Sunday, February 26, 2012

Hi Silicon Roundabout

Starting with a new job tomorrow I can't help remembering my earlier experience of looking for a job after relocating. This time the process was much smoother, in two weeks after publishing my CV because of pure curiosity and not even applying myself I got two offers I had to choose from and probably more in progress. Can't be too proud of myself though as despite the continuous problems the economy is obviously in a better state now than it used to be two or three years ago. Also my improved language proficiency have made some difference, I suppose, but anyway that was a pleasant surprise.

These were nice two years though: I was lucky to work with good people and had a chance to get back on engineering track after my romance with managerial roles, which, as I now understand, were not really my cup of tea. Will see how it goes.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Sketching at The Wallace Collection

I didn't expect the attendance to be free as the interior of the place is unusually luxurious for a public gallery. Visitors are also different:

Haters gonna hate

Paintings, furniture and decorated vases don't make the best sketching material, but the enormous collection of medieval armour provides quite a few opportunities:

Sketching at The Wallace Collection Sketching at The Wallace Collection Sketching at The Wallace Collection Sketching at The Wallace Collection

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Norman Cornish and greyhounds

I've been puzzled for a long time by greyhounds on Norman Cornish's paintings - those subtle creatures don't represent the breed you can easily imagine as a pet of a hard-working man whose life is trapped between a pit and a pub.

Visiting an exhibition today I remembered my question and I was kindly given an answer - those dogs were actually more than pets providing additional income and entertainment by racing. If you skip to 6:00 in this video you can see what that looked like in 80s.

While this tradition didn't completely vanish, there's a lot of buzz about illegal dog fighting and banned breeds owned by working class people today. Racing is still questionable in terms of animal humanity, but it definitely was a better alternative.

Thursday, February 16, 2012