Bank Holiday

Yesterday was a great day. A friend from the States stayed with us for two nights and yesterday after church I took the family and our friend to The White Swan in Twickenham for lunch. We sat outside in the sun a few yards from the river. It was warm and sunny and we had a great view of the water and everything on it.

After lunch we went to Marble Hill Park and walked along to the ferry. There has been a licence to carry foot passengers from that point on the river to Ham House on the south bank since the middle ages. Anyway we hired a rowing boat and started rowing up to Alexander Pope's old house - now St James School - and then around Eel Pie Island.

We have friends that live on the island and as we passed I spied one of them in the garden and called out to him. Within minutes he was in his boat and rowing up to us. We chatted and then he invited us to his house for tea.So we sat in a garden under the shade of a tree, drinking champaign and eating sandwiches, for ages.

It was a very beautiful day.

Angelo's

I left college just after one and decided to have lunch in Richmond Park. I thought about picking up a packaged sandwich at the seven eleven shop just down the road from the college. Or a sandwich from the nearby garage.

Then I remembered Angelo's. I used to go there for lunch years ago. It is part restaurant and part sandwich bar.

I think it was Angelo who served me. He must have been in his seventies. And we chatted. He spoke with a strong Italian accent. He apologised for taking time with my order. He said they never make sandwiches up before hand. Said their philosophy was slow food. Said it was an honour to make me a sandwich. Said I should eat my lunch very slowly. I assured him I would.

Then he wrapped up the sandwich in tin foil and put it in a bag. He said come back again and I said I would.

As I walked to the door a work experience assistant got to the door before me and opened it to let me out.

And the day that seemed so overcast and chilly suddenly came alive to me. And the shop with bottles of olive oils and chibatta bread, sun dried tomatoes and artichokes soaked in spiced olive oil blossomed with love.

The Tallis Scholars

This evening we went to hear The Tallis Scholars at the Cadogan Hall in Sloane Square. It was a wonderful concert in a great setting. They just walked onto the stage - arranged their music on stands and just opened their mouths. And for just over an hour we were transported to another realm.

They sang Tallis, Byrd, Shepherd and Mundy.

Fight

I watched a street fight.

I'd just left college when I stopped at the traffic lights in Twickenham. From the traffic queue I saw a small crowd gathered round the pavement. And then a lot of shouting. The crowd began to move away and revealled two bodies wrestling on the ground, turning off the pavement into the gutter.But there seemed to be four men involved. Two white men, late twenties early thirtes and two black youths in their late teens.

Then they were standing up.

The two older men seemed to be trying to walk away but they were being followed by the younger guys. The older men did not run but seemed to be walking in circles over the street to a parked van on the pavement with its door open. They walked round and round. One of the youths, tall quite broad kept on wanting to grab one of the men.

Then a man intervened tried to come between the two and facing the youth shouted at him to stop. "Stop right now" and "let it go." He repeated this again and again. But he could not let it go.

Eventually the older men got into the parked van for shelter I think but as they tried to close the door the other teenager raised his bunch of keys that were around his neck and swung the keys down hard against the side van window. It shattered. The men got out and called the police.

The teenagers started walking away.

And then the police arrived - maybe within two minutes. And the teenagers were caught and put inside a police van.

I don't know how it started. I don't know who started it. The teenagers were the aggressors throughout. And yet why didn't the older men just run or get away. They could have done that at any time. What shocked me was the cold, expressionless - almost robotic behaviour of the younger pair. There was nothing said, just cold mechanical violence.

I didn't do much. I called out from the car for them to stop. I got out but felt rather helpless really. I gave my name to the police in case they wanted a witness statement.

Film Review Weeping Camel

Weeping Camel is a truly beautiful Mongolian film. Set in the Gobi Desert. It must be one of the most inhospitable places on the planet. It tells the simple story of a nomadic family.

A camel has a hard time giving birth and when she eventually does she rejects her colt immediately. It is up to the family to find a way to bring mother and colt back together again.

A beautifully shot film - the unrelenting barrenness of the desert, the intimate and tender relationships between humans and their animals, and the relationships within the family, the fragility of traditional life and traditions and the the modern world - its motorbikes, computer games and satilite dishes.

My children asked why anyone would choose to live in the desert. And I wasn't sure I had an easy answer.

But it is to the traditional ways that the family find an answer to their problem. The film offers us a glimpse of a way of life that almost certainly is dying out.

Moving, sentive, touching.

Photo Camelus bactrianus by Jerrold

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerrold/238351928/

Theatre Review Othello

We went to see Lenny Henry play Othello at The Rose Theatre in Kingston. We got tickets for the last night. It was an interesting experience. I think one feature of great story telling is when you can completely forget yourself. To reach that state for me is pretty rare but I managed it for two scenes of this performance. Which for me that is pretty good going.

So he managed to help me forget red nose day, a pathetic recent sitcom, a fairly recent performance Live at the Apollo even forget briefly Hughie Greene's Opportunity Knocks. And made me believe in the crucial scenes of Act 3 Scene 3 and 4 that I was watching a man totally obsessed with jealousy and hate.

And this despite Lenny Henry stomping around the stage as if he was a builder and delivering some of the lines as if his head was stuck in a bucket of water.

The people surrounding him on that square of light were a mixed bag.

But I was pleased to be there on a late spring evening - a mildness in the air and Kingston enjoying a quiet renaissance.

Film Review Jesus of Montreal

We rediscovered this film over Easter. And it was as striking and disturbing as it was the first time. It is a great modern re-telling of the Easter story. Instead of Nazareth we have Montreal, instead of Pharisees - the established Roman Catholic church, instead of the desert a city sky scrapper, and the tempter a slick city lawyer.
The resurrection is perhaps a little too neat but this is a thought provoking, under stated, interesting film full of subtlety and humour. I highly recommend it.