This evening I went along to the launch party for my friend (Chris) Turner's new book The Geography of Hope. It was a great event and most of my friends in Calgary were there so it was fun to see them. Unfortunately I'm in the midst of losing my voice so I couldn't chat as much as I wanted!


The centrepiece of the evening wasn't a reading but a slide presentation summarising the travels he recounts in the book. Turner also mentioned that a slide-show was a shortcut to a Nobel prize so he's living in hope of the call from Sweden. In a sense Turner's presentation is along the same lines as Al Gore's: the subject is climate change. But the powerful thing about Turner's presentation, and what's got me very excited about the book, is that his story isn't a doom and gloom jeremiad. It's about sustainable living and what's being done right now, TODAY, all around the world. As he points out, what already exists is possible. In his very thought provoking opening he talked about the fact that he didn't believe that fear, or guilt (the only messages we tend to get regarding climate change) were the best ways to tackle the problem. Hope is a much more powerful weapon and his book is about the fact that hope exists and there are things we can do and if we do it we aren't doomed after all! Pretty exciting stuff and I can't wait to read the book proper.

Even more importantly than any of this stuff is that fact that I realised a lifetime ambition today. I've always wanted to be thanked by an author in the acknowledgements in his or her book and now I have! It seems the luxurious accommodation of my Shepherds Bush futon on a couple of occasions (and a game of cricket) did the trick for Turner. God bless you guv'na, you've made an old man very happy!

Alas the good book is not available in the UK yet. I hope that the buzz that's being created in Canada at the moment (top 20 in the Amazon.ca charts) is going to change that. But I'm bringing back a couple of copies for a few lucky British readers.

So there was to be no story book finish to Jason Robinson's rugby career. But I'm proud of him and all the team. Watching an England team actually surpass expectations has been a delicious novelty. And congrats to SA, they were worthy winners on the day. In fact during the national anthems I realised I didn't really care who won. There's something unbelievably wonderful about seeing gigantic Afrikaaners in Springbok jerseys singing their hearts out to Nkosi Sikele iAfrika. Dad would be in floods of tears and I can think of a certain sports-mad archbishop who will be absolutely delighted.

Happy St. Frideswide's day to one and all! This is traditionally a lucky day for me so fingers crossed! Although if St Frideswide is saving my luck for tomorrow and channelling it to the Stade de France I won't complain.

Today is the second anniversary of Dad's death.

Time for a quiet evening at home. I listened to the Victoria Requiem, read his obits and thought about how much I love and miss him.

From my balcony

What else can I say!

Disgraced God-botherer Jimmy Swaggert once denounced rock and roll as "the new pornography". According to Wikipedeia the founder of ace Canadian indie-popsters The New Pornographers wasn't thinking about this when he named his band. Whatever. All I know is that I saw them last night and they are a GREAT GREAT band! I'd heard a few of their songs before but I came out of the gig a total convert, their live show kicks a whole lot of ass and this was one of the best concerts I've seen for years.


There's hundreds of them in the band and together they make a great sound, quite different to any band I can think of coming out of the UK right now. I wonder if this is something to do with their line up: 1 guy and 2 women seem to share the vocal duties. When one of those women is the fantastic Neko Case then you've got a lot of vocals to play with. Maybe my mind has gone blank but I can't think of many bands at the moment that have male and female singers. Arcade Fire do it, Belle and Sebastian (a bit) but I'm starting to think it's an underused acoustic device. Any other suggestions?

I really loved their range of songs too. They totally rock out on the fast songs (iTunes fans try "Use It") but can be touchingly fragile on the down tempo songs (try "Adventures in Solitude") and luckily they didn't seem to have the mystical self-importance of those other Canadian indie-darlings, Arcade Fire. Not only that but in keyboard player and singer Kathryn Calder they've got an indie-pop pixie every bit as delicious as Isobel Campbell or Rachel out of Slowdive (am I showing my age here?). What, as the great Mark Radcliffe would say, is not to like?

I read in the Guardian that a bomb exploded here today:


Visiting the dargah in Ajmeer was one of the most memorable parts of my time in India. The beautiful smell of rose petals everywhere, the hurly burly of the crowd in the shrine receiving their blessing and the friendliness and desire to engage me in conversation of the people I met. It's not a place that needed blowing up.

Blogging hiatus. I've been a bit under the weather for the last week or so and today I'm tucked up in bed with my new favourite thing: honey, lemon juice, hot water and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

It's 1:17am and I'm just back from the ice rink after my second game with the Crunch and this time our first victory! Not only that but if you bet on me to score the opening goal of the game then you've probably won big - coz I did! My first goal on Canadian ice and I can safely say I am chuffed to bits. It wasn't a classic but as we all know: there's no such thing as a bad goal.

My other abiding memory from tonight's game will be one of the opposition. According to the name on the back of his shirt his surname is "SANSCHAGRIN". What a way to live your life!

Now I must find a way of getting the adrenaline out of my system and getting to sleep.