Aside from stumbling upon my true calling, this week was special because Tom and Alice came to visit. It was so lovely seeing them both. Best part is that I got to show them my new favourite cocktail: the Jamaican Banana. Basically a banana milkshake with rum and baileys in it. Lovely to see some family after being here for a wee while, so cheers for coming out guys!  |
| Quite recently, I was intrigued to learn about the strange life of Edward Fitzgerald, an English poet who spent a solitary 15 years from 1837 to 1853 in a tiny, two-roomed cottage. He kept himself occupied with a number of things: he learnt languages; wrote letters; and pasted together scrapbooks from books and newspapers. But his main occupation during his time in the cottage was compiling a complete glossary of all words and phrases relating to the sea and seafaring. He worked on this comprehensive dictionary of terms for years, but alas it was never finished. In the same book, I read of another, fairly similar sounding chap. In the 17th century, Sir Thomas Browne, polymath and writer, created an enormous catalogue of books called Musæum Clausum. Within, he gave descriptions of supposed, rumoured or lost books, pictures and objects. Not one item in the collection actually existed – every one was a product of Browne’s imagination. Across thousands of pages, Browne recorded an exhaustive collection covering every topic under the sun. Here are a few examples of the kind of things he fabricated for inclusion:A comprehensive description of the plant life that grows in unreachable, deep valleys under the seaKing Solomon’s treatise on the shadow cast by our thoughtsA collection of Hebrew epistlesA description of a bamboo cane used to smuggle silkworms out of ChinaDespite the many years spent writing these books, none were published during Browne’s lifetime. |
  Now, the reason I’m telling you about these men with their strange, pointless, self-assigned efforts at catalogue, is because this week, I have landed upon a similarly pointless and all-consuming task of my own. Like Browne and Fitzgerald, I too will devote my life to this task. 80 years from now, a relative will break open the door to my dark, musty hermitage to find scraps of paper, photographs and research texts that have informed my work. On my desk will stand a computer, the glowing screen displaying the spreadsheet that holds my magnum opus: a comprehensive list of activities/hobbies/actions, and, crucially, a decision about whether each one is cool or uncool.   It all started a few weeks ago in the staff house, sitting on the balcony eating lunch with Mhairi. This was our regular lunch-time routine. I usually had a cheese toastie. Mhairi went for avocado on toast. As I write this, it’s likely that Mhairi is in a seminar room in St. Andrews debating the pros and cons of capitalism with uni types. But on that fateful lunch break, we were debating whether windsurfing was cool. The conversation progressed. What about wing foiling? Surfing? Sailing? Knitting?? Soon enough we had a list of activities on our hands. Our lunch hour over with, we headed back to Neilson and spread the word. Immediately people got stuck in with new activities and new opinions. Each item on the list was debated. More were added. Some were unanimously agreed upon, others took time to debate. A week later, rarely a day went by without a new contribution. We began to draw on the fresh perspective that guests brought with them to find new things to declare cool or uncool.   I became fully absorbed by this task this week, when I decided to take the list out of Neilson folklore and record it in a spreadsheet. It has been a hugely collaborative process, and we’ve spent many hours debating the finer points. In time, I hope to grow the list to encapsulate all things, and update it as the coolness of each item waxes and wanes through the years. For now, it is a simple list, but I anticipate that there are a myriad ways to format this information, and to plot the rise and fall of each item. Like the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, this project will never be complete, but I will toil on regardless, collecting opinions and suggestions from as many people and places as I can think of. I’m writing to you to ask for new things to add to the list, with your suggestion as to whether the item is cool or uncool. I’m also keen to hear any formatting suggestions. I know a few of you are handy with a spreadsheet. Very keen to hear your suggestions. You can view our progress so far here.   Hope this was somewhat interesting/entertaining. Once you get stuck in with the list its kinda a fun game so have a look and see what you make of our decisions.Also, have a delightful week.Love, James |
Beginning the Project of a Lifetime
