Earthquake

I don't understand how the news can be about anything else- reporting and news goes on and changes. The BBC had the earthquake on the front page for maybe 12 hours, and then it quickly slipped down the news rankings, until it fully dissapeared- hen the event hasn't stopped for the people who live there.

I don't understand how people can worry or read about anything else when bodies are being pulled out of the rubble, and a whole city has been torn apart, and all those people have their lives changed forever.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4693057/The-day-the-earth-roared


UK Donations: Red Cross Earthquake appeal
http://www.redcross.org.uk/nzearthquake 

Ai Weiwei

Last weekend Dad was here- so while waiting to go to the Phantom of the Opera, we hopped over to the Tate gallery of modern art. They have a huge entrance way that hosts different art installations. Since Rhys and I have been here, there has been an installation of sunflower seeds by Ai Weiwei (a famous chinese dissident artist). These are some photos of the exhibition taken by the museum (mine didn't turn out)

it looks fairly impressive there. But it suddenly becomes a thousand times more impressive when I tell you that each sunflower seed is individually formed out of porcelain by artisans in China. Then it is fired, and each one is painted by hand , in 3-4 strokes of paint. There are 400 million seeds in the installation, which is 1/4 of the Chinese population. How is that for a concept to boggle your mind.

Happy Year of the Rabbit!

Last week was Chinese New Year, and we have just left behind the year of the Tiger, and entered the "placid" year of the Rabbit. Rhys and I headed into the city to see the New Year celebrations, along with about 1 million other people, as it turned out. Some of the biggest crowds I have seen since being in London (I'm not sure what the actual biggest would be...maybe the Lord Mayor's Parade fireworks?) - at one point we were so jamb-packed together we couldn't even shrug our shoulders, never mind try to walk along.

London's West End and Phantom of the Opera

Dad is visiting this weekend (hi dad!)! So this gives me the perfect kick to get back out into London and do some exciting things. One of the things london is known for is theatre. and musicals. and epic-ness. So while dad was here I tried to finagle some last minute tickets to a musical, but had trouble since nearly everything was booked out (silly Valentines Day). But out of sheer luck Me, Rhys and Dad managed to book a matinee to see Phantom of the Opera. we had to sit in seats which had a big pole which blocked some of the action, and we had to sit in the "stalls" which is pretty much where the poor people sit. But oh my was it worth it x10000.

Ted

After watching a very depressing video about fishing in the Coral Triangle and about how all the fish and ecosystems are dying, I remembered Ted. Have you heard of Ted? It is a series of inspiring and influential talks about Technology, Education or Design (thus the clever acronym- so suited to Google and SEO!).

These are the people who are smart and out solving the world's problems.  It gives hope for the future, I think - so good to watch after reading about all the oceans dying.

well hello again

long time no talk! This not owning a computer business is seriously cramping my blogging style. This past weekend Rhys and I went to an excellent exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery. This gallery doesnt get a huge amount of press, and is a bit weird. It just features hundreds upon hundreds of portraits from different eras. While portraits are not really my faovrite painting subject, it is an interesting historical commentary on how styles (and who we think is important enough to paint) has changed over the last 500 years.

we saw a small travelling exhibit of 50 photos that are competing for the the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize....take a look at some of the photos

PS new blog name- what do you think?