When I was young, we had slide shows ...
Dec. 29th, 2009 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to
aldehyde ! May you and your fabulous new hair have a spectacular 2010, filled with fandom glee and decent weather!
And a slightly late but very happy birthday to
jadzialove ! May this year be smooth and highly entertaining for you! And may all the people you beta for be as organised as
joanwilder ... I had a brilliant idea for a pressie, but failed miserably. So instead, here is a shot of where Draco could have ended it all if things had turned out differently in your present from the other year.
Poor bugger, he must have been very cold! I choose to believe the weather was better that year than this!
Which leads me to a brief picspam! There were many signs of the credit crunch around London, but also some of the boom period that had come before. I like to call this short photo essay from Belgravia: 'Old Money: New Money'


One of the silliest thrills of the trip for me, for the first ten minutes at least, was waking up one chill morning in Paris to look out the window and find that it had snowed. It gave a veneer of beauty to everything, here one of the Jardins (I think des Tulleries, but have the memory of a fish today) beside the Louvre was made marvellous with a few inches of snow dusting the sculptures.

It also brought out the humour of the city. While walking down the left bank, we encountered this little fellow:

and were thoroughly charmed.
pingrid ,
raitala and I decided he needed a companion. 'He is Harry!' declared Pin, 'we must build him a Draco!' Alas, our intentions were not quite matched by the quality of the snow (this is our story, to which we are sticking) and after cries of 'Oh no! His head fell off!' and 'Pin, did you mean to make a snow cock?' this is what we ended up with:
So he was downgraded from Draco to Goyle.
One of my most hilarious adventures was visiting Versailles with Rai and Pin. Sadly, they are both reasonably tall and long legged, so I was trailling along stumpily, but here they are (excuse the coat bulkiness, it was a very cold day):

Being us, we found the gayest painting in all of the palace, Pin howled down our suggestions that it could be depicting a father and son's re-union after battle, pointing to the onlookers and stating that they were obviously keen, no matter what the two main characters were thinking.

Back at the hotel, we were greeted enthusiastically by Isis the Hotel Cat, who thought we were demented to go out in that weather. Generously, she allowed us to warm our hands by patting her. SO GIVING!

Though much as I enjoyed Paris, and I did!, I regretted taking the time out from London. I fell back in love with London, before I was trapped in Paris. Walking about London so much, even if mostly on the way to one museum or another, brought me many reminders of its joys, not all of which were fabulous shops or artefacts. About five people will laugh as much as I did at this final photo, but for me, this Kensington family's Christmas decorations were absolutely, utterly perfect. Bugger lights and reindeer, tie a ribbon on the fo lions!
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And a slightly late but very happy birthday to
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Which leads me to a brief picspam! There were many signs of the credit crunch around London, but also some of the boom period that had come before. I like to call this short photo essay from Belgravia: 'Old Money: New Money'
One of the silliest thrills of the trip for me, for the first ten minutes at least, was waking up one chill morning in Paris to look out the window and find that it had snowed. It gave a veneer of beauty to everything, here one of the Jardins (I think des Tulleries, but have the memory of a fish today) beside the Louvre was made marvellous with a few inches of snow dusting the sculptures.
It also brought out the humour of the city. While walking down the left bank, we encountered this little fellow:
and were thoroughly charmed.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
One of my most hilarious adventures was visiting Versailles with Rai and Pin. Sadly, they are both reasonably tall and long legged, so I was trailling along stumpily, but here they are (excuse the coat bulkiness, it was a very cold day):
Being us, we found the gayest painting in all of the palace, Pin howled down our suggestions that it could be depicting a father and son's re-union after battle, pointing to the onlookers and stating that they were obviously keen, no matter what the two main characters were thinking.
Back at the hotel, we were greeted enthusiastically by Isis the Hotel Cat, who thought we were demented to go out in that weather. Generously, she allowed us to warm our hands by patting her. SO GIVING!
Though much as I enjoyed Paris, and I did!, I regretted taking the time out from London. I fell back in love with London, before I was trapped in Paris. Walking about London so much, even if mostly on the way to one museum or another, brought me many reminders of its joys, not all of which were fabulous shops or artefacts. About five people will laugh as much as I did at this final photo, but for me, this Kensington family's Christmas decorations were absolutely, utterly perfect. Bugger lights and reindeer, tie a ribbon on the fo lions!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-29 11:55 pm (UTC)*rolls eyes at self*
I dunno, there's just something about the shape of the body, especially across the back and side of bust, and the legs, and the cheek ... hell, all of it screams woman to me. I don't want it to, but it does.
I love your pics. We drove up to Mt Macedon on Monday, just to get me and my lungs out of the house for a bit, and it was beautiful, true Bowral-esque old estates and big trees and even patches of real green grass. All I could say to C was 'I miss Wiltshire'. Apparently there is no hope for me.
♥
no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 03:52 am (UTC)Poor lungs! I do love it up that mountain, though. There's an excellent tea room up there that has the most astonishing desserts, a week's worth of lactose in one sitting, but completely worth it! And I am sure that Wiltshire misses you at least as much!
no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 03:55 am (UTC)Given that I have achieved zero exercise in the last week and a half, I'm kind of glad we didn't find the dessert shop. I will definitely keep it in mind, though. :D
btw - I got your postcard from London today. It's lying here beside me, making me smile while I read angsty H/D fic.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-30 04:04 am (UTC)Hope I made some kind of sense: I wrote it after the Great Eurostar Saga of 09, at which point I was mildly deranged.
Will find you something slashier in the stash soon!