XMAS FUN

 20 years ago was my first Xmas party at GAJ. A few of us had decided to get a little band together and perform a handful of songs at the party. That was the birth of GAJ rocks which went through several iterations over the years.

The last of these was a three piece called "out of the Blue" which was no longer just an Office band. When that line up fell apart I did a couple of solo gigs but gradually the momentum dissipated.

So yesterday was a special moment for me. To get up at this year's Xmas party and strut my stuff. Well I don't have the full repertoire of moves any more, but it sure felt good and the audience response was great.

So two pictures, 20 years apart, and a host of memories in between. Such a blessing to have had music in my life.

 

I've been advocating the use of what I call a "BIM sketch" for many years, as a way to explore the history of buildings : how they are constructed, how to interpret them within a given historical and social context, what accounts for their aesthetic appeal, and so on.

This is Bradlows furniture store, a land mark modernist work in Central Harare (known as Salisbury in 1937 which is the date on the East elevation. There is a hint of Art Deco, which was quite popular in the country at that time, but predominantly it leans into the International Style of Corb and Mies, expressing the structural frame and grouping windows into horizontal bands.

I don't know how far I will take this and to be honest I don't have enough information to do a thorough job. Realistically I'm not going to be able to visit the building in the foreseeable future, if ever. I have been inside but it was before digital cameras, never mind smart phones, so all I have is vague memories.

Let's see how far this goes, but I'm learning quite a lot already.

 

. . . Two of my children are in Dubai with their spouses and my youngest grandchild. Finally I got to visit the Museum of the Future. The building itself is hugely impressive, especially in its outside form. The exhibits however were a big disappointment.

Probably many visitors have a different impressions, and that's fine. But to me they lack the wow factor that you would expect in Dubai and from all the hype around this project. I don't know what I was expecting. I'm certainly not pretending that I could have done a better job. But I do think that building itself deserved a better job from the team that imagined the storyline behind the permanent exhibition.

 

I have lived here for more than 20 years, and Dubai is a beacon of hope in a troubled region. Far from perfect, of course, but i am rarely impressed by the arguments of it's most vocal critics. This is a city that has been very kind to me and to around 3 million other non-Emeratis who make up the bulk of its population.

 

The Dubai way is to dream big and to live at peace with people of different faiths and nationalities. It's success is partly underpinned by a willingness to come down rapidly and heavily on troublemakers , undocumented migrants, criminals etc. Perhaps it's too harsh, but I for one am grateful for the safety and success of this remarkable city.

A very merry Xmas to all my friends around the world. I love you all.