A Colourful, Crazy World: King of Colour, Corbusier; hats on UK mail boxes; and murals worldwide

 I read about a woman who painted her door pink in Edinburgh, Scotland, in a conservation area. She was fined and told to repaint the door in muted colours to match the general historic colour scheme of the area.

Some people can't resist painting a door or wall in a bright jolly colour. Or even painting a scene, or a trompe l'oeuil. Or a political statement or amusing image.

Britain has Banksy in Bristol, England. More Banksy pictures appear in London, and in galleries, and on walls worldwide.

Tenby in Wales has colourful external walls. 

London has amusing and colourful knitted and crochet post box toppers.

More murals in Brixton. Others in London's East End.

Valparaiso, Chile, South America

Rio, S America

But the cold, wet and windy seasides also have colour.

Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway

In Europe, after WW2 Corbusier put colour on a block of flats in Marseilles, France. Oddly, for years I knew about the colours, which were so rarely copied. But the most remarkable thing about his blocks of flats was the creation of a village in the sky with an internal street with shops and amenities.

Incidentally, a seated statue of Corbusier, who I consider the king of colour, is in Moscow, Russia.

Useful Websites

USA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mural_Arts_Philadelphia

CANADA

https://nationalpost.com/news/toronto/a-little-colour-city-of-toronto-commissions-artists-to-hand-paint-designs-on-traffic-signal-boxes

UK

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_box_topper

For and against a pink front door in a conservation area>

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63426312

How the Greeks and Romans painted statues which we display as plain white

https://www.bbc.co.uk/reel/video/p0crtd9v/chromophobia-who-stole-the-colour-from-classical-art-?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=exchange&tblci=GiBp0WTFUBI3-65A4u54LMQJIAg3dAXEJn6N03WDlMTAAiCMjFQott6FnJijnNWtAQ#tblciGiBp0WTFUBI3-65A4u54LMQJIAg3dAXEJn6N03WDlMTAAiCMjFQott6FnJijnNWtAQ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromophobia

S AMERICA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela_Painting

INDIA

https://www.livepeppy.com/chalrangde/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/584693964137505850/

Worldwide

https://www.cntraveller.com/gallery/colourful-towns

https://www.rd.com/list/towns-colorful-houses/

Follow me, Angela Lansbury, intrepid tourist, to see the weird and wonderful places and people, food and drink, hotels and museums, worldwide.

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Honey Bees In Dessert In The Ivy, St John's Wood, and Ivy restaurants in England, Scotland and Wales

Dessert at The Ivy, St Johns Wood. Photo from Sharot family.

For main courses my family had pate as a starter. For main courses the four diners had duck curry or duck salad as main courses. (The duck salad selection could have been bigger, said my hungriest relative who is a big chap.)

The dessert was honey them. In our picture you can see the honeycomb design, also the bee which is edible, chocolate.

My family have eaten there several times. The decor is kitch rainforest stained glass.
 

My family in London went to the Ivy in St John's Wood. Not the famous Ivy in central London.

St John Wood is a short high street in a smart area of London. Around the corner from Lord's Cricket Ground, which has a museum, and the zebra crossing where the famous photo of the Beatles was taken. Not far from Regents Park, London Zoo, and Baker Street with the Sherlock Holmes museum.

The Ivy in St John's wood had delightfully presented desserts.

The Ivy

120 St John's Wood High Street

NW8 7SG

Other branches are in the England, in Cardiff, Wales, in Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. The ones in England are in Marlow, St Albans, York, and other places. 

My family member says, "It's turning into an upmarket chain. Same every time. No surprises. You don't go there for novelty."

I thought the bee dessert was a great novelty.

Useful Websites

https://theivystjohnswood.com/

Scotland - Scottish songs, sights, places and people

The Flag of Scotland

The flag of Scotland has a diagonal white cross on a blue background. The x shape has equal length arms. The cross is called a saltire, which means diagonal or X shape. The word saltire comes from the French word for a stile which has an x shape wooden pieces for hikers to clamber over or push back and forth, whilst keeping the sheep or cows inside in a fenced field.

Shall we visit Scotland, at least online, for the sake of auld lang syne?

Scotland is known for sheep which provide food, meat, milk, cream and butter, and wool, as well as goats in the mountains. The deer are another feature.

This Author's Personal Stories

When I met my husband, he was a lecturer at Aberdeen university. We went to the Scottish opera week. Since then we have returned to Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival. 

My favourite memory from the Edinburgh Festival was when we ran up to join the crowd in the street around a street performer. he ran up to me and shouted, "Mother!" He had done the same to my husband a moment earlier, addressing him as "Father!"

You can imagine our expressions of shock and surprise. The audience was in hysterics. They had seen this happen several times during the performance. Later I learned that the performer did the same every year.

The UK flag

Traditional Scottish Songs

Auld Lang Syne

A Gordon for me

Banks of the Dee

Famous Scottish Writers and People

Bonnie Prince Charlie (now you know one local word, bonnie)

Robert Burns Birthplace Museum -  in Ayr

Dr Livingstone - museum

Authors' flagstone trail - Edinburgh

For Sherlock Holmes in his deerstalker hat, go to London, England, and the statue outside Baker Street station, and the shop cum museum in Baker Street around the corner.

William McGonagal - an inspiration to aspiring poets, bad poets poor poets. Famous for his poem about the dreadful Tay Bridge disaster. 

Mary Queen of Scots

Events

Edinburgh festival - August, annual

Edinburgh tattoo 

New Year's Eve

Food

Scottish oats (Oats are served for breakfast in Scotland, with salt; whereas, in England, hotels and homes serve oats with sugar.) 

Scottish shortbread biscuits

Drink

Whisky - distillery visits. (Irish whiskey spelled with an added e.) 

Clothes & Gifts

Scottish tartans

Buy a tartan which identifies you as from your family clan, a Jewish tartan, or a popular multi-purpose pattern tartan which is for tourist use.

Scottish wool

Deerstalker hats

Lock Ness Monster Museum and souvenirs of triple arches of pottery

Blog post being researched and written. Come back later to see more pictures and text. If you have any information to add, please send it to me. 

List of places to visit>

Edinburgh

National Gallery of art and portrait gallery

Scotts monument

Glasgow

Art Gallery (Rennie Mackintosh)

Useful Websites

http://www.rampantscotland.com/songs/blsongs_gordon.htm

http://www.rampantscotland.com/songs/blsongs_dee.htm

https://travelandy.com/the-scotland-of-sherlock-holmes/

The author

See the stars and eat dinner, or view a model of the moon landing: Planetariums and Observatories

Inside the Planetarium in Mill Hill, London, England, from Wiki

The former London Planetarium whose dome you can still admire.

London's former Planetarium was for many years been a chief attraction, built alongside Madame Tussaud's in Baker Street, and you could sometimes buy combined tickets for both. Now it is part of Madam Tussauds, displaying human stars instead of stars in the sky. I went there. You really needed to know something about the constellations by researching in advance to follow the commentary and gain maximum benefit.

London also has a university observatory open to the public by appointment. I have been there. It is for students to use from the department of physics and astronomy. Watford Way, A1, northbound carriageway. 

Mill Hill from Wiki

Other famous observatories include another in London, the Greenwich Observatory. 

Going West in England, the Clifton observatory is on the side of the Clifton Gorge, which is spanned by the suspension bridge built by Brunel.

Travelling north in the UK, to Edinburgh city, in Scotland, you can find an observatory converted into an art gallery and restaurant. The Lookout by Gardener's Cottage.

In Dundee, in Blangay woods a mile to the west, an observatory has outdoor walking trail called the Planet trail, marked by upright stones with inset plaques.

Dundee

Dundee

Dundee

Dundee, Scotland

Indoors you can see displays include the moon landing, and an astrolabe. You can also visit the Mills Observatory shop.

USA

The USA has an observatory in California in a lake. Some observatories were designed to observe the heavens and stars in order to set the time for ships at sea. Far to many to list. 16 in New York alone.

Adler Planetarium, Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Tycho Brahe, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Bangkok, Thailand.

National Planetarium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Planetarium Mannheim, Germany.

Eise Eisinga Planetarium, Franeker, Netherlands. Photo by an Australian, Bertknot, in Wikipedia.

Europe and Australia

Many more observatories are in Europe, and Australia and New Zealand. Wiki has a whole list of observatories worldwide.

I made these interesting and happy discoveries by chance when researching the world observatory. For a Toastmasters meeting where I am the Language Evaluator and provide Word of the Day.

Here were my observations on the word of the day Observe.

Useful Resources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_planetariums

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCL_Observatory

https://www.thelookoutedinburgh.co/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_Observatory#/media/File:Millshop.jpg

Greenwich, London, England

https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/planetarium-shows

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Planetarium

About the Author

Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places,  landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.

Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.

About the Author Angela Lansbury

The Author - Quick Quotations

Angela Lansbury B A Hons  is the author of ten books by regular publishers, plus another ten self-published books. 

About Angela The Speaker & Trainer

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Vice President  Public Relations, Immediate Past President. VPPR

Former Area Director S3. Club Coach for Nee Soon South Toastmasters Club.

Also Member of: TCA Toastmasters Club; Singapore Online Dynamic; Harrovians UK

BHA

Past meetings have included Garen Tee on using story telling in business, on 

bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha . 

Recent meetings of BHA included an educational session on using Powerpoint for posters.

Next BHA meetings, always first Wednesday evening, 7 pm Singapore time. Next meeting is  the third Saturday afternoon, June 19th 2pm Singapore time.  Inauguration of the new committee was by the incoming Director of S, plus a lively speech on teamwork.

Next meetings will be on these dates (unless a national holiday in Singapore or worldwide)

Themes and word of the day are tentative

2021

JULY - JUBILANT JULY

Theme/WOD Jubilant

WORKSHOPS & EDUCATIONAL SESSIONS (based on level one of Pathways)

1 Your first speech or role EASY ENGLISH LANGUAGE (Articles A and The, Plurals, Tenses, Pronunciation, Singlish)

2 CHOOSE YOUR PATH

Wed July 7th What Your Committee Can Do For You

Saturday 17th

July 4th American Independence Day.

2021 AUGUST - AWESOME AUGUST

1 Pathway Level 1 Introductory Speeches

2 Evaluations

Wed 4th

Sat 21

2021 SEPT - SUPER SEPTEMBER

Wed 1st

Sat 18th SPEECH CONTESTS

Humorous Speech Contest

Table Topics Contest

2021 OCT - ODD OCTOBER

Wed 6th

Sat 16th

2021 NOV - NOVELTY NOVEMBER

Wed 3rd

Sat 20th Wed

Diwali Hindu Festival of lights Nov 4th.

Nov 25th American Thanksgiving.

Hanukah starts 28 Dec 8 days until Dec 6. Jewish Festival of lights, celebrated by Jesus.

2021 DEC - DARLING DECEMBER

Wed  1st (Hanukah if not previous month. Festival foods.)

Sat 18th

Speech on 

JAN 2022 - JOYFUL JANUARY

Wed Jan 5th New beginning - forget the past

Sat 15 Long-term plans = for the future/Chinese New Year (CNY for short)

2022 FEB FUN FEBRUARY

Theme Love and romance - Chinese New Year

Feb 1st and 2nd are holidays - do we move this Feb 2nd meeting date?)

Wed 2nd (Valentine's Day Mon Feb 14)

Sat 19th

2022 MAR - MARVELLOUS MARCH

Theme

Wed 2nd

Sat 19

March 1st is Christian Pancake day. 

2022 APR - APRIL'S AIMS

Wed 6th

Sat 16th

Muslim Ramadan 1-30 April.

Jewish Passover (Seder meal=Last supper) April

 16

2022 MAY - MODERNISING MAY

Wed 4th

Sat 21

2022 JUN - JUBILANT JUNE

Wed 1st

Sat 18th

Jul 6, Jul 16, Aug 3, Aug 20, Sept 7, Sept 17, Oct 5, Oct 15, Nov 2, Nov 19, Dec 7, Dec 17.

Angela The Blogger 

Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

See many varied posts such as the post on sculptor Tom Harvey.

Please share links to your favourite posts.