recommended sunday viewing ... the vatican have put an interactive view of the sistine chapel online ... do try it out ... saves a lot of neck ache ... wonderful

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

the renovation of room 46b at the V&A, the second castings gallery, is nearing completion and you are allowed in again

room 46b ( part 2 )

room 46b ( part 3 )

room 46b ( part 4 )

room 46b ( part 5 )

olympian social workers veto stygian bath nights

a bit of local colour at clapham junction

a flying horse at the edge of clapham common

five to four ... my working days begin here

tropic of croydon

HEROES

In the mid-afternoon heat of last summer our bus was creeping up West Hill towards home and we were passing the Wandsworth Fire Station at walking pace.



All of the windows on the bus were wide open and so it was possible to hear clearly that a telephone was ringing in the gleaming fire engine that was parked in a big puddle on the forecourt, having just been washed.



A tall and slender young fireman in ceremonial uniform appeared in the shadows of the garage wearing his shiny peaked cap and a high-waisted jacket with a double row of large silver buttons, smartly creased trousers and gleaming shoes. He’d probably just come from his graduation ceremony and must have been despatched from the rest room in some haste to check the call.  He moved forward purposefully in to the light.



A movement on the roof of the fire station caught my attention. Two grinning firemen in yellow waterproofs, surely the ones who’d just cleaned that fire-engine, were leaning forward and were already tilting their buckets, about to drench the new graduate … but just at that moment our bus turned the corner.

a disused pub, "the neville crest and gun", awaiting renovation at eridge green

the neville family was already rarther posh in the 15th century and eventually became the earls of abergavenny ... hence the capital letter A

how they'll spend your money ( chapter nine hundred and ninety-nine ) ... would you care to guess where petrol costs $400 dollars a gallon ?

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2009/12/17/burning-borrowed-money-in-americas-wars/