tim&chhay

We are in the middle of a busy 6 weeks, and currently are broadbandless at home (not such a bad thing for a household that spends 8 hours a day in front of a screen anyway) so I’ve been a bit lax with the updating.

Reaching back into the end of June our friend Howe visited for a weekend from Copenhagen (via Saigon via Adelaide via Malaysia), unfortunately he lucked out with the weather so we ducked showers all weekend but still managed to catch a fair bit of stuff.

After a late night repast at favourite haunt Pintxos on the Friday night after he arrived we did our usual customised walking tour on the Saturday - including taking in the excellent Haptic exhibition at the Lighthouse, and dinner at Malaysian Chinese gem Rumours.

Sunday we made yet another attempt at getting to Pitlochry to visit Scotland’s smallest distillery, however a late start and some poor weather saw us turn back at Loch Tay. An overly long diversion took us to the Falkirk Wheel (above)for the first time - faintly disappointing in a typical Millenium Lottery Funding sort of way.

For the second part of our Italian adventure we headed to a small island off the coast of Naples to pick up a charter yacht for a weeks sailing. Our aim was to sail to the Amalfi coast and explore the islands in the bay of Naples - Ischia, Capri and our base Procida.
Procida (below) itself is small un-touristy fishing and yachting enclave full of fantastic old buildings packed on to hillsides and a crazy system of narrow windy streets. It was a small mission to get there - including a thorough telling off from the Naples ticket inspectors for boarding a tram without a ticket, but delightful once we arrived.

Once we had settled on board Zippella (below) we headed out of the picturesque Marina di Chiaiolella to headed for neighbouring Ischia for the evening. A brisk breeze soon had a heeling nicely enjoying the sunshine and breeze on our faces as we made for the port of Sant’Angelo, however a couple of hours in, as the wind picked up and we beat towards port our rather tired looking mainsail tore, reminding Dugs and I of the somewhat haphazard nature of sailing!

After several failed attempts at mooring (our anchoring technique took some time to rediscover) we puttered in to the village and had a fantastic seafood feast served by a crazy lady at a little restaurant situated on an isthmus looking back at the town.

We toddled back to the boat as the wind started to pick up, and headed to bed only to be woken around 2 o’clock in the morning by rain streaming in through the portholes, and our dinghy about to launch it self from the deck. A quick visual check through the gloom backed up by the GPS had our anchor dragging so we nosed in a little closer and tried to sleep, it was probably lucky our somnolence wasn’t too deep because our anchoring still wasn’t up to scratch and at 5 in the morning we had dragged another 500 m and were heading towards the beach! We adjusted again and had a fitful rest till morning proper.

With our broken sail we had to readjust our plans to try and get it repaired so dawdled back to our home port with a delightful stop for lunch and a swim in the harbour at Ischia Porto (below) just across from Procida.

Once we were back in our base marina we had some bad news - it turned out our mainsail would take longer than expected to be repaired. We had time to explore the town around the marina and get a decent nights sleep before Claire headed off to make it back to work(!) while the rest of us decided to press on without our main. Thankfully we had following winds for the rest of our trip and hardly missed it.

We nosed out and set sail for Capri with another beautiful day for sailing. A bit of an oily swell and Dug’s somewhat amateur butchering of a fish we caught trawling had Chhay & I a little queasy, but by the time we rounded the spectacular looking Capri and settled into a bay on the southern side away from the 140 euro per night marina we were feeling better. We headed ashore and wandered up to Capri itself to lower the tone significantly. A 6 euro gelati soon had us scurrying back aboard to cook dinner for ourselves however.

The bathtub shape of our boat didn’t make for an easy anchorage and as a storm hit again in the small hours we found ourselves dragging once more, this time next to a rather severe looking cliff face! The next morning dawned hot and clear but as we made a quick dash towards our the Amalfi coast to at least get in sight of our initial destination the weather closed in. Having decided not to make landfall we spun around and headed back to Procida, thankfully the wind had turned with us and we could reach our way back at a healthy pace as the islands faded in and out with passing squalls. As we neared the southern tip of Procida the weather cleared and we crept into a delightful bay in the lee of a fort with precarious fishermen’s houses clinging to the sheer hills (below).

With our anchor firmly set and the calmest waters we had experienced we popped in to the town and explored the back streets before settling in to a fantastic seafood feast right on the edge of the fishing harbour, with launches full of people arriving and stepping straight off the boat and to their table.

The final morning we puttered around the island and back to our marina before starting an epic (bus, ferry, tram, train, bus, flight) trip back (40 hours for Dugs) and another night in Rome for Chhay & I.

With the younger harland venturing offshore for the first time we caught up with him in Rome earlier this month, replacing a conference about the intricacies of radar with some more somnolent pursuits.We managed to actually enter very few of the main attractions, with the exception of the coleseum (below) and the roman forum, spending most of our time wandering & absorbing - a return visit to actually attempt to tackle some of the thousands of museums and churches dotted throughout the centro storico is defiinetly in order.

Highlights for me as usual were the twisty back alleys, framing storybook views of old shops & apartment buildings. We skirted some of the classic pieces but generally tried to avoid the packed throngs surrounding them, limiting Chhay & my’s ability to re-enact Roman Holiday.

the old Jewish ghetto (above) and Trastevere south of the tiber were my favourite areas, smaller in scale and slightly less frenetic but we could have wandered through the entire city for hours more than we did.

The lack of recent posts has been down to some decidedly summerlike weather (5 days without rain!) which has seen us in the garden and out at the allotment. Our seedlings are getting rather huge in the conservatory, although many of the ones that we planted out have been decimated by slugs! I finally added the roof to the greenhouse this weekend so with the addition of a door and an industrial load of gap filler we’ll be at lock up stage.

last weekend for the first of 2 may long weekends we headed south into the Dumfries region. We camped on the Solway Coast in one of those decidedly Brittish holiday parks, complete with green caravans, kids with buckets & spades and a decidedly underwhelming beach, although this one was much less garish than most and beautifully sited overlooking a little bay (above).

We walked from our campsite along the coast to the delightful Rocklciffe & Kipford (more boats - you have to feel for poor Chhay, having to put up with me) , past little settlements and ultimate natural smugglers hideouts (above) carved into the cliffs. We also found time to explore the atmospheric ruined Sweetheart Abbey and the attendant cute little town of New Abbey (below).

On the Sunday we headed back past Dumfries (itself an interesting if a little sketchy regional centre with great winding lanes and beautiful red sandstone housing stock) to the reason for our trip - Charles Jencks own Garden of Cosmic Speculation. Open to the public on only one day a year it is an esoteric, sometimes humorous sculptural post modern landscape treat. Curving grass helixes (below), mirrored ponds, obscure sculptures tucked into hidden groves (bottom) as well as complex hydrological features make for a fascinating place for exploring and it was incredibly popular - packed with the funkier edge of the blue rinse set.

While some of it was a little too post modern for my black skivvied taste, it is an amazing place, showing that there is more to the old critic than a few architecture tomes. As always more at our flickr

As Chhay & and I have somehow managed to keep each other entertained, annoyed or otherwise occupied for approximately the last eight years, we dumped our surrogate child Claire for a weekend on the Ardnamurchan peninsula.

We had a pleasant drive up on the Friday night stopping at the very elegant Kilcamb Lodge for a somewhat surprisingly fancy supper.

We were based in Acharacle which was an unpreposessing town at the edge of the peninsula. The surrounding countryside however was absolutely magnificent. Quite depopulated with hidden coves and bays and the odd sandy beach to surprise.

There was even the wildlife promised by the tourist people - chhay spotted badgers, hawks and multitude of deer.

We trekked out to the very end of the peninsula - which also happens to be the westernmost mainland point on Great Britain, alsthough the islands sitting just offshore don’t give you a great sense of achievement. Having satifies our extremism we hopped on a ferry for an afternoon in the very picturesque Tobermory on the Isle of Mull.(below)

On our last day we did a big loop up to the gritty ‘gateway to the isles’, Mallaig - a proper fishing town, with a proper somewhat stinky harbour. The road up however was breathtaking - starting with beautiful harbours complete with ruined castles, and hidden yachts, follwed by clear aqua water backed by snow topped mountains, more beaches and views out to the small isles of Eigg, Rum and Rhu with the brooding presence of the Isle of Skye in the background.

I spent most of my time over the whole weekend wildly speculating on boat purchases, as every turn revealed yet another brilliant opportuinity for sailing. I think a six month trip up the west coast of Scotland may be the fitting way to finish our time here so if anyone want to join in a couple of years just let me know!

With our friend Lincoln visiting from oz we took a long weekend and headed back down to the lake district. Rather than focusing on walking we explored lots of the little villages and visited many of the lakes, with some of the most perfect weather in UK Feburary history showing them at their most spectacular.

Most of the towns and villages are tacky tourist nightmares - packed even at this time of the year, although we unearthed a few gems in the southern lakes near where we were staying, in particular Broughton-in-Furness a proper market town with poetic locals commenting on the depth of the sunset.

The highlights were drives over the mountain passes between regions, spotting future locations for magnificent hillwalking (above), and the odd moment when we discovered peaceful little spots by the lakes away from the main drag, in particular the beach on Coniston Water (top) and the little peninsula that the photos of Ullswater (above) were taken from, which had a cute little boathouse nestled next to it (below).

The surrealest moment however had to be Grange-over-(not quite) sands a victorian seaside town where the local river has changed its course, leaving a swath of boggy salt marshes behind (below), yet the promenade is still full of people taking a turn, observing sheep grazing below them.

For more reflectastic photos check out the flickr set

While it might be possible to hold an outdoor festival in the middle of winter in benign Byron Bay, surely festival season has wrapped up months ago here in the UK. Not so fast however however - there is a solution - the ultimate in family holiday fun - Butlins Holiday Camps and the kind folks at All Tomorrow’s Parties & Portishead to the rescue.
It was time for a road trip, destination - deepest darkest Somerset, with a pile of CD’s, hire care and a map of Britain that filled the windscreen it was a seven hour trip from Glasvegas via the M6 & M5.

We broke our trip with morning tea in Birmingham in the basement of the funky Future Systems‘ Selfridges (above), and watched the sun set with a homage at Portishead harbour (below).

As the band named after the town were curating the festival it seemed that most of the acts were either - bands from Bristol or on Portishead member Geoff Barrow’s Invada Records label. Portishead themselves played both Friday & Saturday nights - we saw their second set - very laid back and polished with many of their new tracks thrown in.
Other headliners Julian Cope and Aphex Twin were more of a mixed bag. Julian Cope was entertaining with his motley crew of bikers and ended his set with a garrulous five minute rant. Aphex also played twice and we saw parts of both sets - they were a little commercial and not eclectic enough for my taste.
Our highlights for what they’re worth were:

Chrome Hoof - the new genre of doom disco spearheaded by this ten piece multi-instrumental silver lame clad outfit is heading your way - either dance or duck!

Autolux - artful poppy noise from LA, with some beautiful drumming courtesy of the female drummers loose style (and perhaps her bionic elbow?) - great website too.
Fuck Buttons - danceable electro laptop beats from - you guessed it Bristol - these guys were so good early on that they were put on again to close the event.
Overall the concept for the festival works brilliantly - the crazy circus tent covered ’street’ that spans between venues, bars and tacky amusement arcades (below) creates a very civilised festival atmosphere (complete with people picnicking on the ‘grass’ coloured carpet!). Achingly cool hipsters wandering around in such a searingly cheesy setting further enhances the surreal impression. And the cabin accommodation in endless barrack style rows is a very pleasant step up from the usual tented quagmire that accompanies summer festivals.

Our sleepy journey home was broken only by a quick visit to Bristol where we took in Clifton and its famous suspension bridge (below) before hightailing back along the motorway.

While we tried to keep our usual architouring to a minimum to avoid totally ruining our friends holiday we did manage to sneak in a few select gems on our trip.

In New York firstly I was a little disappointed with the new MoMA - I felt it lacked coherence and any clear rationale. There were some interesting spaces, particularly the main sculpture hall (above) - animated by people circulating through the gallery but the exhibition rooms themselves were fairly bland (ok maybe it should be about the art).

PS 1 in Queens (above) was a much more interesting space - situated in an old Primary School the only real architectural intervention is the wall at the front creating a serene courtyard, the interiors still feel like the kids only left yesterday (although the standard of their finger painting was pretty high). At times it was eerily like Toul Sleng in Pnom Penh - quiet neglected corridors filled with evocative imagery.

On our final day in New York Chhay & I snuck off for some more focused architectural voyeurism. We started with the new New Museum by SANAA (above) which was only days away from completion and looking fantastic - an ethereal series of stacked boxes, at once gritty and urban in the Bowery context yet at the same time light and delicate. The cladding of galvanised mesh over fibre cement was so utilitarian yet diaphanous - a true delight. It was a pity we missed the opening as would like to experience the interior of one of their buildings.

We followed that with a visit to a tired looking yet still successful Storefront for Art & Architecture (above). They had an exhibition of new Danish work including a lot of work by BIG, a firm that should we ever end up in Denmark I would love to work for - I really enjoy their playful yet well researched approach. Staying in the same area we had a rather damp look at some of the new ’starchitect’ apartment blocks in SoHo - Nouvel’s 40 Mercer (below) & Herzog & DeMeuron’s 40 Bond, all very glam but fairly restrained overall, apart from the lower level cladding of H & DeM’s baby.

With the weather getting steadily worse we abandoned any attempt to see more buildings and legged it to diller + scorfidio’s The Brasserie (below) where we seriously lowered the tone - especially once we realised that cocktails were half price!

Once in San Francsico we were in capable hands with our hosts interest in architecture.
As I mentioned previously the Federal Building by Thom Mayne (below + top) was our first stop. Although it is quite brutally inserted into its 3-4 storey context the level of detailing and polish is amazing. There may be a little too much going on for some tastes but it was one of the best high rise office buildings I have encountered. Unfortunately it was a Sunday so we couldn’t get inside (I’m not sure we would have been allowed in even if it was open).

The other major contemporary San Franciscan building is of course the new DeYoung Museum by our old friends Herzog & DeMeuron (below). It occupies a slightly surreal setting in the Golden Gate Park next to the Academy of Sciences sporting some new Martian looking green roofed domes - part of a Renzo Piano renovation.

The detailing by the swiss is fantastic throughout although the entrance to the museum is very understated. The perforated copper cladding refracts the light in different ways depending on the varying apertures of the perforation, and the screened twisting tower sneaks in between mature trees providing great views of the park. Once inside light is brought in through glazed gardens with minimalist eucalyptus softening the light.

On our final night we managed to tick another Phaidon Atlas building off our list somewhat unintentionally. James took us to an art gallery opening which happened to be in a fantastic apartment in the Yerba Buena Lofts complex by Saitowitz Natoma. Although we only saw it at night it is a magnificent sleek concrete box with projections and recesses forming balconies and creating varied double height spaces in the apartments - it gave me plenty of food for thought for shaking up multi-res design here is Scotland - so much of it poky and unimaginative.

More archi porn on our flickr if u want a peek - NY SF.

We had a great time in San Francisco although things didn’t always go according to plan - at times it seemed like everything we wanted to do was canceled or closed. Still days were spent exploring the various neighbourhoods and by night we visited a cross spectrum of San Fran’s ‘dive bars’ - it seems no bar is complete without a neon cocktail sign outside in this city.

We divided most of our time between the Haight (above) - the nexus of of the flower generation and the summer of love, now somewhat resembling the hippes from that era - a bit burnt out, still clinging to old values despite having sold out to the man and the rest in the Mission (below) - the more down at heel latino district now home to hipsters, cool graphic design shops and groovy bars as the gentrification begins.

Still San Fran still contains good sized chunks of seediness often squeezed in between the posher areas so that one minute you are swishing past Barney’s and the swanky Apple Store before only a block or two away hotel rooms are rented by the hour and the crack dealers are out in force. It was quite refreshing after the santised streets of NY.

We did attempt a couple of touristy things - drinking coffee in North Beach (above), riding a cable car and catching the ferry to Alcatraz - although our attempt to cross the Golden Gate bridge on a 50’s era fire truck was sadly thwarted by their schedule. We also visited the new Herzog & de Meuron - De Young Museum in the Golden Gate Park - an intriguing gallery which I’ll devote a separate post to with an excellent though esoteric collection (below).