This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 34/52 (2008 week 42).
Yet more reflections.
Taken at Nico’s, the best “greasy spoon” in all London.
Category Archives: personal
Vacation Meme
Vacation Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.
This week’s Flickr photo meme.
1. Small DSLR, 2. Popular Photography Magazine’s Featured Sunset *, 3. Eel in the smoke, 4. steam train through avondale july 07, 5. 1600×1280 – Morocco-beach – sun-sea-sand-pebbles, 6. Flowers for Mothers Day- UK 2nd March., 7. A locomotive To Brocken, 8. Winterwald, 9. Wellcome…into Alice’s Wonderland, 10. Bratwurst, 11. Mannequin Pis, 12. The most sacred place of Japan
Questions and Answers:
1. What is a must-pack in your travel bag or suitcase? (you just wouldn’t leave home without it) Olympus DSLR
2. What is your favourite thing to do while on vacation? Photography as an alternative to nothing with a bottle of wine
3. What is your great food/cuisine you have had or tried while traveling? Smoked Eel; heavenly
4. What is your favourite mode of travel – most enjoyable way to get there? Steam Train; first class, of course
5. What is your favourite way of “relaxing/unwinding” while traveling? Sun, Sea, Sand probably just edges out mountains and forest
6. Visiting friends and family sometimes involves travel – what relatives or friends do you visit most often when you go? (i.e. grandma, Uncle Bob, or Kate) My Mother
7. What was the best man-made wonder you ever saw/experienced while traveling? Steam Trains in Harz Mountains
8. What was the best wonder of Mother Nature that you ever saw/experienced while traveling? Winter Mountians and Forest
9. You could only take one book to read while travelling or on vacation – what would be in your bag? If I really can have only one volume then Alice in Wonderland; or more likely I wouldn’t take a book but buy something interesting along the way
10. Okay, you need a snack in that carry-on or backpack – what would it be? Bratwurst in a Bun
11. What is the “most touristy” thing you have done or place you have visited? Mannequin Pis; it’s such a horrible tourist attraction you have to see it once and be disappointed
12. You just won an all-expenses one-week trip anywhere in the world, where would you choose? Japan although it’s really too far for just a week
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
Nico's
This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 33/52 (2008 week 41).
Yet another reflection picture!
This week I’ve been eating out at the best “greasy spoon” in all London: Nico’s, 299 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 0EL. Open Monday thru’ Saturday, 0645 to 1900. It is right outside Bethnal Green tube station on junction of Bethnal Green Road and Cambridge Heath Road.
Greek Cypriot, now run by the second generation. You can have anything from a bacon roll, through Egg & Chips to Dolmades or Kleftico. The food is cheap and the portions are large; do not order the mixed grill unless you are a real glutton or starving: it comes on two(!!) oval plates, one of meat the other piled with chips. A steak sandwich comes with (free) chips on the side — a full portion of chips that is! And they’re real chips too. Everything is cooked to order and the kitchen is openly visible from the counter. Needless to say it does a steady trade! Eat in or take-away.
It is very close to the V&A Museum of Childhood, where Noreen works; I was there too earlier this week and was taken out to lunch at Nico’s: I had: 2 (large) Sausages, Mushrooms and (a pile of) Chips; can Diet Coke. Noreen had: Double Egg, Beans and (a pile of) Chips; can Diet Coke. Total cost £8.50.
Highly recommended for restoring the soul but not for either the cholesterol levels or the waistline. Pure food pornography. 🙂
The Atheist's Prayer
I found this somewhere on the intertubes the other day and thought it should be more widely known.
The Atheist’s PrayerOur brains, which art in our heads,treasured be thy name.Thy reasoning come.Thy best you can do be done on earth as it is.Give us this day new insight to help usresolve conflicts and ease pain.And lead us not into supernatural explanations;deliver us from denial of logic.For thine is the kingdom of reason,and even though thy powers are limited,and you’re not always glorious,you are the best evolutionary adaptationwe have for helping this earth now andfor ever and ever.So be it.
Pieces of Me
This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 31/52 (2008 week 39).
This is the collection of metal I wear permenantly; this scan was the first time they have all been removed in years — even the last couple of times I’ve had operations I’ve kept my wedding ring (middle right) on (but taped over).
Beliefs Meme
Beliefs Meme, originally uploaded by kcm76.
1. on earth all things are connected, 2. “Nothing Is True. Everything Is Possible.”, 3. religion, 4. Pick a god, any god, 5. Daily Paint 5/21: Yeti!, 6. Puff is Still The Magic Dragon, 7. DSCN3611, 8. Summer Time, 9. Dust to Dust, 10. ‘SIGNS OF RELGION AND BELIEFS FROM ABOUT 6500 B.C.’ – ‘FROM NOW WHAT IS MODERN TURKEY’ – ‘AT THE TOWN ‘CATAL HUYUK” – Best viewed large !, 11. Miles Levin’s memorial service, 12. Nut
As I thought up this subject I thought I’d better do it. 🙂
The Questions & Answers:
1. Something or somebody you believe in All things are connected
2. Descreibe your god in three words Everything and nothing
3. Something evil you believe exists Religion
4. Something you are totally unable to believe in God, any god
5. A conspiracy theory you believe is possible The yeti
6. A mythical animal you believe in? Dragons
7. What religion do you profess? Non-deism
8. Your favourite “holy” place Haven’t got one
9. What do you believe happens when we die? Dust to dust, ashes to ashes
10. Something everyday and ordinary that you find incredible Belief
11. What was the last religious event that you attended? Memorial service
12. Your favourite ancient god (Greek, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Egyptian, etc.) Nut, Egyptian goddess of the sky
Oh and there isn’t a single animate object in the images!
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
In the Chapter House Mirror
This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 30/52 (2008 week 38).
Taken in Rochester Cathedral Tea Rooms.
Noreen Marshall, Her Book
After something like 2 years in gestation Noreen’s book, Dictionary of Children’s Clothes, finally appears in early-October. Here’s what the V&A’s blurb for the book says:
Over the last 300 years, children’s clothing has witnessed a gradual shift from dressing children to adult requirements, in multiple layers and formal styles, to the booming designer childrenswear market of today. This accessible and well-illustrated dictionary features over 300 garments, from air-raid suits to zouave jackets, with specially commissioned photographs from the world’s largest and most diverse collection at the V&A Museum of Childhood. A fully illustrated timeline and introduction offer an at-a-glance understanding of the changes in children’s fashions and a rich selection of line drawings and illustrations from sewing and knitting patterns, to catalogues, dolls, fashion plates, photographs, paintings and children’s fiction put the garments in context. Noreen Marshall is Curator of the Dress, Doll and Childcare Collections at the V&A Museum of Childhood. She has worked on a number of V&A exhibitions, including Stile Liberty, Jolly Hockey Sticks, The Pack Age, and a series of Christmas exhibitions.
Despite having been married to Noreen for most of the 30-odd years she’s worked at the Museum of Childhood, I have seen relatively little of this book during its birth traumas; it’s been a closely guarded secret. Until now, that is! I have now seen an early-released copy and, as can be seen from the dust-jacket (above), it’s a sumptuous volume illustrated with specially commissioned colour photographs on every page of the dictionary section. As well as the dictionary there is an extended essay by way of introduction, a 300-year timeline and several appendixes which enhance the main content. The book isn’t cheaply produced, something which is reflected in the cover price of £30, but this is excellent value considering the quality and the work which has gone into the production.
This book is a real treasure for anyone interested in costume or childhood. It may be pre-ordered from Amazon UK or from the V&A Online Shop.
Dictionary of Children’s Clothes, 1700 to the Present, by Noreen Marshall, is published on 06 October by the Victoria & Albert Museum at £30; ISBN 9781851775477.
09/09/2008 This & That Meme!
1. Anyone for Cricket?, 2. Sooty Oystercatcher, 3. Blue Hyacinth, 4. I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, 5. Oz on bookcase 04212006 003, 6. Hoover Factory Greenford London, 7. DSC_2240, 8. Cunt Examination, 9. giving Katie the best there is and hoping she’ll be gaining back some weight …, 10. Jack and Jill Windmills in Sussex, 11. egg custard (gross), 12. Latin
The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste the html into your blog or Flickr stream (the easiest way is to copy the URLs and then head over to the fd’s flickr toys link above and use the mosaic maker).
The Questions & Answers:
1. What was your favorite summertime activity as a kid? Cricket
2. What was your first pet’s name? Sooty
3. What model car did you learn to drive on? I didn’t; yes that’s right, I never have learnt to drive and I don’t want to.
4. What’s your proudest moment as an adult? I’m sorry I haven’t a clue
5. What are your top 3 hobbies (other than photography)? cats, science, books
6. Where do you call home? Greenford
7. Where did you call home at age 11 (or any age)? Waltham Cross
8. What word do you love to say? C**t
9. Where do you go to relax? Lying in the sun
10. Who was your first kiss? Jill
11. Least favorite food? Egg custard
12. Least favorite subject in school? Latin although it’s a close finish with woodwork.
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
Homeward Bound
Homeward Bound, originally uploaded by kcm76.
This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 28/52 (2008 week 36).
Taken in the car by the light of the streetlamps on the way home after a day out. (And no, I wasn’t driving!)
In fact we’d been to Lowestoft for the day (long trip!) as Noreen wanted to meet up with one of her aunts and discuss family history. we met Noreen’s cousin and her husband for lunch (yummy!) and then the “girls” spent the afternoon with their aunt while Tim and I amused ourselves (separately). I spent most of the afternoon on the seafront (which was cool, dull, intermittently wet and windy; with a good swell running on the outgoing tide) taking equally dull photographs. I know I saw the less interesting bits of Lowestoft, and the weather was against us, but sorry guys, the place is a dive. But it was a good day out and blew away some of the cobwebs.