Saturday, September 01, 2007

Well I must say, yesterday gave me a few surprises and marvels I hadn't really planned on. After my interview in Hammersmith I decided I'd walk over to Tottenham court road, grab a drink and then eat my lunch in Soho square. This was a heck of a longer walk than I had imagined! Plus the initial stretch was so dull I figured I wouldn't be taking any pictures...and oh ho, I see that Google Maps now provides the html needed to embed any map you bring up - so let's give it a shot.

View Larger Map
The route I took shot me up along Hammersmith road, which then becomes Kensington high street as you pass through that prestigious neighborhood, and I eventually turned left into the south side of Hyde Park. It was here that I found cause to take so many pictures I'll most likely break this up into a couple of days of posts.

The first item I came across was a short strip of embassies which included the Israeli embassy - with heavy, temporary barriers all around it as well as a handful of policemen with submachine guns. Curious, I came a bit closer only to catch a couple of large "no photography" signs. Between these and a couple of very distressed looking men in suits who kept walking back and forth between the front door of the embassy and the policemen...well I think there's a story in there to be sure. But in the end it was the "No Photography" signs which really perturbed me, so of course I tried to be cheeky and grab a surreptitious photo from around the corner of a parked van a little ways down the street.So okay, the picture is pretty shit but you can at least catch the barriers and one of the policemen. As I was taking this I noticed a policeman not to far to my left that I hadn't yet noticed and lost my steady shot thanks to a quick burst of worry. Ah well, I'll be keeping an eye on the news to see if anything comes of this.
In stark contrast to the little "no media" zone I'd just left, I found myself along the south wall of Kensington Palace not thirty feet away where there were around three hundred people clamoring around the fences with their tributes etc. in acknowledgment of the tenth anniversary of the death of Princess Diana.From here I'm going to leap ahead chronologically about an hour to show a related item which I finally decided I may as well a see - the Diana memorial fountain. Once again, I was surprised by what I saw. Not only was there a complete lack of home made posters and television media opportunists, there wasn't a statue of Diana or anything like that.Getting up close I didn't see any crazed individuals like I had over by Kensington Palace, just a peaceful few clusters of people relaxing, playing and walking around this interesting water feature.Anyways, just before I end today's post I think I'll show you a restaurant which is situated right by the Serpentine gallery - which in turn lay roughly equidistant between Kengsington Palace and the Diana memorial.Tomorrow I'll be posting pictures of what I found just before I came across this restaurant, something which made me utter without a hint of "irony", maliciousness or mischief...

"Jesus.

H.*

Christ."

*Hornswagglin'

Addendum: This spoof of Axe commercials made me laugh, maybe it will make you laugh too? I guess that depends on whether or not you're dead inside.

And for those, like me, who seriously cannot stand either the LolCats business or the proliferation of "Internet English", then you may very well enjoy Realisticats.

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