Following the visit to the Vatican a few weeks back, here I am in another of the world’s great museums. Specfically, the Ancient Egyptian room on the ground floor, home to the Rosetta Stone and various other famous relics. I like this shot simply because of the light. It might be better without the little explanatory squares of text, but what can you do.
As seen in the “Comics: Art and Anarchy” exhibition at the British Library in London this afternoon.
I’d rather the bright red cooler wasn’t there but otherwise I think this is a reasonable summation of this event, which Clare & I stopped off in for breakfast after our night out in London (* not depicted on this blog). The queue for the tea stand was interminable. I like the blossoms too, which up north have faded rather, but in London remain in full flower.
The first act of my Easter break has been spent in London, and the first part of that, in Camden Town, shopping; it does happen, you know. Was keen to get a shot that got beyond the ‘Google Street View’ aesthetic and thus save the blog from deteriorating into the everyday banality that I suspect is never far away.
I observed this guy for a good 20 minutes while having a pint in the pub nearby, he was handing out flyers and holding a placard for a nearby tattoo parlour — like most people make a snap decision to go and have a tattoo. Perhaps for this reason he looked thoroughly fed up with his job, but I do like this one moment, with his eyes closed and earphones in he looks momentarily off in a world that is more his own.
To properly encapsulate today, I should really have included a photo of Brighton, where we spent most of it. But on the walk to London Bridge station in the morning, this spectacular funeral came past, and I just about managed to get the shot off in time. The ‘antique’ effect really benefits it, I think. That’s two hearses already in 2014, however. Also, perhaps surprisingly, in 870 days these are the first horses to feature on the blog.
I have a weekend to catch up on, and a very good weekend it was. Here, in London on Friday night, is where it began — specifically the ‘Princess Louise’ pub on High Holborn, a great old-fashioned Victorian drinking palace with tiles, etched mirrors, little booths and snugs and good beer, what more does one need? (The flare to the bottom right of the image is a bit distracting, but I think I get away with it.)
After the party, the journey home. I do this trip quite a lot. Since they finally removed the scaffolding from around Blackfriars station earlier this year, it really does have a bloody good view, up there with Circular Quay station in Sydney — but with slightly cleaner windows.
Went to London on a day trip today, for a meeting, which we held here mainly because it’s easy to get to and a nice space. What you see here is the ‘King’s Library’, the King in question being George III: his library now sits as a kind of monumental pedestal n the centre of the building. The new concourse at King’s Cross station is also pretty cool, by the way. With St Pancras between the two this is becoming a decent part of the city.
The new St Pancras station in London, terminus for the Eurostar trains, is definitely the most impressive railway station in Britain and probably ranks among the top 10 in Europe. But for those of us plebs who don’t want to catch the Eurostar, or even the cross-country services north to Sheffield, but the cross-London trains down to the South coast; we are herded down into the basement.
Still, this couple looked kinda cute. And I was only there for five minutes.
I spent a good portion of the middle part of my life avoiding London, but recently I have been visiting more often. It was nice today to be able to walk out of a hotel on quite a pleasant late autumn morning and be exploring Covent Garden before everywhere was open and while it was still fairly quiet. I think it’s too early to have Christmas decorations up anywhere – but I suppose these ones are quite attractive.
Being 42 