Kit

When I was walking on Holloway Road a couple of weeks ago, I passed this ornate, tile-glazed tube station, part of the Piccadilly Line. I rarely use that line, and never in this area, so it's not a station I'm particularly familiar with. I immediately noticed that peculiar yellow thing hanging off the pole at the left. Is that a human figure? With a Santa hat?

And sunglasses, no less!

Apparently these foam figurines are by an artist named Kit, who has been working in this area for years. Here are articles about him from 2016 and 2017. I thought the yellow foam was a swimming pool noodle, but it's actually used to wrap scaffolds, to make the pipes at street level more visible and softer (in case people walk into them, I suppose).

Here's another foam guy, sitting atop a post on a traffic island. He looks like he's wearing one of those '70s fringed suede jackets, but apparently it was originally an angel with another figure on its shoulders.

Not surprisingly, according to the articles, opinion is divided over Kit's artworks. But I admire anyone who can muster the energy to make and install creations like this. It makes our neighborhoods a bit more unique and distinctive.

Pizza Chandeliers

I spotted this interesting-looking Italian restaurant on a side street in St. John's Wood while walking home last night. I think that purple light is what caught my eye. The fact that Nanook of the North walked through my photo at the perfect moment was simply good luck.

(Does anyone remember the movie "Unzipped," featuring Isaac Mizrahi and a bevy of supermodels, from 1995? It was a documentary about Mizrahi creating a fashion collection loosely based on Nanook of the North. Maybe that person above is wearing one of his creations?)

Anyway, back to the restaurant. I really like the tree in front, bedecked with baubles.

They could be Christmas baubles, but they seem more like year-round baubles. Especially the chandeliers.

Given how many of you yesterday said you'd check out the QAA podcast in response to my positive review, let me just add a belated cautionary note. It is a very loosely scripted podcast. It's not like "Serial" or NPR or anything that polished. It's more like sitting in a college dorm room with some buddies who are all smoking joints and talking about current events. There's a lot of swearing and semi-pointless sexual and pop culture references amid the actual news. Over time, as you get to know the hosts, their personalities and quirks become endearing, and they are not misogynistic or destructively "bro-ish." In fact, quite the opposite. So I don't mean to discourage anyone from listening. But you deserve to know a little more about what you're getting into!

I had another very busy day at work yesterday, mostly covering new books. Our new library assistant can't start soon enough, I'm telling you! (I think her start date is next week.) I have a whole lot more to do today. Last night when I got home I spent three hours in blogland answering comments and catching up on blogs, so at least I no longer feel behind in that regard.

I can get a lot done when I turn off the TV -- but that's also my evening bonding activity with Dave, so I can't cut it out entirely. Otherwise we'd both be sitting with headphones and staring into screens, lost in our own little worlds. At least television is a communal activity! (Unless Dave is watching "Downton Abbey" or "West Wing" for the 500th time. He can do that by himself.)

Moving Forward

Thanks for all your comments on my post yesterday. (And so many comments! I don't think I've written anything in weeks that has garnered that much attention!) Let me make clear that Dave and I aren't going anywhere immediately. I think for the next couple of years, at least, we're staying put. This is all big-picture pondering.

As some of you said, I think it's natural to think a little more deeply about the trajectory of life in the dark depths of winter, after the distraction of the holidays, especially amid medical uncertainty. I think planning a trip to visit the states may be enough for us for the time being, and that's what we're working on now.

Meanwhile, things have warmed up a bit here. Warm is relative, of course, but at the moment, in the pre-dawn darkness, it's 44º F (or 6.6º C). I actually uncovered the avocado last night to let the poor thing breathe and get some sun over the next couple of days. It's a little bent and battered by its fabric shroud, but otherwise it seems fine. Apparently that tree is tougher than I think it is. I'm happy to say no sub-freezing temperatures are in the forecast for the next ten days, though a few nights come close.

I made a little reinvestment in our garden yesterday when I sent the gardeners approval to come and do some cleanup for us in the next month or two. We've asked them to remove a bunch of ivy that has threatened to consume the north side of the garden. I hate pulling ivy. It is one of the least pleasant gardening experiences. But English ivy is only slightly less virulent than kudzu and it will swamp everything if left to run amok, so we need to get it in check. It's a job I'm happy to pay someone to do.

Also, the flat management company has asked to do a walk-through of the property on Jan. 22, so they can inspect the place and make sure we're not demolishing it or turning it into a grow house or meth den. I'm glad they're coming because I'd like to point out the several maintenance issues that I've reported that have been left completely unaddressed, like our missing kitchen cabinet door.

We still haven't heard any more about trimming the front garden, either. The Russians weren't happy with the quote I got from the gardener -- they thought it was too expensive -- so they went to get estimates of their own and last I heard they and our landlords were working out what to do. (Under the terms of our lease we aren't responsible for front garden upkeep.) I thought they'd settled on someone but I've heard nothing in weeks and meanwhile the garden still looks like the rain forests of Suriname. I wouldn't be surprised if there were monkeys living in there.

As I have occasionally mentioned here, I listen to a podcast called Q-Anon Anonymous that I absolutely love. (It's actually just called QAA now, because it has grown beyond Q-Anon to dissect conspiratorial thinking in general, in both historical and current events.) About a week ago I bought myself a Christmas present and became a paid subscriber, so that I can hear all their premium episodes and some of the special series they've done in the past. (Where else would I learn about the Tartarian Empire?) I'm psyched that I have that to listen to on my walks to and from work.

Restless

I took this on my walk home last night. That's the Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate on the right, which I've shown many times on this blog, with a couple of high-rise council blocks in the background. The building on the left is relatively new, and replaced this.

Once again, I don't have much to write about today. My days are busy but they feel very routine. Dave and I have been talking about how we feel sort of stuck. We've been living in London for 14 years, doing the same jobs, mostly in the same apartment, and I think we're considering changing things up. What that would look like I don't know. Maybe we'll move to a new flat, or maybe we'll make bigger changes.

Or maybe we just need to make some plans for our next steps so that we feel like we're going somewhere. I don't think either of us have a very clear picture of what the future should hold for us. Where do we want to retire? Do we stay in the UK? Do we move back to the states, or move elsewhere? The big question there is health insurance -- we obviously can't go back to the states unless we have jobs that include insurance, at least until we're old enough to get Medicare, assuming it still exists by then.

More immediately, we need to decide whether or not we're visiting the states anytime soon. My brother and step-sister have both had health issues in the last year, and Dave's father has been in the hospital with back problems. I think we need to go to Florida, but first we need to sort out care for Olga, which is easier said than done.

And of course Dave is still recovering from his own surgery, so we can't push anything too quickly. He's not even back at work yet. (Maybe next week.)

So, a lot to think about. I guess I'm just feeling restless.

On an international level, did any of you read Thomas Friedman's column in the Times about why Trump's seemingly offhand remarks about Greenland and Panama are so serious? People think he's just being quirky and trolling other world leaders, but I thought Friedman made a very good point. How can the United States stand for international justice, and against other regimes that are bent on forcibly expanding their own borders, when we're threatening to do the same? We are sending a dangerous message.

I got great pleasure out of hearing Steve Bannon attacking Elon Musk. Let these bastards consume each other. There's no chance that the MAGA leaders won't be relentlessly infighting for the next four years, since they all have gigantic egos and are incapable of compromise or moderation. As the Chinese allegedly say, "May you live in interesting times."

Here are some orchids in the front window, from the orchid bonanza I found a couple of years ago. One of those plants died in short order, but the rest are all still plugging away and several of them have bloomed again. In fact I have several orchids that are budding.

I have a couple more, though, that have recently bloomed and then lost all their leaves, as if they were so exhausted they couldn't even support foliage. I'm not sure what's going on there or whether they'll survive. I keep hearing that orchids can live for decades, but a few of mine (all moth orchids like the one above) have perished at about the eight-year mark. Maybe I'm just not good with geriatric orchids?

Defrosted

We've had a bit of a thaw since yesterday morning, when I took these pictures. It's 34º F out there right now (1.1º  C), which is positively balmy compared to the past few nights. In fact temperatures are supposed to stay mostly above freezing for the foreseeable future.

I took the lamp out of the avocado's shroud, mostly to preserve the bulb in case temperatures get back into the 20's and we need it again. I remember trying to buy a new bulb for a lava light years ago and having a terrible time finding one, so I want to make it last! As it gets a bit warmer I might even take the shroud off for a while to give the poor tree some light and air.

I didn't leave the house yesterday. I did a few things here and there housekeeping-wise, but otherwise just read and noodled around online. I finally started "The Bee Sting" and polished off 125 pages. I'm really liking it so far! The plot has grabbed me and I'm very eager to see how the story is going to spin out.

Otherwise, not much news. I'm just glad we're (slightly) warmer.

Scenes from a Freeze

Another cold morning here. It's 25º F (or -4º C) as I type. The sky is clear and sunny this weekend and it looks nice outside, but the air is frigid, even during the daytime. I walked to the post office yesterday and snapped this photo of someone's dryer vent, pumping steam into the street like Puff the Magic Dragon.

The UK recorded its coldest temperatures in 15 years, somewhere up in Scotland. Granted, we're not that cold here in London.

We're pretty much staying indoors. Dave, Olga and I went to the pharmacy yesterday afternoon and we popped into Cafe Nero for a coffee, just to have a change of scenery. Quite a few people were there, seeking some convivial warmth.

There's some kind of road construction going on in the street near our flat. That house has been under renovation for a while and I think they had to dig up the pavement to get to the utilities.

Here's what the garden looks like.

Olga is not amused.

At midday I couldn't resist checking on the avocado. I parted a tiny section of its fabric covering and stuck my iPhone inside, blindly looking around with the video camera to see how it was coping:

It doesn't look too bad, does it? Hard to tell, and sometimes with plants freeze damage isn't immediately obvious. Some of the leaves near the top look darkened and possibly frost-bitten. But I'm encouraged. I could actually feel the temperature change inside the tree shroud, with just that little light bulb cranking out heat.

Meanwhile, on the warmth of our sunny dining room windowsill, our African daisy is blooming away!

We watched "Conclave" last night, which we rented on Amazon Prime. It was good but the twist didn't seem entirely believable to me.  (I won't spoil the ending by saying any more!)

Snake Mouth Shoes

The West Hampstead tube station has a great Art Deco waiting room on the platform, with a curved wall of glass and a bench. I almost never see anyone use it, but I suppose when the weather's really bad it might come in handy. Here's a picture of it from the outside.

The weather isn't great at the moment, but just because of the cold. It's 23º F out there now (-5º C) and the warmest it got yesterday was one degree above freezing. Same thing today. I despair for the avocado, even with its little warming light bulb. Forty eight hours of basically freezing and subfreezing temperatures is going to be hard for it to survive, I think. But it was inevitable we'd get to this point -- a tree can only live indoors for so long. Eventually it had to face the the wrath of nature.

I met with my gastroenterologist yesterday and he said the tests he gave me last fall were all clear. My breath test showed slightly elevated levels of methane, which I also had the last time I took that test. He attributed it to my mostly vegetarian diet, and eating lots of plant matter. Even though I don't have "bacterial overgrowth" (whatever that is) he wants to prescribe an antibiotic to knock back the bacteria in my gut. I'm not convinced that's a good idea and I'm not sure I'm going to take it, but I might try a probiotic of some sort.

We're going to repeat the calprotectin test to see if it's still high. If that turns out to be the case, or if it's gone higher, he said we might do another colonoscopy. The fun never ends!

This was the morning's interesting fashion sighting on the tube. Do you think they're fake? I do.