It's a Small World

Met up with Paul Hill, the photographer who opened our end of year exhibition last week. Didn't have the opportunity to speak to him at the opening so took the chance to contact him and he seemed happy to meet and talk photography. We met at what is now the Spoon Cafe, but what used to be Nicholson's (where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book(s) while living in a cold Edinburgh flat - at least that's the mythology. I'm sure I read somewhere that the cafe was owned by a relative, which was why she could stay there all day when just paying for a single cup of coffee). Anyway, it has since been a chinese restaurant but is back to being a 'quirky' cafe (perhaps a little too self-consciously so) with lots of things stuck to tables and chairs, like the maps on this big round table. In the course of our discussion it turned out that Paul knew the photographer that had arranged a photo session with Nat (my climbing friend, and British champion) and he had seen the pictures that Nat and I had done in the studio for my assignment back in March (that got an 'A' by the way - need to thank Nat for that) as Nat had showed the pictures to them before the shoot at Ratho. So he recognised the picture with the flag up on the wall in the exhibition, as well as liking the Ratho wall shot, as he was (and still is) something of a climber. Hopefully we can meet again for more photography-related chats as we didn't get onto the subject of the landscape and its history that I had hoped to talk about before he had to leave for another appointment.
On my meander home in the summer sunshine (seeing the rain at Wimbledon, today is obviously our turn for the good weather) I stopped briefly in Festival Square to watch a bit of the tennis on the giant TV - a cracking conclusion to the second set in the women's quarterfinal between two players I was barely aware of - Bartoli and Lisicki. But, in the way that it often does, a good bit of sport sucked me in and I was soon gripped by the drama of it. Lisicki seemed to have made the decisive break and served for the match but in a game of great rallies, Bartoli dug really deep to save match points and win the game. She forced the set to a tie-break and eventually won that to tie the game. At which point I headed home, in time for the conclusion, as Bartoli's efforts seemed to catch up with her, and the unseeded Lisicki ran away with the deciding set.

PS Went to see the film Fire in Babylon about West Indian cricket in the 1970s and 80s this evening. An interesting take on the team and its wider political context, although I was disappointed there weren't more cricket action sequences - a lot of the time there were 'ken burns effect' panning shots across still images. Made me wonder if that was deliberate to see the detail in the stills that would be missed in moving footage. Or maybe there were licensing restrictions, or simply a lack of archive footage. I longed for more of "whispering death" Michael Holding's run-up and delivery - probably the best bowling action I've ever seen - it was mentioned, but all too quickly! And to be fair, it was a broad sweep sort of documentary, covering a decade in detail and more on either side. Perhaps Zidane has spoiled me for this sort of documentary but I wanted to see more detailed footage of the things I remembered from childhood - even more of the battle of wills with Brian Close standing up to a bruising spell of bowling, Fredericks and Greenidge scoring quick runs before declaring, Holding et al in their pomp, Viv Richards in imperious form. I went to see them play Scotland once in a one day match in Dundee in 1980 - most of the team played, although sadly not Holding, but Richards came in and scored a fifty as I remember, and although Scotland did bowl them out, they were still outclassed. There was a story that the elaborate lunchtime buffet at Forthill Sports Club was spurned and the team coach driver was sent out to buy fish and chips for the West Indians. Cannot know if that was true, but seems an odd story to make up without some foundation!