FRIDAY 1 MARCH 2024
Blacks Tottenham
Grennwich
GREENWICH FRI 1 MAR
It's cold and drizzly as I leave home on my last day in London.
A bus and a boat to Greenwich to check out where time began. Had a foot in each hemisphere as tourists do.
Checked out the Painted Hall at the Naval Acadamy. Huge and
imposing. Fun fact: they paid a theatre back drop fellow to paint it to
look 3D because they'd spent all their money on the basic building and
couldn't afford European painters.
Pie and beer for dinner. The green stuff was another example of the
poms providing luke warm salad masquerading as vegies. One could hide
some of it in the mashed potatoes but in the end that spoiled the mash
so I left it to be returned and presumably added to the black pudding.
........................................
1 Buy sleeping bags or doona.
Internet search showed "Blacks" had some at 9 ea. A couple of trains and a short walk. Inspect. Buy. Time for a coffee. Passed my a chain "pret a manager" looking for something more personable. A coffee shop promising that they did the best omelettes was my choice.
Sat at my table for one. There was a lady to my left who was in her own world but had a conversation with 'Mano' to my right. He was an art dealer from Amsterdam delivering some art. Deals mainly in porcelain. I wondered if this meant sinks and toilets or cups and saucers but kept that thought to myself. He mentioned an exhibition called "Cute". It was on the theme of subliminal messages - intentional or otherwise - in pop culture, cartoons, video games, k-pop etc - that seek to or accidentally change the way we think.
Train home and then decided I was too lazy to walk from Canonbury to home so took a lime scooter. One sleeping bag in the basket and the other in my back pack.
141 BUS
Even though I was only home for half an hour, Interestingly my Lime bike had already been repurposed. Walked up the street and waited for the 141 bus. Bitterly cold wind blowing straight down the street. It would have been nice if the bus shelter had had a panel at the end but alas...
Chatted to a Scottish lady. Discussed the weather and the effect it has on people's moods.
Got off at London Bridge station and walked to it Uber Boat.
UBER BOAT
Tap on and off with cc. The attendant showed me which room to wait in. Similar mechanics to the Brisbane city cats with a deckhand using a thick rope to catch the pontoon and on pontoon ramps that hinge down onto the boat.
GREENWICH
Walked under the river. A walking tunnel with lifts and stairs at both ends.
This is the south side tunnel entrance
Spiral staircase that goes around a circular lift shaft with an ancient Octagonal lift
The tunnel was built pre WW2 (not sure when)
Repaired Damage from a WW2 bom
The view from the North side looking south. The round thing with the solver roof is not a telescope observatory. It is the tunnel entrance.
OBSERVATORY
Lots of old buildings and portraits.
Tepid hot chocolate and a nice choc brownie.
No Optus service.
Paid entrance
Stood on the line where time and distance began.
This is the 0 degree line of longitude.
One foot in each hemisphere as tourists do.
This is a funky gate. A person enters at the bottom left, stands at the right, folds the gate and exits at the top left. Slows walking traffic or creates a queue depending on your perspective.
Lots of clocks a you'd expect.
Kind of a pity they are not ticking away.
Saw H1 H2 H3 but not H4.
H1-3 were operating which was nice.
This is H1
Three clocks. The two to the left of the door somehow showed the earth rotated at a constant rate throughout the year. Unfortunately they did not say HOW this was proved.
When you look in this telescope, you see Saturn. Hmm no GPS locked drive mechanism..... ha ha
I think this operates a bit like a overhead projector in reverse.
There is a lens in the white bit at the top.
Inside the room is dark and you see an image projected onto a table.
Inside looking up to the lens
This is the image seen inside.
It's pretty dim
PAINTED HALL
Tour
Painted to look 3D.
Artist was a person who painted stage back drops.
Artist felt he'd been underpaid.
Shoes of? And eyes of? Follow you as you walk.
Political statement.
Big building seen as foreign dignitaries arrived up the Thames.
Hospice for wounded sailors.
Was originally to be the mess hall but too far from kitchen. Became ceremonial hall.
Hall looking back towards the steps where we walked in
Exampe of the 3D painting. The fireplace is real but the mantle piece and 3D looking pic is all fake
'Fake as' Even in a photo it looks 3D. I had to walk right up to it to see for myself that it was actually flat.
In this photo, the blue guys foot and the eyes of the child to his right (on his left) follow you as you walk back and forth. It's quite a weird effect and to me shows the skill of the painter.
CHAPEL
Big. Ornate.
Dinner
Pie and
beer for dinner. The green stuff was another example of the poms
providing luke warm salad masquerading as vegies. One could hide some of
it in the mashed potatoes but in the end that spoiled the mash so I
left it to be returned and presumably added to the black pudding
Trip Home - Uber Boat
