here in LA

Arrived ok on monday after a stress free flight, great to see Sarah and Mike again! Very quickly you realise that without a car you can do virtually nothing. Hence for Sarah once her work visa comes through she will need a car to get a job but won't be able to afford a car until she gets a job!
Their apartment is fine with views when it clear like today all the way to the San Gabriel Mountains. Today we are venturing to Joshua Tree National Park by the Mojave Desert, i think my first desert!
Weather beautiful, looking forward to taking some photos of the infamous Joshua Tree.

selling your soul for the corporate shilling

So as bae's shares continue to rise, bliar can be satisfied with yet another example of he and his government genuflecting for the corporate shilling. When he's not being shafted by bush, bliar is demonstrating to ukplc that he can do whatever the corporate world would like him to do as well as the next uk politician.
To protect saudi royals and friends and their fat swiss bank accounts, bliar has called off the sfo, which his acolyte goldsmith is now going to make disappear forever into some kind of merger with soca. In the meantime 'smalltime corruption investigations' involving bae with 'unimportant security states' such as tanzania, chile, romania, czech republic etc continue until either the cases are also dropped for 'insufficient evidence' or the odd case is brought which will either fail or some nobody will be found guilty, unlike those in cahoots with the current govt and last tory govt.
fundamentalist bliar and his uk govt are completely bankrupt and devoid of any moral authority. in the meantime ukplc is now being investigated for corruption re oil for food and medicines in iraq - gsk, astra zeneca, - corruption in kenya - vodafone - the list grows as ukplcs greed pushes it to lower and lower depths in order to extract the last pound of sales and profits, and we wonder why there are no decent 'role models' in our society!

a time to manage

What is it about management that means that so many people find it difficult and/or avoid doing what they are being paid to do, especially in terms of people management? Can management be taught or is it instinctive, intuitive plus observation and experience of life?
Some techniques can be taught but i'm not convinced that attendance on courses makes a manager and the more courses attended doesn't make a better manager. I know of people in some wlaks of life who have been sent on 5/6 + courses regarding the same issue but they are no better at that issue at the end of that process. Sometimes we have to recognise that someone is in the wrong the job, may have been incorrectly promoted and do something about it, not keep postponing the decision and action.
Heyho! Sometimes i feel as though i have a sense, quite quickly as to whether someone has the ingredients to become a good manager, likewise the opposite.
The more we try to distil it into a rational / objective process the less convinced i am by the results. I think you can make limited improvements by training but not make a poor manager into a good one, excpet on rare occasions.

trumped up in angola

Sitting on the bus from ludgate hill into work this morning i was reading through the guardian, when i came across a small item about the arrest of a british human rights campaigner in angola, whilst out there working on the oil and diamond industries.
The campaigner was well known to me as i had worked with her in the business and human rights team in my current job several years ago and we kept in touch since she'd moved to Global Witness. Once i got to work i contacted colleagues to see if we could add our support to getting her released as soon as possible. Gradually as the day went by it emerged that she had been arrested last sunday and hadn't been given access to a lawyer of her choice. It appears she may have been arrested for taking photos of an airport. By the end of the day it seemed like she had been given bail but it wasn't clear whether she had yet been released and when her 'trial' might be.
I shall be thinking of Sarah tonight and hope that she is soon back in the uk unharmed! For more info http://www.globalwitness.org/

the hamlet

As far as i can understand my dad and grandad were followers of dulwich hamlet football club in south london. I sort of inherited it and go on occasions. This year they are performing well and for much of the year they have been in the top three. Yesterday they had a great away win at kingstonian, winning 2 - 5.
When i first went as a child they had a good sized wooden stadium, which i think could of held 25,000, for an amateur club quite extraordinary. I beleive they held england amateur international matches at dulwich. Since those days they have struggled and now play on a ground v close to the original site but on a site owned by sainsburys. They share now with fisher athletic.
It would be great if at the end of the season they could be promoted into the ryman premier.
They are palying attractive football this year and deserve promotion but they still drop too many points in games they should win on paper, like losing away to the bottom club!
Fingers crossed! Unfortunately they don't have a website i can point you to, to show you their distinct shirts which are pink and navy blue, i'm sure not many pro or semi-pro sides have pink as one of their colours!

urban photography

I really enjoy both taking photos, preferably with my old slr, and visiting photgraphy galleries. Some of the ones i try to visit regualrly are as follows, the national portrait gallery http://www.npg.org.uk/live/index.asp, the photographers gallery, close to leicester square, http://www.photonet.org.uk/index.php?latest (i understand they've acquired new premises in soho, which in due course will mean a bigger galllery on the one site, the small getty gallery close to oxford circus (frequently changed and dipping into a great range of black and white photos - my personal favourites), michael hoppen gallery http://www.michaelhoppengallery.com/, the atlas gallery http://www.atlasgallery.com/
hackelbury gallery http://www.hackelbury.co.uk/about.html, and the v&as small photo gallery http://www.vam.ac.uk/.
As regards the taking i've been doing less of that recently so i'm resolved to do more in the future, particularly urban photography, starting by taking my camera and lenses to LA at the end of the month.

oh woe is me!

I'm typing this sitting rather stiffly on a chair having woken up this morning with a back that felt as though it was going to go into spasm at any moment. I went to work and had a very uncomfortable day, trying to get into a comfortable position! Unfortunately my osteopath was unwell and not able to see me today, i get this back pain about every 2/3 years but when it arrives it makes you realise how dependent you are on your back.
All of a sudden even the simplist of things become feats of endurance, like getting dressed and undressed and even sitting down and standing up!
Anyway, i've managed to book in to see one of Matt's school friends who is now a qualified osteopath tomorrow afternoon so i hope he can begin to ease the pain. I'm not a great pill taker and try if at all possible to avoid taking drugs, but i may have to resort to ibuprofen or something similar if this continues.
I'm fortunate in having a higher than average pain threshold, hence the no injections at the dentists, with a couple of exceptions, but that's another story!
Roll on tomorrow afternoon. The buddhist philosophy of 'be in the moment' is wearing thin at the present!

more bloody diamonds!

Still doing more campaigning at work on the issue of blood diamonds and tomorrow is of course valentine's day! The Independent today carried a story on what to buy for your lover if you want it to be 'ethical/sustainable' and my colleague was quoted about conflict diamonds and what consumers should ask in retailers when buying diamonds.
It was interesting to read in the US of a recent case in i think Tucson, where two people were arrested for allegedly smuggling about 11,000 carats worth of diamonds into the US. The issue doesn't go away no matter how much the industry wishes it would!
It should be on the home page of the website tomorrow so if you have any moment have a look
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/

is it too soon?

Barak Obama has formally announced his intention to run for the democratic nomination today, perhaps, even if not this time round, a serious candidate to become the first black president of the US. From what i know of him he's clearly very bright and ticks a lot of the right boxes, or should that be the 'centre i'm not really left of centre' boxes!
Although interestingly its reported that he's not trusted by a lot of afro-americans cos he's not deemed to share their heritage. He is not descended from slaves taken to the US. So what might be a natural constituency for him in terms of votes, might not turn out in numbers for him.
What chance a 'Clinton/Obama' ticket? Certainly Clinton has a massive war chest for the forthcoming battle but she is someone who very much produces a 'love her' or 'hate/her' response from people and the republicans would throw all the dirt they could find at her. One advantage she has over Bill is that she is very unlikely to have a truckload of affairs in the closet!
I hope the democrats get it together, almost anything has to be better than what i have little doubt history will record as the most stupid and inept president ever i.e. bush junior.
But who knows. Is America ready for a black president or a woman president, i fear not. However, there are many months to go before next years election!

the future looks brighter

Went to a comprehensive in Redbridge this pm to give an introductory talk on Amnesty International. On apparently what was an optional period it was great to see about 100 year 12s turn up to listen. The teacher who organised it is very keen to get a youth group going at the school and i was impressed at how knowledgeable they were about Amnesty and they even applauded after the 4 minute dvd, which is a first and very touching.
I came away feeling quite optimistic, the schools and unis often make me feel like that and i hope the young teacher gets the support from the students to get the group started, i have a feeling she definitely will.
Thank goodness the w/e starts here as they say! Watched a programme on keeping a vegetable plot, which has further encouraged me to work harder on our plot and try and recreate the allotment which i had for a number of years. I really enjoy both working the plot and reaping its benefits, but i need to order a lot more compost/manure as the plot isn't in the optimum position as regards the sun and the soil still needs a lot of enriching. I think that job begins this w/e!

blue sky musings

It is cold and crisp this morning with blue skies, in other words a brilliant day and one that i would miss a great deal if the worst predictions of global warming come to pass and southern england becomes another mediterranean.
In addition i would miss the seasons if i moved abroad to a warmer climate. I am one of those, i think relatively rare people, who prefer cold, bright blue sunny days to hot, sweaty days.
Walking on frosted grass, first thing, wherever in the world, is magical and i've been fortunate enough to walk in the mountains and valleys of a number of different countries around the world from peru to nepal to iceland to australia. Those walking trips far outweigh any beach holiday.
The quietness and time to yourself is just brilliant.
I look forward to exploring the national parks of california - a short visit to joshua national park is coming up early next month, yippee!

letter from not quite america

I listened for many years to Letter from America and always admired the apparent ease with which Alistair Cooke, started in one place and finished elsewhere but it all linked together and flowed effortlessly. Although what i did notice over those years is that he had moved from being an ex Manchester Guardian journalist if i remember rightly and ended up in his elegant New York apartment somewhat to the right of where he started!
If i recall i think his apartment was one of those in the US where the current residents effectively interview and have a veto over possible new neighbours in the building. I'm not quite sure where that right stands alongside equality and discrimination legislation! His death several years ago was however not the last of the story as it transpired that Cooke's body along with many others had been robbed of organs for subsequent sale.
A trade in China and many other countries which afflicts the living as well as the dead. With organs often being traded for passports and visas.

orienteering to the west!

What a change, a winter w/e of cold nights and sunny days with blue skies. How nice! Spent part of yesterday and today with friends down near weston super mare, like many similar seaside resorts in the uk, one that looks like its been sealed in a bubble for fifty years and the world has passed it by! Looking, even in the sun, sad and run down with,a pier which is rotting and is closed off.
Aside from that the weather was exceptionally bright and the walking in weston woods was good fun, along with tens of orienteers apparently involved in a competition. They appeared to log in at each flag they reached with a natty little electronic key. Glad we went this week as next week some 1,000 runners will descend on weston woods.
Looking forward to a busy coming week.

brisbane to LA

A month ago yesterday my daughter and partner married in brisbane, prior to moving to LA for 2/3 years with his job. The marriage enabled Sarah to get a work visa in the US. They decided to have a 'bare bones' marriage primarily cos of speed, they needed to leave for LA later in Jan and cos of the practicality of v few friends and family being able to make the journey to australia, especially over the xmas/new year period. They intend a future 'blessing' in the uk at some stage.
They have now arrived in LA, actually a couple of hours outside it, and are now looking for somewhere to rent. Later this month we are going out to see them, which i'm really looking forward to. For future trips i'm particularly looking forward to walking in one or more of the californian national parks. I'm not that wild about them being in the US but if it has to be there then it might as well be california. At least it cuts in half the journey time to see them, my only real complaint about going to Oz, leaving aside, i know the environmental damage. Hard when your children decide to live the other side of the world and you don't have 3 months to take train and boat to travel 12,000 miles!!!!

jazz talking

Went to see Gwyneth Herbert before xmas at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho. She's an excellent young jazz singer who has just released her new album, this time primarily of her own and jointly written material. See her website http://www.gwynethherbert.com/ where i think the album can be bought 'Between Me and the Wardrobe'. She was at Durham at the same time as Sarah, who remembers seeing her sing there.
Also just got a new jazz cd by someone not known to me, 'Good rain' by Solveig Slettahjell. She has a really interesting voice.Another artist worth listening to is Zoe Rahman http://www.zoerahman.com/ and her latest album 'Melting Pot'. Again almost entirely her own material on the album, although my favourite track is the one she didn't write, Muchhe Jaoa Dinguli. Having said that the whole album is different and i found grows on me the more i play it, particularly late evening.