Who cares

I've spotted this man a few times near the street market at Nottinghill Gate. He always looked really upset and bitter. And I saw no-one ever engaging with him. It is just sad.

A relevant question?

Narcissistic Phone...

... no more!

The narcissistic iPhone that was

In my eyes the correct treatment of a phone associated with that specific ailment. Use a bottle. Bliksem it. End of problem.

Mine? I will sell it and make a £2 profit.

A year and twelve years later

Yesterday it was a year since Simone passed away. 

Simone Collings

Paul invited me a few weeks back to join them for drinks to remember her. I didn't know anyone there, except for Paul and then he introduced me to Mike, Simone's uncle - Jenny's brother.  On 6 February it was twelve long years since Jenny also passed. 

On 8 February last year Simone sent me this picture of her mother and it is really precious to me.

A beautiful photo of Jenny

This morning I wrote him a letter to share some of my memories of Jenny and to think of her.

Jenny du Preez

The day she died, Monique wrote this beautiful poem:

Hi Sweetie,
You were a woman old, wise and wealthy
self taught and well read
In your bright life you saw
a painted Paradise with harps and lutes
and you said “Damn those who would make life a hell”
Some frightened you – some gave you joy and happiness
But you had that joy, dear
to whom all sinners in the end must come,
filled with faith, without idleness or pretenses
In that faith you lived and died.

Jenny and Rudolph

And I wrote this one:

To my friend Jenny

The entire Sweden is crying for you today.
Yesterday I saw white snow everywhere
This morning it is wet and cold and gray.
I can see it in the trees and the clouds and me
Yes I know you told me to never look back
or to cry
And the way you told me to reflect on everything
and move on. 

This time it is me who is crying
I cannot but remember you.
We just talked yesterday
and everything was going to be fine.  

Remember the many walks and brunch?
Our ditch in Kista?
Thank you for listening
and always telling me why.
Thank you for being you
and making me live every day. 

I will miss you
but your smile
and friendship will be with me 

Your friend
Rudolph

Snowy day in March 2013

The cold weather returned with a vengeance yesterday and it even snowed a little today.
One of our guerrilla daffodils:

Guerrilla Daffodil with a snowy background

A beautiful combination of yellow lichens, a wooden beam and a light dusting of snow:

Lichens with snow

The Reimerswaal is a new Dutch dredger that sometimes dock here. Here it is through a flurry of snow:

Dredger Reimerswaal

I took a photo of this lonely bird bobbing up and down on the River Thames with snow flakes falling around it:

Bird on the River Thames

This was the view of our block of flats with the snow falling down:

Snow falling in Greenwich

Snow on the weeds

Here are our guerrilla daffodils, with a few in flower:

The bulbs we planted in the fall

And this was the Reimerswaal a few minutes later after the snow stopped falling:

Another photo of the Reimerswaal

The Semper Vivums look really pretty with snow on them:

Semper Vivums

The mini narcissi flowers in the pot:

More Daffodils

Some of the purple crocus flowers waiting to come out:

Crocus flowers

Crocus flower

One of the few "Malva" leaves that survived the frost:

Malva leaves

Even the spider's web in the watering can caught some of the snow:

Snow trapped in a spider's web

Yes it is really cold. This is a glass pot full of rainwater that froze overnight.

Frozen rainwater

Visit to the Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford

We visited the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford yesterday and it is a wonderful place. Stacked full of the strangest artefacts and the occasional surprise, it is really a worthwhile experience. Amazingly, I asked whether photography is allowed and they said yes.

This is Herman in the main display area. You can see that it stretches over three levels and the lower level is filled with hundreds of display cabinets.

Herman in the Pitt Rivers Museum

This totem pole is at the far end of the hall and it stretches up almost to the ceiling.

Totem pole

Looking back towards the entrance:

A packed museum

On the right is this... call it a garment. Eskimos wear it to protect from the weather. And it is made of seal intestines. This is a closeup photo of the embroidery:

Intestine garments

I really liked these wooden carvings:

Carvings

I just had to take this photo. He didn't look too excited about being so close to the shrunken heads or Tsatsas. Compare how small the objects are.

Herman looking at Tsantsas (shrunken human heads)

A colourful mask:

Inuit mask

Another Inuit mask:

Mask

And traditional Victorian mourning attire:

Victorian funeral attire

And Indian toys and dolls:

Inuit dolss

And these are my favourite objects - Egyptian Ushabti dolls. They were made to resemble a real person and then buried along with the pharoah or master. I first read about them at school in Wilbur Smith's River God and I've been fascinated by the idea of Taita's Ubshabti (as described in the The Seventh Scroll).

Egyptian Ushabti dolls

This hall as closed and all the dinosaur fossils covered by plastic. But look at the glass ceiling:

Glass ceiling

This fossil also caught my eye - it is a plant, but with so much detail!

Plant fossil

And a fossil of a prehistoric animal:

Fossil

This is Pyrite - I think commonly called "Fool's gold". They have a huge crystal in the collection:

Pyrite crystals

Another view of the covered fossils:

Covered fossils in the museum

What to do with your enemy… Visit to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford

We visited the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford yesterday and it is a wonderful place. Stacked full of the strangest artefacts and the occasional surprise, it is really a worthwhile experience. Amazingly, I asked whether photography is allowed and they said yes.

The next bit is a little on the gruesome side, but it gives some insight in how enemies were treated by some of the South American tribes in Victorian times. The tsatsas (shrunken heads) are really small. And they were made by removing the skull and insides and then placing heated rocks inside the head.

All of these objects were placed in a single glass cupboard and didn't take up a lot of space.

A painted skull:

A more, shall we say down-to-earth and very ordinary skull, its jaw wired shut:

A shrunken head (Apologies for the poor image quality, the original had an unfortunate green smear all over it, but I didn't want to leave it out):

The same head, from a different angle:

Another Tsatsa:

And one with a very peculiar nose:

This one looked positively gruesome:

And one last shrunken head:

Street Photography at Notting Hill

Man with van

Carrying the shopping

Determined

Woman on phone

Ruan and I decided to spend the morning in Notting Hill. I used a hand-held flash to achieve the deer-in-headlights effect.