Signs of Spring

OK, it's a bit early to be talking about spring, especially with the USA buried under snow and at least another month of winter ahead of us. Here in London we've had some of our heaviest snowfalls in late February and early March. But the sun was bright yesterday, and this little robin was sitting in the Philadelphus outside the back door singing its heart out, and it reminded me that this interminable winter will indeed come to an end.

Just like the interminable administration of Donald Trump will come to an end. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

 I think I solved the Alhambra problem, in a completely unimaginative way. I got online and Googled "How to get tickets to the Alhambra when they're sold out." And several private tour companies popped up offering tickets at a slight premium. I guess they must buy blocks of tickets and then sell them to tourists. Anyway, I reserved two and they've been confirmed so if all goes well, we'll get to visit after all. I'm a bit wary because reviews for this company are mixed and some people say their tickets only came through at the last minute or not at all. But I'm hoping for the best, and if not, we'll find other things to do in Granada.

I realize it's incredibly shallow of me to write about problems like this when the USA is in such turmoil. But I don't see how I can help the situation by going off about how repulsive it is to watch federal agents shoot innocent Americans in the street. All I can do from this distance is help elect more opposition to contain that lunatic as much as possible until his term is up. (OK, I had more to say, but I really am stopping now.)

I spotted our first daffodil yesterday! This is usually when we start seeing them -- end of January or so. Dave and I had his co-worker Lorraine and her boyfriend over for dinner last night, so I cut the daffodil and made it our centerpiece. Dave made parsnip and leek soup, beef stroganoff with broccoli on the side, and lemon posset for dessert. He served the posset with a store-bought blueberry tart. I teased him for serving two desserts, and when he brought them out, Lorraine said, "Two desserts!" But Dave insisted that it was one dessert in two dishes, because the tastes went well together. OK then.

We walked up to Leyland (a home improvements store) yesterday morning to get paint samples to make some choices about the redecorating. Unfortunately we are not in agreement about the options. For the living room I want something very similar to what we already have -- neutral beige. Dave wants very light blue or light green, but I think that's going to be too much blue/green, considering that our sofa is blue and our rug is green and all the paint in the hallway is celadon. In the bedroom, I'd like a dark gray-blue, but not too dark -- and the one Dave wants is, to my mind, too dark and too purple. So we still have to sort this out.

I also downloaded the garden cam yesterday, with results above. We see several of our neighborhood cats -- Blackie, Pale Cat and Tabby -- as well as at least three foxes. I don't believe any of the foxes are Q-Tip, unless he/she is the fox whose poor tail has been stripped at the end, but honestly I have trouble telling them all apart. We see one of the foxes bed down several times behind the hazel tree, where it seems quite comfy. I moved the garden cam so that it has a more direct view of that spot -- I'd like to get some clearer footage of it nesting back there. Hopefully repositioning the camera won't scare the fox away.

A Bummer

I've got to get out and take some fresh pictures this weekend. When I started my walk home last night I reminded myself to keep an eye out for anything interesting, but I just wasn't motivated. Bleak January! Maybe today when Dave and I go up to the hardware store for paint samples.

I've had a rude awakening about our upcoming Spain trip. Someone in the comments recommended that we get our tickets to the Alhambra ahead of time. This seemed a little crazy, given that it's almost a month away, but I tried to go online and buy advance tickets, and guess what? SOLD OUT! They have availability the week before and the week after, but not a single day of the week we're in the country. Of course this is because everyone is on a half-term break from school, I imagine.

I wrote our hotel to see if they could hook us up somehow, but I haven't heard back yet. If we can't get into the Alhambra it won't be the end of the world -- I've seen it (albeit 32 years ago) and although Dave hasn't, he also doesn't seem particularly invested. I did buy advance tickets to the cathedral in Córdoba, so at least we'll be sure to see that.

Traveling is not like it was in the '90s, when you could just show up at the front gate.

Blogger was doing more weird things yesterday. I couldn't reply to comments and I couldn't see my entire blog roll, which is how I click back to read everyone else's blogs. The problem seems fixed this morning, thank goodness.

(Photo: A plaza off Edgware Road, last weekend.)

Decline Porn

It's a good thing I went walking last weekend and got lots of photos to blog, because I haven't taken a single photo in the last couple of days. It's been wet and dreary and I haven't seen anything inspiring. Better wet than freezing cold, like much of the USA, but still...I could use some sunshine.

As I walked home last night, I was listening to the newest episode of the QAA podcast (formerly Q-Anon Anonymous), which examines modern conspiracy theories weekly in a very loose, conversational style. This week they're talking about so-called "Decline Porn," those videos you see on YouTube in which travelers visit European cities and talk about how dangerous and decrepit they've become. This really is an entire genre of YouTube video -- I watched one such video about London several months or maybe even a year ago, just for kicks, and now I still get similar recommendations in my channel. The QAA episode specifically focuses on London videos but you also see them about Paris, Berlin, Lisbon and lots of other places.

They usually have a dramatic title like "London Has Changed," or even "London Has Fallen," and the gist is that while London used to be a nice tidy city full of law-abiding white people drinking tea, it is now a dangerous hellhole full of marauding dark-skinned invaders, phone snatchers and knife-wielding criminals. Of course this is nonsense, but it's interesting that there's an appetite for such content. These videos get significant numbers of views, often far outpacing regular travel videos.

I suspect they're being watched by people who already believe that Europe's capital cities are changing for the worse -- people who are fearful or critical of migrants, who aren't going to travel themselves and who want to hear confirmation that migration leads to civilizational collapse. Often these vloggers are visiting parts of town where immigrant populations are the highest and using them to represent the entire city -- a bit like going to Chinatown in New York or San Francisco and saying, "Look at this! The Chinese are taking over!"

In the video I watched, which I don't want to link to because I don't want to perpetuate the bullshit, the vlogger was walking along a London street and talking about how he'd seen swarms of phone-snatchers on motorcycles zooming past. As far as I could tell, anyone wearing black on a motorcycle was, in his mind, a phone-snatcher. I got news for you, buddy -- most of them are Deliveroo drivers carrying take-away chicken from Nando's.

And that's what these vloggers do -- they film regular everyday people going about their non-criminal business, cast that footage in a dark or deceptive light, and use it to represent the entire metropolitan area. Do we have litter and homeless people in London? Of course we do! We're a city! And we are a very diverse city -- one of the most diverse in the world. But the fact is, diversity -- despite occasional culture clashes -- mostly works just fine here. That's what the people who produce and consume these videos don't want you to hear.

I've lived in London for almost 15 years, I've walked all over this city day and night, and I have never been a target of street crime. I've never had anything stolen, I've never been threatened by anyone sketchy. Our home has never been burgled. I often walk with my camera clearly visible, and while I am careful with my phone I comfortably use it on the streets. I've never been pickpocketed. (Unlike in New York!)

So if you're seeing these videos, keep in mind that they're fiction. They're "Decline Porn," meant to titillate but not to represent reality.

Things Are About to Get Crazy

Here's a little shop I encountered on Edgware Road over the weekend. It seems to sell a bit of everything -- chocolates, produce, water, clothing, household goods and shisha pipes. I can't for the life of me translate the name of it but maybe some of you out there are Arabic speakers and can tell me what it says?

I took two versions of the photo. I like the one above because it's clean, but it's also very static. Here's one with a little more street life:

Well, things are about to get a lot more exciting around here. Dave got a text yesterday from the contractors doing our interior painting/decorating job, and they want to start on Tuesday! We're supposed to choose paint colors but we're uncertain how to do that, given that we don't have any samples. They say we don't have to move furniture or anything -- they will supposedly handle all of that -- but of course I'll take down all the smaller stuff and tuck it away somewhere.

And our tree work is supposed to be happening at roughly the same time. Never a dull moment!

Did I tell you that when the tree man came on Sunday to do his assessment, he said, "I love a naturalistic garden," or something like that? I suppose that's what we have but it also sounds a little bit like a slam, doesn't it? Like, "Well, you've certainly let this go."

On the positive side, I got my test results back from my doctor's office and everything was normal -- even my calprotectin, which hasn't been normal in the last couple of years. Woo hoo! Calprotectin measures intestinal inflammation, and the doctor's theory is that my inflammation came from that polyp that my gastroenterologist removed last May. Now that the polyp is gone, things are back to normal. Sounds good to me! I'll take it!

An 8th Grade student -- the same one who wanted me to do his photography challenge -- asked me yesterday, "What's the worst pandemic you've lived through?" Which is kind of a weird question, but whatever. At first I said Covid, because that was strictly defined as a pandemic and had such an acute effect on the whole globe, but then I realized of course the answer is AIDS. HIV and AIDS definitely altered my life, on a deeper level, more than Covid ever did. This led to some questions about what it was like living in the '80s. I had to remember that for this kid, who was born in 2011 (after Dave and I had moved to London!), that's ancient history -- kind of like the 1930s were to me!

Tree News

Another photo from my wander along Edgware Road the other day. I love these stately old blocks of flats on a side street. I looked them up on Zoopla just now and they are quite swank -- one sold for £2.25 million a year ago, and another (slightly smaller) for £1.5 million the previous November. They're pretty big, too -- four bedrooms!

I woke to some possibly unwelcome news this morning. I say possibly because I'm still weighing what it will mean. The tree surgeon has been instructed to remove our fallen limb and cut the rest of the elder tree down to 20 feet (which is about as tall as it is already, I think) as well as to cut the ivy so that it dies in the upper parts of both trees. I'm happy with the limb removal but I hate to have all that dead ivy hanging there. I hope the tree guy can remove some of it so it's not so unsightly. Or maybe that will be left up to me.

On the bright side, I guess any squirrels or birds with nests in that ivy can continue to live there, unless the fact that it's dead puts them off.

I'm not going to fight it too much, but I may ask a few questions.

Harry (Not The Royal One)

I like this house in Marylebone with its stained-glass windows depicting peacocks. There are at least four of them -- I photographed another two more than 14 years ago (!) but it's even better to catch them at night.

Why was I in Marylebone last night, you may wonder? Well, remember the abandoned giraffe? I went back to see if it was still there. I know, I know -- I'm crazy. And it was already gone, which will no doubt make Dave very happy.

Instead, in its place, I found a sign for Harry's room or cabinet or something. I'm guessing that was also Harry's giraffe -- and possibly that's Harry's kitchen sink in the background.

Dave was busy last night with an audition for a part-time, evening conducting job with a local community band. He's one of four candidates. He's had fun with the interview process and I know he's enjoyed being able to perform more challenging musical feats with adult players. I'm not sure when he'll hear back about who got the job. It would mean working one night a week with the band, which he thinks he could manage. He's feeling a bit stale, artistically, only working with middle and high school students.

I was on my own for dinner so I made one of my famous clean-out-the-fridge omelettes and watched "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," a 1970s made-for-TV movie that I remember being shown in school several times. It's based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story and it's got a fantastic cast including Shelley Duvall, Veronica Cartwright and Bud Cort. It was a film that my high school English teachers often resorted to when we had a free day in class, between units or right before a break or whatever. I hadn't seen it in many years and, lo and behold, it was on Amazon Prime at no extra cost. I enjoyed watching it again.

Yesterday I added this book to our library collection, a new volume of "Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales," a history-based graphic novel series. This one is called "Bones and Berserkers: 13 True Tales of Terror." I got a kick out of the end papers. As I told my colleague, "This is the most accurate depiction I've seen of the current state of politics in the USA!"

Busy Sunday With Lava Lamp

The red hellebores are opening up, looking fresh and bright as a spring day. (I'm thinking ahead!) These are the same flowers that months from now will fade and darken and draw a collection of aphids. It's hard to believe that's even the same plant, isn't it?

The white ones are looking good, too.

I had a busy day yesterday, considering I barely left the house. I finished my book about the Lusitania, which was very good, particularly the account of the sinking itself. I didn't realize that the ship sank in only 18 minutes! I always thought a shipwreck was a protracted affair, like the Titanic, which stayed afloat for almost three hours -- but I guess a torpedo is different from an iceberg. Imagine being a finely dressed cruise passenger, having a fancy lunch, strolling the deck, and 20 minutes later you're floating around in the ocean in a sea of wreckage. (If you're lucky.)

I also planned our trip for February break. Dave and I are going back to Spain -- this time to Málaga, Córdoba, and Granada. We plan to visit the famous Mitchell and San Geraldo, as well as take in such sights as the Alhambra and the Picasso museum. I went to Granada many years ago, in 1994, but I only dimly remember it, and I've never been to the other two cities. Dave hasn't seen any of them. So we're looking forward to that! I booked our flight and our hotels, with two nights in each place.

Saturday self-portrait in a pub hand dryer!

I finally got our lava lamp working -- sort of. I thought the bulb had burned out, so last weekend I took it to our local hardware shop and we put another bulb in it -- and nothing. Dead as a doornail. So I left it for the hardware guys to repair, which they offered to do for £30. (Yes, I realize I could have bought a new lava lamp for probably less than that, but it's the principle of the thing. I don't want to throw this one in a landfill.) I picked it up on Saturday with new wiring and yesterday bought a new bulb, and it now works -- but the bulb is five watts stronger than is recommended for the lamp, which means it gets just a bit too hot, and all the wax tends to linger at the top of the cylinder. I suppose I need to get on Amazon and order a proper bulb.

This is a lot of trouble for a lava lamp.

Finally, the tree guy came last evening to look at our fallen branch so he can give an estimate to the landlords for removing it. He said he'd give three estimates -- one just for the fallen part, one for the entire tree and one for tidying that whole area in the back of the garden. I'm guessing the landlords will go for the first option, but that's fine with me.