Archive for May, 2003

Day 13 - Pickled snake, anyone?

Saturday, May 31st, 2003

Picture of room full of pickled animals

The Natural History Museum has just opened its new wing — the Darwin Centre. This is where they keep the specimens preserved in alcohol that form the basis of their research.

Day 10: Every cyclist’s nightmare

Thursday, May 29th, 2003

Picture of bicycle wheel chained to a post

There could be nothing worse than this for a cyclist — fortunately this didn’t happen to me. The worst I’ve had (touch wood) is my lights stolen…

The Globe season has started

Wednesday, May 28th, 2003

The new season at Shakespeare’s Globe has started, described as the Season of Regime Change I have booked tickets for Richard III next Wednesday with some friends from work — this should be a rather interesting production in that it is an all female cast. Originally of course the casts were all male, and they do all male productions at the Globe too (I saw the Globe’s fantastic all male production of Twelfth Night last year), but all female is a departure. There is an interesting article from Mark Rylance about this. Should be interesting!

Day 5-8: Long weekend

Tuesday, May 27th, 2003

Art deco in London

On the way to pick up the car I noticed this really cool art-deco apartment building… for future reference its just off the Minories near London Bridge.

Brunel's Bridge

Isambard Kingdom Brunel invented the suspension bridge, and this is the first one to be built, although it wasn’t finished until sometime after his death, and after others were built elsewhere in the country.

Spiegeltent in Bath

Walking around the rugby field on the banks of the Avon Karen called out ‘the spiegeltent’ — and sure enough there it was, forlorn in the middle of a muddy field. So this picture is a bit of nostalgia for the Adelaide Festival, when it is rather more lively.

Wells Cathedral with flower

wells has a very very cool cathedral, and this is my attempt at an arty shot of it.

Bath on the weekend

Friday, May 23rd, 2003

As in, with some friends we are hiring a car and going to Bath and Bristol for the long weekend. So no updates until we get back. But I get to use my new UK driver’s licence for the first time! Getting that made me realise that I have made a bit of a commitment to being here for a while.

Its just over a yearr since I first arived, and its starting to feel like it — all the seasonal things that were happening when I first got here are starting up again — the Chelsea Flower Show, Big Brother, the Globe season, the Proms…

Strange how we measure the passing of time…

Day 4 - the bus home

Thursday, May 22nd, 2003

View from the bus home

OK - a bit more prosaic today - as you can see I left it to the last minute and so you’re stuck with a picture from the front of the bus on the way home in the rain. Note to self: take at least one decent photo in te morning :-)

Day 3 - View from a window

Wednesday, May 21st, 2003

View from a window

There is a characteristic creamy brown colour to London Brick — its the clay that London is built on — and built of.

Day 2 - Banksy in Birmingham

Tuesday, May 20th, 2003

Banksy in Birmingham

Banksy is a very prolific graffiti artist who is seen a lot around Bankside, Brick Lane and Spitalfield markets. Ben found this one in Birmingham. His work is amazingly evocative and he is definitely one of the best things about London.

Day 1

Monday, May 19th, 2003

Travelmaster fish eye mirror

Travelmaster buses are the quintessential London bus - red, double decker, hop-on hop-off, old, smelly and dangerous. Upstairs there is a fish eye mirror to allow passengers to see if anyone is coming up the stairs.

one photo a day

Monday, May 19th, 2003

I thought it would be an interesting exercise to try and post one picture a day. I have no idea if I can keep this up — or if the results will be worthwhile — but here goes…