web analytics

Flotsam and Jetsam

So… Rugby!

by

Now – where was I?

Other more pressing matters have been occupying my attention over the past weeks (not necessarily in a good way) and it has been a while since I last posted a comment on the current happenings in the world of rugby.

Some might argue that focusing attention on a sport in these stressful times is the equivalent of sticking one’s fingers in one’s ears and loudly proclaiming “La la la la…!” – to which I reply – “Too right! That’s the whole idea“.

Now then…

Much has happened since my last rugby update. In my 4th October post – ‘Fourth Quarter‘ – the subject of Bath Rugby’s progress (or lack thereof) in the hastily reconvened Premiership was left on a cliff-hanger: they would make it through to the playoffs if the COVID affected game between Sale and Worcester Warriors failed to take place on the following Wednesday. As it turned out that game did not take place and Bath squeaked through to the semi-finals. Unfortunately there they met the eventual champions (of everything this year!) Exeter Chiefs, who proved considerably too much for them. Still – at the start of the season a semi-final slot would have been scarcely thinkable, so this still counts as a good result.

The Six Nations championship had been abandoned back in March with little more than one round left to play. That final round was eventual played on 31st October, with England away in Italy, Ireland away in France and Wales at home to the Scots. All that need be said was that the English did enough against Italy to hit the top of the table and the French win over Ireland in Paris proved close enough that neither side could overtake them.

The key game (for me, anyway) was the doughty performance of the Scots in dreadful conditions in Wales. It wasn’t pretty but the Scots came away with a 14 – 10 win; their first in Wales for eighteen years. This left them fourth in the championship with three wins out of five – and the best defensive record of the tournament! That definitely counts as a win in my book.

By some quirk of TV scheduling we also got to watch the four Bledisloe Cup games between the Aussies and the All Blacks. The latter took the series (again!) but didn’t have things all their own way. What was refreshing was to see rugby played again in front of a crowd. In New Zealand and Australia the pandemic is significantly more under-control than it is in the northern hemisphere.

And now…?

The Autumn Nations Cup! A (possibly) one-off replacement for the usual Autumn internationals – to be competed for by the six nations plus Georgia and Fiji. The tournament is to be played in two pools and would originally have featured Japan before COVID ruled that out and brought Georgia into the mix.

Anyway – it is starting as I write… so further reporting as things progress.

 

We dreamed it

by

“I painted it because I dreamed it
because we all dreamed it”

Marie Burdett, The Little Boy and the Painter

I promised some before and after images of the exterior decoration of our lovely house.

Ta-dah!…

Here are some before and after shots (double-click to enlarge):

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidThe stucco colour is still light – we want the house to stay cool in summer – but the colours are much warmer. The woodwork at the front was previously stained but is now a fetching shade of ‘Stonehenge Greige’ (don’t ask – but it’s all the rage!).

More ‘after’ shots:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

 

Out for review

by

“My congratulations to you, sir. Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.”

Samuel Johnson

In my post to this journal of July 17th – ‘Closer than you think‘ – I described how the Chanteuse and I had contrived – in spite of all difficulties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic lock-down – to start remotely recording her vocals onto a set of ten tracks that I had prepared – and which we hoped to turn into a new Anam Danu album in due course.

My last update on the matter came at the end of a post of August 25th entitled ‘Busy, busy, busy‘ – the which was primarily (unsurprisingly) concerned with just how busy we were… it being ‘that time of year’!

Well – these things do indeed take time – but I feel that an update is due.

We have finished recording the vocals and the tracks are essentially complete. That does not mean that they are ready to be sent out into the world. I have been doing much in the way of post-processing and making initial and intermediate mixes. The next stage is to finalise the mixes, to decide on the sequencing and to send the tracks off to a professional Mastering Engineer to get them ‘mastered’ ready for submission to whichever online distribution company we choose to go with. Much more on that stage of the process later.

There is – however – one more thing to be done before we send our tracks for mastering… and that is to get feedback on them from some trusted and interested parties. That is where we are at right now – and I can tell you that it is a nerve-racking process. Having spent many months in very close proximity to these creations as they have evolved we must now stand back from them and ask others to give us – in their own time – their opinions on our endeavours.

Not much makes me nervous. This – however – does!

Have passport…

by

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid…still won’t travel!

A few weeks back my new UK passport finally arrived. I now get another ten years of winging my way around the world until I have to go through that palaver again. Right now – of course – I have no desire to hop on a plane to go anywhere.

Still – I could if I needed to…

The new passport was delivered to our residence by one of the better know carriers. The chap who rang our doorbell did not ask for a signature (no-one seems to do that any more in these grim times) – but he did, however, cheerfully remark:

”You’ll get another one of those in a couple of days.”

He was not wrong, of course, for a few days later my old passport – corner docked as per – also turned up. What worried me somewhat was that the man clearly knew that the package he was delivering contained a passport. I suppose it was not a difficult guess, given that Victoria is teeming with ex-pats who must all on occasion receive double deliveries of passport sized packages.

Still – living in a small community is all very well but there are (or should be) limits…

Incidentally, whatever the ghastly brexit mob might claim (and however the thing appears in the accompanying image) this passport ain’t blue (that’s just the light in the photo – honest!)…

…it’s black!

Anyway – I hope that you still feel that it was all worth it (I just bet that you do!).

Sorry – that was only for those who should have known better! As you were…

 

Now then – where’s my replacement Canadian Permanent Resident card? No point being able to leave the country (should I ever wish so to do) if I can’t then get back in!

 

 

Fourth quarter

by

The fourth quarter of the year starts as it always does – with the Kickass Canada Girl’s birthday. There have been times in the past when the celebrations have been really quite elaborate, involving a trip to some splendid resort or reservations at a fancy eatery (or on occasion – both!). We have many happy memories of these celebratory excursions; those to Bath and the Algarve perhaps standing out in particular.

There are other times – however – when something simple at home is the order of the day. In such pandemic-ridden times as these this latter was clearly called for. The Girl seems to have had a good time nonetheless, having seen loved ones and dear friends and having at least been wined and dined on my special homemade pizza accompanied by a rather stonking Chateauneuf du Pape.

Happy birthday to The Girl!

October also means that the first month of teaching is done. We have scampered through the opening laps – acclimatising ourselves to the pace – and we are now digging in for the long haul through to Christmas. There will doubtless be a point – as the climax of the race approaches – at which there will come a moment of truth, when we must needs push through the barrier, discover our true character and determine who the winners and runners up will be.

I think I have pushed that metaphor about as far as I reasonably can…

The nights are – naturally – drawing in (boo!) and the only remotely good thing about that is that, by the time that we are aware of it, we are more than halfway towards the shortest day. Now I know that the winter proper (as Canadians would have it) doesn’t kick in until January and February but – frankly – that is a problem for another time.

I can’t let this moment in time pass without making further reference to Bath Rugby.

Oh dear, oh dear!

Today saw the final round of matches in the Premiership, the which would determine the final four who would progress to the playoffs. Bath needed only to beat the grim Saracens to get through. Naturally, having led for much of the game they contrived to give up several scores as full-time approached – the fixture ending in a draw! This would have been enough to put Bath out, were it not for the fact that one of the other key fixtures – the Sale/Worcester clash – was postponed after Sale suffered sixteen positive COVID-19 tests! That match has been put back until Wednesday, but if further tests are also positive may not take place at all – which would mean that Bath sneak through to the finals instead.

So – three days (perhaps) on tenterhooks and then a hardly satisfactory outcome – whichever way it goes…

Oh dear!…

Faith Healer

by

Last weekend we saw again one of my favourite plays – the late Brian Friel’s “Faith Healer“. Though I have read it again in the interim I have not seen it since the splendid 1992 Royal Court production in London.

“Faith Healer” is a three hander but written in an unusual form – comprising as it does four long monologues, starting and ending with those of the play’s protagonist – the ‘Fantastic Francis Hardy’ (as the poster for the faith healer’s one-night performances in small towns and villages throughout Wales, Scotland and – fatally – Ireland has it).

I am not usually a big fan of the monologue (a fact that I have broadcast within these musings on more than one occasion) and particularly of the way that it forms the core of the majority of one-person shows. It seems to me in most instances to lack the dramatic power of dialogue, reducing the performance to a one-dimensional perspective. Now – there most certainly are exceptions to this generalisation, but they have to be exceptional to be so as the form itself mitigates against it.

That Friel’s masterpiece does so triumphantly only starts to become apparent some minutes into the second monologue – delivered by the faith healer’s English mistress, Grace – or is it his wife – and is she actually English after all? Even those familiar with the concept of the unreliable narrator will find it difficult to keep their feet as the play lurches from one telling of the tale to the next (the faith healer’s manager Teddy completes the trio) and even the faith healer’s own second monologue contradicts his first in vital respects.

The audience is left to try to pick the elements of truth from this tangled web of narratives – a brilliant device that renders the play instantly multi-dimensional and restores to the form one of the elements it most commonly lacks – that of subtext!

In the aforementioned 1992 Royal Court production a good friend played the part of Teddy – the which he was to repeat in the 2016 London revival to five star reviews. We were sadly unable to see the latter production – having already moved to Canada.

This latest production was live-streamed from an empty Old Vic in London as part of that wonderful institution’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic – “Old Vic: In Camera”. The theatre sold the same number of tickets (at heavily discounted prices) for Zoom streaming as the house usually seats and for “Faith Healer” there were just four live shows – which were not recorded. For us this meant watching the excellent Michael Sheen, Indira Varma and David Threlfall at 11:30 in the morning (that being 7:30 in the evening UK time) and it really did feel a little like being present at a live theatrical performance. It was – at any rate – about as close as we are going to be able to get anytime soon.

Our grateful thanks to all concerned for a wonderful and thought-provoking experience.

Decorate your home

by

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidDecorate your home. It gives the illusion that your life is more interesting than it really is. 

Charles M. Shulz

Just to record that our house-painters have commenced their endeavours. The stucco, siding, doors and trim of our humble(ish) abode are getting a long overdue make-over.

I will naturally post further pictures when they have finished – which should not be too long as a fair bit of the house comprises patio windows (sliders to Canadian folk).

I may even post some before/after shots if I can locate suitable ‘pre’-pictures (said he, revealing a total lack of forethought or planning!)

Sadly it was ever thus…

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

As good as it gets?

by

What feels like just a few weeks back – but is in fact nearly a month – I wrote a post entitled ‘Welcome Back‘, which raised more than a cheer for the return of Premiership rugby in the UK. In its infinite wisdom (?) the Premiership had decided to complete the unfinished 2019/20 season by the end of October – a feat the achievement of which would require the playing of midweek matches as well as weekend games – before ploughing directly into the 2020/21 season.

Now – rugby is not like soccer (thanks goodness!). It is a contact sport (of course) and a tough one at that… without the dubious protection of the helmets and other accoutrements that are de rigeur in North American variants of the oval ball game.

This means that the players need more recovery time between fixtures than do top level footballers. Of course – there is also nowhere near as much money in rugby, so squads are smaller and one can’t simply run two fifteens in that way that soccer teams can field multiple elevens.

As a result the clubs are all experiencing a particularly intense period right at the moment. The fact that they had plenty of time to prepare during the lock-down has certainly helped – but it is going to be a long haul to the end of the next season.

From the rugby enthusiast’s point of view the more frequent games are rather wonderful – particularly as we went without for so long. If your club is not going so well – of course – it can get pretty depressing, as losses pile up even more rapidly than usual.

If you are doing well – on the other hand…

The gentle reader has probably guessed where this is going. Our team – Bath – has had a run of form such as it has not experienced since the year that we came to Canada. That year they made it through to the final and only lost to the beastly Saracens (boo!). This time Bath have won all of their games subsequent to the return bar one – and have also acquired a healthy crop of bonus points to boot. With two fixtures to go they are comfortably in the top four – which teams get through to the playoff stage.

Now I don’t want to jinx anything (though it is probably already too late for that). The way the season has panned out only the top five clubs have a chance of making the finals – which means that one of them is going to miss out. Bath does not have the easiest of run-ins and the other four are looking strong.

Still – whichever way it turns out this will have been one of their best seasons in recent memory – and that definitely merits a seriously huge cheer.

Come on you Bath!

The other stuff (2)

by

Herewith the recently promised second example of things that take a great deal longer to accomplish than they should…

Those who have been following these ramblings for some time may recall this (strangely unseasonal) scene. Back in February 2019 Victoria suffered one its rare serious falls of snow, the last few remnants of which still lingered in sheltered spots a month later.

The good ship Dignity (pictured here) suffered a mishap as a consequence, the weight of snow piled on top of her aged and decaying (I know how it feels) Bimini cover causing it to split at the seams and to deposit several feet of snow into her cockpit.

Once the snow had gone I immediately set about finding someone to make a replacement cover. Until such time as this could be done Dignity was likely to be laid up, covered with a tightly secured tarpaulin. It was touch and go as to whether we would get her on the water for the 2019 season at all.

Oh – if only things had been that simple!

Now – to be fair we were away for a month in the UK and Europe during May and early June – but there really is no excuse for what transpired. I had been recommended a canopy maker – one of Victoria’s long standing family concerns – and they took my deposit, agreed to order the necessary materials and I left them to set to work. That proved to have been a mistake and six months and more later I was still calling, visiting their workshop and generally trying to make a (polite) nuisance of myself. Each time they swore blind than there had been this problem or that emergency and they were just getting started. Each time absolutely nothing – zero! – zip! – nada! – happened.

Then the company disappeared! The workshops closed and emails and phone numbers became black holes from which no response ever escaped. I saw the proprietress once more – when she called at my front door to return the existing canvases from which she was to have made the required copy. I asked for my deposit back. She said she would effect an e-Transfer.

Did I get my money back? Did I bu**ery!

So – at the end of last year Dignity was still securely wrapped in a tarp and I was looking for a new Bimini maker. I thought I had found one, though he was busy until the new year. We very nearly got a cover made in February – but that was just at the time that we went to Mexico for a week and the date slipped back.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck. My canvas maker lost his assistant (who did not return from his winter holidays down south) and the job started to get pushed back and back again. Then the canopy maker’s wife fell ill and he had to withdraw from a host of jobs – mine included. At least this time I got my deposit back… and a recommendation to a third company.

The good news is that, in this case, third time was definitely lucky and – as of this week – Dignity is now resplendent in her shiny new Bimini top – courtesy of Marlene at Verde Studios in Langford. She gets the kudos and the name-check for having finished a job that took more than a year and a half in total.

Of course – with term starting this week and with everything else that is happening Dignity won’t be getting on the water this year either.

Oh well – here’s to next year!

+ More