February 2003 Archives
After brunch in The Fine Line with Hazel, Helen and Charlie, I ended up vegging at Hazel's for the entire afternoon, and very relaxing it was too - Channel 4 was holding another Rapid Repeat ^H^H^H^H "Friends" Day (with the infernally irritating June Sarapong(?)), which we sat through, followed by Stargate, followed by Time Team (during which I was mostly snoozing), followed by a nip out to watch Barnard Road electricity meters spinning round (Katy was on a mission and I wanted to be sure she understood the reason that my readings are so low is because my usuage - as a single dweller who only uses her flat to sleep in, and even that's on an irregular basis - is so low. As opposed to the meters being incorrectly identified, such that my usage if that shown on the common parts meter. I don't think so), then Holiday Swap, Pauline Quirk pastoral idyll vehicle, before winding up with Cold Feet. Then home to bed.
Oh, and I got as far as day 5 of the Intrepid Tour in terms of sticking holiday photos into an album.
Had a fab day out and about with Phil ...
We got the DLR out to Prince Regent intending to visit the architect-designed park out by the Thames Barrier.
Getting from the station to the park wasn't quite as simple as one might expect, more of an obstacle course of building sites (swanky apartment complexes in the making) and major roadways, roundabouts and bridges, interspersed with the occasional building left over from Old Docklands Time. Not for much longer though.
That siad, once we found the pedestrianised waterside by ExCel, things were very pleasant and mistily atmospheric, but on the City Airport side of the waterways things were less pedestrian friendly, especially at the roundabouts, which didn't really make sense given the amount of space given over to the pleasantly landscaped pavements/cycle paths.
Once we managed to work out how to get into the park we found ourselves in a pedestrian haven. OK, the topiary looked a bit tatty and the fountain water display isn't functioning at this time of year, but the place was virtually deserted and is in a stunning setting.
Along one side there are almost-finished south of France style modern white apartments, on the other, more apartments under construction. And beyond those, a Thames-side factory with gleaming steel chimneys billowing out white smoke/steam. Panning round you see the Thames Barrier (a bizarre sight at low tide, with mud flats and small streams instead of perilously high river level) and then the factories which still occupy the far bank.
Whilst it was lovely to look at, there is absolutely nothing in terms of social amenities - nowhere obvious for you to buy a paper or pint of milk, let alone more substantial supplies. No cafes or restaurants, no libraries or bookshops.
Leaving the City Slicker Isolation Pods beind us we caught the bus and Jubilee Line to Greenwich, mooching through the park and the museums in the sunshine, looking at Canary Wharf, hovering like a mirage over the old Naval College. Then onwards to mooch around the open air antiques market (with the gyrating geisha) and the chi-chi tourist-oriented stalls in Greenwich Market (and buying olives) before making our way back on the DLR to Bank via the film set scale scenery of Canary Wharf.
A very lovely day indeed.
The Tube website's refund form for the disruption caused by the closure of the Central and Waterloo & City Lines has changed so that it requires you to login. When I tried it on Wednesday, you just went straight to the form, but got an OLE error when you tried to submit it. CONSPIRACY everyone wailed....
but I've just registered and filled out the form, and it seems to have submitted just fine.
I'll not hold my breath for the cheque though..... I've a suspicion I'm going to fall foul of the "you didn't buy your travelcard from the right place to qualify" rule which was trotted out, wrongly, after the last disruption to my lovely commuter route.
I didn't.
Thanks to Jude for spotting this page on the London Transport website:
"Any Travelcard or LT Card is valid for travel across the entire London bus network.
For example, with a 7 Day Travelcard for Zone 3 you may travel within Zone 3 by Tube, Tramlink, DLR and National Rail, but you may travel across the entire London bus network."
... meaning that my zone 1-2 travelcard will work for all the London bus routes!
And I've been paying everytime I go outside Zone 2 for *years*. grrr.
I went out with Hazel to the Banana Leaf after BLAC - too many people seeking advice, not enough lawyers - partly due to fatigue and disinclination to cook, and partly because it'll be one of the few remaining occasions I'll have the opportunity to do so before Hazel departs for South America.
Over Banana Leaf Main courses, H bemoaned the fact that she had missed Buffy on Friday / Saturday (not surprising seeing as she was out partying with Raji and innumerable unknown Italians!), and had been going to reclaim her VCR, which generated the brainwave that she, Phil and I could Buffy ensemble tomorrow.... and make a start on eating up the contents of my Sainsbury's-to-You'd freezer. The perfect solution to the Tuesday To Do Dilemma.
Phil and I had agreed a few days ago that we'd probably want to go on the Stop The War march in London today, and in line Haddock's usual vague attempts to organise a Plan For All Fish, we, together with Phil's sister Sue, made our way to Bush House for noon, meeting up with Anno and Anna en route.
I didn't go without some soul searching and internalised wrangling mind you, enhanced by the Haddock factor, especially after re-reading some of the opinions put forward on the BBC pages devoted to the issue. I'm torn between the need to deliver some form of humanitarian solution for the Iraqi people - and their middle eastern neighbours - and gut revulsion at the hypocrisy? duplicity? cynical manipulation? on the part of the UK government, and the way it has handled its relationship with the US, the UN and the EU. I couldn't stay at home and have that interpreted by the spin doctors as being indicative of support of the UK's actions.
Escaped from the red roses and helium balloon bearing brigade and headed out to Dalston with Phil to rendezvous with Lou, Liam, Dorian and Jude at a jazz bar just along from the Rio cinema.
After a beer and making first acquaintance with Dorian, we headed on for our evening of genuine Turkish Delights in Dalston/Stoke Newington, as proposed by Lou and booked by Dorian.
Ate ourselves silly at the 19 Numara Bos Cirrik (featured here but you'll need to scroll down), 34 Stoke Newington Road, London N16 7XJ (I have the empty carrier-cum-doggy bag here next to me!!). With really great service and delicious food both in abundance, I'd definitely go there again. And it's close enough to the Dalston Rio to combine a trip to a cinema with ambiance with a great meal.
Infuriating though it was for eXouk drinks to collapse under the weight of people suddenly recalling previous commitments, at least it left me free to meet up with Karen Grimshaw nee Frankland for the evening.
We headed out to the Diwana Bhel-Poori House, one of the Drummond Street Indian restaurants recommended in the Rough Guide to London Restaurants 2001 - and a very lovely evening we had too. Great grub (cheap!!) and lots of time to make up for the months of mutual silence, which we did with great gusto. Karen told me all about their trip to Australia for Neil and Vicky's wedding, and their DIY tour to Tasmania, I told her all about Phil, and mine and Hazel's trip to Cambodia. It was a lovely, lovely evening - even if I have still to find a link which works to prove to Karen that Erika is wed!!
.... gets the thumbs up from me!
Placed my order last week, in anticipation of the bread making demand for heavy items (flour!), and my doorbell chimed at 7.30pm (30mins early); a mature yet spritely delivery man on the steps, carrying two of my N bags of shopping.
Drawing up my list had been really easy, with the site mirroring the shopping experience, by grouping together things into aisles, and then by type and then by cost within each 'aisle', with icons highlighting special offers in effect on your date of delivery. Fantastic!
And with another free delivery voucher to hand for March, I'll be making at least one more order.... to include a couple of wine boxes seeing as my Hazel-to-home channel shopping service will cease from 29 March.
And that left me plenty of time to start dismantling the mantelpiece shelf dad and I put up when I first moved in to the flat. Mooching around the Leominster antique shops had convinced me of the merits of moving my bureau into one of the alcoves, and adding more bookshelf-type shelving - not that I needed much persuasion, just something to spur me on to dismantle what's there at the moment. And dad's approval, albeit tacit, to the dismantling of our joint DIY'
... just called. She was the unrecognised number calling my mobile as I sat on the train home last night. which I didn't pick up....
She and Colin are down in London and are intent upon meeting up with Les Loosemores. Lovely! All I need od now is find out where's a good place to get some lunch by Tate Modern. "Ask Haddock" methinks.
Mary-the-medic was the fount of all knowledge during our early adolescence: Quote of the 80s from the 40acres diary:
"Mary Ruth..... what's a les?"
as overheard by mum and dad one evening when tom, mary and I were camping in the garden.
H has quit JPMorgan and is off to Equador at the end of March for a month at spanish school, then back for a short spell to perform bridesmaid duties for her sister, and then off to S America - from Rio to Easter Island, estimated return "early 2004"!!!
I am a bit jealous, but in my rational mind I know that going travelling isn't something I'm likely to do again - not in a bad way, it's more a case of I feel that the my life in London - Phil, friends and job - is something I don't want to interrupt, and leaving would be a bit mistake.
That said, I'm already nagging H for her outline itinery so that I can work out when/ where's best to head out to meet her for a few weeks, time off and wars permitting. So that puts the central asia/western China trip on hold for another year, which will give me time to build up some more funds, and holiday allowance! This year looks set to be the year of many small trips - Istanbul next month, maybe Paris in the summer, and time at the cottage hopefully with a chunky visit to South America sometimes towards the end of the year.
Back from a lovely relaxing weekend at dad's which saw us venture up to Leominster (great 'antique' shops!) and to Forty Acres to view the snowdrops on Saturday, winding up at The Neville Arms for dinner.
On Sunday, I slobbed under the duvet in the lounge in front of Hollyoaks whilst dad and jean were at church, until being shamed from my stupor and out for a gentle stroll to Holme Lacy church, where dad showed me the heroic gravestone statue of the last of the local gentry, and we all admired the snowdrops.
Returned bearing Christmas gifts - principally a swanky breadmaker from dad and Jean, but also a large scale OS map of the world (with wipe-off surface, so I'm planning to plot H's route whilst she's in South America) and a nifty tripod-for-all-surfaces.
Phew - I so early missed the 17:00 train to dad's. Things started off fine - left work at 4.15, straight onto a Metropolitan line train to Baker Street, which is where things began to go awry. 12 minutes to wait until the next train via Paddington - and that's with both the Hammersmith and City and the Circle line travelling along the same track. The Bakerloo alternative isn't running during the day Mondays to Friday, so I just had to sit (or rather "pace") it out until 16.49. 6 mins journey time to Paddington, and I had no idea where the pink line tube station is within the grand scheme of things at the mainline station.
Once out of the tube and on the platform it appeared that there is only one staircase out, and people were going up and down it, excruciatingly slowly. I inched my way forward as fast as possible without barging my way completely into people's bad books, and ran as soon as the walkway opened up ahead of me.
Through the barriers Lady Luck returned as I came out onto the overhead walkways which cross the main platforms half way down their length, and I managed to spot the West Wales train and scrambled on board with one minute to spare.
And once I've caught my breath and relaxed a little, I shall read the Marie Claire article on Danny, Quinn and Gil's polyamorous relationship.
I'm off to Hereford this weekend, for some pampering chez pops, and on a mission to be my cambodia pics into an album. The online ones are here:
When I'm doing my next big digital photo albumming, I'll follow up James's tip to build fotopic into sparklytrainers....
Saw Fran last night, and we had a lovely evening, gassing away for hours. It's lovely to have her back, and it's just such an easy friendship to revive. I've yet to see Fabian, so the reality as Fran-as-a-mother hasn't struck yet.