South Bank - Timelapse

South Bank - Timelapse
Originally uploaded by Steve J

20

My Brain

My Top 100 pics on Flickr - Updated Daily

Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

Thames Festival - Sunday - Night Carnival and Fireworks

Second day of this busy weekend and I needed a rest. Got up a bit late and as I hadn't planned on much for today I took it a little easier and decided to go and visit the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Field. No pics of this as no pics where allowed, but suffice to say this is a small and fascinating place, if you are into looking at bits of bodies in glass jars. This museum has only been open a year or so, and so everything is very fresh and new looking and the huge amount of exhibits is well presented in a smallish space.

I decided I'd want to go and see the final part of the Thames Festival this evening and get some great pics of the photos and other events going on, but great pics are not something I can manage with my little camera. A trip to Jessops corrected that and I now have a pretty decent camera at last, and some successful haggling and price matching I walked away a very happy man. A quick read of the manual and a charging up of the battery and I was back on the South Bank, taking some decent pics of the various events and some fabulous pics of the fireworks.

Alight Night

I said earlier that it was going to be a busy weekend and it certainly has been so far. As part of Uncle Ken Livingstone's attempt to get people back into London, the Thames Festival this year had had a huge cash injection to put on some spectaular events. I wandered down around 7pm to go have a look at what he had planned for this year. Starting at the Tate Modern, the gardens outside had been converted into an outdoor sort of rave. Robert Miles was playing live with some cool projections onto a huge helium filled balloon suspended outside. Further along in the garden by the Oxo Tower, was a geodesic domed tent with yet another rave type event inside, complete with some great projections. All along the riverbank where various market stalls, lights, buskers, packed out with families having a great time out. Further along beside the Jubilee Bridge, a barge in the middle of the river was playing more music, with video projected onto a huge screen of foggy mist. I wandered back over the bridge, struggling past the crowds to watch the end of the event before heading on home. The pics are here, however due to the camera not being so good in low light, apologies if they are a bit crap.

Open House Weekend - Paddock

And so onto the next venue. Simon, the IT guy at work had arranged to come over this afternoon. Despite not being able to find my flat and a mad dash up through to Cricklewood, we made it with seconds to spare. This was a special venue, one that had been booked weeks ago when the Open House catalogue first came out. This was a trip into the underworld, otherwise known as Paddock. Paddock, was Churchill's secret Cabinet War Rooms, the one that was so secret that even the King had no ide of it's whereabouts. The main Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall is now a tourist attraction, done up to please the crowds of tourists. This one in Dollis Hill is pretty much as he left it in the 1940's, after deciding it wasn't up to his standards due to the amount of damp. Built beneath a housing estate, which at the time was the GPO Research centre, we descended a number of steps from a small brick built building at the side of the road, into the complex of damp and dark rooms below. This tour was arranged by Subterannea Britannica, who with a couple of very knowledgeable memebers, gave us an interesting and insightful tour of this secret bunker. We visited the air conditioning plant and the generators, splashed through muddly puddles and avoided the various stalagtites that hung from the ceilings. We saw the map room, withthe three windows that the various forces would peek through to see what was planned and we visited the Cabinet Room itself, with it's own separate aircon designed specifically for a certain persons cigars.
This was one of the best little tours I have been on, mostly due to the fact it was like being let into a secret that only a few have seen. Tours here are only organised on 2 days a year. Click the pic as ususal for all the other pics in this series.

Open House Weekend - Royal Courts of Justice

A busy weekend ahead. Once again it's time for the annual Open House Weekend, the weekend whre private parts fo the city are opened up for Londoners to see behind the scenes. So, an early start to avoid the crowds and queues, Barnaby came over and we went straight out to visit the Royal Courts of Justice on The Strand. As you probably know, court houses are normally out of bounds to photographers, but this weekend we were allowed to wander the hallowed corridors of justice and take as many pics as we desired, despite one of the officious security guards seemingly unaware of this.
The RCJ seems to have around 70 courtrooms, ranging from the spectacularly gothic to the unassuming and more modern. A demonstration case was in progress, although too crowded to get into, we found ourselves on a tour of the cells. We had missed out on the previous tour, and, after a few minutes of waiting, a rather cute prison guard decided he would take the two of us on a private tour of the cells and custody suite. This finished with a tour of a prison van, complete with 14 individual and tiny cells, no seatbealts due to the possibility of hanging. We finished our tour, said thanks to the cute one and made our way out, taking more photos as we went. Barnaby had a little bit of time to kill so I took him across the road to visit Temple Church where I have blogged previously to show him the delights I had encountered before. A quick lunch of McDonald's toasted deli sandwich, highly recommended and probably a little bit healthier than a burger, then we separated and I made my way home, ready for this afternoons trip to the next venue.

Do walk on the grass!

And none of your tacky Astroturf either. Today, as part of Ken Livingstones' attempt to get tourist back into London after the recent bombings, Regent Street was closed to traffic and a layer of real (if very thin) turf was laid, cafes were doing a brisk trade and fairground rides and attractions filled the normally traffic filled street. The weather remained hot and dry and I had a very pleasant afternoon, wandering and watching all that was happening. Once again I have used YouTube to bring you a flavour of the day.
Ken has more going on this month, and I am sure I shall bring you more little vloglets of what I get up to.

Life begins at 40!

Ok, so the inevitable has happened at last. Today's the day. I'm 40!
As for "Life beginning at 40" I guess I shall have to wait that one out and see, however today has been a pretty normal day workwise, actually I've been so busy at work I've barely had the chance to reflect on this special day. Managed to get out on time and then home to meet Barnaby and Carl and then off out for a treat to a local restaurant in Bloomsbury.
Had a lovely meal of muscels in pernod butter, and a wondeful beef bourgignon followed by a very rich chocolate mousse.
Now I'm officially middle aged, I guess it's about time I ........... (Bugger that thought, I'm only as old as I feel, and I still feel like a teenager!)

Oh no! Not the slippers!

Wizard of Oz ruby slippers stolen

A pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz have been stolen from a museum in Minnesota.

The pair, insured for $1m (£560,000), is one of four sets used in the film.

The slippers were taken at the weekend when a thief entered the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids through a window and broke into a display case.

As Dorothy in the 1939 movie, Garland wore the slippers as she clicked her heels and thought to herself: "There's no place like home."

Police Chief Leigh Serfling said: "There's not a whole lot of evidence. We're hoping that someone in the community has seen something."

'Major attraction'

The Judy Garland Museum had the slippers on loan from their owner, a Los Angeles man, for several weeks.

The museum is part of the Children's Discovery Museum in Grand Rapids, where Garland was born in 1922.

Museum director John Kelsch said the slippers were a "major attraction".

"It is our hope that the slippers can be recovered immediately," he said.

Another pair of ruby slippers was sold at auction for $666,000 (£412,000) in 2000.

Another addiction!

Wow, if you thought Flickr was an addictive website, then I reckon this one I have discovered today will complement it, especially for vlogging. YouTube does for video what Flickr did for photos. And it makes it so much easier to put the vid in your blog. Now that I have found something a little easier to use, then I will no doubt get out with my digicam on a more regular basis. At last I have managed to get a rough edit from the recent camping holiday and uploaded some footage retrospectively. Keep watching this space, this blog is about to become more exciting!

Bank Holiday weekend - Let's have some fun!

Dreamspace

At last, an evening with no rain. So on our third attempt this week, Barnaby and I made it to Dreamspace. Helen came along as well and we paid up and went in. This is one huge bouncy castle type thing that you can walk around inside the inflated area.
Lots of interlinking pods, coloured PVC making an amazing light filled space. Totally magical. Only on until Monday 29th August, at Potters Field, the park area adjacent to City Hall, by Tower Bridge, so get your skates on and get down there before the bank holiday weekend is out. As usual, click the pic above for a link to the other 45 photos inside this amazing and totally transfixing thing.

Summer Garden Party

A very pleasant afternoon spent with the neighbours in the communal garden. The garden has been here now for nearly 3 years and is maturing nicely. Good to catch up with the neighbours over a glass of wine, some idle chit chat and banter with people I've not really had a good chat with for ages.
What makes it all the more pleasant is that since it used to be a tarmacced area, the new planting and structures (including the stained glass window I made for the garden hut) have all matured nicely, making this a wonderful spacious but private area, right in the middle of Covent Garden, overlooked but a few flats, but not so overlooked that you'd feel you were being watched.
In fact, now that it's matured to the point of not looking so spartan and new, (and the fact that my wifi is accessable down there) I have promised myself that I really will take the opportunity to get down there more often and make the most of it. Pity now that the end of summer is in site, but I really will be down there, at least once a week for some nice 'me' time with the plants and the fresh air.

Home again.

Our final morning and the sun was streaming in from the start of the day. As hoped, we would not be having to pack up in the rain, there's nothing worse than trying to pack up a wet tent, especially as I have nowhere at home where I can possibly open it up to dry out.
A final breakfast of bacon rolls and then we started the packing. It didn't take half as long as it did setting up and we were on our way by 10:30.
A quick run down the motorway with one brief stop for a pee then back into Covent Garden. I remembered for once to set my trip meter before we left and found the journey to be exactly 160 miles. Barnaby gave me a hand to unload, which was very helpful seeing as how the scaffolders blocked any local parking. I'm sure I'll be seeing more of scaffolders and builders between now and Christmas as they do the cyclical works on the building.
Dropped Barnaby back home then came back and started on a mountain of laundry and cleaning. At last, there is a pic as promised. As usual you may click on it for a full set of the camping pics.
I'm knackered now, so off to bed soon.

Late addition @ August 28th. At last I have managed to get online for your enjoyment a rough edit of the video we took.

Day Two.

Our second and final day (It's a very short holiday) started off with a hot sun streaming into the tent, a big difference to how yesterday started off. Breakfast, ablutions etc. done and off we set to visit Puzzle Wood.
We arrived 40 minutes too early so we set off for a little drive to pass the time until it opened. Our drive took us nowhere in particular except through a small village named 'Sling' which conjured up some odd images of a place that elderly hirsute men with taches and leather caps go to retire!
Back to Puzzle Wood and after a 5 minute wait too elderly ladies arrived to open up. Despite being told where to park, where not to park, where we could not have a picnic and which way round to park our car on the grass, passing all manner of negative signage telling us what not to do, we eventually made it into the woods. This is an area of open cast iron ore mining from years gone by, where fires where made to crack open the limestone and release the ore. This has left a maze of little pathways, towers of rock and little hideaway points which has since grown over with moss and lichens, making it a most magical place. Almost expected little pixies and fairies to pop out at any moment. We passed the same points several times, got muddy, got hot and sweaty and eventually after an hour or so we found our way out again. Stopped for a coffee and cake in the tearooms then on to our next place where we had planned on visiting Ross on Wye.
On the way I decided we would have plenty of time to visit Raglan Castle, although Barnaby had said that he wasn't a great fan of castles we had time to go. It turns out that Barnaby thought it to be one of the highlights of our trip. Raglan is one of those places that has enough mix of ruins and complete buildings to make it a very intereting place indeed. Climbing to the top of one of the towers we could see for miles and get some great photos of the surrounding area.
Having done Raglan, it was time to hit the A40 and continue north, dropping into Weston's Cider at Much Marcle for a quick visit, however the earlier tour had obviously just finished and the shop was so full of people sampling that we left without buying anything unfortunatly.
On next to Ross on Wye. Nothing much here, although it was a very picturesque place. We decided that as the weather was still very good we would have another BBQ this evening rather than get some pub grub as planned. We found a nice little friendly butchers and a fabulous delicatessen then headed back to the campsite for the last time.
A relaxed evening, red sky at night means we won't be having to pack up a wet tent in the morning hopefully and as a nice treat to end our holiday a Virgin sponsored hot air balloon floated silently over the campsite.
Soon time for bed then up and away in the morning.

The first full day.

As I woke this morning, the first thing I could see and hear was the rain, forming little shadows on the outside of the outer flysheet. However it soon stopped and we decided over breakfast that today we would do the canoeing we had come to do.
We checked down with Chris at the Symonds Yat Canoe Centre and arranged to go for the afternoon trip.
We had a couple of hours to spare so headed off to Coleford to visit Clearview Caves, an ancient underground iron mine. Quite an atmosphere down there. No guide us such, just sort of amble through at your own leisure and read the rather tatty notecards!
The caves took all of 45 mins to do and we were soon outside again. A quick trip into Monmouth for some provisions then back to Doward Park to drop things off in the coolbox before heading off for our canoe run.
We got ourselves togged up in life jackets and onto a mini bus with several other groups and were taken to Kerne Bridge about a 10 minute drive away. We then set off on an 8 mile steady row back to the canoe centre. We had a few wobbly moments when we hit a bank and Barnaby almost had his head severed by various overhanging branches. We stopped part way down and I promptly half fell out the boat and got sopping wet. Good job the weather had turned round and I dried out soon enough. It was great to get to some of the calmer points of the river, such as below Yat Rock where we had been looking down from yesterday. Barnaby has promised to blog about the fimily singing troupe that sailed past us. We were soon back and finished, and totally knackered. Another BBQ, a few Jack Daniels and then it will soon be time for bed. I have decided after last nights problems of trying to attach a pic to the blog that it's not worth the touble so I shall link to them all when I am back home again.
Tomorrow we plan on doing Puzzle Wood and possibly go and have a look around Ross on Wye.

We have arrived

Here at last. A good run up on the motorway and arrived with dry weather. Got the tent up with an expected struggle, then went to hit Waitrose in Monmouth. Monmouth is having a week long festuval so the road was blocked.
A quick trip up to Symonds Yat to take a few pics from the viewpoint then back to the tent for some Jack Daniels and a barbecue as you can hopefully see in the attached pic. (yes this is my 1st proper attempt at mobile blogging).
Off for a walk now and hopefully I can get a mobile signal further up the hill. Back tomorrow with more exciting things that we have got up to.
(update: This post failed when I tried to send it as the pic attached was over 1meg and after it had failed my PAYG balance had dropped by £5, although I kept a sort of mini blog while I was away, I shall upload it retrospectively, with photos.)