Part of the thrill of being here is the polish and the color of the language! At work, in the press, even from the hospitality industry - my surrogate circle of friends; everything is dodgy, or bespoke, or he's a right Uncle Tom Cobbly! And then there is the Cockney rhyming slang. Too clever!

Pictures are from when I arrived and stayed in the city. (Trip 2)

Another part of the thrill, of course, is the vibe that comes from 7 million people. Again-- weather has been wonderful-- mainly bright and crisp. See pictures of Green Park, Buckingham Palace gate and fabulous trees. ( They number the trees in the park-- specimens, I suppose.) Couldn't help but photograph the lovers, ducks and little girl-- much to admire. Much snogging! Everywhere you go! Once again, wish to paint-

Interesting concert at St. Martin's , Four Seasons ala Tango. A splicing of Piazolla and Vivaldi. Very interesting-- but a bit Frankenstein-esque. Met a lovely widow lady, Martha from Colombia, Florida , Hyde Park and other destinations. Helped her write an appeal to her banker in Florida to engage the talented Mr. Setterfield to conduct Dvorak's The New World Symphony.

Errata:
Notable in today's Sunday Times : Chemical called 1 MCP, developed at NCState in 1990. 1MCP allows growers to preserve apples for six months or more. Watch for lables , marked as "smartfresh" - code for old!

Rod Liddle - decribes the trend of "Dianification" now rampant in popular culture. Refers to honoring a celebrity with an excess of sentimentality-- as if they mattered, rather than simply appealed. Liddle credits Christopher Lasch and "the culture of narcissism". "... the waning of a historical sense of time, a flight from objective reality and seriousness, an addiction to success rather than achievement, a yearning for escapist solutions, over-weening vanity and an imperative for immediate self-fulfillment rather than self-denial". The trigger for his observations, the 25th anniversary of the death of John Lennon and the puffery, the rhetoric - the ink and paper devoted to his "honor".