Here are some things I did recently...

saw Zodiac - scary murders, but good, if long movie. From David Fincher, who did Seven (7even). A chick flick, it ain't.

saw How We Are, the photography exhibition at the Tate Britain. Rainy bank holiday monday; heaving. I've added my pix (haven't we all) to the flickr group. (And they fixed the exhibit since Meg went)

made humous. A few times.

Went to shul... a few times. Ate cheesecake: a lot of times.

Had a lie-in and read the Sunday papers over two days. They are truly the gift that goes on giving.

and dinner last night at the North London Tavern. Local, great food (if a lot of shouty football people) and the venue for Thursday's JCC Jcast party (hey, there are a lot of Js in there...)

Well, it's been yomtov for two days, and I feel like I had something of an enforced holiday, which was quite nice. Never use the world nice, Mrs Havelock told me that in Junior School.

Anyway, I went to shul, ate lots of cheesecake, had meals, hung out with friends. Yesterday there was a communcal shul lunch (To a remarkably high standard), and afterwards about forty of us went to Fortune Green and played cricket (or watched, as I was not wearing my cricket shoes. I was wearing green platform espadrilles which S was quite jealous of).

So there we were... a large, multi-generational group of overdressed people (we'd been to shul, some people were wearing hats)sitting around in the park on a Thursday afternoon.We must have looked odd. Actually, I suspect we looked like a cult: a cult of over-accessoried cricket players/watchers. We got some strange looks.

And it's odd that today's Friday and I feel like it's Monday because I just had two days off.

And I'm in a Starbucks. And the internet (which I will never spell with a Capital I) still thinks I'm German.

Segment on social networking on the Today programme just now. The intro (Jim?) called it Fackbook. I kid you not. Better than FoxBook, I grant you.

Oh, I'm sorry I've been neglecting you. Really.

I'm working on something big, really big. I'll be able to tell you more next week.

In the meantime, tonight is Shavuot - otherwise known as the cheesecake eating Festival. I've made three, and delivered them all over north London. And tonight, if I can stay awake, I'll be at a tikkun leil shavuot.

DSC02546

DSC02546
Originally uploaded by sashinka-uk.

Nature is weird, and I love that. This tree looks like a cross between a tyrannosaurus' foot and, well... a tree.

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DSC02530
Originally uploaded by sashinka-uk.

Few weekends back, spent a lovely day at Kew Gardens. Today's looking like a gorgeous sunny day, and it reminded me of the sun glinting through the leaves.

See, this is what the internet is great for.

I, oddly, see the world lolcat (lolcatz)twice in a couple of minutes, and think, weird new word, what's this. So I google, and the socialogy of lolcats, caturdays, kitty pidgin etc, is revealed to me through the wonder of wikipedia.

Of course, in the olden days, all this stuff would have happened slower, and in a more distributed way (I'm at internet speed, right?. But I love it how a trend/fad can happen in a relatively short period, everyone can get it, the world can come into commom usage blah blah blah.

I once had a boss who had that cat thing. She liked cats, and had cute kitten pitctures on her desk, and if the internet had existed, then, she would have posted pictures of her kittens there.

I didn't get it then, and I think I might not get it now.

I'm in a costbox. The internet still thinks I'm German. Luckily, my cod-yiddish is getting me by. Vorschau, anyone?

Moldova Trip Update - I'm not going

I feel very sad writing this, but basically, my (personal) trip has been indefinitely postponed. The original trip was in May, and then due to van delivery problems was postponed till the end of June. The suppliers didn't make the dates, and so the trip is now happening in October. I can't go in October, as I'm involved in a new project, so, basically, I can't go.

You probably have a lot of questions, like how hard is it to buy vans etc. We can only take vans that are serviceable in Moldova, which limits our manufacturer choice. Additionally, there have, apparently been industry changes in the European and East European wholesale distribution model that affected our purchase. I dont' know all the details, but I am assured that the guys on the project have done everything they can to try and solve this, and they can't.

It's obviously very disappointing. For me and for people who supported me. However, the trip itself will still go ahead, and the community in Moldova will still get the vans and aid/equiptment they need.

I will be writing in the snail-mail way to all my donors and supporters to explain the situation fully, and I'm sorry. This is a situation genuinely out of my control.

There is a small chance that I may go next May, but frankly that's a year away. I will, obviously keep you informed.

Thanks for all your support.

You know how it is - like buses. Or nuns, for that matter. So I'd never head of Maximo Park and then like two people mention them to me in less than twenty four hours. Serendipity? Co-incidence? Just the way things are.

Moldova Trip - Update

You've probably realised I've been a little quiet about this, and I'm theoretically going to Moldova this Sunday.

Unfortunately there's been a delay to the trip (an issue out of my hands, to do with WJR's purchasing of the vans, and changes in the European van wholesale distribution chain), so it looks like the trip will be the last week of June. This is yet to be confirmed, and I will keep you posted.

I've been aware of the postponement for some weeks, and was hoping to be able to post a fixed date so you (and I) would know where I'm at, but it's not worked out that way.

I massively appreciate all the huge support I've received from people I know and people I don't. Thank you.

When Tony Blair said "we are the greatest nation on earth", while I did feel a little emotional, I knew that I was being manipulated, and it felt very Reverend Bush, no?

This one'll run and run.

Interest rates, anyone?

With Eurovision in the air, I'm quite excited about this.

My friend David made this great film, in a four man team (one of whom is Jonathan Walton ace trumpeter and song writer from Oi Va Voi) Said Murad, long regarded as once of the most distinguished Palestinian musicians from Sabreen, is off to Finland to lobby for their inclusion.

It's number five on Journeyman (global distributor), which is cool, and here it is.

The fact that Magners cider just had a section on the Today programme means either (a) someone's very good at PR, or (b) there is no real news.

Or, of course, both.

So, someone I vaguely know got in touch with me (email) and said, "do you know about this? It's what all the cool kids are doing now - Foxbook?"

And I said, "Foxbook? Is that like Facebook for foxes?"

You will probably find this as hard to believe as I do, but someone in a bank (my bank, the one that doesn't return my calls or anything) actually said to me yesterday "computer says no". They did not even say it ironically.

Roderick Alphonso Wilson
12th May 1961 - 6th April 2007

More than a couple of people noticed that I’ve been a little quiet, low-post, in the last week or so, and I’ll tell you why.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my friend Rod, whose funeral I attended last Friday.

I met Rod when we both trained as ChildLine telephone counsellors in about 1989. I know; I can’t believe it’s that long ago, either.

The nature of group counselling training is that you get to know the people in your group pretty well; people share their life experiences, childhood, the things that shaped them. Rod had just lost his brother Chris – horribly young, to cancer - and he talked about him quite a lot. In that few months’ training we connected, and have stayed in touch ever since.

Of course, living in London, it’s a big city, and you don’t see all the friends you want to see as often as you’d like; and you kinda always expect people to be there. We’d go out clubbing, meet for lunch occasionally, talk on the phone, plan to meet for drinks, get busy… and last summer, Rod called me to tell me had stomach cancer. He was pretty upbeat, at that time, about his treatment.

Rod looked like (a young) Samuel L Jackson and had a voice like Barry White. He sang at my party a few years ago, and people are still talking about it. Over the years I’ve watched him perform in the band he met at the London Transport Museum, at parties, in pubs – he had a voice that put everyone else in the shade. He was too disinterested in (his own putative) celebrity to queue up for two days to be in whatever Be Famous For Five Minutes show was being promoted, but if he had, he’d totally have outshone everyone else there (although he was always totally up-to-date on whatever had happened to Kylie or the latest daytime TV star). And also, he had a surprising lack of arrogance for one so talented and fabulous looking.

In the last eighteen years we’ve danced (together), sung (him), gossiped, laughed and cried; Rod was the best dancer I’ve ever met, and one of the warmest people I’ve known, and he had an insight, wit and warmth that I will miss, terribly.

For a long time, in the nineties, he used to come to my work Christmas party with me. He was a total hit; he could talk to everyone from the cleaner to the CEO. A couple of year ago when my (former) Famous Neighbour invited me to their engagement party, and I was worried about not actually knowing anyone else there, Rod came with me, and Famous Neighbour greeted him like a long-lost friend, and by the end of the evening he’d spotted all the celebrities, become firm friends with half the party… and boy, did we dance. You know when you dance with someone who’s better than you, and they make you look good?

That was Rod’s secret; he had a magic power to make everyone feel good about themselves. Every time we met up or talked on the phone I’d leave feeling… uplifted. Like all is right with the world. I’m not saying he was an angel; he had a wicked wit and loved to gossip, but all with the truest, deepest soul.

I’d never been to a humanist funeral before. Being an observant Jew there are rules about how things get done (quickly, no music, to a formula) and it was a real revelation to attend such an uplifting and… almost inspiring ceremony.

It feels to me like Jewish funerals are always on a rush-before-shabbes Friday afternoon at Rainsough in Manchester; it’s dark, spine-chillingly cold, windier than you can imagine, and you climb the hill to the seen-better-days ohel (hall) and it’s Wuthering Heights and it’s cold and it’s dark.

So it was incredibly moving to share over an hour with Rod’s other friends and family, in a lovely space, with a garden outside on a sunny day; to listen, sing, share, cry. His family, work colleagues, friends and partner spoke deeply movingly about Rod, and it was a true celebration of everything he was, everything he gave. Rod and I shared a real love of soul and RnB music, and I don’t think I’ll ever listen to Mary Mary again without thinking about him. But then, that’s a good thing.

I am proud to call Rod Wilson my friend. I am very, very sorry he has gone, but I will never forget all the wonderful things about humanity he taught me.