9:29...on the roof-terrace in cool air and shadow on yet another day of no cloud and strong sunshine (too damaging to my already damaged skin to venture into without sun cream) but i may visit a museum, before returning to London this evening (when my four days in this designers' paradise will be over)...
...a magpie, its greeny-black feathers shining in the sun, perched for a few seconds on the red-tiled roof of the room in which i slept and out side which i am now sitting...
...seagulls are again soaring without wing movement over a nearby roof and below them is a (to me) frightening drop into a narrow space between five-story buildings... The empty seat beside me is on the edge of this drop and i dare not sit on it - there is only about 5mm of glass between the sitter and the void... i notice signs, in the work of Poul Kjaerholm (the designer of this part of the apartment) that he was fascinated by death (he chose materials that visibly wear, age and corrode) and in a book* here there are references to his fascination with bull-fighting....
...it was getting a bit too cool and windy outside in the shadow so i return to the warm air and the indoor silence in which the faint sounds of the electronic pen (tapping on the screen of the hand held) are all i can hear - that and the sound of tinnitus in my ears, which i normally don't notice...
as i sit on one of the (deliberately?) stained and worn-looking leather chairs at the round stone table that Poul Kjearholm (designed and) placed in the dining area, i can see the whole interconnected space, indoors and out, and i sense a rare peacefulness that i am reluctant to leave...
...and now i notice the weight, rigidity and strength of his furniture. The heavy stone table with rectangular steel supporting structure resonates at a high pitch if i thump it and it barely moves if i try to shake it sideways. It is pleasant to write on and to eat on such a solid surface... the glass top of the low table is about 15mm thick. It is too heavy for one person to lift and is held in place by gravity. The steel leg structure is not fixed to it.
13:22 on the terrace again to write a few more words before i leave...
...but no, i realise it's time to pack and to head for the museum and the airport... so goodby to all this, what a pity...
17:58 London time - aboard a de Havilland something** to London City... i never got to the museum and am now in a different world - one that arouses memories of my earlier life... the plane reminds me of when i first worked as an apprentice in the de Havilland factory at Hatfield... i remember being shown how to use pop-rivets to attach the aluminium skin to the Dove, a plane that reminds me of this one...
...but now i am told to switch off the handheld as we descend over London in the light of the setting sun... i try to but cannot recognise the many large buildings over which we are flying - and then i see Tower Bridge and the man at the window seat sees the tall buildings at Canary Wharf below us...
...we are down and bumping along the tarmac...
...as i said to my fellow passenger as we said goodbye, whatever the hassles at airports or in cramped seating, to be flying above the earth and clouds is always inspiring... and to be back here on earth is always duller, less spacious and more rigid... but still marvellous, and much safer.
** DE Havilland DHC-8 400 series
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