Category: Culture

Culture – the way we do things around here

Stewart Lee: Snowflake/Tornado – Brighton 25/02/22

By-line: Leaf mould agitates as Stewart Lee trends on woodlanddecay.com

It is the 18^thof February 2020 and I am sitting in Row B of the Circle at the Brighton Dome (Dome) for the Snowflake/Tornado tour. After two years of pandemic and confusion, we reach the 25^th of February 2022 and I now sit in Row A of the Circle at the Dome for the Snowflake/Tornado tour. This isn’t a forgetful senior moment. I am not a stalker and as it transpires, I am not the only returning audience member. In 2020, I laughed a lot and felt a range of different (largely positive) emotions, however, my overall experience was one of benign brainwashing.

The first show was just before the initial pandemic lockdown, how had the pandemic impacted the show? Could I remember the first show and would my memories inform/misinform my experience of the second show? I had a unique opportunity to see the same show at the same venue two years later, the closest I am probably going to get to time travel.

I watched the Comedy Vehicle shows on the BBC too many times. I don’t think initially the first series was loaded onto the BBC player. However, once it was loaded up, I enthusiastically watched the series, erroneously believing it to be the latest instalment of the Comedy Vehicle.   I thought how much younger and healthier Stewart Lee looked. His material had become less jaded and world-weary, the comical procession he had now introduced at the beginning of the Comedy Vehicle was a masterstroke, signposting his new comical direction. However, I came to realize that my version of reality wasn’t accurate. It was constructed through a BBC quirk of scheduling. I wasn’t watching them in the order the artist had created them. My experience of the Comedy Vehicle prefaces many of the themes of the Snowflake/Tornado tour.

Firstly, the first tornado and shark set of the show is organized around another television scheduling quirk. Secondly, when the show opens, we appreciate that Stewart Lee isn’t looking younger and healthier. The opening routine evolves around people commenting he has let himself go. Thirdly, similar to the Comedy Vehicle, the live shows play with different accounts of reality.   I used to facilitate intense, but also enjoyable residential workshops. In the evenings, I’d watch a couple of episodes of the Comedy Vehicle as a small retreat from reality. It was such a retreat from reality which I was looking for and experienced at both the Dome shows, as boundaries between fact and fiction were blurred.

My talk of retreating from reality might sound like the ramblings of an addict, but for myself blurring fact and fiction is closer to the work of the hospital anaesthetist (but without the unconscious bit). Fact and fiction blurred when politicians implored us to stay at home and stay apart, shortly afterwards moving a few yards into their garden to enjoy cheese, wine and companionship. Stewart Lee shining a spotlight on the tenuous nature of our reality constructions will always get my vote, or in this instance my £26.

I have seen GY!BE perform twice at the Dome. Their music transitions between loud passages and quiet passages, between melancholy and moments of intense joy. I was lucky enough to see their second ever UK performance at a small theatre attached to the Dome. They played beneath the flickering words HOPE projected onto a screen. There are parallels with Stewart Lee with both acts seeming cynical and depressing to non-believers, yet there are always shafts of sunlight. In challenging the status quo there is always HOPE. There are also parallels with GY!BE and their oscillations between loud and quiet passages. He sometimes shifts the gears between quite manic and rapid monologues and slower dramatic moments, when he appears to hold the audience in his hand.   One such quiet moment was in the second Snowflake set when he acknowledges and locates all of us between the end of a pandemic and the beginning of a war.

Stewart Lee is unequivocal that he doesn’t want photographs/videos taken of him during the show. At the 2020 show in the second set, he started ‘outing’ a red light that he believed emanated from the camera of an audience member. It bordered on vicious as he believed that the audience member was refusing to put their camera away. The camera situation deescalated when Stewart Lee concedes that the red light might be emanating from one of the supporting pillars of the venue structure. The de-escalation is poetic, but was this all staged as part of the routine or was this moment of annoyance unique to Brighton? I guess that back in 2020 his argument with one of the supporting pillars at the Dome, to him was real rather than contrived. In 2022, he is still clear no filming/photographs. In 2022, he takes the time to explain that a 30-second clip without context could be highly problematic amongst other reasons. Also, the place confiscated phones go to isn’t a pleasant place.

Much of the material is very similar between 2020 and 2022, but the mood is very different. I guess it always will be with a live show, contingent on both performer and audience input. My fading memory of 2020 was more laughter and more applause than 2022. However, some of the laughter and applause in 2020 appeared to be driven by our nervous anxiety as the audience responded to a performer on the offensive. I certainly enjoyed the 2020 show enough to come back for more. But I found 2022, a more entertaining and warmer experience, through being less confrontational and more participative. He references the book War and Peace at one point, and 2020 felt like the war and 2022 felt like the peace. In 2020, the one big prop in his first set failed. He then used this failure as a springboard into the second set. I guessed that the prop failed every evening, but having seen the prop work in 2022 again this might not have been the case. Nothing was as it seems in either show.

As I am more into peace than war, I am dancing around offering any critique. This is partially cowardice, but this also relates to reviews being integral to both sets and unifying the show. He jokes about his ranking as a comedian in contrast to other comedians. He dwells on every review he can find about his work and weaves these into the show. He does a wonderfully warm and affectionate impression of Alan Bennett. He revisits a positive Alan Bennett review of his work which used the work of Erving Goffman as a reference point. Stewart Lee, theatrically I suspect objects to this sociological reference point, but I am with Alan Bennett. Last night, and two years ago we were in the realms of ‘impression management’. Stewart Lee checking his reviews resonates with all of us, in an age where products, services and people are constantly and publicly reviewed. It has spawned the social media industry which is driven by impression management. When Stewart Lee opens his show with ‘Stewart Lee has let himself go’ he knowingly swims against the tide of impression management. Incidentally, he looked and seemed a lot healthier and happier in 2022. There is even a moment in the Snowflake set in 2022 when he concedes to enjoying his performance. He goes on to suggest that this is problematic for him performing, which I can understand from the reference point of the 2020 show.

Erving Goffman (1959) usefully distinguished in the drama of our everyday lives between front stage, backstage and off stage. In this review, I have been reflecting on the front stage, but the backstage is integral to understanding the show last night. The many references Stewart Lee makes to being reviewed build bridges between front stage and backstage. He even ironically recites the lines the local newspaper could include in their review of him. You can’t help imagining his backstage self then reading the review he has recited about his front stage self.

Enough dancing around and hiding behind sociologists, I didn’t enjoy the Ricky Gervais mime on the theme of what is unsayable in 2020 or 2022. The joke was funny but stretched far too much. There is even a rare heckle at this point, causing him to pause and then continue with his mime. He acknowledges the heckler and also somebody on Mumsnet Guestbook (whatever that is) claiming that the mime goes on for too long. How can we determine how long is too long? He seems to concede a little at this point, but you get the impression it will stay there in the set as a critical touchstone.

In interviews between 2020 and 2022, he had intimated that the second Snowflake set was going to be rewritten to include his reflections on the pandemic. I would have welcomed this. There are references throughout both sets to the experiences we have all lived through with a recurring reference to ‘it is good to get out.’ I think this is both a joke and a shared truth. He talks about the voices in his head and his voices seem at times to have been ugly voices, but he broadens this to the wider mental health of everyone. It does resonate and it seems prescient and definitely in the realms of HOPE. It wouldn’t fit a Snowflake critical routine around Woke and cesspits and the demise of comedy. So I suspect, Basic Lee will take forward the mental health reflections he tantalisingly hinted at last night (please see his website for further details).

I thought that I was being clever attending the same show at the same venue two years later. However, there was a twist that I couldn’t have scripted. I have deliberately avoided the detail of the show, but in the first set, he oddly meditates on why the customer floor space of a shop is smaller than staff floor space. Fear not, in context this is part of a funnier routine about meeting your heroes. He asks the audience why the floor space anomaly exists and Harry in the front row shouts out the correct answer. Stewart Lee is surprised by the speed and accuracy of the answer and gently quizzes Harry. It transpires Harry was here two years ago like myself and Harry had also been to see the show in London. This allows some Harry based improvisation throughout the first set which had particular meaning for me. I suspect Harry and I were not the only ones to choose to watch Snowflake/Tornado more than once, what better review than to come back for more.

We leave via the Fire Exit

I entered the wonderful Brighton Dome with its otherworldly elegance and impressive foyer. In line with an eminently sensible Covid health and safety protocol, we were required to depart the Circle at the end of the show via the fire exit. The fire exit completely bypasses the foyer leading us out into the wonderful Pavilion Gardens, which I know well. If I was unfamiliar with the venue, I would be a little lost and disorientated at this point. Tonight, I am not lost, but my grip on reality has been loosened for a few hours providing a little happiness in an increasingly mad and sad world, but HOPE still flickers. However, I cannot help imagining Stewart Lee sitting in the foyer at his merchandise table doing what Goffman called ‘off stage’ work. Consoling himself that he had played the room as it was dealt. If he was ruminating on literally losing all of the audience sitting in the Circle, rest assured you didn’t lose us, just political correctness gone mad!

Reference

Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Doubleday.

Stewart Lee Official Site

https://www.stewartlee.co.uk
Stewart Lee: Snowflake Tornado Brighton 25 02 2022

February 26, 2022
Take the High Road (STV) – A Guilty Pleasure
Introduction

Please see 400 episodes later – March 2024 update at the end of this post.

As a child, I enjoyed the fantasy and adventure of Pogle’s Wood and how it could take me away to a magical place. For myself, Take the High Road is a grown-up version of Pogle’s Wood. For 25 minutes, my reality on the south coast of England is paused and I am transported to a far-away magical place. A place defined by beautiful countryside, where people actively engage with each other and the natural world surrounding them. A place back in the 1980s, when life was tougher, yet perversely less complicated.

This magical place is the small fictional village of Glendarroch. The actual village is Luss, on the banks of Loch Lomond. At the heart of the village is a village shop/post office, further afield crofters live in the crofts. The village is located within a country estate with a manor house and all that goes with that. The drama appears to oscillate largely between the shop and manor house. I enjoy watching an episode each day at around teatime. It provides a bridge for me between the real world of everyday living and the fantasy world of evening television.

Take the High Road Croft

I am watching episodes in consecutive order and at the time of writing, I have reached number 21. Episodes have been loaded up onto YouTube and I along with 500+ others have subscribed to Take the High Road. There is currently access via the STV Player, but I fear this may be temporary (see internet resources). My memories of watching Take the High Road as a teenager are hazy, but I do remember Mrs Mack.

In doing my desk research for this post, I learn that the actress who played her Gwyneth Guthrie recently passed away. Mrs Mack made a big impression, she always wore a hat and at times scared my younger self. Although, as noted on Nostalgia Central (see internet resources), strong women characters were a strength of this programme. I look forward to meeting her again in future episodes.

A wonderfully weary theme tune

The choice of the theme tune was inspired. The melody evokes Scottish Highlands, but it also evokes some of the emotions. It simultaneously calms and reassures, but also gently excites you. It acts as a portal out of my everyday life today, into the fictional realm of Glendarroch. The theme tune is integral to this journey between worlds. When it plays at the end, I know it is signalling that it is time for me to return to my everyday life.

In the sixties, children’s lunchtime television programming which included Pogle’s Wood was called Watch with Mother. This programming ended with a music box and a figure gently descending into its box. This is how the theme tune works for me at the end. The theme tune has a ghostly quality. Echoes of dramas, of past happiness and past sadness, with a hint of events still to happen.

The theme tune sounds like it was recorded on some old audiotape that stretched over time, before being transferred to a digital medium. It conveys exactly how I feel in my late fifties. There is still a little mischief and merriment in me, but I need to be wound up if you want to hear my tune. Sometimes I sound a bit wobbly, but at least I am authentically wobbly.

Now that’s what I call an establishment shot

You could drop in at any episode, as the storylines are not too complicated. I initially watched a later episode, but I had the time and the inclination to go back to the beginning and the very first episode. I was curious to learn how they would introduce this closed and quiet community to the wider world of a national television audience. How do we step into a quiet meditation on another world?

I think the label ‘establishment shot’ applies to setting the scene within a television drama. In the case of Take the High Road, the establishment shot set the scene for what was to come, but also signalled the pace of what was to come. The drama frequently focuses on the running of a country estate.

The estate manager is referred to as ‘the factor’. In the opening shot of the opening episode, the camera focuses on the back of a man, who it transpires is the factor. You cannot see his face so you cannot gauge any emotion. All you can see is his back as he looks out over the loch. He quietly looks at the calm waters for some time and you begin to wonder what is happening.

This is what is fashionably called ‘slow television’, but all of this was before slow television was fashionable. And then his car phone goes in his range rover and the drama very slowly begins.

Slightly unusual shots of the backs of actors reappear in later episodes. Today, in a world of celebrities, faces are far more prominent on television. A face can be very expressive, but it can also distract you from the dialogue. When in Take the High Road they linger on the backs of actors, it does focus your mind on listening to the dialogue. I am not sure if this was intentional, or something else?

Life before telecommunications

Going back to the early 1980s reminds you how much today we take telecommunications for granted. In this era, there was no internet, no email, no mobile phones, except for a very rare car phone. We are offered a glimpse of a simpler life and the advantages and disadvantages of such a way of life. There is a telephone at the village shop/post office and up at the manor house, but that is about it. Frequently, messages have to be relayed from these two telephones, by word of mouth.

The delivery and arrival of a baby are communicated by word of mouth, complicating what subsequently transpires. Today, news coverage is so instantaneous and informative, if a little overwhelming. This can be sharply contrasted with a newspaper journalist awaiting a call from his editor in the village shop/post office. Inevitably, none of the social media platforms existed, but the human sentiments still existed. Gossip in Glendarroch leads to allegations taking the form of graffiti painted overnight. The next morning there is a shot of the local community reading the graffiti.

Take the High Road Scene

A slower pace and a gentler drama

I used to watch the classic soap operas, when I was younger, such as Coronation Street and Emmerdale Farm before it became Emmerdale. However, I completely turned against them and watched no soap operas for decades. In the early days, Coronation Street was far more observational and far less dramatic. Dramas do arise in Take the High Road and I know the series becomes more dramatic in later 1990s episodes. However, these early episodes signpost a potential niche in television production. A new soap opera with a focus on rural life with plenty of landscape shots. A soap opera with an emphasis on observing everyday life, rather than dwelling on the conflict and confrontations of life. Now, that would be refreshingly different.

A bird’s eye view for the closing shots

Each episode concludes with the wonderful weary theme tune accompanying the closing titles. The magic is that they filmed shots of the loch and surrounding countryside as the backdrop for the closing titles. An inspired choice, showcasing landscapes worth celebrating. Today, we are used to high-definition drone footage of sweeping rural landscapes. In the 1980s such innovations did not exist, so the film crew had to improvise.

It appears that the closing titles were filmed by hanging out of a helicopter or a light plane. There isn’t the balancing facility on the cameras, something we take for granted today. As a consequence, the footage is very shaky, to such an extent that you feel that you are up there in the sky with the camera person. An illusion just like I am sure the illusory nature of croft life, but for this viewer an engaging and worthwhile illusion.

YouTube

I am grateful to the uploader and I have been accessing episodes via this channel. The uploader openly acknowledges “I own none of the content in this video, nor the video itself. ‘Take The High Road’, and all the rights to it, belong exclusively to STV Group plc, and no copyright infringement is intended.”

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkyKWXik379YEzRUn5jRZ9A

The 400 episodes later update (March 2024)

Writing the original post, I never envisaged watching 400
episodes. Strangely, after reaching the 400^th episode milestone I stopped watching and I do not envisage watching the final episodes. I enjoyed time travelling to a more innocent and community-orientated time. I am grateful to all the actresses/actors and production team who made this wonderful escapist tea time viewing possible.

And thanks to the YouTube uploader for making this series accessible once more. Many of the cast are deceased and I am sure many of the original viewers. I used to imagine the original viewers watching when Take the High Road was first broadcast and what they made of the controversies which played out in their living rooms.

I do not want to spoil the drama for anyone who has yet to watch. Obliquely, I can share how much I enjoyed the visit of Mrs Mack’s (Gwyneth Guthrie) sister and the modernisation of the Village Shop (very 21^st century, but thankfully no automated self-service tills). I enjoyed watching the characters age in front of my eyes. I was present for the birth of young Donald and later when he got into trouble at school. As mentioned in the original post, this drama was reputed to feature strong women characters and this belief has been confirmed and emphasised through my viewing.

I have decided to celebrate my favourite characters. However, with the big caveat that I enjoyed all performances and warmed to particular characters during particular storylines.

Favourite Female Character – Grace Lachlan (Marjorie Thomson) As I reflect, she is the character I miss the most. Almost, all of her appearances were set in her small croft kitchen. The magic was how she embraced firmness and seriousness as well as a huge amount of loving kindness. This combination was most apparent in her often humorous although almost always patient interactions with her son Dougal Lachlan (Alec Monteath).

An honourable mention goes to Isabel Blair (Eileen McCallum). In this case, her kingdom was not a croft kitchen, but a village shop, with a special mention to the splendid pinafores in her wardrobe.

Favourite Male Character – Mr Murdoch (Robert Trotter), riddled with contradictions (poacher/church figure), loner yet in search of
company, attracted to Mrs Mack, yet not attracted to Mrs Mack. As I reflect, he was the real enigma, I always felt there was more going on when he went off to the woods which we never knew about. An honourable mention goes to Rev Iain McPherson (John Young). He always brought wisdom and serenity to proceedings, yet still had to buy his chocolate biscuits covertly, if you want to know why you will have to watch for yourself.

Internet Resources

A note of caution when accessing internet resources. They sometimes reveal future storylines and dramas, that unless you are a willing time traveller may spoil your viewing. A quick internet search revealed these three which I found interesting and informative.

IMDb

It is catalogued on IMDb using its later title High Road.

The residents of the rural Scottish village of Glendarroch deal with issues ranging from crop failures and parish pump politics to infidelity, alcoholism and drug abuse.

Whilst, they provide limited information it is worth drilling down into the ‘user reviews’. They do offer a summary of what the show is all about from the perspective of the viewers.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163499/?ref_=tt_urv

STV Player

At the time of writing this updated post episodes from the last five series were accessible via the STV player. However, availability appears to be for a fixed time, certainly worth checking in the first instance.

https://player.stv.tv/summary/take-the-high-road/

Nostalgia Central

There is a very interesting and informative piece on Nostalgia Central. The show evolved out of an earlier show called Garnock Way, but this was deemed too gritty for viewing in England.

https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1980s/take-the-high-road/
February 21, 2022
Breaking Convention 16-18 August 2019

Post in 19 words My appreciation of Breaking Convention 2019 psychedelic consciousness conference themed around five personal highlights of a fascinating three days.

2019 Conference Programme

My posts normally focus on organizations changing. However, I am mindful that I change and that I need to be open and attentive to internal change, as well as, external change. It is easy to shout about what is going on around me, which may be important, but it may also be a strategy to avoid what is going on inside me.

In this spirit I attended the fifth international conference on psychedelic consciousness (August 16^th to 18^th2019), aka Breaking Convention 2019 (BC 2019). I enjoyed this intentionally unorthodox conference and I want to single out five highlights; David Luke, William Blake, eco-consciousness, shamanic drumming and another world.

It was a happy accident that I discovered and attended BC 2019 this August. One of the convenors David Luke had spoken at Brighton Arts Festival about 18 months earlier. I found his talk and energy inspiring. He touched on the background to Breaking Convention and the unorthodox approach they used to encourage a greater appreciation of psychedelic consciousness. The venue is the old royal naval college which hosts the University of Greenwich, it is also close to the Meridian Line and close to the Thames. We were in a magical place even before we had begun. At the first break on Friday morning I found myself sat in one of the cloistered walkways drinking my green tea. David Luke walked by, I smiled, he came over and we chatted. It was so different from my experience of some other academic conferences, which seem driven by performance with networking more tactical than social.

Greenwich Corridor

My second highlight was Sam Knot’s workshop – Psychedelic innocence and experience. He themed his one-and-a-half-hour workshop around William Blake’s mystical poetry. He had a copy of his illuminated works with both the wonderful artwork and the knowing words. It was odd, but as we talked poetry and otherworldly visions, bits of my brain woke up which had been dormant for too long. The climax of the workshop was being asked to take a poem from the Songs of Innocence or the Songs of Experience pile. The postcards were face down. I selected The Lamb, Sam had hand-painted these postcards (see image). We then read each poem in our circle, it took me back to childhood when I last read a poem aloud. It was a powerfully transformative experience. At the end of the workshop Sam let us keep the postcard we had read. I have since bought the illuminated works and look forward to further exploring these mystical writings.

The Lamb (William Blake) Postcard

I enjoyed going to paper sessions and they were running five parallel streams with 100+ in each stream. The paper presentations were videoed and should be accessible via the link at the bottom of this post. On Saturday morning I went to Psychedelics, Eco-Consciousness and Ecological Crisis. There must have been 200 + in this large lecture theatre and throughout the presentations you could feel the electricity crackling around the room. Sam Gandy kicked off the session talking about the importance of our connection to self, others and nature. Sounds like a soundbite, but so profound. I have always had a strong nature connection, but attending BC 2019 was about a desire to reconnect with myself. Jay Griffiths beautifully shared her experience of returning to Oxford where she had studied, but now as a panther and how different Oxford looks from the perspective of a panther. Andy Letcher’s Ontological Anarchy and the Ecological Self sounded pretentious, but it was far from it in content and delivery. Andy or one of the other speakers noted the derivation of humility as humus meaning of the land. The interweaving of nature and humility was apparent throughout BC 2019. I wish I could have found the courage to attend the ego-death workshop.

I rose early on Sunday morning to attend a shamanic drumming workshop facilitated by William Rowlandson. We congregated in a circle on the lawns between the naval college buildings with trees nearby. After an introductory talk by William we lied on the grass in a circle, imagine the petals of a flower with William drumming in the centre, we did this for ten minutes talked some more and then did a forty-five-minute session. I studied shamanism when I was younger and again I found myself reconnecting with a part of myself I’d left behind in the rush of my performative life. I look forward to furthering my shamanic practices in the months to come.

On the final Sunday afternoon, I went to a parallel session on integration. You’d expect numbers to be dwindling, but again 100+. Somebody stands up and announces the chair and the first speaker are not attending and everyone was so chilled. I experienced for a few days another world. A world remote from busy consumerism, the constant treadmill of modern life and the related expectations we put on each other and ourselves. We have an excess of digital connections, yet such limited connections to self, others and nature. Participants wanted BC 2019 to work and it worked, thanks to the hard work of the convenors, volunteers and speakers, but also due to the goodwill of the participants. My wait was rewarded with two interesting papers on psychotherapy. I was glad I waited as I learnt about the archetypal dance of the mystic and the pragmatist. I appreciated that I needed to embrace my mystical side a little more if I was to become more integrated and I am up for that homework.

On Saturday evening I had enjoyed the premier of Journeys to the Edge of Consciousness, which raised thoughts about childhood and my journey. It was a film featuring the contributions of Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley and Alan Watts. Director Rob Harper watched the premier with us in what was a packed and very hot cinema. He did a Q&A session afterwards and appeared genuinely humbled by the positive reception he received afterwards.

There was much more going on such as artworks, installations and stalls. In the evening bands and discos took place in the Student Union beneath the old naval college buildings. I was keen to explore as I love going underground, I think I may have been a mole in a former life. I had scheduled a visit for the Sunday evening and my mind was willing, but my tired body was unwilling. I am still amazed that another world was created for a few days.

I am looking forward to the next Breaking Convention in the meantime I am inspired to shift my consciousness and to break some conventions.

Link

Breaking Convention site here:

https://www.breakingconvention.co.uk/

August 30, 2019
Golden Moments

Golden Moments – Timely Chocolate Promotion

It’s Christmas Eve and another year is about to conclude. It was only the domain name renewal payment which brought me back to this site. I have never promoted it and I have enjoyed the anonymity of sharing thoughts with the whole world, yet not sharing them.

I now feel I would like to use the site differently. Primarily Woodland Decay will focus upon my academic writing, but as a personal site that does not preclude other thoughts and reflections upon our decaying lives.

The other day somebody pushed something through my letterbox, I was mildly annoyed imagining some pointless flyer for some pointless product. But what I found was a single chocolate billed as a golden moment (see photograph), which I am now enjoying.

It must have been a marketing campaign as the guy was posting them through every letterbox, I would have eaten all of them if I was the chocolate postman. I just loved this simple idea and the pleasure it gave me and others on my road. Just for a moment it pierced the nonsense of everyday life.

What have been my 2015 golden moments? I have forgotten most of them, but in the spirit of gratitude here are a few.

Fish and Chips at the end of the day at a conference. The day had gone really well presenting three papers and chairing a paper, I skipped the conference dinner and went and watched the boats coming and going, I was happy.

Growing soft fruit in the garden, it has been my outdoor obsession this year. I haven’t been great at it, but I have enjoyed mingling theory and practice. I have enjoyed the cycle of nature and the rewards for my labours have been tasty.

My indoor obsession has been Sid Meier’s RailRoads, its an ancient PC game which completely absorbs me. It is quite manic as you build a railroad from the 1800s onwards, but it calms my head like nothing else.

Finally, I have enjoyed academics who I admire getting in touch via the email and just chatting about academic stuff without ever meeting.

I wish a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my regular readers, I hope you enjoy some golden moments over this festive season. And to my new readers in 2016 I hope that you like (find) the revised site it will make more sense to you and me in 2016!

Postscript (February 2023)

I have been spring cleaning woodlanddecay.com posts from years ago. I had forgotten what I had written. I was struck how a renewal payment request prompted me to reengage with this site. I was also touched by my gratitude list made public. It is odd hiding this ‘stuff’ in plain sight as aide memoires in the future.

December 24, 2015