don't know why, there's no sun up in the sky...
I know I'm not the only one whose life was inconvenienced by a spot of rain the other day, but anyway, here's my story. We were driving back from Zurich to Sheffield, the trip across Switzerland and France was long, but uneventful, until we reached Calais; when, after driving for ten hours, we were stuck in a single lane contra-flow in heavy rain for two hours while they scraped cars off the road. When we eventually got underway again, we discovered that we were about 200m from our hotel.
The ferry across was fine, and we had got to the other side of London by lunchtime. To add to the general misery, the M1 was closed, due to an accident of sufficient magnitude to require partial resurfacing. No bother, divert to M25 and up the A1. This was where it all began to go wrong, we got about halfway before the A1 was closed, diverted across country to the M1 again, and got to within about 30 miles of Sheffield before the motorway gridlocked. Eventually, we made it into Sheffield after going across country as far as Buxton, and managed to unload, even though parts of the store was 4" deep in water. I then attempted to return the van, and to recover my car, not realising they were right in the heart of the flooded area. Eventually I gave up, and headed back to Nottingham.
Next day it took me seven hours to get through to the depot, it was weird and slightly eery, driving through a normally vibrant industrial area; smashed and filthy cars washed into the gutter, or simply abandoned; doors open, in the middle of the road. Reminiscent of some sort of post-apocalyptic disaster movie, albeit on a rather more domestic scale.
tube secrets...
When I was doing my shows at Toynbee Hall a couple of weeks back, I was using the tube system via Aldgate East tube station. In common with much of the tube network, there is a lot of building work being undertaken. As I waited for my late night train, among the vomitting teenagers and pissed up city workers, I was struck by the tiles on the walls (which are gradually being stripped).
I am sure they have been recorded and preserved elsewhere, but nonetheless, I felt it was worth recording them (rather poorly I'm afraid, it was on my phone). The tiles are about 6 inches square, and a heavy cream glaze. They display a jaunty optimism, and pure decorative delight that is rarely seen these days, enjoy!
vulgar flowers from singapore
Apologies for taking so long to post these, colours in tropical countries seem so vivid by
comparison; I found these these growing in the streets around my hotel.
unlikely...
I've been doing a few little jobs at the home of the Nottingham Correspondent, and in consequence I have had to frequent the local DIY megastore. While I was looking for filler, my eye was caught by the evostik version of liquid nails (that ever so useful glue/filler combo in a tube). I boggled slightly as some numpty in the marketing department has decided to call it 'better than screwing'. Looking at the picture, I realise it is even worse than I first realised! The filler on the right of the picture is called 'serious stuff', I don't know what the marketing department was on when they dreamt up these names, possibly glue? Who knows!
Somehow I doubt it, although you do have to be an adult to buy it...
that's another bright idea...
I had occasion to wander into Tesco today, and yet again I was struck by the overall ghastliness of the experience, it was heaving, Sunday is plainly the day for the family shop nowadays. I have always used a basket, as I like to delude myself that I don't buy that much; and I was very aware of the many trolleys, and the apparent inability of so many shoppers to control them. What I find particularly annoying is thoughtless parking, and using the trolley to block access to a section that you might be interested in (this is particularly common round the 'reduced to clear section' which often resembles feeding time at the pyranha tank).
It did occur to me that many of these little irritations could be alleviated if each trolley was fitted with a little bell, or a hooter. Mind you, you'd never hear the announcements or the piped music.
This is our last night in London, we've been performing at Toynbee Hall, that venerable institution in East London, founded on optimism, and running on a combination of amateurish enthusiasm and sheer good luck. Given the speed with which buildings are being gobbled up in that part of London, somewhere I don't doubt that there's a property developer scheming. If he can only persuade Ken that the tube needs to run through it (Vide: Bishopsgate Goodyard), then we'll all be looking at another 100m office block before you can say 'public enquiry?'
I have a week off, during which the two households are going to miraculously slim down and become one, and more stuff will be packed into boxes. Then we're doing Jarvis Cockers' Meltdown Festival on the southbank, and off to Zurich. Suddenly, as if by magic, in two weeks time my contract will have ended.
more spray art
This was the solitary piece of sprayed graffitti I found in Singapore, rather strangely sprayed on the pavement.
The rest of the images are from Strasbourg, where the prevailing theme seems to be small and neat. The pink jelly fish thing is everywhere, although I rather liked the way someone else had subverted the image.
Skulls from the pavement outside the National Theatre (of Strasbourg).
Manga samurai on a wall behind cathedral.
Feet on the pavement.
Cool cat above a bin.
Subverted alien jellyfish.
Alien jellyfish.
new balls please
Assiduous readers may recall an earlier post when I referred to the strange green balls of Warwick: (
http://lx999.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html).
I had cause to return to that town last weekend, and the place is covered in them, presumably in anticipation of a drought.
This image strikes me as a somewhat despairing effort to make a rather down-market modern terrace look more appealing.
