Dancing
Laughing at dancing
Pool wipeout
This weekend it’s been more about grown-up toys, and my swanky new laptop \ tablet convertible thingy. It’s rather beautiful and exciting, especially considering that I don’t upgrade very often, and my last laptop (much as I love it so) was definitely due its retirement. I enjoy how obvious touch screens are, now that we have them, so that even when doing ‘serious stuff’ (like, y’know, writing blogs and stuff) in desktop mode with a keyboard and mouse, it still feels natural to swipe at the screen at the same time. Like we’ve been doing it forever. At the same time, I do realise how increasingly odd and out of touch I am with everyone else, simply as a result of accumulated habits. It took about a day to get used to the initially disorientating Windows 8 – but I’ve used every consumer edition of Windows since 3.11 (even Windows Me) and, unlike lots of people, I’m happy here. It feels like home. But it’s unlikely that any younger generation – growing up on smartphones first and beige desktops never – will ever feel the same.
And while we’re in the mood for vague nostalgia, one thing that makes me nervous about any new indulgent consumer purchase is that extra twinge of fear and loathing for the outside world which comes with it. Can you see it too obviously through the window? Will someone break it and steal it? How useful will the ability to track it remotely actually be, and isn’t it a little bit weird that ‘letting law enforcement authorities know’ is now considered a box-ticking afterthought while our insurance \ geo-tracking \ phone network companies can sort things out for us?
And for every advance in consumer electronics – every high-speed data network, always-on social communication and beautiful interfaces – are we creating a gap between our experiences of these things and more public spirited endeavours (schools, hospitals and the like) which will be hard to fulfil?
Probably not. After all, the heart of great healthcare, and great teaching, is always going to be the personal dedication and skill of the individuals delivering it. But there is real value to be gained if our public institutions can keep pace with change as strongly as our entertainment or communication industries drive them. It’s not just about convenience – being able to book blood donations, find a doctor, renew an Oyster card or deliver homework online – great as all this stuff is. It’s also about making sure that our public services don’t get treated as historical artefacts, but remain relevant to people and their lives today.
(Things I forgot to mention after getting carried away with all of that: Lincoln! I saw Lincoln with Josh this week, and rather enjoyed it, being a complete sucker for dramatic scenes in Congress. Honestly, they’re even more fun than courtroom drama. Unfortunately the era of American history I studied began with Reconstruction, so I am unable to comment on whether the quasi-deification of Lincoln is quite fair. Also, last night I played Munchkin in a pub on the occasion of Kat’s birthday. Happy birthday Kat.)
Generic Sitcom
2013 kicked off in fine style at the Mile End sister-flat, on one of those nice occasions when bringing different friendship groups together actually works (even if one of the photos does look like the cover of a low-rent sitcom).
One particular highlight: a barbershop rendering of Puff the Magic Dragon, video evidence of which abounds on Facebook. (I’m not going to show you that, though, instead I’m going to show you an actually rather nice photo of me, Simon and Josh. Less nice photos = also on Facebook.)
And here’s an actually rather nice photo
So far in January I have also: seen Arabian Nights at the Tricycle, celebrated the launch of Ben’s Coja Records label in Dalston, been charmed by a board game called Dominion (average 7.92 out of 10 at BoardGameGeek – and they’re a discerning crowd), fought a tooth-and-nail snowball fight across London Bridge and, yes, signed a real life tenancy agreement*.
(*Q: But Dominic? I swear you moved out ages ago? What gives?”
A: Sometimes bureaucracy is slow. Especially if you do everything backwards and complete the ‘moving in’ bit before the ‘telling the landlord’ part.)
You might have thought that discussing crowd-sourced board game ratings was the limit for this blog, but no – there’s more. Last weekend was, in fact, particularly glorious for the stereotyping of me: on Saturday I went with Oliver and Abi to Cambridge for tea and cakes with Professor Mandler, plus Chinese and a spot of book shopping. (What’s the ideal accompaniment to the early works of Rousseau? Why, the later works of Rousseau!) And then yesterday Simon, Ellie, Mark and I explored the Wellcome Collection’s exhibition on Death (a cheery subject not improved by the Victorian anti-masturbation devices in the other room), waited around on cold and snowy platforms for a steam train (totally worth it) and saw the 1928 silent film Underground (link to Diamond Geezer, because he did it first).
In case you were wondering, yes, it’s set on the Tube.
Professor Abernethy’s Training Day
Here we go again: my year, month by month, following the usual Herculean attempt to reconstruct what (and when) on earth actually happened from tweets, photos and even the occasional blog post…
January
2012 kicked off at Speechley’s housesitting party, watching the fireworks and gorging on Indian takeaway before some ill-advised face painting. In January I saw News Revue for the upteempth time – mental note, it’s time to go back! – as well as The Iron Lady at the Lexi and The Lion King in Warwick’s student cinema (a surprisingly emotional evening). I also fulfilled a life ambition I didn’t even realise I had by spending an evening drinking in Parliament’s bars, had a fun day out in Greenwich and made a fulsome and enthusiastic start on Code Academy… which mostly held for the rest of the year…
February
Here’s a memorable moment from February: standing outside Grace’s house in the cold, script and camera in hand, asking Charlotte to “walk more cheerily” before Paul came out to (a) find out what the hell we were doing and (b) put us all to shame with his acting talents. And talking of acting talents, we also saw Tommy Wiseau in person at a showing of The Room, which I enjoyed almost as much as Peter Capaldi in The Ladykillers. This month there was also a tumultuous few days where I wondered if I’d end up in court (I didn’t), I ate more than I ever thought possible at Rodizio Rico, and at work we packed up all of our stuff into boxes and moved to (drumroll) a bigger office with (drumroll x2) bigger desks and (drumroll x3) the river!
March
In March I spent a day hunting giant eggs around London with Abbi, saw Aida at the Albert Hall and visited Cambridge with Oliver for Bill and Sharon’s wedding. It’s an odd experience, watching people your own age getting married, even ceremonially destroying a Hawaiian shirt to mark the occasion. Thankfully there was no such talk when Josh, Robert and I spent a lazy afternoon in the William IV beer garden, nor with Oliver drinking sangria in Camden or over very many chips in The Banker with Matt, Caroline and Laura. Still young.
Beer in Berlin
Berlin! I finally made it to that wonderful city, and did all the things tourists are supposed to do: buy lots of Ampelmann souvenirs, eat lots of currywurst, and go see lots of friendly faces from the Groupon office (this last one is maybe just me). Later that month I also visited Tash in Manchester before her first year was out – that moment of mutual relief when you step off a train and find each other both struggling with hangovers – and was a contestant on Deal or No Deal. No, not the awful Noel Edmonds version, but a spectacular reimagining in my living room. As you do.
May
Boo: Boris won, again, in a depressing re-run of 4 years ago. In happier news, we gained a cat from the Mayhew, the indomitable Lyra, and there were a string of good things to watch: Dark Shadows with Abbi, Paul and Karen, The Dictator and (one of the highlights of the year) A Slow Air at the Tricycle. Pretty sure Katie also managed to share her frozen yoghurt obsession this month, too.
Emma June Event
This is my seventh year of doing such an obsessive review of the year, and good old summery June is a reliable peak. Parties and gatherings both big and small: from a delicious dinner at Amy’s followed by a disastrous Mario Kart performance, to that Camden night which ended in loud arguments about canyons and mysterious missing underwear, to Paul’s birthday drinks, Emily’s birthday party and Jubilation: a genuinely unironic Jubilee party which culminated in Twister. Plus trips to Cambridge, for Puntcon and the Emma June Event! And Richard Herring and Francesca Martinez at the Tricycle. And my birthday, where I fell deeply in love with my gorgeous Kindle. And Men In Black III! And starting Dollhouse with Katie! But all of this is small beer compared to the real peaks and troughs of June. The bad stuff was bad, although I can’t imagine a better family to face it all with. The good started on the very last day of June, when months of flat-hunting came to an end and I actually moved out…
July
So, yes, a new home! And for a month it was home to just me and Cat: it seems a long time ago now, but I remember drinking lots of wine, eating my first Cat Hurley roast, and getting absolutely soaked during an exploratory visit to the ecology centre. (How many people can say they have a local ecology centre, eh?) We also sat around the fire on the roof of the Mile End sister-flat, and had an amazing time at Josh’s aunt’s pool party. Also in July: I accidentally saw Bill Oddie sing, we inexplicably had a big pub quiz at work, I moved on to a new job, The Dark Knight Rose, I went back to QPCS and pretended to know anything about personal statements and – oh, yes – the Olympics began! Which meant two things: the big ‘working from home’ experiment, and my first trip to the Olympic Park to see basketball.
August
And what an awesome Olympics summer it was: in July I went back back for handball and then Paralympic swimming. In the midst of this, Josh made the flat complete by moving in, so we threw a big flat-warming party to celebrate. In August I also had a chance to finally meet two long heard-about people when they visited the UK: Abbi’s dad, over an excellent burger night, and Adam Lee of Daylight Atheism fame. And I also had another great evening with the winner of last year’s ‘I finally get to meet you!’ award, Henry.
September
The highlight of September was my long-awaited holiday to Tuscany with Grace, Oliver and Abi, where we stayed in a stunningly gorgeous villa overlooking the town of Scandicci. From there we divided our days into the cultural and productive, i.e. taking the tram to Florence to see things, and the relaxingly lazy: playing cards, lying in the hot tub and drinking nice wine and not-nice witches’ brew. Back in the UK, my final event at the Olympic Park was well worth the wait, finally taking me inside the Athletics stadium. This month I also enjoyed a genuinely awesome trip to Thorpe Park with Tash and Katie, seeing Andrew from uni again after a long absence, Alix and Rosie’s cocktail night, a second wedding in Cambridge of the year – congrats, Bill and Katie! – the London Transport museum (always amazing), Abbi’s curry night and a nostalgic evening in our old post-work pub, the Railway. (I say old: writing this review has made me realise it had only been a mere seven months.)
Tuscany
In October we took living together to the next level with our first official Flat Day Out, consisting of the very best things in our lives: a fry-up, Science, cheese, wine, hot chocolate and Spaced. I also saw Cabaret, King Lear and Looper, went in-character as Boris to our work Halloween party, caused local controversy of the Highbury-sort, was genuinely moved by the finale to The Thick Of It, went alternative in Coventry and enjoyed open mike comedy with Josh. Even Soviet Space Bat.
November
To everyone’s great relief – but no real surprise, if you read Nate Silver – we watched Obama win a second term in November. Josh stole a giant purple balloon from a Twin Atlantic gig, a decorative addition to the flat which has survived the rest of the year remarkably well, and we were both a little baffled by the point of The Master. There was also Ra Ra Retro’s Christmassy party late in the month – on a boat, no less – a music+film evening with Abbi and Frightened Rabbit and, on a different note, Grace and I parted ways. Which I realise I neglected to mention on this blog earlier but, as you can see from above, we’d had some great times in 2012. Though only about a third of Buffy 
Ending 2012 with the greatest flatmates ever
And finally, a tumultuous year comes to a busy conclusion: Simon’s lovely Christmas gathering in Cambridge, a rather eventful work party, The Hobbit plus a succession of unexpected but really nice reunions: a mini-gathering of Caius historians with Sam and Jerome, coffee with Alice, and two evenings of wine, laughter and silly hats by the Christmas tree with Sanna and Josh. Emily and I enjoyed Kat’s crazed production of Punch and Judy – performed by violent human beings rather than puppets – while I was unexpectedly charmed by the rather more sedate Meet Me In St Louis at the Lexi. At Secret Vegetarian Festive Dinner 5, Abbi and I could proudly high-five for making it five years running, and even older traditions were kept as alive as ever as I rejoined the family home over Christmas for the usual stockings, bubbly, Christmas dinner, argumentative family quizzes, Monopoly and a Boxing Day trek across Hampstead Heath.
Here’s to 2013!
Thanks to beauty of Goodreads, here’s what I’ve read in 2012:
I immensely enjoyed reading The Remains of the Day – my first book of 2012 – but regard it even more highly now, as both the themes and Ishiguro’s beautiful writing style have stuck with me throughout the year. Coraline and The Metamorphosis were both short, creepy and chilling, but some of the longer novels I’ve read this year were disappointing, especially when compared to other works by the same authors. The Time Machine isn’t as good as The First Men In The Moon, despite being more famous, and The Magic Toyshop felt like it was written before Carter really got into her stride.
The big exception to this in 2012 was Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? – easily the best thing I’ve read by Philip K Dick, whose book VALIS (think ‘William Blake in space’) still makes me shudder to think about. I was also a fan of Frankenstein – more so than I expected – while PG Wodehouse remains a reliable delight if you need cheering up (which particular Jeeves novel I happened to pick off a virtual shelf doesn’t seem to really matter much). Special mentions also go to The Hunger Games trilogy, which I am not ashamed to say I wolfed down with great pleasure, and Zadie Smith’s NW – because there’s something special about the one writer who most conjures up real feelings of home.
Non-fiction wise, the stand-out book was clearly Ben Goldacre’s Bad Pharma. I am deeply in awe of this man, and his devastating critique of modern medicine is so much more compelling for providing straightforward, inexpensive and entirely achievable remedies. If nothing else, this is a brilliant demonstration of how to make a sustained evidence-based argument, and I hope Ben has more campaigning success in 2013.
Go on, give me something else to read…
If you want a tedious dawdle around banal philosophy, followed by some actually-rather-gripping boy vs. tiger action… read The Life Of Pi. (Or go see the film, I guess.)
If you want to learn a lot about whales… read Moby Dick.
If you have a lot of time to spare and are insatiably interested in eighteenth century political theory… read The Spirit of the Laws. (Or go see the film. Apparently they’ve added a love interest.)
If you’re planning a 70s-themed sex party… read The Dice Man.
If you’re a proud Tube nerd… read Underground, Overground.
Tree, topped by pig
In the last few weeks there’s been the Ra Ra Retro Christmas Party (on a boat!), Simon’s Christmas party in Cambridge (with plentiful parlour games!), Groupon’s Christmas party (with scurrilous gossip!) and still we’re not done: plenty more mulled wine still left to drink before 2012 is done. I also saw The Hobbit with the family, which has got me super-excited (yes, I’m saying ‘super-excited’ a lot at the moment, and it’s got to stop) about the next two instalments. Presumably after that they’ll have to film, ur, The Silmarillion?
Now also might be a good time to review last year’s New Years resolutions, which I’ve never done before but actually worked out quite well for 2012:
I will read more books than last year, again.
Achieved! Totally, legitimately, absolutely achieved, with no cheating of the figures or rushing at the end. In 2011 I read 22 books. In 2012, assuming I don’t flake out on Jane Eyre at the end, it will be at least 25. Win.
I will not keep conveniently forgetting that I’m supposed to be flat hunting.
Also achieved! I mean, not only did I not forget, I actually went out and did it. Win x2.
I will sign up to Code Year and learn something new.
Mostly achieved. I definitely signed up, and kept with it throughout most of the year. And although I’ve dropped off a bit recently, I learnt something new and got the chance to put bits of it into practice at work. So I’m counting that as a win, too.
Still undecided about next year. So at my current rate of blogging, you should hear about it sometime around March. Ahem.
Beth on Bergen: “It’s always fun to see you two having such a great time exploring a new place!” Apr 7, 15:05
