On Failure

I am a Time Traveller born into a speeding car,
Finding myself careering down a rutted track.
My consciousness grows of a wall, not afar,
Haplessly into which  I will surly soon smack.

Now in the driving seat with hands clasped to the wheel,
Brakes screeching inexpertly attempting to swerve.
Without sufficient strength the failure I feel,
Lying injured in pain, the consequence I deserve?

A physician arrives, I notice similar scaring,
From the wreckage I am miraculously rescued.
In his eyes I see he understands my questioning,
"Yes I passed down this way and was similarly abused."

"These risks we allowed, feeling them worth the exhilaration,
Of experiencing the intensity of the freedom you're due.
To fail is not failure when now, and the next occasion,
From the start of the journey, I am sitting next to you."

The Line

The Prime Meridian

A birthday celebration in the East of London skirting Margaret, Ruth and Marion's ancient routes.  The train from Bedford stops in West Hampsted.  From here we wheel across to the Overground Station, and travelled straight on into Stratford.  Coming out of the station we found ourselves next to a strong current drawing people into the mouth of the Westfield Shopping Centre.  After a moments hesitation, we were in and swirling along the curving concourse.  After a while the flow slowed, and we were better able to take in our surrounding. We clambered out and found a friendly Lebanese lunching spot.  From inside the noise and humidity of the Jungle, we ventured out into the icy blasts of the old Olympic Park site.  Vast glacial pathways cut across wide empty space.  We peeked into Zaha Hadid's wonderful Aquatic Centre.  Ruth saw it as a stingray.  I remembered Zaha's passing this year.

Lebanese Lunch in the jungle

The start of 'The Line' appears to shun the Olympic park.  I am reminded of seeing the pain in Anish Kapoor's face when the Orbital Tower was being opened.  It had clearly been destroyed by 'Health and Safety'.

What a magnificent building

The first sculpture- Unfortunately we missed it.

A high point on the route in walking through the Three Mills.

This is a tidal mill, that dates back to the Domesday Book.  The locks round here have four gates as both sides take turns at being the top.

Once the centre of Gin manufacture in the East End. Now a good place
to have mulled wine and chestnuts.

More chestnuts than we could eat in fact.

By the Lee River, final resting place for many a trolley.

Homage to the strange world of Dockland.

Up and away (£3.50 on your Oyster Card- not a bad trip.)

The view over the north bank.

View at the end of the day over the Dome.

Antony Gormley's wonderful Quantum Cloud.  To see it properly you have to walk past.

The End

What I have learnt from Neil MacGregor about Germany

• ·         Bauhaus still exists though some might call it IKEA.
• ·         Durer’s famous prints of the Knight and Melancholia are thought to sum up the German character.  His Rhinoceros, draw from a description taken from a Portuguese Sailor, is his signature work.
• ·         Gutenberg’s success, like so many revolutions, was based on serendipity.  People rich enough to buy, a epidemic desire to read the bible, technologies coming together including expertly crafted adaptations of wine presses into printing presses, and the superb craftsmanship needed to create metal lettering.  Also Meissen had Italian paper fairs twice a year, and was located in a healthy trade corridor.
• ·         The German flag, Black, Red and Gold, dates from 1845, at a time when Germany could have been unified.  “Deutschland uber alles” actually means the state of German over all these dukedoms and principalities, not the whole world!  East and West German vied for the right to use the flag because it was also associated with Karl Marx and the communist manifesto in 1845.  East German gave in and included it’s communist logo to differentiate itself from the West.
• ·         Rich Women handed in their jewels to help fund the war of liberation from Napoleon.  In exchange they were given Iron jewellery, lined with nationalist slogans. 
• ·         The Steel Yard in the City of London belonged to the Hanseatic League.  This merchant fraternity eventually gave its name to the German national airline, Lufthansa.
• ·         Riemenschneider wood carvings were not intended to be painted, unlike most wood caring of the time.  Hence Riemenschneider used his skill to show the emotion of the person though texture alone.
• ·         The French and German’s claim Charlemagne as a founding father.
• ·         Wallhana, on the Rheine in Bavaria unites the German speaking people.  German, a nation, like other nations with week physical borders, has moved around.  The only thing left in Konigsberg, the royal home of the Prussian kings, are the sewer man hole covers.  The Russians removed everything else even though it was the home of Kant.
• ·         Goethe was dissolute until he read Shakespeare.  Here he saw the hope of freedom from classical constraints he desired.  He is now recognised by most Germans on the street. (His picture that is.)
• ·         Luther survived many sentences of death because of the divided German statelet system.  His presence in Saxony was a snub to neighbouring states.  A bit like Leicester and Leicestershire, “we’ll do whatever they and not doing, and visa versa.”
• ·         Luther’s German became a marker for the nations, in a similar way Chaucer’s English was in England.
• ·         Charlemagne’s true crown (actually it Otto's) is in Vienna.  We saw a replica in Aachen.  The Austrians also see him as their founding father and appropriated the crown to prevent it from being taken by Napoleon.