on friday, despite the devious machinations of my evil manager, i escaped in to the city before sunset

116 pall mall, the institute of directors

chatham house in saint james square

gas light in trevor square

omni omnibus ubique

approaching the VandA from harrods

sir gilbert scott and dale chihuly at the VandA

valentine's day ... and she remembered my star sign !

and so on and so forth

not my photo of rip cronk's famous mural ... but, in an ideal world ...

... the getty foundation would step in and move it up the hill from venice beach in to their nice little museum

tandridge churchyard

lovely wooden carriages at horsted keynes

first class at horsted keynes

third class at horsted keynes

cuckfield ... assorted signage

here's a book i love ...

centuripe and gangi

last year, as we flew away from catania across sicily, i was intrigued by the distinctive "site-specific" layouts of two hill-top towns

i tentatively photographed them through the triple-glazing

yesterday afternoon i spent a long time using google earth to scan that rugged terrain and eventually was able to identify them as ...

centuripe
























and gangi

i looked up and there she was ... gliding with an accompaniment of unnecessary birdsong

cardamom, fenugreek, fennel

i took the lid off each jar in turn to breathe in their magnificent aromas

i wondered what it might have been like to explore one of the great spice warehouses by moonlight, perhaps opening different rooms and only guessing at their contents

we forget that the spice trade was once a driving force of the world's economy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice_trade

plusiers apropos de nuffink, as we say at the back of the class

at the houses of parliament

rodin's burghers of calais, again

painted memorials to nicholas and margarett gainsford at crowhurst in surrey

john gainsford and his doggy, crowhurst church in surrey

the yew tree in the churchyard at crowhurst, surrey

the last of the few in london road, reigate

what we are not

most days i like to peek in to gatochy's blog ... she provides a great resource for image seekers, the blog is full of fun and ideas, and some serious stuff

today she gave some thought to hal, the computer in kubrick's 2001, a space oddysey

http://gatochy.blogspot.com/2008/02/favorite-movie-scenes-79.html

i have two disconnected thoughts to add ...

first, that like a lot of great art, 2001 tells us quite a lot about what we are ... by depicting what we are not

second, in retrospect, hal's voice sounds rather camp to me, which is probably something that kubrick was aware of

"I'll be President of Europe if you give me the power" - Blair

... if you thought starting a catastrophic war "in good faith" looks good on his c.v. ... then why not ?

senior management