Brick Lane and beigels

Brick Lane

Sun 14 Nov

My brother Brian and I had a look round the Brick Lane area a week or so ago, with our second cousin Jeff, who was on a visit from the US. It's where our grandparents settled, and where our Dad was brought up, along with all his brothers and sisters, getting on for 100 years ago. Grimsby Street is still there, though the terrace they lived in has gone, unsurprisingly, and the looming red-brick railway arches have been replaced by a characterless, but probably safer, viaduct. There's barely a hint that for the best part of a hundred years this was a teeming, thriving Jewish area, the hub of East European Jewish immigration to London. We did manage to munch a beigel (pronounced 'beigel' where we come from) in the street, though, for old times' sake.

We'd never met Jeff - or any of his family - before, and until a a few years ago were only vaguely aware of their existence. This was the start for me of an intensive week of family encounters - the following day I set off for Israel, where I saw more relatives I'd never met before. I'll post a bit about the trip here, and the pictures are finding their way gradually up onto Flickr.

South Bank at night

Sat 6 Feb

The Thames by night - fantastic! We'd just been to see a Transatlantic Session, along with a couple of thousand other old folkies, and this one of Hungerford Bridge is from the Level 5 balcony at the Royal Festival Hall - a perspective I'd never seen before.

The others are from ground level, and include the Embankment, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Waterloo Bridge - all London icons, glowing in the dark. See the slideshow.

Meanwhile, not very far away

. . . across North London, the snow had also fallen in Sarah's back garden. They say this is SE England's heaviest snowfall in 18 years. See the previous post for Andrei Arshavin (?) Walking in a Winter Wonderland, the next one for how 25 went mad in the snow in Brighton, and the one after that for some snow in Southern Spain. All today (well, yesterday, by the time I get this posted).
[Sarah's pic]