just jammin'

Its supposed to be the start of the school holiday season, so that the roads clear for a few weeks creating easier journeys to work.
Somehow this isn't fully working this year.

Firstly, I'm guessing more people are staying in the UK. What's that horrible word? "Staycationing" Yuk.

Secondly, there's a competition amongst the various road construction companies to see how few miles of the motorway system can be left unconed.

My estimate is that there is still a tiny stretch of M25 in Hertfordshire without cones, and they've missed a small piece of M3, but kept the speed limits on it in any case. Apart from that, it looks like pretty comprehensive coverage, at least in the areas that I drive.

beside the seaside

We've somehow managed to fit in the stately home picnic, the castle, the dressing up as animals, some music and seaside moments this weekend.

Inevitably the compressed nature of the last few days means limited blogging compared with plenty of exploits. I'm guessing I'll find a way to link a few more moments into future posts.

If only I wasn't so busy.

animal collective castle moment

Sunday we moved to a castle about 150 miles from the stately home of Saturday.

This time we were supposed to dress up as animals. Something of a gear change from the picnic table dining of the previous evening, with weather veering from hot sunshine, to rain which seemed to only affect small parts of our site.


Ever adaptable, we passed the jousting knights and the mysterious story telling and found handy beds strewn with cushions in the pennant draped fields where we could sip the honeyed nectar and gaze at the other animals.

picnic in the country

Saturday evening was time for a picnic at a very big house in the country.

We'd arrived and parked, then sauntered in to mingle, sip fizzy drinks and enjoy al fresco dining.

Music, wine, friends, sunset and fireworks.

no city bars this weekend

No time for city bars this weekend; we're heading out to country and seaside or a reasonably bizarre trip which lasts through until Monday.

Any blogging is likely to be from the phone.

Not sure if these bars at Downing Street are to keep us out or certain politicians in?

importing happiness

My iTunes said "importing Happiness" this morning, which I thought was a good way to start the day.

It made me smile.

Friday's work pattern is "work Thursday until already Friday morning, set early alarm. Work all day against immovable deadlines and then finish late."

May need superhero assistance.

Chihuahua

I couldn't help thinking about Taco Bell today, what with the story about Gidget's demise. We have a sort of ritual when in the US to pay a visit to a Taco Bell somewhere and usually manage to mis-order significantly and wonder why so many different things in shells arrive.

I'll admit I sneakily like Taco Bell, yet when they temporarily opened here around Leicester Square they didn't last long and don't seem to have returned.

The big Chalupa was clever marketing adding "¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!" to my limited Spanish. Their 'Taco Light' was pretty clever too, with the small print 'Not lower calories' ... although I always thought their 'thinking outside the bun' with something called the 'Plug Club' was an unfortunate choice.

infinity nets are the new black

Sometimes the blog posts just write themselves.

The pictures from yesterday of the trees wrapped in red with polkadots are part of a famous Japanese artist's metaphor about reality and infinity. The idea is that the dots are where an infinity net overtakes the reality we all see. It could be like seeing into the atoms of the structure. Seeing behind the everyday form.

Once its in the subconscious its another form of pattern recognition, like noticing masonic eyes and Triangles.

The thing that really surprised me today was seeing a woman in a black dress with Yayoi Kusama's polkadots. She was on the same train and I couldn't help notice the three sizes of dot, just like the ones in the infinity net.

Kusama famously first suffered from mental illness around the time of the first dots appearance and still today is a voluntary patient in a Tokyo mental hospital.

『ディクレアリング インディゴ』 キット登場！

ascension of polkadots on the trees

Out amongst the ascendant polkadot trees of the South Bank, where Yayoi Kusama dreams of infinity nets morph into another universe.

We'd decided to meet in Gabriel's Wharf and three of us spent an evening watching the river and chatting about our recent adventures over beers, buffalo mozzarella and roasted pepper salads.

Its later that the impressions from Kusama's earth, sun and moon dots trick back into the mind as a reminder of reality edges.

I am so sorry. Goodbye

Barbican with some typical group lateness before the Sunday gig.

Not me this time, though.

I had time to sample the hibiscus tea of Heather and Ivan Morison's Escape Vehicle Number 4 as part of EXYZT's plans for a changing planet.

The glazed dome on the top of the structure creates a spaceship allusion and the whole device can become a vehicle to transport one away in time of trouble. The conjoined domes are inhabited by a guardian whose task it is to keep the stove lit, water boiled and visitors supplied with hibiscus tea. The guardian has the vocabulary of the words: I, am, so, sorry and goodbye.

Across the way in Dalston, the emergency urban psychoanalysis commando unit, UPIA, are making an investigation into the urban unconscious of the city.

Results next weekend.

Harry Potter scenes cut

We all know that there will be more films from Harry Potter than there are available books. They are cutting the last novel into two parts for filming.

But it's the current one where we see first significant editorial decisions to meander from the J.K. Rowling storyline. I won't say too much, because it wouldn't be right to spoil it for fans, but they've chopped a couple of significant book sections and added a linking scene to gloss and explain it.

If course, this give more time for the scooby snacks between Harry and his new best friend as well as Hermione's special moment. My own thinking now is for the screenwriters to play around with this a little more in the next volumes. Kid around more with the Ron & Lavender, for example.

As rashbre central, its important to mention the extensions of London coverage with tube lines and the now surprisingly scary Millennium bridge, alongside a few Night Shyamalan bleak outposts and cornfield moments as well.

Anyway, plenty of dark tasks and dark secrets and dark caves and general darkness. I've always preferred the spirit of the films to the books, so I quite like the thought to create a little controversy around variation of storyline for the closing three.

be glad for the song has no ending

The bent twig of darkness grows
the petals of the morning
And shows to them the birds singing
just behind the dawning
Come dip into the cloud cream, lapping.

...and so do others watch the dawn. We will be with them tomorrow, Barbican bound.
Pass the finger cymbals.

And as my cloud pulled out of view,
There come failing down a gentle shower of rain.

Happy rain come failing down,
Red, green, blue and golden.
And every drop, as it fell, it smiled
And, throwing back its head, began singing,

"Oh float with me to distant lands, wondrous and fair;
Float with me to distant lands, wondrous and fair."

Ting.


(Click the picture to download the programme)