Learning To Walk

South Coast Climate Camp

2011-04-28T23:39:00.005+01:00

An un-named group of environmental activists (possibly Brighton Climate Action) has established a small camp around the disused and boarded up property of the former St Anne's School in Lewes. Lewes County Council has allowed this property and its beautiful grounds to go unused for some six years since the closure of this school for children with special educational needs. Some local concern has been raised and fears are that the Council will sell the site to private developers in order to raise funds to tackle the 'debt crisis.'

Lewes citizens and environmental campaigners are thus coming together in a bid to ensure that a former community resource does not fall into the hands of private capital. There has been growing media coverage of the camp and of the future for this beautiful site which is home to many trees, flowers, herbs and wildlife. Lewes is a town with a largely affluent population and a history of embracing radical political ideas. In recent years it has gained press coverage and investment for its role as a Transition Town. Plans are well underway (shares are being launched) for a solar power station to be constructed upon the site of a former brewery. In short, there is much popular local support for green politics.

I'm delighted to get the chance to be involved with this project. Digging allotments for a collective community seems to make sense in a town where waiting lists for private allotments are so lengthy. Workshops on beekeeping and permaculture are inspiring and I am learning much about how to live showing more respect to the earth. 'Sustainable community' is the idea. The site being occupied inevitably challenges the government's whole policy on the pre-eminence of property rights. This brings with it both the possibility of eviction and negative press coverage.

It's very interesting for me to see to what extent the townspeople of Lewes (where I grew up) will choose to get involved with the camp and with the discussion surrounding the future use of the site. A public meeting around a campfire on Tuesday evening was attended by the County Council Director of Property, John Morris, among other local councillors and prospective candidates in the forthcoming local elections. This suggests that contemporary politics is changing and local residents who attended the meeting seemed largely in support of the climate campaigners' actions and intentions.

It feels quite refreshing for me to turn away from the ethical bankruptcy of an increasingly globalised capitalist system that doesn't seem to work very well for the majority of people and attempt to live a little differently. To take a spade and turn some earth and work some land to produce food that doesn't require intensive pesticides and doesn't need to be flown major distances because the interests of corporate profitability are just not involved. I support this attempt to live differently, more in keeping with the earth. I have a sense of caution, too, and a wariness towards radical political agendas being pushed on me. I have no wish to get arrested but this project seems to have good intentions behind it.

I am reminded of a quote from the beginning of Patrick Keiller's film 'Robinson In Space':

"Sitting comfortably, I opened my copy of The Revolution of Everyday Life: 'Reality, as it evolves, sweeps me with it. I am struck by everything and though not everything strikes me in the same way I am always struck by the same basic contradiction: Although I can always see how beautiful anything could be if only I could change it, in practically every case there is almost nothing I can do.' A bridge between imagination and reality must be built."

Here's a link to the South East Climate Camp website:
http://brightonclimateaction.org.uk/

The Referendum on AV (Alternative Voting)

2011-04-23T13:34:00.002+01:00

Literature has been delivered to my home regarding the referendum on the voting system used to elect MPs to the House of Commons in the United Kingdom.

The clearest and most helpful pamphlet I have seen so far has been that put together by the Electoral Commission: 'Local Elections and Referendum.' Here is a link to that booklet in PDF format which could help anyone who is confused as to what the referendum on May 5th is all about.

While local government elections may be taking place on the same day for this referendum, those eligible to vote will receive a ballot paper with this question:

'At present, the UK uses the 'first past the post' system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the 'alternative vote' system be used instead?

You show your choice by putting a cross (X) in the 'Yes' or 'No' box on your ballot paper.

I intend to vote 'Yes' to Alternative Voting in the referendum. I am a little disappointed, however, with the promotional literature for the 'Yes' campaign. They have sought to imitate official census-style typography while including a list of celebrities who are voting 'Yes.' The 'Yes to AV' campaign gives three reasons for voting 'Yes': 1. MPs working harder for you, 2. Tackling 'jobs for life' in Westminster, and 3. Giving you a stronger voice.

'Giving you a stronger voice' is important, I think. The UK has a strong tradition of 'moderate' government. The freedom of the democratic voting system is arguably one of the most cherished aspects of this country's heritage. Yet in recent years there has been a growing dissent regarding our political system. Critics of many opinions and persuasions lament that 'nothing ever changes' and (in terms of political parties or politicians) 'they are all the same.'

AV is about 'giving you a stronger voice' in that you may vote first for your favourite political party. I am strongly inclined to vote for the Green Party because I am concerned about global warming and climate change. Under the system we use at present - which involves just one round of voting - I sometimes vote strategically (for one of the main political parties) because I feel the Green Party is unlikely to win and my vote would seem almost as if it were wasted or futile.

But with a system of Alternative Voting in place I would get to show my support for the Green Party and - in further rounds of voting - (presuming the Greens have not won many votes and have been knocked out of the election) I get to contribute towards an elected majority by voting for one of the main political parties to govern.

The 'No to AV' promotional literature seems rather sneaky. The Tories are campaigning for a 'No' vote and yet the 'No to AV' lobby is happy to muddy Nick Clegg's name in this literature. This is the same Nick Clegg who happily brought the Liberal Democrats (a party with minority support at the last election) to an alliance with the Conservatives (a party with minority support at the last election) to govern just over one year ago. This coalition has introduced a swathe of immoderate cuts to public services and social benefits while saddling students with the cost of tuition fees. That the 'No to AV' literature should try to suggest that this lobby group is against cuts to public services will hopefully not fool sensible voters in the forthcoming referendum.

The Edge of Dreaming

2011-04-19T13:07:00.002+01:00

Amy Hardie's documentary, 'The Edge of Dreaming,' describes her increasing obsession that she will die at the age of forty-eight years old. Amy doesn't have many dreams. She dreams that her horse will die and, on waking, runs out to a nearby field to find him dead. A later dream prophesises her death at the age of 48 and she struggles to rid herself of this fear. Soon she gets a diagnosis of a seriously debilitating lung complaint and before long the documentary maker is chronicling her family's increased worry and confusion about all these troubling signs.

The documentary-maker searches through the film both for scientific reasons underlying the strange phenomena of her dreams and for healing to her frightening lung condition. But it is the experience of a shamanic trance that finally helps Amy Hardie to heal and she moves into her forty-ninth year. From this we may conclude that dreams either can and can't or may and may not be prophetic.

This is a film made by Amy Hardie about Amy Hardie. Yes, there are other concerns and of coure it relates to the wider world that she lives in but being as she is the documentary maker she uses techniques, such as montage, to impress on the viewer a vague sense of a spiritual transformation or revelation that intimately relates to her.

There is science in this film but this is depicted by a naive drawing of the interior workings of the brain with synapses firing neurons etc. It is all too easy to watch this film and think that there is scientific consistency to the ideas that Amy Hardie desperately stumbles upon in her bid to stay alive. For me, this is a touching portrait of a beautiful loving family and that's about it.

A Clear Guide to Changes to Incapacity Benefit

2011-04-15T00:36:00.006+01:00

The government intends to phase out Incapacity Benefit and move current claimants or 'customers' onto either Employment Support Allowance (divided into a Work Related Activity Group and a Support Group) or Jobseekers' Allowance.

The DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) has issued a short customer factsheet and a detailed information pack relating to the changes taking place. Both seem like helpful and informative documents.

The numbers given here suggest that with over 1.5 million current incapacity claims to be reassessed it will take a long time (a year or more?) for all these claims to be re-assessed. A recent BBC TV news report stated that "The one-and-a-half million people who claim incapacity benefit will start to receive letters this week asking them to be tested on their ability to work." More accurately phrased, the report should have said "7,000 of the one-and-a-half million people who claim incapacity benefit will receive letters this week asking them to be tested on their ability to work." News can be confusing. This large-scale re-assessment programme will take a long time to roll out in full.

Claimants of Incapacity Benefit will be asked to complete a Limited Capability for Work questionnaire (ESA50). A pdf copy of this questionnaire is available here). Customers may provide medical evidence from doctors and specialists etc to accompany their returned questionnaire.

The contents of the ESA50 and any other evidence supplied will be used to decide if the customer needs to attend a face-to-face Work Capability Assessment with ATOS (the government's medical services contractors who are overseeing the re-assessment tests). The Work Capability assessment is the main assessment for Employment and Support Allowance.

'A guide to Employment Support Allowance: ESA 214 - The Work Capability Assessment' (click here) states that 'a decision maker will carefully consider all the evidence. This will include the completed customer questionnaire [ESA50], the information provided by their doctor and the advice of the approved [ATOS] healthcare professional.'

Primarily, decisions will be made on a points scoring basis. Those who score 15 points or more will have met the criterion for limited capability for work. These customers will be entitled to claim Employment Support Allowance. A further decision will be taken as to whether they should go into the Work Related Activity Group or the Support Group.

If you are placed in the Work Related Activity Group, you will be expected to take part in work focused interviews with your personal advisor. You will get support to help you prepare for suitable work.

If you are placed in the Support Group because you have a severe disability or health condition which affects your ability to work, you will not be expected to take part in any work related activity to receive your benefit, but you may choose to access work related support.

Those who score less than 15 points on the Work Capability Assessment will be eligible to claim Jobseeker's Allowance but not Employment Support Allowance.

Readers who wish to know the specifics of this points scoring system could take a look at the 'ESA 214 - The Work Capability Assessment' guide. This provides the descriptors and scores for each physical activity (related to physical incapability for work) and the descriptors and scores for each mental, cognitive and intellectual function (related to mental incapability for work).

Newcastle City Council have put together the same information but in a format that is considerably clearer. Here then is the guide to the physical health part of the Work Capability Assessment and here is the guide to the mental health section of the Work Capability Assessment. Both parts make up the one Work Capability Assessment. Have a look at these links and you will know what to expect from the forthcoming re-assessment tests.

Following the outcome of the Work Capability Assessment, claimants will be moved onto one of the following benefits:

* People who are capable of work will move onto Jobseeker’s Allowance where they satisfy the conditions of entitlement for that benefit.

* People who need more support while they prepare for work will get that help on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) in the Work Related Activity Group.

* Those people who are most disabled or terminally ill will not be expected to look for work and will get the extra support they need on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) in the Support Group.

In February 2011, the DWP released figures from its trial run of these re-assessment tests. 30% of individuals did not qualify for ESA (many may have opted to claim Jobseekers' Allowance). 39% were placed in the Work Related Activity Group (ESA) and 31% were placed in the Support Group (ESA). These figures were broadly in line with the DWP's estimates.

Changes to Incapacity Benefit

2011-04-14T15:29:00.001+01:00

I have published information on this subject without really investigating the specific details as fully as I could have done. Newspaper articles can be helpful but checking the current policies being implemented by the civil service is perhaps the sensible place to begin. Thus I issue a link to the Department for Work and Pensions website regarding Incapacity benefits - reassessing claims (to look at this page and to find links to similarly helpful DWP information please click here). However, I am also copy-and-pasting some of the information from the DWP website to help clear up any confusion from my previous posts on this topic:

"Between October 2010 and Spring 2014 customers who receive Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance and Income Support paid on the grounds of illness or disability will be assessed for Employment and Support Allowance.

The following benefits are being phased out:

* Incapacity Benefit
* Income Support paid because of an illness or disability
* Severe Disablement Allowance.

Customers who receive these benefits will be reviewed to see if they are eligible for Employment and Support Allowance.

* People who are capable of work will move onto Jobseeker’s Allowance where they satisfy the conditions of entitlement for that benefit.
* People who need more support while they prepare for work will get that help on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).
* Those people who are most disabled or terminally ill will not be expected to look for work and will get the extra support they need on ESA.

The change will not affect:

* people who are already being paid Employment and Support Allowance
* people who reach state pension age before 6 April 2014.

Timetable

Reassessment of everyone on incapacity benefits to see if they are ready and fit for work began on the 11 October 2010 with two trials in Aberdeen and Burnley.

On 25 January 2011 the Minister for Employment announced details of the next steps in the Government’s plans to reassess customers claiming Incapacity Benefit (IB) to see how ready for work they might be. At the end of February, Jobcentre Plus will begin a limited introductory phase before moving to full national reassessment from April:

* from the 28 February, letters will be sent to 1,000 customers a week nationally
* in April, we will increase the number of cases to around 7,000 a week and from May, we will be processing around 11,000 cases a week.

This steady increase in activity will ensure that Jobcentre Plus and its partners are ready for and can deal with customers effectively as the volumes build."

I think I should leave my personal views regarding the subject of changes to Incapacity Benefit for further postings.

Green Light Wanes

2011-04-14T14:00:00.006+01:00

Curious title; a deeply brooding, rich and sensuous series of oil paintings by Elizabeth Magill currently being exhibited at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne which runs to 19 June, 2011; free entry. Lest one think that description of these paintings suggests fecund portrayals of the burgeoning of Spring, I should say the paintings also have a persistent, haunting air; a phantasmagoric solace that is not quite loss. Chasing after deer, the hunter cannot reach the roe. A ballerina pirouettes upon a horse. Kings are suffused in a haze of red and gold while a boy wanders left of shot in a sky of green, a solitary emerald star emanating light.

The introductory script accompanying the exhibition somehow relates these paintings or the idea behind the series to James Joyce's 'Ulysses.' It further suggests or implies that the paintings are an attempt to integrate perceptions of past, present and future into the artwork.

The Visit Eastbourne website contains the following review:

"More modest in scale than her previous work, these paintings represent an exciting new departure in the evolution of her practice, engaging the viewer in a tantalising play between depiction and suggestion.

Each work is a dense world, its landscapes flickering in and out of view, mirroring the way we all see the world through the filter of personal memories and ever-changing emotions."

Sue Hubbard, writing for Irish Arts Review, presents an insightful review of the exhibition, comparing it to the project of modernist writers and 'the vast structure of recollection' referred to by Proust. She explores also the theme of the dark or enchanted forest (often these paintings dwell upon trees or forests) and its mythic or cultural significance.

"[Elizabeth Magill] has said that in recent years she has become interested in bringing things back to what she knows, to the mulch of childhood; those images that were unconsciously absorbed before adult interpretations were placed upon them."

For lovers of oil paintings all this verbiage may seem a little unneccesary. There is a depth and beauty to these pictures, I feel.

The Cave Of Forgotten Dreams

2011-04-13T17:04:00.006+01:00

Shot in 3D, Werner Herzog's latest film enters a remote cave, in the Ardeches region of Southern France, first discovered by speleologists in 1994. Preserved in the cave are hundreds of animal paintings and one painting of the lower half of a woman's body. Radiocarbon dating and many archaeologists estimate that these pictures may be up to 32,000 years old and date to a period when icy glaciers existed within this region.

The use of 3D is original and makes the audience gasp. In wondering at the meaning of these cave paintings to the original painters, Herzog lets us in on his own view of film-making as something of magical power. The filmmaker shows us a clip of a dancing Fred Astaire. There is certainly a visually poetic treatment given to the filmic portrait of the cave. The camera sweeps in an arc reflecting the curves of the paintings that themselves utilise Chauvet cave's undulating bends for impact. The score by Ernst Reijseger - in response to Werner Herzog's succinct instruction 'Make space' - blends pan pipes and cello into the scene to produce something... I don't know... deep; resonant.

Outside of the cave Herzog chats to various people involved in the high-tech archaeological investigations who are carefully studying, loathe to disturb the cave's peculiar ambience. The film-maker's discursive style is refreshingly light and easy-going while the questions he asks of the specialist interviewees often seem slightly ridiculous or just too deep and profound. The scientists respond with a laugh and then give a sober answer explaining the limits of what they do know.

I found it interesting to compare this film to the last one I reviewed - Gideon Koppel's Sleep Furiously. Though I like that film, I could understand Philip French's criticisms more after watching Herzog's 'The Cave...'. Koppel doesn't trust words enough to use them (much) and instead his work seems composed of many visually metaphoric images from rural life that may stand for a deeper meaning. Herzog seems not to care over-zealously for the power of the written word but he is happy to talk. Werner Herzog films generally contain little montage but instead go in for scenes that seem to extend beyond the conventional barriers where other film-makers might cut a scene. We are often, in the older films, left watching a landscape for some time after the character actors have left the screen.

Meditative would, I suppose, be a word to describe the puzzled viewer at these points but what comes across more is the wile and stealth of the camera that watches for longer than we are accustomed to expect. The Cave Of Forgotten Dreams seems, in many respects, to be more obvious and easily comprehensible than Herzog's earlier more fictional works. His documentary about scientists studying wildlife and climatic change in Antarctica, Encounters at the End of the World, and this new film seem to have markedly increased the audience figures.

But like Koppel in 'Sleep Furiously,' Herzog leaves us with a Postscript. This is something like a riddle or koan to take away from the movie. Something to think about and possibly not a summing-up.

Back to Work

2011-04-12T16:08:00.005+01:00

A member of my family watched the BBC News the other day and saw the report linked to below which I would suggest will be of interest to all claimants of Incapacity Benefit. According to the associated report on the internet...

'The one-and-a-half million people who claim incapacity benefit will start to receive letters this week asking them to be tested on their ability to work.'

I was unaware that the government planned to roll out these reviews for all claimants of Incapacity Benefit quite so soon. I will add that though this BBC report is dated 4 April 2011 and states that claimants 'will start to receive letters this [last] week' I haven't received a letter yet. For further details, please click on the following link:

Incapacity Benefit crackdown begins after pilot scheme

Sleep Furiously

2011-03-09T20:40:00.007Z

'Sleep Furiously' is a feature film made in 2007 by cinematographer Gideon Koppel with the inhabitants and friends of the Trefeurig community. It's a slow, pensive and contemplative portrait of life in a rural Welsh community. There are people and animals; there is countryside, a school, a church. There is music, poetry, sport and a mobile library service.

'Stunning beauty and bitter realities mix in a rich new documentary,' found Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. For Philip French in The Obsever, 'This is a rather familiar documentary on the inevitable decline of a small rural community. Great claims have been made for it, which I cannot endorse.'

Never mind the bullocks, here's the trailer. I quite liked it.

Cuts to DLA and Incapacity Benefit

2011-03-07T11:49:00.006Z

Amongst my group of friends, I and others are beginning to take note now of the changes that are being implemented to Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living Allowance. I claim the former but not the latter, incidentally. Many disabled people claim both benefits. I don't really consider myself disabled so I don't claim DLA.

One helpful note to fellow Incapacity Benefit claimants out there who maybe don't claim Disability Living Allowance. It has been the case in recent years that you are entitled to purchase a Disabled Person's Railcard to obtain a third off the price of rail fares. If you can get your form stamped by Social Services, that is, which probably requires you getting to the office that issues your Incapacity Benefit payments. I can't say whether they will happily provide the stamp but if you want to give it a go you know what to do.

Anyway, changes to Incapacity Benefit and DLA. The Guardian newspaper and website has been pretty good in recent months in keeping the public updated on specific changes which can get missed in the news as a swathe of cuts has been introduced and people are protesting out on the streets of various North African countries (not in regard to Con-Dem policies in the UK, of course). I'll link to some informative articles through the course of this post.

There's some bloggers paying much attention to DLA changes in particular. I like that the two I have come across so far are called Diary of A Benefit Scrounger and Benefit Scrounging Scum. I hope you will not find me too condescending when I state that I think the titles of these blogs are being ironic. I haven't read much of either and its more regarding my own blogging activities that I'd like to say that in my writing on this website mostly I aspire to writing factual, informative prose but, at times, there is irony also involved. I think there's quite a bit of irony in some of the films I've made that picture me, I don't know, as being a little down-and-out perhaps. They may appear as random snippets from my life but they're actually a little more selectively chosen than that. Okay, yeah, changes to Incapacity and DLA...

There is a new test coming in for entitlement to Incapacity Benefit. Its a stiffer test in that where before a human being would assess an individual's needs now the rules are fixed and if the computer says no then claimants are either moved on to Employment Support Allowance (or not even that) or have the alternative of seeking an appeal (takes a long time, without any benefit) at which point a human being will review the claim. I'm not clear on the 'rolling out' of this new test. I am guessing that reviews for Incapacity Benefit claims will continue to come when expected for current claimants, i. e. when its time for each individual claimant's new review. The Guardian is going to be more informed about the changes to Incapacity Benefit than me but the gist of it is that quite high numbers of claimants are being reviewed and found to not fulfil the criteria for continuing to claim Incapacity Benefit.

This is not all that surprising when we read of threatened cuts to the mobility component of the disability living allowance for people living in residential care. Or when we read that the Royal National Institute for the Blind are concerned that many blind people may fail the above test for Incapacity Benefit and could be moved on to Jobseeker's Support Allowance.

Now I don't know if having a job is pleasant but I get the impression that living on JSA is only just financially possible. Some claimants complain of condescension and patronage from JSA staff (the strict rules for entitlement of JSA being the problem, I suspect). Sometimes its enough to make even me sit back and wonder at the government and bailed-out bankers: 'Can we have some jobs please?'

The Conservatives have had Iain Duncan-Smith publicly referring to the Welfare Benefits system with the criticism that it is segregated into too many different types of benefit and that, in the long term, their intention is to make the benefits system clearer to understand. Terms such as disability benefit, sickness benefit and incapacity benefit often get used incorrectly. It is due both to the lack of media coverage regarding the change to the Incapacity Benefit test and also in acknowledgement that these various benefits and cuts can seem very confusing that I write this article.

Or that's why I began it. The writing has brought memories to me, memories of happy and unhappy times I had in the workplace. Then I go out in my town and I meet with people shopping, people working (in shops and the post office) and people working voluntarily in shops. This is a town in the South of England and it is clear to many of us that the charity and voluntary sector here is contributing a huge amount to the retail sector of this town. It is giving people things to do; it is providing locations so that a sense of community may develop for people. This may or may not be David Cameron's vision of a Big Society. I had a bit of a problem with singing out a tune with the lyrics 'David Cameron: We Are Your Big Society' at a recent demonstration.

My problem, I suppose, may be one of approach. Maybe members of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Alliance really do think that by slashing public benefits society can become big. Of note, I think, to recount a previous Conservative PM, Margaret Thatcher's quote of 'There is no such thing as society'. Oh these puzzles of political policy, that many people counter with 'They're all the same,' in reference to different governments or political parties that win power in the UK. I don't think they are the same, Labour and Conservative (The Liberals? Er... what do you think?). And my idea of what 'society' means to me may not be the same as what 'society' means to you...

I'm struggling to find a suitable way to conclude this blog entry or post. LCD Soundsystem pops into my head and the guy is not singing about society but the words seem sort of fitting: 'Its not getting better, its not getting bigger, no, its just getting old.'

No LCD Soundsystem video will accompany this post though they are out there on the internet. I just wanted to play 'A Good Year For The Roses' by Elvis Costello for no especial reason but just because, I don't know, I like it and its a tender, if very sad, song.

Round Robin

2011-03-05T12:57:00.009Z

Blogs can be a bit like those letters some people at Christmas send that I think are known as Round Robins. I quite like those letters. I find them interesting though I don't usually receive any at Christmas. Much like blogs such letters are often tainted with the suspicion of vanity as a reason for writing them.

I suppose some readers might wonder what I've been up to in the two years or so since my 'Teddypicker' post. Not much really! Its easy to say but I feel progressively less content with this situation as time goes on. So I am taking some baby steps into creative work again. I used to fill reams and reams of notebooks back in the day and noticing that this hasn't been going on recently is also disappointing. I enter some creative musings into a little red notebook occasionally but mostly these books are filled with shopping lists for books I want to buy from local charity stores. This is because I have been buying and selling a lot of second-hand books on eBay and Amazon. It pays for my cigarettes but at times I question the value of unemployment if the primary use I put such free time to is in mimicking small businesses. Might aswell sign up to a job with a small business. Something like that? I find books very interesting (and have been reading a lot more in recent months) but selling them can be boring.

It isn't my intention to provide a comprehensive round-up of what I've been up to in the last two years. I am still living in Newhaven. The youth work came to an end for various reasons. I was professionally employed by Lewes District Council for a while. I showed off a bit too much; my colleagues were a bit too paranoid about things generally (understandable, I think, especially given the current economic climate and this rather scary deconstruction of the welfare state programme that the current strongly right-wing (in comparison with previous governmental policy in the UK) government is pushing through).

I am realising that I suffer from depression for quite long periods of time. It seems helpful for me to be aware of this and possibly make some changes in the way I am going about things.

The Secret Millionaire is coming after me! Maybe not but the Channel Four programme where a rich person provides some funding to a community-based charity or organisation of some form has now presented cheques to The Warren in Hull and Brighton Unemployed Centre. They are good places I have spent some time in; using their facilities, engaging in creative projects (music and art) and mostly enjoying some light (and not-so-light) community banter.

Just recently I've got involved in some organised political protest (not linked to the above organisations, I should point out) because I disappove, as I said, of the radical programme of cuts being pushed through which is beginning to have a very direct effect on people's jobs in local public services. Its beginning, also - and some might argue the process is well underway - to have a noticeable detrimental effect on the lives of the people I know who use such public services. Just what the Con-Dem national alliance has in store for Incapacity Benefit (the source of income that I live on) hasn't yet been made clear though various right-wing newspapers have been making some threats and trying to suggest that this is news when there's very little factual information behind their headlines [1].

The Newhaven Uncovered aspect of this blog: I have been taking photos and making little films so something is coming together behind the scenes. I discovered a lovely website the other day which seems to have been very commendably put together by the University of Portsmouth. Travel Writing on this blog (its called A Vision of Britain through Time) is a fascinating resource allowing the online reader to dip in and out of various olde world writers to see how they reviewed various places in the British Isles.

Simom Schama begins the third volume of A History of Britain with a study of various radical figures of the late eighteenth century, focusing particularly on their love of walking long distances. I would like to be the kind of man who walks long distances but I'm not yet. I made it to The Trevor Arms at Glynde one morning recently when I had an awful hangover. A year before that I did Newhaven to Lewes. Anyway, these men and one woman on a horse trod some furlongs in their time. William Cobbett and William Morris and Daniel Defoe all virtually said Lewes was the most beautiful town they'd ever had the good fortune to visit. Fair enough. And Newhaven gets an 1872 write-up here.

While I'm on the subject of Newhaven it makes sense that I link to a) this useful resource about the town, provided by Seahaven FM, and b) Our Newhaven, which seems to be going from strength to strength judging by the numbers of old photographs and comments that have appeared on the site. I hope they don't mind that I borrow a picture of Chapel Street (shown below) for my less polished website. I note too that there is a framed photograph of Brighton Road, Newhaven as it looked in 1895 up for sale on ebay!

For now, I'll leave it at that. What have I been doing? Staying alone in my room, thinking, and going out to meet other people, our hearts beating. Take care.

[1] While I was writing the draft of this post I received a phone call from a friend during which she suggests there's been a clear and informative article on Incapacity Benefit in Wednesday's Society Guardian. I can't find it on the website! Searching with the term 'Incapacity Benefit' was still of interest. The Society Guardian (the instalment that comes with Wednesday's newspaper) has always been full of political news and generally left-wing comment. I like it.

A further update is that the Guardian article turned out to be the headline article of G2 from (I think) Wednesday 23 February but I have not found it on the internet. The following post on this blog: Cuts to DLA and Incapacity Benefit has some more information on the subject and links.

Walcott!

2011-02-22T10:16:00.001Z

Newhaven Uncovered (Part 1)

2011-02-21T12:20:00.002Z

Okay. My idea is to make some maps, study a little bit of local history and document something of the community vibe and intuition (I don't really know what that means) regarding the town in which I live. Hopefully without any silly pop videos. And with some recourse to local tourist information provided by the local council. Blogger posts will hopefully be coming soon.

2011-02-17T22:04:00.002Z

Well somebody is having fun (or was last summer by my looks at things)... a cheerful hello to readers old and new...

Teddypicker

2008-06-28T15:07:00.004+01:00

Hello. I'm in an internet centre for an hour or three. If I had internet access at home I'd spend too long on the machine but without access I play guitars and make music so that's cool.

Yesterday, first day of Glasto, I worked at a one-day music festival up at Newhaven Fort. That was pretty cool. Nice to be around people in bands, some of them behaving like pop stars and some behaving like down-to-earth people. This young girl was being bullied by some older lad at the gig and she got upset but by the end her and her mates were all excited, talking about forming a band. The kind of buzz I get from that beats the stardom aspect of pop music for me.

Last weekend was hairy as fuck. Brighton. Brighton is my birthplace but it is also one manic and troubled city. The trash glam of a Saturday night. It was scary. So this weekend it's a joy to have a free diary and a peaceful weekend with some red wine and Glastonbury on the telly.

I don't begrudge Glastonbury like I used to. It's good that it happens. It shows people that it is out there and very possible, the idea of living a very relaxed and accepted/accepting existence on earth, living within nature wiith nothing more important to do than make music at a day's end. I'm glad people get the chance... for three days, for £165. And I enjoy watching it on telly.

The shopping thoroughfares of Brighton are rowdy and hot today. People look at me like I'm dangerous. Probably the hat. I like the lyrics to LCD Soundsytem's 'North American Scum'. The guy sings something like...

I don't know why you look at me that way
We are North Americans
You think if you act shy it'll all be okay?
We are North American Scum

I put Bridge Street flats through the mill a bit last night and this morning with the noise. Newhaven is such a beautiful place. A quiet village, really, which at times seems very happy. I've been making many friends. I'm looking forward to getting back there today.

Right, here's a video. It's 'The Legionnaire's Lament' and just looking at it now... I loved that city, Hull, but I had been there so long and I was, in a different way to the narrator of this song, also missing my homeland, I think.

I have scarier videos of me in Hull and in Newhaven too. When I look at myself on film it becomes easy to see why people, not people, young women maybe sidestep me a bit or don't quite treat me as boyfriend material. I can look pretty unhinged as many regular readers would probably acknowledge. In this next video, 'Newhaven Fort', though, I am in a calm and relatively cheerful mood. This was filmed about a month ago.

The digitalisation (?) is set to the wrong parameters on that one. Anyway, I look like I've had a year or four hundred of drinking. The alcohol's not been easy. I have to be watchful with my drinking but I am doing that now and getting more nights off.

So. Let's have a game on the teddypicker, I reckon... Have a fun weekend, everybody.

The Latest on Benjamin

2008-05-27T14:19:00.003+01:00

Hello. Popped into an internet cafe on the London Road in Brighton to let you know where I'm at.

'It's the summer, man, come slouching towards Bethlehem' is Conor Oberst, otherwise known as Bright Eyes, riffing on Yeats. You know, the season to be high and worry about the bible, amongst many many other things I can do. But it really seems to be going rather swimmingly, I gotta' write.

Two weeks of very gradual moving into my new flat in Newhaven. Last night was the first time I slept there. It's a very sexy little place, I think... no damp to mention yet, anyway, and it's on the top floor of this old brick building above a Chinese takeaway looking down upon Newhaven Social Club, bang in the centre of the lovable little town.

The best thing about it is my neighbours beneath are two young females who seem to come from the planet Rave, which is a real comfort to know.

While moving, I have been working pretty hard. I really really like working at youth club. We're hoping to get some funding to run some music workshops in time, which will probably be delightful and actually give some of the kids around this way a dream or two to focus upon.

The White Hart pub is wonderful. Arms aloft, dancing on tables, some crazy Abba on a night out with Oasis vibe... yeah!

And I'm getting more technically adept at the guitar all the time. I purchased a new electric model last week and am really enjoying playing at the moment. And my idea is to write the lyrics when I'm off it in the summer and work on the tunes when I get depressed in winter. Something like that.

I have crazy videos I could show you and picturesque tales I could tell but I shall leave them for another time, I think.

Congratulations Hull! I really did enjoy that football match finishing. And the Dean Windass goal and the Sky commentator's (they actually found somebody skilled with literacy for this game, which was an unusual surprise) report on it as 'The fairy godfather with a wave of his right boot' has put Hull up etc etc. A very pretty metaphor, I thought. I like metaphors and stories and dreams.

And, as ever, I'm trying to eat, trying to sleep, trying to self-medicate the Olanzapine carefully, trying to drink less and intending not to crash this time around.

Flushed Chest

2008-05-19T01:15:00.003+01:00

I like making films but I don't like Windows Movie Maker. Here's a little something.

Flushed Chest
Uploaded by SixteenMothers

Primal Scream

2008-05-08T09:16:00.004+01:00

I have noticed from this latest dose of high-ness just how much of it is ego. I don't feel bad about this.

I am often a fairly meek and submissive person so all this talk of 'coming alive', it's about flipping over into a dominant personality maybe. I become that little brat of a three year old again. There is anger here and I channel this energy, the primal scream of the universe, into my work. I love it.

trouble east of eastbourne

2008-05-06T12:54:00.009+01:00

'and it cheers my heart to always hear you calling
calling for the good old days
because there were no good old days
because these are the good old days'

may we rejoice for pete is free and clean of drugs, so i'm told

all the lyrics oh yes the bank holidays that come six times a year no less coolio's comment about england being a strange country everybody is miserable then the sun comes out and it feels like you are on drugs that seems insightful to me. here is a story like the good old days of when the sun shines and when the sun goes down.

i'm up about seven, hoovering the house and raving to my walkman. still a real rush to catch the train at twelve and me and some friends are on our way to the green man festival in hastings while lads in the beautiful blue and white stripes visit crawley to see if the albion can pick up a trophy this season (we win 1-0). sometimes iLoatHetRains.

we arrive in hastings, get a smoothie for breakfast and head through a crowded town centre to one of the scariest scenes i have witnessed in a long time.

on the beach. my mate andy likes being on camera. i think he looks quite super hans, him of the 'this crack is really moreish' line.

getting up the castle for the festival is a laugh. all these horrible motorbikes flying by, kids with butterfly wings singing fatboy slim songs. and lots of green people. i get to the entrance and realise i have no cash in my pocket but, to be fair, i'm nervous of... I don't know... 3pm and the 'slaying of the jack'... a bit like with penalty competitions in the world cup say. this is called anxiety. i'm happier looking for an off licence.

next i become lost in a snooker club in my search for alcohol. few off licences in town centres, no bad thing, just a little frustrating on occasion. in the toilets these lads are talking about how they should take up smoking weed again: 'it's like the olympic flame, we shouldn't let it go out'. lovely young couple in the street come up and talk about my sunglasses which they like. if they're reading i think those spectacles ended up in the toilet of the hastings arms but i can't be sure. i was well lucky to retain my mobile phone and camera... well lucky.

anyway, i find threshers, climb the hill once more and discover something that looks like a capitalist peace camp if that phrase is not oxymoronic. the views are stunning.

fantastic and colourful figures part of the festivities we really came to see. i also shot six or seven seconds of footage where this girl in a bright yellow dress just jumps into the camera and twirls around. britain's got talent! but you don't get to see that i'm afraid.

of course i'm well oiled by this point. we hang out in the top garden of the jenny lind having deep conversation for a while. moving on, we act out the roles of drunk students.

i'm too drunk and tired to film much after that. some of my friends (there were more of us than just me and andy) go home but i stay on not trying so hard to keep myself from falling back into the bad old ways.

me and my new friend, we hang out in dragon where there's a dj playing a nice set of funk and soul records actually. this is the peaches gig but she isn't around. it gets late and they don't mind us staying around for the lock in. we sit and watch people popping downstairs for the white line. i am blessed to not have a strong desire for this stuff which i try not to take because i have noticed how very addictive it is.

and then a lot of people kind of arrive and then a girl is... i don't know... we give each other flirty looks and then she just kisses me quite a bit. i don't give myself up entirely to the kiss because there's loads of people around. she's sexy, though, and pretty crazy in the usual way also. been a long time since i kissed a girl.

we lose touch and people drift off and the street party winds down. i make a move and head to the beach where i've been told there's a little rave around a fire going on. surprisingly i find it with ease.

i get maybe twenty minutes of dancing there and then the cops arrive and just give us some headlights which seems a signal for the dj to pack all his kit away. i sit around the fire with people i don't know. they're a pleasant crew, pleasant to me, but... you know, it's too late in the evening to be making friends now.

i walk. i'm not going anywhere. i'm looking for a shop to sell me some nicotene but there's nothing open. i'm just walking up the road. a car pulls up near me. there are two nice kids in it, mid twenties, male and gay. we begin to trust each other a bit, as friends. they give me some cigarettes, yes they do, and (somewhat perversely) take me to bexhill railway station where i sleep for an hour or two in a phone box.

so you've read the story. the film may come along sometime soon. it's been hard tussling with windows movie maker and this information clogged router-tooting-computer. i've been working hard and, at last, wednesday evening, i am tired. in the absence of my latest film you could check out some of mike skinner's from the streets. they make me laugh.

People are afraid to merge on the freeway ¹

2008-04-15T21:52:00.009+01:00

Recently I have made a considered effort to appear to the public as one of those men who Guardian journalists might quite possibly suggest are a little strange and sad for dressing in the apparel more associated with boys and girls much younger than themselves.

I fear turning into one of those public drunks who stagger around with a bottle of whatever, desperate for conversation. These men can scare me but they delight me too with their joyful bursts of enthusiasm and hilarity. I guess they have re-learned how to laugh but have not re-learned how to cry.

I have recently been reading the selected writings of Peter Doherty. I find them not dissimilar to some of my notebook writings from the late 1990's. A preoccupation with very similar themes, I suppose. Doherty is more literate and more poetic and... er... works harder, folk; he seems more focused than me.

There are some wonderfully insightful lines in this book. I heart the following:

"Self-analysis is a tricky area. Under this dandyish, frivolous, artistic exterior sits a pensive, ordered fellow - under whom lies an even dandier, camper chap. And so on."

I feel like I am recovering. I have been enjoying many tunes and lyrics just lately, particularly the sublimely named Suburban Kids with Biblical Names. They "want the trumpets and violins to play". They "want revolvers and adrenaline today," which sounds rather macho in print. Anyway, this is how I feel around the middle of a sunny spring day.

Perhaps not so differently from the troubled boys of my patch firing air pistols on the grounds of little frequented public service buildings, nor from the youthfully agile cops who swoop out in their squad cars - with 'POLICE' spelt backwards on the bonnets - to quell such disturbance. The Fahrenheit 451-stylised paranoia of this little touch may be more detrimental to society than the benefit that is gained from drivers being able to read in their rear view mirrors. I don't know and am making no political point here (if you are interested in politics... or the earth... see final paragraph).

Mens' needs dotted about that last paragraph. What is this man's need? Somebody to talk to. Somebody to talk to.

The above passages were written in the Prince Albert pub in Brighton (very near the train station). For me, that pub is the Southern equivalent of the Linnet and Lark on Princes Avenue in a more musical city, that of Hull, and just lacks the upbeat spark of DJ Mark. No, what do I mean by this? It has the same sort of tension and sense of drugs and popstardom being not altogether that far away from its doors. An alright place; nice, like the Linnet, but sometimes, you know, like the Linnet, you just don't want to be there. Today was fine.

But then, on the train out of Brighton my mood... it did not plummet... my mood for the purposes of writing/blogging... I let that drop... and I wrote the following:

I've written so many, many words. Words that then went and got read. I look out the window at this sensational panorama of a small city's terraced white-brick streets and I want to scream, 'These words aren't changing anything.' I always seem to be either too high or too low for other people. It's half-term so I get some youth work tomorrow. I love that 'cause them kids... they fix on the higher frequencies of my wavelength.

Oh yes, anyway, something political:

'The production of biofuel is devastating huge swathes of the world's environment. So why on earth is the Government forcing us to use more of it?' Friends and other readers, I am hard pushed for a suitably catchy response to this question so I leave it open. You tell me. The Independent newspaper asked it; it wasn't, to take an imaginary example, somebody on a train who asked me. They are, generally speaking, quiet.

Photos:
1. Sexy old Seaford
2. The ghost of George Best
3. 'But the eyes, find the eyes' ²

¹ This is a lyric from a song by Bloc Party (last album, not sure which track)
² This is a lyric from a song by Franz Ferdinand (Matineé)

the fallen

2008-03-20T01:22:00.005Z

suppose I've been around the bloghouses of blogfriends as dire as that phrase sounds but... yeah, I have been away and... hmm, got quite lost in trying to make money selling porcelain figurines on eBay for a time...

that one was pretty strange... knew it wasn't a calling... felt no less or more criminal or depraved than betting on racehorses...

it's not like i wake up one morning and feel different... more like the chemical patterns of my head sway very jauntily under the influence of tedious household luxury drugs (caffeine, alcohol, sugar, etc...)...

spring very different this year... very cold and i'm significantly further south than i have been this time around...

considering jobs (nursing homes and shops like tesco, argos)... i feel, i guess, that i have no political or spiritual agenda to lose in getting a job... no, no, no...

don't know where i'm going with this... at all, really... i've had a good glass of wine or two tonight and... well, today was milling about, up early, with (i don't know) coffee shop sitters (part of it the beautiful thread of a real, gentle, sedentary lifestyle and part of it the facile, flaunted and debauched frankly drug addicted aspect)... watching all that...

i thought 'emerging into this space... which isn't transparently at war... is quite...

er... it's... god, it's always nice to come back to sense, really... coming back to... some kind of emotional presence, almost' ...always a little strange.

i go away so much. sorta funny. i still find it bizarre, the shift in my state of being...

so, that's me... today. something artistic there too, lurking around the edges, way it does when i'm alive... five years of war in iraq... no text messages... and i can still remember the old me and that's why i hold morrissey in high regard because i had such little idea...

that will do then... maybe i'll slot a photograph in here... this memorial stands at the top of Lewes High Street and is dedicated to the fallen of the First World War...

Montpelier, Brighton

2008-01-25T14:03:00.000Z

Saturday I went to Brighton, setting off late again and really my only destination was Oxfam on Western Road, searching for a pair of jeans. One of the things I most love about Brighton is the train ride in to the station. The train runs high up on a beautiful viaduct and you get an aerial view of much of the city. This photograph is the best I could manage.

I was feeling a bit shy of crowds and avoided the main thoroughfare of Queens Road, following a twitten or two before reaching St Nicholas' Church.

I was unaware that this is the oldest building in Brighton. It dates back to the mid-14th century and may have been the site of an older church recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 in the then small fishing village of Bristelmestune.

This is a nice church. The churchyard surrounding it looks down the hill to the clock tower and Brighton's main shopping centre. People often sit here near the gravestones and these grounds have a very welcoming feel.

The Princess Victoria pub. I'm not so keen on the cartoon sign hanging outside 'the PV' as it is lovingly known. Note the two people with shopping bags.

This area is known as the Montpelier district and is characterised by its distinctive Regency architecture.

The cream white stucco decoration is perhaps the most obvious feature of Regency architecture. The Regency period takes its name from the Prince Regent. Later to become George IV, he served as regent while his father (George III) was mentally ill from 1811 to 1820. It is he who Hugh Laurie lampoons in Blackadder. The Prince Regent had an ornate and luxurious residence built in Brighton, the Royal Pavilion, and the city experienced rapid population growth from the late eighteenth century onwards.

St Mary Magdalene's Church on Upper North Street. Built in 1862 of red brick with stone dressings, the architect for this church was Gilbert Blount. The elongated spire is reminiscent of Pugin whose Decorated style designs were influential in the building of Catholic churches and cathedrals. I wasn't stalking those two shoppers but there they are again.

On the way back from Oxfam I took a shot of this church. I was later trying to identify this church on the internet with little success until I realised it is actually the back of St Magdalene's. That spire gave it away.

Another pub. They just look like they have some tales to tell. And then I went home.

Camden Town

2008-01-20T02:34:00.000Z

Not much happening this end. I don't seem to have much of a work life or much of a social life or much of anything going on really just now. And I'm not really fighting the flow; just drowsily going along with this dull and safe existence (or lack of) here at my Mum's house...

A week ago her partner mislaid a bag in a restaurant in London one Friday evening and so it was exciting for me to be despatched with adequate funds to travel to London and retrieve the said rucksack the next day. I was feeling more down than usual that day and another thing is it takes me till 2 pm to leave the house. I don't know why but this always seems to be the case.

From Lewes they were running a rail replacement service up to Three Bridges (a good hour on the bus) before joining the train to London Victoria. Here's my view from the front of the bus as we pass the King's Head (Lewes) on the right.

My photography skills were particularly woeful on this outing. Up to London, then. I finally seem to be getting my bearings in the capital these days. I didn't know what to do really. I went to Camden. I have been before. I was looking to find a pub called the Hawley Arms because I'd heard it was something of a celebrity hang-out. On arrival in Camden I went a-wandering and found the Dublin Castle instead, another indie venue of lore and the supposed launch-pad for Madness. Had a pint there and moved on. Dingy.

Returning to the centre I found the main tourist thoroughfare, which is lovely really. Very bright and lots of nik naks and interesting records and clothes maybe (I had no money to shop so why look?) but sort of... yeah, everything bright like a funfare and lots of music playing. Lively. It felt good. I took a picture.

And then I reached Camden Lock. There is a complex of indoor and outdoor markets gathered around this point. Wikipedia reckons this location is a drug peddler's paradise and, indeed, as I stopped to take this photograph a guy asked me if I wanted to buy any weed. Loud techno music was playing. I walked round a little wide-eyed. Brightly coloured T-shirts, boxes of rare 45s, glo-sticks and electronic gadgets emitting blue rays of lights. The market had a sort of Japanese feel somehow.

The Regent's Canal runs through the lock. Eight and a half miles in length, the towpath also passes through London Zoo and is a pleasant and popular walk in summer. I left the market all too quickly and then I bumped into the Hawley Arms. Amy Winehouse famously turned up here last year after quitting a drink and drugs clinic in Essex. It has many celebrity endorsements to its name and, at eight o' clock on a Saturday evening, was obviously packed. I thought it was a real nice place. I had a pint, managed to get a seat, and didn't see anybody famous. As a souvenir, I snapped a photo of this sign.

And I was enjoying this, my second pint of the evening, and really could have stayed longer but my Mum telephoned and reminded me about this bag I was supposed to pick up. It was back to Tottenham Court Road where I went on New Year's Eve. I caught the tube and got off a stop early (Goodge Street) so I could take a sightseeing walk.

The Centre Point building was one of the first skyscrapers in London. Designed by Richard Seifert and erected between 1963 and 1966, this concrete and glass office building is now the 19th tallest building in the capital. There is a housing charity called Centrepoint which takes its name from a sit-in protest held here by homeless campaigners that lasted three days in 1974.

On finding the restaurant the staff handed me the bag and... tube to train to bus to train... I was back indoors at a far too civilised hour.

Royal Tunbridge Wells

2008-01-07T14:42:00.000Z

Seven days in to the New Year and, as yet, I haven't been all that inspired to implement any marked changes into my life. Perhaps I am brooding, waiting on an idea for a creative project to hatch. Perhaps I should become a little more proactive to this effect. Anyway, on Saturday, in a bid to enliven then ailing spirits, I set out on an excursion to Tunbridge Wells.

The bus from Lewes follows the A26 all the way up this gently rising clay hill, passing the straggly remains of once mighty forests at the roadside, occasional ponies grazing and a pub-restaurant every mile or so. Passing through the towns of Uckfield and Crowborough there are prideful old barns and houses renovated in mock tudor splendour. Crowborough didn't look particularly special...

...and I wasn't expecting much from Tunbridge Wells but, on arrival, was pleasantly surprised by the majesty of the town's architecture. The Opera House was designed by one John P. Briggs and built in 1902 at a cost of £40,000. Originally a bronze statue of Hermes adorned the dome. The Opera House became a cinema in 1931 and is now home to a J.D. Wetherspoon pub. The company plans to stage Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte there in February.

Tunbridge Wells' history begins here with this chalybeate (iron bearing) spring, discovered by Dudley, Lord North in 1606. Quite ill at the time, the courtier of James I drank from the spring, made a speedy recovery and soon informed his many influential friends about the healing properties of the water. A town was born.

Tunbridge Wells became a popular spa resort for London's aristocracy. A covered parade of shops known as The Pantiles was built near the spring for the gentry to stretch their legs.

The 'Royal' prefix was bestowed upon Tunbridge Wells by King Edward VII in 1909 in honour of its popularity amongst the aristocracy. Leamington Spa is the only other town to have been granted such a title.

There was much to admire here. I particularly liked the Chapel of LloydsTSB.

Calverley Grounds were sculpted into their current shape between 1920 and 1926 by local nurseryman William Wallace. These gardens surrounding an old bandstand felt very serene.

Tunbridge Wells is located in the very westerly point of the county of Kent, perhaps 25 miles south-east of London. I was unaware that the town was so posh and didn't frequent many shops though it had a very good range of second-hand bookshops. There were a lot of young people hanging around in groups, looking vaguely disaffected.

The Forum looked in a state of abandonment. Still, David Devant and his Spirit Wife appear here next Saturday and four more skinny indie kids, The Courteeners, arrive on the 26th. Shane McGowan was born in Tunbridge Wells while John Simon Ritchie (Sid Vicious) spent some formative years in the town.

I'm quite a fan of Caffé Nero, a British coffee shop chain established in 1997 which has over 330 shops nationwide. The Tunbridge Wells branch has seating on two floors. Sufficiently tired and brightened by my exploring I enjoyed an Americano as I waited for the return bus.

On the net there is a blog covering all things Tunbridge Wellsian and a delightful photo-journal of its residents.

Cheshunt

2008-01-03T21:45:00.000Z

'It's normal...' exclaimed the chalked up blackboard of one pub (The Volunteer in Lewes) that I walked past on January 2nd. '...Everything is back to normal!'. I couldn't help but take the comic insight of this transient road signage warmly to heart. Oh the fervency of the Christmas season and how one jolly occasion merrily ambles into another. Ho the winter solstice and the longest day, ho the birth of the Christian redeemer, and ho the turning of the Roman calendar. Ho Ho Ho! how it goes... it is over for another year...

On New Year's Eve I congregated with good friends Del and Andy in The Tottenham for an evening out and old-fashioned party. The Tottenham is opposite exit one of the Tottenham Court Road tube station. The pub was pretty packed, the atmosphere warm yet a little muted with pre-celebration nerves. We enjoyed a pint or two and moved on to our planned destination.

Magazine Club New Year's Eve Party at The Fly on New Oxford Street. We had a good time but maybe a paragraph is all the event merits. The bands Mancini and Cobra Dukes were nothing exceptional. Upstairs the DJs played eighties classics and obscurities to an appreciative audience while in the basement more recent house and indie pop hits were spun. The revellers there seemed very friendly and of similar ages to my group. We had a lot to drink and flirted with some good types. We had a laugh, caught the night bus to Waltham Cross and spent that night and the next day recovering in Cheshunt.

In terms of aesthetic appeal, Cheshunt doesn't really have a lot going for it. A dormitory town on the fringes of North East London it has a population of over fifty thousand people. The focal centrepiece of the town is this rather modest fountain in the middle of a roundabout opposite a small Tescos supermarket.

Tesco plc is a British-based international grocery and general merchandising retail chain. It is the largest British retailer by both global sales and domestic market share, and is the world's third-largest retailer, behind Wal-Mart of the United States and Carrefour of France. In 2007, the supermarket chain announced over £2.55 billion in profits (source: Wikipedia). Tesco's head office is, curiously enough, located in Cheshunt.

Cheshunt played an interesting part in the formative years of two of the brightest stars in the galaxy of commercial pop music. In 1951 the then eleven-year-old Harry Webb moved with his parents from comparative wealth in Lucknow, India to a council house in Cheshunt, where he would continue to live before changing his name to Cliff Richard and going on a summer holiday etc. Webb schooled at Cheshunt School, then located on Windmill Lane, not far from the headquarters of Tesco or from Del's preferred hostelry of choice when in town, The Maltsters.

Though not a former resident of the town (she grew up in the more prosperous and rural area of nearby Goff's Oak) Victoria Beckham née Adams attended St. Mary's High School in Cheshunt. The school is set a good way back from the road as we passed but I got a good picture of the sign outside.

Next door, the ancient Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin dates from the first half of the fifteenth century and was heavily restored by the Victorians.

Bishops' College is the most eye-catching building in the town. Built in 1870 it was used for nearly a century as an Anglican theological college. Broxbourne Borough Council now has its offices on the site though wedding ceremonies are also held here. The whole of the Bishops' College complex is grade II listed.

Cheshunt is a town with some historical import and it is sad to see its somewhat dismal contemporary appearance. On a cold day in the New Year of 2008 Andy and I bid a fond farewell to our friend and returned south.

Hastings

2007-12-30T10:44:00.000Z

Hastings is a seaside resort about 35 miles east along the coast from Newhaven. I didn't catch the train out, yesterday, until 2 pm which didn't give me much time to look around this enchanting town, whose former residents include occultist Aleister Crowley, actor Harry H. Corbett and comics Spike Milligan and Jo Brand.

On arrival, as if by magic, my friend Andy appeared. We paused for refreshments at Mr Bean's Coffee House. Pleasant enough. I was on something of a mission, searching for 82, The High Street. City centre locals proved to be of little use in this regard but they did point us in the direction of this rather delightful church.

The Holy Trinity in Robertson Street was designed by S. S. Teflon and built between 1851 and 1858. It is constructed of stone in the decorated gothic style and has a polygonal chancel apse. The octagonal vestry, in the foreground of my picture, was added in 1892.

The Crypt has long been a regular feature in NME listings and I was slightly disappointed to see this legendary venue proffer such a garish outdoor display.

Overlooking the town are the ruins of Hastings Castle, much of which have been lost due to sandstone cliff erosion.

On my way to the old town I passed amusement arcades, fish 'n' chip shops and this high gloss window display. It was all getting a bit too Las Vegas for my liking.

That sinister undercurrent of seaside towns was swelling a little and I was relieved to reach the cobbled streets, antique bookshops and colourful boutiques of the old town.

The sign below reads: 'On this site stood THE SWAN INN & 1, 2 & 3 SWAN TERRACE destroyed by enemy action at about mid-day on Sunday 23 May 1943 with considerable loss of life.' In the background stands St Clement's Church, probably built after 1377.

82, The High Street, Hastings. 'Made In Hastings' is the name of the shop.

I was hoping to buy a birthday gift for a friend of mine. These are plain paper notebooks enclosed by the covers of old books. The Jean-Paul Sartre was a Christmas present for me from my sister and the Charlie Brown is the birthday gift I chose for my friend.

I like to enjoy a glass of red wine on my travels. The Jenny Lind had a strong piratical feel about it. The young woman who served me had flaming red hair. On New Year's Eve they are hosting a night called Pugwash.

Hastings has a lot of character and much to browse and explore. I hope to return soon.

Shopping in Brighton

2007-12-28T21:18:00.000Z

While, physically, this cold wearies me a little, new ideas have, just lately, been germinating in my mind at a higher velocity than usual. Perhaps it is not so arbitrary that Christmas should follow the Solstice and the changing of the seasons. From here the days get progressively longer and, each day, a little more brightness is presented to our human forms.

Today I went to Brighton. I returned some library books.

Brighton's Jubilee Library opened on World Book Day, March 3, 2005. The library cost £14 million to build and was a private finance initiative (PFI) organised by Brighton and Hove Council. My picture captures the essence of the architectural construction. It looks like a big glass box. The library wasn't open today but on the outside of the building there was a little metal drawer into which I deposited the books they had kindly lent me free of charge.

Along with the award winning library, Brighton's North Laines district boasts 300 shops, 37 cafes, 22 pubs, 4 theatres and 2 museums. I like to traverse these streets which have always had a buzz and lively feel about them. In this part of town a colourful and chic range of fashionable goods are retailed at reasonable prices.

Snooper's Paradise in Kensington Gardens is a kind of indoor flea market which specialises in luxury items of a retro style. Here I sneaked a shot of... well, some cushions...

It was in Snooper's that I purchased a Yamaha PSR-2 keyboard instrument. It cost 22 pounds. The Yamaha PSR line of keyboards is one of the most popular line of keyboards in the history of the electronic keyboard. This model first went on sale in 1980 and is modelled here by my favourite teddy bear.

I pottered for a while longer, delighting in my anonymity within crowds, taking in many and varied faces, some old, some new. Perhaps I went a little too quickly in my step. On my travels I stopped to ponder the Parish Church of St Paul's in West Street.

St Paul's Church opened to the public on 18 October, 1848. It cost £12,000 to build. From the beginning, St Paul's Church was associated with the Oxford Movement within High Church Anglicanism. What weak knowledge of church history I have suggests that this is a Church of England place of worship which emphasises its connection with the Roman Catholic Church.

I soon passed both this and the horrible Wetherspoon's pub next door and turned right into Boyce's Street where I found a very charming and welcoming hostelry called The Full Moon.

The day progressed from there. My mate Andy travelled by train from Lewes to meet me. And I purchased a hat. But I think that will do for now.

Don't Shoot Me, Santa Claus

2007-12-26T14:14:00.004Z

Hello. Here's trouble...

This is me - as of earlier this afternoon - up on the cliffs at Newhaven. Today I have come down with a head-cold. I had quite a nice Christmas, though... possibly better than this fella'...

And this is a picture of Newhaven, the town I am currently living in. Another port, another harbour.

Should this image paint an impression of a rather swish and contemporary little town I might let you note we don't yet own an outdoor television set like Kingston upon Hull, a wonderful city in which I used to live.

Well, blogtastic boys and girls, that's nearly it for today. I will leave you with a pop video. It makes me laugh.