dim sum and oddities

Today I got to see one of my best mateys, Mags, who normally lives in Brussels but was in London for work. We tried out Ping Pong on the South Bank and pronounced it very tasty.

Then we popped over to the Wellcome Collection on the way back to the Eurostar terminal and had a good gape at all their medical oddities. We very much liked their collection of artificial limbs and had a giggle over these objects. The first is a ‘Claxton Earcap’, an English device from 1925-36 for parents to put over their children’s ears at night while they’re sleeping to try to get their ears to stop sticking out. (Which makes no sense to me as I’m rather partial to sticky-out ears. I think it’s a hangover from studying so many Norman Rockwell pictures as a kid.) The other is a wedding gift chamber pot.

The inscription reads:
Marriage. This Pot it is A Present Sent.
Some mirth to make is only Meant.
We hope the same you’ll not Refuse.
But keep it safe and oft it Use.
When in it you want to Piss
Remember them who sent you This.

We also saw this strange waxwork, which was quite startling in its size and corpulence but also amazingly detailed and reminded me of paintings by Jenny Saville (who’s influenced a lot of my sister’s paintings).

Linky link: Stephen Betts of comics translation website Comix Influx just posted about Woodrow Phoenix’s trip to India. Good post, and if you’re interested in reading comics in other languages, or fancy having a go at translating a comic yourself, have a browse around the website.