Welcome to the Lodge!: 04/05/2009

9 April 2009

In a small road across the street from my office...

8 April 2009

My colleague Annette presents my DELICIOUS 'Getting Well' tiramisu.
Vielen Dank!!!

7 April 2009

Walking from the doc's office to the library, came across this interesting moving service along Elgin Avenue. Well preferred to taking the stairs!

6 April 2009

Went shopping after work in Covent Garden.

Trying on my new 'springy green' sweater from Next:

5 April 2009

Delicious Sunday lunch of simply garlicy baked sea bass and potatoes and cheese and strawberries and wine a la Casa Ruth & Trefor! Just a wonderfully civilized way to spend the afternoon, followed naturally by a sojurn to the Warrington.

The gang's question of debate this night settled on the Pope's responsibility for preventing the spread of AIDS in Africa. The matter grew heated and we ended up instituting a Lord of the Flies style 'Holder of the Conch has the floor' rule, with Tref's wallet serving as Conch.

Summed thus:
Shazzie: 'All he has to do is say two words: Use Condoms.'
Chris: [positing that the Catholic church's area of responsibility is as a moral force not as a public health advocate]: 'I don't go the the bank and ask for a tomatoe.'
All were in agreement that the heart of the matter is that humans like to f&$%.

Also of note, I had my first Pimm's of the year. For the next five months or so, it's Pimm's o'Clock, people!

4 April 2009

Took the bus to the City and ended up at the Le Corbusier exhibit at the Barbican.
It was the perfect place to host the exhibit as the Barbican seems to me to be apotheosis of the entire modernist utopia movement - it's a remarkable and compelling idea, and yet still it just doesn't quite work. Too much concrete, too inorganic. The Barbican is London's version of Boston's City Hall Plaza.

Can't say as I much share Le Corbusier's taste, although I appreciate the clean lines of the furniture and even of the individual buildings. It's his master urban planning visions that sent shivers down my spine. I actually gasped when viewing his 'map' of Paris, which envisioned mowing down the Right Bank and replacing the existing arcades and already-Hausmann'd Boulevards with a giant council estate of twenty identical high rise buildings. On his modified map of Paris, he had drawn this overhead view and the buildings looked like the hulking metal jacks that served as WWI anti-tank barriers (I'm sure there's a proper name for this). In Algiers, his plan was for a miles-long apartment building that would hug the entire crescent of the seafront - completely cutting off public access and the relationship between the sea and the rest of the city. What was he thinking?

3 April 2009

Friday night at the Prince Charles Cinema - for a showing of the French film "The Class".
An interesting 'year in the life' idea of an inner-city Parisian high school French class. I appreciated that the story lines seemed organic, not hewing to an artificial overarching plot of trial and redemption. You feel the challenges the teacher faces, you see the students evolve (or not) over the course of the year... it seemed very real. There are questions left unanswered, situations not tidily resolved. Good film.

Welcome to the Lodge!

Friday, April 10, 2009