Out and About in London

Opposite the bus stop. Kentish Town.

The local. Note the name.

A Wren church seen from the bus in Aldwych.

The South Bank. Outside the Festival Hall. 5pm.

Dusk over the Thames.

Rather chilly for icecream --but cheerful nonetheless.

Taking the PICC

Click image to Biggify

Well the mumborg is still leaking away after copious swaddling and bandaging. She has been swaddled more than baby jeebus and bandaged tighter than Tutankhamen, but the blood still keeps on oozing.
Also her veins have given up the ghost and she had to have a PICC line inserted, so they could easily administer the blood transfusions and IV antibiotics. Her hand in the picture above is bruised and battered because of the constant blood tests and IV's, so the PICC line was the only way to go. Of course nothing is ever simple with the mumborg and it took three attempts to get a PICC line in, which hopefully will now last six months.
At the moment she needs another three units of blood and lots of antibiotics, just one unit of blood takes four hours to drip drip its way into the mumborg, the thing is almost hypnotising when you see it, drip dripping away. After every unit of blood, a bag of IV antibiotics is needed, which takes two hours, then another unit of blood and so on. I am just tired typing that, so as you can imagine the mumborg is in serious need of uninterrupted regeneration time. That wont happen until all the blood is in and the wound has stopped bloody leaking.

All this blood loss and leaking has made me think about donating blood, its something I have always 'meant' to do, but somehow never got round to it. The mumborg would be dead without the kindness of strangers going out of their way and donating some of the red stuff. When I got back from the hospital I checked the local paper and there is blood drive (?) on the 27th, so I think I will go and just bloody do it!

The Superheroes of The Tour of California

Image via Wikipedia

I realize that superheroes are fictional but I find the abilities of the pro cyclists to be extraordinary (others would attribute that ability to doping!). The reason I mention this at all is because I am really pumped up about seeing my favorite riders this Sunday at the finish of the Tour of California. I look forward to seeing Levi Leipheimer who is the current leader of the Tour, Tom Boonen, Ivan Basso and many others but of course, Lance Armstrong! I am sorry that Fabian Cancellara dropped out and I won't get to see him, oh well. I am so excited I just had to blog about it because to me, they are something from science fiction, maybe cyborgs if you will because they are so in tune and at one with their bicycles. I admire what they do because I am a cyclist myself and I can fully understand not only the physical strength needed to ride 185 km but understand the machine and what it takes to make sure it is in perfect working order because you are clipped in to it. Being clipped in can be very scary yet it gives you extra smooth and efficient pedaling power. It is an interesting relationship between human and machine. The skill and speed these riders possess is out of this world.
You can catch the action at the AmgenTour of California website if you are interested.
Have a great weekend!

Jet Lag/A Comfy House/ London

Coal scuttle, books, bellows from Morocco............

Wine decanters. The ones with wide bases are ships' decanters.

Kitchen. Very small dabs of Vermeer.

Bread bin and useful utensil bucket.

The mug of memory.

A Nice Day by the Ocean (part four)

Getting to the fun part now - almost sunset, but a little darker than it would normally be due to the heavy cloud cover.  No complaints though, since a dark, ominous sky is often the ideal for this kind of scene.  If any, my gripe would be that the weather is too nice around here most of the time. The slight crack right on the horizon allowing some color to come through really makes it for me, whereas if it was all dark gray it wouldn't have been nearly as interesting. I guess I could have chosen an even longer exposure and completely softened out the ocean, but kind of like seeing a little shape left in the waves.

I've shot this area late in the day many times, but there are so many possible variables with the tide, waves, weather, etc., that it always ends up looking completely different.

A Walk up 18th Street

Past the post office, a new building on the corner of 7th Avenue.

A truck full of bagels.

These steps seemed to color co-ordinate themselves.

On 7th Avenue workers wait for breakfast....

And the sky is very blue.

Morning Light/Chelsea

Some hat!

About 7:45 on a nice clear morning.

The silver birch trees cast shadows on the cinema wall.