Created 23/2/20
Oh dear, ten weeks have passed since I last posted anything here and I’m long released from my vow of silence about the UK election. I’m not ready to think aloud about that yet. (I wonder, will there be an adverb “onweb” in years to come? As in “not ready to think onweb about that yet”. I think what I do in my blogging, particularly this personal one, is to think onweb, a sort of musing.)
Oh dear, oh dear, is that even an adverb? It seems to me it modifies a verb but I went through school when grammar went out of fashion. Christopher, there’s a difference between musing and rambling hopelessly: get a grip man!
I’ve really disliked some of my posts that I came to re-read for some reason, maybe that contributed to the lack of posts here. Ah well, onwards.
I’m in Toulouse now (https://www.coresystemtrust.org.uk/french/ gives a cross-link to my work life and part of reason I’m here). I thought I should find the university campus before I officially start tomorrow, so I wandered off from my airBnB with my camera this afternoon. Boy did some money go into the campus architecture and relatively recently: brutalism is alive and well, reborn in Toulouse.
I confess I have a real leaning to brutalist concrete. I love the South Bank though I know many hate it. Anyway, before we get to the concrete, and surely for my and your amusement, I got a fly past… (sorry about the terrible positioning on the thumbnails, double click as usual to get the full experience!)
We don’t see those over South London. I see I should call it “Beluga” not “Guppy” and I think they’re right: it is very like a beluga. Is it aerial brutalism?
I don’t seem to be remembering how to handle these galleries well, or perhaps the plugin is malfunctioning (aren’t the joys of IT boundless?) I also need some sleep so for now I’ll just put up some of the views I took. If you don’t like reborn brutalism, or my rather quirky viewpoints, look away now! … or rather, just don’t double click and jump the gallery.
I think one of those buildings looks more like part of the German “Atlantic wall” fortifications than part of a university so even I, with my fondness for stark concrete architecture, wonder about that.
Signing off with a selfie. A collision between a Giacometti sculpture and a conveyor belt stuck in concrete?
