anarchist_nomad (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
anarchist_nomad) wrote2008-11-17 06:06 pm
anarchist_nomad) wrote2008-11-17 06:06 pm
I Know It Isn't Easy Packing Stuff At Skullcrusher Mountain
Hurm. I have been informed by Secret LJ GnomesTM that it has been too long since I posted an entry to journal my life. Well, gentle readers, I'm afraid that you all know what this means! That's right -- it's the Return Of The Return Of The Week In Review Post! In fact, it has been so long since I made a proper journal entry that this becomes the Extended Edition of the RotRotWiRP!
So let's turn back the clocks to a week ago Saturday and see what your Friendly Neighborhood Nomad has been up to!
Saturday (Nov 08): Split the day in half. The first half was the fun half, spent packing and moving boxes from Skullcrusher Mountain to the [as yet unnamed] new flat. In contrast, the second half was not nearly as excited --![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cheshcat and I headed to Leicester to attend a housewarming party for thehalibutkid and sanjibabes. Being that it was the first weekend after Guy Fawkes Day, the party came complete with a [mostly] self-contained bonfire and a fireworks display in the rain. Having watched fireworks whilst huddled under an umbrella, I have been informed that I am now suitably British. There were many lovely people at the party, some of whom I already knew... and others that it was a pleasure to get to know better. One person in particular was well worth stealing a little bit of alone time with. She knows who she is...
Sunday (Nov 09): Woke up early to ring bells at St. Giles for the Remembrance Sunday services. On Remembrance Sunday, the bells are half muffled[*], changing the quality of the sound considerably. The muffled half of the bells makes a much more somber music. This is the second year that I have joined in the band for ringing on Remembrance Sunday. A large crowd gathers at the war memorial outside of St. Giles Church whilst we ring. As we are the start of the city's Remembrance Sunday services, this is the largest intentional audience that I ring to all year. After the ringing, I went outside to listen to the actual service. Last year was the first that Oxford's Remembrance Sunday service included speakers from non-Christian faiths; a "representative" was present from the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh communities. I have mixed feelings about Remembrance Sunday. On the one hand, I do believe it is important to honour the many dead victims of war. On the side of the fence, though, the service feels a bit too militaristic for me, with marching by more contingents of the armed forces than I can name.
The rest of the day was less eventful -- it primarily consisted of more moving fun. I returned to St. Giles Church in the evening, though, to ring the bells -- now unmuffled -- for the usual Sunday services. I have been practicing the treble to Single Oxford Bob Triples lately; it makes for a good change from Grandsire Triples and is useful to improving my ropesight!
Monday (Nov 10): Went to work during the day. After work, I had my ice skating lesson -- the second one in the Level Seven class. Inside three-turns are tricky! Backwards crossovers are coming along reasonably well. Continuous circles on an outside edge are not bad... but doing the same on an inside edge is challenging. I may end up needing to repeat the Level Seven class. We shall see -- four lessons left. If I do, it will not be the end of the world, nor the end of my ice skating progression. One of our instructors has pointed out that he has never seen anyone go from level one through ten without repeating at least one of the levels. So it will happen to me sometime -- the question is just when.
Tuesday (Nov 11): Went to work during the day. In the evening, I rang bells at Mary Mag with the Oxford University Society of Change Ringers. The OUSCR and the St. Giles bands are challenging me in different ways. This is a good thing -- it allows me to progress my skills on different fronts.
Wednesday (Nov 12): Went to work during the day. In the evening, I had no plans. This is the last such evening for several weeks. I used the time to continue packing up Skullcrusher Mountain... and to have a lovely phone conversation with the even more lovelyperspicacious!
Thursday (Nov 13): Went to work during the day. In the evening, I was supposed to ring bells at St. Giles. However, our weekly group meeting at Imperial lasted too long, so I was unable to get back to Oxford in time to do this. In the late evening, I had a video conference from the comfort of my own home with the US, Switzerland, Canada, London, and Japan. It looks like these meetings are going to be a regular bi-weekly thing now. So every other Thursday will involve a 4pm local meeting at Imperial, followed by a ride back to Oxford, [hopefully] bell ringing at St. Giles from 7:30 - 8:45pm, a quick dinner, and then a video conference from 10pm until midnight! Wowza!
Friday (Nov 14): Went to Queen Mary University of London during the day to meet with RT. It was quite productive. Then back to Oxford, collectingcheshcat, and off to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Love's Labours Lost. Overall, the production was..... okay. However, this play rates with Measure For Measure and Troilus and Cressida as one of my least favourite Shakespearean plays.[**] Joe Dixon, the actor who played Bottom when I saw A Midsummer Nights Dream with Darelle, was cast as Don Armado... and, once again, he managed to steal the show! Absolutely brilliant he is -- especially with accents! I did not initially realise it was the same actor -- his voice sounded so dramatically different! Still, as good as the performance was, the text just leaves me mostly dry. At best, it seems to be a poor person's Much Ado About Nothing. And what is up with the dancing Russians, anyway? Did Shakespeare add that bit on a dare? Did he lose a bet??
Saturday (Nov 15): Started the day with a visit to the Earth From The Air art exhibit on display at the Oxford Castle. This particular showing is 120 photographs taken from around the world at a wide variety of altitudes. You have crowd scenes on the Ivory Coast, ice floes in the Antarctic, gorgeous shots of Yellowstone, and more.[***] We spent a couple of hours there and made it through fifty-three of the prints; we will return before the exhibit ends in January to see the rest.
Sunday (Nov 16): Woke up early to ring bells for the 9:45am service at St. Giles. When I arrived, several people looked rather startled -- I am notorious for never making it to the ordinary Sunday service ringing. Quite frankly, I prefer to sleep in on Sundays if I am not out of town or otherwise engaged. One ringer jokingly asked me if I was now just arriving late for the Thursday ringing practice. I replied that I was... but I was really not joking. Since I missed Thursday ringing, I decided to make up for it by doing additional Sunday ringing. The rest of the morning was spent on the mundane task of buying some essentials for the new flat; nothing really exciting there. The afternoon and evening was largely spent packing... with two notable exceptions. One was a return to St. Giles for evening service ringing, the other was a delightful exchange of text messages... culminating in an equally delightful phone conversation! By the end of the day, I had removed all of my personal belongings from the old flat. Not quite done with the place (e.g., there is still cleaning to do), but very nearly there!
So that is the ever-exciting Week (Or So) In Review post! Still here? Still awake? If so, leave a comment and you automatically get fifty points for sheer perseverance! Alternatively, if you attempted to read this and fell asleep, let me know! I can market this entry as a sleep aid and make millions![****]
[*] Although it is customary to say that the bells are muffled (or half muffled), the muffles are actually put on the clappers, not on the bells themselves.
[**] For those who seem to think that the History Plays are boring, I say a most resounding "fooey!" Seeing the fully History Cycle in February was one of the most intense theatrical experiences of my life. Don't believe me? See here for an example of feedback at the time.
[***]perspicacious, I would be particularly interested in your opinion of this exhibit, if you can get a sense of it from the website. Obviously, it is not the same as viewing the large prints in person in their outdoor setting at the Castle... but I would still be curious to know what you think...
[****] Millions of what, I am not yet certain!
So let's turn back the clocks to a week ago Saturday and see what your Friendly Neighborhood Nomad has been up to!
Saturday (Nov 08): Split the day in half. The first half was the fun half, spent packing and moving boxes from Skullcrusher Mountain to the [as yet unnamed] new flat. In contrast, the second half was not nearly as excited --
cheshcat and I headed to Leicester to attend a housewarming party for thehalibutkid and sanjibabes. Being that it was the first weekend after Guy Fawkes Day, the party came complete with a [mostly] self-contained bonfire and a fireworks display in the rain. Having watched fireworks whilst huddled under an umbrella, I have been informed that I am now suitably British. There were many lovely people at the party, some of whom I already knew... and others that it was a pleasure to get to know better. One person in particular was well worth stealing a little bit of alone time with. She knows who she is...Sunday (Nov 09): Woke up early to ring bells at St. Giles for the Remembrance Sunday services. On Remembrance Sunday, the bells are half muffled[*], changing the quality of the sound considerably. The muffled half of the bells makes a much more somber music. This is the second year that I have joined in the band for ringing on Remembrance Sunday. A large crowd gathers at the war memorial outside of St. Giles Church whilst we ring. As we are the start of the city's Remembrance Sunday services, this is the largest intentional audience that I ring to all year. After the ringing, I went outside to listen to the actual service. Last year was the first that Oxford's Remembrance Sunday service included speakers from non-Christian faiths; a "representative" was present from the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh communities. I have mixed feelings about Remembrance Sunday. On the one hand, I do believe it is important to honour the many dead victims of war. On the side of the fence, though, the service feels a bit too militaristic for me, with marching by more contingents of the armed forces than I can name.
The rest of the day was less eventful -- it primarily consisted of more moving fun. I returned to St. Giles Church in the evening, though, to ring the bells -- now unmuffled -- for the usual Sunday services. I have been practicing the treble to Single Oxford Bob Triples lately; it makes for a good change from Grandsire Triples and is useful to improving my ropesight!
Monday (Nov 10): Went to work during the day. After work, I had my ice skating lesson -- the second one in the Level Seven class. Inside three-turns are tricky! Backwards crossovers are coming along reasonably well. Continuous circles on an outside edge are not bad... but doing the same on an inside edge is challenging. I may end up needing to repeat the Level Seven class. We shall see -- four lessons left. If I do, it will not be the end of the world, nor the end of my ice skating progression. One of our instructors has pointed out that he has never seen anyone go from level one through ten without repeating at least one of the levels. So it will happen to me sometime -- the question is just when.
Tuesday (Nov 11): Went to work during the day. In the evening, I rang bells at Mary Mag with the Oxford University Society of Change Ringers. The OUSCR and the St. Giles bands are challenging me in different ways. This is a good thing -- it allows me to progress my skills on different fronts.
Wednesday (Nov 12): Went to work during the day. In the evening, I had no plans. This is the last such evening for several weeks. I used the time to continue packing up Skullcrusher Mountain... and to have a lovely phone conversation with the even more lovely
perspicacious!Thursday (Nov 13): Went to work during the day. In the evening, I was supposed to ring bells at St. Giles. However, our weekly group meeting at Imperial lasted too long, so I was unable to get back to Oxford in time to do this. In the late evening, I had a video conference from the comfort of my own home with the US, Switzerland, Canada, London, and Japan. It looks like these meetings are going to be a regular bi-weekly thing now. So every other Thursday will involve a 4pm local meeting at Imperial, followed by a ride back to Oxford, [hopefully] bell ringing at St. Giles from 7:30 - 8:45pm, a quick dinner, and then a video conference from 10pm until midnight! Wowza!
Friday (Nov 14): Went to Queen Mary University of London during the day to meet with RT. It was quite productive. Then back to Oxford, collecting
cheshcat, and off to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Love's Labours Lost. Overall, the production was..... okay. However, this play rates with Measure For Measure and Troilus and Cressida as one of my least favourite Shakespearean plays.[**] Joe Dixon, the actor who played Bottom when I saw A Midsummer Nights Dream with Darelle, was cast as Don Armado... and, once again, he managed to steal the show! Absolutely brilliant he is -- especially with accents! I did not initially realise it was the same actor -- his voice sounded so dramatically different! Still, as good as the performance was, the text just leaves me mostly dry. At best, it seems to be a poor person's Much Ado About Nothing. And what is up with the dancing Russians, anyway? Did Shakespeare add that bit on a dare? Did he lose a bet??Saturday (Nov 15): Started the day with a visit to the Earth From The Air art exhibit on display at the Oxford Castle. This particular showing is 120 photographs taken from around the world at a wide variety of altitudes. You have crowd scenes on the Ivory Coast, ice floes in the Antarctic, gorgeous shots of Yellowstone, and more.[***] We spent a couple of hours there and made it through fifty-three of the prints; we will return before the exhibit ends in January to see the rest.
Sunday (Nov 16): Woke up early to ring bells for the 9:45am service at St. Giles. When I arrived, several people looked rather startled -- I am notorious for never making it to the ordinary Sunday service ringing. Quite frankly, I prefer to sleep in on Sundays if I am not out of town or otherwise engaged. One ringer jokingly asked me if I was now just arriving late for the Thursday ringing practice. I replied that I was... but I was really not joking. Since I missed Thursday ringing, I decided to make up for it by doing additional Sunday ringing. The rest of the morning was spent on the mundane task of buying some essentials for the new flat; nothing really exciting there. The afternoon and evening was largely spent packing... with two notable exceptions. One was a return to St. Giles for evening service ringing, the other was a delightful exchange of text messages... culminating in an equally delightful phone conversation! By the end of the day, I had removed all of my personal belongings from the old flat. Not quite done with the place (e.g., there is still cleaning to do), but very nearly there!
So that is the ever-exciting Week (Or So) In Review post! Still here? Still awake? If so, leave a comment and you automatically get fifty points for sheer perseverance! Alternatively, if you attempted to read this and fell asleep, let me know! I can market this entry as a sleep aid and make millions![****]
[*] Although it is customary to say that the bells are muffled (or half muffled), the muffles are actually put on the clappers, not on the bells themselves.
[**] For those who seem to think that the History Plays are boring, I say a most resounding "fooey!" Seeing the fully History Cycle in February was one of the most intense theatrical experiences of my life. Don't believe me? See here for an example of feedback at the time.
[***]
perspicacious, I would be particularly interested in your opinion of this exhibit, if you can get a sense of it from the website. Obviously, it is not the same as viewing the large prints in person in their outdoor setting at the Castle... but I would still be curious to know what you think...[****] Millions of what, I am not yet certain!
no subject
I have to say Taming of the Shrew is possibly my least favourite, although I confess to not feeling overly favourable towards Measure for Measure but then, for me, they have a similar feel.
no subject
I'm glad that you brought up The Taming of the Shrew.
In contrast, Loves Labours Lost and Measure For Measure don't offend me... they just bore me. Shrew and Merchant may have pissed me off... but they didn't put me to sleep.
I guess that "least favourite" is a poor choise of words on my part. In the absence of context, it is a vague and ambiguous construct. (Hopefully this comment has helped remove some of that ambiguity!)
On my way to ice skating now -- whee! (*kiss*)
no subject
However, I found both Taming of the Shrew and Measure for Measure to be offensive in their treatment of women (even allowing for contemporary social norms) and yes, Measure for Measure did add insult to injury by also being a bit of a slog to get through
no subject
Hmmmm... My first instinct when I hear that there are plays you have not seen is to perkily say: "We could fix that!"
On the other hand, why in the world would I want to take you to see the most boring and most offensive Shakespearean plays that I know! *grin*
P.S. *kiss* (Just because!)
no subject
no subject
In fact, I had to invent the COTNA just now, so that I could give it to you for that reply! ;-)
Nice icon, too, by the way! Very fitting!
no subject
no subject
Ha, I completely agree with you about Love's Labour's Lost; have you ever seen the Kenneth Branagh movie version? I was halfway hopeful that he would manage to make it more interesting somehow, but I actually basically just wandered away from it (not exactly ordinary behavior from me; I am persistent to the point of stupidity, generally speaking). I would have to agree with you and
Glad to know you're still managing to have some fun, even amidst all the moving and commuting! You said you're unlikely to have any unplanned evenings for several weeks - are you doing anything especially exciting?
(I think I should get extra redeemable points for the length of my reply. Right? *wink*)
no subject
To answer your questions, the exhibit is indeed outdoors, in the courtyards of the Oxford Castle. Once an actual Norman castle, the building served primarily as a prison for over five hundred years -- closing only in 1996. It is now a tourist attraction, with a permanent history exhibit inside since 2006, a luxury hotel where the prison cells used to be (!), and outdoor theatre in the courtyards during the summer.[*]
Being outside, there is quite a bit of space for people to move about. Additionally, being outside, the exhibit is open to viewing twenty-four/seven. We saw it during the daytime, so far, but there are lights over each photograph that come on at night. I would like to go back in the dark and see how that changes things.
Which photographs did you like? Some, cottons drying in the sun or the patchwork or carpets don't really say all that much to me. Others really reach out to me, though. Some of the ones I like, such as Yellowstone park, are visually stunning. Others, like the worker on a bale of cotton, appeal to me for their human aspect. (There are also mixes of the two, like the Blue Lagoon) Additionally, there are a rare pictures of places I have been -- like Venice, or the White Horse of Uffington. Those appeal to me on a personal level... because I can remember being there and can see myself in the picture!
Yeah, I really do need to get that teleporter going! I would love to bring you to this exhibit, Sweetie!
Jumping topics entirely now: I have not seen KB's film of Loves Labours Lost. I like the work that KB does with Shakespeare -- I thought that his Hamlet was incredible![**] Still, I don't think that even he could save this one. The text is Just Too Boring! The fact that you just wandered away from it is good evidence of this... and it made me laugh, too! *grin*
I always try to squeeze in a little fun, even when there is work to be done. The move itself should be over by tonight -- two more boxes of stuff to pack, plus one bookcase and two kitties to bring. Then an evening or two to clean the old place and we are done. Hooray!
As for my upcoming plans? For the next three weeks (including this one), my weeknights look like this: Monday - ice skating. Tuesday - bell ringing at Mary Mag. Wednesday - theatre (usually at the Oxford Playhouse (http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/)). Thursday - bell ringing at St. Giles. As for the weekends, this weekend is a Thanksgiving party in London with a couple of other ex-pat friends; next weekend is Winter Light in Oxford on Friday, followed by a poly retreat on Sat/Sun. I think that the next day where I have no plans (evening plans for a weekday or full day plans for a weekend) is Fri Dec 05[***]! *grin*
Although I don't know if you would count any of that under the description of "especially exciting"! :-)
How about you, my dear? What are you up to in the near future? Regardless of other extra-curricular activities, it would be nice to see if we can find time for another chat in the not-TOO-distant future!
(And, yes, for length of reply you not only get an extra-long reply back... you can have a full hundred points! *winks back atcha*)
[*] The castle itself is an oddity that I have mixed feelings about, but I will try to stay on focus here.
[**] Although I left the lights in the car on when we went to see it in January 1997. After the four hour film ended, the battery was quite, quite dead!
[***] And I have a hunch that, between now and then, I can find something fun to do on that evening!
no subject
I've seen it.
It had a really good cast, but unfortunately the conceit of the staging really didn't work for me. And trying to do it as a musical just made it even worse, if such a thing can be imagined. Ian McKellen could pull off a quasi-Between-the-Wars staging and make it a success -- Branagh couldn't.
Persephone