Truths of Old

Oh, those birds really were Pelicans. They're "eastern pelicans", a special type of pelican. Which is probably why they stand at 150cm tall and are built like war-machines rather than graceful birds of flight.

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We had the most incredible weather on saturday - clear blue skies and abundant sunshine. Perfect weather for a lie down in the park.



It actually got too warm after an hour lying in the grass, so I decided to take a random wander. Naturally, I started by heading for the Thames.

This is Australia House. The entryway is framed with intricate sculptures of serious-looking men and women adopting striking poses. It seems all wrong for Australia house... where are the wombats and kangaroos, and cans of beer?


There's something about seagulls and poles. Other birds perch on ledges or horizontal surfaces. Seagulls, for some reason prefer footholds barely large enough for themselves.



A short video clip would have captured this moment far better than mere photographs, but my camera doesn't (yet) have quite enough memory. London is the metropolis, bustling with life. Trains, planes, pedestrians, boats pass by constantly, in a cacophony of blaring horns , screaming jets, voices speaking and whining motors. There is so much life here it's almost overwhelming.


There's so much here sometimes you have to know what you're looking for, or looking at, to make it out from the crowd. The brown building that looks a bit like a cake is Shakespeare's globe theatre, faithfully reconstructed out of wood and thatch (and an immense fire hazard, I should imagine.)


I've always wondered what bridge these pillars spanning the river were meant to be, and why it wasn't completed?


This is the tower of london taken from a strange angle, simply because I felt like it. Immediately across the river from this point was a weekend carnival. I took a photo of it but my camera unfortunately ate it. It was the precise spot where David Blaine did his little attention-seeking campout a few months back, in a perspex box. Listening to the strains of music floating across the river and watching the kids squealing with pleasure on the carousel wheel I thought, "here today, gone tomorrow."
David Blaine's act has long since passed from London's fickle memory, try as he did to achieve a small sliver of immortality. This city is far larger than a single, emaciated little man.


St Katherine's docks is just as easily overlooked, since it lies hidden from the street fronted on all sides by tall residential blocks. It's fully accessible to the pedestrian, and that thing you see on the right that looks like an observatory is actually a fairly-large Starbucks. (quite possibly the worst coffee in London) I was tempted to take a picture of a swan swimming sedately down the middle of the locks between the sleek, streamlined private yachts berthed either side but I didn't have the wide-angle lens required to capture it all.

After a brief interlude with A and her guy on Leicester Square, I resumed my little solo tour-de-foot.


Feeding Frenzy at St James Park

Does it matter if you're black or white?

The Ugly Duckling (this really is a cygnet)


Cute little critter 'ent he. He's doing it on purpose too, the shameless thing. What you can't see in this photo : the hordes of humans he's suckered into offering him food - nuts, bread, crisps, you name it. He's spoilt for choice.

I watched a waterfowl motoring around the lake looking for stuff to feed her two chicks. She was jet black, with a funny white slab on her forehead, and huge oversized feet for paddling with. Anyone who's wandered the parks in london will know the type of bird I'm describing. Her chicks, strangely, looked just like ducklings and were almost as large as herself (which made me wonder if maybe she was feeding someone else's chicks?). They were grey, fuzzy, and kept "pinging" her insistently with little cheeps, although they didn't seem particularly bothered about following her around (unlike ducklings and their precious mommies) and were quite happily wandering around the lake by themselves. Mommy had to paddle over to them and feed them the nuts and berries she was pulling, seemingly out of empty water. After a while they wandered around the corner of a little island out of eye and earshot. Mommy didn't really seem all that fussed, and after casting her eye around for her chicks a bit decided to start eating the food she was finding instead of bringing it over to them. New Age Mom. heh.

I then discovered that St James Park turns into Green Park at Buckingham Palace.

Again, the picture doesn't do justice to real-life. It was a lot darker here, and the air was cool and slightly damp. After a day out in the arid heat of a perfect summer's day, this was rejuvenating and uplifting in a way that words simply cannot begin to describe. It was like taking a long soak in a mountain spring, after a day of hiking - just walking through this park, and breathing in the cool air. Lovers lounged lazily in the grass, doing the touchy-feely things lovers tend to do when lying on the ground with each other. Friends sat on benches and chatted. Old people... pottered by precariously. And some crazy kids played with that sprinkler thing you see down left, getting themselves thoroughly soaked through and through in the bargain.

This is London as I'd like to remember her. Not the London that dawned today, cold, grey and cynical.

If this wasn't such a schizophrenic city, I'd be tempted to stay here forever methinks.

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Poncy Git

I've been meaning to write this since forever, but I keep forgetting.

Which coffee?

1) Starbucks
2) Pret A'manger
3) Cafe Nero
4) Costa Coffee
5) Coffee Republic

Answer : Coffee republic. Without a doubt. It has the smoothest coffees, and their Summer Chai freezer drink is to die for. Closely followed by Costa Coffee, which has rather pleasantly palateable coffee.

The rest simply don't begin to compare.

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Like rats, and sinking ships

My best buddy left for the states with his wife on Sunday. He claims after my rant about National Day he had to go...

So here I am flying home, and he's flying away. Oh well, have a good time, K. Both of ya. :)

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Happy National Day 2004 Singapore

Oh yah, and despite everything I've written before, I hope everyone back home has a nice National Day today.

Just because I'm not a huge fan of synchronised rifle-drill doesn't mean everyone else has to have their day ruined. :)

And I'm sure everyone's faithfully following the parade, glued to their tellies by the enthralling spectacle of BG Lee (all praise and honour be to His name) ascending his throne assuming the mantle of Steward of Singapore, and protector of the public.