The Sunlit Curve

Hog in the Pound

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 19:23:28 GMT

No, I don't know, why do corner shops never stock boxes of tissues? I wondered if it might be because they take up relatively large amounts of space for the price, but that sounds a little farfetched. At the end of a ride to Chiswick and back I had an unplanned excursion to the chemist to finally get some tissues in.

The lodger has managed to destroy the tin-opener, though in fairness I hardly ever use tinned food and so it might have been ready to fall apart for years. Also today I have changed the lock on the front door - a Yale lock, whose inside-the-door part was loose, but once taken off wouldn't go back on again. Turns out the turning mechanism, which is cut to fit, had been cut too short, so I couldn't reassemble it. Have new one. The man in the shop said he wouldn't cut it for me but never said - because at the time I hadn't realised what the problem was - that I'd have to do it myself because he couldn't say how much I would have to cut off.

Yesterday, went to the Hog In the Pound, near Bond Street station, and got talking to a Lithuanian woman, whose friends were Bulgarian and Swiss. That's London for you. Earlier I'd been to the Bar Italia on Frith Street. Sure it isn't my first time there but the first time since I sourced my List of Cafes to Visit. Bar Italia, its walls adorned with Italian sporting memorabilia, would be better if it was cheaper - £9 for a panini and a coffee is as steep as the Alpe D'Huez. And prior to that I'd been for a test ride on an Airnimal, a high-performance folder that I am not going to spend £800 on. More performance for less cash by simply buying a classic touring bike, I think. i am into simplicity at the moment. The Airnimal was nice but too overengineered as it needs to fold.

On Thursday it was the last Writing class and some of us went to the Queen's Larder, a Greene King pub but not bad for all that. I shouldn't have more than three pints, I start talking (more than usual) bollox. I do need to slow things down a bit though - last week, was out on Tuesday (CAMRA meeting), Wednesday (in the Fairfield Tavern), Thursday (class), and Friday (Hog in the Pound). Even if Tuesday can count as Voluntary Work. Well, I won't be drinking for the week leading up to next Sunday's bike ride anyhow.

This afternoon I have been watching eps 4 and 5 of Torchwood, via iPlayer, as Sky+ seems to have indigestion, believing it still has to record programmes that have already gone out, and having 'technical faults' with a lot of channels.

Walking along the river

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 22:08:26 GMT

Today I have been walking from Chiswick to Richmond. Only about five miles / 8km but the shoes were not really adequate for the stoniness of the path so I cut short my original idea to walk all the way to Kingston which would have been the same again. A lot of walkers and cyclists there also. Well, the original original idea was to cycle to Chiswick but then I found the Brompton has a puncture and as it is now my only bike I had no choice. Lunch at the Hole in the Wall, but only a crab salad, not the usual roast.

Yesterday, a fella in an authentically tatty LDV van helped me take the kingsize bed over to B's - I was glad of an assist, the bed was in bits but the mattress was heavy.

Of course if I'd realised the obvious course of action originally - replace the king size with a double in each bedroom - it would have saved a lot of money and aggrovation. As it is people are not renting the front bedroom because it's too small, and part of the being too small was that oversized bed. Replacement bed comes tomorrow as does someone who is 'crashing' there for a week. He is on his way now overnight from Scotland. However there is now far too much Stuff in the house as a whole, books, papers everywhere. Aim: there will be no papers / books on top of bookcases. In (where they're supposed to be) but not on top. And replace the wretched stair carpet! What people see when they come through the front door is a tatty carpet with a hole!

Went swimming and to the gym on Friday - felt much better after that. I usually do. I have tomorrow off but will be assembling new bed and welcoming the crash-padder.

I have missed out on tickets for the Mars Volta - it's sold out! I'd forgotten it was so soon. They were £25 each but still.

Strand on the Green

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:27:08 GMT

Strand on the Green
Originally uploaded by camies

It was nice of the train to stop on the bridge long enough for people to take photographs!

Midsommarnatt

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:44:19 GMT

Friday evening:
went over to Bridget's Artists At Home in Chiswick. She is certainly prolific and inventive.
Saturday:
down to the family at Guildford. Very abstemious, one small can of lager before lunch. Much seafood and salad.
Sunday:
Finally got a floor in the conservatory - wood laminate strips which have mostly gone down very well. Much sawing, I have sore fingers. Then Geraldine came over for tea; after that a possible house-sharer turned up and had a look but I don't think the place has enough storage space for him nor a place for his rather nice bike; then to Chiswick to have supper in a Thai restaurant with Bridget. Finally, out in the garden, as the sun set; so little wind that a candle placed on a table outdoors was unflickering. Small lanterns in next door's trees and the neighbours gave me cherries from their cherry tree.
Tomorrow: dentist, back to work, etc.

Easily pleased

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:13:24 GMT

But I thought it was appropriate that Ama$on.co.uk's reply to my email inquiring about the whereabouts of a missing David Gilmour DVD should contain the line,
"we will need a little more information first."
Just the basic facts? Can I tell them where it hurts?

It seems I missed the Mars Volta at the ICA, but they are playing Somerset House on Monday 13 July. Tickets £25 and I have no money. But still.

A fresh killed night

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:37:47 GMT

My night was killed already; unable to sleep, I formulated Plans A and B for letting this house or a room of it out and living Somewhere Else, whether it be Birmingham or not, and drew up a list of things I actually need, which was surprisingly short. Whatever you'd take on a long holiday? Clothes, camera, laptop, books ... friends ...
At four it was starting to lighten and so I got on the bike and headed off for Richmond Park with an aim to greet the sunrise. There was no traffic. And in the park, rabbits, including some baby rabbits staying close to Mama; deer, lots of deer, some boldly spotted, and wandering along the road, or leaping through the ferns; birds, including crows, and pigeons, though the parakeets are probably still asleep. As I stopped on a path to take pictures, the hammering of a woodpecker echoed from a stand of trees.
There was low lying mist tendrilling over the fields like the gossamer of a thousand spider webs - but fortunately it was actually mist, as I took a path down into it between the cypress-dark trees. It gave the park an exotic atmosphere like some lost corner of the Mediterranean. The sky was now striped with orange, and as I passed the Isabella Plantation and looked back, the smallest corner of red peeked up as that fat old sun got up to play.
Photo here.

GIP

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 08:27:23 GMT

Gratuitous image post, which could also be a GWL (Guess Where London), though I am going to give it away. (it's also my Flickr icon)
It's Hammersmith Bridge as seen from the terrace of Riverside Studios at sunset. I was up that way yesterday, walking along from the Bridge in the other direction towards Chiswick, very nostalgic. Passed all the pubs (well we went into the Dove to use the WC), and a wedding where the bride had arrived by boat. It was certainly no day to be indoors.

I didn't go out last night and for once I don't care. Always used to feel disatisfied if I didn't go out on Saturday night. But I sat in the summerhouse and read. Not sure if this is being depressed or not.
Last week, saw euphoricstimuli and arryabsinthe in the Royal Oak, SE1 - the only pub I've ever given 10/10 to on Beerintheevening. That was very pleasant - thank you both.

On Thursday, did a pubs tour of Claygate - good, but on Friday I was so tired going home that I had stop between central Kingston and home. Admittedly I had bags of shopping - groceries and Primark stuff - but it wasn't the weight, it was the weariness. Had no desire to go to the Fighting Cocks and check out the Fred Hot Chili Peppers either (I've seen them before but they would bear seeing again, I mean it isn't like seeing bands more than once is unusual for me).

In Books, I have finished 'A History of Danish Dreams' by Peter Hoeg which was good in a magical realist way but curiously unsatisfying as he seems to rip through his multi-family history without fleshing out much detail. There is no dialogue for a start. At times it reads like an outline for Tom Robbins' 'Jitterbug Perfume' (longevity through fecundity I suppose I mean). Perhaps it needs zombies.
As in, 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies', by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, which I also have.
Looking at the shelves I also have 'The Languages of Pao' by Jack Vance and a book of stories by Neruda. Wha'? He didn't write stories? That's 'Prague Tales' by Jan Neruda, if you please.

I've signed up for Skyros in September, so have that to look forward to.

Think it was June

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:44:24 GMT

A variation on the 'Canadian musicians' game is 'Welsh bands'. Catatonia, Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers, Magenta, GLC, Feeder, Super Furry Animals ... this was kicked off by going to see Magenta on Saturday night and a rendition (not by me!) of the Stereophonics' 'Dakota' on Friday night.

But today started off very badly. During the journey into work:
- someone kicked my takeaway coffee over me
- I tried to get off the train and a very large man tried to shove his way in before I could get off
- I nearly tripped someone up at the station on the way out

when I finally got to work I had to find someone (anyone) I knew and tell that unfortunate person that I had had it and was going to have a cup of tea for an hour.
Curiously my manager was also feeling crook and went home. Maybe it's the day.

Before all this started I was drawing up an ad for renting of the front bedroom, which could bring in some much-needed money. I've renewed my season ticket but only for a month - the annual season ticket was £1300 and I don't know where I'd find that just now. Besides, may be going to Brum for a while even though I didn't even get an interview for the latest job I applied for (and neither did the current incumbent. Makes me wonder what they're looking for).

Not that I don't like this place (I do) but I was wondering why, as I used to commute by bike every day, I moved somewhere too far to do that easily from. I was back in West Ken on Friday and remarked, "I don't know why I moved. Not that I have a great attachment to W14 - though in a way I do - but why move anyway?" "True," she said; "if you're used to Central London you don't want to move out." I do say that I only regret having moved when I have to get home from the centre of town, but that's regularly twice a week and often more. Friday night was so pretty damn good that it carried over all the way through Saturday, and I got some work done on the Work In Progress. Not like last weekend at all. And today of course it has been warm and sunny and I walked up Vauxhall Bridge Road at lunchtime.

It's just a shame about this morning.

This one's pink

Sun, 31 May 2009 14:00:21 GMT

Watching the final (time trial) day of the Giro d'Italia. Racing on wet cobble setts is, well, interesting for those keen on wipeouts. Yes, it was raining in Rome but not in London.

Was Boudicca English?

Sun, 31 May 2009 09:54:51 GMT

This made more sense when I found out Magenta are a Welsh band, but at last night's gig vocalist Christina Booth, between songs, referred to the pictures shown behind the band and said something like "That one you may have recognised, it was Boadicea. English bird, killed thousands of people."

Now I go along with questioning why someone who razed cities and slaughtered thousands is seen as a national hero, but English? Surely the concept didn't exist until around the 9th century, several centuries after Boadicea / Boudicca? She was a Brythonic Celt, and thus closest to Welsh.

But then Vlad the Impaler is a hero to the Romanians because he fought the Turks.

Writer's Block: Multilingual

Sat, 30 May 2009 23:03:30 GMT

How many languages do you speak?

Submitted By 40alatariel

View other answers

Three fluently (English, Spanish, French) and Greek, Catalan, Italian and German to some extent. That's 7.

edit: forgot Portuguese, also 'a bit'. Was learning Toki Pona but it's probably better to learn a tongue that people actually speak. So 8.

Magenta divine

Sat, 30 May 2009 23:01:47 GMT

I've just been to the Peel to hear the progressive group Magenta. You can tell they're prog because they do very long songs and there is clever musicianship going on there (and all stopping on the same note a la King Crimson at least once). Backdrops of war when they're not of the lead singer in religious pose (can I see her on a cross with a pointy green face? Almost) recall Pink Floyd but there isn't that much similarity though I think the lead guitarist can sound like Gilmour at times. My friend backed out so I was propping up the bar and listening to the band all on my own. They are good though. I'm very glad I went. The House of Progression (the ongoing set of prog gigs) will get my custom again even if tickets were £12 a time.
Back up the Cambridge Road which is therefore the local equivalent of Fulham Palace Road - it has the cheap kebab shops and the prog rock venue (though that in FPR's case was the Greyhound, a long time ago, when Paul Brett of the progressive group Sage led a petition to keep the place open).

Now I'm in the front bedroom and there is a lot of noise from the former Six Bells. It's 11:59 (and I want to stay alive).

A Fairfield full of folk

Sun, 24 May 2009 21:24:23 GMT

So I went to the new Fairfield Tavern. This morning I had been no less miffed than I was last night - went for a brief walk to Richmond Park and remembered why I don't walk there (it's not a pleasant walk to get to the park, and on a bright Sunday morning there are going to be so many people there).
The Fairfield ... well, it's ok. The landlord gave me a pint (Deuchars IPA, excellent I must say). I met one of the other Marlborough regulars there - he probably brought down the average age of the people in there by ten years. It does not, shall we say, have the diversity of the old Marl, nor does it have Sam, who as my friend said does the traditional landlady bit very well. Then we went to the Tup and I tried both ales they had (Doom Bar and GK IPA), sent them both back. Sometimes I feel like I don't have a local.
I would like to see folk music at the new pub if only to be able to use the slogan 'A Fairfield full of Folk.' Still.

That's the Fairfield in the icon to this post. But back when it was the Marl.

Tonight I've been on the bike to Bushy Park, which was more like it. Deer, and sunset, and enticingly winding paths to myself.

There is something wrong with the way I am

Sun, 24 May 2009 00:09:19 GMT

as I have been repeatedly informed over the last year.

However this may not inform my feeling while wandering through Bentalls Centre this morning that it was in essence no different from a seabird colony. I could imagine a helicopter zoom shot down over the cliffs to a squawking mass of terns or whatever squabbling and fighting over their nests; and the tiered and cliffed shininess of the Bentalls Centre with its loud and raucously breeding inhabitants is no different from that. I was too subdued to start saying "it's a breeding colony, nothing else" and contented myself with walking through the fountains in Market Place. Shot by both sides? More like wet on one side. Previously I'd been to the gym, and after that, had lunch and slept for an hour and a half until woken by a telemarketing call.

Tonight I have been up to Bayswater - to the Prince Edward - for the birthday celebrations of Olga, and its being Olga there was karaoke. Got talking to a young Polish woman whom everyone else seemed to be ignoring (due to almost everyone being in a couple). She is not even the first postgrad translation student I've met recently.

On the way home: the old Marlborough was full of people: the people who'd worked on it to turn it back into a pub. It opens its doors to the public tomorrow lunchtime, as the Fairfield Tavern. I'll be there.

The question is, can I live with this not-meshing with the rest of the world? Or is it just that some people make more of it than others?

A day off but not an idle one

Fri, 22 May 2009 07:18:36 GMT

The delivery of two new mattresses and the rebuilding of the three-quarter bed into a double goes off fine though getting a kingsize mattress down the stairs in this house was a fraught exercise. The stairs are narrow and steep and there is not a lot of airspace above them at the foot. This house is now a proper two-bedroom one again then.

Talking, over the garden fence, with next door neighbour. He gives me some runner bean plants, which are now planted.

Bought a new front light for the Brompton. The old one broke when I was taking the front bag off (the B. has a neat luggage system where a bag sits on a mounting block at the front. It is attached to the frame not the handlebars so doesn't turn with them). The new front light is a Knog Toad which I am not sure about - think I need a more serious light for riding when it's properly dark rather than just when the sun's gone down and I'm in lit streets. But I haven't tried it yet.

Eurosportage: Watched some of the Giro d'Italia which I had totally ignored until Tuesday when it was on the telly in a pub I was in.

Writing class: for some reason I'm tireder going in than I am if it had been a working day, and barely recognise one of my classmates (though I suspect she'd had a day off as well and so was in jeans and t-shirt etc, rather than her smart work clothes). My contribution goes down well though it's only half way through the discussion that I realise its title should be 'Passing Strangers'. Of course!

This is another sunny day and there are more things to be done.

Devil take your iPod

Sun, 17 May 2009 10:16:28 GMT

I've started getting job interviews again, had one for the Youth Justice Board on Friday which went well apart from the habitual freezing on one question. However the bit of text i had to edit and proofread was easier to do (and I completely restructured it, which I was probably supposed to do). It'd be a nice job to get, editing and providing content for their website, but I am often held back in these things by not having experience of external websites, and M. wants me to move to West Midlands anyway. I do need to move jobs, but West Mids? I am not sure if i want to do this: although living with M. would be nice, why can't she move here? I have not one but two complex social setups here, one in Kingston and one in London. And it isn't like she doesn't already have a house in London also.

There are times when - and I'm not the only one - going by train through open country makes me want to be out there. Have tent, will travel. I went up to Hebden and then to Morecambe Bay a couple of weeks ago and we were going to Skye this coming weekend but now we aren't, which is a shame, but may go to Scotland for a week in summer, suitably armed with midge repellent. Every so often I go on a Sunday walk but it isn't often enough, though although these are in the London area they are sometimes enough. I recommend Bob Steel and his 'Pub Walks'. He's one of these people I know twice, so to speak - we're in the same walking club and I also know him through the CAMRA London Pubs Group.

Because of the interview I was still quite smartly dressed when I turned up at the Hog in the Pound on Friday night. But those weren't wetlook trousers, I was utterly soaked. It's a nice idea to walk from Pimlico, through Mayfair to Oxford Street, but it rained worthy of the opening sequences of a down-at-heel spy movie. Not helped by the Russian accents around me either! Once inside it was fun, not least thanks to the young Polish woman I was dancing with (and a kiss on the way out). I gotta admit though - air violin is bad enough, but air theremin is, well, inexplicable if also very apt. (these were 'Vienna' and 'Silver Machine' respectively).

Yesterday, got soaked again on the way back from Richmond on the Brompton. I do have to get that bike serviced - not only has it not been overhauled for years, it sat in a cupboard for years while I used the Dawes instead. Now the Dawes has gone (to a good home)

Election bumf has come from the LIb Dems and also unfortunately the BNP. The Lib Dems are in first place around here although this ward has traditionally been Labour.

Eurovision (yes?) - at least the UK entry wasn't embarrassing this year. How appropriate it was last year to have a song about planes at a time when the RAF was bombing Iraq? I reckoned at the time that the UK song should be sung by a solo female folk singer preferably in Gaelic. Not quite that this time but close.

Current music: was much Hawkwind. But what time in the post was that the music? I've gone from Hawkwind to a band whose members weren't born when "Damnation Alley" was released.

CGT?

Wed, 13 May 2009 19:44:10 GMT

Anyone know an accountant dealing with tax, specifically Capital Gains Tax? The situation is this:
- person A has a house in London and one in Yorkshire. The London house is being rented out and the one in Yorkshire is for sale; A wants to move to her mother's home town to be nearer her mum. If she then no longer has lodgers in the London house, for a while, then sells it, does it make a difference to the CGT situation?
Apols if this doesn't make sense but I hope it does.

Call me the breeze. If you can't, call me a cab

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:08:19 GMT

So, it looks like the old Marlborough may be reopening after all, and this time it isn't just a rumour. The Kelly Arms are expanding up the road and have bought it off Gall and Woodlouse (as I call them).
I seem to have offered to do a website for them; but then, I saw the Marlborough dissolve into nothingness, and wondered what we could have done to stop that happening. Ironically the old Newt and Ferret (as it was before) had a site, but the Marlborough, no.
And the new pub will go back to the old name - the Fairfield Tavern. Before it was the Marlborough, before the Refectory (cursed place, lasted less time than the Marlborough and nobody cared so much) and before the Newt and Ferret.
Listening to Grey Horse gig footage on YouTube; I seem to have lost the going to local gigs that I had a couple of years ago. I'm sure it'll start again.

One breath

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:56:41 GMT

Waitrose get lower marks for automatically stuffing my groceries into a new plastic bag rather than asking if I already had one.

But that was on the way home, and since then I've been swimming for the first time in ages. Indeed it took me longer to get to the pool than it might have done otherwise, as I could not find my prescription goggles. This is very unfortunate as (i) they weren't cheap and (ii) without them I have to use a pair of disposable contact lenses and plain goggles. But because you can order most things online these days I've ordered a new pair. Convergence of my eyes' myopia means that I can make do with the two lenses' prescription being the same in this case (though my glasses do have differing prescriptions, but goggles are just to let you not bump into things and people rather than to let you read fine print!)
Still and all, swimming was fun and like almost every time I go I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it. There were a lot of people in the pool - must be the fine weather that's brought them out, but lengths were possible nonetheless as well as going as far as I could on one breath, which is a fave of mine, rather than attempting to storm along fast. I claimed in a review of a waterside bar on Beerintheevening.com that I'm 'allergic to speed' - wouldn't put it quite like that but I do have other priorities. So I'm using my leisure centre subscription for a change - have been twice this week, as I went to the gym on Tuesday night.

I was reminded of the life aquatic by a leaflet I picked up at the coffee stall at Norbiton station this morning - Notanx.com, which is not 'Not An X' but 'No Tanx', i.e. freediving. Nevile's coffee stall is keeping going despite the station undergoing some heavy reconstruction for a new ticket hall and entry barriers.

And the icecream at the parlour on the second floor in Bentalls is still excellent especially when matched with an espresso!

A book jam. It's like a log jam but the paper is in a different state

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:59:50 GMT

I now have "Flora Segunda of Crackpot Hall" to read.
After I've finished "Matter", ''Come into My Parlour" and "Burning Bright," all of which are on the go at the same time. So if I remember correctly is "Like Water for Chocolate" but in the original Spanish.

I've got a bike

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 12:17:56 GMT

but only one. The Dawes finally went to its new owner this morning - he intends to use it for commuting but hasn't ridden a bike for years, he says, though he looked in control when he was test-riding it up the road.
So that leaves me with the Brompton, on which I've already been out by the river (early morning before central K-town gets full of shoppers).
Last night I observed Earth Hour by taking a nap, having got back from Isleworth and a vicious little hailstorm - woke up at half past eleven.

Autorotation spins

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:06:11 GMT

Wretched Victoria Line, terminating at Green Park when I needed to get to Vauxhall ... luckily Plan B was go to Colliers Wood and get the 57. As it turns out not only that but also the 131 goes from there to Kingston, which gives me a whole different route for getting into/back from London.
Apart from that, the Bull and Gate (or as it styles itself bull and gate - lower case obligatory like bath ales, whose orthography suggests that they really are ales to be drunk in the bath (the city is Bath)). Autorotation and two other bands, in the company of Liz, Ittai and Dave. Not too much beer was had (two capital pints of Bass followed by a lemonade and lime.). Music good. Now today I may get on the bike and go to Isleworth.

In the basement, mixin' up the medicine

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:40:08 GMT

Last night, heard Narration and Our Lost Infantry in a church basement in Richmond. It was Narration I'd gone to see - have never actually heard them live despite meeting them in the Marlborough in mid-2007. Got talking to a young woman who seems to be following Narration's gigs - she'd got to the Half Moon Putney one last night just too late. Her relation to Narration :: mine to the Silver Wizard Project? In which case her Pink Floyd is Oasis, she is much into them as well. Both bands good, OLI perhaps more unusual (was that a guitar or a ukulele? I though the keyboard player was going to sprout a theremin, and yes they do have a violinist (female)).

The basement itself - called the Basement Door - is a curious place more like a large front room, though I was told small venues like that are quite common in the US. Not so here, where it tends to be pubs, and here there was no alcohol on sale at all though you could get tea and coffee (not sure if this limited the audience; it was fairly well attended though not packed). I do not mind the lack of booze in the slightest, even at the Grey Horse I'm quite likely to sip a soft drink instead of beer, after all I've paid £5 or so to get in. No repeat of Pickwick's in Chiswick where I was once told off by the owner for not drinking enough. But if that is their issue why not ask people if they want a refill? Rather than letting it happen and then complaining about afterwards. Anyway I might see my Narration fan pal again if I turn up to the next one.

If I'd known about the Putney gig I might have been there instead, instead of wandering around Chiswick having convinced myself that I do not want to move back to W.14, thank you.
The path by the summerhouse is done apart from the slabs needing to be levelled a bit.

Next week I should hear about the OFWAT job, though I think the common problem with all these webmaster jobs I'm going for is that I've just done Intranet for years, no external-facing website.

Shortly I shall get on the Brompton and whiz off to Homebase.

Wild down Old Street

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:50:45 GMT

Well, the path material was delivered, but there is not enough of it! My original order was for twenty bags which would have been the right amount but I cut it back. I have had to reorder, which means paying another delivery charge.
Yesterday afternoon, over to Ealing, food and drink and good conversation; then a crosstown thrash to Old Street where I find my way down to the basement of the El Paso restaurant at about ten p.m. to find a band playing and several people I havent' seen for a while (=the entire lineup of the Silver Wizard Project and
euphoric_stimuli). What a relief? Unfortunately this living-way-out-of-town means I have to leave by midnight, get the 0046 train from Vauxhall and be home at half past one (that late train is slower than the daytime ones). As I am approaching home I see the N87 bus and reckon that if I'd gone for it instead of the train that is the very bus I would have taken. So maybe no real difference in time (except that I waited fifteen minutes for the train, which I would have spent on the bus).

Today, have been on the Dawes bike to Hampton Court, along the river, into the sun, too many walkers and cyclists, all enjoying the spring day ... there is a hotel by the river, close to the bridge and I dodge into there and have coffee and a pleasantly small slice of cake by the river. Everyone is very nice. Except on the way home where I am called all sorts of things for not stopping and getting off my bike to retrieve someone's football. Perhaps I was in the wrong, but would you expect a car driver to do same? I also swing by the Honest Cabbage and see Alan who is often in there but is just then outside having a cigarette. He remarks on the henna tattoo. I consider that I haven't been in a pub all weekend - in fact the last time I went into a pub was the previous Saturday, up in Holloway Road. I cannot watch television either!!

This week I have a job interview to prepare for, and have to be up at six tomorrow - an early start as we're shifting display equipment across town for an event that starts at nine.

Saturday morning

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:21:18 GMT

Yesterday I went back to an old favourite in the cooking department and fried onions, added sliced mushrooms and white wine, and a sliced leek (which isn't in the original recipe). I cooked this for someone years ago and she asked me if it was a French recipe, actually it came off a late-night 'cooking for students' programme. I dreamed of someone very like her so obviously that bit of cooking reminded me of her.

But playing 'In the Flesh' (Roger Waters) on iTunes I wish it would just play an album through in the order in which the musician intended - the tracks are in that order for a reason! No doubt there is a way to do it.

This morning I am waiting in for a delivery of path materials - the building project doesn't go away, it just changes tack. I know I only complain about living so far out when i have to get home from London late at night, but that's quite often really. It's got to the point where I'm seriously thinking 'get the house ready then rent it out and live somewhere else'. Putney is expensive though; Wandsworth might be an up and coming area. Then again would I have a garden? Could I live without a garden having had one?

So an early night last night because this afternoon is to Ealing and tonight is over to Old Street - back late and then up early tomorrow morning (well, up usual time really!) The henna tattoo came up nicely, there is about an inch of it peeking out from my cuff, looking like a dagger-hilt.

I am currently reading 'Slow Man' by JM Coetzee - not sure why M. thought a novel about a keen cyclist who loses a leg was a good book to send me but it is keeping my interest. Keeping with the biking theme I've bought an online subscription to Velo Vision - so much less cluttering, and the sub allows you full access to back issues as well.