In the off season, all things gay and wild and full of choleric swirl give way to a hangdog mood. No pink flying discs or overturned sandcastle buckets. In the off season, there are silences in unexpected pockets. Silences filling the wide open days, broken only by a gull cry, a car door, the once…
Another Reason to Back-up (Suicide Blogger-style)
by
I wrote a really beautiful and eloquent post here, but I once misplaced piece of html and when I posted it, Blogger ate my post. My post, in case you’re curious, was about melancholy and sadness. Now I am even more depressed. Excuse me whilst I ponder drinking poison. )-:
Anyone Seen Ben’s Thai???
by
Despite the fact that Ben’s Thai in the Warrington closed JANUARY 31, and Ramsay Holdings have owned all of the Warrington Hotel since October 31, 2006, many guests are still caught unawares, wandering up the stairs of the saloon bar for that reliable local Thai in Maida Vale. If you are one of the many…
Amsterdam in Three Days
by
AmsterdamClick above to view Photos At the last minute, Colin and I decided we couldn’t leave Europe without a trip to Amsterdam. This is the sort of trip that makes me wonder about all those OTHER places I haven’t seen yet: what IF? What if I am missing out on the place of my dreams?…
In Love with the Warrington
by
It’s a good time to be sentimental about the Warrington. After all, the bar staff hasn’t changed much. The regulars like Bill and Tony and Stan are still propping up their ends of the bar. It’s smoky and that one ceiling fan always looks like it is ready to fly off and shoot across the…
All the Lonely People
by
I tried to make it into Starbucks today, to my usual table. It was so full. Every table, with a long queue too, of all sorts of people in grey and chalk blue and black. It must have been the wet day. We were all chasing our heavy spirits inside, somewhere warm, with warm drinks.…
This Bud’s for You
by
There are lots of good reasons to love guys… My husband is SUCH a guy. He and I went to meet the OTHER Canadian Colin for coffee Sunday lunch-ish… I didn’t stay long as I had to go to work at the pub. “Well, guys, I’ll leave you to it,” I think were my parting…
What I am Reading… Orion Magazine
by
Or… Exercises in Different Thinking I’ve been a rabid subscriber of Orion Magazine for over two years now. It’s that sort of relationship, the kind you can’t remember how it started, and you never ever want it to change or end. There’s all too much going on the in world. So much so that word…
Hyde Park in Winter
by
Colin and I went for a walk to Hyde Park last weekend. We’ve been having beautiful sunny weather here so far for most of the winter. Temperatures in the 40s and 50s . We can’t complain. It’s hit or miss, of course, as some days it pours with rain and there is even the occasional…
The Big Issue
by
Why do I get up early on Friday mornings? Am I gunning to save my soul? What do I really LIKE getting up early on Friday monrings? It’s a good cup of tea, really. At The Passage. Now that two years or more have passed here in London, I can say one thing I love…
The Big Surprise
by
It’s my birthday week (yes… I do get a whole week. Why? What do you get?) so naturally friends have been gearing up for a month or so with plans, even though I told them not to (ha ha). Actually, in light of the developments surrounding my dysfuntional body, I wasn’t feeling much up for…
Warrington Days
by
It’s been three months since Gordon Ramsay Holdings took over the Warrington Hotel and everyone still seems to be on pins and needles about the changeover. Last night was packed to the gills with regulars, neighbors and new friends, everyone trying to catch hold of a piece of what they fear might be lost as…
Oxford Circus, Never Be Lonely
by
Oxford Circus is undergoing major renovations, modernisations, refurb, refit… whatever you want to call it. Lately that just means not much to look at or read on the platform if you forgot your Metro or Ipod. On the Bakerloo Line platform there is accidental art: the best use of years of advertising posters, scraped to…
London Snow 2007
by
It snowed in London overnight… the first time Colin and I have seen it in three winters. The view out my office window, over the tennis courts at the Paddington Sports Club. Guys were playing tennis just yesterday, in the 34 degree temps. The tree and the BBC studios out the front window. The cars…
Those Pesky Rose-Coloured Lenses
by
My good friend, disgruntled commuter has been having a hard time these days being disgruntled of late. I know the feeling. I was out, with a friend at a gallery. We were talking loudish (comparatively, as Americans are wont to do) about the American-themed exhibit, when behold, a stranger. “So,” he said on his distinctly…
