Four Books I have read

Here are four books I have read, which I have enjoyed and would recommend to others. I have obviously read more than four books and these books are very different so you may enjoy one but not another. Sometimes I think the context of both time and place can make a book for me.

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin was a book that I started about four times, but it was only when I was sitting on the beach on the island of Zante, one of the Ionian islands of which Kefalonia is another, that I actually read and finished the book. I then re-read it the following year on a holiday to Kefalonia, which was an even better read than the first time. I think that being “there” soaking up the culture and the atmosphere, made the book and the story more real. So what is the book about, well through the novel is a love story, between an Italian Captain and a Kefalonian girl. Surrounding them is war, conflict, revolution, personal disasters and natural ones too. It isn’t just about the island, which is in many ways a character in itself, the story also reaches the centre of Rome and the horrible madness of that time.

Shoeless Joe

Shoeless Joe

I am not really a sports story person, and especially not an American sports story person. However back in the late 1980s I was introduced by an American to Baseball movies and as well as a story like Bull Durham, I also watched Field of Dreams, which I loved. When I found it was based on a book, Shoeless Joe, I decided to buy an read it. Though I love the film, I think the book is much better, it is darker and more realistic, well how realistic can a ghost story be. The story is about a journey, a personal journey that brings in dead baseball players, failed baseball players and family. It is a sad, yet uplifting. I think for me that being introduced to this kind of book by an American made all the difference to my expectations about the book. I seriously doubt I would have bought it or read it without that introduction. If you build it he will come.

Sharpe’s Eagle

Sharpe’s Eagle

The first version of Sharpe’s Eagle I read was the condensed version in Readers’ Digest. It was only later after watching Sean Bean in the ITV adaptation that I went out and bought the actual book. I then followed this up with every other book in the series. What I do like about Cornwall’s writing is how much is based on historical evidence and fact, to which he then weaves in the character of Richard Sharpe. The stories bring to light the massive class differences that existed at that time, the soldiers were common working men, whilst the officers were (upper class) gentlemen, who saw themselves as superior to the “lads” they believed they led and controlled. Cornwell doesn’t hide the horrors and atrocities that occurred during the Peninsular War by both sides and the suffering of the local Spanish and Portuguese populations on whose land the war between the two great powers of Britain and France was being fought.

Joe Steele

Joe Steele

Harry Turtledove takes the concept of what would happen if the parents of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin had moved the United States before Joe was born. In Turtledove’s alternative timeline, his name is changed from Georgian Stalin to Steele, and Joe Steele becomes a US political and eventually US president. This is a tyrannical America where the president is depicted as having the soul of a tyrant, with Stalin’s real-world career mirrored by actions taken by Steele. Reading this at the same time Trump was running for President it was quite a scary book. Could the US elect a tyrant? Would they be happy to elect a tyrant? In the book not only do they elect Joe Steele, they love Joe Steele and everything he stands for. Even with executions, purges, camps and secret police, the American people see Joe Steele making American great again. The parallels with the real world were remarkable and I do see this book as a warning about what can happen when the rhetoric of elections is based on fear and scaremongering.

So those our four books I have read, what have you been reading?

The multiplex has arrived…

So after many false starts, delays and other problems, this week will see then opening of the new Cineworld multiplex in Weston-super-Mare. Twenty two years after Cineworld opened their first multiplex, down here in North Somerset we finally get to see what other towns and cities have had for years.

It’s not as though we don’t have a cinema, as the wonderful Art Decor Odeon has served us well for many years.

Odeon

The Odeon are responding in the only way they know how, by reducing prices to compete with the new multiplex. Tickets are less than five pounds, which is significantly cheaper than the new place.

For me I really like the cinematic experience, I really enjoyed going to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi at the Odeon, though when the opening date for the cinema was originally planned for the summer 2017, we had planned to see Star Wars in the new place. However as it hadn’t opened we did go to the Odeon. It was a really great cinematic experience and we really enjoyed the film. Okay not as good as Rogue One, but that’s a different blog post.

For me there are some films which deserve to be seen on the best screen possible and then thee are some that, well to be honest I would be quite happy on a smaller screen. With any multiplex you get the really big screen, which something like the Last Jedi would look great on, but then there are the smaller screens, and in these circumstances the older Odeon experience would be just fine and dandy.

The one thing that I wish all cinemas I frequent would sort out are the food and snacks. Not only are they either too sweet or too salty, they are also stupidly expensive. I know from a business perspective that cinemas make more of their money from the food and drink than they do from the tickets, but sometimes I wish I could have some value for money decent snacks. However as they probably sell all they need to, that isn’t going to change anytime soon.

So what film will I go and watch at the new multiplex? Who knows.

Street Art

Now I am no expert in this area, nor do I really like random graffiti being sprayed onto buildings, however across Bristol is some really nice street art appearing on the sides of buildings or on building site hoardings.

On a recent stroll around Bristol I found these two pieces which I really like.

Street Art

Street Art

Stuff: Top Ten Blog Posts 2017

The ten most popular posts from 2017 in reverse order.

10. The tide is coming in…

9. Trenchard Street, Bristol, circa 1970s

8. Things never said in the office…

7. Cinematic Advent Calendar #05 – Leon

6. Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Five

5. Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Four

4. Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s

3. Bryan Brothers’ Garage Demolition, Bristol, 1999

2. Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s Part Three

1. Bristol Harbourside in the 1990s

My top ten tweets of 2017

Bonnie Stewart KeynoteLast year I posted my top ten tweets for 2016 which was interesting to see which tweets of mine were popular. The top tweet back then was this one for #WednesdayWisdom

So here are my top ten tweets of 2017, ranked by the number of times it was seen on Twitter.

My tenth most popular tweet was about the difference between teaching and learning.

Though we knew this all along… the ninth most popular tweet was a link to the Nature article on the myth of the digital native.

In eighth was a tweet about my favourite child book, The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton.

The seventh most popular tweet was the photographs I took when the first passenger service GWR Inter-City Express Train arrived at Weston-super-Mare.

I attended ALT’s annual conference and made some sketch notes, the sixth most popular tweet was my sketch of the keynote by Peter Goodyear.

Another tweet from that conference was the fifth most popular of the year and was a photograph of Josie Fraser receiving her Honorary Life Membership of ALT.

Fourth position was one towards the end of the year and the only @ reply in the top ten. Amy Pearlman had asked for some best follows for women in IT, HE and Tech. Looking at her profile and seeing she was from Philadelphia in the US, and knowing lots of fantastic women in this space from the UK I added some in a reply.

This response then went somewhat viral and lots of other people added their top follows, it got retweeted and liked a lot, so of course more people saw it and added more people to the list. It’s a fantastic list of some great women to follow on Twitter.

Third place goes to a temperate graph of the tube lines in London.

Last year a fair few photographs of WHSmith made the top ten, this year my second most popular tweet was about a cat in Boots

I did like this response to it.

So what was my top tweet for 2017, well it was another one from the ALT Conference and it was my sketchnote of Bonnie Stewart’s keynote on openness.

My longer thought piece on this keynote can be found on my e-learning blog.

Overall an interesting and delightful year on the Twitter for me.

Muscle and Power Cars and Trucks

On Tuesday evening, a bundle of muscle cars and American trucks arrived on the Weston seafront for a “cruise”

Nice looking vehicles, but to be honest I have no idea what they… though I can see this is a US Ford F150 pickup truck.

…and this one is an older Ford pickup truck.

A Ford Popular.

No idea what this one is….

Big gas guzzler…

Ford

A Ford hotrod!

A Ford Mustang?

All looked very nice, bright and shiny.

Puss in Boots

In our local branch of Boots they occasionally have a cat guarding their entrance.

Puss in Boots

Seems quite happy to sit there in the doorway.

Puss in Boots

It wasn’t raining either.

Puss in Boots

Puss in Boots

Is it a treehouse if it’s not built in a tree?

Canopy & Stars at Crane 29 is a unique treehouse built around one of the cargo cranes outside M Shed. The treehouse will grace Bristol’s skyline from June until September 2017.

I don’t know if you can really call it a treehouse as it’s not built in a tree, but it certainly looks very nice (see more pictures here).

To register for the ballot to stay in the treehouse, visit www.canopyandstars.co.uk/crane29. A night’s stay costs either £185 for a weekday or £250 for a weekend, with the final ballot open until July 3. All profits from Canopy & Stars at Crane 29 will go to Friends of the Earth.

The tide is coming in…

When I mention where I live, the talk often comes round to people getting stuck in the mud or cars getting caught by the tide.

Those who live in Weston-super-Mare will know that every summer weekend, a visitor or three gets caught in the mud trying to cross between Uphill beach and Break Down. The river Axe gets in the way, but it’s usually the mud that gets in the way first.

After the mud, the other thing that comes up in conversation is the tidal range.

Usually referred to the as the second highest tidal range in the world, it is actually the third, only the bay of Fundy (North America) and Ungava bay (Hudson straits) are bigger. The tidal range on the Severn can be as much as 15m (49ft). What this means for Weston-super-Mare is that the low tide mark in Weston Bay is about one mile from the seafront. For most of the time you don’t see the sea, which is why when I get the chance to see the beach with the tide in I take a photograph!

Grand Pier in the sea at Weston-super-Mare

Although the beach itself is sandy, low tide uncovers areas of thick mud, hence the colloquial name, Weston-super-Mud.

The other aspect of this long ideal range is that sometimes people get caught out by the fast rising tide having parked their car on the beach and their car gets swamped by the incoming tide.

This was the first time seeing the tide in at Uphill beach (just along from the main beach at Weston-super-Mare) that I saw a bus right by the high tide.

Bus in the sea

This wasn’t any old bus though, this bus served coffee!