One of my fascinations in life is minerals and mineralogy. I can’t say I have an expert’s knowledge of crystalline structures or forms but I do have a good feel for the massive impact our use of minerals has on our lives, and has done in the past. I have had cause to think about minerals recently, mainly owing to the sad fact that currently my mineral collection is packed away as I am currently living in a much smaller place than when my collection started and grew. I have also been thinking harder about minerals and access to them since the odd story has come into the news about, for example, the battle for new lithium resources (crucial to the promised ‘battery revolution’ and electric cars)–the world’s leading producer is currently Bolivia. More recently, there has been an announcement that lithium reserves have been found in Afghanistan–could this be the cash cow that saves this wonderful country from almost certain death? Or will it be mercilessly exploited by a few prospectors?
The politics of mineral wealth and the redistribution of that wealth to the people whose country it belongs is a huge and thorny issue that has occupied historians, social scientists and economists for years. It did get me thinking, however. My own work on material culture has not been that focused on exactly where minerals and non-organic raw materials came from–so much was recycled–but it is certainly a subject that requires more historical interest across periods and something I intend to follow up in the future. I have a much better picture of organic raw materials such as wood, linen and silk.
All this just reminded me more of the minerals I miss looking at, handling and studying, shining under UV light, etc. So I thought I’d revisit a set of photos I took a few years back and use them to think about minerals in earnest again.
As soon as I arrived on a late morning in March in the medieval city of Bergamo (Bergamo set on flickr), high up on a hill, the rain having washed its tiled and pebbled streets and the ochery renders of the Renaissance and Baroque buildings, food and drink were not far from my thoughts. It didn’t take long for my eyes and senses to be sated. As soon as I got off the bus at the entrance to the Città Alta at Largo Colle Aperto, the damp air carried the sweet scents of mountains and lunch. If you enter the city this way, you have the chance to amble (slowly with a case) along the main drags through town, Via B. Colleoni and Via Gombito which have as one of their foci the impressive Torre Gombito, a vestige of penis envy wars from the Middle Ages. I had no expectations of the food in Lombardy. I have eaten in many cities and regions and while there is certainly the kind of regionalism that you read about and watch on TV, but that doesn’t always permeate into the ristoranti, trattorie, enoteche and caffè that visitors find themselves eating and drinking in. The curse of the ‘clone Italian’ is getting as much prevalent in Italy (major destinations at least) as in the UK even if their interpretations are different.
This blog has become stale, and a little dull, even to me. Train stories and socio-political goings on are all very well – and I have a lot to say about them – but I have become somewhat bored so I am going to try and start blogging about different things.
I would like to blog about dancing a bit more. I have always loved dancing but never really taken up the opportunity to do it myself since I left school and most recently I have been very taken with the BBC show, Strictly Come Dancing. One of this year’s celebrity contestants is Tom Chambers, actor. He has compelling in every dance he has performed and apart from a large amount of emphasis on his wedding during the first half of the series, has escaped much of the comment and criticism surrounding some of the other celebrities in the show.
I came across this little video of Tom Chambers recreating a Fred Astaire routine in Damsel in Distress. Tap dancing and drums. It is not worth describing, just watch it! Tom Chambers brings the classic charm and showbiz of the 1930s into the 21st century. How refreshing.
The Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice is about to make a ruling on whether it is fair to force people into retirement at the age of 65. Since 2006, British Law has decreed that it is legal for employers to force retirement at 65. Over 600 challenges in tribunals await the decision.
At a time when it is becoming very clear that the balance of the UK population is towards older age groups, and at a time when the unsustainability of high pensions is clearly going to have a knock-on effect in years to come, why on earth can’t people work longer if they are fit and able to do so? Is retirement a right?
Will I get to retire in 35 years time? Or will it be 40 or 45? I am doubtful as to whether there will be any such thing as a state pension by then. There will be a smaller and smaller number of working age people having to support a larger and larger number of retired people (so-called baby-boomers) many of whom have in fact retired early and therefore will spend between about a quarter to a third of their lives in retirement. Is this really a useful way to spend a human life?
So let us help the aged by encouraging them to keep active and work (or else do what some of them already do and take on essential voluntary roles or impart their knowledge to younger people in their professions).
UPDATE: Sadly the ruling went against those that brought the case. Alas.
While I lament the loss of several DAB radio stations, including Oneword, I was tickled to find that instead you can listen to birdsong – literally. Twist your DAB radio knob until you find the station, also called Birdsong.
Birdsong was broadcasted when Oneword went off air. It was originally used for the test transmission of Classic FM before its launch in 1992. It was then used three years ago for the station “D1_temp” and was popular with listeners who sent into complaints when it was taken off air in June 2005.
Since April 2008, it has broadcast (most effectively) in stereo.
Devoted listeners should note warnings on the UK Digital Radio website:
Listeners and Birdsong enthusiasts should note the transmission could cease at any time and that the recording is not commercially available.
Please note that the line up of birds featured in the cast may change without warning due to illness, weather and migration.
One listener quoted in a Telegraph Online article said:
It is a lot more enjoyable than some of the rubbish on air these days – and definitely better than debate or phone-in shows full of ‘oiks’ shouting at each other.
As for me, it’s like having the outside inside which as I stare lovingly at the garden from one of the kitchen windows and over the urban valley through the other, makes me feel like I am in some weird kind of aural landscape! I recommend it.
The journey time from Salisbury to Chippenham via Bath Spa (no direct services at all) is approx. 1h13m. BUT, returning on a Sunday (as many people might), it takes over 2 hours! Also changing via Bath Spa bit with a 40 minute wait. Thankfully you can kill 40 mins at Bath during the day but honestly, this is not even viable by my reckoning and at £17.50 return, even less so.
On a weekday journey time back from Chippenham to Salisbury is reduced to 1h22 but we know there is a direct line ready and able from Salisbury to Swindon via Melksham that could do the job is under an hour.
I am really very disappointed that I still can’t confidently recommend anyone travel from south to north Wiltshire or vice versa by rail at the moment, unless it is your only mode of travel.
Today I visited a bluebell wood for the first time (Mottisfont, Hampshire). I have always regarded bluebells as flowers of deep fascination and being in the middle of their magic carpet today made me feel like the eternal child of a great old tree. Incredible also to be in the wood within less than an hour from leaving home. A short train ride to the rural station of Mottisfont & Dunbridge and then a 15 minute walk up to the woods, many of which are protected and cared for by the National Trust.
Being in a bluebell wood for the first time transported me to a time which I only remember within the memories of my cells. There is no cognitive memory of it, but humans here, in this part of the world, have surely marvelled at this spring-time show in the same way I did today. There was a sense of that, anyway.
There now seems to be more than a glimmer of hope that from December 2008 we may get something close to an appropriate TransWilts service between Salisbury and Swindon (via Trowbridge, Melksham and Chippenham). It has been very difficult to gauge exactly how much car traffic cross-Wilts travel causes, especially by commuters, parents and shoppers (and therefore a difficult thing to prove that there is a need for an improved service to ‘stakeholders’ – funnily enough passengers are not stakeholders in the same way as politicians, rail chiefs and government) but you only have to give the A350 one go to ‘feel’ the strain it is under and the delays it causes to more essential road travel by those providing goods and services to the county.
The Save the Train has begun a ‘pledge’ campaign in order to gather as much support for this as possible so they are able to present the figures and the views of the Wiltshire public (and those travelling through the county) to FGW and our politicians.
