Unfortunately my current bag (the male version of the one above) has broke.
I need a new bag.

I like this one from these guys Scaramanga
It is big enough for an iPad (not that I have one. but it will take a decent sized book or two and is the right size for how I use my bag. it may even be too Big!

The main complication to this straight forward purchasing strategy is my adoption of cycling as my go to activity.
Given the Scottish weather it is appropriate, perhaps necessary, to carry a change of clothes when you cycle places for a meeting, hence I would like to avail myself of this bag…

from the ever popular Howies

But you know me. It might take a while to decide!

fell free to leave a comment, telling me about your favourite or current bag, extolling its virtues and foibles.

In an essay and book of the same title, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (1995), Marc Augé coined the phrase “non-place” to refer to places of transience that do not hold enough significance to be regarded as “places”. Examples of a non-place would be a motorway, a hotel room, an airport or a supermarket.

Supermarkets are the vacuous supporters of the space known as the heart of the community. It used to be churches, then became the village pub, now its the supermarket. But I think the notion of a ‘heart of the community’ has been diluted by our attempts to support it.

Slavoj Žižek makes the point that art used to be about beauty. then came modern art which kicked out beauty and in that space put a toilet. (literally). then as thing change and develop the thing inside the space has become less and less relevant as the fight is not to keep something of beauty within that space called art. anything in the space will do. What become of worth is putting anything in the space, in order to maintain the existence of the space.

Community and the idea of a communal space being the heart of the community has changed and developed as has our understanding/ideas of community. I think that nowadays the supermarkets with their community noticeboards, consistent back packing days and free glass hire for the local community, are perhaps the incarnation what happens after the toilet has been removed from the space.

I was in a supermarket last week, as I walked in and picked up a basket i saw an old man, probably late 80′s sitting in a fold up chair at the door. As I walked past I heard a snippit of conversation between him and a lady who worked there.
‘has your taxi still not come yet? that’s terrible.’
‘no can you check for me’
the lady put back a basket and walked back past him.
‘I’ll go and phone and check they’re on their way you just wait there.’
the man sat beside the door, facing in the shop out of the cold air.

I went and did my shop. On the way out I noticed the old man was still sitting at the door. I walked out the door and saw a taxi. I went and asked who he was due to meet. The taxi driver told me the name and I said I thought it was an older gentleman inside. ‘Wait for me, I will be back.’
I went in and asked if the old gentlemans’ name was… he said yes. I said time to get your taxi then.

He asked for a hand to stand. I offered him my arm.
He said no he would need more than that
I tried to lift him under one arm.
He didn’t move.
I put down my shopping next to his and tried to lift him under both arms.
He did move but I was doing all the work.
I got him nearly straight and attempted to let him go.
‘No I can’t stand yet.”
I continued until he was straight.
‘I can stand now.’
He joked I should have brought my wheel chair.

I offered to take his arm for the walk to the taxi. other shoppers paused to offer assistance, to move his shopping for us. I accepted the help.
The man tried to turn round, but having sat so long, his hip had frozen, moving his right leg would be tough.
He hobbled slowly towards the door, rejecting my help, and complaining about his lack of movement.

He kept moving slowly. the taxi driver came and took his bags to the car.
I noticed a member of staff following us. Slowly. Waiting for us to move.
As we passed by the shopping trolleys he took one and wandered off.
The driver returned and took over escorting the man to the car.
I got my shopping bag back and headed for my car.

Its left me wondering why that stayed with me.
Its left me wondering how we care in communal spaces.
Its left me wondering how we engage with each other when so much of what we call community hubs, are non-places.

I am not sure I have any answers.
but I have some questions, and for now, that is enough.

When doing the household chores, the rewards are just doing a good job in and of itself. the one job with a perk is the laundry. The main perk is the occasional discovery of money are you check the trouser pockets before they go into the machine. (If its a bad day a couple of snotty hankies are all you get.)

Quite often my wife will leave me a pound or two, if I a really lucky five pound note she has forgotten about in her pocket. I like to think of this as a small tip to ensure I read the washing care label carefully and follow the instructions. (Hand wash only and no tumble dry being the major instructions which provide obsticales. )

The money usually gets pointed out to the owner at the end of the day, and if not needed would to towards a treat for the boy and girl or lunch money or bus fares or summit.

Yesterday, I got very excited emptying the tumble dryer. there was a note which had shaken itself loose. wow.
in fact on closer inspection their was two notes. ‘My wife had seen the job I was doing and had sent me a good tip ffor doing a good job. Hurrah.’ I thought. I emptied the machine and went back for the rewards, glowing with self satisfaction.

I took out one then two, looked at them.
I held in my hands 30 dollars from the US of A.
Brilliant. Possibly

My Mind Raced with questions…
1 – How much is $30 in £?
2 – Why did my wife have dollars in her pocket?
3 – Had she been shopping with dollars to take advantage of a favorable exchange rate somewhere, and this was her change?
4 – Where can you spend dollars in Lanark and is it a good exchange rate?
5 – What could you ransom for $30 dollars and were the police aware of this?
6 – was my son running an illegal money exchange buisness in the playground and was this his profit margin for one day?
so many questions.

so whats the meaning of this whats the back story? will it ever be discovered?
How big a reward is a puzzle?

(i didn’t buy anything.)

Changes.
They come in some unexpected places.

You came to take us
All things go, all things go
To recreate us
All things grow, all things grow
We had our mindset
(I made a lot of mistakes)
All things know, all things know
(I made a lot of mistakes)
You had to find it
(I made a lot of mistakes)
All things go, all things go
(I made a lot of mistakes)

this is a photo record of what turned out to be a simple build, which looks great
to start with the publicity shot

all the bits and end reciepient/main user, (for purposes of scale obviously)

lots of packaging

instructions seperate picture (right hand side of book, from left hand side

finally done!

On Tuesday our kettle stopped working. With baby milk and stuff, having boiling water quickly is a good idea generally. While boiling on the cooker was effective, it was taking considerably longer than a kettle. Soon Wednesday due to a mobile phone message mix up, I was dispatched to buy a new kettle.

In our town a that time of night you have three options, Tesco, Argos or Homebase. I discounted Homebase as not likely to have a great range, and Tesco was stuck off the list for broadly similar reasons. This left Argos as sole supplier, but fortunately is is surprising the range Argos have. It is broad and wide (ish). I selected a kettle and bought it. What a kettle it is. It has challenged me in ways i never thought a kettle could.

Krups BW4000 Semi Pro
Having lived with it for four days now I really like it. I mean really like it. My relationships with kettles up and until this point has always been kinda ambiguous, but that has changed. ‘why?’ you ask, ‘isn’t a kettle just a kettle?’

no

the Krups BW4000 Semi Pro is not just a kettle like any other.
1 -it isn’t round or oblong in shape, The Krups has a distinctive square shape to it. I didn’t realise quite how much the shape would challenge my thoughts about kettles.
2 -The Krups has a 2l capacity. The other kettles we have had only had a 1.7 capacity, yet it doesn’t seem bigger.
3 – The Krups is heavier. i had never considered the weight of a kettle before but the Krups feels substantial, while just being right for its size.
4 – Automatic assisted lid. It seems just to make sense and keep in fitting with the rest of the machine.
5 – Concealed element. It gives the kettle an air of mystery, you don’t see the element…does it even exist.
6 – Soft grip handle. It is soft and grippy. Other kettles seem plastic-y and cold in comparison.

Before this week I hadn’t considered my relationship with my kettle. Now I wonder what other relationships I have but am unaware of…

Scotland here we come

Finally, after some broken promises and premature wishes, we are on our way to Edinburgh and Glasgow to hold back-to-back sample sales.

The Edinburgh sale will be held at:

Assembly rooms
54 George Street
Edinburgh, EH2 2LR

The opening times in Edinburgh will be:

Monday 8th June – 12:30 til 6pm
Tuesday 9th June – 9:30am til 6pm
Wednesday 10th June – 9:30am til 6pm
Thursday 11th June – 9:30am til 6pm

And then we’ll pack up and head straight over to start the Glasgow sale

Unit 23, Princes Square Shopping centre
Buchanan Street
Glasgow G1 3JX

The opening times in Glasgow will be:

Friday 12th June – 12:30 til 6pm
Saturday 13th June – 9am til 6pm
Sunday 14th June – 11am til 5pm

Phew!

As always, there will be tonnes on offer, including some amazing one off test-print tees from the print shop. We’ll also have the usual end of line stuff, one off samples, last in the box, shrunk, faded, and pre loved.

So make sure you get there before the lot is gone. Oh and bring a bag to carry your new stuff home safely (we don’t give out bags).

Hope to see you there.

after a bit of twitter action, what do you think i will be doing this weekend?

I also bought 3 books at the Oxfam bookshop,
Grace Davie’s ‘The Sociology of Religion’
Clay Shirky’s ‘Here Comes Everybody’
Appignanesi & Garratt’s Introducing Postmodernism

Good buying this week then! how was your shopping?
PS does anyone know where to buy super-8 film?

if i had to rate them then

1 Milton Jones – Absolutely Hilarious
2 Harry Hill – Just Beautiful
3 John Shuttleworth – every song a winner
4 Bill Bailey – good set
5 Joe fisher – Had a hard audience of youthworkers to work with. His “cuddling for the kingdom” was very funny though

anyway
on saturday we, ( and a mean a reasonably large group of us went to see mark steel at the Glasgow comedy festival.
it was quite funny. marks set was based around being radical and being over 40. Is observations about how he has changed and how how his perspective on what and how he believes politically, has changed and developed as he has grown older. it was very funny.

I did wonder how the rest of the guys I was with felt about it.
I had an idea about his Marxist background and how his politics had been very definitely left. I am not sure that many of the guys I was with were that aware of just how political the show would be. (it was a relatively gentle politics, but it did ground the majority of the set.)

Anyway the night was fun.
Most of us laughed consistently and had a good time.
where would he have come on my list above? Joint forth with Bill Bailey probably. (PS the top 4 are quite close together so forth isn’t bad at all.

you could read rich’s thoughts here