Tabula Rasa.

Well, I was lying in bed last night bemoaning the insufferable heat and that my mind wouldn’t shut itself down, when it suddenly occurred to me that I’ve now been in London for TWELVE MONTHS – yup, one year. Wow!

My first post in this blog was on the 30th August and I’d been living here for a day or so then.

I thought I’d take a pic.

Lix - Sunday 31st August. 11:15am

You see that wry smile?

That smile is the product of my environment and the sum of my experiences.  It is the smile of someone who came to London à la Candide but who now knows how to not let people barge past her on the Tube, how to cope with nutballs, how to travel around London without constant reference to a map, how to have alone-time in one of the most densely populated places on Earth and how to cope with some of the most arrogant and ignorant people.

Rather disturbingly, I’ve also learned this past year to ‘not see’ homeless people.This is something that chides with me enormously. I want to do something about it.

The two biggest things I’ve learned this year:

Most of my friends thought I’d hate London, due partly to my penchant for wanting to spend large tracts of my time on my own and partly of my chronic uneasiness in crowds.

I’ve learned that I can indeed cope with these. This is due I think to the wholly impersonal nature of London.

People (except of course, when socialising) generally keep themselves to themselves, especially on the Tube, or when travelling generally.

The other thing I’ve learned is that I miss my friends greatly.

You are here

You know, seeing and considering that statement online can really put your mind into an existential funk.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

What an excellent film. I never tire of seeing it.

Having missed my chance to see it at the BFI in a Clint Eastwood season recently, I jumped at another chance to see it on the big screen. D & S told me it was on at the Cineworld cinema in South Kensington, so on Wednesday evening, we all met up.

I’ve seen this film many times but never on the big screen. Wow, what an experience.

Not having an evening meal, I was quite hungry before going in so we all went over the road to a supermarket and stocked up on film-food.

This was my evening meal:

Dry roasted peanuts, orange chocolate bar, Turkish Delight. Om nom nom!

I don’t intend to give a movie review. How could I add anything?

Clint Eastwood (The Good)

Lee Van Cleef (The Bad)

Eli Wallach (The Ugly)

The evening ended a little irritatingly. I walked to South Kensington Tube with D, S and Papa D – I was going West on the Piccadily Line about four stops to Hammersmith and they were going East about 13 or so stops.

It took me about 10 minutes to get to Hammersmith and got to my bus stop at 11.18pm. The 267 runs every 20 minutes after 7:30 (11:12, 11:32 & 11:52) so the next one was due at 11:32.

Well I waited and waited and watched lots of other buses go past and eventually the 267 decided to turn up at 11:54! I decided to give the driver my stare-of-disapproval, oh yeah!

The usual 15 minute journey to Brentford managed to take over half-an-hour due to road works being carried out on the Chiswick High Road resulting in my getting in at 12:35.

I’ve travelled on public transport in many cities in the UK including the extremely busy Birmingham but transport in London manages to be both the best and worst I’ve ever experienced.

The Dark Knight.

I took Friday off work to mill around London and do some Lix adventuring. Part of the day was taken up by my going to see The Dark Knight.

My friend Ellie alluded to the film taking itself seriously  —>  Hellboy review

I totally agree with her.

Not that I disliked the film. I enjoyed it, despite many scenes being rather ‘busy’ at times.

Two things annoyed me. One thing was the deep toned whispering Batman, not Bruce Wayne you understand, but Batman. Why? Just why?

Another thing was the ’silent batman’ routine. You know the one – someone’s talking to Batman, they take their eyes off him for a second, turn back and………………he’s gone! How many times are they going to use that little dance? He’s a man in a bat suit, not a spectre.

Yeah yeah, I know it’s science fiction, I know all about artistic license….but still………

Change the baby!

During the end of my visit to Kew Bridge Steam Museum, I came upon a baby, nappy thing that those weird women use, what do you call ‘em? Err, oh yeah- mothers! I had to take a pic of it as it made me chuckle…

I don’t know about you, but I think it looks like a helium atom (or the planet Saturn) in a sandwich toaster.

A couple of hours later, whilst in the toilets in the Watermans cinema, waiting to see Jules et Jim, I came upon another one..

A shell shaped baby-changing tray – another bizarre image depicting a baby in a sumo-like stance with a nappy up to its armpits who could be uttering the words “Thou shall not pass!”

My favourite baby pic though is the one on the new South-West Trains..

Fucking hell, it’s the attack of the 6ft baby! I do like this image. Makes me chuckle everytime.

Looks like baby is doing star-jumps.

I like to think of them inside little bubbles floating away. I think I saw such an image in a cartoon recently but I cannot recall where or when.

The Battle of Brentford

Some interesting local history.

Brentford Bridge is about 30 seconds walk from where I live. I can see it from my window.

The bridge crosses the Grand Union Canal and forms the start and finish of my runs along the high-street and the canal.

In 1642, this was the scene of the Battle of Brentford.

The following is from Wikipedia.

After the Battle of Edgehill (23 October) King Charles I captured Banbury (27 October) and was greeted by cheering crowds as he arrived in Oxford on 29 October. Prince Rupert swept down the Thames Valley, capturing Abingdon, Aylesbury and Maidenhead, from where he attempted to capture Windsor though failed due to Parliamentary strength there. After this many officers wanted to open peace negotiations, contrary to Rupert’s desire to carry on to London, but the king agreed with the officers and so the Earl of Essex managed to overtake them and reach London with his Parliamentary army by the 8 November.

Prelude

While in Reading Charles decided that the peace talks were inconclusive, and that if he advanced on London it might place him in a better negotiating position. So on 11 November he moved his army closer to London by encamping at Colnbrook and to put further pressure on the Parliamentarians he ordered Prince Rupert to take Brentford.

Battle

On 12 November under cover of an early morning mist Rupert’s cavalry attacked two regiments of Parliamentary cavalry, one under the command of Denzil Holles and the other of Lord Brooke. Many of the Parliamentary cavalry turned tail and fled rather than engage in battle, but Holles’s men were still able to put up a stiff resistance before withdrawing under the protection of John Hampden’s infantry brigade. Nevertheless a large number of Holles’s men were drowned while trying to escape their pursuers by swimming across the Thames. The Royalists captured 15 guns and 11 colours and about 500 prisoners, including John Lilburne the commander of the Brentford garrison.

Aftermath

Having won the battle the Royalist forces sacked the town. This action encouraged those Londoners who feared for their property to side with the Parliamentarians. On 13 November the main Parliamentary army under the command of Earl of Essex’s heavily reinforced with the London trainbands and other London citizenry, assemble as an army of about 24,000 on Chelsea Field and advanced to Turnham Green in the vicinity of the main body of the Royalist army.

At a standoff known as the Battle of Turnham Green, the senior Parliamenterian Officers not trusting the training of the their forces in a battle of manoeuvre chose not to attack, and the King decided not to press his advance on London by giving battle against a force much larger than his decided, as it was near the end of the campaigning season, to retreat to Oxford where his army could be billeted over the winter.

Lilburne was the first prominent Roundhead captured in the war, the Royalists intended to try him for high treason. But when Parliament threatened to execute Royalist prisoners in reprisal, Lilburne was exchanged for a Royalist officer.

At the far end of the bridge (in the photograph) you can see a cream coloured building, this is the Six Bells pub, just beyond that is St Lawrence’s Church – you can just make out the turreted tower.

This is the church mentioned in the blog post preceding this one. It has burial records of the soldiers killed during the battle – The following is from ‘UK Battlefields Resource Centre’ website.

The burial registers of St Lawrence’s Church Brentford for November and December 1642 record the interment of two parliamentary captains and three lieutenants. The most senior parliamentary officer at Brentford, Lieutenant Colonel James Quarles of Lord Brooke’s regiment of foot, is also known to have been killed. At least two parliamentary officers were also captured, captains Robert Vivers and John Lilburne. Accounts of casualty and prisoner numbers vary, but it appears that around 50 parliamentary soldiers were killed in the battle, with perhaps more than this drowning during the rout. A contemporary, third hand, account suggests 140 parliamentary soldiers were killed in total, which appears credible. Others would have succumbed to wounds following the battle. Four hundred parliamentary prisoners were said to have been taken, but 140 were released shortly after the action; the remainder apparently enlisting with the royalists.   Perhaps the fact which best illustrates the impact of the battle is that by early 1643 Hollis’ regiment had been disbanded, seemingly as a result of the casualties it sustained at Brentford.

Royalist losses are poorly recorded in contemporary accounts. One details the deaths of sixteen men, including one captain and two lieutenants. The King, in a subsequent letter to parliament, claimed ten royalist dead. One unsubstantiated account suggests the royalist dead were removed to Hounslow Heath.

Triumphant Church Pics – Hoorah!

Well, I promised this post way back in February -

http://lickerish.wordpress.com/2008/02/17/bloody-religion

Last week NG told me that she was walking past the church and noticed that the door had been kicked in.

I immediately put on my boots and went out, armed with my camera.

The entrance to this derelict church is enclosed in a steel fence and you cannot get in. so I suspected that someone had gotten in through another method and pulled open the door from the inside, although I’m still not sure about this. Someone could climb onto a small wall and then another another ledge and jumped over the spiked steel fence that surrounds the entrance. From there it would have been to have kicked in the door to gain entrance, then smashed their way out through the back.

It does seem to make sense to me though that they would have gone around to the back where it’s secluded and quiet.

I walked around to the side to have a look over the short wall at the back of the church, I took a couple of pics

Compare the foliage with my pic in February. Wow!

With thoughts of my painful arm episode in my mind, I approached the wall with the intention of climbing over. I really wanted to have a look nearer to the building. Any worries of a recurrence of a dead-arm disappeared though as I comfortably scaled the wall and jumped down among the soaking wet foliage on the other side. I carefully walked through the greenery towards the building and my theory of someone getting into the church through the rear looked to be correct as I spotted a large hole in the blocked up windows. This wasn’t boarded up though. The window was blocked by some kind of concrete or plaster and had been smashed to gain entrance. There was no detritus on the outside so it must have smashed inwards.

I crept up to the smashed entrance and carefully peered through. I say carefully because even though I don’t believe is ghosts, it was very quiet, quite dark, echoic and very eerie, plus I was on my own. It was spooky.

After I’d assured myself that there was no one still here I put my camera through and took these pics:

This is the first view I encountered.

Hey, do you think that ladder goes to Heaven? (Not the gay club in London!) Ha, I made myself laugh.

To the left – the smashed entrance noticeable from the street is to the right of the post, I think.

To the right. This is where the alter would have been. Look, there’s a rather comfy looking sofa just beyond it. Handy for all those sermons. zzZZZzzzZZZ (said the actress to the bishop)

The rear again. I don’t see dead people.

I decided not to actually try and get in the church as it would probably be illegal, although I was sorely tempted!

I decided to leave now before I was smited by a vengeful God.

Some good adventuring there young Lix – well done me!

Francis 7 – “Runner terminated in Cathedral” (2)

After spending a few hours looking at all the lovely machines I decided to have something to eat in the nice little cafe. A colourful and rather busy picture on the wall caught my eye:

I did a bit of researching when I got home and discovered lots about it. It’s called ‘Work’ by an artist called Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893) and took nearly twelve years to complete. As with a lot of paintings, it’s a kind of social commentary and has lots of stories about the people and interplay within that need explaining, although as far as I can tell, knowledge of the painter is not needed to interpret the work.

Brown’s work, as I’ve discovered draws on the work of painters such as William Collins – Someone, like Madox Brown I’d previously not heard of. The connection is social themes and I only mention it because whilst reading about ‘Work’ online, the Collins picture below was another picture that caught my eye.

Rustic Civility. William Collins (1833).

A social commentary on the class system: A little boy ‘tugs his forelock’ at a passing figure of authority on horseback, seen only as a shadow. This is in the Victoria and Albert – I shall be going there forthwith to look at this picture.

This link has lots more information on both pictures and lots of background. I found it a riveting read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_(painting)

Francis 7 – “Runner terminated in Cathedral” (1)

I took a trip to the Kew Bridge Steam Museum. Not something I would normally have gone for but it’s close to where I live so I thought I’d give it a go.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. There was an enormous amount of engineering machinery. I love all that stuff. Something I inherited my my dad I think. I must stress though, I don’t like engagining in mechanical things like my dad, I just like looking at them and marvelling at the precision work that’s gone into it. One of my secret guilty passions was watching programmes with Fred Dibnah in! There, I’ve said it – loud and proud!

Kew Bridge Steam Museum was originally a pumping station that drew water from the Thames, purified it and supplied it to the surrounding area. I learned that these pumping stations have very deep foundations because of all the high-pressured machinery but that the external appearance is modelled on a Victorian town-house so as to not look out of place. This clever facade is apparent when you get inside the building and discover that there are no tradition rooms, floors and attic etc…

The iconic tower, the main landmark in Brentford is not a chimney as I at first assumed but a standpipe

From Wikipedia -

The Tower at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum was built in 1867 to the design of Alexander Fraser, engineer to the Grand Junction Waterworks Company. It is in the Italianate style, probably based on a campanile ? a detached bell tower built alongside an Italian church. The design is very similar to an earlier tower (since demolished) at the company?s Campden Hill works, although the latter had an open top as it was also a chimney.

The Tower was not a chimney, but a standpipe; it houses massive vertical cast iron pipes through which water was pumped before it left the Waterworks. The standpipe acted as a buffer between water under the pulsating pressure produced by the massive steam engines, and the constant pressure required in the mains.

The Tower houses five massive cast iron pipes, which together make up the standpipe. The early non-rotative pumping engines did not produce a constant pressure of water, but rather a series of pulses, coinciding with the power strokes of the engine. The tower contained two systems of large diameter vertical pipes through which water was pumped before passing to the mains. The pipes acted as a ?buffer state? between water under the pulsating pressure of the engines, and the constant pressure required in the mains. It also served to protect against sudden loss of load in the event, for example, of a burst water main; such an event could lead to catastrophic damage to the engine.

The current standpipe is actually the third and the only one to have been enclosed with brick, a measure designed to protect the massive cast iron pipes within from frost damage.

The slits in the brickwork are believed to have been included to allow small fires to be lit at the base to gently warm the pipes in severe weather.

All very interesting.

The museum also did a good line in interesting furniture, presumably donated?

Other pics of my visit:

This is a picture hanging up in the museum. I’m unsure of the date. Those fields have been replaced by buildings now though (picture below). I live about two minutes walk along the road that disappears at the bottom right-hand side of the picture.

The picture below was taken in the building with the three windows, in front of the tower, overlooking the rectangular field.

Victorian Brentford. Such an evocative image. Imagine having to negotiate this street every day, in a big skirt/dress and heels.

Above and below – they call this room the Cathedral, for obvious reasons.

The Cathedral again.

The museum houses the largest working beam engine in the world

Things

Well, it’s been a tough time since my last post and lots of things have happened.

I don’t normally mention work in this blog as it normally has no impact on my personal time and I like to forget about it when I’m not there, but the past month or so, work has been incredibly busy, what with Year-End and all the ‘last minute’ activities that came my way needing to be done NOW – something I was totally unprepared for. This coincided with an office-move, the preparations for which seemed never ending.

These together resulted in my going into work an hour early every day and having only short breaks in order to wade through all the work that came my way.

Going into work an hour early would not normally be an issue but now I live in London, ah yes. Living in London means you have to plan things much more. for me to get into work at 8:00, I leave the house at 6:40 to catch the 6:49 train to get into work at about 8:00. The weather has been wet and warm and this is a nightmare if you’re travelling. Try to pack your bag with something that’s lightweight, waterproof and suitable for work. I don’t find it easy. In addition to this, if I’m running after work, swimming or playing football, a have a heavy bag to heft around with no room in it for alternative clothing (except a tracksuit or possibly swimsuit, which I’m sure no one in the office wants to see me sitting at my desk in!). If I do go being sporting after work, I don’t get home untill about 10:30, later if I go for a drink with the girls, so all in all, I’ve been having long days.

I would have been doing sporty things more after work but for the last three weeks, I’ve been having neck trouble which have resulted in my not being able to going running or play football. Even sitting at my desk proved to be quite uncomfortable. My neck is better now and I’m intending to go for my first run tomorrrow or possibly (bank holiday) Monday, but not being able to go running just when things were at their most stressful at work has been incredibly frustrating.

Other things have been going on too that I’m not going to mention as they’re private.

Death = thank you.

Ditzi =- thank you.

E = thank you.

NG = thank you.

For keeping me sane and generally being super.