Hanami Cherry Blossom Charity Picnic for Japan

On the 9th April I attended a picnic in grounds of St Paul's Church, Covent Garden. The event was organised by my colleague Michael who was due to vist Japan just after the earthquake, with help from friends he organised a great afternoon, raising over £2000 for the Red Cross.

The church is the back drop to many of the peformers on the square, so the courtyard is an oasis away from the crowds that usually decend on Covent Garden, it's a great place to eat lunch and relax on one of the many benches.

http://hanamilondon.x10.mx/

http://www.actorschurch.org/

 

The Cineroleum

A disused petrol station in Clerkenwell is where I spent my Bank holiday sunday night.  Karen & Rosie had a spare ticket so I joined them for a bizarre but enjoyable "night out"
The makers of the Cineroleum have constructed  this cinema from a disused petrol station forecourt in the city of London. The film of choice was Altmans classic The Long Goodbye. Elliott Gould plays a wisecracking private eye who is arrested for abetting the murder of his friend's wife.
It was almost a full house with 1950's styled ushers selling ice cream and popcorn in cones, all available at the intermission.
The London soundscape of Police sirens gave a whole new dimension to multi channel surround sound, and in a few scenes it appeared to add to the mix, and in others created a whole new contrasting mash up.
It was cold toward the end, although I'm sure this was because the couple next to me bailed after 30 minutes, leaving a gap to my left, a huddled mass can generate a fair bit of warmth.  Although I'm not sure I could have sat for too much longer in the wooden flip-down seats, although I did spot few old style cinema seats apparently on loan from a museum. I  must remember a seating pad next time.  

*Spoiler Alert*

As the film credits rolled the staff  quickly ran outside and hoisted up the curtains to reveal the outside world.  A wonderfully strange experience itself, suddenly we were the subjects on display to the passing traffic. As your eyes adjusted to the street light glow the cinema itself gives you a cinemascope view of the street outside.
Lets hope it returns in the summer.
Delayed uploaded from  29/08/10

Pet Fox?

Close to where I live is a friendly cat who always greets me when I pass by. This time though it was a little different, I was walking past the house with Holly, we stopped to see the cat but something wasn't right, suddenly there was a scratching at the window, I thought it was the owners at first but it wasn't... it was a FOX!

Nobody was home so I called the RSPCA, who just logged my call and asked for my details regarding donations.

I decided to leave a note to tell the owners that I'd spotted a fox in their house! It was young and quite liked licking the window. The next day I got a call from a nice lady thanking me for the note, they had arrived home to find chewed furniture and broken plants but the fox was gone, she guessed It must have got in through the back door as it was left ajar.

All was now back to normal, although apparently the cat wasn't that happy about going back into the house. During the night the owner was awoken with the sound of scratching and went downstairs to find the FOX back in the front room, eventually after a bit of coaxing it ran out. That's one topical fox.