Lamentations
Feb. 15th, 2026 10:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeThere's a guy living in the semi-detached next to ours who is learning to play the guitar. He does this regularly, usually every night, and we've tried to accommodate him. Not being in the UK most of the time, I'm very happy for him to learn a hobby, particularly as he has suffered from mental health issues in the past. He has certainly gotten better while we have been away. The problem is that when we're back, we get very little respite from it, and it has somewhat overtaken my life over the last few days. I know we need to approach this with him at some point, but I fear that when we move back, this will be the established pattern. I'm sure he'll be reasonable - he probably doesn't know we're back and we have never complained before - but I hope it'll all work out. This is the sort of thing I worry about though as my house doesn't really feel like a home with this noise going on in the background.
I've been back home since Thursday, having travelled down from my mother's place. I had fish and chips followed by a selection of British cheeses in The Spotted Dog before my train, with there being not enough crackers to accommodate the three exquisite slabs of local fromage. I still don't know why they skimp on the cheap things. The trip to my mother's place was fine, except she lives in the middle of nowhere so there's not much to do at the best of times, not least when it has been non-stop raining for two weeks. We just stayed in and I worked, which was largely the plan anyway. It was good seeing them, even if my step-father has become increasingly curmudgeonly of late.
Being back in my own home was great and this weekend I made the most of it. I had initially planned to visit someone in Birmingham, but they preferred to go to the football instead. This was equally gutting and a relief, not least because the trains were going to cost over £100 and there were rail replacement bus services. Add to this the con crud I picked up at Scotiacon and staying back in Pudsey made sense. This also meant that I got to spend a lot of time in the house, which is why I've been noticing the issues with Jimi Hendrix next door. There aren't many places you can go at this time of year, although at least yesterday was a nice sunny day.
I took advantage of the sun to go for a walk, taking some clothes to a charity bank along the way. Alas, the one I usually use near the rock climbing centre was no longer there, and Google proved to be absolutely useless. The top two links were clearly dodgy spam sites and that was after it kept suggesting places in Salford, some 60 miles away. The next link was the local recycling centre where you can only deposit clothes, not shoes. In short, Google was absolutely useless, a perfect example of the enshittification of that service. In the end, I decided to go to ASDA and see if there were options in the car park. I needed groceries anyway and I was in luck - three bins, one for the Salvation Army, one for the Tickled Pink cancer campaign and one for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. I gave Wolfie's Minions pyjamas (along with other stuff) to the air ambulance people.
Walking around Pudsey was quite pleasant. There are a load of hobby shops these days and some nice cafes too. It has definitely gentrified and I suspect this is because working from home has become a much bigger thing. Later in the day, we got some fishie chippies from the Weatherby Whaler and these were every bit as delicious as they always are. They are certainly worth coming back too. While I was waiting for my food, I was alerted to the fact that Brewdog is being put up for sale. The glee from some furs was incredibly disheartening, almost as if they were celebrating the potential decimination of a number of retail jobs, and I had to mute references on social media. I did know this was likely - the company has been in dire straits for a while and although it's a shadow of its former self, and the former owner is less than to be desired - it's still sad that an icon of the craft brewing scene in the UK is likely done. With the shuttering of the German online store earlier this month, this makes the ability to get decently priced craft beer in Berlin much harder, but then we've resolved to really lose weight in the Spring so maybe that's for the best. I've known my shares in Brewdog have been worthless for some time and that I should have cashed out in 2017 when venture capital got involved, but it is what it is. I saved more in discounts than what I paid for the shares over the last 15 years, it's just sad that an integral part of what was my community in my early adult years is likely to cease to be. Of course, the Leeds bar closed down earlier in the year, so I'd drawn a line under it then anyway.
Today we headed into Bradford to check out the Turner Prize exhibition. This was in Cartwright Hall as part of Bradford's 2025 City of Culture celebrations. As soon as I realised this was happening, I booked tickets. We were originally slated to go two weeks ago, but when I had to shift the order of this trip around, I cancelled and rebooked. We took a taxi down to Cartwright Hall, one of those imposing 19th-century manors that was built with industrialists money. We were about half an hour early but that didn't seem to matter and soon we were ushered in. The first of the four exhibits we went to see was Zadie Xa. Here, we had to wear special slippers on our shoes, or foot condoms as I called them. This was my favourite exhibition as it was based on seashells and alternate worlds. The floor was coated in reflective gold tiling and there were seashells dangling from the ceiling, some with apocalptic environmental messages and others with wave sounds. There were pictures with dolphins and dancing skeletons while in the centre there was a 3D model of a shell made out of little trinkets suspended from the roof. There was lots of colour here too, including a perlescent surface underneat the suspended shell.
The work of Rene Matic was next, which was far more political. This focused on right-wing populism and identity, with a heavy black and transgender theme. Violence and political hypocrisy was also explored, symbolised by the 'No Place' and 'For Violence' flag in the centre of the room. Over the speakers there were speeches and the peels of bells from Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin's Zoologischer Garten. Living with vulnerability was a core theme too and this made sense when we watched her five-minute introduction video in the main foyer. Each of the four artists had these and we watched them at the end, adding a great deal more context to the instillations we had seen. It was also great seeing two original LS Lowry paintings upstairs too - I didn't realise Cartwright Hall had these masterpieces.
Mohammed Sami's work upstairs focused on memory and conflict, which perhaps wasn't too surprising considering he's originally from Baghdad. This collection of seven paintings was particularly fascinating. Without clear narratives, it was up to the viewer to discern what they meant and Wolfie and I spent quite a while debating what we saw. If good art challenges perspectives and focuses the mind, then this was certainly it.
Finally, we went to see the work of the winnter Nnena Kalu. She has learning disabilities and is supported by a charity down in London. I didn't really get this collection, if I were being honest, with the large-scale hanging sculptures difficult to disentangle. These are made from repurposed fabric, rope, tape, cling film, paper and VHS tape, and are certainly varied and colourful. On the wall, there were paintings of swirling overlapping lines that formed powerful vortexes. As I say, I didn't really connect this one, but then art is subjective.
We left Cartwright Hall shortly after 5pm and caught a bus into town. Taneli was going to meet us, but we're both a little ill and we decided to just wait until our planned meet-up on Tuesday. We didn't have to pay as the driver just waved us on and soon we were on the northern fringes of the city centre. We got off here and decided to go to The Record Cafe, a former haunt when we went out drinking in Bradford pre-pandemic. This seems to have gotten homelier over time and the pineapple milkshake IPA we had was exquisite. It was SpaceShake from Makemake, a brewery I'd never heard of before, and the drink was so good we decided to stay for a second. This was a Sijhuan pepper stout called Glacier by an Estonian brewery called Puhaste. This wasn't quite as good as SpaceShake, but it was certainly up there. We also grabbed some fried corn and left the bar very happy.
Our next stop was Boar & Fable, a place we hadn't visited that often. This was another warm and homely place, where we got to try Vocation's Bread and Butter Pudding White Stout and a double coffee stout called Imperial Affogato. Sadly, The Sparrow has closed down, as has Dime Bar, leaving this end of the city feeling a little less lively than it had previously been. This was nothing compared to the city centre though, which was bascially dead, particularly by Kirkgate Market. Everything has been sucked into The Broadway. Still, there have been big changes in Bradford, with new road layouts and a new indoor market development that was sadly shutting when we were strolling by. Our aim was to go for a curry and thus we needed to get cash out of a machine. We then headed over to the Kashmir, noticing that the scaffolding around the old Odeon cinema has finally been taken down. The curry itself was rough and ready, the restaurant a dive, yet the food exquisite. We were given a poppadom each without asking, and this was accompanied by ubiquituous yoghurt sauce which just kept coming. We grabbed some onion bhajis, which at £1.60 a portion were exceptional value, and we both had rogan josh, Wolfie meat and chicken for me. This was Wolfie's recommendation and he was not wrong. The spice level was just right and the delicate mix of flavours were unlike any of the curries in Germany. The curries in the UK are one of the things I really miss and eating these with chipatis rather than rice definitely made sense.
We had planned to go to Sunbridge Wells after this, but we were so full after the curry, we just got a taxi home. I needed to sleep, but Eric Clapton next door was still going. This was frustrating, but I stuck in some earplugs and had a short nap. Aside from the guitaring, it has been a pretty perfect weekend. It's been a great day today, yesterday we had fish and chips, while I also got to do a lot of reading too. All in all then, I'm pretty satisfied. It's just a shame it's work again tomorrow.
I've been back home since Thursday, having travelled down from my mother's place. I had fish and chips followed by a selection of British cheeses in The Spotted Dog before my train, with there being not enough crackers to accommodate the three exquisite slabs of local fromage. I still don't know why they skimp on the cheap things. The trip to my mother's place was fine, except she lives in the middle of nowhere so there's not much to do at the best of times, not least when it has been non-stop raining for two weeks. We just stayed in and I worked, which was largely the plan anyway. It was good seeing them, even if my step-father has become increasingly curmudgeonly of late.
Being back in my own home was great and this weekend I made the most of it. I had initially planned to visit someone in Birmingham, but they preferred to go to the football instead. This was equally gutting and a relief, not least because the trains were going to cost over £100 and there were rail replacement bus services. Add to this the con crud I picked up at Scotiacon and staying back in Pudsey made sense. This also meant that I got to spend a lot of time in the house, which is why I've been noticing the issues with Jimi Hendrix next door. There aren't many places you can go at this time of year, although at least yesterday was a nice sunny day.
I took advantage of the sun to go for a walk, taking some clothes to a charity bank along the way. Alas, the one I usually use near the rock climbing centre was no longer there, and Google proved to be absolutely useless. The top two links were clearly dodgy spam sites and that was after it kept suggesting places in Salford, some 60 miles away. The next link was the local recycling centre where you can only deposit clothes, not shoes. In short, Google was absolutely useless, a perfect example of the enshittification of that service. In the end, I decided to go to ASDA and see if there were options in the car park. I needed groceries anyway and I was in luck - three bins, one for the Salvation Army, one for the Tickled Pink cancer campaign and one for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. I gave Wolfie's Minions pyjamas (along with other stuff) to the air ambulance people.
Walking around Pudsey was quite pleasant. There are a load of hobby shops these days and some nice cafes too. It has definitely gentrified and I suspect this is because working from home has become a much bigger thing. Later in the day, we got some fishie chippies from the Weatherby Whaler and these were every bit as delicious as they always are. They are certainly worth coming back too. While I was waiting for my food, I was alerted to the fact that Brewdog is being put up for sale. The glee from some furs was incredibly disheartening, almost as if they were celebrating the potential decimination of a number of retail jobs, and I had to mute references on social media. I did know this was likely - the company has been in dire straits for a while and although it's a shadow of its former self, and the former owner is less than to be desired - it's still sad that an icon of the craft brewing scene in the UK is likely done. With the shuttering of the German online store earlier this month, this makes the ability to get decently priced craft beer in Berlin much harder, but then we've resolved to really lose weight in the Spring so maybe that's for the best. I've known my shares in Brewdog have been worthless for some time and that I should have cashed out in 2017 when venture capital got involved, but it is what it is. I saved more in discounts than what I paid for the shares over the last 15 years, it's just sad that an integral part of what was my community in my early adult years is likely to cease to be. Of course, the Leeds bar closed down earlier in the year, so I'd drawn a line under it then anyway.
Today we headed into Bradford to check out the Turner Prize exhibition. This was in Cartwright Hall as part of Bradford's 2025 City of Culture celebrations. As soon as I realised this was happening, I booked tickets. We were originally slated to go two weeks ago, but when I had to shift the order of this trip around, I cancelled and rebooked. We took a taxi down to Cartwright Hall, one of those imposing 19th-century manors that was built with industrialists money. We were about half an hour early but that didn't seem to matter and soon we were ushered in. The first of the four exhibits we went to see was Zadie Xa. Here, we had to wear special slippers on our shoes, or foot condoms as I called them. This was my favourite exhibition as it was based on seashells and alternate worlds. The floor was coated in reflective gold tiling and there were seashells dangling from the ceiling, some with apocalptic environmental messages and others with wave sounds. There were pictures with dolphins and dancing skeletons while in the centre there was a 3D model of a shell made out of little trinkets suspended from the roof. There was lots of colour here too, including a perlescent surface underneat the suspended shell.
The work of Rene Matic was next, which was far more political. This focused on right-wing populism and identity, with a heavy black and transgender theme. Violence and political hypocrisy was also explored, symbolised by the 'No Place' and 'For Violence' flag in the centre of the room. Over the speakers there were speeches and the peels of bells from Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin's Zoologischer Garten. Living with vulnerability was a core theme too and this made sense when we watched her five-minute introduction video in the main foyer. Each of the four artists had these and we watched them at the end, adding a great deal more context to the instillations we had seen. It was also great seeing two original LS Lowry paintings upstairs too - I didn't realise Cartwright Hall had these masterpieces.
Mohammed Sami's work upstairs focused on memory and conflict, which perhaps wasn't too surprising considering he's originally from Baghdad. This collection of seven paintings was particularly fascinating. Without clear narratives, it was up to the viewer to discern what they meant and Wolfie and I spent quite a while debating what we saw. If good art challenges perspectives and focuses the mind, then this was certainly it.
Finally, we went to see the work of the winnter Nnena Kalu. She has learning disabilities and is supported by a charity down in London. I didn't really get this collection, if I were being honest, with the large-scale hanging sculptures difficult to disentangle. These are made from repurposed fabric, rope, tape, cling film, paper and VHS tape, and are certainly varied and colourful. On the wall, there were paintings of swirling overlapping lines that formed powerful vortexes. As I say, I didn't really connect this one, but then art is subjective.
We left Cartwright Hall shortly after 5pm and caught a bus into town. Taneli was going to meet us, but we're both a little ill and we decided to just wait until our planned meet-up on Tuesday. We didn't have to pay as the driver just waved us on and soon we were on the northern fringes of the city centre. We got off here and decided to go to The Record Cafe, a former haunt when we went out drinking in Bradford pre-pandemic. This seems to have gotten homelier over time and the pineapple milkshake IPA we had was exquisite. It was SpaceShake from Makemake, a brewery I'd never heard of before, and the drink was so good we decided to stay for a second. This was a Sijhuan pepper stout called Glacier by an Estonian brewery called Puhaste. This wasn't quite as good as SpaceShake, but it was certainly up there. We also grabbed some fried corn and left the bar very happy.
Our next stop was Boar & Fable, a place we hadn't visited that often. This was another warm and homely place, where we got to try Vocation's Bread and Butter Pudding White Stout and a double coffee stout called Imperial Affogato. Sadly, The Sparrow has closed down, as has Dime Bar, leaving this end of the city feeling a little less lively than it had previously been. This was nothing compared to the city centre though, which was bascially dead, particularly by Kirkgate Market. Everything has been sucked into The Broadway. Still, there have been big changes in Bradford, with new road layouts and a new indoor market development that was sadly shutting when we were strolling by. Our aim was to go for a curry and thus we needed to get cash out of a machine. We then headed over to the Kashmir, noticing that the scaffolding around the old Odeon cinema has finally been taken down. The curry itself was rough and ready, the restaurant a dive, yet the food exquisite. We were given a poppadom each without asking, and this was accompanied by ubiquituous yoghurt sauce which just kept coming. We grabbed some onion bhajis, which at £1.60 a portion were exceptional value, and we both had rogan josh, Wolfie meat and chicken for me. This was Wolfie's recommendation and he was not wrong. The spice level was just right and the delicate mix of flavours were unlike any of the curries in Germany. The curries in the UK are one of the things I really miss and eating these with chipatis rather than rice definitely made sense.
We had planned to go to Sunbridge Wells after this, but we were so full after the curry, we just got a taxi home. I needed to sleep, but Eric Clapton next door was still going. This was frustrating, but I stuck in some earplugs and had a short nap. Aside from the guitaring, it has been a pretty perfect weekend. It's been a great day today, yesterday we had fish and chips, while I also got to do a lot of reading too. All in all then, I'm pretty satisfied. It's just a shame it's work again tomorrow.
