Of Camomile Tea, Cameras and Brilliant Books

I don’t know about giving up alcohol for January (and if you’re asking, no I haven’t; a nice glass of Grenache with dinner, and now I am slugging back camomile tea in anticipation of an early night) but I seem to have given up blogging.

It’s not intentional, I just seem to have been busy. And I was eye deep in my book, The Book Thief, which a friend of Cousin’s gave me in the summer. If someone had told me in my faraway youth that in my sixth decade I’d finish a book sitting on the hall carpet because I couldn’t wait to get to the sofa I’m not sure I’d have believed them. But that’s what happened. My bus journey ended about five pages short of the final page. I came home, took off my outdoor things, sat on the floor to fuss MasterB and opened the book again.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Abandoned

Walkway

Empty

Graffiti

Gilford’s bakery

Weekly Photo Challenge: The World Through My Eyes – Southbank People

Some more pictures from last weekend on the Southbank.

Southban Fountain Players

Southbank Boots

Southbank Browsers

Southbank Chatter

Southbank Family

Southbank Ladies

Southbank Loungers

Southbank Picnic

Southbank Relaxers

Southbank Skateboarders

Southbank Suited

They are my entry into this week’s photo challenge, The World Through My Eyes.

South Bank London Summer 2013: Festival of the Neighbourhood

Those lovely people at the South bank have done it again. Today the new festival kicked off: The Festival of the Neighbourhood, celebrating local communities.
I took these pictures on Thursday evening with my ‘phone while the installations were being put up. I shall be back with my proper camera.

Cleaning Up

In Her Curlers

Interactive

Festival of Neighbourhood

Chatting Over the Fence

Festival of Neighbourhood

Union Street

Has anyone else heard of this play? Or am I alone in my ignorance?

Fair Em

I rather fancy seeing it, and have put out feelers to theatre loving pals. It’s on at the Union Theatre in, um, Union Street. Yep, they stayed up all night thinking of that name. It’s a fringe venue housed in a railway arch and run by the indefatigable Sasha Regan. If you have caught the tube to Southwark, then walked to Tate Modern following the guiding orange lamp posts you’ll have gone past it.

Union Street, Orange Lamp Post, Railway Arch, and Shard

You’ll have seen the Shard too. This is Southwark. Seeing the Shard from wherever you are is now virtually a Southwark requirement. Actually I can see St Paul’s from the end of my street too, but I won’t go on about that or you may want to hit me and I am fragile. Back to the Union Theatre. I could write lots about this theatre, but I shan’t, at least not now, because I haven’t got much time. Just make a note of it, especially if you like musicals, which I understand is a particular love of Germans.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination

Funnily enough, I know the illuminations featured in this week’s challenge. They are not far from the subject of my photograph.
If you follow my page, you know that I have taken many many pictures of the Shard, which is Europe’s tallest building and beside London Bridge. It is our newest landmark. Illuminated at night, it stands out on the skyline.

Disappearing into Mist

The Shard of Glass, London SE1

I posted a photo of the Shard at dusk the other day. Pat commented that she’d like to see more pictures of this new addition to London’s skyline. At 1016ft (309.6m), it’s the tallest building in Western Europe.
I took these two photographs from Borough, London SE1, just by the tube station.
In the first, you can see the Shard behind the spire of St George the Martyr. Perspective makes the two buildings look almost the same height, but of course they are very different.

The Shard and St George the Martyr