[UPDATED THURSDAY 2nd FEBRUARY 2017]
Alice has a birthday coming up quite soon, and intends to finish "catching up" before then, even if it means missing out some details, or including fewer photos. We'll see, won't we.
How old is she going to be? Well may you ask. She didn't want to spell it out for the general public, but consented to giving you the number in Binary notation, so if you really, really want to know, you can easily look it up. It's
She thought of putting seven candles in two colours on a cake to indicate her great age accurately, but as she's unsure about whether there will actually be a cake on the day (the plans are still uncertain) we'll have to wait and see. Ba, however, who found the binary stuff totally bamboozling, but simply loves candlelight, was so disappointed at having to wait for something that might not even happen, that we just had to have a mock-up. And Alice, of course, thoroughly enjoyed organising the whole photo-shoot too.
The first time Alice tried it, years ago when visiting a friend, she was impressed enough that when she got home, she bought a book, chose three coins, and threw them six times again with the same question. She threw exactly the same hexagram. Wow! Goodness knows what the odds are on that. Jung also thought it was a very useful psychological tool. So she's used it, with discretion, on and off ever since.
There's a great site with good modern interpretations, if you want to give it a go. We could write reams more, but we're supposed to be catching up.
Introducing Fredrick
We have a new friend, Fredrick [ not Frederick! ] whom you would have seen if you read our belated Christmas blog. He arrived by Royal Mail, quite unexpectedly, last November. It turns out he was an Un-Christmas present from Alice's friend Down South, just before she finished packing up her old house to move to the new place where we visited her recently. We told you about that in our November post.An Un-Christmas present is rather like an Un-Birthday present, which item we explained way, way back in June 2012, as Humpty Dumpty told the original Alice in Alice Through the Looking Glass, Chapter 6.
Ba wasn't around then, so we had to read her this copy of the relevant page, slightly revised. See above and click to make it clearer.Mostly Fredrick just sits quietly on the arm of the settee. He doesn't say much at all, though he did communicate his name to Alice when she asked. Very occasionally it seems he has changed position, though we've never actually witnessed him doing so. He looks quite alert in the lower image here, doesn't he? And he consents to be put in position for special occasions.
Please do admire Alice's two-in-one photo. She spends forever fiddling with compositions like this, although she knows we must get on and catch up! What is she like! [ Sigh. ]
Trip "Down South" [ Another part two . . . ]
A weddingBack in October (don't forget we're catching up backwards) we set off on yet another train to visit a different friend of Alices' as they were both invited to the wedding of an old University friend.
Here is an old photo of Alice on the left, plus the friend whose wedding it was, and the good friend we stayed with. [ Click it! ]
This last pal is responsible for the very existence of our blog: back in May 2012 she said "I think Monkey should have a blog." And here we still are: thank you!
She was also the very one whose necklace rack inspired Alice's own. We showed you our one in August. Here is the original.We didn't take much part in the wedding itself, though Alice has dozens of photos and some video still to edit. Here we are looking after Alice's wedding hat, and some pieces of jewelry, before she got dressed and ready to go.
Up to London to "do art"
First we stopped at this fabulous (in both senses) Ev Restaurant.Alice and her friend had coffee, while Ba and I had a great time looking around.
We got quite friendly with the band, despite Ba almost cutting off this player's vision. We also admired the beautiful old flask. I gather the Menu is pretty good as well.Apparently Jeremy Corbyn dined here some while ago, too. The Vimeo video of the event shows something of the restaurant, as well as shots of this controversial politician.
Alice took lots of photos of the decor, which was most unusual. Here are just a couple. She especailly liked the curved roof beams, the chandeliers and this mirror. You must click these, if nothing else!Her friend requested a photo of the utensils (bottom half of the one on the right) to base a drawing on it. But we've not seen that yet. Hint.
Tate Modern
Tate Modern
was our main objective for the day. The first photo shows the original
Boiler House area on the left (with the the entrance to the famous
Turbine Hall) and the new Switch House to the right.The other image is one of the viewing plaform from the restaurant in the Boiler House section of the building. See also an article in the design magazine de zeen, with numerous photos.
The viewing platform is open to the air, with no glass to hinder photography, though the public are also very carefully protected with a well-designed barrier.
There's a super view of St Paul's across the river, not to mention the boats, the bridges, and the people looking ever so tiny indeed. In fact you can walk all the way round and see in every direction.
But we had come intending to see the Georgia O'Keefe exhibition. Ba said she didn't want to bother with it, because she didn't like paintings: she liked real things. But when we told her the artist was famous for some gorgeous paintings of flowers, and really huge ones at that, she agreed to give it a go.
The exhibition included some stunning photographs by O'Keefe's long-term partner (later her husband) Alfred Stieglitz. This is his Hands and Horse Skull (1931). Next is a reproduction of her Oriental Poppies (1927) which is a generous 40 inches by 30.
These three are Dark Iris No.1 (also 1927); another Stieglitz photo of Georgia, focussing on her long fingers, and Shell No. 2, painted in 1928. Ba liked the poppies best, while Alice went for the slim Iris. I liked them all, in all sorts of different ways.
Here's another: Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.
And: I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to ... I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way-- things I had no words for.
Very enterprising indeed. Alice gave him a pound.
There's a short video of this fun time on the faithful friend's YouTube channel.
Jupiter Artland - return visit
The only other thing we haven't "caught up" on telling you about, is our return visit to Jupiter Artland, back last September. But Alice is far too tired and hungry to type any more, and I'm in need of a snooze, so we're going to give the details a miss, I'm afraid.This time Ba also was introduced to the Weeping Girls, and found them just as disconcerting as I did the first time. That 2012 visit is recorded on this blog here.
