2005.11.10 : The SNAFU Has Landed
Obsessive But Somehow-Still-Spotty Photo-Documentation of Sara's First Week in London
"The only inconveniences of London are, the immoderate drinking of foolish persons, and the frequent fires."
- William Fitz-Stephen, 12th-century monk
- William Fitz-Stephen, 12th-century monk
- I rounded her up at Victoria, off the Gatwick Express, and brought her home – where she settled in with my DSL.
- I often take these gorgeous evening walks around lovely, leafy Kensington, and these past few months I'd been fantasizing about taking Sara along one one, and tonight I did.
- It was a very mild arm-twist to convince her to stop off for a pint in my local (the Builders Arms W8).
- It was slightly trickier to finally get the timer set correctly on my camera – and the flash on.
- This is dusk.
- Alack, I had to go to Sheffield for work the very night Sara arrived. Here's their sort of indoor garden thingy.
- Here are two nice Latvian women I met (Karina and Jana).
- Here's Sheffield's very winning Peace Garden.
- Here's a fountain therein.
- Okay, back to Sara in London. Friday night, on my return, we went to lates at the Tate Britain.
- This is one of the few galleries where drinks are allowed (during lates, that is). (Sara in cute clunky shoes.)
- Also happened to be where the live music was (DJ in background).
- And, incidentally, priceless works from the nation's storehouse of art.
- We went from there to a storied pub I've been keen to try: the Black Friar (spectacularly intuitively located at the foot of Blackfriars Bridge, and across the street from Blackfriars Station). Here we met up with my mates, for Sara's formal introduction to everyone. Son was there.
- Dual Fuchs Siblings! Out of focus!
- Ryan and Yu Kyoung were there.
- Son and I were there. (I guess I've mentioned that.)
- Paul was there – but had to leave early! <sniff> Something about out-of-town guests, if I recall correctly.
- Son and Sara (and white wine).
- Ooh! Mirrors! (Fun!)
- SNAFU!
- Yu Kyoung and Son (and the back of Sinea's head)
- Blurry Fifers and half of Charles's head (and more striking interior).
- Son.
- Ooh! Mirror again!
- Julia and Sara.
- Facing mirrors! Kick-ass!
- Working for the correct angle for Infinite Fuchses (didn't quite get it, alack).
- Julia and Sara and Henry (and the back of Sinea's head; and the silhouette of Son).
- Julia and Sara (cute!).
- Spy of Son!
- Son of Spy of Son! (Reflected through two mirrors, I think.)
- Charles, sporting poppy in lapel. (Hard to believe it was still poppy season.)
- Henry and Fifers – both smiling, and in focus, and showing the room to full advantage. Wow!
- Saturday morning and Sara and I strolled down the South Bank to Burrough Market – London's foremost food market, and which has latterly become a fond favourite of Sara's.
- Saturday night was Henry's birthday outing, at a very lively place in Southwark, where we all had a fab time, but I didn't take any pictures, but until we were walking back across London Bridge.
- London! (From London Bridge!, with St. Brides Church and the Millennium footbridge visible.)
- A bit of the South Bank, including the glowing top of the Tate Modern.
- Modern, Millennium Bridge, and ferry – and red sky!
- The next week (Thursday?), we went to lates at the Victoria & Albert Museum: Sara beneath Dale Chihuly blown glass sculpture chandalier (which weighs like 9000 kilograms).
- The V&A's Cast Court (formerly, and more pleasingly, called the Fakes and Forgeries Room!) where they have a perfect, detailed cast of Trajan's Column, amusingly sawn in half.
- They've got, erm, lots of fake stuff, which Sara checks out.
- Family members will recognise that horned Moses, which we had on our mantelpiece all those years.
- Michaelangelo fans won't fail to recognise David's absolutely enormous . . . hands.
- There's a whole other side.
- As with pretty much all the late nights at London's great museums, they had live music (piano and, I think, sax, duet). However, highly pleasingly, the layout of the V&A is such that you could hear the music floating hauntingly around, pretty much no matter what part of the building you were in . . .
- Did I mention Julia was along? She was. Here we are, trekking around upstairs, trying to see if we could sneak our way in the Penguin books exhibit, which was officially closed, along with the other thing we came specifically to see, which was the newly redone and re-opened (except tonight) garden.
- "Peter, I can see your house from here . . ."
- I think this shot was quite clever in conception, though less so in execution.
- The obverse is true of this one, I think.
- Sara and Julia as gallery-going wraiths!
