A friend inadvertently turned my head into a paper lantern when I was on stage at a wedding. My likeness to Frank Sidebottom was immediately obvious. See what I mean?

My friend Jane Tomlinson is a wonderful water colour and acryllics painter.

In recent years she has added hand-drawn maps to her canon of work. They are proving  popular and shops in the towns she draws love stocking them.

Jane’s next project is a mighty map of Oxford. She has just posted that it is due to be finished in October. She has featured me (I went to St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford) and so that means it’s a done deal that I’ll be buying a few for family gifts!

Here’s the original photo she asked me to send:

Personal appearances aside, it really will be a fantastic souvenir of Oxford if you visit, have a connection but are no longer here or want a very English gift for friends abroad.

Here’s Jane’s update post.

Two months ago I jetted off to California. I’m red-faced that it has taken so long to catch up on writing about this wonderful state. I blame job interviews, novel completion and a holiday to Italy.

After a long break, I am back and determined to recapture the glorious days of sunshine and friendship that I revelled in back in May.

As a quick recap, I started off with a weekend of drinking and hiking with my darling cousin, before driving up Route 1 to Humboldt county to marvel at the redwoods.

I returned to San Francisco for an epic ten days of sight-seeing, family get togethers and wine. My good friend Heather joined me and we had four days before my Aunt and Uncle arrived in from Atlanta. We both wanted to pace ourselves but somehow we both end up squeezing every last drop there is to be had from a place – in a nice, happy go lucky way, though!

I picked her up from the airport and that first night typified the San Francisco experience beautifully. We meandered down to Polk St and found our way to Dunya, a gorgeous Mediterranean place. A couple of craft beers were ours as we waited at the bar for a table. We shared with four guys and the minute they clocked our accents, they wanted to know where we came from. I love the friendliness of San Francisco and we had a great time talking about music. They were musicians; we love music. It was a lovely introduction to the openness and warmth of San Francisco life. They were playing the Red Devil Lounge that night – we didn’t make it (jet lag!) but it was nice to be offered the VIP list.

Our sight-seeing began in earnest on Saturday morning. We headed for the trolley stop right outside our front door (top tip – the visitor transit pass is superb value – a single ride on a historic trolley car is $6 but a week long pass for them and all buses/muni was just $28) and waited for that happy ‘ding ding’. Heather is a sucker for a great musical so she couldn’t resist channelling Judy Garland and it became our theme tune for the week.

We went first to Telegraph Hill, as it seemed obvious that Coit Tower – a ‘must see’  – would be a great place to get our bearings with its wonderful views of the city and bay. On the way, we chanced upon gorgeous houses which we could only dream of owning, and stairway garden after stairway garden. Here’s a selection of snaps from that morning.

Gotta love a trolley!

Stumbled upon this fab record store.

Retro window

Auditions

The very overlooked/underrated Bay Bridge

That pointy building…

One of many stairway gardens

Rose and the Bay Bridge

Alcatraz from Coit Tower

Views from Coit Tower

Coit Tower was a great visit. The views were superb but it was the murals and the discovery of my first of many great ladies of San Francisco that made it for me. First the murals. Supervised by Diego Rivera and painted by tens of artists, they are stunning. They depict life in the early 30s. I only captured a few but if you ever go to San Francisco, this place should be on your list.

And the ‘great lady’? Throughout my trip to San Francisco, I was impressed by the number of unconventional and interesting women who helped make the city. Lillie Hitchcock was the first. She smoked cigars and wore trousers long long before it was acceptable to do so. She also loved gambling and disguised herself as a man so she could do so. The best thing was that she helped firefighters out when she was fifteen, and ended up as the mascot of the fire crew. The tower was built from money she left to the city. She sounds one hell of a woman – has anyone written a novel about her I wonder?

From Telegraph Hill it was on to Russian Hill, which for me promised not just Lombard Street but even better, Macondray Lane, the inspiration for Armistead Maupin’s Barbary Lane in the Tales of the City Series. It was just joyful wandering around this part of the city and if I ever win the Lottery, I think I may just have to buy a room with a view there!

Here are my Russian Hill pics:

I REALLY wanted to hire a GoCar but they were so expensive!!

Macondray Lane, AKA Barbary Lane from Tales of the City

‘My’ back garden…

The steps wind up towards Mrs Madrigal’s magical house

Channelling Mary Ann Singleton

LYFT cars, denoted by the cute pink moustaches on the front

Lost shoe © Carole Scott 2013

Our day ended at Grace Cathedral. We couldn’t spend long, as a wedding was about to start but what I saw, I liked. From the outside, I kept remembering the weird and wonderful cannabalism plotline from ‘More Tales of the City’ but once inside, it was all about the art, lighting and the warm words of welcome.

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Next time, SFMOMA, further adventure in Pinot Noir and back to the bridge.

By Carole Scott

Every single one of Steve McCurry’s photos is a treat. This is definitely a blog to follow.

I had high hopes when I travelled to London on Friday.

I had signed up some time ago to a course, which I thought was designed to unleash powerful creativity.

I was quite taken aback to find that the course required me to sit still for hours in rows in the same windowless room. I’m not a fidgety person but after two hours of active listening I was ready to bolt. By the end of three hours with nothing but a 10 minute break, I was ready to jump around like a five year old in ‘music and movement’ class.

I didn’t think anyone still ran courses where you stayed in one spot absorbing for long stretches of time.

When concentration lapsed, we were supposed to go to a particular bit of the room and stretch – but even so, I’m surprised that the course leaders honestly believe that people learn most effectively when they are sitting and listening for hours on end.

I was contemplating not going back after lunch but decided to give it another go. By 4pm we had spent ANOTHER one and a half hours glued to the same spot.

I left. And so now I’m on my way to a Bowie Buffet – a party to celebrate the great artist’s return to music. I think I’ll feel more alive and full of creativity dancing to ‘Fashion’ or ‘Jean Genie’ that I would stuck in a conference room in Bloomsbury.

Or am I a wrong to quit early on a course that could start to deliver if only I stayed?

I need to claim my blog on Technorati and have publish a new post today to do so!

So have a lovely picture from Bagan. This was from outside a temple down by the river and is a garden spirit. To me it looks like Tweedledum or Tweedledee from Alice in Wonderland and I love it. It’s very cheery!

By Carole Scott