Finding the Foam and a note on London's diversity

What you see above is not a hat even though it would probably dispute this claim if you asked it. It is in fact my camera case. I do admit that it is less than ideal for a camera case so I have been meaning to replace it for ages. I wanted to make myself one of these well padded versions you can buy in a shop but I had one serious problem with that plan. For the life of me, I could not find proper foam to use as padding. I’ve been checking art shops and craft shops for months but this morning, I stumbled across a market stall selling foam in all varieties for upholstery. The only downside is that they wanted 10 pounds for a fairly large piece. I didn’t want to pay 10 £ and I didn’t want that much foam either. Some haggling later, I walked away paying 3 £ for some pieces left over from cutting something else.

I love Shepherds Bush market for that kind of thing. It isn’t what you would expect from an English market at all as it caters mainly for the Middle Eastern Community that lives in the area. It sells pretty much anything, from giant pots for cooking, gaudy wedding dresses, five kilogram sacks of rice all the way to goldfish. I think it is generally great how multicultural London is. The supermarkets are a perfect example: Just the other day, Tesco (one of the biggest supermarket chains) sent us a “Ramadan special offers” leaflet. When I went shopping there yesterday, I stumbled across 10 kg sacks of Chapati Flour, produced by “Tesco Everyday Value”, which is the supermarkets own cheap brand.The “foreign food” section includes one with Polish food, the meat sections sells Halal produce and buying things like Plantain, water spinach or Yam is possible every day. It really shows just how normal variety is here. I love it.

Ready for a fancy night out

We had such a beautiful day with temperatures worthy of spring and the most gorgeous sunshine. I jumped at the opportunity to take some pictures of my opera dress and my new awesome coat. I'm really pleased with the dress even though it has cost me many more nerves than expected. If I'm ever really bored, I might take out the zip and replace it a little lower down as it is currently not in an ideal position. However, I strongly belueve I have more than enough hair to cover it up ;)

After my last black coat died a violent death during my cycle accident last week, I was overjoyed to find this one in a charity shop a few days ago. However, I wasn't sure if I could justify buying it at this time of year but this morning the Mister and I took a walk past the shop and I could not resist any more. It was still there and it only cost me 30 £! It seems like winter is over for the time being but I am just going to pretend it isn't and all will be good. Now I only need to find the perfect belt to wear with the coat.

Bread for Breakfast!

I'm not normally one for grand shows of emotion in public but when I came past a new bakery this morning, I almost squealed with joy. To all you Germans out there, that might not seem a very exceptional event but here, bakeries are very rare. Most people just buy their bread ( or what they consider to be bread) in the supermarket. It often tastes distinctly of cardboard to me so when I came here over three and a half years ago, I basically stopped eating bread. Very occasionally I'd treat myself to some I found at a farmers market but I just don't get to these often enough. But now, I don't have to! There is a German bakery a few minutes walking distance from my home and its always there, not just Thursday mornings when I'm not around anyway.

I just could not resist and got myself a loaf and some croissants for breakfast for me and the Mister. It wasn't exactly cheap so it will still stay a treat but I've already tried it and it tastes just like I'm used to. Slab some Nutella on it and I'm in breakfast heaven.

November flowers

On Sunday, I went on a little walk with my camera in the search of November pictures. I came back with a whole collection of flowers. Especially very close to my house, plants appear to be confused about the season and showing their prettiest blossoms in mid-november. These are just my favorite examples. Have you seen any flowers around lately or has it been too cold already where you are?

Change of luck

Not far from here is a row of very pretty red brick houses with bluish windows, white friezes and a big sky light. I always wonder if they were built for artists, the top floor must be amazingly light. I just have to close my eyes and I can see how I would furnish one of these treasures, even though I have never been inside.

I believe that when they were built, they were situated on an averagely large street, in close proximity of a tube station and not too far from the next busy high street. I'm sure they were sought after and expensive even though they are a little on the small side. Somewhere along the lines they must have had a change of luck, as the street in front of them has significantely grown in size and the noise level is unbearable. Three out of the five bear signs saying "for sale". I'd still want one but it is a pity. I wish I could just pick them up and put them somewhere nicer. Or we should go back to horse drawn carriages.

The merrits of going out with a magpie.

The other day, the Mister complained about loosing a button on his coat. I was about to express my sympathies when I looked at the buttons, put a hand into my pocket and pulled out the exact button he had lost. I had found it on the floor in the computer room in uni a few days before and, as is my habit with such things, picked it up. He will never laugh at me again for picking up things I find on the floor. Wanna bet?

Down with the Jungle!

 Please imagine the title being yelled by the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland. I saw the oldest Alice in Wonderland movie ever yesterday and it is so incredibly sweet. Have a look here, Alice in Wonderland from 1903. I can't believe that this movie is actually over a hundred years old. When it was made, it was the longest cinema movie at the time with a whole 12 minutes. Oh, how things have changed.

Anyway, what I was actually trying to tell you is: we made some progress and managed to trim down the vast majority of the jungle in our little garden. Look how much space we suddenly have! And we even found some proper flower beds.

 

As you can see, we now need to get rid of all the things we cut of. Luckily, this just involves a call to our local council but first we need to get some bags and string so we can gather things in a way that they can actually be collected. Then we need to go and get some compost, work it into the flower beds and get planting. I can't wait!

Zombies!

It is comforting to know that not all scientists spend their time evaluating a detail of a detail of a side theory that nobody is ever interested in. Some scientists, like this research group from Canada, decide to model a question a littler closer to everyday life. Their paper "When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical modelling of an outbreak of Zombie infection" explores survival changes of humanity as a whole under the threat of a zombie attack. We have all seen the movies but the picture painted in this paper is even bleaker.

Setting up a quarantine is futile and will only slightly delay the time it takes to destroy humanity completely. A stable equilibrium is only reached if a cure is available and even in this case, the human population is decimated painfully (see Section 5: A model with treatment). The Zombies can only be eradicated when it is possible to destroy zombies in progressively stronger bursts of attack. We all know how likely that is going to happen.

I suggest we better all work on our Zombie Defense Plans and keep that crowbar in a handy location. I won't go down without a fight.

By the way, this paper definitely wins the title of "Best Bibliography Ever". How many papers have you seen that manage to quote such classics as "Resident Evil", "The Zombie survival guide" and "Shaun of the Dead"?

A little 40s charm for everyday life

Look, isn't this hairstyle so sweet? I found the link over at http://www.kylaroma.com/%20who asked to post pictures if we copied it. I wish it was always that easy to make somebody happy. Here you go Kyla, this is for you. Oh, and of course for me. I will definitely wear it more often.

 

simply pretty

... are these linen covered buttons my grandmother gave me. I'm wonding if it is possible to dye them. I might give it a go, I have quite a few so I can experiment a little.