The interior courtyard of the British Museum, designedby Norman Foster
It houses exhibits featuring art and collections from all over the world! We first went and saw the Rosetta Stone, which was cool until we found out it wasnt the original, and was just a cast made from the first one. Boo. I knew very little about the stone, but after some reading I was enlightened to its significance. The stone contained three paragraphs of writing, all three the same thing but in three different languages. The top being ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, the second was the current language of the day, which I forgot, and the third was Greek. The reason this was so important was it gave the ability to decode and translate the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Cool beans.
Fakie Rosetta
BMW: "Brady Mathews Wants" Yes I sure do.Now, on to today...
Yes, this was the real time on the clock after hittingthree snoozes. Ick
Then I got to sit alone on the train. Weeee.After meeting up with the entire group at the train station at 5:45am, he hopped on a train headed for Brinton Carpets in Birmingham.
Arriving in Birmingham to go to BrintonsAfter we arrived at the train station, there were two buses waiting there to take us out to the factory some forty minutes away. And now, we shall take a pause for our steezy car of the day. Whilst driving along the freeway, on the wrong side mind you, I glanced to my left to see this little gem zooming up next to us. Ladies and gentlemen, the Bentley. Not only is it a name I would give to my first born son, but its a beautiful piece of British engineering.
The Bentley. I should own own due to the large silver"B" on the front of the car. And cause they're steezy.
We arrived at the factory and were welcomed with coffee and biscuits (cookies). They were confused when we all started heading for the water, minus like three from the group. We are a peculiar people. We heard a quick introduction from the VP of International Sales, John Baird. He gave us some background on the family owned carpet company and how they began their empire in a small town north of Birmingham. Brinton's now is not only one of the worlds oldest carpet companies, but one of the largest. They do everything from residential carpet, high end rugs, up to 200,000 square foot Marriott ballrooms and the new Atlantis Resort in Dubai.
They started off by dividing us into four groups to go explore different areas of the facility. We began with a tour of the factory with a little old retired sheerer who has been with the company for ages. He showed us the intricate processes of dying yarn, the machines, the weaving and how their carpets go from start to finish. We loved that he constantly said 'cheers' but also how cool it was to see something so common like carpet be made. I felt like I was on Mr. Rogers.
After the tour our group met back up with John who showed us some of their design collections and talked about the designers and headquarters their company have around the world. They currently run out of design centers in London, India, the US and are building on in China at the moment. Some of their collections are based off of hand painted sketches from their designers as well as ancient Chinese stencils that they have collected over 900 of. Ranging from very traditional and classic to urban and modern; they offer designs for any demographic of buyer. After his presentation we had lunch, with quickly after resulted in us all falling asleep on a couch in their showroom. An hour later, it was time for more tours of the building.
Next up we were with a great little lady who had the best British accent I have heard. That made it sound like everyone else has been faking theirs and she just really has it down; not so. Hers was very thick and classic sounded, and very fun to listen to. She was in charge of their historical archives, which is one of the largest textile archives in the world. Like Rubelli in Venice, they had stuff from back in the 1700's, as well as design books that they had retailed at 9,000 British pounds. So, like $14,000. Crazy business.
From the archives we met with the production design crew; the men who make the designs fit perfectly into the plans they receive from the architects. Brintons number one buyer is Marriott, who use them for everything from hotel hallways, entries, ballrooms and bedrooms. The overseeing of some of these projects is insane. They currently have been working on the new Atlantis in Dubai like I said earlier. When I say currently, I mean its been a year and they are just finalizing the design for the ballroom carpet, which stretches 200 meters accross the room. They do HUGE scale work, and its amazing.
All in all, it was A LOT to see, but very insightful and intriguing. Who would have thought of touring a carpet company for 5 hours? (Well, give or take a few hours) I sure would not have, but I learned a lot. From there we were all DEAD tired and hurried home as fast as possible. An hour and a half later we got back and were lovingly greeted out of the tube with this beauty...
They started off by dividing us into four groups to go explore different areas of the facility. We began with a tour of the factory with a little old retired sheerer who has been with the company for ages. He showed us the intricate processes of dying yarn, the machines, the weaving and how their carpets go from start to finish. We loved that he constantly said 'cheers' but also how cool it was to see something so common like carpet be made. I felt like I was on Mr. Rogers.
After the tour our group met back up with John who showed us some of their design collections and talked about the designers and headquarters their company have around the world. They currently run out of design centers in London, India, the US and are building on in China at the moment. Some of their collections are based off of hand painted sketches from their designers as well as ancient Chinese stencils that they have collected over 900 of. Ranging from very traditional and classic to urban and modern; they offer designs for any demographic of buyer. After his presentation we had lunch, with quickly after resulted in us all falling asleep on a couch in their showroom. An hour later, it was time for more tours of the building.Next up we were with a great little lady who had the best British accent I have heard. That made it sound like everyone else has been faking theirs and she just really has it down; not so. Hers was very thick and classic sounded, and very fun to listen to. She was in charge of their historical archives, which is one of the largest textile archives in the world. Like Rubelli in Venice, they had stuff from back in the 1700's, as well as design books that they had retailed at 9,000 British pounds. So, like $14,000. Crazy business.
From the archives we met with the production design crew; the men who make the designs fit perfectly into the plans they receive from the architects. Brintons number one buyer is Marriott, who use them for everything from hotel hallways, entries, ballrooms and bedrooms. The overseeing of some of these projects is insane. They currently have been working on the new Atlantis in Dubai like I said earlier. When I say currently, I mean its been a year and they are just finalizing the design for the ballroom carpet, which stretches 200 meters accross the room. They do HUGE scale work, and its amazing.
All in all, it was A LOT to see, but very insightful and intriguing. Who would have thought of touring a carpet company for 5 hours? (Well, give or take a few hours) I sure would not have, but I learned a lot. From there we were all DEAD tired and hurried home as fast as possible. An hour and a half later we got back and were lovingly greeted out of the tube with this beauty...
Hello LamboWe love seeing Lambo of London every day. (Prepare yourself again...get into the British, Fabulous Life voice...) "For London's rich and famous, don't expect to see them cruising South Kensington in just your typical Range Rover, oh no. They're stepping out of a new Lambo: retail price...a cool 180,000 pounds. And that's for a standard ride. These British pop stars are throwing in all the amenities...totaling costs over 200,000 pounds. Oh crikey."
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