London 10 Quirky Places

London has a lot of quirky spots and quirky tours and quirky people. I found this video on YouTube and it made me smile. I love the feel of it and the silliness of the sped up sections remind me what London feels like at normal speed. The people are always in a hurry, aren't they? And the city is a big place, which comes across nicely here.

Wallace and Gromit Up for Another Oscar

Wallace and Gromit get their fifth Oscar nomination. Having looked at the competion in the short animated category, I think they have a good chance of winning again. Of course, I liked last year's British nomination This Way Up about a funeral as well, and it didn't win.

I rather like the way that Wallace talks, having been a fan of The Last of The Summer's Wine for lo these many years, I have been a fan of Peter Sallis for some time.

In A Matter of Loaf and Death Wallace and Gromit are bakers being stalked by a mad serial killer. The short film opens with a murder and a splash screen that looks a lot like an old 1940s style murder movie.

There a few funny bits here and there, what with Wallace being his usual thick self and Gromit being there to save the day. Only this time out Gromit has a bit of help from a cute little French Poodle. Wallace, as ever, has no luck in the love department as his dream girl-the no longer light as a feather Bake-O-Lite girl, is the out to get him.

Best of luck, Lads!

Billingsgate Seafood Training School London

We start the day with an early morning escorted market tour. You will be shown a wide variety of fish and shellfish species and how to assess their quality. At about 8am we serve you a cooked breakfast. The main ‘hands on' part of the session then begins with you preparing a range of seafood, followed by learning how to cook them with CJ and her team.-Practical Fish Cookery Course.

Taking a day in London to learn how to cook fish sounds like just the kind of thing I would like to do. It looks like most of the For Food Lovers courses cost around £195, with the more professional courses costing a bit more. Being more of a tourist kind of person myself, I would stick with the Food Lover classes.

There are a lot of options, and the For Food Lovers section appears to have a class to fit just about any schedule. I like the look of The Sushi Class, I do like a bit of sushi now and then. Of course, I like just about all seafood, so any of the courses would be of interest to me.

I did have this fantasy of becoming a Chef at one point, now I have resigned myself to just cooking the occasional meal and watching Gordon Ramsey yell at people. I still like the idea of cooking though, and taking a few classes while on holiday in London sounds like a nice way to kill to two birds with one stone.

Billingsgate Seafood Training School is located in the famous market in London’s Docklands, Billingsgate Market, Trafalgar Way, London, E14 5ST, United Kingdom‎ - 020 7517 3548‎

Portrait Prince Harry and Price William

Artist Nicky Philipps, 45, shows the princes at their official residence, Clarence House, London, and said she hoped the painting captured "a behind-the-scenes glance at the human element of royal responsibility and to emphasize their brotherly relationship."

The portrait shows Princes William and Harry wearing the dress uniform of the Household Cavalry, as worn for the Queen's Birthday Parade.

As a Portrait Photographer, I find this image a bit odd. The awkward postures and the off center composition make the portrait look more like a family snapshot than an official image. But then, it is a Portrait of Price Harry and Prince William, a couple of fairly un-Royal Royals. An oil painting is more art than a photograph, so it has to leave some room for interpretation. The first double portrait makes one more bit of history for the Royal Family.

My London thoughts are happy that this portrait of Prince Harry and Prince William was painted in Clarence House, which stands beside St James's Palace. It was built between 1825 and 1827 to the designs of John Nash for Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence. He lived there as King William IV from 1830 until 1837. During its history, the house has been altered, reflecting the changes in occupancy over nearly two centuries.

Clarence House is open to the public.

Opening hours

The Summer Opening of Clarence House will be 31 July - 1 September 2010. Further dates may be added.

10:00-16:00 (last admission 15:00)

Timing your visit

A typical visit lasts 45 minutes. Entry is by timed ticket, with entrance every 15 minutes.

Admission by guided tour. All tickets are timed and must be pre-booked.

The guided tours will start promptly at the time stated on your ticket. Please note that late-comers cannot be admitted.

As Clarence House is a working royal residence, opening arrangements may be subject to change at short notice.

Admission prices

Adult £8.50
Over 60/ Student (with valid ID) £8.50
Under 17 £4.50
Under 5 Free

Sherlock Holmes and the CGI London

Sherlock Holmes as an Ultimate Fighter? Professor Moriarty as a shadowy terrorist? Irene Adler as a super con artist? Yes, and the city of London as it was in the good old days of Queen Victoria. Or as close as you can get with a lot of computer generated images.

Victoria's London was as much of a star in Sherlock Holmes as Robert Downey, Jr and Jude Law. The cobblestones themselves spell out the opening credits as we follow Lestrade and Watson to the scene of a crime. The back alleys, the sewers, the river Thames, the Tower Bridge under construction, and all the great landmarks make their small appearances on screen.

Oh sure, the story of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson saving the world take center stage, but the stage itself is London. It's a perfect film for my London Thoughts, as it is not quite real-and much cheaper to get to.

The London of Sherlock Holmes is amazing and beautiful, and since it is set in the 1890s or there abouts, there is a lot of smog to help trick the eye over the details. Unlike, say Avatar, where every frame was a special effect and looked like a special effect, the London of Sherlock Holmes often looked like London. Some of the more gimmicky shots had that latent oh-look-CGI feel to them, but they were not enough to be a problem for me.

The story is pure Scooby Doo, but I still liked it. Robert Downey, Jr is great as Sherlock Holmes, even if he can't really be bothered to put on much of an English accent. I liked Sherlock Holmes, and I liked the CGI London at the heart of it.

London Gazetteer

There comes a time when my London Thoughts are no longer satisfied with tour books and picture books of all the common stuff that tourist like to look at. I like the occasional book that takes me a little farther afield, and I hope that next time I in London, I will go a little farther a field myself.

With this thought in mind, I found Chambers London Gazetteer. Here is a nice thick book which has over 1,300 entries covering all manner of places that I would have never known of otherwise. Oh I suppose I could chat up some other London blogger and arrange to met and get a proper tour of the city-but the odds of that happening are pretty slim. Besides, I can enjoy the company of the book at anytime, not just when I am in that grand old city of London.

The London Gazetteer has a couple of sections of photos, mostly of places I have never heard of, but which look very interesting. For example, Ash Tree Cottage and Old Keeper's Cottage have that nice thatched look I associate with Standford Upon Avon. While places like BedZED and the Halls of residence for the University of East London remind that London never stops growing and changing.

The entries are seldom very long, but still long enough to give their subjects a good going over. In addition to the text of the articles, there are also web page addresses when applicable, postal district, bus and underground routes, riverboat piers, populations, and books to look up for further reading. They also help on pronunciations such as Euston-pronounced yoostan.

Right, reading the London Gazetteer is not going to let me pass as a local, but it might help me figure out what the people on Masterpiece Theater are on about.

Two Ways to Make Tea

My London Thoughts tend to lean a bit toward a nice cuppa tea now and then. Nothing as fancy as that famous High Tea at 4 in the afternoon, but just a proper cup of tea. Heading over to YouTube finds a lot of people who seem to have an opinion on what makes the perfect cup of tea. Here are two that I liked.

I'm not sure if this is the way they make tea in London, but I'm guessing it must be the way some people in London make tea.