I mentioned in the last post how fast food outlets seem to be swamping the country. While in Birmingham I went to Marks and Spencers food hall in search of one particular condiment. That was a mistake. I have the impression that M&S used to be noted for good quality food. All I found was the thinnest of thin choices of pre-packaged ready-meals, food and drink that is perfect for a pre-packaged lifestyle. Fifty flavours, but all one taste. Pre-packaged, sanitised imitations of various “world” cuisines, a synthetic failed simulacrum of interesting food, quality-controlled into near-identity, but all of it aspirationally packaged. (I didn’t even find the item I was looking for, and had to go to the nearest Asda when I was in the north-east of England where there was plenty of it.)

Anybody who really has aspirations to eat well will not go anywhere near the place, but will go a few yards down the road to the market. There you find thin people, fat people, black people, white people, people from British, Indian, African, Caribbean, Chinese and south-east Asian backgrounds buying and selling food that is interesting, far superior in quality to anything you’d find in a supermarket, as fresh as you can get without collecting it yourself – and cheap!

These videos were just taken wandering around with my little compact camera, but try to imagine that you are there. I started outdoors:

And then there is indoors:

Not to forget the rag market, but I don’t have video of that.

I went to the UK in April (yes, blogging late again) to see as much family as I could. The country is becoming swamped by fast food outlets – pizzerias, burgerias, sandwicherias and pastyerias on every corner and many points between.

I tried to get a taste of England while I was there: I ate a pasty on the platform of Leeds railway station, I drank warm beer in the Nailers’ Arms, took in a Builders’ Special from the greasy spoon opposite St Martin in the Bull Ring, got an excellent curry near the railway station in Bromsgrove, had a sandwich from Griggs and sampled fish and chips in the Worcestershire countryside and from Westoe Road, South Shields.

Seeing as how I’m late, here are just a few snaps to share. I want to blog in praise of Birmingham market, but will add that at a later stage.

Here are snaps.

Station 1

Station 2

Station 3

With niece Indy

Aunt Trudie

Bullring

Greasy spoon

View from greasy spoon

Bullring again

Stunning red brick

Rotunda - yes, really Birmingham

South Shields beach

Caitlin, Robert, Pinnochio, Pinnochio

Caitlin

Kevi (he hates that!)

Ginny, Robert

Caitlin's poem

Fun outside Bowes Museum

Leeds indoor market

Doc Poll

I’m just putting it on ebay, but this page gives you pictures and scope for comments.

Here nestling in its case

Top piece, showing the slight crack

Long joint

Lower joint

Bottom piece

All 4 pieces are stamped – here is the full mark on the long joint. It says:

CLINTON & CO
EQUISONANT
35 PERCY ST BEDFORD SQRE
LONDON
157

Actually I’m having difficulty getting it on to ebay – they say I don’t have enough history to sell more than $500 in one month, though I’m going through a fiddly process that might lead to this limit being lifted. So here is the blurb I was putting there:

Antique “London” style wooden flute by Clinton, serial number 157. My best guess for the year of manufacture (based on the information at Terry McGee’s site: http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/clinton.html) is around 1856. The wood is presumably cocus, but with the silver lip-plate there is no threat of allergic reactions.

It plays well at modern concert pitch. A few years ago, when it belonged to Harry Bradley, it was refurbished by Hammy Hamilton, just before I bought it. Harry told me he got it out of a general second-hand shop, so we know nothing more about its previous owners. In its years with me it has been kept properly moisturised and oiled.

All keys are in good order, though there is quite a knack to getting the bottom C and C# keys to seat cleanly. For Irish music, which is what it has been playing for the last decade or more, that is of course not very important.

Like any orchestral flute of that vintage, it has the full set of keys – apart from the bottom C and C# there is Eb, long and short Fnat keys, Ab, Bb, Cnat and the intriguing “brille” Clinton designed to get over the need to compromise on the pitches of Cnat and C#. If you aren’t familiar with the brille, don’t worry, you don’t have to do anything about it – the whole point is that it works automatically, so that the typical, easy, two-fingers down Cnat is well in tune (as is the keyed Cnat), and so is the all-open C#. (Players will know what I mean here, I think.)

There is a small crack in the barrel that slides out for tuning in the head piece – there is a picture you can see at the link above. It is important to recognise that this section is entirely lined with metal, so this crack has no effect at all on the playing, which is why I have not worried about it. Unfortunately these cracks are not uncommon on older flutes of this design.

Sound clips are available.

I am thinking of asking EUR 2000, plus shipping, though I haven’t researched the market yet. Mail me at mail@alex-wilding.com if you are interested. I’m currently located in Italy, and would prefer a sale in the general European region – it’s legally much simpler.

Changing buckets:

Video (yes, I got grit and twigs in my hair taking this):

Picture above is near the bridge just down the road.

I know that this has been on the national news in other countries, but probably not for long. In case anybody was worried, the first thing is that we are okay.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me just mention that after a very dry summer and an extraordinarily summery late September and early October, rain started in this region on Tuesday evening. The papers are saying that in some spots there was more than 20 inches of rain in eight or nine hours. To put that in context, in England the annual average total rainfall is about 33 inches.

At first I thought we had it bad with the following:

4 cm water in the office, which called for mopping up, but no serious damage was done

12 hours without tapwater

18 hours without electricity (so no gas heating either)

24 hours without telephone

30+ hours without Internet

We were also aware of road and bridge closures.

As we learn more about what had happened it became clear that we were lucky. The next village up the hill was cut off (as far as I know it still is). The town over the other hill has been completely inaccessible, helicopter drops of essential food were being made. At the last count (I haven’t looked this morning) there were at least 6 dead and 8 missing in the area, so we got away with it relatively lightly! The area has officially been declared a disaster area, with central government funds promised to help cope.

I have a few photographs of my own, and I may, given time, edit this post to make it more specific. The river that flows not far past the bottom of the garden has, for instance, significantly changed course. But in the meantime, you can get some impression from the links below.

Video on the Guardian site: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/oct/26/italy-flash-flooding-monterosso-liguria

From one of the local papers: http://iltirreno.gelocal.it/massa/multimedia/2011/10/26/fotogalleria/alluvione-in-toscana-e-liguria-lo-tsunami-in-30-scatti-30900680/1

These pictures are from Aulla, our second-nearest shopping town: https://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=407927670505#!/media/set/?set=a.10150895041120506.755201.407927670505&type=1

More local pictures: https://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=407927670505#!/media/set/?set=a.10150895276580506.755233.407927670505&type=1

From a national paper: http://www.corriere.it/gallery/cronache/10-2011/maltempo/1/maltempo-liguria_8a81c316-ff33-11e0-b55a-a662e85c9dff.shtml#1

Video from Pontremoli, our nearest town: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiG-q9daHAk

If you want to find more, you can search “Alluvione” (flood) along with words like Pontremoli, Aulla or Lunigiana.

And here’s a first update: 250 people were evacuated from Mulazzo, which is one “side valley” from ours, also having a river or creek that flows down to the Magra.

And here is a picture of what you find if you try to go up our valley to Castagnetoli, the village about 1 km up from us. You don’t get through – it’s one of the places to which helicopters are flying with essential supplies:

This is not really a blog post, just a place for people to come and see the picture.

I have heard it said that marble has become so expensive that people are even stealing name-plaques off walls and that kind of thing. So maybe somebody would like this?

There are between 25 and 30 pieces of marble. Many of them are about a metre long or slightly more, but some are shorter. They are generally either about 3/4 inch or about 1.5 inches thick, and mostly between 6 inches and a foot wide. It is whitish, with a pale grey marbling. The majority are more or less rectangular, but some have corners cut off or diagonal ends. A few have residues of cement clinging to them, and I assume they were taken out of a kitchen or something similar when this house was refurbished a few years ago.

If anybody wants them you can have them for nothing, but there are two conditions: the first is that you come and fetch them yourself (it’s a few minutes away from the Pontremoli autostrada access); the second is that you take all of them at one go.

Any takers?