A Lovely Gift, Paris, the Question of the Rolls Royces and THE HOSPITAL TRAIN BLOG

I was so pleased yesterday  to get a wonderful gift from Jeanie of the Marmelade Gypsy -  a pack of note cards created from some of the photos on her beautiful blog (take a look at her site here!)

 I homed in on this one, showing the Eiffel Tower in Paris.....
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... because T had a big birthday this year and we're going to Paris in October.   In honour of the trip, I made him an appropriate birthday card - well, a birthday construction really.  Hope you can tell it is meant to be a champagne bar!

You might remember that I planned to visit Japan this autumn, but the publishers have now confirmed that publication is delayed till next year. I still hope to go, but I'd need to leave a good chunk of time to organise some work and make a Japan trip worthwhile, which I can't do till a publication date is confirmed.  So feeling a bit disappointed there.

What with this, and other things, it's been an up and down week. But the BBC

project plods on.  I'm told we may not have a verdict till Christmas!

And I have solved part of a mystery that has been puzzling me for a while, the Question of the Rolls Royces.

Two vintage Rolls Royces recently appeared, parked at the curb in our street. (NOT the kind of thing we are used to happening round here, I should add).   One is yellow and one is silver. Since there is virtually no off-street parking in the area, we were wondering who they could belong to.  I thought there must be a mad Rolls Royce collector around, who loved living in an area with no parking and was happy to leave his treasures to the attention of the many weird people who pass by on their merry way..

Then last night I learned that they have different owners!  The silver one belongs to a neighbour who I  know vaguely. It seems he did several years of creative work for a Middle Eastern royal, and  was treated lavishly while he was doing the work, flying everywhere first class and so on. But then the royal refused to pay, driving him into bankruptcy.  Not quite sure what happened next, but before long, the silver Rolls Royce appeared on the scene, I assume some kind of pay off from the royal.  The neighbour is now using the car as a central part of his new business.  Since he doesn't feel like moving away from his well loved home to somewhere with parking, he keeps it as near to outside his home as he can manage, and he watches over it like a hawk.

The yellow one's still a mystery. Perhaps that is the one which belongs to a mad collector ...

And finally, I'm hoping you will take a look from time to time at the blog for our World War 1 schools project.   (That is Lord Kitchener, above, telling Britons "Your Country Needs You").  

Our story is based in Bermondsey, South East London.    We will add to it as we go along, and hopefully the kids will too.

Working in schools is all very new to me. I've never felt I'm a natural teacher, to put it mildly, and I'm far more nervous about it than any other work projects.    Anyway, here it is, with just one post so far, but if you're interested, keep checking back and there will be more posts as we get going - the school term starts in September. :

http://www.mabel-and-her-amazing-fleas.blogspot.co.uk/
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Oh, and I see the Google followers.have just hit 400. Welcome, Ms Sparrow!

Making Room and Turning out the Attic

I've been forced into it.   Clearing out, I mean.  I'm trying to find room for all the treasures from my mum's house but with the best will in the world I can't keep them all and charity always seem overburdened - in fact,  I  think they probably throw most of their donations away. I can't blame them but I'm not going to drag my stuff down there just to have it chucked into someone else's bin.

Luckily, Freecycle came to the rescue.

In case you haven't heard of Freecycle, it's a system whereby you advertise things you want to give away, and other people come and collect them. No money changes hands, so it is best for things that are slightly damaged, or fragile, or quirky, and which your friends can't find room for.   I like the idea of recycling treasures, and some of the stuff I have been giving away is really sweet.

This elegant little teapot has a cracked repaired lid but I'm so glad someone wanted it.

I would have kept this small length of cheerful seaside-y fabric, if I was into sewing clothes

On the other hand, I was glad to say bye-bye to this string puppet - clowns give me the creeps and I never liked string puppets even as a child.  Now, though, it has a loving home.

I've also been turning out my own attic and finding things I'd forgotten I had. Like an album I bought for 50p off a group of nuns in a car boot sale once. (Why nuns? I don't know!).  The album was an illustrated diary of one woman's visit to France and Germany just after the end of World War 1. Typed with a blue ribbon on flimsy paper, stuck into the big grey album and illustrated with her own photos, it's a unique account. I don't know who wrote it, but she was obviously  in the welfare services, and something of a VIP.    

Although the war had just finished, her description of the battlefield devastation was chilling, with miles of rusting barbed wire and mud  - she noted that the dead soldiers had been gathered up and were in certain areas marked with crosses, although they were not properly buried.

Life was not comfortable for anyone, and although she was given a motor car to go around in, it kept going wrong.  She visited Cologne where people were worried about the perceived threat from Rosa Luxemburg's Spartacus League.  She went to France and  noted how she had to climb over heaps of rubble to get photos of the devastation in France. Here is a corner of Ypres cathedral, with a British soldier in the doorway.

She photographed a market with women trudging through the ruins with their shopping baskets, and she was full of admiration for the people who were starting to recreate their towns and villages from literally almost nothing, and with nothing.

As indeed they did.   This is the same bit of Ypres Cathedral,  95 years later:

Reading this fascinating and disturbing account (which I had really almost forgotten) gave me an idea for a writing project, which is what I'm working on right now.

I've been doing some other things. Went to the V&A with my arty cousin Lorna.  We loved  the shadows cast by the redundant screen from Hereford Cathedral. Here is just a little part of this masterpiece of Victorian cast iron - if you go to the V&A, take a look - the screen towers just above the main entrance.

The museum is apparently renovating the Cast Court, one of my favourite rooms. It's vast and very tall and it holds life sized plaster casts of architectural features and famous statues. Here you see Michelangelo's "David" eyeballing the guy who is photographing him.

And I had a nice evening at a magic-lantern gig at the Green Note in Camden which is  a cafe bar with great food and  unusual and interesting music

And saw some wonderful GOATS in the centre of the city (I'll write more about that soon)

Now, I need to get rid of the bug which is still plaguing me. I think I'm on the mend. I have got my voice back, and my system is not so full of sticky gunge as it was. But I am so very tired. I went to the gym for a short, mild work out and I have felt utterly shattered for the rest of the day.