Isle of Wight trip(ette)

This weekend involved a lot of travelling, family and eating.  Lovely.  Well, at least I'm pretty sure it was through the haze of my latest head cold.  Afternoon napping played a small part too, which always feels quite decadent at least.

Whilst enjoying a day and a bit on the Isle of Wight we went for a post-lunch walk on Yarmouth Pier, which is the only pier in the British Isles that is constructed completely of wood (except for nuts and bolts etc, obvs).  People donated money (£25) and their name/s are on the planks for all to see - 552 were up for grabs.

At the end of the pier is this lovely little wind shelter in true British seaside-y style and lovely bright colours.  According to t'interweb, who call it a pavilion, which seems a very grand name even if it is lovely, it used to be the Piers Masters Office and have doors and sash windows.  Which is great, but what on earth does a Piers Master do?  More importantly, if I agree to do it can I have the hut, I mean, pavilion?

The sun broke through the clouds and is was a glorious five minutes by the seaside...

...which nicely balanced out some of the hours we spent as patrons of South West trains.

So, sea-air filled lungs, amazing food-filled bellies and lots and lots of sleep and I'm ready to face the week.  And as an added bonus, having had a quick wander about the internet to find out about the pier, I've come across all sorts of interesting facts to utilise on my next trip.  Fabulous!

For whom the bells toll

Walk of the month this month in the Tower Hamlets community newspaper was Aldgate East to Whitechapel.  (I'll be honest and say I have no idea if there are always walks as I've never read the paper before.)

We decided to hoof it about in East London Town whilst our roast chicken a la Jamie (minus lemon) was cooking.  There was lots to see that I have been past dozens of times and not paid any attention to before, a few of the more interesting sights were duly captured by moi.

St Boniface's German church.  Apparently there is still a German congregation here in what used to be called 'Little Germany', home to sugar bakers and cigar makers.

Whitechapel Bell Foundry.  Britain's oldest manufacturing company (est 1570) and the place where Big Ben was cast.

How on earth Sam was planning on directing us round the walk with his hands over his eyes I have no idea.... He soon got back with the programme though and on we went.

We managed to miss a 22m high minaret on the East London Mosque...not really sure how in retrospect but we did spot the innocuous entrance to the Fieldgate Street Great Synagogue, which now I look at the info was apparently right next door to said mosque so we must really have been slack on the ol'attention front.

Lovely flats on Fieldgate Street near the wonderful Tayyabs restaurant.  A bastion of Indian cuisine well worth visiting...frequently.

There was quite a bit of stuff about other places along the way and my favourite building for sheer Poirot-esque fabulousness was Gwynne House.  Can't you just imagine the little grey cells working away in one of those flats?  With help from Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp obvs.

At this point we realised that our roast chicken a la Jamie was nearing readiness and we'd better get a move on to Tesco and get some accompanying gravy granuals when we happened to pass the childhood home of Jack Cohen, founder of Tesco.  It says here in the paper that while selling tea by TE Stockwell at London Markets he decided to combine his name with this brand to make Tesco.

There are now 5 Tesco branches within 10-15 minutes of my flat so clearly, whilst I think this smacks like a lack of imagination on the naming front it hasn't impeded his company taking over the world, one shopping unit at a time, despite the best efforts of Sir Hugh Fearnly of Whittingstall and his campaigning, of which I am much in favour.

Corporate Induction

Now, today's Corporate Induction could have gone a few different ways.  I'll admit that the mention of it brought to mind images of alien abduction and 'reconditioning' of the human mind.  I was semi-convinced I'd be walking through a metal detector in a few years time and discover a chip had been implanted in my mind, like Scully in the X-Files (formative and influential tv pour moi).

Actually it was fine, if, obviously, tres dull - death by Powerpoint anyone?

My 'artist's impression'....I don't remember much after this....

But there was talk of 5 year plans, Mao Zedong and continuous revolution came up a few times...  Bit random but then again the Chief Exec gave a potted history of the organisation beginning with The Enlightenment (no joke) so Mao was a least a fairly modern, if a little left wing reference point.

My personal 5 year action plan.  (NB. anyone winning any money using these numbers hereby owes me a half share.)

Stik

After posting the picture of the stick man I was reliably informed by the lovely Maz that these pictures are by a graffiti artist who calls himself Stik (at least I'm going to go ahead and assume this isn't his real name...then again, Peaches, Apple, Satchel et al?  Who can tell?).

I spotted a few more of his works over the weekend whilst participating in a walking tour of East London Town (more of which later once I've found all the historical facts to bore you with).

Small grey doorway in Whitechapel somewhere...not sure where I was not in charge of directions and have no sense of direction.  It was near Tayabs for those of you familiar with this amazing bastion of Indian cuisine.

Purple, peering out from the arches to your left as you walk up Bethnal Green Road from the tube.  Only spotted as my companion was musing on how this part of BG is really EAST, like in Eastenders or something and was therefore rubbernecking the arches to see if there were any Phil'n'Grant types lurking about...

Orange crowd cheering on passers-by, located by Shoreditch High Street station...and very 'in keeping' in it's orangeness with the general colour-glare of the East London line.

There's an interview with the man himself here - http://streetartlondon.co.uk/blog/street-artist-interview-stik/#more-1174 - if anyone's interested... The yellow pic at the bottom of the article is now the orange piece above.

Toilet Candy...no, really.

There I am, standing in Coffee@ on Brick Lane waiting for the lovely folk to serve me my large flat white with an extra shot (some days you need that extra shot), perusing Mystic Meg's useful  life advice on the counter top

and what should catch my eye?

Toilet Candy.  Is it just me or is this a new, dizzying height in bad taste successfully scaled?

Bit of a blurry shot here as I felt a bit self conscious being the weirdo photographing the toilet based confectionery, but I think you can see what they've achieved here.

I can see it now: "So, little Jimmy, would you like a Curly Wurly?  Some chocolate buttons?  No?"  "I want toilet candy!!!"  Gross.  Jimmy's poor mother will never be the same again after purchasing bog-sweets for her little darling.

In other news but on a similarly random tangent I walked home from the cinema yesterday after watching The Fighter, which was excellent if you're interested, and went past this at 11pm:

Yep, all your fresh fruit and veg needs catered for.  At 11pm.  Who does their shopping at that hour?  Mind you, now I come to think of it what with my hectic life recently, perhaps this is an unforeseen necessity for the modern citizen.

A little bit of this and that

So...that's a FAIL on my initial thinking that I would get around to blogging once a week.  Oh well, I have a good excuse (ish) as I was not anywhere near my computer all weekend.  I also failed to complete my Valentine's Day craft project, cleaning my flat and getting any rest.  I'd say better luck this week but it's pretty much full tilt for the next few weeks and then I'll be in Nu Yoik....which clearly will be, like, totally relaxing.  Not.

Anywho, last week I was:

Spotting images of this stick figure around my manor.  I heart the East London Town 'let's put art of the walls everywhere' attitude.

Visiting with my lovely friend Ceri who is finally starting to look pregnant - she was managing a Posh Spice 'bump? what bump?' up until now.  This child is due to put in an appearance in May and I am tres excited about being a faux-auntie, buying him or her inappropriately noisy toys and taking them for sugar based snacks before delivering them to their parents to deal with the consequences.  Fabulous.

Ceri's banoffee pie.  Mmmmm.....  This is actually shockingly easy to make and always impresses.

This is a picture of Duffy.  Yeah, yeah, not that keen on the ol'musicality but this dress is the most beautiful thing I've seen in ages and I'm now trying to figure out a way in which I can justify owning/ wearing something like this without looking like an Upstairs Downstairs extra...

A Trip to the Tate Modern

The Tate Modern is one of my favourite places with a hushed reverential air, lots to see and benches (take note Saatchi Gallery - people need somewhere to rest up!).  I went yesterday with my friend Sacha after a lovely brunch at The Table on Southwark Street.  Eggs Royale and a flat white? Oh, yes.

Anyhow, I hadn't realised before that you were allowed to take photos...or maybe you're not, but everyone else was doing it so I decided to take some of the things that caught my eye.  Bacon?  Monet?  Miro?  Oh, no.  Although they are indeed amazing it was the weird little drawings, sketches and photos that made me stop and take an interest.

Stick 'em up....

This was part of a series of cartoon characters and skulls and things.  Alice here is less 'in Wonderland' and more 'half in the grave being swallowed by the earth next to a skull'.  I like.

Cannibals have issues too.  I read an interesting article the other day on whether cannibalism was ok if it was for the greater good, but that's a bit off subject/ gorey thought-wise perhaps for right now.

Ents in rather dapper clothes chatting up Gareth Pugh-esque clad lady folk. S/S 2011 look, perhaps?

It's raining ladies apparently now too.

Anywho, that was my day.  I came home via pretty much EVERY vintage shop in East London it felt like, searching for old clothes to craft with but I couldn't find the right fabrics so I watched Silent Witness instead.  I had missed the second half of last week as I was away and was glad to discover it was all a horrible mistake and they didn't kill off Harry afterall.  Phew!

Ta-ra.  x