Pic taken with Instagram
They used to say that if you stood long enough at Piccadilly Circus (above) you’d eventually bump into everyone you know. But that can’t be true, can it ? The Statue Of Eros there is one of London’s most famous landmarks, but that isn’t true either.
Its sculptor Alfred Gilbert always claimed the figure portrayed Anteros – the God of “selfless and mature love” as opposed to his brother “Eros or Cupid, the frivolous tyrant.” Though if he was trying to portray mature love it’s odd that Gilbert chose his willowy 16-year-old Italian studio assistant, Angelo Colarossi as his model.
Photo by Carli Peters on Panoramio
Back in 1893, depicting a nude figure on a public monument – even with the addition of wings and convenient drapery – was considered a bit daring. To quell the outcry, Gilbert quickly renamed his statue “The Angel of Christian Charity” – but nobody has ever really called it that. In due course the general public quickly shortened Anteros to Eros in any case and the name has stuck ever since.
Our local late-night shop, TF Food, News & Offlicence in Trinity Road, run by Mr Akhter and his family is a convenience store that lives up to its name. Stocked to overflowing with the neccessaries and unneccessaries of life, a smile for regular customers, and open till stupid o’clock. Al-Jazeera on in the background to help them avoid going crazy with boredom in the stilly watches of the night.
On the far corner of their block, sits the premises formerly known as our local NatWest branch. It got gutted and turned into a succession of unsuccessful Italian restuarants. It’s now being gutted again and local businesses look on with foreboding as corporate business prepares to muscle in on their patch, with the coming of a new Sainsburys Local…
Pic taken with Instagram
Dino Ferrari‘s – home to another #disappointingingespressoexperience in Glasgow – not because you can’t get decent espresso in that fine city, but through a lack of time to do the neccessary research.
You might have imagined that a long established and successful Italian restaurant right next to the Royal Concert Hall would be a good bet for properly made coffee. But the bucket of milky slop they served at the takeaway counter was undrinkable.
With hindsight perhaps you might in fact have anticipated a certain inattentiveness on the part of management from a glance at the spelling on their neon sign.
Glasgow’s beautifully renovated Central station features uniform frontages in this gorgeous muted Dune-The-Movie imperial style. Having failed to satisfy a craving for decent espresso during my two brief days in the city, my eye was caught by this small but perfectly formed Italian café on the concourse on the way home.
Unfortunately their notion of a cappuccino was large and imperfectly formed – basically standard scalding white coffee with a froth and choc scum floating on top. However the tasteful patriotic decor inside Franco’s did a lot to make up for the #disappointingingespressoexperience: the grubby nylon flag appears to be fastened to the cheek of this cracked plaster cherub with chewing gum.
