ganching

The morning fog may chill the air...

Oakland Bridge
Originally uploaded by ganchingabz

We flew home yesterday from San Francisco and I have spent the day trying to get warm and to recover from jet lag.

I rarely have a completely free day and I have spent this one footering around doing almost nothing.

I uploaded some photographs on to Flickr, did desultory shopping at the supermarket (desultory in that while I have bought food I have managed to have nothing to eat for dinner), taken the decorations off the Christmas tree and lain on the sofa wrapped in a rug reading a novel and occasionally eating almond brittle which I bought at the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building on Saturday morning.

Traybake was working at home today and every ten minutes or so he phoned me up to report on the weather conditions.

"Half the country is already snowed in and as for Scotland, most of them are dead up there or soon will be - the entire place is shut down."

"There's only gas left for the next 8 days and that's it - we'll........."

In San Francisco it was positively spring like so it was a bit of a shock to come back here and discover that we are still in the grip of icy weather. The snow is due to return to London in the middle of the night.

Interestingly the security at SF airport was much laxer than at Heathrow. When we left London we didn't quite get given digital examinations but the flight was an hour and a half late leaving because every single passenger was frisked at the gate. SF was much more laid back.

Unfortunately the GYS has developed fear of flying and sat next to me on the plane weeping for the first two hour of the flight. It was very exhausting trying to console her and Miss Flanders and Mr Spaniel proved to be utterly useless as they spent the entire flight plugged into the entertainment channels.

As soon as we landed at Heathrow the GYS cheered up and seemed completely unconcerned when the pilot announced that we shouldn't get worried at the fire engines circling the plane as there had been some "fuel leakage" during the flight. His second announcement was to tell us we had to be towed into our landing berth as some components in the plane had frozen while flying over the Arctic and Greenland. It was about an hour before we managed to get off the plane.

At least it was sunny and bright when we arrived in London but I wished I was still in San Francisco.

Canary Wharf At Dusk

Canary Wharf At Dusk
Originally uploaded by ganchingabz

Although it is the first of January here it is already the second of January at home so I have missed blogging on the first day of the year.

I love visiting foreign cities but I also love my home town.  I think I am very lucky to be able to leave my house and be at the spot where this photograph was taken within a very short space of time.

I am liking San Francisco. In particular I like the mild weather, the Victorian gingerbread houses and the 1940s street cars. I am getting used to people saying things like, "Thank you for your patience - I really appreciate it!" when you have waited three minutes for a table. I also like the the fashionable young things who are everywhere - the boys and girls dressed in leggings with long, lank hair and masses of attitude. I am less keen on the multitude of homeless people you see, lurching down the streets pushing supermarket trollies crammed with junk. Homeless people in America always seem more flamboyant than those in London.

Tonight we are going to Chinatown for dinner where we may have fortune cookies.

My resolutions for this year include spending less time at work, spending more time with friends and finding the time to write.

Putting in Christmas

GWL in Bethlehem
Originally uploaded by ganchingabz

If you asked my Mum or her neighbours how was Christmas, they would invariably tell you that it was 'very quiet' or that they 'got it put in alright'.

I had a very pleasant Christmas despite having to go to North London. I got some rather lovely presents, I ate lots of good food, including an appropriate amount of chocolate, and I went on a forced march around Muswell Hill and its environs. I also watched a fair bit of television which I have to say was rather trying as I did so in the company of my brother-in-law who, when not complaining about London's sister choice of viewing, Celebrity Come Dancing Coronation Street Christmas Special, was doing shameless name-dropping about his neighbours.

'Is that John Simm playing the Master? I saw him the other day when I was on the Broadway.'

Peter Capaldi? He gets all his meat in the same butcher as us. Very partial to a truffle and mars bar sausage/'

Here in Titter of Wit Street our neighbours only feature in the types of programmes that refer to them as 'the suspect'.

David Tennant was all over the BBC. On R4 today on Desert Island Discs. yesterday in Hamlet and on Christmas Day in Doctor Who. My b-in-l told me that tomorrow he's playing Arsenal at home. This may have been a joke.

I managed to put my Christmas in very well in London but I think it's time to get out of here for a while. I am spending New Year somewhere else in the company of Mr Spaniel, Miss Flanders and the GYS. We may need to wear some flowers in our hair.

Let It Snow Let It Snow

Let It Snow Let It Snow
Originally uploaded by ganchingabz

ganching enterprises would like to wish its readers a very merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Are We There Yet?

Usually by this date in December I have already finished work.  This year for the first time in a very long time, I am spending Christmas in London. I'm working right up until Christmas Eve and then I'm going for a day or two to my sister who lives in a very pretentious and unappealing place called Muswell Hill.  It is full of actors and university teachers and lawyers and it is obligatory there if you have children under 10 to call them Oscar or Molly.  It goes without saying that it is in North London, a place I try to avoid as much as possible.

It is looking highly likely that we shall have a white Christmas.  Today I went to a meeting near Tate Modern and as I had a bit of last minute present buying to do I decided to go to the shop there.  It was raining when I went in and by the time I left it was snowing heavily.  Within about two minutes I was covered in big wet flakes of snow and, as I had neither a hat nor an umbrella, I was completely soaked by the time I had walked to London Bridge. 

On Saturday I got a Christmas tree.  It is possibly the smallest Christmas tree that anyone has ever bought which is just as well as I had to carry it home.  I went to a shop that was very far away as I had read somewhere that they did deliveries.  They didn't. The man in shop though was very sweet and he tried very hard to persuade me to take the Christmas tree home on the bus rather than walk over the hill.  When I convinced him that I had no intention of taking the bus he advised me to carry the Christmas tree in my arms "like a babby".

I have posted cards and presents and exchanged gifts with everyone one who I won't be seeing again until after Christmas.  My sister phoned me to ask me what she should get for Traybake.  My only advice to her was not to buy him any "things" as he is unbelievably fussy although I believe secretly he actually likes the floral and chintzy which is why I am giving him this.

Only three days to go.

Nine Days To Go

The inexorable march towards Christmas continues.  

At the weekend I baked two Christmas cakes which everyone knows should be baked and stored in a tin by the beginning of November.  I threw some brandy on them, wrapped them in tinfoil and stuffed them in the back of the cupboard. I know the receiptents will be none the wiser but I felt I had personally let down Delia and Nigella by my tardiness.  On Sunday I planned to buy a Christmas tree. Beforehand the Surly Niece and I went to Brick Lane and Columbia Road.  SN was here for two days on route to Central America for 6 months and was as my mother would say, a bundle of nerves.  I thought a visit to some outdoor markets would be just the thing to distract her.

We went to Spaitalfields first, then Brick Lane and Columbia Road.  I was looking for this person's stall as I wanted to buy  dog/baby related items and it seemed the perfect place to get something for this person.  The SN just wanted to buy Deet which surprisingly is in short supply at craft/junk/plant markets.

Columbia Road is rather special at Christmas.  Most people were there to buy Christmas trees.  There were happy families and young couples about to celebrate their first Christmas together.  I said to the SN that it was just like Love Story and she said. 'What's Love Story?'. 'Only the best film ever made sitting alongside Citizen Kane and all of Tarkovsky's body of work!'

Last night I went to a Christmas do.  If I say senior management, secretaries, sparkly dresses, a short, male cabaret singer  Essex  and an hour and half trip home by public transport on the coldest night of the year so far you will have some idea of the true horror of the event. 

Nine days to go.

Advent

Fairies
Originally uploaded by ganchingabz

I like Christmas, I really do. I get excited when I see streets with Christmas lights strung from lamp post to lamp post, I love municipal Christmas trees, I even like Christmas shopping. Later this morning I'm going to start writing Christmas cards. Last night when I got home I measured out a bowl of dried fruit, sloshed some brandy into it and this morning I've used it to make a Christmas cake.

What I don't like about Christmas is having to go to work every day and then having to go out every night. For some reason Christmas becomes a huge looming deadline for pieces of work even though everyone knows that no proper consideration is given to anything until the end of the first week in January when everyone is in a bad mood and ready to rip apart anything that was done in the preceding six weeks. I am managing something at work and the deadline is actually Christmas Eve even though it is obvious that this is 1) unfeasible 2) an utter waste of time and c) being done so that someone in another agency saves face. The only good thing about it is that I was able to use it as an excuse not to go to a Christmas "lunch" yesterday where I would have had to spend all afternoon eating shit food and watching everyone else get drunk.

I have not managed to avoid all Christmas events. I went out with my peer team during the week which was interesting in the way that car crashes are. It was also extremely expensive. Next week I have a lunch which will be quite posh and free and with people I like and then another evening event which will be far from posh and will involve another long, late night journey home.

London Bridge is always full of drunks but in December they are of a different nature altogether. Last week I saw a woman swaying from side to like a metronome. I felt dizzy looking at her.  There was also a man who was so drunk he could only look out of one eye. I could imagine just how bad his headache would be the next morning.  So far I have not witnessed anyone being sick into a bag although there are still quite a few days to go.

The Surly Niece is arriving in three hours and I have to clean the entire flat, go to the post office, buy food and wrap presents.  Twelve days to go.

What I Did Today

Cushion
Originally uploaded by ganchingabz

What a day. Woke up at 6.30, got up, had breakfast, put on washing, read proposal, made Christmas cake, read some more proposals, took Christmas cake out of oven, hung up washing, left for work mid morning, read some more proposals on train, arrived in work, talked to stranger in Manchester who appeared to have no friends otherwise why did he keep me on the phone for 10 minutes telling me his consultant appointment philosophy, ate sandwich at desk, went to pointless meeting, made phonecalls, went to another pointless meeting, left office to go to meeting in central London, talked to a man called Mr Tosser, found him extremely annoying, left meeting, got on tube, changed at Kings x, got on train, spoke to Traybake on phone while on train, got home, put on washing, sent some work emails, went to neighbourhood restaurant for dinner with TB, came home, checked ebay item I have for sale, failed to sell eBay item, hung up washing, watched Newsnight and worried about neglecting to post anything on this blog.

On Political Correctness

I am always surprised when perfectly ordinary, decent people say things like:

"Oh, I really hate political correctness."

(These people should not be confused with the others (Daily Mail readers and the like) who say stuff like: "It's political correctness gone mad! No nanny state is going to tell me that I can't give my two-year old a packet of razor blades to play with!"

Or worse still those others (Jeremy Clarkson types) who think being anti-racist is evidence of spinelessness.)

I'm talking about ordinary, decent people who wouldn't dream of saying, "oh yes, I'm a great believer in sending people back to where they came from" or "sectarianism - there's a lot to be said for it." 

The truth is that about 95% of  what is deemed "political correctness" is in fact just good manners.  Most people, especially those who say things like, 'I tell it how it is', or 'what you see is what you get' are themselves not especially blessed with self-awareness. Life is hard enough without having to contend with the thick and the thick-skinned telling us how it is or gratuitously insulting everyone who they consider to be other.

End of lecture.  Tomorrow, are TB and SF actually German?

Where Did The Weekend Go?

Anish Kapoor Royal Academy
Originally uploaded by ganchingabz

When did weekends start getting so short? This one has passed in a blur.

Yesterday due to extreme exhaustion, I achieved very little. Today was more successful as I managed to do the majority of my Chrismas shopping in record time.

I decided not to do my shopping in South London as did not think that 4 packets of chops for a fiver and a selection of studded leather accessories suitable for pit bull terriers would go down very well with the discerning members of my family. Instead, rather rashly I decided to go to Oxford Street which wasn't that busy due to the weather event we are experiencing otherwise known as November.

I went to Marks and Spencers where I bought nothing, Uniqlo where I bought three things, John Lewis where I filled a carrier bag and finally to Paul Smith where several items were purchased some of which I will be giving to other people.

Last night I went to see The White Ribbon at the the BFI with Soda Farl and my friend Ganchin. It was very, very good especially if you like movies in black and white and with subtitles. If you are keen on special effects and popcorn you might not like it very much.

On the way to the cinema on the train I overheard two women speaking French. I mentioned to SF how I love listening to French being spoken even if I don't understand much of what is being said, when he reminded me that it is now treason for an Irish person to speak in favour of anything relating to France. SF suggested that what the women were probably saying:

"Look at zee stupid Irrrish peeple. Hahaha ze dumb potato 'eads - we 'ave stolen zere place in ze World Cup."

(SF is not very pc.)

I have to go and put the kettle on now.