One for photo fans - checking the forthcoming Tower Bridge lifts, I notice that the UK naval frigate, HMS Westminster is arriving in London for a few days, and will pass under the raised Tower Bridge just before 5pm on Dec 13th.

We should get a floodlit Tower Bridge at night, with the warship passing through - could be damn spectacular.

I’ll be there for that - maybe by the Tower as there is a spot there where the riverside path juts out a bit for good photos - but there is also a raised pedestrian area a bit further back from the bridge which is higher and offers better views (and fewer tourists!). Will check on the night to see whether the camera can cope with the added distance for a night shot.

HMS Westminster was used for the interior shots in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies in three different roles – as HMS Chester, HMS Devonshire and HMS Bedford.

Accroding to the Tower Bridge website, the arrival is at 16:55 on the 13th Dec, and the ship leaves at 6:20am on 17th Dec.

I am starting a bit of history research as background material for a group social walk along the Greenwich Peninsula I am organising next month for Thingbox members. There is tons of history in the area, and thanks to a few signs dotted along the riverside, I am aware of what most of the key points to write up are.

However, I have come across one which I was unaware of - and seemingly not signposted on the route itself.

During the 17th century, at the very tip of the Greenwich Peninsula - where the O2/Dome currently resides - was a custom of hanging river pirates out in cages after their execution as a deterrent to other pirates on the River Thames!

This was not the only spot for such grizly displays as prisoners who were executed at the aptly named Execution Dock were also displayed at Cuckold’s Point (near the Thames Barrier) as well.

According to a quote from the Victorian Dictionary, published in 1860 - “opposite Blackwall on the banks of the Thames a good many pirates usually hung in chains, looking like scarecrows.” It should be noted that the patch of land is known, confusingly as “Blackwall Point”, and at the time was a marshy island during high tides.

The same point was later used as a river police station with the final hanging apparently occurring in 1834 - about the same time as the police station was probably built. I guess they didn’t appreciate the neighbors.

There is a cage in the Museum of Docklands and the area around the cage is reputed to be haunted by one of the executed pirates.

The picture is of an iron gibbet which was used in the USA to display pirates - I presume the UK version would be similar, but I shall pop into the Museum of Docklands to have a look shortly.

I was heading towards Covent Garden yesterday and noticed a forlorn looking church near Neal Street and wandered over to have a look. It was closed and in need of repair, but a sign on the front was advertising much goodness inside.

Indeed, it is the Swiss Chuch in England - and later this week they are having a festival of all things Swiss and Christmassy.

It is on Thursday evening, and Saturday afternoon - and I shall try to wander along on Saturday.

A bit of blurb from their website:

The Swiss Church is holding its traditional Swiss Christmas Fair on Thursday, 15 November, from 6pm - 10pm and on Saturday, 17 November, from 11am - 4pm. Come and enjoy traditional Swiss refreshments, Raclette (on Thursday only), Tartlets de fromage, Wienerli with choucroute, Buendnerfleisch and cheeses. There will be many Swiss goods for sale, too.

They are also fund-raising to repair the Church building which was considered quite modern when it was originally built in 1855. The building is now listed.

More details on their website: http://www.swisschurchlondon.org.uk/pub/home

One slight disadvantage of working from home is that I am no longer spending on average one and a half hours each day commuting to the office in Nth London. While this sounds like an advantage, it also means that I am no longer sitting down each day for that period of time (and yes, I did usually get a seat!) and reading.

I have a subscription to The Economist, which is one of the few publications that I can honestly say I read from cover to cover. Not even New Scientist got that accolade.

The problem is that it takes about 5 hours to read in full, and I just don’t have the same daily routine anymore to read it for an hour a day, every day. I am increasingly finding myself getting to Thursday and I can still have only reached the Asia section of the world news, so I end up missing the business news at the end of the publication. This is not too disastrous, as my primary motivation in reading the publication is to catch up on world news - and I spend almost all day reading and writing business news anyway.

Nonetheless, it is a bit of a disappointment - especially if the Royal Mail deliver the copy late, as they are increasingly tending to do again, which further delays my reading. I had got into the habit of reading for a while if I go out for lunch, and in bed before sleep.

However, over the past few weeks, I have found myself finishing work earlier and having an hour or so in the evening to sit down on the sofa and read before bed. This has been an absolute joy to me.

It seems more “correct” oddly to read on the sofa as opposed to in bed - especially as the light in the bedroom is not good for reading, and I don’t want to put a bright light in there as it would make it harder to get to sleep afterwards.

The other advantage is that I aim to finish The Economist earlier and broaden my reading range. The Economist is very good at conveying global events and business news in an almost sterile manner - here are the facts, and just the facts - which I quite like. However, I think I need a more exposure to the more literary style of writing that comes from good columnists. I have occasionally, when time permits been reading The Spectator, and while it is a tad too conservative for my tastes politically - I do enjoy the prose style of their writers. I hope that wider exposure to that style of writing will improve my own prose style, which is still very clinical.

I also enjoy other more technical publications, and the temptation to revert back to science and news driven publications will be strong - but I will try to pull in more opinion based magazines over the next few months. It was an odd benefit of being stuck in hospital a few years ago with nothing to do that I would manage to read at least 2 magazines per day and sometimes struggled towards the end of the week to find anything of interest in the local newsagents. I missed that slightly - and maybe I can get back to reading more by setting aside a mandatory period of time each evening in future.

I won’t be reading Heat magazine though - there are limits.

Topical news meets the LOLcats