The Importance of Being…

Translation

Sometimes, even without knowing the languages, something feels as if it has been added in the translation

Paris View

We had a hotel in Paris, and this was the view out the window. Even now it’s hard to feel grown-up enough to inhabit something like this. It was cool

Retiring the Old Coffee Machine

Inherited from John and having long-since lost its handle, with a hole in the internal workings and a bust seal, it is now time for the old coffee maker to go...

Oncoming Rain

One aspect of London life that has not lived up to its reputation is the weather. No doubt partly because of the amount of heat the city itself generates, but also, I guess due to the changes in climate of late - London weather has been outstanding. I've ridden my bike to work every day since Christmas without even a whiff of rain. Here are some clouds, viewed from my bedroom window, that look promising.

We Had Snow

The Tree in the Central Courtyard of the Mews

I’m quite impressed with the accuracy of the weather forecasts here. When they say it will snow between 20:00 and 07:00 and it will be around 15cm. That’s exactly what happens.

Melancholy View of the Power Station

The Power Station as seen from the Apartment

Battersea Power Station seems to hold a place in the imaginations of many Londoners. Photographs never quite capture its immensity – and its towering brutal symmetry exherts some kind of magnetic force. Long since decommissioned and severely damaged due to the ingress of rain after one of many failed restoration attempts, the station has just failed once again to attract the funds required to give it a new purpose and life. It seems probable that it will eventually fall. Perhaps it’s just this gradual decay that gives it such mystery. The station appears in almost every future dystopian film made in the last decade (probably most notably as the Arc of the Arts, in Alfonso Cuarón’s “Children of Men”) and in reality it is a reminder of our dystopian present. Even in its peak it was an inefficient coal-fired power station, using the waters of the Thames as its coolant.

Juxtaposition

30 St Mary's Axe

One thing that London does, perhaps better than any other city, is to juxtapose the old and new – as this image of 30 St Mary’s Axe (“The Gherkin”) demonstrates. There are many iconic buildings in London, and it always appears to me that they are always best viewed in relationship with each other.

One Canada Square

One Canada Square

Framed by the high density council high-rise towers of Stockwell where I live, sits the incredible excess of the financial services sector – once seen as the post-colonial ‘saviour’ of London and now regarded more as a necessary evil. A big part of London’s wealth and expense is driven by The City, and it’s Canary Wharf annexe, but the part of London with which I spend most of my time resides in buildings like those in the foreground. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This is a Lift to Another Dimension

Want to share a ride on this transdimensional lift?