Have a Stormin' birthday, library blog type thing. (Image c/o Stefan on Flickr)
Normally I don’t mark my blog’s birthday, but I have been in a reflective mood of late so I thought I’d post one for a change. Certainly when it dawned on me that it has now been three years since I started this blog and loads has happened in that time, much of which would never have happened without my little corner of the interweb. It’s also a bit of a watermark as my previous blog lasted about three years before I abandoned it (it’s still there, I’m just not saying where). So, will this blog make it to four years and outlast its predecessor? I’m not sure. I have ideas of what I want to do in the blogging world once I have finished my course. Maybe there will be a space for librarianship, maybe there won’t. I have many other passions that I feel I have neglected of late, maybe I should give them the attention I feel they deserve. Or maybe a blog isn’t a place for me to explore those passions anymore. Who knows?
Anyway, like I said, a lot has happened in the three years since I launched this blog. I successfully submitted an article to The Guardian‘s website and was chuffed by the response I received (even making it on an ALA newsletter for God’s sake!). I have had lunch with national newspaper columnists, politicians and the head of news at a national broadcaster (all at the same time!) due to the advocacy work I am involved in. And, of course, I collaborated with others to launch the first dedicated library advocacy organisation in the UK (which just so happens to be approaching its first birthday). It has been pretty amazing really and none of these things would have happened without this blog so thank you library blog type thing, you’ve been a star.
Enough words, here is my blog in numbers…
This blog in numbers c/o Wordle
205 posts
55522 total visits
1146 busiest day (May 28th, 2010)
5727 most visited post
4403 second most visited post
620 comments
491 tags
13795 total visits in busiest month (May 2010)
33 categories
442 Technorati authority
4915 Technorati ranking (out of 1276770)
14415 spam comments
2361 views via Twitter (most common referrer)
16671 views using the search term ‘ipad’
12 subscribers via WordPress*
(All correct at time of writing!)
* As Ned has kindly pointed out, I kinda overlooked Google Reader here. At present there are 157 subscribers via Reader…which was very surprising but pleasing
“You can’t have room for innovation and the pressure for excellence without having some real discipline and some fear on the part of the providers that things may go wrong if they don’t live up to the aims that society as a whole is demanding of them.”
The implication, of course, being that the public sector workforce are complacent and unproductive and, as such, require a bit of fear up them to force them to be more productive like, say, the private sector. Well, I have worked in the private sector and I want no-one to go through what I went through. I experienced what it was like to work in fear and it certainly made me less productive (and prompted me to leave).
It all happened a few years back when a new manager took over the store I worked in. Up until his arrival, I had had a good reputation amongst other managers. I was earmarked by my manager at the time as a future store manager and had embarked on a development programme to achieve this. Things were looking good and secure and I felt like I was finally going places. All that was about to change.
Initially we got on fine. Like I said, I had a good reputation so this obviously had some bearing on our relationship. Then, at some point, things seemed to change. I have always sought to offer my opinion on the decision making process. Always constructively and always accepting whatever final decision is taken. I also liked to talk things through with my manager to help identify ways of addressing staff performance and improving the department I ran. Soon, however, I got the impression that he didn’t really enjoy talking things through, especially difficulties that needed facing. And what was once a productive relationship, soon became cordial at best. Then came an unexpected development.
I discovered, through another store manager I knew, that my manager was trying to put me out on secondment to another store, ostensibly to help pass an examination I needed for my role. I was reluctant to do so and informed my manager that I felt I would be more successful if I remained with my team and completed the qualification at a later date – particularly as I was already on the management training programme. I felt that I should complete the programme first before embarking on any further training. However, I was pushed into a corner and had to accept the secondment.
So, for the following six months I was seconded out to another store. During this time I suspended myself on the training programme so I could commit fully to the examination I needed to pass. During this period I didn’t hear from my manager once, which was rather odd considering the nature of the secondment. I knew something was up when, a couple of weeks before I was due to return, the area manager came to see me.
I was shocked to discover that they wanted me to stay put, take a pay freeze and no longer work in my existing role. As this was a secondment I knew I could say no, so I insisted on returning to my store. This was accepted and I was told that I would need to improve my performance upon my return. That no-one had ever questioned my performance before wasn’t mentioned, and in hindsight I probably should have raised it. That said, I was young and intimidated and just kept quite.
Upon my return I was asked to see the manager in his office. As I sat there he proceeded to tell me that I was being taken off the programme as I ‘didn’t contribute’ on any of the sessions (people who know me will no doubt be laughing at that one). Silent from the shock of that revelation, the manager then slammed his folder on the desk and demanded that I gave him my full attention. At this point I was really scared. In my mind I had done nothing wrong. I had worked hard and had shown full commitment to the programme. My performance was never raised as an issue before my secondment or whilst on the programme. But again, I was young and scared.
The remainder of my time there was hell. It was clear to me that my manager felt put out that he didn’t get what he wanted by my refusal to stay at the store I was seconded too. He made it quite clear to me I wasn’t wanted. During the subsequent weeks and months I was told by colleagues that members of staff had been asked to ‘spy’ on me and report back to the manager. Furthermore, I would often receive phonecalls from the manager (who often liked to work from home – I worked in retail, go figure how that is even possible) threatening me with disciplinary action if I didn’t action something or other by the time he saw me next. To say it was an uncomfortable period in my working life is a bit of an underestimate. I found it extremely difficult to motivate myself at work and I was constantly looking over my shoulder, worried that I might put a foot wrong and face disciplinary action. It still affects me to this day and I will never forget the treatment I received during those last few months. Thankfully, I had some very good friends that helped me through it and their friendship during that time will always be very precious to me.
Luckily, I got my big escape into the world of libraries and never looked back. Handing in my notice was quite the most pleasurable experience of my life. In some ways I wanted to stay and fight. My union rep said I had a very strong case for harassment in the workplace in light of my treatment going right the way back to the secondment. However, sometimes it is best to ‘cut and run’ and in this regard I have no regrets.
I would not want anyone to go through what I went through. Fear and discipline do not lead to increased productivity. They lead to stressed, unhappy and intimidated individuals who are scared to act creatively and productively. If Oliver Letwin and his fellow ministers want a productive, successful nation driving the economy forward, it is not fear and discipline that is needed in the workplace. It is respect and freedom. Only then will this country truly prosper. In every sense of the word.
Over the past few years I have developed a fascination with the Spanish Civil War, in part due to marrying a Spaniard and also due to my background studying history at university. I am currently reading Guerra by Jason Webster - a fascinating look at present day and Civil War era Spain. I have read a number of books on the period and had a number of discussions with Spaniards about the events before, during and after the Civil War – all of which have been both fascinating and disturbing. However, it wasn’t until reading Webster’s work that I came across the story of Belchite. Subsequent to the Battle of Belchite, the village has remained untouched, acting as a memorial to the Civil War. I have obviously never been and I am not sure I would want to. The images of the town suggest it would be nothing less than an eery and humbling experience.
All images by calafellvalo on Flickr and used under a CC license.
Ok, it has only been a few days but being without internet access really does suck. It is quite unbelievable that in this day and age it can take so long to get re-connected after moving house. Apparently, once my phoneline is reconnected, it will take around 10 days to have my internet connection back up and running. My only connection, therefore, will be whilst I am at work. Not ideal but at least it is better than nothing.
It is amazing how much you miss though during such a prolonged period of outage. Ok, it is not like I am without food or water, and this is very much a first world problem nothing dramatic or arduous, but it is weird nonetheless. And to think, nine million people out there have never even used the internet. Nine million. Imagine where those nine million people would be without their local public library to support them (yep, I always like to slip that one in!).
Anyway, hopefully I will be back up soon. Surely things won’t have changed that much in the meantime…
Disconnected. Image c/o The Hamster Factor on Flickr
Yep, the big house move is just a week away now…from now until next Friday there will be a steady rise in my stress levels. Luckily for you, dear reader, you will probably not bear witness to this very public breakdown. Sadly for me (but wonderful for you), I will probably not be online for very much for at least a week. This is mainly because I am going to be far too busy shifting my junk around to have the time to sit down and blog/tweet/facebook/(Google+??!). It’s also because, unfortunately, when I will have the time to sit down I probably won’t be able to do anything anyway. Where I live we have no 3G connection and I have discovered it will take ten days (yes, TEN) to get our broadband re-connected. So if I don’t respond to tweets/blog comments etc, I am not ignoring you, I’m just not able to respond. Basically, if you don’t see any sign of me I haven’t disappeared, just disconnected. It’s gonna be weird. How will I cope without an internet connection? My guess? Badly.
Just recently I’ve gotten quite into taking photos of random things I see on the streets. When I say random things I mean stickers, graffiti (not tags though…they do nothing for me)…anything a bit ‘different’. I’ve even created a set on Flickr to collect all these images together. Whilst I love taking pictures of interesting buildings, there’s something fascinating about the fleeting nature of these street adornments. A building, by and large, will last for at least a couple of generations. These small contributions to our urban environment barely last a month (depending on how stringent your council is of course!). And yet, in some ways, they tell us more about the time in which we live than any building.
As a ‘wannabe librarian’, I think such street ephemera ought to be recorded and preserved. Even if some people view them as a blight on our public spaces. The fact is, they are a reflection of our society and deserve a place alongside the more ‘acceptable’ representations of the world in which we live.
"Time capsule: going inside" by jek in the box on Flickr
I guess it must be the (potential/future) librarian in me that made me do it. Ever since my daughter was born last year I have been putting odd items together to create a little memory box (well, not so little, it’s more like a small crate!). The idea is that we store a number of items for my daughter to look through when she gets older. The hope is that she finds these items of interest otherwise our efforts would be in vain! But then, even if she doesn’t, I think we will enjoy looking through it when we get older.
We have gathered a number of items so far, much of which you would expect I guess. To date the box includes:
copies of The Guardian and Private Eye (!) from her date of birth
print-outs of all the emails we received when I announced her birth
cards received when she was born
all of her 1st birthday cards
a copy of a photo book I created marking her 1st birthday
a copy of the newspaper article on my grandma’s 100th (which was last week!)
I am also planning on shooting a video tour of our current house before we move to our new one in the next few weeks. As she won’t remember a single thing about our existing house, I thought it would be good to shoot a short tour so she can see where she lived for the first couple of years (well, the tidy version of where she lived anyway!).
Like I said, we are kinda doing this for her as something interesting for her to look at when she gets older (maybe we’ll dig it out when the first boyfriend comes round!) but we also thought it would be nice from a family history perspective. In these days of electronic data, it is easy to forget about storing something physical. Sure, it may be interesting to look up the news online for the day she was born, but it’s not the same as having the full newspaper to look at (and given she was born on a Saturday, there is plenty for her to look at!). And Private Eye isn’t even fully available online (and that is proper news after all!). Likewise, it’s kinda nice to have the emails printed out rather than hoping that they won’t go mysteriously missing from the saved folder they are currently in. Besides, surely having a box of treasures to open and look through is more exciting than logging onto a PC and reading through stuff? Sometimes, just sometimes, the physical beats the electronic.
Well, I said a little while back that I would write up my experiences of the Feria de Abril in Seville for those of you that may be wondering what it’s all about. It also gives me a chance to take a break from writing library related posts for a bit and publish a post on something different. They do say variety is the spice of life. And hey, who knows, maybe someone will read this post and develop an interest in libraries and the lives and loves of librarians. We can but hope. So, the Feria…
La Portada - the main entrance to the Feria
Ferias are held across Spain throughout the year. They were originally market fairs, but over time have become more about drinking, eating and dancing. The Feria in Seville is perhaps the best known and largest. It is held annually, two weeks after Semana Santa (or Holy Week) and lasts 6 days, from Tuesday to Sunday. Following the sombre processions associated with the Holy Week, the Feria provides a chance for Sevillianos (and tourists!) to let loose and have a good time.
The streets of the Feria
The Feria de Abril occupies a part of the city that is essentially open ground for most of the year. There has been talk of it being moved to another part of the city to make way for flats or housing, but for now the Feria remains in its usual space. In terms of size, the Feria is spread over 450,000m², across 15 streets and comprises 1,047 casetas (small stalls with tables, chairs, a wooden platform for dancing and, most importantly, a bar serving food and drink) – some public, some private. Private casetas are normally operated by groups of private individuals and you are only able to gain entry if you are family or if you are invited. Fortunately, my father-in-law is part of a group that operates a caseta, so I am allowed entry! If you are unable to access a private caseta however, there are numerous public casetas operated by professional associations, political parties, trade unions etc.
My father-in-law's caseta
La Portada
At the entrance to the Feria is the ‘Portada’ – a colourful archway that towers above the surrounding casetas. The portada is slightly different each year, usually commemorating an anniversary of an event linked to Seville or to Spain in general. Given how it dominates the Feria, it is a handy reference point when you are making your way around the streets and casetas. Believe me, with the amount of people there it is very easy to lose track of where you are!
It’s not just the Portada that is colourful, vibrant colour hits you wherever you look. The women dress up in their traditional flamenco dresses (every year there is a slightly different style of dress in fashion – at least so I am told!) in every colour you can possibly imagine. The casetas are equally colourful as are the paper lanterns that hang overhead. After the piety of the Semana Santa, it is as if the people of Seville have cut loose in a veritable explosion of colour.
Paper lanterns line the streets
In contrast to the women, the men tend to wear either the traditional ‘traje corto’ or a suit (although there are a number of people who just wear t-shirt and jeans – given the temperatures Seville experiences, who can really blame them?). Of those that do wear a suit, some also wear either a silver tie pin or a lapel badge in the shape and design of the year’s Portada. Personally, I tend to wear a shirt and jeans most of the time (I’m not really a suit person and I find it awfully uncomfortable when wearing it for long periods) but on occasion I do wear a suit if I know that I am not likely to be there all day and night – that would not be tolerable!
A Feria tie pin
In general, people tend to arrive at the fair in the afternoon after finishing work. School children are lucky enough to get the week off so they can also join in the festivities – lucky buggers! During the morning the site can be rather like a ghost town with barely a soul around, save for the street cleaners and those replacing damaged paper lanterns. It is not unusual to arrive at the fair early afternoon and stay there right through until the early hours of the next morning, before starting all over the following day throughout the week. As the evening draws on and more people finish work for the day, the site starts to fill up and the streets become full of people eating, drinking and generally having a good time.
There are a number of stalls selling toys and sweets
One of the most important aspects of the Feria is the Sevilliana. Sevilliana is a type of dance that, as its name suggests, originates fromSeville. Normally there is a small raised platform in the caseta for people to dance on and people get up throughout the day (when they are feeling brave enough) and dance Sevilliana. I can’t pretend to know all the steps so I won’t even bother trying to explain it (or even sharing a video/photo of me attempting it!). Handily, however, I shot a short video of genuine Sevillianas which is much better than me tying myself in knots trying to explain it.
I have to say it is a pretty impressive sight, seeing a group of Spaniards dancing Sevilliana. One of the most wonderful moments at our wedding was when the Spanish contingent (some 100 or so) took to the dance floor and danced the Sevilliana. The non-Spanish guests could only watch in awe. It was certainly a sight I am unlikely to forget.
Toast topped with salmorejo, serrano ham and a quail's egg
But it’s not just the dancing that makes the Feria such a wonderful experience. The food is also fantastic. Seville is widely acknowledged as the home of tapas and there is always a fantastic range of dishes on offer. The best thing about Spanish food is that it is very simple food using the very best ingredients. Probably my favourite dish this year was Serrano ham on small slices of toast, topped with a quail’s egg – absolutely delicious, I couldn’t get enough of them! Another favourite of mine is salmorejo. Salmorejo is basically a cold soup made using bread and tomatoes and normally topped with boiled egg and Serrano ham – again, simple ingredients that make the most delicious dish. As well as serving as a soup, it is also used as a base for things such as pan de la casa (toast, a layer of salmorejo finished with a slice of Serrano ham). All this great food is washed down with either manzanilla (a type of sherry) or a mixture of manzanilla and lemonade (a rebujito). Normally I don’t go for sherry, but sherry over there tends to be a bit drier than the sickly sweet stuff we get over here (the stuff your grandma would love).
Manzanilla - normally served in an iced bucket
As well as the tapas and sherry, another staple of the Feria are churros. Churros are basically a fried dough (sometimes known as a Spanish doughnut) and they are normally served with a cup of thick, hot chocolate. Very nice, although perhaps not so good for the diet!
Bunuelos and hot chocolate - bunuelos are similar to churros
I hope this post has given you a taste of what the Feria has to offer. I absolutely love it and looked forward to it every year (although, due to volcanoes and babies, this is the first one we have been to for three years!). If this does convince you to join the festivities in the near future, do let me know and we can hook up and I’ll show you around! At least there will be one private caseta you will be able to get into!
I haven’t forgotten that I was going to write up a post about the Feria, that is on its way once I sort my photos out (I insist on putting them all through Photoshop before I even consider sharing them). In the meantime, I thought I’d share my thoughts on another part of my trip I was looking forward to: visiting Seville’s new Metropol Parasol.
Under construction....
I have been periodically taking photos of the site during its construction for a little while now, making sure I take a look at the site on each visit to the city. As well as looking forward to the Feria, I was also quite excited to see what the completed structure would look like. Probably more excited than the people of Seville – who, apparently, have given it a mixed reception (my father-in-law is not keen on it at all!). I guess this perhaps unsurprising given that Spain is undergoing an economic crisis (the phrase ‘the crisis’ is often used by Spaniards to describe the current economic situation) and money would probably be better spent on other projects in the city.
The completed structure
The structure itself is pretty impressive. It is both the largest wooden structure in the world and the largest structure in the world held together by glue. Yes, the only thing that keeps it together is glue. Given the temperatures Seville experiences during the summer, the glue had to be tested thoroughly to ensure it was up to the job. It’s quite amazing to think a structure of this scale could be held together by glue. Particularly when you consider that there is a rooftop platform to enable visitors to take in a view of the city. I’m not sure I would feel confident enough to go onto the roof – and that’s not even taking into account my fear of heights!
Underneath the construction there is a small market offering a wide range of fresh food (I saw the most enormous fish I think I had ever seen on one of the stalls). There are also places to eat and drink dotted around as well, with a small tapas bar at one end of the market. Above the market on the main floor of the Parasol there is a fairly decent space that has been designed to enable live performances and, below the market, you can view the remains of an old Roman House (discovered a few years before the site was built).
The market underneath the Parasol
I have mixed feelings about the Metropol to be honest. A part of me loves it for the photographic opportunities it provides and for the welcome shade it offers from the searing Sevillian heat. A part of me thinks it is a little out of place in a city such as Seville – an old, historic city with little in the way of modern architecture in the main centre (you can see where it is sited on Street View here). I remember commenting at the time that I felt it would be more at home in a city like Valencia. That said, it certainly provides an interesting talking point in the city and I’m sure it will divide people for many years to come.
If you want to find out more about the Metropol Parasol, this article provides more information about the structure as well as some fantastic photos.
