Hello my name is Reg Bettridge

Have you met Any Company's Strongest Asset yet?

Seeing is believing.

Read or Dead

At the risk of going a bit linksmonkey-ey, I've been wanting to keep a list of "reads" on my site as a personal reminder-cum-suggestions-list. I seem to be getting through a few these days, so until I get a proper section sorted, here's a quick and dirty:

Done and dusted recently:
The Castle, Franz Kafka
Diary, Chuck Palahniuk
A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
Look to Windward, Iain M Banks
The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler

Currently, and openly nerdily:
The Mammoth Book of Science Fiction!

After this, I must look up others in the "The Mammoth Book of" series, including
...Bridge
...Erotica (New Edition)
...Gay Short Stories (as opposed to Short Gay Stories I assume)
...Historial Erotica
...Jack the Ripper
...Vampire Stories by Women
(...and saving the best until last)
...the World's Greatest Chess Games

Now if that isn't a tangible meaning of "eclectic" then I don't know what is.

Not Franz Ferdinand, the other one

I've done it. On my second attempt I managed to struggle my way through Franz Kafka's The Castle. My 1971 reprinted copy looks like this as I picked it up for £2 at the university book stall a few years back. I think the worn cover and tinted pages give it that extra something, not least as they suit the age of the contents within.

It was recommended to me by a colleague in a job I had a couple of years back, and he said it was one of his favourite books as he could identify with it on those particularly challenging days at work. So, I bought it a while ago when the chance arose, tried reading it once with little success, and so it stayed amongst the rest of my tat for the day when I was ready. Three weeks ago that day came, and so I got stuck in once again. Last night I emerged victorious.

In a way it was similar to Catch 22 which I also found difficult to read at first, but gradually got into and eventually really enjoyed to the point that it is certainly one of my favourite books. The Castle however remains a fairly hard slog all the way through, although it seems to fullfil the reap-what-you-sow mentality and I feel as though I got quite a lot out of it.

The ending (of sorts) is rather unusual, but I was at least semi-prepared for this after reading the foreword explaining that the "addition material" making up chapters 18 through 20 were added by translators other that those who did the original German to English translation. So not only has the book been translated from another language, this translation was done several decades ago by two different groups of people using a mixture of an unfinished book with various fragments and deleted passages, which makes me think that reading a more modern translation, if available, might be worthwhile reading afterwards to get a different perspective on the same surreal story.

I'm glad I finished it in the end. I can't say it is fantastic, but I certainly did enjoy it and would encourage you as long as you appreciate the task at hand. My favourite part came at just the right time: I'd had my own particularly trying day at work, and that evening on the train home I found my own personal connection with the author...

'A letter from Klamm!' cried K. throwing back his head. 'Lights here!' he called to the assistants, who now pressed close to him on both sides holding up their lanterns. K. had to fold the large sheet in small compass to protect it from the wind while reading it. Then he read:

K. only looked up from the letter when the assistants, who read far more slowly than he, gave three loud cheers at the good news and waved their lanterns. 'Be quiet,' he said, and to Barnabas: 'There's been a misunderstanding.' Barnabas did not seem to comprehend. 'There's been a misunderstanding,' K. repeated, and the weariness he had felt in the afternoon came over him again.

- Franz Kafka, The Castle

That may mean nothing to you, dear reader, but for both K. and myself it represents something quite frighteningly real.

Cuckoo Comedy Night

I've seen the film, there's currently a stage version on at the Gielgud Theatre London, and on Saturday I saw the last night of the Cuckoo Comedy Night, a special late night comedy show performed by actors from the play, including Felix Dexter, Stephen K Amos, Mackenzie Crook aka Gareth from The Office, and compered by Christian Slater. The show was good fun despite revolving mainly around jokes about either drinking or oral sex. The grand finale (being as it was the last Cuckoo Comedy Night being performed) was Mackenzie versus Christian singing "My Cock's Bigger than Yours". Has to be seen to be believed!

Beforehand we'd enjoyed a delicious meal at Bella Napolia, and afterwards moved on to Bar (somethingorother) somewhere in Soho to make use of the 3am licence. Mmm, Budvar.

After all the excitement, what better way to spend the next day than eating bangers and mash at the Black Lion, followed by a stroll through Hyde Park? The Albert Memorial is, I think, fairly hard to describe without using the words "gold" or "outrageous". Watch out for when it gets dark though; they start locking up the various entrances to the park, and you may find yourself racing to escape along with the mums and dads hurling prams and tricycles over the turnstyle being the last available exit.

Xmas Party 2004

My work Christmas party was held at Planit Embankment. I'd been looking forward to it for a while, not just because of the free bar, but because it gave me a chance to get an idea of the scale of the company and meet people who I'd otherwise never see.

The guest speaker for the evening was James Cracknell of olympic gold medal fame, who gave a good speech about rowing as a sport, and the build up to the race in Athens. He also showed his obvious support for London 2012.

Gradually people moved next door to Motion where the party continued into the early hours. Walking back to Borough wasn't that fun though.