I had to do a double take when i first saw this series of London Underground adverts promoting Nigeria. As a tourist destination! I took another ride up and down the escalators just to be sure I wasn't seeing things. When I saw them at another Central London station, it became clear this is to be a regular sight now. Proud as one is at being Nigerian in spite of the infamy that often accompanies such identification, I still had to wonder why the adverts. What's the use? They won't do much to counter the avalance of negative press and perception in the outside world. Besides, hell will nearly freeze over before the rest of the travelling world begins to see Nigeria as an attractive holiday destination. But a friend of mine who saw these ads with me the second time, is more positive. A little goes a long way, he says.
Took a night-time stroll through Trafalgar Square about 8.30pm on Thursday December 21st, and these are some of the scenes. The daytime throngs of tourists were gone from around the fountains and the bronze lions at the foot of Nelson's Column but there was still some activity. A small crowd watched carol singers being filmed under the giant Christmas tree in one corner, but the rest of the square was deserted and calm. The ground was beginning to glaze over with ice from the chilly weather and did not invite walking. Still I was drawn to the white marble sculpture of Alison Lapper which now graces the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square.
Many public figures (including Nelson Mandela) were considered for the once empty fourth plinth, but the honour went to disabled artist Alison Lapper who was born with shortened legs and no arms. Sculpted by Marc Quinn and unveiled in September 2005, the sculpture shows Lapper when she was over 8 months pregnant, and represents the only female figure in the square. The other statues in the square are darkish in colour (Nelson is pale - probably white marble too - but he is so far up in the sky that he hardly comes into the reckoning at ground level). And, lit up from below, Lapper's portrait glows radiantly at night. And it was this that stopped me going straght into the underground station as planned - and drew me into the square instead.
These pictures refused to go on the preceding post on life in Cardinal Place. 2 or 3 weeks after the fashion show below, it's early October, and office workers poured out of a their floors after a fire alert - and a rain soaked Cardinal Place was what awaited them. Many came prepared, with umbrellas. All part of the cycle of life at Cardinal Place.
This image of a solitary snail, is stylized from an original (see original pics below), taken by my 8-year-old earlier today. When you live in the London urban environment, sightings such as a few snails after rain, can be quite major, especially to a child. He ran in earlier today saying excitedly how he'd seen snails by a plant outside. So I gave him my camera and said: well go and snap them. Sure enough, he came back with images I thought were rather accomplished, for his age - especially as he took them with no supervision whatsoever. A budding nature photographer?
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