THE WORST AND THE WARMEST
It’s official: the third week of January is the worst week of the year, in Britain. We are poorer, more fed up and less optimistic during this week than in any other week of the year. You feel overweight and unhealthy (remember what Jo said); Christmas credit card bills have to be paid; the sun isn’t shining; it seems to rain every day; you can’t quite believe it will ever be hot and sunny again.
But I heard another official statistic on the radio this morning: last night was the warmest January night ever recorded in London. And I can vouch for that. In the morning I went for a short run in the park wearing just T-shirt and shorts (normally, at this time of the year, I have to wear a track suit, a woolly hat and gloves when I go for a run). We had breakfast at a coffee shop in town – and sat outside! Then, in the evening we went to a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, on the south bank of the Thames in central London.
It was Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto and Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony. If I ruled the world everyone would have to listen to the third movement of the Rachmaninov every day during the third week of January, every year. You’d have to have a box of tissues handy, of course – it’s so schmaltzy, but it is exquisitely beautiful, too. And you know how easily sentimental music makes the tears flow down my face.
In the interval we went out onto the terrace to recover, and looked across the river. It’s probably the best view in London, the River Thames from Waterloo Bridge at night – so energetic and colourful and romantic. Anyway, forget the romance for a minute: it was actually WARM – at nine in the evening in the middle of January, in London. Come to London in January, and leave your winter clothes at home!
My phone bill arrived yesterday. So did my gas bill. And the bill for Lucy’s new laptop. Aaaggh! Never mind, I won a small Premium Bond prize and got my annual Public Lending Right statement. It’s always nice to get a cheque in the post – however small it might be. Of course, I spent it straight away. On books (Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones, and a travel guide to Vietnam), CDs (Polish Spirit by Nigel Kennedy, and a couple of Dvorak recordings) and a DVD (by the Leningrad Cowboys).
Lucy had an exam yesterday, so I called her to ask about it. She was pretty confident about the facts she’d had to learn, but was dissatisfied with the quality of the essay she wrote. Maybe it’s not such a good idea for the university to have exams in the worst week of the year. Or maybe, Lucy, it would be a good idea to do some work before an exam. Or am I just being too much like a dad? (Don’t answer that.) Anyway, it certainly wasn’t the warmest January night ever recorded in St Andrews. But next week it’s Burns’ Night, in Scotland, so no matter how cold it is outside there’ll be plenty of haggis and whisky and dancing to keep everyone warm.
As they say, in Scotland, ‘Slainte!’
And best wishes,
STEPHEN KEELER
SOME USEFUL WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS
fed up (with)
bored or annoyed [informal]
vouch for
If you say that you can ‘vouch for’ something, you mean that you have evidence from your own personal experience that it is true or correct.
track suit
a loose, warm ‘suit’ consisting of a top and trousers, designed to be worn when exercising
movement
section (of a piece of music such as a concerto or a symphony)
handy
nearby; within easy reach
schmaltzy
very sentimental
Aaaggh!
an expression of frustration and panic
Premium Bond
Premium Bonds are numbered bonds sold by the (government) department of National Savings, in Britain. Each month a computer randomly selects a number of bonds and the people who own them win prize money. The smallest prizes are £50 and the largest is one monthly £1m prize. I didn’t win that one!
Public Lending Right
A system for paying authors of published books a small sum of money each year for the number of times their books are borrowed from public libraries, in Britain.
pretty
rather
essay
a short piece of writing on one particular subject written by a student
Burns’ Night
Robert Burns (1759-96) is Scotland’s national poet. He wrote, among many other well-known works, Auld Lang Syne – the song we sing at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Scots at home and around the world celebrate Burns’ Night, on 25 January every year, with a haggis dinner, bagpipe music and recitations of some of Robert Burns’ poetry.
haggis
Scotland’s national dish, haggis is made from oatmeal and the internal organs of a sheep or a young cow, boiled in a bag made of skin – sounds disgusting; tastes heavenly especially with mashed potato and turnip and washed down with the finest single malt (unblended Scotch whisky).
Slainte!
A Gaelic (the native language of Scotland) word for ‘Cheers!’ – it is pronounced, more or less, like this: /slange/.
SOME BOOKS AND MUSIC FOR THE WORST WEEK OF THE YEAR
This week I bought and read, or listened to:
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Penguin, 2006)
Delicate and brutal, gentle and savage, this novel reminds me a little of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It is set on a remote South Pacific island which is threatened by civil war. Matilda and her classmates suddenly find their lives forever changed by a teacher and a great English novel. I think you could read and understand this if you English is from intermediate to upper-intermediate upwards.
Polish Spirit by Nigel Kennedy with the Polish Chamber Orchestra (EMI/Opendisc, 2007)
Nigel Kennedy is a British-born virtuoso violinist who now lives in Poland. On this CD he plays two violin concerti, by Emil Mlynarski and Mieczyslaw Karlowicz (who I am ashamed to admit I had never heard of) and two nocturnes by Chopin. Gorgeous music.
Leningrad Cowboys Collection (DVD) directed by Aki Kaurismäki (Artificial Eye, 2006)
If you’ve never heard of rock and roll band from Finland, called The Leningrad Cowboys, you really must do something about that. Their haircuts are worth buying the DVD for. Don’t expect fine music. Do expect energy and volume: something to blow away the January blues.
Enjoy!
Comments
Hi Stephen! Oh... thanks for your book tips. I´ve read a couple of books that you´ve recommended on your blog and I´ve just loved :-)! Best wishes, Ana Paula.
dear stephen, thank you for you introduction of the books and music . It is the 4th week of Jan ,and it is more cool than last week here .It is snowing outside .But I 've spent a warm weekend --- in mind, especially . One of my best like singers,Li Jian, held his first unplugged concert at Pioneer theater at Saturday .
Hi Stephan , Don't worry so much about your bills , you know it 's the same all around the world , for instance in Iran as our new year is in the beginning of spring , the third week of new year is the same as you said . Specially I remember how we used to be ran out of money in this special week in our early years of our marriage . How ever I remember that in my office , our senior managers did a favor and paid our salary early in the first month of year , " Farvardin " . It 's really nice that you as a native English man read Penguin books , it 's about one year that I ;ve been hooked on reading , Penguin books as much as I can in different areas .Oh my friends , let's for one moment think if some day , the teacher Stephan was the world ruler , how nice the world would change . I think it 's a good topic for your next Blog , How would you rule the world , if someday you would the king of world ? Once in my English classes there was similar question , and it asked what would be our rules in our imaginary island ? And I remember some answers was interesting . Have a warm January as usual and enjoy yourself bye
Stephen, you made my day! Ta… I will surprise my Scottish friends next week, I mean about remembering Burns’ Night. It has been over two months since we met each other last. I was also impressed about your knowledge of Leningrad Cowboys, as you said the hair doo is fancy, not to mentioned about the shoes. Slainte!
I see you writing on music that is always my favorite topic for discussion though I haven't learned music. I am always search for mind-blowing music irrespective of language or region. As you have mentioned about symphony music, which I never come to know before, when I heard my favorite musician named 'IllayaRaja' has composed symphony. His music not only makes the tears, it makes to feel happy, sad, laugh, cheer, energize, etc. I start my work everyday by listening to his music and always listen to his songs while at work which reduce the stress at workplace.
Hello, Stephen! I would like to hear about your travels in Vietnam for which you are preparing and about the other one in China, in the town whose name I can't pronounce but you would teach us all about it. It's foggy and unpleasantly warm here for the time of year, and just about when it becomes depressing, here comes your blog to cheer me up. I t is a little bit embarrassing to admit that I am reading Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' 'cause there are so many movies inspired by its main character. People know much about it but they don't know where this Dracula originally comes from. I wanted to read this book just because of it, to see if all these movies are anything like the original after which they are made. Nothing can compare to the horror and gloom of the book, but Van Helsing delays the plot at times which can be boring. I am eager to read Vesna Goldsworthy's book 'Chernobyl Strawberries' because of, among other things, the English language in which she writes, maybe she could be a good techer to me, after all, we have the same mother tongue. But, it's hard to come by the book here. Hope to read you soon.
Hi Stephen, so you are ready for the next journey! I’m sure you will really enjoy yourself and see lots of amazing things off the tourist track, but most of all make loads of friends. Cycle tour along the Great Wall of China – that sounds exciting. Lucky you!!!! (Well, I’m not limited by any resolutions!!!!!!) When I think of tours you and Lucy have made I wonder if it is in your genes to want to travel so much! Good to know you are going to Vietnam – it definitely means we’ll have Our Man there and no doubt we’ll hear from him at this very site. It was so nice to hear familiar names: Karlowicz, Mlynarski …. Thank you so much but please don’t be ashamed of listening to their music for the first time – an average Polish person could hardly admit to knowing them and one of the reasons is that Mlynarski is not played at all, Karlowicz only from time to time. Some people say that Nigel Kennedy has animated that music and gave us the best of it. But it’s also amazing how he’s been devoted to promoting Polish music - he’s definitely fallen in love with Poland and that’s not an exaggeration. Do you know that we had a quite animated discussion related to the design and the title of the CD, which is a bit ambiguous, but Nigel cut it off in a very witty way. We are really lucky to have him with us!!!!! Best to you and Lucy,
Public Lending Right sounds as if the UK government is quite angelic, too. Aren't libraries in Britain free for the most part? Then where does the Public Lending Right money come from?
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