I do like looking at frocks. One of the several reasons I enjoy Strictly Come Dancing.
From spring 2012 the V&A celebrates the opening of the newly renovated Fashion Galleries with an exhibition of beautiful ballgowns, red carpet evening dresses and catwalk showstoppers. Displayed over two floors, Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950 will feature more than sixty designs for social events such as private parties, royal balls, state occasions and opening nights.
V&A page
A fun site via @rachaelphillips and her blog post. If you find someone with the answer Pinot Grigio let us both know …
The John Lewis Christmas ads are becoming a tradition I am looking forward to each Christmas. This is the latest one …
The cover version of the song Please, Please, Please in the ad by Slow Moving Millie ..
And the original from The Smiths ..
Guardian article about the song
Love this cartoon and post by @gapingvoid. Totally true and I agree wholeheartedly,
As a diarist I have chronicled the time through which I have lived in meticulous detail: but all that is history. What matters now is the future for those who will live through it.
The past is the past but there may be lessons to be learned which could help the next generation to avoid mistakes their parents and grandparents made.
Certainly at my age I have learned an enormous amount from the study of history - not so much from the political leaders of the time but from those who struggled for justice and explained the world in a way that shows the continuity of history and has inspired me to do my work.
Normality for any individual is what the world is like on the day they are born. The normality of the young is wholly different from the normality of their grandparents.
It is the disentangling of the real questions from the day to day business of politics that may make sense for those who take up the task as they will do.
Every generation has to fight the same battles as their ancestors had to fight, again and again, for there is no final victory and no final defeat. Two flames have burned from the beginning of time - the flame of anger against injustice and the flame of hope. If this book serves its purpose it will fan both flames.
Amazon UK
Via @natfin1
In Conversation: Tony Benn & Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers from theQuietus on Vimeo.
Stumbled over the Wallander ringtone while following up The Killing Series 2 downloads. It is now my main ringtone …
Started using Soundhound when I read an @ebookwoman tweet asking what some piano music was in a Newsnight piece. Found the programme on i-player and found the track rapidly on Soundhound despite the music being in the background and a presenter talking over it. Very impressed. Can see me using this all the time.
Tracks discovered thus far:-
Guardian article (includes video)
Via @chriscleave’s tweet
Heading home after Rusbridger's Orwell Lecture. Parts of it were jaw dropping http://t.co/bL1JLqWf
Album and DVD release:
'inni' is either the first-ever sigur rós live album, or second live film (and follow up to 2007's acclaimed iceland tour film heima). in fact, it is both: a 75-minute film and 105-minute double live album of the band captured in full flow at the close of their last tour in november 2008, here housed within one single fat package.
YouTube (a great read! see text under the vid on that page)
Wikipedia entries for Sigur Ros and Inni
Nearly a disaster, realised this morning that it was All Age next Sunday. Managed to rustle up enough of the team to plan after the morning meeting. Rachael played a blinder with baked potatoes and fillings followed by cakes.
The theme was gifts and abilities as we continue our Olympic theme. Great time of planning and one of our fastest ones to date. All turned out well …
So the countdown to Christmas officially starts today in a Christian sense. Love Christmas and all that it means faith-wise but hate all the commercialism. Some fave new and older Christmas videos and tunes.
Loved this “Advent in 2 Minutes”
Advent Conspiracy 2011
Last Year’s Fave Christmas Song in Church
And Could Be This Year’s Fave Christmas Song in Church
A Fave Christmas Song Of Any Genre
Fave Carols Albums
Christmas Carols and Song by Ikos (Spotify)
Annie Lennox’s A Christmas Cornucopia (Spotify)
We did one of these years ago. Amazing. Need to get a pot and do another ….
The tradition of the Rumtopf in Germany goes back centuries as a way to preserve fruits of the season. Now it has become a favorite way to celebrate any special occasion or to enjoy whenever you want the taste of delicious fruit soaked in rum.
Recipe
Martin Sturrock desperately needs a psychiatrist. The problem? He is one.
Emily is a traumatised burns victim, Arta a Kosovan refugee recovering from a rape. David Temple is a longterm depressive, while the Rt Hon Ralph Hall MP lives in terror of his drink problem being exposed. Very different Londoners, but they share one thing: every week they spend an hour at the Prince Regent hospital, revealing the secrets of their psyche to Professor Martin Sturrock. Little do they know that Sturrock's own mind is not the reassuring place they believe it to be. For years he has hidden in his work, ignoring his demons. But now his life is falling apart, and as his ghosts come back to haunt him, the only person he can turn to is a patient.
Set over a life-changing weekend, Alastair Campbell's astonishing first novel delves deep into the human mind to create a gripping portrait of the strange dependency between patient and doctor. Both a comedy and tragedy of ordinary lives, it is rich in compassion for those whose days are spent on the edge of the abyss.
Amazon UK
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A beautifully illustrated, hands-on history of the world's best-selling book. With a highly readable and colourful narrative, 'The Story of the Bible' covers in a sweeping panorama the writing and transmission of the Bible through the ages. The writing of the Old and New Testaments, the canonization of the Scriptures, and stories of those who gave their lives to make the Bible available in common language - all are reported clearly and reverently with the power of anecdotal illustrations. Readers encounter page after page of engaging illustrations set in a highly designed journey chock-full of removable documents.
Amazon UK
Continuing to use up work holidays and had Thursday and Friday off.
On the Thursday night, Rachael picked up 10 bottles of the new seasonal Kopparberg with Cranberry and Cinnamon. Very, very tasty.
Lazy days but great.
On the Friday I was playing recommended-to-me Spotify tunes. Loved the Red Box album “Plenty” and the Babybird album “The Pleasures of Self-Destruction”.
Lunch with Rachael at Sukothai was amazing again. Great food and great everything about the place. That was our 2nd time. Be really good to do a celebration there in the evening and have several dishes.
Stopped off at Morrisons on ring road to pick up bits and pieces. Chilled 2 days.
I want to point you to a newly released Missional Manifesto. You can find the full document here. Our purpose is to encourage and bring clarity-- to encourage believers to live missional lives and to clarify what we mean when we use the term "missional."
Ed Stetzer article
Moshi Monsters is a social networking online game and virtual pet site targeted at children aged 7 to 12. The player adopts and cares for a pet monster, solving puzzles which lead to rewards called rox; these can be used as currency to buy items for the adopted monster, such as clothing, food, and home decor. Unwanted objects can be sold to get Rox.
Wikipedia entries for Moshi Monsters and Michael Acton Smith
Michael Acton Smith, founder of the children's social network Moshi Monsters, is something of a dotcom veteran.
Telegraph article (from April this year)
The kids played this a lot and had a few of the books/mags etc.
Triggered by this BBC article.
As for me. my wish list item is for tools that merge/combine email, threads, tweets, posts, IM chats etc all in one environment and can be shared or protected to 1 or more other people re private 1:1 or work teams etc. This applies both to work and play contexts. Tend to use email more at work these days than play. Nightmare keeping track of project- etc- based threads where decisions are being taken in emails and more and more people added to threads and then having to trace back re who said what when and what was actually decided etc.
Can’t for the life of me remember why I bookmarked this book earlier in the year. May be one of the short stories took my fancy …
Encompassing the very best of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short fiction, this collection spans his career, from the early stories of the glittering Jazz Age, through the lost hopes of the thirties, to the last, twilight decade of his life. It brings together his most famous stories, including "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz", a fairy tale of unlimited wealth; the sad and hilarious stories of Hollywood hack Pat Hobby; and, "The Lost Decade", written in Fitzgerald's last years.
Waterstones.com product page
Do love well-presented information in diagrammatic form and am a bit of a draw-er when explaining stuff, especially in work contexts.
This post caught my eye including a list of tools for presenting data.
Recommended by Gerard Kelly in a talk at Spring Harvest 2011.
“One of the most influential books of the twentieth century.”—Christianity Today
The collected lectures and articles of the noted missionary and historian Andrew Walls, professor emeritus of Edinburgh University and founder of The Center for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World.
Historian Ahead of His Time
Andrew Walls may be the most important person you don't know.
Christianity Today article
On the Road with Christianity
A conversation with missiologist Andrew Walls.
Books & Culture article
Austrian director Nikolaus Geyrhalter's latest documentary is a nocturnal journey examining Europe's obsession with technology and security
Guardian film review
Isaac continuing to go well and wanting to improve further, good to hear him give feedback on how the school could improve etc …
Football legend David Beckham takes on the ParalympicsGB Visually Impaired Football Team in support of the Sainsbury's 1 Million Kids Challenge, which aims to get a million children trying a Paralympic sport.
This article is nearly a year old now but I have passed it to Kindle sceptics a few times now.
Kindle: now for some light Christmas reading
The Kindle is this year's must-have Christmas present – but would that be enough to tempt a reluctant bibliophile?
Telegraph article
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak was the best-selling debut literary novel of the year 2007, selling over 400,000 copies. The author is a prize-winning writer of children's books, and this, his first novel for adults, proved to be a triumphant success. The book is extraordinary on many levels: moving, yet restrained, angry yet balanced -- and written with the kind of elegance found all too rarely in fiction these days. The book's narrator is nothing less than Death itself, regaling us with a remarkable tale of book burnings, treachery and theft. The book never forgets the primary purpose of compelling the reader's attention, yet which nevertheless is able to impart a cogent message about the importance of words, particularly in those societies which regard the word as dangerous (the book is set during the Nazi regime, but this message is all too relevant in many places in the world today).
Nine-year-old Liesel lives with her foster family on Himmel Street during the dark days of the Third Reich. Her Communist parents have been transported to a concentration camp, and during the funeral for her brother, she manages to steal a macabre book: it is, in fact, a gravediggers’ instruction manual. This is the first of many books which will pass through her hands as the carnage of the Second World War begins to hungrily claim lives. Both Liesel and her fellow inhabitants of Himmel Street will find themselves changed by both words on the printed page and the horrendous events happening around them.
Despite its grim narrator, The Book Thief is, in fact, a life-affirming book, celebrating the power of words and their ability to provide sustenance to the soul. Interestingly, the Second World War setting of the novel does not limit its relevance: in the 20th century, totalitarian censorship throughout the world is as keen as ever at suppressing books (notably in countries where the suppression of human beings is also par for the course) and that other assault on words represented by the increasing dumbing-down of Western society as cheap celebrity replaces the appeal of books for many people, ensures that the message of Marcus Zusak’s book could not be more timely. It is, in fact, required reading -- or should be in any civilised country.
Amazon UK review
Read one of his – The Job - a while ago for the Cover to Cover Book Club. Was good.
From the book cover
Sally Goodchild is everything you'd expect of a thirty-seven year old American journalist - independent, strong-willed and ambitious. That is until she meets Tony Hobbs, an English foreign correspondent, on assignment in Cairo. After a passionate but uneasy romance, Sally's life is turned upside down when she unexpectedly finds herself married, pregnant and living in London.
Married life in a foreign place is a far bigger adjustment than Sally and Tony could ever have imagined - and as their lives shift from freedom and adventure to responsibility and hard work, everyday problems soon spiral into nightmares. After the birth of their son, Sally finds herself trapped in a downward spiral over which she has little control, whilst Tony's life returns to relative normality. Filled with resentment and unable to cope with the cards life has dealt her, Sally is shocked when the man she trusted above all others turns against her. As her world begins to fall down around her, Sally quickly realises she must fight before she loses everything.
In this authentic and compelling novel, Kennedy explores the misunderstandings that can occur when two people speak the same language but miss all the vital signs.
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Chasing Daylight is the honest, touching, and ultimately inspirational memoir of former KPMG CEO Eugene O'Kelley, completed in the three-and-a-half months between his diagnosis with brain cancer and his death in September 2005. Its haunting yet extraordinarily hopeful voice reminds us to embrace the fragile, fleeting moments of our lives-the brief time we have with our family, our friends, and even ourselves. This paperback edition features a new foreword by his wife, Corinne O'Kelley and a readers' group guide and questions.
Amazon.com
This recipe for slow-cooked beef in a rich lemongrass and coconut sauce is well worth the effort.
BBC Food recipe (Merrilees Parker)
Via @kateandgeorgia
An unbeliever argues that our language and culture are incomplete without a 400-year-old book—the King James translation of the Bible. Spurned by the Establishment, it really represents a triumph for rebellion and dissent. Accept no substitutes!
Christopher Hitchens article in Vanity Fair
Met at Joly and Tracey’s with Ben, Dave E and Becca.
The icebreaker was about a fave dish we have cooked. Good discussion – mine remains the Nigella Christmas Ham.
We used Mark’s sermon questions from his Remembrance Sunday sermon mainly around laying our lives down for others from the passage in James 2.
Also played a clip from a Catalyst podcast about Derreck Kayongo, the founder of Global Soap Project.
Plus worship and open prayer.
This crusted salmon recipe with Puy lentils is the perfect dish for midweek entertaining – impressive but very simple to make.
delicious. Magazine recipe
Going through old web cliipings for the blog and found this piece by Maggi Dawn. Great stuff.
Still mystifies me when people ask questions that just need whacking into Google. Sending links from this site encourages good behaviour … ;))
In the cockpit of Europe's defence, Airbus and satellites conglomerate is a modest man guided by his socialist beliefs
Guardian interview
The Manchester United midfielder was an outstanding player with a blazing imagination, the necessary aggression and a little streak of nastiness
Guardian article
Leonora, who has died aged 94, never visited her father's house again, but her life ended neither in penury nor in a garret. Her canvases now fetch in excess of $1m. Although largely overlooked as an artist in Britain, she was regarded as a national treasure in Mexico, where she lived for about 70 years, was regularly invited to state occasions and received many national honours. In 2008 the main street in Mexico City hosted a seven-month homage to her work, its central reservation dotted with pieces of her witty and often animal-inspired sculptures (animals were a huge love, throughout her life).
Guardian obituary
A second world war soldier who set out on quest of peace and helped to create IAEA and UN peacekeeping troops
Guardian lead article (from back in May) in the regular In praise of … series
Anna, a young teenager, comes home from her Catholic boarding school for the holidays and discovers her father has left. Her mother is devastated and confined in the company of the local priest, who is also a childhood friend. Anna clings to her beloved grandfather. She also grows close to Pierre, a free-spirited teenager who cares little about God. Anna is preparing for her confirmation, but her budding desire for Pierre shakes her faith. She longs to give herself over, body and soul but doesn't know if it is to God, or something else ...?
Amazon UK
A long weekend with early starts on Saturday for hair cut and Sunday to get Isaac to school for 7:30 for his street dancing competition. Early bed straight after Garrow’s Law at 10pm. Not been as tired for a long time.
It has been called "the bunker" locally, and Peter's Box – after the district council leader Peter Box – but its real name is the Hepworth Wakefield: a stunning £35m concrete gallery to help make Yorkshire a world centre for sculpture.
The gallery – the biggest purpose-built one to open since the Hayward in London 43 years ago – ….
It is named after Wakefield-born sculptor Barbara Hepworth and contains some wonderful examples of her work, including more than 40 donated by the artist's family. Sophie Bowness, her granddaughter, said it was a special day.
Guardian article
From back in May …
But even her personal riches were overshadowed by the influence that Oprah could wield over other people's success. The mere mention of a product on her show could see it cleared off the shelves the next day as viewers scrambled to buy it. Her famous book club could turn an unknown author into a bestseller overnight. It was all dubbed the "Oprah effect".
It was a remarkable achievement. Oprah was born to an unmarried mother in Kosciusko, Mississippi, in the Deep South. She endured hard times, including sexual abuse, until coming to the attention of a Tennessee radio station after winning a beauty pageant. She started reading the news and never looked back, moving to Chicago and finally landing her own show.
Guardian article
Michael Ward, who has died after a long illness, aged 82, was a news photographer for almost 40 years and once calculated that his archive of prints and negatives covered 5,500 assignments, mainly though not exclusively for the Sunday Times. And yet he came late to his career and never felt confident that he completely understood it. Towards the end of his life, after half a century with a camera, he wrote that he knew "as much or as little about the processes of photography as a decent amateur". Technically, he knew he was far from accomplished. Aesthetically, he was never sure what separated a good picture from an indifferent one.
Guardian obituary
The performance with which the Kenyan athlete Sammy Wanjiru won the gold medal in the men's marathon at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 placed him alongside the greatest runners of all time. Also a winner of the London marathon and twice the Chicago marathon, he might well have been capable of a world record. He has died at the age of 24 in a fall from a balcony at his home in the town of Nyahururu, in the Rift Valley. Police say he had been involved in a domestic dispute with his wife and another woman, and that foul play was not suspected.
Guardian obituary
He was appointed MBE in 2003 in recognition of services to community relations in south London, and was more widely honoured by those who met him as a genuinely nice man who lent a supportive and compassionate approach to all aspects of life. Although he commanded huge respect for his diligence and quiet firmness, he went about his business in an unassuming and humble manner, and had the knack of being able to question people about their actions and motives while remaining supportive and non-threatening.
Guardian obituary
The master stained-glass artist Lawrence Lee, who has died aged 101, was part of the remarkable generation of British artists that dominated a large part of the 20th century, and included Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, John Piper and Ceri Richards. His most illustrious achievement was masterminding the 10 nave windows in the new Coventry Cathedral, designed by Sir Basil Spence in the early 1950s to stand next to the remains of the old cathedral, which had been destroyed in a second world war bombing raid.
Guardian obituary
Eddie Turnbull, who has died aged 88, was a postwar giant of Scottish football. He was the first British player to score a goal in the European Cup, and a successful manager with Aberdeen and Hibernian. His proteges at Aberdeen included Martin Buchan – later of Manchester United – who said: "In my experience, he was the best coach who ever lived. I never worked with anyone who came anywhere near him."
Guardian obituary
Chris Hondros, who has died aged 41 from injuries sustained in a grenade attack by Libyan government forces in Misrata, was one of the world's leading contemporary war photographers. His dramatic images from conflicts in Kosovo, Angola, Afghanistan, Iraq, the West Bank and Libya appeared regularly in Newsweek, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. In 2004, his dramatic reportage from Liberia earned him a Pulitzer prize nomination. He was awarded the Robert Capa gold medal by the Overseas Press Club in 2005 for his "exceptional courage and enterprise" while covering the Iraq war, and, in 2007, American Photo magazine named him "Hero of Photography".
Guardian obituary
One of his most dramatic images, above, taken in Iraq in 2005. The child’s parents had just been killed by US forces.
Photojournalist Chris Hondros explores pairing music with images of war.
'Big George" Webley, who has died suddenly aged 53, was a larger-than-life figure who combined the careers of talk-radio broadcaster and prolific composer and arranger of television themes, for shows such as Have I Got News for You and The Office.
Guardian obituary
From back in May …
David Cairns, who has died aged 44 from acute pancreatitis, was the Labour MP for Inverclyde, who lost his ministerial job at the Scotland Office in 2008 after declining to express confidence in Gordon Brown's leadership. Cairns had been named in the media as a minister who was prepared to resign if Brown continued as leader. Offered the opportunity to recant publicly, he declined to do so and left the government instead, correctly predicting that the party's refusal to acknowledge the electorate's doubts about Brown's leadership would end in disaster.
Guardian obituary
Full text of 2008 resignation letter from David Cairns, who quit as Scotland Office minister
More fundraising going on …
Tweets:
coffee and astounding cupcakes in church café after morning meeting http://t.co/umH8OZog #itneverspoilsmylunch ;))
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| From Cupcakes and Goodies at Church |
... and rach's gift sweets for sale in church café as part of our harvest gifts/talents project ... http://t.co/SMNJhWZf
.. couldn't resist so bought some of the amazing cupcakes at church café for afternoon tea as well #howfatami ;)) http://t.co/ZmptqpFk
I did not see series 1 but sounds like I missed a great piece of (Danish) TV drama. So I was determined not to miss out on Series 2.
Official site
BBC site
Music
Guardian review
Why I’m a convert to The Killing (Radio Times)
Knit your own Sarah Lund jumper (Radio Times)
The Killing's Sarah Lund on success and her jumpers
Five reasons to watch The Killing II
Guardian episode blog
The Killing helps boost UK travel to Denmark
