Ipswich with G. He was meeting some folk called 'Techies'-apparently they take care of those there computer thingies and all the wires and boxes that connect them up. Being an old sea bear I don't know much about this World Wide Web he keeps going on about. In all my travels across the seven seas I never saw any such thing!

Picture of me outside the Suffolk Institute of Technology. It used to be the building for the Ipswich School of Art - Brian Eno and Maggie Hambling were arty students there. I bet that they couldn't tar a ship as well as I could!

The other is this guy I met outside. No not an art student but some poor unfortunate soul who kept babbling that he was a Professor Gangrene (obviously I recoiled in horror -many a shipmate has lost a limb or life to it) and that some one called 'Action Man' had foiled his plans for world domination! I left him there in the street as he raved about neutron atomics or whatever. He reminds me of that castaway we found in the Pacific -he had been marooned for 20 years after refusing to share his chocolate digestives with his crew.

Visited Ware in Hertfordshire with G today. That's me telling G (the coxswain) to steer us safely back to our home harbour. Wikkipedia on Ware here.

Looking over the Wikkipedia entry I found:

"The modern name of the town dates from the Anglo-Saxon period when 'weirs' were built to stop the invading Vikings from escaping in their longships after defeat by Alfred the Great in a battle near Ware"

Ah yes Vikings! Were they a form of pirate perhaps? They were certainly stout sailors in their 'dragon boats' and I would have like to have accompanied them on their wide ranging sea faring.

Visited Birmingham with G (he had to go to some kind of training thingy -we did all our training on board not in some namby pamby Hotel!)

Top picture is of me outside the Ikon Gallery all a bit modern for me, give a good piece of tattoo art any day! Some stuff on history and so on of Tattoos here.

The other picture is outside the Sea Life Centre. I didn't go in -but all the sharks are safely behind glass. Not like the time we were pursued by a Great White which was unusual as contrary to belief they rarely attack humans (and bears). This monster was an exception -we had to slow it down by throwing meat overboard with cannon balls hidden within. Eventually the beast gave up his pursuit as he became weighed down with so much ballast.

Off now to my bunk - six bells of first watch and all is calm.

Pirates! While travelling with G, B&T came across this pirate surrounded by skeletons and all manner of things! Of course I have talked before about these unsavoury characters -the whiff of gunpowder I recall whilst brave merchantmen battled to save their precious cargoes from these bandits of the high seas.

I suspect that this particular pirate strongly resembles 'Jack Sparrow' in the Curse of the Black Pearl' films. G says that this link here takes you to something called a preview trailer and that to see it you have to have some kind of quickie timey thingey. If not this other site will show them but it takes a longer time through the hourglass.

I may see this film when it comes out!

Today a trip to Cambridge as G had a meeting at Anglia Ruskin University.
See Wikkipedia here for info on ARU.
Of course I never had the chance to go to university (except the one of life of course) as I was a cabin boy aged 7 and then grew into a fully grown bear beneath the main mast of many a proud ship.

The other picture is of a Tardis in the 'Sinclair Building' where Clive Sinclair the famous inventor used to work. We could have used one of his computer thingies at time when our navigator was trying to chart a course in search of the Indies! G told me that he used to have a ZX81 and that sometimes people send them to the Uni asking for them to be repaired!

THE SHIPPING FORECAST ISSUED BY THE MET OFFICE, ON BEHALF OF
THE MARITIME AND COASTGUARD AGENCY, AT 1130 ON WEDNESDAY 19 APRIL
2006

THE GENERAL SYNOPSIS AT 0700
LOW SOUTHEAST SHANNON 1009 EXPECTED SOUTH SWEDEN 1003 BY 0700
TOMORROW. ATLANTIC LOW 998 MOVING RAPIDLY EAST, EXPECTED SHANNON 990
BY SAME TIME

Did a spot of gardening-helping out two young ladies in their allotment.
Not that I could be of much help -I did give a lot of advice on avoiding scurvy (hence our nickname 'Limey') but on board ship there is very little space for horticultural activities. Mind you we did have one cook who used to have little pots of herbs growing -aah the aroma of fresh bolognese sauce with basil!

Thats me amongst a bunch of characters in Clitheroe - unfortunately not one of them had a drop of rum between them (or so they said!)Maybe that's why the one with an 'E' looks a bit downcast.

THE SHIPPING FORECAST ISSUED BY THE MET OFFICE, ON BEHALF OF
THE MARITIME AND COASTGUARD AGENCY, AT 1725 ON TUESDAY 18 APRIL 2006

THE GENERAL SYNOPSIS AT 1300
LOW 150 MILES WEST OF SOLE 1010 EXPECTED FORTIES 1003 BY 1300
TOMORROW. LOW SOUTHEAST ICELAND 1003 SLOW MOVING WITH LITTLE CHANGE

Pendle Hill!

Visited Clitheroe which is a small town in Lancashire. The most notable building in the town is a Norman keep. The place has been claimed to be the most (geographically) central town in Britain, by virtue of its proximity to the village of Dunsop Bridge

Whilst there we went up Pendle Hill. It is an isolated hill, separated from the Pennines to the east and the Forest of Bowland to the northwest. It lies to the southwest of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Thats me up there scaling the rocks like a one of them barbary apes that you see in Gibraltar (or 'Gib' as we matelots refer to it as)

Of course the climb was no problem for me -if you have ever had to scale the main mast to reef in the top gallant during a force 9 gale in the driving rain a little bit of rock climbing is nothing!

The naming of Pendle Hill is unusual in that it says the same thing in three different languages. In the thirteenth century it was mentioned as Pennul or Penhul, apparently from Cumbric pen and Old English hyll, both meaning "hill"; the meaning having become opaque, the modern English word Hill was again appended.

Perhaps these Northerners wanted to make sure that everyone knew that it was a hill!

The hill famous due to the 'Pendle Witches' --see Wikipedia for loads on the story.

I have come across many a witch in my travels -some good and some bad. We sailors are a superstitious lot and you never know when someone may try! I have often had to make signs to ward them off.

When in India, I found that the evil eye, called "drishti" (literally view), is removed through "Aarthi". The actual removal involves different means as per the subject involved. In case of removing human evil eye, a traditional Hindu ritual of holy flame (on a plate) is rotated around the person's face so as to absorb the evil effects. Sometimes people will also be asked to spit into a handful of chillies kept in that plate, which are then thrown into fire. For vehicles too, this process is followed with limes or lemons being used instead of chillies. These lemons are crushed by the vehicle and another new lemon is hung with chillies in a bead to ward off any future evil eyes. But I have yet to see how they did this with a full sized schooner! Maybe that's why some tea clippers never made it back to good old blighty!

See ya all soon shipmates!

An admirer!

Gebeth was showing my log to relatives over the Easter and spotted comment from 'Maddie'

Maddie has her own blog and the picture was taken when she was going to a party. She liked my log and asked if OK to link to her's. Only too pleased to do so!

My postcards (yes same relative with slow dial up) were shown around the family. Turns out that they did not know that I had gone on travels with Gebeth until over a week later!

Talking of relatives, two are visiting from Toronto. Mind you they are flying across, not like in my days when we had to face gales, huge whales, cutthroat pirates and weevily biscuits.

Talking about pirates here are a few jokes (although pirates are no laughing matter when they have boarded your vessel and are making you walk the plank!)

Q: Did you hear about the new pirate movie?

A: Yeah, it's rated "Arrr!"

Q: Why are pirates scary?

A: They just "Arrr!"

Q: Why are pirates called pirates?

A: Because they "Arrr!"

Q: Where do pirates go for picnics?

A: Central Parrrrrk

Q: What basketball player used to be a pirate?

A: Kevin Garrrrrnet

Q: How much does it cost for a pirate to pierce his ears?

A: A buck an ear!

Q: Where does a pirate keep his buckaneers?

A: Underneath his buckenhat!

I have been on more travels and will report back later.

Basildon -in the office

The Library with my new pal -Monkey

Tuesday 4th April 2006, visited G's office in Basildon. Lots of emails for him to catch up on having been away in London (Goodenough)

This evening relaxed in the library with my new shipmate -Monkey. He reminds me of that time in the South Pacific when we went ashore in search of badly needed fresh water (well you can only exist on pure rum for so long) when relatives of his pelted us with coconuts from their trees. The cap'n was ready to loose off his musket but the bosun persuaded him to leave them be.

Image from exhibition by Japanese born artist Hiraki Sawa

Me outside 'firstsite'

Me outside 'Jacks' in Colchester.

April 1st - went to Colchester with G, A, B&T.
First we went to see Certain Places an exhibition by Japanese born artist Hiraki Sawa.

The picture at the top is from one of his video installations. It was awesome and radical man!

Firstsite in Colchester was the venue.

Here is their description.

Hiraki Sawa, Eight Minutes

25 March – 6 May 2006
Hiraki Sawa
Certain Places

“It’s a delight”

Alan Bennett on Hiraki Sawa, Untold Stories, 2005.

The daring fantasy and austere beauty of Hiraki Sawa comes to firstsite : contemporary art Colchester this spring.

This is rising star Sawa’s first solo show in the UK, and is accompanied by his first solo publication.

Japanese born, London based Sawa graduated from the Slade school of Fine Art in 2002 and over past three years has produced a substantial body of film and sculptural works.

The collection to be presented at firstsite, the largest united group of his work to date, now offers an opportunity to critically study the impact of this period of intense and uninterrupted art production.

Currently represented by galleries in New York and Japan the artist has been commissioned by firstsite to create a new work for his approaching six-week exhibition.

Sawa burst quietly on to the arts scene in 2002 at East International and New Contemporaries with the now widely acclaimed video Dwelling.

In this remarkable production, his empty flat is quite magically transformed into a busy international airport for a fleet of miniature airplanes.

Climbing between rooms, cruising at a height of several inches above the kitchen sink and stacking around the light fitting, the Lilliputian jets multiply until they are methodically weaving a web of air traffic around the apartment.

Dwelling is one of 11 video pieces to be showcased in the firstsite exhibition and publication: others include Elsewhere, 2003, Migration, 2003; Trail, 2005; and Eight Minutes, 2005.

All of these films introduce the frequently surreal and habitually serene landscapes of domestic spaces.

Sawa's visual poetry includes teapots that sprout legs, swimming goats, walking camel shadows, miniature rocking horses, big wheels and other wonderful creatures and people.

Among his acolytes, Sawa can count on writer Alan Bennett who wrote high praise for the artist’s 2003 Kettle’s Yard exhibition in his 2005 memoirs, Untold Stories.

Goodenough College -Yes it is real!

Me getting ready to get my head down
Not a hammock but still comfy

Me in the quad at Goodenough

London -again -went with G for a few nights as he was in meeting at Goodenough College.

We thought that they were 'extracting the urine' when they said the name of the college but it does indeed exist!

For over seventy years Goodenough College has been home to thousands of postgraduates from around the world. It currently has over 600 members whose diverse academic, artistic and social interests create a unique and stimulating environment in the College's extensive facilities within leafy Mecklenburgh Square.

Goodenough College has been referred to as "the hidden jewel in London's Crown", comprising as it does residential accommodation for its students and also quality short stay accommodation in a tranquil and exceptionally beautiful setting at Goodenough Club for senior academics and professionals visiting London. More here if you want.

G also went for a 'flight' on the London Eye.