CORBUSIER LIVES (IN RED BRICK )

One building has just gone up to the right of my view and another to the left has been demolished .

The one that has gone up is an art college, Kensington &Chelsea Art college. I like very much the fact that it resembles (in outline) the old Chelsea College of art that is no more here in Chelsea . It has the same vents (or whatever they are ) on its flat roof .

http://blogs.arts.ac.uk/chelsea/2010/11/26/farewell-manresa-road/

 I always thought the Art School building in Manresa Road to be very modern and stylish 
back in the day when Chelsea was very traditional and had very few if any modern buildings .There were of course a few squeezed in here and there between whitepainted and illustrious  semi-detatched houses .

The building that has been demolished is the Penguin Book Building ,to my immediate left. This was a landmark until it became a white elephant and has lain empty for the las ten years . Anyway that's gone now (and very quickly too ) all seven floors of it . It is to be rebuilt as social housing .
The building I live in was built originally as social housing . Local residents kicked up a right old fuss about it  as they felt it would lower the tone of the neighbourhood !
Residents here,some of  my neighbours, who csme here as social housing tennants but have since bought thier leases are not at all happy about the building next door becoming social housing , amazing really when you think that fifty years ago the entire block was a brewery ........You've got to laugh !Or you might weep at mans foolishness , greed vanity and selective memory .
Yes I have developed the art of just shaking my head and having a little laugh .
meanwhile here is the building I would like to see next door

( the Ashkalon Centre : Israel )

DEPRESSION ,FOOLS AND ANGELS

I knew for certain that I was depressed when on the bus at Hyde Park corner I had to wipe away a tear from my eye as the horse-guards crossed the road in front of the bus on their return to the stables after standing so still for many hours protecting the ahem!..queen. . “They are so beautiful” I thought “and ALL black, a series of identical (to my eyes anyway) shiny black stallions with a series of men in such very shiny golden helmets all glinting in the sun … London is so beautiful “I thought as I blew my nose feeling like a fool.

I was on my way to a long avoided visit to the hairdresser thinking “I really have to do something with my hair. I’ve been doing this wild woman of the Himalayas thing for just too long … I’m supposed to be “groomed” at my age!!!!” Those horses were groomed to an inch of their life it definitely suited them and was in their job description.
My job description as I saw it was along the lines of …..Be invisible; preferably stay at home under the duvet. Expect nothing, look after your elderly mother; give the kids all your money….Uhuh? Definitely low on serotonin this a.m. even though I had had my chocolate!

lost and looking(in the wrong places)
I considered every female’s hairstyle the length of Piccadilly and up Shaftsbury Avenue.” No notlike that ..,”that doesn’t work.”…” Don’t like that”….” Definitely not that.”... “What

about that older woman with the longish dyed hair lighting a fag in a doorway” … funnily enough, not bad in a very old rock chick way … hmmmm? “Maybe I could dye my greys?”…” …..”Maybe grey could work … how do you get it all the way there though without cutting it all off?” I got off the bus now really uncertain about the hair thing

Working my way through Covent Garden, I window shopped. By now I had decided that I needed A COMPLETE MAKEOVER! I went into a couple of places and looked about and considered red plastic stilettos , spent far too long in one shop choosing a black patent handbag and two floaty numbers but I began to dislike the experience of shopping there, it was dark and the girl that wandered about with her arms folded seemed dim also. So I left after attempting to engage with the dimness that was there, feeling really flat and slightly more depressed than ever thinking … “gosh! I won’t get made-over at this rate… All is lost ,whatever will become of me?”
Being guided to the source :getting back on track
Before I knew it I was in “Tibetan Dreams” engaging with the lovely Tibetan woman who was keeping busy in good light, making jewellery. I’ve shopped there often. It is an inexpensive Quality experience. The stock varies but as far as I know it is from the Himalayas or thereabouts by Tibetans. I was beginning to feel better.
We chatted about my hair and she advised me. “No “she said, “You don’t need a makeover maybe a little trim that’s all. Tibetan women all have hair like yours at every age.” I bought a little OM pendant and crossed the road to the hairdressers. My hairdresser was having the day off!!!! Now I felt even better still.

I had a lovely lunch of pumpkin soup and coriander cornbread at Neal’s Yard salad bar. Charmingly served in a pleasant peaceful albeit strangely eclectic Brazilian /Buddhist atmosphere … A quality over quantity experience… I was back on the blues-beating track for sure.
I felt light –hearted. !!

Returning to the source

I taxied to Central Saint Martins (my alma mater) to catch the last day of the Cecil Collins (who taught there for 30yrs) exhibition “Fools and Angels”
Cecil saw both the fool and the angel as sacred aspects of our selves.
The fool does not think but feels and acts from the wisdom of the heart risking failure. Cecil said “you don’t have to understand to create but you have to create to understand” this was a lot to do with his teaching. It was to do with taking risks with materials, marks etc., being vulnerable.
The angel is the bringer of light that connects us with our higher selves and therefore wisdom. Both are wise, the fool despite errors and the angel is unerringly wise.
I have a great fondness for Cecil Collins he is one of my favourite people ; he is like a father to me. I turn to his philosophy often to check that I am OK and on the right path. I had re-entered his world, a real world where there is no place for the ego. A place where the artist has a responsibility to focus on the light. Artists do tend to focus very intently on what they are making and we all “become that upon which we focus” and we all benefit from more light in our individual lives and as a species.
I was once again a-fire, blazing with light not depressed in any way neither by my lack of grooming or the pain in my hip from my outing.

REFLECTION

The FOOL in me took a RISK and got me out this morning . The fool in me gave reign to my feelings as I sniffed tearfully on the bus at the beauty of the horses and allowed me to own them without fear of embarrassment, perhaps the fool was just my plain silly ego (and we all have one) given some air.

The angel in me guided me with unerring wisdom and led me to the source ,to that place of grace where one can draw on unlimited joy beyond ego .

I won’t be thinking about a makeover but I will be fulfilling what is my real

JOB DESCRIPTION :

focusing on light, love and peace whilst dreaming of the Himalayas and a free Tibet.
Imagine if those beautiful Tibetan women were given the “Ten Years Younger treatment!!!!!!
I don’t think that any of the makeovers I see on TV make anyone look better do you?

SHOULD I MOVE ?

primary-schools. private,

4 September 2007 I am liiving in two worlds ,albeit that my address is Chelsea ,London. Is it any wonder that it is difficult and stressful? Being poor in a rich area,some would say that I am fortunate. and in truth I am in some ways or by some reckoning. I stand a significant chance of living a long life. The streets are very clean. my neighbours by and large all look good The properties are well kept There are is a huge variety of merchandise available to me at every turn. O yes there are very many shops.! The local colleges are well funded. The state secondary schools are .....state schools populated by children like my own There is a plethera of private infant and primary schools I am surronded by evidence of money and lots of it. In this blog I explore the crepuscular world in which I live like a mermaid ,a crab or any other amphibious creature I will try to establish a better relationship with my environment attempt to identify my place in this place The burning question is Should I move...............................................?