A Trip to the V&A

So, its time for another Walking in London post.
We've visited the Victoria and Albert Museum a couple of times recently, and I used our second visit to experiment with some shallow depth of field shots.

I can recommend a visit to the Renaissance exhibition - there are some truely spectacular things on show. The selection I give you here are are slightly random...

This is a detail of iron railings, just to get my eye in with the DOF.


A Statue with a rather friendly looking dragon.


This statue is made of wood - lime, according to the V and A's website. Its St. George, originally was part of an altarpiece. Here he's shown after defeating the Dragon which hangs limply from his rather delicate hand.


And here he is again, shown in a relief from Genoa. This one seems an altogether more scary vision of a dragon, and unusually, is almost the same size as the Saint.


A detail of a Knights spurs from a memorial


Another alterpiece, this one showing scenes from Revelation.
I'm guessing this isn't a church that I'd enjoy a sermon from...


And this is the facade of a house, built around 1600 for London merchant Sir Paul Pindar. The house was built on Bishopsgate, outside the city. Like many London houses, it was deeper than it was wide, with stables and a garden extending behind. The house was pulled down in 1890 to make room for the enlargement of Liverpool Street station. There's an old photo of the house before demolition here: http://spitalfieldslife.com/2010/11/05/a-room-to-let-in-old-aldgate/


And this little gem was for me the most surprising of all - it's one of Leonardo Da vinci's notebooks. 


But of course for us, this is the most important part of any visit:

On Order

I have ordered this, a few minutes ago:

Volkswagen Scirocco GT 2.0 TSI 210PS 6Spd manual

With:

Sumatra Metallic Paint

Black Merlin Cloth Upholstery

Rear Parking Sensor

Panoramic Sunroof (tilt only)

Electric Folding Door Mirrors

DAB digital radio receiver

I would post a picture here of what its going to look like but my choice of  paint colour has been discountinued, and there are no pictures of the replacement Black Oak Brown yet.
I have found this though - on the German VW website on the Configurator.



Is this an acceptable colour for a Scirocco?
This will be my first new car purchase. The very long and painful wait starts here...


edit:
Actually on Order now....

I'm not waiting any longer - my Scirocco is actually on order now, in Reflex Silver. Should look a bit like this...



Update 06/01/11:
Incredibly, my dealer (Colbornes of Guildford) still can't give me a build week for my car. Not even a guess. This is not good news as I have no idea when the car will actually be made.

Update 17/01/11:
Call from the dealer a minute ago (well, a call back from a message I left) and my car is still unconfirmed. For the first time he had mentioned a build week - 8, and from what I've read elsewhere I should get the car 3 weeks after the quoted build week. But obviously I can't start counting weeks until its confirmed. I think I'll start a new blog specifically about the Scirocco, my impressions of buying it, and then later, owning it.

New blog specifically about the Scirocco: http://silverscirocco.blogspot.com/

Scotney Castle

We braved the rain on Saturday to take a look at Scotney Castle in Kent. We've been a few times before, but this is the first time since the new house was properly opened. I can also happily report that the tea room is now up to National Trust standard.


The new house was build in the late 1830s

The interior is very interesting - much less polished and tidy that the average National Trust property, and it really felt more like looking around someone's house that normal.







With the weather being a bit changeable, I think some of outdoor photos worked really well.









My attempt at being arty with a set of glasses in the new house.