In making this trip I've failed to consider Longitude. It is cold in London. At home I'd be walking around the house in a bathing suit. So aside from the ten summer dresses, I have one sweatshirt, one jacket, three pairs of pants and two long sleeved shirts. Good thing I'm so down with layers.
I also resumed drinking like a fish as soon as my jet lag wore off. On top of the excursions with Jess (Katie + Jess = team half pint) -- walking the monuments and then spending £4 on a sandwich and Stella at Tesco which we consumed in the corner of Trafalgars Square, drinking bottles of wine on Hampton Court gardens at the Flower Show -- my cuz Stephen has also proven a very worthy accomplice; as have all his old/my new flatmates. Stephens favorite thing to do at the pub is play "Dares", which is exactly what it sounds like. I just so happen to be a Dares natural... probably from all the "The Question Game's" in the Great Space.
I moved into my new flat a little over a week ago, the same day they published two stories about fatal stabbings in my new hood. It's seedy-- you know I do. It's also around the corner from where my Nan grew up and had my Dad, so heritage is sweet.
The first two weeks I was doing daily London Festival of Architecture events, most of which are fantastic. The first one was an Eric Parry lecture at St. Martin in the Fields (not actually in the Fields). Of course, after a long day of walking and a sandwich/stella -- and in true Katie fashion, I was falling asleep for the first half of the lecture. I even fell onto the guy next to me. He was not amused. It reminded me of the time I just about fell off my chair at the Mario Botta lecture. Anyway I'm not sure how I feel about Eric Perry's intervention at St. Martins (architect James Gibbs and major urban intervention by John Nash). He's put two giant lightwells to the north side of the church to access the crypt and rooms below. They are basically big glass pods the plan of which is two overlapping circles (think Scarpa, whom Perry referenced among others). The placement/orientation of the wells are good. As far as the circles I'm not so convinced. First of all I'm wary of Architectural references that serve Architects only -- yes perhaps randoms could look at the wells and read two overlapping circles and find some cosmological meaning-- but my thought is that non-Architects don't read buildings in plan at all, and ofter have a hard time understanding such an abstraction. Scarpa's circles are good because the symbol is legible, simple, clear and mostly vertically registered. Perry's seems a bit arbitrary in comparision I suppose. But this is a more minor point -- construction is still underway and they should be ready by next summer so we'll hold out judgement until then. Funilly (is that a word, it looks weird) enough I went to a lunch talk where Sarah Wigglesworth and Rowan Moore were discussing "Communicating Architecture", and Sarah talked a lot about graphic abstractions of Orthographic Drawings and how hard they are for people to understand, sometimes even architects.
So last Wednesday I got two jobs in one day, which is great. The first is working for a Contractor on the site of a new office building. I just happened to wander into a recruiters office and within five minutes they had the job for me. I absolutely love it! I work in a temporary office on site -- I have my own hard hat, vest and site boots -- with between one and five 30 year old contractors. They are super nice and hilarious, I'm sure you can image little me running around an office filled with British contractors... I'll take pictures. Our office is basically a satelite from the main office which is a renovations office fit out firm. The project is running until November so I'm going to get to see the whole fit out take place. AND, sweet coincident, I was in Make's Open Studio last week and I saw a building that they'd just put up in London, so I wrote down the address and when I turned up to my first day of work I just happen to be in that very building!! Half of it is already occupied and half is underconstruction by yours truly. I'm sort of doing admin stuff but it's mostly dealing with the construction drawings, so I've gone from one end of the spectrum to the other in one year. My other job is one shift on weekends at our local pub, Walpole in New Cross, which is the British equivalent of The Looking Glass Lounge. I'm bartending with this cute Welsh chick named Ruth who is fantastic.
So funny observations... OJ here is not pulp or no pulp but "with or without juicy bits". Ha. Also, its about 80 F outside and the loudspeaker in the tube is warning people not to get on trains if they feel sick and to remember to carry water. Pfsh!
Drinking beers in the street is allowed but somewhat taboo.
Fun fact: Apparently they drive on the wrong side of the road because of jousting. Yup, jousters carry their jousts with their left arm and so ancient Roman roads were layed out accordingly.
So then, why do we drive on the other side? Probably just to be different.
