Planning London

I think I've done just about all the planning I can do. This year, I know to have an indoor alternative in every area I plan to explore, because it's inevitable that rain will fall. I've got lots of cool stuff planned:

• Kew Gardens (big exhibit of Henry Moore sculpture there)
• Columbia Road Flower Market, an exploration of Shoreditch street art, possibly the Dennis Severs house, and on down to the Docklands with Spooner
• Kensington, the V&A, perhaps a visit to Harrod's to see the Di and Dodi shrine
• Various galleries in Central London
• A very long walk through the City
• Southbank, the Hayward Gallery and the Tate Modern
• Day trip to Winchester or Dover

On some of these days, I'm hoping various Flickr mates will be joining me. I've planned a mini meetup for a small group of them at a pub in Waterloo one evening. Spooner and I may go to theatre one night, or to see the movie "When Did You Last See Your Father?" that we saw being filmed in Brighton last year (it's just opened in the UK).

Tales of the adventures will follow.

The Fall

There was a small incident on Sunday involving some broken pavement, my toe, and the sun, which was shining straight into my eyes. This unfortunate combo resulted in two very bruised knees, some scrapes on the heels of my hands, and a wee dent on one corner of my camera just at the bottom of the cover to the memory card. After my knees collided with the ground, my right hand must have then taken the rest of the impact or the camera would have been toast. So yesterday on my lunch hour I took the camera out for a short walk around campus. All seems well, which is really, really good because I'm not too keen on the thought of buying a new camera at the moment, having just ordered a new pair of glasses that cost a bundle but will be well worth it if they help me to see where I'm walking. It would also help if I'd pick up my feet.

Making plans for London

I've been a really bad blogger lately. When I haven't been lounging around the pool or roasting tomatoes, I've been planning for the upcoming trip to London. Last year, I had 4 days of doing things with Spooner and 3 on my own. This year, Spooner and I will have only Saturday and Sunday to explore together, leaving me to make my own way around town for 6 days. One of those days will be a day trip to either Winchester (a cathedral city) or to Dover to see the castle and the white cliffs. I've gotten in touch with some of my London Flickr friends, and am hoping to meet several of them to take in some museum exhibits or have a few pints. Spooner still doesn't quite believe me when I say that I know people who I can hang out with, but he's slowly admitting that I may actually know more Brits than he does. Oh, and I've been busily crafting presents for the Brits (more on that later).

Photo credits!

Two of my photos have just been chosen to be on websites in the UK. I won't get paid for either one (professional photographers probably look on this as scabbing by amateurs who give their stuff away), but I will get photo credit -- with my meatspace name on one and my nom de Flickr on the other.



The sculpture above, called You (a.k.a. Red Man) is by Antony Gormley and it sits atop the extension on the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm. Spooner and I were coming home from a long day of many adventures, starting with the Pearly Harvest Festival (below), including the Charles Dickens Museum, the Inns of Court (but not the Temple Church because it was closed), St Bride's, St Paul's, etc., etc. We took the tube back and got off at Chalk Farm, one stop before Belsize Park where Spooner lives, to look for Banksy's French maid. I happened to look up and see this sculpture and then had to get Mr. Fast Walker to stop and wait while I took a pic of it. I only got one shot, and it was a good one. Right now, there's a massive exhibit of Gormley sculptures, with 31 of them placed on the tops of buildings in central London and Southbank, and there are exhibits of his work at the Hayward Gallery and the Wellcome Trust. The 24 Hour Museum website has an article about Gormleys on public display in the UK -- the author asked me for permission to include this photo and I said yes. It's a dot org, and a website that I use as reference often, so I feel fine about the lack of compensation.



This photo of the Pearly Society's Harvest Festival is going to be included on a website called Schmap. They do guides of different cities, and this will be on the Soho and West End events page of the London guide. I recognized names of some other London Flickrers among the photo credits, so I figured it's probably ok to let them use my photo without compensation. This one is credited with my Flickr name (Trailerfullofpix). Anyway, as the Brits would say, I'm chuffed.

The road goes on forever and the kitsch never ends

I just got back from my fab little get-away to Texas. The spaces are vast, and the inhabitants are strangely compelled to fill them with all kinds of larger-than-life structures. We saw a giant roadside pig (former drive-in), armadillo (in the parking lot of a flea market along the interstate), chicken (on the roof of a statuary emporium along a state highway), and a cow (on another highway, advertising a real estate agent), and the veladora (above). We never made it to the giant cowboy boots or the world's largest wooden nickle. I'm uploading the photographic evidence of my adventures (in dribs and drabs) to my Flickr page.

I learned an important travel lesson on this trip. It's not a good idea to have the following items in your carry-on simultaneously: (1) your mp3 player, (2) lots of batteries, say 8 AAs in your camera and camera case, and (3) a candle in glass. Who knew that these items would resemble the makings of a bomb when the bag went through the x-ray machine? I think that the woman who hand inspected my bag got a bit of a chuckle when she pulled out my Lady of Guadalupe lucky candle. Fortunately, I got to keep the candle ($.98 at H-E-B) and was sent on my way.