I had wanted to experience Chinese New Year in an Asian location for many years so it was very interesting to be in the heart of the celebrations when I visited Singapore last year. I understand Chinese New Year is dependant on the lunar calendar so the date tends to varies slightly from year to…
Category: Travel
Singular Statues: #7 King William III
I am just a little shocked at the excess shown by this double gilded gold-leafed vision of King William III, which stands at the eastern end of The Porter’s Garden of Portsmouth Dockyard, just inside the main entrance. You will be unsurprised to hear that it was sculpted “in the manner of the Caesars” by the…
Lamppost Series – 4 – Vitra Campus, near Basel
For the last post of 2013, I return to my first series – the Lamppost series – with a rather cute pair of entwined lampposts seen at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, just across the German border from Basel. There’s no name-plate – I can’t find out anything online about it, so I…
Singular Statues: #6 Captain Robert Falcon Scott
This statue of Captain Robert Falcon Scott commemorating his ill-fated second expedition to the South Pole, stands at the western end of The Porter’s Garden of Portsmouth Dockyard, just inside the main entrance. Sculpted by his widow, Lady Kathleen in 1915, the Grade II listed bronze statue of Captain Scott with one of his faithful…
Pic of the Month: ESPA at Fairmont Baku, Azerbaijan
I took this image when visiting ESPA at Fairmont Baku, Flame Towers in Azerbaijan recently. I loved the shadows which flitted across the table on which the flowers were located – and indeed, the delicate beauty of the flower itself. It seems to give promise to a calming, beautiful experience, which, knowing the ESPA product,…
Singular Statues: #5 Sound II
The fifth in the series of Singular Statues is by the artist, Antony Gormley, who is said to have donated this work – Sound II – to Winchester Cathedral. Located in the crypt, it is best viewed when the area is flooded (the cathedral is very close to the water table), where you see this…
Venerable Ruins – Stonehenge
Give me the scoop on Stonehenge then, I asked my friend who had visited on many occasions when we passed by recently to see these venerable ruins. Old stones – prehistoric, she replied succinctly. Whilst maybe accurate, you really want a teensy bit more, don’t you when you visit. So – with guidebook firmly in…
The Hindhead Tunnel – Genius Engineering
If, like me, you have driven back and forth to London from Portsmouth on the A3 prior to 2011, you will have realised the pure joy of bypassing The Devil’s Punchbowl and the mind-numbing traffic queues at Hindhead crossroads. The 29th July 2011 could not have come quickly enough for me and I even visited…
Venerable Ruins: Wolvesey Castle, Winchester
If you have the time when you are in Winchester, pop around the back of the cathedral along College Street and take the trail to see the regal remains of what was once the domicile of the most powerful Bishops in the land: The Bishops of Winchester. The Bishop of Winchester once lived as part…
Singular Statues: #3 Joan of Arc
For the third in this venerable series to promote the forgotten statues of yesteryear, here we have one of my favourites – Joan of Arc of course, situated outside the Lady Chapel in Winchester Cathedral. Created by Sir Ninian Comper in 1923, the statue’s base is said to contain a piece of stone from Rouen…
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