Furthermore: May 2006

May 30, 2006

Some Kind of Denouement Occurs

I had quite a busy week for me - went to the beer festival on Tuesday, which was good. I split my time between work colleagues, and meeting up with old friends - Ian, Chris, Donna. The beer fest is often a place where you meet people serendipitously (there’s only so many geeks my age in Cambridge after all). Not that night though.

Saturday I was doing the door for the penultimate Amnesty Big Gig event at the Romsey Labour Club (the final event is tonight, at The Junction - tickets still available as they say). The music was a mixed bag - there was some Celtic-ey folk-ey kind of group on first (Emily something - I can’t be bothered to google right now), then Indie rock - The Pony Collaboration. I quite liked that.

Then there was a Capoeira group. It’s not music, it’s a Brazilian martial art combined with dance. You know the two guys who mock-fight on a rooftop in the BBC programme links? That’s Capoeira. Anyway, some of them were fantastic - you have to be really strong to perform the moves all in slow motion.

Finally there was another band called The Beards. I think it was kind of funk perhaps. Didn’t do much for me anyway, but it went over well with the crowd. We took quite a bit of money (I’d guess ?250-?300) and the place looked quite full towards the end.

Didn’t do much over the BH - just a bit of gardening, played with the kids, tried to do my finance course (forwards and futures, feh). I did come across a lovely little short story sketch by John Crowley, from which I’ve taken the title of this post. Check it out. On the literary theme, I’m also quite taken with Jonathan Carroll’s blog - he has a lovely eye for the poignancy of everyday life.

May 24, 2006

Things to do in Swanage

We were on holiday in Swanage in Dorset last week, so I thought I’d just mention a few of the places we went. We stayed in a cottage we rented from Swanage Holiday Properties - nice little place, just up the hill a bit from the beach. The town itself is quite pretty - lots of Purbeck Stone buildings, and the beach is lovely (although we only managed to get on there one day because the weather was quite unpredictable). There’s a pier, and a tiny museum, and just up the coast there are some fantastic cliff walks. We were hoping to walk up to Durlston Country Park but there doesn’t seem to be a pushchair accessible route unless you go by road. So we just drove up instead. I mainly just wanted to see the Great Globe they have there.

Places we ate that were good included:

• Beavers (14 Institute Road, 01929 427292) - a nice cafe, very child friendly, and with fantastic cakes


• Cauldron Bistro (5 High Street, 01929 422671) - fantastic steaks. Only open Thursday to Sunday. Child friendly but they have no highchair.

Less good were the fish and chip place on the seafront - very soggy batter, and Antonio’s Italian Restaurant - not that there was anything wrong with the food, but it was horrifyingly expensive.

There’s quite a few places to go nearby, but the nearest and most obvious is to get the steam train to Corfe Castle. There’s a model village of the village itself (and yes, it does have a model of the model village in it) with a very good cafe. If you go there first you get a two for one entry to the castle + you get a further discount for going on the steam train. The castle isn’t really good for pushchairs, but they actually had some back pack baby carriers you could borrow, which I thought was pretty good. The only problem with the castle was that the top bit (ie where all the most interesting stuff is) was actually shut for some kind of conservation work when we went. Not sure how long that’s going to last.

We also went to Dorchester, where we visited the dinosaur museum. Our 4 year old really liked it, especially the activity room upstairs. I’d say it’s a bit overpriced for what it is - the interactive stuff is running on an old Commodore Amiga for instance. There are some more museums there too - one each for Tutankhamen, Mummies, and The Terracotta Army. Didn’t try those. We did have a very good lunch at Potters Cafe Bistro.

Just outside Dorchester (we discovered, as we got slightly lost on the way out) is Maiden Castle. There’s a good path up to the top - our 4 year old was fine on it, and it’s not too arduous to get up there.

There’s quite a lot of other stuff locally - Lulworth Cove, Portland and Chesil Beach, apparently Bournemouth now has an aquarium that looks quite good. We also kept seeing signs for Monkey World. Didn’t get to check those out, but there’s enough to make us come back again. Probably when the 1 year old is able to walk too, then it will be easier not having to worry about accessibility so much.

May 11, 2006

The Big Gig

I went to my first gig for many years last night - saw The Morning People supporting Cath Coombs and the Awesome Soul Collective at the Portland Arms. The gig was the first night of The Big Gig for Amnesty, which was one reason I thought I’d go along. I liked The Morning People - guitar pop with keyboards. I won’t embarrass myself trying to say who they sound like. Cath Coombs was impressive - I’m not a big fan of soul, but they played really well, and her rendition of I Put a Spell on You was awesome.

Lots more to come in The Big Gig - check out The Big Busk in the marketplace on Saturday.

While I’m talking about music, let me do a bit of pimping by mentioning my friend from work, Tim, whose new band is playing the LEL in St Ives on May 26th. They’re called The Wayback Band and they play a range of Soul, Funk and Pop tunes from the 60’s to the 90’s. If you’re in St Ives, check it out.

May 5, 2006

Amnesty Big Gig

Cambridge Amnesty International is organising The Big Gig for Amnesty in venues across Cambridge between May 10th and May 30th. Come along and help raise funds for Amnesty and celebrate the Cambridge music scene!

The programme is below, or you can get a nice PDF (about 83K)

Wed May 10	Cath Coombs	Portland Arms	Cath Coombs and the Awesome Soul Collective + The Morning People. ?5
Fri May 12	PeaceJazzLove	CB2	The Hot Club of Cambridge + Jazz Wave. ?5
Sat May 13	BIG BUSK for AMNESTY	Market Square	More performers wanted! Get in touch! (outdoor no amplification)
Mon May 15	R*E*P*E*A*T	Man on Moon	Gouge, Jet Set Willy, The Perfect Crime, Light. Colour. Sound. ?3
Mon May 15	Acoustic Routes	CB2	Bernard Hoskins, Roland Chadwick and folk duo Megson. Free
Tue May 16	KAMI’s Open Mike	Kami’s, Hills Road	Jade + Clifford Ward + Ronan Boyle
Wed May 17	Elm Tree Jazz	Elm Tree	Pamela Givens and Friends
Thu May 18	PeaceJazzLove	Sino Tap	Redhouse + The Ouse Brothers
Fri May 19	Teenage Riot Night	Romsey Labour Club	TBA
Wed May 24	Godfather	Portland Arms	Godfather + Fargas
Thu May 25	The Furious Sleep	Man on the Moon	PiNATA!, There Was an Accident Here
Sat May 27	BIG GIG CARNIVAL	Romsey Labour Club	Collective, Senzala Capoeira, the Calabocas, the Afro Cuban Hair Styles, DJ Kid Klave.
Tue May 30	The BIG GIG Junction Fiver	Junction	Emily Maguire, The Rude Mechanicals, Arco Iris Samba Band, HoraceX

May 1, 2006

Renew For Freedom

If you’re worried by the imminent introduction of ID cards and the National Identity Register, but you have to have a passport, now is your chance to renew and stay out of the system for 10 years. There’s a number of good reasons to do it, and I recommend the factsheet at RenewForFreedom.org if you still have some unexpired validity and you’re not sure why you should bother.

Really though, do you need any more incitement than that Charles Clarke has said that anyone who opts out of the NIR scheme is foolish? Here is the UK Passport application site. Download the forms and you’re away.