Our landmark celebration was a cheap hotel break in Sheffield thanks to Groupon with free bottle of wine on arrival (so that by dinner time you are drunk enough to buy a full price one) and a view of the canal and inner ring road. Arriving at the station you are met by this vista of tumbling waterfalls and fountains - water shortage? what water shortage? As the reservoirs in the South East dry up we'll sell you some of ours, at a price. We can use the money to subsidise exhibitions like the one we went to at Weston Park Museum on Chinese culture, Arts Council grant now withdrawn. Write now and protest. Bread and reality TV may be enough for the huddled masses but we middle classes need our croissants and Kultur.
Anyway, where was I ? Oh yes, Descendants (did I say Dependants? Freudian typo) was good and Borgen left us wanting another series. On Sunday it snowed but didn't stop York Greenway Champions going out on Tuesday to clear any brambles that showed themselves above the snow line. We were working with a disability group called Open Country who worked all day through the cold and cleared a large space that we will come back to later and plant wildflowers. We also bumped into someone from St Nicks St Nicholas Fields who own the other side of the beck that runs beside the cycle path and talked about a joint project to beautify what could be a real asset. We did another session the following week, though clearing the brambles served mainly to reveal masses of empty beer cans and wine bottles so I came back with 4 sacks for re-cycling. Next week we are back in the Balloon Tree Copse, clearing a path before the birds start nesting. Must sharpen the chain-saw and check the first-aid kit.
Apart from this most of our time has been fully occupied, Margot with French and Spanish and preparation for the visit of a group of women from Palestine starting next week and me with a Psychology essay. The Lifelong Learning class has been getting quite lively as we dwell on 'eugenics' but the title of the essay Critically examine the role of intelligence tests in the development of intelligence theory. is a lot more interesting than it sounds. This clip snowboarding crow is worth a quick look and raises some interesting questions. Next week there is a public access lecture which will hopefully help me get my head around it all . What do animals think? Tuesday 28 February 2012, 6.30pm Speaker: Professor Tim Crane, University of Cambridge
What is it to have a mind? What is involved in thinking about the world? What is consciousness and how is it related to the unconscious mind? How are thought and consciousness related? What is the relationship between the everyday knowledge we have about our own minds and the knowledge we get from neuroscience and psychology? How are the mental lives of humans different from those of other animals? How is our capacity for thought embodied in our brains and bodies?
In fact we both spend quite a lot of time cycling over to the University's new Heslington East campus to take advantage of these public lecture programmes. Some have been part of the Human Rights defenders programme at the Centre for Applied Human Rights and we have recently had talks from Burma, Somaliland, Rwanda and Pakistan. The last one was from a Pakistani man working for woman's rights in North-west Pakistan's tribal areas and prompted the colleague from Rwanda to wonder if things in central africa weren't so bad after all. And then there was Holocaust remembrance day with talks from survivors and a terrific exhibition of photographic portraits of survivors by Matt Writtle Portraits for Posterity at the School House Gallery . May sound a bit of a downer but often we get free wine and biscuits.
For light relief we went to Selby for the The Wiyos 'high energy blues rock cabaret' from Brooklyn. Brilliant musicians, they seem keen to develop the cabaret side with an ambitious re-working of the Wizard of Oz. You cant blame them for trying to be a bit innovative but we were more than happy with the straightforward traditional numbers.Also saw Connie Lush and Blues Shouter justifiably considered the UKs finest ever blues singer though that sounds a bit like damning with faint praise. No qualification needed, she is brilliant. Definitely recommended.
So that's the end of another week, The snows gone and from minus 16 we shot up to plus 16 degrees and after a 30-mile bike ride out to the Three Hares in Bilborough I was able to recuperate out inthe garden in the hammock with a good book, It may not last but so far being an OAP has been pretty good.
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