Archive for January, 2007

Continuing the knitting theme this week, I found some pics on flickr.com of knitted cupcakes… Isn’t this one just adorable?

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You can see more of them on flickr by clicking here

Ever since I found knitting communities online, I’ve had a soft spot for all things woollen. I came across this video on YouTube (where else?) which convincingly shows that guys who knit are the ultimate babe magnets. As one of the men interviewed says, women just love a man who knits.

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Over the Xmas holidays, I was reminded of how people in the old days would sit round and listen to the wireless. In the early days of radio, that gadget became the centrepiece of many living rooms, often built in wood and some of them quite magnificent pieces of furniture in themselves. It was the medium through which everyone got their news, drama and music.

Then TV came along and families re-arranged the furniture so they could watch the TV screen. The wireless became more portable and evolved into common speech as the radio.

We found ourselves over the Xmas holidays listening to the wireless again. Sometimes, you don’t want to watch telly and you don’t fancy listening to CDs. The wireless connects you to the wider world with music interspersed with voice and news bulletins. You can go about your business around the house and still stay connected to the outside world.

Yes, we were listening to the wireless, not the radio. Life has come full circle and the wireless is back - but in a different form. With wireless broadband in my home, I can tune in to radio stations via the internet but instead of listening to a huge piece of wooden furniture in one room, I can listen to it in any room where I have a laptop or computer (and being a gadget freak, I have many of those everywhere!). But sometimes, we find ourselves in the living room, sitting on the sofa and gathered round the wireless laptop - a curious re-enaction of the old days when people would sit on the sofa gathered around a crackling wooden box!

I love internet radio - there are no adverts if you choose your station carefully and in some cases, you can listen on-demand and not whatever the station is streaming live at any given time. For speech radio, I am a great fan of the BBC World Service, BBC Radio 4 and Radio Australia. Radio Australia has fascinating documentaries on the Asia-Pacific region and its Rural Reporter series is a great for getting a taste of the Outback while it’s raining in my London suburb! For music, I singalong to 3C, a UK country and western channel, chill to Chill and sizzle to theJazz while for more rowdy moods, I’ve recently discovered Planet Rock, the Arrow and Virgin Xtreme.

I’ve tried looking for Malaysian and Singapore stations but the ones I’ve come across don’t seem to have a 24 hour internet presence or on-demand listening. If anyone can guide me to any stations in that region that I could enjoy on the wireless, do let me know.

Photo: thanks to image-ination

Today, I’d like to share some highlights from comments that were posted on Fusion View in the few weeks before Xmas.

First, thanks to jennifer for her Christmas wishes. Happy New Year to you, jennifer - and also to all Fusion View readers and visitors.

Thanks also to everyone who added comments and emailed me following the feature in StarMag about this blog, in particular to julie yee, say lee, senghooi, lmsell and bibliobibuli. Bibliobibuli discussed the question of reading habits in Malaysia, prompted by my Book Lovers Poll - the current results of the poll show that of 47 people who voted, the majority (46.8%) read more than 40 books a year. 23.4% read between 2 and 10 books a year. The remaining number of voters read between 10-40 books a year. The poll isn’t very scientific of course but I like to infer from it that Fusion View readers are generally pretty literate, genuine book lovers!

We also got a query from sonia , another British resident in France who is keen to make malt loaf and doesn’t know where to get malt extract. Can anyone help? Sonia, I wonder if you might have to get it by mail order eg from Fortnum & Mason or one of those stores that deliver overseas.

Returning to the literary theme, pey and burhanuddin have added some more background information on Yiyun Li, the award-winning short story writer from mainland China. Silvia shares her experiences of writing in numerous languages and how German helps her hide her emotions and how she finds herself expressing her thoughts naturally in three different languages!

On mind and body matters, frank fernandis picked up on my post on painful feet awhile back and notes the lack of support for women with bound feet while andrew and tera ponder on how we can learn from water, in response to the film of a bursting water ballon.

And there is always the subject of food on Fusion View - yeeton advises us to to boycott bad restaurants in response to my post on the concept of “heong”.

Regular Fusion View reader and commenter, Melanie, sent me some pictures of the effect of the freezing fog on the trees and bushes in the woods near her house in Hertfordshire. They are so eerily beautiful, I had to share them with you.

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Photos: copyright Melanie Crowe 2006

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For the first post of 2007 here on Fusion View, I interview the poet James Wood who recently downshifted from a high-octane life in London to the more peaceful and arty setting of Edinburgh to devote more time to his poetry.

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You can listen to the interview using the grey podcast-player at the end of this post.

You can also receive this and future Fusion View Podcasts free via iTunes - click on the lavender logo just here.

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James also reads from his poem “Thursday” which is published for the first time here on Fusion View:

Thursday

A man walks out of a station to meet his friends,
Not expecting anything - he’s not hungry or thirsty,
The late summer sky is overcast, but that’s OK.
Cars move past, people are shopping, glasses on the tables

And newspapers in their stands. “How nice to see you”-
But it’s not them. It’s her, her from long ago,
When he’d had half a mind to have a life
So different from what he’d cursed, then inherited.

And all the shapely body no tittle gone astray
Is what comes to mind as he tries and fails
To force himself to look into her eyes, says all the wrong
Things too quickly, too slow in getting in there

With that suggested coffee and quick chat
About old times, or what about dinner? Then, like a fairy
From a child’s play-book, she slips away
And his friends appear. Laughter, forks and glasses follow-

They smile and talk about their house prices and careers
Or where they’re going on holiday. He looks
For her to come back past the station, but she doesn’t,
So he sits and waits. Now he’s been waiting for years.

copyright James Wood 2006

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James has kindly donated three copies of his book The Theory of Everything for the Fusion View prize draw, open to all Fusion View email subscribers. To find out how to win a copy, click here.

If you can’t wait and want buy a copy of The Theory of Everything, go to the website of his publishers www.happenstancepress.com. All profits go to the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund.

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Listen Now:

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Poet James Wood has donated three signed copies of his new poetry collection “The Theory of Everything” for the Fusion View prize draw.

Click here, to find out more about James Wood and listen to my podcast interview with him.

Three winners will be picked at random from the list of email subscribers to Fusion View. To get a chance to win a copy of James’s book, subscribe to this blog. Subscribe now.

Subscription is free and you will receive free email notifications once a week with the latest updates on this blog. You will automatically be entered into the prize draw to win a copy of “The Theory of Everything” and also all future prize draws (unless otherwise stated). For more about how to subscribe/ unsubscribe and my subscription policy,click here.

The closing date for this prize draw is Friday 16 February 2007. You can still subscribe after that date and you will automatically be entered into the next prize draw.

Please read the Rules of the prize draw below.

Yes, please enter me into the prize draw - I want to subscribe now. Click here to subscribe now.

The Rules for the prize draw
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