drama queen

The British Museum was looking unusually dramatic the other night. Click on the image for a better look at the blazing torches and smouldering scarlet ionic order.

egham in motion

I spent most of last week at Royal Holloway for PhD research training. Nicholas came with me on Monday to see the campus and explore Egham.

Egham (pop. 5,724) has more thrift stores – aka charity shops – than anywhere I’ve ever been: about 2 per block (totalling about 8, do the math, it's a small place!). After a flip through the old Marks & Spencer sweaters, we found a nice little bistro for lunch… the one Nicholas is walking away from.


There were so many “suits” in the bistro, which had us stumped until we put it together: Would you believe that RIM has its UK headquarters in Egham?

Come to think of it, there are some similarities between Egham and Waterloo, Ontario.

a lad and his brolly

Among other things, Nicholas received a gift certificate to James Smith & Sons for his birthday. This elegant shop has been selling and manufacturing umbrellas in-house since 1830.

Last weekend we went to the shop to trade paper for climatic protection. Here is the lad with his new brolly:

He's hoping for rain.

barbican

Last week we were treated to a concert at the Barbican. (Thank you, Anna!)

The LSO played Dvorak with Anne Sophie Mutter – the long-standing powerhouse and 'super babe' of the violin concerto, followed by Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass, which saw the addition of 2 harps, 1 celeste, 4 vocal soloists, and 100 other vocalists: An incredibly intense musical experience. Here's the choir assembling on stage:

The Barbican Centre is a large-scale brutalist entertainment campus in 'The City'. Beyond the warm wood concert hall, a series of vast interconnected open spaces cower under weathered concrete towers, all elevated from the streets below. (Barbican does mean 'tower', after all). It's a dream come true for every planner circa 1960 and a disaster in human terms. Still, we’ll be back!

xmas in october

At the end of last week we got our first shipment of boxes, sent from Toronto over 7 weeks ago.

This has resulted in a flurry of nesting activities and exercises in imaginative storage. My socks are now under the bed in a wire basket.

More pictures to come.

the fryer’s delight!

We signed up with the health club attached to the College. As part of the admission process they give you a health and fitness assessment. And as an incentive, if you improve your score in three months’ time they give you a free month of membership. With our assessments looming and to increase our odds, Nicholas and I made a great effort to overindulge.


This included a trip to The Fryer’s Delight, a famed fish & chip joint just down the street from us. The place probably hasn’t changed since the 1970s – in terms of food or decor.


We suspect, however, that the service staff was not Eastern European when the restaurant opened.


The clientele served as fabulous dinner time entertainment. In particular, we watched as the girl seated behind me refused a man a seat at her booth.


He sat down anyway and devoured a half chicken and chips as she tried not to watch.


Here’s a reasonable shot of him. If the indigestion wasn’t enough, a reminder of the damage done by excessive fryer grease may keep us away for a while.

the tree of knowledge... made of plastic?

My wallet is brimming with new library cards – a major benefit of being part of the University of London.

The British Library, pictured here behind the lovely Nicholas Thompson, is a favourite. It's a 10 minute walk from our flat and will soon become my regular haunt.

birthday on the river cam

We celebrated Nicholas’ birthday and a perfect autumn day with a trip to Cambridge… after champagne and pancakes.

Most of our time in Cambridge was spent sitting on the River Cam, which runs by The Backs, the area behind the colleges. We enjoyed a picnic on the grass and watched the punters.


Punting refers to the practice of guiding a boat down the river with a large pole. Visitors have two options: hiring a professional or renting a boat of their own and trying their skill. The latter invites hilarious results.


The inexperience of the punters, and their drunkenness in some cases, ends in crashes, jams, and general goings in circles.


This girl dressed for the occasion.

This is the back of King’s College and a wall that provides support for unstable punters.


After lunch, we wandered around the town and through the University Colleges. Nicholas sneaks a peak into one of the courtyards.

Back in London, we finished the day at our favourite Turkish restaurant in Hackney.

irrefutable evidence of incredible humidity

This is how I found my passport on the dining table a few days ago.


But good new: the heat came on today! Perhaps this will mellow out my passport.

views from V&A

Who said London was expensive? At least entertainment is free, so long as you enjoy wandering through museums. Yes, please!


The Victoria & Albert museum was created to educate the masses about taste and applied arts at a time when industrial production was providing garish options for the nouveau riche.

The museum is a phantasmagorical maze -- textile galleries lead to miniature portrait galleries lead to costume galleries lead to ivory sculpture galleries lead to iron work galleries...


An afternoon is not enough. I'll be back... with that bandit hiding between the Victorian iron fence and the Hector Guimard gate.

babel for the birds

We walk a lot and are still discovering new areas and small parks within walking distance from our flat. (We're not as serious about all this as we look.)

Although I haven't caught many on camera, we see and hear beautiful birds in these places. Here's the most amazing bird town.... a Tower of Babel for birds.


There's a community park, called the Calthorpe Project, across Gray's Inn Road from us (very close) with some fun mosaic work. Look another bird!


These images are from St. James Park by Buckingham Palace... a bit of a hike from our place, but worth the trek to see the fabulous ducks.


And those little white blobs out there are the "Royal Pelicans" first introduced in 1664 as a gift from the Russian Ambassador.


I'm still waiting to capture a magpie for you.

creatures of the night

Last Friday we took an evening boat cruise on the Thames.


The night of drinking and dancing may have lasted 4 hours too long (no, we didn't know what we were in for), but we did get to see London from a totally different perspective.


The Battersea Power Station, for example, for incredible. Unfortunately I didn't snap a shot of it. The London Eye on the other hand...


On our way home we saw foxes at THREE different locations. In London the foxes have laser beam eyes.