Or 'shit from China' (far fetched) as my dear Dad would have put it.
So, we arrived home from London at about four, and as you can imagine my only thought after making a cuppa was to look at the shots I had taken that day. So, my camera bag was laying open on the floor with the camera pouch empty. My 400D with the 50mm f1.4 was in the top pouch, which now I can say does not have enough padding. Anyway, where were we?
Oh yes, so we have the scene, camera bag, on the ground, with one camera in top pouch. The catflap goes and Molly lets out her 'I have caught a mouse for your dinner' meow. I get up to see her drop mouse in the camera bag. I pick up the back, but because the light wasn't good, I went into the porch to hunt for the mouse. I put the bag on the ground, but my shadow was getting in the way. I lift the bag up and put it on the small cupboard and hunt for the mouse.
It had scrambled to the other side of the bag; I see it and make a grab. The mouse seems my hand and jumps out of the bag, I go for the mouse and let go of the bag. I catch the mouse in my hand, but the bag, being top heavy, rolls backwards and off the cupboard and falls to the ground.
I picked the bag up and look inside; the filter had shattered and I knew it wasn't looking good for the lens. Being dark I decided to wait for the morning before testing it out. When I did, the autofocus did not work and the manual only works from infinity to about 5m. I will have to send if off to be repaired, as it turns out our insurance only covers 'entertainment' equipment. Who knew?
So, just after 5 months I have, by accident, trash another 50mm lens.
Bugger.
But back to earlier in the day.......
The plan was to head up to London by car, find a place to park and travel the final few miles by public transport. The weather was totally different from the bay before, clouds hung low and were menacing, and the forecast was for heavy rain later in the day.
So, we drove up the M20, passed under the M25 and then into south London to Woolwich. We parked up at a sports centre, and we walked to the DLR station. A train was due to leave in less than 5 minutes, which meant we should have been in The City by about half eight.
Sadly the whole DLR network was affected by delays thanks to a signalling problems, and the journey took 20 minutes longer than it should have. And those 20 minutes would prove to be vital. We got out at Bank and walked up through Leadenhall again and then we saw the queue.
The queue snaked from the Gherkin, along Leadenhall Road, we walked along it and saw it disappear into a side road and was coming back the other side. We joined the end and waited. What we did not know was the queue in front of us went round a corner, along a street, back again, snaked to the base of the Gherkin again beore heading up the other side of the road.
More people joined behind us, but it was clear this was a huge queue. After about an hour a guy came along to count the number of people, and he estimated that we were five and a half hours from the front. We had seen the queue the other side of the street move maybe 50 metres in an hour.
*Sigh*
We had a choice to make. It wasn't hard. We left the queue and headed to our second building on the list, a church in Aldgate. Once we had worked where Aldgate was we set off and found St Botolphs Without Aldgate soon enough, apssing another, much smaller, queue for a synagogue on the way.
We went in and were met with a warm welcome; I took shots in the main body of the church and from the balcony above.
One down.
We were now hungry as it was about half ten; so it was clearly time for another breakfast. So we found a coffee bar and ordered a hot wrap and a huge coffee, and then we sat down to decide what to do with the rest of the day.
We decided to head to the Apothecaries' Hall in Blackfriars. I looked at the tube map and saw it was a few stops on the Circle Line. We went to Aldgate station, and down onto the platform only to find that there was no Circle or district line servces running.
It was remarked by a guy next to me that they had been spoiled during the Olympics with everything working and no engineering, sorry upgrade, work being carried out.
So, we decided to walk.
Outside it was raining, so I put up the umbrella and we set off in a rough south west direction through the City. I can't remember much about the walk, but we did walk past St Pauls and then along near the river until we came to Blackfriars Station.
And up a side street there was a nondescript doorway with a guy welcoming visitors. Can we come in I ask. Of course.
We went across the courtyard and into the main building and we confronted by a large room, wood panelled with a grand staircase leading upstairs. There were cabinets against most walls, and each was filled with old and ancient bottles of medicine and potions.
Upstairs, was more of the same; but around were many volunteers, who were only too happy to answer any questions we might have. Each window had wonderful stained-glass crests and heraldry. All wonderful stuff for sure.
Back outside and back in a general north-east direction as we had an appointment for a tour at Liverpool Street at two. At St Paul's we call into the Information Centre to get a list of the City churches open and so planned to visit a couple on the way.
On the way to the first one we came across St Mary le Bow, which was open. So we went in.
We were greeted warmly again, and more information thrust into our hands before we had a chance to look round. The church is another post-war-rebuilt Wren designed building, and wonderful. It had a broad arched ceiling, painted blue. It was a delight. As was the crypt, although most of which is now a cafe, part was a small chapel, and simply lit with candles and the walls lined with icons.
Opposite the bank of England we came across another church, St Margaret's, Lothbury, which was open, and so we went inside. It was another wonderful building, which I snapped from all angles whilst dripping rain everywhere.
walking on along Watling Street we came across another plain doorway with another 'Open House' sign. And where are we I ask the guy on the door. The Drapers Hall came the reply. Do you want to come in?
Yes, I think so.
So up a long corridor and up a grand marble staircase, and the choice was one of three doorways; I went in the closest, and wow. A square room lined with tapestries and with a grandly painted ceiling. The second room was more of the same, but at the far end was another doorway. I went through, and walked into a palace.
Or felt like it.
This was the Livery Room, and it is better they describe it:
" The Livery Hall was enlarged to its present size by Herbert Williams in the 1860s. The twenty-eight marble columns provide ideal spaces for the display of the Company’s collection of royal portraits including King William III by Sir Godfrey Kneller, George III by Sir Nathanial Dance and George IV by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Richard Belt’s statue Hypatia and a copy of John Gibson’s The Tinted Venus, both purchased in the 1890s, grace the north end of the room.
In 1901 the Company commissioned Herbert Draper, a neo-classical painter who had recently been awarded a gold medal by the Royal Academy, to create paintings for the Livery Hall ceiling panels. These were produced between 1903 and 1910.
The Company was at first uncertain whether the artist’s choice – scenes from The Tempest and A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream was appropriate but the artist persevered and completed the remaining space with representations of History, Science, Ethics and Literature."
My words will not do it justice; the volunteers called it The Grand Hall as well, and if so, it is well named. I just down and let my eyes travel round the room taking in it's fine details.
Time then to head to Liverpool street to find the Masonic Temple. Sounds simple, but it turned out that not just having your name on the list was enough, finding it was an aptitude test. We walked round the old Great Eastern Hotel, looking for clues whilst the rain poured ever harder.
No clues, no signs. In the end I went into a posh hotel to ask, and turns out it was through the hotel; so we went along a corridor, up two flights of steps, along another corridor and there it was.
Legend has it that the temple was hidden for a century, forgotten behind huge locked wooden doors until Terrance Conran asked what was behind the doors. What it is is a Masonic temple in marble and ebony and is glorious.
There was no tour as such, we took our shots, sat down for a while, then as the rain steamed out of our clothes we headed back out, and once in the rain we decided we had had enough and so headed to Liverpool Street to Stratford on the Central Line, Canning Town on the Jubilee and then onto Woolwich on the DLR, to the car and then onto the wet roads and home.
I tootled along at 50 mph in the heavy rain so we got back home nice and safe. Got back in time for the lens/mouse indecent to happen.....
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