Saturday, February 29, 2020

What I Did on my Holiday

I have had a holiday. And it has been a genuine holiday, in the sense of returning to the centre and recreating.
My mother is still alive and finally in the home which has been beckoning for the past decade. She has been incredibly difficult and made a huge number of people's lives difficult, but then this is her standard effect. It does mean that I have taken possession of what is left of the family photos - she threw out most of my dad's side of the family - and have completed scanning them. The photo which illustrates this post is of my dad, and there can surely be no doubt who I take after. 😋
I have had various dreary health appointments but the overriding theme has been of clearing out. I have taken numerous bags of stuff to a charity shop and there is still some to go. As we know cleaning the house or getting rid of unwanted stuff is a very ancient magic and in my experience usually presages progress.
As always at these times the tarot has leapt into my hand again and revealed new meanings and depths. Particularly of the court cards, which in common with so many others, I have always found difficult.
I have an interview for another job on 11th, I am rather wary because it is with my current employer and they're hopeless but we'll see. A friend commented that everywhere I go I meet idiots who need a good hard slap and I can only think that this must be my geas. It's not something which gives me any pleasure, but it seems like nobody else will do it (they're usually quite happy to sit around moaning though). I, on the other hand, seize this task and am beginning to realise that I am faced with these tasks because I will do them. Perhaps I wasn't so wrong in my misspent youth when I wanted to be a monastic, because the word comes from monos in the sense of being alone but is also understood to mean a single focus on the one thing necessary. I don't go exactly looking for trouble but my attention is always drawn to my obligation to be me and with that comes having to deal with things.

Saturday, February 8, 2020

Spirit of Place: Birmingham in 1965

These are stills from the 1965 film in the Look at Life series called Down Town. It sings the praises of rebuilt towns and cities and particularly can't get enough of Coventry (lol). Such short-sightedness, and a mere four decades later much of what you see here was demolished. Personally I preferred the Bull Ring shown here and had an experience in Manzoni Gardens with a bus driver. I see that I have previously written about the Bull sculptures (one of which you can see in the bottom picture) here.









And finally a classic depiction of Birmingham by Spitting Image, which I know will entertain Inexplicable.