Sunday 29 November 2015

Winter Wonderland

Enjoy this photo, it is the only good one!

Thursday evening I missed my bus, and since the bust stop is next to Winter Wonderland I went for a quick stroll.  This year it is spread out over a larger area, so it was less crowded.  Of course, a Thursday evening at about 16:15 isn't exactly prime Christmas Market time!

Whatever the reason, it was very pleasant, just enough people to make it well visited, but not enough to arose my claustrophobia - actually, that is rather good - 'Claus-trophobia' - being afraid of Santa Claus?

I took some photos, but as usual when it is a bit dark they turned out badly.  Tough, you are going to see them anyway.  I also looked out for the Marchpane Stand (marzipan for modernists) but couldn't locate it.  Maybe they decided  not to have a stand this year.  I shall have to do my own again.




















Tuesday 24 November 2015

A much neglected scarf - Parcours D'H

Parcours D'H by Dimitri Rybaltchenko

Parcours D'H is a scarf I bought very reluctantly, and only because it is sort of stripey, and I have a stripey top I thought it would go well with.  When I had first seen it in the shops I liked the colour - a rich tomatoey red, with hints of orange and a bit of black - but dismissed it as basically a boring scarf.  Plus, when you turn it over it has white stripes, so you have to tie it very carefully, to make sure the white doesn't show.  Lastly, it does not photograph easily - the red is much richer than my pictures convey.

The scarf depicts a sort of labyrinth - parcours means path, route.  It shows a game, where you have to get little balls from one side of the labyrinth to the other.  Not exactly exciting!  So why am I doing a post on it?

Because this turned out to be a truly brilliant scarf!  The red goes with everything!  After I finally bought this scarf off Ebay - cheaply, because everyone else seems to share my opinion that this is a boring scarf - I ended up wearing it more than any of my other scarves.  Brilliant, just brilliant.  If you see it - in red, mind, the other colours are as boring as the design - just pounce and buy it.  Before I do.  It is just the sort of scarf I might buy in multiples, just in case it wear out ....

As I said, no one likes this scarf, so I am posting these photos with features to be aware of in case you are interested - no one else seems to have done it.


This is the start of the labyrinth, note the little balls

Distinguishing signs - Hermes - Paris





See the wrinkles?  I wear this a lot!  Those are shadows, not grease spots, by the way.

White backside!

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Eve was a research scientist and black holes are illusions



I was sick at home today, and spend much of the day listening to the wireless and thinking deep thoughts.

Eve the research scientist

In the morning there was a feminist discussion on Radio 4 about Eve having been victimised and blamed for the apple thing for thousands of years, which all sounded good until I realised that they accepted this basic 'men are rational' 'women are emotional' bullshit dichotomy one is so often confronted with.

So, let's do our own analysis here!  Adam was a thicko without imagination or curiosity; God told him what to do and he obeyed.  He lacked character, too - when Eve tempted him with the apple he just gave in, he didn't have the back bone of a jelly fish.  'Rational and superior', a guy like that who blindly obeys orders and allows himself to be persuaded by some so-called 'inferior silly little woman'?  I don't think so!

But Eve now, she was a different person altogether!  When the serpent, who had given Adam up as a hopeless case before he was even created, approached Eve with the suggestion to try out the different fruit available in the Garden of Eden, she was prepared to consider it!  She was willing to stick out her neck a bit, and experiment - in fact, she was the first research scientist!

And her curiosity was rewarded by God, though of course the misogynists who scripted the Bible got it all muddled when they told the tale.  What actually happened was that God, pleased that finally one of his creations showed a bit intelligence and initiative, rewarded her by letting her out of the garden, which, though nice enough, had become stifling and boring.

So let's hear no more about women being this and men being that - I am sick to death of it.  Just because Adam was a spineless bore doesn't mean that all men alive today are, too.  And just because Eve had a creative intellect doesn't mean that all women are scientifically inclined.  How the BB-brains who wrote down the Bible could get that so wrong I really can't imagine!

Black holes & deep pits of despair

A long time ago, after my Mother had died, I used to have this recurring dream.  Every night, without fail, I dreamt that I was being chased through the streets by an angry mob.  And as I was running away big black holes would open out in front of me, deep like craters, and I would have to dodge them, and wherever I dodged to another hole opened up.  It was quite exhausting, having this dream every night!  Finally I got sick of it, and in the middle of the dream I thought, 'this is shit, I am not doing this anymore!', and jumped straight into the nearest hole.  And woke up.  And never had that dream again.

After that I only dreamed about the mad hordes chasing me.  But even that dream I managed to change, and in the end I remember sitting up high in the rafters of a tithe-barn (don't ask me why!), throwing rocks at my pursuers, and my Mother sat next to me, and tried to throw rocks as well, but couldn't, being a ghost and all, so she just egged me on, and anyway, we won every time.

Recently I had that dream about the pits opening up again.  They were terrifying!  Deep black pits trying to inculcate hopeless despair, wanting to fill me with nameless dread.  But this time there weren't any angry hordes chasing me, and so I didn't have to run.  Instead I bend down and had a closer look at the black holes that opened up in front of me.  And would you believe it, they weren't holes at all.  Just black paint!   If Eve were here she would probably figure out who the invisible idiot was who painted black holes on the streets of my dreams, but I, being less scientifically inclined, just walked across them.

The road led to la Banne d'Ordanche, by the way.  Funny things, dreams!



Sunday 15 November 2015

Paris attacks - Keep calm and carry on!

We are all very shocked about the terrorist attacks on Friday the 13th in Paris, and there has been much discussion about why it happened and what one should do about it.

I have no great insights into the situation, and am in no position to give advice.  No doubt the state will adopt measures, and enact laws, and generally do what they can to protect us, which is their job.  But as for myself, I plan to go on with my life exactly as before.

I recall reading a 'joke' once about three Jews in a concentration camp, who were discussing what they would do to Hitler and the Nazis if they managed to survive.  The first two outlined various punishments, which I have forgotten.  But the third had a different story to tell.

He imagined that he would be back in his old cafe in Vienna, drinking coffee and reading the papers. And one day, when he was almost finished reading, Hitler came by and asked this man whether he might perhaps be kind enough to give him the paper to read, please, when he was finished with it. And the man lowered the newspaper, and looked at Hitler, and said, "To you, never!"

I never forgot this, because it seemed to me strangely appropriate.

It is easy to retaliate, to repay violence with violence.  We feel this need to act, to do something.  But faced with such attacks, there is really nothing any one individual can do.  Whether we agitate for the state to retaliate, or demonstrate, or write articles, or start to distance ourselves from Muslims, it will all be water to the terrorist mill.

But there is one thing we can all do individually.  We can continue with our lives, exactly as before, as though nothing very important had happened.  As for the terrorists, we can lower our newspapers, look at them sternly, and say "Tut tut tut" in a slightly disapproving way.  And then go on reading.

The world is full of misfortune and disease and hunger and hardship.  We tend to forget this, being comfortable in our own homes.  And when we hear about a particular issue in the news, or are confronted by it in our own lands, we focus on this one issue, and don't see the wider context.

This is one of the reasons why we are dealing so foolishly for example with the recent migrant issue. We feel sorry for the Syrians, and rightly so, but forget that about 3 billion other people have just as much reason to abandon their life and seek a better one in Europe as they do.  And instead of considering the matter thoughtfully and devising a proper plan of action, we more often than not rush into action and waste our money and emotion and help the wrong people, if indeed we help anyone at all in the long run.

In the same vein, we get all excited because 50 people are killed in a school shooting, or 20 get ill from salmonella poisoning, or 130 die in a terrorist attack.  But what about the tens of thousands who die in car crashes, hundreds of thousands who die of diseases, millions who perish from being malnourished?  The billions who lead truly wretched lives all over the world?

Compared to the big problems that face humanity, terrorism is chickenfeed.  The terrorists are mainly just angry confused frustrated misguided young people who want a purpose in life and have been used by a few fanatics.  Like children who have temper tantrums, the damage they inflict, compared to for instance the major diseases, is tiny.  Of course they can kill and injure individuals, but they cannot harm the state or humanity as a whole.

That's why the response of lowering one's newspaper and tut-tutting is appropriate.   We grant these people an importance they simply do not have.  What makes them dangerous is not that they can kill people - we can all do that, and frequently do (drunk driving, spreading diseases, facilitating global warming, etc).  No, the danger is that we react so disproportionately to terrorist threats that we completely change our lives for the worse.

Personally, I refuse to contract myself into a nutshell of pointless fear, afraid to lead my life as I see fit, because some overgrown children might throw a deadly temper tantrum.


Sunday 8 November 2015

Paris in November - A Truly Lovely Day!

St Etienne du Mont

I had another excellent day in Paris.  It was 21 C, so we were able to have lunch sitting outside in the sunshine.  The plan had been to go to the Christmas market at La Defense, but it doesn't start until later in the month, so we went to the area of the Parthenon instead.

A really beautiful area, the sort that made one of my colleagues opine that, "after she had seen Paris she thought London was ugly".  I hasten to add that my Paris friends vehemently disagreed with that sentiment, as indeed do I - Paris and London are each beautiful in their own right, the one with its classically arranged order and the other with its higgledy piggledy patchwork style of vital exuberance.  In the sunshine they are both wonderful!

I enjoyed the day particularly because the last few days in London and Oxford were very rain- dominated.  Luckily the weather is supposed to improve in England as well, so I am looking forward to a few sunny autumn days before all the leaves and lovely fall colours have disappeared.

This door marks an important episode in the life of my friend A!

Parthenon approaching

From the other side

Nice door!







Auvergnat restaurants where we partook of excellent food just around the corner from the Parthenon


Look at this building - apartments no deeper than six feet, I reckon.  And any wind can tip it over!

Inside St Etienne - only church I ever saw that had a clock on the inside!











I do love a good planting!  Just outside the Senate, Jardin de Luxembourg



Senate Building