Change

One of the first things I saw as I walked west on Old Street from the roundabout was this new piece by Eine, spelling out CHANGE in an area that certainly is changing (it used to be quite dodgy, but is now upwardly trendy). I decided that "change" would make a nice theme for my visit. Bits of London are so old and seemingly unchanging. Because I'm here only once or twice a year, I sometimes think that everything should be just as I left it on my last visit. But it's an organic city, in a constant cycle of destruction and renewal, for better or worse. It's been through fires, bombings, slum clearance, economic booms and busts, buildings falling into dereliction or being gentrified. I'm walking around with new glasses -- both literally and metaphorically -- and noticing what's changed, what's gone and what's new.

I met up with my pal Mondoagogo at the Museum of London for a hands-on experience with ancient London. We did a workshop in the archaeology department, learning about how they sort and catalogue the millions and millions of ancient bits that are kept in their massive archives (the largest in Europe) in Hackney. Our task was to dump out bags of dusty bits of pottery that had been dug up in 1975 in a dig under the nearby General Post Office. Some bits were pieces of Roman amphorae and other bits were medieval. To our surprise, they are all mixed together and catalogued not by the era in which they originated but by the "context" in which they were found. So we wrote out labels for "GPO75" and the strata number of the layer the bits came from. The Museum of London relies on hundreds of volunteers to help with maintaining their archives. So, a new activity for me, handling old bits that have seen the light of day due to the regeneration of a building site.

The Boris Bikes are new since I was last here. It's the central city cycle hire scheme that's recently been launched by Mayor Boris Johnson. Bike stands have popped up all over the central areas, and the bikes themselves are another opportunity for corporate branding. They should probably be called Barclays Boris Bikes, but that's just too much.

Here's another change I saw in Chiswell Street. This ghetto rat stencil, by Banksy, has been here for years. Banksy's original had "London doesn't work" on the placard. Robbo, a rival graffiti artist, has been leaving his mark on various Banksy pieces. There's a whole history of the feud between Banksy and Robbo that's not worth going into.

As a change from the usual pub meet with my mates from Guess Where London on Flickr, we did a pub quiz. Nine of us formed two teams for a quiz sponsored by Londonist. The quiz was quite hard, and though neither of our teams won, we had a respectable showing. We came in 4th and 6th, losing only to teams made up of professional London guides (ringers!).

Distance: 7.96 miles (19,404 steps)

Expenses:

• £20 to top up my Oyster card

• £10 for dinner at Mildred's (vegetarian restaurant in Soho)

• £2 pub quiz entry fee

• £3 for tea at the pub quiz

Get me to the airport, put me on a plane. Hurry, hurry, hurry, before I go insane.

The Ramones were singing "I Wanna Be Sedated" on the radio this morning as I drove to work. When they wrote the song, they were itchy to get out of London. I, on the other hand, am anxious to get there. Anxious as in I can't wait, and also in that my pre-travel anxiety level is sky-high. Did I remember to pack everything? Will everthing be ok at home while I'm gone? Will my wonky knee hold up? I'll settle down as soon as I'm on the plane, but will then be nervousy about getting from Heathrow to Belsize Park on the tube. I usually take the Piccadilly Line to Leicester Square, where I change trains after climbing about 30 steps to the Northern Line platform. For me, that change at Leicester Square is the absolute worst part of the journey. This time, to cut down on the number of stairs that I have to negotiate with a suitcase and a 10-pound messenger bag, I'm going to change for the Victoria Line at Green Park, and then for the Northern Line at Euston. This will add about 10 minutes to the journey, and will probably involve more walking between lines at Green Park, but it's worth it to cut down on stair steps. I'll still have to climb about a dozen steps to get to the lifts at Belsize Park (it's one of the deepest stations in London) and then a miserable 51 steps up to Spooner's flat. After a nap and a shower, I plan to head out to the Museum of London, where I'll meet up with Mondoagogo to do a hands-on workshop in the archaeology department, handling bits and pieces of antiquity that have been dug up around London. From there, it's on to the pub quiz at the Royal Institution. I hope I can stay awake. Keep watching the blog for tales of my adventures in Blighty.

July Recap

I'm a bit behind on my blogging, so here's a quick recap of July adventures.


Spooner was here for a couple of days -- days that had to be the hottest and muggiest on record. To beat the heat, we drove up to North Adams to Mass MoCA. It's sort of a tradition that we go every summer that Spooner is stateside. There was the usual range of exhibitions -- some really cool, some creepy, and some that just left us scratching our heads. More photos here.

ScribeGirl also blew into town on part of a whirlwind roadtrip to New England (optimistically thinking it would be cooler here -- if just marginally so -- than in North Carolina). We drove up to Turners Falls, an old industrial village with a canal and factories dating from the 19th century. Blue skies, puffy white clouds, a bit of a breeze, and industrial decay -- all perfect ingredients for a photo ramble. We picked up a map at the Great Falls Discover Center and followed the historic walking tour. Photos here.

Pub Quiz!

I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself! I just read that Londonist is having a pub quiz on the evening of my arrival day in London. I've been wanting to do a pub quiz since I first learned about them, and I'm totally in awe of the stellar performance of my mates at the last quiz that Londonist sponsored. This one will be at the Time and Space bar in the Royal Institution -- a place I've been wanting to see. The entry fee of something like 2 quid per person will be donated to a charity.

I put a post about the event on the discussion board of Guess Where London this morning, and we've got six or seven people already who want to be on the team(s). Now, I'll have to spend the next two months brushing up on London trivia if I have any hope of a respectable showing (I've got time, as I usually spend August plotting my Open House plan of attack, but I'll be missing Open House this year.) Time for me to dust off Eccentric London and to go through all the cards in my What Happened Here? deck. Although the prizes will no doubt be fab (if they are anything like the last prizes, which included several Time Out London photo books and a tea towel), I'm really in it for the fun and for spending time with my mates. Really.

Meanwhile, my Liverpool research is progressing nicely. I've found us some really cheap train tickets (£11 singles), and have booked us into a purpose-built apartment type hotel at Liverpool One. I've been reading Walks Through History: Liverpool, and Real Liverpool just arrived in the mail today. We'll be there for only 48 hours, so I have to figure out how to pack the most stuff into that limited time. It's sure to be brilliant.

Camera Woes

Yes, the Canon A620 is broken again. You may have read my previous post about the lens assembly issue I had when I was in San Antonio, and my subsequent meltdown. As soon as I got back to Massachusetts, I took the camera down to Precision Camera Repair in Connecticut. They replaced the lens assembly, charged me $140, and had it back to me in about 10 days (during which I was in agony to be without a camera). I won't go into all the details, but it has now (in less than a month of use since the lens repair) developed another problem that I suspect is the CCD sensor failing. I'm going to contact Precision Camera to see what they have to say about it, but in the meantime I've taken the plunge and ordered a new camera. After much debate between a Nikon D5000 DSLR and a Canon G11 point and shoot, I've decided to go with the G11 on the recommendation of my pal Maggie Jones who just bought one and has great things to say about it. As much as I would love to have a DSLR one day, I think the G11 makes sense for me right now -- it costs less and will be much easier for me to carry around with me on my travels. It should arrive from B&H Photo tomorrow. Sad as I am about the A620, which gave me over 4 years of service and probably 20,000 images, I'm psyched about moving up to something a bit better. The G11 has the articulating LCD screen that I loved in the A620, a great lens, and will probably give me a lot less noise at higher ISOs. Keep an eye on my Flickr photostream as I put it through its paces.