Category: Culture

An afternoon with the Dalai Lama

After attending this talk I realised the Dalai Lama is someone I’d really like to invite down the pub for a few beers and a bit of a natter.

The Dalai Lama was in Manchester last week for a series of workshops with young people. On Sunday afternoon he held a talk and Q&A session for the general public. The events were held at the MEN Arena which, with a capacity of 21,000, is the largest indoor arena in the EU, beating London’s O2 Arena capacity by a 1000. A google search revealed an interesting chart showing that in terms of ticket sales it is far behind the O2, but still comes in second not just in the UK or EU but in the world! Even beating (by a lot) famous venues such as New York’s Madison Park Garden. So the Dalai Lama was obviously anticipating quite a turnout!

I’d bought tickets for myself and a friend’s daughter. My friend dropped her daughter off and came to wait with her inside the venue. Whilst waiting someone gave her a free ticket that by chance was not too far from where we were sitting.

Peering between heads

The venue was quite full and we sat on specially laid out rows of chairs on the floor area in front of the stage. Although this meant we were relatively close, it was actually quite difficult to get a good view because of eveyone’s heads. In the fixed seating areas of the arena each row is higher than the one in front aiding the ‘heads blocking the view’ problem. We didn’t have this advantage, but by manoeuvring by neck I did get to see him. Also to each side of the stage was a large screen showing the stage area.

On the screen at the side of the stage

The Dalai Lama stood and talked for about an hour without notes, and then for a further hour he sat down to take questions which the audience had written down and handed to the ushers. He had an interpreter with him, but rarely needed him and then only to clarify a word or phrase. In both his talk and his answers to the questions he came over as someone with a sense of humour who doesn’t take himself too seriously and tries to cut through the hype that has been built around him. For example, when asked what is the best thing we can do to look after the environment, he laughed and said ‘use common sense’. He did then develop his answer, but his first response rang truest.

With the seldom used interpreter

He spoke about the importance of mothers and the love they have for their children; told stories from his childhood; and joked about miracle cures and how sometimes things can happen in unexpected ways. After suffering from an itchiness problem on his neck someone prayed for him. Next thing, someone gave him a cream which cured the problem. Was it the prayer that had brought the cream or was it just coincidence? Either way he was happy because he no longer itched. He went on to say that since this happened and he’s told this story, he’s been given so much cream and ointment he could open a small shop.

Sitting to take questions

The whole talk and Q&A session was in this vein – giggling, joking, and reminding everyone to keep their feet on the ground and not be deceived by new age quackery. From listening to people talking before and after the session, many of them seemed to see the Dalai Lama as someone to be venerated; someone who if they worshipped and put on a giant pedestal, could improve their lives for them. The talk was probably not quite what they wanted to hear. And the Dalai Lama made it very clear that people do have some say in choosing their future and their fortune. Don’t sit around dwelling on the negatives, instead concentrate on the positives and making the most out of them.

We all enjoyed his talk and came away thinking he was a very nice, regular guy with a good sense of humour. The sort of person you would love to invite down to the pub for a more informal social chat. Even my friend was very impressed, whereas beforehand she didn’t think this would be her cup of tea at all. I’d invited her daughter along as she is currently reading Theology at university and we have some good chats about theology and the different religions and their beliefs, but my friend had said she didn’t want a ticket herself. How fortunate she got a freebie!

Hajj Exhibition at the British Museum

A major exhibition at the British Museum.

The Hajj Exhibition at the British Museum was of relevance to me because of my interest in Islam. As an aspect of Islam, the Hajj is of particular fascination because it’s something I’m unlikely to ever experience. To be allowed to enter the area of Mecca I’d have to be a Muslim. As a female I’d have to be in the company of my husband or close male relative who would also need to be Muslim. Now that I’m over forty I could get around the unaccompanied female clause by going as part of an all female group, but there’s no way around the non-Muslim bit unless I was to convert. As I’m not religious and don’t hold any particular belief in God that would be rather hypocritical of me.

The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. All able-bodied Muslims must make this pilgrimage once in their lifetime as long as they can afford it. And of course it is something they should try to afford. As pilgrimages go this must be one of the, if not the, most ritualistic. Over the course of five or six days the various steps are followed by several million pilgrims, aided by around 12,000 guides. Bear in mind the setting is the red-hot Saudi Arabian desert, and one of the steps involves standing out on the plains of Mount Arafat for the whole day, and you can begin to see that this is no holiday but a real test of mind and body.

This site is the official Saudi Arabian site for the Hajj and gives lots of details.

But, back to the exhibition. I’d bought my ticket well in advance and so could go straight in. One of the first things I saw was a piece of a kisweh. The kiswah is the gigantic cloth, usually black and decorated with a band of Arabic inscriptions embroidered in gold thread, that covers Islam’s most holy place, the Ka’aba. It is to the Ka’aba that Muslims all over the world turn when they pray. A new cloth is produced each year. The piece in the exhibition was huge and it was wonderful to get so close to it. I can’t imagine the majority of pilgrims themselves getting that close. Although all pilgrims must circumambulate the Ka’aba seven times, sheer numbers must surely mean the majority are circumambulating at some distance.

Once inside the exhibition proper, the displays wound around the hall imitating the journey of the Hajj itself. The first section showed what it’s like to prepare for Hajj and had stories told by people departing from different countries. The next sections followed the days of Hajj culminating in the pilgrims’ arrival back at home. Each section had a range of exhibits, which I found quite interesting to see, and various short films, audio testimonies and photographs to complement them. There was plenty of information provided in each section so a visitor not so familiar with the procedures and meanings of Hajj should learn plenty and have no trouble understanding what they are looking at. I found this slightly less interesting as it was a little too basic for me. Any visitors who have studied Islam should go to the exhibition with the intention of seeing artefacts they would not normally get the chance to see, rather than to learn something new.

Would I recommend this exhibition? Yes. Is this one of the best exhibitions I’ve been to at the British Museum? No.

Here are some statistics about last year’s hajj that I’ve copied from the Telegraph website.

Key numbers for the Hajj this year:

– An estimated 2.5 million pilgrims are gathering in Mecca this year – 1.8 million from abroad and 700,000-800,000 from inside Saudi Arabia.

– Every Muslim country has a hajj quota of 1,000 pilgrims per million inhabitants and the biggest contingent – 200,000 pilgrims – will come from Indonesia.

– Saudi Arabia is deploying some 63,000 security forces, including 3,500 anti-riot policemen backed by 450 armoured vehicles, while the civil defence is deploying 22,000 forces and 6,000 vehicles.

– Some 1,500 CCTV cameras have been installed in and around Mecca’s Grand Mosque and 29 police stations will be open to serve the holy places.

– Some 20,000 health workers have been mobilised to cope with any emergency and five rescue helicopters also have been readied to serve the faithful.

– More than 12,000 male and female guides known as “mutawif” help organise the pilgrims’ stay.

– The Grand Mosque at the centre of Mecca, where pilgrims gather to pray and circle the cubic Kaaba building, covers 368,000 square meters and can hold more than 1.5 million people.

– The Kaaba rests on a marble base and is built from granite, and has a door made from 280 kilos (616 pounds) of pure gold. The black silk kiswa covering, made anew every year, is embroidered with holy phrases using 150 kilos (330 pounds) of gold and silver thread.

Whilst I was googling I came across this site – I’ve only had a quick look at it but it’s definitely one I’ll come back to.

Hockney at the Royal Academy

Wish I’d allowed more than 2hrs to see this fantastic exhibition.

I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the Hockney exhibition whilst I was in London. The online allocation of tickets had long been sold out so I was reliant on buying a ticket once I arrived. The queue for same day tickets was an hour or two long, but for next day tickets it was only 5-10 minutes long. Lucky me.

The following day I turned up and got straight in. It was quite crowded but the timed tickets made sure it wasn’t over-crowded and so it was still easy to get a good look at everything.

The exhibition was much bigger than I’d expected and spanned a period of about fifty years. Many of the paintings depict landscapes, including a series showing the same countryside scene throughout the four seasons.

Not all of the works were paintings however. Several large scales images were actually made up of hundreds of polaroid photos. These photographs were each taken of a tiny part of a huge landscape such as the Grand Canyon and then pieced together jigsaw style to create a whole huge image. The look was really effective and this is something I really must try at some point. I don’t have enough wall space (or enough patience) to do anything on his scale, but even a smaller version would be fun to try.

Hockney has recently discovered iPads and has been using one for his intial sketches. One exhibition room had a series of iPads showing the sketches he’s done. In one of the main exhibition rooms was a group of primary school children all squatting on the floor with their own iPads copying his paintings. It was fascinating to watch them and seeing the iPads in use – they were getting almost as much attention as Hockney!  

One of the best exhibits was a series of films. Hockney was born in Bradford but has lived in Los Angeles for decades. A few years ago he came back to Yorkshire to spend time with his sick mother and rediscovered his love of the place. He’s painted quite prolifically since then, but also got into film-making pioneering a technique using 18 cameras. The cameras were all loaded onto the front of a landrover at different heights and angles. As he drove slowly up a Yorkshire lane the cameras captured the scene from eighteen different perspectives. These films are shown simultaneously on eighteen joined together screens. There is some overlap which in itself creates an interesting effect, but mostly the perspectives merge well to give the impression of actually moving down the lane yourself. One camera, even with a wide-angle lens, shows such a restricted perspective but it’s only when seeing something like this do you realise how restrictive normal photography and filming is. I really felt like I was there and it seemed more realistic than any 3D film I’ve seen.

I spent about two hours at the exhibition and could easily have stayed longer, but I had to leave to ensure I was on time for my floatation appointment. I would highly recommend this exhibition, but do allow plenty of time.

Watching ice hockey

My first ice hockey experience.

Last night I attended my first ice hockey game. I drove down to Nottingham and arrived in plenty of time to pick up my friend’s daughter and get to the stadium for the 7pm start. Lots of people were walking from the car park towards the stadium,  many of them wearing ice hockey shirts. We presented our tickets and went inside to find our seats. Dead easy. We settled down in our front row seats and began watching the two teams practising and warming up. Then a woman came to our seats and politely informed us we were in the wrong place and that lots of people make that mistake. We’d gone into the right block and were sat on the right seats in the right row, so we were a bit confused.

We couldn’t figure it out so went back out to ask a steward. Easier said than done as it was quite hard to tell who was working there and who was a supporter. Once we found someone, he directed us to another steward in a different part of the block and he found us our seats. Either there are two lots of seats with the same block, row and seat numbers, or the labelling on the doors to the blocks is incorrect. Anyway, our seats were good and we were still in plenty of time.

We sat on the front row at the centre of the rink right next to the box where players sit when they are sent off. They get sent off for two minutes at a time and are locked into this box by a warden type lady who only releases them back onto the rink when the two minutes is up.

Once the warm up was finished the players left the ice and the rink was skimmed and sprayed with water by a big plough type vehicle. I could feel the chill rising up from the ice which I hadn’t expected. A bit stupid of me really, as I was basically sat beside a giant freezer!

The plough skimming the ice. All the photos are this
quality because I was taking them through the scratched
perspex screen.

The players from the opposing team – the Fife Flyers – were then announced and they came on individually. Then the same was done for the home team – the Panthers. The player/coach of the Fife Flyers had tragically lost his wife and unborn twins a few days earlier in the week so of course he wasn’t here. An announcement was made though, offering commiserations.

There seemed to be at least 18 players on each team and the ice was really crowded, but once the game was ready to start most of them went into an enclosure and there were just six from each side playing at one time. There seemed to be no official way of organising substitutions – the players randomly seemed to decide they needed a rest and would come off allowing someone else to come on. Sometimes most of them would change at the same time. Just because a player had come off didn’t mean that he couldn’t come back on again. I’m used to football where once a player has been substituted he can’t come back on, so this all seemed a bit strange to me.

The Panthers are in white

The game was played over an hour in three thirds of 20 minutes each. There were fairly long intervals in between. It was really fast and furious; the players seemed to whizz from one end of the rink to the other, smashing into the hoardings and each other with great impact. The sticks were about shoulder high and were flying all over the place – sometimes without a player attached to the end! I could see exactly why the players were all wearing loads of padding and helmets. It would have been quite lethal otherwise.

At first the Fife Flyers seemed to be doing best and by the end of the first third were 3-1 up. For the next two thirds the Panthers did a lot better and most of the action seemed to be around the Flyers’ goal, though the goalie was good and the Panthers struggled to score. Four times the fracas around the goal was so furious the nets came unstuck and were knocked across the ice. Finally the score was 3 all and it was down to the last minute or two of the game.

I don’t understand what happened next, but whatever it was meant that with 30 seconds to go, the Panthers got a penalty. The ice was cleared of all but the Flyers’ goalie and one Panthers’ player. The puck was set in the middle of the centre circle with all eyes eagerly on it. The player skated up to it, guided it down the rink and straight into the goal. Yay! After a dubious start we’d won 4-3!

The players then all came back onto the ice for the final few seconds. Once the whistle had blown they did a few laps of the rink before lining up to shake hands with each other and have the players of the match announced. Leaving the rink for the final time, one of the Flyers seemed to be having a slanging match with one of the referees. Hm, maybe not too happy about the penalty?

Shaking hands at the end.

The spectators were all very well behaved and were even allowed to bring their beers to their seats. There was some shouting and cheering, but not nearly so much as at a football match. In the intervals there were performances by young ice skating dance troupes but not many people seemed to be paying attention to them. At the far end of the rink were four cheerleaders who performed a few lacklustre cheers every time the music started. I didn’t really see the point to them as they were so far back and out of the way it wasn’t particularly easy to see them and they only performed at times when everyone had all eyes on the game.

The music, which was all corny tunes like the Addam’s Family, YMCA and Amarillo, seemed to be played at times when something was about to happen (the football equivalent of a free kick or a corner) and would stop abruptly once whatever was about to happen began to happen. I’d have thought this would be distracting to the players but it didn’t seem to bother them. I suppose they’re used to it.

So I enjoyed my first ice hockey game, though I didn’t particularly understand any of it. Hopefully I will get to go again, maybe fairly soon when I’m in Germany.

Beaufort – a film

A film about the Israeli’s withdrawal from Lebanon.

I watched this on iplayer recently. The film is about the final part of the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. Beaufort is an an old Crusader fortress that has been used by the Israelies as a modern day outpost complete with a maze of underground tunnels and lookout posts manned by dummies (to make it look like there are more soldiers than there actually are).

The film follows the daily routines of the soldiers; their hopes, fears and dilemmas. Most of the IDF has already pulled out and the soldiers at Beaufort are living in a temporal no-man’s land not knowing whether today, tomorrow or a day next week, will be their last day in Lebanon. They dream of what they will do when they are home, their families and girlfriends. The boredom is frequently offset by regular Hizbullah attacks. Although it is common knowledge that the Israelies are pulling out, the attacks have been stepped up so Hizbullah can take the credit and say they were responsible for chasing the Israelies out. At least that what the soldiers theorise. Of course the attacks lead to deaths which seem all the more tragic in light of the fact that a few days later the young men would have been home and safe.

It was often hard to remember that these soldiers were indeed young men, most of them being only eighteen. The commander of the outpost was only 22 and yet bore the huge burden of being responsible for the lives and deaths of those under his command. His final task is to supervise the laying of explosives and the complete destruction of Beaufort as they leave.

It was a moving film to watch and it’s no surprise to learn since that it has won plenty of awards. As far as I can make out the main events in the film such as the actual withdrawal are based on fact, but the soldiers themselves are only loosely based on real characters and the incidents that happen to individuals, although representative of real incidents, are fictionalised accounts.

The film is in Hebrew with English subtitles and runs for just over two hours.

Ice hockey

I just got tickets for my first ice hockey game.

This isn’t on my list but it will be a first. I’ve just booked tickets to see an ice hockey game. I know nothing about it but it sounds like fun. The 15 year old daughter of a friend is coming with me and as she’s a fan who goes fairly regularly, I’m hoping she’ll explain it to me as we go along. 

The game is in Nottingham which is where my friends live. We’ll be watching the Panthers (the local team) play the Fife Flyers on the 3rd of March. It’s a Saturday so I’ll probably make a weekend of it and try to fit some other stuff in too.

Apparently ice hockey is big in Germany where my brother lives so I may get to go again when I go to visit at Easter. This is going to start seeming like a habit!

Up Helly Aa

Learning about Up Helly Aa

I’ve decided to add attending the Up Helly Aa festivities to my list as it’s something that would be amazing to see, but quite difficult because of the time of year. Not school holidays. So whenever I find myself with time off for whatever reason, at the right time of year, I’m heading up to Shetland to see Vikings and burning boats.

The main festival is in Lerwick and is held on the last Tuesday in January, but there are others held throughout the islands until the end of March. The parade and boat burning is open to everyone and of course would be wonderful, but the real fun seems to happen in the evenings when the various Jarl squads (Viking gangs) go round lots of halls and basically party all night. The halls are private invitation only and so to get the most out of the experience I’d have to sneak an invite. This might be easier to do in the islands rather than in Lerwick.

As I’m in Lerwick,  I went to the Up Helly Aa exhibition in the boat shed. There were lots of costumes, shields, and part of a replica boat displayed. As well as Viking costumes, the various squads each choose a theme and people dress according to the theme, so there were also costumes in the shape of cartoon characters, chocolate bars and so on.

I watched a video showing the year long preparations for the festival and what happens on the day itself. The preparations involve the making of the boat, all costumes, shields and torches. During the day the squads visit schools, the old folks’ home, the hospital, etc so that everyone gets to be involved. Then they have the main march through misty, hazy, gloomy, drizzly, wintry Lerwick. It looked so atmostpheric on the film. At the end of the march the boat is burnt. It doesn’t get put to sea as I’d thought, but is burnt on dry land. All the Vikings toss their burning torches on to it. As they stand all around it I wondered what would happen if one tossed their torch too far and it sailed over the top into the crowd on the other side!

Some of the snippets of interesting info I picked up in the exhibition include:

  • The lead Viking is known as the Guizer Jarl – ‘Guizer’ comes from the word ‘disguise’ – the members of the various squads wear masks all day so no-one knows who they are. However, the members of the Guizer Jarl’s squad are all dressed as Vikings and don’t wear masks meaning they can be identified. They all seem to have beards though – do they grow them specially for the event?
  • Only men can go on the parade.
  • You have to live in Shetland for five years before you can join a squad.
  • You have to be chosen to be on the organising committee.
  • You work your way up through the ranks on the committee for 15 years – then in the 16th year you are Guizer Jarl.
  • You start as a ‘water-carrier’ making sure everyone in the squad has enough water in their whisky.
  • It’s very expensive – you need to save up to be Jarl and to raise a lot of money.
  • During the day the Guizer Jarl’s squads go round the schools, old people’s homes and the hospital performing, as well as performing and parading in the streets.
  • Each squad has a theme for their costumes and performance which is kept secret – only the committee knows to make sure there is no overlap.
  • In the evening, there is a torchlit parade through Lerwick ending with the burning of the boat.
  • Then the squads spend the rest of the night going round the halls, eating, drinking and performing.
  • Each squad goes to each hall in a pre-planned order. The Guizer Jarl’s squad goes the opposite way round to the others so they meet each of the others in turn.
  • Torches are made from 4ft long, thick pieces of wood. Three sacks are rolled round the end and nailed into place. A fourth sack is nailed over the top. Cement is put where the sacks and pole meet to prevent the pole from catching light.
  • The sacking end of the pole is soaked in parafin for about 24 hrs. The whole thing ends up weighing 14lbs.
  • After Up Helly Aa the Guizer Jarl joins the ex-Jarls and starts at the beginning again as a water-carrier. The job of the exes is to advise the others.
  • The halls are privately rented by people who invite their family and friends and prepare loads of food. As they are private you can only go to them if you have been invited.
  • The hall parties last all night.
  • The schools now have junior Jarl squads.

What a festival! And in one of my favourite places too.