Clint Eastwood's speech

I awoke this morning to being told that Clint Eastwood had given a speech at the Republican National Convention. I had read yesterday that he was the most likely candidate for the "surprise speaker", so I wasn't at all shocked to hear that he had spoken at the convention. What I didn't expect to hear was that his speech was bizarre; I took the time to watch all twelve minutes of Eastwood's speech and found myself cringing for most of the way through it. Besides being bizarre, I found it disappointing and upsetting.

Normally, I would have found the content in his speech offensive and it would have angered me; I certainly don't condone anything that he said (I am beyond tired of blatant disrespect/outright rudeness directed at President Barack Obama - there is a difference between legitimate criticism and pure insult, and that applies to any politician of any political party), but in his case it was difficult for me to be angry: for one thing, his entire demeanor came across as tired, worn-out and somewhat incoherent, which I found sad because I've always observed Eastwood to be highly energetic and comprehensible with a fine speaking voice. I appreciate that he is elderly and doesn't have the stamina he once had, but even so, seeing him that way was awful. Then he started arguing with/talking to an "invisible" (pretend) Obama, and again, under other circumstances what he said would have made me furious, but it was hard for me to feel anything but sympathy for him as he talked to a person who wasn't there and appeared to have difficulty in his delivery.

In regards to his actual content, I didn't ever expect Eastwood to stoop to the level of being blatantly disrespectful towards President Obama. I knew he wasn't a supporter and wasn't going to vote for the president, but until that point I had always witnessed him being reasonable in his praise or criticism of other people: I didn't think he'd say the things he said in that speech. If Eastwood had just made a few nice comments about the Republican nominee and given some fair and polite criticism to Obama I wouldn't have thought anything more about it and wouldn't be writing this post, but the sheer disrespect he displayed in his speech was extremely disappointing and the sort of behavior I figured he was above. I really am not sure what Eastwood was trying to achieve with his speech; it was completely out of character for him.

Looking at the news, I'm not the only one both disappointed and/or upset by Eastwood's performance, and there are people on all sides of the political spectrum who share my feelings. I'll be interested in Eastwood's follow-up, if he does one.

Writing a speech

My blogging has been affected for the past few days because I have been thinking about and working on a speech (it is related to the photo book), and am suffering an extended period of writer's block (so annoying!). This speech will be the first one I've written that is independent from the dialogue of a character in one of my past writing projects; by extension, it will also be the first speech I have ever delivered.

It won't be very long piece, roughly a page in length translating to about a minute and a half when said aloud. I can't go into a significant amount of detail here for now, but writing the speech is complicated given that its subject relates to family (and my current bout of writer's block isn't helping either).

Still, it's a new challenge, and while I am somewhat nervous about the actual presentation I am confident that I will succeed and my speech will be well-received.

The wheat ear

I found this superb image of a wheat ear today:

My brother took this picture earlier this summer; I think it's a great capture! I love the contrast of the wheat in the front with the forest and sky in the background.

A little more on the photo book

When I wrote about the photo book a couple of days ago I thought my job of finding images was almost complete. Once it came to assembling the book today it turned out that the 100+ I had chosen weren't enough at all! (Bear in mind we are creating it using software, but will ultimately have a hard copy.) Fortunately, to cover the shortage I had help in selecting thirty more photographs.

The book contains more than fifty years of photos. We should hopefully have it ready tomorrow...I'm looking forward to when it's complete!

The giant gobstopper

Remember the giant gobstopper I wrote about a few days ago? This is its appearance before it was entirely consumed:

There were a variety of flavours present in the gobstopper's many layers but I was only able to recognise two, vanilla and banana, although I thought I could taste a touch of cinnamon. Regardless of the exact flavours the gobstopper was pleasant to taste...even if I cut my tongue a few times on it! It took me about a week to eat the gobstopper, well ahead of the year others estimated it would take me (given all its sugar I ensured my teeth were clean after each "licking session" on the candy, too).

Neil Armstrong, and the Moon landing conspiracies

I was completely shocked and upset last night to hear about the death of Neil Armstrong, the first human to set foot on the moon, and by extension the first on a terrestrial body other than Earth. His accomplishment and first words on the Moon ("That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.") are both symbols of hope and human achievement. Despite his obvious importance and place in history, Armstrong was a humble man, preferring to think of himself as someone who merely did their job rather than as a hero. No reasonable person can have anything other than respect for him.

My admiration for Armstrong is one of the reasons why it infuriates me to read comments on various forums dismissing (an understatement) the Apollo 11 mission rather than commiserating over someone's death. Moon landing denial is among the very few things that immediately anger me, and it is especially sickening when it's combined with the Internet equivalent of defacing a person's grave; it doesn't matter whether it's outright insults and denial to sarcastic "he was a great actor" posts. If someone, for whatever reason, doesn't believe the Moon landings took place they should at least have some sympathy for a person who has died; to not do so is an insult to the deceased's memory.

As for the conspiracies about the landings, the more I thought about them the more I came to realize they are nonsense. To start with, without even going into the various "problems" with pictures taken on the Moon look at history: the 1960s were the height of the Cold War, and the United States and the Soviet Union were far from friends; the Soviet Union would most certainly have been aware of the launch date for Apollo 11 and it's safe to assume that they would be monitoring activity coming from the United States. When the rocket launched and headed for the Moon it is likely that they would have been listening to as much of the communications between it and NASA as possible. Thus, if the Soviets had discovered the mission was fake they would have been the first to expose the United States. Other nations, such as the United Kingdom and China, would also have had the technology to verify the existence of the mission.

I don't think that bribery would have been possible. If the landings were faked all of NASA would have to have been paid off, followed by various members and aides of other government agencies, the aforementioned Soviets (I doubt they would have accepted money over the chance to discredit the United States and try to win the Space Race themselves), other countries that would have been able to monitor the mission, anyone who supposedly helped create the "video" of Armstrong and others in a film studio, and anyone else involved in faking the mission or had the ability to expose it. The more you analyze the conspiracies the harder it is to take them seriously.

Going back to Armstrong, he was a great human being; while he was somebody who declined to be in the spotlight he is still deserving of our respect and gratitude. He has a permanent, high-profile place in the history books and will continue to be a hopeful and inspiring figure for the long-term. I wish his family the best in this painful time for them.

Photo book

We are currently working on a photo book for a couple of special people in our lives. It will consist of a large selection of pictures taken throughout their lives, from their marriage up to and including the present day. I know for certain that they will appreciate the gift and the thoughts behind it very much.

The only downside is that I am once again going through thousands of pictures. Image sorting is a task that never seems to end...and this time it's not because of pictures that I've recently taken! In all fairness I'm not bothered by having to pore through masses of photographs in search of about 100 of them for a photo book: I know that people the photo book is for will absolutely love it, and the work will pay off.

In the meantime, I'll be returning to my image search. We are on somewhat of a clock to get the job done!

Parting thoughts on the Olympics

With everything that has happened recently, the one topic I barely covered during its progress was the 2012 London Summer Olympics. I wrote about it a year in advance and mentioned it briefly when it began, but beyond those instances I have not said anything about them even though they have been the largest event in the United Kingdom this year! I suppose it can be excused because I was busy during the Olympics; I didn't get to see much of the Olympics, and the parts I did watch were when I was in Nottingham.

As for my opinions on the Olympics, I am glad that they went by smoothly, with the worst part I'm aware of being a few athletes failing drug tests (unfortunate and disappointing, but at least not destructive to the Games themselves). Despite comments from certain individuals doubting the readiness of this country for the Olympics, it pleases me to say that they were proved wrong: the United Kingdom was not overwhelmed during the two weeks, and nothing tragic such as a terrorist attack, a deadly accident, or a shooting occurred. No major disruptions took place anywhere in the nation, so the preparations and security worked.

It was also good that the United Kingdom came third in the gold medal count (29, behind the United States and China) and fourth in overall medals (65, behind the United States, China and Russia). In the first few days of the Olympics I was worried that this country would have the dubious "honour" of being a host nation that was obliterated in the medal counts, but I'm glad those concerns were alleviated once British athletes started winning!

I think the Olympics were a success, and judging by the positive international response to them I'm not the only one with this view. Now that the 2012 London Summer Olympics are over we can look forward to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics in Brazil.

As an aside, while this is a small thing, it does feel good knowing that this was the third time I've been resident in a country while it hosted the Olympics (the other two times were in the United States with the Atlanta and Salt Lake City games).

New ideas

Every writer, at one point or another, will go through a period where they temporarily run out of ideas for what to write next. This is called "writer's block", and it is normal. It doesn't usually last for long and can be easily cured by something as simple as reading a book, going on a walk, or even just taking a short break from writing (or if the block is localised to one to piece of writing, working another project sometimes helps as well).

I currently have this problem. The recent Nottingham trip provided me with a lot of content for almost two weeks, and I didn't have to think much about what to write. Now that I've said all I had to say about the trip I'm back to thinking about what topic to cover for each post. Not that I mind, of course, as thinking is a great way to exercise the brain.

This problem will be temporary! I just need to regain a little inspiration after cutting a load of work out for myself. I'll be back writing more interesting and compehensive posts than this one soon.

"Domino" - Jessie J

Whenever I am feeling down I always endeavour to listen to a cheery, positive-sounding song. Currently, the song that I usually play to raise my spirits is "Domino" by Jessie J:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJtB55MaoD0

When Jessie J became popular in early 2011 with "Do It Like a Dude" I was unsure what to think about her music, but once later singles such as "Price Tag", "Nobody's Perfect", and "Who's Laughing Now" became hits she had really grown on me. Now, Jessie J is one of my favourite recent artists, and in my opinion "Domino" is one of her best tracks!

The spider and its web

Dad captured this image of a garden spider who had built her web between our car and the nearby bushes (there was a four foot gap between the car and the greenery):

This is a surprisingly good shot considering the best angle for taking a picture of the spider involved looking into the direction of the incredibly bright morning sun. It was taken with my main camera.

More about Matlock

The last complete day of the trip to Nottingham took place on the 11th of August; for that day we visited the Heights of Abraham in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire (I incorrectly referred to the place as Matlock in the initial post about the day; Matlock Bath is a village south of Matlock). The people in the group consisted of my aunt and uncle, two younger cousins, an older cousin, a friend of my older cousin (whom we picked up on the way), my brother, and me.

Upon arrival in Matlock Bath we were in the mood for a light meal. We went to a place called Pancake Cafe, and my uncle and I ordered omelettes while everyone else had either pancakes or crepes; the pancakes and crepes could all be considered "light", but the cheese and onion omelettes that my uncle and I ordered were huge. Neither of us were able to finish our meals and were full for the rest of the afternoon.

The Heights of Abraham is only accessible via a cable car; there was a time when it could be reached via stairs, but this this route is now overgrown and fallen into disrepair. While I would have appreciated a walk up to the park it was good to experience a ride in a cable car. Once at the top we took the tour through the Great Masson Cavern - a former fluorspar mine and one of the two caves located at the Heights of Abraham; my favourite part of these caves were the rock formations that appeared to resemble animals, such as the "rhino" and the "lioness".

After a walk around the park we then visited the fossil shop (actually, it was more like a gift shop), followed by the canteen; my uncle and I were the only people in the group who didn't eat anything, as we were still too full from the omelettes, despite the walks. I did, however, eat an ice cream cone with nearly everyone else when we passed the ice cream stand half an hour later. Four of us then went to the Great Rutland Cavern, the other cave system at the Heights of Abraham; this tour was much shorter than the first one, and at the end it contained a presentation about how the miners went about their work.

The other members of our group had travelled the cable back down to Matlock Bath and had gone to The Midland, a local pub. We joined them and had a drink before heading back to the car park. I swapped vehicles on the way back, opting to travel with my uncle, my older cousin and his friend for the journey back to Nottingham.

I only took a few pictures while at the Heights of Abraham and most contain family members; here are three that are suitable:

Taken from the Heights of Abraham, this is a view of Matlock with Riber Castle visible on the mountain to the right. As I mentioned in a recent post, Derbyshire truly has some of the United Kingdom's most beautiful landscape.

Another view of Matlock in the distance, taken from our cable car as it descended back to Matlock Bath.

A shot of another cable car while it and ours were descending.

For dinner that night my uncle, aunt, brother, and one of my younger cousins went to the Red Hot World Buffet, a buffet restaurant with a multicultural food selection. My older cousin, his friend, and my other younger cousin from Nottingham did not come with us as they already had plans for the evening. We returned to my grandparents' house after the meal.

The journey to the Heights of Abraham was a grand way to spend the full last day of the trip. It gave us the chance to see more of the United Kingdom, make a new friend, and most of all enjoy ourselves with family. While I did experience a feeling of "oh no, it's over" when I said goodbye to my aunt, I comforted myself in the knowledge that the visit had been a week well spent, with new memories and an overall great time for everyone.

More about the city again

The 10th of August marked the departure of all my relatives from the East of England and my cousin's boyfriend. They spent the morning and a part of the afternoon packing their belongings, finally leaving around 2:00pm. My aunt and uncle from Nottingham, my brother and I were not present when they departed, though, as we had left for the centre of Nottingham around midday (we did, of course, say goodbye before we set out).

Our primary reason for going to the centre of Nottingham a day after my brother and I went there the day before was to find new pairs of walking shoes for us (mine were wrecked from the mud jump, and my brother's were falling apart and in need of replacing). We visited a handful of shoe stores before coming a place called Millets, where we found shoes that suited us in every way - they looked decent, were durable, comfortable, and not too expensive. It was a relief that it only took us half an hour to shop for shoes, rather than an entire afternoon, as has happened before.

With the main objective out of the way, we had a small lunch at a Caffè Nero. We then went to the local Hotel Chocolat outlet, followed by going to another small store to try our luck at the £148 million pound Euromillions jackpot (the same one that Gillian and Adrian Bayford won). With several hours in the afternoon still ahead of us we went to the City of Caves (known colloquially as the "Nottingham caves") to learn about the vast cave network located underneath Nottingham.

I found it fascinating to learn that over one thousand years ago the people of Nottingham built and lived in underground caves. A few hundred years later, around 1500, a tannery was housed in the caves; this led to the pollution of the city's drinking water when the animal skins were washed in the cave water, which led to the river. In the 1800s the residents of Drury Hill, a neighbourhood, lived in basements within the caves; the basements were often one-room dwellings, and the cramped conditions combined with the poor sanitation led to a number of diseases affecting the inhabitants. The most recent use of the caves prior to their conversion into a tourist attraction was during World War II, when they were utilised as air raid shelters.

After we had completed the tour of the City of Caves, we walked over to Nottingham Castle:

My aunt, brother, a cousin and I visited the outer gate to Nottingham Castle last year, but we chose not to enter because of the high cost at the time (I think it was around £10-£15 per person); with it being less expensive on this second trip there (about £5) we did decide to visit the castle. I'm glad we did, too; the castle itself was primarily a museum, containing local artifacts and information about the city's links with other parts of the world, but in my opinion the best part about the castle was the main balcony on its grounds, offering amazing views of Nottingham:

I have seen pictures of Nottingham taken from this vantage point, but I never realised until then that they captured from Nottingham Castle. Can you spot the Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station in the first picture?

This is the Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem - also known as The Trip to Jerusalem Inn - the pub we visited after leaving the castle's grounds. The Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem claims to be the oldest inn in England, but this label is disputed. Disregarding the supposed age of the building, it was a quaint little place to have a drink (I had a Coke), and I found it interesting how the building is built into the cave system (in the lower section dust from the sandstone often falls from the ceiling and into food and/or drink).

After a refreshing drink in the Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem the early evening had set in, and so we returned to our grandparents house. Our family members from the East of England had long departed Nottingham by that time, and were probably even close to home. Those of us still in Nottingham went to Nando's for dinner that evening; I had two "yes!" moments in the restaurant when I correctly guessed the names of two of the waitresses without looking at their name tags.

Our grandparents took us back to their home after the meal; with that day over, only one full day of the trip remained.

Stratford-upon-Avon treats

Today has been a busy day, and I don't have enough time to write a comprehensive post about our activities on the 10th of August. To fill in I'll write about the treats I purchased from the Stratford Sweet Shop:

From left to right: treacle toffee, Toxic Wastes, milk chocolate-covered nougat, and a giant gobstopper (jawbreaker). The toffee, nougat, and gobstopper are all self-explanatory, but Toxic Wastes are a hard and sour candy; one of my cousins introduced me to them and expected me to pull all sorts of faces from their sheer sourness, but I turned out to be fairly resilient to the candies (I could still taste how sour they were, but they didn't have much of an effect on me).

This is the gobstopper again, positioned on one of our plates and taken just before I started to eat it. It is completely solid and a very hard piece of candy; it can only be eaten through continued licking until it is small enough to place on the mouth and suck. Since this was shot two nights ago the gobstopper has lost little of its mass, but I have been able to lick all the colours off; it's going to take quite a bit of time to consume it entirely!

More about the city and dinner

On August 9th my brother, four younger cousins, my cousin's boyfriend, and I went to the centre of Nottingham. To save time in getting there we took a bus ride to the Broadmarsh shopping centre, as walking would have taken us at least half an hour. Not that I minded taking a bus as it give me my first-ever "proper" bus ride since returning to the United Kingdom (the one we rode in when we left the airport in Manchester was a minibus).

The day was essentially a shopping trip; initially our group separated for the three gals to shop for clothing while the guys went to do something else. My cousin's boyfriend needed a new wallet, the cousin we were with needed a new hat, and we all wanted to go the HMV, so rather than wander aimlessly around the various stores we knew want we wanted and went directly for it. We did have to check out a few places, but before long a suitable wallet and hat had each been purchased and we made it to HMV and then another CD/DVD store named That's Entertainment. I did well in HMV...remember Kimbra? I purchased her debut album, Vows, in that store!

We met up with the gals once we guys finished our shopping goals for the day and then the re-united group went to Yo Yo Noodles, a Chinese restaurant, for lunch. Although the facility was primarily a take-away it did have a dining area, and we chose to eat in there instead of carry our food around Nottingham. I was glad, too...the meal was hot, and as it was a hot day it was good to eat it in a cool room rather than in the sun!

After the meal, it turned out that my cousin's boyfriend still had a piece of shopping to do, though not of his own volition: we were having dinner at an expensive restaurant that night, and extremely decent clothing was required. As such, my cousin dragged her boyfriend to a nearby clothing store to find him a good shirt for the evening; they were back a few minutes later, so then we had a look around a few more stores before returning to the bus stop outside the Broadmarsh.

It was around 5:00pm when we arrived back at my aunt and uncle's house. I was pleased to see that one of my two older cousins was waiting there and would be coming with everyone to dinner that evening; while my only younger male cousin and I caught up with him the girls went upstairs and spent much of next two hours getting themselves ready. I will admit that I was shocked to see all three of my female cousins wearing dresses, heavy make up, and high heels; it wasn't unexpected, of course, but it was still a surprise.

Before 7:30 (the time booked for the restaurant), everybody was ready and people from my grandparents' house was now over at my aunt and uncle's. The group now consisted of my brother, my grandparents, my aunt and uncle from Nottingham, my aunt and uncle from the East of England, five of my six cousins, my cousin's boyfriend, and me. The location for the night's dinner was a place called Signature Steakhouse.

Signature Steakhouse is easily one of the best restaurants I've ever been to. The portions were just the right size and the food was delicious - naturally, I had a steak, but they served other meats, such as lamb and chicken. The service was excellent, not at all rushed as to try to get you out the door in favour of the next customers. Not surprisingly, the meal was very expensive, but that was expected considering the quality of the restaurant, and worth it given that nearly the entire family was present and everyone had an outstanding time.

I think I speak for everyone there when I say now that it was a lovely evening - the type you hope would go on indefinitely and not ever come to a close. When the meal concluded we returned to our respective houses for the night, ending a spectacular day.