A Week And Then Some...

Okay, been a bit of a struggle to put this one up, but you'll see why as you read on...

A bit of a slide in the summery weather now, as August arrives, but still with several nice roof-top lunches in the sun. You do have to like the beer garden next door thing, especially for those nice warm sunny days - makes for a great break from work, even if it means puting off today what you really should do today... Thursday was time to have an alternative lunch by rejoining the work running group for cruisey run along the Thames and surrounding areas.

Spent a balmy summer’s evening on Tuesday in east London to watch Spurs take on Leyton Orient in a pre-season friendly with Sue n Wil. Great little ground in Leyton that they’re almost finished renovating. Good atmosphere from this small local club, and a great bar to boot. All well within riding distance from both work and home. It also looks like kissing the Blarney Stone paid off, with a bit of ‘gift-o-tha-gab’ allowing me to score a ticket from the nice girl at the ticketing window when the game was ‘sold out’.
The match itself was entertaining enough with the scoreline finishing up at 1-5 to Spurs. A good chance to show off some of their newest signings for the season ahead. One of which came on at half time to turn the game completely by creating 3 goals in just on 10minutes - impressive stuff even if it was against a lower league side.
The ride home also had its own little adventure, with a fire by Blackhorse Road Tube station. It meant that I wasn’t allowed to use the main road link across the local reservoirs from Tottenham to Walthamstow. “No pedestrians or cyclists allowed through” due to the smoke covering the nearby area (see pic). I asked why that’s so considering that the car that just went through had its windows down, and also if it changed things if I wore my pollution mask. “I never saw or spoke to you then” was the reply as the fireman walked off with a wink. Problem solved, although I stank of smoke after riding through it...

Friday evening kicked off (literally) by hooking up with the celtic supporting Marty and hitting a pub to watch the friendly match between Spurs and Celtic. A few beers and some friendly banter while watching the match made for a good unwind to the working week.
This was followed later by joining Matt and Bubs, as well as Kaijsa & Mita for a night out in Putney at a riverside pub called the Kings Head. Yes, a rather common pub name, and while there was nothing uncommon about the pub, you have to love outdoor areas on summer nights. We were joined a bit later by some friends of Bubs - Gemma, Katrina & Paul. Later we headed back to Matt’s place to kick on with a bit of some Guitar Hero (the x-box game) til we all crashed out in the wee morning hours.

Saturday morning saw me have to get up early to head home before making my way to Regents Park to meet up with Marty n Karyn for the Innocent Village Fete. Innocent being the sponsors, who just happen to be the same drink company that go by the name ‘nudie’ back home in Australia.
The Fete was exactly that, but on a far larger scale and with something for everyone. A good portion of the Borough Market folks had their own market set up, there were dog trials, ferret races, side shows and rides for the kiddies, square dancing, poetry readings, bars & food stalls, several music tents, a ‘well being’ section (which I’ll get back to), plenty of craft stalls and other displays. It was certainly well attended as you’ll notice in the pics.
We took in pretty much everything as we toured the fete, which included the dog trials in both rain and sunshine. Some classic dogs too. If you’re thinking Pal Super Dogs then you’d be mistaken - this was Mad about Mutts and most of the dogs had only been doing agility trials for several months. Very entertaining. See the pic of Albert as he goes over his altered hurdles...
Having checked out one of the music tents with an entertaining ‘Jive’(?) band, we finished off the tour of the Innocent samples, checked out the square dancing, before Marty had a go at the ring toss, and eventually we watched the last of the ferret races.
I rounded out the day in the Well Being area by getting a neck, shoulder n back massage that turned out to be rather interesting to say the least. It took Sue no time at all to determine my star sign just from feeling the knots in my shoulders, before she started to get a little too accurate with regard to some of the turmoil of the last few months. Not only was she far better at the massage than the person who created much of that turmoil, but she also had some interesting advice. Needless to say that she had far more work to do on my shoulders and back than could be done in just 15minutes, so I now have a card and will be making an appointment very soon.
From here I took a bit of a tour of Regents Park on the bike, after finding it with a thank you note from the fete organisers for cycling to their event. Nice in the sunset to then ride home past Camden Market.

Sunday’s weather pretty much put the kybosh on the plans to go down to Greenwich for both the markets, the ride and the chance to check out the Redbull Air Race. So, after a cruisey domestic morning I checked out the new batman movie, Dark Knight. Impressive and entertaining. I can see why there’s such a fuss about Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker - phenomenal character that he’s created.

Monday was...well... it was Monday. A quiet evening with a dvd and stir fried Huku, which is a rather tasty antelope that I tried as an alternative to the wildebeest from Borough Market’s African meat seller. As for the dvd, well that was courtesy of one of the guys from work after a long conversation about the movies Alien and its sequel, Aliens. All I can remember of the first Alien movie was up until ‘that’ scene. I’m sure you all know it, where the alien itself first ‘appears’ via John Hurt’s chest. When I first saw this scene at the age of about 7 or 8, you can imagine the result. You have to love a friend’s older sister for that one!! Time to watch the rest of the movie now, and happily no nightmares! Funny how it didn’t look as real as it did back then...

Tuesday night, and it was Bub’s last night in London. After a casual catch up in Soho with Belinda and Tim as well, we headed down towards Leicester Square to go and see Avenue Q. If you google it, you will discover that this is pretty much Sesame Street for adults. Very cleverly done with the puppets and mirroring twenty-thirtysomething life. Not particularly politically correct with songs like ‘Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist’ or ‘The Internet is for Porn’, and one particular scene that I won’t go into despite it being extremely funny. A great show all up, and one I’d not only happily recommend, but go again to see. Dinner and a few drinks afterwards finished the night off on a good note.

Which brings us back to today. As I sit here typing and watching the lightening flash outside the window, it’s time to give the legs a bit of a stretch considering that I again joined the runners group at work for a ‘trot’ through London. Enjoying the sun along the Thames down Embankment before passing Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, then returning back along Embankment past both St Pauls and the Tate Modern, under London Bridge and eventually up Fenchurch St to work... Running back in Adelaide or Melbourne really doesn’t seem all that appealing at the moment. Nah-fence to my home towns, but there you go...