Be It Ever So Humble

---

“Beauty shall be in front of me. Beauty shall be in the back. Beauty shall be below me, above me, all around me.”
-- Navajo Prayer

I was taking photos for my insurance company of my flat, when I realised that many of you have never seen it. So, I thought it would be fun to post some photos of the places that I talk about when I’m home. I hope you enjoy them. And, as promised, there is a photo of “my tree” in bloom. The leaves will be out soon!

A bit of history about the street on which I live. It is called Randolph Avenue. In England, there is a slang expression "to be randy". This means, how shall I put this politely, "to be in the mood". It comes from Randolph Avenue because, back in the day, this is where all the City men kept their mistresses. I was telling Jeremy this story several years ago. There was a moment of stunned silence and then gales of laughter. Turns out his grandfather kept his mistress on Randolph Avenue. My, how the world does turn.

I’ve had a relatively busy week. On Wednesday, I went back to the Royal Opera House to see a mixed ballet programme. It was great fun. The first was called “Serenade”. It was done by Balanchine, set to music by Tchaikovsky. He based it on his classes, so the moves were really interesting and got more complicated as the dance went on. I absolutely loved it. The second was called “Rushes”. This guy called Michael Berkeley found music that Prokofiev had composed for a film that was never made. It’s just bits and pieces of tunes that Berkeley has put together. The dance was amazing. It was a combination of ballet and modern dance and the dancers wore clothes from the 30s instead of the usual leotards and codpieces. Fantastic! The third one was “Homage to a Queen”. It was commissioned for Margot Fonteyn to dance the night of Elizabeth’s coronation. It has fallen out of the repertory. Let’s just say I understand why…..

Thursday was pouring rain, so I ditched the idea of a walk and went over to the British Museum instead. It is phenomenal. I’ve heard that it is 2.5 miles long and that it can take over a week to see everything they have. I believe it. I just ran around with an audio guide and looked at what they consider the highlights. Even that took me nearly five hours.

What I found so interesting was that so many of the things I was looking at where things I have already written about. I saw a model of the palace at Knossos, where the Minotaur was. I saw the mummies, not unlike the King Tut exhibit. I saw an Etruscan burial plot, which reminded me of Tarquinia. I saw a lot of things about the Romans, which reminded me of Chester. I also saw an exhibit they had on about American prints, my favourite of which was one by Hopper.

In addition, I saw the only surviving cartoon by Michelangelo. The other highlight was a Korean study, or sarangbong, which is based around the idea of simplicity. Everything was in its place and, on the desk, was a rock. This was so the person reading could have a bit of the outside indoors. I thought that was a great idea.

The best part of the day, however, was lunch. I ended up sitting next to Ira Gershwin’s grandson. Blatantly eavesdropping, I listened to him cut a deal with some people to license his grandfather’s music. Very interesting.

So - that’s been my week. Full of “beauty all around me”.

PS - another milestone for the blog. I hit 3,000 hits on my site. Very exciting!

---

Photos

The Street Where I Live
With all its wonderful history.

The Warrington
This is my local pub, recently taken over by Gordon Ramsey.

The Colonnade
This is the hotel where Mom and Lynn, and now Colin, all stay when they come to visit. It is the birthplace of Alan Turing, a computer pioneer.

The Street Where I Live
A view looking up my street from the pub.

My Front Door
The big window on the right is my bedroom.

My Bedroom
Looking from the entranceway into the room. The window is the one you can see from the front of the house.

My Bedroom
No comments about the pile of books, please. Some things never change.

The Living Room
Looking from the entranceway into the living room.

The Living Room
A general shot of the room. Note how tiny it is. And don't mention the puzzle on the table. It will be the death of me!

The Living Room
Note that I am down to one bookshelf. Who would have ever thought it?

The Kitchen
Note the ugly orange blind I told you about.

The Kitchen
This is the doorway out to my balcony.

My Tree
As promised, here it is in bloom. I will post later when the leaves are out and then when they change. You will then have seen it in all four seasons.