Learing at the owl and pussy cat

'Dear pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
    Your ring?' Said the Piggy, 'I will.'
So they took it away, and were married next day
    By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
    Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
    They danced by the light of the moon,
          The moon,
          The moon,
 They danced by the light of the moon.

-- "The Owl and the Pussy Cat".  Full poem »here. 

In celebration of Lear's 200th anniversary, Michael Rosen (BBC Radio 4's Word of Mouth) and Roger McGough (one of the Mersey poets - the one I specifically wanted to see) paid tribute to him by having a nonsensically great time at the British Library today. Poetry is ultimately a performance art, and Rosen and McGough were virtuosos at getting the audience to laugh, chant along and fill in the blanks.

25 laps

One of the best things about Singapore - the public pools. 25 laps is just 20 minutes and under £1 away.

When hiking

When hiking, there occasionally comes a meditative point where it is just you and your strides. You march ahead into the sun.  Other people fade out, their conversations become a radio in the background. The autumn leaves under your feet rustle to the same brisk tempo. You stride on, into a glide.

Camera-phone series #37.

Winter acorns

It has been surprisingly warm this winter. I was going to hang up my hiking shoes till late February but 8ºC and sun yesterday made it possible to hike through the Farnham Heath in Surrey.

Camera-phone series #36.

Eyes at Tate Modern

Camera-phone series #35.

Wedding speech

I learnt from them that the swish man-bag is called a sporran.

Ted on hot tin roof

Ted is an engineer. In pre-arthritic days, he used to dance on the hot tin roof, on the pretext of fixing pipes.　

Poppies

Armistice Day this year is 11 am, 11 Nov 2011.

In the two weeks leading up to the Remembrance Day weekend, a good 30-40% of the people in London wear poppies on their lapels.  During this time, I particularly like spotting poppies popping up on escalators travelling in opposite direction of mine.


Here is my »previous post on poppies.

Joyeux anniversaire Christine

Christine handles her birthday chopsticks with finesse!

Croatian summer

Two cellos at Rector's Palace

Anton Arensky’s Quartet No. 2 for violin, viola and two cellos in A minor, Op 35.

This was part of the Julian Rachlin and Friends concert series at Rector's Palace in Dubrovnik, which looked like this in colour:

Elegy

Elegy for viola and piano in G minor, Op 44.  Alexander Glazuov.