Farewell Ferengistan

This evening I have mostly been listening to Banco de Gaia’s new album, Farewell Ferengistan. A one-man outfit from the southwest of England, Banco de Gaia’s music is complex but chilled-out electronic dance, heavily inspired by Oriental cultures such as Tibet.

Unlike some of his previous albums, which usually had one or two songs I found boring, hard to get into or out of the mood of the rest of the album, Farewell Ferengistan is consistently good throughout. The tunes are solemn, gentle and take their time to get fully into their swing, and so make perfect listening on a quiet evening.

And even better, he’s playing live in Glasgow at the end of September, and I just bought my tickets tonight. I’ve never seen him live before (he does very few live appearances) and so am really looking forward to it.

Movies they never made

A quick plug for the blog of fellow joinee Phil Hatchard, who draws hilarious cartoons on the theme of “movies they never made”.

Meeting people off the internet

I met someone off the internet tonight for a couple of pints. They say when you do this, you should take various precautions – such as telling someone where you are going, and when you’re going to be back. I didn’t do any of that.

Thankfully, though, it was David Shedden, so the chances of abduction were always going to be slim. I was surprised to discover that he looks nothing like the picture in his profile.

Holiday snaps

I’ve uploaded the last big batch of my decent holiday pictures over the last few days. following the slow trickle of pictures I’ve been gradually putting up since being away.

I think I might have been slightly trigger-happy in Winchester Cathedral, though.

My ex-flatmate on telly

Sergio, my former flatmate from when we both studied at Aberdeen University, has just completed a PhD at King’s College London, and his specialism is the Arab-Israeli conflict. Congratulations, Dr Catignani!

His knowledge of the region has led to him to appear in the media quite a bit recently talking about the current rocket tennis going on between Israel and Hezbollah, including on Sky News.

So, we’ve got Sergio explaining the detail of Israeli security strategy on Sky News, and me talking about mullets on Radio Suffolk. Who’d have thought that one flat could produce two such highbrow and intellectual media celebrities…?

Which church?

Although my church search is very much finished, I still get the occasional email about it – usually from folk interested in Glasgow’s churches, or who say they’ll pass my web address on to anyone they know of who is looking for a church in the city.

I had a very nice email in that vein the other day from Melville Paton, who was referred to my blog by a mutual friend. He writes:

I attend a little C of S church in Onich, where I am an elder and organist. I helped revamp our PA system so that we can make a half decent recording of Services and earlier this year, installed data projection equipment with projector, screen, monitors, etc. Sadly, our membership is elderly, and I can find no-one to train to use the software, so have to do a conjuring act to work the laptop whilst playing the organ. It’s OK most Sundays, although occasionally it goes wrong – like the Sunday they all sang through the first verse twice without realising it, because I failed to change to the second verse!

We’re not too bad at welcoming, but I am trying hard to get rid of the pews! We have just lost our Minister to Port Glasgow, so we are a bit in the doldrums.

The main reason for this memo is to thank you for your appraisal of the various Churches in your search. Having lived in the Glasgow area for many years, I am familiar with a number of the churches you visited. At least St. Silas acted quickly on the ‘welcome’. I had a lad on my yacht this week on one of the Cruises that I run for Scripture Union – he helps with the data projection at St. Silas and told me with glee how they had flashed your name up on the screen.

This would be Graham, I suspect!  This blog entry tells the full story.

It seems to me that we almost need a Which Magazine type of study to get Churches to waken up and get out of their ruts and old fashioned ways of doing things. Your blog does just that. I hope that the various Churches read your reports.

Melville raises two very interesting questions, and I’d love to hear readers’ views.

Firstly, many churches would love to reach out to younger age groups, but the fact that there are not many young folk is in itself often an obstacle to doing this. What’s the way out of this dilemma?

And secondly, the Which? Magazine idea – couldn’t agree more! Any volunteers out there?

The challenge of public transport

One of the big changes since moving to Glasgow has been getting used to the suburban public transport network. For example, just the other day, I met friends in town after work, and then came home afterwards – something I do quite a bit. The easiest way to get from Glasgow University to the city centre is by subway, but to get back to my flat it’s best to take the train. Annoyingly, you can’t do the journey on the one ticket, so you have to buy a subway ticket and then a train ticket.

Glasgow lacks London’s smoothness in terms of integrated transport. There, everything’s divided into concentric zones, and the ticket you get covers all forms of transport (underground, trains, buses and riverboats) within the zones you’ve paid for.

Granted, Glasgow does have the roundabout ticket, but I only discovered that the other day and I don’t think it’s all that well-publicised. Plus, at £4.50 it’s a fair whack of cash considering it doesn’t include buses.

On a slightly different note, a friend sent me this wonderful webpage the other day – it’s the Glasgow Subway Challenge, as completed by a group of Glasgow University students. Two stations are 55 seconds apart on the subway: can you get off at one station and make it overground to the other station in time to catch the same train?

It’s a brilliantly-made video, and a slight step up in technological and human endurance from my own favourite game, the Hyndland railway station underpass “hold your breath” challenge.

I’ve only ever succeeded once.

What I read on my holidays

At the risk of being labelled a boring, specky intellectual, here’s a second consecutive book-related blog. While I was away, I read two really good books, both travel stories, and thought I’d tell you about them.

The first is Lost Cosmonaut by Daniel Kalder. It’s an account of his journeys to obscure autonomous republics of Russia, and his attempts to discover something of their dying cultures. Describing himself as an “anti-tourist”, he revels in the run-down, bleak places, curious people, and general post-communist hopelessness he encounters. The book has a dark, grim wit and fascinating insights into the histories of parts of Europe that most of us have probably never heard of.

The second is Attention All Shipping by Charlie Connelly, which describes his tour of the areas of the shipping forecast. I have absolutely no interest in ships or weather studies, but thoroughly enjoyed this tour of coastal areas around northwest Europe, from France to Norway to Iceland. Although it’s packed full of local and maritime history, it’s written in an easygoing, down to earth way, and Connelly has a wonderful, self-deprecating humour that made me laugh out loud lots. “Attention All Shipping” was the first book of his I have read, and I’ll definitely read more.

One book that…

I don’t normally (knowingly) steal other people’s blog ideas, but hopefully David will consider it a compliment on this occasion. I love reading, especially since three and a half years of TV-less existence in Inverness, so I felt this list was a good way of sharing some books which have meant a lot to me. Here goes…

1) One book that changed your life:
Join Me, by Danny Wallace. A great new outlook on life, a renewed confidence in human nature, and a pile of wonderful, like-minded friends all over the world.

2) One book that you’ve read more than once:
The Lord of the Rings by J R R Hartley. Er, I mean Tolkien. Hard going, but amazing stuff.

3) One book you’d want on a deserted island:
One of those desert island survival guides would go down nicely.

4) One book that made you laugh:
Are You Dave Gorman? by Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace. Quite simply the funniest book I have ever read, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

5) One book that made you cry:
If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon MacGregor. A brilliant, poignant, tense novel about ordinary, everyday people and the anonymity of urban life.

6) One book that you wish had been written:
The Gospel According to Jesus. I reckon he missed a bit of an opportunity by not keeping a diary. Not only could his scribblings have prevented a few arguments over the past couple of millenniums, but he is also the only person in history who could write a posthumous autobiography.

7) One book that you wish had never been written:
Coral Island, I can’t remember who by. Was forced to read it in primary 5, and found it so dull and difficult I never read anything out of choice for about another four years.

One book that you are currently reading:
London Irish by Zane Radcliffe. About an Irish guy in London who seems to get in some very, very serious trouble not of his own making. Bought it because I loved his latest book, the Killer’s Guide to Iceland. Radcliffe seems to be a great master of dark dramas with generous doses of humour.

9) One book you’ve been meaning to read:
A Piano in the Pyrennes by Tony Hawks. I only bought it recently mind you, so I’m not particularly procrastinating about it.

The changing face of Inverness

I’m just back this evening from my holiday, where I spent most of the last few days back in Inverness. I had fun celebrating my birthday, meeting up with friends, going out lots, catching up with folk at Hilton, and taking part in the annual joinee gathering in Inverness (“Joinverness“, if you will).

The joinees, who came from all corners of Britain, seemed to have a great time – the bemused shop assistants of the Eastgate centre were raoked, the Cathedral was visited, and a fun Saturday night was had in the Harlequin listening to the excellent Billy Morrison.

Despite the fact that it is a booming regional capital and supposedly the fastest-growing city in Europe, it still surprised me how much has changed in the short time since my last visit: the Eden Court revamp is taking shape, and new shops, restaurants and bars have sprung up, including the Rajdhani Indian restaurant on Academy Street, whose curried cheesy peas (motor panir) was quite outstanding. Meanwhile, long-awaited live music venue The Ironworks is opening soon, and the Market Bar has had a much-needed lick of paint.

And of course the Polish population continues to grow apace. Since Poland became an EU member, many Poles have headed west in search of work, and Inverness for some reason has been a big hit, with Poles now numbering around 10% of the city’s population. The increase has been very noticeable of late, through everything from the amount of Polish overheard on the streets to the number of Polish beers on sale in pubs and shops.

It’s been a big thing for Inverness to deal with – both culturally and logistically – and there’s conflicting stereotypes doing the rounds of the Poles as either intelligent, conscientious and hard-working, or anti-social, seagull-eating drunkards. After having met a few over the weekend (it’s a long story involving joinees, poi and late night visits to the Ness Islands) and asked about their hopes, fears and expectations, I really believe they have a huge amount of energy and drive to bring to the city.

The folk I spoke to had heard of Scotland’s keenness to attract migrants, had liked what they’d discovered about the economy, people and natural beauty of the highlands, and were here only because of their ambition, skills and sense of adventure. Much-needed qualities, I’m sure.

If they and their thousands of fellow immigrants can be accommodated, supported well by Invernessians and each other, and matched to the numerous jobs the city has going, I’m sure they’ll continue to fill the labour shortage, help reverse the highlands’ young brain drain, and put Inverness on the map as a growing, cosmopolitan and vibrant city.