Elemania

Elemania hit London recently and I got the bug bigtime. Basically a herd of over 200 elephants have been sprinkled around the rather grey streets of the City, herded into park corners and shoehorned into shopfronts. There's a serious point of course, to highlight the plight of the Asian elephant which is now seriously endangered. It'd be sad if there were no more Nellie's to pack up their trunks or go trumpety trump so hopefully these guys will make a difference. I think they will because seems like it's a bunch of very nice people behind this little plan. Nice guys get to win sometimes right?

I've probably driven people mad with my ele of the day selections, hopefully though it made them smile when Dandyphant popped up on their screen, marauding through St Pancras or made them feel a little bit like, "ooh pass the chip cone with extra vinegar" as Fish and Chip Ele floated by.


Not to mention feeling a little bit mushy when Mr Stole My Heart or Tree of Love or Kisses on the Trunk rolled across their wall.




Oran (You Stole My Heart)by Adam Bridgland

Anway I had to go, to rush about and get over excited and take lots of pictures of lots of very bright and very silly ele's just because it made me smile. So a lightening tour of the City was undertaken with regular rest breaks of course generally involving Pimms or a nice glass of wine , oh and a quick lunch at the Pieminister - pie, mash , minty mushy peas and gravy - very tasty indeed. There were rosey eles', rainbow ele's, taxi's and policeman ele's. A James Bond ele and some flashy gold and shiny ele's.

Here's a little glimpse into my elemania tour:

My favourite? Well that's tricky, but I do have a soft spot for Cubeelephant by Andre Ritins whose hanging out near Tower Bridge, you can see me dancing with him in the collage pic, yep that's me the mad girl in red, who'd had a Pimm's and a glass of chardonnay and really didn't care if people thought I was silly because I'm not full of myself like some. Anyway I don't think people thought I was silly, I think they thought I was nice and sweet and maybe a bit mad, pretty accurate really.

Cubeelephant is sort of glittery, a party elephant, he needs some blue fairy lights and some colour change love hearts. He's a colourful curly wurly straws and cheese and pineapple on sticks, a cupcake happy garden party sort of elephant. I think he'd look rather nice in my garden, but I expect lots of girlies think that too, much richer girlies who probably have rich oligarchs in tow. Maybe they'd let me visit him though when they move him to their achingly gorgeous mansion in Kensington. I'd make the cupcakes and even bring some Pimms.

I also love Soju Tanaka's elephants The Illustrated Elephant and Whisper, covered in cuddly doodle characters who seem to giggle and dance. Here's his ele's below:





See, cute little guys.

Anyway I could go on and on about ele's as I said it's a real case of elemania for me. There's a link to their website here if you'd like more information and a map in case you also feel the need to pack up some cheese and pickle butties and have a day exploring . http://www.elephantparadelondon.org/

The whole herd will be on display together soon though at the Royal Chelsea Hospital at the end of June. I might go, let me know if you'd like to join me. We can have a Pimms and a Pie perhaps or even Afternoon Tea (now that's a whole entry in itself)

TTFN xx

Depeche Mode and a snowy london

I've always loved the Mode, so the chance to see them live again could not be missed, the added bonus being another trip to London which I love even though I always get lost on the Tube (nobody told me that non Circle line trains also go on it OK?).

I still get excited everytime I see the London Eye at night all blue and sparkly and a luminous St Paul's always makes me smile. I've been to the O2 before of course, but this time got the Thames Clipper to it and oh yes definitely the way to travel. As much as I love the hulabaloo of the Tube on a gig night
lets be honest it can get a tad pungent.

The Clipper however is very civilised and I was quite happy with a nice white wine floating down the Thames looking at the lights (must be down to the Trips to see the Blackpool 'luminations as a kid either that or I'm some weird fairylight fetishist). Arriving at the O2 via water was excellent, let's face it there is something very "Mother Ship" about it anyway so floating in was quite spacey for me (or maybe that was the wine who knows?).

Inside was excellent to, Tapas Tapas, yes I will have a large Rioja thanks and then a full scale funfair. Oh yes, we are talking helter skelters , whirly things and of course my all time favourite a Carousel. Devastated that it wasn't open and yes I did seriously think about trying to convince them to let me have a go.

Managed to make the support act Soulsavers, personally not that into them. Actually not that sure that anyone was that into them except Country Boy who bounced along in an enthusiastic manner proclaiming "Mark Lanegan's a musical genius" something which no else seemed to particularly be convinced by. I heard a small ripple of applause from somewhere else so I assume Mark Lanegan's mum and a few aunties were in attendance. My view? Well I "didn't hate it" which is good of course, he sounds a bit sort of Lou Reed (and I do love a bit of Lou) but it was an odd mix of Lou Reed vocals with an Indie band base and a frizzante of Madchester guitar jangles.

The Mode however were fabulous. From the opening In Chains onwards, every track was an amazing explosion of classic Modeness. It's hard to pick actual highlights. As ever Precious made me feel a little emotional "Thing's get damaged, things get broken" etc but I had also been fed some Becks by then too so perhaps the ice princess didn't melt.



"World in my Eyes" was a classic as ever, making you want to embark on some exotic adventure of discovery with Mr Gahan as your guide (ooh yes please even though I'm not a girl that likes tatoos when Dave whipped his top off even I got excited!).Hard to believe he's nearly at his half century).

The absolute ultimate came at the end though, Personal Jesus the whole O2 arena was on its feet to reach out and touch faith, the atmosphere completely electric by that point. As ever I took loads of pictures, here's a little sprinkling of images that popped in front of the viewfinder at some point.













I know they aren't amazing works of photographic genius but I like them and if it makes you get a little vibe of just how fantastic the Mode were then job done.

Post gig a wander back up the Southbank and through Westminster gave me chance to see more of the city at night. Somehow this little snap captures it:



Next day was spent exploring Covent Garden, Carnaby Street and Oxford Street. Liberty's and Fortnum and Mason's had to be done of course, the window displays alone being well worth a visit. But the image of the day for me was Carnaby Street which was when the snow started to fall.



Very me don't you think?