Storm in a teacup on the Heath

My sister Vanessa, aka London Dreamtime, ran a women-only true stories evening on the Heath on Saturday in conjunction with Storm in a Teacup.
Eight women told the most fascinating and moving true stories. One woman told about how she met "The Oracle" - a gravel-voiced belly dancer - in an Israeli desert; and another told about how she met her birth mother for the first time.

We congregated in a shelter, because of the rain that had been forecast

Electric dad

I've been having problems with my batteries, which admittedly are rather old. To cut a long story short, my dad made me a panel with a volt meter and switch, and a cigarette charger plug socket and switch. So now I can check the charge on either battery, and charge either battery with a charger (when I'm not charging it with the engine).
It made a huge difference to confident we felt going on our trip two weekends ago. Here's a picture. He made the panel out of a piece of sheet aluminium. Thanks Dad!

To Windsor and back

It took 3 days to get to Windsor from Hambleden and back again. We were so lucky that it rained heavily but only at night!

We moored at Cookham the first night and visited the tiny but interesting Stanley Spencer gallery. Only when we walked out did I realise that we are both Art Fund members and could have saved the £5 entry fee...

We filled up with diesel (well, put £80s worth in - god knows how much it costs to actually fill up), arriving in Windsor at about 5pm.

Windsor is very strange place - completely rammed full of stereotypical foreign tourists. We were too late to go into the castle, but just walking around the outside makes you realise how HUGE it is. And it's only one of the Queen's palaces. That woman has some money!

The back entrance to the palace.

Over the other side of the bridge is Eton. It's almost exactly like the old bits of Oxford or Cambridge, ensuring a smooth transition for their pupils no doubt. The high street was lined with gentleman's outfitters and even the high st bank was Coutts. I believe you need £1m liquid to open an account with them.
One of the most spectacular parts of the river is when it passes through Cliveden - famous for its role in the Profumo affair. Beech trees line the steep banks and the golden tower of the building peeps through.

About an hour from Hambleden is Marlow. Although it's a small town it has an impressive suspension bridge.

Jane Preger's paintings

A close family friend died recently. She was a painter, and her friends were lucky enough to be able to choose some of her works to keep. We had these two framed, and we hung them this afternoon.

Immigrants

The immigrant museum in Spitalfields in London is hardly ever open, but we caught it this evening after work. It looks like a rundown Georgian House but it has some secrets inside. I won't spoil the surprise, check it out for yourself this weekend, or in September.
http://www.19princeletstreet.org.uk/.

I love the streets around the museum. Going there is like stepping back in time. You regularly see signs suspending the parking because filming is taking place. I'd love to stay at number 13 Princelet St and I keep meaning to visit Dennis Sever's House too. If only I had enough money I would rent this place for a photoshoot.

Central St Martin's

The Central St Martin's graphic design degree show was excellent. We bought a print by Hoon Yoon that reminds me of Posy Simmonds.
I strongly recommend the show - the quality is very high. Here's a piece in Creative Review about the show.

Going to the RCA Master's show next weekend. I always look forward to it, and in fact to all of them. It's a great time of year, even if this year it is freezing and pissing down!

Taktal at Testbed 1

One of F's friends Macken curated a fantastic art show last Saturday called Taktal at Testbed 1. After hearing about it, loads of people have asked me when it's on until. Unfortunately it was a one day only affair, but just to make you jealous, here's what it was like....

The show was held at Testbed 1, a former dairy warehouse at Ransome Dock, on the Thames in Battersea. Macken, who works nearby as an architect, managed to persuade them to let him use the space for the show.

They had a bar on unicycle wheels

A magic mirror with a time delayed reflection (if you look closely, you can see I managed to turn around quickly enough to take a photo of the back of my head)

Table tennis!

And lots of umbrellas.

The umbrellas are going to be part of a big installation at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada Desert in August. For 2 quid you get to give an umbrella a name and personality. People at the festival then choose an umbrella, based on its personality, to shade them from the burning sun, and you can follow their progress online. And you get a vodka jelly too. Here is a mock up of how the final piece will look.

The main installation was held in the huge vaults of the dairy. The room was totally black when you entered, except for some tiny tiny lights strung from the ceiling. The gravel on the floor made your footsteps crunch, and every now and then, a low boom would emerge from the dark. Then, a bright light would flash from the centre of the room, illuminating a part of the space. As you moved around, you began to realise that the light flashes were in some way linked to the sounds, but not exactly, only sporadically. Then, two women in pink dresses started to sing a winsome song, weaving in and out of harmony. As they sang and walked around the room the lights would follow them, occasionally. Click on the photos to view properly




The finale of the day was a huge shadow puppet show, projected onto a floor-to-ceiling screen.

Mainly Brazil

Had an amazing time in Brazil. We started in Rio. It rained for most of the time, but we did manage to see some cool places like the church of our Lady of Gloria, the hugely glamorous Cafe de Colombo and the Niteroi Art Gallery, designed by Brazil's most famous architect Oscar Niemeyer.

Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Gloria

Cafe Colombo

MAC gallery Niteroi

We then flew to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil which was plonked in the middle of the coutnry by the aforementioned Niemeyer in the 1950s. It's visually impressive, but awful to walk around, being entirely designed for the life of the future as envisioned in the middle of the last century.

Cathedral in Brasilia

From Brasilia we took various buses deep into the country with its rust red earth and savannah scrub. First we went about 400km south west of Brasilia to Goias Velho, an 18th century town that was the capital of Goias state until 1937. F asked me to marry him over one of the most delicious homemade breakfasts I have had. Obviously I said "yes!".

The red red earth of the Platano

A selection of the homemade jams at breakfast

From there we went to Sao Jorge, about 240km north of Brasilia. The bus from Goiana dropped us at Alto Paraiso, about 40km from Sao Jorge, at 2.30am. Managed to order a taxi in Portuguese over the phone using a number written on the wall. The driver arrived 10 minutes later half asleep and drove us at top speed down a road lit only by the spectacular display of stars in the sky. When the tarmac ran out and he continued driving down a dirt track, still at top speed, I worried for a moment we might be entering into the realm of the Cohen Brothers. But no, he dropped us at our spotless pousada (hostel) and was more than happy with the 100 reals we were more than happy to give him.

Over the next couple of days we visited the spectacular Vale De Lua (valley of the moon) - an ancient river that runs through rock formations that look like modernist sculptures - and went for a guided walk in the Chappadas national park. We swam in gorges, avoided being bitten by tarantulas and stepping on tiny scarlet poison arrow frogs, and ate a lot of crisp sandwiches (all there was in the shop).

Vale de Lua

Can you spot us in this picture? (click to enlarge)

We flew back to Rio and spent our last 4 nights in a crumbling-on-the-outside but beautiful-on-the-inside guesthouse on the road between the party district of Lapa and the faded bohemian grandeur of Santa Teresa.

Our hostel in Rio

The Santa Teresa tram

It's great having a pet

Especially one who you don't have to feed, and who doesn't get upset when you go away on holiday. This little fella lives in our garden and I always look forward to catching a glimpse of him.

Spring flowers

The spring flower seem exceptionally lush and plentiful this year, but perhaps I think that every year.
And here are a few random pictures from last weekend:
a swan being fed
An angry goose

A spider in the porthole of my boat

Lichen on a fence

Shadows and fog

My sister was 40 yesterday. To celebrate, she and her friends performed songs, poems and stories, all to the theme of "shadows and fog". The finale was a slide show from the Victorian magic lantern.

Shadow puppet film
One of the lantern slides
Working the lantern

Screwed

Here's my favourite sign from Saturday. Click on the image for a better view.

Anti cuts

Lots of different people on the march today. Here are some pictures.