Maps Anyone ?

I snap the City of London Information Center in Saint Paul's Yard, across the street from the Wren cathedral.  The structure went up in 2007 , designed by make architects. It is pretty funky, too, standing-out in old London yet not distracting from the church. So bravo for that.

The architects set out their stall (from the website):

"A folded metallic envelope wraps 140m2 of internal accommodation, lending the building an angular profile and an air of lightness akin to that of a paper aeroplane. This aerodynamic effect is enhanced by the sloping roof which rises from 3m at the rear staff entrance point to 5m at the public entrance. The large spans and cantilevers required have been achieved using a steel frame braced by a structural ply skin and clad in stainless steel panels. This solution minimises the thickness of the structural envelope - an important consideration in a building of this scale. In addition, the sensitive and restricted nature of the site made a rapid construction method highly desirable. Accordingly, the steel frame was prefabricated in 2 separate sections which were craned onto the site at night and assembled over the course of a couple of days.

"The structure is clad in a specially manufactured system of 220 pre-finished stainless steel panels. This subtly reflective surface provides a striking counterpoint to the stonework of St Paul’s, and the panelisation of each elevation emphasises the crisp angularity of the folded form. By contrast, the building interior is lined with a tessellation of 174 vivid yellow panels formed from Trespa, a recycled timber product. This bright and compact interior conceals a host of high-tech equipment necessary for providing a state-of-the-art information service to visitors. Public facilities are located at the widest part of the triangular plan, and are separated from the staff facilities beyond by a specially-designed information desk.

"

Going Going Gone!

Sonnet and I invited to a dinner auction fundraiser for the Contemporary Arts Society ; Veronique is on the committee.  The dress-code is "Circus chic" and for a moment I contemplate the cow suit but instead go for the African wrap, pictured, which Katie gifts me from Nairobi. 

The evening at the Farmiloe building in Clerkenwell, a retired warehouse now used for .. entertainings. A man on stilts greets us from 25-feet up; two Frenchmen juggle and a model smiles in a provocative clown suit.  Inside , we watch acrobats dangling from ropes contorting their bodies in gravity defying sorts of ways.  We are handed martinis and champagne cocktails.

Since this an auction, the art displayed for the 1% who bid £50,000 like it was water . The Sotheby's auctioneer moves things along : " Can I hear 35?  35 is on offer. Do I hear 36? 36 it is! 37? 37? 38! DoIhear40goingoncegoingtwice!soldtothegentlemanininsequenedtrousers" Taste is subjective. 

I sit next to the Russian whose dress holds the rest of her in. She has a gallery on Regent's Park and invites me to have a look. At the gallery. Ar ar.

Car ride to football.
Me: "So how much homework are you boys going to have at the Hampton School?"
Eitan: "I don't know."
Joe: "They say its an hour and twenty minutes. Every day."
Me: "Which will take you guys , like, three hours."
Eitan:
Joe: "Is that your way of saying we are not very smart Mr Orenstein?"

Borough Trials

Madeleine swims four races: one butterfly plus three crawls including two anchors on the medley and freestyle relays. Since this is London, one-lap a weird 33-meters which makes it impossible for me to judge, by times, whether the kids are fast when compared to when I was an age-lapper. Regardless, Madeleine crushes it : she wins her individual crawl in a time of 25.84 (the judge says fastest time for Year-5s, boys and girls) and powers through the relays delivering top place for both. The look of joy, pure joy, on her face like nothing else. I have not seen it before or, if I have, it was when we got the dog. And there that smile is again made all the better as Madeleine shares her happiness with her team-mates.

Eitan cruises to victory in his 33-meter freestyle (21.83), backstroke and two relays.  He is polite , even shy, after each race : he looks at me briefly for encouragement, offers a sheepish grin, then off to the accolades of his friends.

It amazes me  how the parents yell at their darling athletes: "Gooo!! 'Beck!" (the Dad behind me emotes) "Go. Go!  GOO!! Argghh! Don't Quit. Agg!! YOU ! ARE ! ALMOST THERE 'BECCAAAAA!! ! 

The noise deafening and shrill made worse by being indoors.  The football pitch, where I expect nastiness on occasion, no comparison to this. And mostly the mums, too, who, when I see them at the school yard, are the most civil people I know. So reserved, so British. And now it is all, like,"FASTER! F-A-A-SSSTT-E-R-R!!"

SM wins the gala and everybody feeling good. Pizza for dinner. Woo hoo!

Ze Future

Any kid knows that to see one's future, look at the parents.

It has been non-stop since returning to London Saturday. So I roll with it : Parents swimming dinner-party; Jeremy Ben-Ami reception; Sunday brunch with the neighborhood and Rusty. Oh, and I meet the Asst Treasurer of Diageo, the largest drinks company in the world.

Ben-Ami is interesting.  His family connection to Israel goes back 130 years to the first aliyah when his great-grandparents were among the first settlers in Petah Tikva.  His grandparents were one of the founding families of Tel Aviv, and his father was an activist and leader in the Irgun, working for Israel’s independence and on the rescue of European Jews before and during World War II.

Ben-Ami served as the Deputy Domestic Policy Advisor in the White House to President Bill Clinton in the late-90s and has worked on seven Presidential and numerous state and local campaigns.  He was Howard Dean’s National Policy Director in 2004 and helped manage a Mayoral campaign in New York City in 2001. The Jerusalem Post recognised him as one of the world's top-50 influential Jews.

In 2008, he founded non-profit PAC J Street, which argues "a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential to Israel’s survival as the national home of the Jewish people and as a vibrant democracy." 

Tonight  he debates Israel and the US in the Middle East at Cadogan Hall, moderated by Roger Cohen of the New York Times.