Monthly Archives: Sep 2017

National Poetry Day

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“It’s National Poetry Day,”

I heard a lady say

     On Radio 4, so

     Instead of my torso

I’m putting this verse on display.

 

Seriously, why do we have so many ‘Days’? Some are National, some are International; some, perhaps, are Solar Systemic or Galactic and we haven’t heard about them yet.

I’m sorry this is such a short blog, without a lot of intellectual meat. But I’ve been taking photos around Kyiv, each of which tells a story or at least implies something about this ancient, modern, busy, beautiful city. I’ll share them with you very soon. No, really, I will. It’s in my diary.

Design Bloopers

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A few months ago I had a go at bathroom designers. Now it’s the kitchen designers’ turn. Have a look at the three photographs below. They were taken in the kitchen of my otherwise elegant apartment in central Kyiv…

The first time I opened the far-right cupboard and saw the band-aid solution (close-up in photo 3) I was reminded of a sketch on Spike Milligan’s TV show ‘Q8’ many years ago. Spike was playing the part of a do-it-yourself enthusiast painting vertical stripes on the wall in lieu of wallpaper. When he came to the light switch he painted the stripe around it.

I’m searching for words to compose a neat final paragraph but… well, words fail me.

Note: ‘Kyiv’ is the Latinised version of the Ukrainian spelling of what is more familiarly rendered as ‘Kiev’. Since the Russian annexation of Crimea and military support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, written Russian has almost disappeared from public places.