Moving

All moved into the new place. Now I just have to wait for BT to get the broadband transferred across (at which time I'll be able to put a bit more news on the site!). UPDATE: BT came through - just don't ever try to ring them unless you have the patience of a saint.

Not only did I move houses, but we move offices at work this week. Bit of a shame really as it was very handy working in Paddington but we are not moving far - we'll be just off Tottenham Court Road.

The visit to Birmingham went well - although I didn't see much of the city at all, just the International Conference Centre and the Copthorne. Our conference went very smoothly.

For those of you in New Zealand enjoying the summer, think of us here in London. Dark by 4 oclock in the afternoon, raining most days lately, and a few chilly days as well..... Winter in london!

Yes, this is a boring posting, all I can say is the next one will be better - I promise!
Jane

Ireland - the Northern Eventers Ball

Photo: Pat (Legs' husband, me, Rosie)

What a whirlwind wet weekend in the Emerald Isles!

The weather: terrible

The Northern Eventers Ball: a great "craic"

Food: at the ball, poor. Chinese Takeaways at Legs & Pats place: superb!

The ball, held in Belfast, also featured a prizegiving and a short auction to raise money. The dance floor was popular but not as much as the bar! The irish girls excelled themselves - lots of stunning girls wearing gorgeous dresses. The bare shoulders look was definitely favoured......

The photos above: obviously taken during!

Photo below: next morning about lunchtime!

Unfortunately there was a big mix up in the hotel booking rooms, which we thought the hotel had sorted out when they said they had booked us into the Hilton down the road. I won't go into the details, but the abbreviated story is that this wasn't quite the case, only two rooms were available at the Hilton which were quickly snapped up. I also won't divulge who shared with who but there were more than two people in a number of beds! Some were keener to go on to some nightclubs, but at 6am in the morning, sense prevailed for those still without a bed.

Those Irish certainly know how to party!

Birmingham, 42 Below, Work, Roasts and James Bond

It's been a while since I've updated my blog; it's not that there hasn't been anything happening either. I've had issues with my internet connection at home but that seems to have been sorted out now and then I've been busy at work as well. We have a big conference on next week in Birmingham and there seems to have been a lot of last minute rushing around. Hopefully it is under control now, and soon I'll be able to up date you on the joys of my two day visit to Birmingham. Bet you can't wait!

The photo here is from the weekend; dinner at Vivienne and John's in Notting Hill. Featuring in the pic are L - R Ravini (one of the comms team who is leaving to go to work for WHO in Geneva next week), me (in my fabulous new cocktail dress found at the local designer op shop), Nick (also from the communications team at the head office) and of course the fabulous Vivienne.

Unfortunately (or maybe not) I didn't get any photos of the amazing roast at Andrea and John's on Sunday - but it was a fantastic day and far too much nice wine was consumed to go with an awesome roast, complete with real New Zealand kumaras (thanks Andrea, John and Sainsbury's!). While Andrea was slaving over the hot oven making gravy, the girls have made a great plan for Andrea's hen's party in the new year!

Tuesday this week was the Kea London function; Vodka University which was put on by 42 Below at the lovely Commonwealth Club (great food!). I am now the proud possessor of a Vodka University Diploma. There was an interesting mix of people there, lots of vibrant young New Zealanders having a great time in London (especially after the vodka tasting). The boys seated next to me were thoroughly enjoying themselves, especially as they got to drink all the unfinished tastings at our table. Hope they made it through the night....

Kirsty and I are off to Ireland this weekend to stay with Pat and Legs. The highlight of the quick trip will be the Eventers Ball. Hopefully I will make it back as planned on Monday morning in one piece!

Next week, as well as the work conference, I have my big move to Queens Park which I am really looking forward to. Now I just have to find a flatmate..... My lovely landlords, who are heading back to NZ next week, have given me the rundown on the area. Neighbours in the street (ie just down the same road!) include Daniel Craig, the latest James Bond. Must get some martini glasses.....

C.K. Stead in London

Getting the opportunity to hear C.K. Stead talk about his writing and book "My Name Was Judas" was one I was not about to let go by, so last night saw us at the function organised by the Centre for NZ Studies at Birkbeck University.

Attended by a small but attentive crowd in a teaching room at the University, Karl described how he has now "got a bit of distance" from this book in the twelve months since it was launched here in London.

The feedback he received after writing this book was varied, from the very positive to the other end of the scale and even anger. Comments came in such as "We all know Jesus had a beautiful relationship with his mother" and others berating him for taking the liberty of straying off what was said in "God's novel". He also talked about some Christians having "trouble with the miracles but still believing" but concluded by saying that he doesn't write a book worrying about who he would offend.

Karl described how, when taking the licence available as a fiction writer, he looked at the gaps and the hints in the Bible and thought that, being such a charismatic person, Jesus would have trouble with his mother's presence. In My Name Was Judas, the relationship between Jesus and Mary was difficult.

Describing his book as a study of human friendships, Karl sees it as a plausible account as things happen in this novel that happen all the time to us today. As the bible is quite silent on Jesus's childhood, Karl saw this as an opportunity for him to create a story around that, and gave Jesus and Judas a friendship that began in their early childhood.

I found it interesting to hear how Karl came to write this book. He began by telling us about following his theory of writing about what you know about so when he was going through a stage of writer's block, he began writing about an elderly novelist who had writers block. That resulted in the Secret History of Modernism. In that book, there was a scene featuring Katherine Mansfield and T.S. Elliott, leaving an unsatisfactory dinner party. That scene led to him starting the next novel, Mansfield, and this was the opening scene. Karl believed that in an oblique way, Mansfield led to Judas. He was having difficulty writing about D.H. Lawrence as he was a "messy character" and, as a throwaway comment to a friend, Karl described this struggle as "trying to write about Jesus." That comment didn't go away, and he continued to think about the strategies he could use for writing about Jesus. He believed Jesus needed to be seen up close, and therefore the narrator would have to be a disciple. "Who would I identify with" lead to thinking about his own scepticism, which then led him to having Judas as the narrator in this book.

I enjoyed hearing about Karl's hesitancy on writing this book, and how, after a dinner party and "enough wine to loosen my tongue" he told Paul Morris, Professor of Religious Studies at Victoria University, that he was thinking of writing this book. The reply came straight away. "These are our stories, they must be constantly retold." Obviously this was all Karl needed.

This book had to take a long view, in that he didn't want the story told as it was going on, like "even as I write, dear reader, the villan is carrying me up the stairs..."

The gospel had different accounts of Judas's end. There were stories of him hanging himself but also of his being disembowled and dying bleeding into a field. Karl gave him a new identity, and one who had gone a long way from when he was a disciple in time and space as well as intellectually. The story could therefore be told with detachment. Judas was portrayed as pragmatic and sceptical, Jesus as more than clever - exceptional, but human. To overcome the issue of how a sceptic like Judas would become a disciple, Karl combined their childhoods, and then a crisis in their lives at the same time.

Carl described his tale as a "retelling of the biblical story with a 20th century rationalist account that we can easily believe." He tried to see through the gospel narrative to what might have happened in a way that we would believe and relate to today.

Karl undertook many readings of the gospel, after which he came to see that there were two Jesus personalities; one humane, compassionate, preaching love and peace (the gentle Jesus) and the other "militant, threatening, demanding and who insists on his own divinity and unique access to his father's many mansions."

In the gospel, Karl did not see any clear sense of the order of events, except that it all led to the crucifixion so he "took the liberty of giving it a chronological order." The peaceful, gentle Jesus was eventually overtaken by the militant one, on a path to self destruction which made Judas very anxious. Karl described Judas's betrayal of Jesus as his failure to believe - as in his book, Judas never believed in Jesus's divinity and that therefore the book "became a human story."

I was interested to learn that the poems featuring in the novel were actually added after the novel was completed in an effort to give the book a lift to take it beyond the prosaic. This was the first time Karl had combined his fiction writing with poetry writing in one book.

Karl summed up his book as not being derisive, but also quipped that "its not the Life of Brian". He describes his account of Jesus and Judas as being "psychologically plausible."

It was an interesting talk, and one that I enjoyed. I think the venue and size of the audience was a little disappointing, but am very glad I went.

Opening of Parliament

Check out this link if you would like to see some fab photos (not taken by me) of the opening of parliament yesterday

http://timesnews.typepad.com/news/

Hyde Park

Hyde Park is a great place to go on a Sunday morning - there's so much going on. I went down there on the 4th of October with my camera. If you would like to see the outcome, click on this link

http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.thompsonuk/HydeParkSeries

Lots of photos of dogs, people, leaves, squirrels, birds and all the other many things going on.

<

London in the Autumn

Autumn in London - it's starting to get dark, there's lots of leaves around, and the relentless crowds never cease in the main streets.
I've been out and about getting my walking boots broken in, and have had the camera out as well.

You might like to check out my city scenes:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.thompsonuk/LondonScenic

Features Neals Yard, Picadilly Circus, Oxford Street, Vivienne shopping, crowds of people.