NB! · Architecture · Faith · The East · Heritage

A 3D model of the best-preserved Byzantine church in Istanbul: the Church of the Holy Saviour in Chora

Brick wall of a Venetian building with an arch filled in with brick where a canal once ran, beside a staircase and a paved square.

NB! · Architecture · Geography · Observations · Heritage

Venice's Filled-In Canals from the Period of Austrian and French Rule

During the years of Austrian and French rule in Venice, many canals were filled in to ease pedestrian traffic through the city. It is now hard to imagine how greatly this altered the look of the place. But the drained and covered canals are now part of its history

NB! · Cinema · People · Pop Culture · Humour

Sir Ian McKellen has said that he knows his life is drawing to a close, and is still waiting for a call from the showrunners offering him Gandalf in the series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

NB! · Art · People

Study for the Portrait of Arthur Atherley, Nineteen-Year-Old Student of Eton College, by Thomas Lawrence

NB! · Faith · Art · Humour

St Matthew's cat has become so replete with knowledge that she seems to have been living for a hundred trillion billion years on trillions upon trillions of planets just like this one, you understand?

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And in life you are even better

Granite paving slabs on a pavement with sandy gaps between them and a bicycle wheel at the top.

NB! · Moscow · Observations · Society · Paris · Humour

Paving on rue du Temple in Paris compared with street improvement in Moscow

Paris paving on the rue du Temple sends envious greetings to Moscow's street improvements. Whenever I feel like complaining about some oversight of Sobyanin's, I remember that somewhere in the heart of Europe there is Anne Hidalgo, and, you know, all my discontent vanishes as if

NB! · Architecture · Faith

The Cathedral of Saint Sophia

NB! · Cinema · Observations · Humour

It feels as though Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 "Romeo and Juliet" cast not Leonard Whiting as Romeo but Zac Efron of 2008

A woman in a blue swimsuit with a green pattern walks down a narrow stairway along a white vessel's hull. Towels dry on a rail at left; buoys hang below.

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Woman in a swimsuit descending the steps of a white yacht

NB! · Books · Observations · Humour

I doubt I am the only one to have run into the problem: the state and size of the home library are such that no book can be found in it, so it is easier to buy the edition you need than to hunt for it at home

NB! · Architecture · Heritage