Spinifex

Apart from two small pebbles picked up from the path to the apron as we reboarded our plane to Darwin, the painting in the concourse by an artist who is no longer with us is what I will remember of our brief stop in the centre of Australia - and these pictures I took through the plane window as we approached Alice Springs. Spinifex. Bush banana. Yuparli. Warlpiri. Alchera.

ULURU

Concourse limbo

John misread his immaculate timetable - the times crossed over the turn of the page - and we turned up at Darwin Airport this morning to find we'd missed our scheduled flight to Melbourne via Alice Springs. Six hours later we're waiting on an alternative - direct to Melbourne - that should get us home to Bendigo just after midnight. I can't imagine a nicer way to wait - chatting to each other and to strangers, blogging, emailing, phoning, snacking and gazing. There's something about concourse limbo that excuses inaction - giving us unexpected freedom to think and write and read.

** ** ** Extract from an email from someone met on a seminar:

Bran Nue Dae - released 2009, official website and - Samson and Delilah by young Aboriginal filmmaker Warwick Thornton ... 'an extraordinary young filmmaker with a unique style and much to say. A very tough film. Watching it, I felt I was in the hands of a master, as I feel when I'm watch a Pedro Almodóvar film. Now I know that's big praise but I'm sure you would be profoundly affected by this film...'

... and a small piece by way of notes for the talk I want to give between drinks at the Durrell School one evening next February on page 6 of the November Agiot and pleased to see Paul has posted my YouTube sketch of the Agiotfest09 evening on the home page of the event's website

*see also this piece on Bran Nue Dae by Prof Paul Makeham

Aboriginal aesthetic expression is in itself political, since Aboriginal culture has not 'learned' to de-politicise the aesthetic. Therefore, representations of landscape in a contemporary Aboriginal production such as Bran Nue Dae necessarily reflect a political rather than merely 'cultural' aspect of Aboriginality. The motif of the journey, too, by evoking what is in effect an Aboriginal political practice (the song cycle), also reflects an Aboriginal politics - what might be termed a politics of movement. (p.8)

Northern Territory course on 'Negotiating the Overlap'

Working with local government people - members and managers - from the Northern Territory at Darwin City Council yesterday. Still not a politician-manager pair from the same council among our delegates but, all the same, two elected members to enrich discussion. We started, after introductions, by showing a few icebreaker clips of Mayor Col Dunkley and his hapless General Manager Greg Dominelli from Grassroots - the TV comedy (clip) superbly crafted by Geoffrey Atherden who, as he teases local government, recognises its problems, even allowing the occasional bout of wit and public integrity, in contrast to Yes Minister - brilliantly hilarious though it is. Then I talk about our intentions for the day invoking Chatham House Rule:

To further develop appreciation of techniques, processes and procedures that can be used by those leading in a political environment and an understanding of how the roles of political and managerial leaders are changing, and how this applies in your council

I ran through the ideas and research that supports them, especially Mouritzen and Svara's and their focus on the emergence of 'overlapping relations' between politicians and administrators. I speak, following Max Weber, of the default tension between democracy and bureaucracy, of 'danger zones', of the 'fuzzy area where politics and management necessarily mingle to address the 'wicked' problems of modern local government, and the challenge of creating bridges between the political and the managerial without breaching codes that recognise the need for division of labour in the work of government and negotiation between individuals in political-management space.

A break for refreshments and we show four video clips - two from John's Australian research. We offer interpretation leading into discussion, comparison and analysis. (I'm hoping that we'll be able to stream the Australian clips on this blog.)

Looking at the political-management conversations takes us to lunch and continued chat. After this we introduce a model of political nous - political skills for managers and members - from the paper Kim James and I wrote in the 1980s. Then the group works on critical incidents testing themselves and the Owl Fox Donkey Sheep model. After this comes an opportunity to reflect, without our earlier interpretation, on a filmed conversation between the Shire President and CEO of Toodyay (made May 2009).

"We're moving from known knowns, through known unknowns to something else. A political-management relationship, notwithstanding its universal features, is unique to the individuals and their setting. This is raw data. What are we seeing here? Observe, conjecture, discuss and comment. You tell us. Remember that 60% at least of interpersonal communication is non-verbal and the way words are said, rather than what's said. Remember too that when you comment on other people, you're also commenting on yourself."

This is about encouraging observation, independent thought and judgement. Once people get the idea there's intelligent and sensitive discussion. I say I wish the people in the film could join us to supplement shared learning about negotiating the overlap - as on some courses in UK they do. Finally, after a swift tea break, we encourage reading skills using 'responsible gossip' to map the political environments of two of the participating councils.

John and I were delighted at the creativity and competence applied to this process, given minimal time for rehearsal; especially the willingness to adopt, at least in the classroom, the practice of 'responsible gossip' for maintaining shared understanding of one another's political environments. I'd argue this can be done with formal maps and photos of elected members (reverse for member's mapping of managers) but John introduced me to doing it by 'mudmapping' (def: a map drawn on the ground with a stick, or any other roughly drawn map, in this case butcher's paper and felt-tip)

... not quite like that but this image I've stolen looked good, especially as I've not been that close to the ground of this mighty continent. ** ** We're both aware that people attending our seminars are from separate councils - what's sometimes called 'stranger groups' - though many know each other. The most focused way to deliver this kind of training and development is as an organisational intervention, working in-house with one council, designing a bespoke event that draws on, for instance:

- an interview on film with a lead politician and manager - ideally CEO and Leader (Mayor or President in Australia) - but also a choice of other working relations between a politician and a manager. This is to create training material - a film case study of leadership at the apex - but also to learn more about how, in that organisation, the relationship works between two specific individuals (being invited to do this is usually the open sesame for effective work, as avoiding it signals a difficulty that suggests alternative leverage, so long as someone wants to proceed)

- the collection of locally relevant critical incidents. This entails being told stories of dilemmas that arise, and redrafting them to contain the challenge without insensitively divulging specific personalities or identifiable events

- an overview of current codes of conduct in that council as they relate to member-officer relations

- the assembly of mapping kit for exploring the local political environment including passport sized portraits of councillors, a map of the council’s area showing electoral divisions, post-it noted for jotting issues arising in particular areas, a guide to the roles of councillors e.g. Mayor, deputy, committee chairs, and other CV notes about them in the public domain, and, vitally, one or more facilitators from the CEO down able to engage in responsible gossip about the issues and personalities inhabiting the council’s political environment.

** ** ** John's use of the term mud-map took me to a process described by Pamela Croft in a 2008 paper by Bronwyn Fredericks:

The process maps out the connections to place revealing sets of relationships including the physical, physiological, social, spiritual and metaphysical. It also maps the botanical, colonial and the Indigenous layers of memories within the landscape sites. The tracks of animals and peoples, connections and relationships to spaces and places, symbols, patterns and colours are all recorded. It is all connected and we are connected. p.5 in Fredericks, Bronwyn L. (2008) Understanding and living respectfully within Indigenous places. World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium Journal, 4(2008). p.5

* * * We strolled later to the seafront for a delicious meal overlooking the azure blue sea of a place hardly 600 kilometres from the Equator. Among the jetty supports swam small sharks, crabs, a ray, and barramundi. A notice asked guests not to feed the fish or the crocs. The heat had a tropic solidity I preferred to the air-conditioned interior of the busy restaurant.

On the walk back to our hotel John greeted a figure in the dusk walking the same way as us, in a brown study running a sheave of paper against the fence. "Peter?" called John. "Oh hi John. Hi." We crossed over to greet. I was introduced to Prof Peter Shergold, learning later I'd shaken hands with possibly the most senior adviser to Australia's previous government, author of the previous PM's emissions trading report, now at the University of New South Wales.

Over the centre of Australia

Around 2.40 local time we flew over Ayres Rock, Uluru its Aboriginal name. At the same time I was reading of Elinor Ostrom's Nobel Prize for economics. She's author of Governing the Commons, and John's copy of a short speech by John Bryden at the 2009 CRRF/FCCR Conference on The Idea of Local Development: Some transitional observations and research implications. (link not available, but see another of Bryden's lectures)

An email to Handsworth friends:

Dear Rachel and others. Hi from Australia – where I’m teaching. I took 6 of my Japanese students to visit the Walsall Road Allotments the other day courtesy of their secretary Betty. They are doing a fantastic job there, led by Betty, who is quite an exceptional person. I understand the city allows WRA to be self-managed, and self-managed they are. A positive haven of social activities around the core function of growing food and flowers.

John Bryden's talk

It pulled me up hard against the scale of the task that will face those finally arriving – we hope in early 2010 – to work plots on the new Victoria Jubilee Allotments. The city allotments section has been drastically cut back. The Birmingham Mail mention 65%. They’ve lost Eddie Campbell.So while I’m aware of the personal and social potential of a thriving allotments site next to Handsworth Park I’m also thinking of the work involved trying to imitate a site like Walsall Road or Uplands.By the way if you peer through the railings in the park at the right place you will see that the gardeners’ meeting shed has been delivered and seems to be in place. Apparently one of the bid delays at present is that the education department of the city is not ready to take delivery of the new cricket pitch in its current state. They’re wanting to delay hand over until the point where they have no immediate demands on budget to make the S106A green space 'fit for purpose'. Best wishes and I’m back Nov 28. Simon (Australia, Oct 24-Nov 28)

* * * There's a rumour that talented Penny Woolcock's film 1Day about the Johnson Crew and Burger Bar Boys, largely shot - yeah yeah - in Handsworth, has been banned from some Birmingham cinemas. Seems unlikely, unless publicists engineered attention to what looks like a blacksploitation film despite earnest assurances from Woolcock - a talent who's Macbeth on the Estate in Ladywood I really liked. She's been roaming Handsworth for a few years; suspect at first, then breaking through via a connection with Dylan Duffus, who'd been pointed in her direction by Vanley Burke: “The film shows" she says "how people get sucked into that life and it clearly spells out the consequences, which is people end up dead or in prison. The film absolutely does not glamorise that lifestyle. It has a clear moral message.” ... like Romeo and Juliet doesn't glamorise romance because they both die after being sucked into a passionate affair against their parents' wishes.

I may fret at the disingenuousness of Woolcock's disclaimer, especially after long and repeated campaigns in Handsworth against gun crime, but some local boys and girls have got a deserved break into show business and can thank Penny and their talent for that (Steel Pulse - my first intro to local talent long ago). Perhaps the 1Day cast will come back into schools, riding bicycles even, to pitch impressionable children away from guns and drugs.

I was reminded about getting too worked up when I read in Tim Winton's Breath - my imagination's first and recent introduction to something I'll never do - though I've acquaintance with the deep - a reason for being happy to live in Birmingham, as far as anyone in England can live from the sea (Winton: 'I was in my thirties before I learnt that I too would prefer not to see what I could no longer have'). Instead of reckless surfing, Winton's characters could have been doing the sorts of things 'that schools and governments sanctioned ... as army cadets, learning to fire mortars and machine-guns, to lay booby traps and to kill strangers in hand-to-hand combat like other boys we knew ...' (p.106)

Working together

This is so very exhilarating. John and I have been selecting and analysing clips from his Australian videos in our shared apartment on the edge of Perth. Today we tutored the first event of our October-November tour. We're confident the first day's gone well, with spontaneous applause at the end. As lecturers and tutors we complement one another, as did the mix of Australian and British teaching material. Although I've invariably been supported in my research and teaching at inlogov, in thirty years John Martin is the first to experiment with my various ways of making sense - or trying to make sense - of political-management relations, more than my equal in passing on what he's learned to practitioners, because so good at gaining rapport with his audience. I can get so involved in ideas, I overlook the truth that they can never come to practical life if not enthusiastically communicated to the people who might find them valuable.

Writing - a link that goes to writing on Google.docs

Thinking + illustrations one and two - links that go to

transcripts and films of political-management conversations

Tomorrow we fly on to Darwin for the second of our joint seminars. Today it was really nice - in a fine teaching room at Belmont Council Offices - to click on the thumbnail of a video from an Australian political management pair - Mayor and Chief Executive from Wyndham - and to show and discuss it with seminar participants, among them quite a few chief executives, one with his Mayor. After that, extracts from other videos - Marion and Toodyay - which John has made with help from Annie Guthrie, his partner, were slipped into our programme to compare with the films I'd bought from UK. The process was smooth - reward for much joint planning with John, via email and skype, before getting to Australia, followed by rehearsal and planning in our lodgings. I feel pleasantly exhausted with time to phone Lin, my mother and the office where I joked with Sue and asked her to pass on thanks to everyone who'd helped with the Japan local government course.

We deserve to share these smiles

Dear Dhiaa. I've been in Australia for four days. When I was in Singapore for an hour on the way I went into the prayer room at the airport and they were kind enough to allow me to sit there. I made a prayer there for your safety and your family's when you return to your dear but troubled country for your Phd research. Our first seminar has just finished. It has been successful. It was strange flying over Iraq at 11000 metres the other night (see image on my airline seat screen). Kindest regards. Simon

Dear Simon. Great news indeed. Thank you for letting me know how things are going with you. I loved very much your idea of getting into the prayer room and praying to our safety. I thank you heartily and I am sure that your prayers will be accepted because they come from a loving, sincere heart. I pray that next time we both not just fly over Iraq but land there and have a wonderful time touring around different places and getting you introduced to a place you always wanted to see. Please, take care. My prayers and best wishes that your trip my be rounded safely and successfuly. Best Regards. Dhiaa

** * **

From Mari Takano

Dear Simon. How are you in beautiful Australia? We, Japanese trainees, are now trying hard preparing for our own next visit(s) and still spending nice time in Lucas House. Please don't worry. On the coming Thursday we're going to leave here for new destinations with splendid memories of Birmingham and this university. We really appreciate you, Fay, two Chrises(!) and other kind teachers/staff for giving us unforgettable, valuable days. And you really cared about us very much, so we could always enjoy our university life and learn a lot of things. Your lectures and talking will surely help us not only on our next visits but also in our lives in Japan. Thank you very very much!!! (And I also thank your daughter. who gave me really helpful documents!) ... Please don't forget us. Mari

In Perth

Stayed overnight in Bendigo, drove back to Melbourne and flew to Perth, and took a taxi to our hotel apartment - overlooking the Swan River - where we could refine the detail of our first programme tomorrow; selecting short clips that will be instantly ready to illustrate debate. John and I view a filmed conversation and make a selection. I clip that bit out of the longer film so it can be placed on my desktop with the other clips.

First thing this morning John and I hired bicycles from reception and did a 20k circuit of Swan Reach under grey skies as the city high rises drifted across the near horizon. We were ignored by pelicans and cormorants as we passed sharing space with other cyclists, strollers and joggers. In a café in town we discussed transport politics over eggs benedict, melon juice and coffee cycling back to our apartment by 1100 to continue work. I caught Lin on skype for a couple of minutes - staying up late as usual. From the quiet of our room we are in immediate contact with the rest of the world. My sense of time and place is especially fluid.

One of John's filmed 'conversations'. Mayor and CEO of Marion

We've worked on through the day, John liaising with some of those whose films we'll be showing, getting a grand view of sunset over Perth. It is hard to express my enjoyment at having, in John, someone who shares my fascination with what goes on in the fuzzy messy grey area where politics and administration overlap in the making of government. My self-confidence on this subject has always been fragile - because the subject is so intangible and my approach more descriptive than prescriptive depending deeply on the engagement of those I presume to teach.

John confirms permission to use a film from Toodyay

We've done as much preparation as possible. Now to get a night's rest - and start on my next police procedural - This Night's Foul Work by Fred Vargas - before sleep overtakes me.

At Bendigo

John Martin met me at Melbourne - a welcoming smile over the waiting crowd at Arrivals. He drove 150 kilometres on flawless, near empty, ironbark lined roads to his and Annie's Bendigo home. After a decade of drought it's rained quite generously here - water soaked up by ground so long parched that there's still little sign of it in rivers or lakes. We talked, stopped for steak pies and coffees in Malmesbury and later, ate a light meal with friends in fresh Spring sunshine. Later we worked on final details for the first of seven seminars John's organised across the continent on Political-Management Leadership: Negotiating the Overlap. We're back in Melbourne on Sunday to fly west to the Indian Ocean, to work in Belmont on the edge of Perth. It's 2300 here - 10 hours earlier than England where it's about 1300 - the time I'm feeling though I'm off to bed feeling chipper, having had but an hour's sleep in the 38 hours since I left Birmingham Airport at 2200 on Thursday.

Stop-overs at Dubai and Singapore

Partly out of curiosity, partly for vaccination against a reflex apprehension of otherness, I approached the ‘men’s prayer room’ where some staff – in its small lobby – were going through housekeeping checklists for the vast atrium of Dubai Airport Terminal 3. “Is it alright to enter the prayer room if you are not a Muslim…with respect?” Did I detect a miniscule hesitation, perhaps no more than puzzlement, then a gentle smile “Of course”. I went in and sat quietly, rinsing out my detestation of the greenless concrete blanket that seemed to summarise the place, and thought of Dhiaa and faithlessly but sincerely prayed for his safety on his short return home – a country we’d flown over on our way. Then I collected my bag, put on my shoes and, nodding to smiles at the door, returned to transit space. As I strolled across the flow a member of the cleaning crew asked me diffidently where I was from. “Birmingham. And you?” “Kerala” “Ah. Not been there. To Rajasthan. Yes. To Accra, Delhi and Jodhpur. Not so far south as your home. What is your name.” “Firoz. Your name?” “Simon” We shook hands and the dead world of Dubai was become a pleasant memory. Between us – Firoz and his colleagues – we’d made it into a place somewhere.

45 minutes to get off the plane, have a coffee and orange juice in transit limbo, then back on board via Gate C20 to finish my film Suspect X then continue with my Inspector Haritos Deadline in Athens - the superb Hellenic police procedural Richard Pine had recommended.

It's 2040 here and I guess 1440 in UK and 1640 in Ano Korakiana(note that the village website is still down - Εργασίες συντήρησης). On the first leg to Dubai from Birmingham I was sat next to an enormous man who occupied a third of my seat space. Emirates cabin steward shifted me to another seat to the satisfaction of all.

Flying to Australia tonight

I've been packing all day ready for a flight to the other side of the world - more or less directly SE from Birmingham to Melbourne on my map - arriving 0840 Saturday morning with short stops at Dubai and Singapore. It's not that I'm fearful of flying, rather enjoying watching films and reading and snoozing in a long dark rumbling tube 30000 feet in the sky. It's that had I the time I'd far rather make the journey by sea or even airship.

* * * Yesterday morning I rapped on the kitchen window to see off a heron fishing in our pond, ignoring the plastic deterrent a few feet away . Later on Wednesday, my last day with my Japanese students we visited Walsall Road Allotments, guests of the secretary who gave us tea, cakes and a tour of the plots. Seeing a well run allotment site, going for at least 40 years, made me even more aware of the work that will needed on the new Victoria Jubilee Allotments starting an 80 plot site from scratch, with a tiny staff from Birmingham City allotments section to guide us.

Mami from Japan and Betty, allotments secretary

The new shed has arrived on the VJA

Dare I believe it! The new gardeners shed - an item as functional in appearance as a bomb shelter for storage, meetings and shared cups of tea - has arrived on the VJA - or should I say the new Victoria Jubilee Allotments? The dark green construction - seemingly without windows, is just visible in the distance, as I peer through the park railings. The operational manager said it would be hear by 13 October and it is, which bodes well for the prospect of plots becoming available in January 2010. I've even caught a glimpse, in the middle ground, of a blue pipe - one that will supply water to standpipes for plotholders, tho' we will be encouraged to collect our own water in barrels via the gutters on the sheds we put up on individual plots.

* * *

Meanwhile in dear Greece...

Handsworth

Whenever someone goes on about the notorious inner city area of Handsworth with its history of riots and crime I ponder this view from our balcony looking over towards the tower of St.Mary's Church and the trees of Handsworth Park, a quarter of a mile from the Villa Road. Urban pathology is an important area of academic study and no-one should down-play the injustice of unequal wealth but given the choice I've no wish to live anywhere else in the city than here - for the place and for the people who are our neighbours, known and unknown. So it looks as if we could be selecting plots on the VJA by January or March. Betty, at Walsall Road Allotments, tells me this means missing planting things that ought to be going into the ground now to be ready for Spring. I replied to Martin Mullaney, the city Cabinet member with the allotments brief, who's trying to 'get to the bottom' of why the delay in delivering on the S106A continues - having been given an anodyne reply telling him nothing he and we didn't know.

To: martin mullaney Sent: Friday, October 09, 2009 2:28 PM Subject: Re: Section 106 Agreements...

Dear Councillor. Please find ... details of the ... S106 agreement (in) Lozells and East Handsworth ward.

Hamstead Road N/01514/03/FUL - Developer to construct a pavilion. Provision of affordable housing. £22,120 allotment money for the maintenance of 80 new allotment plots being constructed by the developer at the moment, with a view to commence letting in January 2010 - due on transfer of allotment land. £27,350 for the maintenance of public open space due on the transfer of the land.

No land has been transferred yet to BCC. £150,800 Handsworth Park sum. £25,000 Handsworth Park play area sum. These two sums plus indexation totalling £191,482 have been received. Of this, £183,828 has been drawn down re. spend incurred at Handsworth Park. Please contact me if you have any further queries. If you require any detailed information regarding the open space projects please conatct Andy Hogben. Regards, Robert Thatcher. S106 Projects Team 0121 303 3654

Dear Martin. Many thanks for this information. I’ve put it on my blog and circulated it to as many as I can. I rather doubt that Robert Thatcher will tell us more than we knew when the VJA application received permission back in 2004. I do not expect him to tell us why there’s been such a long delay in delivering the allotments and the playing fields and indeed the city acquiring the land. The questions that remains unanswered are – among others - what penalty clauses for non-fulfilment are there in the S106 Agreement and who has the power to enforce those penalty clauses if they exist? The problem of the continuing delay exists somewhere at a higher level in arrangements between Persimmon Homes, the City Council Planning Department and legal services in the Council. We're constantly being placated by assurances which we have little alternative but to accept. We had assurances in May 2008 that the new allotments on the VJA would be ready by that Summer (see image and accompanying text):

The developer had, at that time, assured the constituency planning officer, Alan Orr, that a ‘trigger point’ in terms of sale of properties, had been reached and the S106A should have been implemented shortly after. It was not. We could get nothing out of Alan Orr for several more months. That has been the pattern since. This year there were assurances of plots being available by late July/August 09. The City Allotments Department thought this was the case and, in good faith, circulated a newsletter to that effect.

By August it was obvious the allotments were delayed again – and so we were informally told by an officer from allotments section who shared our frustration. Alan Orr was ‘summoned’ by ward councillors to report to the Ward Committee. On 23 Sept ‘09 we got the latest news – kindly passed on by John Tyrrell from you – that plots were delayed but should be available in early 2010. Only our optimism gives credence to this assurance – given the history of promises broken by continued delays. Plotholders on existing allotments are planting for 2010. Those who applied for and were assured of plots on the new VJA will miss this opportunity even if the latest promises are honoured. We thank you for your persistence in this matter. Finding out the reasons for these delays is important but not as important of getting the new allotments and playing fields up and working for the community. Kindest regards, Simon

On 11/10/09 22:40, Basil Hylton wrote:

Dear Martin. Is there any similar movement on the cricket facilities? Previous query on the quality of advice being given regarding laying of the square and the building of the pavilion had largely gone unanswered. Updated information would be very much appreciated. Basil Hylton, Chair of Handsworth Cricket Club

Dear Martin. I’ve been pushing the allotments, but as background to Basil’s enquiry, the S106A of May 2004 included the following:

D. Planning Application No. N/01514/03/FUL – Victoria Jubilee Allotments ... approved under a Section 106 agreement to provide the following:

• Eighty new municipal allotments plus an index linked payment of £21,000 towards their maintenance.

• An index linked sum of £27,000 towards the maintenance of a play area and £25,000 in lieu of a second play area.

• An index linked sum of £15,000 towards the regeneration of neighbouring Handsworth Park.

• Two playing pitches and a cricket square plus a pavilion and car parking to the Council design.

• The inclusion of twenty four affordable homes.

Yours sincerely. Simon

Simon Baddeley

Handsworth Allotments Information Group (HAIG)

FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE VICTORIA JUBILEE ALLOTMENTS AND TO GET ON THE SHORT LIST FOR A PLOT WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE PHONE ADRIAN STAGG ON 0121 303 3038 allotments@birmingham.gov.uk

or complete the on-line form.

*I assume the difference between the sums I've quoted from 2004 and those just quoted by Robert Thatcher are to do with them being index-linked. I haven't done the calculations.

** ** ** It's been almost exactly two years since I divorced my car. Of course I'd been cycling for work and play for much longer than that, mainly reliant on my folding bicycles, but on an impulse, I got out the old bike I haven't ridden for a good while. Been sitting in the garage. Having been riding one or another of my four 16" wheel Brompton folders with 6 gears for over a decade, I got a yen to try cycling with 21 gears and 24" wheels. This Eco Real (I can't even find it on the web) was my first proper bicycle. I'd always had bicycles - usually second-hand, costing anything between £10 and £50. Staying in the Highlands, I dropped into Halfords in Inverness. For fun they let me try out this bike, on sale in 1995 for over £400. I went mad. I cycled out of the shop and up the long hill of the A9 south from Inverness without a break - nothing to an experienced road cyclist, but for me, at 53, being able to do that seven mile journey back to my mother's house in Strathnairn with such ease and pace was a revelation about the difference between the bikes I'd ridden until then and one in a different class. People have asked me about the cost of a Brompton. When I tell them they often go "phew!" (to avoid that exclamation and give a bit of encouragement I do mention that they start at around £350). Ignorance about the cost difference between a high and low quality bicycle is widespread. I switched to a folder because I needed to go to lots of places by train and bus - what the transport planners call multi-mode travel, and I call versatile. Taking full sized bikes by public transport is difficult; often impossible in Britain. So I've put up with the lower hill climbing capacity of the Brompton to be able to combine cycling with long distance travel for work and play. I cycled in and out of town this afternoon on the Eco Real and got no small pleasure out of the extra turn of speed I got, but - oops - it's a lot harder getting my leg over the saddle when dismounting. On the other hand cycling with toeclips is a renewed pleasure. But I need to do a bit of tuning yet and of course, because I can't take it into places with me like the folder, I'll have to go back to using a lock. I doubt it'll replace the Brompton, but it was fun. I caught Amy in town directing traffic and she sent me to the grocers to get her some toffees. * * *

I'm really pleased with the way the Oz clips are coming along plus extracts from fictional films that feature political-management relations. This is not just a matter of having film but of compressing all the films needed so they can be displayed on screen ready for swift use in discussion. In addition we hope to get permission to webstream extracts from films Annie and John and Barb have made in the last few month via Democracy Street - as with the UK films of political-management conversations. This looks to be our coming itinerary.

Latest on the Victoria Jubilee Allotments

John Tyrrell's copied me this from the City Cabinet member who deals with allotments, the latter having sent him an email from Peter Short, Senior Constituency Parks Manager - 0121 464 8728 - Birmingham City Council, Parks and Nature Conservation:

Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 8:41 PM Subject: Victoria Jubilee Allotments Cllr Mullaney. The work on the site is progressing, and the building is due to be delivered next Tuesday, 13th October. We are hopeful ... given continued reasonable weather, that the site will be practically complete by the end of the month. Andy Hogben is working on an arrangement to allow us to begin letting plots in January 2010, so that the land transfer does not delay us any longer. As long as this is successful, we will begin notifying potential plot holders who have registered an interest towards the end of this year. We will keep you updated as matters progress. Regards, Pete. Sent from my Blackberry handheld.

* * * *

I'd not think of it as anything but perfect sailing. Yet as the wind increased until gusting over 7 off Trompetta - under a clear blue sky; not unpredictable, typically Mediterranean - the old boat was overpressed. So was I.

** ** **

Talking across an ocean by Skype to John and Annie in The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec. We've four films from Australia; conversations between politicians and managers from Shire of Toodyay Council (Charlie Wroth, President and Graham Merrick, Chief Executive), Marion City (Mayor Felicity Ann Lewis and Chief Executive Mark Searle), Wyndham City (Mayor Shane Bourke and Ian Robins, recently retired as CEO) and Coffs Harbour (Mayor Keith Rhoades with Stephen Sawtell, General Manager) - prepared in readiness for the joint series of seminars John Martin and I are going to be leading in Perth, Darwin, Canberra, Brisbane, Launceston, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Alice Springs this November. I've done some editing on some and compressed the films so they can be displayed on the screen like thumbnails - minimised to share the screen with others - so that we can switch easily between 'conversations'.

Some forthcoming dates ~ City of Belmont, Brighton Beach, Adelaide Pavilion, and LGPro and more on the relationships that make government and some words...

* * *

Friday I drove my young Japanese guests down to the Forest of Dean. I asked Dhiaa to come along to help and the university hired me a seven seater Ford Galaxy with darkened windows - not the kind of campus minibus I'd expected - but a nice drive. Everyone fitted in neatly and we sped south to Gloucestershire, to Ross-on-Wye and on to Goodrich to see a little of a village that seemed to be working - village hall, local shop with post office, new primary school, bus stop, church... .

Katsuyuki, Mami, Simon, Shinya, Mari, Eiichi near Kerne Bridge

I drove on via Lydbrook to Beechenhurst, had a talk from Derek Yemm of Forest Connections about running a business in the forest, about the role of the Forestry Commission and the local council. Then a swift visit to the Cycle Centre and then on to restored Lydney Docks to gaze over the Severn Estuary, with observations from me on the rural economy. After that a walk in the woods, a stroll by the river Wye - all under a grey sky and slight drizzle. I dropped everyone off at the university at 6.30, dropped off the car and cycled home.

With Dhiaa by the Severn at Lydney Docks

I asked Dhiaa for his impressions. He wrote today:

As for the English countryside, I was simply amazed at the richness of nature and the style of peoples’ living. This is the first time I had the feeling of being in the thicket of a real forest.

Trees and greenery everywhere, rivers and hills and people who are harnessing the wild nature to make their living. Frankly, it should not be a one-day visit. One must live for sometime in the countryside to be able to gradually regain his consciousness and awareness of nature. The first impression is that of amazement and shock especially for someone who has not seen a real forest before ( with every step I was saying in my secret “subhana Allah” – glory be to Allah; how great and magnificent His work is). I have seen high mountains and spectacular water springs in the North of Iraq; I have seen the great sea at the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland; I have seen the Dead Sea, The Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, and of course Shat al-Arab and the Marshes, and many farms and fields, but the experience of the English countryside was a unique experience.

I have always wanted to see the English countryside and I had my own imaginative pictures of it; I am revising all these pictures now because reality sweeps away fictional realms.

Maybe the pictures I had in mind of the English countryside are of what it was in the 1920s or a bit later; the impact of modernity and mechanization can readily be seen and felt on it; the virginity of nature may have been lost due to man’s interference and persistence in harnessing and nurturing nature. My earlier conceptions of the English countryside were formed by my readings and by seeing the product of the Romantic artists, for instance. Nature, I was thinking, is the idyllic world portrayed by Pope, Coleridge, Byron, Keats and all other poets who were inspired by its brutal beauty.

I am sure you know what does it mean when you tread a route with the feeling that no one before you has trodden it. Well-trodden routes cannot arise in you the feeling of estrangeness and enigma that deserted routes can. I think nature – wild and brutal nature I mean – was not created to please. When I feel I am pleased in the midst of what is supposed to be nature, I feel immediately that there is something wrong. When calm and quiet, the sea is like a dumb child. When furious and turbulent, the sea gets back to its nature. So is the forest. There are people who love made-up beauty, with decorations and ornaments; and there are people who love brutal beauty. I am of the second type.

However, I am extremely pleased to have gone there and would love very much to go again and again; I would love to take my family one day, it is a place full of beauty. So, thank you very much again for your great company and your kind invitation.

At Lydbrook on the edge of the Forest of Dean

*** *** I was looking at this clustermap thumbnail - a year on. Lin says, to prick my ego, that that's mainly people looking up 'Democracy' and 'street'. She's surely right. It's been my assumption that I've the same number of readers as Prof Russ Ackoff told me long ago when commenting on the readership of the average academic publication - "two - and one's the author." The cluster map purporting to record visitors to Democracy Street is still fun to see, along with its global statistics.

I assume about six people drop in on this blog, with occasional additions marked by greetings in the village. I enjoy reading back over what I've published on the web over the last few years, adding occasional links I call - 'back to the future' - and looking at the pictures. The whole blog unlike my diaries, which I stopped keeping when I started on 'Democracy Street' is so easy to search. I like the way pictures, videos, graphics and links combine with text. But it's ephemeral compared to paper and writing.