personal

Reasons to be Grateful: 12

Experiment, week 12. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

  1. Purple Sprouting Broccoli. Unlike most people I do actually like almost all the brassicas. I’m not so fond of kale, which is generally a bit tough and bitter, and I can take or leave broccoli. But one that I always enjoy is purple sprouting broccoli which is now in season.

  2. Garlic Potatoes. Roast small (ping-pong ball size) potatoes in a foil parcel with lots of chopped garlic, salt & pepper and a drizzle of good olive oil. You should be the potatoes crisping up and some pieces of caramelised garlic.
  3. Norman Architecture. Our trip to Chichester on Tuesday reminded me how much I enjoy Norman architecture compared with the later styles — although fan vaulting is always a wonder!

    Norman Triforium Arch, Chichester Cathedral
    Norman Arch in Chichester cathedral. Click image for larger view.

  4. Alpine Days. I quite like winter when it is cold, frosty (or snowy), bright sun and blue sky. It is all the cold, damp, grey and miserable I find depressing. I always feel better for sunshine.
  5. Curry. I hardly need say more!
amusements, medical, ramblings, science

Did You Know ….

There is a brothel in Prague where the “services” are free, but live video streams of the “activity” in the brothel are shown on their website (for a fee).
[Wikipedia]

Male chimps, bears, dogs — indeed almost all mammals except humans — have a bone in their penis, called the baculum (photo is a raccoon baculum). No-one knows why it was evolved out of humans.

In the US, of those men who take paternity tests some 30% find out they are not the father of the child concerned – although of course these are cases where there is doubt to start with.
[Sheril Kirshenbaum, The Science of Kissing]

links, topographical

London for Beginners

Following her recent trip to London our blogging friend Katy has written a series of three posts of hints and tips for those visiting London for the first time. They are excellent advice even if you’ve been to London before. I recommend that you go and read them.

And when you’ve read them, come back here for a few things I, as a Londoner born and bred, can add.

London Transport
London for Beginners – The Basics
London for Beginners – Tourist Attractions

OK. In general I will echo everything that Katy says in these three posts. But here are a few additional thoughts which I’ve arranged roughly by each of Katy’s posts.

London Transport
Although Katy isn’t a Londoner, she’s been visiting London for many years and has lived here, so in many ways she knows more about travelling around London than I do.

Driving in London
My first piece of advice here would be what Katy doesn’t say in as many words: DON’T. If you thought the one-way systems, restrictions, traffic etc. were bad in your city they’re worse in London.

If you must drive in central London then something to watch is fuel. Fill up before you get into the centre. There are very few petrol stations in the central area. OK I’m not a driver but I can think of only two fuel stops in the West End area: one on Park Lane and one on the Marylebone Road. Doubtless there are others, but they’re pretty well hidden.

Take Katy’s words about parking restrictions to heart. Yes you can find convenient on-street parking but it is rare; near Oxford Street you can try Manchester Square which sometimes has available parking especially at weekends. (And while you’re in Manchester Square visit The Wallace Collection.)

Do not dice with the parking/traffic restrictions. Not only are there lots of Traffic Wardens, but there are lots of cameras, including on mobile vans and buses. If you get caught (and you will be) flouting parking restrictions, stopping in yellow boxes, jumping lights or using bus lanes you will find you’re stuffed with a £100+ ticket. Don’t risk it.

Trains
If you are eligible, get a Senior Railcard. They are £28 a year (£65 for three years) and give you around 30% off many train fares; you could save the cost on your first train trip to London.

London Underground (The Tube)
As Katy says: get an Oyster Card, if possible before you arrive. This will allow you to swipe through gates and will save you money as Oyster fares are significantly cheaper than paying cash for single tickets. Once you have the card you can also top it up online as well as at stations.

If you have a Senior Railcard, take it with your Oyster Card to any Underground Ticket Office and ask them to attach the Railcard to the Oyster card. This will save you around another 30% on all your tube fares. Many people do not know about this facility!

Buses
If you have a “granny free bus pass” issued by your local authority then it may also give you free travel on London buses.

If you live in one of the London boroughs and are over the female pensionable age (its moving nationally from 60 up to 65 at present, so you’ll have to check) or have one of a range of disabilities you are entitled to Freedom Pass. This is the London-wide version of the “granny free bus pass”. But it does a lot more. You don’t just get free bus travel at any time, you also get free tube travel and mostly free rail travel (there are a few restrictions) in the London area; also free trams and free DLR. (But note freedom Pass doesn’t cover Inter-city journeys from the mainline termini.)

There are over 600 bus routes in Greater London. Where they start, finish and the routes they take are often far from obvious. You need to do some research before you arrive if you’re planning to use the buses.

You can find out about almost all London travel, including Oyster cards, on the Transport for London website.

Taxis
This is something Katy didn’t cover. Everyone knows about the London Black Cab, which is ubiquitous in the central area. Use them. Yes they are more expensive than the tube if you’re on your own. For two, or especially more, they could work out cheaper than the tube. All Black Cabs are metered and you pay by a combination of distance and time, so the meter keeps ticking even if you’re sitting in traffic. Cabbies know this and while a few will use it to their advantage, in my experience most won’t. They know where the bottlenecks and roadworks are. And they are masters at knowing every back double and cut-through going so they generally will do their best to get you to your destination quickly — after all the sooner they drop you, the sooner they get another fare and most would prefer to keep moving.

If a Taxi has it’s yellow light on it is plying for hire and you can wave it down, or you can pick up a cab at a Taxi Rank. A cabbie is required by law to take you to any destination within 6 miles (25 miles from Heathrow Airport, I think) regardless. If it is over 6 miles he may refuse if he has a “reasonable excuse”. You will find a few ladies driving cabs and the vast majority of cabbies are London born and bred.

All taxis in London are registered with, and regulated by, the Public Carriage Office and the incidence of problems is rare. The London Black Cab driver is in general very knowledgeable not just about what’s where and how to get there but they often have interesting historical/trivial facts about places. I’m a great admirer of the London Cabbie; I don’t know how they manage to learn all this stuff — and they do have to learn it thoroughly (it’s call The Knowledge) to get their licence. They really are a breed apart, in the nicest possible way.

Outside the central area Black Cabs are rarer and you’ll likely have to know where the nearest cab rank is, which may be only the nearest decent-sized station.

But outside the central area there are also minicabs. These are the private hire cars; they are not allowed to ply for hire and by law all journeys must be pre-booked — which means you have to call their office and ask for a pick up. They’ll want to know where you’re going and will generally quote you a price. Be sensible with minicabs: when your car arrives ensure the driver really is for you: ask him to tell you the name of the person he’s picking up and if in doubt don’t get in. If necessary call his office and ask for the details of the car (make, model, registration number) picking you up, and check they match. Many firms are now converting to a computerised system and if you have a mobile will text you the details of the car they’re sending to you.

Minicabs are also licensed by the PCO and generally use saloon cars which can be identified by round yellow licence tickets on the top near-side corner of the windscreen and rear window. Minicabs are not metered but charged by the mile (as registered by the car’s trip meter) so it helps to have an idea where you’re going before you start.

Apart from the need to book a minicab the downside is that the vast majority are driven by immigrants who don’t have to have a good knowledge of their area (although many do); most do satnav. On the upside, they are generally around 30-50% cheaper than Black Cabs.

Bicycles.
Frankly, DO
N’T unless you have a death-wish. Yes, you can hire bikes from the organised stands (the so-called Boris Bikes, after the current Mayor, Boris Johnson, who introduced them). But frankly the London traffic is so horrendous that I think cycling in London is no longer safe, especially if you’re not familiar with the roads. The same goes for rickshaws. And I say all that as a long-time cyclist.

London for Beginners – The Basics
Buy a good London Street Map before you arrive! A-Z and AA maps are both good. Make sure it covers the area you will be trampling over. Maps are good if you want a view of a wide area. Map books, where you get a small area on each page may be larger scale and more detailed, but you won’t get the wide view and they aren’t as comfortable/easy to carry.

Also get a tube map, you can download one from the Transport for London website.

As Katy mentions, things in London are expensive so be prepared to pay. London is one of the most expensive cities in the world; nothing is cheap unless it’s free! Even Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral now charge for entrance. Expect any exhibition to charge at least £10 per head and £15 or more is not unusual.

Remember too that London is one of the biggest cities in the world. The central area is 5 miles from east to west. And it is almost 10 miles, in a straight line from the Tower of London to Kew Gardens. Do not underestimate the distances you may have to cover or the time it will take.

Keep tight hold of your valuables and luggage. Like all cities there are some very clever pickpockets around. And if you are unlucky enough to be the victim of crime, do report it to the Police. It’s a pain but the Police should give you a record number which will help you with any insurance claim. And they might even be able to take the perpetrators off the streets.

Food.
Yes you will want to eat out, sometimes at least. See if you can get recommendations for good places to eat. Most pubs will allow children in if you are eating, but under 18s are not allowed to buy or drink alcohol. Most pubs these days do reasonable, if basic, food at reasonable (for London) prices; some are absolutely excellent.

If you want a sandwich lunch then Marks & Spencer (M&S) probably do the best take out pre-prepared sandwiches. And with a bit of looking you can often find a garden or park where you can sit and eat your sandwiches — although if you do this be prepared for an audience of hopeful sparrows and pigeons.

Money.
Yes, you’ll need loads of this. Personally I don’t like cash machines as they are too open to criminal minds, but you may not have a choice. If you’re happy with cash machines then there are lots around; you’ll seldom be more than a few minutes walk from one!

If you need to change foreign currency you will often get the best deals by going to a Post Office. Their rates, certainly for Euros and US Dollars) tend to be reasonably good and they do not rob you of a commission!

I would say don’t give money to anyone begging on the streets. Yes, London does have a problem with the homeless living on the streets. While some of those begging are genuine, many are known not to be. In my view it is better not to encourage any of them.

London for Beginners – Tourist Attractions
Katy provides a pretty good list of the things to go and see. I would add:

  • Westminster Abbey
  • National Gallery
  • National Portrait Gallery
  • Tate Britain
  • The Wallace Collection
  • Borough Market (especially on a Saturday)
  • Hampton Court
  • London Eye (it isn’t cheap for a 30 minute ride but the views are worth it)

But I would also add a list of things that really are not worth bothering with:

  • Madame Tussauds Waxworks (boring and unreasonably expensive)
  • London Planetarium (part of Mme Tussauds and thus also a gigantic rip-off)
  • London Zoo (interesting if you like zoos, but in their small space not outstanding and another which is very expensive)
  • Personally I won’t go in churches & cathedrals that charge on principle. I’d give St Paul’s Cathedral a miss anyway because I think it’s hideous, but not many agree with me.
  • London Aquarium (which I thought was pedestrian compared with many other large such)
  • Oxford Street (yes, it’s the iconic shopping street but frankly it is mostly just the usual chain-multiples, with just a couple of good department stores: Selfridge’s and John Lewis)

Katy mentions the round London bus tours. Yes they aren’t cheap, but the tickets are valid for a whole day (so start early to get best value) and you can hop on and off most of them repeatedly. They are a good way of seeing lots of the sights and deciding what you want to come back to — or if you have only one day of getting a glimpse of a lot. They are also very good at helping join together all the different bits of the city.

Finally as Katy also says, don’t buy tickets from ticket touts. The tickets may well not be valid (they are often trackable and non-transferable) and touts are often operating illegally. If you really want tickets for a particular show you may have to depend on one of the ticket agencies, or queue on the door on the night for returns. Almost all London shows get sold out.

Don’t let any of this deter you from coming to London. Most of what is less than positive really is only good common sense which should apply anywhere. Use what Katy and I have written and enjoy your visit. You won’t regret it; almost everyone ends up loving London!

amusements, memes, personal

Good Badness

Both Katy (Katyboo) and Emma (Belgian Waffle) have invited us all to document what we are good and bad at. So who am I not to comply with such royal command.

So here goes …

BAD GOOD
Drawing and painting
DIY — actually anything dexterous
Spontaneity
Anything athletic
Reading quickly
Complaining about service
Being active & getting out
Respecting management
Suffering fools & the pretentious
Saving money
Vanity
Phoning people
Foreign languages
Latin
Patience
Erections
Logic Puzzles
Exercise
Self-publicity		 Nagging
Navigation & map reading
Organising
Project management
Maths and science
Logic
Analysing situations, quickly
Being idle
Eating and drinking
Thinking
Bending the rules
Telling it like it is
Sleeping in late
Research
Arguing & disputing
Computery things
Making decisions
Finance
Being stressed
Being overawed by the great & good

So how about you all tell me what you’re good at — either in the comments or on your blog and leave a link in the comments?

Now I’m off to the supermarket.

arts, history, photography, ramblings, topographical

Awayday

Yesterday we had an awayday. As part of her Christmas present I said I’d take Noreen to Chichester before mid-February to see the Edward Burra exhibition at Pallant House Gallery. I also knew we’d also get at least a wander round the cathedral and a sniff round any bookshops we stumbled across. And of course there’s always lunch and coffee and cake and …

So yesterday was the day. Although we didn’t spend quite as long poking around Chichester as I’d hoped (the decrepit old knees won’t take a lot of it these days) it felt like a bit of a marathon, what with living the other side of London.

We left home just before 8am, took the train into Marylebone and a taxi across to Victoria where we were eventually allowed onto the train to Chichester. ETA 1115. (Coming home took just as long.)

The first stop was the cathedral which was welcoming and actually quite busy for a winter Tuesday. The heart of the building is Norman and there are some lovely decorated arches. But to be honest beyond that I didn’t find it one of the most entrancing cathedrals I’ve visited, although given that there are gardens (not visited) it would probably be much better on a summer’s day.

There is a (Victorian?) stained glass window and a memorial tablet commemorating the Tudor/Jacobean composer Thomas Weelkes and another tablet commemorating Gustav Holst. The stained glass window by Marc Chagall is also worth seeing.

There is also a rather lovely and unexpected piece of Roman mosaic which was discovered under the foundations and is now visible, in situ, behind a glass viewing panel in the floor. The cloisters, with their wooden vaulted roof are unusual and rather rather nice.

Roman Floor below Chichester Cathedral Cloister, Chichester Cathedral
More photos on Flickr

Lunch in the cathedral café was simple, good and welcomly warming on a bitter January day. Noreen had a pasta bake with veg and I had a fish bake also with veg. With a soft drink each this was, I thought, good value at under £18 for the both of us.

After lunch we wandered slowly past the market cross to find the Pallent House Gallery which was staging the Edward Burra exhibition. We hit a day when the gallery were doing half-price admission. Unexpected result!

I’ve never been sure about Burra’s paintings but he was a friend of Anthony Powell, especially pre-war, so a viewing was a necessity. Having seen the paintings in the flesh I’m still not sure about them; to be honest most of them really don’t do much for me. Many were smaller than I’d imagined, although there were also some which are much larger than expected. One or two of Burra’s late landscapes were rather nice, but his earlier work is extremely “disturbed” being often a cross between Heironymus Bosch (a known influence on Burra) and Salvador Dali. All in all his paintings look better in reproduction. Having said that Burra is probably more important than is often credited, under-rated and under-exposed — but this latter is doubtless because most of his surviving work is on private collections.

By now it was early afternoon and still bitterly cold. A meander through the town unearthed a secondhand bookshop, but nothing interesting to spend our money on. So we whiled away an hour drinking coffee and eating cake then made our way towards the station.

We just missed a train. This meant an amusing but cold 30 minute wait for the next one. I don’t know what it is about this area of the country but the train stations seem to be populated by a peculiarly local inter-mix of teenage school girls, low-life and the inhabitants of the nearest loony bin. At least it makes for an amusing way to waste the time between trains.

Nutter Triptych, Chichester Station
More photos on Flickr

The train back to Victoria was another amusement. It consisted of a 3 year-old who insisted, despite his mother’s instructions, on working the squeaky hinge of the lift-up tray on the seat. Two lads of about 20 who were Tottenham Hotspur supporters going to see Spurs play and who in 90 minutes managed to drink four cans of premium lager each! How they were standing by the time we reached Victoria GOK; but at least they were harmless. Although best of all was a large group of sub-teen French school-kids who at one point broke into a rendition of Queen’s I Want to Ride My Bicycle in cracked English. I was waiting for them to do the ‘Allo ‘Allo version of The Wheels on the Bus but sadly this never materialised. It would have been a fitting end to an interesting day.

photography

The Tea Drinker

3 Comments

This week’s photography challenge at The Gallery is for us to throw away our habits of smartening ourselves up before being photographed and snap ourselves as we are when we first read the posting.

Oh well … Not being one to be vain, here is The Tea Drinker.

The Tea Drinker 2012

And yes, I took this immediately after reading the message (well I couldn’t take it before as I didn’t know what it said!). It was mid-morning and I’d just got up after a non-alarm clock awakening. Undressed, unkempt and not even been as far as the bathroom, but I still have that all-important giant mug of tea attached to my face! This is the tradition of my people.

Luckily for you I cropped the image. 🙂

links

In Case You Missed …

The irregular selection of links to things which have amused or interested me, and which will hopefully do the same for you. So in no special order we have …

Are There Fundamental Laws of Cooking? Wired reports on research into how flavours and ingredients relate to each other and whether there are combinations of flavours with work in doublets but not in triplets.

According to meta-studies by researcher Peter Gøtzsche breast cancer screening cannot be justified and actually overall does more harm than good. Needless to say the medical profession are outraged, although they are coming to realise that the equivalent in men — prostate cancer screening — also does more harm than good.

As announced a week or so ago, here’s the official press release from University of Birmingham on Alice Roberts appointment as Professor of Public Engagement in Science.

Now there’s more science which overturns the accepted beliefs. Research has now shown, apparently definitively, that watching pornography doesn’t cause men to commit rape. (You’ll want to follow the links in this summary item for the fuller story.)

And finally for the scientific research here’s a great article by Rob Dunn, author of The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Our Evolution, which describes how research projects get started and books written all intertwined with bits about how living too clean is actually bad for you.

The Heresy Corner explodes Alain de Botton’s ideas about what makes people atheists. While I don’t have a lot of time for Richard Dawkins’s aggressive approach I do seem to have ended up, philosophically, pretty much where he is albeit via a different route.

Following on from last week’s pictures of amazing libraries here are some equally stunning pictures of tunnels.

And finally Ian Visits reports on a relatively infrequent, but very ancient London event: the Ceremony of the Constable’s Dues.

Enjoy!

personal, pleasures

Reasons to be Grateful: 11

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Experiment, week 11. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

  1. Hypnotherapy. I’ve been having hypnotherapy now for a year or 18 months in an effort to shift the problems underlying my depression and weight. It’s been an interesting voyage. We haven’t yet fixed the problems yet, but Chris (who has also been my osteopath for the last 25+ years) and I remain hopeful. But I’m clearly his challenge case. While I can be hypnotised I don’t respond easily because my brain is so controlling and analytical it sees through whatever is being done, knows what’s coming next, keeps monitoring everything and thus never allows itself to properly dissociate the conscious and subconscious. But we’re making progress; techniques are being found to confuse my brain into submission; and I’ve discovered quite a lot of interesting stuff along the way. Besides it’s an interesting experience as well as very relaxing.

  2. Haggis. Last Wednesday (25 January) was Burns’ Night when, in homage to our Scots ancestry (Noreen’s actual; mine a family myth never proven) we always have the traditional haggis. So many people don’t like (the thought of) haggis. We love it. It is really only a variation on sausage but made from bits of sheep rather than bits of pig. OK, yes, they’re offal-ly bits but then so has a lot of sausage always been. It’s tasty, filling and good comfort food for the depths of winter. When I was a student in York the nearest fish and chip shop to the university campus used to do deep-fried battered haggis (small sausage-sized ones) which was brilliant with chips on a cold winter night after a few pints.
  3. Jubilate Agno. A chunk of blogging last week centred around the literature we studied at school (see here and here): thoughts prompted by Katyboo. This brought back to me Christopher Smart‘s Jubilate Agno which I have loved ever since we first sang Benjamin Britten’s setting when in the school choir. It’s quite long and, in amongst a host of strange religious themes, word- and rhyme-play etc., contains a homage to his cat Jeoffry. It was written in the 1750s/60s when Smart was confined to a mad house with religious mania.

    For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
    For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.
    For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
    For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
    …
    For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.
    For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
    For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger.
    For he has the subtlety and hissing of a serpent, which in goodness he suppresses.
    For he will not do destruction if he is well-fed, neither will he spit without provocation.
    For he purrs in thankfulness when God tells him he’s a good Cat.
    For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.
    For every house is incomplete without him, and a blessing is lacking in the spirit.

  4. Crocuses. I noticed today that we have the first few crocuses in flower, and the cyclamen down under the fruit bushes has been out for a week or two. While it is a bit early for crocuses — so they may be very confused Autumn Crocuses — it is surely a sign that Spring is on the way.
  5. Katy. Our blogging friend Katy escaped from her tribe of urchins for a weekend’s downtime in London. It was lovely to be able to give her a bed for the night and share a leisurely Saturday evening and Sunday morning of real live chat, food, wine and coffee. Katy is always delightful company!
personal

Listography: Websites

6 Comments

For this week’s Listography Kate is asking us to tell our five most commonly used websites — like the ones that appear at the top of our bookmark list or similar.

As I do pretty much everything I can online these days I use a huge range of sites from Google through news providers to banks. So, with the exception of this blog, here are my five:

  1. Google Reader. This is my homepage because the only way I can keep track of the range of blogs, news sites, Flickr groups etc. I want to see regularly is to subscribe via an RSS feed.

  2. Facebook. Although I’m not very active it’s worth it for keeping in touch with family, friends, acquaintances, former colleagues, etc.

  3. Flickr. All my decent photographs get stored here. And because I’m interested in photography I follow quite a number of people and groups on Flickr. The problem si that there is just too much stuff here to follow properly, which is why I use Google Reader to see the stuff which is of highest interest.

  4. Anthony Powell Society. If you like this is my work site as I’m the Society’s Hon. Secretary.

  5. Amazon UK. These days I shop almost exclusively online and Amazon is my first stop shop — quickly followed by eBay. If you order from Amazon through the link on the right it helps the Anthony Powell Society.

I’ve not looked but I’ll be surprised if between all of us we don’t come up with a very common set of about ten, with a few outliers. Does anyone out there really do anything much different?