A fond farewell

It's nearly time to check out
the hotel
(Crowne Plaza Geneva)
does have it's funny little
quirks

like most hotels I've stayed in
the room was comfortable
and relaxing
but the architecture (Herve Dessimoz)
is stunning
with vast spaces filled with tasteful
art work and spectacular lighting
and it's just a stone's throw
from the airport
and let's face it when you're
bored in Geneva
there little else to do

How many Swiss waiters does it take NOT to put up a child's high chair?

Answer: 3
One to get the chair
One to trap their fnger in the chair
and
One to tell the other two
not to use the chair as it's
broken

Library fire

Sad to see that there's been
a fire at Manchester's Central Library
we were there a couple of weeks ago
when a 'technical fault'
set off the fire alarms during a performance
of Chapter Two
not sure of the extent of the damage
but it seems to have been in the basement
where the Library Theatre is based

Geneva - Saturday morning

In Marcus Zusak's The Book Thief
he describes Europe as being grey
and that's exactly what this little
part of Switzerland is like this
morning

my breakfast plate was very white
while the coffee was extra black
and the scrambled eggs
were too yellow and runny
for my liking

the plan was to have a lie-in
a hearty breakfast then
pack

but I woke early
packed
and had an early breakfast
now all I have to do is
use up the remaining minutes on
my wireless connection
before heading to the airport
for my 1pm flight back home

If I have to give my trip
as a whole a colour
it would be orange
Geneva would be grey
as I'll never forget that
thunderstorm

and now I look forward to
my life returning to the
normality of green

MMR07 - Memorable quotes

"the people who listen to the radio are also readers" - Silvain Gire

"the people who listen to radio are women and daydreamers" - Silvain Gire

"everyone is a media" - Guillaume du Gardier

"cinema for the ears" - Silvain Gire

"a space without a format" - Silvain Gire

"there are now more bands than cows in Switzerland" - David Wood

"offer the power of sound" - Silvain Gire

Geneva - Friday evening 2 (post dinner)

I'm self conscious at the best of times
just walking around my hotel room
in the supplied bathrobe
(I always worry that the mirrors
are two-way or there's a hidden camera)
but there are people blatantly
wandering around the lobby
in their bathrobes

Is it a Swiss thing?
Or a silent fire alarm?
Or is it down to poor signage
to the health club?

Geneva - Friday evening (post dinner)

Smoked eel
roast duck
apple tart

bill



smelling salts

Geneva – Friday evening 3 (not long now until dinner)

A couple of quick mentions
(sounds like a radio show)
Robin and my presentation
is available to see on YouTube
and there are plenty of pictures
around too of the whole conference

Two final things I’ve learned today
apparently there’s a local saying
‘Buses and Trams after 9pm (in Geneva)
are only for foreigners’so I’m going to eat at the hotel
the final gem of information is that
the Patron Saint of the Internet is
one Isidor De Sevilla
his Saint’s day is April 4th
and we’ve all been asked to
mark it in some way by the guys
from radio3net.ro

do Hallmark do a card?

Geneva – Friday evening 2 (still not had dinner)

Who was that idiot standing on
the pouring rain and hail in the
middle of Geneva trying to get
pictures of the spectacular
fork lightening?

Erm, that would be me
my trip round the town was
cut short by the weather
which later turned to snow
and now rain
again

Geneva – Friday evening (prior to dinner)

There were some very interesting and
inspiring sessions today in the
conference
my favourite was a presentation
by Silvain Gire from arteradio.com
Silvain feels that radio is losing its way
he says that in this day of multimedia
radio will always be in the minority
but we must never forget our art
the art of sound
talking heads and news has its place
but we must remember the power of sound
and the power of silence

the arteradio.com website offers
‘a space without format’
what they do is not new
what they’ve done is put the creativity
back into radio and with up to 400,000
visits per month (half of which are over 45)
it’s certainly given me some
healthy food for thought

Geneva - Friday morning

Rain
so it looks like I’m going
to get wet
walking to the conference
hopefully the cloud will
clear this afternoon
so I can get some pictures
of the old town of Geneva

Geneva – Thursday evening 3

Call me reckless
call me irresponsible
call me desperate
I’ve just raided the mini bar
for the Toblerone

Geneva - Thursday evening 2

The presentation at EBU* went well

I think Robin and myself sold everyone
on the idea of the BBC Manchester Blog
I’m not going to blog about the conference
as others, Robin, Hilary and Tuija are
doing a grand job
but I must mention the food
fantastic
and we got to fondue

still no chocolate

*don't go to ebu.com unless you want
the European Board of Urology

Geneva - Thursday evening 1

Call me lazy
but I’m not that good with
languages other than English
(I even struggle with that too at times)
so going into Migros for some pop
and a snack I just look at the pictures
on the packet and despite the fact that it clearly says
Haselnüsse
the picture to me (and the price of them)
made me think they were Macadamia

and while I’m being stupid
the hotel room’s light only come on
when you put your door key into a
little slot on the wall a good few paces
into the bedroom
so when you need to go and get some ice
from the machine by the lift
you have to take the card out
and then fumble around looking for the door
fortunately the ice bucket is big enough
to fill with enough ice to sooth all the bruising

Geneva - Thursday morning

It rained in the night but fortunately
the hotel has a roof
it also has an automatic piano
playing in the foyer
there was one at Liverpool Airport too
but that wasn't working
the piano that is
there used to be one in the Trafford Centre
but that seems to have gone
the same way as that stall that
used to sell fish in very
small tanks

If you get a chance to try some Swiss beer
I can recommend Hopfenperle
very nice with a leg of lamb
the whole leg
fortunately it was a small lamb

Geneva Day 1

So I find myself in Geneva
all set to talk at a radio conference
tomorrow
I'll be talking about blogging as part
of generating user content for radio

I'm still discovering the area around
the hotel
and apart from the mini bar in my room
I've not seen a single bar of chocolate
anywhere
nor a cuckoo clock
or an army knife

I hope this place isn't going to be a let down
having said that my guide book did warn me
"the nearest thing the world has
to an international city
without the pizzazz"

TARDIS

TARDIS

A TARDIS materialised at the BBC
in Manchester on Friday
they brought it in through
the front door
as for some reason it was
unable to come under its own steam
or whatever it is that powers the TARDIS
anyway it'll be in reception
until November

Actors interrupted

There was an impromptu
interval in last performance
of Chapter Two at the
Library Theatre
about ten minutes into the
play the house lights
came on and we
were all told to leave

so for about twenty minutes
we all hung around St Peter's Square
chatting with the cast who were
as freaked out as the rest of us

a technical fault with the alarm
system was to blame
and then we had a few moments of
deja vu when we returned to our seats
as the actors took us back
to the start
of the scene that was so rudely
interrupted

Red Nose Day

Even Concorde at Manchester Airport
got a big red nose
today for Comic Relief
I got to sit in seat A1 the very seat
the Queen would sit in if travelling
on this now retired icon of sixties
engineering

we had to do most of the programme
huddled
under Concorde with complaints
about the cold wind
but I just told them all to shut up
as I had the additional indignity of
wearing a ridiculous suit

Also spoke to Judith Chalmers
who brought back many a happy memory
of watching Wish You Were Here on ITV
hoping one day that Mother would talk Dad
into taking us to Spain or France or anywhere
other than a damp tent in North Wales

Postscript
bookfhm.com mentioned that I was
at Manchester Airport today
which was nice

Irish thrills and Spanish films

The celebrations for
St Patrick's Day seems
to go on almost as long as
Christmas
Thursday found me at Manchester Town Hall
(the picture is of one of the windows
in the Town Hall)
where youngsters were taking part
in what can be best described as
a massive music jam
hundreds of kids all playing Irish music

I met up with Eddie Lenihan
described as Ireland's greatest
living storyteller
who seemed almost embarrassed to
talk about the fact that he could
be the recipient of a prestigious literary
award in Ireland this weekend
a lovely guy

The mood of the day changed at the gala
opening of Viva! The 13th Spanish
and Latin American Film Festival in
Manchester
a packed Cornerhouse watched the
factually true film Salvador (Puig Antich)
the story of the last man to be executed by
garrote in Spain
nominated for several awards
the film was introduced by lead actor Daniel Brühl
and director Manuel Huerga who insisted
on telling us more than once
that the film was real
it was
very real

Play day

It's been a day of plays
talking about them
Chapter Two
which opens at the Library Theatre
this Friday
Death of A Salesman
at the Bolton Octagon
Look Back In Anger
at the Oldham Coliseum

and then seeing the very early stages
of rehearsal for one I'm writing
The Book Club

The picture is from the entrance
of the Central Library in
Manchester where I was today

Jazz at the Globe

The day started with a Baptism
and ended with an evening of
jazz at the Globe with Jazz Options
who spent the interval organising
the second half
tables and chairs covered in
sheets of music as they
dug out and sorted out
their running order

around them customers drank
the pubs own brew beers
and going by the polite applause
of the first half
seemed to care little
if the band played Don't It Make
My Brown Eyes Blue
or September in the Rain

while the guy at the bar
felt my jacket collar
'Tesco' he announced
'and yours fits better than mine
but it's a man's jacket alright'
and he dropped his cigarette on the floor
'great' he said

now that is jazz

Crufts

So I got to go to Crufts
for the first time
and the NEC for the first time
there were dogs everywhere
which was no real surprise
and every trade stand bar one
managed to somehow link what
they were selling to dogs
dog pillows, dog jumpers
dog jewellery (of dogs for people)
there was even a dog treadmill for days
when there's something really good on the TV
and you can't be bothered walking

the Royal Family love dogs and one of them
was there too Prince Michael of Kent
he passed me while I was eating lunch
and probably thought best not to disturb me
but the one stand that had no visible connection to dogs
was the one selling rocking horses

rocking horses?

Harold Riley

Had the immense pleasure of meeting
Harold Riley today at his studio in
Salford

He once trained with Chelsea
and played with Manchester United juniors
claiming that Duncan Edwards
kept him out of the first team
football's loss perhaps
but the art world would
have suffered far worse

How wonderful to shake hands
with a man who has also shook hands with
Nelson Mandela
Picasso and Henry Moore
each of which contributed something
to his studio garden

and, on what turned out to be a fine
spring afternoon in Salford,
Harold Riley offered me a
cup of tea
but I couldn’t bring myself to keep him
away from his work
any longer

Salford Museum and Art Gallery

Good timing for a visit to
Salford Museum and Art Gallery
with the lunar eclipse tomorrow
I took a look at their Orrery
Also spoke to antique dealer
Norman Mitchell who is at the
Spring Fine Art and Antiques Fair
at Tatton this weekend
and Caroline Boyd told me about the
Upfront Cafe at the Zion Arts Centre
starting tomorrow
and I bought some cheap Lowry prints
in the shop sale

Bridgewater Hall, Manchester

It's almost like my second home today
a couple of hours or so there this
afternoon
talking to Josephine Oniyama
who played live for me
CP Lee who talked about
itsahotun.com
dedicated to Mancunian Film Studios
Julie Higginson who plays
Yvonne in John Godber's Perfect Pitch
Robert Jones from Waterstones for
World Book Day
who told me that The Cat In The Hat was
published exactly 50 years ago today
and finally I spoke to composer
Ludovico Einaudi
which is the reason why I spent even
more time at the Bridgewater Hall this evening
for his concert promoting his new album
Divenire
THE most relaxing couple of hours
I have had in a long time