Little Storping-in-the-Swuff

The thing about the iPhone, right, is that it’s got no zoom. And the thing about seals is they’re rather well camouflaged. So this is not a great pic, but see if you can spot about half a dozen adults and a couple of (rather pixelated) pups. Taken yesterday near Wooltack Point, Pembs.

After an unbelievably wet August, two September weekends in a row have provided absolutely stunning Autumn sunshine. Last weekend the conditions would have been perfect for sailing, if there had been any wind.

The photos I took whilst crewing in the Axe Yacht Club’s last river race of 2008 are here on the website for the Axe One Design class. Or at least the photos which feature Axe Ones are (we were sailing a Miracle). Long may this wonderful weather last.

I’m going over to Wordpress 2.5, it looks groovy, I’m looking forward to it. Things may look a bit funny on the site for a while, however, as I disable all the plugins for the upgrade, and then work out which ones I won’t need anymore because of the new functionality.

Thank you for your patience!

Humph made life better. I first became aware of him on I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue in the early ’90s, going to several recordings and enjoying his extraordinary dead pan wit. Later, when I got into jazz, I couldn’t believe that this great wonderful trumpeter was the same man. How could he have so much talent? Through The Best of Jazz he enlarged my interest in music and introduced me to a variety of wonderful artists.

Humph died at 7pm yesterday. I will miss hearing him.

After a cross-channel train journey I can’t resist switching into nerd mode. Whilst in France I saw an article in a paper about the next generation TGV, called the AGV for Automotrice Grande Vitesse. Alas I’m not up to google.fr-ing it so I’ll have to try and dredge the facts from memory.

In the last year rows of electronic bike racks have sprung up around Paris where you can use your Oyster like Navigo card to hire bicycles.

Judging by the numbers to be seen on the streets the scheme is extremely successful, though the logistics of it leave you wondering quite how much must be going on behind the scenes (were there truck loads of bikes being carted around while we slept?). You often see bike racks completely empty, which might be annoying enough if you’re looking to take to the wheels, but not nearly as annoying as finding a full bike rack at your destination and having to scrabble around to find somewhere to return your “velo” before the ramped charges start to mount up.

We sat on a cafe on a slope and counted one go up as a dozen went down. There have to be trucks migrating bikes back to the upper racks…

The bikes have lights for use at night that I’m guessing charge up when the bike is parked on the rack (sometimes you see the rack light red rather than green, presumably meaning it’s not ready to go out because the battery’s flat).

It’s a great system. London could definitely use something like this.

Since the Musee D’Orsay closed just as I arrived, last year, it was my first port of call this time.

I can never decide whether the paintings on the 5th floor or the building itself is most awesome. Bankside is nothing to this.

Through the clock you can see across to Montmartre (I didn’t have my D50, so I couldn’t capture that in the picture).

Then, after chocolat in the Jardin de Tuileries, walking back to the flat through the Louvre.

And next day, before climbing up Montmartre (having decided to visit what I’d seen through the clock), just outside Abbesse Metro station (lots of steps, but not in the Covent Garden league): the Eric Fournier Quartet.

Terrific, I picked up a CD so I can continue to enjoy the swinging sounds of Paris.

Another brief enjoyable visit to Paris at the weekend provided the opportunity to check out St Pancras International, which opened on 14th November (and I’ve only just got there). My first Eurostar trip I came not knowing what to expect and was impressed by Waterloo. The Guardian has been quite gushing and I came to St Pancras with high expectations, but with trepidation too. The truth is, I liked it the way it was, and the way it is now just doesn’t do it for me.

It is impressive. It’s a building that can’t fail to be. The departures occupy most of the undercroft where beer barrels were once stored, and part of the concourse has been cut away to feed light, and escalators, into a sunken mall. Meanwhile, the high glass and chrome barriers (dividing England from the “international” side) and the ridiculously long champagne bar add to the feeling of fussiness. The main entrance has been moved down a level creating dead space where you used to come in and the old booking office, the terrific, oak paneled booking office, is full of scaffolding and building work.

Like I say, I liked it the way it was, the old St Pancras which felt like a huge empty cathedral (there were rarely any trains or passengers there, it seemed). It dwarfed the HST units, sitting silently at the platforms. What normally appeared to be a clouds of diesel fumes disappeared as tiny wisps long before they reached the high vaulted ceiling.

St Pancras played the role of Victoria station in one of my favorite films, Richard III. It also plays a dual role: as itself, and the halls of Valhalla, in Douglas Adam’s superb The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul:

Went to see Mark Thomas last night, he was great. He’s launched a company, McDemos, offering as a service, not just applying to demonstrate in Parliament Square (which under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 requires permission to be granted by the police 6 days in advance) but to demonstrate on your behalf as well.

I’m thinking of purchasing a demonstration, partly to support free speech but also to campaign in favour of a DVD release for Mark’s TV series The Mark Thomas Comedy Product. It’s available to download in divx format at his website but the quality’s rough and there’s only one episode at a time. Still, I suppose that’s enough to prevent a popular uprising…

A year and a half ago I posted how I recognised the location of this shot in Ronin.

I mentioned how I suspected a favorite film had also used the location, I can now confirm it: Goldeneye.

I didn’t have it on DVD before, but since I’ve just been teaching projectiles to the year 13s I needed to get a copy… Like Ronin, it is filmed around Thorenc and Greolieres (there’s a shot of the latter); here’s the picture I snapped back then at the same location:

Also like Ronin, it takes liberties with the editing but worse than implying it’s a few seconds’ drive from Vieux Nice, it’s now behind Monaco!