I’ve just had a great day off: started with full English breakfast with Mike in town, then doing some techy work on the video display system in church, then going to see Jo + John in Birmingham, seeing their new office, and then having lunch at good pub. Their Winter Tale dark ale was sweet and very drinkable. By the time we’d chatted after that we needed a latte/mocha on Harborne High St, before heading home. And the kids cooked for us, as we picked them up from the station.

The only slight disappointment was that we’d run out of time to visit Sharon McSwiney’s studio in Bransford, just off the M5 on the way home. We saw some of her decorative metalwork at the Cheltenham Craft Market on Saturday, and were keen to see more as we want to replace an old painting in the living room. I’ll need another day off …

(This pic is one of her recent creations. Wish I could create like that!)

The Times have published their list of the 100 Best Films of the Decade. We watch a lot of films, so here’s a challenge.

First off, we’ve not heard of the top film Hidden (Cache), but between us we reckon we’ve seen about 30 of the rest. There are a number of non-English films, which is good, but we’re not keen on having to read subtitles for long, so that mostly counts them out.

With a bit of thought, I’d have expected to see Michael Clayton, Blood Dimaond, Shrek, March of the Penguins, The Last Samaurai, The Prestige, Wall-E on the list. And, it might not be a film, but the best TV drama from (part of) the decade must be The West Wing.

But this list is a great reminder that we should get round to seeing Lantana (91), In the Loop (81), Monsters, Inc. (71), There will be Blood (63), Syriana (40), Man on Wire (23), United 93 (19) and of course Hidden (Cache) (1) despite it probably having sub-titles.

Whilst I’ve been off ill, I’ve been trying hard to stay away form work or work-like things. So it seemed like a good time to catch up on some movies that are sitting unwatched in our Sky+ box. They were all classics, but ones I’d never seen. But they did make for a strange mixture: Da, Pulp Fiction, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Usual Suspects, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We also saw Glory and Rules of Engagement together. Each had their strong points, but I don’t think I’d watch any of them again. (OK, OK, I had seen most of Usual Suspects before, and I was looking out for more clues the second time around. And I wasn’t much clearer … but then looking at IMDb’s film plot page, the film buff experts aren’t much clearer either.)

I’m still not quite sure how it found it’s way onto my computer, but I’m glad it did. Whilst I was doing lots of odd jobs around the house and garden, I was listening to new music. The music gave way to a lecture, and I was quickly hooked.

It was Benjamin Zander describing why he thinks Mahler’s Third Symphony is one of the most amazing pieces of music ever composed. With plenty of examples, presumably from one of his recordings, we got to hear the full range of Nature that he depicted, and man’s influence too. I am a fan of some of Mahler’s symphonies anyway, but it would probably be compelling to anyone who enjoys music.

So not only was I feeling satisfied about the jobs done, but entertained, educated, and inspired to discover and enjoy a new Mahlerian masterpiece.

Last weekend I went to Cardiff to see U2 live for the first time. It was a great show, showing off the new ‘Claw’ staging, with 360 degree runway and video display system. Wouldn’t I like one of those to play with?!

The music mostly came from the most recent “No Line on the Horizon” album, but with some older material such as Sunday, Bloody Sunday and I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. Of the new material, No Line on the Horizon and Unknown Caller stood out for me.

There was hardly any ‘preaching’ from Bono, mostly leaving it to a short video segment from Arhbishop Desmond Tutu, who noted what had been achieved against the MDGs (etc) by help from ordinary people. And urging us to support the ONE campaign. The political note was to support Ang Sung Syu Chi in Burma.

The Edge looked like he was having the most fun, though Larry liked getting freed from the drum kit for a song to wander around playing djembe. Adam looked serious throughout, and Bono managed to be both rock-band-lead-singer energetic plus brooding, all at the same time.

Overall, a fine birthday treat — thanks, Martha!

(Note to self: either the signposting to the main Park and Ride for the Millennium Stadium is bad, or the P&R itself is woefully inadequate. We landed up parking on a verge near County Hall. Not a great choice, as itt took over an an hour to get back to the car this way. There is free on-street parking in central Cardiff only 15 mind walk away, said my neighbour in the stadium.)

Another weekend, another Festival in Cheltenham. This time the Food & Drink Festival held in stalls and marquees in Montpellier Gardens.

I didn’t have long to look around, and really needed more than 90 minutes. But I did get to sample quite a few cheeses, sweets, ales, stouts, teas, and other drinks. I could have sampled many more if I wanted to.

Here are the main things that caught my eye and taste buds:

• Golden Ale, Butty Bach and the 2008 Best Bottled Beer winner Wholesome Stout, all from the Wye Valley Brewery. Available direct, or recently from Tesco and Sainsburys in the West Midlands.
• some ground coffee flavours from the Real Team & Coffee Company
• fairtrade Early Grey tea from the enthusiastic and friendly people at Trumpers Tea
• Gloucester Hot cheese, which adds mustard and horseradish to Double Gloucester, from the Tewkesbury Delicatessen. They did lots of other great things, including an unusual-looking Tortilla.
• the buy-local “online local farm shop” delivery service soon coming to Gloucestershire

All are local or fairly local concerns, which I’m happy to support. Just a shame the rather wonderful Bristol-based Pie Minister weren’t present.

(And a note to self for next year: take plenty of cash, and don’t book up lunch straight afterwards, which stopped me having one of the many delicious lunch options there.)

Today we saw Noel Coward’s play Brief Encounter at the Everyman Theatre. The Kneehigh Company brought their usual inventiveness, wit and musicality to proceedings. It had the best use of video footage I’ve yet seen, and at times amazing well integrated, with several characters literally and figuratively moving from stage to screen. It had its serious moments, as you’d expect as it explored fidelity, affairs, and the pain it causes. Highly recommended.

Yesterday we went to a presentation by holiday firm Club La Costa, bribed by some free M+S vouchers, and a possible cheap week’s holiday in Spain.

The pitch the company were making was relatively simple, and quite attractive. (The details of this pitch aren’t relevant for this post, but I’ll explain if interested.) But I was close to walking out at several points. And I probably should have done.

Unbelievably the salesman and his manager assigned to us dodged getting Martha a glass of water for 15 minutes, despite three pointed requests, and a water cooler being visible only 8 feet away. They were clearly under instruction not to leave the table we were sat at, and so had to wait until the ‘drinks person’ came round. Unbelievable. It was over an hour later that we were given drinks as a matter of course.

Second, they asked for 2 hours. In practice I don’t think any of the 10 couples left before 3 hours, and we were there nearly 4. They could easily have covered the material in just 2 hours. But despite pressing him to get to the point, the salesman wasted a lot of time at the beginning on his make-nice-pally shtick, which really wound me up. Particularly as any answer I gave to a question he then repeated parrot fashion. Said salesman then thought it was a good idea to challenge me that I was being unhelpful. Nice.

When asked how long various stages were going to take, they kept saying “2 minutes” or “10 minutes”, when they knew full well it was going to take longer, as they go through this routine up to 10 times a week. As a result we severely inconvenienced Simon and another friend we were going to be spending the evening with, both of whom really didn’t need us being late.

And finally Club La Costa it is wearying sitting through the childish need-to-get-the-Sales-Manager-over routines. If you don’t know your product or script, why are you still in the job?

I saw a great little part of Bristol for the first time yesterday – St.Nicholas’ Market down near Harbourside. Simon had taken Martha there before, but it was my first time, as we took him out for lunch. In feel its quite similar to Camden Lock market area in North London, with indoor and outdoor stalls. Being a Greenbelt Festival regular, spending time each year looking around the many stalls that pitch up there, many of these looked quite familiar.

Eating out with a dog in tow isn’t that easy, so its partly=outdoor food stalls were a big help. We had some good (but not cheap) Moroccan plates, washed down with mint tea. After eating we browsed around for a short while, focussing on a second-hand CD stall, where I took a chance on a Mingus jazz album.

The other find came from a piece on Channel 4 news on Friday: that there’s a Banksy exhibition on in Bristol’s City Museum and Art Gallery. We didn’t have time to visit it immediately, but we will before it closes on 31st August. Incidentally there’s a virtual tour of Banksy’s art in Bristol – his home town.

Continuing the Jazz Festival reports, I’ll start on a low note. The gig I was most looking forward to — Nikki Yeoh’s piano trio — was cancelled, because there was a long power cut at the Everyman theatre

So instead I sat at the Jazz Marquee listening to the fringe events, sometimes in the sun, sampling drinks from the open-air bar beside the Town Hall. A lovely way to spend part of the bank holiday – free jazz gigs

After turning up 12 hours too early the first time (oops), late last night we heard Don Byron’s Gospel Quintet. No-one knew quite what this would be like, as Don is known for moving through different genres: at least hip-hop and klezmer as well as his jazz roots. This was his first venture into Gospel.

Don Byron

After the first 10 minutes I was despairing, following just free-jazz clarinet with drums, which had nothing I could enjoy or understand. Not even vaguely Gospel.

Thankfully the rest of the quintet then appeared, and got down to the real business. This was 5 or 6 gospel songs from Thomas Dorsey, heavily dosed up with jazz and blues. Fantastic stuff, with fun little mini-fireworks spread throughout, including DK Dyson going scat.

The band were great, and Don gave some opportunity for soloing all round. Oddly, the bass solo was less impressive than the general playing from Brad Jones, which was pacy, and yet thoughtful and very lyrical. Shame there’s no recording of this quintet yet.