Ealing Half Marathon (or is it a Snickers now?)

Runners and crowd in The Avenue 30th September

Cauliflower

The inaugural  Ealing half marathon took place today  in what were good conditions. All seemed well managed with streets lined with supporters. If it's going to become an annual event might even consider taking part!
More veggies for the week - a cauliflower that survived pigeon raids and a kohlrabi.

Kohlrabi

Keeping in touch (important)

This week has been an interesting one for me - as well as making decisions I have had the chance to meet up with old friends which was a great blast!

Friday Take away

On Wednesday I went to an RTS (TV Society)  review of IBC (broadcast Show) - what was  fascinating was the way it was summarized by visitors on the panel - seems broadcasting needs to make sure it stays relevant and attracts the next wave of creatives and techies.
Metadata is one thing that can't be overlooked as the all powerful Samsung rolls out 'connected' TVs the next wave of viewers will not limit themselves to linear broadcast TV of the traditional type. Content producers and aggregators must be searchable and the data needed for these searches mus be there!

Enough about TV here are some vegetables

Peas and beans

Peas and Toms

More beans?

Went to do some shed repair work following the break in and I also picked some more stuff - this included along with those illustrated Swede, Beetroot and a That's life type strangely shaped carrot.

The wild west

On visiting allotment site on Sunday really worried when I saw the shed door open...
Sad to say I (like many on the site) must report that I'd been robbed with some tools, radio  and a couple of old jackets taken - wouldn't think the perpetrator would get much more than £10 from selling what they took.
As you can see from this Leicester report this problem is widespread (and can be very sad).
Main lesson for me don't leave anything that you don't have to - no spades forks etc. were taken so I guess portability is important to the thieves. There's some damage to the shed door and bolt but not sure if it's better to leave pretty much as is -thieves can easily return and damage limitation seems the best way forward.
My plot neighbour wasn't surprised seems it goes with the territory (ha ha).

One of two

On a more positive note here's one of my two apples picked at the w/e bit sharp but nice and crisp.

The past of Mr Bruce Lacey

Wow isn't the internet cool?

Former Library that's the Camden Arts Centre

Yes, it gave me the chance to find out a figure who was registered in the back of my mind as a heroic maverick from my youth who would be involved peripherally with 60's counter culture called Bruce Lacey.
Bruce is still going strong any yesterday before it closes (today) Debbie and I went to  (I suppose)  a retrospective at the rather pleasant Camden Arts Centre  of his work and times.
But compared with Bruce himself perhaps the Web's s not so cool - Bruce has moved from being (to me) some sort of crazy post WWII lab tech to a slightly scary Shamen figure .
The big message fro Bruce was keep the child in yourself alive - the exhibition was free to all.

The future of radio

During the week I took the opportunity of the RCS hosting a Media Society event to learn a little of the thoughts around where Radio is going.
(How difficult it feels now to actually tightly define what Radio is - is a podcast radio for example?)
The panel leading the discussion was made up of

Matthew Bannister  who now  presents ‘Last Word’ on BBC Radio 4 and ‘Outlook’ on the BBC World Service but at what time was on the board of BBC directors and spent some time leading Radio one.

Jumoké Fashola  presenter of ‘Inspirit’ on BBC London and  Ronnie Scott's Radio Show on Jazz Fm;

Mark Goodier – a broadcaster now working  for Smooth Radio and owner of Wise Buddah who was national figure at Radio one in the eighties.

John Myers ­– ceo The Radio Academy, chair of Sony Radio Awards committee

and

Tim Collins  who's senior producer for The Jeremy Vine Show on  BBC Radio 2 and chaired the whole thing most capably.

Challenges(of course)  included Social media along with getting the radio listeners of the future on board but where radio scores is with the 'trapped' listener in the car.
As you'd expect there were some real radioheads there and one questioner seemed to think getting more transmission of  BBC radio in the USA should be a priority (which I didn't really get).
At the end of the day it was thought provoking and for me for some reason free.

77 years young .. Mr Leonard Cohen delights

On Sunday we went to Wembley Arena to see one of the top troubadours of our time an ageing Canadian  poet and singer who delights in the name of Leonard Cohen.
The warmth that greeted his arrival on stage was palpable and the love was tangible, gracious in the extreme he gave a concert ranging across the decades  he's been active in and included the tremendous Going Home from the recent Old Ideas album.

He's our Man

How can a man of 77 who has lived a 'full life' defy the laws of gravity and decorum with such abandon, what is the secret he should share with us (in his secret life)?
Both the Times and the Daily Telegraph reviews awarded him and his concert a 5 out of 5 and they were not over selling the occasion.
Interestingly the final encore was a song made famous by The Drifters performed excellently by his brilliant band, if you take the time to find out about 'Save the last dance for me' I'm sure you'll be touched too. Tangentially I have a connection when I worked in France, Richard a colleague at Euronews shared some of the tunes that had been written by him and  Mort Schuman for a musical about Hong Kong, Mort co-wrote  'Save the last dance for me' and many other smash hits with Doc Pomus who was inspired to write the earlier mentioned song when he revisited notes on the wedding reception where he'd watched  his brother dancing with his new wife from his wheelchair.

Sweetcorn time

Mice food?

Tim's food

I was a bit shocked to see that my Sweetcorn had been harvested by something other than me - have managed to retrieve something (right).
  

Shuffles and a Windsor visit

Very shocked to see that one J Hunt has been promoted to Health  don't think he covered himself with glory at DCMS but fear that competency is not the criteria here. New DCMS boss is Maria Miller a woman who presented herself as member of the public in Tory election broadcast so we can worry about this too as she takes action (or not) following the prolonged Leveson  press enquiry.
Anna Soubry MP (conservative)  in the news as a health minister saying Euthanasia should be looked at  tend to agree with her - in fact I worked with Anna about 30 years ago when she was employed by Central news as a TV reporter. She presented live from Wick (in Scotland) into ITN news broadcast using very early fly away SNG.

We went to Windsor for afternoon tea today - don't think I'd visited before it was quite pleasant and got loads of bargains at the local Lakeland shop - including a chipmaker at better than half price.

more harvesting

Garden pears

Beetroot peas and cucumbers