chili heat by inadvertently eating a single pepper; the crab itself was delicious).

My higher opinion of Hong Kong comes largely from having spent most of our time away from the city, hiking along the various trails that that both the mainland and islands have to offer. Even the trails right on the doorstep of HK's skyscrapers (such as the famous Dragon's Back) are fantastic, and exceptionally well maintained. For us, however, the highlight of the week was a trip deep into the New Territories, a 90 minute ferry and train ride from HK island towards China-proper, to a series of waterfalls near the village of Ng Tong (see here and here). Hiking up-hill in the intense temperatures and humidity made the plunge pools of the falls extremely welcoming: cool oases to take the heat out of the day. If I ever go back, I'll pack an icebox and some cold beer, because that's about all that was missing from a near perfect day (and as luck would have it, on the way down we popped into the local Buddhist temple [it was Buddha's birthday] who sprung the biggest surprise of the week by welcoming us with a fridge full of icy cold drinks: I was expecting to have to settle for a Coke, when lo and behold I caught a glimpse of a couple of cans of local beer nestling amongst the Fanta. I thought Buddhists were largely teetotal, so I can only guess that the beer was there to offer relief to thirsty travellers. Village churches of England take note!)

Jellyfish and Pig's Throat

2007-05-22T16:52:00.000+01:00

Night three in Hong Kong, and having eaten neither of the above before, tonight's meal yielded quite a few unexpected culinary experiences. The former came with marinated fish roe and was surprisingly palatable - almost like gelatinous noodles. Next came taste-bud-blistering Sezchuan squid - marked on the menu as being 'spicy', thereby surely violating some kind of advertising understatement code of conduct. People say you shouldn't drink beer to calm the fire of chili; maybe not, but at least being a little drunk anaesthetised the pain. Never could I have imagined my girlfriend greeting the arrival of fried pig's throat (as in oesophagus) with such genuine relief. The cool offal, a soothing balm to her scorched tongue.

David Deusch - TED etc

2007-05-16T15:13:00.000+01:00

I have had a few queries about David Deutsch, to whom I alluded recently, so I thought I'd recommend this video of his TED talk a few years ago. The links to download it are just below the photo. It's fascinating, quirky and thought provoking, and a good introduction to Deutsch.

I can't stress how highly I recommend his book, The Fabric of Reality. I read it last year after a conversation about parallel universes with the best man at a stag-do (how often can you say that?)

It blew me away. It's not just (as some people imagine) about quantum physics. It's also about Karl Popper/epistemology, Dawkins/Darwin/evolution and Turing/computation. But even if you're not especially interested in any of these issues individually, I still recommend it as a superbly written book of outstanding clarity that can genuinely change the way you think.

I should add that I am not a physicist, or a competent mathematician; you need to be neither to get a great deal out of Deutsch's writing.

Flickrvision

2007-05-15T14:02:00.000+01:00

What a great little application...

http://flickrvision.com/

Tender is the Night

2007-05-15T09:05:00.000+01:00

I've finally finished Tender is the Night. It has taken me an inordinate amount of time to read.

(I was actually a little bogged down by a book that I had requested finally coming into the library: Michael Lockwood's The Labyrinth of Time which I fear, despite a personal recommendation from David Deutsch, whose Fabric of Reality is one of my favourite books, may be pitched some notches above my understanding; I'm going to give it another go in a few weeks.)

Anyway, back to Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night certainly lives up to its reputation as being a problematic, flawed masterpiece. I almost certainly accentuated its difficulties through my disjointed reading of it. I'd urge anyone who reads it to do so in as few sittings as possible, and preferably when not feeling tired. Some of it is astonishing, and it's easy to see how Hemingway was inspired by it. The best of it recalls, and indeed surpasses, The Great Gatsby but I can't bring myself to call it the equal of that tour de force. Nevertheless, and in spite of some passages that left me deeply frustrated, this story of broken and breaking lives set against an evocative backdrop of 20s French Riviera lurches (often violently) between beauty and violence through a tragic and gripping trajectory, gradually plotting the downfall of one of its protagonists.

I am slightly annoyed at myself for not doing my homework first and reading the revised 1951 version, which tells the story chronologically, rather the 1934 version which uses flashbacks. I'm more annoyed that the Penguin edition I bought doesn't even mention that there are two versions available. Fitzgerald himself made the revisons, and claimed to be happy with them (although the revised version was only published posthumously). Having now heard what he revises I'm not so sure I'll agree with him. For what it's worth, and from what I can gather, the 1934 remains the 'standard' text, largely as a result of its enduring popularity. Actually, all of this may not be such a bad thing because I really do want to read the book again, and will do so some time later this year; reading the original version will give me an added incentive to make time for it.

Hamlet Anagram

2007-05-14T13:29:00.000+01:00

To be or not to be, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune...

is, outrageously, an anagram of:

In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten...

This was noticed by a word puzzle freak called Cory Calhoun...

Portland...2

2007-05-14T08:00:00.001+01:00

Portland...2, originally uploaded by c3_allen.

Sat 12/05/2007 12:41 12052007107

Portland Bill

2007-05-13T18:39:00.001+01:00

Portland Bill, originally uploaded by c3_allen.

Sat 12/05/2007 12:51 12052007113

Weekend in Dorset

2007-05-13T18:28:00.001+01:00

Sun 13/05/2007 14:30 13052007114

Durdle Door Arch (swam here - v cold)

2007-05-13T07:58:00.000+01:00

Sun 13/05/2007 14:33 13052007115

L.H.C

2007-05-09T09:35:00.000+01:00

On the way to work this morning I was going to write a little bit about the weekend I spent at a friend's house in in Suffolk, a very pleasant few days in the country with some great people and a huge garden. Then I started reading this article...

Bank Holiday in Suffolk ...5...Mowing Joe's lawn

2007-05-06T15:07:00.001+01:00

Lifeblog post, originally uploaded by c3_allen.

Sun 06/05/2007 14:44 06052007078

Bank Holiday in Suffolk ...4...empties

2007-05-05T20:03:00.001+01:00

Lifeblog post, originally uploaded by c3_allen.

Sat 05/05/2007 20:00 05052007068

Bank Holiday in Suffolk ...3...Suffolk sunset.

2007-05-05T19:50:00.001+01:00

Lifeblog post, originally uploaded by c3_allen.

Sat 05/05/2007 19:47 05052007065

Bank Holiday in Suffolk...2...more croquet.

2007-05-05T19:45:00.001+01:00

Lifeblog post, originally uploaded by c3_allen.

Sat 05/05/2007 19:40 05052007062 More croquet...

Bank Holiday in Suffolk...croquet and champagne

2007-05-05T19:43:00.001+01:00

Lifeblog post, originally uploaded by c3_allen.

Sat 05/05/2007 19:41 05052007063 Joe's house in Suffolk. Croque and champagne

Tender is the Night

2007-04-26T13:29:00.000+01:00

Reading Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night now. It took a few chapters but it's now really gripped me. Although there are similarities to Hemingway, Fitzgerald's style is completely different and I initially found it unusually difficult to readjust to after the deceptively simple style of The Sun also Rises.

On the subject of TSAR, Ruben, one of my Belgian friends, a Hemingway specialist makes this point:

The amount of drinking in TSAR is particularly impressive - do you happen to have any idea whether wine used to be far less strong or came in smaller bottles in the twenties? Jake's last lunch in Madrid gets washed down with three (!) bottles, after which Brett asks him not to get drunk...

The Sun also Rises

2007-04-23T08:47:00.000+01:00

At risk of sounding like a Hemingway bore, I spent a highly enjoyable weekend reading The Sun also Rises, A tale of sexual jealousy, suppressed emotions, the passion of bullfighting, male friendship and alcohol. The writing is (inevitably) not quite in the same league as Garden of Eden, but it's outstanding none the less. Bullfights, boxing and so on were things that had always put me off Hemingway, but his masterful descriptions of the fiesta in Pamplona, and those of the turbulent, alcohol fuelled relationships of a group of expats, are astonishing.

Charlotte Higgins on Glyndebourne

2007-04-20T13:16:00.000+01:00

Which reminds me of something funny I read by Charlotte Higgins of the Guardian about Glyndebourne:

On another occasion, wandering through the gardens, I heard a very loud horsey voice say, in relation to my choice of hosiery, "Darling, would YOU ever wear fishnet tights?", to which the equally neighing answer came, "No mummy, I think they are terribly vulgar," which is the sort of rudeness only those who for centuries have rested luxuriantly at the very top of the feudal system can muster.

I was invited to Glyndebourne by the parents of a friend, and thought it was wonderful. I'd love to go again, should I ever be able to afford to do so; but I can see where Higgins is coming from.

GIULIO CESARE at the Met

2007-04-20T12:40:00.000+01:00

I've just read this from the NYT:

★ ‘GIULIO CESARE’ (Tomorrow and Tuesday) Though its auditorium is too big for Handel, the Metropolitan Opera makes this work come alive, thanks to exceptional Handel singers. The countertenor David Daniels excels in the daunting title role, and the soprano Ruth Ann Swenson makes a vocally exquisite Cleopatra. Patricia Bardon, a rich-toned Irish mezzo-soprano, brings lyrical elegance to the role of Cornelia. Harry Bicket conducts stylishly. (On Tuesday the countertenor Lawrence Zazzo, who has been singing Tolomeo, takes over the title role; Danielle de Niese sings Cleopatra; and Jill Grove sings Cornelia.)

I hear that Ruth Ann Swenson is not too happy with the Met at the moment, believing that Met top guy Peter Gelb thinks her 'not skinny enough for him.' There were suggestions that giving Danielle de Niese the role for a performance was something of a snub. Now I've no doubt that Ms Svenson sings Cleopatra beautifully, but I saw de Niese as Cleopatra at Glyndebourne last year and she was fantastic, completely stealing the show. She's a beautiful woman and her Cleopatra is flirty and provocative, which undoubtedly would get up Swenson's nose, but she's much more than her looks and thoroughly deserves to be giving the old timer a run for her money.

Utility Fog

2007-04-18T11:17:00.000+01:00

I think I might have to get a book out about this...

Smart Dust and Inteplanetary Exploration

2007-04-18T10:52:00.000+01:00

There was a piece on Radio 4's Today Programme this morning about Smart Dust. I had a look at the guy's website (Prof. John Barker). It's fascinating. He's a nanotechnologist, and is developing plans to send a swarm of minuscule robots (Smart Dust) into planetary systems. For a planet like mars, the robots would each each be the size of a grain of sand. The swarm could then be dispersed by the wind.

more on Smart Dust from UC Berkeley

Garden of Eden

2007-04-17T14:40:00.000+01:00

If you haven't read Hemingway's Garden of Eden I urge you to do so. It's a bit strange and quite beautiful, and quite a bit different to other Hemingway stuff. Some people liken it to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night ,which Hemingway thought was excellent. Embarrassingly I haven't read Tender is the Night, but I will soon.

(On a related note...

Harold Bloom wrote at the start of The Chaotic Age - the final section of his Western Cannon

"I am not as confident about this list as the first three. Cultural prophecy is always a mug's game. Not all of the works here can prove to be canonical; literary overpopulation is a hazard to many among them. But I have neither excluded nor included on the basis of cultural politics of any kind."

Nevertheless I thought it very peculiar that Bloom didn't include Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea (or for that matter, Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and the Damned) in his list. Bloom does, however, include The Garden of Eden. I mention this only because it backs up a point made by a friend of mine, who noted how odd it is that there exists no authoritative scholarly edition for such a textually problematic work. )

Virgin Media

2007-04-17T14:21:00.000+01:00

We recently (much to the amusement of some people) got Virgin Media. Why, they asked, didn't you get Sky? Firstly, we tend to watch football in the pub, and prefer to do so, so Sky Sports is not an issue (though I may look into Setanta next season if my local doesn't get it). Secondly the only thing I'd watch on Sky 1 is 24, and I actually hate watching that week to week anyway, so just buy the DVD when it becomes available. So, why not just get Freeview? Because Virgin on Demand is excellent. All of Nathan Barley, Black Books, Peep Show (and pretty much everything else from C4) available at the touch of a button. £20 a month for Broadband and TV (no need for a phone line, unlike Sky; who needs a land-line now anyway?)

Twitter

2007-04-17T09:18:00.000+01:00

The hype around Twitter is justified. I doubt very much that I'll ever use it much but I can imagine that once it trickles down to young teenagers it could be enormous, for the same reasons that text messaging unexpectedly exploded onto the the scene in the nineties, and MSN soon after: immediacy and simplicity. Moreover, Twitter is perfect for competing groups of self-publicists, and there are no better self publicisists than teenagers.

I can imagine Twittervision being something of a distraction from homework...

Laphroaig Quarter Cask

2007-04-17T00:09:00.000+01:00

My Belgian friends kindly bought me a bottle of this last week. I think it's wonderful. Although I've not done a tasting, on first imprssions I'd say I prefer it to the normal 10 year old, which is an established favourite of mine.

Laphroaig Quarter Cask has its final maturation in small casks (after initially being in standard barrel size American Oak). Quarter casks were used for whisky in the 19th century for ease of transport and this is an attempt to recreate the flavours that the small casks produce. The whisky is non-chill filtered, another throw-back to the olden days.

I'm guessing this bottle won't last long.

Cider and Perry

2007-04-16T23:53:00.000+01:00

I confess to not being a huge fan of cider. I was bewildered by the Magners effect, but quite pleased, I suppose, during last weekend's heatwave to see loads of people drinking less Magners and more Aspalls and Weston’s Old Rosie and Strong Organic ciders. I'm certainly going to have to give some of these try if landlords are going to the effort of putting them on the taps. A guy in my local told me recently that he reckons that British perry (pear cider) is tipped to make a comeback this summer (comeback from what, I wondered) . Would be good to see small local producers cashing in on the Magners thing, and I suppose you have to give the Irish company credit for moving people away from non-descript lagers. Perhaps some of the new cider aficionados will be tempted to give real ale a go.

Anthony Gormley's Another Place - Crosby

2007-04-16T23:36:00.000+01:00

I still can't make up my mind whether this is a good idea or not. I was totally overwhelmed by the installation on the day that I took this photo last year, but at the time I presumed it would be a temporary thing. I hadn't really been following the discussion about it, but speaking to people back in Liverpool, it seems there was a lot of protest about it. If you haven't seen it I urge you to do so.

Easter in the Lake District - Glenridding to Howtown

2007-04-16T13:58:00.000+01:00

The day after doing Helvellyn (having spent the evening in the Traveller's Rest) we decided to take it easy and walk to Howtown, planning to get the steamer back to Glenridding. The walk was described by Wainwright as one of the best walks in the Lakes. It is certainly the best lakeside walk I've done, and perfect for a day when you don't fancy hitting the fells. The weather was even more glorious than the day before; it felt like walking in the Med. The fantastic thing about a walk like this on such a hot day is that not only are there great views, but that there are lots of places to sit down relax, and take them in, whether that be on a grassy outcrop overlooking Ullswater or in the shade down with your feet in a secluded stream. I only wish we'd brought some bottles of beer as well the sandwiches.

The walk can be made to include Place Fell, if you fancy getting up a bit higher, and I think that we might give that a go next time we're in Ullswater.

Once we got to Howtown, we went for a quick pint in the Howtown Hotel, near were the steamer stops. The Theakston Bitter was refreshing, although not handpulled, and the daffodil filled garden to the rear was a fitting end to the walk.

The steamer costs about a fiver, and it's a pleasant journey. The steamer we were on first saw service in the 1880s, but has been completely refurbished. For some reason dogs hate it.

Easter in the Lake District - Helvellyn

2007-04-16T12:53:00.000+01:00

We were up in the Lake District the week before Easter (photos only going up now). The weather was unbelievable for April (and on a few days, would have been unbelievable for August). We arrived on Wednesday morning, and despite my girlfriend having just arrived on a flight from Hong Kong we decided to climb Helvellyn - up Swirral Edge and down Striding Edge. Both edges are superb in their own right; Approaching Swirral with Red Tarn on your left is a great sight, especially when it's sunny. Swirral itself is best at the point where a gap appears on your right hand side, opening up a brand new vista for the first time. Striding Edge is even more exhilarating. Most people seem to do it on the ascent, but I don't think it really makes much difference to how much fun it is, clambering as you are over bare jagged rock, with lots of mini-summits to drag yourself up.

There's a fairly decent pub called the Traveller's Rest on the road that takes you down to Glenridding that we hit at the bottom. The beer was really great (Cumberland Ale), and we enjoyed a couple of evenings there over the next few days, even if the food left a little to be desired. There's quite a lot on the menu (sadly of the chicken burger/jumbo sausage/frozen fish variety). I don't understand why pubs like this feel the need to offer so many meals; it invariably leads to poor quality. I'd rather see four or five really simple, fresh dishes.

Anyhow, the beer probably made up for it.

I say it every time I'm there, but I believe that Glenridding is missing a really good pub. The cottage (an old miners cottage) we stayed in just outside Glenridding was great, with fantastic views of the fells, but as for Glenridding itself, I prefer villages like Threlkeld (with the superlative Horse and Farrier) , Braithwaite (with the Coledale Inn) or Sawrey (Near with the Tower Bank Arms, or Far with the wonderful Sawrey Hotel).

A new (mobile) blog...

2007-04-16T09:39:00.000+01:00

This is my third attempt to write a regular blog, each has petered out. I have a feeling this one will be more successful as I'll be using a combination of Nokia's lifeblog, flickr and blogger to post while away when away from my computer using a Nokia N95 , convenient given the excellent camera and integrated blogging functions. I can post photos from my phone directly to flickr, and thence automatically to my blog, with the touch of a button, and although I'm not willing to pay for Typepad to get the full functionality of Lifeblog, I can quite easily post to blogger using the mail in function or, hopefully, go.blogger.com (though I confess to not having worked this out yet, and fear it might only work with US mobiles).

Robert Morden Map

2007-04-16T09:27:00.001+01:00

13042007004, originally uploaded by c3_allen.

A map printed around 1695 of Cumberland (now Cumbria, including the Lake District) that my brothers and I gave to our parents on their 30th Wedding anniversary.

see also here

"we shall meet again"

2007-04-16T09:05:00.001+01:00

16/04/2007, originally uploaded by c3_allen.

Another detail from a grave in Highgate.

Highgate Cemetery

2007-04-15T08:51:00.001+01:00

I had friends over from Belgium at the weekend. Early on Saturday morning we made our way over to Highgate (North London), via Hampstead Heath with a view to walking around the cemetery (Karl Marx and others are buried there.) I was completely unaware that the only way to see most of the cemetery (i.e. not the Marx bit) was by walking tour (£5 and worth every penny). A strange, Gothic world awaits you behind imposing iron gates. Nature has an increasing grip over the place with ivy weaving through graves and trees squeezing between mausoleums and catacombs. Highly recommended. In the afternoon we headed to Hampstad Village, stopping off in various pubs for ale and cider and looking for blue plaques . We stumbled upon John Betjemen, George Orwell, Katherine Mansfield, Rabindranath Tagore on the way to the (slightly out of the way) DH Lawrence, delighting my Anglophile friend who is writing a PhD on Lawrence.