It Was Diana's Day Off,

so off to London we went, 

Diana took this one from the bus, as we made our way here, 

the London Camera Exchange, one of the memory cards for the new camera was the wrong one, I had ordered one for a Fujifilm GSX 100S, in fact I had the Fujifilm GSX 100S II which takes a different card, D'Oh!, as I mentioned before the new camera is going to be a steep learning curve! the great news was that the card was change and I was given a cash refund with no fuss at all, also a real bonus, the camera takes 2 cards, so I wanted to have one card with normal photographs on it, the other card with RAW or in Fujifilm's case RAF files on it, one of the staff there who has a similar camera in no time had programmed my camera to do exactly that, well done to the London Camera Exchange, as an aside if any one out there needs any help with cameras or lenses I highly recommend this store, I know I could have bought all of this on the net, but I hate doing that, and as shown above going to a reputable store pays real dividends if something goes wrong, all I have to do now is find out how to view the RAF files!

as we were in London we decided on a walkabout, and a look at some of the more unusual shops on our way to Chinatown, so far my sciatica was not too bad, 

a quick pose, 

or two, 

as we passed this strange looking facade, 

and here we were in covent garden, 

complete with its Christmas tree, 

we called into Nespresso for a couple of descaling kits, the water in Beckenham is so hard you can almost cut slices of it!

then a quick look at the LEGO Father Christmas and Rudolph, 

we made our way into Chinatown,

under the lanterns, 

and passing lots of restaurants, 

until we found ourselves outside of our favourite one, the Golden Phoenix,

a quick purse through the menu, 

we ordered pretty much the same as previous visits, 

and it was all delicious, 

Diana has made a short video of out meal is you are ever in Chinatown and not sure which restaurant to choose remember this one near the corner, although one has to say prices have risen sharply in the past couple of years, it was not long ago that this or at least a similar meal here would be in the £80 - £90 bracket, today £130, but as Diana tells me so often, 'nothing stays the same forever', it must be my age, I keep thinking of things as they were, but it was excellent, we then made our way home where it was feet up for a couple of films, 

a favourite of mine, Blow-Up, the film centres on a murder,

committed in this park that we visited in January 2019, if you watch the film these views of the park,

will be familiar, the park is Maryon Park in South East London,

before we leave Blow-Up here are a few stills from the film, 

David Hemmings the main star of the movie, we then followed that with our last film of the evening,

 Murder on the Orient Express, the 2017 version, I have to say I preferred the original 1974 version, but there it is, fun to watch, and with the end of that Diana was off to bed, for myself last week's edition of Have I Got News For You, before I too was off to bed.

You May Remember This Photograph,

it is of a Saturn V rocket,

photograph NASA I used the photograph in a post in a post last week, about boys toys, well there is a way you can own a Saturn rocket, 

buy the LEGO kit! available here, but there is more, 

LEGO has now launched the NASA Artemis Space Launch System, so you can now own both big boys toys! for the full article have a look here, and if you want a run down on the build of Artemis Space Launch System,

here is the video, where both kits are side by side, and with only 227 days to Christmas, maybe one for the stocking!

Time For Sunday Lunch,

first a read and a sherry,

I am still reading the latest issue of Private Eye, 

for starters huge garlic king prawns with garlic bread,

yummy!

for today duck with all the trimmings, with gravy for Diana,

sans gravy for myself,

'Cheers!',

for dessert a sherry trifle, after a break it was feet up for a film, and what better than,

Ben Hur? well worth watching if you have not already done so,

then a break, time for Easter eggs! a caramel egg for Diana, a Maltesers egg for myself, diet starts next week!

photograph Nine for Brands, we followed that with a LEGO Master, which was certainly different, 

we rounded off the day with another epic, Waterloo, the 1970 release, it had everything, 20,000 soldiers, a full brigade of Soviet cavalry, and vast numbers of engineers and laborers to prepare locations and facilities for 48 days of shooting in the Ukraine, to recreate the battlefield, the Soviets bulldozed 2 hills, deepened a valley, laid miles of roads, transplanted 5,000 trees, sowed fields of rye, barley, and wildflowers, and reconstructed 4 historic buildings. The production included Italian and Russian technicians, English and French advisors, Yugoslav stuntmen, and actors from America, Canada, England, Ireland, Italy, France, and Russia and a International cast, which includes Rod Steiger, Christopher Plummer, Virginia McKenna, Jack Hawkins, Dan O'Herlihy and Orson Welles, what a great film, after which we were off to bed. 

I Have Lost Count,

of the number of times, we have featured LEGO on our blog,

photographs David Levene/The Guardian, but if you click here you can see them, and here is another masterpiece made of them, Ai Weiwei has completed his largest LEGO piece to date in a recreation of “Water Lilies,” one of French Impressionist artist Claude Monet’s most iconic artworks, Monet’s Water Lilies series was inspired by the artist’s garden in Giverny, France, featuring a foot bridge over a pond teeming with wildlife. This idyllic setting was the design and creation of Monet himself, who at the turn of the 20th century had the nearby River Epte partially diverted in order to bring his vision to life,

Monet’s brushstrokes in his water and reflection landscapes are replaced by about 650,000 studs of Lego bricks, in 22 vivid colours, in the 15-metre-long work at the centre of Weiwei’s biggest UK show in eight years, opening next month, entitled Water Lilies #1, it is the largest Lego artwork by the celebrated global artist since he first adopted the medium in 2014 to produce portraits of political prisoners, and will span the entire length of one of the walls of the Design Museum gallery in Kensington, west London, where his first design-focused exhibition opens on Friday 7 April to July 30 in London, you can follow more updates on Instagram, and read the original story here at The Guardian, is there anything that can not be built of LEGO?

Unusually Diana Had To Go To Work On A Sunday,

it was a after hours stock take, 

but we still had time for a Sunday lunch, so a read and a sherry,

for today, roast chicken,

'Cheers!',

for dessert a apple pie with sugar glazed on top with ice cream, delicious!

eyes down and tuck in, shortly afterwards Diana left for work, 

for myself it was feet up for Gunfight at the OK Corral, the 1957 version, a great western if you are into the genre, as it happens I found it quite enjoyable, 

then a new one for myself Lego Master Australia, a number of 2 person teams are asked to make a object, in this programme a car of the future, from LEGO, I got bored halfway through, but at least I gave it a try,

then a real treat, a biography of Roald Amundsen, titled Amundsen, I could watch films like this 24/7, what a great movie, made in Norway it must have been difficult to make, for the fact is that Amundsen was not a very easy person to get along with, because of his sometimes controversial views, but the film did not shy away from the facts, if you have some spare time I would thoroughly recommend this for a evenings entertainment, I then started to watch Mary Queen of Scots, but as Diana arrived home it was time for coffee and a chat, during which we turned to ITVX for a Lewis before we were off to bed.

I Guess many Of Us Like Watching Dominoes Fall,

after they have been painstakingly stood next to each other,

like this above, it took two days to set them up, and when they successfully fell, it became a new world record, by domino master Hevesh5 (Lily Hevesh) and friends Berlagawesome and ShanesDominoez, who set up 15,524 dominoes to fall in a single line, by the way the dominoes were weighed to calculate the number in the line, a little bit about Hevesh5 (Lily Hevesh) she currently has over 250 million total YouTube views and 1,000,000 subscribers, making her the #1 most subscribed Domino Artist on the web, as it happens we have featured stunts like this a few times, but here is the thing, what if you could make a machine that would stack the dominoes for you? that was the challenge,

that Grant Davis took up, not only to make a machine that can reset dominos even when they misalign, he made it entirely out of LEGO parts! More than 4,000 LEGO pieces, which took him between 300 and 400 hours to conceive, design, and build. It picks up dominos, stacks them in alignment, and topples them, too, I am just so amazed at the complexity of the machine, I wonder if the machine will ever be used by professional domino stackers?

Our Second Day In Southend-On-Sea,

the highlight of the week, a visit to a cat café and snow!

we booked out of our hotel,

and started down to the Beach Road,

but first a look at the pier,

and our hotel, it was bitterly cold, so much so that in the lift Diana put on an extra layer of clothing, I just wish I had an extra layer too!

down at sea level where the pier begins there are a few containers,

we started our walk along the front,

it was so windy,

although the day was clear,

a quick pose,

and a panorama,

looking along the coast,

"I see no ships!",

we were by now convinced it was not raining but snowing!

we passed one of the jetties which I guess is used at high tide,

a lonely crow looking for a meal, I had forgotten the peanuts,

one thing about the front here,

there are so many amusement arcades,

we looked in here for a refrigerator magnet,

but no luck, lots of magnets, but none with the pier on, still the balls and Diana added a nice touch of colour to what was a grey scene,

in the far distance the end of the pier,

and further out still some wind turbines, the sky really grey now,

as a strong wind started up,

we gave the cheese and LEGO blocks a miss,

it really was way too cold for a run,

through the dancing water feature,

in the distance the Kersaal,

it is a Grade II listed building in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which opened in 1901 as part of one of the world's first purpose-built amusement parks. The venue is noted for the main building with distinctive dome, designed by Campbell Sherrin, which as it happens featured on a Royal Mail special edition stamp, and if you look very carefully you can see the snow!

and here is a short video Diana made of it,

I was thinking of some cockles and whelks for breakfast, but we would soon be eating,

due to I guess the cold, wet, windy and snowy conditions we almost had the High Street to ourselves,

this is where we were heading Queen's Road,

no not to the LEGO shop with a full size Yoda outside,

or the pie and mash shop,

we were headed to this cat café,

the Kittea Cakes Cafe,

we had booked a place just before lunch,

as many of our friends and readers know we really do miss our cats we had when we lived in Thailand,

and today welcome to the cats,

we entered into a cat paradise,

we were soon greeted,

Diana straight away,

became the center of attention,

it was so tricky,

playing with the cats and videoing at the same time,

I just sat there,

enjoying watching Diana, the cats and sipping my coffee,

Diana really was in seventh heaven,

as so many of the cats joined in,

but not all of them,

two of them settled down beside me,

their attention focused on the pigeons outside,

breakfast, the café serves a number of snacks hot or cold,

time to stop playing and tuck in,

I had the attention of Candy,

whilst the others played,

or slept,

I realised that my choice of sandwich filling in a cat café,

of tuna might not have been the best choice, I was soon the star attraction!

the sign on the wall says it all,

we were really enjoying ourselves so much,

as were the cats, it was great to see them all so happy as were the staff that looked after us,

in fact what a purrrrfect job!

here are a couple of videos,

that Diana made,

and one I made on my camera, great fun was had by all!

and then we saw the Bengal,

he so much reminded us of ours, in case you do not know them here they are,

Cable,

Houge, 

and Mariana, although she was not a Bengal, she was having a sleep on one of the speakers,

and here they all are, looking at birds in the garden,

here are a few videos,

of them at play,

they had their own room, complete with a huge cat tower and pool with a fountain,

they all just loved playing in the water,

and going for walkies, if you want to see more of the cats just go to our home page and at the top in the search box type in Cable or Houge or Mariana, back to Southend, the café has its own web site and Facebook page if you want to pay a visit, I hope you do, we really enjoyed ours,

all to soon it was time to say goodbye to the cats as we made our way back to the station, shopping on the way,

naturally,

we were soon thundering towards London,

out of the train at Fenchurch Street,

and the walk to Tower Hill,

where it was time for a pose,

before taking the Underground to Victoria,

several stops later and we were walking into the park and home, after our evening meal I made a started on resizing the photographs and posting the blog, which I finally finished on Friday afternoon, back to the evening,

 we watched The Coldest Game, which was very enjoyable, the film centers around the Cuban crisis and a world chess championship game, with a few nice unexpected twists in the tale, one from New Tricks and we were off to bed,