Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Apologies for the lapsed blogging of late, but it's due to working somewhere new, and so not having the time. Judging by when I'm at home, I ought to be commuting to London, and yet work is only few miles away. Having said that I still manage to worry about being late, and then getting stuck in a traffic jam, which appeared somewhere where I've never seen a traffic jam before. Getting to the Park and Ride, and the car park is fairly empty, and the bus which normally is packed was equally as empty.
Heading into Notacity, and the traffic is still odd, and seizes completely just as the bus got to stop where I get off. Walking in and the entire place is solid. I knew something must be wrong when I overtook a second bus with the same number as one I'd already past. Get into work, and I'm one of the few people there. Which is odd, considering quite a few people there live in Notacity, which isn't all that big, and I thought some of the others come in by train.
I found out when I got back here that the bypass round Notacity had been closed, after someone drove the wrong way up a sliproad and into the oncoming traffic. And I thought I had problems navigating, albeit round the pedestrianised parts near work. I am getting better at not getting lost, and can officially confirm that it is impossible to walk diagonally across this estate without either having to go back on oneself, or go up stairs when one is going down.
Moving on to other stuff, one of the problems with commuter hours, is that I arrive home mid-Channel 4 news, which basically means I see nothing of the main news stories. I know there is the internet, or newspapers, but they require being sought out, and full attention, rather than osmotic impact whilst I'm doing something else. All of which is a vague way of saying: does anyone know what's going in Ukraine [and why does it feel as if that should be "the Ukraine"?].
One quick plug. The thing I had to pick up at 4 on Saturday were photographs I'd just had developed. Hence the new batch on Flickr. They are mostly from sailing over the summer, with a couple from London Open House in September. Sorry for the poor quality [according to the guy on photographic shop "horrendously grainy"], but the film apparently was quite old - either that or I'm radioactive and don't know it.
The Open house pics are of the Church-cum-park near the Custom House, and of the interior of the art-deco Daily Express building at 120 Fleet Street [V&A entry]. Whilst trying to research the place before we went all I could was one image of one half of the main mural, by Eric Aumonier. However, now that I've tried to get images of the sculptures, even if a bit unfocused in parts, and without enough resolution, I now find that other people used the same opportunity to do much better. Comme ca.
You how I mentioned that Guardian is on a mission to educate? No? Well, try reading the archives. Words liberated from the first few pages of yesterday's G2: palimpsest, jeremiad, and lapidary. Roughly meaning: overwritten, woeful or doom-mongering, and carved in stone or finely honed, respectively.
Anyway, I think that fulfils the couple of worthwhiles quota for today [and Neil, just be glad I didn't use "quite" or "vaguely"].
Anyhoo,
