Martin Creed, Work No. 850

Wandering through the Tate Britain recently after seeing the Francis Bacon exhibit, I was very nearly run over by someone sprinting through the gallery. About 30 seconds later, it happened again. It took me a moment to realize that I was actually standing smack in the middle of some art: Martin Creed's piece entitled Work No. 850.

Unbwogable!

When I was in Kenya a few weeks ago, Barack Obama was, rather predictably, front page news in the media. Tonight he did become completely unbwogable. Congratulations, Mr. President.

unbwogable
adj. unshakeable, unbeatable, unstoppable.
Subjects: English, Kenya

Etymological Note: English un– ‘not’ + Dholuo bwogo ‘to scare’ + English —able ‘capable.’ The word was popularized by the song “Who Can Bwogo Me?” also known as “Unbwogable,” from the Kenyan musical group Gidi Gid Maji Maji.

Out Of Africa

Arrived back in London at 5:30am after two weeks in East Africa. I shot bazoodles of photographs and didn't really look at them on the trip, choosing instead to just keep switching memory cards and storing everything. As I began sorting through them all this afternoon, this one jumped out as my favourite thus far.

Eyes Are Everywhere

I took an impromptu long weekend and flew to my folks' place on Vancouver Island for a couple of days. Since I was out west for such a short time, I purposely tried to keep my body clock on EST. At 5:45am, I was in the house checking my email when I felt like I was being watched. I turned on my laptop's isight camera, moved it two inches to the right and snapped a photo.

Cottaging

I spent last weekend up in classic Ontario cottage country. Brought up two books that I've been dying to read: De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage and Do Travel Writers Go To Hell? by Thomas Kohnstamm.

What did I do up there? Drink champagne, wine and Pimm's all day and flip through the pages of British Vogue.

Strike a Pose

I've flown to my parents' place on Vancouver Island for a few days of vacation. This guy was very amenable - posing patiently for me while I played with the settings on my new camera.

The English Patient Redux

As I'm watching The English Patient for the 476th time, freezing the screen shot every 30 seconds and writing notes, I can tell you that this is the only thing that makes me feel good right now:

A Weekend in Tallinn

I spent the weekend in Tallinn, Estonia a couple of weeks ago with some girlfriends. What a pretty little city that was a mesh of Scandinavian and Eastern European cultures. The Old Town was full of buildings that were colour coordinated with the sky (example above) and little linen shops and patios that invited a drink or eleven.

More photos of this interesting city up on Flickr, including ones of the Old Town, and my favourite, the top of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral through an old groto.

Re-Writing Looks Like This

And then I go drinking.

Romancing the Thesis

Carousing Constantinople

There were so many Istanbul highlights. Walking into the Hagia Sofia was one of those oh-my-god-I-can't-believe-I'm-getting-to-do-this moments. I hadn't expected it to be so huge, and two levels, and the mosaics so bright and well-preserved. The photograph above is of the Deësis (Entreaty) mosaic.

After having a Turkish coffee outside of Sophia to absorb what we'd just seen, we headed off to the Grand Bazaar. Market, jewelry, bags, haggling....and over four square kilometres of it? I was in heaven. We stopped in the middle of the afternoon to fortify ourselves with some kebaps and then continued shopping. (And went back the next day as well.) Best line shouted at us from a stall: "Hey, Spice Girls! I have carpet for your dowry right here!"

Our last day in Istanbul, we walked through the Spice Bazaar (henna!), buying some nuts and tea along the way, before having lunch on the Galata Bridge linking the continents of Europe and Asia. Below is a photograph of Golden Horn, taken from the bridge.

Last highlight: an early evening in a traditional Hamam. Think being naked and sweating it out on a large marble slab plus a very large and naked Turkish woman with a loofah mitt and bucket of water. Yowza!

First Look at Istanbul

I flew to Istanbul with a friend, landing late afternoon. After taking a cab to the hotel (the kind of amazing Four Seasons, which is a renovated neoclassic Turkish prison), unpacking and decompressing in the lobby bar, we ventured out to find a recommended seafood restaurant. Just steps out of the hotel, in the now dark city, we stumbled upon the Blue Mosque. The gorgeousity of the sight in front of me was so great, I think it made my hand shake - resulting in this photograph. Which is now my favourite from the entire trip.