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A personal weblog with photographs and comments. Quiet ramblings, quite rambling...

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• London Mayor - (1)
  
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• What really happened in Croydon? - (3)
  
• Bike hire in Berlin - (1)
  
• Brandenberg Gate - (1)
  
• Three Way Chess - (1)
  
• Gamelan instruments - (2)
  
• Oh no! John! - (2)
  
• “Bells and Smells” Mass - (1)
  
• Turn cash into less cash - (6)
  

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This is a newish facility in Paris: free bicycle hire for 30 minutes, then apparently 2 Euros per 30 minutes thereafter. 

These racks outside my hotel are empty, but I saw plenty of available bikes while walking through La Marais earlier in the evening.

Reading over someone’s shoulder on the way back on the Metro (as one is want to do when there is nothing else to challenge for one’s attention) I saw that a certain English guide for French speakers advises that adding the suffix -ish to an adjective gives the word a negative connotation. I beg to disagree. Newish, greenish, yellowish: none of these has to be a negative description unless the context indicates this.

The view from my hotel window in Paris is a bit boring this week, but it means it’s quieter and I’m in spitting distance of where I stayed last week.

For 13 years this was Eurostar’s London terminus, until the new international station opened at St Pancreas last year. I’m off to Paris again this week, but I leave this morning from Ebbsfleet, near Bluewater.

Outside the Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London.

A large head and shoulders bust of Nelson Mandela (by Ian Walters, 1985) stands on the walkway between the hall and Hungerford Bridge approach viaduct. Originally made in glass-fibre it was repeatedly vandalised until re-cast in bronze.

I was feeling a bit tired and asked about this but apparently I’m too heavy or something.

This is the view I saw most of on my first day in Paris as it’s the view from the meeting room.

It’s a less interesting view of a motorway on the outskirts of Paris punctuated by the occasional distraction of a mother pushing a pram, or an elderly Parisian wandering, along the verge of the motorway.

And this is the view of the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero. When the sparkly lights come on (which they do on the hour every hour) the gathered throngs breath “aaah!” in unison.

After experiencing this we caught the metro to a fancy restaurant on Boulevard Hausseman, where the wine was good but the food was disappointing (at the price offered).

The evening view from my hotel window up Ave Mac-Mahon towards the Arc de Triomphe.

The best thing the hotel has going for it is the location. Actually the only thing going for it is the location.

So I find myself at this newly opened railway station, 2 hours and 5 minutes away from Paris’ Gare du Nord station.  I’m heading back to France for a work “summit” this week.

This is the view of St Mary’s Church, Oxford, as seen from the entrance to Brasenose College. The church tower is also open to visitors and boasts the “best views of Oxford”. We didn’t test that claim.

This is the view from Cornmarket Street of the tower of St Michael’s Church, Oxford.

The view of Cornmarket Street from the tower of St Michael’s Church, Oxford. With 98 steps to the top, this is allegedly the easiest tower in Oxford to climb.

This is the inside of St Michael’s Church, Oxford.

Back in the UK (somewhere in leafy Surrey) and the river is showing signs of all the recent rainfall.

It could be graffiti tags alongside any dirty railway line anywhere in the world but it’s actually taken as we make an unscheduled stop on Eurostar (due to “power failure") coming into Paris yesterday.

I took the opportunity of getting the photograph of the graffiti tags, knowing that this blog is a popular destination for online searchers of the term.