Another day...

...another interview.

Bring on the summer holidays.

East is east

Getting excited about going to Bulgaria now. My eyes feel as though they will fall from my head any second. I need a holiday!
Saw S & C this evening, back from 8 months travelling. Made me think some more about where to go and what to do...

Stick a pin in the atlas?

Trying to decide where to go on my big adventure, and more importantly, what I will do when I'm there. I think it will be in November and for a month. England is grim at that time of year. I will be going on my own. I fancy doing something where I can be a bit sociable and productive. Possibly creative. Or useful in some way.

A colleague at work is walking the Inca trail. She mentioned it to two other colleagues, both of whom immediately said "oh I've done that". I don't want to go on a holiday everyone else has been on.

Great Saturday in London

It's great when you can look back and feel you've made the most of your Saturday.
Yesterday I:

- Took a picture to the framer's.
- Hoovered my flat.
- Took up the hem of a dress.
- Went to the British Museum and had a look around the Ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek section. Absolutely fantastic. I can't believe I don't go there more often. The Egyptian stuff is so old and enormous. Loved the hieroglyphs. F pointed out one that's a grumpy face. My favourite was the snake/slug. Wonder what they mean?
The Assyrian giant winged horses are spectacular. There was a photo of them in situ and surrounded by locals, which was taken in 1853. I felt quite sad that they had been removed, but I don't really know the context.
Then you get to the Ancient Greeks and Lykians the beauty of the sculpture is quite stunning. Amazing dancing godesses with flowing robes and giant horses with nostrils flaring.
Decided not to spend £8 each on going to see the Indian painting exhibition this time, but had a peek at the catalogue and I'm definitely going to go back.
I hope the British Museum manages to stay free entry when the next Government comes in.

- Went to F's work for a quick sandwich. Tooks some pics of the film equipment there for posterity. Here's one below. Not sure how long they will be using this sort of kit for.


- Went to White Cube in Mason's Yard to see Gilbert & George's Jack Britain series. Very technically good and visually arresting, but I can't say it did much for me emotionally.

- Went to Shoreditch Festival.

We sheltered from the rain in the Dance Dome where a karaoke band (!! stolen our idea!!) were playing. Much as it pains me to say it, they were actually really good. We only have 6 people in our karaoke band, but they had about 9 including a saxophonist, and their female keyboardist also plays the fiddle. So bonus points for that I suppose. F said Someone Else's Wedding (our karaoke band) is more banter though. It was brilliant being in the crowd for once though, there was such a good buzz. Avoided paying £6 for jerk chicken and instead...

- Went for pie and mash in a traditional shop on Hoxton St. No bullsh*t place. I asked what vegetarian pies they had. The man in rather grubby overalls pursed his lips and said: "they'll take about 12 minutes". So I had a meat pie, real mash and licker. Felt like a true Londoner, although F called me a tourist when I took a photo of my meal (on film, so can't show it here).

-Went to B's house for BBQ dinner. Couldn't eat as much of it as I would have liked because of the aforementioned pie and mash, but had lots of fun.

- Went to the Palm, in the middle of Mile End Park. Proper old geezer's pub with proper barmaid who can remember a 6 drink round and add it up in her head. There's a photo on the wall of her as a teenager with an old Frank Sinatra. It's also quite a trendy place, but that hasn't put the locals off. Every weekend they have a resident band of old blokes who play 1950s and 1960s music in the corner. Here's a pic of us going through the park on the way to the pub.


- Got the last tube home.

Hello toad

Feared I had somehow accidentally killed my resident toad, but last night's deluge must have encouraged the slugs and snails out to tempt him. We stared at each other fondly through my french windows, although, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure my warm feelings were reciprocated, but what can you do.

Donate your body to medical science (if you like)

Apparently there's a shortage of people willing to donate their bodies to medical science.

Presumably our future doctors need to understand human anatomy, and cutting up dead people is how they learn it.

Would you donate your body to be used for this purpose? Should donation be automatic unless one opts out?

Nigel of Bermondsey in Southwark Park

Played the motorised accordion with Nigel of Bermondsey in Southwark Park yesterday, supporting the Blockheads. Despite the peristent drizzle it was great craic, as F might say.

There was plenty of Great British Spirit around - here's a pic of some local people determindly enjoying themselves.


Nigel of Bermondsey played his new single - an ace cover of "This is how it feels" by the Inspiral Carpets. Check out the video on Youtube here.

A piece of music trivia for Madchester fans: heard Clint Boon of the Inspirals talking about the song on XFM . He said he wrote it because he felt so awful about being unfaithful to a long term girlfriend, so the chorus is "this is how it feels to be lonely, this is how it feels to be small, this is how it feels when your WORD [my emphasis] means nothing at all". I always thought it was "when your world means nothing at all".

Beautiful gardens at Southwark Park too.

Wasting money

Got lured into watching one of the gizillions of "homes" shows on Channel 4 last night by a glimpse of a communal garden (the obsession continues).

This is the show's premise: "now the property market has slumped, we need to forget about tarting up our houses to sell them and instead make them places we want to live in". Fair enough.
The rest of the show had rather less of a credit-crunch theme however.

The macho presenter ("yeah, I'm a designer,but you wouldn't catch ME in a floral shirt. Look at my big hammer") went round to a young couple's fantastic 4-bedroom Victorian mansion block flat in Maida Vale, complete with large lush communal garden. He pronounced that it needed a complete renovation, which he said would cost £200,000, but he could do it for £150,000. The couple both work in the City and only (only!) had a £100,000 budget, but said they had some contingency money.

"I'm gonna have to think of a way to get them part with that other £50 grand", the presenter confided to the camera, before the works had even begun.

He confronted the couple: "If you REALLY want that HIGH SPEC KITCHEN,it's going to cost you £150k."

"We've compromised enough" said the boyfriend. "I'm in".
Cue simpering and flicking of blonde hair from the girlfriend.

It was like watching City boys play poker. Urgh.

Anyway, they ended up with a flat that looked like a 4 star boutique hotel - all flat screen tellies and beige walls. But with black and white photos of the couple on the wall, just so they know it's their flat.

£150,000 would probably buy a 4 bedroom house in Macclesfield. Makes me want to puke.

Would you be gay?

Dreamed last night that heterosexuals were in a minority. I (a heterosexual) had to decide whether to "out" myself or become homosexual. Neither seemed a particularly enticing prospect.

What to call the short film competition?

Looking for a name for the short-film competition I'm organising.

The competition will be open to the people of Archway in London. The theme is "healthcare".

There will be prizes for the best film by an under-16 and the best film for an over-16s. Winning and shortlisted films will be shown at a special screening.

After the competition, the films will be used to teach medical students about the patient's perspective of healthcare.

The idea is to increase communication between UCL Medical School, which is partly based at the Whittington Hospital in Archway, and the local community.

Archway is at the intersection of Islington, Camden and Haringey and has high levels of socio-economic deprivation and quite sizeable black and minority ethnic populations.

Nosy neighbour

Spent an hour of last night's warm sunny evening walking around St John's Wood, Kilburn and the places in between.

Really LOOKED at the buildings for the first time. So interesting to note the different styles, all crammed in together. Neo-gothic victorian mansions next to 1970s council blocks next to Georgian town houses next to 1930s Poirot-style flats.

We came across a old chapel (not sure what it's used for now) that a woman had built in Kilburn, in memory of her brother. The stone plaque in the wall said he'd spent the last nine years of his life preaching what sounds like the open air. His first sermon was delivered in Abbey Fields, presumably somewhere around the present-day Abbey Road (of Beatles stuido fame). His last sermon was delivered on a bridge in Brondesbury.

Also came across a church that F instantly recognised as Catholic, by the architecture. It was next to a community centre outside which an elderly man in a suit was smoking a cigarette. F said he would put money on him being Irish. He said Irish men of a certain age always put a jacket on to go the pub.

I also spent ages being extremely nosy, trying to find an entrance to the mythical meadow, more of which in a future post.

Throwing money at bicycles

Is it worth buying a bike for more than £150? The people in the bike shop tell you there's a big difference between a £200 and a £300 bike. Is this really true? How much is reasonable for a bike you ride to work on and take on holidays 3x a year?

Monkeying about

So I've been offered the chance to go on a Go Ape day in August with 13 friends (unlucky for some...?).

Apparently it involves swinging through the canopy like some kind of chimp. Mysteriously, my friends seemed all to have heard of it. Apparently they do quite a lot of corporate events.

Anyhow, I will post pics of my terrified mug when I get back.

Assisted dying

Cheery topic for today's post.

Went to a UCL debate last night on assisted dying.

Most of the original panel couldn't make it becasue they were at a debate on the same issue in the Lords - somewhat unfortunate timetabling. But the attending panel made their statements clearly and in a surprisingly unemotional manner. It was also interesting to hear Debbie Purdy's point of view from the audience.

The clearest point for me came from Sir Ken Macdonald QC, former Director of Public Prosecutions, who said that nobody has been prosecuted for helping someone commit suicide (e.g. by taking them to a clinic in Switzerland, Holland or Oregon) because it is not deemed to be in the public interest. What is the point of a law that is never exercised?

An amusing aside from Dr Evan Harris MP. Trained as a doctor, he's now a Lib Dem MP. His campagning on the pro-choice side of the abortion issue led the Daily Mail to dub him "Dr Death". Apparently his Jewish mother didn't know what to make of this. One the one hand she was dismayed and upset. On the other hand, dissapointed that he had left medicine for politics, the article at least provided concrete proof to show her friends that her son was really and truly a doctor.

Oh, and here's an article from Charlie Falconer about the amendment that is currently being debated in the Lords (see above).