Author Archives: Elaine Elkington

These were the best Christmas lights in central London for a long time and I just wanted to keep a reminder of them.  I wish I had more and better pictures. This is blurry but I did manage also to get in red double deckers and a London taxi.  I had just come out of […]

An early start in the dark –  a young man from Macedonia speeds me seamlessly through the silent countryside towards Gatwick, intent on his dream of making enough money in London to buy an ice cream parlour in Amsterdam.  I am dreaming of an escape from city life to an imagined paradise for a few […]

My brother-in-law had been going to the north coast of France for many years.  In his youth, he and a friend braved the Channel in a dinghy, and (with a stroke of luck, having got lost mid way) – they  finally made it to Boulogne.  Mickey is also a rail enthusiast and it was because […]

John was invited to give a presentation at a conference in Amsterdam.  I thought we could go the weekend before and explore a city I hadn’t been to for maybe fifteen years but had good memories of.  I don’t really like trying to mix business and leisure.  But –  I could see a peep of […]

After our Sussex weekend, which turned out better than expected, we (I) decided on a long weekend to John’s favourite county  –  Dorset.  Holidays proper never seem to materialise because work is always more important, so I pounced on what had been designated ‘holiday’ in the diary, now rather brutally raided by ‘important’ meetings,  and […]

I hadn’t been to Canary Wharf before.  Coming out of the Underground, it seemed as if I’d been transported to a city of the future.  Glass skyscrapers, men like clones in dark city suits and white shirts walking in almost empty, silent and pristine streets. Reminiscent of surrealists Giorgio de Chirico mixed up with Magritte. […]

I have to admit I do like window shopping  –  along with millions of others. I’m more interested in how things are displayed in shop windows rather than just rushing in to be a consumer of what’s on offer.  These, sometimes brilliant, displays of a transitory nature are often overlooked from an artistic point of view. […]

No two week holiday for us this year after the big flood in the kitchen, which set off waves of extra building works.  But finally we had new floors and the end of six months ‘camping’ in dusty chaos was in sight.  What about a few days deep in the countryside, exploring the Somerset Levels? […]

I took this photo as we were about to cross the road at South Kensington after an interesting lecture at the Science Museum. It seemed to me a little ‘cameo noir’ from which you could create an interesting story.  Even the shot is out of focus!

It’s quite difficult to dig John out of his chair in front of the computer to have a walk at the weekend.   I just felt I had to go out and walk up river but it was already twilight and darkness was rolling in.  I decided to go anyway and tempted John to come […]