Terence Conrad Bibendum and More

While a great deal has changed since 1987, much too has remained the same. The restaurant’s original ethos of producing classic French food with a strong British influence, using the best quality seasonal ingredients continues today.- Bibendum website

Sir Terence Conrad has his own Empire in London and elsewhere around the world. Like Frank Lloyd Wright and all other successful modern moguls, Terence Conrad is not just a name, he is a Brand. The Conrad Shop has all those wonderful things that no home should be without-Conrad Furniture, Conrad Lighting, Conrad Entertaining. All designed with that wonderful Terence Conrad mix of Old and New.

Among the architecture of note is the recent Roppongi Hills, a new 11-hectare urban quarter in the heart of Tokyo. There is also the first museum in the world devoted exclusively to 20th and 21st century design, the Design Museum which opened in 1989. There also many hotels, homes, and other projects under the Terence Conrad banner.

Terence Conrad has also written a book about London. Terence Conran on London is a visual guide to the excitement and diversity of London life, seen through the eyes of one of the world's foremost designers, retailers and restaurateurs. He paints a fascinating portrait of London, its architecture and interiors, as well as the worlds of transport, work, shopping, eating, street life and culture.

Spielberg to Make Chocky Movie

Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks has acquired the rights to the science fiction novel Chocky by John Wyndham, according to reports.

Trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter said Pollinger, the UK agency which handles the literary estate of the late author John Wyndham, agreed the deal.

"Chocky" tells the story of a boy who has a mysterious imaginary friend with whom he frequently argues. As the boy's father gets increasingly suspicious, it becomes clear that an alien entity has taken up residence in the boy's consciousness. Spielberg likes stories with spooky sci fi kids, A.I. was a sci fi movie about a strange child who was a robot.

Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg's credits include such sci fi greats as ET and Jurassic Park.

Chocky is a 1968 novel written by John Wyndham, the British science fiction writer best known for writing The Day of the Triffids.

Of course, just because Steven Spielberg had optioned the rights does not mean there will actually be a Chocky movie made. But we can keep our fingers crossed and hope that it will happen. While a lot of the story in Chocky takes place out in the country, I would expect there to be a scene or two in London, as just about every movie set in England has to have a least a few shots of the River Thames and London Eye.

Subliminal Self Improvement

Researchers have found the first physiological evidence that invisible subliminal images do attract the brain’s attention on a subconscious level. The wider implication for the study, published in Current Biology, is that techniques such as subliminal advertising, now banned in the UK but still legal in the USA, certainly do leave their mark on the brain.-Cognitive Neuroscience University College London

I've always been a fan of Subliminal Tapes and their modern day cousins subliminal mp3s and Subliminal CDs. And while I have not learned French in my sleep or improved my vocabulary without really trying, I have had a lot of fun over the years listening to subliminal tracks.

Subliminal Tapes and CD's Self Improvement is the most recent subliminal company that I have run across and I have been giving their track Sharpen Mind a listen. The basic ambient sound of Sharpened Mind is that of water running down a drain in an echoy fashion with a number of harmonic tones fading in and out. They have a couple of other ambient sounds if you don't like the sound of water. As with most subliminal CDs there is the soft whispering going on in the background of voices that can't quite be heard. The point of the ambient sound is to keep your mind off the voices, as subliminal tapes tend to work better if they are not actively listened to by the conscious mind.

The Sharpened Mind track sounds good and clear, it is not uncommon to find subliminal CDs that need to spend some quality time with a good sound engineer. Subliminal tapes and CD's Self Improvement must have a good engineer on staff as the sound is perfect.

Reviewing a subliminal track is a bit harder than reviewing, say, a binaural track-where the results of listening are more immediate. Subliminal CDs are meant, for the most part, to be cumulative in nature. Subliminal Tapes and CD's Self Improvement recommends that you listen twice a day for about two weeks before you should expect any marked results from your subliminal programming. I tend to listen once in the morning and once at night. I will see if any new habits pop up that I didn't have seen before. Subliminal tapes are often made fun of for Subliminal Weight Loss or Subliminal Vocabulary Building, and I have never tried Subliminal CDs for those kinds of results. I've always been a self help junkie and subliminal tapes have been one of my favorite tools. Subliminal success is possible.

Since I still a work in progress, I am always looking for that next subliminal message tape that may the be the one that puts me over the top. I have been beginning work on writing a new novel and plan to do the bulk of the work during NaNoWriMo-but I was inspired to get an early start and rough out a few ideas yesterday. Was this the result of listening to Subliminal Tapes and CDs Self Improvement's Sharpen Mind track? I don't know. Is Sharpen Mind the subliminal self help that will work for me? Only time will tell.

Subliminal Tapes and CD's Self Improvement has a wide array of track to choose from. They have topics such as Sex, Health, Achieve Goals, Stress, Brain Power and Bad Habits. They also have custom subliminal tapes or cds. You can get subliminal cds to help with your studies or whatever else you might need to remember.

London and The High Seas

There is a lot of naval history and world history in London. The River Thames makes London a natural place for watery adventures. Spend a day following the Maritime attractions of London.

Take the 45 minute boat ride from Westminster Pier to Greenwich. No trip to London is complete without at least a short ride on the River Thames. The sights of the city line the shoreline and have a different character when seen from the deck of a boat. You'll past the H.M.S. Belfast, well worth a visit, and see the Tower of London. There is a chance that you'll have a chatty boat Captain who will point out the many odd and interesting things along the way-they like you to tip for this service. The River Thames is a busy place and the day we rode the river there was a boat moured next to the H.M.S. Belfast-our chatty Captain told that he knew nothing about this ship as it had just come in that morning, but he could tell us a bit about H.M.S. Belfast.

Greenwich is the home of Flamsteed House, the former home of the Royal Observatory. The Queens House is here, which was the model for the White House in Washington, D.C. The Cutty Sark is here as well.

Cutty Sark- Cutty Sark has travelled across the world, sailing under both the Red Ensign and the Portuguese flag, visiting every major port in the world through the course of her working life. Seems the Cutty Sark is closed at the moment for renovation and will be reopening in 2010.

Queen's House-The 17th-century Queen's House represents a turning point in English architecture. It now showcases the National Maritime Museum's fine-art collection and provides a unique venue for weddings, corporate and private events.

Trafalgar Tavern-In Victorian London there was one pub that represented the best of Britain’s naval might and cultural standing. A place where William Gladstone and Charles Dickens could be seen dining side-by-side. An oasis away from the industrial sprawl, but yet at the centre of an Empire. Exactly 170 years later the Trafalgar Tavern still stands in the Greenwich Maritime World Heritage Site, and it remains one of London’s most essential public houses.

Thames Flood Barrier- Together with the Barking Barrier and significant gates at the entrances to the old Royal Docks, the Thames Barrier is currently the responsibility of the Environment Agency's Thames Region. On the north bank of the Thames and with stunning views of the awesome flood Barrier lies a jewel in the crown of London's parks-Thames Barrier Park. Set within 22 acres of lawns, trees and uniquely contoured Yew and Maygreen hedges you can discover the delights of this urban oasis.

Loch Ness-A London Side Trip

If you find yourself in London for the second time in so many months, you may have seen all the big items on your London Must See list and want to try something a little farther a field. The Wife and I won trips to London from British Airways-and did most of the London stuff we wanted to do at the first trip. Being your average American Tourists there are two side trips from London that we just had to take-one was Stonehenge and the other was Loch Ness.

So after riding on a very nice British Airways 777 for about nine hours, we stumbled through customs, onto the Gatwick Express and found our way from Victoria Station to a City Link bus for a leisurely eight hour ride to Edinburgh. It was not quite as much fun as it sounds, but neither was it the worst travel experience I have had. It was an interesting way to see a lot of UK countryside and a lot of bright yellow flowers blooming in countless fields. I believe someone told me this plant was rapeseed, though I can't really recall.

We stopped of in Edinburgh for a day or two, but he Goal of this little excursion was to get to Inverness and Loch Ness. We weren't looking for great shots of Urquhart Castle, though it was a really cool spot. And the lake itself was a dark and brooding body of water. Loch Ness looked as if it might well have a monster living in it, which why so many people trek to this empty bit of Scotland.

We were in Inverness during the slow season and I guess we were lucky that there were tours at all. It was cold and wet and our tour of The Battlefields of Culloden was spend shivering in the bus. I'm not as much of a history buff as I could be and had never heard of the Battle of Culloden-seems to have had something do with the Jacobites.

Loch Ness-that's what we wanted see. There were three of us in the small office with the Tour Guide, the Wife and I and a Frenchman. There were three tour options. One was a combo of a Motor Tour and a Boat Tour. One was just the Boat Tour and one just Motor Tour. The Guide told us that the combo tour was the best value, though it did cost a bit more. We said sure. The Frenchman said he just wanted to Boat Tour. The Guide tried to talk him out of it, telling him that he wouldn't really like the Boat Tour. But the Frenchman was adamant that he wanted the Boat Tour and Only The Boat Tour. Our Guide shrugged and sold him a Boat Tour.

We rode around the Scottish Countryside in a van with a few other tourists and saw all kinds of hills and valleys. There were some brown dots in the distance we were told were Highland Cows, though it was impossible to tell for sure. It was a rainy and cold day, but it was a lot of fun. It took about an hour and half to get to the Castle Urquhart and we had a bit of time to wander around and take photos and see all that we wanted to see. Then we heard the boat horn and had to go and board the boat for the ride back to where we started.

On the deck of the boat, which was a pretty large vessel as I recall, was a very unhappy Frenchman with his arms crossed and his jaw locked. As soon as we boarded the boat it turned around and set back off again. The Frenchman didn't even get a chance to get off the boat and take photos of Castle Urquhart. For the hour and a half that we had been site seeing, he had been seeing the dark mossy waters of Loch Ness.

The hour and half return trip on the boat was slow and easy. This is some really beautiful country, but there is a big difference seeing Scotland from a boat and seeing it from a Motor Van. When they ask if you want to do the Combo, say yes.

Talk Like A Pirate Day, Is It?

It be a great Tradition on this here date to Talk Like a Pirate. Talk like a pirate day has been around for lo these many years-as far back as 1995 by some accounts of the Old Timers. It be that greatest of great events in the otherwise hum drum life of land lubbers the whole world over to talk like a pirate.

A Pirate walks into a bar. He has a ship's wheel where his belt buckle should be. The Bartender looks at him and asks-"What's with the wheel?"

"Arrgh," The Pirate says, "That drives me nuts."

Ye mad lot what dwells in the Great Dark City of London had best be wary when you talk like a pirate. Until 1700 all cases of piracy by British subjects or in British colonies be under the jurisdiction of the High Court of Admiralty in London. What this highfalutin talk means is that Pirates who be captured be sent back to London and locked up in the fine prisons of Newgate or the Marshalsea before being sent for trial at the Old Bailey. Talk like a pirate, go to prison. Arr, me hearty they be dangerous fellows who surely talked like a pirate.

There be a great number of Pirates tried and executed in London. So be watching who you go about talkin like a Pirate to. It could be swinging from the gallows of the Execution Dock on the north bank of the Thames you'll be findin your fine self one birght and shinnin mornin.

Arrgh, I hates being awake that early.

There be a couple of fine Pirates from that great city of London-Captain Edward Low was born in Westminster, to be sure. And that fine female pirate Mary Read was born in London. They surely talk like a pirate, at least while they could still be talkin.

Arr, me hearty, there be a great granddaddy of all Pirate Books-A General History of the Most Notorious Pyrates and it became a best-seller. New editions came out each year after 1724. Written in London by the mysterious Captain Charles Johnson, it be based evidence of pirate trials, on newspaper reports and on interviews with sailors lucky enough to have met(been captured by) pirates. It be a grand and glorious book, so I be told. Don't know if they be talkin like a pirate, but they sure be spelling like a pirate.

Be gettin a Pirate Name all your own at The Pirate Name Generator.

London Fashion Week

This... 'stuff'? Oh... ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.-The Devil Wears Prada

Fashion has always been a spectator's sport. From the outside it all seems silly and over the top and no one would ever really do that would they? And then in no time at all everyone is doing it. Well, everyone that care anyway. My own fashion sense leans more toward Hawaiian Shirts and khaki pants with a lot of pockets. But that doesn't mean I don't like looking are people dressed in really interesting clothes.

London Fashion Week was in the news because they were thinking of banning size zero models. They did ban models under sixteen years of age. But those were just the usual side issues, the brave new world of fashion, as always, was center stage.

My favorite bit is Fashion Forward, that spot where clothing meets science fiction and the future is on view for all to see. Christopher Kane, Erdem and Marios Schwab are all being awarded Fashion Forward sponsorship for the first-time. Roksanda Ilincic is a recipient for the second time.

In 2006, Christopher Kane launched his own label with his sister Tammy (collaborator and
business partner) and has gone on to build his label into a major player in the high-fashion
world. The label is a key contributor to trends, demonstrating a contemporary and progressive
vision.

On receiving the sponsorship, Christopher said "I am thrilled to have been awarded Fashion
Forward sponsorship by the British Fashion Council, this is my fifth catwalk show at London
Fashion Week and I am grateful to have their continued support."

The London Fashion Week website has all kinds of interesting info and lots of great images.