Shard light show

Mike and I decided on a whim to head out to watch the light show that was being put on last night to celebrate the completion of the Shard building. It had been billed as a spectacular show, so we were reasonably optimistic, although perhaps a little cynical as always, as we set off.

We decided to go to Greenwich Point, easy to get to and hopefully offering good views. This was once we'd established that we wouldn't be able to get to the Royal Observatory, despite it being billed as a vantage point by the Shard PR team, as the park closes at 9:30pm. (I discovered today that they'd also suggested Horniman Gardens as another vantage point, but they weren't open at the time of the light show either...)

The lights were due to start at 10:15, and I took a quick snap on my camera to check I'd be able to get some pictures...

 

Then we waited. And waited. And waited some more. We saw a couple of green lasers. Then nothing and more of nothing, leading us to speculate that the entire show was aimed purely at north London. We gave up eventually, having watched for quite some time, and headed down to the pub along with plenty of other disappointed folk. The shot below is really as good as it got:

 

There's a green laser there, honest! The buildings at Canary Wharf were a more spectacular sight.

 

I will return to the Point though, with my tripod, as the views across London are brilliant and worthy of spending some time over without worrying about trying to spot a few lasers.

Cable car - my review

London's newest tourist attraction/public transport facility* (*delete as you feel appropriate) opened to the public on Thursday, so I decided to pop along to have a little look for myself. I don't like heights, but thought I'd face up to my fears and give it a go. I'd thought it might be busy by the time I got there, being the opening day and all that, and there was indeed a queue at the ticket windows, albeit a short one, which I joined for a while, until a handy chap told me I could just walk on with my Oyster card. He was right (of course) - there are ticket barriers as there would be at any tube station, this being public transport and all that, so I was able to swipe my Oyster card and get on.


This is what greets you once inside the terminal (this is actually the Royal Docks side but they look the same). As it was so quiet I was able to get a gondola to myself in both directions, which didn't really help with the fear aspect. I busied myself taking photos and live tweeting my journey to distract me from the height (it's really very high!) and wind (it was pretty blustery while I was up there which didn't do much for my nerves).

There are some lovely views to be seen if you can keep your eyes open - I particularly liked this one of the dome and Canary wharf's skyscrapers with the sun starting to set off to one side.


If you're heading from the Greenwich side, there's not an awful lot to see at the Royal Docks side, although the water was pretty enough in the sunshine, the only other attraction was a Londis...


The stations themselves look rather nice with their glass and metalwork glinting in the evening sunshine, and there was even less of a queue on the north side of the river.


I didn't stick around for too long, choosing to head back for a second (expensive) trip. I was a bit more relaxed second time around, until the drop that greeted me as we descended into the station at Greenwich!


Apologies for the dirty windows - they clean them on the south side only ;-).

Once back on solid ground at Greenwich, I wandered round to have a look at the cars leaving the terminal - you can sit on benches right underneath them, and was struck by the sight of planes leaving City airport behind the cable car. I managed to snap this shot of one of them.


All in all I enjoyed my little trip on the cable car, but I couldn't see myself using it regularly, having no real need to go over to the Royal Docks, and the Greenwich peninsula not being massively accessible from Catford. It was also pretty expensive for public transport (£3.20 single, and although you can use your Oyster card, and it is £4.40 single if you don't), and doesn't count towards your daily Oyster cap either. It's cheap for a tourist attraction, but on the other hand the trip doesn't last long and apart from the dome/O2, the Shard (of course) and Crystal Palace transmitter, there's not a huge amount to see.

I was left wondering what the cable car is really for, especially as it has been rushed through so quickly. I guess the answer is it's just another one of Boris's madcap schemes, and one which we've had to pay (as taxpayers) quite a lot towards, despite the Emirates sponsorship that's plastered all over the place.

I'd be interested to hear what you think of it. The rest of my pictures can be viewed here.

So suburban

It seems we can't win in our little corner of London. I've lost count of the number of people who have said to me they couldn't possibly bring up children here, without seeming to realise how insulting that is to me, given I have chosen to do exactly that. But now, according to Location Location Location, where we live is "too suburban", not close enough to central London (15 minutes from London Bridge on the train obviously doesn't count, although with Southeastern running the service perhaps that's understandable), and not edgy enough. Well, that's fine by me (although I take issue with the term suburban, having grown up in a proper suburb myself). We have great schools, lovely Victorian houses at reasonable (for London) prices, and I have a lot of fab friends here. I would be foolish to pretend there aren't issues of crime and the like, but at the moment that's offset by all the benefits. So I'll stay where I am for now and carry on regardless, and I probably won't watch that episode of Location....

Dirt

243/365 Dirt
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Via Flickr:
I took the opportunity this lunchtime to catch the Dirt exhibition at the Wellcome Collection - I work about 5 minutes walk away, it's been on since 24th March, so of course I waited until its very last day before getting along there.

They don't allow photography inside so I had to make do with a snapshot taken at the entrance to the building - I love this chap suspended from the ceiling!

The exhibition claimed to uncover the filthy reality of everyday life and used the British anthropologist Mary Douglas's observation that dirt is defined by its context (There is no such thing as absolute dirt: it exists only in the eye of the beholder.) The exhibition looked at six different urban locations to explore the subject of dirt, its threat to our health but also its necessity for our existence.

I couldn't spend long there but managed to pootle round the whole thing - of course I spent far too long looking at Snow's map of cholera and some fantastic analysis of weekly deaths in London by William Farr (once a mortality stats geek always a mortality stats geek). Apart from the street, London 1854, the exhibition covered the home, Delft 1683, the hospital, Glasgow 1867, the museum, Dresden 1930, the community, New Delhi and Kolkata 2011, and the land, Staten Island 2030. Fascinating and challenging stuff.

Love cake?

46/365 Love cake?
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

Imagine if you were unable to touch or kiss your newborn baby. This is an ordeal thousands of families, whose child arrives too soon, too small or too sick, are forced to go through each year. Indeed, as readers of this blog will know, this was something I and my family went through when our son James was born at 33+6 weeks gestation.

But you can help. By baking and selling cupcakes, you’ll be raising funds to help support families during what can be a very lonely and frightening time, and to provide a brighter future for their babies.

Some facts and figures:

• There is a shortage of 1,150 nurses to care for the 70,000 babies in need of specialist hospital care in England. Less than a third of units have enough nurses to meet minimum standards.
• Neonatal units are working way above recommended occupancy levels meaning there is no safety net for peaks in the number of babies being admitted to units.
• Families of babies admitted to specialist hospital care face a crippling financial strain on top of the normal costs of having a new baby.
• Over half of parents face the prospect of not being able to stay near their baby in hospital due to a shortage of overnight rooms for families.

Cake A Difference is the annual fundraising initiative from Bliss, the special care baby charity. Bliss offers guidance and information at a critical time in families' lives, funds ground-breaking research and campaigns for babies to receive the best possible level of care regardless of when and where they are born. Cake A Difference 2011 takes place from 14-20 February 2011. For more ideas on how you can support Bliss contact katiaw {at} bliss.org.uk

Go ahead, bake my day!

Cheers Boris!

Goodbye Charing Cross
Originally uploaded by clogsilk.

My daily fare into work went up by 16% for one route and 11% for the other today. And what a great service we get for it too! NOT!

Still at least I get to snap shots of the London Eye on the way home.

Worth a tenner a day?

Guest blogging

Over at From student to midwife, telling my breastfeeding stories.