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Oyster – Inamo Restaurant, originally uploaded by Caroline.

One of the tastiest oysters I’ve ever had.

Posted via email from Caroline

Morning, beautiful, originally uploaded by Caroline.

Although my hotel on Osborne Street in London gets bad reviews on travel sites, I didn’t have a problem with it at all. Yes it’s a little run down and I’m sure some people may not find the area attractive. But I like Brick Lane with its vintage clothing shops, cool record store (Rough Trade), Bangla Deshi restaurants, ‘beigel’ bakeries and photo opportunities. Plus some excellent coffee at Coffee@.

Some photos taken in the Tower Hamlets area.

Rum, sodomy and the lash, originally uploaded by Caroline.

Pictures of the Rogue’s Gallery show at the Barbican in London last Monday. Not as good as the Dublin ones, circumstances were a little more difficult and restricted.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

This Volkswagen commercial combines ‘Lost in Translation’-type images with Richard Burton’s evocative reading of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood. Gorgeous. (via Vanderzande.com).

I’m not that keen on motorcars in general, but I do keep telling people that driving through cities at night and London in particular is one of my favourite things in the whole wide world.

See also www.night-driving.com.

Guess what I had for dinner? Pork pie. With a dab of brown sauce on the side. Guess what’s in the fridge? Blackpudding and Kerrygold Irish butter.

No, I didn’t fly to London or Dublin today after work. I jumped on my bike to pick up something from the Hardware.nl shop on Ceintuurbaan. And on my way back, my eye caught something interesting.

There on Sarphatipark, not 5 minutes from my door, was a sign that read "Thomas Green’s, the best of British.’ It looked very small, but I hit my brakes, got off my bike and went to investigate.

Inside I found a British grocery store. Fully stocked. Frozen products, a range of instant Indian meals as well as ingredients, cheese (Cheddar, natch, but Wensleydale too.), rashers, various kinds of sausages, double cream, clotted cream, beverages, crumpets, crisps (salt & vinegar!), a large rains of teas and enough biscuits and sweets and chocolate bars to give the entire nation diabetes. Bottled ales, cider.  Etc. etc. And they deliver too.

How long had they been there? 18 months. How could I have missed them before? Local regulations prescribe they’re not allowed to advertise in the street. They’re looking for another location.

‘Don’t move too far out of this neighbourhood,’ I said.

www.thomasgreen.nl

PS. Aussies, they’ve got tim tams and vegemite too! 

Went on one of my regular walkabouts, from Museumplein to P.C. Hooftstraat, Spiegelkwartier, de Munt and Waterlooplein.

This is a shoe shop on P.C. Hooftstraat, the small upmarket shopping area that’s usually jammed with SUVs and Russians.

Still, if you have a cup of coffee at the Patou café and you ignore the other customers, you can make yourself believe you’re in London.

That’s until the waiter rudely tells the elderly gent who is about to join your table that ‘generally, sharing is not done‘.

I can’t get through to my friends in London via mobile phone and I’m very worried. Much use I am here at work, I basically broke down, shaking and heart pounding, and ran to the ladies room in a panic.

Update: All my friends accounted for, I think. I hope you and your friends and family are safe today.

We’ve got an exclusive look at the Live8 stage in London over at U2log.com.

Or to be more precise: my friend B. jumped a fence and hung around front- and backstage until he got busted and golf carted off the premises. But not until he’d taken a few cool pictures.

So tell me, where were you during Live Aid, 20 years ago? I was 22, doing work practive in Northern Ireland. I was working at Glebe House (kids holiday camp) on the Strangford Lough. I missed most of the television broadcast, because I was working, but we snuck into the tv room whenever we could to catch a glimpse. I was desperate to see U2 because I was a recent fan. I missed it, I think, or may have seen the tail end. What I remember most of the day was seeing a very dark blurry image of a band called INXS come in via satellite and being told by the resident Australian that they were really big in his country.

Had the strangest dream involving a boat, Nick Cave, the Pope and a Tsunami. It was slightly scary, what will all the mad water, but also fun, with Karol Wojtyla’s hairdressing business on the side.

I suppose it’s one of the lighter sides of being feverish and sick again.

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