Chancellor’s pronouncements.

Anticipation had been mounting during the day to hear the Chancellor Mr Osborne's  comments on the economy and additional measures to stimulate it , without actually spending any more money. One of the most critical elements was the bringing forward of the change to retirement at 67 to 2026, which impacts the baby boomers of the 1960s.

The level of impending doom was outlined by the dire news for one young lady interviewed on Television - she had to look forward to another 45 years of Hairdressing!

Another impending change that would only serve to fuel the anger in the public sector strikes and demonstrations tomorrow – the fact that in addition to plans to change their pension plans, their pay rises after the current 2 year freeze would be limited to 1% per year.

No doubt another consequence would be to push public sector employees to leave the area for private employment – helping to achieve the 0.7 million posts that needed shedding to maintain the books.

Other activities today – learning to paint brachiating monkeys and leaping frogs in Chinese brush painting and met up with author Mrs Lowry on progressing her book. Helped Mrs Thomas install a new webcam on her PC – remotely as over 600 miles apart.

Two headaches – migraine and phone tapping

The morning was lost to a migraine, dozing off the pain to surface at midday and begin the gradual mental climb out of numbness. The remainder of the day catching up on four days of missed e-mails, responding to personal messages and chasing the book printers re the revised proof for author Mr James.

The backdrop entertainment was the Leverson inquiry into phone tapping. And what irony it provided. The celebrities and other well known personalities who appeared before an inquiry that was televised, the newspaper speculation before and after the event, the cascade of subsidiary news items spinning off into different programs.

On the one hand we had the stories of destructive press activities, hounding, prying and following their selected prey. On the other, we have the public, myself included, fascinated by the unfolding inquiry, the news and the witnesses called – precisely the fuel for the activities that we so greatly deplore.

Innuendo in pictures by Vermeer and other Dutch artists at the Fitzwilliam Museum in “Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence”

Yesterday, we went to the Vermeer exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum “Vermeer's Women: Secrets and Silence”. A bit of a misnomer as it should really be “An exhibition of 32 pictures by Dutch 17th Century Artists, including four pictures by Vermeer”. However, it prompted me to buy and read “Vermeer: The Complete Paintings”, by Norbert Schneider (a bargain at circa £9) from the museum shop. Consequently, I now want to go back and have another look at the paintings, as there is a more detailed symbolism in the images and finer detail to look at that suggests why Vermeer has gained such importance again.

The fast guide to the images of women in their domestic settings is the constant struggle between chastity and the potential eruption of passion in an age where more conservative values on marriage and chastity were being promoted by the authorities. Two Vermeers with women at the virginal are alternatively; The link between music and love in “The Music Lesson”; Hints of a lover's  departure before painting began in “Lady seated at a Virginal”, indicated by the abandoned cello and the picture of “The Procuress” on the wall behind the lady at the virginal.

The contrast is the chaste purity of Vermeer's “The Lacemaker” with her demure gaze downwards on a proper lady's activity, with a very uncluttered composition. This picture is on loan from The Louvre.

Pearls, by the way, represent either vanity or purity – depending on their use. Any picture of that age featuring a woman and wine (in a glass or porcelain decanter) hints at attempted seduction. Onions are erotic symbols and hanging chickens apparently indicate carnal desire! The symbolism of the day was codified, for example in Cesare Ripa's "Iconologia". Items that look innocuous to us had special significance in understanding the underlying message within a painting. A picture within the painting or a bowl of fruit, a gesture or particular posture and dress add meaning (as do the copulating dogs in "The Soldier and the Prostitute" by Frans van Mieris, 1658, though here the message is a bit more obvious).

Vermeer's artistic technique also differs from that of his contemporaries. Here are more aspects to look for.

1. The presence of slight visual and perspective distortions, blurring around the edge of the paintings and highlights. These are seen by some as evidence that Vermeer made extensive use of a camera obscura (a lens system that projects an image onto a screen) to aid his painting. Some of you may remember David Hockney's excellent TV program on the evidence for use of camera obscura by classical painters.
2. Point 1 and the use of colours and shade enraptured the early expressionists who saw in Vermeer a kindred spirit in the way he viewed and painted the world. In fact, when you visit the Fitwilliam Museum, go in at the main entrance, progress upstairs and wander through the Impressionists gallery on your way to the Vermeer exhibition. Then compare Vermeer's brush strokes and hints at detail to the perfect representations in some of his contemporaries' work.
3. Maps. Vermeer regularly and deliberately incorporated representations of real maps in his pictures to make a point. In fact Norbert Schneider uses the pre 1609 map of the Netherlands by Claes Jansz. Visscher and other elements, to re-evaluate the symbolism in Vermeer's painting commonly known as “The Art of Painting”.  Where most art critics see the entire imagery as referring to - the Art of Painting, Norbert sees the picture as a political statement. He claims that it plays homage to the re-ascendant House of Orange and recognises the positive change in popular opinion towards the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire; all this in a critical period in the Franco-Dutch war, just before a favourable outcome in 1674. This would date the painting to about 1673, much later than others think.

With my interest in microscopy, an additional fascinating fact was that when Vermeer died, Antoniew van Leeuwenhoek took over the responsibility for managing the estate when Vermeer's wife fell into financial difficulty.

What this ultimately also reveals is that beauty and art is really in the eye of the beholder. When I go back to revisit the exhibition I will be evaluating the pictures in a totally different light.

From international finance to repairing a webcam dropped in tea

I visited Mrs Hales-Tooke, who's two books I had published, after my brush painting class. Her son, photographer, artist and author Mr H Hales-Tooke was visiting from the US and I heard of his narrow escape during the floods in Spring. Our discussion also turned to the merits of printed versus digital books and the different strategies for marketing them.

Wednesday was a day trip to London for a talk on The Future of the international Monetary System, part of the OMFIF Golden Talks series. It was held in the Armourers' Hall, Coleman Street. The talk  was illuminating – concentrating on the longer term – there is a blog article on it now, “The International Monetary System is to local crises like the climate is to weather”. It provided a marked contrast to the immediate dramatic fluctuations and contagion in the Eurozone area.

The Armourers' hall itself was worthy of note and I spent some time photographing there (see article “the Armourers' Hall of the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers”) before taking a walk through London from Coleman St to Holborn Station. The route was a slight meander, taking in the stained glass in Wrens rebuilt church of St Lawrence Jewry and the Occupy London tent city still outside St Pauls.

Thursday I visited Mr Woolnough, author of the Understanding and Using the Stereomicroscope. We had worked together closely on the book as I edited the design, layout, redrew some of the illustrations, added extra photographs and the quick start guide. The book is published by the Quekett Microscopical Society.

We were working together on the start of a new exciting project and made a lot of progress on the initial planning.

This morning began with a telephone call to Mr Ebert of Feinkaeserei Zimmermann, a friend from his previous visit to the UK looking for potential distributors of the Product of Designated Origin, the Altenburger Ziegenkaese. Today's call was a social catchup on mutual news.

The annoying and yet amusing immediate aftermath of the conversation involved my accidentally knocking off the web-cam from my PC right into a full cup of tea. Quickly retrieved, I could see the milky tea sloshing behind the lens. A search online gave instructions on how to open up my particular model and I set to flushing out the tea with water and then placing the opened web-cam to dry in a warm place.

Then it was an HBN day where Mrs Burbidge was notable for ensuring that every guest arriving was welcomed to the event.

Returning late afternoon, I set about ensuring that the visible and accessible parts of the webcam were clean before reassembling it.

With great anticipation, I reconnected the webcam and started a video. All seemed to be working well until I saw the picture on screen – the image was as blurry as viewed through cold tea. I had to admit defeat and order a replacement!

Stained and etched glass in the cloisters of Worcester Cathedral – and King John submitting kingdom to Pope

The drive back to Cambridge from Hereford began in pouring rain. I had contemplated stopping off at Cadbury World, but a phone call in advance established that they were not open today.

Seeing signs to the Royal Worcester factory on the ring road around the city, I decided to visit this instead and started following the erratically placed signs. By the time I was approaching the centre of the city without a clear indication on where to go next, I promptly stopped and parked near the Cathedral and made that my outing.

I spent a couple of hours photographing the stained glass windows in the cloister and then briefly touring the rest of the Cathedral. I came away with the clear intention to visit again. The photography took some time as the light was poor and the hand held camera needed long exposures that really challenged the anti-shake function on the device.

One new fact learnt from the sign by King John's tomb, he submitted the Kingdoms of England and Ireland to the Pope in order to patch up an argument about which Archbishop should be appointed at Canterbury that had led to King John's excommunication.

I edited the images in the evening, as best possible considering the quality, and uploaded them to my Picasa web album collection at http://goo.gl/uMRQn.

Losing a food reputation is all too easy. Spanish elections. Egyptian riots.

Drove to Hereford. Started in sunshine but soon hit the mists in the Midlands. Visibility was quite good, up to a kilometre or so. However, it transformed the autumnal landscape into flat shades of gray like monochrome watercolour layers.

Stopping at the halfway point of Corley service station on the westbound M6, I went for a meal. In the past year, the food and service at the Eat In had been great, contrary to the usual perceptions of a service station eatery. A fortnight ago, stopping there, I already noticed a slight decline in standards.

Today. The food in served was surely below the required minimum temperature, service was listless and indifferent at the till and the knives and the spoon in the cutlery tray were covered with crud. I asked the more positive helpful assistant to look at the cutlery and at least she immediately responded and clean cutlery was replaced.

It is so sad. Someone had previously made such a great effort to change the food quality and the perception of this particular eatery. Now it seems their effort is gradually being eroded away.

Internationally, Spain is now infected with the consequences of the Eurozone crisis. Coinciding with elections, it led to the fall of the socialist Government of Zapatero (who was not up for re-election himself) to the centre right opposition Peoples Party led by Mariano Rajoy. Austerity measures beckon.

The news of Gadaffi's son Saif being captured and likely to be prosecuted within Libya and the current crisis on Syria, on the edge of civil war have both been placed second place in the news by the increasing riots in Egypt’s cities. Major demonstrations are reported in Cairo's Tahir Square, protesting in advance of the coming elections as there seems to be doubt as to whether these will truly introduce democracy.

On making videos and writing about them

Was still thinking about the business networking event at the SJIC yesterday. On leaving I introduced myself to another visitor who asked what I did and the conversation turned to my missing out video.

A valid point as I had not generated any videos recently.

So today, I set about putting together a 1 minute video on just this point. The frustration was in achieving a white sheet background. The fun lay in incorporating additional elements in the editing, including the sound of breaking glass to accompany a point on breaking the glass ceiling for women.

Making that 1 minute video took about an hour to publication online. That set me thinking about giving guidance to others on the points that I found important in creating a video.

This resulted in a blog article “Making your own video: 10 points I found useful”. Just finished uploading it and now ready for bed.

Networking in person to learning more about Google+

Sunrise, and I was Nordic walking across the Jane Coston Bridge to the St John'sInnovation centre for a meeting of Mrs Garwoods Business Breakfast Network. A reasonable turnout for an 8am start, with familiar and new faces. Apart from business exchanges, the topics ranged from tropical fish (initiated by realistic tattoos) to breaking the glass ceiling for women.

A walk back home for a short break before departing for HBN, starting with the first committee meeting with Mr Foster, our new chairperson. I am now responsible for the newsletters and have written two, one a week, to date which have been favourable received. As an added hook, they include a soap based on business networking “Passionate Networking”.

Mr Downing returned to HBN after a three year absence in the follow on HBN networking. This opportunity was afforded by the fact that Gridsure, the company that he had been working for, had been sold outright, with the immediate loss of all staff, to Cryptocard, a major player in the field of card security.

As there was no tutorcloud meeting today, I gave Mr Wishart a lift back to his house where I profited from his greater experience with Google+, learning some additional tips and tricks. At last the start of the weekend.

Escalating Eurozone Crisis to watching a Magistrate's Court at work

These have been turbulent times economically. Since my last entry a couple of weeks ago we have had a change of Government in Greece. The Eurozone crisis then moved to Italy and resulted in the departure of Berlusconi as Italy's cost of borrowing soared and it was thought that only a change of government would suffice.

Currently the crisis has shifted to Spain. Germany and France, but mainly Germany, are trying to react to the crisis by suggesting further Eurozone political integration – but without much more financial commitment, whilst the UK is diametrically opposed to this policy. Prime Minister Cameron has already been publicly snubbed for his comments by the French Prime Minister. Mr Cameron is heading for a meeting tonight with Mrs Merkel of Germany where warning shots have already been fired across his bow.

The cubs evening treasure hunt based on science using light physics clues went extremely well. This was indicated by the general low level of noise as the cubs got into each activity. There were two activities that surprised us for the interest they generated.

The first was the fascination created by looking through 3D specs, front to back, as a laptop screen whilst rotating the glasses. The fact that suddenly the screen would turn dark (at about 45 degree angle) alone kept them occupied, even before we presented them with plastic film that would reveal colour effects.

The second was making periscopes and trying them out – the children would wander around the room with a periscope just fascinated by the fact that a different view could be seen.

Preparations for the Cambridge Open Studios EGM went well, the event itself being almost an anticlimax. I was complimented for bravery by demonstrating the COS website live. The failure of my first attempt at logging in demonstrating that even supposed experts are human. The key element was that at last the revised COS website went live yesterday.

Mr James' book is now with the printers. We have had a proof returned, the colour of the cover needs adjusting but it is close to completion.

Having helped Mr Heker with his dental technical business, it was now my time to receive some dental treatment for the premolar that had caused me agony in Egypt and that had required a second antibiotic treatment to calm it down again. The result was a full hour of root canal treatment. Strangely painless after the anaesthetic injections, it was still had an effect for the day psychologically.

Today, I had the second part of the treatment, preparation and generatation of an imprint in order to permit the production of a crown. Ironically, this affected me more than the original root canal treatment as the work was at gum level.

After some comfort shopping in Waterstones for two books, I found myself drawn to the Magistrate's court, situated where the city post office used to be. The staff were very helpful when I expressed an interest in the court. Using an empty court, the layout and roles of people within it were explained to me before I went into Court 1 as an observer. Only intending to stay for an hour, I was there for three watching the system at work. Fascinating and a great distraction from the dental treatment earlier that day.