On Fun With Fi And Jane And Why the Internet Revives The Best English Language Radio Station Ever

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I have noticed a subtle change in my radio habits. Other than background when I'm doing something else on a workday (Classical King FM / RTE Lyric FM) or when West Ham is playing or Test Match Special is on I'm finding that I'm no longer listening to an English language radio station.

(On a non workday I do listen to a station in a language I'm trying to learn. In fact after I've finished this I'll be listening to the Irish state broadcaster RTE's Gaelic station. Now don't be impressed I won't understand anything other than "Teresa May" "Brexit" and probably I'll find out what the Gaelic for "Idiot" is. But it will give me a sense of how it sounds)

Anyway back to English language listening. I find myself spending one day on podcasts and the other replicating the best English language station I've ever heard. I'll deal with the latter later. But let's start with podcasts.

I have previously chatted about the Backlisted podcast in this blog and the latest one I've stumbled upon is Fortunatlely...with Fi and Jane. This is a BBC podcast where Fi Glover and Jane Garvey chat about life, universe and everything with themselves and then a guest from the world of broadcasting  but always drawing itself back to these ladies' first true love I'd guess radio.

When I get find a podcast I always start from the first episode. Which means currently I'm on the world as it is on November 2017 (better than it is now on Brexit eve I can tell you!) but as the episode dated 10 November showed. the ladies don't need a guest really. They could entertainingly hold a conversation to the listener. They are also candid about everything. Not quite Caitlin Moran candid (if you hear Jane Garvey after episode one of the Radio 4 adaptation of How To Be A Woman I think you will hear what could only be described as a broadcasting blush) but still these are ladies who aren't afraid of anything.

Ms Garvey presented the drive time show on Radio 5 live with Peter Allen which was the only drive time show I could say I was a fan of. Ms Glover introduces The Listening Project where people discuss their lives for posterity. But more importantly that that she also wrote the best book about radio I've ever read  called Travels With My Radio I'm An Oil Tanker where she visits more unusual radio stations round the world. It's a great read.

They personify the thing that radio at it's best could achieve that TV has never seemed able to do. The feeling that the people you're listening to are friends even though you've never met them. I seem to remember having the same view of Terry Wogan and before I was aware of his writing skills just knew him from The News Quiz Alan Coren.

Apparently when I eventually reach the present day I would have to listen to Fortunately exclusively on BBC Sounds. Something which the BBC Iplayer radio App now incorporates. I'm still keeping the BBC Iplayer radio app mind you. Because I've been able to recreate the best English Language Radio Station I've ever heard.....the BBC World Service....in the seventies and eighties.

UK National radio stations have always been "themed" channels in my lifetime. But the BBC World service (where you could listen in the UK on your AM dial - now that really dates me) was different because it would have news, but also drama, music (all types) sports and programmes where for example a guest would pick his/her favourite book. I remember Arthur Scargill (kids google his name) picked The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. It would also broadcast shows like Round The Horne or Just A Minute. All of this on just one channel.

And with the Iplayer radio App (and I hope with BBC Sounds) you can download most (not  it seems sport) programmes from all the different BBC radio stations and listen to them seamlessly as if creating your own little radio station catering to your own varied tastes (A note. Most downloads will expire 30 days from broadcasting)

New technology then. Taking me back.

Until the next time.

On Books: Including For Men At Some Time What Is The American Version Of Jane Austen

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Let's start with the latest library book I've read:

Peter Haining - The Great English Earthquake

Did you know there was a violent earthquake in England in 1884 with Essex as it's epicentre? Well  didn't. How a book about an earthquake in England during the Victorian era reached a small library in South Wales I don't know. But there we go.

Historians and Seismologists will love this book. Mr Haining knows his Essex earthquakes and the research he's done clearly shows this. However for the general reader (of which I'm unquestionably one) account after account of the ground shaking and damage to buildings can be wearisome after a while.

Still if you're into earthquakes and especially Essex earthquakes this is the book for you.

So a couple of days ago I was looking through the hard drive of the DVR (dominated by programmes the wife records now for me it's just Pobol Y Cwm and Bones generally speaking) when I noticed a film she'd recorded in late December when I was away in Essex exile looking after my unwell mother.

" I see you recorded Little Women" I said

"What of it?"

"Well I'm reading it right now".

And for the first time ever when I mentioned to the wife what book I'm reading she actually gasped.

My attitude to Louisa M Alcott's classic novel was exactly that to whatever Jane Austen tome you'd care to mention. As a boy/teenager/in my twenties I avoided it as it was "for girls". When I got older it was a case of so many books so little time...until now.

Let's start by saying that a fifty four year old man is not the target audience for this. But given it's classic status any true reader does need to say that they've read it.

Apparently Little Women was originally two books before merged into the one we know today. This did not surprise me. For (talking about the completed package) if football is described as a game of two halves then so is this novel. I can't remember another book where there seems to be a radical and sudden difference between it's first and second half. If there was one reason why I couldn't say I liked Little Women it was that.

The first part was very homespun American. And the thing is, nothing much really happened. It was a dull read. Indeed it was a shame that it wasn't set in the American South because with the general storyline (the lives of a group of women living in genteel poverty) I couldn't help thinking of cliched Country and Western tunes. The type that work along the lines of "We were poor and living in a cardboard box in Nashville....but we were happy" (not that poor mind you,they have a servant).

But it seemed as if Ms Alcott realised this because in the second half everything that she could have put in such a book seemed to be thrown in all of a sudden. So I disliked it for a different reason. That things happening so quickly in relation to the first part beggared belief.

But yet again it wasn't aimed at me. Mind you I've read Caitlin Moran and Marian Keyes and have enjoyed them as well. So perhaps it was just the case that Ms Alcott knew her audience and was happy enough with that.

Perhaps. Who can tell?

And in the random way I pick books from the Kindle the next ebook turns out to be Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. As I've said before in this blog my view of her is that she's in that group of writers I call "Literary Switzerland". In that I don't dislike them but I can't understand why they're considered great. A position that always bothered me because I feel I've missed something.

My Kindle has a mind of it's own.

Until the next time.

Does Welsh Labour read books? (Libraries As Preventative Medicine)

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Recently here in Wales there has been a report come out which says that should the funds ring fenced for health continue to be protected it might mean that leisure centres and libraries "unaffordable" in the future. The Welsh first minister, Labour's Carwyn Jones put his grave face on when he said that this was an "inevitable" result in the cuts by Westminster to the Welsh budget.

So the Welsh Conservatives respond in such a highly trained way you wondered whether London threw them a fish afterwards by saying that the situation was because of how Labour has mismanaged the resources it actually had.

Who is right? Well of course the answer is both. Westminster has cut, and will continue to cut the Welsh budget. On the other hand as I've documented in this blog from time to time Welsh Labour seem to prefer tackling issues with grandiose gestures rather than focusing on the nitty gritty of people need in their daily lives. You compare the Welsh Labour government with that of the SNP in Edinburgh and it fails, and miserably at that.

But for the purposes of this post I wanted to discuss the notion, which the Welsh Labour leader appeared to have accepted that to protect the health services in Wales you will need to cut leisure centres and libraries in the future.

What logic is there that the health service will be protected by cutting back on services that will help prevent health conditions? For years we have been told as a nation that we should actively participate in sport which would help to prevent heart conditions for example. So how does it help the NHS that people who could have had healthier bodies because of the proximity of a local leisure centre find it closed? You know what the increased budget will be spent on? It will be spent on people who were denied the means of participating in sports and physically suffered accordingly. False economy number one.

But there are plenty of people who will shout in protest for the leisure centre, so let me shout in protest for the library as a haven for preventative medicine instead. Dementia is a cruel disease of the mind where there is no cure. But it is known that one of the things that helps to at the very least is keeping yourself mentally as well as physically active.

Consider the library then as the leisure centre for the mind. It doesn't really matter what book you've borrowed. It could be James Joyce or James Patterson (plus one other) the point is that you've borrowed a book. Which means first that you have made the physical effort to go to a library. Then you have taken it home, then you sat down and started enjoying the quiet pleasure of turning a page whilst mentally engaging your brain.

Cutting the number of libraries will mean that this vital piece of mental stimulation for many communities will be lost. Consequently there will be a greater risk of dementia cases for the NHS to deal with. Welsh Labour Councils have already closed libraries (Rhondda Cynon Taff) or messed around with them (Bridgend). A more widespread closure programme will make the potential Alzheimer's timebomb even worse.

False economy number two.

And just to confirm I practice what I preach yesterday I finished reading Timetable of Death by Edward Marston. It's not the best Victorian police procedural I've ever read (that goes to the Inspector Cribb novels of Peter Lovesey) but taking the crime genre purely as entertainment I can't recall enjoying a book more for quite a while now.

If there is a piece of possible irritation it might be that Inspector Colbeck and his assistant Sargent Leeming might be of that brilliant upper class detective working class sidekick cliché. But I say possible because this novel is part of a series and being the first I've read (but not the first of the series, there's been at least fourteen) I don't know. Am not going to find out online either. I'll wait until another book in the series comes my way.

The other book finished yesterday was Moranthology by Caitlin Moran. A collection of her columns and articles in The Times newspaper. I loved it. One of those books where you're disappointed for having finished it.

Perhaps Welsh Labour may be interested in her essay regarding Libraries as "Cathedrals of The Soul". Explaining how to her the library was her university which gave her an education for her future life and how library closures will affect a town and the people in it.

But you won't will you Welsh Labour. You don't seem to care about books.

But think of this Welsh Labour. You may laugh at the little old lady with her piles of historical romances, Or the fifty three year old man with his crime novel set in Victorian England with added trains. But reading may mean that we are less of a burden on the NHS.

Think of that Welsh Labour.....and cut the stupid showy projects instead.

Until the next time.

A Further Thought On Ford in Bridgend And Caitlin Moran To The Rescue With Old Technology

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Yesterday was Saturday and just after lunch had to drive from where I live now to the outskirts of Bridgend town to begin the afternoon/evening shift of work. Normally my choice of  radio station of this journey is BBC Radio 4 ( the station coming back varies, but that's unimportant here) solely because I can catch up with the news at one the next time world events and me meet on these shifts will be when I've finished at ten in the evening.

The programmes before and after the news normally just wash over me. And so it should have been this time. Being a Saturday afternoon that was Any Questions where a panel answer audience questions on the issues of the day. Normally it's too predictable to be of any interest to me and occasionally annoying when a particular guest I don't like turns up. Here it was Julia Hartley-Brewer, a talk show host who can be best described as a toilet trained Katie Hopkins.

Now one of those questions was of the government's plan (and the fact that this government has a plan over anything is astonishing in itself) that no petrol or diesel cars would be sold by 2040. It appears that similar moves are being made across Europe (taking back control...ha!). The point though is whatever the timescale and how it's implemented it does appear that the future is electric. Cars will be humming to a different beat.

It was when they had finished discussing this issue that I passed the turnoff to the Ford Bridgend plant. Only then did my brain join the dots. Something I already knew but didn't register properly before.

It's an engine plant.

I have written before of my belief that the UK and Welsh governments need to move now to secure the future of Ford Bridgend. If motoring is to be electric then investment needs to be made now to make sure that the factory and the jobs are safe. The plant will need to be updated to cater for electric cars in order for it to be relevant in this new age. Ford will want incentives to do this and too be honest money should be thrown at them to be tempted to do this and fend off the consequences of Brexit. Because if the technology goes to a country in the EU, then whatever the enviornmental benefits of electric cars are the environmental costs to Bridgend will be disastrous.

Both the near closure of the Tata Steel works in Port Talbot and the closing down next year of the Tesco Call centre in Cardiff revealed governments (particularly that of the Labour run Welsh administration) that were seemingly caught out by events. Here they have time to seriously make an effort to secure the future of Ford Bridgend.

But the clock is ticking.

And to lighter matters.

Have finished Dostoevsky's The Idiot. Don't really need to say any more than I did yesterday. You know I liked it.

The next ebook on the Kindle pile is Our Italy by Charles Dudley Warner. first published in 1892. Only in this case "Italy" turns out to be California. If I understood the logic correctly. California is like Italy because of it's varied climate and landscapes. Thing is. In Chapter One there is mention of the Mojave Desert. No Geographer me but at this moment at least, before global warming changes things beyond recognition I don't recall Italy having a desert. There is also at least one moment where Europwe is compared unfavourably with the sunshine/drought/flooding/forest fire state. When you read it my first thought is "Then why the title Charlie?"

But let's be fair here. The target audience for this book now are probably Californian Geography teachers with an interest in local history. My lack of any real interest is probably because I'm so far away from the core demographic I'm in a different continent...which literally I am....specifically in fact the Italy with rain that is Wales.

Anyway I have 29 minutes according to my Kindle to go. I know this because that was the moment when a sign came up saying that it needed charging during a break at work. But unexpectedly there was a backup. Moranthology by a hardback book I'd bought yesterday in windy Porthcawl and had left in my work bag. Yet again in Ms Moran has come to my reading rescue. Not just because there was something to read but also that it's so damned good.

Until the next time.

Dostoevsky At The Dentist,By The Porthcawl Coast And With An All Day Breakfast For Lunch

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I know what you're going to think. He's left the Bridgend area for over two months now but he's still coming back? Leaving aside the fact he works there?

Well yes. But things still need servicing. Last Friday it was the car. Yesterday it was the turn of my teeth. Dentists are like hairdressers. Once you've put your faith in one that's it until necessity puts you into an agonised search for a replacement.

I remember once a dentist in Cardiff. It would have been about twenty years ago. Young,blonde pretty she was also the roughest I ever dealt with. She manoeuvred my mouth as if it was plasticine which, considering the lasting effects of my Bells Palsey is that I can't smile straight was bothersome to say the least. Mentioning it to my wife later she said "Yes she's rough with me too".

Which was why at nine thirty am I was the man waiting at reception to be called. I was the one reading a book on my Kindle. Ignoring the temptations of the TV channel they had on (really daytime TV taken as a whole is really where your brain goes to die). I was reading The Idiot by Doestoevsky, which I should say now is an entertainment but still better than what was on screen. After all will future generations eulogise about Homes Under The Hammer? I don't think so.

Anyway after my name was called and about half an hour later where things were put into my mouth and there is a sudden urge to cough at all the wrong moments I walked out of the premises. My teeth were ready to fight another day.

Like last week was working the afternoon/evening shift that day so it was pointless to return to the apartment. Like last week the weather was bad. Rain and heavy winds. Had though less time to wander aimlessly through the streets than previously What should I do? Make a return trip to Bridgend Town? What idiot would think that on a windy day like this a trip to the Porthcawl coastline would be a good idea?

So that's where I went.

Now in terms of a coastline must be honest and say that as long as it doesn't get into flooding mode I prefer watching the waves crash into an area. Porthcawl yesterday, heavy winds, cold, dark clouds  November in July, didn't disappoint.

Drama Without The Commercial Breaks

It really was as bleak as this

I did have the idea of stopping and reading a bit more Dostoevsky here. But, well I'm not that mad.

Must admit I like this

Opposite the coastline there is a Bed and Breakfast called The Foams Edge. Not quite today.....

....but close

And if you want the juxtaposition of the angry sea and the town?

Not sure this would be in the postcards

Decided that I did want to read a bit more Dostoevsky by the coast. There was in this weather a perfect place for it. A small enclosed place directly along the sea called The Piccolo Bar. So having bought a cappuccino I took my seat.

This was my view

It was it has to be said the first time I've ever felt seasickness whilst on dry land.

Two more pictures of crashing seas before I go on. Firstly from the Ministry of Obvious Signs Porthcawl Division.



And then this, the end of the harbour wall in Porthcawl. I could have gone further, but not being a lunatic or the French Lieutenant's Woman felt discretion was the better part of valour.



Like last week in Bridgend Town I felt for old times sake I should buy a book. Went to my favourite the Porthcawl Animal Welfare Shop (PAWS) and on entering saw a guy pay for a group of books....including vintage Penguins!!

Nonetheless went upstairs and there was a number of Penguin paperbacks to chose from. But as it happened a different,non Penguin caught my eye. Moranthology by Caitlin Moran which is an anthology of You may remember I wrote about how she helped pass the time for me on Christmas Day at work when I was reading How To Build A Girl and how I was impressed by it. So partly being excited, part out of state of gratefulness and mainly out of it being a hardback selling for just 60p I bought it.

Time then for lunch. Went to a café called The Esplanade.Decided on a all day breakfast with a cup of tea.

As a quick aside I should mention that the European British Open Senior Golf Tournamnet was being played nearby. In the café there was a woman with that sort of bright pink golf top and visor that you see being worn by the wives of male golfers or female golfers. The look and her tan suggested that she was American. I looked at her and thought. "You've never been to Porthcawl before have you"

Who Says Civilised Living Is Dead?

Despite the Moran book being on the table it was Fyodor's book I continued reading. And I've almost finished it. As said it's an entertainment. The closest way I can describe it (and it's not quite correct) is as a comedy of manners. But I enjoyed the novel and it shows a range in what he could write about that I hadn't realised before.

So when it comes to classic Russian writers I'm still wit team Fyodor.

Until the next time.

In Which French Women, Mark Harmon And Sherlock Help Me With My Wardrobe And Other New Year Resolutions

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

First housekeeping. I've finished How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran. The book that kept me company at work on Christmas, I loved it then and nothing changed on completion. And given that I'm a fifty two (nearly fifty three year) old man to have enjoyed this novel shows exactly how good it was.

Now, coming soon to a place near you. a new year. And with it.......resolutions. Normally I've never really gone for resolutions but this time I'm going for them in a big way.

These come in two main categories: The first being to up my game on things I've started this year.

Learning languages: As much as I can possibly do I shall be listening to French, Italian, Polish and Welsh depending on the day. If I can practice speaking it to people, whether online or face to face, so much the better.

Within reason be more continental in habit: Particularly in front of those right wing fascist people who have emerged from the slime and think that a hard Brexit is beating up Polish immigrants.

(Already I'm toying with buying those pod coffee machines that get advertised on the TV. The only thing holding me back there is that I didn't realise that the choice is like VHS/Betamax. A family necessity or a throw it away on the tip blunder. Wife's not enthusiastic. Mind you she wants one of those George grill things).

Work For Plaid Cymru: Particularly around April/May. Imagine a man that just spends most of his time sleeping so neglecting his duties and when he does wake up bosses people around but acts incompetently . That is Bridgend Labour Council. Local elections are in May. They have to go .

Go through the Elizabeth David Cookbook: You thought I forgot didn't you? But no. Just opportunity didn't knock. Will work through it.

Similarly:

Fill up the Panini Euro 2016 sticker album: As above.

Then there is the second category of resolutions. Those new for 2017.

Do voluntary work in a foodbank: Says everything you need to know about present day Britain that I can contemplate doing this. Not sure exactly when though. Daughter's knee problem means that for the moment during my days off I'll be the bus taking her the half hour journey to/from school (allowing her to stretch her leg) so there won't be a lot of spare time.

Sort out my wardrobe: Yesterday I was working in the evening but wife, mother and daughter went out to see brother-in-law and his family. On their return they showed me the Christmas present for me.....a £30 voucher for a clothes store (I wasn't offended. We got him exactly the same thing from exactly the same clothes store).

Been contemplating a new look for a while now when I realised that the tenplate  I should follow was the Mark Harmon character from NCIS. It was a look that said, "I'm in my fifties. I've dressed casually, but I'm not pretending to be thirty years younger or about to go to the golf course".

Not completely that look though. I've seen the large coat Benedict Cumberbatch wears in the Sherlock TV series....and I want it.

And as for French women? I read somewhere that they have a small wardrobe but of good quality rather than my strategic clothes manoeuvre of buy them cheap and pile them high, For 2017 I'm going to follow that pattern and see where that leads me.

We'll see how well I do.

Until the next time.

.

Christmas Day At Work With Caitlin Moran

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So I spent Christmas day morning and early afternoon at work. Don't feel sorry for me. I think I've made it clear in the past few months that as I've grown older I tend to greet Christmas with a grudging handshake more than a warm embrace. Still to any observer in the kitchen yesterday at four thirty am I must seemingly have looked a pitiful sight taking my croissant breakfast alone whilst listening listening to a recording of Book of the Week on Radio 4.

A quick digression. As I was listening to the Book of the Week, Love Of Country by Madeleine Bunting, an account of her journey around the Scottish islands, I made the decision that should I outlive my wife, I'd move to the Welsh Tuscany that is the Rhondda. For the moment Treorchy would be the specific target,though that might change. Funny how big decisions in your life can be made in unexpectedly quiet moments.

Working on Christmas Day morning does also have other advantages. You are not nagged at for not being involved in the Xmas dinner. Neither are you condemned for nodding off in the evening.

But anyway so to work. It's 6:00 am and I'm prepared. A bottle of mineral water,a pack of chewing gum and a book, How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran.

For the first hour there's hardly any work to do, so there was a lot of reading. By seven o'clock I've read eighty pages.By the end of the second hour there was more work so  the page count moved to 120.

So to hour three. Less work this time. At 8:45 I get a call from the wife. Daughter is still asleep and she finds herself bored in front of the TV. Daughter is fourteen. Proof that the allure of Christmas does lessen when you know it's secret. By the end of that hour the page count moves to 200.

Work then really hits in. By the end of hour four the page count moves to.....err 208. And that's where it stayed until it was time to leave.

And the point is this. How To Build A Girl is a great book. A pure pleasure to read. The sort of novel that you start to deliberately slow for fear of finishing it. Last year Alan Coren made me forget working in the holiday period and it seems Caitlin Moran is doing it for me this time around......and she's just as good.

So for being with me on Christmas Day morning at work thankyou Caitlin Moran.

Until the next time.

A Toilet Seat, My Hatred For Howard Webb And Other LastMinuteThingsBeforeChristmasNotDotCom

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

On the list of unexpected things that happen before Christmas Day which have to be dealt with, a broken toilet seat is not one of them. Normally it's the kitchen light bulb that requires, no demands your attention. But yesterday the toilet seat broke, the strain of the rear end of life was too much for it to bear and so that was one of the list of things to do.

My main thought was to buy my mother a couple of books to finish off her Christmas presents as a stocking filler. Wife said go to Home Bargains (on the way to the DIY place) they sell books. So I did. And they do.....just children's books. So after this Toilet Seat Secret mission a quick trip to Porthcawl was needed.

First though was to collect a parcel from the Post Office depot. Tick. Get soaked in the rain doing so. Tick.

Interestingly what I learnt about toilet seats from the DIY seats is that the prices from £4.99 to £32.99 and it was those on the mid range that were empty. There were those in various colours and, for those insane amongst us, designs. Just bought a normal white one at £9.99. Tick.

Getting to the bottom of things

The "Last Minute Things Before Christmas" View

Then in the spirit of Christmas or perhaps to avoid been nagged at for not going went to the local Starbucks to buy a gingerbread latte for the wife and a hot chocolate for the daughter, she having defected from the rival Costa.

After going home, dumping the stuff I bought  and taking a quick cup of tea . Off I went to Porthcawl, and as I was going to Porthcawl I could go to the library.

Was almost going to pick the autobiography of Howard Webb the referee, now TV personality. Now I hate Howard Webb, not because he was a referee but because he's younger than me. You know when you're old when the match officials are younger than you.

But as it happens another football book caught my eye.

Andrea Pirlo - I Think Therefore I Play

No British footballer could get away with a title like that.

The other book I borrowed, spotted in passing was:

Caitlin Moran - How To Build A Girl

Amazing isn't it. Look for months for her months and two come in a short space of time. She must be the London Buses of literature.

So that was done. Tick. Books bought for my mother. Tick. No Penguin books today which seems appropriate after my last post. Also bought these.

And in the spirit of Christmas  let me stress......THEY ARE MINE

And before we leave Porthcawl. Here it is at sunset yesterday.

Remember this is the South of Wales not France

Once home worked a journey from London to Bridgend for my mother at her request which involved mainly driving along the M4 but avoiding the Severn Bridge if it's closed because of high winds on Christmas day. Did I know what I was doing? Absolutely not. She should follow any road signs at the time. Still it's my mother....and like wives and daughters they can be insistent. Tick.

Toilet seat installed. Tick. Finally wrapping of wife's/mother's presents from me/daughter. In another of the series "Things I hate about Christmas" I hate wrapping. Christmas is problematic enough without being expected to be able to put gaudy paper around oddly shaped presents. If I wanted to be an expert in folding paper I'd have taken up origami.

Still eventually......

that's a wrap.....badly.....tick

Until the next time.

Maesteg,It's Indoor Market And Books In The Early Morning

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

For reasons I won't bore you with by explaining yesterday (Monday) I took daughter to school. As it's a Welsh language school it's half an hour from where we live near Maesteg and thought as I was near there might as well save some time by doing the odd bit of grocery shopping in the town rather than having to go to Bridgend later.

The view from a Maesteg car park as at 8:45am on a Monday morning

I had decided not only to go do this shopping but also to visit Maesteg Indoor Market which as I've explained in an earlier post is threatened after one hundred and thirty five years of loyal service to the community is threatened with closure by the local Labour, yes Labour council.

Most of the market wasn't yet open yet. But the book stall was left open for all to look at.

So I did

My Penguin book budget was £4.15. In the event I bought four books. The first wasn't a Penguin paperback and on the surface seems like an odd choice for me to pick.

Caitlin Moran - How To Be A Woman

I had seen on the television chatting about her recent book at the Hay-On-Wye literary festival around May/June time and was impressed. Had been looking for her books in the local Bridgend local libraries but to no avail. So was pleased to see this. Even though as a fifty two year old man it seems like the last thing I should read.

Then I saw two gold spined paperbacks of the German writer Gunter Grass. They were:

Gunter Grass - From The Diary Of A Snail

Gunter Grass - Dog Years

I haven't read a Gunter Grass book before and was excited to have got these. Did get The Tin Drum once but for some reason mislaid it. These things happen.

The last book I bought was this.

1130 - John Buchan - The Thirty-Nine Steps

Now to be honest I'm in two minds about this. The collector in me is pleased to have got a pre ISBN edition of his most famous book, and I won't deny it.

But.....

I remember once on Twitter that John Buchan was accused of being a bad writer who got lucky with The 39 Steps. Based on another book of his that I read can only for the moment agree. It was called Prestor John. Not only was it awful but even taking into account the attitudes of the time it was written it was stunningly racist. I read it with my left wing sensibilities and thought "something will happen to make this right". But I was incorrect. It was of the far right but completely, totally wrong.

The four books together cost £2. I left the money on the counter and walked away. Only then did a lady working in the local café tell me that she'd look after it for the stallholder. The stalls in Maesteg indoor market working together for the general good. A sort of Socialist attitude against the heartless  Labour Council. A microcosm of how the world has gone mad.

Until the next time.