London in pictures(click thumbnails for full versions)
The Olympic stadium continues to take shape. The lower level of the stadium bowl is now pretty much in place, along with about a quarter of the steel raking needed to support the detachable upper tier seating. Still three clear years to go before the world arrives to watch fit athletes, but it's now perfectly possible to imagine where they're going to sit. Meanwhile the pylons that used to run across the edge of the stadium site have all been dismantled, as promised, leaving a skyscape of twizzling tower cranes. It's damned impressive stuff, which might explain why there were so many ramblers and cyclists staring at it from the Greenway bridge yesterday. Me, I was fascinated by the ever increasing number of health and safety signs erected across the muddy building site around the perimeter. And amused to spot a newly-arrived burger van parked up beside a sign saying "Primary Foul Drainage". And quite sad remembering that there used be several trees here, and now there are none anywhere in sight.
Yesterday was Shop Weekend VIP Day in Oxford Street and Regent Street - an annual excuse to ban all vehicles and thereby cause major tailbacks on all surrounding streets. The perfect event for anyone who wanted to go Christmas shopping in stores considerably more crowded than usual whilst being accosted by face-painting elves and Sally Army trombonists. Which appeared to be hundreds of thousands of people, some of whom actually ended up carrying shopping bags. It was hard to walk far without some minion from sponsors Visa thrusting an advert in your face, and there were rather a lot of Nokia pluggers on the loose too. Most fun, however, was the singing nun scooting up and down the street sat on a mobile piano. This wimpled bloke turned heads wherever she went, singing carols and winsome ditties with a knowing wink, then accelerating off to perturb some unsuspecting audience further down the street. You can hireSister Ruth for your own "mix and mingle" event should you have £630 to spare. If not, I'm sure she'll be back again warbling on wheels in Oxford Street next year.
Have you ever seen a more pretentious sign than this? It's affixed to a wall round the back of 100 New Bridge Street in the City of London, and repeated several times in case you don't get the message straight away. The wall in question is blessed by 23 large mottled stonewaretilepanels, each with different Escher-like patterns designed by potter Rupert Spira. They're rather pretty geometric designs, and well worth protecting, but not something you'd expect a company to get quite this uppity about. I can only imagine that they've had serious trouble in the past with careless bikers leaving their vehicles in close proximity, and have undergone some sort of humour bypass in the process. This inflated sense of self-worth was confirmed when a security guard exited the building, walked round to the rear and asked me why I was taking photographs of his wall. I told him that I'd found the sign particularly amusing, which didn't seem to amuse him and he asked me the same question three more times. I resisted telling him that he was a miserable tosser, and that his company was clearly full of miserable tossers, because I didn't think that would be helpful. He then told me, quite firmly, that the company don't like people taking photographs of their building, which made me wonder why they don't have a patronising sign about that on their wall too. Eventually he let me go, thankfully without insisting I forfeit my memory card or grovel at his feet or sign a written apology. I walked away rattled and disheartened. The wall's in Waithman Street in case you want to avoid the area completely. Or in case you have a motorbike and ever fancy travelling out of your way to park it somewhere really annoying.
Yesterday was Shop Weekend VIP Day in Oxford Street and Regent Street - an annual excuse to ban all vehicles and thereby cause major tailbacks on all surrounding streets. The perfect event for anyone who wanted to go Christmas shopping in stores considerably more crowded than usual whilst being accosted by face-painting elves and Sally Army trombonists. Which appeared to be hundreds of thousands of people, some of whom actually ended up carrying shopping bags. It was hard to walk far without some minion from sponsors Visa thrusting an advert in your face, and there were rather a lot of Nokia pluggers on the loose too. Most fun, however, was the singing nun scooting up and down the street sat on a mobile piano. This wimpled bloke turned heads wherever she went, singing carols and winsome ditties with a knowing wink, then accelerating off to perturb some unsuspecting audience further down the street. You can hire Sister Ruth for your own "mix and mingle" event should you have £630 to spare. If not, I'm sure she'll be back again warbling on wheels in Oxford Street next year.
Have you ever seen a more pretentious sign than this? It's affixed to a wall round the back of 100 New Bridge Street in the City of London, and repeated several times in case you don't get the message straight away. The wall in question is blessed by 23 large mottled stoneware tile panels, each with different Escher-like patterns designed by potter Rupert Spira. They're rather pretty geometric designs, and well worth protecting, but not something you'd expect a company to get quite this uppity about. I can only imagine that they've had serious trouble in the past with careless bikers leaving their vehicles in close proximity, and have undergone some sort of humour bypass in the process. This inflated sense of self-worth was confirmed when a security guard exited the building, walked round to the rear and asked me why I was taking photographs of his wall. I told him that I'd found the sign particularly amusing, which didn't seem to amuse him and he asked me the same question three more times. I resisted telling him that he was a miserable tosser, and that his company was clearly full of miserable tossers, because I didn't think that would be helpful. He then told me, quite firmly, that the company don't like people taking photographs of their building, which made me wonder why they don't have a patronising sign about that on their wall too. Eventually he let me go, thankfully without insisting I forfeit my memory card or grovel at his feet or sign a written apology. I walked away rattled and disheartened. The wall's in Waithman Street in case you want to avoid the area completely. Or in case you have a motorbike and ever fancy travelling out of your way to park it somewhere really annoying.
