A visit to St Paul's Cathedral

Ludgate was not crowded.  There had been talk of snow.  Perhaps some people stayed home.

Inside the Cathedral visitors hovered near the western entrance.  I stood near the racks of candles and cast my eyes down the nave - past the Duke of Wellington Monument, past the dome, to a person near the high altar making ready for evensong.

Turning around and looking up, there were electronic trumpets on either side of the walkway that joins the north and south corridors of the triforium, high above the worshippers.  I'll have to come back another day to see its hidden treasures.

Just before leaving Jakarta I visited Gereja Sion (De Nieuwe Portugueesche Buitenkerk), thought to be the oldest remaining church in the city - built from 1693-1695, with a bell cast in Batavia in 1675 and an 18th century pipe organ.  The church is still in use, with electric guitars to complement the organ and elaborate floral arrangements from Cikini flower market.  Built on marsh, about 10,000 wooden piles support the brick, granite and ebony structure.

It's dark early these days.  I caught the DLR from Bank to Limehouse and booked Christmas lunch at a place on the river.  I made this drawing looking across the water to Canary Wharf.

A visit to the Tower of London

It was time to visit one of the iconic sights - the Jewel House at the Tower of London - to see the treasures of the kingdom of England.

The magnificence of the crowns was in the shimmering textures of gems, offset by the softness of velvet and ermine.  The coronation and banqueting plate was enlivened by motifs of heraldry and Christianity, wrought in the gold.

In Jakarta, treasures of the kingdom of Mataram (752-1045) are displayed at the National Museum - jewellery, coins and plate with motifs of the Ramayana, wrought in the gold.  These motifs of the Hindu Ramayana are repeated in other larger carved-stone treasures of Mataram, at Prambanan temple in Central Java.

In the chill afternoon air, outside the walls of the Tower of London, an iceskating rink was lively and noisy.  I saw another rink the other day, perhaps more for adults at Canary Wharf, a bit further down the Thames.

Jakarta also caters for ice-skating enthusiasts, with a year-round rink in Taman Anggrek (orchid garden), a major shopping mall.  Half is for free-skating and half for coaching the local talent.

The air became icy.  I walked up the Thames past Customs House and Old Billingsgate Market, towards London Bridge, and made this drawing.

A visit to Kew Gardens

It seemed like a good idea to visit Kew before autumn set in.

We waited in the first explorer bus of the day at 11.00 am, and listened to the minute silence broadcast by the BBC for Remembrance Day.  The announcer said the Royal Family was assembled at Whitehall to lay wreaths.  The bus set off through Kew Gardens when the gun at Horse Guards marked the end of the silence.

The sky and the foliage were dripping water.  It was fresh and damp.  In the shadows, under the shelter of low branches, iridescent blue peacocks gathered, and long-tailed golden pheasants with dusky red feathers.

There was a lily pond, with a small variety of waterlily.  I thought of the giant lily pads in the gardens at Bogor, two hours drive south of Jakarta.  It was a place for family photographs, and a magnet for small boys hurling stones.  The pond at Kew was a much more restful place.

I went out of the Gardens to stand on the bank of the Thames, and made this drawing while it rained.

A visit to the Tate Gallery

I went to see the Turner Prize exhibition, and the Joseph Mallord William Turner paintings.

The Turner Prize is awarded for contemporary art.  Visitors moved slowly through the works.  It was a thought-provoking exhibition.

The JMW Turner paintings were much more accessible to my eye - although apparently not in his day.  He was criticised as a romantic, following an entirely personal vision in his representations of water, sky and light in London and Venice.  In the adjoining room there were eight small etchings by William Blake, hand-coloured and sombre.  Again, these were well-known forms but smaller than the familiar book reproductions and intense, pulling one into intricate enclosed space quite different from the sense of immensity in the Turner paintings.

Outside the Gallery, as darkness fell, I walked across the road to the Thames.  The whiz-banging of fireworks started up again, as it had every night this week - an extended bonfire night - a lengthy tribute to Guy Fawkes and the gunpowder plot.

In Jakarta, Chinese New Year is a like this - fireworks every night for a week.  Drinking tea and sitting in my favourite armchair on the eighteenth floor, I watched coloured sparks hurtle into the sky, explode into shimmering gold, and fade away, in one part of the Chinese quarter after another.

I stood on the Millbank Millenium Pier to make a drawing of the lights from the Albert Embankment.