Be safe

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I am all for gadgets that will help us to be more safe on London roads. Find this bag here, but don't just yet leave the helmet at home, please!

It's Friday

Ceramic Art London starts today till Sunday at the Royal College of Art. On show and for sale is contemporary ceramic from national and international potters. 

Ashraf Hanna

found here

Valeria Nascimento

found here

Sasha Wardell

found here

And keeping with the subject, Edmund De Waal, a leading British ceramics artist has recently wrote a fascinating book about his family, following 264 Japanese netsuke (small wood and ivory carvings of people, animals and plants) which are owned by his ancestors, through time and countries. The Hare with the Amber Eyes is a memoir, a biography in a way, a travel and history book about a Jewish family in exile and a thing book, as the Guardian puts it. De Waal brings to life the things around us. One can nearly feel and seem to touch the objects he describes - the art of pottery, put in writing! 

After a few more and more elaborate editions of this book including a luxurious illustrated version there now also exists an 'enhanced digital edition' (on ibook). Does it add a new layer? I am not sure since the original was not meant as an ebook to start with. I think digital storytelling might be considered a new literary genre altogether, simple adaptations might add a few more interactive layers, but not all books can or should profit from such enhancement. Reading De Waal's comment about the illustrated edition

It feels, I hope, like a book that you want to pick up, an object to be held. I hope there is an intimacy about it, a lack of grand-standing. 

I do have difficulties warming to the slick and glossy iPad edition. 

Crumpled

Last year I found these fantastic city maps, and today I stumbled over the superb kid's version on Chocoralie's blog. An absolute essential in my eyes for a successful city tour with kids. You might even be able to leave your GPS mobile in your pocket and let the kids be the guides. Get ready for London, Paris, New York, Berlin and Amsterdam!

found here

I need a drink!

It's only 10.00 and I am thinking of a drink already - that can't be right. Well, actually, I am thinking of an amazing elaborate cocktail concoction, something like this maybe

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or this

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I don't know about you, but this m&c (milk and cookie) cocktail  however

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seems to be as far as we can stretch these days .... Valuable babysitter time is mostly spend going out for dinner or see a play, hardly frivolous. 

Being therefore quite out of touch when it comes to the London Cocktail Scene, I thought Peter Berthoud's idea of an evening tour of four of London's most distinctive, distinguished and stylish cocktail bars quite the ticket. He will be running his first one tonight and I will try to join when he hopefully repeats this experiment (maybe with a slightly later start?)

View

Have not quite arrived in London yet - this view we enjoyed from the cottage really makes you start daydreaming about your own little space in the country ...

hans chu 

... and the freedom the kids would have ... till you think it through and realise that we would spent most of our time in the car getting from A to B ... oh, and Internet its really slow or not available at all, mobile connection not everywhere ... we will find more sticky points if we think long and hard, and probably stay put ?!

Dinner is sorted

Having visited Farmer's Markets and cooked an awful lot last week in the state -of-the-art kitchen at the little cottage we rented in West Sussex, I feel like not cooking for a while but still keep the spirit of the holidays going. So how about this

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Just have to convince the kids .....

Happy Valentine

katya chu

Half term

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It's Friday

and Half Term Holidays are upon us. We will be wrapping up warm and planning to go for long walks in the countryside - probably always in search of the roaring fire in a nice pub! If you are staying in the capital  here you will find a list of Pubs and Bars with real fire to keep warm!

 

found here

If all else fails

or the fridge is nearly empty, and it is just too cold outside, or we need something really fast, right now, than it has to be Cheese on Toast

found here via

Venice in London

There is quite a haunting exhibition on at the Hamiltons Gallery (till 25. 2. 2012) in London. 'Venice in Solitude' by Christopher Thomas shows the city devoid of people - beautifully shot in black and white, the photographs remind one of another area, another time.

I do think a city does take on a totally different kind of persona once the people have gone and is more than just a collection of buildings.
One can contemplate whether any city is there for its people, representation, inspiration or better be left alone but this could take us quickly enough into the realm of modern architecture and city planning and away from the magic of Venice.

If you cannot make it to the exhibition, Prestel Publishers is releasing the accompanying book with 75 photos and text by the German poet Albert Ostermaier.

found here

Accession Day - the Queen's Diamond Jubilee

Today marks 60 years since Elisabeth II ascended the throne. The main celebrations will happen in June but do listen out today for - 41 Royal Gun Salutes in Hyde Park at noon and 62 at the Tower of London at 13.00.

by Lucien Freud

found here

A major exhibition of Lucien Freud's work focusing on his portraits will open at the National Portrait Gallery this coming Thursday (till 27. May 2012)

Dark London

found on iTunes 

Check out this new App Dark London commissioned by the Museum of London. Illustrated by David Folvari with haunting images,  Dickens' observations are narrated by actor Mark Strong, guiding us through the darker sides of the author's Victorian London.

An 1862 map can be overlaid by today's satellite images of the city, background information is also available. The App and the first Edition is free and more to come. Beautifully done!

found here

P.S. more on Dickens here  and here

Visual Note - the Shard

hans chu

find also here