Photo Essay: The author of Mikado

Arthur Sullivan was the author of the Mikado, the famous play. I saw his statue today when i was walking to the KCL from Embankment. I am not going to talk much about the man, go read his wiki entry if you please. But the statue spoke to me.

Pretty unique statue, no? there’s the bust of Mr. Sullivan at the top, the weeping muse against the plinth and then at the bottom…..

you have a mask, a mandolin and an open book with some flowers and wreaths.

the inscription in Latin, Arthur Sullivan, 1842 to 1900.

The sunbeams were just perfectly placed, but check out how you can see how the muse is almost flowing up to the bust.

Inscribed on the plinth it says:

W. S. Gilbert's words from The Yeomen of the Guard: "Is life a boon? If so, it must befall that Death, whene'er he call, must call too soon".

That muse spoke to me, I stood there like an idiot gazing at her. Brilliant casting and statue, excellent imaginative composition. I cannot find who the sculptor was who made this. Bit of a shame, that. Still, wonderful, loved it.

Full Slideshow here.

Off to the school fair – bouncy castles galore

We were invited to attend Diya’s school fete. Karn, after taking one step inside the compound, just turned around and left muttering something about his image being shattered if he is found consorting with first school kids (he is a teenager, respect and image is important). Anyway, his dad being a total nutter, went berserk in the fair ground.

first stop, a bouncy castle. The clown at the top looks rather sad, no?

then we are queuing up for a bouncy castle obstacle race.

weeeeee……. down the bouncy castle obstacle race :), i wish I could have joined in..

i couldn't so i went and sat and sulked while wearing Diya’s hat…

these girls were dancing to some strange tune. Why cannot they invest in some good music systems? All I could hear was vague thumps…And that colour, eye stabbing shocking pink!

this was guess the teacher game. So they divided the teacher’s face into three parts and mixed them up, and then the students had to write out the names.

she did well, she identified 4 out of 6 face pieces and then made a beeline for…

this giant tub of sweets. I want one of them for the office. I wonder where I can buy them?

we are stuffing our face :)

and sailing away

we had fun at the fete :)

ooooo, the boat is listing to port…

then we went to sit on the pink barbie plane (barf barf puke puke).

wheeeee, its taken off now :) It was fun, nice summer afternoon out in the park, but too bad they dont have games for dad’s (more sulking here…). Its ageism, i tell you.

Full slide show here

Photo Essay: Low Clouds just outside Swansea

I had to nip over to Swansea to deliver a lecture and also to attend an academic board meeting. It was horrid weather throughout the day, though it had started off as good at the beginning.

Lovely farm land, bright green colours, lovely hedgerows. Welcome to the lovely English countryside in spring .

Then the weather changed and it started getting cloudy, but I still managed to take some snaps of a gas canister dump. I did because it was quite a vivid orange coloured canister, but not something that I was expecting to see in the middle of a verdant green landscape. Anyway, I reached Swansea, finished my talk and the board meeting too and then came back to the train station.

By that time it was atrocious weather, with glowering and lowering clouds. The top of the hills were hidden under the clouds which were constantly coming down. I guess those people who live up there would be feeling damp and waterlogged all the time, eh?

Two more views of the Swansea station (God, that’s so grotty as well, and what’s with the eternal presence of the small water tankers on the platform?)



Then I noticed something interesting in terms of finding patterns in the clouds and this factory’s chimney in the distance. Smoke was also coming out of it or raised from the ground and with the lowering clouds, it was like a cloud sandwich!



Another image that struck me was that this seemed to be a giant needle knitting clouds :) (though one really needs two needles to knit, but still!)



From the other side, it looked too dark and dismal. Plus the eerie shapes of the power line towers. added up to a very spooky atmosphere.

But then at last the weather improved and you can see what I mean, the far off bright yellow mustard farms in the bright sunlight showing England off at its best.

It was getting quite late, and the shadows were lengthening over the fields, I think this was around 7:30 PM or thereabouts.

And now it is getting dark and darker, but this time with lovely cloud formations, showing clear blue skies above, then dark places and then again sunlight ground with long shadows.

Here is the slideshow.

What is the difference between Bird Flu and Swine Flu?

For bird flu you need tweetment and for swine flu you need oinkment.

Photo Essay: A rather sad car show

The Canary Wharf Car show is usually the bees knees, the next thing to sliced bread. I dont have the figures to hand, but that tiny piece of London contains some of the most highly paid people in the world. So obviously expensive car manufacturers would love to show off their wares there. Every year that I have seen this going back 15 years now, it usually has been heaving with people looking, considering, calculating, confident that they would purchase one or more of those lovely magnificent machines come bonus time. Not this year. It was frankly quite empty and sad.

 

The Volvo stall

The jaguar stand

the Bentley Stall

The Merc stand

Volvo again.

Even the kids were not interested

These guys and girls from American Airlines come every year and put up this strange bubble with some tinsel inside and a girl looking bored out of her minds sitting inside. Are you trying to show how good your seats are? Because they are not. American planes are suckalicious in terms of their business or first class seats. Disgusting cretaceous era planes, and they smell and they look old and faded. And food sucks. And this sucks. Ok, so I am cranky!

Here’s the Formula 1 car driven by last year’s World Champion Lewis Hamilton under covers. Pretty smooth, no?

Here’s Luca trying to get inside the car.

you cannot see it clearly but the name of Lewis Hamilton’s was emblazoned there.

And they had a SMART car poked away in the side, it looks so sad and lonely no?

Here you go, looking quite empty and blank. Sad or what?

Here’s the full slide show.

Photo Essay: The Palace of Westminster and Houses of Parliament

I had to go for a meeting at the House of Lords and as usual, was running late. Also, I had lost my blackberry so was in a totally foul mood. So I go off to the tube to get to Westminster and get to the right exit.

Peeking out from the exit and into the security barriers.

Looking up at the Big Ben.

the security barrier is pretty heavy duty, no?

the tower again.


The south east corner

now looking into the north east courtyard

pretty delicate carvings…

 

here are the Tamils protesting against Sri Lanka

And here are the Palestinians. Curious to see supporters of terrorist groups right out there, eh? welcome to democracy.

Westminster Abbey

the road in front.

looking back at the protestors and Whitehall> I just missed seeing the BNP leadership getting pelted by eggs. Those anti fascist protestors are idiots and stupid. Never interfere with freedom of speech, you pillocks.

the sidewalk

the abbey

here’s the facade coming into view with Oliver Cromwell’s statue.

And there’s another shot of him. As it so happens, today, June 14th, is the date when the Battle of Naseby happened when the Parliamentarians defeated the army of Charles 1. Quite an interesting few centuries in the middle, but still interesting that the people defeated the king, the entrenched, obscurantist, traditionalist interests. Remember, BNP fellas, what happens when the people rise up against totalitarians.

That’s where I enter so had to stop taking more photographs. The status is of Richard Lionheart.

Here is the full slide show in case you are interested.