Last Chance Londoner, Part III Closer, closer. Quiet now. Listen. It is dark and the night is over us. I am hiding here, but not because I want to. London swallowed me, and I am sunk, sinking into her marshy fields, her fetid greens, the old, rubbish-strewn streets. Find me, around this corner, and that…
Category: London
The Feel of London’s South Side
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Last-Chance Londoner, Part II At Coin Street, Gabriel’s Wharf, you are finally there. The gross cement casings of the new theatre parade are behind you. You can see Old London rising up across the Thames, behind its bridges. The clatter of the skateboards has died underneath the Waterloo Bridge. At Coin Street, South Bank yawns…
A Walk in Clerkenwell
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Last Chance Londoner, Part I London holds its secrets like a favour. You are only rewarded if you go look for them, and if you ask. I walked today between raindrops, between eras, between churchyards’ gasps of silence and the blat! of a city beside them. I went to St. Paul’s Tube and the City…
Crazy Homies Mexican Dream…
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Or, Eating Whacked Burros in a Basement The lengths I will go to for tequila and salsa. We threw a flat-warming for our friends (which meant we had to actually MOVE. I am still suffering dial-up for this.) The result was a very good restaurant recommendation, inspired by our featured drink. The beverage de la…
Different
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One Afghani mini-cab driver said in Time Out this week that what surprised him the most when he arrived in London was that “so many people here aren’t white. “I thought that all the men going to work would have the round hat and a stick. (Londoners) have learnt certain attitudes, that have a certain…
Tower after Hours
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Well. If you make friends with a yeoman warder, then, eventually, you’re going to have drinks with a yeoman warder. It’s bound to happen. The best place to do that, I guess, is the Tower of London. After we hooked up with Robin at the Pink Martini concert, he invited us to come down the…
Crikey! Cricket!
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Just when I thought it MIGHT be safe to go to work at the pub again. Nawp. Sure every other pub in town is sighing with relief at the death of England in the World Cup, but not in this neighborhood. Things are just getting HOT here, and when I say HOT, we aren’t joking.…
World Cup, Au Naturale
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Colin, Chris and I were just hangin’ out at a pub on the Strand, just moments after England won their first World Cup match, when we heard a commotion on the street nearby. Police escorts and everything for these 750-plus in-the-buff protestors/celebrators. They were protesting oil dependancy while celebrating the individuality of the human body.…
The World Should Be Flat
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I recently had my first proxy visitor to London. She came in the post. Here name was “Flat Stacey” and she was a friend of my niece Grace. Grace is one of many school kids involved in the Flat Stanley project. It’s an international literacy and communications project based on a kids book about a…
Colours of Spring
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Rhubarb… A naturally occuring pink food, found growing underneath enormous green leaves. Good in pies. Why do I like this image? Note the top left… In this market (Borough Market, South London) there is a “Turnip” aisle. Oddball pub in the heart of Soho. Serves Italian food but reminds me, with the oil can ads…
A Walk ’round Bayswater
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It isn’t possible that I have been more relaxed lately? How is that possible? Colin and I went a-walkin’ again this weekend. It is getting warmer these days, so we are getting off our butts. This excursions took us west from our flat, generally in the direction of Notting Hill, though we really only made…
Michael Dale David Sebastian
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Navigating a new friend is like discovering a new museum. What is new about it, anyway? It’s been here for years. Yet it is new to me and I am new to it. Michael told me, casually, offhand, that he cleaned objects at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington. It was over a…
New Year’s Resolution Update
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I’ve had one of those days: first, that other damn volunteer, Sue, at the soup kitchen, is horning in on my territory. I mean, back off! I do the till on Fridays in this town! Then my temp gig fell through, so I was deprived of another noisy day in Soho, at the corner of…
Around here
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I find myself looking up and around a great deal in the walk from our flat to the places we go every day and every week: The Tube The Dry Cleaners The Coffee Place The Pub The Bank The Shops, for food The Wine Store The Corner Eatery Here are a few images of what…
A long-played note
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One day it rains. And then you walk by a tree and you see this. The winter in London is a long played note. Yet, there are reasons to love it here. Three are: 1. Green grass, no matter how little rainfall 2. Yummy Chinese food 3. Live music everyday, even in the Tube stations…
