So I was in ASDA last week on Tuesday evening, needing a new book. A few things struck me about this book, firstly, it’s written by a chap who’s middle name is Ho. A letter combination second to not many. So Peter Ho Davies wrote a book and it was long listed for the Man Booker prize. There’s another solid reason to be interested, though I.

I bought and churned through it in less than a week. A proper page turner. It’s a WWII story set (mainly) in Wales, seen from the perspective of all sides – The Welsh, the English, The young and the old. It’s a book about roots and culture, love and honour, war and bravery. The main characters were so rich, so real.
As a hidden bonus, I learned some genuinely fascinating stuff on sheep farming, as a result of reading this very book. Highly recommended.

A week has passed since my last blog. Got a few things stored up in the old cerebral vortex that I need to brain-dump.
Stylophones. Who remembers them? Rolf Harris was randomly the face behind this non Antipodean musical phenomenon, weedling them into their permanent place in the halls of musica obscura fame. I got given one. A belated Christmas prezzy from Fi (thanks to firebox’s logistical mismanagement). A fantastic thing. I’m loving it.
Reading – I’ve read a whole big book in less than a week (well done me, awards self, 1 x lollipop) – I’ll come onto that more in a separate blog post.

Friday, watched a fantastic film; the new Coen Brothers future classic : No Country for Old Men (official website). When I hear of a good film that I intend to watch, I try and observe a media black out on the subject. If I see reviews, I’ll not read them, if friends start to tell me about it, I tell them to shush it. My only pre conceptions were that it was a gritty western styled thing and that it was by the Coen brothers latest release.

A great film. The cinematography was superb – atmospheric is not the word. Incredible landscape portrayal with a style of it’s own. As my friend paintMonkey put it “It’s like a whole film shot in lomograph style” The lack of sound track makes the film feel so real – a very nice touch. Some fairly brutal deaths, some stunning chase, brilliant characters. A proper 5 star boys film.

That was Thursday nights entertainment. Friday, I sat in the Blues Bar for half an afternoon. Something I’ve not done in ages, but one of my favorite activities in the whole world. Saturday – duvet day, Sunday, A round of disk golf in stupidly high winds, followed by Mexican at J&H’s house. All in all a great week. Let’s see how this one pans out!

Just finished reading The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. A random purchase, purely on the back of needing a new book, and it was the only one that ASDA had that appealed at the time. I quite like the idea of reading ‘classics’ every now and then.
I had no pre fixed expectations of this book, I knew nothing about it. I liked it. Unexpectedly funny, in a Napoleon Dynamite kind of way. A story of a the inner ramblings of a churned up “nobody understands me” teenager, with his angst baggage of psychological and social perceptions. The outside illustrated a particular time and place at ‘street level’ – the late ’40′s New York. A fascinating snapshot of the city.

My favorite lines from the whole book would be this quote by the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Stekel “the mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one”

The Tempest Arms, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

It’s blummin wet. I bailed from work early today to make sure I could get home. My commute route had loads of flooding and standing water and one stretch (near blubberhouses) was only just passable (and the police were there , no doubt assessing safety / should they block it or not)

I stopped to snap this – it’s The Tempest Arms near Elslack / Skipton (on the A65). Not much chance of a pint without wet feet here.

A flurry of DragonDrop adventure shirt shot submissions!

Cambodia, Hong Kong, Malasia and Korea. Good adventuring! Thanks Jamie, Nick and Sarah for sending those in.

That’s now 33 dots on the map… Where next I wonder..

Just finished reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. A superb novel. This won the 2007 Orange prize for fiction. It’s the second book I’ve read that holds this titled (the other being Small Island)

Half of a Yellow sun is set in Nigeria in the 1960′s. A volatile period of African history. As well as enjoying this gripping story of civil war, of love, of strength of character, magnificently told, I feel enriched with what felt at times like first hand knowledge of Biafra and Nigeria in the late 60′s, it’s people, it’s culture and it’s land.

Anyone who likes reading about a new place, anyone who likes gripping character driven Novels, I’d suggest this as a read.

It’s a sad day for UK music consumption today. Pandora has been shut down in the UK.
Pandora is/was a fantastic site that allowed you to ‘create your own radio station’ based on your music preferences and those of others using the music genome prject (a complex mathematical algorithm that organises hundreds of types of attributes through millions of songs). It’s such a shame. I don’t fully understand who it was harming, the music industry was undoubtedly gaining revenue from it’s existence, thanks it’s inline promotion to amazon and iTunes. I for one discovered a whole bunch of new music thanks to Pandora, and went out and bought loads of music that I would never of, without it. I hope they win the fight and get it back online for the UK audience.

Had a fun weekend. Eirene had heard about an exhibition at the Oriental Museum in Durham by my old photography / art tutor / lecturer from college. A chap I had and still have great admiration for – Laurence Cuttings. Luck would have it that the very day we decided to pay a visit, he was there himself, giving talks on his work. His work, on Mongolia, was fascinating. Like reading a well written book, the quality of the images were stunning. Film, especially when shot with a medium format (Hasselblad) by someone who really knows what he’s doing, certainly still does things that digital can’t. We spent a bunch of time looking around the rest of the museum – fascinating artifacts from Asia and the orient dating way back. Things like this carving really caught my eye.
On our way home I had an eerie feeling about something that I was sure I remembered from childhood. After a bit of later research, I was indeed right – I knew a small place called Bowburn and I recognized it by it’s church spire (now churchless!) . I later researched, and asked an Aunt – she confirmed, it was a place that I spent quite a bit of time when I was probably pre 5 year old.
Continued the oriental / asian theme that evening with a good old carrom session (which turned into a scrabble session) with some friends. Top night, chillaxed all Sunday.

365 days : day 73 to day 108, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Following the theme of ‘oh look, 36 photos makes a nice 6×6 block, here is the latest block of photos in my 365 day project (where I’m trying to take a photo every day for a year) – day 73 to day 108..
1. Day 73 – Chinese Lunch, 2. Day 74 – A birthday at Fat Moon cottage, 3. Day 75 – Jaygo’s Christingle, 4. Day 76 – Blues bar on a monday, 5. Day 77 – Misty the critic, 6. Day 78 – Path marker stones, 7. Day 79 – HARROGATE, 8. Day 80 – Pennines winter sunrise, 9. Day 81 – Tim and a Dragon, 10. Day 82 – Yo Hutch ma man, was happenin ?, 11. Day 83 – Eirene’s Stripe! socks, 12. Day 84 – Growth, 13. Day 85 – Cracker relay, 14. Day 86 – nines, 15. Day 87 – Jaygo get’s his Nintendo DS back after a major confiscation, 16. Day 88 – Hollyhead Fire Station, 17. Day 89 – Christmas shoppers, 18. Day 90 – space age zebra crossing, 19. Day 91 – Christmas morning star, 20. Day 92 – Boxing day test, 21. Day 93 – Blackie and Suki, 22. Day 94 – Eleven Forward, 23. Day 95 – Fire car, 24. Day 96 – Muddy path, 25. Day 97 – Midnight fire, 26. Day 98 – horseshoe crab, 27. Day 99 – Oil lamp projection, 28. Day 100 – snow, 29. Day 101 – note to self – USE THIS IR FILM, 30. Day 102 – Fountains Abbey, 31. Day 103 – light, 32. Day 104 – man flu, 33. Day 105 – Action pie, 34. day 106 – Paintmonkey lighter, 35. day 107 – RIVER AIRE bust it’s banks, 36. Day 108 – North Yorkshire Police 0, DragonDrop 1

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

North Yorkshire Police 0, DragonDrop 1, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

This morning I presented this image (with 2 others from different angles) as part of case for my own defense (self representation) over a parking fine I disputed. The fine of £30 was given to me for obstructive parking. I questioned the reason it was obstruction, and this has still not been answered. I checked with my neighbor who’s house I was parked out the back of (pic) that it wasn’t him I was obstructing, there are no entrances opposite, there is enough room to get a lorry down the street – stoopid!

I’d sent polite requests for further clarification, their response was along the lines of “Now it’s a £45 fine”. To cut a long story short, I refused to pay on principal, and a warrant was issued for my arrest. Fine thought I, If you want to waste time and resource and drag it through the courts, so be it – the silly system could not answer the initial request for further clarification – in fact I’m still waiting for that.

It was a police issued ticket – very strange that they would do that. I still don’t understand. My initial reaction was that it was a friend doing a prank, but no. A genuine ticket had been issued.

Anyway – I pitched my case to the Magistrates, and they dropped all charges etc.

North Yorkshire Police 0, DragonDrop 1

Dino watch, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Had some relly’s visiting this weekend. Eirene’s cousin and his family – from Australia. We stayed with them when we went to Australia back in 2002. It was great hanging out with them. We managed to cram in quite a lot into the weekend. Disk golf followed by Fountains Abbey, followed by Joe Riggatoni’s for some food. Sunday, we went to the Abundant Life Church in Bradford with them. (They go to the Sydney ALC). I was impressed with the top of the range, perhaps overkill AV kit they were using (I totted up easily quarter million quids work of kit on the grid and stage, didn’t get a nose at the desks, but they looked top drawer as well.. shame the sound was a bit muddy) – full band, soft edge projection, 3 cam crew, etc etc, incredible room, bristling with tech. I wasn’t that impressed with the 40 minute pitch on what standing orders are and why I should be setting one up to a Church I was just visiting.. Anyway.. That church is certainly prospering, no two ways about it.

Anyway after that we went to the National Media Museum. This was great, but not as big as I remember! the pic above, shows their kids and ours, in a blue screen studio. Top fun.

Hiring!
I’m looking for a number of people to work with me on a 3 month web project from around the end of Feb. From ‘entry level’ web head (basic html, css and Dreamweaver skills) to more advanced (javascript / xml). It’s over near Skipton for 3 months. Own transport preferable although car sharing from Harrogate an option. Drop me a line if you are interested. email@dragondrop.org

It’s the first day of the new year. 07 has been great. I’ve just been going back through the archives.. crammed a lot in! Some ace adventures, highlights include;
Trip to London with Jaygo.
The Nintendo Wii
Sophie’s first birthday weekender
Trip #1 to Ireland where we had the whole pool to ourselves
Newby Hall
Headingley even though it rained all day
Simon’s stag do in Ibiza Where 7 of us chilled and partied in a fantastic villa for 5 days that flew by like they were 5 minutes.
Mandy & Evi’s wedding in Ibiza, the ceremony, the food, but best bit for me, the afternoon on big speedboats
Dave’s stag do at a country pile in Scotland. That was when I has the Lexus IS 220d with the Mark Levison sound system, the best sound system I’ve ever come across.
Dave and Holly get hitched – lovely.
Sherwood Forest
Thornborough Festival. Top grade fun.
Ireland trip #2 where we cruised up the Shannon for a week.
The Northern Didgeridoo festival
Getting a projector
Being best man for best mate, Simon and Carolines wedding at Ripley Castle
Movember – where I raised £570.10 for charity
Ireland trip #3 where we had a lovely Christmas in Wicklow.

As well as the above, countless parties, bbq’s nights out, nights in, days out, walking and taking photos of the world around me. Made some new friends, ran deep with old friends and had a fantastic year.

Top top it all off, we had a NYE celebration last night at ours. Perfecto. Lovely bunch of people, fridge crammed with beer, and a fire in the back yard. We really got our monies worth out of 2007. If this year brings us even a fraction of the fun and happiness we’ve had out of ’07 then we’re in for a good one.