Buildings as poetry

This is the front of the new theater at the bay, enscribed on the front is a piece of a poem in Welsh and English "In these stones horizons sing." The other sides are all Welsh slate. Its stunning building.

I couldn't get a decent picture of the Assembly BUilding, you'll just have to go there.

The Rugby was good

The Millennium Stadium was good but not as full as I had hoped, therefore the singing was not as loud as I had hoped. But the rugby was really good, despite Wales' loss the the Frogs. Those boys sure are big and there's not a lot of padding to make them big. I was surprised to see that they really did look like the cartoons drawn of rugby players that I had been seeing since I was a kid. Barely a nose was shaped as Sebastian Chabal, who has this flowing black hair a a big beard. When he's running down the field his hair flows out behind him, he really does look like a cave man.

Now I'm going to follw the Rugby World cup!

Yes, that is a goat...

and next to him is the Goat Major, sorry the picture is so fuzzy. I'm not sure I completely understand it but as I read in teh castle the Welsh regiment use a goat as its mascot because a baby goat (a kid) woke up a sentry guard during the Crimean War, who alerted the troops and thus thwarted some incursion. Why they have given the goat those gilded horns was not recorded. I'm sure some of my more tuned in Welsh readers can give us more scoop on the goat.

There is a friendly pub called The Goat Major not far from the stadium, to which I retired after the game for a well deserved beer. Funny people, the Welsh.

Cardiff Bay

Very behind in my blogging so sorry. My visit to Cardiff for last sunmmer Bank holiday was very fun. I staid at a lovely hotel on the Cardiff Bay which has changed a great deal. They've built a barrier which keep the bay's huge tidal reach in check so the water no longer drops down to the mud twice a day which make the bay a lovely new site for all sorts of things like my hotel - the St. David.

This is a picture from my balcony (each room has one) on Saturday evening. The weather was lovely, they knew how to pronouce my name and I didn't have to spell it when I checked in -- remarkable!

St. David Hotel on Bay

from this picture you can see how the hotel flaots above the bay sort of like a ship, I guess that's why they gave it sails. On th eother side there is a wonderful wetlands board walk so you can better see the land/bay connection.

Norwegian Church and other bay sights

This is a view from the bay walk across the bay. The Norwegian church is a hold over from when the port of Cardiff was a working port (technically there still is some shipping) full of seamen from all over. Its now an arts centre and has a lovely place for lunch. The ferris wheel may have just been there for the Bank holiday weekend festival or it may be permenent, who knows. The ship in the foreground is a historic sailing ship that takes tourists out for cruises. It had some very popular pirates wandering around teh Bay festival while I was there.

Cyclists Dismount

This sign just made me laugh, mostly becaus eall signs were in Englsih and Welsh and the Welsh is so impenetrable - sort of like my name I guess.

Bank holiday news

This weekend is http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifthe summer Bank Holiday. I still find it funny that they call these days off Bank Holidays, why is that any better or worse/funnier than Memorial or Labor Day? Anyway, boils down to another day off.

So I'm taking advantage by hiving off to the land of my parents. That's right after 10 months I'm finally going to Wales. Got an ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifnvite to attend the Wales v. France Rugby Union match in the famed Millennium Stadium. It may only be famous to me, come to think of it. This is why its famous - in 1999 I was toiling away in Atlanta for Deloitte & Touche. My New Zealand aunt and uncle, who among others stayed with me for the 1996 Olympics, were on another round the world trip and visiting their homeland. My Uncle sent the family an email description of being in the new stadium for a rugby world cup game and how amazing it was to hear all those people singing. So that's why the stadium is famous and that's why I'm looking forward to going.

There is also the rest of the city (lots of regeneration to take pictures of) and the rugby - but really its really the singing.

My first celebrity sighting

OK, I was just reviewing my last posts and realised I need to inject a little humanity and humour into the blog. So here goes, on Sunday I had my first celebrity sighting (is that the correct way to spell siting/citing? must be, with a "C" I would be referring to it, right? update - thanks Marcia, OF COURSE its sighting - duh!) I digress, I live in a very posh neighborhood - well beyond my means (its an apartment that belongs to a friend, thanks, Virg). When I tell folks where I live they usually make some sort of comment about the neighborhood. Usually followed by, "have you ever seen any celebrities?"

Now there is two things wrong with that question 1) I don't know many British celebrities because they have many different ones than Americans do, so I'm only just beginning to catch on and 2) I'm mostly not looking for celebrities so even if I knew them I probably wouldn't realise they were celebs until much later.

However, dear reader, on Sunday I actually twigged to a celeb siting in real time! It was in a book store, I was down on my hands and knees trying to find a copy of Raymond Chandler's "The Long Goodbye" since I had been previously thwarted in my attempt to purchase the new Peter L. Bernstein book, "Capital Ideas Evolved" - not out in UK yet - drat you John Wiley and Sons. See how erudite I am? But the point is I'm groveling on the floor in the Waterstone's, when I hear a voice I recognise. Odd, I think to myself, I'm in a country where I know almost no one and I recognise a voice? So of course I squirm around to see who it is and its Russel Brand, easily recognisable because he has a giant bird's nest of hair and is dressed all in black.

Those of you who are regular readers (or who cleverly followed the link), know that Mr. Brand is a comedian who I wrote about in January because he was seriously over exposed and I was fascinated - so its funny that I would have this celeb encounter.

OK, so encounter is kind of a big word for realising I knew the voice, turning around and recognising him, catching his eye, then turning away in embarrassment. Why embarrassment? I have no idea, I guess I thought he should be able to do his book shopping in peace and I was bordering on gawking. So I left him to his shopping took my book to the counter, paid and took it home - celeb sighting over.

BTW, the Raymond Chandler book rocks.

Friday night at Tate Modern Urbanity exhibition

What can I say? I spent a Friday night looking at MORE city planning stuff. This exhibition called Global Cities is in the huge power hall. Some of us went after work. The exhibit was really good, nothing really new but interesting to see the kind of research you do laid out in an exhibit.

The part I was most taken with was the modeling of the population relative to the size of a city - giant sculptures that reflected the population density as peaks. The photos curated to support the exhibition where also interesting. The pace of change is not something I don't know about (double negative) but when its graphically portrayed for each of the five cities its quite shocking.

Best of all, because it was at the Tate you can site down at the bar and discuss with the friends you came with.

Bad infill

Back in London wandering around, this time I'm headed down from my flat to the Primrose Hill area and strolling along I saw this!

I'm not sure where to begin, on the one hand it looks like some one took the roof off and added a cube in the middle and poked a giant window in the middle. Then to try and make it look more - I don't know.. British?? - they added a window treatment that makes your eyes water, can you see it? Look at the shape at the top of the upper window - sort of a modified regency thingy perhaps from the inside it seems like a good idea...

Unfortunately I believe the owner or a visitor to the home saw me talking a picture and I had to skedaddle, otherwise I would have tried for more angles. and whats' up with that colour? I am going to assume its faded and was not chosen that way.

Same neighborhood, part of the door collection

Keep walking, take a left and there is an amazing street of row houses with very similar fronts but each door is slightly different - different colours, brick patterns, stained glass, flower boxes etc. This was my favorite on the street. Wish I could have showed you the street it was very interesting seeing all the difference which some how remained the same.

Couldn't help myself, here's another door on that street. Note that it is EXACTLY the same door - bricks painted and door stripped. May be I need to go back and look at those doors again, perhaps its all paint and mirrors...

Inside of Billings, Montana

I was in Billings for a meeting of people who manage downtown cores. Its always interesting to see the different scales of "downtowns." As you can imagine Billings has a fairly small downtown. Interestingly they created a plan for keeping it going, you know focusing on the historic architecture - lots of small older hotels being re-purposed into antique shops, restaurants and bars. But the streets were HUGE - must have been 75 feet across. Parking on both sides (also enormous parking decks everywhere) and many in the downtown were one-way pairs. I almost stopped in the middle of the street and took a picture just to show how huge-ly wide they were. Built for the entire state of Montana (under a million) to drive through each in their own huge truck and you still probably wouldn't fill those roads.

It has a lot of the same terrible inflictions as other big sprawling Midwestern towns and railroad towns I've been in. The scale is completely blown by about two or three high-rise (really mid-rise) 70s and 80's buildings. In this case it was a bank and a conference hotel. In that same area there was a beautifully restored full block six or seven story brick building probably built in the 20s. Which may have had slightly less SF than the "towers" but were so much better for the town. Interesting juxtaposition; plus the building had a fabulous restaurant - I thought for a moment I was in San Francisco. Guess there are a lot of rich folk who own ranches in Montana and they have to go out to eat somewhere.

Anyway the other interesting thing about Billings was this white sail-like thing which covers their 100% intersection. Looks like it was designed in the 1990's for the inside of a mall. But it defines that area of town and they have Friday night music under it, a farmers market under it on Saturday mornings. Obviously with the size of their streets, re routing traffic is not really an issue so closing down that intersection doesn't affect traffic flow. Interesting idea to create "place." Don't know that I would suggest it for anywhere else but they seem to be fond of it. Apparently, the wings on the thing contract in the winter and the site of the guys moving it is really something to see.

One other thing about this 100% corner is another older building undergoing condo conversion. Selling price are about $185 per square foot. Hard to imagine you could restore and construct for that but then again I'm looking at 500-1000 Great British Pounds sales price in London these days so everything in the US - especially Montana seems cheap to me.

Outside of Billings, Montana

This is the site of the Little Big Horn battlefield outside of Billings in Montana. This trip to the US was a long strange journey involving six separate plane flights! Anyway the battlefield tour was a side trip for another meeting. I didn't really see the point of a battlefield tour, until I heard the story from the National Park Service guide. He put it all in perspective. The Battle, AKA "Custer's Last Stand," was a turning point in US history, because it was a victory for the Indians, who then lost the bigger battle for the right to travel away from the newly created reservation. It came to take up such a large part in the American Psyche because news of the battle reached the eastern US on the same week as the Centenary celebration in 1876. Imagine the stir that must have caused.

The battlefield itself, was stark and rolling hills with markers where the American Army men fell. The interesting bit is the second picture, which is the VERY recent monument to the Indian dead. Once I figured out the story, this memorial became even more moving. You enter a circular space, with the stories of the Indian tribes on the walls and one side of the circle is open (away from the monuments of the US Army) and this sculpture is silhouetted against the rolling hills.

Perhaps its because of the current war, but this set of dueling memorials really made me think about what we do to each other. I bet both sides thought they were righteous.

Cubbies in the sunshine

Had a quick-ish trip through the US in July (gotta get quicker at uploading this stuff) that included beautiful Chicago. It was a lovely lovely couple of days - clear blue sky, not too hot and relatively painless meeting followed by my friends Jeremy and Shira's guest room..

Guess what? The guest room came with season tickets to the cubs game. Shira had to work all day so I got her seat. As you can see it wasn't half bad. It was an amazing day.

Got to see all kinds of only in Chicago things. Including the following...

So Chicago

This is such an emblamatic Chicago street scene. I know its not the flowered up shopping drag but its an inner suburb on the north side near Wrigley Field. Note the muscular brick buildings, the encroaching elevated rail, the folks just walking around and the size of the streets. For some reason I usually see Chicago in the winter or I'm in town for business so I don't get in to the neighborhoods. They are really remarkable - lots of corner bars, newish shops and folks walking around.

Push button

I was really taken with the SIZE of these signs instructing you on how to use the signals in Chicago; they must be about 16 inches tall. The first word is "Push" it is obscured on this one. If a sign can yell at you these certainly do. May be pedestrians in Chicago are just more aggressive than elsewhere and need to be kept in line - graphically.

Old school score keeping

No jumbotron for Wrigley Field! It looks like they actually have guys who turn over the scores behind the green score board. But even better, they also keep you up to date on the scrore of other major league baseball scores - National League on the left, American League on the right.

No sky boxes, either

I'm not sure how they do it but the Cubs don't have sky boxes at Wrigley, either. These are houses across the street from the stadium and their roofs overlook the field. Apparently for years they just over looked the field but then people started building up the structures and stands and the team ownership threatened to build a big wall unless they got a cut of the action, so now those houses all have giant super structure stands on top of them. One even has a rooftop painted with the Budweiser logo.

I'm trying to imaging the zoning hearings that it took to get these things approved.

Film school in San Fran

Ah, my buddies at 900 Tennessee sent me this lovely picture of summertime funny in SF. Our old factory building would get together and BBQ (mainly vegetarian) stuff; then watch a film projected on the side of the building. No such building camaraderie yet here in leafy North London, plus I guess the bricks my current apartment (flat) would make Citizen Kane look funny.

Also please note how flippin' cold it is there in the City by the Bay - so cold they all have to hold dogs on their laps to keep warm!

Best use of overpass

I cannot tell a lie, This is NOT London. I found this picture while I was cleaning out my hard drive on a long plane flight. I took it in Curacao last year.

Its very hot in the Netherlands Antilles and I thought this was an ingenious use of an ugly overpass. If you look very closely peering under the bridge, you will see an orange-y coloured building tucked in the shade. That building is restaurant/club. Oddly, given that it was in the dark it was such a relief to be out of the sun that people fled to the place and had a beer and relaxed.

I haven't seen many successful uses for the darkness under an elevated road - I hear there is a great skate park in Oakland - but I recommend this as a great use for that space.

Pub in Diamond District

OK, so I'm not up to pub-a-day levels but I am still very interested in pub life in London. This is one of the pubs in the neighbourhood where I work, which is in Hatton Garden, the diamond district of London. I love that it has such a play on names: Deux Beers and De Beers - get it?

I wanna Brompton

Here are some pictures of the DE-luxe folding bike I am considering buying, a Brompton. Above is me peddling -- note how jaunty and happy I look. Imagine my eyes are open.

The above picture is the bike opened.

here it is with the back wheel folded - from there it collapses to about 1.5 feet square; perfect for flat (apartment)living.

But then again - its a lot of money - maybe I will just wait for my current bike to get stolen then I'l have to get a Brompton!

Ballet Boyz at South Bank

Tonight, unday evening I went to see Ballet Boyz at the South Bank complex.

1) It was my second time at the South Bank Centre, which includes The Royal Festival Hall, The Hayward Gallery, Queen Elizabeth Hall and even more fabulous stuff. Its two year facelift nicely finished before I got here. Now the Royal Festival Hall opens up onto the Thames with a very nice river walk and unbelievable views across the river to the city. I highly approve and next time I will remember to take a camera because these web links don't do it justice.

2) The Ballet Boyz show was really amazing it was a "Gala" which apparently means a conglomeration of different companies each doing a small piece. The Boys themselves were very good as were their guest performers. I forgot how great dance can be - London is certainly full of it. There's an entire venue devoted to it; called Sadler Wells. That's next on the list!

Summer Time!

That means time to "stand around out of doors drinking" here in London. This is a picture of some folks from work headed to a pub; Sarah carefully showing us the way. She's taking ACTing classes so its all about the gesture now.

Will you look at that crowd!? Beautiful Friday evening; work is over and all of London decides to go for a drink. So I decided to take a few more pictures of crowds out side of pubs. This is my tribute to my recent vistors Jen and Bob and their pub a day feature.

Another pub

To the left of the previous pub

Yet another out door pub scene

Just down the hill from the previous pub.

Vacation photos

Can you imagine sailing here?

This is a picture from the 'rents recent sailing trip. There are many more beautiful pictures like this one but this one struck me because the ocean is such an amazing colour of blue, its astonishing. As I mentioned in my last post, the weather has finally shifted here in London and it has not rained all day.

So now, dear readers, I want you to send me links to all your vacations so I can enjoy other holiday the pictures.

Good or Bad Infil?

I know its a less than inspiring picture but its purpose is to show a newer (mid 20C?)brick multi-family home right next to an older (late 19C) brick multifamily dwelling. Both have pretty bad street frontages, i.e. high brick walls smothered with ivy, but at least is fairly uniform - for example the side walk is the same and as you walk in front of the houses basically what you see is the brick fence wall and green top. Really the only difference is the flat roof and the internal steps are clad in glass.

There is a lot of this new v. old in neighbourhoods in London. Perhaps because I'm a pedestrian here I notice it more than in the states. I think its because the city is older and has had reason to replace housing. I admire the fact that they kept the building palette similar (brick and white) and that the size of the buildings are similar. This weekend I'll try and get some more pictures of this infill at different scales, it looks like it will be a nice couple of days - or at least it won't be raining the entire weekend!

Tour de France in London

Amusingly, the Tour de France is starting off in London this year. Actually its a prologue time trial but the city is really getting ready. Between that and the Wimbledon finals, this weekend is all about sports.

The problem is how do I tell my Mum that after all those years silently complaining about the "pop/grunt/pop" of tennis on the TV in the background of my life; I now rush home to see the BBC "Wimbledon Today" program every night at 8. Oh, I guess I can just write about it in my blog...

London Bombs

Woke up yesterday morning to news that a car bomb had been found and defused outside a night club in London's West End. Kind of creepy, weird. Just for the record I was no where near the area where the car bombs were discovered.

By days end it had become obvious that there were 2 bombs and so London really was lucky not to have had serious carnage.

Part of me is obviously clearly NOT thinking about it. I remember visiting London in the 1970s and going to a boat show with family and the show was evacuated because of a bomb or bomb threat. Its just the edge of a memory but now I'm wondering how a city deals with the threat.

Obviously London has been dealing with it for a long time with "the Troubles" -- which how they refer to the whole Irish period of strife. Its odd being an American here because while we shoot each other with alarming frequency, we haven't been that big on blowing each other up. There's something very disturbing about bombs. And how as an American, who is walking around with the baggage of 9/11, supposed to feel when London has decades of internal British strife and the terrible events of July 2005.

After the Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City, I started looking at buildings and vehicles differently. Of course the bombings in the Mideast, Afghanistan, Iraq all make you think about it - but it seems such a disconnected thing to your daily life. Which is odd given the history but there you go.

New parking deck in Perigueux

On Wednesday we went to the local market town to do the shopping. These towns are very interesting because apparently they have reinvested hugely in the older sections of towns spending major money to bring back the old central areas and also introducing close larger floor plate shopping areas and parking. These are pictures of a contemporary park on structure. Its the above ground face of four decks of parking supporting the traditional town center and a fairly newish collection of big box retail. Sounds like it could be horrendous but actually it worked quite well.

We did our weekly food shopping in the market stalls which temporarily take over the refurbished Renaissance and 18th century squares (!!), then wandered around the streets to look at smaller retail shops. I like the idea of this very close but still separate series of spaces in one town.

There was a pretty interesting looking playground (we were there pretty early so not many folks about). Playgrounds seem to be getting much more interesting again. after that horrible plastic period, at least the new ones I've seen look like they are interesting. Funny how for years I never looked at a play ground or jungle gym until I started hanging around them with friends whop are parents and I started noticing how terrible the are. I wasn't really paying attention when I took this picture so sorry for the big pole in th middle.

Perigueux getaway

This is the house I stayed in near Perigueux which is in the Dordogne region, sort of southwest France. The house belongs to a British friend who lives in San Francisco. Her family bought it in the 1970s and have slowly made it habitable - Its VERY habitable now. Lovely Lovely Lovely.

As my friend's husband said, the big effort of the day was moving from the upper terrace, where we've had a lovely breakfast, down to the lower terrace for lunch. Lots of wine and cheese.

My friends have two boys and I'm really trying to ingratiate myself with all of the offsprings of my friends so I will be invited back to family holidays - "We love Sian!" Anyway, we played backgammon, Battleship, carved spears and arrows out of wood, got grossed out by slugs, went swimming in the pond, went fishing and generally had a good time.

Happy anglers

Upper terrace breakfast

Lower terrace: rain shower and puzzle

France - Bergerac Airport

Very exciting, my first Ryan air flight. VERY cheap airline that gets you from London to most small airports in Europe. This round trip ticket was something like 80GBPs, the actual flight was about 33, but takes were another 30 and then you have to pay to check a bag. But really astounding to me, is the fact that you walk across the Tarmac to get onand off the plane - it was all very Casablanca.

Truth is the flight wasn't bad but the luggage retrieval was a bit of a scrum - as all 200 passengers wait in a shed. the the bags come rolling down this ramp. Lots of impatient folks. Then customs was funny because most folks have EU passports until they get to me with my blue US passport (you start to notice passport colors here). The line come screeching to a halt, backing up behind me. "Where do you live?" She asks me in French, which oddly I understand but can only think of Estas-Unis, which looking back I'm still shocked I remembered. The lady then gives me that you are a dumb american look and says in English "where do you live." When I fianlly squeak out Great Britain, she sighs and walks over to a desk and stamps the hell out of my passport. Mean while the folks behind me are starting to wave pitch forks and exclaim there rights. The whole thing took about a minute but there is wine to be drunk and bread and cheese to be consumed...

Anyway, my friends were patiently waiting for me outside the shed and we went on our way.

Family Bar-B-Que

Headed to visit family near Sandhurst for a Bar-B-Q. Canadian Llewellyns, British Llewllyns, Jersey Llewellyns and London Llewellyn (me!) rendezvous at the marquee (tent) in the back yard for some drinks and Que. I've been through this station, Clapham Junction everytime I head out of Waterloo. Don't know why it makes me laugh but it does - so I took a picture.

Lunch was lovely and it was a great way to kick off a weeks vacation.

My Uncle Roger wanted me to send the following picture to Dad.

Building decorations?

I've been trying to get a decent picture of this unique gable decoration for about three months. With the new camera (ZOOM! so 21st century) I finally managed it.

I am still trying to figure out why you would hoist the head of a boar up to the gable of your house in leafy North London, perhaps someday I'll knock on the door and ask.

More standard building decoration

This would be the more standard form of decoration found in "leafy north London" suburban locations.

I have to admit that I am stunned at how long flowers bloom here in London, perhaps the idea of the English rose is actually something.

Miami Beach

Not the usual sunset picture for Miami Beach but I bought a new camera and had to take a picture. I was in MB for a meeting and it was hot - how is it I ever managed to live in hot, flat and wet Florida?

Note to Ali: Don't yell at me I was only there for about 48 hours - but I'll try and make it back soon.

In an effort to avoid cleaning, I re-arranged my books by colour

Ironmongery

I am struck, as I walk around in the UK, by the real investment in fences and doors. Its called ironmongery and its like wrought (sp?) iron at home. There is not much of it anymore in the US - at least where I'm from in Florida. There's some in the spanish/cuban influenced areas like Ybor City in Tampa or possibly on balconies in New Orleans but I cannot think of a modern development that has such beautiful metal work.

This gate is from an old school yard and I really thought the pattern was beautiful. You get the security and beauty at th esame time. Much more successfull than chain link fence with barbed wire across the top which seems to be the default method of security in my home land.

On th eother hand domestic fences are really bad here in the UK, when it stops rainging I'll get out and take some pictures of that. So maybe its just that commercial fences are better and budgeted for with longevity in mind.

Store names

Across the Street from each other in Hatton Garden, In London, are these two shops. I've always wondered about them. Why, if you are setting up a shop in London's diamond district, would you name your shop after another city? Manhattan's of London and Beverly Hills London; do you suppose in Manhatton and Beverly Hills there are shops named after London?

By the way, I work in the Diamond District I'm not shopping for Diamonds, just in case you are wondering.

AUGH! The perils of new cultures...

This weekend I found a petshop. Yay! Perhaps I should have looked for one before the cats arrived but I didn't. A friend told me about one in Highgate Village.

I won't bore you too long with the transit details but will tell you that the Northern line was partially closed, the 260 runs only on weekdays and C11 is not the most direct route to Highgate from Hampstead. I found the shop and had a little exploration of the village. After a nice a nice lunch I took my cat supplies (2 collars, a pet hair brush and a litter scoop) I returned home.

Don't read further if you are not a cat person...

Cat litter in the UK is like everything else, not quite the same as the US. On the plus side they sell it in packaging that it is possible to carry, even in SF they sold it in 309 pound bags - not transit friendly. The downside is that my first choice was really bad, it consisted of something called fullers earth. Which basically is dried clay. When you add cat pee to dried clay you get cat-pee-mudd. Which seems to be a very stupid idea: impossible to clean up and really useless even with the nice new litter scooper. So now I'm into crystals. The cats have been home by themselves all day and I hope the switch to crystals was not to sudden.

OK I promise no more cat-talk back to the city blog.

Cats finally join the household

My cats finally made it into the UK. It took six months, microchips, multiple blood tests, 2 new crates, Pet passports (who knew those existed?)and a long suffering friend in San Francisco. But my two cats (17 and 15 years old!) finally arrived at my London flat on Wednesday. I found cat food but need toys, scoopers and the correct cat litter. Long week ahead.

Dylan

Morgana's too freaked out to come out from under the bed but Dylan is always up for a walk around. So far so good.

He looks like he's saying, "Where the heck am I now?"