What do a shard, a circus and a rooster have to do with each other? And your Monday Fortune Cookie, 11/25/13

BE DIRECT, USUALLY ONE CAN ACCOMPLISH MORE THAT WAY

SNARKY RESPONSE:  Yeah, good luck with that. How often have you thought "direct" was another word for bossy, bitchy, or officious?

Be direct, usually one can accomplish more that way.

Correspondingly, the shortest direction from Point A to Point B is a straight line, however, my bus tour of London was far from a straight line, and I was so busy snapping pics that I hardly heard our guide. I figured, and rightly so, that I could always Google the various landmarks and then put the names with the photos. There was just too much to see not to be captured by the images flashing by my bus window. Unfortunately, a moving photo platform makes for a lot of blurry images, but I managed to get about 1,000 pics decent pics.

And NO, I'm not going to subject you to them all, but here are a few of my London favs.

Piccadilly Circus - London's Times Square

Did you know Piccadilly comes from the word "piccadil" which was the name of a frilled collar used in the 17th century? And the "circus" part comes from the traffic round-about or circle. Circles are the traffic intersection of choice in the parts of England we travelled. Some were just small circles of grass and or shrubs, some had decorations in them representative of the locality. Imagine not ONLY having to ride on the wrong side of the road but negotiating traffic circles at every major intersection? I'm so glad I didn't have to drive.

Trefalgar Square celebrates the Battle of Trefalgar and Nelson's Column dominates the square. There are four plinths or platforms for commemorative statues, three occupied and the fourth left empty, currently used to display a variety of sculptures. Currently the Big Blue Cock holds pride of place. Rather jarring compared with the more traditional sculptures surrounding it, but definitely eye-catching.

Speaking of eye-catching - any Whovians will recognize this shot. The Doctor and Clara were deposited in Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery.

And how could any trip to London not include a shot of Big Ben and the London Eye, or better yet, BOTH in one shot!

Buckingham Palace was as impressive, stately, and beautiful as expected.

On the opposite side of the architectural spectrum is The Shard, designed by Renzo Piano

And finally, can you name this famous bridge in London?

Not London Bridge but Tower Bridge. I was delighted to get some really good shots of it from the side of the river and feel this is the cream of the crop.

I will continue featuring pics from my trip in future blog posts, so be warned. I hope this won't scare you off because I'll be including other topics and such among the pics. After all, I took 1,000 PHOTOS! I've got to do something with them, right? LOL

See you next week!

Hoarding, England, and Your Monday Fortune Cookie, 11/17/13

IN THE GAME OF GIVE AND TAKE, HOARD.

SNARKY RESPONSE:  Absolutely! The one who dies with the most "toys" wins!

In The Game Of Give And Take, Hoard.

This piece of sage advice does not come as news to anyone who has a hobby addiction of any kind. From antiques to toy soldiers to needlework patterns to model car kits, anyone who has a hobby rapidly descends into hoarding! Bits and pieces, research and meets, hobbyists will be hard-pressed indeed to resist the next "sparkly" that comes down the turnpike, website, or vendor's table.

In case you haven't been following me on facebook (why not?), I've just gotten back from my first ever trip "across the pond" to Merry Ol' England. My husband is a model ship junkie, and a member of the International Plastic Modelers Society. This year, there was a big conference in Telford, England, and they offered a 7-day tour of military museums to interested attendees. I'm NOT a modeler, but who am I to rain on my hubby's parade. Besides, it meant I got to go to ENGLAND!

I've always loved England and all the British Isles. My dearest wish was about to be granted. And let me say right off the top, the trip exceeded my wildest expectations. Even though the focus was on the modelers, I found myself caught up in the history and the beauty of the military museums.

The weather was exactly what I had heard - mostly overcast, sometimes rainy, more often drizzly, occasionally sunny. The temperature was mid to upper 60's. I took my new prescrip sunglasses and only needed them twice. We bought umbrellas on our first day, having forgotten to pack any (silly tourists) and used them often. I used my cell phone as my camera and took over 1,000 pics in hopes that I'd get a good 100 or so decent shots. Since we spent a lot of time traveling in a tour bus there were a lot of blurry pics to be discarded.

The plan was to spend the first day in London doing a bus tour, then begin the round of museums. And there were a LOT of museums, with never enough time to spend in any of them. Our last day sent us spinning back to London from Telford with a brutally short 45 minutes in Stratford On Avon and Shakespeare's Birthplace museum (my personal trip highlight).

But let me reassure you that even though I am not a military history buff, I became fascinated with the stories presented at each museum. Sadly, the focus was inevitably on war and the horrors that only mankind can inflict upon itself--and continues to do so. It's so hard to understand why we have never learned that lesson, but I can only pray that one day we will evolve past it.

The next few weeks will see me inflicting pics and commentary from our whirlwind trip through southern England. Here are a few pics from London to get us started!

The London Eye - From Afar

Buckingham Palace - The Royals Are At Home

The Tower of London

The Tower Bridge

Photo Prompts, Story Snippets, & Monday Fortune Cookie 4/29/13

YOU WILL SPEND OLD AGE IN COMFORT AND MATERIAL WEALTH.

SNARKY RESPONSE:  If this fortune cookie had the winning lottery numbers, I might, but without those I'll probably spend it with Southern Comfort.


Today, I decided to do something different. I'm going to share a little of my writing explorations with you.

I'm very active on fb - Denise Golinowski/Author - and folks are always posting these lovely evocative images. Anything and everything from lush landscapes to fantastical creatures to kick-ass warriors. 

I used to just share them and comment on how they were "plot bunnies," but I never followed up. 

Well for some time, I've been wanting to write something in the Steampunk genre, or at least on the Gaslight stage, and recently I've been seeing photos that grabbed my imagination with both hands, screamed "steampunk story" at me, and introduced me to a couple of intriguing characters - Lady Aimes and Professor Algenon. And it all started with this photo:

Frankfurt Metro Entrance

(Where, in an unexpected turn of events, Professor Algenon takes control of a runaway underground train and manages to drive it up through the pavement to avoid a head-on collision.)

Lady Aimes adjusted her hat and brushed dust 
off her shirtwaist before fixing Professor Algenon with a stern gaze. "A unique way to avoid a straight-on disaster, but you could have just changed tracks back at the switch."

Professor Alegnon wiped a trickle of blood from his forehead and grinned. "But this was so much more fun!"


And a few hours later, I saw a photo of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice - not this exact photo, one taken at night with the canal was empty of gondolas, which set up this snippet: 

(Where Lady Aimes and the Professor try to escape some unsavory Venetians who have been up to no good. Unfortunately, Lady Aimes, who is a very frugal woman, did not anticipate the mercenary nature of their gondolier)


Lady Aimes peered over the side of the bridge at the empty water. "Where is that gondolier?"

Professor Algenon glanced over his shoulder toward the distant sound of footsteps and shouts. "Perhaps you should have tipped him more."


(Suffice it to say that they manage to escape not only their nefarious pursuers, but reached the safety and sanity of London with their adventure a success - a disaster averted and a dastardly inventor jailed)


Before the end of that day, a final photo of a beautiful glassed in solarium provided a final scene for the Intrepid Lady Aimes and Professor Algenon (I apologize, but I could not find a comparable photo - imagine if you will a glass roofed solarium with lush greenery and a tea service set on a table between two cushioned wrought iron chairs):  

Lady Aimes sank onto the seat cushion with a sigh of relief. "Home at last. Professor, you seem to relish outings like today's, but I, for one, am determined to stay in tomorrow."

Professor Algenon looked up from the stack of correspondence on his lap. She couldn't tell if the sparkle in his blue eyes was from excitement or sunlight on his glasses. "I'm sorry to hear that. I just received an intriguing missive."

She leaned forward, sensing a rise of regretable excitement. "Do tell."


Now I'm captured by these two intriguing characters and have plans to flesh out this first adventure and then follow them out into others as well. In fact, I worked on an opening scene for a second story while at RavenCon this year.

So, have you seen any good pictures or met any intriguing characters? I invite you to visit my fb page to see what other snippets I create and give me your thoughts/additions/etc.