Chelsea 2:0 Manchester United

 As someone who was born in the 1970s I have witnessed many of United's ups and downs. After yesterday's away game at Chelsea, I think this will be it's worst season since the relegation season of 1973/74.

I followed most of the game on the Talksport App, until I ran out of mobile data. The first half, admittedly, was very entertaining.  After the first Chelsea goal, the commentator said "the United defense just evaporated", after seeing the highlights on YouTube, the description sums it up.

The question is how long Michael Carrick can survive?

Shanghai workers' cultural centre (上海市工人文化官）

One of the my main gripes with mainland Chinese cities is the lack of heritage preservation, in nearly all Chinese cities you would not know that the Republic of China era existed let alone the Qing or even Ming dynasties.  This is in contrast to European cities especially in the UK where you know at least the Victorian, Georgian or even medieval eras happened. 

However in China, if you look hard enough you will find exceptions to the rule. After my Shanghai Museum visit I had a look around the surrounding area and found this interesting preserved building, the Shanghai Workers’ cultural centre. 

Built in 1930(Republic of China era) as the Grand Hotel, in art deco style that I have seen many times in Europe. It became a cultural centre for local workers and now it is a free museum.  I had a look inside.

Most of the exhibits were photographs and paintings of prominent workers, along with various art deco period artefacts such as the phonograph below.  The inside has been accurately restored with a wooden spiral staircase.  

As a fan of heritage and preservation I would have loved to see more of this in mainland China, but alas the Chinese value progress rather than preservation. 

 

Shanghai Museum

 After my adventure the previous day, I had a more sedate day at the Shanghai museum to see the  “ On Top of the World Tree: Ancient Civilizations of the Americas” exhibition.  

The museum was situated near the People’s Square (人民廣場) metro station.  An adult entry ticket set me back 148RMB.  As described in the elaborate English title it was an exhibition on the history and culture of America’s most important pre-Columbian empires - the Aztecs, Mayas, Olmecs and Incas.  

The exhibition took over the entire four stories of the museum. There was some English text on some of the artefacts but not enough for my liking.  Some of the staff were dressed in ancient Meso American dress which made them look somewhat bizarre, there must have been a reason. The exhibition was divided into a seperate storey for each empire, as someone who has been to Tikal in Guatemala, I do have a minor interest in this part of the world.  The display was well presented and did not overwhelm the visitor with too much information.  Like everything in China today, there was good use of media technology to reproduce what the ancient cities would have looked like.

My own gripe was that there should have been more seating for tired legs, I had to retreat to the museum restaurant to rest more than once. Another noticeable thing was that it was not very crowded, although my visit was on a weekday. 

By lunchtime I was done, and headed to the local 蘭州拉麵 for some nourishment.  

CGI representation of what a Maya city would have looked like

CGI representation of an underground river

Man Utd 0:3 AFC Bournemouth

 😢😢😨😳😳😳

Zhuhai National Orchestra at the Shanghai Poly Theatre

 After my adventures earlier that day, I was able to relax and head towards my evening event, a performance by the grandly named “Zhuhai National Orchestra” (珠海民族管弦樂團) at the Shanghai Poly theatre, since the venue was more than two kilometres from the nearest metro station I had to order a Didi taxi(China’s version of Uber) for the first time ever.  

On reaching the nearest metro station I ordered the taxi on my Wechat app and it arrived very soon. Getting to it was a bit of an adventure because firstly I wasn’t able to see it and I wasn’t able to call the driver.  It turned out it was on the opposite side of the dual carriageway to me so I finally got to it via a handy footbridge.  We then arrived at the theatre within a few minutes. 

The Shanghai Poly theatre is a futuristic, cube shaped building, adorned with a soft white light, obviously recently built.  Since I arrived early it was empty except for a few staff and I decided to have my dinner first at the shopping centre next door.  After my nourishment, I went back to the theatre, I noticed there were two auditoria, and my concert was in the larger one.  Despite having a QR code ticket on my app, I had to print off a paper ticket at one of the ticket machines. The auditorium was about sixty percent full at the start of the show.

The Zhuhai National Orchestra was more like a chamber orchestra or ensemble featuring a collection of classical (cello and piano), traditional Chinese(erhu and pippa) and modern pop (bass guitar and drums) instruments.  Led by pianist 曲大卫, we were treated to a variety of jazz, western classical, chinese classical and chinese folk pieces. In between each piece 曲大卫 gave a little talk on piece in his Cantonese accented mandarin Chinese.  It was a quite enjoyable two hours and the ticket was only 120RMB.  Afterwards another Didi taxi took me back to the hotel, looks like I’m getting used to mainland living.

An eventful day in Shanghai, visiting the Oriental Pearl Tower

 Last Wednesday was my first morning in Shanghai, and I decided to visit the Oriental Pearl Tower.  The Tower is to Shanghai what Big Ben is to London, the Eiffel Tower is to Paris and the Statue of Liberty is to New York.  It was my first visit to Shanghai in almost twenty years and my third visit in total but it would turn out to be my most memorable for the wrong reasons.

When I arrived just after its opening time, it was busy but not crowded, I opted for the 299RMB ticket which covered everything.  There was a cheaper 199RMB ticket which did not cover the top most floors.  The first lift took me half way up and here I was treated to a circular panoramic viewing platform.  There was handy Chinese and English description of each building that you looked at in front of you.  It was nice view of the Bund and the rather opaque looking HuangPu river.  I have been to the Bund before so I skipped going there this time.  It’s a credit to the government to keep the heritage buildings intact on the Bund.

As I sat down and put my mobile phone down on a wonky table, disaster struck, it fell on the floor!  Normally this would have been no big deal, except the screen went black but I can still hear notifications and even ringing from it. Try as I did, the screen remained dark and I was not able to reboot it. Oh damn!

I decided it was time to cut short my visit and get it repaired.  This was easier said than done, instead of taking the lift directly back down, I had to finish the tour by going to the top floor, which had a space exhibition, then I progressively went down the levels. The next one had the scary looking glass walkway where you can directly look down on the pavement below.  Then it was to virtual reality display and then finally a historic exhibition of the area. Eventually I made it outside.

Now to find a mobile repair shop, I took a metro for about five stops, got off in a residential area and went inside the local shopping arcade. A repair shop did appear but unfortunately it was closed.  The manageress of the little retail unit next door kindly called the repair shop owner for me but the feedback was that he was not able to help anyway.

Feeling stuck, I realized the only solution was to buy a new mobile phone, so it was back into the metro and headed back towards central Shanghai.  The shopping mall where I got off luckily had a Xiaomi shop and I bought myself a replacement mobile. Even better the assistant helped me set up Wechat and installed Google Play.  Wechat needed one of my contacts to verify me when I logged onto it on the new phone, however I did not remember the wife’s number.  Thankfully it allowed me to verify by password, which I remembered.  My ordeal was finally over! 

In the last ten or so years, China advanced well ahead of everyone else in using mobile technology to the fullest. One example is Wechat, which started off as an instant messaging app, but morphed into a Swiss Army knife App which can use for payment in shops, taxis and public transport.  Most retail vendors and taxis only accept mobile payment, cash is hardly used. And then there’s the issue of online maps.  Only the metro systems use tap and go with credit and debit cards.  So without a working smartphone in China, life becomes near impossible.

Me outside the Oriental Pearl Tower

The view from inside

Leeds United vs Manchester United

 Hello all, I have been in mainland all last week so I did not have a chance to blog anything despite having a few adventures. I took the overnight high speed train from Shanghai to Hong Kong, and I listened to the BBC radio five live commentary of Leeds Utd versus Manchester Utd. It was an exciting game but unfortunately the Reds failed to hold on to a lead. I did wonder why so many have called for Michael Carrick’s head on social media, so early in the season.  Give the man a chance, a high turnover in management is not good for any organisation. 

The Sceptred Isle: twentieth century by Christopher Lee

 This is the current book on my reading list, it may take me a while to review it.

In search of the dark ages by Michael Wood

 Yesterday I finished reading “In search of the dark ages” by Michael Wood, one of his earlier books, published in 1981 but how was it, let’s find out more.

First of all, like all non historians, I knew very little about the dark ages, especially dark age Britain. One of the reasons is that very little of it is mentioned in the media and taught in schools. So I bought this book last year to learn a bit more.

Like his other books, this is a very readable book and it teaches us the events and personalities of that time period between the end of Roman Britain and the Norman conquest. I learnt about the Saxon, Danish and Viking settlement in England and their local leaders. It also explained how England was divided up between the different ethnic groups.  I was particularly fascinated by his description of the lead up to battle of Hastings and how it was likely fought.  Strangely enough the book content coincides with the migrant problem happening in the UK at the moment, as new arrivals from Europe clashed with existing host communities. Maybe Wood had some foresight back then. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in this less well known part of British history.

 

Jeffrey Archer

 One of the first items I saw on my Instagram app this morning over breakfast was the news of Jeffrey Archer’s death yesterday.

He was a former Conservative MP, deputy chairman of the Conservative party and most remembered as a novellist.  I have read two of his works, ‘Kane and Abel’ and one of his prison diaries about his time in Belmarsh.  He was a very flawed character due to his perjury conviction and he was the subject of mockery on BBC “Have I got news for you” and in Private Eye magazine.  Rest in peace and condolences to his family.

Esther Rantzen

 I woke up and after finishing breakfast I saw this sad news appear on my Youtube feed.  Like most people of my generation I remember her from BBC “That’s life” it was investigative journalism, fearless campaigning and light entertainment rolled into one. It was a must watch on Sunday nights. Esther, thanks for the memories and rest in peace.

Teeline - update 2

 In my Teeline self study I am now using two new books(pictured below) which I bought from my UK visit this year. These two books provide more practice exercises, which helps the learning process and makes learning more interesting. I use both books in parallel and started from the beginning on both.  All exercises have answers at the back. 

The other reason I use them is that my “Teeline Shorthand made simple” is literally falling apart, so I decided to retire it.  My method is to study each book on alternate days daily, this means I am more likely to retain what I learnt. 

Forthcoming BBC radio medium wave switch off

 As I recently mentioned the BBC has already switched off its long wave transmissions for Radio 4, it will switch off medium wave transmissions for BBC Radio Five Live in 2027. This means less choice for listeners, especially those who do not have access to Digital Audio Broadcast(DAB) and the internet.  I have watched various youtube videos commenting on the long wave switch off, this one mentions a possible defence implication whereby an electrical magnetic pulse impact will disable digital communications and the national grid. I remember seeing this depicted in the 1980s BBC drama documentary “Threads” about Britain under nuclear attack.  Such an attack may not be as devastating for legacy items such as long or medium radio due to them being less complex and radio receivers being able to run on batteries. Hence long and medium wave operations may survive the aftermath of a nuclear attack and be used to inform the public. 

Therefore I have signed the petition to keep BBC medium wave, if you agree with me, please sign and share the petition. 

Mr Do on Nintendo Switch

 As you may remember, I bought a Nintendo Switch way back, and I still use it on a regular basis, I do not have that many games on it but recently I noticed that Nintendo released an “Arcade Archives” collection and an Atari classics collection.  I hope to buy the Atari classics collection in the near future.  

I have bought and downloaded “Mr Do”, I spent alot of money at the arcade on this game back then and I’m really glad to see it ported to the Switch. If you don’t know this game, check this out.  I find idea of crushing enemies under the weight of huge apples highly satisfying.  It’s simple, yet its simplicity is what makes it addictive.  This port allows three different versions and I choose the original version each time. 

Space Invaders on Sony PSP

 One of the many Sony PSP games I bought during this Summer’s UK visit was Taito Legends Power Up, this is a collection of vintage arcade games from Taito, who gave us the famous Space Invaders. The collection itself contains about a dozen games but it is the two Space Invaders games which captivated me. Space Invaders is in black and white mono, while Space Invaders II is in colour. 

Gameplay for both is the same, there is an option to play with the PSP at right angles to give a longer vertical display but this causes problems accessing the fire button.  So far I have only made it to the second level, my reflexes must be deteriorating. It is a true port of the classics and just like the olden times, it is very addictive.  Only difference is that I don’t need to worry about spending all my pocket money. 

London Orbital by Iain Sinclair

 I finally finished reading this very engrossing book, which I bought at a charity shop last year in Dymchurch, Kent.

It’s the experiences of a group of friends led by Iain Sinclair on walks around London, roughly following the M25 motorway, it is set during turn of the century in 1999, a time which I remember well as I was going through a major upheaval in my life. 

The theme of these walks was about mental health with a focus on mental institutions both current and former that they passed on the way. They passed many locations which were crime scenes and where famous people once resided. I found the stories very interesting even though some were dark. What I liked most was the accounts of every day sights like small roadside cafes, retail parks, business parks etc the things that are overlooked when we ramble.  That, plus the memories of early years the Blair government struck a chord on me.  

London Orbital is well worth reading if you are into the local history of outer London from the last days of the twentieth century.

The English:a portrait of a people by Jeremy Paxman

 There have been a few occasions in my life where I picked up a book for a quick browse of the first few pages and decided I will read it to the end regardless of whether I am in the middle of another book.  “The English: a portrait of a people” by Jeremy Paxman is one of them. 

For those that don’t know Paxman is a former news reader and presenter of BBC Newsnight, he is famous for his pitbull like interviews of those in power.  And he happened to write a few books.  Here Paxman gives his unique take on the English people, what shaped them and how they will adapt to a changing world.  Published in 1998, in the early days of the Blair government and long before Brexit and the migrant crisis, it focuses mostly on the upper classes without much on the peasants and working classes.  It looks at English attitudes to behaviour, patriotism, food, culture and even sex. However, it dwells too much on cliches such as the stiff upper lip and “playing the game”.  I do acknowledge the role of physical activity and competitive sports has had on the English psyche but to say it has a role in building the British Empire is over doing it. 

However I found this book unputdownable due to it being so readable and, to a lesser extent, entertaining.  It would have been better if it dealt with the white working class a bit more and it completely glosses over the effects of immigration on English society from the twentieth century onwards.

Severn Valley Railway

I’ve just discovered an excuse to go to Worcestershire on my next UK visit, thanks Geoff.

PSP games I bought during my Summer UK visit

 Here are the PSP games I bought during my UK visit last month, you can see a pattern here. Some games are timeless and live on in the latest consoles.  A majority will appear in future blog posts.

Everton vs Manchester United

 I’ve just finished listening to the first half of Everton versus Manchester United at Good…, sorry Hill Dickinson.  An action packed first half with Bruno Fernandes coming close early on. I’m a great critic of the BBC, especially in its news output but nothing beats BBC commentary on live sport, especially in football and cricket.  Now I’m off to get a cuppa.