Farewell to Lauderdale Mansions

Lauderdale Mansions, the great place I stayed at during the first two months in London

Today I have to say good-bye to - first of all - my two wonderful flatmates Emma and Justine, a nice and sunny en-suite room and a great place to live at, Lauderdale Mansions.

As I learned from the dedicated Wikipedia article on Lauderdale Mansions South, these beautiful mansion flat buildings were built in 1897 for the middle classes. In number 155 Sir Alec Guinness was born as Alec Guinness De Cuffe. Among the more recent former residents was Mary McCartney, celebrity photographer and daughter of Paul and Linda McCartney.

To become the owner of one of the up to 140 m2 flats you just have to be among the rich. From an ad (pictured below) the three of us recently learned that these flats cost more than a million quid.

Take a look at yourself at Speaker's Corner

A Christian speaker with many disagreeing listeners around him

Speaker's Corner is an interesting place to go to on a Sunday. A bit scary too as there are so many speakers that are very much into their religion and so many opponents around them.

In 1872 the government allowed assemblies at Speaker's Corner. Among the speakers even were some famous people like Karl Marx and George Orwell.

I was looking for people who used Speaker's Corner in this tradition and therefore passed the religious extremist.

A black guy from Cuba argued for "live and let live" and quoted Michael Jackson:
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself And Then Make A Change
The only aspect I totally disagree with the speaker was when he said that it's a pitty no one in Germany could call his child Hitler. In his opinion this man proofed to have greatness when leading Germany out of the recession. He spoke about a documentation that is going to be made on Speaker's Corner and gave us the URL of the film company.

Another man discussed heavily with some (quite dull) people surrounding him which isn't much fun when you're among the listeners. The most discussed topic was how gay people are treated in Africa. When he said that you should do whatever you like with your girlfriend or boyfriend whereever you are, a man from Nigeria turned up and acclaimed that gay men don't get into any problems in his home country. However, this man left and the speaker provoced another controversial discussion when he said that he likes Jews as they are so very clever, often the best business men and just handsome.

The speaker I liked most was a guy who spoke on capitalism and Marxism. In fact, he himself turned out to be a member of the Labour Party who's aim is to change the party from within.

He spoke so elaborately and knew so many interesting statistics and examples from all over the world that it was a delight to listen to him. He was the only one who attracted interested and presumably academic listeners. Among his examples were the suicides of employees in Chinese factories, the attitude towards homeless people in London and people in Spanish Cadiz searching for food in dustbins wearing motorcycle helmets with black visors as they are so embarred of themselves. I learned, eg, that 47 percent of England is owned by just 800 families. In his speech he even thanked the Queen for being allowed to speak on her grounds as Speaker's Corner is part of Queen's owned Hyde Park."All Jews are handsome"

(Nick)name it!

The marble altar made by Henry Moore is a controversial object in St Stephen Walbrook church

In our lesson on online journalism today we got to know how crucial it is to build up your own brand on the internet. Gary also mentioned nicknames you might like to give yourself or your company to be found by your target group. Coincidentally, nicknaming is a topic on my list I wanted to cover in my blog some day.

The Londoners seem to be very keen on nicknames. Just think of "bobbies" for police men - going back to the founder of the Met Police, Sir Robert Peel.

All London skyscrapers get their nicknames - often before they're even completed. The official name of "The Gherkin" is "30 St Mary Axe" but that doesn't count. Everyone who's refering to this building - looking like a gigantic gherkin - uses its nickname.

The architects of a building they themselves named "The Pinnacle" might be confused about the fact that it's "The Helter Skelter Tower" in everyday language. And two other sky scrapers already got their nicknames although they're not even ready yet: "The Cheese Grater" and "The Walkie Talkie". Guess how they got their names.

My picture shows the altar of St Stephen Walbrook in the City of London. It's a very controversial marble sculpture done by Henry Moore. It's nickname is ... "The Camembert".

Just London stays without a nickname, it seems. On the internet some suggestions are "The Big Village" and "The Old Smoke" but not many people agree on this.

Christian, Anna, London and the sun

Christian and Anna in front of St Paul's Cathedral

It's so hot in London these days - it's probably hotter than in the Mediterranean region - that my brother Christian, his girl-friend Anna and I just had a very relaxing weekend at the waterside, on the water and in the park.

Yesterday they went to Portobello Market and together we visited Tate Modern and walked through the new business center Canary Wharf. We had dinner in The Gun pub viewing onto the Dome and went to another pub where Christian was able to watch the Champions League final - and see Munich becoming second.

According to an Evening Standard article, "The Gun was awarded the best dining pub title by the Good Pub Guide 2010 editor, beating about 6,000 venues. (...) One of its regulars was Lord Nelson, and according to tradition, he used one of the pub's upstairs rooms for secret trysts with lover Emma Hamilton. In more recent times, Baywatch star David Hasselhoff has frequented the pub several times."

The restaurant was so posh that Christian's and my fish dish was just such a tiny one we had to order some more in the next pub. Anna was right to order a propper bar meal dish - and she got a pretty well sized dish which she even shared with Christian.

Today we met at my flat, took a narrowboat trip to Camden Lock, strolled through the stalls of Camden Market and returned to Little Venice. By that time the sun was shining so brightly and temperatures had rosen to nearly 30 degrees Celsius, there was only one place to be: in the shade, sitting on the grass in Hyde Park and having some cold drinks.

Our day ended in a very nice Thai restaurant in Kensington. This time the taste and the portions were excellent. Very important - especially for Christian and me - as we're always hungry and fond of eating.

Lions on stage and on Trafalgar Square

In need of another news story I went to the Royal Court of Justice today. I was far too late for today's most interesting case, the court case between British Airways and the union representing the cabin crew.

I followed a group of elderly people into one of the court rooms and didn't understand a word. I guess it was all about a female doctor's career that was abruptely ended by her employer The General Medical Council. But I may be completely wrong. When the group of elderly listeners left the court making a lot of noise, the guy sitting beside me wrote "Devine Young Farmers Club" on a piece of paper, slid it into my direction and smiled.

I left before the hearing ended and went to two other cases. Hope I got the content of at least these two cases right. One was with a young man who had taken part at a robbery that ruined the life of a formely very active 80-year-old lady. His sentence of 3,5 years wasn't prolonged as the children of the victim had demanded.

The other case handled the sentences of three young people from Latvia who had smuggled millions of cigarettes into England. One of them was additionally found guilty of money laundering. The two women's sentences were reduced by one year each; the man's sentence was still 10,5 years.

After all this misery my soul demanded for something relaxing in the evening. I got myself a ticket for the musical The Lion King. Beautiful costumes, powerful African choir songs but very few hits and - with one exception - no outstanding solo singers. But costumes and stage setting evened this out.

After the show I took some pictures of Trafalgar Square at night where four lions sit below Lord Nelson. Probably four of the most popular photo objects in London.

Features, news stories and reviews

Every other week we have to submit a feature, a news story and a review. That's beside all the other assignments we have to hand in. Our tutor reads and discusses them with us in a 45 minutes session.

This week I handed in a feature on the charity The Pirate Castle, a news story on the opening of the Government Art Collection at the Museums at Night event and one review each on Lovers Walk (this link doesn't link to my review!) and the other on Jamie Oliver's food and kitchen shop Recipease. Writing those articles was great fun - and I was rewarded with very good marks. Don't know if I can keep this level. However, it was a nice surprise Tim liked my stories and how I structured and wrote them.

Pictured are Ellie-Marie and Harry who took part at the kid's training at the Pirate Club I visited. During the session Ellie-Marie found a dead hedgehog and caught it with her paddle. I publish this blog entry without showing you the respective pictures. I guess, especially Kathrin wouldn't like me to do so.

Wednesday evening Polly invited her sister Gemma and me to her lovely flat in Stoke Newington. Thanks, Polly, for the wonderful risotto and thanks to you both for the lovely evening!

I was surprised by the looks of the Hasidic Jews walking all over the streets in the area. The men wore very big fur hats - I'd never seen this before. Wikipedia says, the hats are worn only in winter. Wonder why it's still winter in their belief. The sun is shining brightly and it's getting warmer every day now. I'm sure my brother Christian and his girlfriend Anna will have a gorgeous weekend in London.

Cheers to the next 10 years

For a very special person - published on 19 May, a memorable day

Ever wondered what your cout of arms would look like?

At the College of Arms in London you can do research on heraldry and genealogy. In case you're not up to do any research you can still enter the hall and get to know some of the cout of arms.

Pictured is the most unusual crest I came across in the hall - a kiwi grasping an ice axe. As the former owner died in 2008, the College of Arms keeps it and proudly presents it to its visitors.

You probably know already whom I'm speaking of. In 1953, he was the first - together with sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay - to climb the summit of Mount Everest and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire the same year: Sir Edmund Hillary.

Speaking of honors, I got my first A today - for my newsfeature on plaques commemorating important people who'd once lived in a house. Admittedly it's an A-, but who cares.

Lovers Walk in Brighton

Rosie and Matt just belong to each other despite what they are going through on their Lovers Walk in Brighton

A highlight of Brighton's Festival Fringe - going on until next Sunday, 23 May - is Lovers Walk, written and devised by Marcelo dos Santos and Gemma Kerr.

I took part in this touching tour of two lovers through Brighton yesterday. You're close on Rosie's and Matt's heels and hang on every word when they fall in love, kiss for the first time, quarrel, split up and run into each other again close at the seaside - just as every couple might do.

But this is special as the play is so lyrically written. Being on the streets with the couple makes their relationship so real a staged play might never do. Lovers Walk is very much worth the trip to Brighton!

First coalition government since World War II

There is no excuse for not even mentioning the new coalition government of the UK in my blog - just because I was so busy doing all the research, writing and reading for my course! So this (re-dated) blog entry is to commemorate this important election result for the country and its people.

Cameron and Clegg formed the first coalition government since World War II on Tuesday night. It all happened within one afternoon/evening: Brown resigned and moved out of Downing Street No. 10 together with his wife and two boys, the Queen greeted Cameron in an audience as the next prime minister, Cameron and Clegg gave their first joined press conference and Cameron and his wife moved into Downing Street No. 10 (which became the fairly simular looking title of nearly every newspaper the following day).

By the way, I've found a new room to stay until the end of September. I'm going to stay with live-in landlord Alex in Kilburn which is just around the corner of Maida Vale and even closer to the school. It's a very nice flat and a big room to the back, and I'm sure we'll get on well. He seems to be a laid-back person and easy to live with. Incidentially, 'laid-back' is the word you'll find in nearly every flatshare ad. Guess I'd would advertise myself using this description. I'm going to move to the new place on May 31.

Everyone's got a 'talent'

Britain's got talent and Britain's got more talent are quite popular TV shows in Britain. Pictured above is an Irish folk dancer who still trys to benefit from his performance in one of the broadcasted audits.

He was very seriously performing his 'talent'. And see how the three girls in the background joined his dance and enjoyed themselves. I didn't have the impression they made a joke out of him.

The audits for the TV show are held all over the country. Other as the German show Deutschland sucht den Superstar, you can apply for it with whatever you consider to be your talent. I've already seen men wrestling in mud, a female ventriloquist and a girl with a rabbit on a steeplechase.

In most cases the audience is very supportive and cheerful. But once all three members of the jury have pressed the stop button, the show is over. Often under protest of the audience who would have loved to be entertained a little longer.

Shop around the clock

I have a confession to make. On my way to Notting Hill and Kensington, I thought I might write about the British habit of going shopping on Sundays. Plenty of shops are opened - even supermarkets - and people shop a lot. Some shops are even opened all night long. Not only tourists, but also the Londoners, use this offer. And then I found myself browsing through some shops in Kensington as well...
Culture followed consumption. I visited Leighton House Museum in Kensington. It's the most beautiful house, formerly owned by Frederic Leighton, famous English painter and sculptor of Victorian times. I had already seen some of his pictures in Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight.

The house of this life-long bachelor shows his great interest in ancient Rome, Middle Eastern art, world religions and the works of his fellow artists. Over the doorway to the Dining Room is the German word 'Prosit'. It hints at Leighton's early life in Frankfurt where he received his education and learned how to paint.

The atmosphere of The Arab Hall captures the visitors at once. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take any pictures. However, the hall and all other rooms of this magnificent house can be visited online on a virtual tour. You can even hear the ripple of the water fountain.
Pink blue bell in Leighton House's garden

Between gravestones

Everybody who knows me, knows about my cemetery passion. Whereever I spot a nice one, I'm going to visit it - and take as many pictures my data storage card can bare.

Today I went to view a (very nice) room in Queen's Park, an area close to Maida Vale. Hope that becomes my home for the following four months in London. I have another viewing appointment tomorrow, and I would have to meet the other flatmate in this flat in Queen's Park next week. Let's wait and see.

In Queen's Park there is Willesden Lane Cemetery, also called Paddington Old Cemetery. The old part is quite run-down, but therefore quite romantic too. There are more popular cemeteries in London. Highgate Cemetery is the most famous Victorian graveyard, and I will definitely join a guided tour soon.


Paddington Old Cemetery was opened in 1855. In the middle of the 19th century London's churchyards were so overcrowded that they posed a severe health risk to those people living nearby. A number of new burial-grounds were opened. As the landscaped public cemeteries in Italy, France and Sweden were admired, especially Pere-Lachaise in Paris, the new cemeteries in London were designed similarly - with tomb-lined avenues and well-contrived vistas.

The creepy tree (pictured below) reminded me of a film Günter and I saw shortly before I left Germany. In this film a man goes into the woods the night before he's supposed to marry. He is so nervous that he has a private dress-rehearsal and lets the wedding ring slip onto a twig of such a tree. The twig proves to be the finger of a recently deceased girl, so he suddenly finds himself in the world of the death and married to one of them.

However, there was a happy end for me today. I stayed alive and had a nice lunch in Hugo's Cafe nearby, an organic restaurant with regular jazz nights.

The Libs will tip the scales

Britain's election is over and the country now has a hung parliament (auf Deutsch: eine Pattsituation). It's up to the Liberal Democrats now to tip the scales. I won't tell you anything on British politics or the voting system, as I don't have much knowledge about it - apart from the stuff we learned at school and what I read in the newspapers. Anyhow, it's tantalizing to be here right now and to see how the coalition talks develop.

This week I followed two recommendations of my colleague Sebastian, a big fan of London and speaking with a wonderful British accent. The first was a night out at the Irish pub Waxy O'Connor's near Leichester Square. They have regular live music nights at the pub. The band The Bible Code Sunday was great, but unfortunately the music was extremely loud. However, it was fun to see the guests dancing and enjoying themselves.

Tonight I walked all the way to West End, had dinner at a houmous bar and went to get myself some cheap tickets for a West End show. The first theater I came across was Queen's Theatre where Les Miserables is performed. Sitting in the upper circle, I had a better view that the guy at the ticket counter had predicted. I enjoyed the show very much. Especially singer Simon Bowman was great. His voice makes you cry. As you can see in the guestbook on his website, I'm not the only one who was captived by the singer. Thank's, Sebastian, for two extremely valuable tips!

Darth Vader unmasked

Darth Vader is hit by the power flash of the Imperator, making his bones and vertebra implants visible (Copyright: Jedipedia)

I've always known that education in England is somewhat different. That, in fact, was key for choosing London as the city of choice for my sabbatical. Today, once again, this proofed to have been the right decision.

All our teachers at the LSJ are perfect in getting the facts across and giving us a precise insight view into journalism. Today it was Ross, journalist, trainer, former PR consultant, and author of the book Golf on the edge, who introduced us to the "dark side" in the battle for power in the information business - PR.

In this battle, he opened up today's session on PR and journalism, "the PR guys are the Darth Vaders. We, as the journalists, are Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia."

During the lesson he pulled out all the stops of teaching, or should I rather say infotainment? In a rough guide through history from 1400 till today, he illustrated the one-way style of communication by stepping onto a chair shouting "Let's go to war!" after which the common man of the past would follow his leader right into the battle without questioning the reason why.

Ross used the famous hangman game when we all were on the search for the expression for PR until the end of World War II, propaganda. He danced a waltz through the class room when explaining the close connections between PR and journalism.

"I'm just naturally funny," he told us - and made us laugh by telling us one joke after another. Ross on journalism in Berlusconi country: "There is no such word for truth in Italy". Carrying a Timberland bag through the classroom to illustrate how well PR equips journalists with goodies: "Timberland is one of the best brands in the world." Illustrating that there is no such thing as the truth and that we might only come close to it: "I'm the most handsome man in this room."

Wonder why he looked so cross when I told him afterwards that teaching in Germany is a serious thing and I would like to write a blog entry on his teaching methods...

A maiden and a lamb for lunch

Since I had bloged on St George's Day, I asked myself why there were a maiden and a lamb following St George. After having visited the Victoria and Albert Museum, I know. There the story is pictured in the Retable of St George, a huge fifteenth-century gilded altarpiece from Valencia.

this is how the story goes. On his crusade, St George comes to the city of Selene in Libya where a dragon demands for a maiden and a lamb for his daily lunch. The very day St Georges arives in Selene, the dragon has just claimed for the king's daughter. St Georges promises to kill the dragon if the king himself, his family and the whole city is going to be baptized. St Georges kills the dragon, the city is relieved and the inhabitants jump into the baptismal font (2nd row, 1st picture).

St George then travels to the next city (2nd row, 2nd picture) where the king Dacian seems to be specialised in cruelty. And he doesn't want to change his religion. What then follows is pictured on the bloodthirsty side panels of the retable.

Only if you can stand it, read this blog entry until the very end. St George is tied to a cross and gets nails driven through his body (2nd row, 3rd picture), is poisoned (2nd row, 4th picture), streched out on a rack and gets his skin ripped to shreds with flesh hooks (3rd row, 1st picture), is set between two wheels full of swords (3rd row, 3th picture), cut in half (3rd row, 4th picture), placed in a cauldron of molten lead (4th row, 1st picture), dragged naked through the streets (4th row, 3rd picture) and finally beheaded (4th row, 4th picture).

In medieval times one rather wasn't too sensitive, I would think.

Royal visitors shouldn't be embarrassed

One of the many highlights of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the greatest museum of applied arts, are its Cast Rooms. Here you can find many plaster casts of famous works. The biggests two are the colossal Trajan's Column, which stood in the middle of ancient Rome, and the entire portal of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

Michelangelo's David is among the sculptures, naked as the artist created him. In 1857, the staff of the V&A Museum had to fabricate a fig leaf. Each time when royalty visited the exhibition, the plaster leaf was detached to the statue. I was curious to see it, as my guide book said it's displayed at the back of David's plinth. Unfortunately it has been "temporarily removed". Might be urgently needed somewhere else.

See what I also came across in the Cast Rooms (below). It looks extremely small and insignificant between the two parts of Trajan's Column (all my friends with Nuremberg connections should know right away what I'm writing about).

Little Venice at night

It has rained nearly all day long today. Best conditions for staying at home and doing all the writing I had to do.

Now that I've finished my work and having contacted some potential landowners that offer a room from the beginning of June onwards, I went to see the procession of illuminiated boats in Little Venice.

The boats moved slowly, but they moved. So the pictures of the procession turned out to be a little bit too blurry. My camera just was fine with boats mooring.

"Save Our System" in Little Venice

After having survived my first week at the school I had a nice day out today - with my new companion, a paper notebook.

Close to my flat is Little Venice. The triangular leafy basin got its nickname by a poet. It doesn't look very much like the one and only Venice, but it is one of the prettiest spots on Regent's Canal.

All three days of this Bank holiday weekend The Inland Waterway Association (IWA) has invited boat owners from all over Britain to gather their colourful boats in Little Venice and spectators to join the so called Canalway Cavalcade.

I listened to the opening, very friendly publicity manager Christine supplied me with all the information I needed for my first feature, and then I strolled alongside the canal to take some pictures and speak with boat owners and visitors. If it stays dry I'll go there again to see the pageant of illuminated boats tomorrow evening and try to take some nice pictures.

By the way, SOS stands for Save Our System and is the theme of this year's event (see picture above). I often wonder how much lies in the hands of charity here. The IWA maintains the canals in Britain. British Government has just reduced their support of the IWA by 10 million Pounds so there is even more additional money needed to keep the more than 220 years old waterways in good shape. The Human Fruit Machine (pictured below) is one of many creative ideas the organisers had to increase the amount of donations today.


Tonight I went to a live recording of the new BBC 4 radio commedy series Nick Mohammed in Bits. He speaks extremely fast, imitates young people's speak and uses a lot of puns so I nearly missed every other joke and got frustrated. Will I ever understand the people on the street younger than me? And will I understand the British in, let's say, a decade or two? So when I came home I watched some of his - quite easy to understand - children's commedy series Sorry, I've got no head. Very funny!

(For more information see Nick Mohammed's website)