Goldborne Road

Today's newspaper, showing the contrast between the spectacular opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics and the horror of war in South Ossetia.

Ibs and I went to the dentist and afterwards had coffee at St Helen's cafe
and then had a quick pop down Goldborne Road, my favourite road, probably, in the world?

Some of the many reasons why I love this road so much are; Cockney's Pie and Mash Shop

Georges, a superb chippy

The Fat Badger, a pretty decent pub

Goldborne fisheriesand The Porto, a wonderful Portuguese cafe, where Ibs and met, clandestinely, when we first dated.

I was quite tempted to snap up this box of old toy cars.

Crowning Goldborne Road, and casting its shadow over the whole area is my second favourite building in London, Arno Goldfinger's sublime Trelik Tower.

We cycled back along the canal path and past this lovely little new building, that I've watched going up over the past few months
but until today, I hadn't noticed Elvis on the roof.

We had lunch at Gracelands for their incredible quiche.On a wet a miserable day, the flower bud in the pond finally decided to open.

Ibs' Tummy on 08/08/08

Tonight we watched highlights of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and thought of 24 week Little One inside Ibs' tummy (who was having a right good kick, throughout the programme) and how we'll watch the opening of the London Olympic Games, when he's 4.
Who knows, perhaps with a little brother or sister too.

Maybe it was the curry we ate but he's been incredibly active tonight and, for the first time, Ibs could actually see her tummy move as Little One wriggled insider her. Which has just reminded me of the old woman who swallowed a fly.

Ibs and Josie, who has to make the most of being our current baby.

Pete's Paintings

I've been wanting to share some of my mate Pete's paintings on the Blog for ages. Now they can be seen in all their glory on his Flickr site (I must learn how to include links), this has enabled me to borrow a few of his photos and hopefully, in a viral kind of way, get a few more people to see these incredible, sumptuous and beautiful works.

This is also my little tribute to the Beijing Olympic Games, which open today.

The Painting Eye

The Ghost of a Flea
The Chore of Enchantment

Radiolarion

TeslaPollen Count

King of Nothing, Nowhere, Never

FragonardEcho Beach

Enemy Weather

Forgotten TitleThank you Pete.

Boiled Eggs

Felt under the weather today so decided to work from home. Think the rain on Sunday has given me a cold.

So what better poorly breakfast than boiled egg and soldiers. Although it's been so long since I last made them I'd lost our egg cups (but improvised with a shot glass) and had to find out the cooking time from Delia's website.

Behesht

Ibs and I have been meaning to try out the Behesht, Persian, Restaurant, down the road from us on Harrow Road, for ages, on Saturday night we got our chance.

It's a very authentic Middle Eastern experience, with a large clay oven for breads and is exotically decorated with tiles and tapestries depicting Persian adventures and tales.The food was superb, super cheap and incredibly filling. We had (the wonderfully sounding) Baba Ghonoush and Bourani dips with nan breads to start

Followed by our mains. Ibs had a lamb stew

and I, chicken and lamb kebabs.

As booze isn't served, it's really cheap. Although I now see I was charged for 1 coke too many.

Weekend

Ibs and I met P&K for 'Late at Tate' on Friday evening. There was nothing particularly exciting on the bill but it was a perfectly lovely evening and really good to spend some time with our freinds.




On Saturday morning, I cooked a suitable breakfast for an expectant mother and unborn child; kippers, spinach and poached egg.



I continued to decorate Little One's room, whilst Ibs cleaned the house and Josie sun bathed on the bathroom floor.







After reading a review on Friday, I had a bad craving to watch Hitchcock's 'The Man Who Knew to Much' which we started watching at 3.00. It was fantastic to see it again. I'd forgotten how great Doris Day is in it and the magnificent climatic, final sequence in the Albert Hall, featuring (as himself) the god-like genius of Bernard Herrman.




On Sunday, I got another coat of gloss done before we saddled up and cycled to a car boot sale in Battersea. We got absolutely soaked but did come away with a set of dominoes, a George IV tea caddy and a rather nice Winterware tea and coffee pot.

After a hot bath I was still craving cinematic nourishment and an antidote to The Dark Night's nihilism so I turned to Satyajit Ray's 'Pather Panchali'. The 1st part of his Apu Trilogy and a deeply moving, humanist drama, that perfectly fuses Ray's vibrant images and Ravi Shankar's beautiful score. It was just what I needed and I hope Little One experinced some of it too.

Bloomsbury Bowling

I took a few of my team out bowling last night at the Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes, under the Tavistock Hotel.

It's a perfect recreation of American, 1950's, bowling style, complete with diner and bar.

Afterwards we went to the Duke of Norfolk, a really lovely pub.

I fell off my bike on the way home and grazed my lip.

The Dark Night

Ibs and I took Little One to the Vue cinema, Shepherd's Bush, last night to see Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Night'.Terrific film. Bit over long but a very powerful and muscular peice of film making.

Heath Ledger steels the show by far and I now see what all the fuss has been about.

However, my favourite performance was Gary Oldman's, which was uncharacteristicly restrained and modest.

The soundtrack, in the Joker's scenes, sounds a lot like Jonny Greenwood's brilliant score for 'There Will be Blood'.

I'm struck that 'Dark Knight' shares a similar pessimism, a relentlessly bleak view of the human condition and lack of moral redemption with other recent films, such as; 'There Will Be Blood', 'No Country for Old Men' and 'Before the Devil Knows Your Dead'. Films have got very depressing recently.

Next time, I'm defiantly taking Little One to a cheerful film, with a very happy ending.