Anna & Michael

23 February 2009

03 February 2009

Walked to work in swirling clouds of plump, fluffy snowflakes. There certainly wasn't the usual number of pedestrians to get in my way, but it was slow going as I had to pick my way carefully - lest I slip on an icy patch or slosh brown ice slush all over my legs. Arrived to find that there was almost no-one else around, and anyone who did make it ended up leaving early before the transport packed a sad.

Still, myself and Mr Luis Sanchez got up to some mischief by sneaking some snow into the office, and building a wee snowman out of stationery and pocket change...

A photo of this wee fellow (the snowman, not Luis) later made its way into the Yahoo! Europe blog and the Yahoo! internal network homepage :)

Winter Wonderland

One little snowfall, and the whole city shuts down! No buses, no Undergound, just feet!

Little did I know, so it was up as usual, and trudging off to work through the snow and over the ice. Everywhere I walked, the city was transformed. The street and pavements had disappeared, I was leaving deep footprints, and people were snowboarding down the staircase at Hungerford Bridge.

It took me a long time to get to the office, both because of the treacherous terrain, but also because I had to keep stopping to take photos! I even took a detour through Trafalgar Square especially.

Nelson's poor lions, muzzled with snow...

And the snow begins to fall...

Looked outside one evening, and to our disbelief, the air was thick with snowflakes of an unheard of density and magnitude! Dispite the bitter cold, we had to go outside and see it for ourselves. The fall was so heavy, that it piled up on our clothes as we walked about, and it was hard to look in pretty much any direction without getting snowflakes in your eyes. Just as well we had the big woolly hats we bought in Stockholm...

Down on the pier, underneath the London Eye, and overlooking Parliament:

My crappy snowman. The snow was beautiful to work with, and I would have made more of an effort, but my thumbs just about fell off while posing for this photo - it was so damn cold!

January round-up

January was a very busy film month for us. I have been working diligently on my spy film, plus helping out on a film shoot for my friend James. We also had a dozen screening/interview events to attend at the BFI, including Slumdog Millionaire (with Danny Boyle), Bolt (with John Lasseter), Milk (with Gus van Sant), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (with David Fincher), a 10 year anniversary event for The League of Gentlemen, and Encounters at the End of the World (with Werner Herzog). I managed to meet several of the directors, and handed out some rough cut copies of my short. Pretty amazing stuff!

But we also caught up with friends and got out and about. Saw Darren's new play Saturnalia at the Putney Arts Theatre, went to see the Big Idea exhibition at the Natural History Museum (celebrating the bicentennial of Darwin's birth with Simon) and had a brief visit from Briony.

The fountains in Trafalgar Square iced over (this was before the February cold snap!)...

Caught Darren Aranofsky's new film The Wrestler with Simon and his friend Erica, and had a few drinks afterwards - while admiring the Chinese lanterns for new years outside...

Darren hard at work on the soundtrack for my short film, at the Royal College of Music...

13 January 2009

Visiting the Saatchi gallery

Another absolutely freezing day! We grabbed a bus down to Chelsea (very lovely, and very posh area) to see the inaugural exhibition at the new premises of the Saatchi Gallery.

Formerly at County Hall (where we now live, though we never saw it here), the gallery moved to the big and breezy Duke of York's HQ, near Sloane Square, in October 08. We thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition of new Chinese art, The Revolution Continues: New Art From China, with its odd, yet engrossing displays...

Cityscapes made out of animal hides:

A lifelike, life-size replica of the artist face-down and flat-out on the floor, with his tongue sticking to the floorboards:

Classical statues avec wooden pitchforks:

A big chrome blog:

Some scribblings, including Anna's name:

Not pictured: a giant poo made out of melted toy soldiers, half of a giant head made out of some kind of grit, a giant man lying on a giant bed, a number of people suspended from the roof, a eerily realistic 'fallen angel' with giant chicken wings, and room full of thirteen realistic life-size figures of elderly world leaders colliding with each other in moving electric wheelchairs...

Where we live...

Westminster in the mist

New Year's Eve 2008-2009

Had a few friends over (Selina, Anthony and Nigel) to celebrate New Year's, as there were fireworks planned at the London Eye. The night was freezing, so it was great to be able to enjoy ourselves inside while the crowds froze outside.

Anthony delighted (or disturbed) us with French delicacies such as foie gras and (as below) smoked goose flesh. Not great for us vegetarians, but Anthony seemed pleased with himself!

I contended myself with the finest Buckfast Abbey fortified tonic wine (with ice and mixers) while taking photos of the people outside. The whole street was packed like nothing I've ever seen before!

We wanted to go outside at midnight, but we couldn't even leave the building (people were pressed against the glass like zombies). Instead we managed to find a balcony where we could enjoy the show (though with a slightly restricted view).