From the Daily Mail, natch.
Opening lines
With flagrant disregard for my new year’s resolution to stop re-reading books, I’m currently re-reading The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.* I started reading it on holiday, when I thought the resolution probably didn’t count, and I don’t seem to have stopped yet.
But it’s not my fault! This morning I read the opening lines of The Three Garridebs:
It may have been a comedy, or it may have been a tragedy. It cost one man his reason, it cost me a blood-letting, and it cost yet another man the penalties of the law. Yet there was certainly an element of comedy. Well, you shall judge for yourselves.
Would you be able to stop reading there?
*I wanted to link to the classic orange, black and white Penguin edition, which is the one I’m reading, but Amazon don’t seem to stock it. The first version I read was a facsimile of the original Strand Magazine stories, complete with Sidney Paget’s illustrations, which I can still remember vividly and which are so firmly ensconced in the collective consciousness that every film and TV adaptation looks exactly like them. Unfortunately Strand Magazine was magazine-sized, and the book was book-sized, so the text was minuscule. But it was worth squinting over.
Cool t-shirts
I’m not a t-shirt person, really – not a besloganned t-shirt person, anyway – but some of these are great. I think I like “I’m in the mood for yogurt” the best.
Palestra
I spent this morning at TfL’s newest home, the Palestra building on Blackfriars Road. When construction began several years ago I used to pass the site every day on my way to work and wonder whether it was ever going to be anything other than an enormous hole, until one day it seemed to emerge from the ground fully formed, dwarfing everything around it.
Some local residents opposed its construction, and it’s not hard to see why: there’s nothing context-friendly about the design, and apart from anything else it blocks the river views of the buildings immediately opposite. But once you’re inside there’s a lot that’s good about it: it’s open-plan without being blandly corporate, the communal areas look like some actual thought went into how and when they would be used, and I only heard good things about the canteen. Plus, they gave me free tea and cake.
More importantly, though, everything that can be done to reduce a building’s emissions is done here. I’m told it’s 100% carbon neutral, although I can’t find any official confirmation of that. But certainly a significant amount of the energy it uses comes from solar panels and wind turbines on the roof (you can see them from the nearby railway line, if you happen to be travelling into Waterloo East). This is all good.
Even better is the view from the eleventh floor, but I’m afraid I didn’t have the guts to ask if anyone minded if I took a photo, so you’ll just have to trust me on that.
Cycle safety
I don’t think a helmet’s going to help here:
Photo: 2IFC
This is tower two of the International Finance Centre in Hong Kong. Doesn’t it look just like a razor? I took the photo because the helicopter scudding past it makes it look like an advert for something hi-tech, though I’m not sure what.
It’s 415 metres tall, which makes it the tallest building in HK, but I can’t tell you where it ranks among the world’s tallest buildings, because it keeps changing and it depends on whether you count things like a spike on top as part of a building. Anyway, it’s tall – but you can’t go up it, which I think is a great loss. In Tokyo and New York the top floors of skyscrapers are opened up as public spaces, with viewing galleries, bars and exhibitions, which is just about the most civilised thing I can think of and I wish more places did it. But it doesn’t happen in London, and it seems it doesn’t happen in Hong Kong either.
Although I think the glory of Hong Kong is in looking up at it from ground- (or sea-) level, so perhaps it’s not such a loss.
Silver linings
- We don’t have to lose to Arsenal every week next season
- We get to play Charlton
- We run no risk of upsetting Derby County’s record of the lowest points tally and earliest relegation from the Premiership since its inception
- I don’t have to try and find a pub to watch the final in when I’m on away at the seaside for the bank holiday weekend
- The first one again
Bristol City, part two
I realise I was confused when I wrote about conceding goals “at home” before the last game, because as far as I know there’s no away goals rule in the play-offs, which means a 1-0 win tonight would be enough to take us into extra time and penalties. I was caught out by this the last time we were promoted, when it ended up 3-3 over two legs between Palace and Sunderland but they had scored more away goals and I thought it was all over. I think I was even about to leave the pub when I realised that the players weren’t leaving the pitch.
But I’d still rather win 2-0, please. I can’t bear penalties, even during regular play, and a shoot-out is enough to send me outside, cowering with the smokers.
Oh well. At least Man Utd won the Premiership. I don’t love them, but I love them more than I love Chelsea (or Arsenal).
1-2
Well, I got the scoreline right, just the wrong way around. But we’ve got time to bring it back to a win tomorrow night – and, as my brother pointed out, if we don’t make it we’ll be able to stay in the Championship and win games, rather than having to play in the Premiership and lose 9-0 to Liverpool every week.
(We were rubbish, though.)
Bristol City
I’ve got a good feeling about tomorrow’s game. They’ve had a better season than we have, but we’re in flying form. Still, it’s tough to play at home first because you know that if you let a goal in you’ve given yourselves twice as much work to do.
Fingers crossed. I think we’ll win 2-1.
Glad All Over 