Portsmouth Harbor

I'd been wanting to take the train down to Portsmouth Harbor for day trip for a long while. So one day when the weather got up into the 80's, we headed off to Waterloo Station, and caught the train.





The puppies came with us, as we thought it would be a great chance for them to get out and walk around and tire themselves out. They are remarkably good on trains, and just settle in at our feet and go to sleep.



We walked along the sea enjoying the beautiful weather and the lovely community. Modern Portsmouth reminds me a lot of Marina Del Rey with its modern apartment complexes and enjoyable seaside ambiance. The weather was absolutely stunning with a clear blue sky and warm temperatures.





Portsmouth has been the seat of the British Navy throughout History. And to this day, the British Navy calls this home.










There are some great stone battlements that can be found along the sea wall, and we enjoyed walking along them.



The walls go back to the days of Admiral Nelson and even earlier, and helped to secure entrance to the port. There had even been a chain that could be drawn up to prevent entrance by ships.





The pups were fascinated by the lightly rippling ocean water. They would attack and retreat as the water moved. It was very cute to watch them try to understand it in their own way. They'd been to the ocean once before, but that was many, many years ago in California.



Portsmouth was bombed horribly in World War II, and the remains of an abandoned church bare testament to the many attacks that it enured.

One cannot think of the British Navy without thinking of Admiral Nelson, who lost his arm in the service of the empire, and yet remained in active duty for another 7 years.



We ran into my coworker Graham Hudson (I often kid him that he's some long lost relative) and his wife when we stopped at a sunny fish and chips shop to grab some lunch. It was fun to meet up with them there. Strange coincidence but really fun. The pups loved the fish and chips too.



There are some historic ships docked at Portsmouth Harbor. Unfortunately, we discovered that the pups would not be allowed access to even the dockside area. Tony decided to head home with the dogs, so that I could explore the ships. Bummer.

The first ship I visited was the Warrior. It is the first all iron steamer built in the mid 1800's. It represented the latest in naval technology at that time.


It was deemed so powerful, that no one ever dared to challenge it to a fight, so it served as a deterrent to war throughout its career until it became obsolete. I guess the "Deterrent through Strength" was a slogan then too.








It has been wonderfully restored to its original glory, and it is worth exploring above and below deck. A truly beautiful ship.



Admiral Nelson's ship, The Victory, upon which he served and ultimately died, is also on display. It is honorably still listed as "in-service" of the Royal Navy to this day. It is impressive to see the size of it, as it is much larger than I had imagined.




It is remarkably well preserved both inside and out, and worthy of good exploration. It is great to see the care that has been taken in its maintenance. It is amazing how low the ceilings are the further below deck one goes.



Admiral Nelson's office served as a portable embassy and is extravagantly appointed. I must have been impressive as a foreign dignitary to meet with him here. However, even here, the table and chairs could be quickly dismantled so that the area could be used for battle.



There is a plaque on deck marking the spot where Admiral Nelson was shot, and a painting below deck showing where he ultimately expired. It is moving to see where a man who dedicated so much of his life to the British Empire served and died.

After visiting both ships, it was time to hop on the train back to London, where Tony had made it back to our little apartment.

Portsmouth is a great day trip from London filled with fun places to walk around and fascinating historical ships to explore.

My New Commute

I completed my work on John Carter of Mars, and have now begun work on Dark Knight Rising. Double Negative occupies 3 different buildings in the Soho area, so I am transitioning from the Shaftesbury Avenue building to the Mortimer Street building. It is located north of Oxford Street, so I needed to look for a new bike route to get to work.

I was told of a less busy route that has a real bike path that would take me almost all the way from our small apartment to my new office while avoiding cars.

I still bike past the old church down the street from us.

And the old "The Wall" school, which is just about done with it's major facelift.

And then past the neat old Victorian clock that has just recently been restored.











Shortly after that, I head down a road that doesn't allow cars to pass on it. It is a lot more relaxing not having to weave around buses and cars.





I pass another neogothic church that looks a lot older than it is. It always makes me think of the church where the priest was killed by the falling lightning rod in "The Omen".




I then ride down the one somewhat nasty hill on my commute. It is fun going down on the way to work, but not so fun going up on the way home. I have gotten better at it, and I think I have found the least painful way of cresting it for the return ride.





Essentially, I peddle along a route that is just north of the roads I used to ride. They are just less traveled roads with some neat older residential buildings and hotels.

I pass a college called "Goodenough College". I hope that isn't advertising regarding the quality of education they provide.

I do have one traffic moment usually at Russell Square, where I have to turn left into traffic, and then make an immediate right accross it. I always wave at the statue of the Duke of Bedford just around the corner after making the crossing.

I then pass the lion guarded back entrance to the British Museum.

I pass through one more beautiful square which is flanked by these magnificent mansions with black and white brick entryways. In the center is a beautifully manicured garden.

From there, it is a few more blocks to Tottenham Court Road, where I make a right turn at the Jack Horner Steak and Ale Pub, fairly common pies and pub grub, and then a quick left onto a side street.








I pass another pub, the Newman Arms pub, which also serves very filling meat pies and mash in their upstairs pie room.








I then turn onto Mortimer Street, where I get a great view of the BT tower just a few blocks away. I very odd building resembling a space ship crashed into London.



Two more blocks and I am at work. It is a very modern building, which also houses a fashion design company and an alcohol advertising company that handles the UK promotions for Jack Daniels.



For the journey home, I follow much of the same route, but due to one way streets, I have to go a little differently. It does afford me a couple other cool sites such as this really interesting gothic church.

There were some interesting figures released that showed that bicycles and their related sales and businesses is a thriving 1.2 billion Pound industry in the London area. Who would have thought.

The Tate Modern

Tony and I finally made our way together to the Tate Modern Art Museum. Tony has gone twice already with different guests, but somehow I've not managed to get there.









It was a beautiful sunny morning, so we took the bus down to St. Paul's Cathedral, and walked across the Thames River on the Millinium Bridge. It is a really neat bridge to walk on, and provides great views of St. Pauls and of the Tate.



The Tate Museum is housed in an old Power Plant. It's massive coal burning tower reaching up towards the sky. I can still imagine the huge plumes of smoke they once belched upwards.

Inside, the massive turbine room lies empty, and in need of an exhibition. I guess this space is used for temporary exhibits. It would be neat to see some large scale installation here.

Our main purpose was to visit a special showing of the works of spanish painter Joan Miro. It is the largest single exhibition of his works in a long time. I'd seen some of his works in Spain, had been impressed, and had desired to see more.




In the Miro exhibit, I was most impressed with his earlier works, where he played with bending perspective. As he aged, he became more and more symbolic and simplistic in his surreal works.







He was a contemporary of Picasso, and was also a Catalonian artist. Many of his works speak to the distressing state of Catalonia under Franco's regime. He had a long career, and eventually did outlive Franco.

Tony was not impressed, and quickly made his way through the exhibition. I found him sitting at the end of it browsing the internet. I do have to admit that a lot of Miro's works were quite odd and not as approachable as I had hoped.

We then wandered into the permanent collection. It is full of strange and wonderful pieces that rotate in and out of display. They also give opportunity to other world artists to display unique works on a temporary basis, so it is constantly changing.

One particular piece that was interesting was a pile of what appeared to be sunflower seeds, but were in fact porcelean, and painted to look like sunflower seeds. I didn't really understand the piece of art, but okay. . .





I was surprisingly impressed with Jackson Pollock, who is often associated with drippy paint, but did some wonderfully powerful large scale paintings.








We really enjoyed walking around the museum.



Unfortunately, when it was time to leave, it was pouring rain outside - a surprise. We decided to have lunch at the museum cafe. It is a very nice place to take a break and enjoy some good food and drink. We tried some locally made soda. Tony had the Curiosity Cola, which tasted a lot like Coca Cola, and I had an Elderflower Soda, which tasted like liquid summer - flowers and sunshine in a bottle.



Sadly, the rain didn't really let up, and we got soaked on the way home. That will teach us to leave the apartment without our umbrellas - even in the summer.