The Gallery

Blogger photo uploads seem to be working again, which is a relief. I came across this building yesterday near Bond Street -- it's a restaurant called Drunch, and I have no idea why it's festooned with teddy bears. I guess because people then mention it on their blogs! (Or, more likely, Instagram.)

Why was I in Mayfair? Well, the street photography exhibit that I entered and for which I judged photos, sponsored by the Royal Photographic Society, is on display this week in a gallery there.

And here it is, or about a third of it anyway. My photo is on the right-hand wall, the top picture of a set of two to the right of the corner. (In other words, just two pictures to the left of that nearest man.) It's this photo, in case I never mentioned which one was chosen. I have two others on a rolling digital display in the rear gallery.

I was there for about three and a half hours in the middle of the day, "stewarding" the exhibit, which basically just means sitting at that little table and answering questions about the photos and the RPS. We did get several visitors, so that was encouraging. I have another stewarding shift on Sunday.

And then last night was the opening party, so I was back and packed into that gallery with seemingly about 100 other people that I barely knew, having wine and meeting and greeting. I kind of dreaded that event, to be honest, but as my mother said whenever I shied away from any social outing, "You just have to do these things." It turned out to be pretty fun -- I stayed for about an hour, I think, and then beat a retreat home. Dave woke up yesterday with uveitis, an eye problem that required medical attention, so he didn't accompany me as planned.

The after-work pub crowds were out in Shepherd Market, near the gallery. Westminster has been considering rules that would regulate "vertical drinking" like this, but I'm not sure where those proposals stand. The idea raised an uproar because standing outside a pub on a summer night is practically a British social requirement -- and it's a really nice way to have a beer. Killjoys!

You're probably wondering how Bailey's spaying went. Well, it didn't. She's still having her "false pregnancy," so we've delayed it another three weeks. The vet said she doesn't want to wait too long because Bailey might go into heat again, God forbid. I'm going to take her in on Oct. 6. This dog is exhausting!

Last night Dave and I rented a fascinating documentary on Amazon, "32 Frames: A 9/11 Mystery," about the discovery of a camera in the rubble of the World Trade Center and the effort to identify the photographer based on the salvaged images. Each picture offers clues, and it's a good photographic mystery. It was mentioned in this article in The New York Times, which is worth reading if you haven't already had too much 9/11 news. (I was living in New York on 9/11 and I've blogged about those experiences here, here and here.)