If we've popped-up and setlocked ... then this must be London.

Hi you. I'm back.

I'm now post London. Post Hamlet. Post Cumberbatch. Although, as you'll see from where this post finishes up ... it's fair to say I'm never entirely post-Cumberbatch; I'm more a case of 'permanently in between Cumberbatches'.

But until the next batch comes along [a few paragraphs down in fact] ... let's talk about the serendipity I stumbled over in the big smoke; let's talk about things that pop-up with the power to delight, and let's talk about finding gnomes, and Holmes, where you'd least expect them ...

The Popping-Up:
While I may not live in or even particularly close to a city I still like to think of myself as pretty up-to-date with what's what, with what's on the up, with what's going down.

I may live 250 miles from the capital but, for several reasons, I don't live under a rock with a whippet for company. Heck, I read; I can use a hashtag; I have at least 5 kinds of tea in the cupboard, I watch SkyArts documentaries for pleasure and I can even use the manual settings on my camera.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is, as my Grandma would've put it: I'm not as green as I'm cabbage-looking. And yet, until last week I'd never been to a pop-up restaurant [they tend to be such city-style phenomena don't they?] so when we stumbled across one in 'real life', in the OXO building on London's south bank, just metres from our hotel, dare I admit that I really felt I had to go? Perhaps so that, at the very least,  I could later proclaim, like, in a blog post or something [ahem] that: "I went to a pop-up restaurant ... in London".

And while I was really looking forward to it I found myself being slightly unsure at the same time ... and began to feel like maybe there was slightly more green around my cabbage leaves as I'd been willing to accept!

Which was only appropriate considering the theme of this particular pop-up:

The Garden Gate at OXO2 [open until August 30th] is decorated like part summer fete, part English garden, part woodland picnic:

Its laid back atmosphere [there were people playing table tennis and jenga] was just what two tired, achy people needed who'd been walking around London for 3 days,  one of whom may or may not have been so emotional that they wept in a theatre one night and then again over breakfast the following morning [For the record: that last person wasn't James. But then you'd guessed that already hadn't you?].

And what's better for lifting a crafty, kitsch-loving girl's spirits than sitting her on a gingham covered tree trunk next to a wall of fake hedging and artificial flowers?

Not to mention the fact that if I'd had the foresight to bring a garden gnome with me I apparently could have bagged myself a free drink in exchange. [And I ever-so-nearly packed one too ... just in case. But, it was that or my make-up ... and needs must ... ;-) ].

You can just make out here - behind me - the shelf where the donated gnomes end up:

And to continue the theme, cocktails [which I didn't have ... like my heightened Hamlet-influenced-emotional state needed any alcoholic encouragement to tip over into hysteria ...] were served in watering cans. And the food  ... well ...

... my black bean burger with guacamole [which was the best thing I've eaten all month] was presented in a wooden garden crate complete with fries [again, amazing] in a plant pot! 

While James's steak arrived in a terracotta plant pot saucer:

And as if the experience couldn't get any better the price for both main courses came to just £18.00. I know!

After having paid £80.00 elsewhere for our first meal in the big bustling we-can-charge-anything-if-you-can-see-the-Thames-while-you're-eating-it metropolis, this couldn't have been a more pleasant and welcome end our stay.

So, if you're anywhere near the south bank in the next 5 days I can't recommend a trip to The Garden Gate highly enough. And don't forget to take a gnome with you!

And, while you're there you - like James - can look out for this ...

Sherlock: The Great Game. Season 1 Ep. 3. BBC

Before you get too excited on my behalf this is NOT a holiday snap shot taken by me! [Just as well really as there's a dead body laying just out of shot!]

No, it's a screenshot of a scene in 'The Great Game' ,Season 1 Episode 3 of Sherlock, which was filmed on the south bank. A fact which ... thought I'm not entirely sure why ... had been lodged in James's head all the time we were there. And so ...

The [accidental, after-the-fact] Setlocking:
For the uninitiated 'setlock' is the hashtag used by those people who trek around London seeking out, finding, and generally loitering around the set of Sherlock while it's being filmed.  And, while I love the show, I'm not so obsessed as to do that. Heck, we were in London for 3 days and I didn't even insist we go to Baker Street so, y'know, I'm not that much of a crazy-fan-girl ... [maybe next time?].

And so ... as we'd been walking along the riverside path each day James had been convinced that the scene, which he could clearly picture in his head, must have been filmed fairly near our hotel and/or the pop-up restaurant nearby.

• He knew you could see St.Paul's in the background and that there was a wooden jetty/wharf in shot.
• Meanwhile the main thing I could remember about the scene was a  play on words between Lestrade and Sherlock [Sherlock: "Meretritious". Lestrade: "And a Happy New Year."] which had made me laugh. [Still does].

[BTW: that fact - that one of us remembered buildings while the other honed in on the word play - tells you all you need to know about our respective differences!]

Once we'd settled back in at home we re-watched the episode so James could settle with himself, once and for all, if his savant-like location hunting had been correct ... well ... here's the scene again ... and there's the dome of St.Paul's on the left ... and the wharf on the right ...

.. but wait ... isn't that? And that? Why ... yes, yes it is ...

And with that, James was vindicated!

And wouldn't it have been even more entertaining, and indeed a bit strange, if, entirely coincidentally, we'd walked along that very same wharf on our first night and if, James had stopped to take a photo of our hotel, and me [hoping my skirt didn't whip up in the breeze], while we were there?

Well, yes, that would be strange ... and yet ...

As much of the series is filmed in and around the city I don't doubt that we'd inadvertently done lots more after-the-fact 'setlocking'. We just don't have the photos to back that up. Which may be just as well ...

... otherwise you'd be beginning to think by now that I was a little bit of a Sherlock geek ... and, goodness me, we couldn't have that ... could we ...?

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Thanks for taking time to read me today. Do feel free to:

• share your own experiences of pop-ups, or ..,
• let me know if you too have visited The Garden Gate, or London's south bank,  or ... 
• dare to admit you've setlocked ... 
• or maybe you've visited locations where your own favourite shows/films were filmed. Whether you were aware of it at the time or not! 

I'll be here, waiting to hear from you, mulling over my time in the big smoke, sneakily wiping away the Shakespearean tinged tears ... 

Julie 

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt 2015: Architectural Columns or "how I even found a way to get old books into the hunt!"

Hello hello. 

We seem to actually be having a summer here - which is better late than never - and it means there's still time for me to complete my Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt 2015! 

After I've shared today's item I'll be left with just 4 categories to find:

1.  a natural body of water
2. a photo of me with a sign reading Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt 2015
3. someone walking a dog / other animal and
4. people playing a board/card game.

While I'm pretty hopeful I'll find most of those, just in case, I've already secured one of the 'alternatives'. But now on to today's find, my architectural columns. 

I was planning to leave this category until I take a trip to London thinking there'd be more than plenty iconic buildings there whose columns I could capture ... but something nearer to home has grabbed my attention first.  And ... when you see what, you'll know why ...

5. Architectural columns

Imagine my delight at coming across these beauties made from old books inside the new-ish Teesside store of furniture retailers Barker and Stonehouse. 

And people think I buy-up / misuse lots of old books!!!

I have no idea of they were all stuck together or if they're just free standing a la dry stone walling.

And, with my history of clumsiness there was no way I was even tempted to go and remove a single volume 'just to see' ...

And while were on the subject of piles of old books ... here's another [of many] occasions they've made their way into my summer ...

Overheard:
A few weeks back I was in a charity shop [so what's new eh?] and while I was wanting to browse the book shelves in my way stood a young woman and her friend gathering toward them armfuls of old, hardback, books similar to those in these columns.

When the lengths of their arms, from finger tip to armpit were filled I heard them counting up to at least 12, calculating the cost, then taking them to the till.

There the young woman explained to the shop assistant that she planned to use them as centre pieces for her wedding tables and the assistant sounded delighted and effused over the idea wishing the bride-to-be all the best for the big day as she left the shop.

So far, so sweet. [And so very Pinterest-y too!]

And then, as I took my rightful place at the book shelves [Yes, I did buy a book, of course I did. You wouldn't expect anything less.] a second shop assistant emerged from the stock room and the first began to fill her in on this tale of nuptial creativity ... only this time she wasn't quite as enthusiastic and supportive ...

"She said she's going to use them as centre-pieces or something. Like sort of open, around jam jars [see, I told you Pinterest must have been involved somewhere], I don't know really. A bit weird."

Ouch! 

And if she thinks that's weird .. goodness knows what she'd make of those fabulous Barker and Stonehouse columns! 

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So those are the latest spoils of my hunt but I'll be back before Autumn with the remainder! 

See you soon.

Julie :-)

If you wanted to join in the hunt then you still can, it doesn't end until summer does. Just visit Rinda as it's her brainchild and you can share your discoveries either via your blog, or on Instagram with the hashtag  #‎rindas2015photohunt or even join the Facebook group and make sure to visit Rinda's blog to catch her regular round-ups and link posts.

And to catch up on my discoveries so far then drop by my other Scavenger Hunt posts here:

• The Hamlet 'ticket booth' edition
• The 'Out & About on Holiday' edition
• The 'Lincoln City Centre' edition
• The 'Town Centre' edition
• The 'Haven't I seen that outfit somewhere before?' edition

Type, print, handwritten signs, script, grafitti, holiday reading and Magna Carta: my summer break, in text.

I write a lot here. 

I find it hard to nip in, write a quick update, and leave. [You might have noticed that by now.]

I like stringing sentences together, weaving words, compiling paragraphs but today I thought I'd try to write a post with fewer words and more images which is ironic really as ... the uniting theme of the photos is 'text'.

While browsing through my recent holiday photos from Lincoln I noticed that there was a recurring theme of writing, text, type, scripts etc traced around them, drawing them together. 

So here's an alternative look at my break, here's my holiday - in text. 

1. An intriguing sticker on the walkway around the walls of Lincoln Castle: 

It turns out that 'All Type No Face' is some sort of graffiti group. Maybe? This quote from their About page doesn't exactly answer all my questions: "We stand by living a life from a path you create, rather than what is dictated to you by others." Why put the sticker there? Who knows?

Now, appropriately enough ...

2. The grafitti-style artwork on the 'Young Baron' one of the 25 'Lincoln Barons' on the Charter Trail [a kind of treasure hunt through the city]:  

3. A rather painful handwritten 'Dear John' note taped to a shop door:

I spotted this on a Sunday evening. 

I can only imagine the embarrassment of this shop owner when he/she came to open up on Monday morning and was greeted with this. 

Imagine knowing that passers-by had seen this before you. [And some of them might even photographed it. Forgive me.] 

4.A rather more quaint sign in which some marketing savvy hens tap into Lincoln's history:

5. The two books I read while on holiday:

I took comedian and actor Rob Delaney's memoir 'Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage' along with me but, once I'd finished that, I challenged myself to find the remainder of my reading matter from second-hand / charity shops in the town. Which is where I found Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey; a book I've always intended to read but never got around to, and it made perfect light holiday reading. 

And while I was browsing for something to read I picked up two additional books, that I've since read on my return:

• The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester which will be very familiar to anyone who listens to 'In and Out of the Kitchen' on Radio 4 as their protagonists are veeeeeerrry similar. [The book came first].
• The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal - a family biography which I can't recommend highly enough. 

6. A window blind at Doddington Hall featuring the text of letter from 1762:

It's a blown-up, printed, reproduction of a letter sent to the Lord of the house informing him of the installation and mending of various tapestries in the house. In case you can't make it out it reads:

"Honorable and Most Worthy Sir. I am hanging the tapestry in the bed chambers according to Lady Hussey Delaval's orders. I have had a tailor all of this week mending the tapestry before we hang it up."

[You can read about the tapestries in question here].

*Makes a note to pick out a tweets/emails to have printed on my curtains ... *

7. Detail of an embroidery in the Doddington Hall 'Voices From the Inside' textiles exhibition:

I'm kicking myself that I forgot to take a photo of the details of this piece. The wording says "I can change my mind" and all I can remember is it is old, and was by a woman who I think was in a mental institution.  If anyone knows the full story please do let me know! 

Also at Doddington Hall ... 

8. A sample of the Cornelia Parker 'Magna Carta' embroidery project: 

The full work, exhibited elsewhere, is an embroidered reproduction of the Wikipedia page of Magna Carta sewn by prisoners, the Embroiderer's Guild and others, [including Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and Jarvis Cocker who sewed the words 'Common People' of course!]

The democratic nature of Wikipedia is meant to reflect that of the original document but you can find out lots more in this video.

And, finally, on to the document in question:

8. The wall of the purpose-built subterranean vault in Lincoln Castle, home to one of the copies of  Magna Carta:

A version of the document is depicted on a vast, double-height, wall as you enter the building.

And while the guide informed us we couldn't take photos once inside the vault, he did say we could photograph the wall. And I don't need to be told twice! 

Some of the more famous, and important, phrases have been picked out in gold leaf: 

Now I know the Magna Carta wasn't perfect.

I know it didn't herald freedom and rights for all. [Those 13th Century law makers weren't exactly renowned for their feminist idealism or their concern for the working class] and yet ...

... it was a pretty good start. 

And well worth pausing to read a wall over.  [Find out more about the exhibition here.]

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So, how did I do? Not sure I used a lot fewer words than usual. What can I say? I was surrounded by text and script in these photos so it was hard to resist rambling on about them!

Feel free to contribute some text of your own by leaving me a comment today.

Julie

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt 2015: The ticket booth [for Hamlet no less]

Hello, hello.

There's only one reason I feel I can share this particular scavenger hunt discovery with you now and it's this:

The tickets are here. In the flesh. I actually have them in my hand. [Well, I've put them down for 5 minutes while I type ...].

But until they were here safely delivered ... and therefore 'real' to me ... I hadn't dared share my photo of  No.19. A ticket booth... for fear of jinxing it!

But now I can:

19. A ticket booth

Funnily enough I didn't originally take the photo specifically for the hunt. I took it entirely for its own sake, to mark the occasion. The occasion being ... 

• waiting ... in an online queue to buy tickets to see Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet. The regular priced tickets broke box office records last year by selling out in minutes 
• waiting ...while knowing how lucky I'd been to get through the limited offer draw which gave me the chance to buy 2 x £10 tickets. 
• waiting ... while wondering how I can appropriately thank my friend, who told me how I could enter the draw in the first place! Any suggestions K? ;-)
• waiting ... while having cleared my schedule and moved a hair appointment so I'd be in a position to sit, click and wait for as long as it took after the box office opened at 12pm [you can see in the photo that it was still only mid-day and the queue was already soooo long!]
• waiting ... for over an HOUR to reach the front of the queue despite having clicked on the link the minute the ticket booth opened. Clearly other people have quicker clicking fingers than me! 
• waiting ... behind 780 other people to be exact!! [The queue had actually gone down when I took this shot].
• waiting ... while being careful not to accidentally close the window or else I would lose my place in the queue!
• waiting ... in the knowledge that the interminable waiting was actually the fun part as at the end of it I'd have to have a mad scramble to find 2 seats together on a date we could attend.
• waiting ... while knowing that at least 1560 tickets would already have been sold by the time I reached the front!! [780 people x the 2 tickets each were allotted] 

It wasn't until afterwards, after my blood pressure returned to normal [that's a lie, it's still prone to fluctuations!] that I realised how perfectly perfect my photo was for the hunt. 

So, that's No. 19 crossed off the list ... making just 5 more categories to capture and then share. And I'm planning to save those up for the trip to the London. 

 If 'Someone with ridiculous levels of nervous energy outside a London theatre' had been one of the categories ... I could have made a note to take a selfie ...

If you want to join in the hunt then make sure you visit Rinda as it's her brainchild! You can share your discoveries either via your blog, or on Instagram with the hashtag  #‎rindas2015photohunt or even join the Facebook group and make sure to visit Rinda's blog to catch her regular round-ups and link posts.

And to catch up on things like gerberas in a tuba, a girl standing in a dinghy and a flock of very tall birds on stilts ... then drop by my other Scavenger Hunt posts for the year - so far - here:

• The 'Out & About on Holiday' edition
• The 'Lincoln City Centre' edition
• The 'Town Centre' edition
• The 'Haven't I seen that outfit somewhere before?' edition

Julie :-)

The incorrect postcode that taught me a life lesson: an update on the case of mistaken address-entity

Remember this? The postcard from the Big Easy that landed on my doormat last month but which wasn't meant for me?

[If you need a refresher then I wrote all about it, and the spate of other bizarrely, wrongly, delivered mail I received here last week.]

At the end of that post I mentioned my plans for putting the card in an envelope, addressing it to the couple whose names were on the card, using the same address BUT this time using the postcode of a different road, one about 20 minutes away which, confusingly, has the same name as ours.

And that's what I did - along with a note of explanation saying that I was just trying to give the card a fighting chance to get read by the right people - without knowing for sure if they were the right people!

Then a few days later ... this arrived on my doormat:

 A letter addressed to me but with no surname. So, someone who just knew me as 'Julie' ... and I had a feeling ...

Here's what I found inside:

The card transcript reads:

Dear Julie, Thank you so much for taking time and trouble to re-return the postcard. As you will have guessed it was for us!! Don't know why 'Jodie' forgot our postcode (think she was caught up in the moment, as she is travelling America - lucky thing). Thanks again. Frankie & Edie. 

How nice is that? 

And how good to know it reached the right people? And how great that they took time to let me know; to close the circle and to solve the mystery?

 I'm a big believer in 'what goes around comes around', that 'you get what you give' and I try hard to live my life that way except ... it doesn't always work like that. Life's messy and unpredictable and people can disappoint.

Plus ... there's never a guarantee in life that just because you act with other people in mind that they'll treat  you in the same way. And you can never act thoughtfully with the expectation that you'll have that intention returned. You have to act that way as its own reward.

The world isn't simply a mirror, and if it is ... it's one of those distorted ones from a funfair that gives you the eyes of a bug and the legs of a Dachshund. And yet, sometimes ... 

.. sometimes, like this time, you get a glimpse of a mirror in all its crystal clear, shimmering, glory.

You land on their doormat with a smile: they land on yours, beaming.

You made the effort to join the dots and give the story a conclusion and so did they.

You remind each other that people aren't as bad as all that.

You make each others day.

You thought you had nothing in common except a street name ... you were both wrong.

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Julie :-)