Jurassic park

The unexpected cooler weather, (of around 19C) during the height of Bangkok's summer seems to be drawing to a close. But it did beg to be experienced by a walk in the park, encountering as we always do, one of its many resident water lizards, which are as long as a metre and a half.

The blossom on the trees provides a riotous canopy for those jogging.

The shorter frangipani trees send an enticing scent as you drift past them, or stop on one of the boulders to drink it in more deeply. 

As it's my birthday today, I thought I had better check out the Elderly Centre, above, so that I can become more familiar with my Jurassic neighbours.

Other residents were showing me that I could be agile, in this display of extreme yoga, which is more ambitious than the sessions I have every week at our gym in the condo.

The verdant lawns and the connection to nature seemed to me to be an enjoyable way to spend this annual milestone. Happily the clock seems to have stopped at 12.15, (it was about 4.30 pm). Maybe time will stand still from now on, and I shall become ageless.

Quite possibly not. Which is probably just as well, as the dusk now, is reminding me of the bottle of Veuve Clicquot I put in the fridge earlier today, and that something really needs to be done about it.

When we were children

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: Kuching

The recent obituary of Anthony Brooke, the last White Rajah, reminded me of a story my father used to tell me as a child. Luckily, although ancient, he is still alive, and he recounted it for me today. The Brookes became the Rajah's of Sarawak in North Borneo, Malaya in 1841 . By the time we went to live in Sarawak in 1963, the Brookes had been replaced by British colonial governors. My parents dined several times at their residence, above, and we went there to children's parties. On one occasion the acting governor came to dinner at our house on the opposite side of the Sarawak River.

My father had given instructions to our minders that my brother and I should be well-behaved and out of sight upon the governor's arrival. We duly complied, but I remember viewing the arrival from the staircase on the upper floor of the gigantic sprawling house in which we lived. It was the custom in those days that the gun was fired from the Istana at 8 o'clock to signal that the governor was sitting down for dinner. When I was informed of the impending occasion, I asked my father, "But who will fire the gun?". He relayed the story to the governor, and this was the ice breaker that he recounts to this day.

Fish dish

Japanese Porcelain Covered Tureen, molded as a stack of oval dishes with the cover topped by the figure of a fish with an open clam shell as the finial, decorated in famille rose enamels with scattered floral decor, h. 3-1/4", l. 9-1/4" for sale at New Orleans Auction Galleries on 9 April. 

Pair of Japanese Imari Porcelain Fish-Form Serving Dishes, 20th century, each decorated in underglaze blue, iron-red and gilt with details of scales, fins, mouth and eyes realistically rendered within the fish-form outline, h. 1-1/2", w. 6-1/4", l. 9", for sale at the St Charles Gallery Inc in New Orleans on 3 April.

Let's hope these are not the only fish dishes available from Japan in the coming weeks, months or even years.

Bitter and twisted

I was on a quest for something different to kick off the cocktail hour, and I remembered Reggie Darling's post about a Manhattan. At the time I had all of the ingredients except bitters. I rectified this omission the other day, purchasing a bottle of Angostura Bitters, a mainstay of all the bars and all the drinks trays I've encountered at my homes and at my parents'.

And what a subtle but huge difference it makes to this drink and many others. Rather like martinis, two Manhattans go a very long way. A pity we didn't follow that plan last night.

The fragile state was not helped by an earth tremor this evening from the earthquake in neighbouring Burma, which had the effect of making one feel as though one was losing one's balance.

The recipe I used, for those of you wishing to indulge is:

1 1/2 msrs whisky, (I used Jim Beam, but it should be rye)

3/4 msrs dry Vermouth

Twist of lemon

Dash of Bitters

Olive

Stir together over ice and serve straight up in a martini glass.

Appreciating Lucioni

This rather diminutive picture - 8x6 inches by Luigi Lucioni achieved a rather substantial price at auction on 19 March - USD14,000 against a top estimate of USD2,500. I considered it as a companion to my Lucioni, but was awaiting provenance from the auctioneer, (which never came). In the meantime I rather lost interest, but am encouraged to see his work achieving such high prices. Two further Lucioni's, (both still lifes, the top one below, Chinese Leaves, which graces the catalogue's cover),

are for sale at Sotheby's New York on 8 April, so it will be interesting to see if they too will do well.

Camping joke

THE JOKE, ARTIST UNKNOWN (20TH CENTURY)
Oil on board, unsigned, 5.5" x 3.75"

A very long week

Title: Okuno-Hoshomichi Shirakawano-seki Fukushima

Artist: Saito, Kiyoshi, 1907-1997

Edition: 16/150 Date: 1965

Medium: woodblock

Dimensions: 15 x 12 5/8 inches

It seemed a very strange coincidence that I should be looking at auction items today and that I should come across this woodblock print of Okuno-Hoshomichi, and in this particular image, the path is to a shrine in Fukushima, the site of the damaged nuclear reactor.

"It was as if the very soul of Japan had itself written it".

Taking the long view

Today is the third anniversary of my blog. I thought I'd commemorate it with a theme of taking the long view. In the first two instances, I'm referring to enjoying the view outside of the premises we live in, and incorporating them into the experience we have inside.

These first two images are from the second floor of the castle in Scotland, where we are lucky enough to stay when we want a change of lifestyle. The second two are from the flat we live in more than 30 floors up in Bangkok, of the view of the Chao Phraya river, as it snakes its way towards to Gulf of Siam.

Unfortunately the picture above is now partially obscured by a new condominium development - The Sukhothai Residences, which is nearing completion.

In due course some of the panoramic view to the right of the second photo will be obscured by another condominium development. These changes are the price of progress in a developing country. In a landscape so flat the new additions actually provide a little bit of interest, especially as the new buildings are not too close, and their design and landscaping is easy on the eye. The idea for these borrowed landscapes is not dissimilar to that which the late David Hicks created at his farm in Oxfordshire.*my uploaded YouTube sems to have some audio problems, in which case click on the highlighted link above to watch it instead.

Sometimes blogging provides unwelcome challenges, but the reason to go on, to take the long view, is very much based on the interest shown by so many, and the comments that keep this hobby alive for me. Thank you to those of you who qualify.

And finally it seems only appropriate that I should use the opportunity to remember the terrible natural disaster in Japan, with it's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear explosions. But for this I am also taking the long view. In time these terrible events will eventually heal, although with the bombardment of 24 hour news broadcasting, and repeated images of the horror unfolding, it is hard to imagine how any country, let alone one with such extraordinary wealth, can overcome the difficulties it faces today. The stories are heart-wrenching, but also show the finer side of human nature, and the dignity and stoicism of the Japanese people.

The length of a piece of string

This article from the Telegraph is so silly, I thought I just had to share it with you.

Mind you, the idea of a marmalade martini...well, no not even that!

Mind over matters

Some of you may already know about Stephen Wiltshire, a savant with the most extraordinary talent for detailed drawing from memory, usually of architectural phenomena.

Images from stephenwiltshire.co.uk

Living wall

Whilst on a mission in town yesterday I took some photographs of the living walls

created in Siam Paragon shopping mall.

By chance the photograph next to these on my camera's chip was of Floors Castle in Scotland which we visited in September last year, and I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition to see the Virginia creeper providing the living walls of the Victorian palace of the dukes of Roxburghe.

Many thanks to blog reader Petra

Many thanks to Petra of Art & Interior, who has advised me of the solution to the disappearing thumbnails:

I finally found the answer for the missing thumbnails:

please check my post:

http://artandinterior.blogspot.com/2011/03/blogging-missing-thumbnail-images.html

Oh dear

Hello magazine has given some insight to the wedding planned for Prince Albert II of Monaco to Charlene Wittstock. One suspects the other royal wedding preceding it in April will strike a different note.

On a wing and a chaise

The much discussed topic in this household as to whether to re-cover or replace the wing chairs in the main bedroom has finally been concluded. The wing chairs and their footstools have been given a new home with some nice neighbours, and they have been replaced by these chaises.

The chaises are covered in a raspberry coloured polycotton mix, and they are accompanied by cushions in candy stripes. The wing chairs have certainly served their purpose, and were orginally made to my order more than twenty years ago, during which time they have been re-covered five times, and travelled from Hong Kong to Edinburgh to Bangkok. Could they perhaps be the world's best-travelled wing chairs? Their new owners work at the Raffles Design Institute, so it is conceivable that they may end up being re-covered again as a project for a student in interior design.

Whilst I am sad to see them go, my tendency to be almost horizontal during my television viewing, means that the new design is much more suitable. This change has also meant other changes, as is usual. The Georgian galleried tables that were used with the wing chairs have now been transferred to the sitting room, replacing the pair of perspex tables that housed an obelisk in one and an armillary in the other. These perspex tables are now either side of the chaises, handy for those essentials, like cocktails, TV remotes, DVDs and reading glasses.

The new scheme is much more minimalist, and will doubtless take time to get used to. Since these original pictures were taken, when the room was first decorated, there has been a rearrangement of pictures, so that there is a grouping of architectural prints above the bed, and a large oil painting by the Thai artist Mitree Parahom, which was partially obscured by the wing chairs. It may be that it will be changed with the other large oil painting in the hallway. Like most decorators, I find schemes need to be bedded down, (pun intended, as it's a bedroom), and changing ideas is an exercise I find quite enjoyable.

Blog spit

Has anyone discovered why thumbnails of other bloggers, which previously appeared together with updated posts, in "My Blog List" has stopped appearing? Others seem to have the same problem.

The Blogger Help Forum does not seem to have any helpful answers. Your assistance welcome!