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Welcome to the world of the Vincent D'Onofrio obsessed - and a bit of real life thrown in.


Wednesday, December 02, 2009

What's the time?

This afternoon I had to go to St Thomas' Hospital by the Thames, a large centre of excellence with a purpose built children's hospital. (Sadly, the architects' idea of a suitable school for a children's hospital is just sticking it in the middle of a 6-storey glass atrium. The walls are cobbled together noticeboards, with no roof, and there are parasols to keep out the sun in summer. Nothing can shut out the echoing noise, though.) The oldest part of the hospital was apparently set up by Florence Nightingale herself (or so I overheard someone say today).

When a child has special needs, he or she has a Statement of Special Educational Needs issued by the local education authority. Every year it is reviewed, and today was the review of my home-tuition student who has ALD.

It was also the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the setting up of the original hospital school.

At the end of the review, one of the attendees suddenly said, "And I've been wondering what the time was." I looked to where he was pointing, and there it was, outside the window I had been sitting with my back to, actually looking much closer than the picture from my phone shows:



The clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, complete with Big Ben, that I didn't hear chime once during the 2-hour meeting.

I stayed for a bit of the celebration, but sneaked off home in the dark, in rain being emptied from the heavens by the bucketload. It was, in the understated way of the British, a bit wet.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It must have been a fascinating meeting ;0)

Eliza said...

Hope the meeting has the right result for everyone :-)

Funny how you can be so close to something you just don't see it.or you take it for granted because it's always there

Anonymous said...

Wow, our time is mostly displayed on a bank post, can't even imagine seeing Big Ben. Only Big Ben we have is our quarterback for The Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger, LOL.

SnarkAngel said...

And it looks like a pair or quad of UFOs are floating in the sky above! LOL. Must be the reflection of the lights in the room you photographed from.

Axe said...

Lovely image!
Strange how one really does not notice some things because you are so used to them, huh?
I love this picture!!

JoJo said...

Love the photo too! That'd be cool to be able to look at Big Ben to see what time it was! I assume that there is someone who moves the clock hands for daylight & standard time?

val said...

JoJo, it never even occurred to me! Bt yes, there are people in charge of regulating the clock. They adjust the weight on the pendulum by adding or taking away old UK pennies. They were a bit bigger than an inch across, and fairly weighty. The clock keepers have a stash.

JoJo said...

That is so cool that they use old UK pennies!! My Aunt Stella lived in London in the 50's thru the early 60's, and I remember she gave me some of those large pennies when she visited us, when I was about 4.

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