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.)