'Waking the Dead'

Now I love a TV murder mystery but during the middle of last week the back yard of the Pie 'n' Mash started to look like a scene from one.

We've lived here 5 years now and we've only just got round to this bit of the building - which when we first moved in was almost entirely covered by a walk in fridge-freezer - a useful resource for scaring people at parties, but not much else. Obviously having the yard dug out has reminded me of all the dust, mess and pain of when we first moved in - but at least this time I'm not that involved. My friend Andrew (who's a garden designer) is doing most of the digging.

The other reason I have been thinking about when we moved in a lot is that I have finally managed to edit the short film I wanted to make of Len, the Pie 'n' Mash's former charismatic owner. When we bought the shop we underwent a fairly a-typical exchange process, part of which included me spending a very enjoyable day with Len filming his routine cooking the pies etc. that he did each day. He's actually a great 'presenter' of what to him was a daily routine. Unbelievably after finally finishing the film (and posting him a copy thank God) I lost the whole lot when the 'Pie 'n' Mash back up disc' packed up ... Apparently if I want to go through 1000's of unlabelled recovered files it's in there somewhere but so far that's a level of super sleuthing I've resisted.

At a friend's 50th last weekend I actually met the editor of 'Waking the Dead' my favourite murder-mystery, I think he thought I had something of the pathologist/stalker about me as my questions moved out of the territory of polite fan into obsessed person stuck in a long film edit with an extra-ordinary memory for cuts and techniques witnessed during what should be casual TV viewing.

Return to Toge

Toge winter house
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

I also made a weekend visit back to Toge (where we stayed for a month last summer) with 3 of my current students and (fortunately!) one of my former Japanese students. We enjoyed unbelievably generous hosting, and ate some food that even topped our summer cooking exploits ... follow this link to the Flickr photos and check out the hot rice-based lollies we ate for breakfast.

Robot Parade

Kiddy Land Cats
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Asimo performs
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Paro
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

I saw a surprising number of robots in Japan ... from the Kiddy Land pet/toy/robot cats to the rather jazzy dance steps of Asimo - surely the biggest robot show-off to date. The most interesting was actually Paro the 'mental commit robot' who looks a bit like a grubby seal cuddly toy. Look closely though and his whiskers are sensors, touch him and he'll sort of respond. Compared to the sub-human dance routine that Asimo put on I thought the way that Paro tried to retreat from the hoards of kids casually patting him was rather convincing. I think the idea is that he's used a bit like 'pat cats' to calm people down and provide a friendly response ... As it says on his website (where there are some photos of him looking much brighter) he's the world's most theraputic robot (As certified by the Guiness book of records 2002).

Email from Number 10

Amy & Ella
Originally uploaded by Nina Pope.

Just a quick update on the Manor Garden Allotment Campaign mentioned in an earlier posting ...

In January I went to their New Year Feast, a chance to meet people and catch up on their struggle to remain on the Olympic site. Pictured here are my friends Amy Plant & Ella Gibb - artists who have become involved with the campaign there ...

The Allotments have a great site about the protest AND a link to where you can take full advantage of your new right to e-petition No. 10 about the potential move at: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/manorgardens/