il redentore

carnival time ... do go, if you ever get the chance

 

i'm sorry ! this seat is taken

what's a cat to do between fish courses ?

 

venetian design classic

venice's floating bus stops present a unique set of problems to their engineers

the bus stop is designed so that it rises and falls with the tide

every approaching water bus will necessarily collide with it and then be tied up

millions of people use them without falling over or off in all kinds of weather

someone somewhere must be taking good care of an unsung solution to a complicated problem

 

niche habitat opportunists

brighton has had a problem with homelessness for some time, as do all towns around the world

there have been a number of settlements of new age travellers in buses and vans around the city's boundaries for years

i have the impression that new age travellers first multiplied at about the same time that the poll tax was introduced and when people in local and national government tacitly agreed to stop building enough council houses because it was thought that market forces would allow the problem to solve itself

so-called travellers frequently park their glossy fleets of expensive caravans and vehicles on the city's playing fields & brownfield development sites ... this week there is a huge encampment at patcham place by the london road

tents are harder to site because individuals are more vulnerable to harassment and vandalism, but a few have appeared on this little unwanted triangle of pebble beach next to the marina

it can't be much fun living in a tent

is this a symptom of this government's inability to deal fairly with the poor ?

perhaps being new labour isn't the same thing as being a socialist

southern hawker ... r.i.p.

 

firewood

someone has been stockpiling treetrunks on the quay at shoreham harbour next to the new gas fired power station

you can see only about half the length of the pile in this picture

perhaps they are expecting to run out of gas

 

current reading material, long delayed

it is better than tristram shandy ! no, really !

i wish i'd read it years ago

i might be a couple of chapters further on by now but i couldn't get comfortable on that iron bench by the river in wandsworth park ... why can't they make one in my size ?




lionel trilling & nabokov on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldpj_5JNFoA

helpful notes from the culpeper memorial at goudhurst

 

the culpeper memorial at goudhurst, second visit

 

sir thos culpepr & ladye,

 

the culpeper girls at prayer

 

the culpeper boys at prayer

 

william campion esq at goudhurst church

 

chunky headstones in goudhurst church yard

 

the old lime house at goudhurst

 

cheese smugglers approaching brighton

 

the view from the h&b office window

 

arundel castle

i'll need to walk across the fields for a decent view

 

low-tec bike rack at bailffscourt hotel, climping

 

noisy resident at bailiffs court hotel, climping

 

ugly minds equals ugly football

wayne might profitably spend the next month doing some yoga and getting his ears fixed

i doubt if much can be done for his delusions ... he's seen the video and he's innocent ... ok ?

plane, privet & lime trees in flower

these perfumes thicken the air around our place ... i love them all, but it's a desperate time for anyone with hay-fever ... the scent of a flowering plane tree is very like mimosa

battersea dogs and cats

having slept through the alarm, whilst dreaming about long journeys, i happened to pass this wall just as the sun was playing tricks with my eyes ...

 

the real slim shady, here's one i doodled about twelve years ago ...

... its been gathering dust ever since !

 

a stripey corner at the new residence

 

on being reasonable ... one from the archives

upon re-reading a letter written at the time, I recall that on Christmas morning 2004, our first conversation was on the subject of territorial rights.

In answer to a complaint, & with only one eye open, I declared that because I am one & a half times bigger than The Loved One, then I am logically entitled to occupy three-fifths of the bed.

Furthering this watertight argument, I made the point that the golden rule of etiquette in unequal relationships is never to disagree with anyone who imagines they are being logical.

With your own innate clarity of reason, I feel confident that you will agree with everything that I have said & that I can count upon your support, should it become necessary for you to take sides !

the emotional blackmailer's cognitive behavioural therapy

stand before a mirror, preferably a full length one elaborately framed in gilded carvings, as you might find in any rococco palace

contort your face in to a grotesque expression of wounded petulance, with body-language to match

pitch the voice in a throaty kind of self-pitying whinge that fills the world with your disappointment & rattles the window panes

and say loudly after me ...

"i've got NOTHING to complain about !"

fire insurance plaque in rottingdean high street

 

purple stuff below rodean