A review of “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
March 16th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
This weekend, Vee and I went to see – her choice – the new Wes Anderson movie “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. I’ve reviewed it here.
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A fun day with my little friends Catrin and James
March 15th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Earlier this week, I spent the day in central London with my granddaughter Catrin (now three years and two months) and her little friend friend James (just three months older). Together with James’s mother Jen, we went on the Emirates Airline cable car and to The Crystal building [see more details here] before taking them for lunch at “Bella Italia” (which has a good children’s menu) and to the animation movie “Escape From Planet Earth” [my review here].
Catrin & James enjoy their nibbles as much as the cable car ride
A handful for Roger:
Catrin & James on the London Underground
That night, I babysat Catrin – bath and three stories before she slept soundly after such an exciting day.
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A review of “300: Rise Of An Empire”
March 15th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
In an earlier posting on the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC, I said that I would review the new movie “300: Rise Of An Empire”. My review is now here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
The strange language of Harrow School
March 15th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
For the past 30 years, I have lived at the foot of Harrow-on-the-Hill in north-west London . We drive over the hill constantly. When I go for a walk, it is usually up the hill. Our favourite cafe, “The Doll’s House”, and our favourite restaurant. “Incanto”, are on the hill.
Inevitably, therefore, we are always seeing the buildings and boys of Harrow School, the public school founded in 1572 which dominates the hill (it has 300 acres). This is a boarding school for boys which is like going back in time with the boys wearing straw boaters and the masters wearing mortar boards and cloaks.
Previous students include seven British Prime Ministers and 20% of leavers go to Oxford or Cambridge Universities. Fees for Harrow are £11,095 per term (£33,285 per annum). This is a life which entrenches privilege that stands in opposition to all my political beliefs on equality and fairness.
Yet I cannot help being fascinated by the institution and some months ago rather enjoyed a Sky television series on the school. The eight-week series is about to be repeated, starting today.
One of the weirdest features of the place is the strange languages used by students and staff.
- Beak – A master or teacher.
- Bill or Call-over – Compulsory roll call held in each House three times a day.
- Bill Book- Small blue book that provides essential information about the School and the term’s calendar.
- Bluer – Dark blue uniform jacket.
- Capping – Boys and masters “saluting” each other.
- Copy – Awarded for 12 send ups or to the top boy in each subject every term. Boys with eight copies win a prize.
- Custos – The staff member to whom a boy has to report early each morning as a punishment for being late or untidily dressed.
- Double – A punishment for boys. Basically writing lines. Takes an inexperienced boy around 90 minutes to do 60.
- Ducker – The school swimming pool.
- Eccer – Exercise or any form of games.
- Flannels – School colours for sport. A boy awarded his Flannels for Cricket, Rugby, Football, Harrow Football or for minor sports may wear a grey waistcoat with his tails.
- Footer – Harrow football.
- Greyers – Grey uniform trousers.
- The Guild – Specially-elected group of senior boys who have shown artistic or cultural excellence. They have a distinctive maroon tie and may wear a maroon waistcoat with their tails.
- House – One of the 12 units housing around 70 boys. Each House has its own sporting colours.
- Jerks – A house punishment regime normally run at 05:30 each Friday.
- Locking Up – Deadline; time after which boys must sign out if they wish to leave their House.
- Matron – Each of the 12 Houses has a female member of staff.
- Monitor (School) – School prefect.
- Monitor (House) – House prefect, sometimes called priv.
- Philathletic Club or The Phil – The best athletes who are allowed to wear a black bow-tie.
- Queue – Times each day when boys may meet with their House Master to withdraw money, to report send ups and skews, and for other matters of business or concern.
- Remove – The name given to year 10s in the school
- Send Up – A ‘special mention’ for a good piece of work that is acknowledged by the housemaster (the opposite of a Skew).
- Shells—The name for the new boys of the school (year 9s).
- Shepherd – Remove boy who looks after Shell boys for the first two weeks.
- Skew – A ‘black mark’ given for a poor piece of work that a boy must redo and give to his housemaster to sign.
- Speech Room – Place where the weekly gathering as well as some events take place.
- Sunday dress – Tail coat and striped trousers worn on Sundays and other major occasions.
- Tolley up – Permission to work after lights out.
- Torpids – Under 16 House sports team.
- Tosh- Bath or shower.
- Trials – Internal School examinations.
- Yarder – The exercise yard (normally an enclosed quadrangle) in each boarding house where adapted versions of sports are played (for example ‘Yarder Cricket’).
- Yearlings – Shell teams or groups.
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How to make our cities much more sustainable
March 14th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
About half of the world’s population of 7 billion now lives in cities and the proportion is expected to be 70% by 2050, but currently urban living uses too much of the globe’s scarce resources.
There is great new location in London called The Crystal which claims to be one of the world’s most sustainable buildings and it houses a terrific (free) interactive exhibition which demonstrates how we can all live more much sustainably using less energy and water and reducing pollution and congestion.
I visited it this week and arrived their via the wonderful Emirates Airline cable car which provides aerial views of the O2 and the Thames Flood Barrier.
On my web site, you will find advice on
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The importance of the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC
March 12th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
After a morning conference on radio at which I spoke on digital radio switchover [see my posting here], I wanted to unwind. so I went to see a movie: “300: Rise Of An Empire”. I’ll review the film later but, at that this stage, I just wanted to comment on the centrepiece of the movie which is the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC.
This was a sea battle between the Greeks and the Persians which has been described as one of the most significant battles in human history. If the Greeks commanded by the admiral Themistocles had not defeated the Persians led by their emperor Xerxes in that critical naval encounter, then western civilisation would never have benefited from the enduring values of the Hellenic cultural tradition.
A few years ago, I read a book of counterfactual history called “What If?” [my review here]. That book states:
“For the last 2,500 years, Western civilisation has celebrated the miracle of Salamis as both the very salvation of its culture and the catalyst for a subsequent literary, artistic, and philosophical explosion under the aegis of a triumphant and confident Athenian democracy.”
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Word of the day: paladin
March 11th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
I have just come across this word in a book I have started to read called “Deep Time” by David Darling. The word means ‘heroic champion’. In the case of the book, the unlikely paladin is a sub-atomic particle, a proton.
The origin of the word is the Italian word paladino which comes from the Late Latin word palatines meaning “palace officer”. It is derived from the “Auxilia Palatina” who were the royal guards of the later Roman Empire who were named after the Palatine hill in Rome, Italy
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White House taken over by bad guys – twice
March 10th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Last year, two movies were released with the same plot: the seizure of the White House and the US President.
I saw “Olympus Has Fallen” at the cinema on its release and I reviewed it here.
This weekend, I caught up with “White House Down” on DVD and I have reviewed it here.
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Only two water companies fast-tracked by regulator Ofwat in price review
March 10th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
For the past two years, I have been working hard chairing the Customer Challenge Group of South East Water which has had to submit views on the company’s business plan for 2015-2020 to the water regulator Ofwat. Each water company in England & Wales has a CCG which has been doing the same thing.
This is an important process because, on the basis of the company’s business plan and our critique of it, Ofwat will eventually decide what prices South East Water can charge to its 2.1 million customers from 2015-2020.
Companies submitted their business plans and CCGs submitted their reports on 2 December 2013. You can read our report here.
Ofwat originally decided that, as a feature of this Price Review, it would allocate each company business plan to one of three self-explanatory categories: enhanced, standard and resubmit. This morning, Ofwar announced which of the 18 companies are to be offered enhanced or fast-track status and explained that, in a change of approach, all other companies would be treated the same with all having to rework their plans to some degree.
The statement announces that only two companies are to be offered enhanced status and neither of them is the company that I have been working with, South East Water. The companies are Affinity (which is actually my own water company) and South West Water.
So clearly there is more work for 16 CCGs, including the one I chair. Meanwhile Ofwat has said:
“All water and wastewater companies have worked hard to take ownership of their plans. We have seen a real change in approach, which will benefit customers. It is clear that companies have engaged actively with customers, and have sought to reflect that engagement in formulating customer-focused plans. The customer challenge groups (CCGs) have made a significant and important contribution to this step change.”
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It’s 5 years since “The Spirit Level” was published
March 9th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
One of the most influential – of me and others – books that I have ever read is “The Spirit Level” by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (2009). I have reviewed this important work here.
In today’s “Observer” newspaper, the book’s authors have written an article to mark the fifth anniversary of publication of the work and argue that the evidence is greater than ever that substantial inequality causes a whole range of damaging social outcomes. You can read their article here.
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