Categories
Animals Me Photography

A run to bluebells

In October I will be running 8km around the Isle of Kerrera, the run is immediately preceded by a 14km bike ride around the same island, which in turn is preceded by a 550m swim across Oban Bay.

I’m pretty happy with my current fitness levels but the Craggy Island Triathlon is something of a step up (I’ve never done an open water swim, and of the several hundred hours of cycling I’ve done in the last year about 6 have been outdoors).

I formally kicked off my training with a run this morning, I didn’t have much of a plan and ended up doing an 8.5 mile out and back run to a lovely bluebell wood I stumbled across in between startling a heron (who in turn seriously startled me) and meeting a lovely horse.

Categories
Humanities People

Mandatory Thursday

Just what the hell is a Maundy anyhow?

I must confess (ha) that my Catholic upbringing has let me down a bit here. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday I’ve got a handle on but Maundy Thursday (which always seemed the coolest of the three names) is a bit of a mystery.

As a kid I always pictured Maundy as a sort of tawny pink colour. It’s actually:

…from Old French mandé, from Latin mandatum “commandment” (see mandate); said to be so called in reference to the opening words of the church service for this day, Mandatum novum do vobis “A new commandment I give unto you” (John xiii:34)

Source

On Maundy Thursday, priests, popes, cardinals and kings around the world will wash one another’s feet (this is the command referenced above).

In the UK, Queen Elizabeth won’t be washing any feet but will give out Maundy Money to some of her poorest pensioners in a ceremony with all the pageantry and period strangeness you’d expect from a tradition stretching back 800 or so years.

The ceremony features the Yeoman of the Guard, The Lord High Almoner (a role that apparently still exists) and six wandsmen. I have no idea what a wandsman is.

Specially minted coins are paraded in on 400 year old platters; the Maundy pennies are presented in a white leather pouch with green string, regular coinage (in lieu of clothing and gifts) in a red leather pouch with white string.

Over time the clothing and gifts have been phased out in favour of money. The practice of giving clothing to women was stopped in 1724 after the event turned into a swap shop as recipients tried on each other’s clothes for size.

The ceremony also features four ‘Maundy Children’, historically these were four old men paid to dress up in linen scarves (nowadays four actual children are used).

In the past there were also mathematical considerations, the number of recipients (and coins given) was equal to the monarch’s age in years, and recipients were for life. Upon Queen Victoria’s accession the number of eligible recipients dropped from 71 to 18. Recipients are no longer for life but selected each year.

Categories
Books Geography Photography

An illustrated journey to Svalbard

This is a charming travelogue.

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(You have to click through for the real polar bears.)

North is a travelogue of illustrations and photographs detailing Christoph Niemann’s journey to Svalbard as part of a National Geographic cruise (which looks ace but also seriously out of my price range).

Had you asked me about Svalbard a month ago I would’ve told you about the home of the Panserbjørne, about those two episodes of Fortitude I watched before I forgot it was a thing, and how its name comes from 12th Century Icelandic records of islands visited by Vikings that may not actually be Svalbard.

Now, however, fresh from reading Prisoners of Geography it’s all about fishing territory, coal mining (or not), and the scramble for the Arctic.

Most countries and international organisations recognize the islands as being under (limited) Norwegian sovereignty, but the biggest island, Svalbard, formerly know as Spitsbergen, has a growing population of Russian migrants who have assembled around the coal-mining industry there. The mines are not profitable, but the Russian community serves as a useful tool in furthering Moscow’s claims on all of the Svalbard islands. At a time of Russia’s choosing it can raise tensions and justify its actions using geological claims and the “facts on the ground” of the Russian population.

It’s a genuinely fascinating read, I had no idea the extent to which Russia and China maneuvre their population en masse into foreign or disputed territories, or the importance of warm water ports. It was written pre-Brexit/Trump but with speculation on what could happen if UK or US foreign policy changed which adds an extra layer of interest.

Categories
Art Humanities People

UK Holocaust Memorial

Anish Kapoor’s proposal for the UK Holocaust Memorial.

Categories
Film

Ragnarok

I enjoyed the first two Thor films. Admittedly on second viewings they weren’t quite as great as I remembered them but still watchable. I enjoyed seeing Asgard, Vanaheim, the Aesir and Vanir up on the big screen but the plots were never quite the Shakespearean tragedies they were perhaps meant to be.

Ragnarok is looking like an altogether different prospect.

I’ve been tentatively excited about this since Taika Waititi was announced as director. My excitement is no longer tentative. His work is funny, charming, well observed, and not afraid to be strange and this trailer is hitting all the right notes.

I want nothing more than to see Thor exploring strange parts of a weird universe populated by the cast of a Star Wars/Flash Gordon mash-up universe cracking jokes while Led Zeppelin blares out.

November feels a long way off (even with the plethora of superhero films coming out between now and then). To fill the gap you should (whether you’ve seen them already or not) watch What We Do In The Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Or for something a little more informative (though likely completely unrelated to the plot of the next Thor film) you could learn a little more about Ragnarok from everyone’s favourite Cowboy Viking.