TECTONIC SHIFT

And just like that, my life is transformed again. Emirates flying pretty much on schedule. Half empty airport, half empty flight. Seems like most everyone I know blames Trump. Sorry to differ, but the IRGC is the greater culprit in my book.

So much for politics. The flight was fine but I took a day or so to come round, then there was the unpacking. This morning was more active. Walked around the park and into town. My sense of the seasons will need to be relearned. A bit of a surprise how many trees are still bare of leaves.

Dropped by the library and spotted this sketching group. Who knows?

 

 Nice 75th birthday present today. All my air freight came in two separate deliveries. I had to bring the little guitar amp on the flight with me. Some kind of rule 👀

It's all unpacked now and provisionally spread around my small flat. The small Lowry print belonged to my dad and the little framed etching is by him I think.

The wooden plough plane has been in my possession for about 50 years. Came with a set of blades of different sizes but I no longer have these. All the same, like many of the items I shipped it has sentimental value.

 

 

I managed to put a bit of time in on my Borromini model today. In between walking in the park with my hearing aid on. Birdsong returns to my world.

I'm working on the courtyard. Curved re-entrant corners and arches between paired columns. The Baroque feeling is very subtle and underplayed, but it's there sure enough.

The columns in my model are generic. I will customise them to the project in due course. Hopefully I can take this work far enough to set up one or two sheets that convey the essence successfully.

 

 

Watching Cranford on Netflix. BBC historical dramas were still a thing of beauty in 2007. You can see the wokery starting to creep in, but not enough to spoil the genuine artistry.

Judy Dench who I saw playing Shakespeare at Stratford when I was still a teenager. Sixty years ago near enough. When I had no inkling of wandering the world for 45 years before returning to embrace my Englishness.

The pic is Basingstoke market square with statue of Jane Austen. Seems she was very small. Nice chunky tuscan columns in the sunlight.

 

 

ALL WRAPPED UP

 

The pattern of life in these "end times" of my Dubai period. Lots of rain, missile alerts, exploring a famous Baroque church with my BIM pencil, sifting through the final remnants of accumulated possessions and a final dermatology appointment with visit to the excellent Plaza Cafe at American Hospital Dubai.

Was Baroque architecture a response by the Catholic Church to the shock of austere Protestantism? The schism in Christianity that reflected a deeper north /south divide in Western European history. The fluid Romance languages versus the guttural Germanic tongues.

What is original and what was added later in this church? Was it a virgin site when Borromini began his work? Should I model as suggested by drawings (far from original) or be guided more by Google earth and photographs? These are just questions that bounce around my head.

I'm looking for a model that feels right, expresses the Baroque spirit and gives me a deeper understanding of how the building works.

 

Last few days. Starting to treat myself to things I would never order on Talabat. Today it's Mr Kunafa. The eponymous sweet plus fresh mango juice. Yum.

Eucerin was prescribed by my dermatologist. I will miss my health care plan, but I think I have used the past year or so quite well. Too many long days out in the garden in Zimbabwe just wearing shorts. This cream seems to be doing a decent job of repairing some of that damage.

Today the air freight guys came to pack my guitars and paintings. Could have sent it by sea for half the price, they offered free storage. But who knows when the straits will open up? Worth the money to remove that uncertainty.

Finally an email from Basingstoke Blues Club. A new life beckons.

 

To all my BIM buddies in Dubai. I will be at GAJ HQ today at 4pm. It's my last chance to meet up with you guys before I leave.

I know it's short notice and I promised some of you to go for a cup of coffee. If you can make it let me know. From there we will figure it out. In any case I will miss you all, too many to name.

The pic is my countdown schedule of Prostate Cancer meds. FYI although it was caught late and had spread to my pelvis, it's been stable now for 3 years. So if your urine starts coming out dark red, get to a urologist straight away. It's treatable.

Love you all and I will still be here on LinkedIn for many years yet. 😎

 

 

CHARLIE FOUR FOUNTAINS

 

This is the view on the way back from the corner shop that I've been using for several years now. I was buying milk and a few other small items. You can see the unpaved "sidewalk" with a flourishing border of weeds in the shadow of the wall. People habitually discard unwanted furniture and other miscellaneous garbage.

You will also note the festoons of electrical wires and conduits decorating the parapet. Is this legally metered supply? The mind boggles, but a measure of disorder is tolerated in this middle to lower income area. It's called International City and people come from all over the globe to build a better life for themselves based on hard work.

I am no exception.

 

Yesterday I got myself a hearing aid. Long overdue, mostly for picking up that lost 10% of conversational content. It's the high end frequencies of course that tend to tail off in old age. I will adjust in a couple of weeks probably, but right now it's like one of those movies where the superhero can hear every blade of grass twitching.

I went into the office later and conversations were definitely much clearer. There's probably a downside but right now I'm just enjoying the ride. I had considered getting them on the NHS but I heard that it could take a year just to get an ear test, so why not use up some of my spare dirhams.

Mixed in with all these necessary preparations for leaving, I'm trying to work on some of my BIM pencil projects that are least well developed. Larkin is in a better place now, so I'm spending a few hours on Borromini. Charlie of the four fountains to butcher a translation. Very tricky geometry and really minimal data, but as our dear Prime Minister might say "it's the process right"

 

Worked on my tax data for the move, also healthcare stuff for handover to NHS then just managed to squeeze in a bit of Borromini.  Very tricky working with so little data but I found a couple of sections online. Needed to make the building taller, then the bays between the columns got much better proportions. Forgive the “lintel” floating above its supports. I’m really winging it here, but in many ways that’s my Revit comfort zone. Seat-of-pants modelling just for the experience and deeper understanding of a façade that I have admired for almost 60 years.

 

 

 

Gross simplification is a necessity if I am to get a start exploring the meaning of complex buildings like San Carlo. The angles of the street grid, true North and Project North are difficult to pin down precisely and unlikely to be multiples of 5 degrees. But I have chosen to force that issue.

 

This reduces the confusion in my head and the danger of fighting against the preference of Revit for round numbers. Some will disagree with this strategy, but it has served me well more times than I care to count.

From there I have been able to work up the massing of the whole building complex. I will be moving back and forth between this "bigger picture" and the placing of classical elements throughout my exploration of Borromini's little gem.