Blog of James Goodhead

Being an avid admirer of the opulence surrounding Casino’s, the probabilities and risk from a set of cards and James Bond, I decided it would be most worthwhile to watch the action thriller, Casino Royale.

Like the majortiy, I was very eager to see how Daniel Craig would fit into the bow-tie, tuxedo and shoes of James Bond. Immediately, the audience saw Bond at his devastating best with poise, coolness and death-defying destruction. The first scene was set in Prague, with James being very early in his career as a 007. After tracing down the enemy in his high-storey department, it looked as though Bond would have an early death when the villain pulled out a gun from the drawer and fired two shots aimed towards James’ head. Yet, out of sheer cunningness, Bond had previously removed the bullets, so only an empty gun was fired. Daniel Craig then spoke his first words as Bond with purpose, coldness and dark humour that one would expect before dispatching of his target.

The film moved towards Uganda, and the main villain, Le Chiffre (played by Mads Mikkelsen). Le Chiffre had a fairly menacing appearance, through his glass eye and an abnormal blood inducing tear duct. The beginnings of the plot unravelled, and without giving too much away, Le Chiffre was an international organiser of terrorism who was loaned vast sums of money to undertake his terror.

Unsurprisingly, the film centred at Casino Royale, and by this time the complex relationship between Vesper Lynd (played by Eva Green) and Bond had developed wonderfully in a slow yet progressive manner. Daniel Craig really managed to make Bond far more realistic and edgy with elements of vulnerability and weakness. Pleasingly, Daniel Craig also managed to keep the panache of Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan.

As the film developed, one could truly identify with Bond. Despite a few shocking twists followed by even more surprises, the film was relatively simple to follow to the end. To conclude, there were less out of this world gadgets and events that can alienate the audience and far greater attention towards realism and tension that I certainly welcomed. Daniel Craig has a superb future as James Bond and will certainly be a favourite James Bond amongst fans worldwide.

Without realising, the autumnal equinox as defined by Western astronomy passed on 23 September thus making me beleive a change of season warrants a new blog posting.

Since last posting, a month has quickly passed with my graduate job. This new challenge is both demanding yet extremely exciting as I begin to understand and immerse myself into the intricacies of UK retirement. Further, the training offered and attention to employee satisfaction is surprisingly pleasing with a strongly competitive benefits package.

Working a full week, quickly makes one realise the importance of weekends. Afternoon tea at The Savoy, quaffing Hendrick’s gin on the balcony of the Oxo Tower and meeting University friends in London provides great enjoyment and perfect relaxation from work commitments. Needless to say, I still have managed to socialise occasionly on weekday evenings; going to the West End to watch Donkeys’ years (an hilarious comedy with simply perfect timing from all members of the cast) and attending a real ale festival are two occassions that instantly spring to mind.

As many of my friends return to Uniersity, I would like wish them a prosperous and peaceful term. Reflecting back on my time at York, I realise the importance of taking a full participation in societies. Particularly, I remember fondly to the Jazz Blues Fusion shows, which really propelled the Jazz and Blues society to be one of the most popular at the University. I thoroughly look forward to listening back to the shows in the coming few days.

Today marks my last day before I commence work as an actuary. Over the past three months I have been fairly active by enjoying a wide variety of activities. This is a pretty comprehensive list in ascending order of my whereabouts:

Lords: Watched three Middlesex games in the London Victoria Championship and National League competitions.

Windsor: A lovely weekend break exploring the decadent Castle.

Rotterdam: A rip roaring weekend listening to the finest blue notes, improvisation and syncopation, jazz has to offer. Further, I thoroughly enjoyed walking around the world’s busiest port.

Northumbria: My cousin Malcolm’s wedding to Ashleigh. First time I have really visited the area and I was astounded by the beauty it offered. A superb wedding with both families enjoying each other’s company.

Canterbury: Another weekend break exploring what England has to offer. A city of similar qualities to York with winding cobbled streets and a majestic Cathedral.

Florence: The main highlight of the Summer. Completely in awe of the gothic architecture, fine art and Tuscan countryside. An absolutely superb week.

Sailing: A new experience and what an exhilirating weekend despite only experiencing slight to moderate seas! Heading up, tacking and jibing provides excitement and the beautiful sunsets certainly provide a memorable weekend.

BBC Proms: A wonderful surprise this one was! Listening to the BBC Concert Orchestra playing Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue is a joy. Other performances were interesting to say the least - a Japanese Composer using Classical music on two turntables literally stunned the audience!

The North Sea Jazz Festival has been edifying audiences for many decades so to celebrate the completion of my Economics degree, I decided to witness this wonderful annual spectacular. As the Graduation ceremony at the University of York was held on 14th July, to great pangs of frustration, I had to miss the opening day of the festival. From the individuals’ I spoke with in Rotterdam, Friday was a superb day with Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis and Al Jarreau providing positively sparkling performances.

As not to miss the final two days of Jazz, I had to ration myself to only two hours of sleep due to arriving back at a very late hour from York coupled with an incredibly early flight to Rotterdam. Despite this arduous challenge, my joie de vivre was at a high throughout the weekend. After arriving in Rotterdam and quickly dropping the bags off at the hotel, Kieran and I made our way straight to the city centre. The first aspect that struck me when visiting Rotterdam is the industrious history of the city; as I am sure you are very well aware, Rotterdam has the largest port in Europe. Conversely, the centre of Rotterdam is at the technological frontier with ingenious and innovative skyscrapers and bridges. Rather unsurprisingly, the centre was the epicentre for bars and restaurants. Thus, after a gruelling start to the day, a medium rare steak with a Continental beer was in order!

It is amazing how quickly the seconds pass when you are relaxed in a thriving atmosphere. Kieran and I are certainly not the first people to fall victim to this and will not be the last either. Due to this, we had to make a rapid trip towards the Metro. After passing a restaurant that hung rats outside its facade to illustrate cleanliness, we rushed to the Central Station. To our utter dismay, the Rotterdam Metro is a mixture between an archaic dinosaur and a lame duck as to get a ticket was far harder than getting blood from a stone! For travelling purposes, I decided only to bring notes and the ticket machine only accepted coins. Thus, getting change from an area where practically no-one is willing to offer change is an almost impossible task; I even started contemplating begging in order to get the various coins I needed. Thankfully, after great trouble we managed to procure tickets and despite Kieran getting trapped in the gates the route was clear and within minutes we arrived at the Festival.

Due to the complexity and length of what I wish to write about the performers, I will leave this until next week. However, I hope to have given you a small introduction into how the weekend started. 

As the reader, if you do not mind a colossal amount of self-indulgence please feel free to read the following blog. On Friday, I found out that I will be graduating with a First Class Bachelor of Science Degree, with honours, in Economics from The University of York. Despite people’s views, a great deal of hard work and endeavour was needed to achieve this degree classification. I now eagerly look forward to the Graduation Ceremony that will be held on Friday, 14th July.

The York Racecourse provided the venue for the 2006 University of York Graduation Ball. Before I arrived to the racecourse, a gastronomic meal at Low Petergate was the perfect way to start the evening. During my three years I had very often explored the gastropub experience, however, with the significance of graduation, gastronomy was certainly the correct choice despite it being at least four times the cost. Despite the exorbitant cost, a splendid environment, with exceedingly fine food (the most tender guinea fowl for main course) and a pianist who accomodated requests provided surprisingly excellent value for money. Speaking about the pianist, with a glint in my eye I requested Scott Joplin and within minutes Maple Leaf Rag and a unique version of The Entertainer with strong improvisation was played for my table.

A couple of mild ales were quickly quaffed at The Golden Fleece post-meal. Feeling very buoyant, I made my way by taxi to the venue. The York Racecourse, which memorably held Royal Ascot in 2005, has a main Grandstand set over three floors and this provided the setting for the evening’s festivities. On arrival, after greeting a number of my contemporaries, I made my way towards the casino. After riding my luck by beating the dealer more times than losing at Blackjack (21), I celebrated with a Gin and Tonic whilst listening to the Jazz Band. An hour passed, and I heard tremendous excitement from the downstairs dancefloor. Out of pure curiosity, I went to the area and to my disappointment a band called Goldie Lookin’ Chain were playing. The song I listened to was pretty unedifying and the words talent, musicianship, professionalism and enjoyment would not be applicable in describing the couple of minutes I experienced. Unfortunately, all of the bands on the main stage were hugely disappointing as they only accomodated for the common denominator. 

To recover from the previous ordeal, I queued for the notorious dodgems that brought back countless childhood memories. When I was set loose in the dodgem, my frustration was certainly released to everyone’s anguish. The couple I dined with were also in a dodgem at the same time as me and after hitting them at high speed they seemed particularly unimpressed. Meeting Victoria a couple of days after the incident, I was informed she was unfortunately suffering from the vagaries of whiplash in the neck. I can only place the blame on Goldie Lookin’ Chain and to apologise I offered never to listen to their music again. This was gratefully accepted and I strongly encourage others not to listen to that particular band either after my experience!

Further light-hearted conversation followed and to my surpise light started appearing from the sky. I took this as a signal to leave as I had an important Jazz and Blues society meeting the following morning. My memories will be generally positive as the people I went with and subsequently met made the evening infinitely more enjoyable than the intrusive noise that could have seriously compromised the whole evening. 

Before returning to York, I took the opportunity to visit the Home of Cricket, Lords. After a relaxing start to the day, I arrived to St. John’s Wood during the Lunch interval on the third day (out of four). Being a London Victoria Championhip match, the attendance was understandably low. However, the crowd was boosted from a large amount of schoolchildren who were both supporters and had the great opportunity to grace the outfield during the Lunch interval creating a carnival atmosphere.

Lancashire were the opponents for Middlesex and had posted an impressive 505 runs in their first innings. Not so impressively, Middlesex were bowled out for a dismal 161 runs, thus were forced to follow-on. When I joined, E. Smith had just completed his century for Middlesex and O. Shah was well poised, providing signs of a strong recovery by Middlesex. After seeing off the Lancashire’s seamers in the first dozen overs of the afternoon session, the Lancashire spinners were then brought on to exploit the rough that was becoming more pronounced on both sides of the wicket. To the crowd’s delight, O. Shah started to take the attack to the spinners, especially B. Hodge, by dancing down the track and smashing the ball to and over the mid-wicket boundary. Yet, in quick succession, the spinners managed to gain revenge as they masterfully took the wickets of four of the Middlesex batsmen, leaving the Home team in an extremely precarious situation. As a form of consolatoin, S. Styris provided a comprehensive set of attacking strokeplay and eventually reached 133 off only 127 balls. Despite the defeat being inevitable by the final hour of the day, it certainly is always a pleasure to watch cricket at Lords, especially in the glorious weather that Friday afternoon provided.

Instead of observing the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge, I decided to visit an old-friend and his girlfriend in London. We met at 1pm at Leicester Square so China town was the first destination and naturally Luncheon was our first priority. Having a knowledge deficiency of the area relative to my friends, I wisely let them decide on the restaurant. After ordering, I was quickly informed my selection was typically English due to my reluctance to explore anything too exotic. In authentic Chinese restaurants, it always amazes me the amount and diversity of dishes one can have. Thirty minutes into the meal, I was trying to juggle about seven different main meals into a small bowl with chopsticks. Luckily, I have had experience of this challenge (a three week stay in Beijing in 2004) so by the end my stomach certainly was satisfied.

After the meal, we had a task to find a typical Buckingham Palace guardsman souvenir of intricate design. To our utter disbelief, after looking in a good number of tourist shops, the best we found was a cartoon guardsman of obviously low quality. Therefore, if anyone knows where to find a better alternative I would be delighted to know!

Baker Street was our next destination and we went to Madame Tussauds. The experience starts with a trip to Hollywood where there are many wax models of various actors and actresses. I must confess of knowing very few of the personalities so I quickly moved on. The next section had various political wax models from a very young Tony Blair to George W Bush. Never to avoid controversy, models of Hitler and Hussein were there and Mugabe also made an appearance. Slightly too close for my comfort to these wax models were the Royal Family with the Queen, Prince Charles, William and Harry along with Princess Diana appeared but there was no place yet for The Duchess of Cornwall.

You would be hard pushed to find a more exhilirating and terrifying experience than The Live Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds. On entering a pitched-black room, four to five actors with appropriate clothing and face-paint swarm around you making high pitched and deranged noises. One of my friends sprinted - at the speed of light - out of the Chamber, whereas I courageously (or somewhat foolishly carried on). More of the same was to follow with many actors appearing from the celing, behind and to the side of unsuspecting visitors right up to the exit. It was worth doing and will be an experience to remember.

To finish the day, we visited Buckingham Palace and strolled through St James’ Park back to Westminster. The grandeur and opulence of the area is always lovely to experience and was a perfect way to finish a most enjoyable day. 

I must say when the year 1903 is casually mentioned in sentences, the Wright brothers do not instantaneously spring to mind. Thus, on Tuesday, I went to the RAF museum in London to become more acquainted with the intricacies of aeronautics and its esteemed history.

When meandering around the museum it became quickly apparent that flying had been a concept that started many years before 1903 (for those who do not know, 17 December 1903 represents the first powered flight by the Wright brothers in Kittyhawk, California). The exhibition started in the pre-1903 period, with various balloons and gliders combined with literature stating the initial importance of the UK, Germany and France to aeronautics. After viewing the early planes of the post-1903 period, I started to focus on the 1939-1945 period. On show, was the Lancaster and its sheer size, power and incredible history of completing 137 missions was something to behold. In complete contrast, the Messerschmitt Bf109E (Germany’s principal fighter during the Battle of Britain) reinforced the brutality and massive losses that occured over the period.

The postwar period for aeronautics provided a greater degree of sophistication in design. I was particular impressed by the design of the 1952 Vulcan bomber. The Vulcan’s wing-span and streamline nature would undoubtedly be a ferocious weapon in battles. Unfortunately, due to the vast amount on display it was extremely difficult to absorb anymore and thus will return at a later date. For people that are interested, I would strongly recommned planning your visit as it is practically inconceivable to visit all the attractoins in one visit. On reflection, I was delighted to see an attraction of such significance and its evolution over the various periods.

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