Photos from top:
1. Millenium Bridge connects St. Paul’s Cathedral to the Tate Modern.
2. Street art (near St. Paul’s Cathedral): the new version of the moving statue
3. Champagne and caviar station at Harrod’s
Yearly Archives: 2014
Day 6: London Town 2
Photos, top down:
1. Bench side entertainment, St Paul’s Cathedral
2. London skyline along the Thames (from the Tower of London) featuring the “Shard” pyramid, or the Transamerica liftoff so London can be more like San Francisco.
3. St. Paul’s Cathedral, the only church in which its architect, Christopher Wren, was buried; also the only architect who was famous enough to be publicly buried?
Day 5: London Town 1
Oh Yikes. Headed towards Covent Garden from Cartwright Gardens, where our very teeny studio “apartment” was located. You can barely fit two sardines in a can better than here, where the chairs have to be stored in the closet or you aren’t able to maneuver inside the room. This place has outclassed the Pod in New York by being meaner in proportions and square foot takeoffs. Still, all the amenities of a fully furnished “catered apartment” (as they call them on this side of the Atlantic) included dishes, pots and pans, and above all, Internet access.
I pointed out my old haunts, including the gorgeous Council flat in Gordon Mansions on Torrington Place. I subleased a bedsit there in the summer of 1975 for £9 a week from a student at the Architectural Association. Aside from the aura, living in Bloomsbury definitely had its advantages of location and walking distance to everything.
We made a stop in Soho Chinatown, where I rang the doorbell of a chartered accountant’s office. I thought the owners might recall Antonio Kwan and Bosco Chan, the two accountants who worked there 45 years ago and hired me to be their assistant. Despite my fumbling over the crank calculator using £ and Sterling, I mastered the abacus with their help.
Tony and Bosco did the accounts for the Chinese restaurants so we called on clients around lunchtime for obvious reasons. I saved the £1 lunch vouchers I was given to buy cheesecake for dinner! Unfortunately, my aspiration of working in a Chinese restaurant was never fulfilled. This was the closest I was ever going to get to personally working in the food industry!
We watched rivers of tourists from our window seats at dinner. The economy is being well replenished by international tourist consumption here. However, coming from New York, I couldn’t help but feel the depressing shabbiness of London’s buildings.
Still, the people are the ones who reflect the vibrancy of the city. We were reassured in Ladbroke the following night. Not only was the Turkish food at Fez Mangal fresh and tasty, but the ambiance consisted of a very healthy mix of all ethnic cultures, economic backgrounds, and lifestyles.
Photos, from top down:
1. Two Independent Parties at Fez Mangal enjoying the food
2. Fez Mangal Mixed Grill and Salad
3. Throngs of Tourists at Oxford Circus from the top front window of a newly minted No. 11 double decker bus–the cheapest way to see London’s sights.
Day 1: Liftoff!
Day 4: A Walk on the Hi Line (NYC)
Day 4: A Walk on the Hi-Line (NYC)
A stroll from 14th to 23rd Streets along New York’s ingenious repurposing of an old abandoned elevated railway line.
Photos, from top:
1. Wet surfaced paving tickles toes and creates unexpected delight
2. Shoppers bask in sun and chatter after a hard days’ work in the mines
3. Stadium viewers watch traffic on street below
Day 3: Ai-Wei Wei (Brooklyn)
The Ai-Wei Wei exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum was thought-provoking and raised many issues about Chinese policies towards its own people. Many photographs of the artist revealed his early years living in New York
and his father’s background as a poet and artist. AWW is still very much from the genre of crude and glaringly graphic artists who emerged after the fall of the Gang of Four–use of nudity and human existence ( did I really need to see video clips of his barfing?) leave you nowhere to avoid his messages.
At the same time the use of everyday materials is clever and resourceful and often beautiful. For example, a traditional piece of furniture is cut to create a new appreciation of the craftsmanship and design of a familiar object (photo 3).
Photos, from top:
1. Common kitchen stools
2. Backpacks sewn together representing those from student killed in schoolhouse in Szechuan. Apparently there was no accounting of construction methods or whether rebars were installed in original building.
3. Traditional Chinese furniture put in a different dimension and respective.
Day 2B: A Walk on the Wild Side (NYC: PM)
Apple Store 57th and Fifth Avenue
After you are drawn to the glass box and enter it, you can go downstairs by either taking the glass elevator or walking down the translucent steps. The “hoofing” sound of footsteps is noticeable, paired with the visual effects of souls’ soles.
How do you think the steps are supported?
Day 2A: A Walk on the Tame Side (NYC: AM)
After breakfast at Ess-a-Bagel on Third Street, we began our stroll from the Pod 51st Street and down Fifth Avenue. We brushed past Saks, St. Patrick’s Cathedral (being gussied up), 30 Rock, Bryant Park/NY Public Library, The Empire State Building, Washington Square, and the Flatiron Building.
Karen kept asking me about famous buildings that I had never noticed. She appreciates looking at buildings in a way I never did! So I suddenly saw a lot more with my own eyes after I stopped to look closely. I could see the beauty in the historic and contemporary buildings. They rival Chicago’s, (sorry Pam, after I raved about them last month) obviously due to M-o-n-e-y. But pretty fun to gawk at them and ponder who, what, why, how.
The map shows the general path. I didn’t think I was going to put my long distance walking skills to the test but we actually did more than 3 miles due to some back and forths. (More like 5-6). We made Balthazars, an over the top bakery and now restaurant, our reward. After a smashing iced decaf with apple smoked bacon, a brioche, and apple galette, we were ready to head back to the Pod for our R&R.
Destination 3 of 10: Paris
1. Join Melissa for some awesome food spotting near the apartment on Rue du Bac in St Germaine des Pres. (update: done)
2. Visit the Arab Museum to understand better the incredible contributions to science and math led by the Arab world (and hopefully the French are no longer so stuffy as to resist translations of material in English!) (update: done)
3. Make stops at Mora and Dellerhin to introduce Karen to the French version of Sur La Table.(update: Dellerhin only)
Destination 2 of 10: London
Ideas:
1. Revisit the places where I lived in London for five months when I was awarded the Branner Traveling Fellowship from UC Berkeley. I studied the Chinese in London and how ethnic minority communities were formed. (Update: done)
2. Make a stop at the British Museum to see if there are any relics of the Silk Road trade when Bokhara, Tashkent and Samarkand were major settlements. (Update: missed due to time used to sort out a problem with accommodation in Paris)
3. Do as much walking as possible to savor the new sights and sounds of a city once known and now much more mellowed. (Update: done)
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