Battersea Power Station is one of London's iconic buildings. Perhaps not as famous as The Tower or the Houses of Parliament, but anyone living in London knows it and loves it (well I do!).

The power station has not been in use for quite a while; it ceased operation in 1983. A prime piece of real estate, right by the Thames, can not lay unused forever. The site is currently slated for development. With such an iconic building, of course the public is going to be wary of any real estate development. The construction company decided to have a few open days to show the public their plans for the site... to get them on side before they start knocking stuff down.

Andrew and I were lucky to hear about the open days and headed out to the very last one. We viewed the plans for the site with some interest but it was mainly just fluff. Too many current buzz words for my liking. Carbon zero, recycling, grey water, river transport, eco chimney(!!)... blah blah blah. (It would be nice to think they really meant it, but they are totally just cashing in on the latest fad.)

Our real interest was in the deteriorating power station. Such an interesting building, in an interesting condition. We were lucky to visit on a beautiful summer's day and the red brick building and tall white chimneys contrasted beautifully against a brilliant blue sky. It was a photographer's paradise. And we were out in force... from mobile phone cameras to DSLRs, I'm sure the power station was captured from every angle. (I have never seen so many DSLRs in one place). Let's hope the developers don't ruin it.




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It's been a year since we bought a DSLR camera (Nikon D80) and I thought it would be interesting to look at some stats about our photos for the last 12 months.

So far we've acquired three lenses, an 18-200VR, a 12-24 and a 35/f2.

Looking at just the DSLR photos, we've taken 22,348 shots. That's an average of 60 a day! And that doesn't include all the photos from the P&S.

Just over 20,000 photos taken with the 18-200VR, and 1,100 each with the wide angle and 35mm. So obviously the zoom gets the most use.

I was interested to see what focal lengths we use the most, partly to see which new lens might make a good addition to our kit, and partly just for fun.


As you can see, there's a big spike at 18mm, so I guess we should switch to the wide angle more often.

This weekend, Andrew and I did something crazy; we spent 12 hours in Paris. Saturday afternoon we caught the Eurostar, the next morning at 8am we returned to London. Crazy! The event was proposed and organised by the London Flickr Group.

With only 12 hours in Paris we had a jam-packed itinerary. A long walk from Notre Dame along the Seine to the Louvre. From the Louvre to the Champs-Élysées for a pit stop involving some much needed sustenance. After "dinner" we headed to the Eiffel Tower to watch the sunrise.

Andrew and I also managed to squeeze in a visit to a gallery. We were lucky that our travel date coincided with Paris' La Nuit des Musées. Once a year, all the museums in Paris are open until midnight with free admission after 18:00. This was too good an opportunity to pass up so while the flickerites headed up the hill to Montmartre and Sacré Coeur, we popped in to the Musée d'Orsay. Mum had declared this to be her favourite Parisian gallery but on our first trip to Paris we were unable to fit it in.

I'm so glad we took the detour! The d'Orsay has one of the best collections of Impressionist paintings in the world. It has rooms full of Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Pisarro, Sisley and Manet. It houses so many beautiful paintings. Wandering around the gallery I was feeling pretty impressed with myself. Earlier that morning, I'd been doing my normal Saturday routine of chores. That very evening I was in Paris, viewing the originals of classics that I know and love.

Of course that feeling of smugness had dissipated a little by 3am. By then my brain was mainly focused on one thing... sleep. Still, our all-nighter in Paris was worth it. If only to see Renoir's "Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette" and Monet's "Water Lily Pond".


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Shibboleth -- A word or pronunciation that distinguishes people of one group or class from those of another.

The Tate Modern's current draw card exhibition is Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo. The Tate Modern describes it as "subterranean chasm that stretches the length of the Turbine Hall". I'd describe it as a big crack. Salcedo says her work expresses a "colonial and imperial history [that] has been disregarded, marginalised or simply obliterated... the history of racism, running parallel to the history of modernity and... it's untold dark side."

The word Shibboleth originates from an incident in the bible. In the Book of Judges, the Ephraimites, attempting to flee across the river Jordan, were stopped by their enemies the Gileadites. The Gileadites identified the refugees by making them say the word Shibboleth. Because there is no "Sh" sound in Ephraimitie dialect, they were easily discovered, captured and killed.

I must congratulate the Tate Modern for making modern art so approachable and enjoyable. Usually, I'm not a modern art kinda girl. Usually, I like to look at a picture and understand what I'm looking at. But, the Tate Modern have a record of picking pieces that are a little bit fun. Last year it was the slides. This year it's a big crack in the floor.

It was lots of fun watching the kids interact with Shibboleth. The kids were excited. They wanted to know where the crack started and finished. They jumped from one side of the crack to the other. They climbed into the crack to see how deep it was. Onya Tate Modern for raising a generation with an appreciation for modern art.


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I continue to make the most of my unemployment. Last Friday, Juzzy and I headed out to do a tour of Lord's Cricket Ground. We had beautiful sunny weather and a great day to be outside. Our tour group of around 25 people was 80% Australian. Good to see that the Aussies are still Cricket mad.

On the tour we visited:

The Pavilion
The Long Room -- The Long Room is a long (yuh, you guessed it) room on the ground floor from which members of the MCC cricket club can watch cricket. It is also the room through which the fielding team and the batsmen must walk to reach the ground. On the opening day of an Ashes test match, this room is chock-full of MCC Members. Walking through this room would be quite an intimidating prospect for the Australian team.

The Players' Dressing Room -- Unfortunately, we were only able to visit the Home dressing room and not the Away dressing room. In the Home dressing room they have boards displaying the names of English batsmen who have scored a test century at Lord's and bowlers who have got more than 5 wickets in an innings or 10 wickets in a match. In the Away dressing room the boards show the names of international players who have done the same. I would have liked to see some familiar Aussie names on the record boards.

The Committee Room -- The Marylebone Cricket Club are in charge of the Laws of Cricket, that is the rules that govern how the game is to be played from how a batsmen can be dismissed to how the pitch is to be prepared and maintained. The MCC hold the copyright for the Laws, and only the MCC can change the laws. The Committee room is where all of these decisions regarding the Laws of Cricket are made. I think it's kind of strange that an international game is governed by a small English cricket club.

Media Centre
Voted as one of the fifty best buildings in Britain, it certainly is a very unique looking building. Andrew and I think it looks a little bit like a robot (number 5 is alive!). I'd been looking forward to visiting the media centre on the tour. Looking forward to the wonderful view of the grounds from inside the media centre. Looking forward to being able to say that I'd been inside this very interesting building.

Lord's Museum
The Ashes! The tiny Ashes urn is inside Lord's Museum. Although it is not the official trophy presented to the winning team of The Ashes series, I think it is the "trophy" that Aussies associate with the ashes. Apparently it holds the ashes of some kind of cricketing equipment.

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Considering our tour group was mostly Australian, I thought it quite cheeky when our tour guide snuck in some pointed comments about the Spirit of the Game. It seems that he was unimpressed by the recent squabble between Australia and India. Weren't we all!