My nephew and the greatest day of first-class cricket ever

Over the years, I've been asked many times about my views on cricket, and to my embarrassment, I have to confess that as a child, I was more of a football fan (Norwich City FC).

However, over the last two decades and working with 100s of Indian colleagues, many of which have become friends, I have grown to appreciate cricket more. The passion for cricket in India is incredible, I was fortunate enough to watch a good portion of the 2019 World Cup in Chennai.

In recent years when asked about cricket, I have been bolstering my apologetic defence that Norfolk wasn't a strong cricket county; with that, in my extended family, there are some fine young players.

To the joy and pride of all the family, last month, my nephew Tom Price became a cricket legend with a new record for the greatest day of first-class cricket ever, according to Wisden!!

There was a scramble to work out where Price’s achievement ranked. It transpired that there had been 17 instances of a player making a century and taking a hat-trick in the same first-class game – but Price was the only one to make the entirety of his century and take the entirety of his hat-trick on the same day. Bangladesh’s Mahmudullah came closest, but his hat-trick for Central Zone against North Zone in 2014 began in the first innings and ended in the second. Notably, Kent’s Joe Denly took a century and a hat-trick in the same T20. https://wisden.com/stories/county-cricket/county-championship-2023-county-cricket/gloucestershires-tom-price-has-just-had-a-day-of-glory-never-matched-in-cricket-history

NB Apparently, Tom is my nephew:

While from a genealogy standpoint, your cousin's child is your first cousin once removed, but the common name to call them is niece or nephew. https://www.famlii.com/what-call-cousins-child-family-relation/

Thursday was my the best day - until I got mugged

Thursday was my best day ... until I got mugged!?

I was explaining to my husband "Thursday was my best day" [for drawing] and my husband, missing the context, rejoined "until you got mugged"

Okay so I was having a really cool day on Thursday and I really like this painting/drawing and everything was going really really well until at the very end of the day, shortly before 11pm, a teenager jostles me in the Metro and grabs my mobile!?

I immediately grab my other phone and ring, the bastard picks up, laughs at me, and hangs up. I try again and now the phone is dead/off.

What follows is a lot less dramatic, I have all the hassle of stopping the phone (contacting the support number) and reporting to the police.  I've then bounced around between a few police stations, they need me to wait for a translator to be available, standard rigmarole.

By 5pm on Friday, after going to the police and waiting for the translator, I have an hour to kill. 

So I had a bit of spare time before drawing on Friday I go to the library. Have a really nice coffee and cake and I’m chatting with the serving lady at the counter at the café, practicing a little bit of my basic Spanish and she gives me an encouraging smile. 

Next, I discretely park myself in a corner, by the window, and with a pond behind me, all very discrete, and work on cleaning up a few details of this really nice picture from Thursday evening, plus thickening out a few of the shadows.

A bit later, the lady running the cafe comes over here and while I didn’t know she noticed her it myself in the corner to clear, I look up in surprise and embarrassment and she gives me the best grin... redemption

Homage to great communiators

 I want to write a short hommage to great communicators, not just the great and the good: Austen, Atwood, Dickens … Woolf

But also to the slightly less famous (Alison) Gopnik, Marcus du Sautoy, and Bruce Momjian who have all made a great impression.

Last week I had the pleasure of an evening with the London Jane Austen society which was running a small online event with John Mullan, another truly great communicator.

Last and definitely not least, I'm very grateful for the all great teachers (singing and painting) I've been working with in Barcellona and online, again truly great communicators.

pgconf.eu 2018 Lisbon - Bruce Momjian

Pure chocolate, red wine and cold showers

The sketch is from a very short "one-minute pose", which got splashed with red wine during the break and I wasn't even drinking that evening, but later I worked up the sketch and was pleased with the results... and it seem to fit my musing on pure chocolate, red wine and cold showers.

I switched from the deliciously rich and silky milk chocolate to the strong and sharper pure chocolate as an act of self-defence about 10 years.

Putting aside the superior health benefits of pure chocolate over milk chocolate, my initial "act of self-defence" was to protect my chocolate stash. I've always kept a cupboard full of chocolate and while I don't eat chocolate every day, I do most days. 

About twenty years I read a wonderful book called "Eat Chocolate, Drink Alcohol and Be Lean and Healthy" (by Andrew Jobling). This is a great book; I suspect it was targeted at an American audience who tends to see chocolate as fundamentally unhealthy? While I can't say this book completely changed my life, I was already a long way down the road to finding out what the good things in life are about. However, it was definitely a big help. Upto reading this book, I thought of Chocolate and Alcohol as indulgences which are OK only if consumed in moderation? 

Let's be honest, while almost undoubtedly Chocolate and Alcohol are best "consumed in moderation", I'm not always that good at moderation. And just maybe that is okay? There are days when I consume an extreme amount of chocolate and coffee, which is a very good combination. Typically, I like to finish off those sorts of days like these with chocolate and a glass of strong red wine, especially red port.. a perfect combination.

There are also days when I don't drink. Typically I don't like to drink more than 3 or 4 days a week? I recently moved from Amsterdam to Barcelona, both very beautiful and cool cities in their own right. After 12+ years in Amsterdam, it was heartbreaking to leave and in many ways, 2022 was a difficult if wonderful year for me.

I've been in Barcelona 5 months, and while I'm keen to learn both Castilian and Catalan, so far, I'm limited to simple expressions like

• Tiene dos gatos y una guiterra

• Me gusta cantar y dibujo

• Vivo con mi marido venti tres años

This is a decent start but I'm still feeling a bit alienated in this very big new city. I'm not typically a big-city sort of person… I was born and bred in Norwich a historically significant city upto the 19th century; now it is a beautiful historic university city, popular with students and tourists, as well as the locals.

Barcelona is a fun city, with always a lot going on and plenty of friendly people to drink with. I love singing & drawing and there is plenty of socials in Barcelona. So over the last few months, I've been drinking a bit harder than I would normally like? 

So for the last 10 days, I've had a drinking break, which is a long time for me, but it feels good. Not just as I feel like I have had a well-earnt rest from drinking, I'm also looking forward to having a drink with friends again - absence makes the heart grow stronger.

So what about the cold showers? A couple of years ago, I started hearing about the WimHof method, which is now extremely popular in Amsterdam… over the last couple of years, I got used to seeing people bathing in near-zero temperatures? My sister-in-law appears to have full WimHof as well. Apparently, she has regular baths in the open air and unheated public baths in London. I'm not yet 100% convinced, yes, most of the people practising cold water bathing/showers look very healthy but firstly, correlation is not causation? Personally, I have started taking partially "cold showers", as recommended by WimHof I start off warm and then reduce the temperature until it is no longer pleasurable. Also, as recommended by WimHof, by breathing deeply, I can take quite a lot of cold water; the sensation is most exhilarating and feels good.

Home Secretary's hate speech against vegetarians

Note since writing this about 10 days ago, the home secretary was sacked (for a data security breach / leak), the prime minister resigned (failed to deliver on the proposed economic policy?), a new prime minister was appointed (the same person the Tory membership just rejected?) and then the home secretary was re-imstated in the role she was just sacked from for a security breach) ...

This morning, when this House of Commons speech popup on my instagram feed I was shocked

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2022/oct/18/suella-braverman-blames-guardian-reading-tofu-eating-wokerati-for-disruptive-protests-video

I'm not even sure what wokerati means, is it even a word? 

But what was clear to me as Suella Braverman smacked the table to drill home her attack on vegetarians, was that this vitriol wasn't remotely funny nor good humoured, what I heard in her voice was fear.

Reviewing Suella Braverman's wikipage (details below), she was educated as Cambridge and Sorbonne (Paris), is a Barrister and has held an impressive number of highest offices in the land. 

Putting aside the merits of vegetarian diets and/or eating less meat, personally I believe that given the standard western diet, eating significantly less meat is good for the health and the environment ie win-win. Furthermore, as one gets used to eating less meat, our taste buds adjust and personally I find fresh fruit and veggies delicious, better even than the traditional meat-rich diet I was brought up on.

However irrespective of my personal beliefs, Suella Braverman's attack on vegetarians would be totally unacceptable at any work place I've been in for the last couple of decades and seems almost form of hate speech to me. Her excessively angry and aggressive tone really shocked me.

It appears Suella Braverman is no longer Home Secretary, not sure if this was her final house House of Commons speech?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suella_Braverman

Home Secretary
In office 6 September 2022 – 19 October 2022
Prime Minister	Liz Truss
Preceded by	Priti Patel
Succeeded by	Grant Shapps
Attorney General for England and Wales Advocate General for Northern Ireland
In office 13 February 2020 – 6 September 2022[a]
Prime Minister	Boris Johnson
Preceded by	Geoffrey Cox
Succeeded by	Michael Ellis
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
In office 9 January 2018 – 15 November 2018
Prime Minister	Theresa May
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Kwasi Kwarteng
Chair of the European Research Group
In office 19 June 2017 – 9 January 2018
Deputy	Michael Tomlinson
Party Leader	Theresa May
Preceded by	Steve Baker
Succeeded by	Jacob Rees-Mogg
Deputy Chair of the European Research Group
In office 20 November 2016 – 19 June 2017 Serving with Michael Tomlinson
Chair	Steve Baker
Party Leader	Theresa May
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Michael Tomlinson
Member of Parliament for Fareham
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 May 2015
Preceded by	Mark Hoban
Majority	26,086 (45.6%)
Personal details
Born	Sue-Ellen Cassiana Fernandes 3 April 1980 (age 42) Harrow, London, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Rael Braverman ​(m. 2018)​
Children	2
Alma mater	Queens' College, Cambridge Panthéon-Sorbonne University

Scratching the underbelly of Jane Austen subculture

I originally wanted to call this blog post:

Fanny Price vs Mary Crawford and scratching the underbelly of Jane Austen subcultures

but that is too long and so went for the short

Scratching the underbelly of Jane Austen subculture

The strange thing is, that people I usually like and agree with i.e. are on the "same wavelength" I find myself passionately disagreeing with regarding Fanny Price and Mary Crawford: the heroine and anti-heroine of Jane Austen's possibly most controversial novel Mansfield Park.  My personal favourite with Emma i.e. I enjoy both more than Austen's most acclaimed novel Pride & Prejudice? 

Fanny Price is a character whom I greatly admire: with her inner strength, self-discipline and ultimately her incredible self-belief, she ultimately triumphs, although it is a long slog for both Fanny and the reader.

However Fanny is quite probably Jane Austen's "least favourite heroine" with Janeites (*) i.e. the sort of people who repeatedly read Austen, watch all the adaptions (good and bad) and/or join online Austen discussion groups… you get the picture.

Personally, I slightly struggle with Lizzy Bennett and the fairy-tale ending of Pride & Prejudice, yes it is a wonderful novel and an absolute romantic classic, but I'm not quite as satisfied with the fairy tale ending. 

Intriguingly Mary Crawford might satisfy/fill some of this gap; in many ways her quick wit and charm, make her seem a bit like Lizzy Bennett (Austen's most popular heroine from Pride & Prejudice). Still, ultimately she is overly ambitious, somewhat manipulative and overly self-confident. Not 100% surprisingly given Jane Austen's personal beliefs and faith; things never quite work out for Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park. Possibly Mary Crawford is an antidote to the overly saccharine fairy tale ending for Lizzy Bennett.

I'm also intrigued by parallels between Fanny and Anne Elliot, the very popular heroine (especially with seasoned Janeites). Both heroines are reserved, and stoical, whom eventually, after displaying a great deal of inner strength, self-discipline, and good judgement; both find their "true love". These two later novels, seem richer and even more revealing portraits of society to me. But why is Anne much more popular than Fanny? Fanny starts Manfield Park as the poor relative and is patronized plus heavily condescended to, but eventually makes good. Anne Elliot is an admirable character, but it is not as clear why she lets her family treat her in a condescending manner?

NB (*) Here is how the BBC describes modern Janeites

Some Janeites, as they call themselves, write their own fiction imagining the marital exploits of Mr and Mrs Darcy. Others don elaborate period dress and throw Jane Austen-themed tea parties and balls.

Blogs and forums dedicated to Austen and Austen-style fan fiction abound across the internet. The Jane Austen Society of North America (Jasna) boasts 4,500 members and no fewer than 65 branches. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21036818

 

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21036818

Homage to Catalonia

After 12+ years in Amsterdam, my husband Thomas and I moved to Barcelona (well Badalona actually) this month. 

Living by a beautiful beach and swimming with fish in brilliant blue waters is a bit of a dream, but leaving Amsterdam was slightly heartbreaking.

For English classics, still my favourite genre of books, we read George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" coupled with another non-fiction, political, memoir: "Down and Out in Paris and London".

I like Orwell's progressive views and vision for social democracy:

 "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it."   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homage_to_Catalonia#cite_note-1

Orwell's thinking was clearly ahead of many on the left, especially Sartre, who was intoxicated by Soviet propoganda until much later (1956 Hungarian invasion).

It was a good conversation last night, parallels to Jack London, the superb quality of writing: characterization, details of city life in Barcelona, Paris and London, details of squalor, mental and physical challenges of an infantryman.

We also discussed parallels to Roald Dahl's "War: Tales of Conflict and Strife" which we also read a few years ago. The first part of this new collection of Roald Dahl's works is his autobiographical Going Solo: a fantastic if slightly fanciful tale, at times Dahl seems to have a slightly romantic view of empire whereas Orwell is under no illusions about the economic realities of empire: 

Orwell's father was Richard Walmesley Blair, who worked as a Sub-Deputy Opium Agent in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell#Early_years

It was nice that we had a local Barcelona join the Amsterdam book club (hybrid online and in-person) and add a bit of local history. 

I'm keen to explore Barcelona, a beautiful city with a very rich history and also some amazing beaches.