Bought a new phone recently. Very nice too. But when I looked in the memory of this supposedly new phone there were all these pictures. Many of them in the Orange Shop, including this bloke. I've no idea who he is, and he looks very charming, but I can't believe he comes preloaded by Sony Ericsson as a 'theme'.
I'm back in the country for a week so it's time to catch up with blogging. And here's some pictures from a few weekends ago when we went down my Mum's allotment with Arthur. He had a whale of a time digging up vegetables. Not something most kids at his school get to do much probably. Only a 5-year old can bend over quite like that.
I found myself very excited by London winning the Olympics. First by the announcement on the radio and then as I was walking down for lunch at the New Piccadilly I saw a splendid flypast down The Mall of which the above is the smokey remnant.
It's going to be brilliant. Arthur'll be 13; just the right age to take to see all sorts of odd and exciting sports - and I've always wanted to visit a velodrome. And it's a minor triumph for New Labour and we're still fans of them in our house.
It's also a victory for pitching. And I've always thought that pitching is the core skill of Britain's creative industries. We're fantastic at ideas and pitches; we can really make that stuff sing. We're slightly less good at following through but let's hope that's not so true in this instance.
Had a trip down to the river. Started off at HMS Belfast, which was splendid. The best thing we found out is that the Belfast's forward guns are trained on Scratchwood services, about 12 miles away. This just gives you something new to think about at Scratchwood.
Then off to the Design Museum, which, as always, was disappointing. Every time we go we vow never to go again. It costs a fortune and the features always look great on paper and let you down when you get there. Today was no exception. An exhibition on surfboards and shapers which told you very little, seemed only to scratch the surface and was visually unthrilling. Which seems hard to do with surfboards. The only decent thing there in recent years was the Thomas Heatherwick collection for the Coran Foudation.
Just got back from a couple of weeks in Portland. Had a very nice time. Particularly enjoyed myself wondering around Forest Park. It's one of the great things about Portland that there's a ruddy huge forest just a few minutes from downtown.
Drove from Portland to Seattle to visit an old friend. Very nice to see her. Stopped in first at a Starbucks and tried the new Hear Music thingy. I liked it. Though the music policy seems to have been designed to attract the music dollars of marketing professionals with little interest in music, but it's a diverting way to pass the time. And it's very easy to build and burn your own CD. Assuming you mostly want music by people who play guitars.
Then we strolled around the Fremont Solstice Festival, which is very Pacific NW. And therefor fabulous. Lots of art cars there. Many of which looked familiar from my days in Portland, though maybe the same themes tend to recur.
And, of course, there were lots of utilikilts on show. Fantastic. It's not an alternative Pacific North West event without a substantial utilikilt presence. Well done gents. (I have no hesitation in recommending the Utilikilt to you as the World's Leading Men's Unbifurcated Garment.)