Small pleasures

Family wisdom

For reasons best known to my unconscious, I have, this morning, been thinking of the advice which has been handed down to me by family members.

Great-grandfather: “Never refuse a good offer!”

            This piece of double-edged advice (it has been used against me by people with whom I have shared it!) has been handed down like a precious heirloom.  Of all the words of wisdom this has been the most used, as it often does provide a short cut to a clear decision and, when this is reached, it is so much more satisfying when you can append a saying to justify what often appears to be pure selfishness!

Grandfather: “Fair play’s bonny play.”

            This is a flexible saying which can be used to justify past action, to allow an element of wriggle-room in a difficult situation and to claim space to exercise your rights.

Father: “Anything is better than nothing.”

            Rather like the famous inscription in the ring demanded by the emperor who said he wanted to see something which, if he was sad would make him happy and if he were happy would make him thoughtful – this saying is something which can push you forward when everything seems against you and can make you think a little when things are going well.  It is also plain wrong some of the time.  Oh, “This too will pass” was the inscription that made it to the circle of gold.

Mother: “You can never have too many tea-towels”

            This is also true for teaspoons.  And is true.  And I have expanded this saying to include watches and cameras.  And books.  And gadgets.  And more books.

Possibly I have not been very fair to my relatives here, there was a lot else that they told me that has sunk into my bones, but, goodness knows I have fallen back on these sayings more times than I can conveniently remember.

            As I have been writing I have been remembering other things that they said, but some wisdom is best kept close and not shared too widely especially that sort of knowledge that shows up too much of your character!

Kids and other humans

The curse of the retired classes has returned: holidays.  Children openly stalk the streets and Barcelona has decamped to Castelldefels.

In spite of knowing the date of Easter for once, I was still surprised by the arrival of Palm Sunday and newly shocked (again) by the ostentatious showiness of the ‘palms’ that kids were waving around for seconds before they were discarded and dropped into the ever-accommodating hands of their parents. 

Surprised I might have been, but with notebook to the forefront, I was able to jot down some observations and they were able to prompt a poem, POEMS IN HOLY WEEK  i. A girl skips by, which can now be seen at http://smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.es/ 

I have, rather grandly, set myself the task of writing a poem a day for the rest of this week.

            Apart from Good Friday and Easter Sunday there is no obvious daily focus, so finding a connecting subject matter (without resorting to the book of daily prayer and the gospel readings) is going to be testing.

            What I produce may be a sequence or there may be individual poems worth salvaging.  Or it might not happen, of course.  But I think that it will be a good discipline for me, and I am hoping that there will be a knock on effect of studiousness prompting me to get a move on with the next essay for the OU course.

Competition

Toni’s blog on restaurants in Castelldefels http://catalunyaplacetoeat.blogspot.com.es/ is rapidly gaining a steady readership and the pageviews are, even more rapidly gaining parity with the sophisticates that patronize http://smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.es/  

I am relying on my Holy Week Poetic Effort to redress some of the balance – though why I should think that I am competing for the same viewers is difficult to understand!

We are told that if you have something to sell then capturing an almost infinitesimal percentage of the Chinese market will make your fortune several times over.  The digital on-line ‘market’ is much, much larger so, I tell myself, there is an audience for my poetry out there, it is simply a matter of reaching it!

United Nations Day 2015

EasyJet flights are now open for this momentous day and beyond and so travel arrangements for the occasion are able to be finalised.

            I am looking forward to The Day itself and also to the publication of Flesh Can Be Bright with which it coincides!

            I have been fairly strict with myself and have not started the final editing as I do have one or two other academic preoccupations to fill up my time before I can turn my attention to the fiddly bits before publication.

            I am still waiting on the efforts of others and I am hoping that they are working away to keep to the deadlines.  I think it might be politic to send gentle emails to find out exactly what is or is not going on.

            I am running out of letters of the alphabet to cope with the various ‘plans’ I have had to accommodate the final shape of the book, but this is one time where my ability to speculate endlessly comes in useful!

            Whatever happens there will be, there is at the moment, a final version of what I originally planned.  If any of the collaborations come off then the book will be able to gain from whatever I get.  My grandiose vision may not be able to be realised, but I am sure that shreds of it will make it between the covers.

Barcelona bound

That sub-heading is more appropriate than I meant, but this afternoon will see me battling the kamikaze scooters to get to the centre of Barcelona for a medical test.

            Interestingly, this test has been outsourced by my medical centre to a private organization in the city.  Our local hospital is a few kilometres away, but no, I have to go into the centre and, horror or horrors, find a parking space.

            I think this approach is one which our present criminal government (I use the adjective fairly I think as most of the government and the ruling party has been accused of multiple abuses of power) seems keen to privatize the health service, diverting vast sums of public money into the private hands of their backers.  Sound familiar?  Plus ça change!  Doesn’t matter what country you are in, the Conservatives always try the same tactics!

Canine Chorus

Other people wake up to the sound of birds singing – not us.  We have dogs in the same way that medieval Britain had rats – they are everywhere.  At least the rats were quieter.

            I speak as a dog person (at least as long as they are yellow Labrador bitches) but I can’t help feeling if I was given a flame thrower and allowed free rein at dawn then there would be a smell of burning dog flesh in our neighbourhood!

And now the long day’s fast begins as my test has demanded that eating ends six hours before.  At least I am allowed water.  Cheers!

For this relief, much thanks!

It’s off

Well, I have taken my ‘Anything is better than nothing’ philosophy seriously and the pro forma is off for consideration by my tutor.  This is one time when I really need my tutor’s advice.  I will be interested to see how she deals with the well meaning gibberish that I sent off, I only hope that she can make more sense of what I have written than I can!

            Which is not quite true, but I am hoping for substantial help here, if only to point me in manageable direction because I think that I have set myself far too wide ranging a topic for consideration.  Still, ambition is good thing, yes?

            Now, for a shot while, I will be able to concentrate on the next essay which is another substantial piece of work!  And on the outer reaches of modern art!  Should be interesting and should also give me enough information to irritated people for years when I pretend to more advanced tastes than I actually have.

            It is going to be a considerable shock when I travel back in time to the Renaissance for the next course, which come to think of it is nearer than I like to think about.  This course will finish in May, then there is the summer and the production of Flesh Can Be Bright and then holidays followed by the traditional laughing at teachers when they are ready to go back to school in September and then it’s October, the start of my next course and time for the United Nations Day repast.  That little paragraph is one way of travelling through time!  Which does indeed seem to be speeding up!

Where have all the poems gone?

The notes are building up and the pro forma has meant that I have not spent so much time writing my poetry.  But it does mean that I have a stockpile of ideas to work from now that the pro forma has been sent off.

            My attendance at the Barcelona Poetry Workshop usually means that I have something to use at the end of the session – and it also gives me an opportunity to see if two of my collaborators are still up for their contributions to the book.  You can always see what I have written at: http://smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.es/

            My generous deadline of the end of May for all contributions to be in and ready, now seems terribly close and what seemed generous now seems tight.  Still, I seem to thrive on tension and I hope that I put it to good use!

Page turning

Reading through Chris Richard’s blog: http://www.chris-richards.co.uk/blog/

about the books that he has read in 2015 made me realise that the number of novels that I have read this year is limited, and the number of novels that I am prepared to admit that I have read is even fewer!

            It comes to something when the books that I can recommend most easily are art books and a readable guide to philosophy.  The four Skira books on Modern Art are pricy but worth it.  They are hardbacks and they cover and illustrate in a thoroughly academically intelligent way a convincing history of the modern movements in art.  At round twenty quid each I think they are a bargain and if you look around you can get them for less!

            I have just looked them up in Amazon and found that you can get them for a damn sight more as well!  Amazon is now offering them for one hundred and thirty-five quid!  And still worth getting!  The full title is Art of the Twentieth Century in four hardcover volumes (with a 3D slipcase) by Valerio Terraroli and Heinz Althöfer and others.  There are some excellent essays in these volumes as well as some simple to digest information.  Published by Skira, I cannot recommend them enough.

            The philosophy book that I suppose you could say that I bought in self defence as I was struggling to understand some of the basic philosophers that we were being asked to consider was by the ever-readable and student friendly Nigel Warburton.  The volume, A Little History of Philosophy, is a book that I have recommended before and I am more than happy to take another opportunity to recommend it once more.  Of all the books I have read on philosophy (!) this one is the least intimidating and most readable.  And it has little drawings!  Who could ask for more!  If you have no other book on philosophy in your library then this is one that you will read and (more importantly) go back to when you really want to understand!

Be prepared!

I now have to be thinking seriously of my visit to the UK because there are some things that I have to plan for as I cannot expect hem to happen when I get there.  For example, I will have to visit the vaults of the Tate and to do that you need to apply at least six weeks in advance!

            I have visited the vaults before and it was a remarkable experience and I am eager to repeat it.  Not one of the paintings by Alvaro Guevara is on show at the moment and so I will have to look at them in the vaults.

            I also have to future plan my reader’s ticket for the National Library as my book choices will have to be applied for long before I go to Britain.  I have visited the National Library, but not as a Reader (with a capital R) and I will have to use my time wisely if I am to get the benefit from a couple of days set aside to study there.

            I m looking forward to my visit because it is gradually getting filled up with more and more things being squeezed into a shrinking pint glass!

Life is up hill!

Day 6 of cycling

This form of transport has now become a way of life for me.  Well, I did pedal up the hill of the road bridge over the motorway today.  That surely must mean something!  My gear changing is become less traumatic and the chain is staying on the cogs.  I call that virtually professional.

            The daunting thing for me is that the workmen seem to have stopped preparing the car park to be used as a car park again.  A month out of use seems like a very optimistic assessment of how long it is going to take to bring things back to normal and allow me to use the car again.

            The sun is shining and the ride is not long and we are heading into Spring, so at the moment, I am happy to keep cycling.

In the hands of the gods

Ironically, it is at this time that I am denied the use of the car by the uprooting of trees and the changing of a car park, that my car has been called in for a ‘free’ check-up.  This things are inevitably followed by an attempt on the part of the garage involved to drain your bank account.  I sincerely hope that this is not the case as I resent every penny spent on something as mundane (if essential) as a car.  Especially a car so signally devoid of useful gadgets as my present vehicle.

            I am very tempted by cars with rear view cameras.  I hate reverse parking with a passion and I am usually pretty average at doing it, so this is one gadget that I would actually be able to justify.

            Anyway I hope this is just a oil and plugs check and will not result in the spending of money which can be frittered away on other nicer things than a car.

(Later pm.)    Well, all I can say is thank god there was nothing wrong with the car!  As it was I paid €270!  Perhaps I am tempting fate, but this car does run well and, for the first time in my experience, it actually seemed to run better after its service.  I could tell that ‘things’ whatever they be, have been done.  The man who took my money away explained, very patiently what had been done and what had been changed etc.  I would not have known what he was talking about if he had been speaking English, so you can imagine my fixed smile as he explained it all in Spanish.  I did understand what he was saying, mostly.  Though knowing the words does not necessarily mean that I actually know what the hell he was talking about.  I do now know that I have a pollen filter – which has been changed.  Which is nice.

            While the car was being ‘done’ I walked down a block or so and went into the Gava shopping centre.  The plan was that I would look at the shops and then settle down with a cup of tea and get on with my poems.

            This did not happen.  I always underestimate my capacity for shopping.  Especially when I have ‘something to do’.  The present ‘something to do’ is concerned with The Meal in October and will be a little surprise for my guests.  I am working on it and I needed to do a bit of shopping research.  That is now done and I have formulated a plan.  ‘Nuff said.

TMA turmoil!

My last essay has now been returned with a mark which is satisfactory if not quite up to Toni’s tedious excellence.  It will do me nicely.  It means that the final essay is just so much candy for me as I already have sufficient credit to pass the essay section of the course!  I will, however do the final essay!

            The next pressing problem is the pro-forma which has to be submitted in five days, then the next essay in a few weeks.  It’s all go.

Flesh Can Be Bright

The progress of the book seems to be speeding up as at least one of my collaborators seems to be producing something.  I await the product with some interested anxiety!

Slipped chains, home thoughts and anticipation

Day 4 of Bike Riding

And the chain came off again!  I think the major problem is the way that I change gears.  I know the major problem is the way that I change the gears.  I do it badly.  Consistently badly.  And the chain comes off.  Something to work on.

            I am now getting used to riding the bike, but I am still not convinced that it is ever going to ‘take’ as far as I am concerned.

March poems

It is only right and proper that some of my poems should reflect the importance of this month to Wales.  And one of them does.  You can read it at: http://smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.es and with this one, more than some of the others, I would appreciate feedback.  But, I have to admit that I am content as long as at least one other human life form has read it!

            I think that the present poem could be the penultimate one to be included in ‘Flesh Can Be Bright’ (to be published in the autumn) and I can now, or at least in a few days time, get down to the onerous task of editing, redrafting and preparing the book for publication.  I have offers of proof reading for which I am very grateful and I only hope that the other aspects of the book which are outside my direct control all come together in the next few months.

            I am very much looking forward to this publishing event!  A small thing, but mine own!

Lunch

Another meal in the restaurant that we still refer to as The Card Place in spite of the fact that the free meal incentive card that they used has long since been discarded.

            More photos were taken to illustrate Toni’s blog and he is now well into double figures in the establishments that he has covered and illustrated.

Out and about

This evening I’m off to Barcelona for a meeting of the poetry group which I joined when I was taking A215 Creative Writing with the Open University.  I have kept on with this group because it is warm, friendly and productive.

            One of my friends there is thinking of taking the University of Iowa’s free on-line course in Creative Writing.  This is the course that I did just after the Open University module and I thoroughly recommend it.  It is the sort of course that I might re-take some time in the future, especially if I need the impetus to write more poetry.  I found it stimulating and supportive.

Hotels

For some reason which I find difficult to understand all the hotels in Barcelona are suddenly more expensive that they were a week ago.  The hotel I usually use is charging more than double the rate I paid two weeks ago!  There are no holidays as far as I can work out; I am at a loss to explain.

            The end result of this hike in prices is that I am going in my car.  Parking in the centre of Barcelona (and our little group meets within a stone’s throw of the Cathedral) is exorbitant, but it is a damn sight cheaper than staying in an inexplicably expensive room.

            As I am driving I am taking fruit juice with me for the ‘meal’ we have half way through the evening.  God alone knows what a totally sober poet produces!

Trees, food and poetry - in any order!

I think that I was misled by the word: webinar.  The excitement of coming into contact with a useful neologism got me up at the crack of dawn to participate in a web-based discussion called, you’ve guessed it, a ‘webinar’.

            As this was being hosted in America the time was in EST, which I duly translated into Madrid time.  And was twelve hours out in my calculations!  A mistake anyone can make, though the six hours difference should have been added rather than taken away from their starting time.  If I had thought about it for longer than a Nano second I might have worked out that the USA is to the west of us and that the sun rises in the east and . . . well, there is no excuse really.

            And when, twelve hours later, I finally joined the webinar (having decided that this mixture of web and seminar was not really so clever) I discovered that the whole enterprise was actually a selling opportunity for the couple of hosts who were taking the webinar.  I have to admit that they did give some good advice and I did have the muted thrill of hearing the title of my forthcoming book, ‘Flesh Can Be Bright’ read out by the female host, so a few hundred people have heard the title, which is the first stage, I suppose, towards buying the thing!

The shock of the day was finding out, when I attempted to park in the leisure centre, that all the trees had been cut down!  I never like seeing trees destroyed, but this seemed worse somehow as these trees have been my on-going inspiration for a whole series of poems and are the basis for a continuing series of poems.  I did, of course make copious notes as I sipped my tea and watched the workmen operating the grab and scooping up the remains of the shattered vegetation.  This is the poem I wrote:

Winter Trees

ii.   Gone

The blossom headed grab

picks up what’s left of

twenty trees.

When this year’s growth

was not cut back,

I should have known

that something was afoot.

And now these winter-winnowed

twigs protrude from that

closed metal sphere

like so much wayward hair.

Spaced equally, the twenty

shallow pits share emptiness

concave, not deep.

How easy to remove. 

And cut. 

Fresh, pungent stumps

that flaunt their age

in death.

Those trees were never huggable.

The rough, stained, ulcered bark

defied caress.  And yet.

Will asphalt fill the cavities

where roots once were?

And cars park easily

on obstacle free ground?

And memory forget

that there were ever trees?

This poem is the second that I have written about Winter trees and I hope, eventually, it will be a continuation of the series that I have already written on Autumn trees.  My latest poems can be found at: http://smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.es/  I am thinking about this series as forming part of my next but one book of poems!  There is nothing like thinking ahead.  I would like this series to be accompanied by original drawings, just as I hope the ‘Autumn trees’ series will be in ‘Flesh Can Be Bright’ to be published this September.  That all sounds so professional, I can almost believe it!

Lunch today was spectacular, one of the best that we have had in Castelldefels.  I had a started of Carpaccio of beef that I last had in Paris.  This was substantially better, and a bloody sight cheaper!  My whole meal cost about ten quid, including a class of Cava and coffee with ice.  The homemade tiramisu was something that my friend Paul would have killed for.  You can see photos of most of the dishes in http://catalunyaplacetoeat.blogspot.com.es/ You will not see photos of the postres because we both started eating them before I thought of using the camera!  Again! 

Toni’s blog is growing nicely and the photos are a vivid reminder of the excellence of the eating experience that Castelldefels offers at such a reasonable cost.

Our eventual hope is that the blog will eventually be recognized as one of the formative eating guides and we will be fed for nothing where ’ere we go!  Fond hope.  But the blog is looking good and it is a clear guide about where to go for a good meal at more than reasonable cost.