Photos
Seems to me sometimes that the more you travel, the less there is to see…
As seen over cloister number 5 at Magdalen College, Oxford.
As seen over Number 5 Cavendish Square, in London’s fashionable Mayfair.
I’m taking bets on whether the designer on the flag was educated at Oxford, or just saw the pic in a book somewhere…
On the subject of Rev Sherlock. Took this snap a few weeks ago. The Beeranauts were in Southwark, celebrating his approaching 40th birthday. There are some very fine pubs round there, and a couple of awful tourist traps. Readership, we tried them all.
We gathered on the bridge as the sun was dropping, and I couldn’t resist this snap. It has a calm serenity that waa not reflected in the day. Then we all piled into taxis and headed east, at which point the evening went downhill rapidly. That’s a story for a different forum.
A couple of photosets of yesterdays’ wanderings. Mine, all taken with Hipstamatic on the iPhone, are mostly documents of the colleges that open their doors to the public.
Meanwhile, the last four pics in TLC’s ongoing Oxford set show some of the folk dancing that you always see in town on May Day.
And for completeness, a little video of the two styles in evidence that we came across.
This is The Shard, a gigantic new building going up in South London that will dwarf just about everything else in the capital. Seeing it for the first time was a bit of a shock, as to my eyes the thing looks like a giant Soviet booster rocket going up in plain sight. As if the Soyuz program had relocated in space and time to sunny Southwark.
As if a Bond villain had hidden his doomsday weapon in plain sight, and one day it would flower open with a bass-drone of hydraulics to reveal a laser weapon or warhead.
Our architecture correspondent Rich Betts writes about The Shard on his website – and comes up with another comparison that I hadn’t seen.
Round the back of Carnaby Street in the swingingest part of London. The secret power source of all things groovy. If it’s ever unplugged, we’ll be back to trad jazz and spam fritters for tea before you can say Alma Cogan.
Not the sort of thing you normally see at commuter o’ clock on a Wednesday morning. This old beauty huffed through Reading Station, her Pullman carriages full to the gunwales with people eating breakfast and looking very satisfied with themselves. It was all very pretty, and something of a good omen for the day that was to follow. Of which more tomorrow.
Further notes from our transport correspondent, Richard Betts:
“Clan Line is an ex British Railways “Pacific” Class (4-6-2) steam locomotive owned and maintained to mainline standard by the Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation Society. She is based in London at Stewarts Lane Depot, and she returned to steam in November 2006 after a major overhaul which took five and a half years to complete.”
See, you learn stuff reading X&HT, whether you want to or not.
Taken on the Embankment a couple of weeks ago. What you can’t really see is the evil stares that the driver is giving the cameraman – as if he thought it was a real traffic trap instead of a news piece.
He was slow and careful away from the lights, too.
I saw Sucker Punch last night with TLC and WDW. I’m working on a post that will do the film justice. I can’t wait to tell you just how much I enjoyed it, and how I think it’ll go down in cinematic history. That’s for tomorrow.
In the meantime, here’s a picture of a duck.
This is the new W Hotel on the corner of Wardour St and Leicester Square, shot up against one of the (Victorian?) buildings that face it. It’s VERY sci-fi, and looks like the Mothership has landed. It’s even prettier at night, but I like the juxtaposition I walked into on a flawlessly clear sky yesterday.
Tired, and busy weekend ahead. So comms are going to minimal today.
This was taken at last years St Giles’ Fair in Oxford.
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 