Personal Blogs

Yes, but perhaps not to Blog...

Still trying to 'get into' DD206 and now remember a similar feeling at the start of DD131 - my other social science module. 

So, while I work my way through this latest module, I will be: - 

• Eating, regularly, at Pizza Express restaurants in and around London;
• Drinking (too much) espresso - usually on the same occasion as the pizza;
• Listening to music - currently (right now in fact) recent Jazz by Dave Stapleton (from Cardiff);
• Preparing my trumpet playing for the Advent, Christmas and Epiphany 'season';
• Reading sociology based material;

Currently I'm reading a fairly large book (at over 400 pages) called "SOUNDS LIKE LONDON (100 years of Black Music in the Capital)" by Lloyd Bradley (2013). This is a fascinating insight into the development of black music and the surrounding culture and gives me a flavour of how many of the styles I enjoy 'came into being'.

Cheers for now,

THE ESPRESSO GUY 

Having posted my last TMA for M140 (stats) on Fri morning, and topped-up my Oyster card, I went into London on Saturday (16^th) to drink fine espresso and meet up with  Richard in KJ West One (New Cavendish Street). I took the tube to Baker Street (my choice of stop for the mo...) walked through Marylebone to Workshop Coffee in Wigmore Street, and then onto their Fitzrovia Coffeebar in Mortimer Street (W1W 7FE). 

Fortified with two excellent espressos (yet again the better of the two was in Mortimer St.) I wandered over to see Richard and chat to the chaps in the Hi Fi ‘emporium’  After a while, and with business to be done at KJ West One, I went back to Fitzrovia for my third espresso (!) and finally back to Richard at around 17:15.

Jason, as he did in June, joined us for the ‘Pizza Express Experience’ and we all walked south toward Berkeley Square and the Bruton Place PE. Mostly... we all enjoyed another well prepared and tasty early evening meal with the exception being that Richard was not as impressed with his ‘Pollo Forza’ as he has been recently. This is the very hot and spicy one that I tried back on the 3^th May and on that occasion, Richard was properly hooked!

This time, as well as my 'Sloppy G' (that I had as a starter) I also had a Pollo Forza, but, unlike Richard, without the chilli sauce and the v.hot red peppers. I opted, instead, for slightly less hot green peppers and for me it was fine, not too hot, maybe a little bland in comparison to the 'real thing' - but certainly preferable to me!

The most obvious reason for a difference in taste (and a slightly worrying trend, perhaps?) is that this PE has a new pizza chef, and not the one that cooked for me last time (12^th July) or for Richard and I back in May. Hopefully (if needed) this, and other ‘issues’ will be well handled - and sorted - by the new lady manager. Yep, unfortunately, a bit of a staff change to add some uncertainty to Bruton Place PE. 

Anyway, and although I still have the EMA and two iCMA’s for M140 to do, I have just had a few days of no stats! This will change soon as Wednesday evening I have the last online tutorial, after which “I must get on with things M140”... and so I will. 

So, ‘till the 6^th Sept, that’s all the pizza for me but there will be the perfectly acceptable espressos that I get from the Perivale (Hoover) Tesco store.

Cheers 

The Espresso Guy  

...as Saturday 12^th saw me eating my favourite pizza in the Bruton Place Pizza Express, just off Berkeley Square. This was without Richard or my son (Laurence) who, generally speaking, most recently anyway, are with me when I’m eating at PE.

Less unexpectedly (as in planned...) I posted TMA 03 for M140 (stats) on Sat morning and although I knew that Richard was having a well deserved Saturday off, I wanted to ‘relax’  - perhaps not the right word...  - and did so by going on the tube to London and eating pizza at Bruton Place Of course, I also really wanted to visit the new ‘Workshop Coffee’ in Mortimer Street (Fitzrovia) again... to see that it is still good, and indeed it is It is,so far, just that little bit preferable to the Wigmore Street coffeebar where, even so, I had one of each of their Colombian espressos.

Not only all that (!) but the Finca Tamana Espresso that I have been drinking at Workshop coffee these past two visits (28^th June and 12^th July) tastes even better than the previous Columbian  - from Finca Asturias - that I had been enjoying so much With the absence, for a while, of the longstanding espresso blend Cult of Done Espresso (now v.17) that is my ‘reference coffee’ in these matters, I have been drinking one of each of the Colombian varieties and, this time, in both these coffeebars ! 

This, slightly edited, from their web-site:

“Since 2012 we've been purchasing all we can of the top quality lots produced at Finca Tamana; Elias Roa's farm in El Pital, Colombia.  For the most part we've roasted the coffee from Finca Tamana for filter brewing, and have packed the coffee into lovely 350g bags, distributed to retail and wholesale customers a-like, shipping Elias's coffee all over the world. There will be (however) this fantastic coffee - roasted for espresso - in the main grinders of all our stores.

For the majority of the month of July (as long as our supplies last) we will be replacing our usual Cult of Done Espresso with Finca Tamana Espresso and using this wonderful Caturra selection for all of our espresso-based drinks.”

Lovely stuff!

After all the espresso and that v.good pizza on Saturday -  and going solo  - I met up with Richard at his home in Luton on Monday (14^th). Normally, Monday morning is set aside for one of my weekly food/household shopping trips and I generally go to the Hoover Building (Perivale/Greenford, W. London). As we had planned lunch, I thought it best to get there early and shop in the Tesco ‘extra’ in Dunstable  - 5 minutes by car from where Richard lives. Yet more espresso was consumed; two in Costa (inside Tesco) and  the ‘PE blend’ alongside yet another ‘classic’ sloppy giuseppe pizza . One of the not so good things about the Luton trips (apart from the lack of a Workshop Coffee!) is that, yet again, Bruton Place PE serves a better pizza. Having said that, without the comparison of other PE’s, Luton is just fine for this sort of thing... 

After awhile though, it does gets a bit much for me with the more usual routine making for ‘loads of espresso and a pizza’ happening only every three or four weeks. Recently this has become every two weeks and twice this past week. Still, it is rather enjoyable!

Music-wise I am still playing Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) and now even play along to some of the ‘less complex’ numbers when ‘doing my trumpet’ 

Looking forward to mid-August for the next visit to London, so 'til then, and with less espresso for while, keep cool...

The Espresso Guy 

For those who may be interested in such things, and because I will now visit Fitzrovia fairly regularly for a while... according to Peter Berthoud (with this info gathered from fitzrovia.org.uk)

It is quite well known that Fitzrovia gained its name from the Fitzroy Tavern and the artistic and literary crowd that hung out there and neighbouring pubs in the 1930s. With the Tavern itself being named after Charles Fitzroy who began developing the area in the 1750s.

(but) I didn't realise until recently that the name "Fitzrovia" had fallen out of use during the 1950s and 1960s and was only revived in 1973. The Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association have the story on their website.

“In 1973 the organisers of the first street festival in Charlotte Street wanted to create a title for the Festival. The name Fitzrovia Festival was suggested by Eric Singer a German immigrant who recalled the use of the name in the 1940s. So the name Fitzrovia came back into common currency reinforced by the annual Fitzrovia Festival and people now had a name from which to try to define their neighbourhood.” (From about Fitzrovia, London.)

(A) poster (by Nancy Fouts of Shirt Sleeve Studio) was produced to promote the first annual Fitzrovia Festival and its beautiful design did much to publicise and popularise the use of the name. I was lucky enough to find an original poster during my research for my new tour: “Walk Every Street in Fitzrovia in a Day”. 

Peter Berthoud does “Walk Every Street in Fitzrovia in a Day” Saturday 5 July 2014, 10am – 5.30pm.

As for me, I am planning to be there on Saturday coming up (12th July) and not only to enjoy the espresso on sale at the Workshop Coffee bar in Mortimer street, but also to look around with a somewhat different, and even a more appreciative, viewpoint than last time!

And as before, two pizzas there

Enjoying the Pizza Express

No fuss, no strain, no stress…

…which was Saturday (14^th) with Workshop Coffee and KJ West One also being visited. Besides, the sun did eventually start to shine so, all-in-all, another good trip to the Marylebone area!

All of a sudden, three come along as we’ve planned to go the Langham place PE on the 28^thJune. Which fits in nicely with study plans and  other, more regular, things like shopping and today this is Perivale (Hoover) and Slough on Thursday, via the dentist - ouch!

M140 is progressing well, MU123 is over bar the result of the EMA(!) and, with the next module (DD206) starting in October, my statistical summer should be easier than the maths spring that was a bit much for me to cope with... Still, I reckon I’ve passed MU123 and will be disappointed, not to say suitably annoyed, if this is not the case!

Music is still rather jazz oriented but I may well get back to the orchestral works soon.

Finally (with suitable drum roll) Laurence, my son, now has a 2:1 degree in Music from Cardiff Uni so all is looking good there. He now intends to continue to study for his Masters degree (in music) but is still unsure as to where it will all lead…  ah well, I know that feeling!

In amongst all the time and effort so far spent on the EMA for MU123 (about half way through now) I managed another V.good result for my stats TMA02 (M140). Not quite as high as the equivalent ‘02’ for MU123 but still, and specially with MU123 finishing soon, things are looking good for a summer of studying and learning more about stats! 

Music...? Well, not a lot really , but I have the listened to the occasional symphonic piece by Fibich (1950 - 1900). Most recently though, I have chosen Jazz by Abdullah Ibrahim (b. 1934) and the older albums he recorded in the good ol’ 1980s (!) under the name of Dollar Brand - African Marketplace and Water from an Ancient Well.

As well as dispatching this MU123 EMA, I’m looking forward to the next pizza run at the end of May and, in the meantime, I always get a good shot of espresso from the Costa inside the Tesco store in the Old Hoover building at Greenford/Perivale. Talking of which, I’m shortly off to the said Tesco for the regular Monday morning food-shopping trip and, of course, the COFFEE‼

...with MU123's TMA 04 that arrived on Saturday providing a ‘lift’ to the day. I scored higher than I thought I would and about the average of the other three which sort of makes sense and would be nice to get in the EMA… 

As well as that, the traffic being good whilst driving to and from Reading and ‘getting things done’, the weekend was a good one. Trumpet playing went well, considering that I hadn’t played in church (or anywhere for that matter!) since January and I even had a good Monday shop in Tesco (Hoover Building).

Jazz by Abdullah Ibrahim - nee Dollar Brand (born Adolph J Brand) - ?

Having recently got his Sotho Blue album that I heard during (hi fi) Richard's ‘demo’ of the new Martin Logan CLX speakers last week, I play this from time to time although it is mostly a little too laid back for me…  It is, though, a very well recorded album and therefore ideally suited to 'showing-off' hi fi systems!

I have also continued to listen to Schumann’s Op.52 (which is not laid back..) when not in the mood for jazz or Steely Dan (etc.)

The espresso guy (...nice!) 

…on Saturday (12^th) with loads of espresso and good listening time in KJ West One. All helped, no doubt, by finishing and posting my latest maths TMA on Sat morning!

Richard (and crew) had just set-up some new MartinLogan CLX speakers and although they are being ‘run-in’ (as it were) they sounded v.good to me!  On the MartinLogan website these are described as “The World's Finest Full-Range Electrostatic Line Source Loudspeaker”. For around (only?) £25,000 not too bad at all - if indeed they are the finest of course! 

Anyway, 'twas another good Saturday in and around Marylebone, and the pizza (etc) in Bruton Place was up to the usual standard - with plenty of banter with the now familiar staff! 

Music listening recently has been ‘glimpses’ of J.Suk and Z.Fibich but mainly Schumann’s ‘Overture, Scherzo and Finale Op.52’ along with a hint of Steely Dan. The album GOLD by Steely Dan was played on Richard’s demo system that uses the new CLX speakers and although a compilation, some of the tracks really came across well, showing how good these speakers are.

That's neat, Pete;

Pizza to eat;

Drinking Espresso;

Not wanting to wait, 

...for the next meet.

Pete, The Espresso guy 

(with thanks to the staff in the Luton Pizza Express who remember me as such!)

I needed to renew my photocard driving licence this month, and duly posted it on Sat 22nd. Whilst at 'Snappy Snaps' in Uxbridge, getting the photo done, I asked for a digital copy and it is now showing as my profile picture! Sans trumpet for a while, as I haven't been playing so much recently.

This may change (along with the picture?) as Easter approaches when I have promised to play for the service at All Saints church.

So, this is how I looked mid-morning on Fri 21st March 2014, at least as far as the camera 'saw' me (slightly cropped and compressed for this purpose though)... 

 …but Yesterday was Luton!

Well, the hard part is done and I’m awaiting the result of TMA 01 for stats (M140), hoping for a better mark that the Very middling one I got for the maths TMA (03 of MU123). As a result of all this assignment work, I haven’t been concentrating on any music, apart from the ‘odd snippet’ of a Steely Dan track here and there. Even then,  I haven’t really  been listening. I did put on some Schumann on Saturday morning, but it soon got ‘ignored’ as I thought about the chores that I have been collecting…

So, anyway, I went to Luton on Sunday 16^th to see (hi fi) Richard at home and eat pizza for lunch. The only real down-side of pizza in Luton is that I don’t get a ‘damn fine coffee’ as I do in Marylebone (Workshop Coffee). Nor do I get to enthuse about hi-fi with the (other) experts in the shop! The pizza (and the coffee) were good, better than the slightly bland one we had there in January, even perhaps, a little too spicy!

MU123’s iCMA 44 duly went on Sunday eve, and I’m now working on iCMA 41 for M140. Well, at least I was, until I decided to write this (with a little ‘Dan’ in the background) 

Right then… where was I??

Yesterday, I was in my usual (and currently fav) places in and around Marylebone though not for quite the usual reason, as Laurence (my son) was over/up from Cardiff for the weekend. The Jazz Society he belongs to had arranged a trip to the Dean Street Pizza Express (PE) Jazz Club to hear Soweto Kinch (saxophonist) on the Saturday night. We met around 1 pm outside the now relocated HMV - by Bond Street tube - and walked on over to Workshop Coffee in Wigmore Street. I can safely say that I drank too much coffee between then and 4 o’clock, when we finally went our separate ways…"" 

A good lunch was had in the PE in Thayer street - a previous fav  - which, slightly worryingly, was similar in presentation to the last Sunday lunch that Richard and I had in the PE in Luton on the 12^th Jan. I hope it’s not a change to ‘that type’ of flavouring which while still being good, the pizza’s we were getting in Bruton Place last year were definitely preferrable. Yep, I do always have the same pizza - a ‘classic’ Sloppy Giuseppe - and can therefore judge these things well!  I also took Laurence to KJ West One to ‘check-out’ some of the hi-fi on display and also for us both to say hello to Richard. Next Saturday (15^th Feb) is now planned in for my usual trip to the Marylebone area and I hope we get to Bruton Place to see how the pizza’s there are being served. 

Meantime, I’m now enveloped in maths and stats modules with not much ‘spare’ time as there are assignments for both due in a few weeks. I am, though, managing to listen to Schumann symphonies - currently alternating between no’s 1 and 2. This has been ‘inspired’ by the BBC Radio 3 Building a Library edition (Jan 4^th) which discussed the first of Schumann’s symphonies. I downloaded this (from the podcast system) and listened to it a couple of weeks ago and although I have a copy, I am now tempted to purchase the recommended performance. This is by David Zinman and the Tonhalle Orchestra, Zurich and is currently available at a ‘budget’ price of less than £10 for the four of Schumann’s symphonies!  Prior to this I had been enjoying the first and second symphonies of Z. Fibich, as noted last time.

I have also been listing, regularly,  to the following radio progs. Inside Science, Science in Action, Discovery (from the World Servce) and, of course,  the More or Less ‘stats show’! Occasionally I choose the In Our Time and Thinking Allowed offerings… So, all in all, not much time left for Dvořák, but his music is definitely not forgotten.

...looking forward to more coffee and pizza, with Richard, next Saturday!

… where did next year go ??

Still, as it is Thursday, I must go food shopping (yummy!)  In a few hours I’ll be off to my fav Tesco, the one in the ‘Art Deco’ Hoover Building in Perivale, W.London. 

Normal service (if you can call it that) will be resumed shortly, with the continuation of all things blog-worthy - and no New Year resolutions to worry about.