Indeed:
That photo was taken (by me (near Westminster Abbey)) in July 2006. You never see people clutching street maps like that now. All such maps now are smartphone maps.
Category: My photographs
The Trump blimp
It continues to be hot, and so the quota photos continue. At least this one is relatively recent.
I walked to Parliament Square last Friday morning, and caught the fag end of the anti-Trump demo. What the demo had consisted of at its height, I don’t know, so my impressions of what went on in Parliament Square, just after the Trump blimp had been brought down to earth, and just before it was deflated by its minders and put in a van and driven away, don’t necessarily mean much. But for what it’s worth, it all seemed pretty feeble to me. There were lots of placards saying how much the holders of the placards hated Trump and wanted him to go home, drop dead, fuck off, etc. But they didn’t seem to want any particular policy to change. They just hated Trump. And his tweeting.
The whole atmosphere was strangely relaxed. It made me think I wasn’t the only non-sympathiser present, attracted to the demo by the Trump blimp, and by the general desire to see what all the fuss consisted of.
When the weather cools down, I might manage some more thoughts about all this anti-Trumpery, for Samizdata, but I promise nothing.
In my photo, it looks to me like Trump owns them, rather than the demoers doing anything to him that he need worry about. But then, I don’t sympathise.
Originally posted at Brian Micklethwait’s Old Blog
Quota cloud
Indeed:
Photed by me in Warwick Way, this afternoon.
Originally posted at Brian Micklethwait’s Old Blog
Big Thing Alignment with an appropriate slogan in the foreground
Photoed by me last Monday, from the train on the way back from Denmark Hill (which is where I also photoed that helipad (better to scroll down to that)):
The train being the explanation for that reflection, on the right there.
At the time, of course, I was merely going for that rather splendid Big Thing Alignment, of The Shard with The City Big Thing Cluster. And at the time, I was merely regretting that it probably wouldn’t come out quite as sharply as I’d have liked, and so it proved.
What I was not going for was a machine in a foreground with the words “REACH FOR THE SK…” on its arm. Presumably reach for the SKY. Which is, I think, rather suitable.
Shame I didn’t quite get all of that little slogan, but I got enough for the photo to be worth showing here.
Originally posted at Brian Micklethwait’s Old Blog
Confessions of a preemptive pessimist
I was asleep when England got their first goal. My urban locality erupted with honking and shouting. I looked at my bedside clock, and it was just after 7pm, when the game was due to begin. Sure enough, when I cranked up the telly: CRO 0-1 ENG. (You don’t need any links. You surely know what I’m talking about.)
I recall this phenomenon happening before, this time right at the end of a game of this kind. It was 0-0 at the very end of extra time, and about to be a shoot-out. Against Belgium, I think it was. And then someone called Platt, I think it was, scored a goal for England, when I was in my toilet. The noises that I heard from my neighbours could only mean an England goal. So it was with Trippier’s early goal this evening.
I am and remain a preemptive pessimist about England’s chances in this tournament, because this will soften the blow when the blow does fall, as fall it surely must. An early goal, such as England have just scored, is often a mistake, because it gets the opposition stirred up. It makes them forget any nerves they feel and really play, because they have to really play. The early goal-scorers on the other hand, are tempted to defend too much and let the other fellows into the game. And then when the other fellows equalise, they are the ones with the momentum. Sure enough, as half time nears, England are getting sloppy and Croatia now have a chance. Well, it’s now half time, but I still back Croatia to win this.
Now, they’re saying that England had lots of chances and should be further ahead. Indeed. So when Croatia do equalise, England will be very depressed, and will lose.
Roy Keane, a fellow pre-emptive pessimist by the sound of it: “England got a bit sloppy.”
Oh, the torture of hope.
And the further torture of feeling like a idiot, for taking such events far, far more seriously than anyone should.
In particular, I feel the difference between someone like me, who refuses to get his hopes up, and “real” fans, who do get their hopes up. I “contribute” nothing to the success of any team I support, as in: like to see winning but don’t get hysterical about. Yet in truth, the hysterics contribute very little more than I do. Just the occasional encouraging bellow. But if England never do get eliminated from this World Cup (I shun the w word) I feel that I will not have deserved it, but that the hysterics and the bellowers will have deserved it. If you suffer, you deserve to succeed. If you shun suffering, you do not. Even if the suffering accomplishes nothing.
LATER:
A cleverly chosen name, wouldn’t you say?
For “first” at the start of this, read: early. And only.
Originally posted at Brian Micklethwait’s Old Blog
Helipad next to a railway station
Last Saturday, in the afternoon, while the rest of England was obsessing over Sweden v England, I was taking the train from Victoria around the south of central London to South Bermondsey, to see an actual man, about a metaphorical dog. My train stopped off at Denmark Hill on its way to Bermondsey, and there I took another of those inside-a-train photos, with yellow tank tracks on it caused by the lighting in the train:
That looks like some sort of helicopter landing and taking off pad, of the sort that they have on top of hospitals.
If this was the twentieth century, it would have remained a mystery, to me, for ever, unless I happened upon someone who knew what this was and I happened to ask him. But it is the twenty first century, and just now, I googled “Denmark Hill helicopter pad”. And in no time at all, I learned that this was a helicopter landing and taking off pad on top of a hospital.
To say that I unreservedly love the twenty first century would be to overstate matters. But it does have its features, in among all its various bugs.
So much for the certainties of this situation, as revealed by the internet, one of the better features of this century so far.
Now for some guesses.
Why the ramp, leading from the pad, to the hospital?
Why not a lift, into which bodies can simply be wheeled, in about ten seconds?
My guess is that nothing is allowed to protrude above the surface of the pad, in case helicopters are blown into it by a gust of wind, or in case they miscalculate in some other way. No protrusions. Not even for seriously injured bodies, perhaps close to death.
So, the ramp. And for the first few scary yards of it, there are no fences to stop you or the body trolley you are pushing being blown off, just a horizontal bit of wire netting to catch it and you, and prevent the very worst, just like the similar horizontal bits that surround the pad itself. So, take care. But, as you descend the ramp, a fence slowly rises up around you that will impede any ill-judged horizontal meandering you may blunder or be blown into doing, without in any way impeding the helicopters. And, as soon as you have got down below the pad, you go under it, into a lift. And you are in the hospital and can breath easy, even if the body you have brought with you may be breathing very difficult.
It’s my belief that if you look at my photo, you will see, if not all, then at least most, of the above.
I recall reading, once upon a time, that digital photoing is a substitute for really looking closely at stuff. We photo things instead of really looking at things and really seeing things, said whoever it was who was grumbling. My experience has been the opposite. For me, digital photoing has meant spending so much time looking at and seeing things that the problem has been finding the time time to be doing anything else.
Originally posted at Brian Micklethwait’s Old Blog
Busy (and hot) few days
In an earlier posting this week I said I was about to have a – by my indolent standards – busy few days. It certainly didn’t help that I picked about the hottest week London has experienced in a long time for all this gadding about.
Earlier in the week I did some socialising with GodDaughter2, and on Friday, it was her official graduation ceremony. In my eyes (and to my ears) she had graduated already, with her graduation recital, but on Friday the Royal College of Music made it official.
I took a ton of photos, of which this was just one:
That’s the Official Photoer, photoing all the soon-to-be-graduates, and presumably quite a lot of us friends and family behind as well, just before the stage filled up with RCM grandees, and the speechifying and graduating got under way.
And here is just one of the (us) unofficial photoers, together with a couple more that you can make out above and beyond this lady:
I’ve taken many, many more photos in the last few days, over five hundred at that graduation ceremony alone and many more besides, but those two will have to do for now.
I’m knackered.
Originally posted at Brian Micklethwait’s Old Blog
Elephants in Sloane Square
And here are two of the best of them, recently photoed by me:
When I was there, about a week ago, there were six elephants in Sloane Square in all. But today is a busy day, so two is your lot.
They will, according to this, be there until July 18th.
Originally posted at Brian Micklethwait’s Old Blog
Thumb out of glove
To comfort myself for the excessive warmth of the weather, here is a cold weather photo, from December 2012, on Westminster Bridge:
What intrigues me about this photo, aside from the fact that I like the colours and textures and whatnot, is what she is doing with her glove:
That’s the first (only) time I’ve ever seen (photoed) that done with a glove, by a photoer. Just the thumb out.
I’m guessing that this only happens with smartphones, with that button at the bottom of that flat screen. I never use my thumb to take the photo with my regular digital camera, only the forefinger. So, if I’m wearing gloves, one glove has to come right off.
Just now, it is very hard to imagine weather so cold that you have to put sweaters on your hands.
Originally posted at Brian Micklethwait’s Old Blog
Quota sunset with quota crane
I have what passes for me as a busy few days coming up, and this posting is me getting ahead of myself, with a quota photo:
That was taken from the top of the Tate Modern Extension, on the same day I photoed that pub fire.
What with the smoke from that fire, on an otherwise totally cloudless evening, having been blowing directly towards and in front of where the sunset was asserting itself, I rather think that the lurid colour of the sunset was enhanced by the smoke from the fire. In fact, looking again at my photo, I rather think we can see the suggestion of a band of smoke just below half way down. Yes, I’m fairly sure that’s the fire, photoshopping the sunset for me.
It’s an ill wind …