Priceless Paintings from W7

I love the zoo. For example, I love the Giraffes’ elegant yet arrogant way to look at the world from the top, and love their comical way of spreading the front legs in order to reach water or grass at the bottom. Also nice to see how affectionate a Giraffe father can be with his offspring – assuming that was his offspring, not the neighbour’s daughter, of course.

San Francisco Zoo has a pretty nice African Savannah enclosure; while necessarily much smaller than the real thing, it’s pretty big nevertheless. The animals can roam  or get out of each other’s way, and it makes me feel less guilty about keeping animals in captivity.

The best part about the zoo, however, is that you get to see all kinds of animals; those within the enclosure as well as those outside. Children with an attention span of less than five seconds “Look Mummy the kangaroo is jumping about…” (they really were!) “…let’s go!” equally delightful are the struggling parents. Those struggling to keep discipline, and best of all most struggling to answer their children’s question. The best conversation I overheard went like this:

Mummy, where are we going now?

Now, we are going… … … … …this way!

Mummy?

Yes.

Mummy, where is this way going?

$15 entrance fee well spent.

(I also checked out the new fencing on the tiger enclosure. Fort Knox would be proud of it.)

Thoughts Fort Knox, San Francisco, San Francisco Zoo;

Funny, that. As I leave the shuttle train and make my way across San Francisco International terminal, walking towards the check-in counters, some strobe lights flash on the wall. People walkabout, and I cross paths with several security people. Nobody bothers me on my way, and there are no announcements, but halfway across the terminal, I realise that more people walk towards the exits than not.

I follow this silent call of the crowd. Eventually outside, I ask an official. Yes, it turns out, we are having a full-scale security alert. The entire terminal and all planes at the gates are being evacuated.

There was no sense of danger, panic or even urgency anywhere. Eventually, firemen arrive and, shouldering a pickaxe, they leisurely stroll into the terminal building. Ten minutes later, the alarm goes silent and we are being re-admitted.

Had there been a real danger, the evacuation procedures would have failed. Maybe the officials knew what we didn’t, and the full-scale alert wasn’t quite on the highest level.  Keeps everyone on their toes, though. I am certainly glad that there wasn’t more to it.

Thoughts San Francisco

W7 is 5,500 miles away from home and in the Californian office.

While there, there's never enough time to think about blogging. Strange but true. I'll collect some anecdotes from the motherland of the superlative for you, but call for a blogging break until 29-Sept-08.

Until then, look at the pretty pictures here, find something nice to eat and enjoy like.

Thoughts

The new tool shed is up, and completes the exterior redesign project for now. With planning permission for our rear extension being applied for now, and with a certainty of the garden being a complete wasteland after those building works to come, this shed only marks the end of the current project. Nevertheless, it is nice to see things complete.

The new shed is much smaller than the previous one, and cannot be walked into. Not if you are a grown-up person anyway, but on the other hand, you can reach all corners when standing in front of it. Less of a chance for too much junk to accumulate in those dark and unreachable corners.

Thoughts

I blame the British Museum‘s Egyptian collection, but thanks to them, I am now one of the few, I guess, who have their very own Egyptian frieze.

I wanted to tell a story in hieroglyphs, but the limited vocabulary on some hieroglyph web site meant that the same symbols appeared over and over again. I guess this is to be expected when telling a story of the King, who sneaks off to the Queen by the shine of the moon, and proceed telling what happens to King and Queen in her private chambers.

In the end, I decided to throw in some hieroglyphs entirely of my own invention. Which ones do you think are the odd ones out?

As always, click here (or the thumbnail) to reveal the complete picture. Note that the image shows the (almost) four meter piece taken apart into four 920mm long pieces; the real frieze is 3680mm long (but only 90mm high). The frieze starts at the left corner of the top section, continues through the middle sections and ends at the right corner of the bottom part.

The King and the Queen.

Oil on bamboo floorboards, 3680mm x 90mm, August 2008

I hope you like it.

Painting British Museum, Egypt

…food in Wales. We didn’t really stay long enough to find the hidden culinary treasures of the Gower peninsular. I can only assume there must be some, but where we stayed (in a cottage in the village of Overton, near Port Eynon), we witnessed the now familiar and frustrating story:

The place is designed and mostly inhabited by tourists. Lots of caravan parks, trailer parks, self-catering cottages and camping sites, but almost no shopping facility, decent pub or nice eatery. Some Fish’n'Chip shops and some pubs well beyond description. I am unfamiliar with rural Briton from twenty years ago, but this certainly felt like a time traveling journey into the past.

Most disappointing, and easily outperformed by orders of magnitude by other tourist hotspots in Britain. We ate superbly in the Scottish highlands, Cumbria, the Peak District, Cornwall, … Practically anywhere but Wales.

For our culinary outing, we ended up at the Smuggler’s Haunt, Port Eynon. By far the best offering we came across – good quality with a focus on local produce, with a good choice from a versatile albeit predictable, but reasonably priced, menu. Go there if you are in the area. The Smuggler’s Haunt the only decent place in town, newly opened and run by a young team, and deserves your support.

A review suggested they’d even be worth a trip out from Swansea, but this is just because Swansea drives you away by its own sorry state.

Food and Drink Britain, food, Gower, Scottish highlands;, Swansea;, Wales;

Serious questions – what are those?

(You can click the image for a larger version)

We found them attached to a log, sitting on a Welsh beach at low tide. At first glance, we thought mussels, but on second glance we were no longer so sure: First, each shell is attached to the log with a leathery, maybe 5mm thick, life line. Second, the shells open and some gill-like tentacles come out. It wasn’t clear wether these breathe – although they looked like gills, I find it more likely that they normally fish for microbes when submerged under water, and just kept moving out of some irresistible instinct.

Any intelligent guesses -or hard facts- will be most gratefully received.

Out and About Wales;

With a slight struggle due to illness, we took off to our long-planned week of cycling in Wales, right on the very tip of the beautiful Gower peninsular.

Two out of four people in our company being hampered by illness is one thing. Pretty strong winds is another, and severe downpours pretty much all the time is another. So, one thing leading to another, I think we managed to cycle approximately 5 miles in total, got wet at several occasions, drove around the Gower and got depressed in Swansea town, until we decided to call it a day -or a week as it were- and return home early.

Now we are enjoying only slightly better weather, but at least do so from the comfort of our own homes.

This was our second attempt on Wales. I feel it might be some while until I can face it for its third and last chance.

Out and About Swansea;, Wales;