How do you read poetry?

Firstly an apology, dear readers, I have been away for so long, this is due to work loads and a change in home life that has taken a little getting used to, more about this I am sure in up and coming blogs. But I am back and I will make every effort to make time for you and talk about things that will interest you as well as me!!

I was reading a poetry book today, as is my like when I am on a train journey and not meant to be working! Novels really are the preserve of when I am on a train and meant to be working. I could never put down a poetry book, answer the phone and answer a question about ‘dynamic vapour sorption‘ or some other technical scientific question, but with a novel I can. Anyhow…. the book was Carol Ann Duffy’s Rapture, a wonderful book, and the winning of the 2005 TS Elliot prize.  It is a wonderful book of poetry and very modern in it’s outlook. It was not the poetry that has caused me to write this blog but a comment  by a reviewer in the front of the book (something I always read at the end, I like to make my own opinions), it said “Rapture is a rare thing… a poetry book that can (and should) be read from start to finish“, this got me wondering how do people read poetry books?

My style is simple.. I read a poetry book form start to end…. preferably  in one sitting, I then have the measure of each poem, the ones that I like the ones that I don’t and go back to each of them.. when the mood takes me, but I have to do that initial read, if not how would I know what was in the book?

Poetry is something that is so absorbing, just like opera, I have been know to miss a train station after a 3 hour journey, just because I am agonising over Sir John Betjeman’s ‘Middlesex’ but I believe that poetry is there for the moment and when I am in the mood I will jump to my (admittedly small) library and pick a poem form my shelves and then be totally absorbed. But to do this you need to know what is in your library, thus you have to read it!!

How do you read poetry, do you do as I do pick a random poet, read them file until needed? or do you feel an emotion… look it up on the internet, find a poem, head out to buy it from a local book store (or heaven forbid… down load it!!) then become totally immersed in it? or do you have another technique? I am interested I like to know how and what  other people think about poetry.

If you have read this and are thinking what the hell is this guy on about!! I though he climbed and such… check out the sister blog, The Man’s Laureate, my introduction to poems that I like, you may just enjoy it!!

Happy reading

G.xx

My irrational fear…

Well today one of my irrational fears has got the better of me and I am frustrated.

I was meant to be going out this morning to walk with a group in the local hills, however because of the bad weather we had been warned that, although the walk will go ahead, the venue may change, ring number xxxxx if there is any doubt.

So the morning dutifully came, and to be fair the snow has gone and it was a little drizzly but apart from that I managed to convince myself that weather was good enough for the original venue to go ahead. So no need to phone… phew!!

But alas the venue was changed and although I turned up at the allotted time the day was not to be…. all because of my irrational fear of talking on the phone…

Well it is not as simple as that, my fear is not talking on the phone (as in I do not want to use this phone in case it steals my soul) more a fear of upsetting people because I have rung them an an inopportune moment. This is the crux of the problem, I do not know when is a good time to call.

And to make matters worse this does not affect the other me, the good Doctor, my work persona, at work I spend half my time on the phone sorting out problems, putting consortia together and that does not worry me, but when it comes to personal communication that’s when I begin to worry.

The problem has caused me to loose friends, upset people and generally be a bit of an arse on occasions, but I dont know how to get over it, maybe hypnotherapy will help, who knows…

but I really need to get over myself on this one… any ideas?

G.

The build up to Christmas

Well Christmas is nearly here and I think that I can finally relax!

It’s strange is it not that something that is meant to be so joyous and so plesent becomes so syressful for so many people, myself included!

There is always the inevitable rush at work before Christmas, reports, proposals and lab work that needs to be completed before the end of the year and no matter how long before christmas you take off, you end up working in your vacation.

Then it’s the turn of the gift buying, I will not buy just anything for anyone and of they don’t like it tough, I plan each gift to the point of perfection and then am really hurt if they don’t every year exclaim ‘oh i just love it, darling!’. But this takes time, hours shopping, heading up to Leeds for this London for that and popping of to York to that little boutique I saw last year… More stress!

The final piece of stress for me is choosing what we will be eating (and drinking) Christmas day… This year this task has been of a particularly hard nature, due to mothers decision that she did not want a traditional Christmas dinner!  So this year we will dine on a sumptuous meal of…

Smoked salmon blinis, Cheese Souffle, Cassoulet, French cheese, Tarte Tatin; all to be washed down with some amazing wines!!

The meal will be great, I know it will, I am a good cook but my lack of self confidence and confidence in my family not to judge if things go wrong, does make the planning of any large meal or gathering very stressful for me…

But I like it and enjoy it, if I didn’t we would be eating an M&S finger licking ready roast turkey and microwaved veg! I like the challenge and I like to challenge the people that are eating the meals I have spent days to prepare and I know that my family love it too. In fact I actually love all the stress of Christmas, it’s a happy stress a stress brought about because of me need to make people happy, I just need to make sure that Christmas stress is kept alone and does not get mingled in with other stresses (when stress goes bad!)

Well, I will let you know how the meal goes and all the other exciting things that happen when Santa comes to town,

may I raise a glass of champagne all my dear readers and wish you a very merry Christmas

Cheers!!

G.x

Getting fit for the hills

Well it happen on Monday, I was driving to work and as I rounded the a55 towards the Conwy tunnel I let out a little yelp of glee… There was snow on them there hills!!

Well of course this has meant that I now have to get fit so I can head out to play! Especially if I am going to do the mountianeering course I want to do in febuary.

So to that end, I have excercised everyday this week and I am glad to say it’s going well, and today i have just topped my personnal best in the swimming pool!

I hope that this year I can keep the excercise up and not let it trail off in the name of ‘work’

It has been so very long!!

I have just spent the morning catching up on news, not my usual Sunday morning treat of skipping through the Telegraph (normally both Saturdays and Sundays) over some bacon, eggs and some spiffing coffee picked up from one of my two current suppliers (HasBean & Londinium Espresso) whilst listening to Classic Fm, nope, I have spent the morning catching up on my blog reading… wow there was so much of it to do!!

I read a lot of blogs, I think that I am quite generally a nosey person! the vastness of the range of blogs mirrors the range of my life, from climbing and outdoor gear to music, film, famous people and people I know personally. It’s fun, exciting and brings me immense joy… when I have the time, and that is the crux of the problem.. time!

Time, time where art thou? only 24 hours in a day that is just not fair! I love my job, for those who don’t know me I run a research group at a northern university research bio-based materials, lots of fun lots of pressure and lots of long nights, which means that I have less time for everything else! On top of work there is a sort of social life and the there is Me 2.0, which has gone from a distraction to something that actually demands my time. I am not complaining, I love all aspects of my life and will carry on especially with Me 2.0 (incidentally Me 2.0 is a phrase that I have borrowed from Dan Schawbel and his book Me 2.0, well worth a read).

But as always, I digress, where was I.. oh yes…

Catching up with my blogs made me take a look at my own, this one here dear readers, and I was shocked and appalled that  it has been over three months since I had written a post, so much for my idea to write one post a week! Why was I not a prolific poster of blogs, I should be I should be able to write something witty and interesting in my sleep and get it posted. There is the time aspect of course, it does take time to sit and write a blog but that is not a problem, a hours less sleep a night will not kill me, I don’t think? Also I set out to write, in the words of Mr. Stephen Fry, Blessays and not short blog posts, I gave myself a minimum word count of 500 words, a good idea but they take a long time to write and to read so perhaps not the best idea I have had, I am going to start to add more frequent mini-blogs.. if you would like that?

However, I think that the real reason I have not grasped blogging like the proverbial bunch of nettles is the lack of interaction that would stimulate me to keep writing, the only comments that I have had on my blog are… well, spam and bots and I am afraid those don’t stimulate me (even the ones on twitter that have something to do with Britney Spears, but thats another story!!), I know that people read this because I watch the little line graph spike occasionally but no comments, no interaction, no stimulation and thus no quick posts. So dear readers, I know your there, please, please please could you comment pretty please? even if it’s just… ‘please stop, this is pants, it’s so bad it’s making my eyes bleed’! at least I will know!!

So, my dear readers whoever you maybe, let us make a pact, I promise that I will write interesting new blogs more regularly, of a variety of lengths and topics, if and only if you leave me some comments and stimulate me into writing. You never know you could so stimulate me that I will set up the second work, eco related blog that I have been meaning to for some time!!

Thanks, as always for reading… let us speak soon!!

Parsley – The Abused Herb

First if all the facts:

In Central and Eastern Europe and in West Asia, many dishes are served with fresh green chopped parsley sprinkled on top. The fresh flavor of the green parsley goes extremely well with potato dishes (french fries, boiled buttered potatoes or mashed potato), with rice dishes (risotto or pilaf), with fish, fried chicken, lamb or goose, steaks, meat or vegetable stews (like Beef Bourguignon, Goulash or Chicken paprikash). In Southern and Central Europe, parsley is part of bouquet garni, a bundle of fresh herbs used to flavor stocks, soups, and sauces. Freshly chopped green parsley is used as a topping for soups like chicken soup, green salads or salads like Salade Olivier, on open sandwiches with cold cuts or pâtés. Parsley is a key ingredient in several West Asian salads, e.g., tabbouleh (the national dish of Lebanon). Persillade is mixture of chopped garlic and chopped parsley in the French cuisine. Gremolata is a traditional accompaniment to the Italian veal stew, Ossobuco alla milanese, a mixture of parsley, garlic, and lemon zest.

Green parsley is often used as a garnish… and that is the problem

Green parsley is used as a garnish.. on everything and I really mean everything.

This has annoyed me for a while, in fact it is one of the ways that I rate a pub / restaurant, quality of the cheese board, quality of the coffee and whether the ‘chef’ throw chopped parsley at everything. I once worked in a pub where the trainee chefs monday job (yes a full days work) was to chop buckets of parsley in to little ting squares for the weeks food. And what did the chef do with all this Parsley, was it create fantastic dishes, no it was to throw over everything!

Please don’t get me wrong I like parsley, I like the taste I like it with fish and in tabbouleh but what I don’t like is it ‘sprinkled’ over everything that I eat from Pate to chicken to beef to everything.

Parsley was even my favorite character in the children’s TV program ‘The Herbs‘ “I am a friendly lion called Parsley….”

I think that I have worked out why I hate parsley so much, it’s not the parsley, it is the chef’s that do not have any imagination to use an herb except Parsley. What is wrong with mint with Lamb and new potatoes, freshly grated horseradish with beef, or even a good english mustard. there are so many herbs out there, with such good flavours and more fitting tot he dishes that are been created. Why have we fallen into the mundane trap, why are chefs not more adventurous with their use of herbs, there are so many herbs available and many that are not used any more that should be revived.

I love herbs they are so wonderful and can make a mediocre dish so much better and a little thought would go such a long way…

so I say to all chefs, stop abusing the Parsley, start using decent herbs, bring back the rare ones and make your restaurants a better place.

Footnote to Blog 2…

Well this really is not a blog but more of a foot note to my last blog.

I am sat on a train… again, yes I do drive, infact most days I drive quite alot, but when I am relaxing I like to spend my time on trains.

Anyway, it is busy on said train so all the tables are pack, looking at the 8 people sat around me, we are all using technology to entertain ourselves, I am writing this on my iPhone, another guy is using and iPhone, two guys are using laptops, one is reading comics on his Nintendo DS one playing games on a PSP the guy sat next to me has a cool ereader and one is playing music on an iPod. So this seems to indicate that electronics are there to help us relax as well as aid productivity!

I am slightly sad that there is notone book, newspaper or comic in sight, as a trained forester I do worry about the future of the printed work, but I suppose that back in the 80′s someone was worrying about the future of vinyl, but we got over it. I think that the printed word will always be there, my wife seems to think that I am on a solo mission to make it so! But technology has it’s place, no more carrying 20 CDs or tapes and 5 books on holiday with you n fact all you need is an iPhone / iPod touch and you have all you need and more. yes I really think my worries were unfounded and now that I am relaxed I am loving my technology again!