WALKING BACK THE HYPE

 

Morning walks. Three apartment blocks on my regular circuit. I can't help wondering what the "architects" thought they were doing. Ranging from the unbelievably bland to a mush-mash of unrelated shapes. Trying too hard versus not trying at all.

As for the block on the far right, what is supposed to be the relationship between the toy-town classicism of the roof storey and the ordered geometry below? In what way did the owners and the designers conspire together to create this sad trio. Did they think they were doing a good job? Were they totally out of their depths? Or did they just not care? 

 

A little further along on my stroll there are red & white concrete barriers to protect a vacant lot from haphazard parking. Thank goodness I have my own spot in the basement. Pasted on those barriers are the ubiquitous adverts for bed spaces. Targeted at specify nationalities to minimise friction when people are living there or four to a room and sharing small bathrooms and kitchens.

Again I am lucky to have a flat to myself that might easily have been sublet to half a dozen desperate souls. Separated by curtains or thin chipboard partitions that stop short of the ceiling.

You may be horrified, but clearly this is a better option for many than going back home.

In between my two hospital appointments on Monday (long layover) I went to Wafi Mall to look at guitars in Thomsuns Music.

It was a spur-of-the-moment idea, but I have been wishing for a while that I had a proper electric guitar that works. When I had a gigging band in Dubai, I was using two Line6 Variax guitars. (one with heavier strings for slide work)

They are very clever guitars that mimic different models at the flip of a switch courtesy of some smart electronics. BUT they are prone to glitches, and the superfine Dubai sand has sneaked its way into the knobs... Crackles and cutouts result. They need a serious service, but the shop no longer supports the brand.

I came away with a Telecaster. Something I can play straight away. Let's try and get some of my musical fluency back... So I have been trying out using two phones. Drum rhythms app on one, plug the guitar into my baby amp with all its sound options, play along and record on the second phone. Potentially do an overdub by switching the phones around.

Let's see how that works out. But one spin-off has been discovering some old recordings... One day at a time.

 

"I am desecrating graves because there is no hope." The message is so negative. Also self-indulgent. Look up "luxury beliefs".

I'm sure these are very nice, well-meaning people, but in my view, so misguided and counter-productive. Without energy there is no life. Darwinian evolution is a story of creatures that harness energy from their environment.

Banning an energy source before you have rolled out a viable replacement is just a way of punishing the poorest communities around the globe. 

 

 

I have more respect for people who are working on technologies to provide the base load power that renewables cannot. It's going to take a couple of decades. Patience, persistence, hard work, brilliant minds, investment in R&D. A long term vision. Positive thinking.

I recently did a quick catchup on Terrapower, who are developing safer, cheaper, fourth generation nuclear that can scale its output up and down to mesh with renewables. There is also the potential to use nuclear waste as fuel and draw down existing stockpiles.

Now you can disagree. I'm not here to argue for or against that technology. It's early days. But they are putting in the hard work. Trying to come up with solutions. To me that's much better than saying "ban this, ban that" while living comfortably in the south of England.

Just my opinion. AKA. "Just Stop the Tantrums"

 

 

 

RECOVERY WEEK

 

These were views from my hospital room window. 
 
The stepped facade motif was very popular in Dubai up to a decade or two ago. The obelisk is part of Wafi City which is one of the older shopping malls and has a strong Egyptian theme. 
 
It may not come across very clearly in this montage, but the mosque sitting in the centre of a courtyard of taller buildings and seen through a narrow gap, presented a striking contrast of scales and styles. Quite a nice little set piece. 
 
I spent 4 nights in this room, but for much of the time I was hooked up to an IV drip and in any case, struggled to get out of bed without help. So I was only able to appreciate the views on my last day. Thank you to American Hospital Dubai for being such a great place : location, buildings, healthcare, people. 👌  

Monday was a busy day. If I have two hospitals appointments in the same day I usually try to move them close together so that they don't consume the whole day. Sometimes I can fit lunch in between the two, which is also fine. But this time I had a couple of extra hours to kill. More on that in another post. 

For now I will just reflect on the beginning and the end of that day. The morning appointment included the usual checks, a discussion with my oncologist, a bone strengthening injection, and giving blood for the usual monthly testing regimen. That was in a room that overlooks the atrium. 

 

 
I love those rooms. You sit on a bench seat looking out sideways waiting for the doctor, then waiting for the nurse to come back. The view here is of that same atrium, but viewed from the lift lobby. It's been quite cool lately, by Dubai standards at least, and we had some light rain in the morning. 

Lunch was my favourite avocado stacker, then I went off on a little adventure. It was getting dark by the time I got back to see the surgeon. Dressings came off and he was very happy. They tested more than 20 lymph nodes in ten section of colon that was removed and no sign of cancer having spread beyond the one tumour. 
 
So I walked out into the Dubai night. Palm trees and buildings looking very pretty through my rose-tinted glasses. Time to get my exercise and diet routine back on track. Enjoy each day as it comes. 

 

 

 

I stumbled on this old song. I wrote it in Sheffield, late 70s, when I had a band called Jump (inspired by the name of a village near Barnsley, and the "Jump Circular" bus route.  
 
The recording is from 2006 when we were trying to introduce original songs into the set list of the office band.  
 
Slide show is from my phone gallery in recent months.  

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/B5d5ZT0Nk0c?feature=shared 

 

 

AI-DXB

(somehow I forgot to post this one. From mid-December 2024)

I remain highly sceptical about the value of AI generated images. But there is no point in taking the ostrich stance. My most fundamental reservation is that the process of drawing or painting has always been more important to me than the project.

Even when drawing on a digital screen with a stylus, there is a rich embodied journey that brings its own fulfillment and stimulates a whole cascade of ideas. With a physical canvas and paints this is even more so.

 

Microsoft Office on my phone keeps updating itself, as do so many tools. It can be confusing. Last week I was struggling to find my recent Word documents. Maybe it's me. I will adapt soon enough of course, but it's also good to get lost from time to time. You blunder into things you have been ignoring.

So I asked for a woodcut style Victorian Street scene. I could imagine putting one of these into a slide deck if I was still doing stand-up BIM talks. Then I adapted one of the sample monogram to use my initials. Not quite usable but food for thought perhaps.

Never say never? 🤔

 

Pictures from my first year in Dubai. Overnight camping in the desert, followed by dawn walks and getting out soon after breakfast to escape the harsh sun. Such a long time since I did anything like that.

Cricket played on a concrete pitch in an area that has changed beyond all recognition now. My two sons played in that match, passing through Dubai on their university journeys. I was just an observer but those were good memories.

 

Fast forward to last week, standing out front of my building. Looking up the road at the sunrise and down the way at Burj Khalifa, glinting in the low angle sunbeams. 20 years gone in a flash. Life keeps speeding up on me and all the while my body is slowing down.

All I can do is give thanks for my incredible good fortune and take each moment as it comes.