A little quicker outta the blocks..

15th May

Finished “The Book Thief” last night – a remarkable book in many ways but not “breathtaking” as noted by one critic. It could not even be described as enjoyable in the classic sense as the issues that it covers are quite fundamental e.g. death. It is very well written (unlike this blog!) and reminds me of Jonathan Safran Foer’s books. It is unusual in its choice of narration, but this drives the story well and provides the basis to keep you reading until the very end of the book.

The choice of “Death” as the narrator is not totally unprecendented. Terry Pratchett of course uses “Death” as a “character” in his books in a dramatically different way, but still to great effect. Death is of course a barrier we cannot see or experience until we cross it. What happens beyond the demise of our physical form is a moot point and hotly discussed. These constructions of “Death” help us to create a personification of the issue and almost sidestep the grim reality that, in the end, all must die. Cheery huh? By believing in salvation after death, we can at least go to the grave without being scared witless, and if that is all the belief achieves, then it has achieved something.

Moving on…
On the 9th of May took a trip with Josh to see Jethro Tull on their 40th Anniversary tour. They played a good amount of the early blues style numbers and finished with the more well known Aqualung and Locomotive Breath. On the way they did a live version of Heavy Horses, which I do not think I have heard them do live before and perhaps they should avoid it in future as some of the vocals were a touch strained. How many more years can they keep on tour? Ian Anderson is now 61 and Martin Barre 60. Still we were home in time for cocoa and bed and then up on Sat at 3AM to get organised for the K2B. Once again, this epic 40 mile event provided a good deal of thrills and spills and the final entrant finishing list has now been posted on the web. I came a very satisfying 126 from nearly 1900 finishers. Hopefully I can put this to bed and work on the next Gone Fishing event. I also need to get back to full fitness so that up-coming events are completed in good times.

Now there’s a thing – appointments – why is it… that those who are coming for an appointment at 2-30 PM are ALWAYS early and those coming for one at 5-30 PM are frequently late or indeed at any other time of day. Is it because I am more sensitive to the time at 2-30 (ie I have to start work again after the lunch period) or is there some more unusual timing mechanism?

It was a beautiful spring day yesterday so I went for an amble up Steel Knotts and then up Gowbarrow Fell. I took the E510 and took lots of arty pics of Aira Force. Some of them are actually quite good. Spent a lot of time playing with white-balance and exposure factors – the results are variable but on the whole quite successful.

20th May

Accounts are back from the accountant and profits are up! This is very good news as we appear to be in the midst of very difficult trading conditions. By and large it is my impression that we are not suffering quite as much here, as the area has a reduced economic profile generally. I believe that this allows a flattening of the economic peaks and troughs seen elsewhere. I can at least feel quite up-beat about the prospects for the next 12months. We have already seen a strong start to this financial year and I can only hope that it continues.

I can also only hope that I continue to not eat cake. This is saving me about £2-50 per day or £40 per month or for that matter about £500 per year! That is quite a staggering amount. It would seem that I am unable to buy a cappuccino without a cake so I have taken to making my own coffee (like normal mortals). 2 days in and I have not succumbed – we shall have to wait and see…

I am ploughing on with reading Keith Ward “What the Bible really teaches”. This is a very encouraging read, and has some great challenges for the blinkered view held by the fundamentalists. I for one was very unaware of how narrow and un-biblical their “biblical doctrine” was. Whilst I am not a fan of wishy-washy, I now remain more critical of fundamentalism. It does have attractions – it is very simple (for simple people), it is straightforward and unthinking (for those that cannot and will not think), but on the whole you can stick it where the sun don’t shine. Fundamentalism allows the worst excesses of the dogmatic atheists to get a toe-hold and peddle their equally distasteful ideas. The atheists argue that liberalism allows fundamentalism to flourish, and indeed it may, but allowing atheists to flourish is probably worse.

“Dogs” by Ray and Lorna Coppinger is proving an interesting read as well. A little biased towards the sled dogs (the author is a breeder and racer), but some very interesting biological principles nonetheless. I did particularly like the discussion on pleasure vs necessary (for food) hunting and the biological profit and loss account type evaluation. His view is that hunting for pleasure is for those that can afford it both in terms of calories and expense and will remain so. This argument would appear to prove that hunting for pleasure is simply for that end alone, and even if a hunter argues that they are protecting the crops / young production animals, the actual result in terms of calories expended for those saved, does not add up.

That takes me to another little “find”. I was searching for the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics on the web, but could not find their site. I directed myself to the League against cruel sports as the League had co-sponsored a conference on the link between animal abuse and human violence last year. I attended that conference with my wife and it was excellent. On surfing the League’s excellent website I found an article about “sport –trophy” hunting. This “named and shamed” a number of tour companies who offer such “holidays”. This is quite disgraceful and shameful and what is worse, is that one of those companies is no more than a mile away from my house.

This week I have also had the dubious pleasure of visiting a travel agent. Every time I have done this in the past I have come away with a feeling that I have not got a “deal” and have not been satisfied. The travel agent did not disappoint and I am now in the process of sorting my own holiday out; again. The internet has really helped in this regard, but I may find it quite a challenge to sort out a holiday at New Year, as it is a popular time to travel.