Journal

Elaine and I had a wonderful lunch today at the British Museum with Rohini Nilekani and her friend, the historian Dr Ramachandra Guha.  Ram proved to have had a remarkably similar early journey to mine, describing himself as a failed economist who switched to sociology, with a strong environmental thread shot through much of his work.  

Afterwards, we had another wander around the Egyptian section of the Museum, which is on a level with the restaurant, and I was again left slightly breathless by the beauty of the funerary objects – though the exhibits speak of intense social stratification, always uncomfortable, wherever found. Have been somewhat sensitised by Sam to the extent to which many of the artifacts on display have been looted at some point in their life-cycles, sometimes serially. But, at the same time, what a joy to be able to see things like the Sutton Hoo treasure, which might otherwise be locked up in a private collection.

Yes, but will it fly? Charmian takes a closer look How to juice a car

Electric cars are all the rage suddenly, though very few people are driving them–and, despite the Government’s recent announcement of grants of up to £5,000 for purchasers, the prospects of electrifying private transport still remain fairly distant.  This is a complex challenge, requiring multi-dimensional strategies, as we discussed in our recent Evergreen session on the theme at the 2009 Skoll World Forum.  I took the images of the Juice Point in Berkeley Square when Charmian and I went to see Herta von Stiegel a week or so ago.  Eye also caught by bird sculpture in the Square Gardens.

Bird 1 Bird 2

Ginkgo cutting feeling a little hazy

Have always loved ginkgo trees–and cycle past several on my way through Grosvenor Square on my way to 2 Bloomsbury Place.  Sometimes take in leaves as they change through the seasons, but a few days back I took a twig–and we put it in a glass of water, with a touch of sugar, where it seemed to flourish.  Rather than having it develop a sweet tooth, I asked Sam to release the poor thing into the herbaceous border, in the hope that it might just strike root.  Her photo above suggests that it was feeling a bit woozy as it struggled to find its feet, but who knows?  A symbol, perhaps, of our constant struggle to make sense of this universe of ours–and of all the tides, current and eddies into which we find ourselves drawn.

Managed to deeply scratch my head on a fig tree, recently pruned and so sharp-edged, as I dragged fresh compost I had dug out of the heap this morning. The thing is so full that it’s blowing out one of the railway sleepers used to make its walls.  So action is overdue, if only I could work out how to do it without scalping myself.   

Interesting to see 10 Belgrave Square, where I worked in the Earthlife days of the mid-1980s, on sale for an extraordinary £100 million–in the midst of the downturn.  How much can change over 25 years! Recently, Elaine also spotted a flat for sale in my grandmother Isabel’s old house at 4 Lennox Gardens in Knightsbridge. But I suppose there comes a time when you live in a city for pushing 40 years when you have lived in, worked in or visited a sufficient number of places to have an ongoing sense of déjà something.