Britain’s Rainbow Nation
In the Times yesterday, there was this report.
One woman’s dogged research has produced a unique and uplifting portrait of modern Britain seen through the eyes of children from every corner of the planet.
Caroline Irby, a freelance photographer and writer, spent 15 months trying to find, photograph and interview a child born in each of the world’s 192 countries and now living in Britain.
The photographs that Irby took will be shown at the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green from May 7th. I shall go if I get the chance.
What a Trophy!
I saw this trophy in the Museum of London.
The Chris Brasher Sporting Life Trophy
It was originally presented by the Sporting Life in 1909 to the winner of the Polytechnic Marathon. In 2003 Chris Brasher‘s name was added to commemorate his founding of the London Marathon.
But there is also controversy about the ownership of the trophy, according to this on Ian Ridpath’s web site.
I have always had a soft spot for Brasher.
I remember, as a nine-year-old, getting up in 1956 and hearing that he had won the gold medal in the 3,000 metres steeplechase in the Melbourne Olympics. I’ve also worn his walking boots for years, I’ve watched many of his London Marathons and admired his journalism on both the television and the printed media.
He also was the interviewer when Barnes Wallis, the designer of the bouncing bomb, said one of my favourite quotations.
There is no greater thrill in life than proving something is impossible and then showing how it can be done.
Never give up in life!
The Best Roof in the World
Every time I pass by the British Museum I always pop in. It’s because the place that used to be so fussy and almost dust-ridden has thrown off all that gloom and not vibrates with people.
But the best feature of the museum is the roof.
How many visitors does it attract?
Strange Translations
France is very good these days in putting up notices in various languages. This is unlike Montreal, which seems to avoid putting up anything in English at all. But then as they speak good English, it doesn’t matter to the Canadians. But it does to visitors like me with limited language skills. Especially as the Canadian French is not like I learned at school.
But look at this notice in the unisex toilet of the Picasso Museum in Antibes.
Strange Translations
Here’s the English.
Thank you to respect the cleanliness of these places. By measurement of hygiene, female protections must imperatively be thrown in the container reserved for this purpose.
You can understand it, but it does have a certain sense of the surreal about it.
I’m pretty certain that it was translated by BabelFish or some other computerised translators. Or at least when I type it into that site, I get this.
Merci respecter la propreté de ces endroits. Par la mesure de l’hygiène, des protections femelles doivent impérativement être jetées dans le récipient réservé à cette fin.
Which is not too far from the original French in the notice. Note that I can’t type that in directly, as it has too many accents.
Surely though, wouldn’t it be sensible if before the notices are printed, that they knock the translation into something that is better. Then they wouldn’t get pedants like me commenting on the quaint words.
I also feel that in the UK, we should perhaps put more notices up in other languages, but failing that we should all make sure that if there is a word that is the same in most languages then that should be used. For instance, on my trip I saw some French/English notices, where the French was completely understandable to any English speaker. So why put the English up as well?
Antibes and the Picasso Museum
I at least managed to get to the Picasso Museum in Antibes. When we had the house on the Cap d’Antibes, we did go a couple of times, but inevitably when we tried it was closed. And it was closed on our last visit in April 2007.
The museum is very much worth a visit as it is one of the best collections of Picasso’s work. I suspect too, that it has got bigger in the twenty years since I last visited. There is also a large collection of works by Nicolas de Stael, who is an artist, of whom I’d never heard.
But then what do I know about art?
As you can see in the pictures, there is still a lot of work being done around the museum.
Musee Ephrussi de Rothschild
This is a series of pictures taken at the Musee Ephrussi de Rothschild.
Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris
The Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume is a museum in Paris, with a nasty past in the Second World War, which now is a museum of contemporary art.
Jeu de Paume is the French name for Real Tennis and that was the original purpose of the building. They must have been some courts!
Watersnoodmuseum
This is a museum at Ouwerkerke in the Netherlands, dedicated to the North Sea Flood of 1953.
It is an impressive museum that opened a few years ago.
It is actually built inside four giant Phoenix breakwaters or caissons, that were originally built to be part of the Mulberry Harbours used for the D-Day invasion in the Second World War. They had been used to plug one of the last gaps in the dykes in November 1953. The construction of the caissons is clearly visible, both inside and outside.
Having lived in Felixstowe as a teenager some years after the disaster, it somewhat saddens me that we have no museum to the floods in the UK. Thirty eight people died in Felixstowe and I can still see the marks of the flood on the walls of the houses in my mind.
Are We Tourism Friendly?
I am going to see Ipswich play at Shrewsbury tonight. Let’s hope it’s better than Sunday.
So I thought I’d leave about lunchtime, go to the Ironbridge Gorge Museum and then have a meal in a decent restaurant before the match. Or have a decent lunch, then go to the Museum.
But!
The Ironbridge Gorge Museum shuts at five! In other words you arrive after lunch and have probably about two hours to explore. Surely, if we want to encourage people to stay at home, then museums should be open much later in the summer. Especially, as with Britain’s variable weather, we need to try just that bit harder.
As to restaurants, there is nothing in the area in the Good Food Guide. Not necessarily definitive, but it’s always a good pointer as to the eating experience. No restaurants at all, usually means nobody tries.
Museum Plantin-Moretus
I said in my post, Letterpress Rules OK, that there weren’t that many printing museums in the world.
But in Antwerp, there is the Museum Plantin-Moretus.
Museum Plantin-Moretus
The actual museum and contents are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
They have a large collection of machines, type and all the other things that proper printing entails. For example, they explain how printers in the 16th and 17th centuries actually made the movable type.
Museum Plantin-Moretus - Printing Machine
Note the virtually all wooden construction.
Museum Plantin-Moretus - More Printing Machines
There were six machines in the room. They were displayed down one wall with desks for the compositors on the other side of the room.
The building itself is immaculate with a vast collection of old books, maps and paintings, including a Gutenburg Bible and several portraits by Rubens.
Museum Plantin-Moretus - The Garden
It is a museum that is well worth a visit. Allow more time than we did, as the staff were rather hasty in chucking us out.
The Anonymous Widower 