tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61380079107193901802012-02-09T17:30:44.615Z...a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles ...Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.comBlogger5111100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-10322488946437953202012-02-09T17:22:00.002Z2012-02-09T17:30:44.629Z

No, not why it's only ever Inspector Sands who gets called to the control room (one look at what's in an old-fashioned firebucket explained that for me) - but today's explanation from the driver for a halt and then slow running:"The train in front has lost its pilot light".Obviously some hush-hush experimental train powered by gas.What will Our Beloved Mayor® think of next?

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-6361181515946333072012-02-07T15:52:00.002Z2012-02-07T15:55:52.053Z

today I saw a whale passing the police station:

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-14955087697744416022012-02-06T07:31:00.003Z2012-02-06T07:59:13.508Z

Sunday morning didn't exactly dawn, what with heavy cloud still casting a misty gloom around, but that hadn't stopped a lot of people coming out to build their snowman and generally lark about. By the time I'd joined a family snowman-building exercise in the park, there were plenty of examples, like this, already dotted around the riverside and the local parks.This year's snow was of an unusually

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-82030086076231982902012-02-05T07:00:00.000Z2012-02-05T07:00:01.425Z

So we had our promised snow overnight, though not so much as this time three years ago.Not so pretty was the racket from the people who decided to have a snowball fight under my bedroom window.At 1am.Ah well, youth will have its fling, and age its grouches.

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-36230684355248630992012-02-04T07:00:00.007Z2012-02-04T07:00:00.243Z

Some last incidental details that caught my eye:It pays to look up: as Amsterdammers of the Golden Age found it more tax-efficient to build up rather than sideways, the tops of their houses repay study, not just for the hooks on the gables to hoist up goods and furniture (I once spent a quarter-hour or so engrossed in watching a committee get a fridge up to an attic), but also for some "statement

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-50375945887671653482012-02-03T07:00:00.001Z2012-02-03T07:00:06.049Z

I wouldn't want you to think I totally neglected kulcher on this trip. There were a couple of museums I've not visited in the thirty years or so that I've been going to Amsterdam. One was the Tropenmuseum, originally devoted to the wonders of the Netherlands' overseas empire in Indonesia and the West Indies, but now expanded to include the cultures and environment of the tropics generally, in

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-31803398209476437832012-02-02T07:00:00.001Z2012-02-02T07:00:05.048Z

Though the weather was cold, it was occasionally sunny enough to encourage walking, something Amsterdam's waterways are ideally suited to.

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-32463781696414928192012-02-01T07:30:00.001Z2012-02-01T07:30:02.606Z

A trip to Amsterdam isn't complete without a visit to the Tuschinski Cinema. Its domes dominate an otherwise unremarkable small street, and inside the decor is... well, unique. I suppose one could summarise the style as Ballets Russes meets Scandinavian Gothic. Or possibly not.It is possible to take a guided tour of the architecture and the restored decor, but it is an experience in itself just

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-69351341115634490782012-01-26T15:27:00.005Z2012-01-31T11:54:45.154Z

If postings have been a bit sparse recently, one of the reasons why has been a burst of early spring-cleaning, to get the flat ready for a weekend exchange with someone in Amsterdam. There's nothing like trying to see your own space with someone else's eyes for spotting scuff-marks and wonky cupboard doors that you've taken for granted for too long: and sorting all that out needed an extended

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-15082977882215542972012-01-22T18:00:00.001Z2012-01-22T18:00:02.553Z

As it happens, my flat is over the entrance to our communal garage, so there are plenty of people passing under my window, which has an exposed cast iron lintel to which my window-railings are attached. I wonder who decided - and why - it would be a good idea to jump up and attach this particular fridge magnet (cute but not my style).Then again, there's the ongoing mystery of the thought

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-48494570280122096542012-01-21T14:22:00.003Z2012-01-21T14:26:45.286Z

I see that the proprietors of the Daily Mail and other fishwrap have lost their claim to the courts that the current judicial enquiry into press ethics, phone-hacking and the like should not allow for anonymous evidence from journalists. Apparently they claimed that newspapers risked being "reputationally damaged" by "untested" claims from journalists. What business do they think they and their

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-28750534107618158892012-01-10T10:55:00.006Z2012-01-10T11:42:54.674Z

What with email, Facebook and such, postal deliveries are a sad disappointment these days. Some bills still come on paper, as do begging letters from estate agents (not quite so frequent at the moment, but where I live is still, as they say, sought-after) and flyers for takeaway pizza and curries from implausible distances away (somehow I doubt there's much measuring of cost-effective performance

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-1193102395501083812012-01-07T13:56:00.004Z2012-01-07T14:49:39.223Z

Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk, Dick Whittington - but a panto based on, of all things, Beowulf? Well, yes. Over a pub in the canalside no man's land between Islington, De Beauvoir Town and Haggerston*, half a dozen singer-actors, a couple of pianists and a drummer delivered an evening complete with all the usual cross-dressing, corny gags, double entendres, sweet-chucking,

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-70822195137819859442012-01-03T11:46:00.006Z2012-01-03T12:01:51.988Z

It's a while since I walked over to Greenwich. Yesterday's visit showed the riverside building works still going on: some permanent terminal-style buildings for the ferry pier and, of course, the restoration of the Cutty Sark. She, at least, is ever more visibly on the road to re-opening; the protective boarding around the site now replaced by mesh fencing, the roof of the new exhibition space

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-82108977586621457182011-12-24T20:00:00.002Z2011-12-25T08:02:41.746Z

A rather quieter reminder of snow: some photos of last year's white Christmas with a bell-like version of something seasonable, by an uncharacteristically restrained (and all the better for it) Liszt:

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-33663649133784886382011-12-23T16:26:00.008Z2011-12-23T18:00:23.834Z

Just to make sure of a little show of snow this Christmas, here's a video card from a remote Inuit village in Alaska (it was all the rage some time ago, but I've only recently become aware of it - and yes, they have been told about the apostrophes):

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-23856627693750636942011-12-15T18:46:00.006Z2011-12-16T12:02:48.035Z

It's no good: there just doesn't seem to be a way of shaking off the idea that, whatever I'm doing, I ought to be doing something else. Never mind the reminders in my phone diary (what? use it to talk to people? how very last century), there's a nagging feeling that there is something else, planned or promised, that I've somehow forgotten to do, and that there will shortly be some sort of "Oh

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-34385480304134086352011-12-01T16:00:00.001Z2011-12-01T16:00:01.348Z

The regular return of an old friend featured in a post last Easter.Now that the seasons have turned again, it's the Christmas cactus that has put out its improbably neon-coloured flowers, as it has done without any special attention for decades, first in my parents' house, now with me. The container it's in is also a hand-me-down, probably from a generation further back: in my memory, that deep,

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-83398117296532230362011-11-30T14:20:00.004Z2011-11-30T15:09:09.397Z

It being St Andrew's Day, today is the time to dust off one's distant Scottish ancestry. In the true spirit of parsimony (and soft Southern laziness), I offer you someone else's creations to mark the day.From the symphonic (I hear pre-echoes of Sibelius in this, but maybe that's just me):to the traditional (at least for Gaelic-speakers, which I am not) - the band is Capercaillie, the singer Karen

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-956458000294986502011-11-28T18:30:00.000Z2011-11-28T18:30:00.917Z

No self-respecting bird has any excuse for missing the invitation of these blazing red berries. I assume we can expect to see plenty of seedlings from this tree in the future.Whether it's a measure of the late warmth we've been having, I don't know, but the tree's immediate neighbour, a ceanothus which flowers profusely for a couple of weeks in May, seems to have decided to compete, however

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-78281429768256723072011-11-27T16:45:00.008Z2011-11-27T18:19:06.947Z

Perhaps she didn't intend to comment on the weather, but as I came out of Canary Wharf underground station into this afternoon's cloudless sky and balmy sunshine, the perky jazz singer busking by the escalators swung into Summertime. The nip in the breeze soon belied her; though there's usually a fair breeze swirling around there, today it was strong enough to set pages of a dropped newspaper

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-13275073704301332702011-11-25T18:00:00.001Z2011-11-25T18:00:02.342Z

Enjoying the morning sun over a cup of tea in my living-room, I caught an unexpected glint in the corner of my eye. From about halfway up one wall beside the window, fully four feet down to the handle of a hardly-used magazine basket, two threads of spider silk were catching the light. Not that I've noticed a spider (or a fly, come to that, recently), but one has obviously been industrious.Unlike

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-53316562346543666862011-11-24T07:17:00.019Z2011-11-25T07:17:41.744Z

One of my big retirement projects is to digitise all the old photos piled up in boxes in my cupboard of clutter and mysteries. Seizing the first box to hand the other day, I found myself ploughing through assorted negatives from the 1960s onwards.Although there are as many individual images as I'd imagined, it's always surprising how few are really worth looking at again.There have been some

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-71445932549019440032011-11-20T20:00:00.001Z2011-11-20T20:00:06.062Z

The unusually warm weather has been producing some odd sights, and I don't just mean the people still risking T-shirts (not exactly a sign of hardiness in yesterday's sunshine). Cycling home from the supermarket, I was distracted by a butterfly dancing out of some hebe bushes in full purple flower; and my window-boxes refuse to take any seasonal hints. I still have lobelias, and the odd fuchsia

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-18286178486481698422011-11-19T09:40:00.003Z2011-11-19T10:01:24.943Z

There's a small flurry of excitement about the launch of the new series of the Danish crime series The Killing ("this time, she's got a new jumper!"). Apart from the whole question of why we enjoy watching so much misery played out, I'm struck by the commissioners' anxiety about the acceptability of subtitles. I'm wondering how many people have to use them even for English-language films and

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-23547112461241263042011-11-16T07:31:00.001Z2011-11-16T07:33:55.548Z

The gooseberry chutney I made in August is edible, indeed more than acceptable with a nice bit of cheese or cold chicken. There's definitely a tang of an acidity that isn't the vinegar, though my worn-out tastebuds couldn't confidently identify it as gooseberry flavour. It still looks an unfortunate colour and texture, and a punnet of gooseberries doesn't actually boil down to much finished

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-49268637232583385192011-11-13T12:47:00.012Z2011-11-13T14:10:20.164Z

That's how long I was perched on a narrow, downward-sloping ledge with one arm hooked round the railings at the back of St Paul's Cathedral churchyard, to get the best view of the Lord Mayor's Show yesterday. That's how long it took for the procession to pass.It was the usual mix of community carnival, commercial advertising opportunity, and civic pomp and heritage, to mark the inauguration of

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-14866056127195450312011-11-11T12:11:00.003Z2011-11-11T12:12:30.364Z

http://autolycus-london.blogspot.com/2008/08/lest-we-forget.htmlThere's a reason for two minutes' silence.

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-38807352711588493142011-11-09T14:51:00.006Z2011-11-09T15:13:17.911Z

With the Olympics on the way, Canary Wharf seems to developing a sporty theme this week: two book signings by sports personalities, and today (no doubt an awareness-raising event for the Paralympics - though the lunchtime throng looked to be more interested in setting new speed records for getting to their sandwiches and sushi), a demonstration of sitting volleyball:

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-28145124079137959042011-11-08T17:43:00.002Z2011-11-08T17:45:51.086Z

Not a day that would make you think of rainbows, but when my eye was caught by an unusual pair of masts at Canary Wharf, they turned out to belong to the Rainbow Warrior:

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-81953799757352122782011-11-05T21:20:00.002Z2011-11-05T21:23:07.947Z

Some might harrumph at council tax going up in smoke, but if it saves the cost of accidents at fireworks parties in homes, it'll be worth it. And it was a good show - and within walking distance.

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-62727023819359103302011-10-26T16:41:00.004+01:002011-10-27T08:07:13.447+01:00

Or... navel-gazing from the inside. Which is by way of explaining the fetching photos of my innards I was given yesterday afternoon, my doctor having decided that thorough investigation of my recent indigestion required an endoscopy.Not an experience anyone would want to repeat (unless they're really peculiar), but not as bad it might have been - I was in and out within the hour. And the upshot

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-37359982892202951072011-10-26T12:17:00.003+01:002011-10-26T12:36:50.030+01:00

Between us, we'd been to Edinburgh often enough and over so long a period that we've almost forgotten our last visits to the most obvious tourist sights: so no apologies for joining the throng to catch up on our Scottish history at Holyrood Palace and Abbey, and the Castle, once again.

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-39564832270316476322011-10-22T16:42:00.004+01:002011-10-24T06:03:12.065+01:00

Dundee doesn't exactly spring to mind as a tourist destination, but the lure of family history drew my sister-in-law to investigate life in the jute industry, so there we went: and the trip turned out to be well worth while.First to the Verdant Works, whose name belies the noise and unhealthy working conditions of Victorian jute processing, but whose contents outlined both the industrial

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-76563057370770282982011-10-21T09:40:00.005+01:002011-10-23T18:01:55.194+01:00

For a Londoner born and bred, it would be a bit hypocritical to make a great deal of my Scottish ancestors. I have been to Edinburgh plenty of times to find out more about them (and for what it's worth, as is no doubt statistically probable with most people, there is much more geographical and ethnic diversity the further back you go, of which more later); so while my sister-in-law looked up her

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-46265584660412057042011-10-11T08:55:00.008+01:002011-10-11T10:29:05.654+01:00

A week gone since the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable St, and more than that since Wilton's Music Hall had a weekend of commemorative events to mark the anniversary. [I've had a cold and the dog ate my blogging kit - well, that's my excuse].Nowadays, Cable St is a quiet side-street, almost entirely lined with housing estates and best-known as one of the few cycle lanes that approaches

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-74946211069741038612011-10-05T17:32:00.002+01:002011-10-05T17:39:32.307+01:00

Being a bit slow on the uptake this week (that hot weather managed to bring a cold with it, can you imagine), it's taken me until now to react to the startling news that Belgians have taken over British territory, albeit temporarily. I can't think why (though I suppose the absence of a government in Belgium let them think they didn't need permission) It isn't as though there's a brewery or a

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-76112196762464309952011-10-02T18:42:00.002+01:002011-10-02T18:48:36.773+01:00

They get a different class of slogan scrawler at Watney Market:

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-60645473732188938862011-09-30T12:54:00.004+01:002011-09-30T13:06:13.459+01:00

Too hot to do much more today than stroll round to the farm for a coffeeThe squirrels are used enough to people to scout around any visitor hopefully:though not as much as this cheeky chappy in Haggerston Park last weekend:

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-54470232816912889012011-09-27T10:34:00.004+01:002011-09-27T15:28:03.034+01:00

This is a picture of one of many eye-catching stunts dreamed up around the world last Saturday for Moving Planet. Rehearsals for the "bike" were well under way by the time I got away from my Saturday chores to make my way up to Haggerston Park, but eventually we latecomers made up the numbers, lining up along the banner.That left me time to wander around taking photos of all the action (and, as

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-55472779874810478792011-09-20T10:24:00.003+01:002011-09-20T11:21:36.097+01:00

Or, things that happen by chance. One sunny day last week invited a bike ride, so off I set to the Victoria and Albert Museum (of which more later), through the parks wherever possible - a route that I had quite forgotten goes past the Serpentine Gallery and its pavilion, which had still been building last time I was that way.A forbidding and closed-looking exterior takes you into a dark and even

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-81679324052608824182011-09-17T08:39:00.001+01:002011-09-17T08:41:03.372+01:00

What is the world coming to, when you remember the name of your neighbour's dog but not of the neighbour?

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-5629377936476058902011-09-15T09:41:00.003+01:002011-09-15T09:50:24.867+01:00

Mildly narked by the presentational changes to Radio 3 this week, I emailed their Breakfast programme to suggest that reminding us of the news headlines barely fifteen minutes after the half-hourly bulletin was a bit too like the doom-and-gloom of a Radio 4 morning for a predominantly music and arts channel. Within minutes (even before their auto-reply), Petroc Trelawny himself emailed, promising

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-15521152584008162442011-09-12T08:16:00.002+01:002011-09-12T08:18:45.368+01:00

The window of the Water Poet pub in Shoredith.

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-14544779335896913042011-09-08T15:57:00.003+01:002011-09-08T16:15:32.589+01:00

Mumblety years ago, on a brief trip to Munich, I heard in the distance some buskers playing a tune that took me in a Proustian rush back to my childhood: my mother sang it going about the house, as I recalled, and I hadn't heard it since. I had no idea what it was, though it was clearly Irish in origin. The buskers had gone by the time I got near them. There was no internet to track it down: nor

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-32433253141996305562011-09-04T19:03:00.010+01:002011-09-04T19:33:50.819+01:00

I could have sworn I saw Angela Merkel on the bus the other day. But then, there was a time when a regular commuter on my bus looked just like one of the prominent leaders of the Lithuanian independence movement (who had seemed to be very visible on the late-night TV news discussions during the great changes of 1989). It's strange which faces one's memory chooses to carry about and which to

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-3424719328008374962011-09-02T22:19:00.003+01:002011-09-02T22:19:50.573+01:00

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-1793428906805248182011-09-01T22:00:00.000+01:002011-09-01T22:00:00.794+01:00

I know it's an advertising stunt for the new release of Firefox, but ingenious. Though I have to say I don't really recognise "mine": it looks much more tidy than I'd ever thought myself. And what's with the pincushion and knitting needles?

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-16871707008320283012011-08-31T23:59:00.001+01:002011-09-01T10:05:18.143+01:00

Spotted on the deck at the Grapes - just in case anyone might be thinking of diving in for a refreshing swim at high tide one evening:

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-75311028785760526412011-08-30T10:35:00.005+01:002011-08-30T14:49:40.016+01:00

It wouldn't naturally occur to me to decorate a bike. Mine's plain (and rather scuffed now) black, with some fairly prominent police markings for security*. So Sunday's Floral Bicycle Parade at the South Bank seemed an interesting photo-opportunity, if not necessarily something to participate in (it looked like rain anyway). *(A thought: does having your postcode on your bike advertise to

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-35383437725719984422011-08-27T17:38:00.004+01:002011-08-28T20:45:46.464+01:00

Carrying on with the "seen through windows" theme, here's a snatched shot of the Olympic Park from a DLR train. You'll see that the observation tower thing is well on its way to completion. The official name is the ArcelorMittal Orbit. I can't imagine what, if anything, it will actually come to be known as (anything with an orbit like that in space would surely be on the way to a very bumpy

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-14696555864921312692011-08-27T17:12:00.001+01:002011-08-27T17:16:06.190+01:00

Pleasant though it is to live here, it wouldn't occur to me to see our garage - in the rain - as a particularly picturesque backdrop for a wedding photo.

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-64950965018703079442011-08-26T00:01:00.003+01:002011-08-26T00:01:00.319+01:00

It's a scene that turns up at least once or twice a week in TV drama: a hand guides a cabled scanner across a stomach, a machine bleeps, and soon there's either a coo of joy or a grim-faced nurse conferring in hushed tones with a doctor (cue cliffhanger music..........) Today, the stomach was mine, but there were neither coos nor grim face. I'd just happened to ask my GP if indigestion in the

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-15214697631243117622011-08-24T15:29:00.004+01:002011-08-24T15:52:47.217+01:00

The local TV news yesterday featured the arrival of the tall ship Gloria at Canary Wharf, welcomed by an enthusiastic (they would have to be, to turn out at 7am on a rainy morning) group of London-based Colombians. If you ever wondered what the Colombian flag looked like, this is an emphatic reminder: at a pinch, it could probably serve as an extra mizzen sail (there speaks one who is up on all

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-80504068034223242862011-08-22T07:47:00.004+01:002011-08-23T17:12:45.683+01:00

This lay on the path in our local park the other day, which seems a little early in the year. Whether that's the effect of the blight-cum-canker visibly affecting the chestnut trees, or an early sign of autumn (along with the way a lot of blackberries round about seem to have fruited and been picked already) - maybe even a portent of an early or cold winter to come - this is a conker in its

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-44575850502038282732011-08-21T11:14:00.003+01:002011-08-22T07:47:01.204+01:00

An invitation to a departing neighbour's farewell do gave the baking muscle a rare twitch; not that these demand much effort of either muscle or skill (apart from trying to make sure that forming the shapes doesn't leave more of the mixture on your hands than on the baking sheet - a little oil on the hands helps). Described in the recipe as macaroons, they're basically marzipan cakes with chopped

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-4027598997377635822011-08-20T12:36:00.006+01:002011-08-20T23:07:45.088+01:00

Don't you just love it when the supermarket moves everything around (again)?

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-50669471711177164222011-08-18T18:29:00.006+01:002011-08-20T08:10:17.453+01:00

A more cheerful resurgence this time: the Cutty Sark is starting to emerge from its protective covers and scaffolding: The hull has been lifted on to a cradle so that it no longer rests on its keel, and the museum and exhibition space underneath her is in development; there's a new coat of paint, and a definite air that she's well on the way to recovery and complete restoration. Here's how

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-4498634058810571892011-08-18T18:10:00.005+01:002011-08-18T18:44:17.491+01:00

Most of last week's hooha in London seemed at the time to pass us by, though after the event, it turned out there was a rather nasty attack on one particular house not too far away (rumoured to be something to do with ongoing "postcode" gang troubles) and a window was smashed in a Tesco. It seemed there might be something riot-related happening last Friday, in the sudden arrival of police

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-40451432574885435692011-08-17T14:41:00.006+01:002011-08-17T15:20:44.751+01:00

It was a surprise to find that it's been more than five years since my last visit to the National Archives. It must be more than fifteen years since the family history bug bit me (a little before the big explosion of interest), and quite a few since a series of what seemed to be dead ends (short of trawling through parish registers in county records offices up and down the land) dampened the

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-72533582494729111202011-08-12T13:49:00.010+01:002011-08-13T16:07:58.811+01:00

Somehow managing to avoid much of the week's excitements elsewhere in London, I've found nothing out of the ordinary on a couple of bike rides up to the West End this week - except at the end of one, at the British Museum's Treasures of Heaven exhibition. This takes the visitor through the story of devotional and votive objects from pre-Christian times to the Middle Ages, from humble lead

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-22864344879337717672011-08-10T10:03:00.006+01:002011-08-10T11:16:59.478+01:00

Yesterday turned out to be a good day to revisit the South Bank's commemoration of the 1951 Festival of Britain. When I went in April, not everything had got under way, but, especially this month, there's a whole series of events going on. In particular, there's a "Museum of 51" display, tucked into a side entrance of the Festival Hall, about the experience and construction of the Festival. This

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-33327089172809880122011-08-01T10:27:00.007+01:002011-08-03T09:51:30.007+01:00

The sun came out of its recent sulk over the weekend: better get the best of it before it changed its mind, so out came the bike for a trip up to the Grapes in Limehouse.It prides itself on being the original (more likely, one of many for a composite picture) of the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters, the riverside tavern in Dickens's Our Mutual Friend.It is certainly an old narrow building (in

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-56004957954185225602011-08-01T09:59:00.006+01:002011-08-03T06:51:08.749+01:00

Ever since I learnt to trust the wrinkle test, I've had a yen to have another go at making gooseberry jam. They seem to have such a fleeting season in the shops, and to involve so much faff to prepare for cooking, as to make it doubtful whether there's much of a commercial future for them: so you have to grab them while you can. It doesn't help that my supermarket has only had the most

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-43573525436751689672011-07-28T10:08:00.009+01:002011-07-28T11:12:50.319+01:00

Sometimes it seems as though all the interesting events are repeats of ones that I've posted about before. Next year, of course, it will be different, with the Really Big Event. Yesterday, an uneasy mix of ceremonial and young people's rally in Trafalgar Square (with Our Beloved Mayor™ sounding even more like an over-caffeinated pre-teen than usual: over-generous hospitality from the Official

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-82361704719426781842011-07-26T17:33:00.001+01:002011-07-26T17:34:20.124+01:00

Oh dear.I went into the kitchen this morning and filled the kettle to make tea to have with my breakfast, filled a bowl with cereal and some milk from the fridge, wondering when I'd emptied the milk jug, and took the bowl through to the living room.Only to find the bowl of cereal I'd taken through barely minutes before.Thank goodness I don't have gas.

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-789432675679169772011-07-15T09:33:00.005+01:002011-07-15T09:50:28.917+01:00

We're quite used to finding a cruise ship moored opposite the estate, at the grandly-name London Cruise Terminal (a couple of portakabins on a pontoon, which moves up and down the river according to where the mooring has been booked). Yesterday, it was a surprise to find it at Canary Wharf, for the Deutschland (it would have been even more of a surprise for any late risers in the flats beside the

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-80736728074563111612011-07-14T11:46:00.000+01:002011-07-14T11:47:54.826+01:00

Oh yes.

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-51854604402005387822011-06-27T14:50:00.001+01:002011-06-27T14:50:45.640+01:00

.. and Radio 3 chooses to play "Che gelida manina".

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-38758017635552848562011-06-26T12:49:00.003+01:002011-06-26T12:53:54.145+01:00

You might not think it odd, indeed rather sweet, to hear a Columbia Road trader advertising "The bees come free with every lavender!", but how about:"It's all stolen! That's why it's cheap, ladeezgenlmen, we nicked it!"

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-78965565285381342532011-06-25T07:02:00.003+01:002011-06-25T07:54:14.792+01:00

I'd forgotten the review that made me reserve David Eagleman's "Sum: Forty tales from the afterlives" at the library, so it came as the surprise it needs, for full effect, to be.Forty pieces (essays? meditations? fables? science fiction flights of fancy?) each propose some different idea of an afterlife, and let it run. Suppose there are all the "yous" that ever were, or might have been: what

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-39920746901865921382011-06-18T15:08:00.008+01:002011-06-18T16:32:28.322+01:00

A couple of examples that caught my eye recently:In Paternoster Square, the new-ish development behind St Paul's (which, incidentally, looks splendid now it's been thoroughly re-cleaned), is this solar calendar.Clever, but is anyone likely to want to remember to be outside at noon on a sunny day to work out they're in the middle of June?Just as clever, in the British Museum, is this lightbox

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-78170627717556178252011-06-15T15:24:00.002+01:002011-06-15T15:27:51.898+01:00

Seen at Canary Wharf - a visiting "tall ship", from the US:

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-65444051962758340332011-06-13T16:58:00.003+01:002011-06-13T17:02:26.818+01:00

Lying in wait on the peaceful bit of cycle path through St James's Gardens in Limehouse, a couple of earnest young people trying to interest people - and yes, get their bank details for direct debit donations - in Sustrans. A worthy cause, and in all fairness it wasn't a terribly hard sell to escape, but irritating all the same. So now we have bicycle chuggers - you can make up your own name for

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-1913408406882037992011-06-09T10:15:00.000+01:002011-06-09T10:16:04.346+01:00

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-89816198530292315452011-05-28T20:38:00.002+01:002011-05-28T20:43:36.877+01:00

but I like this advert too:

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-81135127256978087672011-05-27T17:22:00.002+01:002011-05-27T17:23:34.055+01:00

Smile for the camera, and you too could be one of the Happiest People Ever

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-77825671076970484592011-05-21T10:30:00.004+01:002011-05-21T10:46:49.039+01:00

On the tube this morning, my neighbours were readingThe Financial TimesThe Racing PostThe KoranA book on Victorian designA 700-page novel in Lithuanian

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-16582821095293114812011-05-19T16:33:00.004+01:002011-05-19T16:56:29.057+01:00

I suppose it's a foretaste of the future that medical matters seem to be featuring more and more in my life. What with signing up to the Biobank and taking up the various check-ups the NHS is offering, I've seen more doctors and nurses in the last few months than in as many decades before.Not that there's anything wrong. The tests and pills and reviews aren't to cure anything serious, but to stop

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-13720774161062982032011-05-17T15:21:00.003+01:002011-05-17T15:42:04.417+01:00

More experiments with my new phone camera, on a bike ride into town, stopping off to have a wander round the Temple and a peek at Temple Church (mercifully free of D*n Br*wn addicts), and later at the quiet garden that was once St Dunstan's. Even allowing for my not quite mastering the brightness/exposure control, it's interesting how much difference there is on how the image renders on

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-17261419550958103792011-05-15T15:18:00.003+01:002011-05-15T15:39:37.889+01:00

I missed the much blogged about absence of Blogger, being preoccupied with my shiny new toy, an Android smartphone. Having finally got to grips with getting it to do what I'd imagined I could do with it, it's time to see what else it can do.Hence this post from the teeny-tiny touchpad, and, I hope, this random photo from its camera. It's a laborious procedure, but you have to marvel that it's

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-67032208104780892612011-05-10T10:58:00.018+01:002011-05-10T12:37:10.271+01:00

Strange how not having to do anything in particular seems to remove any incentive to do the things you'd quite like to do. It's days since I went to have a look at the biggest and most complex project-with-a-deadline you could imagine - the London 2012 Olympic Park.To get there from here on the bike involves the classic East End journey contrasting the old council estates (looking very workaday

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-14916341816039291182011-05-01T10:13:00.003+01:002011-05-01T10:36:18.947+01:00

The bluebell season doesn't last long, so a chance remark about the display at Emmetts Garden was worth a try. Even on the way there, it was clear that local woodland and hedgerows were ideal habitats for some impressive spreads of these ephemeral flowers.In the garden itself, there are some fine views, but at this time of year, the thing to see is the sweeping slopes of woodland which really are

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-82616245247008150522011-04-26T16:02:00.011+01:002011-04-26T17:24:53.101+01:00

By tradition, a sunny Bank Holiday Monday more or less requires Londoners to go to the seaside - and the closest to hand is Brighton.You can go for the over-the-top orientalist splendour of the Pavilion, or check out the antiques, arty and alternative shops and cafés in the Lanes, the Regency re-construction of the original fishing villageBut for most people, Brighton is for fresh air and fun,

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-11734248076877045532011-04-23T16:40:00.009+01:002011-04-24T14:46:23.091+01:00

This venerable houseplant has just come into flower. It's one of a pair that have been around for decades, and that I brought home from my parents' flat after they died. The other is a Christmas cactus, which produces a winter display of flamboyantly frilly flowers in an improbable neon shade of purple. This one flowers in spring, and, today of all days, deserves to be called an Easter

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-45738021930646566022011-04-23T14:10:00.008+01:002011-04-23T16:37:28.589+01:00

This retirement lark is rather strange. With all the time in the world to do whatever takes my fancy, somehow it takes more effort to get started. I have got as far as catching up on a few household tasks I'd been putting off, but mostly I've been in holiday mode. I've read more books in a couple of weeks than in as many months before, but somehow that holiday feel hasn't extended to much getting

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-67692328756728529402011-04-12T11:52:00.009+01:002011-04-12T12:16:55.700+01:00

I did say it wouldn't be long before there were lambs at the Mudchute City Farm. Prepare to go "aah" (or, if you're so minded. "Ah, Bisto!"): Meanwhile, in other local nature notes, we now have lilacs out:while over in Greenwich Park, the sun is bringing out the first azaleas to compete with the magnolias, camellias and daffodils:

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-85963710867383621892011-04-03T08:40:00.012+01:002011-04-03T09:33:46.652+01:00

Spring is coming together, seemingly in more of a rush than it usually does.Now that my last contract has come to an end, I can consider myself starting an new life of retirement. Time for a stroll around, with no particular target or deadline. Unlike the birds making making use of nesting rafts and stray rubbish along the wall of Millwall Dock:The coots (who always seem to breed early and often

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-44007531447420010642011-03-27T15:37:00.003+01:002011-03-27T15:45:19.820+01:00

Whether it's the sign of a hard winter gone or a good summer to come, the ornamental cherries around our way are looking particularly opulent at the moment:

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-89102695425957798032011-03-26T15:39:00.005Z2011-03-26T16:11:11.641Z

Goodness me, nearly a fortnight and I never finished writing up What I Did On My Holidays (or, rather that weekend in Paris). This is partly a matter of being out of touch with the news, which somehow made the images from Japan all the more shocking and somehow shaming when I did see them (by a strange coincidence I was on a train to Paris the morning of 7/7 and frivolled the day away in blissful

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-59056032565702562011-03-11T16:13:00.007Z2011-03-11T18:14:46.683Z

Once upon a time, if you went to a French post office to get stamps for postcards, you could find yourself in a queue to speak to a harassed desk clerk. So as a gesture to customer service they brought in handy machines, as they did in Britain and no doubt everywhere else, so you could get your own - later upgrading these to computer-generated labels for all the different values. Nowadays (so

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-43747439845955840542011-03-08T16:36:00.017Z2011-03-09T10:10:04.915Z

You might think, on hearing that the Victoria and Albert were inviting people to send in photos for a database on wedding fashion, that there would be too many to choose from.For them perhaps, once they're deluged with photos; but it's surprising how those heaps (in my memory) of old photos and albums, stuffed randomly into drawers over the decades, turn out to amount to no more than a

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-56633539648067440972011-03-08T13:26:00.000Z2011-03-08T13:27:25.204Z

"..my other favourite mass-murderer....."Sometimes I wonder about my colleagues.

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-8215770617980754612011-03-07T13:50:00.003Z2011-03-07T13:54:28.349Z

Not my favourite colour - it always seems to be either sickly or strident: the latter being the reason why it's used in warning signs. For the same reason, presumably, the early spring flowers tend to be yellow - they attract the attention of pollinators by standing out against winter's mud colours and the grey of a misty, rainy day. Perhaps it's because of a long cold winter, but this year, our

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-41896165456785281392011-03-05T08:25:00.002Z2011-03-05T08:29:42.952Z

I understand the royal wedding has been taken as an opportunity to market holiday packages to the Middle East such as a hamper picnic with an opportunity to view the wedding (on TV) in Windsor Great Park - at a mere £250 (just for the picnic).If I lay in some sausage rolls, prawn rings and party platters, with lashings of ginger beer, how much could I charge to watch it on my telly?

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-77508014158456652172011-02-25T07:20:00.002Z2011-02-25T10:31:56.489Z

..just for a moment I could have sworn the radio presenter had announced a melancholic madrigal as "Weep, oh mine eyes, and see snot."What we have here is a "mondegreen", allegedly as in the mishearing of the folk song line "And laid him on the green" as "And Lady Mondegreen", but they're hardly new. Gladly My Cross-Eyed Bear must be as old as the hymn itself; indeed they must have been around

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-22172042457104769512011-02-24T18:30:00.004Z2011-02-24T18:34:04.285Z

Still some daylight in the sky as I got home from work today - indeed a sunset very like the last time I could say that (28 October, for what it's worth), which saves me taking more or less the same photo twice:

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-38883342492211899782011-02-22T09:48:00.004Z2011-02-22T10:09:40.500Z

Time once again for the annual short-list of contenders for the Oddest Book Title of the Year. I may be blasé, but is this year's list a bit weaker than in the past?I've rather assumed that the oddity rests in the title's ability to suggest something much more bizarre/surreal/perverse than the actual content; but for most of this year's list, it's not too difficult to work out the authors'

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-16038494532901378322011-02-21T09:31:00.002Z2011-02-21T09:35:36.031Z

On the tube this morning, our driver announced a new variation in the tide of official blether about things we already know or don't need to know.As ever, it was à propos of nothing in particular, but at least he had the cautious honesty to say "All London Underground lines are claiming a good service".Just as well: by the time I got off, one of the other lines was already having trouble.

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6138007910719390180.post-18430439228840080112011-02-18T18:48:00.006Z2011-04-07T06:17:42.371+01:00

It isn't what it was (but where is). About the only sign that, decades ago, Limehouse was London's Chinatown is this dragon-on-a-stick, marooned on a traffic island that most people wouldn't think of as Limehouse, since it's between Westferry and Poplar, navigating as we do by the names of the DLR stations.Just around the corner, the Sailors' Palace reminds us this was where sailors came ashore

Autolycushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17642868944400656922noreply@blogger.com0