London Photos: London life in images by Kim Gilmour

Used fireworks on the grass at Primrose Hill, London, three weeks ago.

Things I have learnt about fireworks:
1. They scare cats
2. They scare me!

Went to see Radiohead again last night, but this time we were right up the back. But tonight’s setlist was something else. Creep! No surprises! Follow Me Around! Spinning Plates! Anyway, from the back you could see all the standing crowd and instead of the usual lighters being held up, you could just see ten or twenty lcd screens being held up now and then so people could take digital snaps. The lights were also camera phone lights. And so, camera phones/digital cameras are now the new “lighters”, along with teeny mini-disc recorders. The mosh pit is also pretty fun to look at from a distance, I call it the giant stapler. CLick/click/click.

If you’re in London today, you’ll know that it is bucketing down with rain. That’s partly why I’ve chosen to post a photo taken earlier in the summer of, well, a wall. It’s at Hampton Court, where we went on a day trip. So presumably it’s a very old wall. Trains leave from Waterloo station so you can go see this, and other, old walls. Once there, we got lost in the maze and I’m pretty sure we ended up exiting the way we came in rather than do it the right way. Or we may have tried again. I can’t remember, but all I know was that after 10 minutes of aimlessly wandering around it wasn’t all that fun anymore! Speaking of fun, we’re going to see Radiohead at Earl’s Court tonight AND tomorrow. It looks like it’s going to be a weekend full of sleep… but it’ll be worth it Rob will take pics!

A few years ago I took a similar photo of leaves and frangipani in Newtown, Sydney, and decided to do the same here. I just like the contrast between bitumen (what do they call it here?) path and autumn leaves.

My next plan is to take photos of my local area’s laundromats! The bizarre neon lighting, 50s style setup and interesting laundromat inhabitors all make for surreal viewing when you walk down the street at night.

While we’re on the subject of long warehouse photos, here’s another one – this is at Amazon.co.uk’s warehouse in Marston Gate (almost in London!) taken last June. Here, the stackers and packers collate the books to be sent out to customers.

An image off the Camvista Trafalgar Square Webcam as of 17.40 this afternoon. Thousands of people are out to protest against George Bush and Tony Blair’s policies, but of course, neither are anywhere near the place to hear their cries. Rob is out there taking photos – he has an interest in taking “portraits of dissent”, wherever they may be. He just called me but we could hardly hear each other. I couldn’t hear him, what with all the whistles, shouting and other assorted noise from the Square. I did manage to hear how the effigy of GWB has just been pulled down and “it looked like Michael Jackson”. I actually held the phone waaaay away from my ear, and Tim (who sits next to me) could hear all the ruckus!

Post script! Rob now has several photos of the protest on his weblog.

This frozen place isn’t Antarctica! It was below freezing in this warehouse and the vast emptiness of it was amazing. Surreal? I can’t really reveal more, but it was all very cool.

Spotted this sign, “And the view’s so nice” on the path leading up to Primrose Hill last Sunday. They could have chosen a more creative word like “misty”. But that doesn’t sound so complimentary! The leaves are looking great this time of year!

Can anyone please tell me the name of this plant? It used to be my friend Domenica’s (who lived with me), but she gave it up for dead when she moved into a new flat. It sprouted two flowers over summer and has grown a heap of new leaves for winter!

We went to Manna Veg vegetarian restaurant in Primrose Hill for Sunday brunch today, and it was excellent!

Yep, it is a red london telephone box. It is a polaroid which I’ve manipulated using the famous wooden skewer. No photoshop.

Above, tools of the ‘trade’.