2012-05-19T10:58:11Z Jane Owen Copyright 2012, Jane Owen SPHPBLOG http://www.janeowen.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry101231-185216 2010-12-31T00:00:00Z 2010-12-31T00:00:00Z Along the canal a heron pecks at a sandwich surrounded by a flock of seagulls.
The gardeners in Queen Mary's garden are pruning but will not let me take one of the rose buds which looks like antique silk

FT's office party. Buses chug us along the Thames, South Bank lights twinkling in the water, to a nightclub overlooking Regent's Street. Wembley lighting up the sky in one direction, millennium wheel in another. Cranes everywhere. A magnificent Egyptian frieze around the top of the building opposite.

Walk home past bling Christmas lights where Kentish Town Road crosses Regents canal..two man-sized snowmen, flashing multi-coloured lights]]> http://www.janeowen.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry101216-003703 2010-12-15T00:00:00Z 2010-12-15T00:00:00Z http://www.janeowen.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry101209-235430 2010-12-09T00:00:00Z 2010-12-09T00:00:00Z Just outside they have made a cardboard coffin. Candles and flowers surround it. A plaque reading, 'RIP education' explains the curious shrine.
Inside, a timeline around the wall marks interviews with the various newspapers and the BBC; marches; interventions from the authorities.
The atmosphere is calm and serious.
Tables, each with its own collection of laptops and students are marked, variously, 'Media' 'Process' 'Welfare' and so on.
I am invited to join the supper line: tuna, cous cous, tomatoes.

All the students I meet are polite and thoughtful. I ask who are the leaders. There are none. Yes, I say, but there must be a few key decision makers . No, it's just consensual.
Impressive.]]> http://www.janeowen.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry101201-232720 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z Puzzled ducks wander about on the ice. So few people are walking to work in this beautiful sunshine. Why? Especially on Monday when, once again, the tube strike hit. I came into Paddington and walked across Hyde Park and St James Park (my fave) to work at the FT on Southwark Bridge.
What a wonderful start to the day.
This evening I walked back across the Millennium Bridge. St Paul's was floodlit in red. It looked magnificent. Then onto Salt Yard for Tapas with Barbara de Lacey and finally a number 24 bus through the snow back to Camden.
]]> http://www.janeowen.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry101201-231727 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z 2010-12-01T00:00:00Z http://www.janeowen.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry101110-115457 2010-11-10T00:00:00Z 2010-11-10T00:00:00Z http://www.2010taipeiexpo.tw/mp.asp?mp=4]]> http://www.janeowen.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry101105-021323 2010-11-05T00:00:00Z 2010-11-05T00:00:00Z But the wormery will grind to a halt and there's nothing I can do about it apart from bringing it inside...]]> http://www.janeowen.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry101017-190513 2010-10-17T00:00:00Z 2010-10-17T00:00:00Z http://www.annielennoxsing.com/ Listen and be moved.
Camila Batmanghelidjh said she would rather be facing a teenager with a knife than us lot after lunch. Her work with homeless, troubled teenagers is being threatened by a funding cut. This is insanity. Which billionaire with a brain will step up to this particular plate? Please? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_Company,
As always the lunch was packed with women doing boggling stuff - witness this site:
http://www.womenoftheyear.co.uk/z-yes-you-can.htm

And Shara Brice and the East End kids she turned into a troupe of world class cheer leaders...can't wait to see the film that Hollywood is making about them.]]> http://www.janeowen.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry101011-232114 2010-10-11T00:00:00Z 2010-10-11T00:00:00Z Tonight I went to a small pre-opening party to have a look at the renovations which have taken nearly three years. All very lovely.
Outside, just beyond the only street in the UK where you have to drive on the right I gave a hand to a man in a wheelchair. Ten minutes later I was in at the Royal Opera House listening to an audience with Sir Jonathan Miller talking about.. opera. All thanks to my mystery new friend - don't even know his name,
As I left, slightly early, I lost my way and landed up in the staff canteen where I found a pile of chocolate muffins. I hate the things but bought a couple for my colleague Tom Robbins, the FT's travel editor. That was the deal - I represented him at the Savoy so long as I 'brought back muffins from the Savoy'. Has anyone else ever seen muffins at The Savoy? Well I haven't and even the super soaraway new Savoy had little parcels of raw tuna, tankers of champagne, teeny spring rolls etc etc but no muffins.
So the muffin issue was resolved by the Royal Opera House.
And if my mystery friend reads this: thank you so much.
]]> http://www.janeowen.co.uk/blog/index.php?entry=entry101006-225016 2010-10-06T00:00:00Z 2010-10-06T00:00:00Z