Like a flashmob, but - more subtle.

For any of our students looking to squeeze one more London-ish thing into their final week, there will be a subtlemob event on Wednesday, near the London Centre - check this page for your instructions.

I am an agent

This past Thursday I was over at the Wellcome for another of their 'Exchanges at the Frontier' series. (They're being broadcast on the World Service on Wednesdays through December & available on iplayer).

This time was Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer of the SETI institute, who was a very entertaining speaker indeed, and he and A.C. Grayling get a great many points for their very gracious handling of the crazier audience questions. Their events are always interesting, and this was no exception.

I also managed to get there in time to take a look around their new Identity exhibition. In brief: highly recommended - go if you can.

I keep thinking I'll have time to write an actual review, but reality suggests that I won't, so here's the Londonist one, which I think covers the ground well. It's impressing me with how different they make the usual exhibition space feel from theme to theme. As an ex classicist and ex lit student, one of my favourite touches were the ancient mirrors from Freud's collection that were tucked into corners outside the eight 'rooms' - something so evocative about them and their provenance.

* Photo by lady Vic, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

Ghost Forest

As I was coming across Trafalgar Square this morning, I was stopped in my tracks be Ghost Forest, by Angela Palmer - there's something very powerful about this assembly of downed trees - their sheer scale, for one thing. (There's a handful of my photos here)

It's in place until Friday, and well worth a side trip to see in person.

life takes turns like fiery shadows

Last night I had the privilege of going with a friend to the award ceremony for the first Welcome Trust Book Prize - a new and extremely generous prize, intended to stimulate interest and debate about medicine and literature.

You might think that with medicine and illness being such a central common experience in human life, such a prize would be redundant, so I was most surprised that the winner - Andrea Gillies - mentioned during her speech that the Guardian had declined to publish a review of her book because it wouldn't have suitably general appeal. Keeper is a story about living with someone who's living with Alzheimer's, and it's startling to think that that's considered a niche thing - I know so many people who's lives have been touched both by the disease itself, and by how that illness has changed people they love. It's certainly a book that's now on my reading list, along with several others from the short list.

since they took down your name

Foyles have posted their events listings for the run from tomorrow (Martin Bell with his new book on the MP's expenses scandal) through to December (Redefining a Classic - Making Classics Relevant in the Modern Age) - there's a rich vein of free events, with a sprinkling of paid ones, all brought to you by one of my favourite London bookshops.

Check them out, and email your reservations soon before they run out of tickets.

(Unrelated: post title comes from '95 Charing Cross Road', by The Penny Black Remedy, and is relevant only by accident of address.)

* Photo by Adam Greenfield, used under Creative Commons, with thanks.

Feed your mind

Can you get to Gower Street at lunchtime? If so, check out these free lunchtime lectures - what a wonderful richness of subjects: today, Vampires, new week the interaction of courts and hospitals in the nation's health, and the list goes on.

(Unfortunately, I can't get to Gower Street in my lunch break, so I'll have to settle for watching the video versions they provide.)

So, the Spear-Danes in days gone by...

Free tonight? There are still a handful of tickets available to see/hear Benjamin Bagby giving a performance of Beowulf in Old English, at the British Museum, in honour of the one thousandth anniversary of the epic.

If you're not free tonight, the performance goes with a free exhibition, where the original manuscript will be on display until January. (The Heaney translation is in our library, too, if any of my students are reading this)

* Photo by dunechaser, used under Creative Commons, with thanks. (Check out his gallery of Literary Minifigs!)

But summer`s gotten away from us

So, One and the Other ended yesterday, and I must admit as I came into work this morning, the plinth looked not just empty but somehow bleak and bereft. I'd gotten used to the always looking up as I cross the square to check who was there and what they were doing.

It's been grand - not just the plinthers themselves, but the wider conversations, especially as it seems to have outlasted the 'modern art is rubbish' knee-jerk. As I was walking home the other day, I saw a policeman explaining what was going on, and talking about some of the other plinthers who he'd seen to a little girl, about 6 or 7 years old, while her mum was taking photos of the square. How often do you get policemen talking to kids, at length, about modern art? Not often enough, I'd guess.

In totally unrelated news: Angels - costumiers for film and tv and fancy-dress suppliers to the stars - are holding a uniform sale next month. 250,000 items, almost all genuine issue, dating from 1900 onwards. I predict that the queue will be huge, and entirely worth it.

* Photo by chrisjohnbeckett, used under Creative Commons.

runs on without you

Today is National Poetry Day, and I'm just squeaking in before midnight...

~~

I keep coming back to this as a favourite London poem, and this is both a fabulous reading, and a fabulous presentation of it : Benjamin Zephaniah reading The London Breed

~~


For a total change of pace, here's some John Burnside: a contemporary Scottish poet whose work has a way of winding its way into my memory and my heart.

Dark Green
(From Myth of the Twin)

There is always a place on the way
where the path curls in the dark,

into the smell of dust
and the stillness of nettles.

There is always a litter of stones
or a broken roof

a few steps into the shade;
an empty skull, a ribcage stitched with grass,

barely a trace of vapour that had lived
before you came:

a remnant of mucus and water, hatched on a bone,
like the silver-and-eggshell perfume after a birth,

or the whisper that swells and recedes in the quick of your mind
when you wake in the day, and the bright dream runs on without you.

********

Or something more traditional? Maybe Christina Rossetti?

This section of Goblin Market, for example:

Morning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry:
"Come buy our orchard fruits,
Come buy, come buy:
Apples and quinces,
Lemons and oranges,
Plump unpecked cherries-
Melons and raspberries,
Bloom-down-cheeked peaches,
Swart-headed mulberries,
Wild free-born cranberries,
Crab-apples, dewberries,
Pine-apples, blackberries,
Apricots, strawberries--
All ripe together
In summer weather--
Morns that pass by,
Fair eves that fly;
Come buy, come buy;
Our grapes fresh from the vine,
Pomegranates full and fine,
Dates and sharp bullaces,
Rare pears and greengages,
Damsons and bilberries,
Taste them and try:
Currants and gooseberries,
Bright-fire-like barberries,
Figs to fill your mouth,
Citrons from the South,
Sweet to tongue and sound to eye,
Come buy, come buy."

~~~~~~~

* Newspaper blackout poem 'All In A Night's Work' by Austin Kleon, used under Creative Commons.

Like the ribs of a broken umbrella

London, like many big cities, is already made up of many overlapping versions of itself, so the idea of one more, just a slip-though-the-cracks away, is fertile ground for fiction.

A while back, I picked up Black Tattoo, by Sam Enthoven , which is a YA fantasy book, set not just in London, but in parts of London I'm very familiar with. (The author used to work at a bookshop just up the road.) While talking about it with a friend, they were started to discover I'd not read Un Lun Dun, by China Miéville. I hadn't even heard of it; had no idea he'd ever written a YA book, but I'm really glad I tracked it down. I haven't been so charmed or entranced with a London story since Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.

Gaiman's London Below is quite different to Miéville's Ab-Cities (London is not alone in having an alter-ego - there's also mention of No York, Parisn't, Lost Angeles, Sans Francisco, Helsunki, Hong Gone, Romeless ...) but they share that same kernel of one more 'other London' which is so terribly tempting. After all, the London experienced by premiership footballers is just as unfamiliar and impenetrable to me as Un Lun Dun, and rather less interesting to me!

Not only does Un Lun Dun touch on many of my favourite fantasy elements, subverting the standard 'prophesy and the chosen one' line, for example, it's also alive with Miéville's love of language. This is a space where the puns can run wild (quite literally) - 'un-brellas' and the very word 'binja' amuse me far more than I should probably admit in public.

I wish I could buy all of these books for work's collection, but leisure reading isn't our focus, so, instead, if there are any of my students reading this: Westminster Libraries have multiples of all three.

* Photo by m.by, used under Creative Commons.

We are the office block persecution affinity

Over on the LUP's group blog, we're talking about favourite buildings, ahead of this weekend's Open House Weekend events.

It feels like almost everywhere else is talking about the launch of Dan Brown's new book, though, and the combination reminded me of something: Freemasons. Specifically, Freemasons’ Hall in London, which is an imposing art deco building near Covent Garden, and the headquarters of the oldest Grand Lodge in the world.

You might be surprised to hear that this secret society offers free public tours, but they do, so if Dan Brown's fictional account of Freemason ceremonies has piqued your interest, you can get inside the Grand Temple with no subterfuge required.

Down by the Thames, lights that sparkle like gems

Planning ahead - the BFI London Film Festival will be running through the second half of October, and ticket bookings open soon, not just for the film screenings, but also for the range of talks, workshops, and other events that go with them.

Also, confirmation that the Trafalgar Square screening will run again this year - free, fascinating short films from the BFI National Archive and London's Screen Archives, in London's living room.

***

In less long-range planning news, it's the Thames Festival this weekend, which offers loads of free events to get involved in, like the Feast On The Bridge and the Night Carnival

Follow Friday, aka twitter resources

Two of my colleagues have started using Twitter as a way of getting timely info to students this semester, and as a result a bunch of students have joined Twitter for the first time.

(This Telegraph blog post is a decent general run through of how to get started on Twitter.)

'Follow Friday (or #FF) is a Twitter 'tradition' where users post recommendations of people they follow. Personally I don't find a list of just account names particularly helpful, so I'm going to take a whole blog post to put together some suggestions of accounts our new-to-Twitter and new-to-London students might want to check out:

General

The BBC, the Guardian and the Times all do a range of feeds, from just the big breaking news stories (eg @bbcbreaking) to more in-depth subject focussed feeds like @bbchealth or @guardiantech.

@DowningStreet - official account for the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown

London

@londonist - if you're not reading this site regularly, the twitter stream is a great way to keep an eye on London news and upcoming events

@londonwestend for West-end focussed updates, including lots of free events

Museum and gallery accounts in cultural areas you're interested in - @BarbicanCentre, @Tate, @V_and_A, @Sadlers_Wells, @RoyalOperaHouse etc etc

@londonweather for your daily forecast

@towerbridge (see this Londonist post for the best summary of why, or why not)

@BBCLondonNews - London news from the BBC

@gigsinlondon - gigs in London, including the free and the 'secret'.

Libraries

@nd_lup_library for updates on the LUP library (shameless self promotion - check)

@WCClibraries for news on Westminster Library events and promotions

@SenateHouseLib to keep up to date with the building works if you're thinking of taking out membership there

@BritishLibrary - Britain's national library.

Personalities

@stephenfry In the words of the song 'thou shalt not question Stephen Fry' - there is a very good reason that he's one of the most followed people on Twitter.

@EddieIzzard - comedian, currently running a ring of back-to-back marathons around the UK.

@neilhimself - author Neil Gaiman

@JohnCleese - the man himself

@MayorOfLOndon - Boris Johnson

Readers who are on Twitter: who or what would you add to this list?

Up and down the City Road, in and out the Eagle

On the one hand, there's an argument to be made that the demise of thelondonpaper, scheduled for the end of this month, is a good thing for London's streets. There's the opposing argument, though, that it's the wrong half of the free-evening-paper brigade that's going, and there's no question that it's a loss for everyone who works on the paper.

They are at least going out with a bang, though - their Headliners mini festival gives you over 50 acts, in 13 central London venues, over two days (16th and 17th Sept) and it's not too late to get a ticket. Check out the website for venues, line-up, and ticket info : http://thelondonpaperheadliners.com/

We wait in the shadows

I'm at work today, despite the bank holiday, and at 8am this morning, the streets of east London were deserted. Really, eerily, did-I-miss-the-zombie-apocalypse deserted.

I think my sensitivity to the empty streets and lack of traffic might have something to do with one of the books I read this weekend - Stephen Baxter's Flood, in which the world ends, starting in London. Well, starting in London from the perspective of the characters in the book, at least. The descriptions of the the early floods in central London are really vivid, which I'm sure I'll remember them next time I walk down the Embankment at high tide, plus now I'll have something to think about whenever I'm stuck on the Dartford Crossing bridge looking over at Lakeside! (glug, glug, glug)

It's not Romanitas or Neverwhere, which are two of my favourite alternative Londons, but it certainly lingered in my mind this morning!

To the safety of the town

It's not good to get home, turn on the late night news, and find yourself thinking 'Oh - so that's why there were all those police officers at the station.' Still less so when the news is about rival football fans in a street-battle that sent several people to hospital.

It's particularly startling to me because West Ham fans are the people who, over the years, have convinced me that living next to a football club isn't such a bad thing.

I used to live right down the road from another football club - a smaller one, lower down the leagues, and I learned pretty quick to plan my weekends around their games so I wasn't sharing a tube station with fans on their way to matches if I could avoid it.

The experience almost put me off moving into a house so close to a much larger club, but I went back to view it a second time on a match day, and was pleasantly surprised. The tube was busy, sure, and a bit loud, but it wasn't threatening. There were whole families wearing team colours, and a big burly guy with a can of beer in his hands leapt to his feet to offer his seat as soon as an elderly lady got on at the next station. Very different from my experiences before. My neighbour goes to matches with his kids - and his youngest girl was only about 6 when I moved in next door.

I'm not a football fan, but I've recommended Upton Park to friends as a place to see a match in the past, and I've never felt uncomfortable when I'm sharing my streets and my tube carriage with people on their way too or from a match.

But the news on Tuesday told a far different story; one that saddens and worries me.

Crowds are always volatile things, and it's always good to be aware of how quickly the mood can change. Maybe it's just a few bad apples. Maybe it was just this match, with it's historical rivalry.

I really do hope that it was a one-off, an aberration, and that my neighbours, and the other fans and families like them will make it clear to the guys who were out for a fight that they're not welcome.

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter

Dan Zambonini's alternative tube map has got me thinking about suggestions to make for the right hand side of the map, which is looking a little thin compared to the Northern Line and zone 1.

Test tubes and Tesla coils

As it happens, there's a copy of this book in my office waiting to be catalogued and added to the cultural travel section of the library when my holiday is over. If there wasn't, though, Bill Thompson's blog post about The Geek Atlas would have persuaded me to order it.

It looks like an excellent companion to the (now out of print) The Scientific Traveler: A Guide to the People, Places, and Institutions of Europe by Charles Tanford and Jacqueline Reynolds from John Wiley, and will hopefully provide some balance to the more literary and art-history focused travel books.

[The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science & Technology Come Alive, was written by John Graham-Cumming and is published by O’Reilly Media.]

Enter and rejoice this pedestal

Thanks to being on summer break, I've missed a lot of the ambient One & Other exposure I'd be getting if I was in work as normal, although I did finally manage to time my tea break today to be wandering past at a change over!

The live-feed on the website, and the Guardian's @plinthwatch on Twitter has been keeping me up to date, though.

I think my favourite in-person plinther so far was the gentleman conducting a small group of musicians below him, which must have been last Monday? - this afternoon's bubbles also pleased me.



It's a fascinating project, and it's a lovely thing to see something on that corner that makes me smile every time I cross the square. The only frustrating thing is that, unless you have a decent zoom, it's practically impossible to photograph of any of the things people get up to up there!

* OK, so that's not One & Other, in this bottom image, but it is an excellent photograph - too good to resist.

it's time for tea

It's my current student group's last day tomorrow - but they get to leave London in style. Tomorrow is not just their last day, it's also the annual Trooping the Colour celebration of the Queen's birthday - it's too late to get tickets for the Horseguards seats, but it's free to take your place by the roadside to watch the parade, and get your dose of traditional pomp and circumstance.

And, of course, this puts me in mind of the AA Milne poem, Buckingham Palace.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the guard.
"A soldier's life is terrible hard,"
Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
We saw a guard in a sentry-box.
"One of the sergeants looks after their socks,"
Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
We looked for the King, but he never came.
"Well, God take care of him, all the same,"
Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
They've great big parties inside the grounds.
"I wouldn't be King for a hundred pounds,"
Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
A face looked out, but it wasn't the King's.
"He's much too busy a-signing things,"
Says Alice.

They're changing guard at Buckingham Palace -
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
"Do you think the King knows all about me?"
"Sure to, dear, but it's time for tea,"
Says Alice.

The big news today is the tube strike, which has had knock-on effects on almost everyone in London, but I particularly want to point you to this take, from an ambulance dispatch allocator It's almost impossible to overstate how vital the tube (public transport in general, but the underground in particular) is to the smooth functioning of my city.

London Tip of the Day #5

London Walks are *the* walking tour company. Accept no substitutes!

I know, these guys get splashed all over the guide books, but they really are excellent - and not just for tourists. Some of the west-end ones are weighted that way more than the rest, but I've been on a good number of London Walks walks, always learned something, and never been the only Londoner in the party.

(I wanted to link you to the upcoming Story of London Walking Weekend on the 6th/7th, but as there's exactly no information about the specifics on the site, there's not much point. I'll report back when that changes!)

London Tip of the Day #4

More audio tours - Visit London offers free podcast audio-tours, either by region (Greenwich, Primrose Hill etc) or by theme (the arts, outdoor London etc).

Soundmaps' audio around Brick Lane, Camden, Kings Road, Soho and Brixton are more expensive than free, but get really good reviews and have an excellent pedigree.

London Tip of the Day #3

(today's tip is unashamedly lifted from Londonist, a resource of much goodness. In fact, London Tip of the Day 3a - read Londonist!)

Free London Audio Guide - hit the map, click an image, hear what they've got to say about your landmark of choice. (Or download the whole lot for a fiver)

London Tip of the Day #2

Free stuff! Most everyone likes free, and London has a lot of free to offer - and not just museums and galleries, either.

Check out Free London Listings or Time Out's advanced search section for a convenient one-stop guide to free events that are going on.

London Tip of the Day #1

I have been neglecting this blog terribly recently - too little time, too much to do - but as I have just welcomed a new batch of students at work, I'm going to try and remedy that with short, sweet, London Tip of the Day posts for - lets say for a week and see what happens from there?

London Tip of the Day #1 : (Covent Garden based and sweet indeed)

Candy Cakes on Monmouth Street for when you really don't want to have to choose between candy or cake

Cyber Candy - for candy from around the world

and

Hope and Greenwood - purveyors of splendid British confectionery, aka the ultimate sweet shop.

Budget day

Is it good news or bad news for you, your friends and family, or the country in general?

Intute collect the best resources on and about the budget hereand the BBC's Budget 2009 page reports the news and reactions.

Westminster Police have just reminded me that today's the queen's birthday. The real one, rather than the official one that gets celebrated with the Trooping of the Colours in June. 

41 gun salute in Green Park at noon, and happy 83rd to Elizabeth II.

We could listen

On Tuesday, we had the privilege of Anne-Marie Fyfe reading at my workplace.  Especially having been to a couple of readings by novelists this year where the audience was reminded that performing skills and writing skills do not come evenly matched, it was really lovely to hear someone read their work so well.

You can read one of the poems she read for us, Curacao Dusk, on the Academi Cardiff International Poetry Competition website, or if you'd like to listen, there are recordings of her reading some of her poems at poetcasting.co.uk

Still moments

Sometimes, I really do just fall in love with my city that little bit more. 

Like yesterday evening, walking across Trafalgar Square in the warm evening sunshine, when it was busy but not crowded, when it was populated by pavement artists, and buskers, and a b-boy crew showing off for the crowd, and guys practising skate tricks, and tourists, and locals, when it was impossible not to smile.

Like yesterday evening, walking down the Thames Path in the cooling twilight, listening to the rubbish barges clashing against their moorings, and voices spilling out from the pubs, and smelling the chlorine under Cannon Street, and sharing the path with no one, when it was impossible not to smile.

Like yesterday evening, walking home from the tube station, past the tiny historic cottage orphaned amongst the 1960s council flats, past my neighbours' kids bikes piled in the front gardens, past my neighbour sitting out on his front step with a cigarette and a wave, to my front door, when it was impossible not to appreciate living in this place.

For all its problems, for all its downsides, I do just love this place.

G20 - drive-by-blogging

Map-based coverage of G20 related events and protests; from the Telegraph via GoogleMaps and from the BBC.

For more in-depth information on the meetings themselves, go straight to source at http://www.g20.org, or for even more detail, you could read Macroeconomic Stability and Financial Regulation: Key Issues for the G20 (Dewatripont, Freixas and Portes, eds)

The Guardian's DataBlog is an interesting source of fact and figures - today's data set is looking at the figures on people applying for British Citizenship.

Does a passport make you British? Sunny Hundal writes that the nature of this debate must be controlled by progressives.

I've always maintained that we decide whether to call ourselves British, English or whatever other identity, not the racists. I have a Sikh mate with a large beard who sports his English football shirt with its big St George's flag with pride. Who am I to argue with him?

The figures below are from a written answer and show UK citizenship applications being processed at the beginning of this month.

Ten years gone

/> Has it really been ten years since the Metro hit London?

It's such a ubiquitous part of the morning commute, I don't know if I'm more startled that I can remember commuting 10 years ago (to college! I point out) or that it's *only* ten years.

The pictures of time and space are rearranged

Way back when the next round of Fourth Plinth works were up for selection, I was really enthused about Antony Gormley's 'living statue' plan. Now One and Other been chosen as one of the two pieces to go forward, I still am. I've already registered, in hopes of being picked to stand my hour on the plinth. How about you?

Pancake day!

Today is Shrove Tuesday, which in the UK is pancake day.

'Shrove' comes from 'shrive', which means to give or gain absolution through confession and absolution, as preparation for the religious season of Lent. My housemate is actually giving up dairy for Lent this year, so the traditional feast to use up the milk and eggs has particular relevance.

Londonist has a good round up of the public events going on in London today, but even if you don't make it to any of them, you can still celebrate a very authentic Pancake Day at home.

Having spent some time looking up recipies for American-style pancakes, I'm starting to see the point of using Bisquick, but regular English pancakes are simple enough that there's no real purpose to all the kits and mixes the supermarkets are trying to flog.

For ten or twelve pancakes you need

4oz / 110g plain flour.
2 large eggs.
10fl oz / 275ml semi skimmed milk. (Delia Smith, original source of this recipie, faffs about with whole milk and water, but really - life's too short!)
+
butter or oil for cooking. (Delia says butter, I use oil, which gets hotter without burning, but in any case she's right about the amount - you only need the slightest sugestion of either - the pan needs to be greased, but the pancakes must not fry in fat.)

Break eggs into flour, beat, and then gradually add the milk, whisking all along, until your batter is smooth. You can make up the batter several hours in advance if that's more convenient, or when you're ready to cook, if that's more convenient.

It you don't feel confident about flipping your pancake (loosen it all around with a spatula first), you can slide the half cooked pancake onto a plate, put the pan upsie down over it, and flip it back that way.

Just accept that your first pancake will probably be a mess, and make sure the pan's hotter and you use less batter for the second, and then - away you go!

The traditional topping is sugar and lemon juice, but so many things are tasty on pancakes, so why limit yourself?

burning bright

The Monument ; re-opens today - right about now, in fact.

The Great Fire had such a huge impact on the city's architecture and social history, and the monument itself is such an iconic mark of the city, even now that it's surrounded by so many tall buildings (the history of the anti-Catholic coda added and then removed from the north inscription tells its own story.)

It's my second-favourite historic thing to climb in London (#1 being, of course, the dome of St Paul's)  and I'm glad that folks once again have the opportunity to do so.

Darwin Bicentanial

Happy 200th Birthday, Charles Darwin!

There's a whole bunch of events and exhibitions going on around the city today and over the coming weeks , and, of course, you can visit darwin-online.org.uk for his complete works online, plus lots of other Darwin related resources.

something for nothing

Under 26? Want to go out to the theatre for free? Then you're in luck - A Night Less Ordinary is offering you exactly that, with free tickets for productions at over thirty venues in London, and hundreds around the UK. It doesn't get cheaper than free!

Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow

(Oops - wrote this in the middle of last week and managed not to post it - the silver lining would be that I've had more photos from our students, so now they're all in one post.)

Snow! Well, it's mostly slush and grit right now, but Monday was my first ever official snow day, as so much of the transport network was down, none of us were getting into work. This is a really interesting post on why, from the point of view of a tube driver.

Meanwhile, our students made good use of the day - there were some excellent Britain-related snow-creations:
This snowman is well travelled around central London. This tea-drinking snowman is a temporary inhabitant for a traditional red phone box while this Snow Queen graciously receives her courtiers and creators .

Moving beyond mere royalty, there's a snow houses of parliament and a Snowhenge of substantial size and occupation (complete with snow druid ).

Thank you so much to all the students who shared photos - if you have more, link in the comments, or send me an email!

(Meanwhile, out in east London, my neighbours were adding to the ranks of supporters for our local football team.)

**********

In other news, the thing I intended to post today:

Thing I had no idea you could do: take a free tour of Freemason's Hall

Thing I have been meaning to get around to for ages but have only just looked up the dates for: taking a free tour of City Hall

Thing that is a little sad but a lot interesting: the changing face of the Charing Cross Road area

Thing that I find funny because I have been to this gig so many times ...: five reasons why no one sees amateur music any more

reading your way there

A lot of my students are talking about travel plans at the moment, and a couple of them have also asked me about finding novels to read that are London books.

The combination reminded me that a novel with a strong sense of place often gives me at least as much of a sense of a city as any guide book could do. Sure, when you're standing on a street corner, looking for a place for dinner, a traditional guide is useful, but I often read books set somewhere before I get there, and I find that helps me connect to the life of the city. (Not always the contemporary life, though - Venice may be Commissario Brunett's beat, but I must confess that, for me, parts of Rome are Falco's)

Not everybody realises that, as well as the default setting of 'search by emotion', Whichbook also offers the option to search by setting . (There's also a text-based version if you're not quite sure where your destination is on the map.)

Whichbook is closely related to the UK's public library network, so you can expect to find the books recommended there in your local public library, along with the more traditional guide books.

I'm juggling day and night.

I'm on a lot of mailing lists - the kind you actively choose to sign up for - venues, promoters, bands, clubs, galleries, museums. It's an easy way to get information about things I'm interested in delivered to my inbox without me needing to hunt through listings guides.

Just about the only down side to signing up for them is that we have not yet invented 28 hour days and time travel!

This month's Wellcome Collection Events update is tempting me with several things, including Anatomies of London, which is next Thursday in the middle of the afternoon when I'm at work.

On the other hand, the collection of events looking at the science and sociology of various circus skills (juggling, contortion, sword swallowing) are all evening based, so I see some free e-ticket booking in immediate future.

I just need to check what else they might clash with!

Domine Deus / Creator coeli et terrae

I haven't sung in a choir since I was 17. I haven't sung in a choir since I was 17 and every single time I've been scheduled to be part of a major performance I've come down with laryngitis on the day, and yet I still see details of the Tallis Festival and think shiny!! .

Signing up for the choir is clearly off the cards, but attending the free final concert in the beautiful Union Chapel - that's going on the calender...

These boots are made for walking

London Walks - a generally useful source of info about waking routes in and around London* - are organising a slew of guided (or 'led') walks over the last weekend of the month.

Unfortunately, I'll be out of town, but I recommend them as a way of getting out there and seeing parts of London tourists don't get to interact with, and/or learning more about your local area.


(Although *why* there is no map of the Greenway out in east London I still don't know. I'm also not sure why none of the 'Led Walks' cover the bit of said Greenway that cuts through the 2012 Olympic site. I'd have thought there'd be plenty to say there! That section's worth exploring in it's own right, I'd say.)