Thinking of spring

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

Don’t get me wrong - it’s definitely still winter. But we’re thinking of spring. Snowdrops and irises are blooming on our little terrace and in several window boxes. The first daffodils are poking through the ivy, and there's even a precocious crocus defiantly claiming its moment in the sun. The days are noticeably longer (for example it's 5pm as I write this, and the sky is illuminated). People are beginning to emerge into the clear light, and this past Saturday the Portobello Road market had a kind of downturn-be-damned brightness. A bit chilly, though I expect it’ll warm up soon enough.

Look, Ma, no hands!

Wow! Check out the little Flickr slideshow thingie over there in the right-hand column. Now I don’t even have to choose photos and think of things to write about them. Instead, I guess I can just write. Maybe that will be easier. Also new in the right-hand column is a list of Blogs. It’s not like the list of Blogs I had before, which was just a plain old list of links, but now contains the titles of recent posts. Neat-o!

So now I guess I can just blab about stuff that’s going on over here. Like we went to Jane’s for Sunday roast last week. Um... It’s really hot in London right now (poor Olive is slinking around the house looking for breezes to flop in)... Last night we went to see The Dark Knight, which was beautiful and fun and Heath Ledger’s performance was fantastic. We’re not going to Lisbon this week/end. And stuff like that.

We’ll see how this goes. I’m also in the process of setting up another Blog. It will either be called “spatialist” or “social designer” and it’s going to be for writing about urban-type stuff. So stay tuned. I might even get the first installment, about London’s council estate maps, written today!

Stay tuned...

A Sunday stroll

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

I know, I know... not enough blog posts... bla, bla, bla...

Here’s a bit of weather-talk (and yesterday’s news): it snowed on Easter! Well, Easter Monday (which is a “bank holiday” here - making Easter a four-day weekend). One possible reason is that Easter came early this year, although in general it has been a particularly cold spring. Last spring was very pleasant but wound up leading to an awful summer. I’m hoping that the chilliness so far is a harbinger of warmth to come. Keeping fingers crossed. Knocking on wood. And stuff.

The wetness gave way to a nice Sunday this past weekend. I had agreed to a last-minute shift swap at The Food Chain, so I was down by Hammersmith Bridge in the afternoon. Steven & Chris came to meet me and we strolled along the Thames. Instead of heading west towards Chiswick, we headed east towards Putney. This proved to be a culinary mistake, as there are few decent lunch options by the river in Fulham (if anybody has information to the contrary, please let me know!). While River Cafe make tasty grub, it comes at a very steep price. We wound up at a pub called the Crabtree Tavern, and although what food they had was fine, the whole experience was bad to the point of tragi-comedy.

Anyhow, after lunch we continued through Bishops Park and over Putney Bridge. The sky was very beautiful, reflecting in the river and all. Try looking at this picture upside down!

It’s my party...

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

Snapped this one outside the gym yesterday (my actual birthday)... 

Last night Steven & I went to dinner at Texture (everything was very textural). We thought of opening a whole series of restaurants: Flavor, Color, Temperature - the list could go on and on. The meal started out with some crispy skins (cod, potato, parmesan - I’m not sure whether parmesan has skin) and two dipping sauces: wasabi somethingorother and “Bali” yoghurt. It took a few minutes to figure out that “Bali” is antipodean for “barley,” thus explaining the lumpy chewy bits. Then there was some bacon popcorn - yum! Next came a tiny glass pot with parsnip and granny smith apple stuff. Steven had Scottish scallops and I had Cornish crab as a starter (ooh - more restaurant ideas: Name, Alliteration, Spelling). Our main courses were roast suckling pig with squid and other fishy things for Steven and Icelandic lamb with fregola and beetroot for me. Then came tiny glass pots again, this time filled with blood orange textures (fruit, jelly and granita). For dessert I had warm chocolate goop with olive oil, cardamom ice cream and a sculptural fennel sugar spike, and Steven had coconut textures (um, ice cream, something else, another thing, more stuff, and a mini metal toothpaste tube filled with coconut sauce for squirting everywhere).

Today I’m baking bread as prescribed by some old codger, going to the gym, waiting for a delivery of cupcakes from Cookie Girl, then heading over to The Fat Badger to eat one and stare at the rest, since everybody was busy this weekend, the weather’s crap, and the Hammersmith & City line is closed for track replacement.

TreeQuest ‘07

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

Any of you (Maggie, Suzette, Lauren?) who’ve experienced the joys of prior TreeQuests will appreciate what a special experience the first reconnaissance outing in a foreign country must have been... I won’t go into too much detail here...
Suffice to say that this picture is false advertising. Sure, it’s charming as heck, but this was just the first stop, and, well, let’s just say that the gloom and cold rain matched the mood of certain members of our party (ok, member). Chris, our driver, had mistakenly passed the closer place (the one that didn’t pre-net their trees) - but we tried to put on a good face and say we really wanted to see the reindeer, the bull, the pigs, the chickens, the medieval abbey ruin, the pretty Gothic farm buildings, and stuff.
Since we had already traveled so far, we decided that instead of dropping Steven at the Farnham train station (at his request, don’t ask), we would proceed to Alice Holt Woodland Park (under darkening skies). WHEW! Thank goodness! Supposedly it’s a very pleasant park with scenic walks and things, but most importantly, we found ourselves deciding between three equally lovely specimens, any of which would have made the perfect Christmas tree.
Note to expats: bring your own rope or bungee cord - they don’t help you here.
Or get your friend to borrow the scuba school Jeep (another disaster narrowly averted - thanks again, Chris!).
After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. We stopped for a lovely cuppa with Jane, David and Charlie. Much to David’s chagrin, Chris mesmerized Charlie by getting 99 points playing Bopit (Chris also happens to know that Bopit only counts up to 250).
The tree is now up and mostly trimmed. Stay tuned for pics.

Blue skies

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

And & Chand are visiting from SF this week. As seems to be the case lately, London has produced a succession of ever more lovely days with which to impress our foreign guests. I'm quite certain that as soon as they depart it’ll turn miserably cold, gray and wet.

After another fine repast at the Fat Badger last night, we retired to our living room for postprandial drinks. Steven & Andrew enjoyed what were perhaps the last of our Alka-Tinis. But then I have no idea whether they even sell Alka-Seltzer over here. Or if they have all the flavors...

This evening I may join the fellas for a site tour of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (which should really be called St. Martin-in-Trafalgar-Square, but the locals are funny about naming stuff). It’s due to reopen to the public on September 30th, so this will really be a sneak-peek preview!

SNOW DAY

Originally uploaded by sf2london.

This is probably it for 2007. At least poor Olive got to experience a bit of winter magic before I trundled her off to the vet for her little snip-snip this morning.

Kansas-Schmansas

Supposedly there are 30-some-odd tornadoes in the UK every year. Today’s was just a few blocks north of where we live, and was considered a “freak” occurrence because it actually caused serious damage. I didn’t see the funnel myself, but the sky did turn that weird shade of green, there was plenty of thunder & lightning, and our skylights & container garden were pelted with pea-sized hail stones, causing Olive much distress.

Back to normal

Well, at least for the time-being. The weather has turned weathery again. Today it was hot, cold, muggy, drizzly, grey, sunny, blustery, calm, and rainy. I went out to get some milk & juice (had to go all the way to Notting Hill Gate to the M&S Simply Food because it's Sunday and all the closer Sainsburys and Tescos close between 4 & 6). Then—because we needed window cleaner and ironing water—I walked to the Holland Park Tesco Express, which is open 'til 11 every day (that neighborhood is full of people who are used to convenience: Americans with generous expat packages). It was a crap shoot as to whether they'd have what I needed and I lost. Then, waiting for the bus back to Notting Hill Gate, I was caught in a torrential downpour. Holland Park Avenue turned into class 5 whitewater rapids. I switched from the 148 to the 52 and rescued a French family who are spending 2 weeks on our street at number 70. They got here three days ago and know how to walk here, but not where to get off the bus (because where are road connects to the main bus route it's not called Golborne, but Chesterton). An artist, a journalist, and their youngest daughter house-swapping for their place in the south of France.

30º

Sounds cute & quaint, doesn't it? But let me tell ya -- these folks over here aren't used to thirty degree weather. Pottery Lane is behind (and next to -- this is London) our block of Penzance Place, and last night tempers were flaring. Seemed to have a different effect on us, though...

This morning we went to Negozio Classica for the most fabulous cappuccino (or macchiatto or whatever) in London, but the machine was broken. So we walked up to Tea's Me near the Ladbroke Grove tube station, where we hopped on the Hammersmith & City (pink) line to Moorgate.

View from the train

We were heading to White Cube, and while Old Street is actually a closer station, it's more of a pain to transfer than to walk a few extra blocks. Realizing that it was probably too early for the gallery to be open, we wandered around. Wandered into the Geffrye Museum. Wandered past this place:

See the face?

Then somehow it was 2:00 so we had lunch.

White Cube from our table

The show was Tracey Emin and Steven thought it was going to be annoying, but it was actually very beautiful. Beautiful art about challenging subject matter is so NOW!

Then we decided to go to the Barbican CentRE to see the ColoUr after Klein show. On the way we passed through Bunhill Fields cemetery (where William Blake is buried) and saw these two squirrels:

Two squirrels
No, really!

The Barbican itself is like the love child of Lincoln Center, Embarcadero Center, Logan's Run, Boston City Call, and I don't know what else...

From Barbican tube platform
Three 45-floor towers
Maze of "skywalks"
Black cat in stairwell
Inside the fortress
Bird-feeding grannie...
... in THERE!
Skywalk sight (London Wall!)

Anyhow, on my way home I had to record this:

Homage to Keira

And for those of you who haven't seen it, home is the top two floors of this blue house:

Our "flat"

Back in Londre

You may have noticed a gap in the Paris posts. That's 'cuz my phone battery went inexplicably dead, and since I couldn't think of anything to SAY, no pics meant no posts... For all you folk back in SF, rest easy: Bay Area food is better. And the citizens are nicer (if only superficially so). But Paris sure does have that certain je ne c'est quois. I think it's mostly about pretty vistas and incredible shopping. And honeyed slow-roasted apricots in olive oil with rosemary and vanilla ice cream. I swear to god. Try it! Apparently you've also been checking the weather reports. It's like THIRTY DEGREES!!! (I have to get used to that sounding hot, since for all their inches and ounces and pints, the Brits are totally metric when it comes to weather).