A suprise in the city

I was manning the stand at a conference last week at the Barbican Centre in London.

I had no idea that in the centre of the Barbican, an old courtyard containing the smoke outlets from the basement offices is being transformed into an incredible indoor garden, full of beautiful plants, birds and fish. The plants climb up the full height of the building, over disused balconies and around former fire exits.

There's an oddly post-apocalyptic feeling about the whole thing, I like to think that when The End comes, nature will take back all of our office buildings in such a way.

According to the website, The garden room and conservatory is a 'lush, tropical oasis, home to finches, quails, exotic fish and over 2,000 species of tropical plants and trees.'

button_quail - I tried to take a photo of the teeny tiny quail for you, but he was camera shy!

I was amazed by the Koi, some of them were as long as my arm!

Click here for the full gallery

Swimming

I hate swimming pools. They bring back bad memories of horrific swimming lessons at school when girls going through the most awkward stage of adolescence are forced to parade in freezing weather around the pool in front of lesbian PE teachers and then swim lengths in an outside pool of sub-arctic temperature, then observed while having to share a freezing cold shower, before climbing back into slightly damp school uniforms, performing a magic trick of getting totally dressed while never once removing the towel.

One girl I went to school with managed to have her period every week during the summer term for the whole 5 years of compulsory swimming lessons.

I also hate the painted blue, which makes the water look so artificial, the chlorine smell and the amplified echoes of teenagers yelling and children screaming, and the smug people in the fast swimmers lane lapping me 10 times over while I dog paddle around. I hate the sting in your eyes, and the way in the summer my hair always turned green after swimming.

However.

I really, REALLY, want one of these.

Now, THAT'S what I call a swimming pool