Plant Report, with Household Weirdness

Some very strange things are happening around here. Last night a shelf suddenly collapsed in our linen closet, very poltergeist-like, bringing down stacks of sheets. A light bulb exploded when I turned on our floor lamp, showering glass onto the floor. Dave had trouble with the oven, and the gas inspector (who came on his routine annual visit Monday) said our stove top is old and not up to standard.

I've already told you about the leaning bush, which I'm still trying to get the landlord to resolve. (We can't stake the bush ourselves because of its location, and besides, the landlord is responsible for maintaining the front garden -- we only do the back.) And finally, our daffodils are blooming -- at the beginning of January!

"This flat is falling apart!" Dave declared this morning. I suppose we can't really include the daffodils in that complaint, but otherwise -- yeah.

Speaking of plants, while I was in Florida I visited my two remaining stateside houseplants -- the ones I asked my brother to save from my Mom's yard when she sold her house. You may remember they have quite a history. The bird's foot cactus (rhipsalis) above is almost 40 years old, a gift from a woman who used to take care of my brother and me when we were children. I repotted it when I visited and it's now in my brother's back yard among his ferns.

And my purple heart sits at the side of his house near a fence. It would be much more purple if it got direct sun, but it's been in a shady spot for a long time.

Meanwhile, back in London...

By the way, everything went well with my talks to the eighth-graders yesterday. I have two more to do today, and then I can put this behind me for another year.

Tottenham Court Road

When I went down to the Apple Store on Sunday I was happy to find the Tottenham Court Road tube station had reopened. It's been closed for renovation and expansion for most of the past year.

I'd read that there was some controversy regarding the preservation of the tile murals that decorate the station. Dating from 1984, they were created by Eduardo Paolozzi, and when I walked through I was happy to find most of them are still there.

(These are just a sample. There are others on the train platforms and elsewhere.)

Turns out only some of the murals were affected by the renovations -- those on structures that were removed entirely -- and even they have been saved, apparently. I'm happy this station is functioning again. It's in a handy area in Soho and I use it a lot!

I have to be at school early this morning to talk to eighth-grade classes about interviewing, like I did last year. My journalism career continues to haunt me!

Making Tech Progress

The computer situation has improved. I took my old and new computers to work yesterday, and borrowed a cable from the tech office that allowed me to connect them. With some advice from the techies, I was able to transfer my iTunes content and some other files, without transferring everything -- thus avoiding burdening my new computer with old files I don't need.

I also borrowed a cable to connect our computer and television, proving that our faulty connection is due to our ratty old cable. Time to buy a new one of those.

And finally, I borrowed an ethernet cable that allowed me to test our home Internet connection speed. I ran two tests at different times, and both of them indicate a download speed of about 16.7 MB, which according to BT means: "Good News! Your download speed is close to your connection speed." (Our maximum connection speed is apparently 19.7 MB.)

All I know is, we tried to watch "Downton Abbey" last night and had to give up 1/3 of the way through because the video stream kept stopping. I'm going to call BT today and see if we can get a new router or an additional one to boost our signal.

Aren't our tech woes fascinating?!

My jet lag, meanwhile, has not improved. I was up until 2 a.m. again, meaning two consecutive nights of about four hours' sleep. This has gotta stop.

While lying awake, though, I found a blog by John Weir, a writer I've long admired. I read several of his pieces and enjoyed them. He doesn't seem to post very frequently, which is a shame.

(Photo: Street art by Thierry Noir near Tottenham Court Road.)

A New Computer, and a Leaning Bush

Well, I did it. Yesterday I went out in the rain, down to Covent Garden, and straight to the Apple store, where I bought a new computer. Finally I can easily download my photos -- rather than repeatedly connecting, disconnecting and reconnecting my camera in order to prompt my balking, overheating processor -- and I can run modern photo software. Which I still have to learn how to use.

The new machine is roughly the same as my old one, though slightly smaller and lighter, owing (I suppose) to better technology. I bought the most powerful processor and memory I could.

There have already been growing pains, however.

I got incredibly frustrated yesterday afternoon trying to migrate my iTunes to the new machine. I still don't have everything moved over. (Why does this have to be so hard, Apple?) The Apple Dumpling (or whatever a sales person is called) who helped me at the store indicated that I could do a Time Machine backup to a remote disc and move everything that way -- but when I start Time Machine it wants to back up 713,000 items, a process that would take hours, and I know most of that is crap that I don't want on my new computer.

So this evening I'll head back to the Apple Store with both computers, seeking some advice.

Meanwhile, we have also learned that the new machine doesn't solve all our problems. We still have terrible connectivity with our weak WiFi, so I'll have to do some research with the ever-pleasant BT minions about that, and we can't easily connect to our television, perhaps because of faults in the cable or the TV itself.

Oh, and one more complaint -- why did Apple do away with iPhoto, and replace it with this silly "Photos" program that has no editing functions? There's no histogram, no way to adjust shadows, colors, definition or anything. Just "enhance," one button, and some Instagram-like filters. I do not want to trust the computer to know how I want my photos to look! (As I mentioned above, I'm switching to Lightroom anyway, but still.)

In other news, this (above) is going on. When we got back from Florida we found this huge bush leaning over our front walk, and yesterday it seemed to lean more and more. We've had a lot of rain and I think the ground is so soggy that the poor thing is just falling over. I've alerted the landlord, but meanwhile getting up and down the front steps is a challenge, both for us and for our upstairs neighbors. I hope the landlord can stake the bush rather than simply ripping it out.

Also, I had a terrible time sleeping last night. I was wide awake until almost 2 a.m. Curse you, jet lag!

(Top photo: Covent Garden, yesterday. Christmas decorations kind of turn my stomach at this point, but they're still up all over town.)

The Dog Report

This was Olga last night, wrapped in her favorite pink blanket and crashed on Dave's lap. She's so happy to be home again. She slept like a rock all night (as did Dave and I) and at the moment she's out in the back garden eating grass and checking out two weeks' worth of foxy and squirrelly smells.

We didn't have any drama with the dog boarder this time, except that Olga's leash didn't come home with her. So hopefully they can find that. *sigh*

Oh, and remember my dad's yappy chihuahuas, Pinky and Manny?

Well, by the time we left, Dave and I apparently won them over. They were still yappy, of course, but not nearly as yappy as before, and both were learning to curl up and relax in our presence. (Above, they're on their favorite cushion, where they each adopt the same position. Pinky is above, Manny is below.) They even slept in our laps.

I guess I can understand my dad's affection for them. They are pretty cute, when they're not snarling and being awful.

Home Again, With More Florida Pics

Dave and I just got home. We're a bit bleary-eyed but overall we had a good flight, and upon landing we made our way into town and straight to the dog boarder, where we picked up Olga.

She was so excited to see us that she was shaking in the taxi all the way home.

So here we are, reunited and getting back to our routines. I launched a load of laundry and Dave promptly settled onto the sofa with the dog and an episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." I think we're ready for an extended period of homespun monotony.

The same headwinds that slowed us down on our flight to Florida added speed to our return trip, which was slightly bumpy but rapid at just 8 hours. (And we got to sit together!) The only hitch in our travels came after we landed at Gatwick Airport. The Gatwick Express -- the train that connects the airport to Central London -- is out of commission for several days for some kind of repair work. So we took a bus, which creeped along for an hour and a half before reaching Victoria Station. Why is there so much traffic today?

These photos are from a last Florida walk I took yesterday afternoon near my dad's house. I haven't had a chance to take any new photos in London yet!

Downtown Tampa, and New Year's Eve

Yesterday morning I finally got some exercise. Just after dawn I left our hotel and went for a walk through downtown Tampa. My friend Sue wanted me to take the Riverwalk, a new-ish pedestrian path years in the making that follows the Hillsborough River through the center of the city.

First I passed the Tampa Theater, an old-time movie house which was refurbished years ago and shows artsy films and hosts live shows. You can see the rooftop sign on the Hotel Floridan behind the theater. (Likewise, in my shot of the Tampa skyline from our stay in the Floridan a few days ago, you can see the theater's sign in the lower right.)

When I lived in Tampa back in the '80s, one of my newspaper colleagues wrote about how the city had turned its back on the river. Much of the land lining its shores was then occupied by buildings and the water was inaccessible, and barely even visible except from a few points. Since then the city has done a lot to change that.

Yesterday I found seagulls perched on a railing along the Riverwalk, with the famous Moorish minarets of the old Tampa Bay Hotel in the background. The hotel, opened in 1891, now houses a museum and the University of Tampa.

It was kind of a strange day, weather-wise. The sky was a bit foggy and the tops of the buildings were lost in the haze.

Like much of Florida, Tampa is an urban jungle!

I walked around the west and south sides of downtown on the Riverwalk, and then turned inland at Channelside, near the cruise ship terminals. I was happy to find...

...the new location of a huge modern sculpture by George Sugarman that sat for about 25 years near the cylindrical "Beer Can Building" downtown. The sculpture was famously dubbed the "Exploding Chicken" by a local newspaper columnist, and now that's pretty much what everyone calls it. It was moved to Channelside in 2013. I've always liked it.

Channelside is a mix of old and new, gentrified and not. I wound my way through the neighborhood and back to our hotel. It felt great to stretch my legs.

After checking out, Dave and I ran one last party-related errand -- returning the beer kegs -- and we were happy because we got a refund on the untapped one. Then we drove to my Dad's, where we're staying until our flight leaves this evening.

We had a very mild New Year's Eve -- gin & tonics and our last bottle of party prosecco (shared with my dad, stepmother, stepsister and her husband) and bed by 10:30. We watched a "Nova" episode about Einstein. We are old -- thank goodness!