It's all in what you mean

Week 1 of cycling – complete!

If progress is cycling both to and from the swimming pool without walking the bike up either of the two ‘hills’, then I have progressed.  I am rapidly developing contempt for pedestrians who will walk in cycle lanes, and a surprising respect for the majority of car drivers who actually do stop when I am waiting at a zebra crossing to get to the next part of the cycle pathway.

            However, let’s not get carried away, as soon as the car park is back in commission – I will be driving!

The loneliness of the 30 min swimmer

Cycling may make you a little more tired by the time you get to the pool for a swim, but there is nothing like an empty pool to reinvigorate you.

            When you want to swim, you do not want splashing people getting in the way, you want to concentrate on the rhythm of your stroke and have as efficient a time as possible.  Or at least I do, and having someone else in your lane lessens the pleasure.

            So it was with considerable delight that the only person who was in the pool when I arrived left it just as I was getting in!

            These pleasures never last, of course and soon – although later rather than sooner – other people selfishly intruded on my isolation.  However, by the time they arrived my swim was almost over and I therefore count myself as having had a good experience and an efficient work out.

            The composition of my post-swim tea appears to have regularized itself into a mixture that I like and I was able to drink and consider in sunshine which was unseasonably warm.

            The notes that I made in my Little Book are already the draft of a poem at http://smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.es/ and, as ever, I welcome readers!

Bargain salmon

Lunch was in one of the few places in Castelldefels that doesn’t hike its prices over the weekend for a menu del dia.  Unfortunately my main dish will not be appearing in Toni’s blog because I was halfway through it before I remembered about the camera.  My starter of Caesar Salad was photographed and was delicious.

            We were very lucky to get a table and it was only because our timing was immaculate that we were able to segue our way into a table that became vacant as we walked in through the door.  We were also recognised by the owner and as reasonably good customers it was in his interest to see us seated.  An excellent meal.

Open season!

The forums in the Open University are beginning to become a little more strident as the range and quantity of work that is being asked of us increases.

            The End of Module Assessment is causing various levels of hysteria, especially as we are nearing the cut off date for the submission of a very detailed pro forma outlining what we intend to do.  This pro forma is not given a mark, but if you don’t complete it you fail the course!  That concentrates minds I can tell you.

            My choice of paintings and artist is a little off centre and the choice of critical documents that I have to use it a little difficult.  However, I am encouraged by recent comments by my tutor who seems to be fairly flexible in an approach will might see me subvert (a favourite word in this particular course) one piece which is feminist in tone and re-imagine it as a representative piece of Queer Theory polemic.  Gender criticism is amenable to twisting.  At least I hope it is.  Because that is what I am going to do.  And soon!

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!

Pace increases

Day 5 of Bike Riding.

At last an uneventful day with the chain staying firmly on the cogs.  The wind, however, was another story.  And it was against me all the way there, even drawing water from my eyes.  There is nothing like discomfort to make you believe that you are really doing something major.  It allowed me to ignore the pathetically small distance that I actually travel each day to get to my swim.  Small enough to be manageable but long enough for me to feel that I have accomplished something when it is done.

            The aquacise or whatever they call it when a group of aging people stand in the pool and vaguely follow the gyrations of a raucous teacher shouting against pounding music.  A pair of earplugs and head under water modifies the noise level and anyway, I am usually thinking profound thoughts as I mindlessly make my way up and down.  Well, not necessarily profound but deep, deep as the pool.  And as this is a modern double shallow end pool and child friendly, you can tell exactly how probing those thoughts are!

            I am reminded of my time in university when I used to go for a swim in the pool next to Singleton Hospital every day.  The swim was a form of exercise and of relaxation too.  I thought, I am always thinking, but the level of thought was not quite so focussed, it became more wide-ranging and less serious, almost like a waking dream.  Sometimes I take a single part of a thought and worry it like a bone and let it go where it will.  The great thing about swimming is that if you don’t keep at least part of your mind on what you are doing, you drown.  So there is a dual control thing going on which is so different from normal living that it can little less than a form of escape.  Or at least that is what I tell myself.  Anyway, by the time all the half thoughts, the vague ideas, the necessary exercise and little distractions of other human bodies have played themselves to some sort of climax, it is time to end the swim.  And it can all start again tomorrow!

Support Toni’s Blog

Lunch now has become a duty.  We only eat to add another restaurant to the growing number contained in Toni’s Blog http://catalunyaplacetoeat.blogspot.com.es/ this time going to a place that we haven’t been to for some time.

            The décor had been partially changed but the ambience of the place was just about the same, or rather it was a bit lopsided as if they hadn’t really made a final decision about how the almost revamped place should look.

            The food was fine with my main dish of wok fried chicken and vegetables being really rather good.  But look at the blog to see what we ate.

            I like the idea of each eating out experience being captured and blogified.  Over a year or so we should have a substantial number of entries and have a bewilderingly luscious selection of what Castelldefels can offer.

            I wonder if what Toni writes will develop more of a bite and be more destructive, or constructively critical as time goes on.  This is still very early days for the site and so there are all sorts of ways in which it can go.

The next book

Considering the actual ‘next’ book has not actually been produced yet, to be planning one for 2016 is either an example of exceptional forward planning, or a shining example of hope trumping reality.

            However, I have a working title, ‘Structured Sense’ and I have added the first poem to its pages and I am already thinking about ideas for the few sequences that I think I would like to include.  One of my favourite quotations concerns ‘vaulting ambition’ – though I have always considered that it only applied to murdering Scottish pretenders than to my good self.

            ‘Flesh Can Be Bright’ continues to progress and, as far as I am concerned, my poems for that book are done.  I am now waiting on the work of others – but I also have a plan B to cope with any and all failures of contributions.  Though I am quietly confident that everything will work out in the end.

            I am now editing and redrafting and I reckon that will take me well up to May and then final decisions will have to be taken about the final appearance of the book.  You would think that self-publishing makes things a damn sight easier – and that self-delusion is what I am working on.  And I like the ambiguity of that statement!

OU hysteria

Even when, or perhaps especially when, we are a separated group of studiers, hysteria has a way of uniting us in one howling band of paranoia.  This is partly because the next few weeks are ones of concentrated work production with two pieces of tutor work having to be sent in.

            We have just had an on-line tutorial.  I do not know what some of my fellow students use as microphones, but some of them do not seem to have the same quality of reproduction of a tin with a piece of stretched string.  One of them sounded as though he was in a cardboard box surrounded by cotton wool.  And people don’t read the instructions and the information that they are given and, I am sounding like a teacher.  So I will stop.

            At least my tutor seems not only sympathetic to my general choice of topic for my mini thesis, but also sympathetic to my bending the rules a little to further my ideas.  This is positive.  I will reserve my relief until I get back my academic pro-forma and see exactly what comments my tutor makes for the next stage.

            I am lucky in being able (in theory) to see both of my paintings in London.  One, the Hockney, I will have check that it will be on display when I am able to get to the Tate.  I bloody well hope it is as I have built my ideas around seeing it again as a central part of my thesis.  The other painting is in a private collection and the owner has, very kindly, invited me to view the paintings when I am in London.  This could all work out very well, and I still have in mind the development of the ideas to link up with the exhibition in Leeds.  That would be a major achievement.  But that is for the future.  The immediate future is the writing of an outline of what I think I might be able to do.

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!

Two firsts!

Day 3 of the bike riding.

At least the chain did not come off today, so I count that as a bit of a triumph.  I also cycled up the hill over the motorway which I really think must count for something!  I can’t truthfully say that I am ‘getting into’ cycling, but I am doing it with something approaching good grace.  Unless it rains.

Tree destruction

I continue to watch the levelling of the area where the trees used to be with some grief, mixed with fascination in watching the speed and efficiency with which the workmen are effacing all traces of what used to be there before.  I may not like what they have done, but they are doing it well!

            What will be a telling indication of the level of managerial competence is the way that they put the lines in the space that they have now created for parking.  In my experience few humans (including myself) have the spatial and organizational imagination to paint a sequence of parking lines that uses the available area to its full potential.  Indeed my experience is that the almost arbitrary spacing of the lines creates vindictive confusion and bitter recrimination.

            Perhaps this car park will buck the trend in this country and they will actually give a reasonable amount of space.  For once.

Critical lunch

Lunch was eaten selflessly as an expedition to discover the quality of food provided in the restaurant connected to the apart hotel that some of our guests in October will be using.

            In due course an illustrated account of our meal will appear in Toni’s blog at http://catalunyaplacetoeat.blogspot.com.es where other of our joint eating ventures are to be found.

            The meal was delicious and the glass of vermouth to start the meal was a welcome touch.  Still, details on Toni’s blog.

The inspiration

Toni heard, saw, hunted and killed the first mosquito of the season.  How the hell the thing survives this early in the year is difficult to imagine – though the weather has been fine and sunny.  Indeed it has been so good that I have had my first official sunbathing attempt.  It didn’t last that long, but it did happen.  I trust that this will be first of many tanning sessions so that I can get rid of my pallid skin colour!  The hell with health, I need my vitamin D!

The Muse

Although I have a couple of poems which are refusing to come together in anything like a form that I can regard as finished, or even as things with a positive direction – my notes after my swim and during my cup of tea translated into a poem with a speed which left me breathless.  The finished poem may be found at http://smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.es and is available for comment!