Walking into London. Church Hats, Vegan Buses and Food Martyrs

Nice day today and I'm free (for a change lately) so decided to walk from our house into the centre of London. It's a nice route through St Johns Wood and across Regents Park, and since we haven't had a frost, there are still leaves on the trees, some of them even green (ish). And there were quite a few roses still to be seen on the bushes in the rose garden. Strange, since it's nearly December, but it will all go when we get a frost

National Portrait Gallery
Saw the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize show at the National Portrait Gallery, one of my all time favourite galleries. It's a comfortable, welcoming building full of colour and life. There are always new and fascinating portraits to admire in the permanent collections, and interesting lectures (many of them free). We try to go every year to the painting and photo portrait contests.

Church Hats

My favourite showed an elderly African woman sitting in her bedroom with some of the fantastic hats she keeps specially for attending Church on Sundays with her friends. I liked it because the visual image described her in a way that words cannot. It said so much about her - that Church is a social occasion, and she has a regular routine and takes care and trouble about how the world sees her, and also, I think, that she wants to be looking at her best to worship God.

Pigeons in Trafalgar Square

Sat in Trafalgar Square a while in the sunshine. It's now rather sadly short of pigeons, although the lady eating a sandwich next to us was mobbed by about 20, to her annoyance. When I was a child one of my favourite outings was to Trafalgar Square, where we'd buy a packet of grain from one of the vendors who used to hang out there. I still remember the weird and (to me) highly entertaining feeling of pigeon claws scrabbling all over my head and arms. It sounds a bit creepy now but then kids don't have the cultural baggage of Hitchcock's "The Birds" and other similar horror movies, do they?.

Routemaster Bus Cafe

On the way back decided to try out an unusual cafe - a Routemaster bus parked next to a multistorey carpark in Soho. It's very nicely done out with a kitchen downstairs and a cafe upstairs with moody Eastern music and some comfortable tables. All perfect except for the food. It is vegan - and I hasten to say that I think good vegan food is brilliant. But it's a while since I've been in a vegan cafe and I wonder if the ethos of eating vegan has changed.

The food was so plain and dull and tasteless that I thought it might be aiming at folks who aren't interested in taste but want to be sure there's no salt, sugar, gluten, oil, etc. to ruin their virtuous dining.

Vegan Food Martyrs

T and I each had soup, and were amazed to find no seasonings, no herbs, no actual cooking (apart from liquidising the ingredients I suppose). Very watery (not unlike the water that's left when you've boiled vegetables) and quite hard to force down. Not cheap either and definitely not something to set you up for the afternoon. Kindness forbids me from naming the cafe. They're so enthusiastic, they've done the bus out well and it's such a good idea, in theory. Perhaps they're aiming at the food martyrs of Soho.

And John Lewis

On to John lewis which was PACKED. No sign of recession and no sign that anyone's abandoning the high street. Perhaps even more people were sitting at home with their computers, though, and making the trip with Superhighstreet.com We got a duvet cover and then went home because we were already starving after our vegan non-lunch.

World Travel Market Highlights

I attended World Travel Market in London this week. It's the biggest travel trade fair in Britain, not open to the general public but a must-attend for many of those in the business.

Well Designed Greece

Every year I marvel at the ingenuity and attractiveness of some of the stands. I particularly liked the Greek stand for its clever simplicity. The large central section was had an illuminated floor, echoing both the blue and white Greek flag, and also the feeling of being by a gorgeous blue pool. High above, was a ring of extremely bright lights of the type you get at a football stadium. Although the exhibition hall is well lit, this extra illumination made the Greek stand even brighter. It reminded you of what it's like walking into the Greek sunshine. So simple, so ungimmicky. Not very eco-friendly perhaps, but guess you can't have everything.

Brasilia - an Architectural Inspiration

Brazil was celebrating the anniversary of Brasilia, its modernistic capital. Their stand accordingly consisted of a plain white modernist arc, Brasilia style, with white floor and white comfortable chairs, with a gorgeous wooden bar down one side, adorned with carvings. Soooo cool! And a real oasis amidst the noise and bustle.

Multi Media Switzerland

Most eyecatching was a construction on the Swiss stand. This art installation is complicated and very large. It consists of three dimensional and multi media
representations of every distinctively Swiss thing you can think of - a cog railway, a castle, mountains, a ship on a metal lake where the waves move, cowbells, a herd of cows, mobile phone, a fondue set, clocks of various types, an apple with an arrow through it and several screens showing film of Swiss life, plus sound effects ranging from yodelling to bird twittering to a carillion of little bells that plays a tune.

It operates on a sort of pinball construction. Every time a large steel ball sets out of its trap, it seems to spiral and race into a different bit of the structure and trigger off a different mechanism so that you are never quite sure what will be happening next.

Charles Morgan, Swiss? Artist

There was always a large fascinated crowd around this installation, which was constructed by a Swiss artist called Charles Morgan - his name sounds very English but his site is in French so I suppose he IS Swiss? This website which is full of wonderful stuff but I suspect the photos don't in any way do his work justice. He does have this installation out there in his picture gallery, but you would never guess how marvellous it is.

Should I go to Switzerland, I shall make a point of seeking Charles Morgan out.