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vital functions
Nov. 10th, 2019 10:34 pmReading. Actually made progress on Shaun Tan's tales from the inner city! Via the magic of my BookChair and a duvet nest on the sofa and the ongoing Problems With The Mass Spec. I started again from the beginning, and have been flipping back and forth between The Book Itself and the bonus accompanying notes, and liking them a lot. Favourites so far: butterfly, snail, crocodiles, owl, dog, tiger. Favourite in a different way: horses. I am finding the exercise of attempting to read the stories just as what they are, without seeking allegory and metaphor, an interesting challenge.
Lots of fic bits. <3
Exploring. A & I headed out, today, to the London Transport Museum, specifically to spend some time in the Hidden London exhibition, though en route we also took in the early history of the London transport network: I hadn't realised that the first passenger railway was horse-drawn! They correctly attributed to the steam engine to Trevithick! I'm deeply amused that, on a very little digging, it looks like they had the etymology for hackney carriage precisely backward (in that the LTM claim it's from the French haquenée). I was charmed by some of the your-next-station-is-... displays. A had not known about Leinster Gardens!
My other absolute favourite thing from the early-history-of-the-tube section was a letter to The Times, dated 13th January 164, captioned by LTM "Nothing changes." My only quibble is, having read rather more letters sent to The Times in modernity than is entirely good for me, that this particular specimen might feel itself a little out of place in any current edition because it's calling for nationalisation of the railways. Text reproduced below the cut because I was charmed and delighted. ( Read more... )
From Hidden London: the Exhibition itself, I learned a bunch more about the politics etc around sheltering in stations during air raids; about icons of St Barbara (patron of artillery & mines) still being stationed at the entrance to major TfL works; about distances on the tube network all being measured relative to Ongar, a station long-since abandoned. (I was also, of course, delighted by the Highgate bat tunnel.)
By this point we were a little tired and overwrought, having not really had a proper lunch, so we retreated to the café with the firm intention of going back to Do The Ground Floor Properly at some time when we're not both autistic-overwhelm, since our tickets are good for a year's entry to the premises.
Creating. I'm a bit sulky about not being able to reproduce the precise shade of unappealing purple on the petals on the thing I'm currently chiefly working on Lewisia rediviva, though I am also slowly adding bits and pieces to a partially-coloured-in-when-I-got-it Lilium auratum & am much more pleased with that.
I am getting some more of a sense of how pigments blend and layer, or don't, as the case may be, and have consequently started very cautiously applying small quantities of the Fancy Pencils to this colouring book also. I am Learning Things about the differences in how they handle.
Growing. ( Read more... )
Playing. ( Games. )
In another sense: Bizet Jeux d'Enfants, Dvorak violin concerto and Tchaikovsky Suite No. 1 for orchestra (Opus 43), all as second horn. I'm a little frustrated by how much of a gap there is between where I am now and where I was when I was doing best in terms of practice, but I was making some actually lovely noises and remembering to enjoy the performance some, which is always nice, and I am going to Make Another Attempt to keep practising out of term.
Lots of fic bits. <3
Exploring. A & I headed out, today, to the London Transport Museum, specifically to spend some time in the Hidden London exhibition, though en route we also took in the early history of the London transport network: I hadn't realised that the first passenger railway was horse-drawn! They correctly attributed to the steam engine to Trevithick! I'm deeply amused that, on a very little digging, it looks like they had the etymology for hackney carriage precisely backward (in that the LTM claim it's from the French haquenée). I was charmed by some of the your-next-station-is-... displays. A had not known about Leinster Gardens!
My other absolute favourite thing from the early-history-of-the-tube section was a letter to The Times, dated 13th January 164, captioned by LTM "Nothing changes." My only quibble is, having read rather more letters sent to The Times in modernity than is entirely good for me, that this particular specimen might feel itself a little out of place in any current edition because it's calling for nationalisation of the railways. Text reproduced below the cut because I was charmed and delighted. ( Read more... )
From Hidden London: the Exhibition itself, I learned a bunch more about the politics etc around sheltering in stations during air raids; about icons of St Barbara (patron of artillery & mines) still being stationed at the entrance to major TfL works; about distances on the tube network all being measured relative to Ongar, a station long-since abandoned. (I was also, of course, delighted by the Highgate bat tunnel.)
By this point we were a little tired and overwrought, having not really had a proper lunch, so we retreated to the café with the firm intention of going back to Do The Ground Floor Properly at some time when we're not both autistic-overwhelm, since our tickets are good for a year's entry to the premises.
Creating. I'm a bit sulky about not being able to reproduce the precise shade of unappealing purple on the petals on the thing I'm currently chiefly working on Lewisia rediviva, though I am also slowly adding bits and pieces to a partially-coloured-in-when-I-got-it Lilium auratum & am much more pleased with that.
I am getting some more of a sense of how pigments blend and layer, or don't, as the case may be, and have consequently started very cautiously applying small quantities of the Fancy Pencils to this colouring book also. I am Learning Things about the differences in how they handle.
Growing. ( Read more... )
Playing. ( Games. )
In another sense: Bizet Jeux d'Enfants, Dvorak violin concerto and Tchaikovsky Suite No. 1 for orchestra (Opus 43), all as second horn. I'm a little frustrated by how much of a gap there is between where I am now and where I was when I was doing best in terms of practice, but I was making some actually lovely noises and remembering to enjoy the performance some, which is always nice, and I am going to Make Another Attempt to keep practising out of term.