Blog on Ice

This blog will be put on ice for a few days while I am on holiday in Iceland. I look forward to entertaining you further on my return. Keep warm.

And the Winner is...

Here we are on the eve of the Oscars ceremony again. I was expecting a call this time, I thought I might have been short-listed for best supporting psychologist in a foreign film, or as best director for "CBT - The Movie" (strap line - " Just when you thought it was safe to think again..."). As it is, I spent most of the day shopping in Leicester in preparation for our imminent trip to Iceland - which I believe is going to be marginally warmer than it is here in the UK.

It was lovely to have a big bowl of home-made chips in The Globe in Leicester. This was apparently once a jail for women awaiting execution in the nearby Gallowgate. Chips and dips with a history lesson.

Friday at Last

The teaching did not take place today due to an administrative hiccough, but had it gone ahead my voice was in fine shape today. Two drives to the lovely ancient town of Dunstable due to bad planning on my part, and thankful that I was able to do a swerve today and get off the M1 in time to miss a large tail-back due to a vehicle fire. For once, the traffic reports worked in my favour, even if they interrupted my enjoyment of my Motown Anthems.

Some interesting issues have arisen in my work with clients this week. The challenge of hearing voices from two Gods, and the distinction between being "picked on" and "chosen". We live within boundaries of varying degrees of permeability, and I think that understanding this is fundamental to understanding our relationships with others - how the lessons from early life become translated or manifested in our later lives. Are we all doomed to repeat the mistakes of our past? Formulation is like completing a jig-saw puzzle, but we can never be sure that we have all the pieces, and without the picture to guide us, what we think is a sunflower in a vase may turn out to be a dandelion in a cracked tumbler.

Oh, this is too much for a Friday night, especially now that I am on holiday for a week!

Martial Arts for the Partially Artistic

From the excitement of photography class last night to the reality of martial arts training this evening. I may be a Ninja photographer, but my moves in the Do Jang would not merit an exhibition - they lack focus and composure. I am in the remedial class for the differently gifted. Oh well, it is about the journey and a little humility is something to be proud of!

I'm also losing my voice, which bodes well for my teaching tomorrow afternoon. A little red wine for lubrication now is a good use of red wine. Did I tell you I had an alcohol-free January to raise funds for Cancer Research UK? Please donate a little if you have not already done so - I'm keen to post some more embarrassing photos of myself! Time is running out, and like most photographers I need a little exposure.

Photography Class

The class this evening focused on critical feedback on our own work, and it was very pleasing and reassuring to hear favourable comments from professional photographers. It encourages me to pursue my interest further, to learn more and to become even better. I include three of my favourite shots for your enjoyment.

 

Anonymise and Harmonise

This was the phrase that came to me this afternoon when I was preparing teaching materials for Friday. I had cut and pasted sections from various psychological reports I had written to provide examples of how to present concise CBT case conceptualisations. I needed to remove the names of clients and to structure the layout in a consistent style. Hence anonymise and harmonise. I think I will look for other opportunities to use this pleasing phrase.

It was a pleasant drive to Bedford this morning, a light mist insinuating itself across the frosty fields. By this afternoon, we were enjoying bright sunshine and blue skies, against which I saw the large circus tent near the embankment. Unfortunately there was not a convenient place to stop to take a photograph.

Let's be honest, not too many people are following this blog, I think it is an acquired taste, like good bitter. I may need to integrate it with one of my other blogs which have been neglected of late.

Now, this all started to record my month of abstinence from alcohol. Successful abstinence in an attempt to raise funds for Cancer Research UK in their Dryathlon campaign.

Here is the good news - you have until  the end of the month to contribute if you have not already done so! Take a look at some of the earlier posts to remind yourself or acquaint yourself with the quality of this blog - candid pictures, quotes, and facts about alcohol. A few more pounds and I will post a picture of myself looking the worse for wear and almost wearing a shirt.

If you do not want to contribute online, you can do it by mobile for free - just text PSYC99 £x to 70070, where x = 1,2,3,5 or 10.

Thank you. Anonymise and harmonise.

Sacred Light

My mind is a blank this evening, a tabula rasa.

A photo for you to contemplate...

Maxed Out

Well, to be more accurate, T. K. Maxxed out! Over the course of the weekend we visited stores in Kettering, Leicester and Northampton, in our quest for warm outdoor clothing, the reason for which will become clearer as the week progresses.

I have also been busy doing photographic things on my computer this evening in preparation for class this week, and I was to be found on top of the multi-storey car park in Northampton late this afternoon - no, not trying to escape from T.K. Maxx (but that was a fortunate by-product), but taking pictures of the early evening sky and cranes (the construction type, not the birds), sad person that I am. I was practising exposure and manual focusing, but I'm not convinced that will stand up in court.

Four Give Us Our Daily Bread

Jack goes into a supermarket and buys 4 rolls. The total price is £1.20. How much does eack roll cost?
Answer: 30p.
A baker's dozen would cost £3.90.

Jill goes into a supermarket and buys 5 rolls. The total price is £1. How much does each roll cost?
Answer: 20p.
A baker's dozen would cost £2.60.

Wrong.

It would cost £2.90 (i.e. £2 for 10 rolls at 20p each and 3 rolls at 30p each.).

Jill would clearly be better off buying 15 rolls for £3, and selling her two unwanted rolls to Jack at a discounted price.

This was the conundrum I was faced with today when I chose 4 rolls instead of 5. And being faced with a conundrum in the supermarket early on a Saturday morning is not the best start to the day. To circumvent the need for me to pay £1.20 for 4, an assistant was dispatched to fetch me an additional roll so I ended up with 5 for £1. The cashier could not challenge the computer system set up to manage this craziness by quietly agreeing I could leave the store with 4 rolls for a £1, I had to have the additional roll.

And the moral of this tale?

Firstly, Jack and Jill should have contented themselves with fetching a pail of water.

Secondly, more and more our behaviour is being shaped to fit the computer models rather than the models being adapted to suit the vagaries of human behaviour. But then, unlike the rolls, I'm a crusty old fool.

Fizzled Out Friday

The week reaches its predictable end, but it has been a fairly productive one on the work front. I have new locums starting next week and I feel like a general moving my therapeutic troops around on a big map of the mind. An easy drive to Dunstable this morning, helped by it being half-term in Northamptonshire. But by mid-afternoon back in Bedford, I felt my energy and enthusiasm begin to fizzle out. A pile of work needing my attention, I symbolically tickled the surface and in a very determined way made a list of what I need to do next week. Firstly, to add this list to the one I prepared at the end of last week.

With wishes for a lovely weekend to all.

St Trifon Zarazan

No. it is clearly not an anagram of St Valentine. St Trifon is the patron saint of wine growers and is celebrated today in, among other places, Bulgaria. Special ceremonies are enacted in the vineyards, the vines are pruned, and later much wine is consumed. Sounds just like any other day at work for me.

The day has been quite pleasant. Slight creaming accident in the kitchen tonight as I prepared a special St Valentine meal - I shook the tub for a second time having forgotten I had unsealed the lid. I blame St Trifon Zarazan.

We spoke at work today of how in time the organisation will run like clockwork. I suggested that clockwork mice might be a better analogy - running around in circles and/or bumping into the skirting board. It's that St Trifon again.

Evening Shades of Grey

There was a lovely pink and orange sky early this morning, allowing the wind turbines to stretch their arms towards this deliciousness. An orange sun, sliced in half by a streak of grey cloud, completed the picture, looking like the logo for a holiday company selling holidays in sunny places. Yet by 4.30 this afternoon, every shade of grey filled the sky as a gentle flurry of snow fell during my early drive home. So, a day of colours ends in monochromatic dullness. Although we could identify a long meeting this morning as the starting point of colour being drained from the day, like the orange being squeezed of its juice, and not helped by train chaos at Luton due to overhead line problems at Radlett. Where is the Wichita line man when you need him?

Composure and Composition

The day began with clearing the snow from my car which I didn't clear yesterday, but now it was frozen on. At least I didn't have the walk to the station and instead gave my arms some exercise with the scraper.

I was interviewing for locum staff today, so hurriedly had to compose some suitably penetrating questions. I was unable to make any links with the sudden retirement of the Pope, although some might have seen my post in another place yesterday which wondered why I have to give three months notice while the pope gave less than a month's notice. Maybe psychologists are harder to replace. Keep an eye open for my next enpsychlical - sorry to recycle this one!

Composition was the main theme in camera class tonight - how to turn a snapshot into a crackshot. It is about the rule of thirds ("third time lucky"), golden means, lines, curves, corners, echoes, patterns and textures. I begin to get the picture.

Edge Monday

So, here we sit on the edge of the start of another week, wondering what it will bring, whether we will be able to keep our balance and get through to the weekend, the pot of elusive gold at the end of the rainbow.

Not much of note today. I cba to sweep the snow off my car this morning so decided to take the train to work instead. At least the walk to the station gives me a bit of extra exercise. The snow was soon washed away by the rain and slightly increasing temperature. That's how nature works, I guess. Or physics.

Photography class tomorrow, another chance for my wry observations to go unobserved and unremarked.

Severe Weather Forecast

I drove my eldest daughter back to Oxford this afternoon, a horrible drive through ceaseless rain which was interlaced with snow on the way back home. The matrix signs on the M40 said "Severe Weather Forecast Today", so we were in no doubt about the conditions we were driving through. However, I did wonder about the grammatical structure of this very straightforward message. I imagined the weather forecaster shouting and wagging a stern finger at the audience - not sure how one actually wags a stern finger, but I guess it is part of their meteorological training (they strengthen their fingers by lifting isobars) - and telling them that woe betide them if they don't heed the advice to wind-proof and water-proof themselves. That is a severe weather forecast, rather than a forecast of severe weather.

Supermarket Comrades

The weekly trip to the supermarket is a prominent feature of my Saturdays. Today it was marked by meeting two comrades from the local Labour party - we were councillors together a good few years ago. The first encounter was in the fruit and vegetable section, where we exchanged a few comments about entertaining, cooking and the study of philosophy and logic. Logic to a backdrop of cucumbers and mushrooms.  All cucumbers are vegetables. I am a cucumber. Therefore I am a vegetable.

The second encounter was even more surreal. This was outside the store. I was pushing my trolley along the covered walkway towards where my car was parked - it would have been illogical to go in any other direction under the circumstances - and I heard a voice call my name from a little below me. My colleague was descending with her trolley on the de-escalator to the lower car park level - presumably, I deduced with impeccable logic, to where she had parked her car. We had a short and bizarre conversation as the vertical distance between us increased (from x to y in the helpful diagram below).

Memories of Kay

It was more than 10 years ago when Kay came into my life and touched me in ways I still don't understand. She was warm, resilient and had a very idiosyncratic view of the world. She opened my eyes to another way of seeing, to the mystical aspects of life that so often get lost in the humdrum of daily life as we go about our business. We enjoyed trips to Milton Keynes to "bring down the moon", visits to London to re-trace the haunts of her early life, and a very memorable weekend of fire-walking. We said goodbye to her today, but not to the memories and feelings she has left us with.

A Day Without a Motif

It is often the case that a day can be said to have a motif, something distinctive, or a recurring element, but today has not been one of those days. I arrived at work under a blue sky and drove home in quickly descending darkness and rain, dazzled by oncoming headlights and the bright reflections off the surface of the road.

Whilst on a driving theme, it is pertinent to note my youngest daughter's success in passing her driving test first time. I took five attempts - passing on the final one, thankfully, although I was tempted to take another one to get in the half-dozen. And why was this? I think the simplest answer is that I couldn't drive.

At work my thoughts turned to the prospect of retirement. Images of applying WD40 (other lubrucants are available) to my Zimmer frame (probably other walking frames are available), digging out a suitable cardigan, de-coking my pipe, and listening to the Stereophonics - oh, sorry, I meant listening to the stereophonic James Last Orchestra on vinyl.

This evening I subjected myself to the weekly ritualistic humiliation of trying to do martial arts. People do not appreciate the challenges faced by those who are partially dyspraxic with poor proprioception. In karate classes at university I invariably ended up facing in the wrong direction. Maybe there is a motif here for my life as a whole - I was there, but facing the wrong way.

Skies

 The slowly turning arms of the wind turbines tried to push away the dark clouds pressing down on them this morning. These are arms that will never embrace.

Later, thick sunlight smeared like butter on crumpet clouds.

In Luton, a black cape on the edge of town, drawing closer - to protect or suffocate?


Example of Dark Cloud over London (near Luton)



In yoga class tonight we were introduced to "tree". Note to self - in the interests of health and safety, do not do "tree" if neighbour is doing "dog".

No Words Today

For Kay and all who will miss her so.

 

Monday Musings

It was a shock to the system this morning when my alarm sounded, dragging me out of a deep sleep at 07.00. Could it really be Monday morning already? What happened to the weekend?

Once I had absent-mindedly completed my morning rituals, then I started to feel better. In the end, it turned out to be a fairly easy day, dealing with the incoming emails as though they were ducks at a fairground. Except I didn't win a goldfish or plaster ornament.

Typically, after the uniform greyness of a monochromatic Sunday, today would have been a lovely day for photographs - bright sunshine, blue skies and some interesting clouds. At least there is the promise of Spring, even though we have plenty more cold days to get through according to recent weather alerts. And the drive home starts to be mostly in daylight now.

And so to the news of the day, with a skeletal theme. Firstly, the confirmation that the skeleton found under a car park in Leicester is indeed that of King Richard III. Secondly, the truth clatters like a skeleton out of Chris Huhn's cupboard as he admits to perverting the course of justice by persuading his then-wife to take the hit for a speeding fine. It would seem that his political career is also heading to the cemetery. So, one buried under a car park, one buried by a motoring offence. There is poetry everywhere if you look closely.

Exposure

The photography workshop was very educational, but a true artist has to suffer, and being exposed to the elements this morning certainly put us to the test. This hobby can be expensive because of all the photographic equipment one is tempted to buy, but there are additional costs in terms of in(thermal)vesting in some good outdoor clothing. I was pleased I brought my walking/talking boots but missed out on the woolly hat.

We took pictures of reeds blowing in the wind to learn how to freeze movement or to go with the flow, of trees and posts to practise our focusing and depth of field skills, and of a pond with assorted surroundings to experiment with light meter readings. I took over 200 hundred pictures - I think they will be very entertaining to show friends at some point, if they have 2 hours of their lives they don't want back again and can cope with 50 shots of reeds (holiday snapshot nightmare!).

Reed All About It!

New Shoes and a Visit

Life is back to normal in the lovely market town of Kettering, far from the sea and reality. Two events of significance today - I bought a new pair of shoes and my son paid a flying visit on his way to an engagement party in Leicester, and next week he is off to Florida on business. How lovely to live our lives through our children - my work never takes me beyond Luton and Dunstable, although there is the occasional rare trip out to Pitsea or Thurrock in Essex. How about a little picture of seagull boy in Southend...


Birdman of Southend




The commitment to a new pair of shoes is significant in that it shows my determination to stride forward in life, proud, without the risk of twisting my ankle because of worn down heels. I will walk tall both here in Kettering, and further afield in places like Luton - but not necessarily in a field.

I am looking forward to my photography trip tomorrow, but there has been a change of plan - due to rain and snow issues, we will be giving the embankment a miss and instead we will be heading for Marston Vale forest centre (a lovely project to reclaim natural habitats after years of industrialisation by the brick-making industry centred on Stewartby on the outskirts of Bedford). More tomorrow if I remain in focus. And finally, another shot from Southend...

"Don't run off with my shoes"

First Drink Friday

My first sip of wine after a month of abstinence was as wonderful as I imagined. I chose a lovely South African wine from Boschendal, which I think was one of the vineyards I visited in the Cape almost 10 years ago. Mind you, I think I drank it a little too quickly, not allowing for my reduced tolerance. But hey, it's Friday night and I've had a fairly good week at work, so let's go for it!

Thank you to everyone who has given me encouragement over the past month and to those of you who have made a donation to Cancer Research UK. I am quite a bit short of my target so if you have not yet managed to donate, I am pleased to say that contributions are still being accepted! These can be made through Just Giving or by texting PSYC99 £x to 70070 free of charge, where x= 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10. Think of it as buying me a virtual drink at the bar for my efforts over the past month and for my attempts to  inform and entertain through my daily diary.

I was disappointed that yesterday's suspect picture from my suspect collection did not generate much comment, but thank you Ceco for liking it (after all, I think you took the picture - thank you!). How low do I have to set the bar to get a reaction?! It is like limbo dancing, but I wouldn't sink that low.  I pushed the limits with my little collage on Wednesday night - how terrible did I look with the rubber band round my head trying to demonstrate a tension headache? You are so hard to please, but I think I may be able to rustle up some more dodgy pics if I get a few more donations. You won't be surprised to learn that I was expelled from the pole dancing classes for inappropriate use of a light fitting. Some people just don't appreciate creativity.