What I've been reading

Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories
by Annie Proulx

"Tales of loneliness, quick violence, and the wrong kinds of love. Each of the portraits in Close Range reveals characters fiercely wrought with precision and grace."

All set in the wildness of Wyoming, the stories resemble one another in the setting and the general indignities of living in a harsh land, usually without enough money, reliant on climate and neighbours and forever on the brink of personal, emotional, financial or psychological catastrophe. There weren't any heart-warming tales of people getting along just fine, but she always writes interesting and believable characters even if you don't warm to them. And it's astonishing that the essence of the award-winning film is all contained here in just 35 pages. Unlike many film adaptations, in this case the story and the film are equally great.

Not About Being Good: A Practical Guide to Buddhist Ethics
by Subhadramati

"Buddhist ethics are not about conforming to a set of conventions, not about "being good" in order to gain material, social, or religious rewards. Instead, living ethically springs from the awareness that other people are essentially no different from ourselves."

I really liked this basic book on ethics, mainly because she uses such good examples. I borrowed it from someone else in the group and I'm slightly inclined to buy my own copy, but not enough to do it at the moment.

The New York Trilogy
by Paul Auster

"In each story the search for clues leads to remarkable coincidences in the universe as the simple act of trailing a man ultimately becomes a startling investigation of what it means to be human."

These were three strangely interconnected stories, each containing one or more characters from the other stories and one even including the author as a character. It was a clever device and I almost wanted more of it, even though it made the plots slightly confusing. This is one of the books on my 'classic' list, and there's another one on there by the same author that I might try.

Music & Silence
by Rose Tremain

"In the year 1629, a young English lutenist named Peter Claire arrives at the Danish Court to join King Christian IV's Royal Orchestra. From the moment when he realises that the musicians perform in a freezing cellar underneath the royal apartments, Peter Claire understands that he's come to a place where the opposing states of light and dark, good and evil, are waging war to the death."

A long book but an enjoyable one, a saga masquerading as a historical novel by being set in Denmark in the 17th century. No complaints about this one.

Budapest

Memorial in grounds of Great Synagogue, Budapest, December 2022

It was a lovely trip with my two friends A & S, ostensibly to visit the Christmas markets as we had done in previous years in Dusseldorf and Munich. I didn't make any notes as I went along, and it now feels like it was ages ago, so I'll probably have forgotten some of the best bits, but hey! blogging is supposed to be fun, not work.

We flew on Friday and came back on Monday - Friday and Saturday were very wet; Sunday and Monday were very cold. The line for taxis at the airport was so long that we took the bus to the hotel, which was modern and in a convenient location although it took me two nights to work out how to turn the heating down. After we arrived on Friday we had a quick foray into the nearest market, but because of the pouring rain we were lucky to find a café with space indoors for us. Budapest, like Madeira, doesn't generally cater for vegetarians, but the soups were terrific. Luckily I like soup, and this was the first good one: garlic cream soup with croutons.

We started on Saturday with a wet walk along the river as far as the poignant memorial to the shooting of the Jews in 1944 on the bank of the Danube. After another foray into the Christmas markets A and I joined a pretty good walking tour while S went off to the thermal baths. The tour was of the Jewish quarter, although being Saturday the synagogues weren't open to tourists; we returned to the Great Synagogue on Sunday. The tour ended in a 'ruined bar' which was an extraordinary space comprising many rooms and many bars with glitter balls, interesting lighting, plants, repurposed furniture including chairs made from a bath tub and a piano among other things, and covered with graffiti, which was encouraged.

That evening we went to a restaurant that had been recommended and which had very peculiar decor including upside down model buildings stuck to the ceiling, mannequins, and an inexplicable model plane. Soup: mushroom with strips of egg and smoked quails eggs - another triumph.

On Sunday the rain stopped but the temperature dropped. The famous Chain Bridge was closed for renovation so after visiting the synagogue and lunch (pumpkin soup) we walked across a less interesting bridge to the Buda side. We rode up to the palace via the funicular railway and visited the labyrinths that had been formed by underground water and then repurposed for storage and various other activities over the years. Bean and smoked tofu soup was wonderful for dinner - I can barely remember any of the main courses but the soups stood out.

I learned quite a bit about the history of Hungary especially in relation to the second World War; if we'd stayed longer I'd have liked to go on one of the other walking tours that focused on Communism in Hungary. We were reminded that Mr Rubik of the cube was Hungarian, as were Theodore Herzl (father of modern Zionism), Tony Curtis's father, Estee Lauder and Harry Houdini. On Monday we finished our business in various markets, punctuated by the need to go indoors to warm up every couple of hours. We were concerned that the cold snap in the UK might close Birmingham airport, but everything was fine and even the trains were running.

Interior of 'ruined bar'

Scooting and gaming

View from Funchal botanic gardens, November 2022

Coming back to collect the car after my trip to Madeira I helped mum to make her first excursion on the mobility scooter, down at the park at the bottom of the road. She has since made further forays and reports that so far she is not enjoying the experience at all. The pavements in the neighbourhood are not well maintained and  the hill is steep so she constantly feels as though she will tip off. Nevertheless she is persisting and I hope it will become easier with practice.

Back at home UJ's residence permit arrived, and she has returned (via Lisbon) to Kyiv where her parents still live - I think she has been missing friends and family a great deal. She wants to persuade her parents to move to Poland where they have access to an apartment for the winter, given the harsh conditions that a Ukrainian winter without reliable electricity will bring.

Then I went to Mr MXF's Christmas party. Despite doing very little for him in a highly sporadic and unreliable manner, I was still invited to lunch at a very nice pub followed by board games at a Games Café, where there was much merriment and where Mr MXF's daughter won everything there was to be won, although she had an advantage as she had played most of the games before. Mr MXF has since reassured me that what I've been doing has actually been very profitable...

Somehow time has become a scarce commodity as it's been a week since I returned from a long weekend in Budapest and nothing written beyond brief notes. I've been turned away from a blood donor session because apparently Madeira presents a risk of tropical infection that requires a 28-day wait before donation can be accepted, so I've rebooked for just after Christmas. But I even skipped badminton last night because I just needed to go to bed early, so the account of Budapest will have to wait until next time.

Orchids growing wild in Madeira

Madeira

Madeira, November 2022

I have been on a holiday - an ordinary, normal holiday, not a retreat, with people who aren't Buddhists, and it is surprising how long it has been since the last time I did this. It was a walking holiday in Madeira, led by a very enthusiastic local man whose catchphrase was "I love it" (delivered as one word).

The day before I left I went to see mum and dad for the important job of trying out and buying a mobility scooter. A local company came to the house with two to try, which were essentially identical except for the battery size. Mum was a bit nervous but I had a go on the pavement outside the house, and she sat on it so we adjusted the seat and handlebar to suit her.

Then off I went to Madeira via Stansted, and joined a group of twelve people, aged from about 30 to 75. Most were English but there was one young woman from Switzerland and another woman originally from Hungary but now living in the USA. It was a good group, nobody too annoying and all fit enough for the walking, which was at times very strenuous indeed. Madeira is volcanic, it has mountains, and water courses called levadas which have been cut into cliffs in order to route water to where it's needed. Every inch of viable land is cultivated, mostly with sugar cane, bananas and potatoes, although we saw avocado, mango and citrus trees too.

The vertical stripes are vents

The first walk was on the eastern peninsula, and as it was a popular walk and a Saturday there were a lot of people about. The main attraction was the eroded coastline and volcanic geology, although there was a swimming area for those who wished. The next walk was in the north - we were taken by car up to the start, and although we started at altitude there was still more climbing to do, and a long descent which punished the knees. It was the first proper holiday for my walking poles, and I'm not sure how I would have managed without them. I don't put a lot of weight on them for climbing or descending, but they provide a third and fourth point of contact with the ground, so helping me to balance without additional strain on the legs.

Don't look down

The third walk took us to a National Park where we walked alongside another levada to a waterfall. The description of the holiday had mentioned that it wasn't suitable for those with vertigo, and this walk demonstrated why - the path was narrow with the cliff on one side and a sheer drop of many thousands of feet on the other, sometimes protected by a rickety two-string fence, sometimes not. Our leader ("I love it!") described some of the native and non-native plants while I looked anywhere except down and leaned away from the edge. There was another long descent down to a seaside village where the sun shone for beer and ice cream, and we briefly visited a rum distillery, tasted the product and had a shopping opportunity. I'm not a rum aficionado but it tasted fine and obviously I didn't buy any.

Spot the rainbow

The next day we were up before dawn and taken up above the cloud line to see the sun come up. The plan for the day was to walk between the three highest peaks of the island, and it was a shame about the cloud cover below us otherwise I imagine the views would have been tremendous, although I enjoyed the views of the clouds below. The peaks were reached along well-maintained paths and many hundreds (if not thousands) of steps - walking poles helped to support jelly legs towards the end of this climb. Thankfully there was a road up to the final stop so we didn't have to make the final descent on foot.

The last day of walking was the least interesting. It included all the elements of the previous days - huge ascents via stairs, walking alongside a levada, cultivated terraces, narrow vertiginous paths with a sheer drop down a cliff to one side, expansive views, punishing descents and the opportunity for beer and ice cream at the end - but nothing new. On our last full day we were let loose in Funchal. I chose to wander around the market and then ascend by cable cars to the Botanic Garden, my usual haunt, and it was a really good one. 

Spot the bird

The weather was perfect throughout - sunny but not too hot, although it had drizzled slightly on the first day and threatened a little rain on another day. Coats and hats were frequently put on and taken off at each break. Each day we had a hotel breakfast and then bought ourselves ingredients for a packed lunch from a supermarket (or surreptitiously collected goods from the breakfast buffet), which was ideal for a thrifty vegetarian like me. Evening meals were less satisfactory. The holiday notes mentioned that Madeira does not cater for vegetarians, and they were right. Alongside plenty of glorious fish and meat dishes, there were at best two options for vegetarians, such as spaghetti with vegetables, pizza with vegetables (the first time I've had pizza topped with carrot and broccoli as well as olives), omelette and chips, vegetable soup and garlic bread. 

To add insult to injury the prices for the vegetarian dishes in Funchal restaurants were comparable with the non-vegetarian dishes, so on the final day I split off from the main group with two other women who had not been enjoying the restaurant choices so far and we went to a different place. They had the local speciality of limpets then seared tuna; I still only had the choice of vegetable soup or omelette, but the omelette was good and only a fraction of the price compared with previous days. The other vegetarian woman went with the majority on that last night and regretted it as she was forced to choose exorbitantly priced spaghetti with vegetables again.

Aside from the scary cliffs and uninspiring vegetarian food, I enjoyed it, and both of these issues were mentioned in the tour notes so I can't say I wasn't warned. Apologies for the delay - it's taken an age to get this written and photos sorted...

21st century music delivery

Vajraloka, May 2022

Reading about the adventures of Lola II and Mr M in the Far East (via their app) makes this blog seems very parochial. I have done a small amount of travel, but only to London where I was house-sitting again for the travellers. I therefore had a shorter journey to visit mum and dad on the occasion of mum's 90th birthday. Happy Birthday mumsy!

I also went into central London to meet Cousin Y, and at Sister D's recommendation we visited the Wallace Collection. It's amazing - we had a guided tour that lasted over an hour and only scratched the surface. I had no idea! They use all that modern technology though, providing information via scannable QR codes rather than printed labels, and I wasn't feeling hi-tech enough to start messing with that. So I don't think I got the most out of the visit, and I'd like to go back again.

There's been some Buddhism as always, including a Team Meeting where my role is generally Chair, Secretary, Minute Taker and everything else except Treasurer. The person who is supposed to look after the finances invariably turns up saying he hasn't actually looked at the bank account but he thinks it's fine. I also took UJ to the Birmingham Buddhist Centre for a festival day along with my neighbour and another friend, both of whom are being extremely kind and offering to spend time with her - and in the case of my neighbour, also offering up her cat for play time. And another friend and I went off to a local cub scout group to talk about Buddhism. Trying to introduce meditation and explaining ethical principles to a very fidgety group of 8 to 10 year-olds really highlights the gaps in your own knowledge.

Saving the most exciting event until last - I have bought a new amplifier! Although I still occasionally play CDs, and vinyl even more occasionally, since being introduced to Spotify by Mr MXF I have mostly been streaming music through the downstairs hi-fi using a Chromecast audio gadget. Recently the amp has started to become a little unreliable. They made things to last back then - I bought it 40 years ago with my first real wage from employment (a temporary job at the Gas Board before university), and it cost £79.90, when VAT rates were 15% and CDs hadn't been invented. The speakers and cables I bought at the same time (£80.00) are still going strong, the cassette deck died many years ago, and the turntable (£87.50) is a little unreliable but I barely use it now. I never use the tuner; I really should sell it, but it's old fashioned analogue not DAB and I doubt it will fetch very much. [Quick look on ebay - maybe a tenner if I'm lucky.]

I was walking past a fancy music shop in town and went inside on a whim to see what's what nowadays. The man there did exactly what I wanted, taking on board all my preferences and requirements and offering a couple of alternatives. So when I got back from London I went back with my credit card. The new system has barely any external controls, not even an on/off switch, and is managed almost entirely via apps and WiFi. It does have an input for the CD player but not for anything else, and the app incorporates Internet radio, and - most excitingly - I have a second linked speaker for the kitchen, which will replace 'turning up the volume in the living room with the kitchen door open' to hear music in the kitchen. It's such high quality too. And the price? That has increased ten-fold in 40 years. But I hope I won't have to buy another for the next 40 years.

What I've been reading

Time Travel in Einstein's Universe
by J. Richard Gott

"Although scientists are not yet taking out patents on a time machine, they are investigating whether it is possible under the laws of physics. In Newton's three-dimensional world this would have been inconceivable. But with Einstein's theory of relativity a fourth dimension - time - enters the frame."

I found this in a free book exchange at a bus stop in Wales, where the standard of literature was far higher than I could have expected. It's quite a technical read and I couldn't possibly recount the arguments about the curvature of space time and physics of black holes, but essentially the case is made for the possibility of time travel albeit in very theoretical circumstances.

Facing Mount Kanchenjunga: An English Buddhist in the Eastern Himalayas
by Sangharakshita

"In 1950 Kalimpong was a lively trading town in the corner of India that borders Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Tibet. Finding a welcome in this town, nestled high in the mountains, were a bewildering array of guests and settlers: ex-colonial military men, missionaries, incarnate Tibetan lamas, exiled royalty and Sangharakshita, a young English monk attempting to establish a Buddhist movement for local youngsters."

This second volume of autobiography covers a number of years in Kalimpong, a town on the border of India and Nepal, when nothing much really happened except that Sangharakshita meets a lot of interesting people and goes on trips with casks containing the Sacred Relics of two of the Buddha's closest disciples. Despite the unpromising material, he's a good enough writer to make it readable, and I'm enjoying following the unusual journey towards the founding of a western Buddhist community.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being
by Milan Kundera

"In a world in which lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and by fortuitous events, a world in which everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence, we feel 'the unbearable lightness of being' not only as the consequence of our pristine actions but also in the public sphere, and the two inevitably intertwine."

Lent to me by the same friend who lent me the Annie Proulx book that I loved, I'm not as keen on this one. Lots of philosophising about promiscuity and the feelings of betrayal of wives, a fair bit of self-justification from the males, and not much more than silence from the female lovers. The setting of Czechoslovakia at the time of the Prague Spring and the subsequent invasion was interesting, but not the navel gazing that comprises the rest of the novel.

Going out, bafflement and idiocy

Vajraloka, May 2022

I've been enjoying being less busy than during the summer, now that I've cut back on all the volunteering. So what I've been doing is much more ordinary, but it's been fun doing some of it with UJ.

We both enjoy watching films at home, but this week we went to the cinema - UJ is pretty good at following the English but she does miss a few bits. She also came with me to the tiny local cafe/music venue for some stand-up live comedy, which was pretty good, and I took her to see one of my Buddhist friends and we had a walk with another to set up a support network so she isn't entirely reliant on me. She's been going swimming and has joined the gym, she volunteers for a local food bank where I think she meets a few other Ukrainians, and she has one other friend locally, but I think life must be a little unexciting for her most of the time.

I went to the same small venue with another friend to to see Tom Robinson - big star at the end of the 1970's but disappeared and emerged many years later as a DJ on BBC 6 Music. His voice and face both show the passing of the years but he is very entertaining and played the hits for us along with a few new songs. Most notable happening for this evening was when someone on the floor above our basement dropped a drink directly above me and a considerable amount found its way through the floorboards onto my head.

I have been given another new project by Mr MXF. I did ask him whether any of the multiple unfinished projects he has given me have actually contributed anything to the greater good, and he reassured me that despite not having finished anything, the work I had done was good enough to bring in work from customers, so that's nice. 

This job is about using a tool called Hugo to build a static website to display the document I'd previously successfully converted to markdown format. If you don't understand any of that, which is very likely, then you will be as baffled as I was when after succeeding (after a fashion) on my laptop I tried to do the same thing using a cloud environment called Gitlab. I managed to create a website, but try as I might I couldn't get it to display my content, not even using the incomprehensible documentation and all the powers of YouTube. We have spent more than an hour on a Zoom call today, which I recorded, and the next step is to review the recording to see if I understand more after the second (or third) time round.

Sister D claimed her second birthday outing, to Batsford Arboretum. The trees were stunning and so was the weather - wind, warm sunshine, pouring rain and almost everything in between. And then it was time to return to London for more house-sitting - yes, Lola II and Mr M are still globe-trotting - but in an uncharacteristically idiotic moment I had driven as far as Uxbridge before realising with a jolt that I hadn't brought the keys, nor the contact details for the local people who had them, and it was already 11 p.m. The only way it could have been worse was if I had followed my initial plan and forgotten the keys while coming by train - but that plan was defeated by strikes. UJ wasn't in the car to witness my incompetence as she has stayed at home in order to meet her JobCentre coach, but she may arrive for more touristic activity at the weekend, strikes permitting.

Drive-through vaccination

Drive-through vaccination, October 2022

I had my Covid-19 booster, the fourth injection, at the same time as my flu vaccination. My invitation came from the GP, and now that I'm not in NHS employment I had to book an appointment at the vaccination centre whose address was given as the nearby National Agricultural Centre. I imagined that one of the buildings had been repurposed as a clinic, but no, after following the signs and driving for what seemed like miles around huge fields I reached a large awning where the cars were directed through in two lanes for drive-through vaccination. Leaflets were given and information taken through the car window, and although the picture shows a car in front of me with the door open, my vaccinator said she'd just jab me through the open window.

UJ and I were visited by a representative of the County Council Homes for Ukraine scheme to make sure everything was going well and we had the information and support that we need. We were seen together and then separately, and passed with flying colours, which means that my 'thank you' payments should start arriving soon. UJ is feeling sad at the moment because her Biometric Residence Permit has not yet arrived, which means she can't leave the country to go to Kyiv for her mother's 60th birthday. But on the whole she's doing OK, I think.

Then I went on retreat again - just a long weekend this time for the 'Groups & Pioneers' retreat, aimed at teams supporting small groups like ours. There weren't many of us at all - only four groups were represented, but as usual I came home with a load of ideas that I've got to try and run past the rest of the team, except that it's half term so they aren't looking at messages much and I've only had one response out of six. It's never easy when people are busy and volunteering in their spare time.

Through foreign eyes

Pat the dog, October 2022

UJ has been settling in nicely, and I find we have quite a lot in common. It was a little disturbing, however, to discover that I am only two years younger than her mother. She came with me to the Mitra ceremony at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre, and she would be interested in coming to our local meetings except that she has a group meeting on Zoom at the same time each week. She has started the dialogue with JobCentre Plus about employment and benefits, and has been exploring the delights of Leamington, including the sports centre, the library and the many charity shops. We went for a long walk with Pat the trainee Guide Dog at the weekend, and happened to meet a couple of Ukrainians from Kyiv with their dog. UJ told me that Leamington seems to have all the benefits of a city but with countryside just 20 minutes walk away. I completely agree.

Her family and many friends are still in Kyiv, and the last couple of weeks have been difficult after Putin decided to send his missiles further into Ukraine. All are well, thankfully. UJ started to inform me more about the political situation there at the same time as the Conservative conference in Birmingham was taking place with the omnishambles that is our Government, and I think Ukraine is winning every sanity point at the moment. But interesting to find that UJ is quite favourably disposed to Boris - I had forgotten that he had led the way in supporting Zelenskyy at the start of the war, although cynically I suspect that was in order to get away from what he was facing at home. The recent bombing of the land bridge linking Russia and the Crimea went down very well with UJ, with jokes and memes appearing almost instantly (e.g. that the bridge could be repaired with that weird long table that Putin used to see foreign diplomatic visitors).

I returned to the periodontist, who pronounced me "healed" at which point I waved my hands and shouted "Hallelujah", an instant later thinking "I hope he isn't a religious man..." My concern disappeared when he replied "Praise the Lord!" in similar vein. Unless he was serious? He wasn't serious. He is quite a funny man. Anyway, I was due to see my usual hygienist the next day, which would have given me a more objective view on how things are, but she was ill and I was brutalised by the main dentist instead. His assessment was not quite as brilliant as the periodontist, but still good, and the consultations about teeth-straightening will start soon.

Meanwhile UJ and I ventured to the town recycling centre with its incredibly cheap charity shop - UJ is every bit as keen on second-hand goods as I am, but our choices are somewhat different. Not surprisingly she is delighted by knick-knacks costing 25p that will be ideal for Christmas present for the folks back home. She pointed out a fancy phone cover for 50p, which would have cost many tens of pounds when new, that was actually made for my phone so I could replace my broken one. We have managed to coordinate a couple of evening meals, with me adding vegetables to her mainly protein/carb combinations. This seems to be my role in a number of settings...

Then I journeyed to London, where I was house sitting for a week while Mr M and Lola II are away on their huge adventure. (They have been reporting in daily, and some of the photos are stunning.) One day I had a lovely time in Kew Gardens with Sister D. Another day I visited the British Library, the Wellcome Collection and the Grant Museum of Zoology at UCL. I'd never been to this museum before, and it is essentially one large room with cabinets around the sides and in the middle containing thousands of specimens, mostly skeletal or preserved in jars but some stuffed examples and a few dissected. The lighting is poor and the cabinets go up to the ceiling so it isn't actually possible to see everything that's there.

Grant Museum of Zoology, October 2022

UJ also went to London for the first time ever, which she told me is her dream destination. On the first day she went to the National Gallery, and reported excitedly that she hadn't realised that all the good museums in London had no entry charge. The next day she was planning to see the Changing of the Guard, join a free walking tour based on Harry Potter, and go to the British Museum. She sent me a message to say that she was coming back on a two-storey bus. It is delightful.

Meanwhile I was present for the installation of the parents' new motorised garage door, which will make the storage of the mobility scooter easier. It went well and looks good, except the workmen didn't bring one of the agreed parts and will have to come back all the way from Luton to install a rubber threshold. Now mum has the bit between her teeth and is coordinating the sale of the car, as well as the choice of scooter, finding a new cleaner, helping the new neighbours to settle in and advising the woman over the road about options for her garage door. And she seems surprised that she is sometimes tired.

Kew Gardens, October 2022

What I've been reading

The Children of Men
by P. D. James

narrated by Daniel Weyman

"The year is 2021. No child has been born for 25 years. The human race faces extinction. Under the despotic rule of the Warden of England, the old are despairing and the young cruel. Theo Faren, a cousin of the Warden, lives a solitary life in this ominous atmosphere, until a chance encounter with a young woman leads him into contact with a group of dissenters."

I thought that P. D. James wrote detective mysteries and hadn't realised that this was one of hers - I saw the film that was made of the book, which I seem to remember I thought unremarkable. So is the book, although as usual I read the story as just a story while other deeper messages are probably concealed within it, about the tendency of power to corrupt and the attitude of a population reflecting on its demise. I'm sure I could make some allusion to the current political situation but I can't be bothered and it's all too depressing anyway.

Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One
by Vishvapani Blomfield

"Whilst many accounts of the Buddha's life mix legend and history, this biography discriminates between fact and fiction to reveal Gautama, the remarkable human being behind the myth, and sheds new light on his teachings."

A useful book for me that fills in some of the gaps in my knowledge of the history of Buddhism, but also gives some idea of how accurate the records might be. It also made it clear that also going on was the usual territorial conflict between kings and provinces, the wandering holy men begging for alms, Hinduism and Jainism in the ascendant. And interesting to realise that he probably lived only about a hundred years before Socrates, and it was the time of the Jewish prophets.

Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson

narrated by B. J. Harrison

"Following the demise of bloodthirsty buccaneer Billy Bones, young Jim Hawkins finds himself with the key to a fortune. He has discovered Captain Flint's map, which will lead him to the fabled Treasure Island."

It's been a long time since I read this, and not much to say about it except that I hadn't remembered much more than the bare bones of the story. It was fine.

That Old Ace in the Hole
by Annie Proulx

"Folks in the Texas panhandle do not like hog farms. But Bob Dollar is determined to see his new job as hog site scout for Global Pork Rind through to the end. However he is forced to face the idiosyncratic inhabitants of Woolybucket and to question his own notions of loyalty and home."

What an interesting experience this was. Nothing much seemed to happen for 80 percent of the book, except that she introduces all sorts of characters with really good names (Freda Beautyrooms, Hugh Dough, Ribeye Cluke, Tater Crouch) and describes the scenery, atmosphere and activity of the Texas/Oklahoma 'panhandle' so you can see it and hear it and feel it and smell it. Then at the end she just pulls everything together and ties it up with a bow and it's glorious.

Living with Awareness: A Guide to the Satipatthana Sutta
by Sangharakshita

"The guiding principle of Buddhism is that things change - we change - and that we have the capacity to direct that change towards spiritual growth and development. In being mindful, therefore, we recollect not only the breadth of our current experience, but also our purpose in attending to it."

We were studying this material in the last module I did with my group, but I didn't have the book then - I borrowed it from the Birmingham Centre's library and mostly read it while I was on retreat. The book is perfectly readable but not inspiring, and it would have made much more sense to be reading it while studying instead of a month afterwards...

The Journey and the Guide
by Maitreyabandhu

"The journey starts with our mind, particularly when we begin to look into the truth of things—the truth of the friend in hospital, the coffin we carry to the graveside. What we find in our guide, the Buddha, is a man with a fit, healthy mind. To get fit, we need to work on becoming a happy healthy human being."

This book is aligned with the subject of my recent retreat, so I took it with me alongside the other recommended reading material. I've read the book twice before, once along with other members of my Buddhist group, but this time it seemed like a completely different book. Of course, it's me that's different, but it made so much more sense this time. So the main message I gained from the reading was how I've progressed in my understanding of Buddhism.

The Rainbow Road: From Tooting Broadway to Kalimpong: Memoirs of an English Buddhist
by Sangharakshita

"Long before thousands of Westerners flocked to Asia in search of themselves, Dennis Lingwood set out to search for the Buddha’s teaching in the land that gave birth to Buddhism."

I picked this out of the library at the retreat centre, where luckily we were encouraged to read, albeit with the retreat ethic in mind (i.e. not slasher thrillers). The centre had a really good selection so that when queries came up during discussion they could be investigated without resorting to phones or computers, which would normally be where we look for some obscure Buddhist reference or discover the meaning of 'inchoate' and 'chthonic'. [The retreatants from Poland, Netherlands and Sweden who were in my group did astonishingly well given the level of unnecessarily complex language in the reading material.] Anyway, this book is the first of a number of autobiographical memoirs written by the founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order, and is very readable and completely absorbing. He was wrongly diagnosed with a heart complaint when he was 8 years old and was not allowed to move from his bed or even sit up on his own for 2 years, so that when the diagnosis was questioned and he was released from bed he had to re-learn how to walk. He ended up in the British Army during WWII, was posted to India, Ceylon and Singapore, and when the war ended he didn't come back. With a similarly-minded Indian friend he renounced passport and possessions and travelled around India as a mendicant Buddhist, ending up in Kalimpong, Nepal. I've already borrowed the second volume from the Birmingham Buddhist Centre library.

Arrival

Tiratanaloka, September 2022

I've had absolutely zero time for blogging since coming back from the retreat. It took me three days to get through all the WhatsApp messages and unimportant emails so that I could look at what wonderful and exciting things Lola II and Mr M have been doing in the Far East. I've still got 12 emails that I can't bring myself to engage with, but I'll have to do it soon. And my desk is a mess.

The main thing to report is the splendid news that Ukraine Jane (UJ), my refugee guest, finally made it to Luton on a flight that was only 3 hours late (but that meant we got home at 4 a.m.) There is so much to talk about, but I don't want to overwhelm her so up to now we've covered the recycling bins, kitchen cupboards and the hoover. The thing that really made her day was the fact that I've got a piano - she said that after missing her cat she was missing playing piano next.

Aside from that I've managed to get started on a new job for Mr MXF, which involves converting a large and complex Word document into a different format using an interesting tool called pandoc, at least at the moment that's what I think I'm supposed to be doing. I never can tell with Mr MXF. Plus my car insurance needs renewing, and there are messages from my utility company that I haven't looked at yet, so if I can get those sorted today I'll be ready for my visit to mum and dad tomorrow.

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It's now the day after tomorrow, the parental visit went well and we got closer to choosing a mobility scooter, and I have tackled the outstanding emails. UJ has been settling in - today she has a Zoom piano lesson with her teacher, which warms my heart. She's been to Birmingham to make a start on getting her biometric residence permit, got very lost on the way back from the train station when her phone battery ran out (so she's finally adopted my paper-based A-to-Z of Leamington), texted me excitedly to say there was a squirrel in the garden, and has borrowed my umbrella and my hair dryer (which probably hasn't been used for 20 years except perhaps to dry glue). She's been into Leamington to the JobCentre and around the shops, and asked me where to find second hand clothes, at which point I enthusiastically listed about ten different charity shops.

This is all very positive, although on the second day when I hadn't heard any movement whatever from her room by 12.30 p.m. I actually sent her a message asking if she's OK. We're living in slightly different time zones as I've usually had my lunch before she has had breakfast. But she's asked to come with me to the Birmingham Buddhist Centre tonight where a Mitra ceremony is being held. 

It's very interesting to see your life and community reflected in someone else's eyes - I hadn't really noticed that road signs commonly use yards, which I don't think are used in any other aspect of British life nowadays. She is still going to the wrong side of the car and laughing about it, and told me she'd never seen a letter box in the door of a house until she saw them in the Harry Potter films. And my front door, which caused quite a bit of trouble for my Commonwealth Games guests, is being no less troublesome for UJ. She'll get the hang of it eventually.

My week

Caddie, May 2022

A couple of portraits of the lovely Caddie in this post, to keep you going because I'm just about to head off on another retreat, this time for two whole weeks. A fortnight offline, no phone or Internet, and I'm ready for it. There's been altogether too much going on (entirely my own fault) so the opportunity of a break is very welcome.

The Queen is dead, long live the King. I found out on the way to badminton, where we didn't cancel the session out of respect - I'm sure the Queen wouldn't have minded badminton, or football, or any of the other events that didn't happen. The England National Bowling championship, however, must have felt a lot of respect because they cancelled their final weekend of competition. In previous years the security level at the end of the road felt a little intrusive, but the bored security man (who couldn't quite be bothered to get up to move the cones but reached out from his chair) felt very low key indeed after the armed police at the Commonwealth Games. I'm glad to be on retreat when the funeral happens, and hope that everything will be very much back to normal when I get back, not that normal is particularly satisfactory in the current UK society and politics.

Lola II and Martin are about to take off for a big adventure in the Far East, and I went to stay with them for the weekend before they went. We were mostly doing things outside because they want to minimise the chances of catching Covid, but we did lots of lovely walking, some of it with Lola II's new dogfriend Reggie. On Saturday while Lola II went swimming I had the opportunity to visit the site of the Grenfell Tower fire. We ate at the Portobello market, visited the passport office in Victoria, walked from Kew to Richmond and back, and watched one of the films on my list.

Lola II and Mr M are very accommodating when it comes to films on my list.  I compile the list from reading and listening to reviews, particularly by Kermode and Mayo, but it's often difficult to tell exactly what you're going to get. There have been some wonderful ones, but more than once they have sat through some very 'interesting' offerings - 'Tale of Tales', 'The Worst Person in the World' and 'The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Quiet' spring to mind immediately. Memorable, but not in a good way. This time it was 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' and we're still not sure what was going on half of the time. A world where humans have evolved with frankfurters for fingers, the need to swap right and left shoes, and why did he have to give himself paper cuts? All very strange.

Anyway, that was the weekend, then all three of us went over to see mum and dad on Monday and did various jobs including swapping tables in kitchen and dining room, more research into mobility scooters and garage doors, introducing mum to the website where she'll be able to track Lola II's and Mr M's progress around the world, gardening, and photographing mum playing her button accordion because I'd met someone at Shrewsbury Folk Festival who was interested in buying it. I met him on Wednesday and handed it over, but he says "Unfortunately the accordion is, as I suspected, an Eb/Bb model which was apparently popular in the 50s/60s. A good key for singers but no good for folk sessions." So I'll be getting it back next time I pass that way.

My optician appointment this week confirms what I already knew about my near vision getting worse, but at least it's five years since the last new pair of incredibly expensive specs. Due to my complex prescription I get a voucher with a discount, welcome of course but contributing only a fraction of the cost. Luckily the children's range of frames fits me so I can choose a frame for only £40 rather than the other ranges which start at about £150...

And that's it for now. Normal service should resume in October.

Scoot

Taraloka, November 2021

I sit surrounded by junk. If only I could just throw it all out, but some of it is important and some of it is useful and I need to go through what has been accumulating for many months and make sense of it all. It has been delightful to unearth a replacement phone charger for the one I lost, and to find the lights I was going to use for my tent over the summer, but all the pension administration is much less attractive and no less necessary.

In the meantime, mum and I have been having adventures with mobility scooters. We went together to try out a second hand one at someone's house, and then to the local shop to have a go on a new one. Mum was slightly nervous but I whizzed about on the pavement. We have learned much - the top speed of different models, how they can be dismantled, the insurance and servicing requirements - but the main barrier to immediate acquisition is storage. The garage would be perfect but the door isn't all that easy to open and close and there is a half-brick lip which is too high for the scooter to drive over. Mum is thinking about a motorised door and a ramp or knocking out the brick lip, and further thinking about making this the accessible route into the house that is needed.

Apart from this I have been enjoying the freedom from volunteering and other responsibilities, meeting Buddhists for walks and meals and films, and badminton is back on the agenda at last. But now I must knuckle down and try to make some impact on the junk that surrounds me.

October 2021

More volunteering

Pat, August 2022

Straight after the Games ended, I went north to celebrate Sister D's birthday. It was a lovely break, and we visited some National Trust gardens while I was there, as well as lots of other enjoyable activities with the family. Immediately after that I took charge for a few days of another trainee Guide Dog named Pat, who was quite early in her training but much more well behaved than many of the other dogs I've looked after. The weather was too hot to go out much during the day, but we spent some  quality time in the garden. I also arranged to visit a friend's cat while she was away in Edinburgh, and there was a walk and a meal out with the Buddhists, and the boiler got serviced, and the car needed a bit of work done, and I tidied up the garden, and altogether there was lots to do.

I also spent some time with Radio Man - remember him, from Warwick Folk Festival? We had lunch in a cafe, we went for a walk, we watched some badminton at the Games, we played with Pat in the garden, and we visited Bletchley Park. Then I put a stop to it, as kindly as I could. I found that it was very difficult spending exclusive time with someone else, which means that welcoming UJ is going to be a challenge. Yes, she's supposed to be coming over again, but without the cat which is staying with her parents. She keeps postponing her arrival date - at the moment it looks like it will be early October.

Then it was time for my next stint at volunteering, at Shrewsbury Folk Festival. This event is similar to Warwick's festival but much bigger, and I was assigned to something called the Task Force with no further information other than how to report for duty. It turns out that the Task Force's job is to do whatever is asked for by other teams - for example, to move a piano, to take up the striped plastic tape that delineates camping, parking and other designated areas, or to patrol the site making sure everyone is happy and trying to fix it when they are not.

Fourteen hours on duty divided into seven two-hour shifts is requested in exchange for the price of a weekend camping ticket, with the option to arrive before the masses so as to have the pick of the camping locations. I had a look at the programme and tentatively circled a couple of acts each day that I'd like to see, and when I got my shifts nearly all of them coincided with something I would have liked to see. I got one changed, and for one shift I patrolled the stage where the performance was happening, but I missed a few acts that I would have liked to see. And nearly all the shifts seemed to coincide with mealtimes so I ended up eating at strange times of day.

It was hard work - much harder than for Warwick, and more tiring than for volunteer stewards in other teams whose job might be sitting at the side of a marquee watching a performance for four hours. But at least it was more interesting than sitting at the top of a tower watching out for fires and more pleasant than picking up litter. After patrolling the site for four hours, or spending an hour hammering in pegs to secure metal barriers, I wasn't fit for as much dancing as in previous years. On one shift I had to deal with unhappy campers who had been directed to places where there didn't seem to be any space and so had been driving round for quite a long time. They all appreciated that I was trying to help them but it didn't make the job any easier.

I met quite a few of the volunteers who had been at Warwick, and some new volunteers who were unexpectedly connected to my family - two musicians who live round the corner from H+B, and a shop manager who knows Cousin Y as they work for the same organisation. But missing acts that I wanted to see because of shifts or fatigue probably outweighs the benefit of the free ticket, so I may not volunteer for this one next year. And the event itself isn't as good as it used to be pre-Covid, so there's even a chance I'll try a different festival next year - I've got my eye on a couple of them.

What I've been reading

Free Time! from clock-watching to free-flowing, a Buddhist guide
by Vajragupta Staunton

"Investigating our experience of time, and considering our relationship with it, can be deeply and powerfully transformative. Noticing the feel and texture of our time can help us see more clearly, and understand more profoundly, the anxiety and restlessness that so often dominates our minds."

The latest book from my favourite Buddhist writer, and he doesn't disappoint. A fascinating delve into concepts of time, with just enough science to satisfy me that it isn't all just hokum and just enough Buddhist thinking to keep me interested.

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

by Henry Fielding

"A foundling brought up by Mr. Allworthy on his country estate, Tom Jones is deeply in love with the seemingly unattainable Sophia Western, the beautiful daughter of the neighbouring squire - though he sometimes succumbs to the charms of the local girls."

This is a really long book, and what with all the volunteering and other things I've been doing it's taken weeks to finish.  Fielding took two years to write it (1746-8), and despite the 18th century language and references it's more accessible than some later works I've read recently. Of course it does go on a bit, and I won't be reading it again, but it's not bad.

The Games - part 2

Victoria Park, August 2022

While all that badminton stuff was going on at the Commonwealth Games, or 'Birmingham 2022' as it was known in the press and on all the logos, Lolatastic life continued apace. There was a bike service, a comedy gig, a stay in hospital, visitors to Lola Towers, the putting up and taking down of the Lola Towers garden extension (aka the tent), a trip to Lockwoods outdoor supplies shop, Ukrainian news, and the Games in Leamington Spa.

On that last subject I would like to direct your attention to two articles in the press. The first article is the more staid, traditional form of reportage by the staid, traditional BBC, especially notable for the quote from the 'general manager' of Pub Next Door. I put his role in quotation marks because to me he seems little more than a teenager, but I expect he's at least 30. The second article is from The Guardian and is much more amusing but no less accurate for that. Bowling in Leamington Spa has never felt more exciting. I happened to pass the main entrance at one point, where I encountered a very jolly volunteer with a megaphone sitting atop a high chair, whose job was to welcome spectators to the park by shouting interesting information about Lawn Bowls and the Commonwealth Games in years gone by.

I've already described some of the disruption in my local area, but that was during preparations leading up to the start. When the event actually began the level of security escalated enormously, particularly at the end of the road, where a number of the huge lens-shaped obstructions that I've seen protecting Parliament were installed a couple of days before the start, and then additionally a large and heavy horizontal barrier was constructed. I regret not taking pictures (I was too busy and kept forgetting), but as well as the orange-and-grey-clad volunteers there were stewards and security in hi-vis, Army chaps in camouflage, ordinary uniformed coppers and policemen WITH GUNS, all milling about at the end of the road as visitors arrived with their tickets for the bowling and residents wandered through with pushchairs and shopping bags and dogs.

My first guests (JW+JD) arrived by car as they were stopping on the way to their holiday in Cornwall, and I made sure to be at the barrier brandishing my resident's credentials otherwise they would have been turned away by a ruthless official in hi-vis jacket. Later in the week I received one of my frequent incorrect delivery attempts (intended for a house in the Road instead of the Street) from an Asda delivery man, wearing an Asda shirt and carrying heavy trays of Asda groceries whose Asda van had not been allowed past the barrier so had to deliver it all by hand.

The evening that the first guests arrived was also the evening that dad was taken to hospital with sepsis. Lola II just happened to be visiting at the time, so she was able to go with him and make sure all was well. He was in hospital for nearly two weeks, but home now.

JW+JD had tickets for the Rugby Sevens, Squash, Badminton, Cricket and Athletics; the next guests to arrive were Lola II and Cousin Y who had tickets for Hockey and were accompanied by Mr M who didn't have tickets for anything. I took up the residents' offer of free tickets for Lawn Bowls so he went to that. JW+JD headed off for Cornwall, Cousin Y went back to London, Lola II and Mr M had an extra night before they went home and then Mr MXF and BL2 arrived ready for Cycling, Diving, Athletics and Lawn Bowls courtesy of another pair of free tickets. By the time they all went home the house seemed very quiet.

While all this was going on, I was also in communication with Ukraine Jane 2, who is from Kherson but taking refuge in Poland. We introduced ourselves to one another, had a short conversation via WhatsApp, applied for the visa, the visa was granted and we worked out when and how she would get here, all within the space of just 8 days. Then two days later she announced she wasn't coming here after all but going to Slovakia for family reasons. And then, the very next day, the first UJ (the one with the cat) got back in touch to ask if the room was still available. I'll be speaking to her soon to find out her current situation.

The only other event of note was the visit to Lockwoods where Lola II wanted to buy some proper waterproof walking boots. Not only did we confuse the shop assistant by both of us being called Lola, but aside from the boot purchase the most notable aspect of the visit was that despite being over 50 years old, Lola II and I learned how to tie our shoelaces in a useful new way.