Mind Your Back!

          When my brother posted on our siblings’ WhatsApp group a photo of a skip full of earth and rubble that he had single-handedly dug out himself, I was well impressed. Given that he is a couple of years short of 80 (just one behind me), undertaking such back-breaking work must have been a challenge to say the least. He is obviously fit as a fiddle, but he assured us that he approached the task not with the reckless gusto of youth but with the experienced man’s care and consideration for his back. And this is just the preparatory stage of his project to build a conservatory.

          Now, I don’t wish to appear competitive, but this week I have been bending my own back to a spot of hard labour. The new owners of the building that housed a recently closed department store, House of Fraser, invited Nudge*, the charity that I do some voluntary work with, to help ourselves to whatever had been left behind and, after a quick survey of the contents, we jumped at the opportunity.

          The closure of the store had been inevitable, as it was the last department store standing after the other five shut up shop. It put up a good fight, but its sorry end comprised a sell-off of stock at discounted prices, protracted until the last few bargain-hunting punters dwindled away, spent-up or unable to justify another purchase, despite the tempting price tags. I was amongst them, trawling through the menswear while observing the floorspace becoming smaller as areas were cleared and cordoned off.

          But if the death throes were sad, the final demise was eerie. When we arrived to collect our goodies, we entered through the back door and walked into a post-apocalyptic movie set, dimly lit and strewn with seemingly random clusters of redundant display counters.

          Our little band of volunteers, with a borrowed Luton van, had only two days in which to operate – and vehicular access was prohibited after 08.00. So, early starts were required to grab all the items that we had previously claimed and stickered. That was one challenge. Another was that many of the items needed to be disassembled, as they were heavy or unwieldy. Yet another was that the owners’ generosity had not extended to use of the service lift, which they had prematurely de-commissioned. Everything depended on speed, enthusiasm and muscle power, the last element of which was not our strong point.

          If our band is typical, then volunteers largely come from the ranks of people who are well meaning and available, though not necessarily in tip-top physical health. Our team comprised two people in their creaking seventies, four in their dodgy middle age and only two who could be described as young – one of whom spent fifteen minutes explaining to me his spinal injury and the botched surgery that had left him somewhat incapacitated.

          Still, you have to work with what you’ve got and, though I do have a lingering injury to my own back (ref. the aforementioned reckless gusto of youth), I also have valuable experience in lifting and shifting using pallet trucks, sack trucks and dollies, so I was able to contribute meaningfully to the project, while emerging with little more than aches, pains and a need to soak in a hot bath for an hour after each session.

          In the end, our haul was well worth the effort: miles of useful racking for storage; big bench-tables for workshops; display stands for exhibitions; fancy light fittings for our buildings; twelve fully decorated Christmas trees for yuletide and a dozen glitter balls for – well, for fun.

          Oh, and I blagged some shelving for our garage, which I will assemble and install just as soon as my back has had a rest. (Siblings’ WhatsApp alert.)

*Nudge Community Builders

 

The Woman On the Bus

          What do you do when you become aware that another passenger on the bus, or train, is trying to catch your eye? You have a choice between engaging or not, of course, but how do you decide which way to go – and why?

          After some days spent travelling and being in the company of family and friends, my Other Half (OH) and I had a ‘day off’ and decided to spend part of it together, visiting one of the art galleries in London, where we were staying. Having decided on the Tate Britain, we were chuffed to discover that the number 88 bus would take us, slowly but conveniently, door-to-door. Better still, when we boarded, we found that two of the front seats on the upper deck were unoccupied, so we bagged them for the best and cheapest sightseeing tour of the capital (the route winds through Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey).

          Before long, I became aware that the woman in the adjacent seats, who had clocked us as we settled in, was still taking a sort of sideways interest. Unlike a regular passenger or commuter, she was not occupied intently with a phone or book, nor was she staring wearily through the window. She appeared, like us, to have a child-like relish of just being on the bus. Yet, since she had the same view as us but no partner with whom to trade comments, she seemed intent on joining in ours. (All this, I thought, had been apparent only to me, but my OH later said she had also noticed it, “obviously”.)

           After one or two failed attempts to catch the eye of either one of us, our wannabe friend finally found an opportunity to make bold when a young woman, against the odds of a long, tight-fitting skirt and high heels, hurried comically across the road in front of our bus.

          There was no disguising the fact that all three of us were amused by the spectacle and thus was the ice broken. In the time it took for her to get off three stops later to get a bowl of porridge at Gail’s, we learned that our new friend was a visual artist and that she usually cycled this route but was going to the West End to meet her gallerist and didn’t want to arrive as a sweaty mess. “So, you’re taking a day off from painting?”, I said. “I suppose so,” she said, “but I hadn’t thought of it that way”. To her questions about us we responded courteously but with a degree of prudent reserve. She seemed pleased, however, to have ‘met’ us and especially so as we were going to see art*.

          The next morning, I went to get coffee and a few moments of reflection at a local café and saw someone familiar in the queue: the woman on the 88 bus! The question arose as to whether I should greet her. Seeing as we were just visiting the neighbourhood, was this a relationship worth pursuing?

          I let it lie until I had emptied my cup, before something drove me to approach her. Whether it was curiosity, compassion or courtesy I don’t know, but I made the right call. She was warm and welcoming, asking how we had found the show and telling me the details of her morning so far.

          Then it was time for another decision: should I extend the conversation or leave it there? I opted for the latter but, as we shook hands and said goodbye, I had the feeling that I knew her face, not just from the day before, but from somewhere in my deep and distant past.

*Hurvin Anderson at Tate Britain, until 23^rd August.

  

All's Well with the World?

          For us, the inhabitants of the British Isles, a heatwave used to be considered a bit of a treat. Knowing it would disappear within a few days, we would soak up the sun with neither restraint nor modesty, so that it was common to see people proudly displaying the damage – skin peeling off their noses and shoulders, revealing tender red patches beneath – as if it were a trophy. Then the Australians discovered a connection between sunburn and skin cancer, invented greasy sunblock and exported it to Britain.

          Well, that’s the way it seemed to me at the time: the beginning of a sensible approach to ‘catching some rays’. Mind you, it didn’t appeal to everybody, as is apparent from our balcony. Presently, we are living next to a small, scruffy, inner-city beach and, whenever there’s a heatwave – as there is right now – it turns into a pop-up holiday destination for the locals, some of whom appear to be doing their utmost to toast themselves.

          Do they not know about the connection with cancer? Do they know but don’t care? Do they think they are immune? Have they not heard the news about heatwaves lasting longer and becoming more intense because of climate change? Do they not know that the urgency to binge has diminished?

          Maybe it’s about joining the dots. Chris Packham has made a short film, National Emergency Briefing, that does just that. In it, scientists explain how climate change is affecting every aspect of life as we are used to living it: food security, healthcare, national defence and economic systems are all threatened. The effects are already measurable – though some of us may not recognise the connections – and tipping points are inevitable unless there is immediate remedial action. I don’t want to sound alarmist, but how else is the danger to be expressed other than bluntly?

          But a world in which rational decisions are made about important issues exists only on the fictional planet Vulcan. On Earth, a rational person is necessarily one who factors emotional behaviour in to their thought processes: that’s entirely logical, given human nature.

          We are reminded, by Chris Packham, that Britain is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world – though you may be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Our countryside has a reputation for being beautiful, magnificent, lush (in places) and fertile, all of which qualities are still to be found but to a diminishing extent.

          We spent a couple of days last week in a rural corner of Suffolk, where the towns are quaint and weighted with history, the higgledy-piggledy villages populated with cute, well-kept cottages whose gardens spill over with iconic hollyhocks in every pastel colour imaginable. In between, the farmland appeared fecund and prosperity was in the air, not least around the attractions that draw in visitors. Walking through the wooded heath, where deer roam free and butterflies flutter, to the beach at Dunwich, the depletion of nature was not the first thing that came to mind.

          Discovering the ‘best bits’ of Britain is like going to a theme park: all your expectations are met or surpassed (vagaries of weather duly factored in). But coming to generalised conclusions, i.e. ‘Suffolk is nice’, is a trap into which we humans too readily fall. There must be parts of Suffolk that are grotty and, if so, they should be taken into account when measuring up.

          What with all this sunny weather causing folk to flock to the beaches, countryside havens, beer gardens and barbecues, the question of what lies behind it can be easy to overlook. It may feel like an endless summer, but there’s an ominous ending in sight. Join the dots.

Government action so far... 

Village Mysteries

          As our two-week residence in the South Devon village of Slapton comes to an end, I’m inclined to remark that there’s more to the place than meets the eye. The obvious attractions – vernacular architecture (e.g. thatched roofs) and a pretty setting in a narrow, wooded valley running down to the coast – are augmented by an adjacent nature reserve and its associated Field Study Centre. So, holiday makers and students alike boost the village’s economy, helping support its two pubs and its volunteer-run community shop.

          Slapton has a slow feel to it – the narrow, steep and winding streets discourage through-traffic and can accommodate no vehicle larger than an Amazon delivery van. There are no yellow lines because there is nowhere to park anyway. There are no streetlights because this is a designated ‘dark skies’ area – great for stargazing on a clear night, but tricky without a torch when it’s overcast and you fancy a pint. Just like other bog-standard, rural English villages, there is a church at its heart and a pub hard by. Yet Slapton has an intriguing extra dimension.

          A village this small surely doesn’t need two pubs, so why is there a second one the other side of the church? And why is it attached to the base of a seemingly random medieval tower?

           Then there’s the ‘big house’. One might expect to find such a residence inhabited by the local lord of the manor, but this one is hidden behind a high stone wall inset with a couple of disused Gothic-style doorways, next to one of which is propped a hand-painted slate sign, “The Chantry”. Above the wall, an ornate balcony protrudes from the house, its old iron brackets flaking with rust. To one side of it, there is a similarly styled and dilapidated footbridge, covered in clinging vines, that passes over the road and connects the house to the churchyard via a small, mature wood, surrounded by yet another stone wall.

          From what little can be seen of the house, in its 18^th century iteration, it is elegant and imposing, yet shabby and in need of maintenance. Who lives there? The distressed descendants of the medieval lords? A modern-day Miss Havisham?

          Most of the answers are readily found in historical accounts. In 1372, Sir Guy de Brian founded a religious college in Slapton. It was a Chantry, a nice little earner for the church, whereby wealthy individuals were scammed into a pay-to-pray scheme. They were persuaded to endow a chapel, thereby providing a living for monks and priests whose job was then to pray for their benefactor’s soul. The resulting credits could then be cashed in at the Pearly Gates to reduce their time in purgatory.

          Henry VIII abolished all that – possibly for Trump-like motives – confiscating the assets and dividing them up between himself and his supporters. Perhaps he presaged the view of Frank Zappa who, when asked during a TV interview how he would define the difference between an established religion and a cult, replied “The amount of real estate they own”.

          Typically, the new secular owners abandoned the ecclesiastic buildings and used the stones for their new house. In this case they left the tower intact because it was a bit difficult to demolish or, more likely, because they found it useful as a lookout for the Barbary pirates who were active hereabouts at the time. As for the pub at its base, speculation has it that it was built for and by the construction workers hired by Sir Guy de Brian. Another reason not to demolish the tower?

          As to who lives in The Chantry today, I have no information to offer. I should have asked down at the Community Shop, where I might have got the lowdown. Still, I leave the place feeling pleased that it has a little touch of mystery about it, adding a little piquancy to future visits.

 

 

Escape to the Country?

          The headlines this week are full of anticipated events: a new Prime Minister, England scoring goals in the World Cup tournament and a monster heatwave, the like of which we haven’t experienced since 1976. It’s all work in progress but, as I write (it’s Thursday), the temperature is about to peak, England failed to find the net against Ghana and the ‘King of the North’ – the now ex-mayor of Manchester – has taken the train to London, where he is expected to move into Number 10 Downing Street without further ado.

          These events have triggered in me a ripple of nostalgia. In 1976, I had just moved to Manchester, a football-mad city in industrial decline and yet to find a new engine for its economy. I did play a small part in the economic revival, by setting up in the furniture manufacturing business, but the footie left me cold. Eventually, a good friend and native of the city advised me to take at least some notice of its two legendary teams, lest I be thought of as a weirdo in the pub. I am now able to summon a modicum of interest in the game.

          As it happens, my Other Half and I are well placed to withstand the high temperatures, as we are in the South Devon countryside, close by a beach. It’s hot, but not as hot as elsewhere (Manchester included). We are house/dog-sitting for relatives who have taken a break to go to Menorca, where it’s also hot, sunny and by a beach. To be fair to them, they planned it months ago and were not to know they could have saved themselves the expense – by which I mean the travel and accommodation, not the services provided by us. After all, who wouldn’t volunteer to help out for a week or so in a nice house, with a well-stocked wine cellar? What’s more, the dogs are friendly and the locale is pretty. The only thing is, there is no actual ‘sitting’ involved.

          Our relatives, having recently moved here, are in the process of establishing an extensive garden, comprising produce-beds and areas of newly planted saplings and striplings. Even during an average English summer you would expect to have to spend time watering the plants, but we drew the short straw this time. It takes at least two hours a day to get water to every poor, wilting green thing that needs it and, since the striplings are at the top of a steep incline, it’s not just they who are in need of hydration by the time they are served. The science tells us to expect this extreme weather more frequently, in which case my suggestion would be to plant more cacti.

          As for the two dogs, it seems to me that they are happy to lie around and sleep all day long, but my OH tells me that they have a lazy tendency and it’s not good for their health: they must be roused and taken for long walks, preferably lasting two hours. Surprisingly, they don’t appear to mind being woken up and, as soon as they get wind of ‘walkies’ in the air, they spring eagerly into a state of uncontrollable shaking and tail-wagging.

          I like a good walk myself but, these days, I prefer townie terrain where there are cultural distractions. Around here, it’s country lanes, woods and coastlines. The dogs really like it but, for me, this temporary change of lifestyle is like a refresher course in taking responsibility for the well-being of other living things. The selfishness of an urban-flat-dwelling, garden-free, pet-free lifestyle is duly challenged – as is only fair – but found to be not without merit.