St Dunstan in the East Garden

Wow...a year on and I'm *still* finding amazing little gems like this, strictly speaking this is in the City, not Wapping, as it's too far West, but it marks about the half-way point if I'm walking between Thomas More Square and London Bridge...wish I had stumbled across it before!

Southwark Cathedral Carol Concert

 

Daniel Solander's Tomb

Wow, spotted this not far from the office, in the middle of what appears to be a building site (currently) at one end of a patch of green right by a road called "Swedenborg Gardens" (a good clue)... ;)

Turns out this was once the site of the first ever Swedish church in London (built in 1728), it was long ago demolished (worshippers moved to updated premises elsewhere), but from the looks of things they left at least one of their number behind...

Daniel Solander (as you can see from the hand-painted sign) was a Swede, in fact the first Swede ever to circle the globe, doing so with Captain Cook on the Endeavour - he was one of the botanists to inspire the later named "Botany Bay" upon their discovery of Australia)...as well as working to create this important catalogue of Australian and South American plants (during and after the voyage), he also travelled to Iceland, the Hebrides and the Orkneys, topping his career by being appointed Keeper of the Natural History Department at the British Museum...he also invented the Solander box, which is still used in libraries and archives today...for such a fellow doesn't this memorial seem a little bit...temporary?

New definition of "Church School"...

...spotted just up the road from the office, the main school building and classrooms are located in the Crypt -

- and the playground is in the graveyard (you can see where they have just moved all the gravestones out the way against the back wall in the picture above - click it to zoom in)!  I'm sure it's a great school, just a little bit of an...unusual...location, shall we say...?

Perfect Wedding Poem - Readings

I went through books and books, and searched the internet for hours to find a suitable poem to be read during the wedding ceremony and finally found this one which I felt was perfect. So, just imagine Tim standing at the front of the church and reading this...

On Your Wedding Day

Today is a day you will always remember
the greatest in anyone’s life.
You’ll start off the day just two people in love
and end it as husband and wife.
It’s a brand new beginning, the start of a journey,
with moments to cherish and treasure.
And although there’ll be times when you both disagree,
these will surely be outweighed by pleasure.
You’ll have heard many words of advice in the past,
when the secrets of marriage were spoken,
but now you know that the answers lie hidden inside,
where the bond of true love lies unbroken.
So live happy forever as lovers and friends,
it’s the dawn of a new life for you,
as you stand there together with love in your eyes
from the moment you whisper, “I do”.
And with luck, all your hopes, and your dreams can be real,
may success find its way to your hearts.
Tomorrow can bring you the greatest of joys,
but today is the day it all starts.

Thanks Tim, well read :)

A *three* "WTF?" weekend...

Woke up to glorious sunshine on Saturday morning, had a quick haircut, did something extremely secret for the wedding (which took about an hour) then whizzed over to Gatwick, stopping when we spotted this incredible VW Beetle Trike to go and shake hands with the owner-



- into Hobbycraft, where I had not one but TWO "*WTF*?" moments -

- the first when I saw this £9.99 Batik Tjanting, turns out it's something to do with putting wax onto fabric, and the second when I saw this -

- which I think I can safely leave without comment, from there we went on to do the Tesco shopping in Hookwood -

- spotting a couple of funny(-ish) T-Shirts, then being asked nicely by security what I was doing waving around my camera (I told them I was Press) -


- nipped over to Capel to pick up the car (door lock had frozen on the drivers side so it needed car-hospital) back to watch the boxing (Amir Khan), woke up this morning with a nasty sore throat (and a grumpy Flyingpops who I had kept awake snoring), zoomed over to Tandridge to hear the bans of marriage being read out, passing this little bit of sweet irony, a Horse carrier being slowed to a crawl by horses, heh... -

- popped over to see my folks, and noticed that Dad had a large number of "dog" themed "Get Well Soon" cards, he is going a bit stir-crazy now, feeling better but duty bound to sit still and having now read the entire internet twice (promised him some more fresh links tomorrow) -

- went and did some more secret wedding stuff, then popped into Priory Farm just in time for another "WTF?" moment -

- Yes, Onion goggles (for goodness sake)...and I just know someone will buy these (and stand there in the kitchen looking like an idiot, even at £16.00)... ;)

Just cooking dinner now...*firmly* sans goggles...

St Peter's Church, Tandridge

A few shots of the church (taken over the Easter weekend), this is the likely venue for the ceremony early next year... ;)

Midnight Mass...

...(took this shot hand-held after the service in the pitch black, so amazing it isn't a bit more blurry!)...