Eric Gill

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Today we had a Cambridge Society talk on the Artist Eric Gill, by Nick Wheeler-Robinson.  Nick is the owner of the Piggotts house and workshop which Eric Gill last lived and worked in before he died.  Eric Gill was an artist, engraver and sculptor and the inventor of several type faces.  I see Word on my PC has Gill Sans which is one of his type faces.

Gill’s work reflects his strong belief in both Roman Catholicism and promiscuity.  At Piggotts, his ménage included a wife, at least two pupil/model/mistress/muses, and a priest, probably a much needed confessor.  Gill seems to have lived life to the full.

Piggotts was bought by Nicks father from Eric Gills family in 1963.  The place has been used since to live in, and provide a place where musicians are invited to come and play.  From Easter through to November there are people camping in the fields, rehearsing music and then playing it on Sunday.  They are a mixture of professional and amateur musicians.  This Sunday they were playing Utopia Ltd’ by Gilbert & Sullivan.  Next weekend it is the Planets.

After the talk and guided tour of the buildings, we took a walk through the bluebell woods and then had a BBQ in the woods.

I’m afraid we did not listen to the music, leaving just as it started.

The buildings in which Gill worked were old farmyard barns, some converted to strengthen the flooring to take the weight of the stones.  The were all very cold and draughty in winter.  He had many apprentices who brought in money by engraving grave stones.

We heard a lovely story about a grass roller, made from stone, which had been thought to have been carved by Gill.  It had been sold for £50,000 to Leeds University.  One of the apprentices (Kindersley) when visiting Nick, after the roller had been sold, said he had carved it as a training exercise.  The money was used to purchase 30 acres of woodland adjoining the house.

Saturday at home

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Spent the morning prepping the evening meal, was going to be coriander and lemon chicken, preceded by an lovely green soup.  The soup also is very spiced with coriander, cumin and chili.

Afternoon, had to catch up on two weeks of grass cutting, luckily the showers held off.

The evening was spent consuming copious amounts of wine and beer with the home cooked Indian meal with Ann and Chris, Selina and Graham.

Carluccio

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Rosemary and I had a special meal out at Carluccios’s in Bicester Village.  This is a chain of restaurants with the name of celebrity chef Antonio.

The meal was a themed Italian meal with selected wines.  We started off with a glass of Prosecco and some excellent Canapes.  The deep fried spinage was excellent.

The menu was.

Gamberi e Bianco
A Salad of prawns on marinated fennel

Accompanied by
La Segreta Bianco
Fresh and rich with a long slow finish.  Made from a blend of Grecanico, Chardonnay, Viognier, Sauvignon and Fiano grapes.  Tropical fruit flavours, with a lingering dry finish.

Risotto al Vino Rosso
Creamy red wine risotto

Filetto di Bue alla Griglia
Fillet steak served with sauteed mushrooms and garlic and roasted Rosemary potatoes

Accompanied by
Capello di Prete
A rich red balanced red with mellow flavours of cocoa and cherries.  Made from 100% Negroamaro grapes.

Crema di Noce con Cioccolata
A delicious hazelnut panna cotta served with a chocolate sauce

Accompanied by
Aleatico di Puglia
An incredible red dessert wine, produced from Aglianico grapes.  Medium sweet with spice and cherry flavours.

After the meal had an espresso and some grappa.  Meal was good, especially liked the marinaded fennel.  Marinaded in lemon juice and zest.  Steak ordered rare and was served rare, excellent.

Newcastle and Edinburgh

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On the Thursday of my Newcastle trip, I spent the evening in Edinburgh.  Caught the Flying Scotsman to Edinburgh, 90 minute trip.  Met up with Mary Devine, Ed Aldridge, Neil Saunders and Simon Stone in the Conan Doyle pub.  Then onto the Thai Me Up restaurant for a quite expensive but very good Thai meal.  Ed though was defeated by his Green Curry, far to hot for him.  I ended up eating most of his curry, while he ate my fish dish.

Then onto Pivo’s, bar selling East European lagers.  Here we lost the guys from RBS, and Mary Devine.  A quick visit to Whistle Binkies with Ed until 1.00am, for old times sake.  Then to the hotel.

In the morning, caught the 7.00 am train back to Newcastle, and into the office by 8.45.

Left work early for the long drive home (4 hours) and was able to meet up with friends in the Plough and Anchor for a drink before Supper.

Newcastle for the week

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Travelled up to Newcastle to work in the Gateshead office for the whole on the Farsi project.  Used Rosemarys car as mine was going to be serviced because of the awful thumping noise from the suspension when going over bumps.

Stayed three nights in the Tulip Inn in Team Valley.  First night out had a rather expensive curry with Nigel Stone in The Last Days Of the Raj. Very large eatery with these huge carved wooden elephants.

Next day we ate at a much cheaper place called the Waggon Team, where we ate at a carvery.  Service was poor, and ended up getting a free beer to compensate us.

Wednesday night ate at the Tulip Inn, and then went to the Waggon Team for a few pints of larger and chatted with a guy called Neil.

Chastleton House

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Decided to get the most from our National Trust membership and so off we went to Chastleton House, near Moreton –in-the-Marsh., billed as “one of England’s finest and most complete Jacobean houses”.   It turned out not to be an exaggeration; a lovely house.  The embroidery had Rosemary drooling (and returning to re-commence some of her many UFOs/USOs) – table covers, fabulous bed hangings and the most amazing flamboyant but tiny almost priest-hole room, LINED with bargello (falme-stitch) hangings.  The guide said she’d also heard bargello termed “Irish” stitch, not a term with which R was familiar.    Some extremely old wall paintings, fabulous uneven floors and wood everywhere, which made the odd woodworm hole at home seem a total non-event.  Had it not been raining, we would have enjoyed the topiary outside. 

No tea place on site, so followed guide’s directions to “a farm shop which did tea”.  This turned out to be Daylesford Organic Farmshop  which must be the most upmarket farm shop, we’ve ever seen.  Fantastically expensive china/pottery (£56 for a single soup bowl?), cheese etc in very trendy, but satisfyingly plain surroundings, even if the brownie R ate wasn’t her best ever.

Cambridge Annual Gathering

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Today was the Gonville and Caius college annual gathering for the years 1971 and 1972.  This was my third gathering.  I duly arrived and booked into my room on E staircase of St Mikes Court, changed into my DJ and went for my wine in the Senior Combination Rooms.

Dinner started at 8.00pm, and the hall was by no means full.  Part way through dinner we all swapped around and I was seated on the upper table.

I was seated  by Dave Walker, Chris Finden-Browne, Mike Bell.  Spoke to Chris Davies and congratulated him on his sound bite on the today program. Long chat with Jon Hughes.

We ended the meal singing Carmen Caianum, and then retiring for whisky and brandy in the common room.

Next morning up for breakfast, with a little headache.

The menu was.

Salade de fromage de chevre avec sa vinaigrette sa vinaigrette aux poivrons rotis.

Filet de bar la ciboulette

Tournedos de boeuf a la grand-mere
Pommes de terre chateau
Chou-fleur a la Mornay
Mange-tout

Creme brulee aux fraises

Dessert

Cafe

Those attending in no particular order where:

Dr Thaites, J-L Evans (71), A Fishman (71), J Shapiro (71), C Knowles (71), The Master, H Carter (71), B Bretherton (71), P Chambers (71), A Kuyk (71), D Carter (71), Dr Macpherson, A Schubert (71) S Wolfensohn (71). S Brearley (71), R Morgan (71), A Reid (71), A Lee (71), P Lapinskas (71), M Cashin (71), A Underdown (71), J Clark (71), P Boeuf (71), Professor Phillipson, D Jeffrey (71), P Kinns (71), N Peace (71), A Morris (71), P Jacquelin (71), A Thompson (71), S Kelway (71), Dr Robinson, T Squire (71), J Morrell (71), A Charlton (71), R Carter (71), P Dearsley (71), M Le Moignan (71), F Khan (71), S Gibson (71), T Howlett (71), B Jones (71), M Powell (71), G Levine (71), L Hambly (71), C Taylor (71), S Young (71), J Bates (71), N Holliday (71), S Rich (71), M Arthur (71), D Phillips (71), S Perry (71), N Leary (71), P Taylor (72), S Chambers (72), J Dufton (72), R Thomas (72), R Perry (72), R Gluckman (72), C Davies (72), T Swift (72), J Williams (72), J Hughes (72), R Thompson (72), R Ratcliffe (72), S Blasdale (72), M Bell (72), A Evans (72), R Gleed (72), A Arnold (72), The Dean, I Buswell (72), R Goodman (72), A Kitchin (72), D Walker (72), C Finden-Browne (72), Mr Herd, A Ball (72), P Farmer (72), R Handley (72), P Hadley (72), Professor M Arnold, Mr Hedley, A Hunetr Johnston (72), M Armour (72),  Dr Lyon, C Henshall (72), R Hodges (72), Dr Casey, T Merson (72), R Wakling (72), D Nicholls (72), S Bunzi (72), D Mason (72), A Daws (72), A Greenhalgh (72), D Kusin (72), J Davis (72), W Furber (72), C Edwards (72), R Harrad (72), R Page (72), J Bax (72), R Wilson (72) 

Farsi and Newcastle

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Well I have started to work on the Cedar e5 product range, and my first project is to take the WUI (Web User Interface), a Java applet and convert it to support right to left languages such as Arabic and Farsi.

Today I did the 4 hour drive to Newcastle to gather some knowledge of what I should be doing.  Successful visit, followed by the four hour drive back home.

Rosemary is back

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After an extended stay in Jamaica, Rosemary has at last made it back.  First thing she did was a quick visit to the Plough and Anchor for a pint of real English Larger.

Jamaica

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I have today off – weird, no idea what to do other than read, but finding a good place to read is not that easy.  Room is large, but little natural light.  Outside too hot (and I find I have no suntan oil), so may have to use one of the many nice sofa areas, which no one ever uses.  I could also try using the PC, have also found one of the Axon guys has all 15 episodes of the first series of Desperate Housewives on a hard drive, but I think he has hired a car and gone out…..

Had a 40mins telephone conversation with Steve this morning, all over the Internet (we could hear each other and talk to each, no time delays and no cost and PRIVATE).  Brilliant; wish I’d found it earlier. www.skype.com

Last night a few of us went to one of the Axon people’s houses for supper.  I even got a taxi there, but a bit taken aback when the driver seemed to think I knew where I was going and asked directions.  House a bit like West Africa – stone floors, security grills everywhere and an guarded entrance to drive to it and other houses on a small “estate”.  Supper itself very nice.  Tom, the Axon guy, had both Fri & Sat off, after working 7 weeks non-stop and long hours each day.  Said he’d done very little except doze and go to the supermarket, but he looked loads better.

I have found a niche market here which could earn someone mega bucks. There are few barbers around and two lads who went recently both came back with Graham style haircuts, ie number 1 settings, which was not what they wanted.  Then one of the others heard that the US Embassy flies in a barber once a month, so he booked an apointment three weeks ago.  He came back (lousy haircut, looked better when it was longer) and announced it had cost him 80 dollars.  Looks it, said someone,  thinking he meant Jamaican dollars which would make it roughly 80p; no he meant US dollars!!!!   Meena (girl) has been out here since October and has rather longer hair than I recall her having before.  It’s strange because many of the Jamaicans have good haircuts, but perhaps the locals take  colonial revenge on Brits hair…

+++Rosemary