Last night I heard a bus shelter singing. I was sitting alone, watching the lights of a basketball court flicker on and off, waiting for the promised number 46. There was a gentle “Ah – oooo. Ah.” Like Ladysmith Black Mambazo (circa 1986) under a large bucket. It was a calming, meditative repetition of those 3 notes.
This bus stop whale song was magical, until I realised it was coming from the shelter’s brightly lit advertising sign. Each time it scrolled to a new ad for highly engineered underwear or lifestyle drinks, a distant South African choir sang sadly: “Ah – oooo. Ah.”
Colour starvation
In these drippy flannel grey spring days, I love colour. My eyes are hungry for bright shiny colourful things. Like these…

Resin chopsticks against a sad grey sky.
I’ve never used these as chopsticks. Far too chunky and clunky, and slightly bent from the move to the UK. But beautiful to look at. [Dinosaur Designs resin.]

Happy patterns and colours
Well, look what happens when I shop for clothes on a dull flat day… [Very creased Josh Goot and some faux-Missoni.]

Wizard of Oz felt rainbow
Look how utterly terrifying that faceless flying monkey thing is.

The magic carpet
This is a magic carpet and a prayer mat. That’s the kind of school we go to here.
And here’s one I wrote earlier…
Pretty things offscreen. The more of my time that is sucked up by websites, email, television and mobile phones, the more I appreciate solid physical beauty. Here are some pictures of pretty things I have seen offscreen…
Wandering in the www garden. I tend to lose all concept of time as soon as I open up a web browser. I start with a task (e.g. look up a train timetable), then somehow find myself 1 hour later looking at pictures of husband and wife cutlery.