Alley Cat, winter clad dogs and V&A treasures!

Hello! There was a lot of rain last night, then the sun turned up at dawn and now back to more rain. I'll have to brave it! Googled 'Lanzarote beaches' to feast the eyes before facing all the grey hues (not referring to Mr Grey!!!!) and wetness. Tonight's dreams took me on a several-day trip with my college students. Lots of travelling, by coach, plane and boat! Hiking, sightseeing, long campfire evenings....

The evening has turned into the night and I'm relaxing after a busy day with a surprise lunch invitation from a friend to while working in South Ken, lots of picture taking at The V&A, when the free evening concert didn't please my ears and a chat about funky rock and old vinyls with a young man who let me photograph this album cover:

Now I'm listening to You tube 'Alley Cat', would it be the one????

To keep the balance right, let me add  a snap of 'exceptionally elegant, winter clad dogs'!

There was some shy sunshine around lunchtime and I had to 'immortalise' the rare moment:

I didn't have the time to inspect the contents of the black box, it could have been a candle or soap, but looked pretty to me when put next to a flower-shape purse

 After 6 pm I wandered into the darkness and made my way to The V&A!
Natural History Museum was in its usual Christmas galore, with the lights on, ice rink and merry-go-round.

I was going to remember something about this cute bird. Regretfully, I don't. Well, maybe you'd like to know that I had a pet hen when I was little.

A contemporary artist used most distinguishing chair designs from the V&A collection to create this bench. What can you notice about the chairs' 'tops' and 'bottoms'? :-)

 Frank Lloyd Wright's office chair had to be included in my collection. There was no other option after I visited his house and studio in Oak Park, Chicago. I went to Oak Park a few times, actually. Once, my sister-in law was giving me a lift and as she started the car, the take away tea landed on my lap. Another time, I was biking with a friend and braked at the traffic lights so abruptly, that I nearly jumped ahead of the bike...

You can rotate in this chair, if you like:

 THat's an ornament on a wardrobe from Austria.

 And that's the ice rink across the street. It only got much busier a good hour later:

The ice rink was photographed through the window in the china gallery:

Chairs from Orkney:

The S-chair impressed me:

 The blue 'chair' is called  'tutti frutti', fancy that!:-)

Surrealism inspired wardrobe:

There was no throne to much this stool on display:

However, I snapped two thrones in the Chinese section:

And, when on the throne topic, if you are in Richmond and go to look at what little is left of the royal residence, Richmond Palace, there, by the Green, you may like to remember the fact that Queen Elisabeth I had the first water closet installed there. It was designed by Sir John Harington (1561–1612). He ' published A New Discourse of a Stale Subject, Called the Metamorphosis of Ajax, describing a forerunner to the modern flush toilet installed at his house at Kelston.^[7] The design had a flush valve to let water out of the tank, and a wash-down design to empty the bowl. He installed one for his godmother Queen Elizabeth I at Richmond Palace, although she refused to use it because it made too much noise.^{[citation needed]} The Ajax was not taken up on a wide scale in England, but was adopted in France under the name Angrez.', according to Wikipedia.:-)

Sleepy I am!

Good night!:-)

Santa Claus morning!

I can't say I'm most alert yet. Anyway, GOOD MORNING, WORLD! It was so jolly nice to wake up and find Santa's presents near or under the pillow when I was a child...

'Martyrdom of St Cecilia' was my discovery on Thursday:

In a nutshell: it was made in India for a Mogul during some Jesuit mission.

As to Saint Cecilia herself, she is the patroness of musicians and church music, because, as she was dying, she sang to God; the legend has it. I remember a beautiful stained glass window depicting her in a Chicago church, south of Downtown. The pictures I took then got lost in 2004 or 5, along with my stolen computer. I still have memories.


:-)

Snow was here at night

I could still see tiny bits of snow melt on the garden wall this morning. I think it was snow, anyway. Must dash now!
Till later! :-)

Later has come!
It's 8 pm, very cold, I'm back home, less hungry after some hot Thai style soup and determined to write about my today's encounters in Turnham Green.

There was another Chinese lady from Beijing, buying a suit for her son who felt really embarrassed because chatting to me, she didn't notice that I put both pieces of the suit into the bag and wanted to grab another black garment from the till. She kept apologising, but in the end we both laughed at it.

Two young women were trying on a lot of garments and finally bought a few. They turned out to be from Israel, one of them studying here in London, the other visiting her, I believe. That one told me she and her family originally were from somewhere in Russia, then lived for a time in Moldova before making it to Israel. I wish we'd had more time to talk.

Then, there came an elegant and beautiful black lady who, I learnt, always buys vintage clothes and then customises them, as she's known how to make a good use of a needle and thread since her parents taught her when she was 14! How useful! (Mind you! My maternal grandmother was a dressmaker, but I had to steer clear from her magical machine and other equipment, as it had to be in pristine condition. Maybe I should have insisted more... ) We had good fun with this lady when she tried on different clothes delighted with my recommendations. However, her much older husband (she told me that) was getting impatient waiting for her in the car, so she decided to cut the shopping spree short and, promising to come back soon, left with a lovely dress, coat and an embroidered skirt.

Finally, I need to mention the two lovely ladies from Madrid, a mother and daughter. They were looking for a jacket to match a gorgeous evening dress and I managed to help them find the right one, so they left convinced that 'I'm always right' and 'If in doubt, refer to point one.' :-) The mother said next time she would take a trip to London to do the shopping, not just for a visit. The girl is studying Philosophy and came to London on ERASMUS, EU students' exchange programme. I was impressed how well both of them spoke English!

Good night!

It was 21 degrees Celsius in Chicago yesterday, I heard from my sibling. Close to freezing here, in London, but the sky was lovely.
 I'm slowly 'defrosting' with a bowl of hot soup soon to be followed by a coffee. Old coffee from the back of a cupboard has to do, I forgot to buy some. And the letters to post didn't make it to the postbox and are back at home. Again...

Now, I've just read  the news about this year's Turner Prize winner: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/turner-prize-2012-elizabeth-price-spartacus-chetwynd-paul-noble-luke-fowler-095155475.html . I am slightly relieved that it didn't go to the artist who produced a picture of an imaginary town built of... turd. Anyway, there are societies who have had to use any materials available to build their dwellings or make fire. I am not the first to point out, that it's just a matter of convention what we perceive as nice and what as disgusting. As a matter of fact, it's all part of life.I didn't go to see Turner Prize nominees' works at Tate Britain earlier this year, but I must admit, I peered in through the glass door while waiting to see  Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde and noticed the turd townscape from the distance!

Temperature today didn't pamper me, if I may say so, but the blue sky made great background for a few nice snaps around Earl's Court and Ravenscourt Park tube stations.

 The van driver told me the dog usually takes his seat while he is unloading, and that he loves posing for the pictures. Just as well, I love taking them! :-)

 Photographed on a cloudy day, Earl's Court Station would be less appealing, I'm afraid, unlike a wrinkled woman, maybe....

Have I mentioned The Ark Building in Hammersmith? The interior was just awesome, but as it remained unused, they demolished it all and then made ordinary floors like in any other office block. What a shame! The exterior was spared, so you can still see the shape.

 I always enjoy the classical music greeting passengers at Ravenscourt Park Station!

 Kings Street, Hammersmith: a Japanese restaurant lunch box deal:

Sunset as seen from Westbound Platform at Ravenscourt Park Station:

High Wycomb and Hell Fire Caves

Someone I know has just moved to High Wycomb, I just heard over the phone. That prompted great memories of a Sunday out there with friends a few year ago. Those days, most weeks, I used to prepare an itinerary in advance, e-mail it to friends and then set off in a big Land Rover to see and explore whatever we could en route. That day we visited the amazing Hell Fire Caves, a picture postcard village of West Wycomb, Church of St Laurent, where we only looked at the spectacular Golden Ball (it was closed) and The Dashwood Mausoleum. It was a cold day so after the caves we had some hot beverages in the little local cafe. I still remember feeling far from good after consuming something that was served to me as mocha coffee. But that was a minor misfortune in this exciting day. At dusk we stopped in Windsor and had a lot of laugh trying on all sorts of hats at  Edinburgh Woolen Mill shop near the castle.

Before my bedtime let me just add a fruit-eating squirrel (through the window pane, so as not to frighten it):

and the sunset view:

Good night!