Went to see Rufus Wainwright tonight. It was awesome, though, to be honest, not as awesome as I had hoped. I did have VERY high expectations though. I think that it was probably more to do with the venue than the performance itself though. Rufus's music is something that you need to be immersed in (god, that sounds wanky) and there wasnt much of an audience vibe. IMHO. That said it was still great. There was a bizarre moment when two people came out on stage, one with a santa suit and the other with a santa hat. Turned out to be Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. WTF? They talked a bit, hung out on stage for a bit, pushed the backing vocal girls out of the road, sang for a bit with Rufus and then headed off. Quite surreal. All in all a damn fine night. Thanks Rufus (and P for getting the tickets)
There is something about the bus stop by my work. There will be no buses for 10 minutes, then 3 will arrive within 2 minutes of each other. Oh well. That's buses for ya. Got my wireless router working at home. Those pesky homechoice folk wanted 85 quid to set up a wireless network (including hardware), so I decided to buy a router myself and pocket the 35 quid change. Seems to be working fine. Sweet. I must admit, if you don't know what you're doing, 35 quid would save you dealing with all those crazy acronyms; WPA,DHCP,SSID - yikes.
Left my camera at home today, so I was a little limited in scope. Decided I should introduce you to my partner in crime, my little Sony DSC P100. Most of the photos last week got taken with it, mainly because it is actually pocketable! (A little too pocketable perhaps. "Take anywhere" isn't so handy when "anywhere" ends up being very drunk on Cottesloe beach. I have the repair bill to prove it. Its all good now though ...)
Here is a picture of some barges on the Thames with the Tower Bridge and Gherkin in the background. A little bog standard but not overly inspired today. It was a Monday. 'Nuff said.
Today we walked, via the Albert Bridge and Chelsea, to the Natural History Museum to meet E and check out the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. Some very impressive shots. Interestingly, a lot were taken with digital SLRs.
Just to prove a point, frost on the roof outside the bathroom window. Right, I swear I will shut up about the cold now.
Today A and I caught a boat from Waterloo Pier, just by the London Eye, down to Greenwich, through which the Prime Meridian passes. The weather was stunning, if a little bracing (yes, I will stop moaning about the cold soon!). Trip down the river took about an hour. Great to see the sights of London from the Thames. Once in Greenwich we headed up to the Greenwich Observatory, site of the Prime Meridian where you can stand with one foot in the Eastern hemisphere and the other in the Western. If you can fight passed the other tourists that is. After that we headed down to check out the local markets, buying a few second hand books to stock the bookshelves in the new house. Rounded out the after noon with a pint in a local. Caught the boat back up river a bit after five. Awesome nighttime views as the boat headed back up the river. A great day. Maybe off to Brighton tomorrow, depending on how keen we are in the morning!
Mysterious numbers on the footpath outside Waterloo station. I am sure it is something completely dull like tiles to replace, but hey, it looks cool.
Just got back from seeing Richard II at the Old Vic theatre. A picked up the tickets on ebay this morning, so it was a bit of a last minute decision. Paid less than cost which is pretty good for a sold out show! 
It is quite strange, catching the overland rail to Waterloo station each morning, seeing Big Ben and the London Eye peeking between the buildings on the south bank of the Thames. Iconic structures in rather mundane settings always seem a little other worldly.
View down the street outside the new house. I think this one a day photo thing could be a little difficult ...
Last Saturday was Guy Fawkes night, so I headed off to Battersea Park to watch the fireworks with a couple of friends. Now, I have this thing with taking photos of fireworks. I nearly always do it, and they are nearly always crap. So why bother? Have you ever seen a fireworks photo and thought "wow, that is really cool. That would look great blown up and framed." No, me neither. Yet still I do it. A couple of years ago I even went to the effort of dragging a tripod along to the Australia Day fireworks in Kings Park. Still crap. This year I settled with just my little digicam. Once again they were, well, in a word, crap. But anywhy, why have a blog if you can't share the pain of a failed photo every now and then. Sorry, but here they are .... the best of the worst.
