** TONI'S BLOG **: April 2008

Tuesday, 29 April 2008

Places I have seen (part 1) with a little history as well

Hi everyone

Just thought I would post some posts about my sightseeings so far and because there is a lot of history behind these places, thought I would include that as well. Sorry if its gets too boring, hopefully the pictures will make it interesting.

TRAFALGAR SQUARE

Trafalgar Square is a square in London, England that commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (The Battle of Trafalgar (1805) (was a naval battle west of Cape Trafalgar in the province of Cádiz in south-west Spain. In the Battle of Trafalgar, a British fleet of 27 ships of the line defeated an allied French and Spanish fleet of 33 ships of the line on 21 October 1805 in the most decisive naval engagement of the Napoleonic Wars. The French and Spanish lost 22 ships, while the British lost none. The British commander Admiral Lord Nelson died late in the battle. Since then he has been considered one of Britain's greatest naval heroes) a British naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars. The original name was to have been "King Will

iam the Fourth's Square", but George Ledwell Taylor suggested the name "Trafalgar Square".

The northern area of the square had been the site of the King's Mews since the time of Edward I, while the southern end was the original Charing Cross, where the Strand from the City met Whitehall, coming north from Westminster. As the midpoint between these twin cities, Charing Cross is to this day considered the heart of London, from which all distances today are measured.

In the 1820s the Prince Regent engaged the landscape architect John Nash to redevelop the area. Nash cleared the square as part of his Charing Cross Improvement Scheme. The present architecture of the square is due to Sir Charles Barry and was completed in 1845.

The square, a popular site for political demonstrations, is the site of Nelson's Column as well as other statues and sculptures of note.

Nelson's column

National Gallery

London's National Gallery, founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900[a] in its home on Trafalgar Square. The collection belongs to the British public and entry to the main collection is free, although there are charges for entry to special exhibitions.

The National Gallery's beginnings were modest; unlike comparable galleries such as the

Louvre in Paris or the Museo del Prado in Madrid, it was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 36 paintings from the banker John Julius Angerstein in 1824. After that initial purchase the Gallery has been shaped mainly by its early directors, notably Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which comprise two thirds of the collection.[1] The resulting collection is small compared with the national galleries of continental Europe, but has a high concentration of important works across a broad art-historical scope, from the Early Renaissance to Post-impressionism, with relatively few weak areas.

The present building, on the northern side of Trafalgar Square, is the third to house the Gallery, and like its predecessors it has often been deemed inadequate. The façade by William Wilkins is the only part of his original building of 1832–8 that remains essentially unchanged, as the structure as a whole has been altered and expanded in a piecemeal manner throughout its history. Notable additions have been made by E. M. Barry and Robert Venturi. The current Director of the National Gallery is Nicholas Penny.

My thoughts on the National Gallery

- The National Gallery is somewhere good to hide out when its really cold because its free to see and warm and they have nice clean toilets.

- It smells funny in there.

- It has lots of paintings.

- Since I am not really into paintings, I had a quick look around and specifically went and saw these paintings by Vincent van Gogh which are very famous (I listened in on a school group)

Saturday, 26 April 2008

Im in London

Hey everyone

This is just a post to say that I have arrived safe and sound in London.

My flight was 21 hours in total with two changes in Singapore and Abu Dhubi. Once I arrived in London after over 30 hours with no sleep I was under strict instructions not to go to bed so Alesha took me out and about to see some shops and then I went and set up my bank account.

So far at the moment I am looking for work and someone to live. I have had a call from both the recruitment agencies I signed up for so things look good there now just gotta find somewhere to live that bigger than a box and looks clean and friendly.

Fingers crossed.

Here are some pictures from the plane (since I haven't really done anything else).

Me on the Plane -------- Plane food (that was the best meal!)

Entertainment system on the plan

View from the front end of the plane. It was real cool it has this feature where you could see the front end of the plane (during take off/landing, etc) and see how long was left on the flight, etc.

Toni

Thursday, 10 April 2008

Turning 25

Being the youngest of a lot of my friends it was finally my turn today to turn 25 today, a quarter of a century, closer to late 20's than early!

Most of my presents this year were travel related.

I got some new pants, pack cover, pj's, pocket knife, laptop bag, travel journal, tripod for my camera.

For dinner we decided to dress up and go out for to the Casino's all you can eat buffet. It was a good meal and selection but some of us may have overdone it though with the dessert bar ...